| New Year, new adventures
 With
2005 upon us, Malcolm Rogers picks out 50 indispensable things to do in
Ireland during your next break.
1 Scare yourself silly by walking across the Carrick-a-Rede
rope bridge, which joins the Rede (or Salmon) rock to the mainland of
Antrim. Near Ballintoy in Co. Antrim.
2 Pay your respects to Dublin’s mummified dead,
in St. Michans Church in Dublin. Dating from 1685-86 it contains one of
the oldest organs still in use in this country. Handel is believed to
have played on it while composing The Messiah. The church is also famous
for its collection of mummified bodies stored in the vaults. The limestone
in the ground keeps the air dry and helps preserve crusaders, leaders
of the 1798 Rebellion and the ordinary people of Dublin alike. Spooky,
yet absorbing.
3 Visit the grave of William Drennan in the Clifton
Street Cemetery in Belfast. He was the first person to use the phrase
“the Emerald Isle” to describe Ireland.
4 Spend a day on the bog at Peatland World, an exhibition
housed in an old farm at Lullymore House just north east of Rathangan
on the Bog of Allen. Apparently the whole process is quite simple —
you take flachter to scraw, cut by slane, and remove turf by car or slipe.
Simple, really.
5 Tour the Military Road built by the British in Co.
Wicklow during a campaign to root out the Irish rebels after the 1798
Uprising. Takes in Glencree, the Great Sugar Loaf, Roundwood — and
800 years of history.
6 While in Glencree, visit the German Forces Graveyard,
a poignant place.
7 Visit Clochán na Carraige on Inishmore on the
Aran Islands. It’s a large beehive hut, probably built by early
Christian settlers on the island.
8 For posh nosh, have dinner at Ghan House in Carlingford,
Co. Louth, accompanied by the best views of any restaurant in Ireland
— Carlingford Lough and the Mountains of Mourne.
9 Have dinner at Bunratty Castle. OK, it might smack
a bit of paddywhackeray, but by the end of the night you’ll be singing
When Irish Eyes Are Smiling.
10 At the end of the summer, cheer yourself up by going
to the Oyster Festival in Clarenbridge, now entering its 51st year.
 11
Go walkabout Dublin on Bloomsday, in the footsteps of James Joyce as his
mind sketched out Ulysses.
12 Sit in at a traditional session in Doolin, Co. Clare.
Even
13 Kiss the Blarney Stone.
14 Have a night at the PoD nightclub in Dublin
15 Ride the LUAS tram.
16 Take a boat out to the Copeland Islands, just off
Donaghadee, Co. Down.
 17
See the rising sun at Brú na Bóinne light up the main chamber
of Newgrange as it has done for the last 5,000 years, and marvel at the
engineering skills as well as the mystical character of our ancestors.
18 Stay at Ballynahinch Castle in Connemara, one time
home of Humanity Dick (the great animal rights campaigner) and now, quite
simply, one of the most luxurious and scenic places to stay in Europe.
19 Go for a walk round Belfast. E M Forster said that
it was a town ‘which stood no nonsense’, but that’s
steadily changing. Still home to some of the best pubs in these islands,
it also has a growing reputation for a thriving club scene and internationally
renowned restaurants.
20 Learn to cook at Ballymaloe House, Co. Cork. Myrtle
Allen runs a thoroughly comprehensive course in Irish country cooking.
21 Stay at Kinnitty Castle in the heart of Co. Louth.
Fantastic food, olde worlde living (including a library where you can
quaff your brandy) and a session in the bar which goes on till all hours.
Unmissable.
22 Stay at the Northern Ireland rural cottages at Creggan,
in the heart of the Tyrone countryside. If it's dry, visit the stone circles
and dolmens which litter the place. If it's wet, light the turf fire,
pour out a few drams of Bushmills and listen to the rain turning the land
green.
23 Lie on your back in the heather on the Backstairs
mountains in spring, and watch the larks in the clear air.
