Ireland and Iceland - Day 6 - Ring of Kerry, Ring of Dingle and lots of great pictures

We left bright and early on a very ambitious schedule, to do the Ring of Kerry and Ring of Dingle in one day. This will be a relatively short report, instead featuring many beautiful scenic views from our drive. On the map Ring of Kerry is the peninsula marked "4" and the Ring of Dingle is the peninsula marked "2".

We got a good night's sleep and early the next morning we were off to do the Ring of Kerry.

Driving the Ring of Kerry (a circular route around the Kerry Peninsula, which forms part of the Wild Atlantic Way roads along the western shore of Ireland) is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Ireland and is one of the most famous drives in the world. 

 

In fact, National Geographic ranks it the 57th best scenic drive in the world. Number 1 in the world, btw, is the Cape Breton drive in Nova Scotia.

The vast number of visitors do this as part of a bus tour and so, if you are driving your rental car behind one of the hundreds of buses on the ring each day, you really have no control of the time to circumnavigate the ring. 

 

Unless you read Rick Steves first.

Rick writes in his Irish guide that the buses all take the counterclockwise direction, and therefore he advises driving the ring in a clockwise direction. Be at Kenmare before 8:30 AM and drive till you reach the town of Waterville by noon. At this point, turn off the main road in the direction of Portmagee and do the smaller ring drive attached to the main ring, and by the time you rejoin the main ring, you will have missed all the buses, with the remaining oncoming traffic consisting of easily passable cars. 

 

We followed his instructions and lo and behold did not see a tour bus all day! Amazing!

 

Along the way, we passed a sign indicating that we should turn in to see the best scenic view in all of the Ring of Kerry and we had reached the Cliffs of Kerry. It really was beautiful and the access paths that had been built to give you views of both the right and left edges of the cliffs, were done very well. 

 

 

In fact, while I am jumping a bit ahead, one of the most visited tourist spots in Ireland, the Cliffs of Moher, which we visited on Thursday, are not as scenic, in our humble opinion, as the Cliffs of Kerry. 

 

We took our time viewing the many magnificent views along the way and even visited the town of Waterville, known as Charlie Chaplin's town and we drove the picturesque island of Valentia. 

While in Waterville, we stopped for a coffee at the hotel made famous by Charlie Chaplin (who used to vacation here....there is even a statue of Charlie in town frequented by every tour bus😀) and were directed to the bar for our coffees. 

 

While sitting at the bar, we mentioned to the bar man that we had never tasted beer.....well, you should have seen the shocked look of total disbelief on his face! It was as though he was looking at people from another planet. After he came back down to earth, he asked whether we would like to taste some beer and graciously poured us a small sip of "ale" which he said would likely not give too much of a shock to our beerless stomachs.

 

No longer beer virgins, we headed onto the island of Valentia, joined to the mainland by a bridge and drove across the island to the other side, where you rejoin the mainland on a car ferry boat. 

While waiting for the ferry, I approached fellow motorists to ask where to purchase tickets for the ferry boat ride. A local Irishman, (who we later found out was a fisherman from the immediate area) who was standing with his motorcycle speaking to two young women from Switzerland, answered that you purchase your tickets on board the boat. He then noticed my kippah and exclaimed "oh my God, you are a Jew!". I said "yes I am!". 

 

He then told me that just before I approached him, he had been giving these two women "heck" (not the word he used, but you get the idea) for the way Switzerland had taken possession of hundreds of billions of dollars of Jewish art, wealth and money in Swiss banks during the Holocaust, and now were trying to buy them off with a few billion dollars given to the claims conference. 

The Swiss women were claiming that perhaps the Holocaust never happened and he was very furious with them. So I simply said that I can prove the Holocaust happened as I had someone in the car who was born in Bergen Belsen, a concentration camp.

He was amazed and immediately said that he had to meet Fran. He came over to the car and with extreme respect and admiration and in a great Irish accent, said, "you are the very first person I have ever met from the Holocaust". 

Here was a man in the middle of nowhere, who likely had never met a Jew before and he was fighting our battles with people who were denying the Holocaust. Henry (we were now on a first name basis) insisted on taking a picture with Fran that he said he would cherish because of her background and jokingly said "you know we Irish are great romantics, so David, you should likely be very jealous and worried by now"! 

We exited from the Ring of Kerry and entered the peninsula above it, the Ring of Dingle. Again, mile after mile of breathtaking scenery. We kept driving west until we reached Dunquin which is the westernmost point in Europe, ie; the closest location to Newfoundland Canada. It was also where the first Transatlantic cable connected the Eastern Hemisphere and the Western Hemisphere.

 

We continued on our way to the town of Tralee, where we had to be by 8 PM because we had booked theatre tickets to a show about the People of Blasket Islands, that explained their interesting heritage and customs through story and song. People had lived on the Blasket Islands from the late 1200s till 1953, when the villagers were forcibly removed by the government because they had no medical attention and living in such a remote place presented a danger to its inhabitants. 

It was a great show and it was entirely in Gaelic which we and most of those in the theatre did not understand. But through the very good dramatic performance, we understood the presentation and the very clear message that even tho life was tough, the quality of life there was better than the hustle and bustle and difficult challenges presented by city life. 

