825 First Timer's Ireland; At Home in Ireland

11:51Rick Steves:A small percentage are, so it's found a new use. It was mesmerizing to walk through a forest with a falconer and to see that hawk leave your carefully protected arm with this big mitten and fly out into the woods and then maybe come back with a squirrel or something like that. It's like fishing, but with a bird.

12:08Irish American singer:They like to bring you a few surprises. That's true. Yes. And you have no idea sometimes where it's gone. It's disappeared into these huge big fir trees. And all you can hear is this jingle of the little bell that's around its neck. And then suddenly it will swoop down very, very casually and land back on your arm. It's magical.

12:23Rick Steves:I could just imagine in some manor house 800 years ago, the teenage son would go out with the hawk and come back with dinner. These days, modern visitors can experience the hawk walks in many places in Ireland. Not just Ashford Castle. Not just Ashford Castle, Dromolan Castle. There's probably, I would guess, 10 or 20 locations where you can do it. So you can just look that up before your trip and see if you can check out some falconry. And they say it's falconry, but it's actually with a hawk. It is, exactly. It's a Peruvian harrow's hawk that you actually use. and they're only about four pounds in weight, so they're extremely light and they're extremely agile.

12:54Rick Steves:And Falcons themselves have broken records of up to 247 miles per hour, whereas the Peruvian Harris Hawks would be about 100 miles slower. It's an amazing experience. Come all you thirsty tourists and travellers everywhere Till I sing to you a verse or two in a grand old Irish air We'll check in on the phones in a moment at 877-333-7425 as our Irish tour guides, Stephen McPhillamy, Dara Herlihy, and Susie Miller help you get ready to enjoy Ireland like you belong there. It's Travel with Rick Steves.

13:32Rick Steves:Music is a powerful way to express the history and the emotions of Ireland. Coming up, singer Kathy Ryan tells us how the melodies of Ireland drew her back to the land of her roots. But right now, tour guides Stephen McPhillamy, Dara Herlihy, and Susie Miller are with us to take your calls at 877-333-RICK with tips to help you experience the best Ireland has to offer. Stephen, one of the great experiences in Ireland is to enjoy the beer. And when you order a beer in Ireland, in most of the island, you just get a Guinness. And there's more to a Guinness than just pouring it. Tell us a little bit about how to draw a Guinness.

14:08Rick Steves:Well, you see, it takes about three minutes for a Guinness to be poured properly. The angle's important. You'll hold it at a 45-degree angle. You'll pour it, say, two-thirds of the way, but then you have to let it settle. Often in my little bar I'd put the pint of Guinness up and it would only be two thirds full and guests come and take it away and they don't have the they're shy they don't want to say God you haven't finished the rest of the Guinness and don't touch it it's not finished yet you idiot. You never want to rush a Guinness. Yeah you have to wait until it turns black and then you finish it off by pushing the tap forward because you pull back the tap to start that'll give it gas and then when you're finishing off you push it forward there's no gas but you have to let it settle and then when you have a creamy white head and this perfect black body on it, then it's just ready to go and be devoured.

14:52Rick Steves:Now, Dara, you actually run a pub in Dingo, and I understand Guinness is a stout, right? And in much of Ireland, when you say you want a beer, you'll get a Guinness. That's correct. But in some of Ireland, you'll get a Murphy's, won't you? Yeah, it depends what part of Ireland you're in, but Murphy's is predominantly used in Cork, so it's really territorial, the Cork itself, and you wouldn't order a Murphy's anywhere else in Ireland, only Guinness. And the reason being is if you're down in Dingo, and if somebody's got Murphy's on draft, you can be sure it's not selling. Therefore, you'll be drinking sort of a beer that's not a true representation of its flavor, like you get in Cork.

15:24Rick Steves:So you want fast turnover, because you get the better quality. Keep your lines clean and high volume. That's the key to a good pint. That's one more reason to go with the local specialty, is because it's going to be a fresher beer. You know all about it the following day. This is Travel with Rick Steves. We're talking Ireland. Our phone number is 877-333-7425. And Vicki's calling in from Tonga, Noxie in Kansas. Vicky, thanks for your call.

15:47Irish American singer:Thanks for having me. I had a question. I'll be going to Ireland with my husband and my adult daughter for the first time. And I was wondering if I would be able to use my credit card like I do in the States, or do I need to get more euro and have them on hand?

16:05Rick Steves:Dara, what's the story with credit cards for American travelers in Ireland? Your credit card is widely acceptable throughout all of Ireland. Something to be aware of is that when you go to small little towns like Dingle or Cinsale or some parts of southern Galway, so on and so forth, credit card isn't really accepted in bars. So you can withdraw cash from any ATM machine. You can check with your card provider, but generally there's no charge for using your ATM machine in Ireland. And of course, let your bank know that you're coming to Ireland because otherwise they might put a block. They might think that the Irish leprechauns have taken your card and it's been stolen.

