Eire-Go Tours: Ireland Beckons

09/11/2024

The bridge in Ireland that was unable to be used for four years due to a lost remote control is the Seán O'Casey Bridge in Dublin, which is a pedestrian swing bridge designed to open for ships passing through the River Liffey; the remote control was misplaced preventing the bridge from being operated properly for several years.

06/11/2024

30/10/2024

There are still a few slots available for my 2025 tours of Ireland and Nothern Ireland. Both start and end in Dublin. The spring tour (April 26 to May 7) goes north to Belfast and along the Antrim coastline to Derry, then Donegal, and down through Sligo, Mayo, Galway, and Clare. The summer tour (June 21 to July 3) goes west to Galway, then south through Clare, Limerick, Kerry, and Cork, then up through Tipperary, Kilkenny and Wicklow. Tours re filling up fast and hotels are requiring commitments so contact me for more info if you may be interested! www.eiregotours.com. ([email protected])

30/10/2024

I'd love to be in Galway for Halloween.

27/10/2024

01/10/2024

See you in 2025!

Golden hues embrace the ancient whispers of time at Poulnabrone Dolmen, a mystical portal to Ireland's rich past. 🌅✨ Witness the magic as the sun bids farewell to another day, casting its warm glow over this sacred site nestled in the heart of County Clare's Burren.

30/09/2024

Would that I could!

27/09/2024

Being ranked alongside Zurich and Copenhagen is kind of a flex

A new study published in the journal ‘Nature Cities’ has found that just a small fraction of the 10,000 cities around the world can be considered “15-minute cities”, with Dublin being one of them.

A 15-minute city is an urban planning concept in which daily necessities and services are within a 15-minute walk, cycle, or public transport link. Researchers selected 54 cities to study in detail and found that most accessible cities were midsize European ones like Milan, Zurich and Copenhagen.

The research found that 95% of the residents of Dublin are able to access essential services like schools, supermarkets, hospitals, and parks in 15 minutes.

05/09/2024

See you in the spring!

A trip through the Doolough Valley is a special experience. Nestled between high mountains, there are two lakes along which the Wild Atlantic Way winds its way. The untouched nature creates a unique idyll.

At the northern end of the valley, right next to the road, there is a cross built in memory of the victims of the “Doolough Tragedy”. During the great famine in 1849 hundreds of needy inhabitants of Louisburgh set off on foot to Delphi Lodge to seek food from the authorities there. However, they were harshly rejected. On the way back to Louisburgh, many of them died of hunger and frost in the Doolough Valley. A quote by Mahatma Gandhi is engraved in the cross: “It has always been a mystery to me how people can feel honored by the humiliation of their fellow human beings.

https://www.thewildatlanticway.com/sight/doolough-valley/

27/08/2024

Our Spring 2025 tour will stop here on the drive west into Donegal from Derry. It’s spectacular!

📍An Grianan of Aileach, Co. Donegal 💚

19/08/2024

The opening of a new monastery at Kylemore Abbey, one of the foremost visitor attractions in Connemara, has been hailed by Archbishop Francis Duffy as a “very rare event in Ireland and perhaps in western Europe”.

At the official blessing ceremony for the new €10m purpose-built home for the community of 15 Benedictine nuns, Dr Duffy said it was “an unusual event in contemporary Ireland” where for many years people have been accustomed to reading about convents and monasteries closing.

“Don’t let the significance of this most historic moment pass you by,” he told the assembled religious and civic leaders, family and friends, who gathered for the “hope-filled” occasion.

The opening of the new monastery comes over 350 years after the foundation of this Benedictine community in 1665 in the Belgium town of Ypres, where the nuns were known as “the Irish Dames”.

During World War I, the bombing of Ypres forced the nuns to flee their monastery and in 1920, they settled in Connemara in the iconic 19th-century lakeside castle built for a wealthy English physician, Mitchel Henry.

The new structure, designed by Co Mayo architect Michael Horan, marks a new start in familiar surroundings that blend peace, beauty and enterprise in a breath-taking landscape.

📸: Ray Ryan