{"id":15401,"date":"2017-11-14T02:24:12","date_gmt":"2017-11-14T07:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/?p=15401"},"modified":"2020-09-14T07:23:12","modified_gmt":"2020-09-14T12:23:12","slug":"top-places-to-visit-while-in-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/blog\/top-places-to-visit-while-in-ireland\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Places To Visit While In Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"small<\/p>\n

Wexford, Ireland. \u00a0Ronald Reagan\u2019s origins are even more humble than Abraham Lincoln\u2019s log cabin.<\/p>\n

His great-grandfather, Michael O\u2019Regan, was born in a hut of mud and slats in farmland called Doolis near the village of Ballyporeen, County Tipperary, in 1829.<\/p>\n

The O\u2019Regans, like most of Ireland\u2019s rural poor, lived on potatoes.\u00a0 When a fungus (phytophthora infestans) infected the potato crop in 1845, causing a famine, the teenaged Michael fled to London with other folks from Tipperary.\u00a0 Among them was a young lass, Catherine Mulcahy, whom he married in 1852 after Anglicizing his name to Reagan.<\/p>\n

They had a son, John, in 1854, and emigrated to America, settling in Fulton, Illinois, by 1860.\u00a0 John\u2019s son, Jack, was born in Fulton in 1883.\u00a0 Jack\u2019s son, Ronald Wilson Reagan, was born in nearby Tampico in 1911.<\/p>\n

Seventy-three years later, in June of 1984, Ronald Reagan came to Ballyporeen as President of the United States.\u00a0 In his\u00a0speech<\/a>\u00a0to the townspeople in the village square, he said, \u201cI can\u2019t think of a place on the planet I would rather claim as my roots more than Ballyporeen, County Tipperary.\u201d<\/p>\n

A friend of mine was there as a member of Reagan\u2019s staff.\u00a0 After the speech, the President commented to him, \u201cI really am proud to be from here.\u201d\u00a0 With a wink, he explained:\u00a0 \u201cYou see, I\u2019m from Beyond the Pale.\u201d<\/p>\n

My son Jackson and I are here in Ireland to track down his own Irish roots.\u00a0 His mother\u2019s great-grandparents emigrated to America from somewhere in Ireland in the 1890s.\u00a0 It turned out they were from Beyond the Pale too.<\/p>\n

The history of Ireland is long, and too often dark and grim.\u00a0 It\u2019s been inhabited for 9,000 years, first by Stone Age folks whose megalith (\u201cgiant stone\u201d) monuments and graves can still be seen by the hundreds, scattered across the island today \u2013 such as\u00a0\u201cThe Hole of Sorrows\u201d<\/a>\u00a0in County Clare.<\/p>\n

\"Rock<\/p>\n

By 2500 BC, they had entered\u00a0Ireland\u2019s Bronze Age<\/a>, skillfully casting axes, daggers, and other weapons, and producing spectacular ornaments of beaten gold.\u00a0 The Iron Age began around 500 BC, with a series of migrations from Europe by tribes of Celts (from Herodotus\u2019 (484-425 BC) name for them, Keltoi).<\/p>\n

The last Celtic tribe to come called themselves Gaels, from their homeland in Gallaeci, modern-day Galicia in northwestern Spain. They established a number of kingdoms throughout the island, which they called Eire, after the earth-goddess they worshipped, Eriu.<\/p>\n

Thus, the name of the Irish language and culture, Gaelic, and Ireland\u2019s name, the Land of Eire.<\/p>\n

Although the Romans, starting with Julius Caesar in 54 BC, invaded and colonized England, they left Ireland alone, calling it Hibernia.\u00a0 This, after Pytheas of Masalia (today Marseille), a Greek merchant-explorer who circumnavigated the British Isles in 325 BC,\u00a0 called it Ivernia, adapted from Eire.<\/p>\n

The gradual replacement of the Celtic Druid religion with Christianity traditionally begins with the arrival of\u00a0St. Patrick<\/a>\u00a0as a Catholic missionary in 432 AD.\u00a0 The patron saint of Ireland, his death day of March 17, 493, is celebrated by all those who want to be Irish.<\/p>\n

