TRAVEL
TRAVEL
To Ireland in November
BY DAVID LYNAGH
In the last week of November 2015 , my son Niall and I flew from Toronto to Dublin . Ireland , at that time of year , is not the place to visit ; but then my sister has her eightieth birthday only once . As T . S . Eliot wrote , " A cold coming we had of it , / Just the worst time of the year ," but that was the weather and not our warm welcome .
We landed at Dublin ’ s two-terminal airport and soon were on our way to Belfast , Northern Ireland . The island consists of thirty-two counties : six make up the ‘ Wee North ’ and the other twenty-six form the Republic of Ireland ( Eire ). Northern Ireland is politically part of Great Britain and elects members of parliament to Westminster as well as to its own semi-independent parliament at Stormont in Belfast .
The non-stop ninety-minute drive north in heavy traffic was noteworthy in the Republic for signposts in both English and Gaelic . This renewed interest in Irish Gaelic is seen as well in the map of Belfast . It shows some Belfast areas with the original Gaelic name and an anglicized version of it .
The only very modern structure en route was the Boyne River Bridge . Near and across the river is the site of the famous 1690 battle between the Dutch Prince William of Orange and the English King James II . But we did not stop until we arrived at our B & B in Belfast . That evening my sister entertained us royally and we had an early night , as there was to be golf the following morning .
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