When we exited the theatre, it was pitch black and we still had a 30 minute drive to our Airbnb for the night. Here is another observation of Irish roads. On a North American small country road, even when it is dark, there is the occasional gas station, houses which have light or signage that gives you the feeling that there is other life around than simply you and your car. On small Irish country roads, you would think that you were the sole survivor of some catastrophe and that there is no other life left. It is totally dark, there are few houses and then those that you find are totally dark. 

Thankfully we had good directions and Waze and we reached our destination as planned. We knew that it was on an island in the north of the county, but had no idea that it was one of only two homes on the island. It was called CastleView because there were the remains of a castle just across the water from the Airbnb, but when we arrived, it was so dark that we saw nothing. On the positive side, what we did see when looking up was the clearest sparkling of hundreds of stars in the dark sky.

Off to bed and next we head up to the Cliffs of Moher, the Burren Smokehouse, Galway and back to Dublin for our second Shabbat.

All the best

Fran and David

Ireland and Iceland - Tuesday - Day 5 - Music, Videos, County Kerry and our Irish Observations

Dear all:

We said good bye to Cork and headed further west. We were now setting our sights on County Kerry on the southwestern shores of Ireland. 

After checking, we were told that our apartment for the night in Killarney (made famous in songs by Bing Crosby) would be ready whenever we arrived, so we decided that this would be our first stop.

We stayed at the Park Place Apartments, very beautiful and modern self catering accommodations with every amenity you could imagine. The most expensive accommodation on this trip, but well worth the price. 

We had a full day of exploring planned and had to be back in Killarney in the early evening as we had booked tickets at an Irish traditional music and dance show (similar to Riverdance) that evening in the centre of town.

Killarney is a small city that is situated at the edge of Lake Lough Leane, the largest of three lakes in the region. It is also right next to Killarney National Park and so is in a very picturesque setting. It attracts many tourists, most on bus tours that use this city as a launching pad to explore two nearby attractions, the Ring Of Kerry and the Ring of Dingle. 

After unpacking we headed into Killarney Park to hike to Torc Falls. There is a parking area and then a short 10 minute walk takes you to the base of the falls, and there are a number of additional hiking trails that allow you to explore the area and climb to good vantage points where you can get a bird's eye view of the area. 

 

 

Well, after Niagara and Iguazu, Torc is not much of a waterfall but it was a pleasant day, the short hike we chose was nice, and it was good to get some exercise after spending a few days hopping from place to place in a car.

We still had a good part of the day left before the evening show, and while we had a full exploration of the Ring of Dingle scheduled for Wednesday, we decided to drive the short 65 kms. to the town of Dingle.

Before our report on Dingle, a few paragraphs about our initial observations after nearly a week in Ireland.

Highways and driving:

There are a few major 4 lane limited access highways which would be similar to highways anywhere else in the world. Then there are the secondary highways, which transition from divided 4 lane to undivided 4 lane to two lane and even to what we consider less than two lane, where you have to literally move into the hedge beside the road or into a driveway to allow an oncoming car, bus or tractor to pass. There were areas on the drive to Dingle, a very curvy winding 65 km road, where cars were backing up into a driveway to make way for oncoming traffic. 

What is very refreshing is that drivers here for the most part drive within the posted speeds and they are very courteous to each other. Unlike some places where we have been, where drivers do not yield to another for fear of losing the upper hand, here in Ireland, there is a wonderful sense of courtesy. In our first week here, we have not heard the sound of a horn, and this while driving on very narrow roads at posted speeds of between 80 and 100 kms. per hour. 

You rarely see a traffic jam outside the main cities. 

Cows, sheep, people and the green rolling hills:

On the drive to Dingle we saw what we have seen advertised in tourist books to Ireland; the rolling hills dotted with tons of sheep and cows grazing on the greenest, neatly organized farmland you have ever seen. The colours are magnificent. So what should be a one hour drive quickly turns into a much longer one as a result of the many stops trying to capture that ultimate Kodak moment. 

The other striking thing about Ireland is the vast number of farms all over the country. When you consider that Ireland (Northern Ireland plus the Irish Republic) is three times the size of Israel, with less inhabitants, and that over one third of all its population reside in the two largest cities (Dublin and Belfast), that means that just 4 million people occupy the rest of the area. When you are driving, you see farm after farm, field after field filled with sheep and cows grazing on the plentiful grassy areas. The farm areas are divided by hedges or by fences constructed of stone. 

Ireland is well known for its dairy industry and its beef and lamb industry. The grazing is free range grass fed which results in higher quality meat. Irish butter and Irish milk is famous around the world. And everyone knows about Irish stew made with lamb; unfortunately we have not yet tasted the lamb😀.

Kosher meat:

What is less well known is that there is a huge shechita (kosher slaughtering) industry in Ireland and that rarely a week goes by that the shochtim (rabbis authorized to perform kosher slaughtering) are not present in the synagogue in Dublin. They do not live in Ireland, but come there from France, Belgium, Great Britain and Israel. There were a few this week in shul in Dublin. What we also learned was that all the sides of beef or lamb are then shipped elsewhere for processing. As a result, fresh kosher meat for sale in Ireland, which may have originated in Ireland, is very expensive, as it is shipped to London or Manchester, processed and sent as fresh packaged cuts back to the Super Valu store in Churchtown, the only source of kosher meat in Ireland. 

