Just a change of one letter: Iceland to Ireland! I’d only been to Ireland once before and that was a brief work visit to Belfast, and never to southern Ireland. The differences between northern Ireland and southern Ireland and between UK and EU were therefore a mystery. After quizzing several locals about this, my conclusions is that the strongest identity still lies in coming from Ireland as a whole. The concept of Eire is little used and residents feel more of a connection with their country overall (Ireland) then they do with the EU, even in southern Ireland. It is all somewhat confusing.

The route and places visited can be seen here

Although spread across 2 sailings, my first visit to Ireland on this occasion was to the port of Belfast from where I was able to take a trip to the Giant’s Causeway, some 2hrs away on the north eastern coast. Having seen many pictures of this UNESCO world heritage, I was keen to get my own views. The Causeway itself is actually about a mile down a tarmac path from the car park and the National Trust visitor centre which opened in 2012 to cater for the ~1m visitors each year. The 40,000 basalt columns also extend over a smaller area than I had imagined and in July, they were teeming with tourists. Apparently, to get the stones to yourself and to better feel the power of the ocean, a visit in February is a better choice. Legend has it that these stones were laid by 2 warring giants – Finn McCool on the Antrim coast and Benandonner who lived on the Scottish island of Staffa, with the Causeway extending between the 2 locations. But then there’s the geological explanation of a ‘tessellated pavement’.

Views of the Giant's Causeway and Belfast port can be seen here

My next view of Ireland was from a sailing around several scenic coastal areas: Lough Swilly (with care about where to put the ‘s’), Tory Island, Arranmore Island and the Slieve League Cliffs. The weather was unfortunately poor for the first 3 but brightened the following day for the Slieve League Cliffs and the visit to Killybegs.

Views of the northern coastline can be seen here

And Slieve League Cliffs here

Killybegs is Ireland's largest and most important fishing port, famous for its bustling deepwater harbour. The day started with a walk through the Irish countryside to see the farming and sheep rearing activity followed later in the day by a self-tour around the town of Killybegs including its impressive fleet of modern fishing vessels as well as its connections to the fate of the Spanish Armada in 1588, many ships of which were wrecked along the west coast of Ireland in storms after a failed attempt the attack England.

The Killybegs Gallery is here

After Killybegs, we called at Galway, a much bigger and lively city that Killybegs and home to several festivals including the International Arts Festival which happened to be on at the time of visit. The Latin Quarter in particular is very colourful and vibrant with many pubs and restaurants and like Killybegs, Galway has links to the Spanish Armada with 300 Spanish sailors buried on their Forthill Cemetary.

Galway gallery is here

Some 50km from Galway is The Burren National Park, a vast porous limestone pavement through which water has drained over thousands of years to create extensive cave systems. We were lucky to see one such system - Aillwee Caves and this together with the surrounding landscapes and villages can be seen here.

Lastly, we called into Cobh (pronounced 'Cove' as Gaelic, from which the name comes, has no 'v' sound). Cobh is the main port to the city of Cork but is extensive with its own cathedral and well known for its multi-coloured houses in its own right. It was also the last departure point of the Titanic before she set sail across the Atlantic and the White Star booking and departure building on the harbour front remains and has been converted to a museum of 'The Titanic Experience'. 

The Cobh gallery is here