I visited Ireland a few years ago, stayed in Dublin, which is great, and very friendly. There are, bars everywhere, but the Guinness Factory tour was the best, The Jameson factory was OK. Went from Dublin to Baltimore which is on the southern most eastern tip of Ireland. Stayed at a nicely arranged B&B, directly across from the ocean. The B&B had a full bar and high end restaurant..fantastic views, people, well cooked meals, Murphy beer...

Next time I would like to go to Belfast.

When you go, go to Connemara! Incredible.

Here's my ireland story: I'm a fiddler in a Celtic band. For years I wanted to learn how to make that "crunch" sound that irish fiddlers make. This was before the internet. I listened to recordings, read books, but nobody could explain how to do it at the time. So anyway my musical partner and i were playing for a party up in Ashfield. We played a mix of celtic tunes for dancing. There we met a lady from Ireland who said she was a "set dancer". She owned a B&B in Kilfenora, and so when she heard that I wanted to learn how to play Irish fiddle, she encouraged me to come visit her when I do. That summer, my wife and I decided to go. We flew into Limerick and rented a car. What an experience that was: driving on the wrong side of the road was bad enough, but most of the roads in Cty Clare are one lanes, which means someone has to pull over to the side to let the other person pass. We stayed for 6 weeks in Kilfenora with my new friend Maire. She was a set dancer after all. She danced with the Kilfenora Ceili on Thursday nights. I sat in on sessions at Linnane's Pub. There I met Tommy Peoples, one of the great Irish fiddlers, and learned the "crunch" which is also called the "treble".

I think you should go. Ireland is glorious as you know. You don't need to have Irish blood to travel there. You will be welcomed wherever you go. The people are very friendly and kind.

i love ireland and have no genetic or cultural connection to it or old. do you intend to go? i can make recommendations. i've been twice.

g

Perhaps you should start investigating all the things you need to do to get there. I've had similar feelings hit me about certain places in the world, and have usually begun looking into how I could get there.