A Green, Wet Peninsula (Part 2)

To pick up from where I left off last night, we checked into our hotel. The view from our hotel window is above. From there we drove back to the town of Dingle, which was a few miles from our hotel, and began our westward loop around the coast.

As we set out west from Dingle the rain, which had been on and off all day, began to let up and the misty fog that had shrouded the peninsula since we had arrived began to gradually lift. We proceeded around Dingle Harbor to the next protected bay, Ventry. There we stopped at a beach and circled around the bay to look at it from the other side. At this point it is a lot easier to just use pictures:

We then proceeded further west towards the eventual tip of the peninsula, stopping a few times along the way to appreciate the breathtaking scenery and wonderful ocean views, which got better and better as the visibility gradually improved. We stopped at Dunbeg Fort, a Stone Age archaeological site on the edge of a coastal cliff. We stopped at a few curves in the road, passed a hairpin turn where a rather substantial stream flowed over the roadway, and suffered through the nerve wracking experience of driving on the incredibly narrow roads that were pretty much directly on the edge of cliffs. At one bend in the road (at Slea Head) we saw a crucifix which seemed rather randomly placed, and no obvious reason for its location was given. We passed Ryan's Daughter, the westernmost point on the peninsula, and eventually proceeded back to our hotel for dinner.

As we went to bed, we could hear rain pounding outside and the wind howling across the hills of Dingle. We were pretty much in the middle of nowhere, and it was great.

The next morning we returned to Ryan's Daughter and hiked out through fields sprinkled with sheep to the westernmost point on the Dingle Peninsula. It was VERY windy on the summit of Ryan's Daughter, which is actually a slight hill in addition to a finger of land extending into the Atlantic Ocean. As we walked out to the small stone hut on the hill, it began to rain in a very light, misty, cold fashion, blown in from the ocean. This sort of rain persisted intermittently for the next few hours.

We then went about a mile north to hike out to the end of the next finger of the peninsula, which does not extend as far west and is a bit rockier and taller than Ryan's Daughter. From there we could see a good deal of the western coast of Dingle.

From there we completed our loop around the peninsula, passing Mount Brandon and the wonderful car-falling-over-cliff sign. We returned to Dingle town for lunch at around 1pm and then began the drive back to Cork city, passing through Inch and running into traffic due to Puck Fair (an event I know nothing about other than that it generates traffic in Killorglin). On the way home we listened to Cork's Gaelic football team beat Tyrone on RTE radio followed by Cork's hurling team losing to Kilkenny (also on RTE). Both were quite entertaining to listen to.

All in all, the Dingle peninsula is awesome. And to cap off my Dingle ramblings, here is a picture of Ryan's Daughter:

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Munster Final (Football)

Today at 2pm, Cork played Kerry in the Munster Final for Gaelic Football at Páirc Uí Chaoimh just outside of Cork City. I was fortunate enough to go to the match and watch Cork pull off an amazing comeback upset over Kerry, the reigning All-Ireland and Munster Football champions. The final score was Cork 1-16 (for a total of 19) to Kerry's 1-11 (for a total of 14) after Cork had trailed at halftime 0-3 to 1-8. The game was immensely entertaining and a ton of fun to watch in spite of some very fickle weather.

We arrived at the stadium by bus about 50 minutes before it was supposed to start and got to watch the end of the Minor (under 18) Munster final between Kerry and Tipperary, which ended in a draw. As we arrived it was raining fairly steadily but not particularly hard and that rain kept up until about five minutes prior to the throw in of the Cork-Kerry match. The weather and expected result (a lopsided victory for Kerry) kept attendance on the rather low side, with the announced attendance at the Páirc Uí Chaoimh only around 22,700 (its capacity is closer to 30,000 or 40,000).

We watched from the very top of the West Stand, the end closest to the city. We happened to be surrounded mostly by Kerry fans with a few Cork fans sprinkled here and there between them. Cork and Kerry are rather bitter rivals as they border one another, and their teams are referred to, interestingly, as the Rebels (Cork) and the Kingdom (Kerry). The match started out pretty well for Cork with the Rebels scoring the first point within a minute of the start of the match. It remained fairly even for a few minutes after that until it was tied at two points each. At that point, Kerry began to run away with the match. By halftime it was 0-3 to 1-8 in favor of Kerry and the general feeling was that it would be kinder to use some sort of mercy rule so that the Cork players didn't have to suffer anymore. The only solace for the Cork fans was that after the rain had stopped just prior to the start of the match the sun had come out and the weather had turned quite warm, sunny, and very plesant.

