IRISH ADVENTURE #5: A CIDER FARM VISIT ON THE WAY TO BELFAST

Posted on February 3, 2025 by Elaine-iaK's Travels

Before leaving Dublin and heading to Belfast, I wanted to include a fun fact about Guinness, the makers of beer and stout. Their brewery is in Dublin, and they are considered the best employer in the city. Good on them! But the fun fact is that employees can take home nine pints of Guiness per day—for free! If they want, they can opt to take it all at the end of the year and give cases to friends and family for Christmas. P-A-R-T-Y!

Here are some other (completely unrelated) facts about the Republic of Ireland (“Ireland”). The green stripe in Ireland’s flag represents the Irish Nationalists/ Roman Catholics, and the orange stripe represents the Unionists/ Protestants. The white stripe in the middle represents a (hopefully!) lasting peace between the two groups.

The only official flag of Northern Ireland is the Union Flag (Union Jack). There is no official local flag, and the various flags flown represent different communities identifying with different flags.

One thing I learned about Ireland that I highly respect and appreciate is that it is one of the few countries that have never enslaved others or discriminated against other ethnic groups. (They were always under control by other countries, so when they finally became a republic, they were all about freedom!)

It’s not like Northern Ireland is always happy about being controlled by the British as part of the United Kingdom, though. Take membership in the European Union, for example. Northern Ireland voted to stay in the E.U. and were against Brexit, but they had to leave the E.U. due to losing that vote.

Now, about that cider farm… We visited Armagh Cider Company’s apple orchards and cider-making facility to learn all about how cider is made. This family-owned farm makes cider for several different labels as well as their own brands. Tasting the cider was, of course, the highlight, and the lunch served with it was delicious!

(For all photos, click on the image for a full screen view.)

Later in the afternoon, we arrived in Belfast, the capital city of Northern Ireland, and went on an orientation tour after checking in to our hotel.

Back in the 19^th century, the city was an industrial center and was the hub of Northern Ireland’s booming linen industry. It is also where the Titanic was built. This is a zoomed-in view of the shipyard from our hotel window:

These are a few scenes photographed during our orientation tour:

City center pedestrian tunnel under the busy boulevard.

Posted on the bulletin board of a community center where our group enjoyed a traditional Irish dinner. Most of the posters were in Irish rather than English language.

We learned how Guinness Wheaten Bread is made. Here’s the recipe if you would like to try it yourself!

Belfast, Northern Ireland’s principal port, is a city with a turbulent history, the subject of my next post:

IRISH ADVENTURE #6: THE TROUBLES OF THE 1970s: THE SITES AND STORIES

IRISH ADVENTURE #4: GLASNEVIN CEMETERY & COASTAL WALK

Posted on February 1, 2025 by Elaine-iaK's Travels

Daniel O’Connell (1775 – 1847), the foremost political leader of Ireland’s Catholic majority (at the time) and founder of Glasnevin Cemetery, was my kind of guy. An egalitarian and abolitionist, he believed in equal rights for all and that cemeteries should be open to all, regardless of religion or ability to pay.

The mass famine of the mid-1800’s resulted in massive deaths of the poor, and they had to be buried somewhere! They were buried at Glasnevin Cemetery, and to date there are more people buried in this cemetery (1.6 million) than alive in Dublin. There are only 300,000 headstones, however. Since many of the people buried there were so poor and their families could not afford burial, their bodies were stacked up to ten people in a single grave.

We visited the cemetery with our group and were led on a tour by an excellent docent who shared stories of Daniel O’Connell and some of the people buried in this beautiful and fascinating cemetery.

(For all photos, click on the image for a full screen view.)

During our free afternoon, Bruce and I hopped on a local bus out to Howth, a suburb of Dublin situated along the coast. It was a beautiful, sunny day (in Ireland!), so we wanted to take advantage of it and enjoy a lovely coastal walk along the seaside cliffs. Who knows if we would ever see this much sunshine again during our three weeks in Ireland? (As it turned out, as you will see in most of my future posts, we saw plenty more days just like this one!)

Coming up next: IRISH ADVENTURE #5: A CIDER FARM VISIT ON THE WAY TO BELFAST

IRISH ADVENTURE #2: MORE DELIGHTFUL DUBLIN

Posted on January 31, 2025 by Elaine-iaK's Travels

Our group of 14 began the day with a panoramic tour of Dublin by bus and on foot. Although Dublin has the same size footprint as Los Angeles, the total population of the city and surrounding suburbs is only 3 million people compared to ten million in L.A. The lack of traffic congestion (at least compared to L.A.) while moving about the city was noticeable and appreciated!

Following our city tour, we visited 14 Henrietta Street, also known as the Tenement Museum. Built in the 1740’s, the home was first occupied by a wealthy lord and his wife. In 1800, Dublin entered a period of economic decline, and the owner at the time divided the home into 17 tenement flats. Now a museum, it tells the story of the families who occupied the house over the years, from Dublin’s most elite to the poorest of the poor. At the time, Ireland was under British rule, and the British aristocracy moved out and ruled from England.

By 1911, 17 families totaling 100 people lived at 14 Henrietta Street. It was during the time of Spanish flu, so there was much illness spreading throughout the tenements. The tenement had only one toilet (this was before indoor plumbing was common, so it was considered “posh”), but everybody had to share that one toilet. It was only flushed one time each week—brutal! And, at night, rats ran free throughout the flats.

(For all photos, click on the image for a full screen view.)