Gas stations, Pubs and Tim Horton's:

You also are struck by the small number of gas stations (called filling stations here) and convenience stores/fast food/coffee shops across the country. Not that they do not exist, but we in Canada take for granted the Tim Horton's, Mac's, Gas Stations, 7-11, etc., that are always within a two minute drive, no matter where you may be driving.

But then again, you do see pubs everywhere. They are more than drinking establishments, they are usually restaurants, similar to what we would know as a roadside diner, that are all over the country. And you will many times see families in the pub with little children enjoying their meals together. In many pubs, in the evening, there is live traditional Irish music. 

The people:

We have been overwhelmed by the people here. They are eager to help, and will happily take the time to give you directions, answer questions or even to just strike up a conversation. They are very witty, with this wonderful sense of humour and a ready smile. We were a bit wary after reading about the alleged anti semitism and anti Israel sentiment in the country. Thus far, we have not seen it and we have gone out of our way to be visibly Jewish and pro Israel. I have worn my kippah everywhere and when asked where we are from, invariably we answer Canada and Israel. We are getting very positive reactions and good vibes. 

Safety: 

Like any other place you go when travelling, one has to be on guard against petty theft, pickpocketing and leaving your bags unattended. However, we have felt perfectly safe wherever we have been in Ireland. We have walked the streets after dark and never got the feeling of being unsafe. 

One clear example has to be at the filling (gas) station. In most places in Canada, you insert your credit card or prepay for your fill up. In the USA, many times our credit card will not work because we do not have a zip code and we therefore have to go inside to prepay. Here it is like in the far simpler, most trusting, good old days. You pull up to a pump, there is no place for your credit card, you simply pull down the nozzle and fill your car, then head inside to pay by credit card or cash. You get the feeling that there is an element of trust. 

The Neat Town:

 

A number of years ago, the Irish tourist industry inaugurated the Neat Town Program. They would evaluate the external aesthetics of small towns to see how they rated in the eyes of visiting tourists and would award "neat towns" with a sign that they could display at the entrance to the town. As a result, towns encouraged Main Street stores to spruce up their look with the addition of flowers, plants, fresh paint and colourful exteriors. Until you drive into one of these towns you really have no idea as to the positive impression that such a town can give and how this affects your desire to spend time in the town.

Now back to Dingle, a Neat Town winner.....more general observations later as they come up.

We drove the road to Dingle and what started out as a fairly wide 2 lane highway, the road soon narrowed so that when there was oncoming traffic, both drivers slowed down so that we could easily maneuver past each other, without breaking off a protruding mirror. Not too difficult with an oncoming car, but oncoming buses and trucks were a bit more challenging. 

We were immediately impressed with the look of the town. Brightly coloured exteriors of all the buildings in town. Not a speck of rubbish in the streets; and it was certainly not a result of a lack of visitors. The streets were lined with tourists like us, who parked their cars in large car parks convenient to the pedestrian areas, and made their way thru the small town.

 

We parked and took a walk thru the very pretty town. We met this lady who was running a souvenir store and just had to video her for her smile, sense of humour, the Gaelic language and her positive attitude. And even though she was running a busy store, she was pleased to spend the time talking with us.

Video of the souvenir lady:   https://youtu.be/oCZnwwAK9sA

Continuing thru town, we heard wonderful Irish music and followed the sound to the Dingle Music Shoppe. When we entered, these two people were jamming (see video below) and the sound was wonderful. 

A duo in Dingle:     https://youtu.be/kIYaaYVDd7E

A minute later, Michael, the owner, came over to us and recognizing my kippah, insisted on playing a Jewish klezmer melody for us, which he said was an Andy Statman tune called Flatbush. For those who are unfamiliar with Andy Statman, he is one of the premier klezmer musicians of our day and was a Grammy Award nominee. He is an observant Jew who is a Chabad chassid and the song that Michael was playing is called the Flatbush Waltz.

Here is the Flatbush Waltz in Dingle: https://youtu.be/PhPOzDncNlc

More music in Dingle:     https://youtu.be/wgIUIWM_sU4

Again, the store was busy, but Michael just kept spending time with us, teaching me how to play the spoons and sharing with us some of his life history and his warm affection for all the Jews that he has met in his life. 

We were in the store for the better part of an hour, and I am sharing a few videos that we shot in the store. It was really the highlight of a very busy and enjoyable (and sunny) day.

 

Playing the spoons with Michael: https://youtu.be/DcpJ_vTjEzE

A trio in Dingle:      https://youtu.be/wgIUIWM_sU4

We really wanted to stay longer (they have traditional Irish music concerts in the store a number of nights a week) but we had booked tickets for the Riverdance type show in Killarney, so we headed back, had a quick dinner and were off to the show, called Gaelic Roots.

It was a good show as it gave us a taste of Irish singers, Irish dancing, and a very good band consisting of a harp, penny whistle, guitar, keyboard and drums. Here is a selection of some of the highlights of the show:

An Irish song with harp :    https://youtu.be/IUlpN9xZH04

Some Riverdance Steps in Killarney:      https://youtu.be/IaoIAozGRZM

We returned to our beautiful apartment in Killarney and had a well deserved good night's sleep. Tomorrow, Wednesday, we are off to do the Ring of Kerry and the Ring of Dingle in one day. A little ambitious, but doable.