16:36Rick Steves:So make sure they know that you're in Ireland or they'll block it and you'll be stuck with no money for a few days. Vicki, where are you planning on traveling in Ireland?

16:43Irish American singer:Well, first we're going to go to Dublin and then we're going to actually stay in an Airbnb. That's a castle close to theirs and then on to Cork, then on to Galway and then back to Dublin.

16:57Rick Steves:Sounds like you've got a good plan.

16:59Irish American singer:Yeah, I hope so. We're really looking forward to it.

17:02Rick Steves:Have fun on your trip. Okay, thanks so much. Thanks for your call. Scott's calling from Reno in Nevada. Thanks so much for taking my call, Rick. My wife and I have traveled to Ireland and are slightly younger and more carefree days, but we're looking to take our children for their first trip to Ireland. Our children are currently ages 6 and 8, and we're looking probably this fall to take them on about a week-long trip. And I'd love some ideas and recommendations for just some can't-miss sites or experiences for kids that age. Good question. What do you think, Susie?

17:34Irish American singer:Do you know where I would start you off right away is a museum that's opened recently down in Dublin. And when I say museum, you think, oh no, kids hate museums. But this one is really interactive and great. It's called Epic Ireland, and it tells the story of how Ireland has spread out across the world and what Ireland has done for you. It's done in a really imaginative way. It's colourful, it's interactive, and I think your kids would really enjoy it. And it'll give them the basis for knowing what Ireland is all about.

18:02Rick Steves:And then right across the street, tied up on the harbour side, is the famine ship.

18:06Irish American singer:Indeed so. It's called the Jeanne Johnson. It's a replica of a famine ship, a tall ship which would have taken immigrants across to places like Canada and America in the 19th century. And you can climb all over that and get the feeling of what it would have been like on board. So yeah, that's a good one too to knock off.

18:21Rick Steves:But you're forgetting the number one museum in Dublin, the National Leprechaun Museum. What is that? It is what it says on the tin. It's the National Leprechaun Museum. I actually haven't been into it but lots of people do and it gets good reviews and I think they have something like giant furniture where you go in and you get photographs and you pretend you're a leprechaun. Thanks for your call, Scott. Thank you so much. That sounds fantastic. Have fun with your kids. And by the way, you can take kids into pubs. Yeah, absolutely. The law states that kids are not supposed to be in the bar after 9 p.m., which would apply in Dublin, but Dublin only.

18:52Rick Steves:Once you're in any rural area, children are more than welcome once they're supervised. Because when our kids were little, we took them into the pubs all the time and it just was, the neighborhood was gathered. It was multi-generational. Great live music. It's a real cultural experience. Yeah. This is Travel with Rick Steves. We're talking Ireland, and our phone number is 877-333-7425. Barbara's calling from Mill Valley in California. Hi, Barbara.

19:16Irish American singer:Hi, how are you?

19:16Rick Steves:Great. Where are you dreaming of going?

19:18Irish American singer:Oh, well, I was curious about... I saw the Star Wars film, and I know that some of it was filmed on location in Ireland, and particularly on an island off the coast called Skellig Michael. I wonder if it's possible to visit that island.

19:34Rick Steves:I think you can actually see that from your B &B in Dingle, can't you? Yeah, you can, definitely. And it is very possible to see it. You need to check, though, because I hear that it's booked up many, many months in advance, maybe even a year in advance. Probably because of this whole movie thing, huh? There's a limited amount of boats that are licensed to go out there. Just go online, Google it. You'll find different websites, different companies offering trips there. It's a pretty arduous journey, just to be warned. If you do get a sailing slot, it can be tough going out there. It's a tough climb.

19:59Rick Steves:You have to be careful as well. It's run by the OPW, which is the Office of Public Works. so there will be rangers there and guides to help you. And the Star Wars that was actually filmed on the Dingle Peninsula out around the Sleigh Head Drive on Sibyl Head. And you can look out and you see this Skellig Maiko, which is a desolate rock. It feels like in the middle of the ocean. It's as far as a monk could get away from civilization. If you were a monk in that part of Europe and you wanted to go into the desert because monks wanted to be a hermit monk, there's no desert, but you could go out into the ocean and camp out on this rock and eat pigeon droppings or whatever they ate, I don't know, mussels, and just live a very austere life.

20:38Rick Steves:In between Viking attacks. In between Viking attacks and a long, dark winter in a land where the Romans said, I don't even want to bother with that, let's just call it winter. The land of Ibronium. And today you can see the medieval stone huts of these monks, can't you, when you go there? I think if you can get out there, you definitely should. It should be a must-see activity, but it's a difficult one to get to, just to be aware. And if you're looking for that same sort of vintage monks' huts and desolation, you can find a lot of beautiful ancient sites in Dingle Peninsula. Yeah, and the Star Wars people filmed in Skellig Michael two movies ago, and then there was a few complaints because it's a UNESCO World Heritage Site, you see, and also it's a Puffin Sanctuary, so they filmed it on the Dingle Peninsula and pretended it was Skellig Michael.