24 Stay on the Kenny Organic Farm, Roscrea, Tipperary,
enjoy the walks and make friends with the animals. Afterwards make friends
with the locals at the Glue Pot — so called because once you enter
the pub, you’ll find yourself stuck there.
25 Star of postcards, adverts, Irish Tourist Board videos
and countless films, the Cliffs of Moher are still the dog’s bollards
when it comes to stone phenomena. Go on a Tuesday afternoon in November,
long after the coaches have gone, and stand and wonder.
26 Visit Kilmainham Jail to see where the men who shaped
modern Ireland met their cruel fate.
27 Go to a play at the Abbey. Drama with a capital D.
28 Go and see Riverdance in Dublin or Belfast —
it’s a totally different experience.
29 Drop into the Foynes Flying Boat Museum, not forgetting
that it was here that Irish coffee was first devised. Those early, intrepid
airman required the four foodstuffs found in the concoction — alcohol,
sugar, cream and caffeine.
30 Go angling on Lough Corrib, a fisherman’s paradise.
Alright, the climate is usually Corribbean rather than Caribbean, but
it’s place where tight lines are almost guaranteed.
31 Go on a quest to the west to visit the Galway Arts
Festival in late July early August. Everything from rock to baroque, and
from street theatre to gourmet food.
32 Experience the Poc Fada in the Cooley mountains.
One of the truly ancient folk events in Ireland, hurlers attempt to get
their sliotair over the Cooley Mountains in the footsteps of Cú
Chullainn. Usually the last bank holiday in August.
33 Go to the fair at Spancil Hill in June.
34 Brush up your traditional music skills at the satisfyingly
alliterative Willie Clancy weekend in Miltown Malbay during July.
35 Stay at the Merriman Hotel in Kinvara, one of the
finest hotels in one of the loveliest villages in Ireland.
36 Visit the Down Opera Fringe festival in July.
37 Take the kids to the Children’s Cultural Centre
in Temple Bar, an arts centre offering theatre workshops, puppet schools
etc.
38 Go to the Armagh storytelling festival, held in the
vicinity of Mullaghbawn during the autumn. You’ll hear more tales
than the Brothers Grimm could come up with.
39 Visit one of the longest running traditional sessions
in the world at the Village Inn, Forkhill, south Armagh. They’ve
been going strong for the last 30 years. (Tuesday nights).
40 Climb to the top of Slieve Donard, the highest mountain
in the North. It’ll take you about three hours up, but the views
are incomparable.
41 Marvel at the Book of Kells, in Trinity College Dublin.
One of the moist valuable books in the world, the ninth century work consists
of the four gospels in Latin. But it’s the pictures you'll be going
for, so it doesn’t matter if you don’t have the Latin.
42 While at Trinity College, remember to pay your respects
to Thomas Moore, who became a member of the Irish-in-Britain community,
eventually dying in England. At Trinity his statue is situated between
the Gents and the Ladies toilets, although this has probably nothing to
do with Moore’s work The Meeting of the Waters.
43 Marvel at the tallest tree in Ireland — a western
hemlock in Castlewellan Forest Park, pus more exotic trees than you could,
er, shake a stick at.
44 Ponder on the irony which is Ireland’s writing
heritage at the Dublin Writers’ Museum in Parnell Square. The irony?
We lost our language — but gave the world incomparable literary
gems in a foreign language.
45 Soak up the culture at the National Concert Hall
in Dublin. The National Symphony Orchestra performs most Friday evenings.
46 Have a summer break at Tramore, Co. Waterford, one
of the finest strands in Ireland.
47 Go for a walk in the Slieve Bloom Mountains in Co.
Laois and Co. Offaly - make it easy for yourself and head along the Slieve
Bloom Way.
48 Visit the Giant’s Causeway on the Antrim Coast
— a truly mesmerising place.
49 Have a drink in the Crown Bar, Great Victoria Street,
Belfast — one of the finest pubs in these islands. But go easy on
the Guinness — this is a pub, not an Interactive Indigestion Centre.
50 Visit Cork - this year’s European City of Culture. | 