Ireland planning 🇮🇪

~ MaryG

As I prepare to turn sixty in 77 days, I am working on my Bucket List (things I want to do and places I want to see before I “kick the bucket”). I’ve always been one to keep a “to do” list (I like getting stuff done), but this one is fun. I started it shortly after my dear friend Carla unexpectedly got sick and passed away in 2022 at age 57.

I try to really think about places and experiences that call to me, not just rack up instagrammable, exotic locations. I have reasons for wanting to see these places. For the bigger trips, I try to keep the budget to $10,000 (or less) for the two of us for a full week. I know that’s a lot of money for a lot of folks, but believe me, I know people that spend a whole hell of a lot more than that on their luxury vacations. I would say we are “budget conscious” travelers, but I will splurge on special experiences like dinner in the Eiffel Tower or a helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon.

Here’s where my Bucket List stands now:

Grand Canyon ✅ (June 2023)

Paris ✅ (December 2023)

Finger Lakes & Hot Air Ballooning ✅ (May 2024)

Tanglewood ✅ (August 2024)

Yellowstone National Park ✅ (September 2024)

Northern Lights ✅ This wasn’t a planned trip, I just got lucky! (October 2024)

Key West ✅ (February 2025)

NEXT UP: Ireland ☘️

Is there any other foreign country that looms quite so large in the American psyche? I don’t think so!

Like millions of other Americans, I am a descendant of poor Irish immigrants. My great grandmother Mary Barry was from Dublin.

My mother’s father’s mother, Mary Barry, with six of her children, including my maternal grandfather Henry (far right). She was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1880 and died in Queens, NY in 1952. She immigrated to America, through Ellis Island, in 1903. She was 23 years old and arrived with three US dollars to her name.

This trip to Ireland will mark my first group tour experience. We’ve never been on a weeklong tour before. I usually book the hotels and do all the planning myself, but since it’s my birthday, I wanted to give myself a break and have someone else do the planning.

I looked at many types of tours (including on bikes and boats), but ultimately decided to try a Rick Steves tour. Good old Rick—PBS super nerd! I love his guidebooks and his travel philosophy in general. Plus, he is a well known weed-smoking liberal, so the chances of having any Trumpers in our group are slim.

So now, I need to start reading more about Ireland. I’ve already watched many of the recent TV shows and movies set there, including the excellent miniseries about The Troubles—Say Nothing.

Our tour is in the Republic of Ireland only, but I’m contemplating taking a trip up to Belfast (Northern Ireland, UK) at the end of the trip. We will be staying a few extra days in Dublin, where our son will join us, so I need to make some plans for that time.

Please send your Dublin recommendations and any advice you might have about planning a day trip to Belfast.

Also, books! What should I read to help truly understand the heart of this country and its people, from whom so many of us Americans descend?

I’m open to the classics, as well as modern fiction, historical fiction and nonfiction.

TYIA

☘️ 🇮🇪

Related posts:

Greetings from Ireland

More Ireland

I’m a Dubliner

Last Stop in Ireland

Food and Signs in Ireland

Thursday Doors—Dublin Unitarian Church

19 thoughts on “Ireland planning 🇮🇪”

    1. Thank you! I’m liking Rick more and more these days – he’s been so open about the dangers of authoritarianism and also sharing his prostate cancer journey. And he wrote a terrific public letter to his Canadian customers recently.

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      1. He’s so clear and eloquent, but also so grounded. He’s in that little group that used to include Bill Moyers to me, just kind and clear.

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  3. What a wonderful birthday treat! Dublin is a good city for walking around. I loved a tour of Kilmainham Gaol, near the Guinness Brewery. The gaol featured in a Daniel Day Lewis movie( In The Name of the Father) and is where they had a firing squad for those involved in the 1916 Easter uprising. And the music in Dublin pubs is infectious❤️

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  4. I went on a tour a year ago. They are not bad! It’s go go go, but you get to see a whole heck of a lot and everything is planned. Not bad at all.

    Great B&W photo by the way. I thought it was really cool.

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    1. Thank you! I’m very interested to find out what the other people on our tour will be like. Did you see the film A Real Pain? It really got me thinking about tour group chemistry.

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      2. It’s about two Jewish cousins who go on a group tour of Poland after their grandmother dies. Kieran Culkin is the whackier of the two cousins, but the people on the tour seem to like him better. He got the Academy Award for his performance.

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  5. Mary, I just read Small Things Like These, by Claire Keegan. Short 75 pages), beautiful writing, haunting theme that resonates today. Five stars. xo

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