Winter trip to Ireland can be rewarding

I realize that visiting Ireland in the winter is not on many people's 'to do' list, but the other night as I was watching an American television show filmed here last winter I was reminded of just how beautiful Ireland looks in the winter.

I was watching the latest installment of the NBC series Who Do You Think You Are on Ireland's national television station, RTE. The episode featured Rosie O'Donnell's search for her Irish roots (in America it can be seen here).

Of course Ireland was always going to look great. The folks at NBC were determined to get fantastic aerial shots of Dublin and the snow-covered Kildare country-side. Yet, those pictures weren't made up either - Ireland really does look great in the winter. And it provides insights into history that are less obvious in summer.

One of my favorite memories of traveling around Ireland is being in the wilds of Connemara one January in the mid-90s. I got talking to a local man, who pointed out vertical ridges clearly visible in the snow on a nearby hill. "Those are the lazy beds. People grew potatoes there before the famine, but not since."

I didn't question it because as I was looking at it I couldn't imagine anyone other than the desperate trying to cultivate such land. I would never have seen those ridges without the snow to highlight them.

The snow highlights the positive in Ireland's landscape. Although most people here preferred complaining about the mess last winter's snow made of the roads (and Dublin airport), I think most Irish people would admit that the snow really looked special on our treeless hills, patchwork fields and old churches and graveyards.

Ireland doesn't just look great in winter either. It smells good too – at least in rural areas. In rural areas people mostly burn turf, not wood, in their fireplaces. I always like the smell of a wood fire in the winter. Turf gives off its own distinctive, appealing smell.

The smell isn't just pleasant. It's part of a memory, the smell my ancestors would have known. In fact, one of the best things about being in Ireland in the winter is the chance to experience the dark, damp, cold, bleak conditions that are part of any Irish-American family's ancestral past. I always think that anyone who only sees Ireland in bright sunshine might well leave these shores wondering why anyone ever left. A few days in Mayo in January will give you part of that answer.

You don't have to suffer long, however, once you've endured a sufficiency of the damp cold, enter the nearest pub and the heat from the blazing turf fire will revive you.

A few caveats, however. It does tend to rain in the winter in Ireland. Of course, it tends to rain in the summer too, but the longer days mean you have a better chance of a few hours of dry, bright weather each day. Last winter's heavy snow was exceptional, usually it only lasts on high ground.

When it does snow on the roads, it quickly makes driving treacherous. Few cars have snow tires and fewer drivers have any snow sense. (I was wondering how Rosie O'Donnell managed driving on rural Kildare's icy, snowy roads, but we didn't see any of that. She probably had a local driver when off camera.}

Regardless, it's worthwhile. If you've seen Ireland in the summer in glorious sunshine (or even in sunshine and showers), come prepared for cold, damp weather and get in touch with the other aspect of Ireland that your ancestors knew well. I doubt you'd be disappointed.

{Photo thanks to Sligo Heritage.}

U.S. should not charge tourists for their own background check

From September 8 anyone who holds a passport from one of the 36 visa-waiver nations will have to pay a $14 fee to enable the American government to run a rudimentary background check on them.

The Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) program was introduced in 2008 and made mandatory last year. The program and was intended to provide an extra layer of security. Intending travelers provide their details to the Department of Homeland Security in advance of their travels, which gives the American authorities time to check the intending traveler's name against the 'no fly' lists and other terrorist databases.

I don't have a problem with the requirement that people who want to visit the United States should provide this information to the government. Ideally the government wouldn't need to know anyone's travel plans and wouldn't need to maintain a database of names, passport numbers and other facts, but information is a key element in the defense against a second September 11 type attack. So it has to be this way.

I do think, however, that asking someone to pay $14 to have their background checked by government officials is, well, not all that welcoming. Remember this charge comes on top of recent additional security measures like finger-printing and photographing all visitors.

Whether foreign visitors feel welcome in America may not matter to many Americans, I'm sure it's crucially important to those who run businesses in the tourism industry. Those foreign visitors are an important segment of their market and all Americans benefit from the wealth generated and jobs created by foreign tourism.

There is, of course, a balance between security and friendliness. Unfortunately, since September 2001 the balance has tilted much more towards security. Rightly so, although like a lot of people I hate all the extra inconvenience that is now part of flying.

