08-04-2023, 03:02 PM
Still no trains.
May 11 Limerick
From the windows near the elevators on the 4th floor of the Limerick Strand Hotel, I looked out at the sun breaking through the clouds over St. Mary’s Cathedral on the other side of the Shannon. I knew I would be heading out for another walk despite the thought earlier I would take it easier this morning.
I left the hotel and made my way along Clancy Strand towards another rendezvous with the Treaty Stone. As I crossed Thomond Bridge I was rewarded for my decision to leave the hotel to see sunshine illuminate St. John’s Castle and a rainbow over the round towers. I didn’t follow the river walk instead I headed up to Irish town along St. John’s Road. I had to take a photo of the former home of the Lido Chinese take-away. In my father’s opinion, the LIdo had the best Chinese food in Limerick, which wasn’t saying much back in the 1980s, a very low bar. We bought food from there at least once a week. Not far from the Lido lies supposedly the best Fish and Chips in Limerick, Donkey Fords. The unassuming sign above the red door used to be much smaller and you still can’t tell from the outside the building what goes on in what looks like a house. But my parents swear by it. When we came for the Bradshaw wedding in 2014, I was dispatched to Donkey Ford’s to get the parents some lunch. I didn’t know what to expect and it was a pain in the ass to find. My parents loved it despite what the food did to their aging digestive systems. We didn’t have enough time on this trip to partake. I would have liked an unbiased opinion from the Queen and Queen Mum who seemed to be eating Fish and Chips every other meal.
I headed over towards the Milk Market heading through the narrow streets that are a hallmark of this area. The Milk Market was refurbished years ago to allow local vendors to sell produce and other food items. The most distinctive feature is this giant permanent white tent that covers the market. My only complaint is the tent doesn’t reach to the granite walls of the market so there is about one foot gap all around the square that allows rain in. A bit of a design flaw if you ask me.
The real reason I walk over to the Milk Market is to check to see if the Sex Shop still remains across the street. Loveangels always seems to be the unlikeliest store to exist in Limerick. And I was shocked the first time I strode by the store’s garishly painted purple and pink exterior, especially in contrast to all the grey buildings that surround Loveangels. I’m happy to report Loveangels still serves to shock me on Mungret St.
I always find something new on these walks no matter how many times I make them. This time I found a plaque celebrating the ironmongers. According to the plaque Roberts Street was renowned for the many blacksmiths who worked in the area until recent times. The plaque was right across the street from the Black Rabbit public house. The exterior walls of the pub were painted completely black and overlayed with quotes in white paint from Alice in Wonderland. If I drank I would have to go inside.
Back at the hotel, the Queen ate her first real breakfast in days in the River Restaurant. Although, I was disappointed that upon asking for my table by the window, the host said no and put us at the tables farthest from the window where the newbies sat. The breakfast was still good. The Queen mum opted to rest up in her room. We brought her a pot of coffee after several unsuccessful attempts to use the automatic coffee maker in the restaurant to get her a cup of coffee. The automatic coffee maker insisted on putting milk in everything.
With the Queen Mum out of the hospital, it was time to take her to see some of the Limerick sites. And by Limerick sites, I do mean Quin Friary. Yes, I had just been there yesterday, but so what? Here was my chance to go under the best/worst bridge in the world again to temp fate of meeting oncoming traffic while traversing the passage underneath. We stopped in Sixmilebridge on the way out so the Queen Mum could glory at the Duck Hotel. Plus, she was able to see all the geese in the pen next to the car park. Then it was off to Quin. The Queen Mum only came a few steps up the path before she decided she had seen enough. Her strength still wasn’t up to walking. The Queen and I did the tour, though. But we did not dawdle, just a quick circuit around the inside and outside. The Queen was happy to meet some white samoyeds which always makes her day. I found access to one the old castle tower bases that I did not know I could access. I just had to climb on top of another crypt to get there.
On the way back to Limerick, we stopped at Bunratty and Durty Nelly’s for more pictures. The thing about Bunratty is it looks the way you want a castle to look even though it was mostly put back together in the 1950s.
