January, 2021
I promise this is the last time I’ll talk about our 2019 trip to Ireland. Consider yourself lucky. In times past I would have stuffed you with great food and fine wine then subjected you to an interminably long slide show while challenging you to stay awake. Now, if you are bored by our Irish holiday, you can just go back to Facebook.
Bathrooms
Or as the Irish call them, the jacks. When someone thinks about traveling while disabled, their brain immediately goes to shit, or at least to Door Number One. The first issue, of course, is to find a suitable location in which to answer nature’s imperative. This challenge to accessible travel was expertly handled by our guide Gareth the Magnificent, who knew just the right shopping centers that would permit a nonresidential deposit.
The second issue was navigating the retrofitted jacks to satisfy the human porcelain interface. In state side bathrooms you have a stall large enough for a Mini Cooper but only two grab bars on the walls against which the commode has been mounted. In Ireland the reverse is true. There is barely enough room to get a small travel wheelchair into position to conduct business. Once suitably in place, however, you are greeted with an erector set of choices of metallic aids, my favorite being the elongated steel loop that telescopes out like a wall mounted trombone.
Other Accessibility Adventures
I understand that Ireland is fairly accessible relative to other areas in Europe. We found this to be true in the tourist areas of Dublin, Killarney, and Galway we visited. Even in the seaside village of Dingle I had no problem getting around and even visiting the town’s landmark combination hardware store and pub, the inventory of which leaned heavily in favor of the latter.
Restaurants and pubs generally tended to be a bit expansive in their interpretation of their own accessibility but we never ran into any unsurmountable problems. I found that when an establishment was burdened by a couple of steps, it was likely that a temporary ramp would soon appear, especially when you looked like you were prepared to circulate your hard earned currency within their microeconomy.
Although I was stymied by stone ruins and single track hiking trails there was enough asphalt and packed dirt in the countryside to keep me occupied. My eyes, however, were sometimes bigger than my travel chair’s talent curve. Coming down from the Cliffs of Moher one day the dirt incline proved to be on the wrong side of my cruiser’s specifications. Good thing my bro-in-law, with a bladder at capacity, moved rapidly to rescue me from my certain peril, leaving me and my cruiser unscathed and my bro-in-law in mad pursuit of an open bathroom.
Gareth the Magnificent of De Danaann Travel
Our driver and guide, who we annointed Gareth the Magnificent, turned out to be one of the best parts of the trip. Critical was his superior expertise in dealing with a disabled yankee like me. I was instantly at ease that my physical challenges were no match for his experience and joy. Flexible, unquenchably cheerful with a contagious laugh, and full of knowledge about where we were and what we were seeing, he melded with our motley crew like a close cousin. Good thing too because on more than seven occasions he had to tell us to shut up or we’d miss seeing such items of Gaelic import as the mountains from which flowed the water used for Guiness.
Dublin
What a city! From cathedrals and universities hundreds of years old to a Calatrava bridge evoking an Irish harp, the city shines with history, culture, and, believe it or don’t, doughnut shops. Public art abounds. There’s the Mellinium Spire (aka the Erection at the Intersection) , the statue of James Joyce (the prick with a stick), and, the most powerful of all, the memorial to the potato famine. There’s an incredible museum documenting the Irish diaspora, and many more museums inaccessible to those of us on wheels. St. Stephen’s Green is a wondrous park in the center of the city, full of history recounting strife against the Brits. Pubs everywhere.
Favorite moments include taking my travel chair on a test run over the cobblestone in Temple Bar, passing the side of a building dripping with trash that, from a distance, formed a large squirrel, seeing a pub on the main shopping drag festooned with a rainbow of balloons for Pride Week, and having great craic in a pub watching the US Women’s Soccer Team beat the Brits.
I could go and on, but I’ll spare you because I’m feeling weak. I will, however, simply close with my wish that someday you will find yourself in Dublin.
The Countryside
Green, green, and more green. Most of what we saw was from our land yacht except for our sojourn in Killarney and day trips to various spots, including Ashcroft Castle an hour outside of Galway. The landscape is stunningly beautiful and rugged, especially near the coast. Rivers and smaller waterways are everywhere. Looking across wide valleys you can see large pastures separated by ancient rock walls. Sheep abound, often in large public fields, with bright paint spots to denote ownership. You can see why some trees are sacred and mischievous leprechauns lurk about. It’s truly a marvelous place.
OK that’s quite enough. I know I have tried your patience but why should this time be any different? Ireland is simply amazing and a country you should visit once the current pandemic is vaccinated into submission. If you do, tip a pint for me. Slainte!
Embrace The Suck 
Hi Bob, I have enjoyed your blogs. I hope you’ll consider writing about your past fun as part of various bands and your trip to Croatia. 😃 ~Cathy
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AWEsome trip and really glad you shared it…I look forward to our little musicfest on Sunday! Thank you for being you, amigo…You are my hero!
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Hi Bob, So many places I have been, so many not, including Ireland and your blog gives me encouragement at 77 to start up again if and when my own health stabilizes a bit. And yet I also have a mad desire to spend more time out on the rivers of the west, so many of which I have seen and want to see again. Keep writing, keep reminding us that if you can do it, surely we can too. With love, Dick
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Bob,
You have moved Ireland further up on my bucket list.
Please give my love to Laurel.
