Irish Odyssey – Part 4

When hubby is describing our trip to the Emerald Isle, he says that it was a working holiday – working for me, holiday for him! He certainly had great fun touring around the various areas where I was working. I was able to do some visiting myself though.

A trip to the Cliffs of Moher was truly amazing. As you can see from this picture

they are magnificent, rising to 214m / 702 ft and provide a barrier to the Atlantic ocean. Hubby discovered very quickly that he often had to take two photos to accommodate the changing weather, that could be rapid. If you look in the distance, you can see a squall on it’s way. In many way, that added to the mystery and (as they say in the brochures) the magic of this outpost.

I was privileged to speak the final year students during their very last lecture at Galway University. After a really interesting discussion with like minded lecturers, we had some exploring time. Galway reminded us of Tours in the Loire, France with it’s narrow streets with old mixed with new. It was good to see the Gaelic language on shop fronts and windows – a reminder of being in a foreign country!

It’s magnificent cathedral which goes by the catchy title of ‘The Cathedral of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven and St Nicholas’ has a guarding presence in the centre of the town. Inside there was a photo exhibition of the visit from Pope John Paul 11 visit in 1979.

We did find a great sculpture that  felt typically Irish for some reason. Two chaps having a chat!

They are ‘Wildes’ – the one on the left is Oscar Wilde and on the right we have Eduard Wilde, an Estonian writer. Apparently it is a replica of the sculpture that sits outside the ‘Wilde Irish pub’ in Tartu, Estonia.

In many ways, it is indicative of our trip – there is always time for friends!

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