So the weekend just past was something of a family reunion on my maternal side of the clan. It was my aunt Anna's 70th birthday, an event which saw Moloney's, El Gamal's, McMonigle's and Steward's and many more come from all four corners of the globe to West Cork.
It was the first time in close to a decade I'd seen many of my cousins, remembering some of the names was difficult but by the time the music was playing and the cousin's were singing and a few pints were had; it was as if time had never moved on.
God only knows the next time we'll all get together? The sooner the better.
It was great too, to see Clonakilty again, the town my mother and her family grew up in. It's still getting bigger. The location and natural beauty coupled with the people lends itself to a wonderful tourist town. It's expensive, as all the American Moloney's told us, but don't we know that already!
Catherine and I took a detour on the way back to the North West and stopped off in Dingle, Co Kerry for the night. We'd never been to Kerry before so it was an opportunity we decided to avail of.
The drive to the Dingle Peninsula from Cork is magnificent. Along the way we stopped off breifly at the beach of "Inch". I like my beaches (easy!) but his one is up there with the best. It's wide expansive strand, framed by the mountains and hills of Kerry made the place look spectacular. A blue sky above set the whole scene off.
From there we made a bee-line for Dingle, found some cheap & cheerful accommodation in the Dingle Harbor Lodge. We paid €70 for the night for a double room including breakfast.
That evening we went looking for a good restaurant and found the "Out of the Blue". An exclusively seafood eatery with the grub pulled from the waters of the locality. As much as I love my food, I'm always a little tentative when it comes to creatures of the deep. It must be the Irish psyche that made people reluctant to eat fish during the famine. That said the cod and pollack that we had their was wonderful! Including a starter of mussels between two and without a bottle of plonk we spent a reasonable €70 on our meal.
After that it was back to the B&B for an early night.
We hit the road again for the North West early in the morning and once again the drive through Kerry towards Limerick was breath taking. I used to say Sligo must be equal to Kerry for natural beauty, but having been to the Kingdom, I don't think there's many places on the planet that match up.
We're renting/buying/stealing a camper for the summer months and going back to do Kerry properly and looking forward to it.
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