All the best, 

Fran and David

Ireland and Iceland - Sunday & Monday - Day 3 and 4

Dear all 

Early Sunday morning, we stopped by Super Valu in Churchtown to pick up a few supplies and we were off to the south, ultimately headed towards Waterford and our accommodations for Sunday night.

And it was raining, again. But as I read in one of the guidebooks, if you are going to wait for a sunny day to tour in Ireland, you likely will not see much, so pack an umbrella and a raincoat and be on your way.

On the way, we stopped in county Kildare at the Irish National Stud and Gardens. And thankfully by the time we reached the parking area, the rain had stopped and there were slight glimpses of sun peaking out among the clouds.

A word about stud farms and this place in particular.

We had no idea how big stud farming was as an industry. For those who are unfamiliar with the word, when you have a champion racehorse, you assume that it has good genes and therefore when he retires from active racing, you would want to use him to help sire other horses, with the assumption that they too can be champions. Ireland has been one of the centres in the world for horse racing and therefore too for raising thoroughbred horses; Ireland being the third largest breeder in the world. Over 17000 people are employed in the industry in Ireland and the total revenues for the industry in Ireland exceeds €1 billion per year. 

 

 

To give you an example of the value of some of these horses, one of the horses at the Irish National Stud, Invincible Spirit, Ireland's 2001 National Champion, has a stud fee of €120,000, which means every time he is used to create offspring, the company receives payment of €120,000. As well, some its offspring have been sold for over €1 million. 

Quite amazing.

We took a half hour guided tour of the enormous grounds and met some of the famous horses. All of it was quite interesting but the real treat was at the end of the tour when we were able to walk through the Japanese Gardens, considered one of Europe's finest such gardens. It was serene and beautiful and we could only imagine just how much more we would have enjoyed the walk had it been sunny and warm. 

 

 

 

 From here we drove due south to the southern coast of Ireland to the city of Waterford, home of the famous Waterford Crystal. There was a walking tour recommended in some of the guidebooks that met in front of the Tourist Offices at 1:15 PM and when we got there, the guide was there. It looked like a private tour for just us until a lady from Michigan decided to join us and off we went. Our guide walked us through the city, one of Ireland's oldest, explaining the history of its earliest beginnings under Viking rule, sometime around the 10th century. Its name is derived from the Viking name which translates to "weather fjord" reflecting its sheltered harbour which protected ships from the rough ocean weather. The Vikings built a fort there, on the site where Reginald's Tower (built in the 1200s) still stands today. As we have found on all the walking tours that we have taken in Ireland, all of the guides are well informed and extremely humourous. Ours was no exception. 

 

Over the 90 minutes when we walked throughout the very small centre of this city of less than 50,000 inhabitants, he pointed out numerous buildings and then explained their history to us. 

Our walk ended in front of the Waterford Crystal Centre. 

The Waterford Crystal story in this city is quite a bittersweet one. The Waterford Glass House manufacturing facility was founded by George and William Penrose in 1783, when Beethoven was publishing his first works and the world’s first hot air balloon took place in Paris. The company was in constant production through financial ups and downs since then and seemed to be on the upswing at the turn of the 21st Century when it acquired the two name brands of Royal Doulton and Wedgewood. But innovations in computer technology, the replacement of crystal with other materials and the devastating financial crisis of 2008 forced the closure of the company and the declaration of bankruptcy. 

This was a terrible blow to the city of Waterford as the company, at its height, employed 3000 individuals and was manufacturing over a million pieces a year. In 2010, a financial holding company bought the assets and signed an agreement to reopen the facility in the Waterford area, and to launch a major visitor centre which has become a significant Irish tourist attraction. Today there are 90 employees and they produce less than 50000 pieces a year. 

 

They do produce some major commemorative pieces, such as the awards for the People's Choice Awards, the trophies for the NBA and the NFL and the Times Square Millenium New Year's Eve Ball.

 

 

 

 

We enjoyed the brief tour and then spent some time in the gift shop where we met an Israeli couple and their children who are spending a few years in Ireland with Intel.

As we previously posted, Ireland with its low corporate tax rate has attracted many hi tech companies to establish their European headquarters here. The Israeli family we met told us that there are currently 170 Israeli families in Ireland working for Intel. They will not remain here; this is a short term placement for these families as Intel upgrades its facilities in Kiryat Gat. He told us as well, that while the average Irishman has anti Israel tendencies, these are a result of the training of the IRA by the Libyan government, then under Ghaddafi. However, once the whole story is explained to the Irish, and especially when they are told about the historical and religious connection of Jews to Israel, they are ready to accept the validity of Israel and to understand that Israel does in fact belong to the Jewish people. 

We said good bye to Waterford and headed west to the little town of Dungarven where we had rented an Airbnb cottage out in the middle of farm country. It was a very pleasant self catering unit on the grounds of an Irish couple, and we had a well deserved rest.

Bright and early on Monday morning we headed further west to the fishing village of Kinsale. Again, it was raining and we were beginning to think that this would never end. As the old Irish saying goes: "The weather is not too bad this week; it rained here twice; first for three days and then for 4 days"! We were beginning to believe that this was not a joke!

