Driving In Ireland Is A Sport All Its Own

Imagine a harsh, eerie moonscape with sporadic vegetation sprouting in bizarre places. The visitor’s center describes plant species ranging from artic to sub-tropical thriving within the cracks and crevices of this hostile, rocky terrain. Efforts to cultivate this land resulted in unending rock walls lining the narrow roads that were truly meant for horse and cart … not modern vehicles. Somehow, the cattle, sheep, and horses graze among the rocky fissures that were formed beneath the sea a million years ago. On the southwestern edge of The Burren, the Cliffs of Moher drop dramatically to the Atlantic Ocean and extend for five miles along the coastline. During north Atlantic gales, the pounding surf rivals nature’s drama seen along California’s Big Sur.

Visitors to Ireland expect to hear traditional Irish folk music and only the early-to-bedders will be disappointed. In Doolin, a village famous for Irish music, the musicians start playing around nine o’clock. We listened to live Irish music in Killarney, Limerick, Dublin, and places in between and it’s late before the entertainment begins.

In Limerick, we stumbled on the best Irish music during our trip. The Locke had an incredible band that creatively blended traditional Irish with Bluegrass music. Anyone familiar with Riverdance will understand how the first influenced the second. Dolan’s Pub featured various local musicians who came to jam with fiddles, flutes, guitars, banjos, even spoons. They treated us to great, spontaneous Irish music and we loved it. Dolan’s also owns a concert hall that offers a litany of performances by famous groups.

Driving in Ireland is a sport all its own. American auto insurers will not cover a rental car in Ireland; rental companies mandate their own insurance and it’s expensive. In a small car with manual transmission, I concentrated on opposite-side driving while trying to master Ireland’s answer to intersections … the infamous roundabout! Despite the awkwardness of left-sided driving, I soon became adept maneuvering through roundabouts because I encountered one every quarter mile in the city. On the open highway, drivers can travel almost five miles between roundabouts. Just to keep things interesting, some roundabouts also had traffic signals. Adding to the driving challenge are narrow roads through small towns where drivers park wherever they choose… halfway on the street… halfway on the sidewalks. Few cities have bypasses to circumvent traffic around the downtown area. Hour-long backups are typical in places such as Waterford where major cross-country routes funnel all traffic across a single two-lane bridge in the heart of city. Stretches of national highway are curvy, two-lane roads with no shoulders. Regardless, the speed limit is one-hundred kilometers per hour (62 mph) until drivers reach the next roundabout on the outskirt of a town or village.

Wait! There’s more. I thought the national highways were narrow until I traveled on regional roads. Oncoming carsNarrow winding roads bordered by rock walls or hedgerows are found throughout Ireland cannot pass without squeezing up to a hedgerow or a rock wall delineating the edge of the road. There is no space on either side of the road… zero, zippo, none. Fortunately, vegetation covers many rock walls. When a car brushes against vines, a driver knows that further yielding will cause serious vehicular damage. This is particularly helpful when the approaching vehicle is a tour bus, a sixteen-wheeler, or an oversized farm tractor pulling a flatbed full of hay. While the roads are riddled with hairpin curves, shared with bikers and pedestrians, used for cattle and sheep crossings, the typical speed limit is eighty kilometers per hour (50 mph). Years ago, visitors drove for miles without seeing another car. Those days are long gone, the current road system cannot handle the traffic, and the allowed driving speeds add to the danger. The next time you seek a thrill, forget the latest mega-ride at Six Flags. Just rent a car and go for a drive in Ireland.