Temple Bar, Dublin

The Temple Bar at Night

The lights of the Temple Bar, one of Dublin's most popular drinking establishments, beckon customers on a frosty December evening.

McDaid's Pub

McDaid's Pub, Dublin

McDaid's Pub, Dublin, the surreal haunt of Patrick Kavanagh, Brendan Behan, Brian O'Nolan (Flann O'Brien), Brian Donleavy ('The Ginger Man'), Anthony Cronin and a host of other Irish literary giants.

In his book 'Dead as Doornails', Anthony Cronin writes: "McDaid's was never merely a literary pub. Its strength was always in variety, of talent, class, caste and estate. The divisions between a writer and a non-writer, bohemian and artist, informer and revolutionary, male and female, were never rigorously enforced; and nearly everybody, gurriers included, was ready for elevation to Parnassus, the scaffold or whatever."

Galway Street Musicians

Irish Traditional Music in Galway

"A piper in the streets today

Set up, and tuned, and started to play,

And away, away, away on the tide

Of his music we started; on every side

Doors and windows were open wide."

Seumas O'Sullivan

In Galway, as in Dublin's Grafton Street, you can expect an improvised musical street session at any moment.

Shop Street, Galway

Shop Street, Galway

An Ear for Music

"Age envisions a fiddler

While youth goes blindly by." C O'S

Seconds after this moment was captured, the elderly lady returned and placed money in the busker's fiddle case.

Galway Streets

Galway Street Mural

"O body swayed to music, O brightening glance,

How can we know the dancer from the dance?"

W. B. Yeats

Have the cyclists joined the musicians and the dancers? Who knows? Life and art are often indistinguishable in Ireland.

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Salmon Weir Bridge, Galway

View from Salmon Weir Bridge, Galway, Ireland

The Salmon Weir Bridge, constructed in 1818, crosses the Corrib from the courthouse to Galway Cathedral (The Cathedral of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven and St Nicholas). Pedestrians enjoy a spectacular view of the waters rushing through the weir and anglers casting for salmon in season.

"Salmon in the Corrib

Gently swaying

And the water combed out

Over the weir

And a hundred swans

Dreaming on the harbour;

The war came down on us here."

From 'Galway' by Louis Macneice

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Carlingford Lough - Artemis and Mourne Mountains

The Artemis in Carlingford Lough

The Artemis, a three-masted barque, sailing in Carlingford Lough against the backdrop of the legendary Mourne Mountains.

Built in Norway in 1926, the Artemis began her career as a whaler on the high seas. She was converted to an impressive sailing ship in 2001.

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