Meet Erin: Your Guide to Authentic Ireland & Scotland
While I bet you’ve heard of the Ring of Kerry, the Guinness Storehouse and Dublin, did you know Ireland has a Donkey Sanctuary, an observatory housed in a castle, manor houses that are far more authentic than it’s hotels and on cable car? Many people come to Ireland for the landmarks and the history, I feel it’s important to take your time and see what’s really here, today, as well.
Instead of trying to see everything in one go, I show you Ireland by region. So if you want to see all of Ireland in a week, this is not the tour for you.
These tours are designed to show you the landmarks and history, and all the surprising and magical ‘in-betweens’ as we go.
You see, I believe if you try and see everything…you don’t really see much at all. So we pride ourselves on keeping driving time down and adventure time high.
My father became an Irish citizen late in life. I helped him that project. And loved learning about my relatives who had come from Ireland. I am the youngest of 6 kids… a girl… and a twin. So I was more surprised than anyone when, in hospice at the end of his life, he made a list of places he wanted me to take some of his ashes when the time came. So about a year after he died I set out to take him there. I took my sister-in-law with me and we found all of his chosen destinations, which, as you can imagine was quite an involved tour around the island. It was almost like a mission from beyond the grave. I fell in love with Ireland and decided then and there that someday I would live there myself.
A few years later when my youngest child graduated from college and at a time in my life that I was clearly hating my job in television news, I took the leap. Took the GRE, applied to school in Galway, packed up my old house in Reno and moved.
Being, by far, the oldest in my Master’s program and going to school with so many people who wanted to be in TV as I was leaving it was odd. And as much as I no longer wanted to be on camera…I embraced radio and began collecting stories for podcasts (audio stories) and for print articles. My talent has been in writing and I admit that I see stories where others don’t.
I found stories about places no one bothers to see in Ireland, gained me an audience. Eventually I decided to turn my efforts into a non-profit to show people Ireland beyond the shamrocks and the shillelaghs. Shine a light on the real Ireland. Celebrate Ireland’s authentic spirit. Commit to helping other Irish non-profits.
And when a friend suggested bringing small groups with me, as I search out and collect my stories, I created these tours.
You have a lot of options for seeing Ireland, I know you do. But I urge you to see the historic landmarks you’ve read about and then get out of Dublin and the big cities and experience the people who live here.
