A green gem – The Cliffs of Moher; County Clare: Ireland

kaptainkennytravel

10 years ago

Only a fool would come to Ireland and fail to visit the famous Cliffs of Moher.

Cliffs of Mower? Cliffs of Mohair? Cliffs of More? Still to this day, I don’t think I’m able to pronounce the damn cliffs but that’s not to worry. At least I can describe them to you. The grass is really like satin – it’s green and soft. The air is fresh – like crisp Atlantic air should be.

And weather wise, we were yet again astoundingly lucky to have blue skies for the majority of the day.

My Grandma came from Ireland – many, many moons ago. She’d emigrated from the north of Ireland to Australia back in her twenties. She’d had a hard upbringing, with more siblings than you’ve ever had friends and less food on the table than you could imagine. Still, being in Ireland, even after hearing her wretched tales, I was struggling to see anything but its natural beauty. Somehow, even though she’s now gone, I can still hear her accent and voice in my head when I look at pictures of the Irish landscape. I guess that’s the power of connecting visuals to a person you love.

I’m lucky to say that I inherited my Grandmother’s Irish citizenship. And when I say ‘inherited’, I mean it was a downright nightmare for me to do it back in 2013. I honestly would never wish that experience on my worst enemy but hey, I’ve already decided to write an enormous article about it – as a form of therapy. That’s actually where the name Kaptain Kenny comes from. Kenny is obviously an Irish last name.

Interestingly, one of my main reasons for heading to Ireland was to discover my ‘roots’ and to find out what part of me was ‘Irish.’ (Okay, essentially I am 25% Irish but I am figuratively speaking.) When I left, I actually felt less Irish than when I arrived – that’s not a bad thing though! I absolutely fell in love with the entire country and its people.

Below, I’d like to share my (mainly) positive points about living in Ireland and more specifically, Galway.

My opinion: Here are the major selling points if you want to consider visiting Ireland:

The people: they really make the place. They are so incredibly cute and hospitable but yet have a wacky and dry sense of humour. You’re guaranteed to have a ‘right’ laugh if you make friends with a group of lads in the pub, as I did.

The scenery and landscape is astoundingly beautiful. Forget 50 shades of grey – and have a look at their 50 shades of green. I didn’t realise it was possible to be able to see so made shades. I guess coming from a particularly dry and humid part of Australia’s coast has only helped me to be familiar with one kind of colour – BLUE a.k.a the ocean.

The food is actually really good. Forget your ideas about British and Irish food being foul and boring. There is an absolute rise of ‘gastro-pubs’ and no, I’m not talking about a dodgy pub where you actually contract gastroenteritis. I’m talking about the word ‘gastronomy’ in connection with food you’d order at the pub. Expect to find some pretty tasty things on offer around the country’s pub scene, including many delicious micro brews such as craft beer and cider.

“Gastronomy is the study of the relationship between food and culture, art of preparing and serving rich or delicate and appetizing food, a style of cooking of particular region, and the science of good eating.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastronomy

Irish music is a real blast: who doesn’t love to be three beers in, feeling slightly merry when all of a sudden a group of good looking men in their thirties appear on stage in the most positive and upbeat mood. Since my trip to Ireland, I’ve even got a Spotify playlist of Irish ‘tunes’ for those cloudy, moody days. One of my favourites from the pub was the classic ‘Galway Girl’. As I was based in Galway for six weeks, this song seems only appropriate to recommend.

The pub scene: let’s put it lightly. The Irish do love a drink and they aren’t ashamed to show it. Well I suppose this next point belongs in the ‘negative’ section as I did ashamedly have a ‘moment’ with a drunk 18 year old girl at a fried chicken restaurant one evening. It was 3AM and she cut in front of me in the most un-Irish of ways. (I.e. without the usual politesse and sweet Irish demeanour.) I was hungry and wanted my chicken. But the fried chicken faux pas aside, the more these people drink, the more friendly and open they become… if that’s even possible.

Having lived in a relatively socially-shy country like Germany for the past 6 years, I had grown accustomed to not speaking to strangers, let alone striking up conversation with one. Ireland virtually showed me on day one that this was a no go. I happened to make instant friends with Dublin’s town drunk on my first evening. To my surprise, he told me my Grandma was a traitor for having married my British grandfather. Perhaps he, in his drunken state, had failed to realise that this made me one quarter British.

The Irish will rarely be offended if you make fun of them (warning: this goes for *friends*) or if you try to show them your best Irish accent. They are a self deprecating bunch, much like the British and the Australians. Although I still don’t agree with my friends’ poor view of my Irish accent, we can at least amicably agree to disagree. They are also most willing to give an impromptu and rather cringeworthy rendition of the ‘Aussie’ accent. I will never forget how each individual hair on my body stood on end when my Irish friend Simon tried to do a ‘G-day’. *Insert painful emoji here* I tried to be sympathetic, empathetic and kind – so I told him, “That was shit.”