The Republic of Ireland

This weekend started with another Janet Reno like child extraction as I was wisked away at 5:00 AM Saturday morning to catch a flight to Dublin, Ireland. Grandma, Grandpa, mom, dad, and I, landed in Dublin at about 9:00 AM.


Gianna and Jonathan (Gianna and Derek went to high school together) drove down from Northern Ireland to visit and take us around Dublin where they used to live. We all went to the Guinness Storehouse which is a big entertainment area where they show the history of the Guinness brewery. It was pretty fun and I was a trooper. Above is a picture of me on the top floor restaurant where you can see all around Dublin.

After that we went to the hotel which was about 30 minutes south of Dublin. We were staying at the luxurious Marriott resort in Wicklow county which is located at the famous golf courses called Druids Glen and Druids Heath. These courses have hosted the Irish Open golf tournement on numerous locations.


On Sunday we went to the Woodstock clubhouse at Druids Glen. There is a mini 'history of Ireland' museum in the basement of the clubhouse that I toured for about an hour. This property was kept up by the Irish people even during the darkest days of Ireland's history.


After the clubhouse tour we headed for the sea. Unfortunately the weather was really bad and the girls ran back to the car because they were too cold. But not before this picture of mom and dad. Ewww! Get a room!


The peak of the trip was probably our trip to Glendalough, which means 'Glen of two lakes'. At the site was a magnificent monastery that was built in the 7th century by St. Kevin. That is older than any castle we have seen even in Wales! Unfortunately the monastery was sacked repeatedly by the Vikings but they kept rebuilding. The area was beautiful and after touring the site I took the family to eat at a local restaurant. Interestingly almost all of the service staff (everywhere including the Marriott) were from Poland. Ireland has seen an influx of Poles since the European Union expansion and Poles often work many of the hospitality jobs.

Ireland was a beautiful country and you can see why they call it the Emerald Isle. Because of the moisture it is so green everywhere you look. We all wish we had more time to spend there and hopefully someday we can return!

For those of you who don't know the Republic of Ireland is it's own country where Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom. Just something I didn't know before I came to Britain.