An Excerpt from Snapshots of Ireland Volume 3: Travels in Clare and Limerick
Enjoy an excerpt from Snapshots of Ireland Volume 3: Travels in Clare and Limerick. Snapshots of Ireland is the overarching title for this series of travel books that offers the reader an up-close and personal glimpse of the Emerald Isle, along the Wild Atlantic Way. The pictures and the author’s conversational notes reflect her love for Ireland and her keen eye for places and experiences that capture the Irish spirit. She includes the obvious tourist stops but relishes in sharing hidden treasures that may be just a few miles off the beaten path, especially those the Irish call thin places. Readers going to Ireland will find guidance in these soft-covers, lightweight, handy books (8.25 x 6 inches). Armchair travelers will enjoy a vicarious tour. Those who have already visited Ireland will find the pictures and commentary evoke fond memories.
The Mighty Shannon
If the luck of the Irish is with you, you will fly into Shannon Airport on a sunny day, when you can see the silvery-blue shimmer of The Shannon Estuary seperating the fields of green so present in both Counties Clare and Limerick.
The Might Shannon is to Ireland what the Mississippi is to the United Staes. Beginning at “The Shannon Pot” aquifer in County Caran, the river travels 225 miles to the sea. In places it is a mere stream, sometimes it morphs into long lakes, and then in the last 70 miles, it becomes a wid estuary. Stores and legends abound. Someday, I would like to take a leisurely trip upriver with a copy of Frank Delany’s Shannon. In the meantime, I have enjoyed short boat tours available along its banks.
Limerick City was a thriving medieval trade center because of the Shannon. As it flowed through the heart of the land, it divided east and west. The west was “beyond the Pale”; that is, outside the Dublin/English Crown’s influence. As a result, The Gaeltacht or Irish (Gaelic) speaking areas of Irealand that held on to the early Celtic culture are all to the west of the Shannon.
Shannon airport now is the driving force for development and commerce. The airport is actually in Clare, but the nearest city is Limerick, so the counties are still bond together and both benefit.