One of the other Lynch traditions is to dine at the Dunraven arms in the little town of Adare that is about ten miles southwest of Limerick. Adare is littered with ruined castles and monasteries but it’s main claim to fame is Adare Manor. When I lived in Limerick, Adare Manor was still owned and run by the 7th Earl of Dunraven. He sold the house in 1984 to an American Business Man who turned it into a 5 star hotel much like Ashford Castle. Even when we visited the estate, half the building was private living quarters and half was open to tourists to help pay for building upkeep. The Dunraven Arms is a small hotel just out the main gate of the estate. Looking at their website, I was sad to learn the restaurant at the Dunraven Arms was not open for lunch. We would have to dine elsewhere. We would still have to go in because there is a chair in the lobby we had to take a picture in.
So before Dunraven Arms, we had lunch at Michael Chawke’s Pub. The food was very good but the service was exemplary. Now, it used to be you could drive on to the estate grounds and look around but as I had found out at Ashford Castle, lookie-loos were no longer welcome. While we ate at Chawkes, I asked if there was any way to get on the grounds so I could show the Queen Mum the giant tudor estate. He told us an easy method to get on the grounds, which we used. We got out of the car once to go into the golf pro shop. One of the things they added to the estate when the American took over was an 18 hole championship golf course. Next year they are going to hold the Ryder golf tournament on the course. They already have the promotional hats and shirts. The Queen ended up with a hat. Since we didn’t quite have permission we didn’t wander around the grounds like you could have done in time’s past, instead we drove slowly through the grounds and back out to the main gate.The men in the security shack wearing top hats were a nice touch.
That was enough for the Queen Mum. We went back to the hotel so she could have a bit of a nap before we went out to dinner. The Queen and I had one more stop to make before the Queen could stop. The longest continually running store in Limerick is Cahill’s tea on Wickham Street at the top of Williams Street. I had picked her up some tea from the shop on the 2016 trip. She said it was the best she ever had and craved more. The Queen and I walked over from the hotel. Cahill’s is a funny place. Half the store is devoted to tea, while the other half is for tobacco. I was in a bit of a panic they had stopped their tea business because Cahill’s website only shows the tobacco products. Turns out they have two websites. One for each product line. The Queen liked the store and bought plenty of various teas. The proprietor even let us sample some of the other teas.
Now, the Queen was done and she returned to the hotel. I felt I still had a need to take some photos. I continued up Wickham street by the Colbert Train Station and headed through the People’s park. The weather decided I needed another good dousing so the rain fell as I made my to Perry’s Square, one of the original Georgian sections of Limerick. My dentist used to be in this area just down the way from Tate’s Clock. I took pictures of the former Carnegie Library and the Limerick Modern Art Gallery. Steel Barron Andrew Carnegie donated money to have libraries built across the world back in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. My favorite part of the building are the whimsical bronze statues affixed to the facade of the building. They are only about six inches tall and if you weren’t looking for them you’d miss them. I was quite surprised when I first spotted them. I took pictures of the church that marks the end of the square before heading back through the People’s Park. There is an exit to the park that leads to St. Joseph’s Place which leads to St. Joseph’s Street. If you read Angela’s Ashes, this is the area where the McCourt family lived. If you know Greg Lynch, the this is where his first serious girlfriend lived. Yep, still walking by her house. At the end of the street before you get to O’Connell Street, you come across the pub where she used to work tending bar. It still amazes me you could be seventeen and a bartender.
I headed over to Bobby Byrne’s Pub which is the next block up. I’ve only been in there once and that was with my father. At that time we bumped into actor Richard Harris’s brother. The Harris family lived just up the street and this was their local. Back at the O’Connell Crescent, I took more pictures of Daniel O’Connell up on his plinth. One day I’ll get a nice picture of that statue. I popped into the Rugby museum again. They were still full. Further down O’Connell Street where it changes into Patrick Street lies the Arthur’s Quay shopping center. In 1981, this whole area had been a selection of run down buildings and a parking lot. When I came back in 1993, the area had become this giant shopping center. Behind the shopping center they had built a nice park. But I thought the place was going to be torn down by 2023. There was a lot of redevelopment going on this area particularly the Opera Square project and I thought Arthur’s Quay would make way for something new. But the tales the shopping center’s demise were greatly exaggerated. The place was packed when I went in. All the spaces for shops were full. My parents favorite Irish Clothing store still did business. Most importantly of all there was still a Tescos at the end. I was going to feed swans. One of the best feeds for Swans is peas. In the Tesco you could buy a kilogram of peas for a euro. What a bargain.
