Trafalgar Tours with Ireland

An island to the northwest of continental Europe is Ireland. It is separated from Great Britain by the Irish Sea. The first inhabitants arrived after 8000 BC. Ireland was part of a trading network in the Bronze Age. Between the 8th and 1st centuries BC the Iron Age and the Celts are associated with this country. Through Medieval times and Norman and Engish Invasions, Ireland developed and Henry VIII re-created the title, King of Ireland. Eventually, it became part of the United Kingdom. In 1921, The Anglo-Irish Treaty gave all of Ireland independence, but an oath of allegiance to British Crown was maintained at that time. Eventually Northern Island opted out and civil problems arose. There are three World Heritage Sites on the island: the Bru na Boinne, Skellig Michael, and the Giant's Causeway. Bunratty Castle, the Rock of Cashel, the Cliffs of Moher, Holy Cross Abbey, Blarney Castle, Glendalough, and Clonmacnoise are sites to visit. Attractions are: Guiness Storehouse, Book of Kells, Lakes of Killarney, Dingle peninsula, Aran Islands, Achill Island, Blue Flag beaches, Croaghaun sea cliff, Castle Ward, Castletown House, Bantry House. The major cities are Dublin, Belfast, Cork, Limerick, Derry, Galway, Lisburn, Newtownabbey, Waterford, Bangor. Jonathan Swift was noted for Gulliver's Travels.  Winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature are: George Bernard Shaw, William Butler Yeats, Samuel Beckett and Seamus Heaney. James Joyce wrote Ulysses although not a Nobel prize winner. Notable Irish physicists were Robert Boyle(Boyle's Law), John Tyndall (the Tyndall effect), Father John Nicholas Joseph Callan (the induction coil, transformer, and galvanisation), Ernest Walton, Sir John Douglas Crockcroft, William Thomson (Lord Kelvin and Kelvin scale), and Joseph Larmor. Irish whiskey has grown again in popularity on a national scale. Ireland is rich with things to do and see on your Brendan tour.

Trafalgar Escorted Tours visiting Ireland