But then as we made our way down the highway toward our destination of Kinsale, a small, quaint, and colourful fishing village, the skies cleared and there was brilliant sunshine and it warmed up considerably. Incidentally, this is the way Kinsale is spelt in Gaelic Irish.

 

 

Kinsale is tiny; 3000 permanent residents which swells to 8000 with the influx of summer visitors. It is the perfect small Irish fishing village. A beautiful little harbour, careful attention to the maintenance of the buildings and streets and a total welcoming atmosphere to tourists, who come in droves. It was swamped with people; young and old; bus tours, self drivers like us; backpackers and hikers; the place was alive and exciting.

 

We were drawn to this place by a review in the Rick Steves Guide to Ireland. Rick Steves is a writer of guidebooks and we have used them to a number of places that we have visited. His descriptions are clear and he does not pull any punches with his reviews and recommendations. He will tell you when he thinks it is worth spending your time and money and when it is not. 

Rick highly recommended a walking tour in Kinsale by Don and Barry, two locals. When we reached the Tourist Info office, where we were supposed to meet them, instead we met David, who was filling in for them as one their close relatives had been taken to the hospital. David is an actor and like many other Irishmen that we have met over the past few days, has a great sense of humour. The tour attracted about 20 fellow travellers and it was a great 90 minutes. 

 

As this is the third such tour that we have taken, we are becoming familiar with the history of Ireland, and the various groups who conquered and controlled the country and the long struggle for independence. But each of the guides that we met, had their own style and way of telling the story, so that even tho you would think we would be getting bored, David held our attention during the entire 90 minutes. 

 

At the end of the tour, we spent an hour walking thru the town, enjoying the colour and flavour of the small Irish fishing village. We even had the chance to hear a local group playing some traditional Irish music. 

Watch the video:   https://youtu.be/rDPTepDyiOs

We continued on our way to Cork, where we would spend the night. Cork is the third largest city in Ireland, about 150,000 people. Ireland has a thriving dairy industry and people rave over Irish Butter; Cork has the official Butter Museum and someone told us it was worth visiting. Not! We were also told that it is worth visiting the indoor English Market and we love markets. Again, not worth it at all. 

But we did buy some fresh salmon there for cooking once back at our apartment and that was definitely worth it. We spent some time walking thru the town but it is not a place that I would recommend spending time in during your visit to Ireland.

Cork is famous as the port from where the Titanic left on its maiden and only voyage, and  the first port of entry for most Jews who came here, fleeing persecution in Europe. The mythological story told is that they bought voyage on a boat bound for the new world and when the boat stopped at Cork, they were told to disembark...they had reached their destination. They thought it was New York, but all they got was Cork.

 

 

In actuality, many Jews established themselves here in their first port of entry and there was a robust community here with a school, shul, Bnei Akiva, a kosher butcher and "Reverend" (acting Rabbi), a cemetery, and all the amenities that a Jew would need. The first Jews came to Cork in 1772. At its height the number of Jews in Cork exceeded 400. They even have an area near the downtown area still called JewTown. The city had a Jewish Lord Mayor, Gerald Goldberg and he was loved so much that they named a bridge in his honour; the locals endearingly call it the "Pass Over Bridge". 

Eventually the kids moved to the bigger cities and sadly the shul closed its doors for the last time just a few months ago; only two Jews are left in Cork. There was a closing Shabbaton in town and many dignitaries from around Ireland and England came here for the closing ceremonies, marking the end of an era in Cork.

We spent the night at the Aban Apartments, a short 10 minute walk from downtown. These were quite large one bedroom apartments with full self catering facilities. Somewhat dated but clean and well equipped.

Next report will highlight Tuesday in Killarney and our favourite little village, Dingle, and Wednesday driving the Ring of Kerry and the Ring of Dingle. 

Hope you have a wonderful Shabbat 

All the best

Fran and David

 

Ireland - Friday arrival and Shabbat in Dublin

We arrived in Dublin early Friday morning after a seven hour flight from Toronto. I managed to sleep for a few hours so I was quite refreshed on arrival, but Fran did not manage to sleep and so, was very tired.

We collected our luggage and picked up our rental car from Hertz.

When we exited the airport garage, it was raining and very cloudy. We had rented a manual shift and with the wheel on the right side of the car and driving on the other side to what is "normal" for us, it took a few minutes to adjust to the concept of doing everything opposite. I kept turning on the windshield wipers every time I wished to signal a turn, Fran and I kept getting into the wrong side of the car, etc....gradually we will get the hang of this. It does take concentration not to enter a roundabout going the wrong way against oncoming traffic....😀

We had a 30 minute drive to our rented Airbnb apartment located in Rathgar, a section of Dublin located about 15 minutes from the shul, where we would be spending Shabbat.

Everything went quite smoothly and we arrived in the vicinity of our apartment too early to check in so we headed over to Super Valu, the supermarket with the greatest variety of kosher products in Ireland and then went to Tesco to buy our SIM card. 