21:21Rick Steves:Ah, is that right? Yeah, they rebuilt Skellig Michael on the Dingle Peninsula temporarily for the movie. Hey, Barbara, that's a fascinating opportunity to go one step beyond when you get to the far southwest of Ireland. Have a good time.

21:34Irish American singer:Thank you.

21:37Rick Steves:We've imported Irish tour guides Susie Miller of Titanic Tours Belfast, Dara Herlihy of Aisling Tours in Dingle, and Stephen McPhillamy of Essential Ireland Tours to help you plan a great trip to Ireland. By the way, this segment comes to us from the Travel with Rick Steves archives. Betsy's calling from Richmond in Maine. Hi, Betsy. Hello, thank you for taking my call I'll be visiting you in early spring and in New England March is still a winter month but I was wondering in early spring like March, what is the weather like in Dublin

22:11Irish American singer:I'll be there for a week

22:12Rick Steves:There's no real set forum with the weather in Ireland, Betty, you know, March in generally the temperatures start to rise a little bit the one advice I would give you is to bring some light rain gear and it could be really beautiful and mild, it could be like a summer's day there's no real set season in Ireland I think you should expect it to be miserable, windy and rainy. Expect the worst and you won't be disappointed. I was just there in July and it was on certain days, miserable and windy and rainy but you know, we kept at it. Just face the weather, have good clothing and make it happen. I was, Susie, you're from the north of Ireland.

22:44Rick Steves:It was a brutal day and we were at Giant's Causeway. I feel your pain. You've grown up in that. And we went out and we hiked it and we had our raincoats on and it was a great, a great afternoon.

22:56Irish American singer:You can't be deterred. You just got to get on with it. You know, in March, it could still be snowing, or it could be in the 60s. You just don't know. So be prepared for everything.

23:05Rick Steves:Of course, famously, they say there's no bad weather, just inappropriate clothing. Yes. You're going to be in Dublin then. And what sights are you looking forward to seeing in Dublin?

23:14Irish American singer:I like to look at libraries, the Trinity College Library. And I found out about the Chester Beattie Library.

23:20Rick Steves:Oh, I was just in the Chester Beattie Library. And it is one of the most beautiful collections of precious manuscripts. This guy, do you guys know the Chester Beatty Library? Yes, absolutely. Stephen, what's your experience there? You just walk there behind the castle, don't you? So it's just very close to everything else you're going to see. It's a very funky exhibition. It's free to get into. And it's got one of the greatest collections of art that this, I presume he was a billionaire, bequeathed to the Irish people, gave it to us as a gift. Beautiful Persian art and so on. Yeah, they have lots of that.

23:48Rick Steves:Islamic art, yeah. Yeah, I think he had a team of 20 collectors going around the world gathering precious pieces. And a great little cafeteria there. Yes. The Silk Road Cafe. Stop by for lunch. Have a good time, Betsy. Thanks for your call.

24:00Irish American singer:Thank you so much.

24:05Rick Steves:Ed's calling in from Saugus in California. What are your plans for Irish travel? Well, I was thinking I have a 16-year-old son. I told him if he made straight A's last semester that I would take him to Ireland. And a short three - or four-day trip on his spring break would be the first week of April. and I wanted to see what your expert travel guides would say about which cities to visit, whether it be Dublin or Galway or Cork. I've been over the whole country. I just wanted to see what the experts would say, where to take a 16-year-old and what to see. And you've got three days. Four days, three nights.

24:40Rick Steves:Okay, so you've got three whole days to see. You've got to be really careful not to do too much. If it was me, I would do Dublin and Belfast and maybe Galway, but you could do that on a day trip from Dublin. That would be pretty brutal. I think Belfast is so thriving and surprising because it's sort of one of these industrial cities that are coming back into its own and it celebrates the end of the Troubles really. And Dublin is just the capital of the culture. But Ireland is also a rural and a small town island. So you might want to, you need to get a couple more days. Yeah. Susie, what would you recommend?

25:14Irish American singer:You can certainly hit the north pretty easily if you use Dublin as your base by using the train system. Train system's really easy, efficient and...

25:22Rick Steves:Because there's that new express train from Dublin to Belfast.

25:24Irish American singer:Dublin to Belfast takes about two hours just and runs from about half seven in the morning. So you could take the first one up and the last one back and have a great day in Belfast.

25:31Rick Steves:You could have 10 hours in Belfast and do a lot.

25:32Irish American singer:Absolutely, and loads to do. What's he into though? What are his interests? Well, it's funny you say that. he is actually a train aficionado.

