You know you are in Ireland when...

...people are drinking pints of beer at the airport when you arrive at 9:40am!

I spent my first day doing the booze tours... I bought a 'Dublin Pass' at the airport which got me my travel into the city and free access to most of the tourist attractions... pretty much got my value out of it on the first day, so I would recommend it to anyone visiting the city and wanting to go to a lot of tourist attractions.
I started at the Jameson's Distillery. A fantastic tour though the original distillery in central Dublin, finished off with a very pleasant whiskey - even at 11:30 in the morning (it was Ireland after all)

The distillery was followed that up with a tour of the Guinness Brewery. It was even better than the Distillery. I had lunch there... a very nice beef and Guinness stew washed down with a pint of the black stuff... did the tour and finished that off with another pint up in the bar on the roof with a great view of the city!Following all this drinking I thought it better to do something more sober, so I headed off to Christ Church Cathedral. While it was a very nice cathedral dating from Norman times I am fast reaching my quota of churches for the year! They are all starting to look the same!

The following morning I avoided religious sites, starting at Dublin Castle touring the state rooms, then taking the 3 mile walk to the old Gaol (also identified in the guide book as ‘Jail’ to help the American tourists) and finally back for a wander around the city itself.

Day 3, an early start and a train trip and I found myself in Limerick. It looked good on paper. In reality it’s a slightly sad place. There is no shortage of For Sale and For Rent signs. It does not have the beauty of the attractions of Dublin and felt depressed under the grey skies of the afternoon I was there. The afternoon was enough to see King John’s Castle, the Cathedral and a couple of small museums, and I was relieved to be on a train to Cork for the night.
Surely no trip to cork would be complete without a trip to Blarney Castle. It’s only a 15 minute bus ride from the city …and of course I kissed the famous stone (so if you have noticed any particular eloquence in my writing this posting you know why). Even without the stone the castle and grounds are worth visiting. Blarney is how a European castle should look; grey, foreboding, damp and slightly decayed, its age evident in every stone.

Right... well... clearly this is where the eloquence runs out...