By 600, monasteries had been built all over Ireland.\u00a0 The monks studied the Scriptures in Latin and produced magnificently illustrated manuscripts, such as the astounding\u00a0Book of Kells<\/a>\u00a0at the Abbey of Kells, County Meath, in 800.\u00a0 It is Medieval Europe\u2019s greatest treasure and one of the most astonishing works of art in human history. \u00a0Here is the\u00a0Chi-Rho Monogram<\/a>\u00a0page:<\/p>\n

\"ancient<\/p>\n

Most all Irish men were either monks, farmers, or warriors for the local king, whose favorite pastime (as it had been for centuries) was cattle-raiding and pillaging neighbor kingdoms.<\/p>\n

Then in 832, the Vikings arrived and pillaged the entire island. By 870, the Vikings decided they liked the place enough to stop destroying and start building towns.\u00a0 They proceeded to found several of Ireland\u2019s largest cities, Dublin, Wexford, Limerick, and Cork.<\/p>\n

Near Limerick in the 960s, a young Gaelic prince named Brian Boru (941-1016) organized a guerrilla army to fight the Vikings.\u00a0 With each victory, his army grew until he had kicked the Vikings out of Ireland.<\/p>\n

By 1002, he reigned over all Ireland except Ulster in the north.\u00a0 It took him 10 more years to gain control of Ulster, whereupon he was proclaimed Ard Ri, the first \u2013 and last \u2013 High King of all Ireland.<\/p>\n

Today, the Clan of O\u2019Brien claims descent from Boru, while\u00a0Brian Boru\u2019s Harp remains the symbol of Ireland<\/a>.\u00a0 Look for the harp on the label of a bottle of Guinness.<\/p>\n

\"Beyond<\/p>\n

After Boru, the island quickly broke apart into the usual warring kingdoms.\u00a0 Across the Irish Sea, England was about to change forever with the invasion of William of Normandy in 1066.\u00a0 The French-speaking Normans seized all of Britain, with a number of Norman knights taking control of Cambria, later known as Wales.<\/p>\n

These Cambro-Normans decided Wales wasn\u2019t enough for them, and they launched an invasion of Ireland in 1169 led by Sir Richard \u201cStrongbow\u201d de Clare.\u00a0 Landing at Ballyteige Bay south of Wexford, they quickly took Waterford and the entire east coast to Dublin.<\/p>\n

One of the knights was Sir Walter de Whitty, who built Ballyteige Castle overlooking the bay.\u00a0 It still stands today and was the ancestral home of the Whitty family until 1649:<\/p>\n

\"Castle<\/p>\n

Here is where Jackson\u2019s Irish roots began.\u00a0 His great-great grandfather was a Whitty.<\/p>\n

In 1171, King Henry II of England (1133-1189, husband to Eleanor of Aquitane, the most extraordinary woman of the Middle Ages, and father to Richard the Lion Heart) sailed to Waterford to parcel out the Irish territories conquered in his name.\u00a0 Strongbow got the largest, while Henry kept Dublin under his personal royal control.<\/p>\n

Pope Adrian IV had just issued a Papal Bull anointing Henry as \u201cLord of Ireland.\u201d\u00a0 Dublin and the territory around it for a radius of about 20 miles was therefore named the Lordship of Ireland.<\/p>\n

The Cambro-Normans soon became known as Hiberno-Normans (Hibernian or Irish Normans) as they assimilated with the Gaels and lost their loyalty to the English Crown.\u00a0 By the 1300s, a ditch had to be built around the Lordship of Ireland to protect it from Irish raiders.<\/p>\n

The ditch was fortified with pointed stakes, or pales, from the Latin palus (stake).\u00a0 The words impale and palisade have the same root.\u00a0 Thus, the Lordship of Ireland became known to the English residents within it as the Pale.\u00a0 Inside the Pale, it was safe and civilized.\u00a0 Outside, or Beyond the Pale, it was neither.<\/p>\n

By 1500, the British Crown had lost control of the Pale itself.\u00a0 The War of the Roses (1455-1485) between the Houses of York and Lancaster for the throne had torn England apart.\u00a0 The Hiberno-Norman Earl of Kildare, Gerald FitzGerald (1456-1513; \u201cFitz\u201d is a Hiberno-Norman prefix) had taken over the Pale, and there was nothing King Henry VII could do about it.<\/p>\n

His son Henry VIII (1491-1547) couldn\u2019t do much about it either.\u00a0 He tried everything from force to bribes to \u201cpolitic drifts and amiable persuasions,\u201d and nothing worked.\u00a0 The Irish, Gaelic together with Norman, stayed outside English jurisdiction, maintaining their own language, social system, customs, and laws.<\/p>\n

