We asked for this free day in our hiking itinerary to enjoy Dingle Town, the largest, yet still small town on the Dingle Peninsula. After a nice breakfast we would stroll the town to see the sights, then return to the B&B for some time to rest and write, and then head out for dinner and some music in the evening. Here are some highlights of what we discovered.
The main drag along the harbor is colorful and quaint. Years ago, the street scenes in Ireland were all pretty drab, architecturally identical facades of grey concrete or stucco. Not now. A country-wide effort led folks across Ireland to show a more colorful face. Today on the streets of Dingle, and elsewhere, you see a bright palette of colors distinguishing the buildings: blue and red, green and orange, pink and purple. Today the colors are bright in the sunshine and the main street is full of tourists.
The Churches: We stopped by St. James’s Church (Church of Ireland), for we heard that it regularly hosted concerts of traditional music. We discovered that here too, indoor music was prohibited. St. James was founded by Spanish merchants in medieval times. It was a famous departure point for pilgrims setting sail for Northern Spain and on their way to St James in Santiago de Compostela.
St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church is an impressive and beautiful Church. Today it’s open for visits and so is the former convent next door. The convent features an original fresco of The Last Supper and paintings inspired by the life of Nano Nagle, foundress of the “Presentation Sisters” who once lived here. Most impressive is the convent’s chapel with stained glass windows by famed artist Harry Clarke. Outside the beautifully maintained grounds include three lovely gardens also open to the public.
The best fish & chips in town, we’re told, is at The Fishbox, right across the street from St. Mary’s. Unfortunately, it’s closed on Tuesday, so we were out of luck. But we enjoyed fish & chips from a food truck in a side road off the main drag. Right next to it was another food truck, also selling fish & chips. Apparently, there is some fierce competition here, but today the sun shone and everything was bright and friendly. And the fish was “right off the fishing boat that morning” fresh and good.
The Pubs: We’re in Ireland. One source claims there are fifty pubs in Dingle alone. How do you choose? We sampled only a few. Foxy John’s is a Pub & Hardware store where Evan bought a jackknife instead of a brew. We ate once in what was simply named The Dingle Pub.
For our last night in Dingle we returned to An Droichead Beag for more music. They served no food but recommended bringing in some “great” pizza from across the street. We did so. We sat in the Beer Garden again to enjoy the music, and the pizza and drinks. At first we heard some traditional music with a young man playing uillean pipes and a young woman with a squeezebox. Uilleann pipes are a bagpipe in which the air feed is not from the mouth but from a bellows under the arm of the player. There was no singing, just the music. The couple has recently announced their engagement. They’re followed by another guitarist playing to accompany a woman soloist. She had a lovely voice and covered a few traditional songs and then some more contemporary.
As the night went on, the pub filled up, mostly with young people, no doubt too young even to drink in America. The drinking age here is 18. The young women were dress to catch the eye, while the young men were more casual, jeans and shirt. By the time we left, the place was full with loud, drunken youth. “This is a Covid Era nightmare,” we thought as we exited through the midst of it. Since Ireland is nearly 80% vaccinated, we hope that all these youngsters end up with nothing more than the hangovers they so richly deserve.