Rhonda
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Great memories of a wonderful trip. As I recall, “the jacks” were usually in the basement, even harder to get to. If you get a chance, watch a new doc about Shane MacGowan called Crock of Gold. Exhilarating and sobering.
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Fantastic travellog (sp?), inspirational for disabled tourists! Agree with commentor that wants to hear about past trips! Any entertaining backpack trip stories? There may be a book deal in the offing! Stan
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Such terrific descriptions (the trombone protruding from the “jacks” wall) . . . you’ve given us a different kind of slide show. I loved this one (all three of them, actually). So thanks!
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You are such a talented writer, Bob! Indeed I am inspired again to visit Ireland. Alas, I am not a fan of beer, let alone Guiness, but I will tip a pint of something to you when Dick and I get there! Much love to you and Laurel,
Nancy
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Hi, Bob . . . O, so much to say! I wanted to wait ’til your three segments were done so I wouldn’t say anything in conflict, and now it’s my turn. I will be getting to it. In the meantime, since I noticed you mentioned the Spire on O’Connell Street across from the Post Office and the Gresham, if you have not already seen this, check out “Knocking Nelson Off His Pillar: Writers and the Meaning of Statues,” a lecture as part of the 3rd Annual Dublin as a UNESCO City of Literature series. I’ve enjoyed everything they’ve sponsored. These sponsors are a cooperative group that includes the Dublin City Council, the Dublin City Libraries, and others. The lecture I’ve mentioned is given by Professor Chris Morash of Trinity. Enjoy! Kay
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So, here’s a sort of a start, Bob. When you talk about Ireland, the Irish, etc., you are talking about ME! I was born with a combined U.S.-Irish citizenship in NYC, as were all 12 of us, children of many of my Irish emigrating maternal line. The other 7 first cousins in my maternal family line were born in Ireland where they have lived all their lives. Starting as a child, I was the self-appointed “U.S. correspondent.” Not much of a change there!
My first visit was in 1966. My father was from Mullingar, County Westmeath (see James Joyce’s “Ulysses” for the location of the protagonist’s daughter’s photo shop where she worked), and my mother’s family, the Mansfields (I know — sounds English, right?), are listed as among the owners of “Ballinroad,” the family homestead going back to the 1830s. My mother was the youngest girl among the 10 siblings who lived there (the 11th sibling died at 5 many years before). She and her teenage sister, orphans, emigrated together in 1926, met in New York by my grandfather’s brother, Uncle Jack. (Another wonderful story there!)
I painted my vision of the homestead a bit ago, and I will send a copy of my watercolor to you.
I have visited “Ballinroad” some ten times now, often staying there over the last half century.
More to come in successive “stories” about “my Ireland,” Bob!
Stay tuned!
Love to all,
Kay
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Hi, Bob!
I’ve been enjoying your Irish posts so much. You’ve revived lots of wonderful memories! In the meantime, I hope you are enjoying the streaming sessions that are sponsored by the Irish Repertory Theatre. So far, I’ve taken each in as they’ve been introduced weekly.
Loved your references to the castles in the countryside particularly. Walt and I used to have a “theme” for each of our Irish trips, and one was “Irish castles!” No way to ever see them all, even if you lived there!
On my first trio to Ireland though, 55 years ago, way before Walt, My Aunt Peg took me to Lismore Castle, built in 1185 and remodeled in the 18th century, on the Blackwater River in County Waterford. She had enlisted my 16 year old Irish cousin, John White, to drive us there from the family homestead, Ballinroad, near Dungarvan, also in County Waterford. My Aunt Peg, one of my idols and a very real role model, was a strong willed woman She intended that the occupants should show me the interior and the gardens, which were famous. When there was no answer to her rapping at the door, she decided hat we should just go take in the gardens, even without permission. That’s the kind of person she was. So we did. My 16 year old cousin was crazed, crying out loud, “My God! I’ll be in Limerick Jail tonight!” We did the gardens (lovely) and John White was not in Limerick Jail that night. Who knows if the residents peeked out the windows to watch? Little did I know that this was but the beginning!
Walt and I particularly loved Dromoland Castle, in Countyn Clare, by then a popular hotel owned by an American, near Shannon airport, so a wonderful place to greet Ireland! The castle and grounds were lovely, and we enjoyed every stay! And I remember Ashford Castle, like you, with fond memories as well. On our first visits, we couldn’t afford much more than a meal there, but later, we stretched the budget and actually did get to stay there! Unfortunately, whoever was U.S. President that year, also stayed there shortly thereafter, and if the rates were high before, they absolutely soared after that! We never could afford it again!
I have a cousin who lives on Galway Bay, so I know how gorgeous it is. They live in Oranmore, which is on the southern curve of Galway Bay and their water views are out of this world! They have been kind enough to take us to local pubs where the “craic” and cuisine are equally appealing!
And, then, of course,d there’s Blarney Castle in County Cork, which we visited, but we decided I probably didn’t need to kiss the B. Stone, so I didn’t. Still plenty of Blarney, though! My aunts took me to Bunratty and presented me with a wonderful full color plaque that I have here, all these years later!
We also loved to take in the traditional meals and entertaining programs offered in some of the castles, such as Dunguaire and Knappogue.
O, but these are but the beginnings of all those wonderful castles! Here’s to the memories!
Kay
(I am “Kay Keeshen” here; over there I am “Kathleen Mary Kearney Keeshen!”)
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