Dingle Peninsula 9/9/2009
I have to confess that I am very tired. We spent one night in a place without WFI and two nights of exhaustion kept me from writing. We are on our last night in Dublin at a hotel close to the airport to catch an early flight to Heathrow. We plan to spend a day and hopefully, evening in London before our flight on Monday back to California. My blog entry up to today will be a fast one.....
We spent two nights and two days in Dingle, my favorite spot on our trip. Dingle the town is just like any other village in Ireland (I am sure the locals would not agree) but the peninsula is spectacular. We spent one full day driving around the Dingle Peninsula. There were many ancient ruins and cottages deserted by the Irish during the potato famine (see photo above) but what I found the most interesting was the inhabitants of the Blasket Islands, just off the coast of the Dingle Peninsula. They no longer inhabit the island but their homes and other structures still remain. These Irish speaking people were forced to leave the island by orders of the government in 1958.
Why were they forced to leave the island...the year I was born? very interesting. Guess I could Google it:) I'm sad that your just about home. I have loved this trip. You need to have a travel show, so I can continue to see the world vicariously.You are a wonderful tour guide!
ReplyDeleteThe conditions were really harsh on the island. The young women started abandoning the island and moved to the mainland to work, mostly domestic. Slowly the island was inhabited by men and old women. I can't remember the sole reason for making them leave. I think the government just thought it was too rough of living conditions for those folks. I guess I should Google it. You can take tours out to the island as many of the structures still remain. We arrived too late in the day to do that. There is an fascinating cultural center exclusively for the Blasket Island people. I loved Dingle Peninsula. The big tourist thing to do is to drive around the Ring of Kerry, Iveragh Peninsula. We skipped that adventure because it was raining that day and drove through Killarney National Park.
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