After three years stateside, I was, as I mentioned in an earlier post, able to satisfy my thirst for international travel twice in 2015!
The second trip was a wonderful week-long vacation to the “homeland” with my family – Ireland!
We were stationed in a lovely Irish holiday home with a view of the Dingle harbor; my parents made the bold mood of renting from first-timers on AirBnB, and – fortunately for us – it was definitely worth the risk. The house and property were absolutely beautiful, the homeowners were local in case we needed anything, and they even greeted us with a welcome basket full of local goods (bread, cheese, and wine, oh my!).
We spent the week exploring the town, the surrounding Dingle peninsula, and day trips to Cork and Listowel (a small former factory town with plenty of evidence of our family name).
While I could probably go on and on, I’ll keep this short and to the point, and let you know my top 5 favorite things about this trip to Dingle:
Dingle is a holiday town. Bear with me on this one. Dingle is full of tourists throughout the year – Irish tourists. It’s a popular holiday and weekend spot for Ireland residents, and many own second homes in the area. For this reason, tourists in general aren’t out of place and I didn’t feel like I was intruding or annoying locals. There were also less Americans present in town than there have been in other places I’ve traveled, which made the trip feel a bit more like we were a part of authentic Ireland.- The Irish bar scene. Now, I don’t have a lot of experience with Ireland other than the Dingle peninsula at this point, but I’m under the impression that the bar scene is similar throughout the country. And I’m loving it! Each pub is small and cozy, and each one has live music every night. Everyone knows the words to the Irish classics and no one is shy about singing along.*
The local brewery and distillery. I know, I know, this is technically two things, but both taught me a lot about local history, provided me with delicious drinks, and were fun afternoon experiences I’d recommend to all future Dingle-goers. The Crean’s Brewery celebrates the life of Thomas Crean, the Dingle local who accompanied WHO on his expedition to Antarctica. (Crean was the original hot man with puppies.) Crean’s beer can now be found in multiple Irish pubs in the Boston area, including my recent favorite, JJ Donevan’s. The whiskey distillery is equally young and new, located on the other side of Dingle, which is still close given the town’s size. We learned about the rise of Scotch and the disappearance of Irish whiskey, as well as the recent resurgence of the latter. At the time of our visit in June of 2015, the Dingle Distillery hadn’t even produced its first whiskey barrels – that was to come in December of 2015 with its first three year batch. In the meantime, we sampled the gin and vodka the distillery was producing to bring in funds and spread the high-quality brand name during their waiting period. 
Hiking! The one thing most people know about Ireland is that it has beautiful scenery and countryside. And it’s true! While Ireland doesn’t have large mountains, it has a number of hills that can provide for challenging and beautiful walks. If I were to return I’d try to fit in even more, especially now that I’m in better shape than I was a year ago. - History. As a past history-major and life-long history nerd, the historical significance of the Dingle peninsula was a very pleasant surprise to me on this trip. While we were unable to visit the Blasket Islands themselves due to high wind levels throughout the week, we did visit the museum and visitor center located on the mainland. I learned a few things (that I at least thought) were very interesting. Due to its relative isolation, the Irish spoken on the Great Blasket was a pure form of the language, uncorrupted by the English spoken throughout much of mainland Ireland. This was of great interest to linguists, who visited the islands to study the language and those who spoke it, ultimately encouraging a number of them to write about their experiences. The official evacuation of the Blasket Islands occurred in 1953, as most young people had moved away at that point and life was no longer sustainable in such a remote location. The majority of Blasket residents immigrated to Springfield, MA, definitely a fun fact I had not previously known as an MA native!
*Fun Irish pub fact #1: There is a bar across the street from every church, and it’s common for wedding guests to head straight to that bar as soon as the bells chime. We accidentally crashed two weddings this way!
**Fun Irish pub fact #2: Irish pubs grew out of farm supply shops – they were watering holes for farmers after a long day on the job, stopping by the supply shop to restock before heading back home. A few of the original and famous pubs in Dingle still function the same way, and half the small building is occupied by supplies for purchase, while the other half provides the beloved beer and liquor.