For a small country, this place’s cultural influence is gigantic

The well-travelled will need to adjust their expectations in Ireland.

For 700 years on the small windswept island on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, its neighbours attempted to stamp out its independence, history, Catholic religion and Gaelic language.

On Slieve League’s stark, high cliffs, the wind can almost blow you into the sea.Credit: Tourism Ireland

The Irish died in battles and famines or fled overseas. Not much is left behind, and many of the most eye-catching castles and other sights are Norman-Irish or Anglo-Irish. The Irish have, however, talked their way into world renown far beyond the size of their tiny, battered nation.

In area, Ireland compares to Lithuania, Sierra Leone and Panama, and what do you know about them? In population, it matches Oman, Liberia and Costa Rica, but when was the last time you felt the urge to celebrate an Omani festival? You can’t name a famous Costa Rican, but you’ll know a dozen Irish celebrities and writers.

The way to truly enjoy Ireland is not to see the sights but to listen. The Irish have the gift of the gab, an outsized talent for poetry and literature, and a liking for music. Their tales and songs, which often dwell on horrible history, tend to the depressing, but the Irish knack for humour and arresting turns of phrase will have you enjoying every minute.

It takes a while to shake off the ingrained notion that travel is all about seeing important things. I realise that I’m enjoying listening far more when I’m a third of my way through a tour of Ireland with Collette, a company that runs excellent country-intensive journeys that capture the essence of destinations from Poland to Peru.

Donegal Castle, half in ruins, resonates with tales of ancient heroics.Credit: Tourism Ireland

Our small group has arrived in Donegal, a pretty but unassuming little market town. Fifteenth-century Donegal Castle is far from a premier sight by international standards. The gatehouses of French chateaux might well be bigger, the location of German castles lovelier. Donegal Castle is grey and grim, half in ruins, and sparsely furnished.

I could be disappointed at the lack of bling and grandeur, but a tour of Donegal Castle proves just as entertaining as previous tours of Belfast’s Peace Walls and Derry’s fortified old town.

The castle’s guide regales us with stories of Irish chieftains with stirring names such as Red Hugh O’Donnell, who were kidnapped, besieged, imprisoned, escaped and exiled. Pesky Englishmen followed, with names, like Sir Basil Brooke, straight out of murder mysteries.

It’s all informative and entertaining and, from then on, I know to listen closely. On the coach, I stare out the window at Ireland’s verdant landscapes but keep an ear tuned to Collette tour manager John Lomasney, cranky but humorous as he provides potted histories of centuries of skulduggery and struggle.

Dingle Peninsula, typical of the island’s verdant landscapes.Credit: Tourism Ireland

The best thing about listening in Ireland is that you get a different view of history: one that adjusts preconceived notions and what you might have learned in school. History is usually told by winners and colonisers. In Ireland, it comes from the downtrodden and defiant. Any notion our group might have about the noble British Empire flies out the coach window.

Lomasney talks of other things that occurred long before the English arrived. He says giants created the causeway of hexagonal-shaped rocks extending into the sea, a highlight of our time in Northern Ireland.

Then there are tales of fairies, banshees, warrior queen Maeve of Connaught and high king Brian Boru, who kicked the Vikings out of Ireland. And St Patrick, who kicked out snakes and imported Christianity.

The pub is the place to listen, both to traditional music and oral history.Credit: Tourism Ireland

He is a talker, which is just what you want from a tour manager, especially as this journey involves longish coach rides. But I hear stories everywhere in Ireland: in pubs and shops, over farmers’ walls and in first-class museums such as Titanic Belfast and the appropriately named EPIC in Dublin, which tells the story of Irish emigration and the impact of Irish immigrants on the world.

I never entirely know whether to believe what I hear. Did that guide really know the Brighton bomber who tried to kill Margaret Thatcher in 1984? Did this one’s aunt really date actor Gabriel Byrne? Is the Flight of the Earls something from history, or an episode from Game of Thrones?

The Flight of the Earls was real all right. In 1607, several native earls departed Ireland into exile, an event that has become symbolic of the end of the old Gaelic order and imposition of English governance.

Glencolmcille Folk Village helps to bring 19th-century Ireland back to life. Credit: Tourism Ireland

I might have missed all this if I’d travelled on my own. The best thing about a Collette escorted journey is the local guides at every stop, and plenty of time to listen to them. I don’t have to be distracted by practicalities. Collette takes care of the logistics, right down to my suitcase, which often turns up in my hotel room before I get there myself.

Next day we’re heading down the wave-pounded west coast. The skies are grey, the wind howling, but locals assure us the weather is lovely. At Slieve League, the wind nearly topples us from some of Europe’s highest cliffs, but our local guide warms us with stories of his childhood: his father was a lobster fisherman, and he knows every inch of this coast.

Later in Glencolmcille folk village, another guide tells us about 19th-century life in Ireland’s thatched cottages, her accent and expressions bringing charm to a story of hard-scrabble living and forced migration.

I’m happy our tour lingers for two nights in Galway, as it has done in Dublin, Belfast and Donegal too. The tour’s built-in free time and some non-included meals are the opportunity to explore and experience life in this attractive small city of medieval remains and brightly painted buildings. Amid the dozens of pubs, I find one with live music: folk singers have stories to tell, too.

Then we’re driving through The Burren, which means “great rock”. Thank goodness I don’t have to concentrate on driving myself. I keep my face to the coach’s windows and soak up the scenery.

Poulnabrone Dolmen, a 6000-year-old tomb in County Clare.Credit: Tourism Ireland

The eerie, almost lunar landscape of grey limestone slabs is coloured green in the folds of its valleys, where sheep nibble. The rocks are splattered with wildflowers. We stop at the portal tomb of Poulnabrone, nearly 6000 years old, a defiant dolmen that celebrates Ireland’s long history.

Further down the coast, the Cliffs of Moher are among this country’s most-visited attractions. They have dark brooding drama that gives way inland to a green patchwork of cow-chewed fields of sufficient prettiness to grace a calendar. But the truth is that these are just cliffs. The Cliffs of Moher can’t match Norwegian fjords, or the pretty Amalfi Coast, or the caldera at Santorini.

It doesn’t seem to matter. The Irish have talked millions of visitors into visiting their obscure little nation. How? Well, maybe because everyone knows somebody Irish. Maybe because not a few of us have Irish ancestry; most of my fellow travellers on this Collette tour certainly do.

I suspect the ones that don’t wish they did. Everyone loves Ireland. Don’t we all wish we were a little bit Irish, at least one day a year when, from America to Japan, we all dress in green to celebrate St Patrick’s Day?

St Patrick wasn’t Irish, nor has he ever been officially declared a saint, but why let facts get in the way of a good yarn? The Irish are dreamers and charmers. Oral history and storytelling are their true monuments.

You’ll learn a lot on a tour in Ireland, and it will give you new insight. Sometimes your leg is pulled, too, but so entertainingly you won’t mind.

THE DETAILS

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ireland.com

TOUR
Collette’s 14-day The Best of Ireland tour between Dublin and Kilkenny visits the republic and Northern Ireland, taking in destinations such as Belfast, Donegal, Galway and Dingle. The next departures are between March and May 2025. From $5849 a person twin share including accommodation, transport, select meals and tour guides.

Collette has several other tours in Ireland, among them a 12-day Shades of Ireland tour that spends three nights in Belfast and visits other destinations such as Waterford, Killarney, Enniskillen and Derry. See gocollette.com

Brian Johnston travelled as a guest of Collette.