I think the last time I was in the Republic of Ireland was 1980, so my memories of our two visits to visit family over there are pretty hazy – but there are some bits that I can still recall even though I was so young!

So, a couple of weeks ago, I was back in Ireland for a holiday with my mum, sister, Brandon & Chloe (who all arrived a week before I did) – all staying at my mum’s cousin’s house!

I took an overnight ferry to Dublin from Liverpool, setting sail at 3am, and the facilities were really basic. I sailed with P&O, and I quickly realise they were really catering for the freight industry, but also take regular passengers too. I tried to get a bit of sleep sitting in a pretty uncomfortable chair, and I finally got off the ferry into Dublin Port at about 11am.

It took about 3½ hours to drive over to Listowel in County Kerry, and after arriving at Mai & PJ’s house, I went with mum, Vikky and the kids to the beach!

The nearest seaside town is Ballybunion, which is about 20 minutes away from the house, and I do have some memories of going there as a kid. Even thought it was later in the afternoon, it was nice and sunny, so we spent a couple hours on the beach.

The next day, me and mum took a trip on the Ring of Kerry, which is a tourist trail in the southern part of County Kerry, taking in the coastline (which is part of the Wild Atlantic Way) and then goes through the Killarney National Park.

Our first stop was the small town of Killorglin, which is right next to the River Laune. We parked up to take a look around, and it was surprisingly quiet for a Saturday lunchtime. Walking up the main street, it was interesting to note all the buildings were painted different colours, and one even had a really cool mural painted on it.

After Killorgin, we carried on down the Ring Of Kerry until the road was suddenly right on the coast, overlooking Kells Bay with a view of the Derry Peninsula in the distance. We pulled up in a lay-by to so I could take some photos, and then carried on down the coast until we came to Reenard Point.

Here we were able to take the ferry to Valentia Island – it was pretty small ferry, just taking around 12 – 15 cars, and you stayed sitting in the car for the 10 minute crossing.

Once in Kinghtstown, we parked up and had a walk alongside the harbour, and then had coffee and cake at the ‘Coffee Dock’, which had a mezzanine balcony-type thing attached to what used to be a house, so we could sit and take in the view.

Mum had been to the island years ago, and kind of recognised the hotel on the front, and also remembered there was a view of a lighthouse, so we then drove across the north of the island, and found the lighthouse at the end of a track from the main road.

We pulled up in the car park, and there’s then a walkway to the lighthouse which is built on a separate big rock, but we didn’t go over to it because you had to pay! So instead we stood watching the waves crashing over the surrounding rocks for a bit – it was pretty noisy and breezy!

So we left the lighthouse, and I drove back up the track to get to the main road, but the last part of it was pretty steep, and had a hairpin bend just before the top, and that’s where I had a really stressful few minutes!

I was driving in first gear, and on the hairpin I nearly stalled, so I pulled on my handbrake to stop me rolling backwards, but because there was a bit of an incline, I pulled it pretty hard. But I could instantly feel it was different, and seemed to click past the point it normally does, and my fears were realised when I tried to take the handbrake off and I couldn’t! It doesn’t help that the little button on the end of the handle is broken, so you have to push directly onto the metal, but no matter how hard I pressed, it wouldn’t disengage! And then I was worried because I was about 120 degrees around this bend, and if it suddenly released (or the brake cable snapped) then the car would roll backwards off the edge of the road!

I called Ste to see if he had an ideas, but it was hard for him to advise over the phone! We were stuck there for quite a while, and I got pretty stressed about it! Eventually, I managed to find the bit of snapped-off button, and was able to use it to help me press it hard, whilst riding the clutch, and it suddenly released and I was able to drive the last section! I took a few a few minutes after that to get my breath back!

From the south of Valentia Island, we took the road bridge back to the mainland, and carried on around the Ring of Kerry, stopping off at the village of Sneem for a drink, and to have a quick look in a pretty big gift shop (that had lots of traditional knitted jumpers!).