After the last of the stragglers wearing Cork red trudged to the locker room for halftime, a sort of mini-pitch was set up in the middle of the real field and the girls teams from Cork and Kerry ran out to play a football match of their own, presumably for halftime entertainment. About 60 seconds into their mini-match, however, the sky darkened and the entire stands rustled as literally every person in the stadium put their jackets back on and reopened their umbrellas pretty much simultaneously. It was actually quite an impressive sight to see thousands of people very abruptly and rather frantically put on water-resistant outerwear. Just about as the last of the fans were done getting ready for the rain, it began pouring. It was quite possibly the heaviest rain I have ever been in. In about 60-90 seconds the weather went from quite warm, sunny, and apparently perfect to buckets of rain and strong wind. Fans huddled under umbrellas, some crouched against the back wall of the stand, others rushed out of the stands into the inner hallways of the Páirc Uí Chaoimh. The pouring rain persisted for pretty much the rest of halftime.

Strangely enough, the rain began to taper off before the half started and after about two minutes of the second half the rain had stopped completely although some clouds persisted. Cork looked better to start the second half and began to pull some points back but after about 5 minutes a Cork player was sent off for a second yellow card, making the outlook for the Rebels even bleaker than before. Nearly right after he was sent off Cork scored a point, but it seemed small consolation as Cork were still down 5 points and a man.

The Rebels didn't give up though, and a few minutes later scored a goal to put them within 2 points of Kerry, making the match interesting once again. At that point you wouldn't have been able to tell that Cork were a man down without counting. A mere minute or two later a Kerry player was sent off for what appeared from my angle to be a vicious elbow/shoulder to the head of a Cork footballer sprinting down the wing. At this point Cork were trailing by two but seemed by far the better side of the half, and they quickly got two more points to draw level with the Kerrymen. The teams traded points, but by looking at the two teams it seemed only a matter of time until Cork pulled ahead for good, which they did soon after. Cork eventually won by 5 points, a remarkable achievement considering that they were down by 8 at half time.

The announcer made repeated requests to fans to "please stay off the pitch" after the match was over, but these requests went completely unheeded. Eventually the police simply opened the gates onto the pitch so that the supporters didn't have to hop the fences.

The Cork captain raising the cup (taken from the pitch).

As we made our way out of the stadium, it began to rain once again. The Cork weather ended up bracketing the match with rain before, at halftime, and after. Somehow the times when the players were actually playing stayed fairly dry. Read more

Killarney + Pictures

Yesterday one of my housemates and I traveled to Killarney. Killarney is about an hour and a half bus journey northwest of Cork City a few kilometers past the county border between Kerry and Cork. The bus takes small, winding roads and we left at around 9:30 in the morning, so by the time we arrived in Killarney i was actually rather nauseous. The bus actually had seatbelts as well, a fact that surprised and initially sort of confused me coming from a land with seatbeltless busses. Fortunately, Killarney itself was a great place to visit and offset any lingering nausea in a few short minutes. After a brief walk from the bus station to the city center, we were greeted with the street in the picture to the left, followed by two busier and more main streets filled with all sorts of restaurants and assorted shops, including butchers, bakers, sports shops, betting places, and a bunch of gift shops (Killarney has been a tourist destination for hundreds of years).

After arriving in the downtown area (which consists of 2 major streets that basically form a big T) we got some food, which was cheaper than it would have been in Cork which could have been a result of practically every other shop along the two main streets being some sort of restaurant. There was a Subway and a Burger King as well, which didn't quite seem to fit in alongside O'Connor's Butcher Shop and O'Leary's Pub. After lunch we walked over to St. Mary's Cathedral, which was built in the 1800s and I believe it is the seat of the Diocese of Kerry. It is a functioning cathedral and there was actually a wedding finishing up as we went to check it out, so we didn't go inside.
Across the street from the entrance to the cathedral (directly behind where that picture was taken from) is an entrance to Killarney national park, an enormous plot of land owned by the Irish Government which contains the Lakes of Killarney, a few picturesque mountains, and the ruins of Ross Castle and Innisfallen Island, home to Innisfallen Abbey, one of the oldest monasteries in County Kerry. The park itself is gorgeous, and attempting to describe it is pretty much pointless, so here are some pictures:


The above pictures are of some of the fields near Killarney taken about a 5-10 minute walk from the cathedral.

