Ireland
Photo: Everyone's image of Ireland? Colourful pubs (public drinking bars) in Kilkenny. Photo by courtesy of Tambako the Jaguar, published on Flickr in 2007 under a Creative Commons Licence.
Fáilte! We've compiled a list of about 200 of the best pages we could find, helping you to plan your perfect summer holiday (vacation) or short break in Ireland (Eire) and Northern Ireland. Here you'll find: information about places to stay in places such as Donegal, Dublin, Belfast, Galway, and Cork.
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Introduction
They don't call it the Emerald Isle for nothing. Trip across to Ireland by boat or plane and you'll discover a haven of beauty and peace. The long and bitter "troubles", which so dominated Ireland's recent history, seem firmly now a part of its past. There's a new confidence about the place, massive investment and economic growth, and a powerful determination to make the 21st century memorable for entirely different reasons. If you're visiting Ireland and Northern Ireland, recent history might still be uppermost in your mind. But look beyond politics and you'll find a unique and captivating destination.
There are cities here, of course—Belfast, Dublin, Cork, Galway, and Limerick among them—but Ireland is still quintessentially a rural place. Considering its size (about 84,000 square kilometres or 32,000 square miles, about 486km or 302 miles long, and 280km or 174 miles wide), it's also a relatively unpopulated place. Fewer people live in the whole of Ireland and Northern Ireland than in London—but, as I'm sure they'd agreed, what they lack in "quantity" they more than make up for in "quality". Ireland's big-hearted folk are famous for their warm and genuine hospitality.
This land is their land: the mountains of Donegal, the lakes and rivers that make up the Erne and Shannon waterways, the surfing breaks at Bundoran, the Sligo of W.B. Yeats, the intricate, intimate bays and estuaries that make up the west coast, the mild and moist climate. But it can be your land too. Whether you want to catch salmon in Meath, marvel at the Giant's Causeway, or walk the Dublin streets of James Joyce and Samuel Beckett, Ireland has something to offer you.
It's a world away from mainland Britain—and a perfect escape' for a few days, a few weeks, or the rest of your life.
