Ireland

Lunch is a big thing in Oz pubs. The drinking habits are Irish

My wife and I were in Ireland last March. Our favorite restaurant we've ever been to, ANYWHERE, was "Moran's Oyster Cottage" out near Galway. My wife had a carrot soup that was delicious, and I had some prawns with a nearly Cajun-like seasoning that was quite good. We also enjoyed "La Mer Zou" in Dublin, a French cuisine restaurant on St. Stephen's Green (you'll need reservations unless you go early). We did think it a bit odd that in Dublin, almost all of the restaurants seem to feature a cuisine other than "Irish"--there are a lot of Italian restaurants, as well as Indian, a few Thai, etc.
As one of our souvenirs we brought back an "Irish cookbook" that we bought at the Cliffs of Moher gift shop; we haven't tried many of the recipes yet, but the wheaten soda bread recipe alone is worth what we paid for the book.

Quite a few of your original "colonists" were Irishmen and -women who were officially convinced of the salubrious character of your climate, no?

So, was mine.

Hey ! ! !

You live in Florida, and i don't either . . . damn ! ! !

Mine is County Antrim - Northern Ireland
Aunts, uncles and cousins still up there.

My mother's maiden name is Antrim. Not a lot of Antrim's in the world. Her mother was born a Donovan in County Cork. My father's mother was from County Clare . . . don't know where his father's family haled from . . .

Mine was Gaffney.

Has anybody heard of the potato femine?

Nary a whisper . . . but then, i'm ignorant on the subject of feminine potatoes . . . and masculine ones, for that matter . . .

I also have relatives in the Tyrone area. Is Tyrone Northern Ireland?

County Tyrone is a part of Ulster. "Northern Ireland" is an English construct, and did not exist prior to 1923. There are nine counties in Ulster, of which County Tyrone is indeed one.

Ireland was traditionally divided into four areas, usually incorrectly referred to as "provinces"--Ulster, Leinster, Munster and Connacht.

Icould go on about the geology of Ireland, very similar tro the pre Iapetus basin rocks. I was spending time in the sligo crescent and the Burrens near Galway. All that was to evaluate the quality of stone for such **** as concrete. My findings in the Sligo area was that the limestone was great but the value as cement was less than its value as scenery and caves.
If you get a map of Ireland (geological) and compare it to the Appalachian piedmont, you can see the derivatives.

Ever go up Ben Bulben, FM? We would take a brief walk out of Sligo and up the mountain. Quite a view up there. A very lovely country.

antrim, armagh, down, fermanagh, derry and tyrone are the six counties in n. ireland.

You there again, Mikey?

naw, missed many an opportunity to see much more than I did.
I went to places that had mineral potential, like the Connemaran gneisses . Therein lie many zircons with many rare earths. BUT, since theyre more abundant in North Carolina , we keep the cores available and the drill holes capped.
Theres a great pdf geologic map from the Irish Geological Survey, This laptop of mine is not as pdf friendly so I have my memory clipped and cannot recall some of the outcrop areas and where I visited all these years

yeah it's me. how are things?

if i typed any slower i'd scare myself...

Of course Gladstone got so near to solving "the Irish problem" with his Home Rule Bill, if only it passed.

Dont know what his take on geology would be...pretty dry i suspect...but have been to the Burren and Westport and Galway and been made very welcome in my English reg car everywhere.

Except when I parked it outside the Central Criminal Court in Dublin and got a parking ticket...well how was I to know it was Judge O'Connor's parking slot?

Lovely Leitrim
I am looking forward to visiting Mohill again next year. Probably after Christmas while the weather is particularly miserable and I can spend the days in pubs enjoying the craic.

Rarely do I meet an American who has been to Ireland and has visited Leitrim. I guess the tourism attractions are not in any great number. I lived in the Mohill area for several years and had a great time. I am retired from the American military. I did volunteer work fairly regularly at a school during the time I was there. I enjoyed my stay very much and I was accepted by the natives and treated exceptionally well by them.

It has been 15 years now and I am very curious to see the people again. I understand there have been some changes in Mohill.

I am hoping the publicans now stock a little non-alcoholic beer like Kaliber (made by Guinness) or Pauli Girl (made by Pauli Girl I guess. :-)) because doctor no longer lets me drink real beer.

My passport renewal has been submitted and I should be receiving my new one in the mail any day now. Mohill here I come. :wink:

Well, here it is about 8 months since my last post and nobody else has posted to this thread. Is Ireland still there?

If I don't go back to Mohill for a visit in the Fall I'm never going back. Old age is gaining on me and I can feel the creaks upon me on certain days. Nothing can be done about it, that's life.

When I went there in 1988 I was in my early fifties going through a divorce and although I could have been romantic I wasn't. Anyway everyone in the town was Catholic and the women were leery; who wants to get involved with a recently divorced Yank?!

I would have to start drinking beer again after having abstained for more than five years now; pointless to be in Ireland if you cannot enjoy Smithwick's and / or Guinness. The passable women in their forties then are now pushing sixty! I am far to old to be fooling around playing games in the border pubs. I could get myself very disliked, beaten up or worse. Too old for adventure anymore.

I would like to know where my relatives before my great grandfather came from. I don't know if you have ever tried to follow the "roots" comparatively few people do. Most third and fourth generation Americans could care less about the other side. One of my brothers said he would rather travel from Connecticut to visit the REAL Disneyland in Anaheim than go to Ireland.

Of course the farther you go back the more assumptions need to be made to fill in the increasing number of gaps. More than one root tracer has followed the wrong root.