This picture with mountains and Lough Leane in the background was taken from about halfway between St. Mary's Cathedral and Ross Castle.

This was taken from the base of Ross Castle looking out over Lough Leane.

All in all, it was a great trip. As a bonus, it didn't really start raining until we were boarding the bus to return to Cork. As we drove back, we could see from the bus window the same rolling hills with their peaks shrouded in low, wispy clouds. It looked really cool. It was a rather exhausting day, but completely worth it. The next travel goal is to head to a county not called Cork or Kerry and venture beyond the far southwest corner of the country. Read more

Gaelic Football

Today Dublin played Westmeath in one of the Leinster semifinals for Gaelic Football. I watched it on TV, and it was a fascinating game to watch. It was the first complete gaelic football match I’ve watched and it was really quite entertaining. Gaelic football is played 15 v 15, just like hurling and rugby, and has a scoring system identical to hurling. You score points by putting the ball either into the goal (which is very similar to a soccer goal) for 3 points or over the bar and between the uprights (like a field goal in football) for a point. Here were some of my thoughts at the time, in bullet form:

Evidently when Dublin plays matches at Croke Park (their home stadium) the matches always start late because their supporters can’t get there on time. They have the shortest distance to travel there and are the only set of fans that are chronically late. Go figure.

Everyone seems to expect Dublin to crush Westmeath by 4 or 5.

Westmeath have a goofy prematch ritual in which everyone gets into a big crowd and throws themselves around trying to bounce off one another for about 30 seconds. Reminds me of the Hawaiian football team dance, except its less organized and decidedly less intimidating.

1st minute Dublin wins the throw in, which is very similar to a basketball jump ball except 2 players from each team are allowed to participate.

2^nd minute That was fast. Number 4 for Westmeath fouls a Dublin player, and with the resulting penalty a Dublin player scores a point. This looks like it might be high scoring.

4^th minute Two more shots from Dublin, two misses. We are no longer on pace for 35 points.

5^th minute Point! Maybe I was wrong, this could turn into a pointfest after all. This time its Dennis Glennon for Westmeath, and we’re tied.

6^th minute First blood (literally). Dublin player leaves the pitch to get treatment for rather extensive bleeding in the general face area. He is replaced by another guy, a “blood sub”. It seems like if somebody is bleeding you’re able to replace them temporarily while they are treated, after which you can put them back in.

7^th minute GOAL! Westmeath guy plays a long ball through the defense and a teammate gets there a fraction before the Dublin keeper to punch it over him, and it bounces into the goal. This removes any remaining doubts I may have had about how exciting this sport is. It seems to be on the high-scoring side.

9^th minute Another point. Westmeath are in danger of running away with this, they’re up 5 points to 1.

10^th minute Dublin respond with another point off a free kick. We’re 1/7 done with this thing, and we’ve already got 7 points between the teams.

13^th minute Dublin foul results in point for Westmeath. This just doesn’t stop. In case I’ve missed something, the score is Westmeath 1-3 to Dublin 0-3 (the first number is the goals and the second number is the points, so to get totals you’d multiply the first number by 3 and add it to the second number). To most people, that’s 6-3 Westmeath is leading.

14^th minute Basically the same play and foul leads to a free kick for Westmeath, which leads to a point. 7 to 3. The bleeding Dublin guy is back and no longer bleeding.

15^th minute That looked painful. A Dublin player was running at full speed and abruptly pulled up clutching his hamstring. I don’t think I’ve seen that while watching a sporting event in quite a long time. I’m happy I don’t see it more often, it hurts to watch. No surprise, he is subbed off nearly immediately.

17^th minute Dublin point!

18^th minute Times two. These points seem to come in flurries.

20^th minute And a bad Westmeath pass is intercepted and leads to yet another Dublin point. They’re only down by 1 now, 7 to 6 Westmeath.

22^nd minute That was odd. Westmeath got a free kick and immediately kicked it directly out of bounds. I’m not sure if that was incredibly stupid or somehow strategically significant. I’ll go with the former unless this is some subtle mind ploy that I do not understand (which is I suppose possible, considering that I understand very, very little about Gaelic Football)

24^th minute FOUL! And Dublin’s number 8 gets the first second yellow card of the match. I have no idea when the first happened.