The reason I had made my way to Arthur’s Quay was to recreate a photo I had taken of my father during the 2014 trip. He was sitting on one of the red benches in Arthur’s Quay park reading his paper and he had just looked towards me when I snapped his photo. He looks really happy in the photo and why wouldn’t he be. He was relaxing, reading his paper on a bright sunny day in one of his favorite spots on Earth. I tried to recreate the photo myself by doing a selfie, but I didn’t quite have the right perspective. I needed to be farther away from the bench. I had talked to the Queen about taking the photo but I had forgotten about that when we parted at Cahill’s. I did the only thing any rational person would do I went up to two strangers and told them of my predicament. I though for sure the young man and women, who weren’t from Ireland, would quickly call the Gardai on this strange american accosting them. But the women found it particularly sweet that I was recreating a photo of my father. They even insisted I use some props make the photo more authentic. I didn’t have a newspaper, but I used their school folder as a stand in. Oh, the insane things I do.
I tried to find some swans to feed at the Curragh falls off the Clancy Strand boat ramp, but the swans didn’t seem too interested. The frozen peas sank to the ground and they couldn’t quite get to them. Although a group of ducks made it known they would be more than happy to help with pea consumption.
For dinner, we joined the Bradshaw’s at Woodfield House just up the Ennis road from the Strand. As we drove to the restaurant, I thought Woodfield House might actually be the reincarnation of the Limerick Ryan, my dad’s favorite hotel. But no. The Limerick Ryan continues to constantly be under refurbishment as it has for the last twenty years. Dinner was nice with the Bradshaws. They were well known at the Woodfield House and we treated accordingly. I believe the Queen Mum was happy to be out and away from the hospital. Sadly, this marked the end of our stay in Limerick. Tomorrow, our tour would begin again.
May 11 Limerick
From the windows near the elevators on the 4th floor of the Limerick Strand Hotel, I looked out at the sun breaking through the clouds over St. Mary’s Cathedral on the other side of the Shannon. I knew I would be heading out for another walk despite the thought earlier I would take it easier this morning.
I left the hotel and made my way along Clancy Strand towards another rendezvous with the Treaty Stone. As I crossed Thomond Bridge I was rewarded for my decision to leave the hotel to see sunshine illuminate St. John’s Castle and a rainbow over the round towers. I didn’t follow the river walk instead I headed up to Irish town along St. John’s Road. I had to take a photo of the former home of the Lido Chinese take-away. In my father’s opinion, the LIdo had the best Chinese food in Limerick, which wasn’t saying much back in the 1980s, a very low bar. We bought food from there at least once a week. Not far from the Lido lies supposedly the best Fish and Chips in Limerick, Donkey Fords. The unassuming sign above the red door used to be much smaller and you still can’t tell from the outside the building what goes on in what looks like a house. But my parents swear by it. When we came for the Bradshaw wedding in 2014, I was dispatched to Donkey Ford’s to get the parents some lunch. I didn’t know what to expect and it was a pain in the ass to find. My parents loved it despite what the food did to their aging digestive systems. We didn’t have enough time on this trip to partake. I would have liked an unbiased opinion from the Queen and Queen Mum who seemed to be eating Fish and Chips every other meal.
I headed over towards the Milk Market heading through the narrow streets that are a hallmark of this area. The Milk Market was refurbished years ago to allow local vendors to sell produce and other food items. The most distinctive feature is this giant permanent white tent that covers the market. My only complaint is the tent doesn’t reach to the granite walls of the market so there is about one foot gap all around the square that allows rain in. A bit of a design flaw if you ask me.
The real reason I walk over to the Milk Market is to check to see if the Sex Shop still remains across the street. Loveangels always seems to be the unlikeliest store to exist in Limerick. And I was shocked the first time I strode by the store’s garishly painted purple and pink exterior, especially in contrast to all the grey buildings that surround Loveangels. I’m happy to report Loveangels still serves to shock me on Mungret St.