The shops and house in the village were really bright and colourful, and there’s also a river that has some really cool rocks in it, which made for a great photo from the bridge.

We hit the road again, stopping briefly at Moll’s Gap to take some pictures, and then carried on into Killarney National Park, which again has some really breathtaking scenery.

Our next stop was Ladies’ View near Killarney. It was named in the 19th century after one of Queen Victoria’s ladies-in-waiting who visited it, and said it was the best view they’d ever seen. I mean, they make a fair point – the view of the lakes, surrounded by mountains was amazing, and since it was about half seven, the low warm light from the sun coming through the trees looked beautiful.

We then continued through Killarney, and then all the way back to Listowel. There’d been a lot of driving over the last two days, so I felt I’d earned my bed that night!

On Sunday we mostly stayed in. Mai’s friend Noreen came over and brought her little granddaughter Aoife over to play with with kids. Andy had been with everyone the week before so had taught Brandon how to ride a bike without stabilisers, so we did some filming with my GoPro attached to the handlebars, and then strapped to his head whilst the 3 of them rode and ran around! Looked pretty cool!

We did pop up to Tom’s cottage in Duagh, which is the farm we used to stay at when I was a kid, but he wasn’t in, so we just walked around the outside of the buildings. It was quite weird, because I have quite strong memories of being there as an 8 and 9 year old, although I did remember some of it as being bigger – although I was a lot smaller then!

The weather on Monday was a bit rubbish, so there wasn’t much to do – the kids really wanted to be on the beach, but weren’t up for doing anything else. I wanted to check out Crag Cave, which is nearby old cave system open to the public, and so after a bit of cajoling, we all went, and I think both Brandon & Chloe actually enjoyed it in the end. But the bit they enjoyed the most was big soft play area with ball pit, which they spent over an hour in!

That evening, we watched the Rose of Tralee on TV – it’s a massive international festival which takes place in nearby Tralee, and it really is a strange thing! The one thing that did come to mind was the Lovely Girls competition in ‘Father Ted’! The contestants are all female, and are from all over the world (seemingly mostly the USA) – they just need to have some kind of family link to Ireland. And the bizarrest part is they have to show off a skill, and this included singing, poetry of various quality, piano recitals, Irish dancing, ballet teaching, frisbee throwing, and even one contestant whose party piece was to list all the Irish counties in under 10 seconds!

After sitting through the whole 3 hours(!) of the first night’s show, we decided to go for a sunset walk by the river, and got chatting to a guy who was there fishing salmon. He’d retired and moved over from England, and now spent most of his evening out with his fishing stuff!

Tuesday was my last full day, so we drove up to Limerick, which is a city about an hour and a quarter away. We parked up, and went straight to Dunnes, and mum and Vikky spent ages looking for some stuff for Chloe – Brandon gave up and just lay down on the floor in the middle of the store!

After we finally got out, me, mum `and the kids went for a walk up to and around King John’s Castle, and then along river, before meeting back up with Vikky near the car.

From Limerick, we crossed into yet another county, and drove to Bunratty Castle and folk park. I guess it’s kind of the equivalent of the Black Country museum, and captures what Ireland was like in the 19th century.

It was a really fascinating place, you could just roam around the ‘village’ streets and look inside buildings, and we went into the castle (although Brandon quickly gave up because he didn’t like the steep stone spiral staircase!), and got a great view of the surrounding area from the battlements.

The next morning I said my goobyes and set off at 10am for the drive back to Dublin for my 3 o’clock ferry. I got in the queue, but they didn’t let us into the port, and then we were notified that there was a problem with the boat so it was cancelled!

Luckily it was arranged for us to travel with a different company, but that didn’t leave until 9pm, so I had a bit of a drive around to try and kill some time! Oh, and the new ferry didn’t go to Liverpool, but to Holyhead on Anglesea, so there was a much longer drive back home afterwards!

The one good thing about it though was I discovered Irish Ferries is in a totally different class to P&O, so I know who to sail with next time!