25:40Rick Steves:And I was looking at getting the three or the four day Irish rail pass and possibly taking a day trip either to Belfast or to Cork or to Galway. And part of the experience, of course, is just riding on the train and seeing the lovely countryside go by and seeing the sights that way. I'd say with a 16-year-old as well, I'd recommend Galway because the sights are really, really beautiful if you're getting the train from Dublin. And also something to keep in mind if you're staying in Dublin is Dublin is really thriving at the moment. So accommodation is very expensive and can be a little bit difficult to get.

26:07Rick Steves:whereas Galway it's a student city so it's very vibrant very much alive it's only got 80 ,000 people so it's very small as far as cities go I'm going to go out on a limb here I hope nobody's from Cork but I would say of those four cities Cork is a distant last place I'd agree I think so too only with the time frame that's all and I would say with three days you're going to run yourself ragged to try to do three cities so I would spend two days in Dublin and even make a day trip up to Belfast but I would also remind you that the Irish guides on the street there's so many of them Everywhere you look, you can take guided walks, and the gift of gab is so apparent.

26:41Rick Steves:In Dublin, I love the musical pub crawl and the literary pub crawl, and it's a chance just to hang out with an Irish guide and enjoy that wonderful art of conversation.

26:51Irish American singer:Good evening, everybody. Good evening.

26:54Rick Steves:You're very, very welcome to the Dublin literary pub crawl. Stephen, one important thing, if he is into trains, the train journey from Belfast to my hometown of Derry was described by Michael Palin is one of the top 10 most beautiful train journeys in the world. And it really is. That's quite a statement from Michael Payland. It goes right across the beaches. It goes through lovely tunnels and the cliffs. Some of the beaches there is where Game of Thrones was filmed. You know, Ed, your son is worth more time in Ireland. Call in well. Tell the teacher this is a better education. Stay for six days.

27:27Rick Steves:You know, I would like to do that. He has some other things he has to do. And, you know, one thing I don't want him to know is that the trains, I'm sure, have Wi-Fi, so I'm going to try to tell them that there's no Wi-Fi in the country. His phone is no good. His iPad is no good. I want to make sure he's not on any electronic devices while we're there. Good man. Hey, good parenting, Ed. Thanks for your call, and have a great trip. And thank you so much for your tips. This is Travel with Rick Steves, and we've been talking with three friends and tour guides, Dara Harlehy, Susie Miller, and Stephen McPhillamy.

27:57Rick Steves:And I'd like to close out just with your favorite little intimate thing about Ireland. I mean, for me, I forget all about soda bread until I get to Ireland. And then I have this amazing soda bread love that is rekindled every time I get to the west of Ireland. What is it about the soda bread, first of all? Who can tell me what the magic of the soda bread is in Ireland? Well, I think it could be something to do with our water. It's a good quality water that we're drinking in Ireland. And when I bring my guests into the kitchen and let them actually participate in making bread, just their eyes light up.

28:29Rick Steves:I think Americans love bread in general, but it's a different style of baking in our part of the world. Am I calling it the right thing? Soda bread? Yeah, it's traditional Irish soda bread. It's just your basic hearty bread. It is, and it's unsweetened, so there's no sugar inside in it. I always remember growing up my mother's soda bread. So that's my little intimate detail. I'll let all three of you just share yours. Daryl, what is your favorite? Mine has to be a pint of Guinness. A pint of Guinness. No doubt about it. And don't rush it. Absolutely not. Never rush a Guinness. And you know, part of a pint of Guinness is, I think, the atmosphere that surrounds you.

28:57Rick Steves:How do you choose a good pub? Look for a pub with good music. That's my recommendation. Another tip is if a pub does food and music, one is usually lacking. Susie, what's your favourite tip?

29:05Irish American singer:For me, first-timers should really make an effort to get to know the locals. Just sit down and talk to people. We're a friendly bunch and we're so funny. We talk about crack, you know, crack meaning the fun, the conversation, the laughter.

29:18Rick Steves:So if you see good crack on the side of a pub, they're not selling anything that's illegal. Correct. This is just bragging about the conversation.

29:23Irish American singer:Indeed, yes. And that's how you get to the heart of the country, I think, is experiencing our sense of humour, which is unique. Well, how are you going to meet an Irish person? Just go sit down beside them at the bar. It's as easy as that or in a restaurant or any public place. We're happy to talk to you. Ask them what time it is. Ask them what the weather's going to be like tomorrow and immediately you're in a conversation.

29:41Rick Steves:There you go. Stephen? My favourite little thing about Ireland is the National Tidy Towns competition. It's this cutthroat competition that happens every year and every town has to enter. It doesn't matter if you want to or not. You're entered and the results are then published in the national media, in the newspapers. So every town wants to compete with the neighbouring town to be better and tidier and you get points for cleanliness, obviously, and no litter or colour. You have to have loads of flowers. Ireland used to be grey and drab until this competition came in in the 1950s and now everybody thinks Ireland is synonymous with purple buildings and green buildings and bright yellow.