26^th minute Another yellow card for Dublin now, and I’m very curious about that first yellow card that the announcers keep referring to but do not show a replay of.

27^th minute A pretty sequence of play from Westmeath following the yellow card leads to a point. The 3 or 4 passes leading up to it seemed to be the Gaelic Football equivalent of approximately what Spain have looked like in Euro 08

32^nd minute A yellow card for someone from Westmeath (the first one not to go to a Dublin player) quickly followed by two missed shots by Dublin. They’re supposed to be walking all over Westmeath today. Apparently Gaelic football commentators have similar powers of prediction to most American sports commentators.

33^rd minute Dublin point! That ties it up at 8 all

34^th minute Dublin number 9 is replaced again by number 18 as a blood sub. This guy bleeds a lot, evidently.

1 minute of stoppage time

35 + 1 minute Halftime. Whew, that was an exciting first half. These GAA people like their sports high scoring.

Aaaaand they’re back. Dublin made 3 subs, apparently. Or maybe it was Westmeath, he just said a manager’s name that I did not recognize, although it sounded very traditionally Irish.

36^th minute Dublin win the throw in and then score almost immediately. Their first lead, I think.

37^th minute A shot at goal! Those don’t seem to happen too often, no goalkeeper to block points. The Westmeath keeper saved this shot though. I’m not exactly sure what the goalkeeper’s special privileges are (if he has any) because everybody is allowed to use their hands.

39^th minute Wow, that was a bad shot. Westmeath player tries for a point, comes closer to the corner flag than the upright. Dublin crowd jeers.

44^th minute Long span of possession followed by missed shots ends with a Westmeath free kick that they convert for a point, tying the game at 9. The action has seemed to slow down, after this amount of time in the first half we had seen 7 or 8 points.

45^th minute And of course just as I say that, Westmeath score another point to pull ahead, 10 to 9. This is back to looking like it did in the first half, we’ll see if they keep up with they points in flurries theme.

48^th minute Evidently not. A Dublin player misses a painfully easy free kick that I think I could’ve made (20 yards out, pretty much centered between the uprights) off one of the posts. Dublin number 9 comes back from bleeding. I wonder how long this will last, he seems to be rather blood prone.

51^st minute Yellow card for Dublin number 19. I have absolutely no idea what for, that seemed really arbitrary to me.

52^nd minute Two quick points put Dublin in the lead again, although most of the action has degenerated into the middle third of the field (which, incidentally, is massive. Even with 15 people per team these guys must be doing an incredible amount of running.) Scoring and chances have cooled off in the second half.

56^th minute That was very strange. A Westmeath player fouled a Dublin player, resulting in a free kick. Dublin took the kick too quickly for the ref’s liking, however, and so as punishment he gave the ball back to Westmeath. That strikes me as bizarre and could almost encourage fouling in some situations. Maybe that’s just me.

A few subs happened in the past few minutes, is seems like each team is allowed a lot of them.

60^th minute TRICKERY! CHEATING SCUM! Or at least this is what they tell me. One of the Dublin players just threw the ball, which evidently is a sin similar to handball in soccer. All previous (legal) handpasses have been rather like an underhand serve in volleyball with the ball held in one hand and struck with the palm of the other. This motion looks (to me, at least) nearly identical to the underhand throwing motion this Dublin player was just penalized for. Go figure.

64^th minute After a few more assorted misses on either end, Dublin appear to be preparing a sub. How may of these are allowed?

66^th minute Man down! Man down! Westmeath number 5 is lying on the field in pain.

He’s ok now.

67^th minute Point! We have more scoreboard changing to do! That took long enough, and puts Dublin up by 2 with only 3-4 minutes to play. Westmeath are not in such great shape, but they aren’t down by the 5 or 6 that all the pundits were predicting before the match.

69^th minute Westmeath are reduced to playing long balls and praying for a goal. It does not look good for the underdog at the moment.

70^th minute And that is probably the final nail in the coffin. An impressive buildup of passes by Dublin leads to a point to put them ahead by 3. One minute of stoppage time.

70 + 1 minute A free kick for Westmeath is turned into a point, but it is not enough. The match is over, Dublin are advancing to the Leinster final.

Dublin 0-13 (13)

Westmeath 1-8 (11)

That was very interesting. And there is a Euro 08 final to watch later. Read more