Jan Bono’s Blog

All too soon, we were back at the hotel in Dublin where it all began—our 10 tour days behind us, and all that was left was to say our good-byes. Before dinner, our driver/guide Joe led us in a rousing rendition of "Sweet Molly Malone," and I was grateful I'd taught...

Pretty much all of us know the story of the Titanic—the unsinkable ship which sank in 1912—but to stand in the shipyard where it was actually built and launched was a pretty awesome experience. Even more incredible was the mammoth building in which the story is told,...

A lot was crammed into our last full morning, beginning with a city tour of Belfast. We had a "step-on guide" for this one, and she gave us the run-down of the buildings we passed, sprinkled in with a tidbits of Belfast history and photo-ops. By now, 10 days into the...

Bright and early, we set off for the tippy-top north coast of Ireland, to a geologic anomaly known as the Giant's Causeway. We passed through many small towns, none of which looked any different than those in the southern portion. The Gaelic language isn't used on...

I may have gotten the cart a bit in front of the horse in the last post—the one I wrote about Belleek Pottery. And that's because I hadn't yet introduced you to the fact we had officially left the Republic of Ireland for the country of Northern Ireland. You'd hardly...

I'm not all that much into pottery... Ok, I'm not "into" it at all. But Belleek Pottery holds a very special place in Northern Ireland's cultural and commercial heritage, and it was our first stop once we crossed the Lough Erne. In fact, the factory is perched right...