Seeing Ireland Together
An Affordable Self-Planned Vacation for a Family of Eight
By John C. Flynn, Jr.
While it’s never easy to travel with a large family, by thinking and planning ahead you can create a wonderful group vacation. We found this out for ourselves on a recent trip to Ireland.
We landed at Shannon on a Sunday morning so we could practice driving on uncrowded roads before snaking our way through Limerick, Ireland’s second largest city. To find a vehicle to accommodate eight people and luggage I contacted several rental agencies directly by telephone and e-mail. Avis was the most reasonable. You can save money if your U.S. insurance company will cover your travels while abroad. Otherwise, opt for the collision damage waiver on a rental. Irish roads are well paved but narrow and very winding with few speed restrictions.
Our homebase was Downlands Farmhouse in Portroe, County Tipperary, about 35 miles from Shannon. The owner met us at the house, a five-bedroom, two-story home on a 175-acre working cattle farm nestled along Lough Derg, a lake formed by the River Shannon. We made arrangements entirely via the Internet. I found Downlands listed as a “self-catering” house under the accommodations section of one of the many Ireland web sites. The cost was about $850 for two weeks.
Local Sights
We spent the long Irish days exploring Tipperary and adjacent counties. A primary reason we selected our location was to avoid the jumble of tourists at the popular sites of Waterford, Dublin, and Killarney. Most Irish towns have a local history and sights which are as exciting as the more well-known tourist spots. Within a short distance of our house were ruins of many castles, churches, and prehistoric sites as well as numerous hiking and biking trails.
One nearby site, Rathurles church and ringfort, located on private land, consisted of an earthen ringfort dating from perhaps the 4th century, and the ruins of a 15th century church. We followed narrow roads not much wider than our van to a private farm, then shared a walk along a farm path with the local livestock to the site of the ruins. The rewards were beautiful vistas of the surrounding countryside, the time to thoroughly explore an infrequently visited historical site alone, and pleasant conversation with the local farmers.
Many sites like this one are free to visitors. Better maintained and more publicly accessible sites such as Roscrea Castle and the 1,000-year-old-ecclesiastical site, Clonmacnois, have a modest admission fee. Any site that has a fee offers a family rate. At those places where we did have to pay, the cost was always under $10, very reasonable for several hours of educational sightseeing.
Local Guides
Popular guidebooks cannot give you the local history and flavor of the numerous small towns that the “tour” traveler will bypass on the dual carriageways. Fortunately, there are resources that do give you special insight into local history and tradition. The Irish Tourist Board, Bord Failte, publishes books at the county level detailing nearly every village and hamlet. In County Tipperary, we also used a book by a local resident, Nancy Murphy, entitled A Trip Through Tipperary Lakeside (Relay Books, 1997).
Other sources of information are the local merchants. The postmistress told me about a “ceili” (music and dance entertainment) that was held weekly at a local pub.
Feeding our family was also quite manageable. When we chose not to cook for ourselves at the farmhouse, we ate in one of the many pubs we passed along our way. The food was always hearty, filling, and inexpensive. Our family consistently ate for under $40. Often local musicians or groups provided free entertainment.
When we first considered going to Ireland, it seemed like a daunting task to plan the trip for a family of eight, what with airline reservations, car rental in Ireland, accommodations, etc. The temptation was to turn everything over to a travel agent, including more money than we could afford. However, with plenty of advance planning and research, we managed on our own and have memories to last a lifetime.
Irish Web Sites
For more information on Ireland, check out these sites:
JOHN C. FLYNN, JR. is Chairman of the Allied Health and Physical Education Division at Montgomery County Community College, Blue Bell, PA.
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