30:16Rick Steves:And it's all in the last 50 years. It's really cool. I was driving through one of the national winters, recently one of the little villages, and as I was driving through, my gas tank in the car was sort of burst open a bit and I left a big trail of gasoline down the middle, or petrol as we say, down the middle of the street. They came charging after me. They're like, what have you done to our town? You're messing it up. You're messing it up. Don't they have a sign at the beginning of the town that says a national winner or some kind of a winner? If they have won, that's their biggest badge of honour is to put that big sign out saying national winner of Tidy Towns.

30:46Rick Steves:All right, so we got Tidy Towns, we've got...

30:50Irish American singer:The Crack.

30:51Rick Steves:The Crack and... and begin a f - There we go. And the soda with. Dara, Susie, and Stephen, thanks so much for helping us better understand the Emerald Isle. Thank you, Rick. You're very welcome.

31:00Irish American singer:The jade was small, cut me slow.

31:05Rick Steves:Irish singer Kathy Ryan joins us in just a minute. But first, here are a few haiku impressions of Ireland our listeners have sent to us at ricksteves.com slash radio.

31:18Irish American singer:Teresa Jansen from Port Townsend, Washington, spent three months in the northwest of Ireland in 2021. Here's a haiku impression from her trip. "'Twas once a wee man," the bard leaned back and began. Pup tail, Donegal. Leslie Latham of Buffalo, New York, was inspired to write us this haiku after her partner proposed on Christmas Eve on their vacation. Travel to Ireland. Marrying in middle age. Passport was required. And Dan Whaley of Omaha, Nebraska, sends us this colorful souvenir. Ireland is green, 40 shades to be exact. I bring it home in my eyes.

32:00Rick Steves:Kathy Ryan grew up in Detroit as the daughter of Irish immigrants. It was a home where Irish music was part of daily life. Summers were spent in Ireland, and that deepened her connection with her family's heritage and to the stories and the songs that shaped the Irish culture. After earning a degree in English literature, she began teaching at Lehman College in the Bronx and became part of the popular Celtic music group called Cherish the Ladies. Once Cathy's singing career took off, she left the classroom, though never left her love of teaching and sharing. Cathy eventually made her way to Ireland and made a home for herself in Wee County Louth, just where the ferry crosses Carlingford Loch to county down in Northern Ireland.

32:42Rick Steves:Nowadays, when Cathy's not singing with her band, she's leading tours across Ireland. She's teaching workshops on Irish myths, folklore, and traditional singing, and she's with us in the Travel with Rick Steves studio right now to share what she's learned by returning to Ireland and immersing herself in its traditions. Kathy, it's so nice to have you here.

33:01Irish American singer:It is lovely to be here, Rick.

33:02Rick Steves:And I love your story. I mean, the daughter of Irish immigrants growing up in Detroit, you fell in love with Irish music in America, and then you moved back to the old country, and music is still a huge part of your life. What is it about music and the Irish people? Even if they're not still anchored in the old country.

33:20Irish American singer:Music is like breathing to the Irish. It's not a separate thing. It is interwoven in your daily activities. My father sang. His mother before him sang. So when I was in the house, my dad was always singing. And we would go to the Gaelic League and Irish American Club in Detroit City, down by Tiger Stadium, and I would always sing. And there were always other people who sang. And the wonderful thing about Irish folk singing, traditional singing, it's called shanlos, the old style, unaccompanied singing, is that it's not about you. It's about the song. You're telling a story and you don't get in the way.

34:01Irish American singer:My father always told me, don't get in the way of the song. You're over singing. If it was a great song, it's there before you. It'll be there after you. Honor it. Tell the story. Yeah.

34:11Rick Steves:Tell the story.

34:11Irish American singer:And it's a beautiful way, and also what I loved about singing, and still do in Irish crowds, is they're not silent. They'll say, ah, achaline, ah, lovely. And if someone's sitting beside you and they're very moved by you, they'll grab your hand, you know, and they'll wind it if you're in Connemara. But you never feel alone when you're singing. You understand that you're telling the story to the room, and it's your job to take them out of the room.

34:39Rick Steves:Am I understanding this? Like in America, pop music is a lot about, I was out on a date in my daddy's car. It's about me, you know, my story. But in Ireland, it's more about this happened in our community.

34:50Irish American singer:Yes. And it's interesting because I do tell this when I'm guiding tours in Ireland, that the individual is not prized in Ireland the way the individual is in America. That whole Emersonian idea of self-reliance, yes, it's there, but what comes first is the community. And in the singing, it is, I mean, you have humility. It is an art that's incredibly artful, but it conceals its artfulness. and what I love about sport in Ireland as well. When someone is playing football or hurling, which are sports that are thousands of years old, they're written about in the mythology, they are playing for their parish first, then their county, and then they're competing in their provinces to play for the All-Ireland title, and their names are not on their jerseys.

35:40Rick Steves:That's fundamental.

35:41Irish American singer:No individual name on a jersey.

