My daughter and I are planning a trip to Ireland this fall to explore our heritage.  Fairies are most certainly a part of that, even this one turned out to be fake.  I don't care if we actually see any wee folk or not--they will be watching us when we're there.  I know it.  She's going to appreciate this when I send it on to her!   By the way, if anybody has ideas on things that we absolutely have to experience, I'd love to have info.  Annie

Thanks Cindy!  I really appreciate your link to his real web page.  I only wish that he hadn't sold it on eBay, and that his other website didn't happen.

I'm not sure.  I haven't been there before--travels have been more to Greece, Spain, Italy, France.  I got some good reliable references including Bord Failte (sp?) which gives very good ideas about itineraries, area-by-area and county-by-county.  We should have about nine or ten days in the country, so there's lots more freedom than we'd have on one of those fast-track tours.  We'll budget pretty carefully especially with the miserable status of the dollar just now.  We will be doing it ourselves by car, having left the organized tour thing behind years ago.  My husband insists that tours--especially longer ones--can ultimately result in a bus full of dysfunctional family members, and he has a point.

 

We'd like to see the best of the costal areas (though we will exclude Northern Ireland)  and do a little exploration of the interior as well.  Both of us are interested in history as well as scenery so we hope to experience both.  We aren't purchasers on trips, and so don't care about where to buy things--and experience tells us to avoid tourist traps and side trips that inevitably end up at some manufacturing outlet.  We're wide open for ideas-- would love to know what is too beautiful to miss and what is going to give us the best essence of the country.          Annie 

I have never been to Ireland, but my mother was born there...some sites I recommend are as follows:  Bunratty castle in Limerick,, Leamanagh Castle, Cliffs of Mohr, of couse theres The Blarney Stone (everyone must kiss that!) and the connemeara mountains (I know I spelled that wrong).  Any little village is excellent, along with a traditional Irish pub.  There is a Paleolithic Burial tomb in The Burren.  That's all I can think of off the top of my head.  My family lives in county Limerick and also Galway.....and the leprechauns are different in each place.  In Limerick they are about 3 ft tall, and in Galway, they are about the size of a salt shaker.  And if you can catch a ferry ride, you may be able to see some of the wee folk on the coastline!

Thanks much, Kel.  We have my husband's grandpa's naturalization papers from County Galway.  There are also many more Irish names on his side--though he is one quarter Lithuanian. (What a combo!  and a Taurus to boot.  What was I thinking?)  He looks Irish.  My mom looks Irish.  You could lift my daughter off an Irish calendar.  My background is a little more patchwork, with the predominance being Irish and Scotch Irish--along again with many of the names from the sod.  Some of them fled to Scotland at some point to excape either famine or whatever--but always considered themselves Irish.

 

My daughter and I have never taken a girls' trip away.  Nor have we ever planned a trip where nobody else but us set the itinerary.  We are very excited about it.  It will be her only two-week vacation for a long time to come.  Her hours at this point in her training run about 80-90 per week, and grabbing a weekend with her is rare enough.  It's fine with the Mister, the "boys" are working anyway, and  supposedly early September is as lovely a time as any to visit. 

 

I marked your suggestions in my book as "for sures" and if you think of anything else--or relatives have ideas, I would love it if you would pass them on!  Must prepare to look for all sizes of leprechauns.  Do you realize this is the first trip I have looked forward to that does not involve coping with SOM?  that's even more exciting.  I will be able to see the wee folk lots better.