If you are planning on travelling to Ireland, the Super Valu branch in Churchtown, Dublin, is the place to stock up on all your kosher needs. There is a rather extensive list of kosher approved items that are available all over Ireland on the regular shelves in any supermarket, but for kosher items such as cheeses, meat and chicken (both raw frozen and prepared), as well as salamis, cold cuts, TV dinners, yogurts, herring and smoked fish, grape juice, humus and Israeli salads, and a shelf section of packaged boxed dry products, this is the place to go. They even have London's premier Jewish weekly, the Jewish Chronicle (or as it is called JC 😀) on Fridays. It is difficult to find these in other supermarkets in Ireland. 

Our initial reaction to the Irish is that they are very friendly and helpful people's, with a great sense of humour. I know it is hard to generalize based on a few hours experience, but that is our "first glance" feeling.

We picked up what we needed, and then headed over to the apartment. The Airbnb hosts had indicated that it would be cleaned and ready much earlier than the posted 3 PM checking time, and sure enough when we got there at 9:30 AM, it was ready.

Small, compact, clean and very well equipped with whatever we needed, it was a good find, not too far from the shul. We unpacked and Fran went to bed for a couple of hours.

We had prebooked to go on the "free" walking tour of Dublin, which was very highly rated in Trip Advisor, and rather than drive and attempt to find parking in very busy downtown Dublin, we took the bus, a short 17 minute drive to the centre of town. 

What immediately struck us was that this city with a listed metro population of just under 2,000,000 (city population of 530,000, urban population of 1.3 million, and metro population of 1.9 million), has virtually no high rise buildings. In the bus drive to the centre of the city, we did not spot anything over 4 storeys and this continued in the heart of the city. I do not think we have ever been in a downtown financial area of a large population city, where you do not see high rises or skyscrapers. Below is a typical shopping street in an area just north of the centre of Dublin.

 

It actually gives the city a very small town, intimate and old fashioned feel. That, accompanied by the emphasis on the variety of coloured storefronts, doors or rooftops, and the maintaining the old style signage on storefronts, gave Dublin a very friendly warm atmosphere.

We walked to the meeting place for the walking tour in front of the city hall.

 

There was a large crowd gathered and there were two separate tours, one for English speakers and one for Spanish speakers. We opted for the English tour🤓.

Our guide was Lisa, a smiling Irish redhead, with a wonderful sense of humour. Here is Lisa telling us a few words in Gaelic and then translating them into English.          https://youtu.be/E5gBjlmeHvU

Her use of the phrase "may the road rise to meet you" is from a traditional Irish blessing, which I found quite nice in its totality.

 

She began by teaching us a few words in Gaelic (very hard to pronounce) and by telling us that the name Dublin is derived from the old Irish "dubh" (black) and "linn" (pool) because of the black sludge that gathered in the centre of town where the River Poddle met the Liffey River, on the site of the Dublin Castle.

 

During our two hour walk, when the weather turned back and forth within minutes from rain to bright sunshine (which we would find was a regular occurrence during the first few days of our visit to Ireland), we visited the major sites in the city centre, and she explained to us the history of the city and of Ireland, covering the period from the earliest Viking settlement in 841 CE, through conquests by the Normans (hence the British rule), and the numerous rebellions and attempts at total independence, until it was totally realized in 1949 as the Republic of Ireland, with Dublin as its capital.

She also explained to us the financial ups and downs of the country and its capital, from the 7 year potato famine beginning in 1845 which resulted in the deaths and departure of 4 million Irish (50% of the population) to the boom times of entry into the European Union, when companies flocked to Ireland because of their low corporate tax rate, to the collapse in the recent 2008 recession, which has had lasting effects till today.

 

 

She was a great guide, peppering her talk with jokes, and a fiery Irish sense of pride and a spirit of never giving up.

Some of the places we visited were Dublin Castle; Chester Beatty Library and Museum; the outside of the Cathedral (where Lisa gave us an overview of the religious strife that has plagued the country); the Temple Bar district with its concentration of pubs, pedestrian streets, hotels and eateries; Trinity University (founded in 1592 with alumni like Jonathan Swift and Oscar Wilde); and finally the statue of Molly Malone, a fictitious character created by a song of the same name, which has been adopted as the official anthem of Dublin. 

A picture of one of the pedestrian streets in the heart of Temple Bar District in downtown Dublin with colourful flower adorned buildings and many, many pubs.

Here is the entrance to the quadrangle at the centre of Trinity University, home to 17,000 students.

 

And here is our fearless, funny tour leader Lisa, leading the entire group in a rousing rendition of Molly Malone:    https://youtu.be/9jYd9bJIBtU

After the tour, we returned to our apartment, delivered Shabbat gifts to our two hosts for Shabbat meals and returned to prepare for Shabbat. 

We walked to shul which took about 15 minutes. The shul is in a gated compound in the Terenure section of Dublin. 

 

On the walls of the lobby are pictures of all the former chief rabbis of Ireland, and it is here that I must correct an earlier post. Rabbi Isaac Herzog, zt"l, was never Chief Rabbi of the U.K., he went straight from being Irish Chief Rabbi to becoming the Chief Rabbi of Israel. There is no current Chief Rabbi; with the dwindling Jewish population in Ireland, the officiating body felt it could no longer afford the budget that such an office commands. 

There was quite a large crowd in shul. We were greeted by the President, Michael Stein, who told us that there would be a well attended Bar Mitzvah on Shabbat morning in shul, and that some of those attending on Friday night were guests, as well as a large number of tourists like us. We met Rabbi Zalman Lent at whose home we would be eating after davening.