35:43Rick Steves:That's such the norm for a lot of Americans.

35:45Irish American singer:Yeah, no, it's not about me, me, me, me, me, me. Right. It's about I am playing for my tribe, for my people. And you are so held aloft if you're a great footballer, camogie player, hurler, singer, but you never lose the understanding that you're part of the community.

36:05Rick Steves:So now we have this strong community and this love of community and this love of music. The fact is today there must be 10 times as many people who are strongly Irish that don't live on that Emerald Island because of the diaspora. Tell us about the diaspora. Is it diaspora?

36:22Irish American singer:Diaspora, I would say.

36:24Rick Steves:Yeah, when people, mainly during very hard times in the 1800s and then I suppose the early 1900s, the Ireland's population dropped by half or something. Yes, it was decimated. Decimated. And many went to the United States. Yes. And today, how many people would call themselves Irish heritage?

36:42Irish American singer:They reckon about 46 million Irish Americans in the United States. Bill Clinton was very grateful for the Irish American vote, let me tell you. I bet, yeah. And he repaid it mightily with the peace process in Northern Ireland.

36:53Rick Steves:in Ireland right now?

36:54Irish American singer:How many? Oh, my gosh. There's about 5 million now in the Republic and about one and a half in the North.

37:01Rick Steves:Okay, so almost 10 times as many Irish people in the States. And you grew up very Irish, but in the States. And now you actually went back to Ireland. Tell us about that. That was a big decision. It was a massive decision. Because I don't consider you, I've known you for a long time, and I consider you Irish. I mean, I know you grew up in the States, but what led you to move back, and how's that been?

37:26Irish American singer:I just want to say this about being Irish in America, or no matter where you are, if you're London Irish, Irish American, you grow up with Irish values. You grow up with the Irish music, the culture. our parents use all of those things to stay tethered to home, and then we are tethered by being part of it. So it's a cultural thing. So you are Irish, yes.

37:51Rick Steves:Catholic, whether you're going to church every Sunday or not.

37:53Irish American singer:A hundred percent, yeah. You go when someone's hatched, matched, or dispatched if you don't go regularly. But what's important is you're there in the Irish community playing your music with other kids, you're learning your step dancing with other kids, or you're playing hurling or football in America with other kids. So there's always an acknowledgement that, yeah, you're part of the tribe, but you're American. But you asked me why I moved to Ireland, and I'm going to be very honest because I see things happening in America today that hurt, and I feel like I can be more vulnerable and honest with people now, I went for financial reasons.

38:32Irish American singer:I got divorced. I was finding it very hard to keep my house. And I realized I could not live in Westchester County, New York anymore as a single folk singer. And the ACA, the Affordable Care Act hadn't happened yet. My health insurance was about to double. And I did a balance sheet. Okay, what's life going to be costing me in America? I have family in Ireland. I have great friends. What would it cost me to live in Ireland? and it was less expensive. And I landed, and I felt part of the community immediately because it's in my DNA. It's been a good fit. But it was financial, the decision.

39:10Rick Steves:This is Travel with Rick Steves. We're joined by singer, educator, and tour guide Kathy Ryan. Kathy grew up in Detroit in an Irish musical household, and now she calls Ireland home. When not singing, Kathy leads tours of Ireland that focus on its music, folklore, myth, and history. You can find out more about Kathy and her music at kathyryan.com. That's spelled C-A-T-H-I-E. Kathy, when I think about the power of music and the power of community, I always think of what most travelers from America think when they go to Ireland, the difficult times they've had, the troubles, and how a lot of the culture is music, a lot of it's community, and a lot of it is hardship, living under British rule and so on.

39:51Rick Steves:What did music have to do with how Ireland survived the centuries of brutal British rule.

39:58Irish American singer:I think music is innately something that cannot be taken away from you. You can create your own songs, you can hum your own songs in your head, they can burn your harp, as Elizabeth I did during her reign. She did not want musicians in Ireland.

40:15Rick Steves:That's right, the English thought the harp gave the Irish too much power or something. Of course. They outlawed the harp.

40:21Irish American singer:Yes, because the bards who would be in the chieftain's household, who would be up there with the head of the tribe, they not only sang the songs of the people to move them to tears or laughter or joy, but they kept the genealogy of the tribe. So they were the historians as well. So they were very, very powerful.

40:40Rick Steves:You cannot burn the music out of a community.

40:43Irish American singer:Yeah, you can't. And it gave me, for instance, as a child in an Irish-American community, tremendous strength because I grew up in a culture where almost every single historical event is copper-fastened in a song. So you can never forget the history. You learn history when you're an Irish kid in Ireland or America or Australia. You learn it through the music.

41:06Rick Steves:So you had a lot of, like the United States recently has ICE officers in the streets of Minneapolis. Yes. If that happened 100 years in Ireland, you'd make a song about it, and people would still be singing that song today.

