Dennis Deery

Friday night Kathleen and I attended a black-tie charity ball in support of a sports center for a public-housing neighborhood in Waterford. It was a good networking opportunity for Kathleen, as it was sponsored by the Waterford Local Economic Development Company. And so, in Ireland, Kathleen finally got me into the tux she couldn’t convince me to wear for our wedding.

Or so the song goes. Having now been to Tipperary I can report that it’s not all that far, but thanks to the windy Irish roads it will take you a while to drive there. But it’s a lovely drive, and if you happen to be coming back from Tipperary at midnight you can see the beautifully-lit site of Cashel Castle atop the Rock of Cashel.

Well okay, we flew into Dublin, so I’d been there before, but we didn’t see anything. So technically, this was my first visit to Dublin city center. Last weekend we headed to Dublin to visit our friends Alan and Bre and their daughters, Orla and Ciara. Alan has worked in the past for the Dunhill Multi-Education Centre where Kathleen works, and he was the first connection Kathleen and UW-Stout had to Dunhill.

Last Friday Kathleen had a meeting in Kilkenny, a little over an hour north of here. We had decided to head for Dublin for the weekend, so I took the day off to save her driving back down here to get me. While she had her meeting, I did some sightseeing in Kilkenny, especially around the grounds of Kilkenny Castle. Pics are below. Click here for slideshow

Two weekends ago we headed to the World Ploughing Championships in Tullow, County Carlow, about 1.5 hours north of here. It was a 4-day long event, with the Irish Ploughing Championship the first two days and then the World Championship. In addition to the plowing, it was a big farm show along the lines of our Farm Technology Days. Let me say that it’s a really big show. Over the four days they had a total attendance of around 220,000 people.


We discovered a new beach just a couple of miles down the road from Tramore this past Sunday. This I think is the prettiest beach we’ve found yet. We’ve been there a couple of times now, at low tide and with the tide coming in. We’ll have to time our visits to low tide though, as there’s not much beach left to walk on at high tide. Click here for the self-running slide show.

With our friend Bruce in town, we headed up to the Comeragh Mountains on last Sunday and hiked up to Mahon Falls. (I wrote a bit about Mahon Falls and the Comeragh’s here.) On this trip we had considerably better weather, as you can see from the pics. To view the pics below, you can click on the thumbnails, then navigate through by hovering over the pic and clicking Next or Previous.

We had our first visitor from the States the last few days. Our friend Bruce found his way from Seattle for a short visit. Last Saturday we headed down the Cork area to visit a couple of small towns, Cobh and Kinsale. Cobh’s claim to fame is being the last port visited by Titanic on her first and final voyage. It’s still a maritime port today. We were dogged by rain and fog while visiting Cobh, but still had time to check out the incredible St.

I was greeted by this headline on Sunday’s front page. Now this is a country that knows a little something about the ravages of terrorism, invasion and conquest, and rule by a brutal empire. I think their opinion should carry a little weight. And the poll is actually even worse for America’s foreign policy than the headline makes it out to be. Of the remaining 20%, 8% don’t think Bush has made the world more or less safe, 4% don’t know, leaving only 6% of Irish who think the present American government has made the world a safer place.

Though the site is called DennisDeery.com, it’s a joint effort. Everyone should know that Kathleen is contributing pics and ideas for the site as well. I haven’t convinced her to get her own site going yet, but I’m still working on it!

Last weekend we decided to head for the town of Lismore and the famous Lismore Castle. We hadn’t gotten very far down the road before I saw a sign for “Mahon Falls” - given my penchant for following interesting signs, it was time for a detour. We live within sight of the Comeragh Mountains, but hadn’t ventured that direction yet. A short drive brought us to the Comeragh Drive, which very shortly had us parked near the top of the mountain overlooking a waterfall, fogged-in mountains, sheep everywhere, and an incredible view of the Mahon Valley.


Okay, so a bit about our first full weekend in Ireland. Friday night we headed down the hill to Cunningham’s Fish & Chips stand for Kathleen’s favorite takeout in Tramore. We collected our dinner (a burger and chips for me) and walked down to the beach and had a lovely dinner next to the ferris wheel at the Tramore Amusement Park (now closed for the season). You can see from the pics that it was a pretty blustery evening, but even so we enjoyed a nice walk on the beach after dinner.

Yikes, just 2 weeks here and already I’m falling behind in posting stuff. Hopefully this will pick up a bit now that I have an internet connection at home (woohoo!). Anyway, here are some pics, I’ll post more about these soon. Downtown Tramore Seafront amusement park in Tramore The Tramore Strand - 3-mile long beach in Tramore Tramore as seen from the beach Our closest pub Holy Cross Church in Tramore Views along the Coast Road west of Tramore Welcome to Boatstrand The community of Boatstrand Remnants of an old copper mine - from which the Copper Coast Geopark draws it’s name View of the mountains from downtown Dungarvan

This past weekend I picked up a copy of the Sunday Express, a newspaper from London, England. I was reading the travel section and found the little tidbit below.

Rumor has it the Irish speak English, as do supposedly we Americans. However, it’s not quite the same brand of English, as we’re constantly reminded. Our lesson this week involves time… Today is Tuesday, September 5. If I was to refer to Wednesday, September 13 in conversation, I would usually call it “next Wednesday”. Not so here in Ireland. Next Wednesday, or properly “Wednesday next” refers to tomorrow, September 6 - truly the “next Wednesday”.

 This beach, Annestown Beach, is about 5 minutes down the road from Kathleen's office, right below the little town of Annestown. The pics below are all taken in the same general area. [ ](http://new.dennisdeery.com/irelandimages/ireland1591.jpg) This is the slogan of the DFBA communities, it hangs on the wall in their business incubator. [ ](http://new.dennisdeery.com/irelandimages/ireland1594.jpg) Our wheels [ !

Well, we just bought our first tank of gas. It cost us $50 Euro for 40 liters, which works out to around $6.06 US / gallon. As I said to Kathleen, thank God the country is only 275 miles long!

Dunhill is the little town where Kathleen will be working. The links below can provide some good information about the area. Dunhill-Fenor-Boatstrand-Annestown Community Site - these 4 communities have banded together under the moniker DFBA, the group driving many of the things Kathleen is involved with Dunhill Multi-Education Centre - this is where Kathleen is working Dunhill Rural Enterprises Park - this is the business incubator that houses the Multi-Education Centre Copper Coast Geopark - this is the area around us, it’s similar to a National Park in the U.