Thursday, 12 May 1955
We leave Dublin, with friend B, at 9:30 AM for Murray’s Car Hire and check out in a tan 1955 Ford Anglia with right-hand drive. It’s a bit complicated getting used to it, particularly in knowing where to look for oncoming traffic and negotiating around roundabouts; rotaries to us. It’s cloudy and then it turns to rain as we pass many beautifully crafted signs with impeccable typography on stores and pubs. We also see tinkers’ wagons, gypsy caravans that look like beer barrels cut in half and attached to wheels. The tinker kids inside seem to all have red hair.
Foliage and landscape lovely, the general level of poverty is sad to see. Cows and sheep block the way on well-paved asphalt roads. Cowherds and shepherds are polite and accommodating, to a man – or child as the case might be. Stopped for tea at the C.I.E. Hotel Great Southern in Galway, cold as a tomb. An American couple there looking disillusioned and seemed to be wishing they were home.
Friday, May 13, 1955
We forge on through desolation and the rocky road to Ballynahinch Castle, recommended by Mr. Sheehy of Fogra Failte, where the accommodations are excellent! We were given a double room with bath, just over a kitchen so it was slightly warm (but not too comfortable, at least by American standards. We warmed ourselves up a bit with Irish whisky, sweet and palatable, and went on to enjoy seven exquisitely prepared and served courses that included an entrée of salmon that had been recently caught on a beat adjacent to the hotel. It was proudly displayed on a counter for all the guests to admire on their way into the dining room.
Ballynahinch Castle is still accommodating guests who fish for salmon and visitors who do not. This May it would have cost us 190 Euros plus 10% gratuities for bed and breakfast. 50 years ago we paid $US 9.25 for our two Irish whiskies, bed and breakfast, and two fabulous dinners, including tips all around.
That's Ruth standing amidst the luxuriant growth on the castle grounds