You are bound to hear at least one on Ireland tours…….

County Antrim is known for the beauty of its rugged coastline. Located in the north of the county, the Giants Causeway is a spectacular collection of thousands of black basalt columns which were formed, geologists believe, approximately 60 million years ago. In the northeast, the world famous green Glens of Antrim stretch inland from the sea. Belfast, Antrim’s and Northern Ireland’s capital and largest city, is located in the southern part of the county.

In the late medieval and early modern periods, Antrim and the west of Scotland were linked by the Lordship of the Isles headed by the Scottish MacDonald dynasty. During the late sixteenth and throughout the seventeenth centuries, a heavy influx of Scottish settlers radically altered the religious composition of the county. By the early eighteenth century, the county had the largest Protestant population on a percentile basis of any county in Ireland. In the 1790s, Antrim was at the forefront of the United Irish Movement and along with neighboring Down was one of the only two Ulster counties to rise during the Rebellion of 1798. Today, Antrim’s population is mostly Protestant and unionist. The economy of the county is mostly agricultural with some textile production. Belfast has many different industries, including shipbuilding. Bushmills distillery, in the village of Bushmills, produces a famous whiskey.

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This Northwest province covers an area of 6838 square miles.

It has a population of around 500,000.

Connacht is the least arable but one of the most beautiful provinces of Ireland.

Its name derives from the Connachta , followers of Conn of the Hundred Battles , a branch of the Venii tribe in pre-christian Ireland.

The province consists of the counties Roscommon , Galway , Mayo , Leitrim , and Sligo.

Connacht is known for such tourist attractions as Galway Bay , Claddagh (now part of Galway City and famous for the Claddagh ring) , the Irish-speaking Aran Islands , and Connemara (with its famous marble , ponies , and bogs).

During the Cromwellian Settlement , the dispossessed Catholic Irish landowners were sent to Connacht.

Oliver Cromwell is reputed to have said : “To Hell and or to Connacht”.

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Covering 716 square miles , Waterford has a population of over 110,000.

The  county  is bounded on the north by the River Suir, on the east by Waterford Harbour, and on the south by the Celtic Sea.  The Knockmeal down (2,609 feet) and the Comeragh/Monavallagh mountains on its western boundary provide dramatic scenery.  Waterford has many megalithic tombs, including Harristown near the fishing port of Dunmore East are the county’s most popular summer resorts.  Ardmore has an elegant twelfth-century round tower and cathedral, built on a site founded by St. Declan, one of the four saints reputed to have been in Ireland before St. Patrick.   Waterford was the ancient territory known as the Decies (Deise), some of whose people crossed the Irish Sea and settled in Wales in the fifth century.  The area around Ring (An Rinn) is an Irish speaking, or Gaeltacht, area.  The name Waterford derives from the ninth-century Viking name for the harbor – Vethrafjorthr in old Norse.  Its Irish name is Port Lairge.  The city’s most prominent monument is Reginald’s Tower on the Quays, which local tradition dates to 1003.

Since 1783, Waterford has been a center for glass-making and its handcrafted Waterford Crystal ranks among the most famous in the world.  Other industries in the county are dairy farming and crop production, electronics, and pharmaceuticals.  Although Waterford City’s population makes up almost half of the county’s total, the county capital is the much smaller town of Dungarvan.  Waterford City has an annual Light Opera Festival.

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We will strive to maximise your time in port and show you the real Ireland.

Our Belfast Tours are of an extremely high quality.

Best of all , our tours beyond Belfast make the most of your time and let you see the reals sights.

It was almost three centuries later, however, before the game gained a firm foothold.  In 1882, Royal Belfast, founded by Thomas Sinclair, became Ireland’s first, formally constituted club.  Scottish regiments of the British army played a major role in the development of golf in Ireland, establishing the Curragh Golf Club in 1883, Royal Dublin in 1885, and Lahinch in 1892.

From these modest beginnings, the island of Ireland now boasts 405 golf clubs.  Though something of a latecomer to the game, by comparison with its Scottish and English neighbours, Ireland claimed a major, pioneering role in golf administration.  The Golfing Union of Ireland (GUI), was launched in 1891 as the world’s first national union, and the Irish Ladies Golf Union (ILGU), which was instituted in 1893, claimed the same distinction for the women’s game.

It is estimated that the world contains only 150 pure links courses – golf courses located on dune land linking arable land with the seashore.  Ireland can boast forty of them, including such celebrated stretches as Ballybunion and Waterville in County Dublin; Royal Portrush in County Antrim; Rosses Point in County Sligo; Lahinch and the latest arrival, Doonbeg, in County Clare.  Among the major international events that the country played host to were the 1951 British Open (Royal Portrush), the only time the British Open was played in Ireland; the 1960 Canada Cup and 1991 Walker Cup (both at Portmarnock); and the 1996 Curtis Cup (at Killarney).  The 2006 Ryder Cup at the Kildare Club, twenty miles west of Dublin.

Among Ireland’s leading professionals, Fred Daly won the 1947 British Open while Christy O’Connor Senior has over thirty international victories, including the World Seniors of 1977.  Rising stars include Rory McIlroy and Darren Clarke and of course congratulations must go to our most recent champion Graham McDowell.

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