Ireland’s Southwest

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4 hours ago

the southwest of Ireland has so many famous city names. You will recognize them as soon as you see them and you will want to go and visit. All of the small little towns seem to be very cute and interesting and it’s difficult to think that you cannot stay in every little town overnight unless you have many hundreds of days to stay.

Fermoy

this town is cute and probably worth staying one night but you can also just drive through even though it looks like there are a few good restaurants including a Chinese restaurant called Hong Kong where I ate and found good food. I stayed at The Square Townhouse which was very comfortable at the owner was very helpful. One thing you need to know about smaller private rentals and small hotels, there often is no elevator going to the upper level levels. The stairs can also be very narrow.

The bridge over the river Blackwater and the church in the background

The small church at the intersection of four Rhodes just at the bridge. The intersection is a little bit confusing so be careful if you’re driving.

The plum cherry trees were beginning to bloom

Cahir Castle

This castle like most other large castles in this general area of Tipperary were built by the butlers

The impressive outside walls with a mote around it

The area around the castle used to be part of the lands of the castle but now public parks

the mechanism for drawing up and down the entrance entrance gate

A few photos of some republican freedom fighters

This flag is one of the original flags to express the symbolism of the effort to kick the British control out of Ireland. The plow symbolizes the simple worker, the farmer and the stars symbolize aspirations. There is a famous play by Sean O’Casey, the hundredth anniversary showing which I saw in Dublin this year in the national Theatre, the Abbey Theatre where it was originally played 100 years ago.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Plough_and_the_Stars

Swiss Cottage

in the 1800s a distant and unsuspecting Butler family member inherited the estates. But living in a drafty old castle in Cahir was not his idea of luxury so he built this cottage which was called “the cottage“. Later on other people mentioned it looked like a Swiss cottage and so that was kind of a nickname among other people. It is said that his wife never spent an evening in the Swiss cottage because when she was not there she could see there were lights on and it was obviously her husband entertaining some ladies privately.

This is Yew tree which is estimated to be about 1000 years old. They were grown to provide certain kinds of wood for bows and arrows and also used in monasteries because it kept the vermin away since the various parts of the tree could be poisonous to some animals.

Schull