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One of my closest friends, Bev, lives in Kannapolis, N.C. Her niece was a band member of the South Rowan High School, and they had been invited to march in the St. Patrick's parade in Dublin. So, knowing how much I loved to travel, I was invited to go along and help with the photography. It didn't take me long to pack!
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Heading to Ireland in the pretty little green plane.
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Getting our first glimpses of Ireland.
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We've landed, gone through customs, and will now get on the bus and head to Dublin.
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This is one of ten bridges that crosses Dublin's Liffey River.
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We can already see that the city is all decked out for St. Patrick's Day.
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We arrive at the Jury's Inn, a beautiful new hotel, for the first night. For our first Irish dinner, we had Irish beef and Yorkshire Pudding. It tasted like some kind of pastry. It wasn't what I had expected.
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The next morning, we headed toward Tipperary, one of the 32 counties of Ireland. And this photo shows "that it's a long road to Tipperary." :O) Anyone remember that song? It was a British marching song during WWI.
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This is the Rock of Cashel. It is considered to be one of the most spectacular tourist attractions in Ireland. It was started as a fortress.
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Now we continue south to go to the harbor in County Cork.
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This is the station that the Irish immigrates came to so they could board the Titanic. From here, they expected to be landing on Ellis Island.
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Now you can sit in this area and have tea and biscuits.......or a coke.
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It was rather daunting to think of all those people walking around here knowing what their fate would be.
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There was a wonderful museum there, and it had a lot of the photos of the people walking around before boarding. Sad really.
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This was the last port of call.
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We drove on to Cork where we spent two hours shopping at the Blarney Woollen Mills. All of the sweaters were so beautiful. It was hard not to buy a bunch. I didn't because I don't live in cold enough weather. I did get a scarf!
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I liked the sign. Plus it was a little weird driving on the other side of the road.
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This a good view of the Wollen Mill. There was a nice pub in there so we had a great little lunch.
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Ah, I found the sign pointing the way to the Blarney Castle. (It looks like I needed to be pointed to the restroom.) :O)
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I've never kissed the Blarney Stone, but I'm getting ready to.
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The area around the castle was so beautiful.
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I've always been fascinated with Medieval times. The castles, the food, the clothes, the knights in shining armor!
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Made it! Whew.....that was a pretty exhausting walk up those tiny stairs.
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The first layer down was the banquet hall. Boy! I wish I could see what it looked like with everyone wearing their finery, and hear the music playing.
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This was taken looking down through one of the arrow loops.
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This is just so much fun climbing all over this castle.
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This really shows the green of Ireland.
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Okay.........here we go! He has just told me to sit down, hold on tight, and turn UPSIDE DOWN! You've got to be kidding me!
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So, I'm supposed to turn upside down and kiss that black spot? (Supposedly the Blarney Stone.) And we are seven stories up!
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This is freaky! Are you SURE you are hanging on to me!!!
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OKAY....I DID IT! Now pull me back up! Wow, kissing the stone is supposed to give you the gift of "gab" but it just gave me a freakin' headache!
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Here's my buddy Harry showing everybody what I had to do.
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After all of that excitement, we got back on the bus and headed to Killarney. (No, your eyesight isn't going, I tried to get this photo as the bus was turning a corner.
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Here we are heading for Killarney.
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We passed by so many marvelous castles. What must it have been like to live in them?
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Around 7:30 that evening, we finally arrived at our hotel called "O'Donogues Gleneagle Hotel.
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The hotel was huge! Lots of shops and pubs.
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Christy's Pub seemed to be one of the more famous ones.
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And this is definitely the beer of choice. I tried a sip of it. Wow! I swear it grew hair on my chest! Powerful stuff!
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Having a delightful dinner with my three buddies.
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So, after a nice dinner, we headed into the pub where we thought we would just finish out the day listening to some NICE Irish music. We sat in front of the fireplace, chatted about the day, and then listed to the little band play........ AMERICAN COUNTRY WESTERN music and HIP HOP music! WHAT!!!!!!! They eventually played Irish music, at our request. :O) Much better.