The ESTA is just another layer of inconvenience we Americans have added to tourists from Ireland, Britain, France, Norway, German, Japan, Italy and others. Now on top of the inconvenience the American government is going to make ESTA a cost as well as an inconvenience. An extra $14 on top of the other government charges added to all international airline tickets: U.S. International Transportation Tax, U.S. Immigration User Fee, U.S. Customs Fee, U.S. Security Service Fee, and the U.S. A.P.H.I.S. User Fee (something to do with agriculture).

The total of all these taxes is about $50 per ticket (and I've omitted local taxes and airport charges) and now tourists are going to be asked to pay another $14. Only this time they're the only ones paying - to check on themselves. {No ESTA required, thus no charge for American citizens.} Even the most pro-American foreign visitors will find this aggravating. Some may well say, "The heck with that," and go somewhere else.

Who'll be the losers then? The tourists, sure, but so will restaurants, hotels and other tourism businesses n America. It's just not worth it. Keep ESTA free.

Tourists should not be hassled for bridge tolls

Ireland's Minister for Tourism is in America at the moment in an effort to encourage more of you to come on over for a visit. Great stuff. American visitors get a good welcome here and, well, there are many tourism related enterprises that could use the business.

There two things Minister Mary Hanafin should tackle to make the visitor's experience even better. Both relate to driving in Ireland, which can be stressful enough for visitors to this country. I'll deal with one of those two today.

The first issue relates to road tolls and one toll in particular. A few years ago the government eliminated the toll booths on the M50, which is the main highway that runs around Dublin and connects the Belfast road with the roads to the south and west. It's a key road.

When the government got rid of the toll booths they didn't just forgo all that toll money. Oh, no. They installed a license plate scanning system that records each trip on the road as it crosses the River Liffey.

This development freed up the road; no more lengthy back-ups at the toll booths. All car owners can register their car so that the toll is automatically deducted from an account via their credit/debit card. Kind of like the E-Z Pass system only you don't have to slow down. You can zip through at 65MPH. There are no booths at all. No toll booths where tourists and others can pull up and pay the toll.

That's the crux of the problem. For tourists this becomes a real hassle. The car rental companies are at pains to point out to tourists that they must pay these tolls if they use the M50. And, the only way to pay the toll is to find a store that has the facility to let you do so.

There are a couple of stores near where I live that provide this service, but none of them has easy parking, which only increases the hassle. A tourist has to (a) find one of these stores and then (b) find somewhere to park near to the store and go pay the €3 ($3.65). Oh, and they have to know the license plate number when they get to the counter or it's back to the car to check.

I've never had to go looking for one of these pay-points, but it is easy to imagine how frustrating this would be when you've arrived in a strange country and you're just figure out the roads. You just want to get where you're going and begin to relax and enjoy yourself, but no.

Having to remember to pay the toll is bad enough, but then you must hunt down a shop that may or may not exist, in a town you don't know, with no phone and most likely no suitable map. And you have to do that by 8pm the day after you cross the bridge.

And you may not even realize you've even crossed the bridge {photo of bridge's underside above}. I've talked to a couple of Americans who've driven over that bridge without even being aware of it. It's not hard to miss the signs indicating you've crossed the bridge and there's absolutely no indication on the road itself: no change in surface or even paint, no steel structure overhead that is a feature of most bridges, nothing that shouts out, "This is the toll bridge you've heard about."

This is just plain stupid. Tourists should be exempt from this toll or at the very least, paying it should be no hassle. Instead you have visitors coming here whose last experience of Ireland will be a charge on their credit card for a toll they knew nothing about AND a €50 ($60) fine. What sort of lasting impression is that creating?

This isn't rocket science. The government should exempt tourists, but failing that at a minimum they should make it so that rental companies can add these costs (& nothing more) to the rental bill in order to minimize the upset to tourists. It's simple common sense.

The ideal time to visit Ireland: RIGHT NOW

What follows is an upaid ad for the Irish Tourist Board:

If you can drop everything you have on your plate at the moment and grab a flight to Ireland for the upcoming week, you couldn't pick a better time. The weather is fantastic and it's supposed to remain so through the weekend (at least). It's warm and sunny and, this is the best part, this is the longest day of the year.

If you live somewhere near the 40^o line of latitude (New York, Chicago, San Francisco) you're used to the sun setting around 8:30pm at the time of year. Here it sets around 10pm. If you're lucky enough to be in the west of Ireland that means it's daylight til after 11pm. All those hours of sunshine are a boon to any tourist, so long as you're energetic.

