Ireland - Day 8
August 28, 2025: Wow, we packed a lot into today so this is going to be a long post, but it was so much fun! Started the morning by walking to our pick-up point for Small Group Tour which was a full day tour from Galway nicknamed “Galway Bay in a Day” because it circles all of Galway Bay via bus and ferry. The tour includes a Cliffs of Moher boat cruise, ferry ride to Aran Islands with time to explore and a ferry ride to Connemara before heading back to Galway city center. Our tour operator was Lally Tours which I highly recommend. An our hosts were Barry (our guide) and Bertie (our driver). There were only 10 of us for the day which was so nice to have such a small group. Our first stop was a little restaurant/pub/coffee shop in Kinvarra called Connelly’s on our way to Cliffs of Moher for some coffee and scones. It was a cute little place and I was able to get a very nice vanilla latte and we grabbed some blueberry scones for the road. As we drove through the beautiful countryside on our way to the Cliffs of Moher, our tour guide shared the rich history of Galway and Irish music along the way.
Galway began as a small fishing village where the River Corrib meets the Atlantic, but by the 13th century it had grown into a fortified town under the Normans. For centuries it thrived as a busy port, run by fourteen wealthy families known as the “Tribes of Galway,” who traded wine, fish, and goods with Spain, France, and Portugal. Though the city declined after wars and restrictive English laws against the Irish people in the 1600s, Galway held onto its unique culture. One interesting fact is that 75% of its residence speak Irish. You can actually come to Galway and do an Irish language immersion where you stay with a host family and learn the language. Galway is considered Ireland’s cultural heart, full of music, festivals and creativity. We already wish we had more days to spend her exploring this unique city.
As with any tour that is dependent on weather, we unfortunately were not able to do our Cliffs of Moher tour when we got there. This week, the remnants of Hurricane Erin, now an intense, post‑tropical storm, have been stirring up dangerous Atlantic swell along Ireland’s west coast which is exactly where we are. It was going to be too dangerous to be out in a small boat along the cliffs. We did however take our 20 minute ferry ride over to the Aran Islands after an hour delay, but it was a rough ride if you saw my Facebook post video. A few of our fellow tour mates were quite scared and our tour guide got sick. It certainly made for a memorable trip!
The Aran Islands, at the mouth of Galway Bay, are known for their rugged beauty, rich Irish traditions, and ancient stone forts. We went to the smallest of the three, Inish Oírr (Inisheer). The island is just 3 km by 2 km. Its highlights include the 15th-century O’Brien’s Castle perched on a hilltop and the Plassey shipwreck rusting dramatically on the shore. On the night of March 8, 1960, it struck Finnis Rock during a fierce storm. The crew was stuck onboard. The Inishsheer Rocket Team rescued the entire crew from the ship using a breeches buoy (rope-based rescue device used to extract people from wrecked vessels). The breeches buoy had been in existence on the island since 1901, but had never been used prior to this. They only enough fuel to launch three rockets, and stood up in their necks in the water to rescue the crew.
While at the Aran islands, we grabbed lunch at a local restaurant and then took a horse drawn buggy around the island as our driver regaled us with tails of the island. He has lived on the island his entire life and graduated with a class of 8. The island depends our tourists like us for its survival, so we were very welcomed by everyone we met. At a pub called Tigh Ned, I met the owner and he expressed his love for Americans and we got a chance to chat for a bit and even got a picture together. Then is was off to our next stop at Connemara via a one hour ferry where we met up with our bus driver and then took a tour with commentary there while we made our way back to Galway City. The driver was nice enough to drop us near the Italian restaurant where we I had made reservations not knowing how late we would be getting back.
We had dinner at La Collina which was a traditional Italian restaurant. Jimm had Linguine Mare Chiaro al Cartoccio which has squid ink pasta, mussels, shrimp and tiger prawns while I had the traditional spaghetti and meatballs - both were delicious! We highly recommend this restaurant. Then is was off to our final agenda item of the day, Trad on the Prom. This was listed as Ireland’s No 1 Irish Music, Song and Dance Experience. While it was not on as a grand a scale or stage as the River Dance at the Ordway Theater in Minneapolis, the musicians and dancers were all world class with many holding world champion titles. It was a family affair as many of the artists were related and all incredibly talented. I did a Facebook post of some of the videos I took which shows the level of talent at this show. One of the musicians was a choreographer who had done work for Michael Flatley and the violinist, Máirín Fahy was a soloist in Riverdance. A great experience all around.
Lastly, not on the agenda, but recommended by our tour guide, we stopped at O’Connors Famous Pub which was established in 1942 by Thomas O’Connor although the building has been there since the 1800s. When you step inside you are surrounded by a plethora of antiques—oil lamps, life preservers, old signs, weighing scales, even a near life-size John Wayne statue from The Quiet Man—all plastered across every wall and ceiling space. There was a 3-piece Irish band playing music and we had a table right by them, so it was fun to just taking in the atmosphere and listen to the music. A great way to end the day.