the peninsulas of the southwest, the brooding loneliness of Connemara
and the dramatic wildness of County
Donegal. You’ll also fi nd it in the lakelands
of Counties Leitrim and Roscommon and
the undulating hills of the sunny southeast
(‘sunny’ of course being a relative term).
Ireland has modernised dramatically, but
some things never change. Brave the raging
Atlantic on a crossing to Skellig Michael or
spend a summer’s evening in the yard of a
thatched-cottage pub and you’ll experience
an Ireland that has changed little in generations,
and is likely the Ireland you most
came to see.
…for you tread on history. Everywhere you
go Ireland’s history presents itself, from the
breathtaking monuments of prehistoric
Ireland at Brú na Bóinne to the fabulous
ruins of Ireland’s rich monastic past at Glendalough
and Clonmacnoise. More recent
history is visible in the famine museum in
Cobh to the interactive displays of Vinegar
Hill in County Wexford. And there’s history
so young that it’s still considered the present,
best experienced on a black-taxi tour of West
Belfast or an examination of Derry’s astonishingly
colourful political murals.