The Ireland Trip

A GOOD TIME IN IRELAND

Bob, Jack and Anthony arrived at our house and we left in the van. Excitement was in the air as we drove to meet Julie and Mary Sydney at the airport. Connections were made and excitement died as we waited for our flight and then the long 5 hour trip. We didn’t sleep much and the beer was too expensive at $5. We picked up the rental car and were able to get our clubs and gear in it. Anthony drove and our enthusiasm picked up as we got to the coast at Lahinch Golf Club and the Cliff of Mohr but it was cold and windy. The drive to Galway was scenic and impressive. Our first Pub stop was at Keough’s in Kinvera. Bob discovered he didn’t like Guinness but did like a Czech beer, Budvolk. Korean bar tenders were a surprise. Spent the night in Galway and ate at an impressive pub, Skeff’s.

The most excitement of the trip was generated when we arrived on the coast road to our cottage which was right on the ocean with a fantastic view. The funniest thing to happen was when we stopped a tractor to ask directions. Anthony got some good shots of the two trolls who were nice but very trolly. The Beach Bar pub was but 30 yards from our cottage and we enjoyed two or three meals and more than three Guinnesses. Sunday was a tourist day that started at Sligo Cathedral and included Lough Gill and Innisfree but a most disgraceful lunch at Burger King. Helen Cauklin our landlord met us that evening and we enjoyed talking with her about the history of the cottage. She wouldn’t have a drink with us but invited us to her home in Easkey.

Monday we got what we came for a wild and beautiful golf course at Enniscrome right on the Atlantic. It was windy, cold and misty, but each hole was spectacular. The views were worth the green fee, which was high. The four of us use pulled carts and Bob and I vowed we’d play no courses that didn’t provide golf carts. We ate ham and cheese sandwiches that night at our cottage after Bob and Jack built a fine peat fire.

Tuesday contained a forecast of rain showers and we decided to do some sightseeing on the way to Donegal Town. Our first stop was in Drumcliff and Yeats grave and the little church adjacent to the cemetery. We drove closer to Ben Bulben, a mountain made famous by Yeats, for pictures and a nice drive thru deserted roads. We stopped off at Mullaghmore, a picturesque sea side village where Mountbatten was blown up by the IRA before arriving in Donegal. We had a so so lunch in a modern pub (no atmosphere) and did some shopping before returning back. On the way we stopped to check out two golf courses, Donegal Golf Club and Stranhill Golf Club outside of Sligo. We took a detour to drive halfway up Knocknerea. Anthony wanted to climb it but it was getting late so we headed for our cottage after buying some more groceries. We had a great view of both Knockenera and Ben Bulben across the bay from our cottage.

Wednesday was our day in Belmullet at the Carne Golf Club, another links coast on the western tip of Ireland. It was a fairly long drive over curvy, narrow roads, the normal situation in that part of Ireland. On the way we stopped in Ballina to check out a parkland course and decided to cancel our tee time at Strandhill and reserve a tee time and cart at the Ballina Golf Club. We passed a peat generating plant, a pretty trout stream complete with fly fishermen and pipe being layed by Shell for gas and many peat fields. Belmullet is a nice picturesque village and we found a pub, T. O’Talboid, that provided a pint and a good meal. Bob and I had swordfish. The Carne course is what I assume to be a typical links course, but it contained different views as islands and ocean could be seen from every hole. The huge sand dunes were a continuing problem to all except the straight shooter. The day turned out to be beautiful with full sun, but the ocean wind was always present and always changing. We couldn’t have asked for a better day. Bob and I enjoyed having a riding cart even though we almost experienced a disastrous turn over. We all played a little better than the first day and Anthony was hitting the ball long and true. We decided to take the coast road back to Bellina and were rewarded with some incredible sights. One such place was across from the Ceide Fields. The cliffs were every bit as impressive as the Cliffs of Mohr and were probably higher. The Ceide Fields which were closed as it was after 7:30 PM is the site of an archaeological dig of life 5,000 years ago. We stopped in Killala for supper but everything was closed so we continued on to Ballina where we enjoyed a good meal at the Bard. I had Seaford Thermidor, Anthony had some sort of Pasta dish and I don’t know what Jack and bob had. Bob, Anthony and I left Jack at the cottage and drove back to Easkey to hear some Irish Music at E.J. McMahon’s Pub. I was a fairly traditional pub but the music wasn’t scheduled to start until after 10:00 so after a few games of pool we called Helen Caulkin who lived with husband Joseph and their two children across the street. She invited us over for a drink and we were amazed at the nice interior of their three- story home. Joseph is a sheep and dairy farmer with well over 100 acres of land. We stopped by the pub but were not impressed with the music and went home about 11:00. It was the first time we had driven in the dark.

Thursday we got to the Ballina Golf Club a little early for our 11:00 tee time. Bob and I got a cart, Jack used a pull cart and Anthony carried his clubs. This course, a parkland, had no sand dunes and the wind was only a breeze. The Irish referred to it as a gentle course, but it was still tough to the four Americans. The weather was ideal. It is a pretty layout with nice scenery but not the wild stuff of the links courses. We enjoyed meeting the “Feisty Lady” of the Club and she had lunch with us and made reservations at a motel near Shannon for us on Friday. We went into town, Bob wanted to buy a “94 year old” customer at Crossans a drink, but it turned out the bartender was kidding about his age and said he wasn’t 71. Bob didn’t buy him a drink but we did enjoy watching the characters in the pub. Some were betting on horse races, a “runner” was taking up money and running to the bookie across the street.

Friday was clean up and leave day. The driver was allowed to sleep late while the three more mature travelers cleaned up and packed and had a last breakfast of cereal and toast (made from white bread not brown) and coffee which was our daily breakfast the entire week we were at the cottage. It was with some regret that we pulled out and locked the gate for the last time. The week had gone too fast. We got away by 11:15 and stopped in Tuam for lunch. We settled on a pub, The Brogue, and enjoyed a good lunch. It was a new pub that seemed to have a lot of business people as customers for lunch. We checked out E.G. Canavan’s across the street. It was more of the traditional type pubs but it had a woman from Slovakia for a bartender and she had no personality. We found our motel, The Two-mile Inn, near Shannon with no trouble and we arrived at the same time as a wedding party. They all seemed to be well fed and ready to celebrate. In fact we had breakfast the next morning the bride was still in her wedding gown and feeling no pain. Bob, Anthony and I rode into Limrick which seemed to be larger than I remembered. After checking out some pubs we settled on the Locke Bar and Bistro where we enjoyed a good meal (I had Irish Stew). Some one told us we could hear traditional music at the pub, O’Reily’s, next to our motel. Again we were disappointed so we left after a pint. We turned in for the at 10:15 and left a call for 6:15.

Saturday we had a leisure and big breakfast at the motel and loaded up for the airport, where we found we couldn’t board because we didn’t arrive soon enough to past through customs and get our clubs and baggage loaded. The tour director, me, should have known better but the three fellow golfers didn’t get openly mad at me and we got a 11:20 flight via JFK and had to pay $50 each. No, I didn’t volunteer to pay for the four of us. After some shopping at the Duty Free Shop where they were giving away jiggers of Irish Whiskey we boarded our plane for an uneventful ride that had to buck a 190-knot head wind and making us late for our connections. They did get us through customs fast and we ended up getting to Atlanta 30 minutes early at 4:30. Julie met us and we were on the way home after truly an experience of a life- time.