Finally, in 1541, Henry declared the Lordship of Ireland to be the Kingdom of Ireland, himself the King of Ireland in addition to the King of England, and said to hell with the place.\u00a0 He died six years later.<\/p>\n

So the Irish remained free, but at a cost.\u00a0 The Renaissance had passed Ireland completely by, so its culture remained firmly medieval, still stuck in the feudal Middle Ages.<\/p>\n

The Reformation passed Ireland by as well.\u00a0 While the English, after Henry broke with Rome in 1536, became increasingly Protestant (along with the Welsh and the Scots), the Irish remained passionately Catholic.<\/p>\n

We may call Henry\u2019s daughter, Elizabeth (1533-1603), the \u201cGreat,\u201d but she is despised by the Irish.\u00a0 She was a Protestant, assuming the throne in 1558.\u00a0 In 1570, Pope Pius V issued a Bull absolving the people of Ireland from any allegiance to England and its Protestant Queen.<\/p>\n

She responded with ferocity, attempting to subjugate the Irish with massacres and brutality.\u00a0 This culminated in the Nine Years\u2019 War, 1594-1603.<\/p>\n

The most resolutely Gaelic and Catholic province of Ireland was Ulster in the north.\u00a0 The rebellion led by Hugh O\u2019Neill was crushed by an English scorched-earth policy, resulting in tens of thousands of Irish starving to death.\u00a0 Yet Ulster celebrated shortly after the war\u2019s end when James I (1566-1625), grandson of Henry VII, succeeded childless Elizabeth.\u00a0 James was a Catholic.<\/p>\n

James proceeded to screw the Catholic Irish more than any Protestant English King.<\/p>\n

Ever since Henry VIII, the British had tried to establish \u201cPlantations\u201d in Ireland, seizing the lands of rebellious Irish chieftains and giving it to English settlers, with most efforts literally ending in bloody disasters.\u00a0 James\u2019s Plantation of Ulster was different.<\/p>\n

First, he confiscated three-quarters of all the land in Ulster, and forced by sword-point all the Irish inhabitants to relocate in the remaining quarter.\u00a0 Then he invited thousands of Protestant Scots to take over and settle in the seized and de-populated lands.\u00a0 The Protestant Church of Ireland was awarded all lands and churches owned by the Catholic Church in Ulster.<\/p>\n

It is from these Scot immigrants in the early 1600s that today\u2019s Protestant population of Ulster, or \u201cNorthern Ireland,\u201d descend.<\/p>\n

This land-confiscation Plantation policy was expanded through Ireland by James\u2019s son, Charles I (1600-1649, England\u2019s shortest King at 5\u20194\u2033) when he gained the throne in 1625.\u00a0 The Irish finally exploded in 1641.<\/p>\n

The Rebellion of 1641 saw thousands of Protestant settlers murdered and the collapse of the British colonial government in the Pale.\u00a0 An Irish government was formed called the Catholic Confederacy, which issued a Declaration of Independence from England, and was formally recognized as the legal government of Ireland by France, Spain, and the Vatican.<\/p>\n

Yet Charles\u2019s autocracy (he was convinced of the Divine Right of Kings to absolute obedience) was causing the English Parliament to rebel against him as well.\u00a0 The resulting English Civil War between the Parliamentarians and Royalists ended in the beheading of Charles for treason in 1649, and the seizure of power by a fascist monster named Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658).<\/p>\n

Cromwell\u2019s evil was driven by an Ayatollah Khomeini-like religious fanaticism and hate.\u00a0 His New Model Army invaded Ireland in 1649, and on Cromwell\u2019s orders, butchered thousands of Catholics in cold blood at Drogheda (north of Dublin), including Catholic priests in St. Peter\u2019s Church.\u00a0 The survivors were shipped to the West Indies and sold as slaves.<\/p>\n

The barbarity was repeated at Wexford, where over 2,000 men, women, and children were slaughtered.\u00a0 Luckily, Cromwell and his army had to then retire to winter quarters where many of his soldiers died of dysentery and typhoid.<\/p>\n