I always find something new on these walks no matter how many times I make them. This time I found a plaque celebrating the ironmongers. According to the plaque Roberts Street was renowned for the many blacksmiths who worked in the area until recent times. The plaque was right across the street from the Black Rabbit public house. The exterior walls of the pub were painted completely black and overlayed with quotes in white paint from Alice in Wonderland. If I drank I would have to go inside.
Back at the hotel, the Queen ate her first real breakfast in days in the River Restaurant. Although, I was disappointed that upon asking for my table by the window, the host said no and put us at the tables farthest from the window where the newbies sat. The breakfast was still good. The Queen mum opted to rest up in her room. We brought her a pot of coffee after several unsuccessful attempts to use the automatic coffee maker in the restaurant to get her a cup of coffee. The automatic coffee maker insisted on putting milk in everything.
With the Queen Mum out of the hospital, it was time to take her to see some of the Limerick sites. And by Limerick sites, I do mean Quin Friary. Yes, I had just been there yesterday, but so what? Here was my chance to go under the best/worst bridge in the world again to temp fate of meeting oncoming traffic while traversing the passage underneath. We stopped in Sixmilebridge on the way out so the Queen Mum could glory at the Duck Hotel. Plus, she was able to see all the geese in the pen next to the car park. Then it was off to Quin. The Queen Mum only came a few steps up the path before she decided she had seen enough. Her strength still wasn’t up to walking. The Queen and I did the tour, though. But we did not dawdle, just a quick circuit around the inside and outside. The Queen was happy to meet some white samoyeds which always makes her day. I found access to one the old castle tower bases that I did not know I could access. I just had to climb on top of another crypt to get there.
On the way back to Limerick, we stopped at Bunratty and Durty Nelly’s for more pictures. The thing about Bunratty is it looks the way you want a castle to look even though it was mostly put back together in the 1950s.
One of the other Lynch traditions is to dine at the Dunraven arms in the little town of Adare that is about ten miles southwest of Limerick. Adare is littered with ruined castles and monasteries but it’s main claim to fame is Adare Manor. When I lived in Limerick, Adare Manor was still owned and run by the 7th Earl of Dunraven. He sold the house in 1984 to an American Business Man who turned it into a 5 star hotel much like Ashford Castle. Even when we visited the estate, half the building was private living quarters and half was open to tourists to help pay for building upkeep. The Dunraven Arms is a small hotel just out the main gate of the estate. Looking at their website, I was sad to learn the restaurant at the Dunraven Arms was not open for lunch. We would have to dine elsewhere. We would still have to go in because there is a chair in the lobby we had to take a picture in.
So before Dunraven Arms, we had lunch at Michael Chawke’s Pub. The food was very good but the service was exemplary. Now, it used to be you could drive on to the estate grounds and look around but as I had found out at Ashford Castle, lookie-loos were no longer welcome. While we ate at Chawkes, I asked if there was any way to get on the grounds so I could show the Queen Mum the giant tudor estate. He told us an easy method to get on the grounds, which we used. We got out of the car once to go into the golf pro shop. One of the things they added to the estate when the American took over was an 18 hole championship golf course. Next year they are going to hold the Ryder golf tournament on the course. They already have the promotional hats and shirts. The Queen ended up with a hat. Since we didn’t quite have permission we didn’t wander around the grounds like you could have done in time’s past, instead we drove slowly through the grounds and back out to the main gate.The men in the security shack wearing top hats were a nice touch.
That was enough for the Queen Mum. We went back to the hotel so she could have a bit of a nap before we went out to dinner. The Queen and I had one more stop to make before the Queen could stop. The longest continually running store in Limerick is Cahill’s tea on Wickham Street at the top of Williams Street. I had picked her up some tea from the shop on the 2016 trip. She said it was the best she ever had and craved more. The Queen and I walked over from the hotel. Cahill’s is a funny place. Half the store is devoted to tea, while the other half is for tobacco. I was in a bit of a panic they had stopped their tea business because Cahill’s website only shows the tobacco products. Turns out they have two websites. One for each product line. The Queen liked the store and bought plenty of various teas. The proprietor even let us sample some of the other teas.