After services led by the Chazzan Alwyn Shulman, a large crowd gathered in the lobby and they were sent to the homes of their hosts for the meal. Unlike most communities that we have visited recently, where there is a central Chabad house that hosts visitors for Shabbat meals, Dublin continues to do it the old fashioned way. There are a small number of Shomer Shabbat hosting homes who divide up the guests for Shabbat hospitality. There is a strong sense of community Hachnasat Orchim here and it gives guests a chance to meet "real" members of the community. And while the other hosts (4 or 5 homes) each took in 4 to 6 guests, we were with a large group (apparently the largest group ever) of about 25 guests that went next door to Rabbi Lent's home, and somehow we all fit into the Rabbi's living room/dining room. 

The Rebbetzin Rifkie, prepared everything herself and it was a wonderful, plentiful and delicious meal. There were a number of visitors from Israel (one couple with three daughters were friends of Chavi and Yisrael), from the USA, a number of students, a young couple originally from Boston and New York, now living in London, and a couple originally from Toronto currently making their home in Dublin. The conversation was lively, and people interacted throughout the meal. 

The Rabbi and Rebbetzin made everyone feel very much at home and what would have been an overwhelming experience for most, they took in stride with graciousness and a very welcoming atmosphere. The rabbi then went around the room and asked everyone to introduce themselves and say a bit about their backgrounds. When Fran mentioned her history as a Bergen Belsen baby, he asked her whether she would speak at Seudah Shlishit the following day.

It had been raining throughout the evening but b"h stopped long enough for our walk home. And after a very long night and day that had begun with our departure from Toronto, we had a well earned and very comfortable first night's sleep in Ireland.

We woke up Shabbat morning to a steady stream of driving rain. By the time we got to shul, even though we were wearing plastic raincoats, we were quite drenched. But despite the rain, the bar mitzvah celebration managed to bring a large number of local Jewish Dubliners out to shul; so many, apparently, so that when the Rabbi gave his sermon, he said, "since you are all here today, we might as well say Kol Nidrei and get it over with"! It was clear that this was not a normal crowd for Dublin on a typical Shabbat.

The president, in his announcement, urged everyone to attend Seudah Shlishit to hear the special speaker from Canada who would tell her story of being a Bergen Belsen baby.

I had asked the Rav if I could layn in an email some months back and so I am now able to add Ireland to the growing list of countries where I have had the privilege to layn. I think I am soon going to apply to Guiness for a World Record recognition. 

We ate lunch with Chazzan Alwyn and Nurit Shulman. The Shulmans, he from Capetown and she from Berlin, have made their home in Dublin for 25 years, and next Shabbat, when we will visit Dublin's shul for Shabbat, there will be a huge kiddush to celebrate this milestone. It was a lovely meal with nice zemirot and good conversation and there were two other guests, two young ladies from Jerusalem touring Ireland as well as the Shulman's son and daughter in law and grandchild visiting from Jerusalem. 

We made it back to the apartment by 5 PM, knowing that we had to be back in shul for mincha by 8:10 PM, so a very short Shabbat rest and we were on our way again.

Fran's talk at Seudat Shlishit was well attended by about 35 people, and it went very well. There was a lot of interest and a few people came specially to hear her. There were some questions and answers and for speaking with no chance of preparing, with no notes, it was an amazing job.

All in all, this was a very nice, tho wet, way to begin our Irish adventure. We got an early night's sleep, and planned to be on our way early Sunday morning as begin our way following a south east circle that would take us to Galway by the following Friday morning, with enough time to return to Dublin for Shabbat.

Next up, we go to visit the Irish National Stud and the town of Waterford.

All the best

Fran and David

Ireland and Iceland - 2016 - Introduction

Well, we are off again, this time to Ireland and Iceland. Someone commented that we seem to be touring in alphabetical order; we were just in Italy, now Ireland and Iceland, and then in October we are off to Israel. Truth be told, we have no interest in visiting Iran and Iraq, so I guess that theory goes out the window! Maybe India some day?

We leave this Thursday for Dublin, arriving Friday morning and will spend Shabbat in the Dublin community; on Sunday, we  leave for a six day driving tour from Dublin, in a big semi-circle beginning southward and finally reaching Galway early Friday morning and then a quick two hour drive due east back to Dublin for the second Shabbat. On the following Sunday morning, we fly to Reykjavic, Iceland and will stay there until Friday morning when we fly back to Dublin for our third Shabbat and then drive up into Northern Ireland and its capital Belfast for a few days before returning to Canada, exactly three weeks after leaving. 

A few interesting facts to set the stage for Ireland. 

Ireland is an island in the North Atlantic just west of Great Britain. It is divided into Northern Ireland (part of the United Kingdom with the British pound as its currency) and the Republic of Ireland (sometimes referred to as Eire, but normally just called Ireland, independent and with the Euro as its currency). Its area is about the size of New Brunswick and about three times the size of Israel, so it is really not a very big place. Northern Ireland occupies 1/6th of the island and has a population of 1.8 million and Ireland 5/6th of the area with a population of 4.6 million. 

 

The capital of Ireland is Dublin and the capital of Northern Ireland is Belfast and these two cities are also the largest in the country; about one third of all of the island's population live in Dublin or Belfast.

