On May 5, we flew to Shannon Airport in Ireland
to begin a wonderful visit to Ireland.
The reason that we choose this time of
year and Ireland for our annual cathedral quest was because my wife,
whose family name is O'Day, wanted to attend the O'Dea (O'Day) clan
reunion in Ennis. Her two sisters, one of their daughters and one of
their husbands and our daughter also attended. It was very interesting
as it was the 700th anniversary of the Castle O'Dea defeating the
Normans. Over 250 clan members were present from all over the world. We
visited the beautiful castle on the exact date and there was a rather
humorous reenactment of the battle...complete with CPR on the wounded
soldiers.
As with all our previous cathedral quest, I
like to build models of places that we will visit. I spend a lot of time
looking at model publishers to find what was available. Unfortunately,
Ireland does not have many paper model kits. The main source of models
for Ireland is a delightful company by the name of Tiny Ireland . Anke
Eckardt is the owner and designer of these lovely models
(www.tinyireland.ie) I
purchased all of her kits in the hopes of seeing these wonderful models
in person. You may see the Tiny Irish models that I have made by
clicking here.
My wife and I went a week early to explore
other regions. I wanted very much to visit as many of the Tiny Ireland
models as possible. Our first stop, after flying to Shannon was Bunratty
Castle and Folk Park which Anske had beautifully reproduced. I went to
the first floor of the Castle, but did not feel I was able to climb all
the steep steps to the other floors. The Folk Park had wonderful old
buildings that had been restored among which were the other three
models, which we were able to enter and explore. The details of the
models and real buildings will be shown in detail as I write my Cathedralquest pages
in the next few months.
Our next several nights were in Galway with
two-day trips to others interesting parts of Ireland. I had made the 5
Galway models and found them side by side.
After our long week end in Ennis for the
reunion we spent 6 nights in Dublin. The lovely Dublin model buildings
were not far from our hotel.
The last part of our vacation was a four day
tour of the Ring of Kerry region of Ireland. We spent 2 nights in
Killarney where I was able to take photo of four of the five models.
We had a short stop in Bantry and I was
able to find 2 buildings .We spent the night in Kinsale but did not have
time to find the model building which I have not made yet. We made a
brief stop in Kenmare but not near the "models" which I have not made
yet. Our final stop before returning to Dublin was in Cork but we wanted
to visit the cathedral and did not have time to visit the models that I
had made. I guess we will have to go back and see them. I have 12 of the
Tiny Ireland kits and visited all the towns except four.
Our daily adventures will appear in the near
future. Links will be found on this page. Please return to this
page often for some beautiful photos and interesting places to visit.
