I have relatives in Ireland. Although I have never been there, my parents went a few years back. See the Blarney Stone!
There was also some kind of rock formation, man-made, thats like 2 tall rocks with one laid on top so you can walk between the two. OK I dont remember the signifigance of it, or what it was called. Go see that.
Or don’t. Because I have no idea where it is. Or what it does.
Friends of mine did this, and they hated it - the reason being that most of the villages are piss-poor, and not terribly well set-up for tourists. If it rains (which it does), you’re stuck in a boat with nothing to do.
The smoky atmosphere referred to (if you’d a followed the link) is indeed cigarette smoke - the wonder that is the Irish Pub is inauthentic without a grey fug of smoke. Just be prepared for it, and live with it.
By the way, by all means kiss the Blarney Stone, but remember some lads I know from Blarney told me that they often go up to the stone at night and piss on it.
JJimm - What do you mean there is nothing to do???
If it rains you sit in the pub by the fire. Sorted 
Depending on where you are based, I would actually avoid Dublin and go down the south or west coast - Places like Yougal, Cork, Clonakilty, Skibbereen etc… then up to Galway and Connemara.
If you are in the North, head up the Antrim coast, stopping in places like Bushmills, Ballycastle, Portrush (Giants Causeway) and all that.
The only other place I would recommend is North Donegal, Malin Head or Horn Head, Dunfanaghy and around. Pretty rugged but beautiful in its way. But I guess its down to what you want to do.
Are you a city boy or a country fella?
Hey jjim…
like I said, I never tried the houseboat thing but it seemed like the sort of “escape” from Berlin that interested me back then…plus, not living there, visiting some piss-poor boring villages and getting snookered with the locals sorta sounded good.
Plus, the idea back then was to go with 3 other friends and use it as a excuse to be loaded for a week and not run into anything more serious than a log.
By the way jjimm, I still chuckle at “Hi Godot.”
(Other dopers: you had to be there.)
If I’m ever in Ireland…or should you ever visit Las Vegas…
Back to the topic: What to see and do in Ireland?
Quoth Guinistasia:
Already on the list. Titanic, schmitanic, it’s also where our Irish ancestors set sail. And Res? We are, in fact, Catholic, and it might even be worth the trip to see Virgin Mary Soap on a Rope
I was born and raised in Cleveland, by the way, so you might call me a city boy, but all big cities have pretty much the same things to offer. We’re going primarily to see the countryside.
Yeats’s Tower (Thoor Ballylee) is indeed worth seeing; it was one of the highlights of my trip there last summer. Make sure you re-read the dialogue between Aherne and Robartes in “The Phases of the Moon,” to put yourself in the right mood.
Working your way north up the west coast, I loved the Beara and Dingle Peninsulas…very scenic and much less crowded than Kerry. Go way the hell out to the end of the Beara and take the scary cable-car to Dursey Island…there’s nothing there but mountains and seascape and sheep, great for a long hike.
Killarney National Park is all a national park should be, vista-wise.
Dingle and Doolin were my two favorite towns for pubs…the allure of the west-coast pub being the live music, as well as the Guinness. Doolin is also right between the famous Cliffs of Moher and the Burren, which is a fascinating part of the world geology-wise, and also great for long walks/hikes.
Connemara was breathtaking…the town of Clifden is quite nice, the Twelve Bens are most impressive, and the drive around Killary Harbour and up the R335 towards Westport was some of the most beautiful country I’ve seen anywhere in the world. You go right past Croagh Padraic, St. Patrick’s Mountain, another great hike/climb, and you can wave merrily at the barefooted pilgrims as you ascend to the heights.
If you’re a real Yeats freak, a trip to Sligo is important, to see the actual lake isle of Innisfree, bare Ben Bulben’s head, and the Drumcliff churchyard where Yeats is laid.
And, at the risk of boring everyone once again…ANY TIME YOU HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO SEE SOME OF HARRY CLARKE’S STAINED GLASS, TAKE IT. There’s a little church in a tiny town called Castletownshend, just south of Skibbereen, with a Nativity and a St. Luke that’ll snap your stix.
