Back in Ireland, to be sure, were four great holidays. Our family visited in 1996 and stayed on a farm near Cookstown, Northern Ireland. We saw a lot of the towns in Ulster, and also spent some time in Sligo and Donegal. That time was during the Orange marches, many of which caused problems and there was a lot of violence during those two weeks. Undeterred, we still had ourselves a good holiday. In 1999 I went with my Venture unit on a tour of the Republic, taking in Cork, Dublin and Kilkenny amongst others. In Easter 2002 I visited Dublin for the third time and spent a couple of days in counties Kerry and Cork. I returned to Dublin once again during summer 2002 for a long weekend holiday. Most of these pictures are from Easter 2002.

The Giant's Causeway on the north coast of Ulster is a formation of hexagonal stacks of volcanic rock, pushed up from the ground hundreds of thousands of years ago. Legend has it that Finn Mac Coull the Irish giant was waging war with the neighbouring Scottish giant, and built the causeway to attack him. The causeway exists under the sea today, and similar structures are foun in the western isles of Scotland. This picture is me before I got my hair cut in summer 1996.

This is quite representative of central Dublin, it is mostly Georgian and in this style. This is taken from the City bus tour.

Temple was recently done up to be the new trendy district in Dublin, with Hard Rock cafes and many themed (Irish) pubs. Live music can be found most nights but prices are beyond student range. Temple Bar confused me at first, although the bar you see here is by that name, Temple Bar is in fact the name of the street too.

The most photographed of all the Georgian doors in Dublin, if you go to a souvenir shop you are more than likely to see this on a postcard.

How could I have a page on Ireland without some typical Irish pubs? As you might guess, this pub is near the Guinness breweries on St James's Gate.

One of the many old tales of Dublin is that of sweet Molly Malone, who wheeled her wheel barrow through the streets broad and narrow crying "cockles and mussells alive alive-o!" Locally she is referred to as the "Tart with the Cart", in the complete story she was more than just a market salesperson...

Guinness has been brewed here at St James's Gate for more than 250 years, and is arguably the most famous beer in the world. (Perfectionists will of course tell me that it's not beer, but a drink in its own class, a meal in a glass). The lease for the site was signed for a duration of 9000 years, for which the company still pays the same rent they did when they opened. A million pints a day are pumped out of here, of which only twenty percent is for export, leaving a phenomenal amount of Guinness which is consumed in Ireland daily.

Trinity College is the best and most famous University in Ireland, this is the central courtyard. If I was Irish I would be trying to get in here. The Book of Kells is held here, featuring the four gospels and written around 800 AD. It has been at Trinity College since the 1600s.

Another pub, this one just looked really Irish so I put it in, quite representative of what pubs in Dublin are (meant to be) like.

Dublin has good shopping, this is the old shopping centre by St Stephen's Green to the south of the Liffey. It is somewhat reminiscent of London's Crystal Palace.

Now we are down in County Kerry, away in the south west of Ireland. This is Kenmare, recently done up and repainted, it is a really nice little place, lined with quaint shops and bingo halls. It is a little off the beaten track, and in unspoiled country.

In Phoenix Park the President of Ireland resides, in a house which uncannily resembles the White House in Washington. Its proper name is ?as An Uachtar੮, and it is surrounded by Phoenix Park, Europes largest urban park. The house was opened in 1751, but it did not take on its current form until much more recently.

The Ha'penny bridge is so called because it used to be a toll bridge, no prizes for guessing what the toll was! It is now a famous landmark in Dublin, spanning the river Liffey.

I had to put this one in. A shop which sells door knobs and metal door knockers couldn't be more imaginitively named. There was a group of tourists manic with laughter outside the shop but I have no idea why...