41:16Irish American singer:There would be many, many songs about it. There would be songs from every point of view, a woman's, a child's, a man, an old one. It would be from every point of view.

41:26Rick Steves:It would keep the lessons of that, so the younger generation could understand the hardship of their parents and grandparents.

41:30Irish American singer:One million percent, and you never forget your history because you are standing on the shoulders of your ancestors.

41:37Rick Steves:And if you're a tourist in some bar in some small town and all of a sudden everybody settles down and there's a lament that takes you back to very difficult times, you might kind of go, what's going on here? But every Irish person in there, it's almost like a church service to the history of that people.

41:52Irish American singer:Absolutely. It's sacred. It's a sacred remembrance of what the people who went before you endured and why you are here.

42:00Rick Steves:I just love that. Now, just a practical thing, were most of these songs written in the Irish language or in English?

42:07Irish American singer:There were many songs written in the Irish language, but a lot of them didn't survive because the penal laws came in the late 1600s and the Irish were not allowed to speak their language. Really?

42:18Rick Steves:So you could sing a protest song in English, but not Irish?

42:21Irish American singer:Well, you probably couldn't sing a protest song at all. You couldn't go to mass. You couldn't go to school if you were Catholic. You couldn't own a gun or a horse or land. They really stripped everything away from the Irish. But what began to happen is when they began to learn English, they began to write these brilliant songs in English.

42:41Rick Steves:I guess it doesn't hurt a few sympathetic ears hear the song and understand what's being sung.

42:46Irish American singer:A hundred percent. And I think they also wrote their English because of the Irish, the way the Irish speak was actually more beautiful, more eloquent, more poetic. So they actually topped English, if you will, in an artistic way.

43:01Rick Steves:You mean the Irish was more poetic? Yes, the Irish. I have a sense of that. Now, traditional Irish culture has to deal with the modern world, as do traditional cultures everywhere. Right. What is your take on how traditional Irish culture, the language, the music, the pride, the community, How's that doing in the 21st century?

43:22Irish American singer:It's all still there. It's all intact. We are losing some things when you're in big cities like Dublin or Galway, Belfast. People are in a hurry. They may not take as much time to be with other people. But when I bring tour members to Ireland, if they stop in Dublin because they're lost, they'll ask, oh, excuse me, do you know where this pub is? And if someone isn't busy, they will walk you there.

43:45Rick Steves:Even in the big city?

43:46Irish American singer:Even in the big city. But some things are becoming a little more fast. The attention span isn't as long. Social media is very important. What I notice is the accent is getting diluted. So you have little kids in Dublin with an American accent because a lot of the schools in Ireland are using an American phonetics program. So they're not saying Apple. They're saying Apple.

44:07Rick Steves:An American phonetics program. Is that to help them be more employable, they figure, in a global economy?

44:12Irish American singer:No, it probably was just cheaper. You know, it was probably just economics.

44:17Rick Steves:That's funny. Irish-American Kathy Ryan has been close to the traditional music of Ireland since childhood. Right now on Travel with Rick Steves, she's bringing us a look at Ireland's musical soul, which undergirds her life in America and Ireland. Kathy sang and performed with the seminal Irish women's group Cherish the Ladies and performs now on occasion with her own band. You can find out about Kathy's albums and read lyrics to the songs she's written on her website, kathyryan.com. Kathy, I know you do tours in a very heartfelt way. As a musician, how do you weave music into your tours? You know, I just always like to remind my guides to play to your strengths.

44:59Rick Steves:And if you're a musician, you know, use that as a tool or as sort of an inspiration. How do you do that?

45:05Irish American singer:If I'm talking about a topic like the Battle of Kinsale, I will sing the Auron Moore, which is a big song, Roshin Du. if I am talking about the women who sell Once Upon a Time on Moore Street in Dublin I'll sing Biddy Mulligan The Pride of the Coombe

45:22Rick Steves:This is so women that are selling Wears, shoes, fruit Sales women on the streets

45:27Irish American singer:Exactly Give me a couple lines You may travel from Clare to the County Kildare from Drogheda right back to the Coombe But yeah Oh sorry That's good And old little like me, pity Mulligan, the pride of the coom. Me boys, pity Mulligan, the pride of the coom. And it sucks how she, you know, sells really good rolled cigars and cigarettes and clothes and you name it.

45:57Rick Steves:I wish our listeners could see you while you're doing that, because I got the joy of watching you. Your eyes are closed and your big smile and you're bouncing like a happy eighth note, you know, it's just really beautiful. It makes me happy.

46:09Irish American singer:And I love because the songs advance the narrative. I would never sing gratuitously. Like, I wouldn't torture my tour members like that. But if I can add to the story with the song.

