On the third day of our Dingle adventure, we woke up to a bright sun, all signs of the previous day’s storms dissipated. We had some coffee and headed into town to meet up with the “adults” and John Joe for the second day of our tour around the Dingle peninsula. Our continuing tour began at Lord Ventry’s house, which I found fascinating later as it played an interesting part in Kevin’s grandfather’s memoir, The Ocean Has Two Sides. Basically, Lord Ventry was this pretty awful British Army officer who owned most of the surrounding Dingle area in the late 1800s and made the locals’ lives hell before the revolution.
Next we headed to Slea Head Drive, with several stops along the way, the first being at the Cross at Slea Head, a religious relic that is jarringly white and impossible to miss against the dark rocks. Jutting out among the cliffs at the westernmost point of the Dingle peninsula, it looks out to the nearby Blasket Islands, an uninhabited group of islands that were abandoned in 1953, when the population had dwindled to only 22. The Irish government forced the occupants to leave due to the fact that extreme weather led them to be cut off from emergency services.
To explain the next part of the trip I first need to introduce you to the 10th member of our trip, Bertha. Who is Bertha, you ask? Why am I just hearing about her now? Before leaving on the trip, Mary Anne had been speaking to one of her good friends whose mother, Bertha, had recently passed. Bertha’s lifelong dream was to travel the world but circumstances being what they were, she was never able to. Her children thought it would be a nice tribute to spread her ashes all over the world. Mary Anne offered to bring part of her with us (in a plastic bag inside a small tupperware container) and spread her in a beautiful spot. When we reached our next stop, Slea Head beach, we all couldn’t think of a better place. The storms and wind from the last few days had created breathtakingly immense, foamy waves that crashed onto the shore while the sun poked beautifully through the clouds above. The wind had picked up, so warily we encouraged Mary Anne to open the bag quickly. Turning our backs, we stole glances back as Bertha quickly whirled around the beach and left the group forever.
On the way back into town, we stopped at the Prehistoric Dunbeg Fort, a rocky promontory fort with a beehive hut believed to have been built around 1000 BC. The fort was extremely interesting and as a bonus, offered some incredible cliff and ocean views. While doing some research on the fort now, I learned that the fort had closed in January 2014 after storms caused part of the wall to fall into the sea. This must have happened right after we visited. Across the street is the Stonehouse Restaurant where we grabbed a bite to eat and a quick meal, before heading back into town to get ready for the family party that cousin Josie was throwing us at her home that evening.
Knowing we would be drinking at the family party, Ken asked John Joe if he knew of a taxi service that could take us to Josie’s and pick us up after. To save us some time, and since he already had the van and knew where the Finns lived, he graciously offered to be our chauffeur for the evening. The family welcomed us with open arms, and it was so incredible being able to meet 20 of these distant relatives. All of the older women formed a large circle around the fireplace, catching up with Maureen and Mary Anne on their lives and families. They gave us a tour of their home, including the barn with horses and sheep, which Kelly particularly enjoyed. We were introduced to Shane and Róisín, Josie and Tim’s children. Funny enough, we immediately recognized Róisín as the lovely waitress we had the night before at the Dingle Bay hotel. It’s a small world, but even smaller in Dingle, Ireland. Shane showed us his homemade “moonshine” (as us Yanks would call it) and we all took a tiny swig, the alcohol immediately burning our throats. Shane also informed us of his affinity for running. He had recently done 6 marathons in 6 days across Ireland, all for charity. At the time, we thought this was amazing, if not slightly crazy. Little did we know that he would eventually do the same across the United States, running and biking from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Brooklyn Bridge, making national news and raising €250,000. When one of the female cousins found out I had a sore throat and cough, she instantly made me a hot whiskey, which did help.
