Monthly Archives: May 2021

May 26, 2021 · 5:35 am

Northern Ireland — Belfast

Still based in Dublin, Ursula had a hankering to visit Belfast, Northern Ireland. So, for €20 each, we boarded a bus and headed north.

The Crown Liquor Saloon; corner of Great Victoria and Amelia streets

The sights here are historic, colorful, and leave one full of wonder for this charming city. One such magnificent structure is the Belfast City Hall. This grand example of Baroque Revival architecture was completed in 1906:

There are several statues on the grounds. This one stands before the east façade, which runs along Donegall Square East:

At the corner where Howard Street becomes Grosvenor Road, and Great Victoria Street becomes Fisherwick Place, is a church that dates back to 1905. This is Church House. It is the headquarters for the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, and also serves as a commercial conference center.

With only hours to sightsee before our return bus ride to Dublin, we did what we frequently do when seeing a new city for the first time. We boarded a Hop-on/Hop-off. One of the sights we took in was the Lanyon Building at Queen’s University.

This week’s Fun Photo Friday will feature favorites from Galway, but we’ll continue the look at Belfast next week. Until then, here’s some additional Belfast sights:

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May 24, 2021 · 5:05 am

Ireland — More on Galway, including lunch

We’ll start this week still in Galway, where I’ll also show off our choice of lunch restaurants. As you may recall from last week, we were on our own time during this visit to the picturesque Shop Street and Quay Street areas of Galway. Down on Quay Street we found quite an array of restaurants and eating establishments.

Riordan’s Irish Café is now Galway Oyster House

You would think that with all the photographs I took of The Quays that it was our choice. Alas, no. We were actually salivating over a place called McDonagh’s, which featured fish and chips. But the wait was uncomfortably long for our be-back time to the bus. So, instead, we hit this place:

We were not disappointed. The food was excellent.

Unfortunately, I neglected to photograph our menu choices, but here’s a view of that day’s specials:

As you can see, I still managed to get my battered cod and chips. Time to head back up Quay Street toward Shop Street and rendezvous with our bus.

Back again on Shop Street is this famous building:

Lynch’s Castle has quite the history. While the structure you see today dates back to the 16th century, portions of it go back to the 14th century. Today it houses a bank, but it originally it was a mansion built for the powerful Lynch family.

You may be familiar with the legend of Galway Mayor James Lynch fitz Stephen. In 1493 Mayor fitz Stephen had the unpleasant task of sentencing his son to hang for murder. The mayor personally carried out the sentence.