The main religion in the country is Christianity and while close to 90% of Ireland is Roman Catholic, many would be surprised to learn that the split between Roman Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland is about even.

More about religion in Ireland below when I will share some data on Judaism on the Emerald Isle. 

The national symbols of Ireland are the shamrock, the Celtic Cross and the harp.

In the Republic of Ireland, Irish Gaelic is recognized as the first official language, with English, more commonly used as the other official language. While 30% of the population are able to speak Irish Gaelic, only 5% use it regularly. Gaelic is the language that I associate with very long and difficult to pronounce words or names. The longest place name in Ireland is  Muckanaghederdauhaulia. 

Many Irish family names begin with "Mac" or "O" which mean "son of" and "grandson of" respectively.

Ireland is known for its beer, and Guiness is the most popular brand. 

 

It is also known for its wonderful Celtic music and a popular pastime is to gather in a local pub in the evening to hear the unique sounds of Irish music. 

 

American hi-tech companies have been investing massively in Ireland. 25% of Europe's computers are now made in Ireland. Ireland is the world's largest exporter of software. The European headquarters of Google, Microsoft, Apple, IBM, and Intel are all located in Ireland.

It is estimated that over 80 million people of Irish descent live outside Ireland, in countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, Mexico, South Africa and states of the Caribbean and continental Europe. This is 14 times more than the population of Ireland (including Northern Ireland) itself ! 3 million of these emigrants still hold Irish nationality.

Over 34 million Americans are reportedly of Irish ancestry, which makes it the second largest ethnic group after the German Americans. The highest concentration of Irish Americans is in the North-East (New York and New England).

About half of the population of Australia can claim Irish ancestry. 

The earliest reference to the Jews in Ireland was in the year 1079. The Annals of Inisfallen record “Five Jews (likely merchants from Normandy) came from over sea with gifts to Tairdelbach [king of Munster], and they were sent back again over sea.”

By 1232, however, there was probably a Jewish community in Ireland, as a grant of July 28, 1232 by King Henry III named Peter de Rivall, “the custody of the King’s Judaism in Ireland.” 

The Jews of this period probably resided in or near Dublin. However, when the expulsion from England took place (1290), the Irish Jews had to go as well. A permanent settlement of Jews was established, however, in the late 15th century. Following their expulsion from Portugal in 1496, some Jews settled on Ireland’s south coast. One of them, William Annyas, was elected as Mayor of Youghal, County Cork, in 1555.

 

The Dublin congregation prospered and grew and at one time proposed to affiliate itself with the Spanish and Portuguese congregation of London. Dublin in 1745 contained about forty Jewish families, comprising about 200 persons. 

 

In the wake of the Russian pogroms in the 1800s, there was increased immigration, mostly from Eastern Europe (in particular Lithuania) and because many of those immigrants disembarked at the port city of Cork (some mistakenly thinking they had arrived in New York), a Jewish community was established in Cork. By the year 1901 there were an estimated 3,771 Jews in Ireland, over half of them (2,200) residing in Dublin, and by 1904 the total Jewish population had reached an estimated 4,800. 

The Jewish population of Ireland reached around 5,500 in the late 1940s, but has since declined to around 1,800, mainly through emigration to larger Jewish communities such as those in England and Israel. 

Today, there are about 1000 Jews in Dublin, and less than 100 in Belfast, with the remainder scattered in smaller cities on the island. Dublin with three  shuls has the largest synagogue, the Orthodox Dublin Hebrew Congregation, and there is a much smaller Orthodox shul called Machzikei Hadas and a Liberal Congregation. Belfast has a shul with occasional services. 

We will be attending both of the Orthodox shuls in Dublin on the three shabbatot when we will be there, and we hope to visit the one shul in Belfast as well. There is a Jewish Museum in Dublin highlighting the long history of Irish Jewry. 

As far as kashrut is concerned, there is a supermarket that stocks a full complement of kosher foods (we will report on that when we visit it tomorrow) and there is a bakery where all the breads are under the supervision of the local rabbinate. There is also a rather extensive list of products, developed by the local rabbinate with assistance from the British Kashruth authorities, that you can buy off the shelf in any supermarket in the country. And so, we do not anticipate any issues while we are travelling. 

What is quite remarkable is that three of the Chief Rabbis of the United Kingdom, Rabbi Isaac Herzog (pictured below, who later became the Chief Rabbi of Israel), Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits and current Chief Rabbi Efraim Mirvis, were all former Chief Rabbis of Ireland. Almost as though Ireland was the training ground for the big leagues.

 

We will be arriving on Friday morning and our first items of business will be to rent our car (oh yes, they drive on the other side of the road), get our Sim Card, head over to Super Valu to shop for essential supplies that we will need for our six day ride around the country beginning on Sunday, and checking into the apartment we have rented. 

Candle lighting, mincha and Kabbalat Shabbat will be around 8 PM, after which we are invited to acting Chief Rabbi and Rebbitzin Zalman and Rifkie Lent's home for our Friday night meal. More on the incredible Hachnasat Orchim of this small Jewish community later. 

That's our intro....we will post more after Shabbat...we wish you all a wonderful, peaceful and joyous Shabbat.

Fran and David...on our way over the Atlantic.