Not quite ready for our night to end, we asked John Joe for a suggested spot to hear some traditional Irish music and he dropped us at John Benny’s, a cozy pub on Strand Street, which, having now been there on other trips, is my favorite pub in Dingle. It was tradition at the pub for travelers to sign a dollar bill from their country that they would put up on the wall, so we felt we had to participate. A lovely duet of women were singing modern Irish folk songs. Maureen asked them to sing some of the songs that she knew from her childhood, but they politely declined, as they were all IRA, revolutionary songs. We then asked them to sing a song for Kelly, who had just gotten engaged a few days before leaving for Ireland. They sang a song I now know as All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies, a beautiful yet sad Irish folk song. I was so enthralled with their voices that at the end of the night I asked the women where I could find their music and, in true Irish fashion, one of them handed me their CD and told me to keep it. Their name is Lumiere and they are fantastic (and on Spotify!) – check them out.
After some late night pints at An Droichead Beag (Small Bridge) pub, where we again asked the DJ to play C’est la Vie by B*Witched (his reply: no way in hell), it was finally time to head home. From the moment we left, we were hit by almost hurricane-like winds…again. With all of our might, we made our way through the town with wind and rain whipping around us. At several points we were forced to hold on tight to the buildings, and when we were on the desolate road without buildings, the bushes, in order to not be physically blown to the ground. 28 year old Sara found this extremely amusing, and I laughed through watery eyes the entire way home.
The next morning I was a bad wife. Kevin had planned to go with his parents to Doonties, the farm where his grandfather lived as a child in the village of Annascaul, a short distance from town. I woke up feeling way too sick from the previous night’s exploits and couldn’t get out of bed. He did end up going and enjoyed seeing the family farm, as well as Minard Castle, built in the 16th century, where he had gone on his previous trips as a child. While at Doonties, he learned that one day the family was sitting at home when there was a knock on the door. It happened to be representatives for Kerrygold Butter who were doing scouting for locations for the company’s next commercial and print ad. They thought Kevin’s family’s backyard was the perfect spot and the rest is history.
Meanwhile, when the rest of the group finally stumbled out of bed, we made our way to the Dingle Aquarium, a small museum down near the water that, to be honest, I wouldn’t recommend unless you were staying in town for an extended time or had bored children. In the afternoon, we all met back up at our house and enjoyed a breathtaking sunset over Dingle Bay.
Since that evening was to be our last, we wanted to take it easy and limit our pub drinking. While eating dinner in town, we were happily introduced to the time-honored tradition that is Women’s Christmas. On the 6th of January every year, the women who worked so hard with all of the holiday celebrations are able to take the night off. The men stay home and take care of the children while the women get dolled up and head to the local pubs to dance and drink the night away.
While you may think that our trip ended with an easy flight home, you would be mistaken. As we were waiting to board our flight back to Boston, where we had a layover, we noticed on the TVs that there was something called a “polar vortex” happening in the Midwest. By the time we did get to Boston, the freezing temperatures and storms in Chicago had led to the cancellation of ours and hundreds of other flights. I quickly did a search and found a hotel with free rooms by the airport, while the other members of the group called work to tell them they wouldn’t be in for an extra two days. Oddly, the weather in Boston the next day was in the 60s, so we took advantage of our extended layover and went back to the Freedom Trail and Cambridge, which Kevin and I had just visited a few months before. We met up with our friend Alex for Italian in the North End and finally got on our return flight two days later than had planned, a fact that didn’t really bother any of us, as we were having such a great time together. We decided it was our fate to ease back into reality, going from Ireland to Boston, the most Irish city in the US, and eventually to Chicago, another city with extensive Irish roots.
Recommendations:
- Coastline Tours. Dingle, Co. Kerry, Ireland. http://coastline-tours.com/.
- Slea Head Drive. Dingle Peninsula, Ireland.
- Prehistoric Dunbeg Fort. Carhoo, Co. Kerry, Ireland.
- Stonehouse Restaurant. Fahan Ventry Dingle, Tralee, Co. Kerry, Ireland. http://www.stonehouseventry.com/.
- John Benny’s Pub. Strand St, Dingle, Co. Kerry, Ireland. https://www.johnbennyspub.com/.
- An Droichead Beag. Corner, Spa Rd, Dingle, Co. Kerry, Ireland. https://androicheadbeag.com/.