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After a long night, without much sleep, we headed for the hills of Killarney. (The shower head broke and flooded our bathroom, so we were up a long time!) :O) Anyway, this is the road we took. I just loved all of these small and quaint roads.
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We had our photo taken with the Lakes of Killarney in the background.
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This is my sweet friend, Bev.
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Our next stop was the Muckross House.
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The Muckross House is one of the finest manor houses in Europe.
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Most of the rooms have been restored back to their original Victorian days. They are beautiful.
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You could get lost in some of these manors.
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The architecture was simply astounding.
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Even the phones were green.
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This turned out to be one of my favorite parts of the manor................it's where the bathrooms were!
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Several of the kids took rides through the countryside.
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The bus took us into the town of Killarney so we could see the town and shop around.
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They were right when they told us it's a quaint little town. So pretty.
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He was a nice old gentleman. I so love the accent.
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There sure was a lot of traffic for being such a small town.
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You could tell this was a tourist town.
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Another place full of beautiful sweaters that I couldn't buy because I don't live in cold enough weather! :O(
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I wish you could hear the kids. They were having such a great time.
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Ahhh....what a sweet horsey.
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Time for lunch. Them are some big ol' legs!
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I think they look like Clydesdale feet.
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Sightseeing and shopping.......check. It's back on the bus to return to our hotel for the night.
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These were our bus drivers. Their brogue was really strong and hard to understand. We had fun trying, though.
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As you can imagine, we saw sheep everywhere.
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Just another beautiful scene in Ireland.
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If you like lots of green grass, tons of sheep, and delightful little towns, then you would love visiting Ireland.
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One thing I learned while I was in Ireland is that they love their front doors. They even have posters with just doors on them.
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For now, I'll just show you two. I'll have more doors later on, especially when we get back to Dublin.
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Since we didn't stop in this town, I just got this one from the bus. I was just fascinated with all the different styles of the little towns.
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Even the windows were pretty. I would imagine in the spring, the flower boxes would be beautiful.
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Oooooooops.......Houston, we have a problem! Right after I took the photo of that pretty window, the bus turned the corner to go down another little street when........there was a car in the road.
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Unfortunately, the driver was nowhere to be seen. So, some of the boys on the bus got out and lifted the car over so the bus could go through. Boy! That was one time you had to be there. It was so funny!
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And off we go!
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It's a new day and we are heading to the Cliffs of Moher, considered one of the most dramatic sights in Europe.
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The cliffs, called the Wall of Thomond, stretches nearly five miles on the Atlantic coast and rises up to seven hundred feet.
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We decided to have a little snack before we tackled going up to see the cliffs. We were told it would be a long, cold, and windy walk.
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Now this sign was large and very obvious. However, I saw several kids going out to the edge and looking over. Their parents would have freaked!
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The cliffs really were beautiful. In fact, they have been featured in many films such as The Princess Bride in 1987, and Harry Potter and the Half Blood in 2009. Another interesting piece of trivia was that the singer, Dusty Springfield, had her ashes scattered here after she died of breast cancer in 1999.
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At the highest point of the cliffs you see this round, stone tower. It is the O'Brien Tower. Folklore says that in 1835, Sir Cornelius O'Brien believed that since many Victorian people came to visit the cliffs, that this tower should be built thus benefiting the local economy and bring poor people out of poverty. But then it also says that he built the tower to impress female visitors! I wonder if it worked.......impressing females that is!
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So much for "the kids" going over the barriers! :O)
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Our next stop is the Dromoland Castle , where you can play a great round of golf..............if you've won the lottery maybe!
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The castle spans over 410 acres.
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Dromoland is one of the most impressive and distinguished castle hotels in Ireland, and is one of Europe's most desired 5 star destinations.
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This castle was built in the 17th century. It is one of the few castle hotels that can trace its ownership back through history to Gaelic Irish families of royal heritage.