At the time, 1/6 of Ireland’s population lived in tenements and 1,000 of them lived on Henrietta Street. They had the highest mortality rate of the British Isles and many of the children didn’t live past age five. Work weeks were long—70 hours—and the pay was extremely meager. Job insecurity was a fact of life, and people lived on bread, potatoes, and tea. One lady lost 12 of her 14 children before they reached the age of 5.

Do you know how the saying, “Moving up in the world” originated? When people were able to move from the basement up to higher and warmer levels of tenement houses with more light, they were moving up… This was very expensive, of course, so multiple families shared a flat.

In 1979, the last person at 14 Henrietta Street left, and it closed. In 2000, the city of Dublin began the process of acquiring the house, and then in 2008, they began conservation and preservation—a ten-year long project.

Following the tour of the museum, the afternoon was free, so Bruce and I visited the National Museum of Ireland Archeaology. The building alone was worth the visit; it was gorgeous!

More scenes around Dublin:

This tile placed in the sidewalk depicts which archeological finds were discovered below.

Ha’penny Bridge on a gorgeous (not rainy!) day!

Next up: IRISH ADVENTURE #3: THE FLOORS AND DOORS OF DUBLIN

Excerpts From A Past Travelogue: Dover, Dublin, Belfast, Greenland, 2008

Posted on July 30, 2011 by Elaine-iaK's Travels

Before starting my travel blog, I used to send travelogues of my journeys by e-mail to my friends and family. I saved some of those e-mails as a travel journal to look back on, so I thought I would share some of those with you.

The following are excerpts from a north trans-Atlantic crossing from Europe:

What a cruise it has been! The ship (Crown Princess) is beautiful and quite similar to
the ships I was on last spring and fall; too big for my taste, but nice. The food, staff, cruise director, entertainment, and our PASSENGER cabin are all wonderful! Yes, they really did give us a passenger cabin this time and it has been so quiet and comfortable.

Our classes have been amazing. These passengers are RABID for arts & crafts! Perhaps it’s because it has been 45 degrees and windy outside on sea days, so everybody is indoors participating in all the activities. Our smallest class was the first day at 57 and our largest class was yesterday at 108! The Princess Patter says our classes are limited to 70 passengers, however, we have been turning away 30 to 40 people lately. The only way we were able to accomodate 108 yesterday was because of it being a 2 day project. So everybody from the first day showed back up to complete their projects and we had a bunch of new people wanting to start. We took over the Crown Grill and had people spread out everywhere! But, it has been fun and everybody has been so appreciate.

So, about the ports…

We have been fortunate that the tour office has given me tour escort for each port. It’s one per cabin, so Mom has been letting me do the “work” while she goes as a paying passenger.

In Dover, we took a tour to the quaint town of Canterbury and toured the amazing Canterbury Cathedral. Then, it was off to Dublin and Belfast, Ireland, where the luck of the Irish was with us! We had amazing weather; sunny and temps in the mid-60’s. Yes, we actually had SUN in Ireland!

Canterbury Cathedral

While in Dublin, we walked all over the downtown area before joining our afternoon tour to Malahide Castle. It is a beautiful castle that started being built in 1475 by the Talbot family and grew over the years. The Talbots owned the land for 800 years before donating the land and castle to Dublin. The last remaining Talbot now lives in Tasmania and is in her 90’s.

Our day in Belfast turned out to be so wonderful. Some friends of Mom and Linda’s from a previous cruise live in Belfast, so Tom picked us up and gave us a tour of the city. We then met his wife, Lorraine, for lunch, before continuing with our tour. Tom and Lorraine are a lovely couple and we had such a great time!

The highlight of the sights was seeing Belfast Castle, a beautiful castle overlooking the harbor. It was also interesting seeing where the Titanic was built. And, of course, the countryside around Belfast is absolutely green and beautiful.

The most interesting thing about Belfast was the culture surrounding the Catholic- Protestant divide. The violence finally ended in 1999, but the neighborhoods are still strictly divided. The murals depicting the battles were quite interesting…

By the way, the flag of Ireland (Southern) is quite interesting when you hear the meaning. The green represents the Catholic community, the orange represents the Protestant community, and the white in the middle represents the peace between the two communities. Northern Ireland is still part of the UK and has the Union Jack on their flag.

We missed our stop in Iceland due to a storm front we needed to avoid. I was disappointed, of course, but have come to expect that on cruises. BUT, we DID make it to Greenland!!! Can you believe it? It’s a very tough port to make it to (just like Raratonga was in the S. Pacific), but we made it! The seas were glass, the sun was out, and an iceberg was right off our ship as we were anchored in the harbor. I sure shot a lot of photos!!!

Although Greenland is stark tundra, the homes are brightly painted and quite colorful (as they are here, in Newfoundland). Mom and I walked ALL OVER for six hours straight and had a great time! Mom was a trouper and kept up with me the entire time! It was only 35-39 degrees while we were there, but I absolutely LOVED being in the cold, despite my painful frozen fingers and toes! We were just so happy to be there- and have been so happy to be out of the San Antonio heat!

06-44

Elaine-iaK's Travels: A Traveler's Tales of People, Places, Photos, Pools… and CHOCOLATE!

Tag Archives: Dublin

IRISH ADVENTURE #5: A CIDER FARM VISIT ON THE WAY TO BELFAST

IRISH ADVENTURE #4: GLASNEVIN CEMETERY & COASTAL WALK

IRISH ADVENTURE #2: MORE DELIGHTFUL DUBLIN

Excerpts From A Past Travelogue: Dover, Dublin, Belfast, Greenland, 2008