LANIGAN'S TRAVELS

June...........  

Kilkenny, Ireland  - Day 5 in Ireland

View from our room in Portrush

Day 5.  The day I've been most anticipating.  We say goodbye to Portrush and begin the journey to Kilkenny, which is where my family is from... or so rumor has it. Portrush has been good to us but we're on a mission!

Going from the tip of Northern Ireland to the South part of the Irish Republic is not a short trip. We (Jim) drove quite a few hours on Day 5.

We arrive in Kilkenny ready for a nap.

We parked in a parking garage and just sat there and closed our eyes for a few minutes.  Then we were off.  Jim had previously found there was a Lanigan's Bar in Kilkenny so that was the first order of business.  Finding it.  Once again, this turned out to be very easy.  We parked about 2 blocks from it.  Now the story gets fun. :-)
I'm sure I won't tell it as good as Jim but here goes.................

Two people walk into a bar............  (ha ha.  just kidding)

We walk in and there are very few people inside but you can tell it's a great place.  I walk up to the bartender and ask if the owners are Lanigans or if that is just the name of the bar.  I am pleasantly surprised when he tells me three Lanigans actually own it and two of them are actually in the bar as we speak.  Jim goes to the restroom and I walk over to a group of people with the bartender.  He taps one of the guys on the shoulder and whispers in his ear while I stand patiently behind him.  Then the guy turns around all full of smiles and shakes my hand and introduces himself as PJ (Patrick James of course) Lanigan.  He then introduces me to his sister who is just as friendly.  PJ then tells me I need to come upstairs with him to see the family crest.  He is almost running up the stairs so I try to keep up with him.  We get up there and he flings a door open, looks around and yells, "well, where the f- - - is it!?"  Then he grabs his computer and tells me he'll just show me on his laptop.

Jim sitting at the bar.  The bartender from Portugal.
PJ Lanigan (middle in group of three) and the two Irish guys
that told Jim my things would be fine.

Meanwhile, Jim is downstairs coming out of the restroom to find his wife is gone!  Although my purse and my camera are still sitting on the bar!  The bartender tells him I have gone upstairs with the owner.  Jim, being the good husband says, "OK, thanks."  He goes to grab my purse and camera and is told by two of the "regulars" that my things will be just fine there.  (To hear Jim tell this story in his Irish accent is much funnier but I'm trying).  I can't even imagine what is going on in his mind other than Irish people are truly crazy.

He joins me upstairs, looks at the Lanigan's Crest on PJ's computer and then we all go downstairs.  Jim meets the sister and we all start talking.  Kera (the sister) and Jim start talking and we just have the best time.

We ask them where a good place to stay would be.  PJ tells us to hold on, makes a phone call and tells us someone is coming down to talk to us that has a vacancy.  Now that's service!

We end up staying at O'Malleys B&B.  Comfortable room, nice people.  They don't take our name or anything.  They give us the key to the room and tell us we can park right in front.

We rest for a while but we were both starving so we strolled back out into town.  After walking all over, we had dinner at An Poc Fada.  We ordered a couple of appetizers and a bowl of Irish Stew.  We had to.  Our appetizers were brought out and we leisurely ate them.  We still didn't have the stew and actually thought the waiter had not heard us order it.  Suddenly the stew arrives.  I wish I had taken a photo but instead, I dove right in to this scrumptious concoction of potatoes (both whipped and chunks), gravy and lamb.  I really had no idea how much I would enjoy authentic Irish Stew until that first spoonful went in my mouth.  Heaven.  This is not your normal soupy type stew.  This is more of a bowl of potatoes with gravy and lamb on top of it.  We ate until we could no longer take one more bite.   I have never tried Irish Stew in the US so I don't know what it's like here.  I plan to find out though and hopefully I will not be disappointed.

We had to go back to Lanigan's Bar for the evening hours though so we paid our bill and left.  Lanigan's had an Irish band playing and the highlight was Gerard Hayes would be there dancing.  He was a dancer in Lord of the Dance for years and now dances for donations for his Irish Dancing School.  Unbelievable!  His feet
move so fast you can't keep track of them.  There was a large crowd at Lanigan's and we just had a great time.

The bartender had remembered us from earlier in the day so we talked to him for a while.  Nice guy.  Told us he had won bar tending contests.

Although we had only been in Kilkenny for a half-day, I felt at home.  The people are wonderful!

Just a super evening ending a great day!