Ireland in the Regency

by Michele Ann Young
Actually this is not really about Ireland in the Regency. These are holiday snaps.

Our last port of call in Ireland was a small fishing town called Clonakilty and we stayed at the headland known as Inchydoney in West Cork, at the very South of Ireland.

The town itself is an old one and a fishing town. It apparently played a significant in the rebellion in 1798m but our main reason for travelling there, apart from walking on the beach was to see where my husband's great great grandmother was born. She left Clonakilty in 1830 and travelled to Wales, were she met and married and stayed for the rest of our life.

We were very taken with the town, with its picturesque house painted in all different colours,

it is also a centre of music for the region and there is alway one pub or bar or hall on any partular night with a live band.

We spoke to the warden at the local church, which was built in 1880, long after my husband's relative left and discovered that the priest still has the earlier records, so we have a letter in the post.

We saw the last name we were looking for on many of the store fronts and we discovered that it is a very common last name in Clon (locals call it Clon). So who knows, perhaps we may actually be able to find that we still have some relations there.

I will let you know should anything come of our further inquiries.

I was interested to watch the housemartins building their nest in the eave of our hotel. And yes the sky was really that blue.

And the flowers in that seascape are those of the wild blackberry, just in case you were wondering.

These last two items belong in Flora and Fauna, but we enjoyed seeing them so much I decided to post them.

Interestingly enough I had the feeling that spring comes a little later here than it does in England, because while the May was finished when we drove from Heathrow to Cardiff for our flight to Ireland, it was still in full bloom everywhere we went.

This is a picture of a martin on the wing, with the gorgeous countryside below. It is clearer on my computer, but it is still worth including, if only for the scenery.

The other interesting thing was that the sun did not go down until after 10pm, because we were so far west. The evenings were deliciously long and we did not miss a moment.

We will go back to our regular monthly articles next week, but we still have one more wonderful treat from our last trip to Britain. This time from Dorset.

Until next time, Happy Rambles.