With a name like Patrick Magrady, you might suspect Irish roots, but my husband had never visited the land where his grandparents were born. So when he brought up the idea of a special vacation to celebrate turning 60, I planned a trip to Ireland that would put us in Downpatrick, his ancestral home, on his birthday.

As part of our two week self-drive tour of Ireland, we used Belfast as our base for touring the north.  My first surprise when approaching Belfast from Dublin was that there was no border crossing into “Northern Ireland”.  In fact, if the speed limit signs hadn’t changed from kilometers to miles, we would never have noticed that we were in a different country – that is until we had to pay for our first purchase in Pounds Sterling, as opposed to Euros.  Otherwise, lovely folks seemed to exist peacefully on both sides of the border.  Downpatrick is best known as the site for Down Cathedral and St. Patrick’s grave.  St. Patrick’s Trail is also well-worth the drive and our unplanned stop at Mount Steward House & Gardens was one of the highlights of our trip.  In Downpatrick, we found many businesses with the family name, spelled slightly differently (McGrady), and we also visited the parish church where past generations had worshipped.  Denvir’s Hotel carried Pat’s grandmother’s name - I’d be interested to know if anyone reading this blog has stayed there.
 
We drove about 1,000 miles in 10 days (we used the hop-on, hop-off bus instead of driving in Dublin).  Driving on the left side with the roundabouts and the narrow country roads can be exciting in and of itself.  Even the smaller towns, like Downpatrick, are difficult to traverse due to the extremely narrow streets with cars parked in all directions.  Travel Tip:  make sure you have a navigation system in your car.  We bought an Ireland chip for our portable system before we left and sold it on e-bay when we returned, so it cost us nothing to know where we were going! 

The late April weather was cool, in the 50s, but we had sweaters and rain jackets and were quite comfortable.   The spring flowers were just lovely – huge tulips, daffodils and jonquils, azaleas and flowering trees.  The only really cold spots were the Giants Causeway (northern coast) and the Cliffs of Moher (western coast), which were both very, very windy but the views were well worth it. We loved both Dublin and the countryside.  Farmer’s fields were outlined with gorse (a yellow flowering hedge) or defined by stone walls.  Another advantage of our spring visit was all the newborn lambs, calves and colts seen in the fields. 

We toured a good number of castles, cathedrals, abbeys, old manor houses and adjoining gardens.  Ruins were visible everywhere.  Near Galway, Aughnanure Castle dating from the 16th century, sits right in the middle of Oughterard golf course! The small towns were our favorites – so colorful and comfortable.  We stopped for “pub food” along our way and the food was wonderful everywhere.  We sampled Beef and Guinness Pie, Chicken Boxty (a crepe made w/ potatoes), fish and chips with mashed peas and chicken curry.  In one pub, Pat learned the proper way to pour a Guinness and I learned that my favorite draft was Baumer’s cider.  Even though Irish coffee isn’t really Irish, it’s still makes a good warm-up after a windy day of sightseeing!  When we got home, my husband took me to the local Irish Pub – one last time – until we can return again for the real thing!