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Show } Family Weekly/Aprit 20, 1969 Wondersof the Old World | Children This noted traveler-author took her youngsters back to the land of her great-grandparents; here’s why she thinksit’s a good idea for your family—plus tips on how to doit Author of “Amy Vanderbilt's Complete Book of Etiquette,’ ‘Amy Vanderbilt's Complete Cookbook,” and “Amy Vanderbilt's Everyday Etiquette” in the vess of the peovle of the Galway regicn and of the city. Columbus is said to have heard mass there in the Church of St. Nicholas before setting out on his famous voyages. This was my second trip to Galway and my second disappointment that I didn’t have the time to go by steamer to the Aran islands. The Aran islands are barren and completely Gaelic in character, deep in Irish culture and folklore. Of course, we bought the Aran islanders’ sweaters for the children and for friends at home. Right in the Great Southern Hotel in Galway Dublin friends and the parties planned for us— it was time to think of our next stop on the way back to Shannon and the trip home. We decided not-too-usual aight in Ireland. Although the coun- try is actually semitropical because of the Gulf Stream and in some parts (including Dublin) to drive via the great city of Cork with a two- there are palm trees growing, the sea is very day stopover at Tralee, one of the most popular of all the tourist areas of Ireland. One of the most exciting side trips we took in cold by our standards, and, while hardy Irishmen Ireland, particularly for me, as I had never been there before, was the Dingle peninsula, which we explored from our base in Tralee. En route to Dingle, we were able to show the children some may swim, it isn’t often the tourists do. In Dingle there is a small, charming hotel called the Beginish House. There we hada delicious lunch cooked by the wife of the proprietor whoalso was willing to cook the cockles we had gathered so the children could taste them (a City where we stayed, there is a roof-top restau- rant that not only affords a beautiful view of the city and the bay but also serves some of the finest food I have had in Ireland. On the road from Galway to Dublin, we encountered many “Irish travelers’”—gypsies to us —wholove the area. TheIrish travelers wholive and move about in their colorful wagons are the tinkers, the ragpickers, and the horse traders of the country. Efforts have been made to get them to settle into cottages, without luck. Although they are distinctly foot-loose, they don’t wander The farmhouses of Ireland retain the rustic charm of centuries. beyond Ireland’s shores—and understandably. Like true gypsies, they are moody and temperamental. Don’t snap their pictures without permission and without “crossing their palms” with at least a sixpence. No trip to Ireland is complete without consid- erable time in Dublin, so we spent three days there, and they had to be divided between the Intercontinental Hotel (comfortably American) and thelovely small Russell, where I usually stay. Because of the pressure of tourist business, this famous hostelry is being enlarged but will not lose its charmor, I hope, the excellent restaurant where you can get all kinds of fine Irish foods, such as Dublin Bay prawns, Irish brown bread, delicate Irish smoked salmon, game birds, and delicious desserts that made the children’s eyes bug. The Irish custom of serving three, four or even five desserts didn’t displease them,either! In Dublin we shopped. We went to the new Abby Theater, too. We gorged ourselves on marvelous food at the Shelbourne Hotel in St. Ste- phen’s Green (close by my favorite Irish couture house, Irene Gilbert). While the children went riding in nearby County Wicklow and played tennis with Irish children, my husbandandI considered buying an old Georgian house on Mount Joy Square whose rehabilitation has the blessing of the distin- guished Irish Georgian Society. Much too soon—considering the lure of all our of the earliest surviving stone structures in Ireland, “beehive cells” made of unmortared stone overlapping each era from the foundations of the country’s earliest ecclesiastical structures prior to the 8th century. Someof the farmhouses along the Kerry roads oa the Dingle peninsula maintain the “beehives” as part of the National Trust and chargea shilling to visitors, There is no doubt that the Dingle peninsula is a choice part of Ireland. In the little town of Dingle, we spent part of the morning on the beach watching thechildren gather cockles andenjoying the sight of the Irish cows up to their bellies in wet sand, cooling off on the warm day, Here and there were a few families bathing, a taste of combined mussels and clams, I would say). They made the song weall sang, “Cockles and Mussels,” even more meaningful. Westarted back the next day from Tralee toward Shannon, five happy people ready any time to become Irish travelers again. For help in planning your Irish trip, write Irish Tourist Board, Dept. 10, 590 Fifth Avenue, NewYork, N.Y. 10086. « See More and Save in Ireland! Get more for every travel dollar spent when you make your next trip to Ireland! Mail $2.50 plus 15¢ shipping for a copy of “Ireland on $5 a Day” to F.W. Books, Dept. T1/K, Box 707, Grand Central Station, New York, N.Y., 10017. Family Weekly, April 20, 1969 5 |