And, of course, the dollar has strengthened against the euro, which has helped make Ireland seem a little less costly to any American visitors these days. On top of that, many prices have fallen thanks to the pretty severe deflation we've experienced over the past 12-18 months.

So you have good weather, long days and, well, more affordable goods and services. Like I said, you could hardly pick a better time to come visit.

The Treaty Stone of Limerick is not going to Atlantic City

The Treaty Stone is not being sold to an Atlantic City casino, says the Limerick Leader. The Treaty Stone, which is nearly sacred in Limerick, will remain right where it is. And rightly so!

Now I know, but people around Limerick don't seem to know, that other than the most committed Irish enthusiasts in America, nobody there has heard of the Treaty Stone and no casino would want it. It would interest too few and require too much explanation for an American audience.

The Treaty Stone (photo) is the stone upon which the 1691 treaty was signed between the victorious forces of King William and the defeated army of King James, led by Irishman Patrick Sarsfield. That treaty called for Catholics (gentry only) to be afforded rights to own property and bear arms, but was only honored for two years before anti-Catholic "penal laws" were imposed on Irish Catholics by their English rulers. By that time Sarsfield and thousands of his followers had honored their end of the deal and left Ireland and were fighting for France.

You may wonder why the people of Limerick would hold the Stone in such high regard when its associated with such infamy, but Sarsfield signed the Treaty and he's still a hero here, especially in Limerick. The thought of selling such a piece of Limerick's and Ireland's history is too fantastic to entertain.

{By the way, Sarsfield is a direct ancestor of the Union Army's General Michael Corcoran, who was court-martialed for refusing to lead the NY 69th out to honor the Prince of Wales during a pre-Civil War visit by Queen Victoria's son.}

So from where did this supposed idea to sell the Treaty Stone to a casino in Atlantic City come?

Well, it looks like it's a spoof. Earlier this month someone set up a Facebook page advocating that the Treaty Stone be saved. Nearly 1,700 people have joined the campaign since then.

The Facebook campaign contends that an Atlantic City "casino/Bar" has made "a significant offer" for the Stone and that Limerick City Council "is poised to sell the stone" to raise money. The Leader says there's no substance to the story, which is just as well because I really can't believe anyone in America would be all that interested.

Now, maybe, just maybe, if the people of Blarney were a bit hard up the story might be different. I'm sure someone in Atlantic City or even Vegas would be willing to buy the Blarney Stone, Blarney Castle (photo), the whole shebang and ship it over brick by brick, a la London Bridge in Lake Havasu City, AZ.

Maybe I should start the "Save the Blarney Stone" Facebook page.

How costly will it be to be named one of the world's wonders?

Posted by TheYank at 8/18/2009 12:54 PM EDT

Maybe you saw the story on the Irish Central home page a few weeks ago about the Cliffs of Moher being short-listed in the competition to name the new seven wonders of the world. I didn't think about the story too much, but just figured it was a good thing.

Then last week while vacationing in upstate NY I was reading a copy of the Legislative Gazette, as one does when one is on vacation, and I came across a short article (p. 2) about Niagara Falls and the new seven wonders contest. Until I saw that story it hadn't occurred to me that the Falls were missing from the shortlist, but they are. And it isn't that they were simply overlooked.

According to the Legislative Gazette "[t]ourism officials on the U.S. side of the Falls say they
passed on the opportunity because of worries their cashstrapped community might be on the hook for costly promotional activities." Whoa! Hadn't ever considered this a possibility.

The Falls folks obviously believe it's going to require a lot of pocket cabbage, moolah, dough to make a serious attempt at being one of the new seven wonders. I never heard a mention of that back when we were all celebrating the Cliffs' success. I wonder how much the Irish tourism bodies are planning to spend on this campaign and will it be worth it.

Funny thing about the Cliffs' inclusion is that at the time I wasn't sure if the Cliffs were even the top wonder in Ireland. Are they really more wondrous and unique than the (near-by) Burren, the Giant's Causeway or even the Bog of Allen (which I accept ain't much to look at, but it's supposed to be something special in nature and endangered)? I don't know, but I'm even less sure that the Cliffs are more wondrous than Niagara Falls.

I suppose regardless I should wish the Cliffs of Moher people success in their efforts to be get the Cliffs named as one of the new seven wonders of the world, but mostly I hope they don't waste a lot of money on this.