Well, folks, I’ve now returned, and thought I’d let you know how it went. First of all, you guys were great; a printout of this thread was the closest thing to a travel guide we had, and it was very helpful. We didn’t make it out to Dublin or the east of the island, instead concentrating on the south and west coasts. We flew in to Shannon and spent the better part of a very befuzzled and frenetic day in Limerick (advice to travellers: Change a couple of hundred dollars to local currency before you get on the plane) before heading south. We stopped at Blarney for an afternoon, of course, and kissed the stone, but if you ask me, the castle itself and the surrounding grounds were far more interesting. Don’t just kiss the stone and leave; allow at least a few hours for a hike through the many wooded paths around the castle.
From there, we headed to Cork, and spent a day each wandering around Cork and Cobh. I’m surprised that nobody mentioned St. Coleman’s Cathedral in Cobh: My mom wanted to see it because our home parish is named after it, but it’s easily the dominant landmark in the city, and impossible to miss. It’s a textbook example of High Gothic style, flying buttresses and all, and it’s built atop a high cliff overlooking the harbor. In Cork, don’t miss St. Mary Shandon’s church: Visitors are allowed up into the bell tower to see the clockworks and the view from the top, and to ring the bells.
Thence, we followed the south coast for a while, stopping in a place called Timoleague where we happened to notice an old ruined abbey (my mom and I are both suckers for things like that), through Clonakilty and Skibereen and up to Bantry. We actually skipped the Ring of Kerry in favor of the Beara and Dingle peninsulas, on the advice of some of the inkeepers we talked to. We did pass through Killarney National Park on the road from Kenmare to Killarney, and the park was indeed beautiful, but the town of Killarney itself was eminently forgettable: If I had wanted to see streets filled with Americans, I would have stayed back in the states.
On the Dingle Peninsula, Mom decided against the Conair Pass, due to the roads being so narrow, but we did make it a point to get out to Slea Head, a very striking rock outcropping on the coast. From Tralee, we went up through Listowel and across the Shannon ferry into Co. Clare. The Cliffs of Moher were spectacular, both times we saw them (the first day we were there, it was pouring rain and blowing hard, so we couldn’t appreciate them as well). As to the Burren, for those who have never seen it, it’s a lot of rock. No, not like that, more rock than that. No, keep going. It looks like that whole section of the island were paved, and the plants are only just now occasionally breaking cracks through it. The most remarkable thing about the Burren, though, is how abruptly it ends. There’s a sharp line between “rocks as far as the eye can see” and “green fields as far as the eye can see”. One moment you’re in the Burren, the next you’re not.
After the Burren, we rounded Galway Bay, and through the town itself. We didn’t spend much time there, since as I said, cities all seem to me to be much the same, but continued up to Clifden and the Connemara area. Uke is right about the area north of Killary Harbor… It takes a lot for mountains to impress me, anymore, but those did it. We didn’t see much of the Twelve Pins or Croag Patrick, though, unfortunately: By this time, we were feeling a little time pressure, and just drove by them. From Westport, we headed through Castlebar to Knock, which seemed too artificial for my tastes.
After Knock, we headed back down to Doolin, there to catch the ferry out to the Aran Islands, specifically Inisheer. All three islands seemed to have about the same amount of things to see, so we decided that it would be easiest to see them on the smallest one. According to some of the locals, it’s undeservedly neglected; most tourists just go to Inishmore, the largest island. With all the walls, it seemed like a labrynth. The next day (our last full one) was our second visit to the Cliffs of Moher, before heading back down to the Limerick area so as to be able to easily catch the flight back. The Hunt museum was nice, but probably not something to go out of your way to see. As for King John’s Castle, I’m sure that it was impressive once, but by now, there’s so much visitor’s center-type stuff telling you about the castle, that you can hardly see the castle itself anymore. That night, we stayed in Ennis, a city about the same distance north of Shannon Airport. It was much less touristy than most of the places we’d been, and seemed to be a very nice town, with things like a nature walk along the city’s river, and a lot of public artwork.
On other things mentioned here, we couldn’t find Newgrange on the map, so we missed that. We did see five Clarke windows, in three different churches: In addition to the three windows in the church in Castletownshend that Uke mentioned, there was one in Timoleague, and one in (I think) Killarney. By the way, Uke, my mom wants to know how the heck a American city-boy managed to find the places you recommended. We also went to three pubs, mostly for the music: The performances were great, but in each case the smoke drove us out after an hour or so.