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After a few hours on the road, we finally came to the village of Bunratty.
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Bunratty Castle is a large tower house in County Clare. It lies in the center of Bunratty village. Built in 1425, it is the most complete and authentic medieval fortress in Ireland.
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This my friend, Beverly, standing in front of the castle.
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A few of the patrons of Durcy Nelly's pub. They came out, saw that I was waiting for Bev to take my picture, and decided to get in the photo, too. However, I'm pretty sure that the fellow on the right had partaken of several tanks of 98 proof ale. Talk about stinky breath!
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Look! I found a secret door!
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One of the parts of a castle I've always been fascinated with are the arrow slits, also called loopholes. As you can see, this is a vertical opening in the defensive wall. It allowed arrows or crossbow bolts to be fired on their attackers. The narrow slit was intended to protect the defender by providing a small target.
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These guys were headed to work at the castle. They would be part of the big medieval festival we would go to later that evening.
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Some of the band kids just chilin' in this huge rock that was shaped like a big bean bag.
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Ready to go inside the castle for our big evening.
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Finally making it to the top of the stairway, and being greeted by this Irish knight. (That is what he was supposed to be, anyway.) The stairway was cold, dark and narrow. I felt like I was right back in one of the medieval books I've read.
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Cheers to an awesome evening.
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A little entertainment before dinner.
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Our place settings.........with only a knife.
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A pretty little gal serving us bread.
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Medieval dining etiquette...........either sip it out of the bowl..................
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....................or spear it with your knife! Oh.........or just use your fingers.
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"Harry, I think you are enjoying this a little bit too much!'
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"I TOLD YOU SO!'
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Even Ireland has it's traffic tie-ups.
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It was a long day.
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It's St. Patrick's Day and we are on our way to the parade.
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A smooch from my buddy, Harry.
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Another view of one of the 10 bridges in Dublin.
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Some more of the beautiful doors.
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I think this yellow one was my favorite.
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But then this one was pretty, too.
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During one of our dinners at the Jury's Inn, we got to enjoy these cuties. Amazing dancers and definietly crowd pleasers.
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They put on such a great show.
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After their performance, they came out into the crowd and got us up and dancing. It didn't quite look like THEIR dancing, but it sure was fun.
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Well, this is what we came for. It's time for the St. Paddy's Day parade to begin.
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Not only was I proud of the band marching in the parade, but I was so proud of the red, white and blue!
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Go Ireland.
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Talk about photo ops! There were so many!
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It was a cold, windy day, but it sure didn't take away from all of the excitement.
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We passed out a lot of flags. Some waved them, and some ate them! :O)
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Even the big "kids" were having a great time.
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As expected, there were lots of Garda (police) around, probably making sure somebody hadn't started drinking a little too early.
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This magical scenery was all through the parade. So beautiful.
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People were everywhere!
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It's a shame there is no sound so you could get more of the feeling of how incredible this parade was.
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I love this picture. She was so sweet.
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Stilllllllllllll marching! It was a long parade route.
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Wow! How Irish do THEY look!
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Just more happy people to photograph.
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So many cute little characters in this shot.
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Just look at this adorable little face.
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I just wanted to hug them. So adorable.
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He sure had a great spot for watching the parade.
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This is a photo of the Lord Mayor of Dublin and two ministers of Parliament.
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I have NO CLUE what they were supposed to be. It was colorful though.
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One of the very unusual "floats" in the parade.
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Through this whole parade, you could certainly feel the "Irishness" of the people. They were a bubbly and friendly group of people.
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By now, our group was finishing up the parade, and I wanted one more chance to talk to some of the people. They were just so sweet. Tomorrow we go home......it makes me sad.
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What an experience! This will be our last night here in Dublin, home of Yeats, Shaw, Wilde, Joyce and many other writers and poets This has been a fascinating, history-soaked adventure. One I will never forget. Thank you, Ireland!
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