As a December-loving Cape Codder, it’s time to visit the “year round residents” of one of Ireland’s most touristy spots…
Kinsale won Ireland’s Tidy Town contest back in the 1980s, which pretty much accounts for the fantastic day-glo colors of Kinsale’s many establishments.
I think it’s written somewhere in Bunreacht na hÉireann that a Guinness plug must be present in each of my Ireland blog entries.
Located just otuside of downtown Kinsale, my intrepid sister and I checked out Charles Fort. Its historical significance dates from 1601 and the Siege of Kinsale, a battle where the bad guys Queen Elizabeth and Great Britain ultimately conquered Gaelic Ireland.
The fort in its current state was built in the 1670s in a star fortification- a layout specifically designed to resist attack by cannon. It was besieged during a dispute between Catholic King James II and Protestant King William of Orange – a cat fight that would determine who would be King of England, Scotland and Ireland. Kinsale has loads of historical ties that I never knew about.
After the afore-mentioned dust ups, the fort became a British Army barracks for the next couple of hundred years. Today, tourists like me can frolic around the green-covered fortifications to try and imagine what life must have been like for those who were keeping an eye on the mouth of Kinsale harbor.
I told you we were visiting Kinsale in the off-season, which means that bad weather is more or less an eventuality. We finished up our tour of the fort as dark and mean-looking clouds came rolling in. Rain drops started to hit as soon as we wedged ourselves back into our compact rental car.
Here we are after having made our way past the gauntlet of publicans who are all
1) indeed local
2) middle aged dudes and
3) kinda suprised to see two thirty-something American girls walking into their haunt.
I snap this photo of Rory because her quasi-homologue, Ruairi Quinn is on TV just above her head.