Now, the Queen was done and she returned to the hotel. I felt I still had a need to take some photos. I continued up Wickham street by the Colbert Train Station and headed through the People’s park. The weather decided I needed another good dousing so the rain fell as I made my to Perry’s Square, one of the original Georgian sections of Limerick. My dentist used to be in this area just down the way from Tate’s Clock. I took pictures of the former Carnegie Library and the Limerick Modern Art Gallery. Steel Barron Andrew Carnegie donated money to have libraries built across the world back in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. My favorite part of the building are the whimsical bronze statues affixed to the facade of the building. They are only about six inches tall and if you weren’t looking for them you’d miss them. I was quite surprised when I first spotted them. I took pictures of the church that marks the end of the square before heading back through the People’s Park. There is an exit to the park that leads to St. Joseph’s Place which leads to St. Joseph’s Street. If you read Angela’s Ashes, this is the area where the McCourt family lived. If you know Greg Lynch, the this is where his first serious girlfriend lived. Yep, still walking by her house. At the end of the street before you get to O’Connell Street, you come across the pub where she used to work tending bar. It still amazes me you could be seventeen and a bartender.
I headed over to Bobby Byrne’s Pub which is the next block up. I’ve only been in there once and that was with my father. At that time we bumped into actor Richard Harris’s brother. The Harris family lived just up the street and this was their local. Back at the O’Connell Crescent, I took more pictures of Daniel O’Connell up on his plinth. One day I’ll get a nice picture of that statue. I popped into the Rugby museum again. They were still full. Further down O’Connell Street where it changes into Patrick Street lies the Arthur’s Quay shopping center. In 1981, this whole area had been a selection of run down buildings and a parking lot. When I came back in 1993, the area had become this giant shopping center. Behind the shopping center they had built a nice park. But I thought the place was going to be torn down by 2023. There was a lot of redevelopment going on this area particularly the Opera Square project and I thought Arthur’s Quay would make way for something new. But the tales the shopping center’s demise were greatly exaggerated. The place was packed when I went in. All the spaces for shops were full. My parents favorite Irish Clothing store still did business. Most importantly of all there was still a Tescos at the end. I was going to feed swans. One of the best feeds for Swans is peas. In the Tesco you could buy a kilogram of peas for a euro. What a bargain.
The reason I had made my way to Arthur’s Quay was to recreate a photo I had taken of my father during the 2014 trip. He was sitting on one of the red benches in Arthur’s Quay park reading his paper and he had just looked towards me when I snapped his photo. He looks really happy in the photo and why wouldn’t he be. He was relaxing, reading his paper on a bright sunny day in one of his favorite spots on Earth. I tried to recreate the photo myself by doing a selfie, but I didn’t quite have the right perspective. I needed to be farther away from the bench. I had talked to the Queen about taking the photo but I had forgotten about that when we parted at Cahill’s. I did the only thing any rational person would do I went up to two strangers and told them of my predicament. I though for sure the young man and women, who weren’t from Ireland, would quickly call the Gardai on this strange american accosting them. But the women found it particularly sweet that I was recreating a photo of my father. They even insisted I use some props make the photo more authentic. I didn’t have a newspaper, but I used their school folder as a stand in. Oh, the insane things I do.
I tried to find some swans to feed at the Curragh falls off the Clancy Strand boat ramp, but the swans didn’t seem too interested. The frozen peas sank to the ground and they couldn’t quite get to them. Although a group of ducks made it known they would be more than happy to help with pea consumption.
For dinner, we joined the Bradshaw’s at Woodfield House just up the Ennis road from the Strand. As we drove to the restaurant, I thought Woodfield House might actually be the reincarnation of the Limerick Ryan, my dad’s favorite hotel. But no. The Limerick Ryan continues to constantly be under refurbishment as it has for the last twenty years. Dinner was nice with the Bradshaws. They were well known at the Woodfield House and we treated accordingly. I believe the Queen Mum was happy to be out and away from the hospital. Sadly, this marked the end of our stay in Limerick. Tomorrow, our tour would begin again.
As a matter of fact, my anger does keep me warm