46:19Rick Steves:I've got this favorite image. And I went to a pub in Galway, and it was called The Crossroads. And up on the wall, there was a very romanticized 19th-century-style painting of a crossroads, two roads in a rural area just with farms coming together, a fire in the intersection. And there's no traffic after dark on a crossroads in the middle of Ireland 100 years ago, you know. And people were gathered around making music. Yes. And the pub was called The Crossroads. I had the sense that even the smallest little excuse to get two families together, you have this crossroads and this party and this celebration.

46:58Rick Steves:What does that mean to you?

46:59Irish American singer:When there wasn't a community hall in rural Ireland, people would meet at the crossroads. And it would start with singing and music playing and then the dancing, Kayleigh dancing, set dancing, the walls of Limerick, the siege of Venice and everybody. And what I love about Ireland is that whether it's the crossroads or whether you're in a hall, it's all ages. You've got five year olds and you've got 91 year olds and we're all dancing and we're all together. And someone's calling the dance for people who don't know it. But it happened at the crossroads near my granddad's house. It was Long Rice's Cross, and they knew, okay, Sunday evening, lads, we're having a dance.

47:41Irish American singer:Sunday evening, sundown, we're going to the crossroads. Yes, we meet at the crossroads. So that happened all over Ireland.

47:47Rick Steves:Is the word for the traditional Irish language Gaelic?

47:49Irish American singer:Yeah, they call it Irish in Ireland. Irish, yeah.

47:52Rick Steves:And I would imagine people would be speaking Irish. Today, if you want the traditions of Irish, I always remind people, Remember, there's entire regions that are labeled Galetecs, which get subsidy from the government, the national government, to subsidize traditional Gaelic speaking and traditional lifestyles and small farms and so on. Tell me how you define a Galetec and how that might be something for a traveler to be mindful of when they want to experience traditional Irish culture.

48:20Irish American singer:Well, you can go into the Geltuk areas in places like Donegal, Connemara, County Kerry, West Kerry, Dingle.

48:29Rick Steves:Mostly the West Coast. Yes. So that's beyond the pale. When we say the pale.

48:33Irish American singer:Yes. Oh, very beyond the pale. Americans love to say beyond the pale.

48:36Rick Steves:But I learned that the pale was this proper English zone, the privileged zone. The walled zone. Around the capital city of Dublin.

48:43Irish American singer:Yes. But it expanded out up to Drahadar.

48:46Rick Steves:But there were always these barbarian indigenous people, the Catholics that were at the crossroads singing and all this kind of stuff.

48:51Irish American singer:Absolutely. We were the savages. Yes, we were the ones having a good time.

48:56Rick Steves:But if you want to go beyond the pale today, you find a gale tech on the west coast.

49:00Irish American singer:I would say go to a gale tech and get yourself to a pub or a hall that has dancing. Yes. And just get up and join. You will have the best time and you will have friends made before the night is over.

49:14Rick Steves:This is critical. If you need an extra Guinness, get the extra Guinness. Yes. Get up and join. Absolutely. And if they're staying after the pub closes, hang out.

49:24Irish American singer:Well, usually you do stay after the pub closes, and then you wind up having the quieter part of the night, which is the sing-song and the few tunes. And you'll go home in the wee hours. Very happy.

49:35Rick Steves:Back before I was so busy with my tours and my guidebooks and everything, I would routinely find an excuse to be able to sneak in there after the pub closed and stay till the wee hours.

49:44Irish American singer:And have afters.

49:46Rick Steves:Afters. Is that what that is? Yes, it's called Afters. Oh, my goodness.

49:51Irish American singer:It's still done, just very quietly.

49:54Rick Steves:Kathy Ryan, you are an inspiration. Thank you so much for joining us. Can we just wrap up this conversation? I just, forgive me, but I love to get some sort of a blessing or something, a sweet word in Irish or from Irish culture for me and for our listeners.

50:08Irish American singer:I would say slán agas bánacht, which means goodbye and blessings on you. Banat Liv. Blessings on you.

50:17Rick Steves:Gaurav Mahagot.

50:18Irish American singer:Beautiful, Rick.

50:20Rick Steves:To Paul Charot.

50:22Irish American singer:You said thank you. Gaurav Mahagot.

50:25Rick Steves:Well, I know one more word. Sláinte.

50:27Irish American singer:Ah, sláinte to everyone out there.

50:31Rick Steves:Travel with Rick Steves is produced at Rick Steves Europe in Edmonds, Washington by Tim Tatton, Kazmur Hall, and Donna Bardsley. Affiliate relations are by Sheila Gerzoff. Website uploads are by Andrew Wakeling and Sherry Quirt. Jerry Frank wrote and performed our theme music.

50:47Irish American singer:Gretchen Straub read our listener travel haiku. You can find links to our guests and search the show archives at ricksteves.com slash radio.

50:56Rick Steves:We'll see you next week with more Travel with Rick Steves. My Facebook friends are a fun community of curious travelers, and you're invited to join in. To stow away with me in my work, play, politics, philanthropy, and travels, follow me at Rick Steves on Facebook.