Penn family sets own itinerary
When the McCarthy family of Penn Township visited Ireland, they decided to chart their own course across Ireland's Atlantic coast without benefit of tour guides or tour buses.
While they had a travel agent make hotel reservations, Colleen McCarthy said the family decided to venture out into the Irish countryside on their own.
“We wanted to be able to plan activities, but change our minds,” McCarthy said.
She said she, her husband, Matt, and their twin daughters Samantha and Megan relied on the Rick Steves' travel guide to Ireland and “he was right on.”
“We also watched a lot of YouTube videos,” she said.
“It was a bit of a whirlwind trip. We saw a lot of stuff in a little bit of time,” McCarthy said. “I'm not going to sit on a beach and drink mai-tais.”
The July 5 to 14 trip was the last one for the family before Samantha and Megan went to college at Slippery Rock University.
The senior McCarthys both work for Sloan Lubrication in Slate Lick.
“I've been to Australia. We go to Canada frequently. We wanted to do something memorable with the girls graduating high school. And it seemed like a safe bet compared to some of the other places that you would go,” said McCarthy. And with a name like McCarthy wasn't Ireland an obvious destination?
McCarthy said, “We definitely like the whole Irish heritage thing.”
The family flew from Pittsburgh to Newark, N.J., and from there to Shannon, Ireland.
But the customary jet lag was increased by the time difference the travelers endured when they landed in Ireland.
“But it was 7:30 in the morning and there's nothing open at that hour,” McCarthy said. “There's nowhere to eat breakfast. We wound up getting to the hotel and having a nap.”
From the airport, the McCarthys drove to Ballyvaughn, a small village on Galway Bay and spent two days going to see the countryside's ruins and the cliffs and the coast. They visited the Cliffs of Moher.“They filmed part of one of the 'Harry Potter' movies there,” said McCarthy, although another famous bit of movie scenery — Skellig Island where the ending of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” was filmed — was closed.While the area abounded with tourist attractions, very few concessions were made for visitors, said McCarthy.“Ireland is an adult kind of place,” she said. “The steps going up the cliffs, the monks made them. If you fall, the response is 'Why were you so close to the edge?' There were no handrails or guardrails.”On the third day the family drove along the coast to Killarney. Along the way McCarthy came across some familiar names: a village called Knock and an island named Valencia.The McCarthys spent three nights in Killarney where they had a hotel apartment with a kitchen, sitting room and a balcony.“On the street outside. the hotel hosted a band,” said McCarthy. “And we thought we were going to hear some Irish music. Well, it was mostly John Denver and Neil Diamond tunes.”“In fact, Killarney was like 'Little USA.' There were Lady Liberties in the streets and Uncle Sam statues,” she said. “Killarney has sister cities and the two in America are Ocean City and Myrtle Beach.”But Killarney is all Irish when it comes to soccer, she added.“The hotel had a big screen in the street for the soccer matches,” she said. “You didn't want to walk in front of 20, 30 picnic tables full of people watching the screen.”“The Irish were fabulous,” she said. “They were very nice people.”As was the food. She recommended the Irish stew and since they were so close to the ocean, she rated the seafood as excellent.
“Everything came with french fries, those big, fat steak fries,” McCarthy said. “The desserts were delicious. They had this apple pie served in a Mason jar.”McCarthy said the drinks weren't bad either.“The Guinness was the best. They know how to pour it and they know how to store it,” she said. And she added, “There were a lot of different whiskeys.”After Killarney, the McCarthys drove to to Bunratty viewing the landscape and animals along the way.“We were in County Claire and County Kerry, traveling that whole rugged coastline,” she said. “It was a photographer's dream. When we were in the north, it was more rural.”“There were lots of sheep and donkeys, a lot of farmland,” she said.While she described the landscapes as beautiful she was less taken by the roads and the weather.“You need a raincoat every day,” she said.“There were no large trucks on the roads until we got closer to Killarney, which was good because the roads couldn't handle them,” she said.“We were driving in a little four-door sedan and we never passed anything big, no pickup trucks, no SUVs,” McCarthy said.“The driving could get wearing. The roads were small and narrow. Matt did all the driving. I bet he would have preferred someone to drive him around,” she said.In Bunratty, the McCarthys visited the Bunratty Folk Park, which Colleen said was like “going to see colonial Williamsburg. They were digging roots, beating steel in a foundry and making apple pies.”Set on 26 acres, the park features over 30 buildings in a 'living' village in a rural setting.Rural farmhouses, village shops and streets are re-created and furnished as they would have appeared at that time according to their social standing, from the poorest one-room dwelling to Bunratty House, an example of a Georgian residence for the gentry built 1804.
“Women would be cutting apples while they talked to you and then they would send you next door where you could buy an apple pie. It was delicious,” she said.She rated the trip a success.“Our daughters enjoyed it. They definitely made some memories,” McCarthy said.