Unable to complete his conquest due to endless guerrilla attacks by Irish calling themselves tories (from the Gaelic toraidhe, pursued man \u2013 thus Tory evolved from outlaw to British political conservative), he began systematically destroying Ireland\u2019s food supplies.<\/p>\n

The massive famine caused the Irish to surrender in 1653.\u00a0 By that time, 30% of Ireland\u2019s entire population had died or had been sold into slavery or exiled.<\/p>\n

Cromwell\u2019s \u201cCommonwealth\u201d dictatorship confiscated all land owned by Catholics in the entire island.\u00a0 Catholics were reduced to powerless poverty and rule by a Protestant aristocracy known as the Protestant Ascendancy had begun.<\/p>\n

When Cromwell mercifully died in 1658, the Restoration of the British Monarchy ensued with Charles II (Charles I\u2019s son), who oversaw Ireland with a \u201clive and let live\u201d attitude.<\/p>\n

Trouble started again when Charles died in 1685, and his brother James, Duke of York (for whom Charles renamed New Amsterdam to New York in America when he captured it from the Dutch in 1665) ascended as James II.<\/p>\n

The Irish celebrated, for James was a fervent Catholic.\u00a0 But the Protestant British did not.\u00a0 James tried to appease them by letting his daughter, Mary, marry a Protestant, William, Prince of Orange, in the Netherlands.\u00a0 This was a little spooky because William\u2019s mother was James\u2019s sister.\u00a0 William and Mary were first cousins.<\/p>\n

It did nothing to assuage the Protestants, who plotted to overthrow James in a coup d\u2019etat and replace him with William and Mary as Joint Sovereigns.\u00a0 They succeeded in what is known as the Glorious Revolution of 1688.<\/p>\n

James II fled to Ireland.\u00a0 The Catholics had regained enough influence to get the Irish Parliament to declare that James remained King, and to pass, at James\u2019 urging, an Act for Liberty of Conscience which granted religious freedom to all Catholics and Protestants in Ireland.<\/p>\n

William promptly led an army to Ireland and trounced James at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.\u00a0 He then proceeded to enact a series of Draconian punishments upon the Irish Catholics, known as the Penal Laws.\u00a0 For this, his name is enshrined in Irish memory as \u201cWilliam the Turd.\u201d\u00a0 (To certain historians, he is also known as William the Bisexual.)<\/p>\n

Almost all Catholic land was again confiscated, almost all political rights denied.\u00a0 Catholic schools were banned.\u00a0 Catholics couldn\u2019t even own a horse worth more than five pounds.<\/p>\n

The Protestant Ascendancy ruled Ireland for the entire 18th century, with a stability that brought both peace and prosperity.\u00a0 Ireland finally emerged out of the Middle Ages.\u00a0 The Penal Laws faded away.\u00a0 Protestants began to feel far more Irish than English.\u00a0 Capitalist trade created wealth, with rich merchants building grandiose Rococo mansions.<\/p>\n

The middle class grew, as did literacy, art, music, and literature.\u00a0 Jonathan Swift (born in Dublin, educated there at Trinity College) wrote Gulliver\u2019s Travels in 1726.\u00a0 George Berkeley from County Kilkenny became one of the most well-known philosophers in the world (the University of California at Berkeley is named after him).<\/p>\n

Dublin became a boom town, a city, as one historian described it, \u201cfull of exciting ideas, high living, much business, much pleasure, rakes, bucks, and expensive whores.\u201d\u00a0 By the 1780s, Dublin was second in importance only to London in the British Isles.<\/p>\n

Yet the Ascendancy still owned most of the land and had all the political power.\u00a0 The American and French Revolutions inspired the Catholics to increasingly demand democratic rights.\u00a0 A rebellion in 1798 frightened the Protestant aristocracy enough to relinquish power and support the British Parliament\u2019s Act of Union, creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801.<\/p>\n

The Catholics (who formed 80% of the population) continued to press.\u00a0 A formidably intelligent champion emerged, Daniel O\u2019Connell (1775-1847), who almost singlehandedly persuaded the British Parliament to pass the Catholic Emancipation Act in 1829, repealing the Penal Laws and other anti-Catholic legislation.<\/p>\n

The Irish celebrated.\u00a0 Then came the Potato Famine.\u00a0 From 1794 to 1845, Ireland\u2019s population almost doubled to over 8 million.\u00a0 By 1851, over 1\u00bd million had died, and another 1\u00bd million emigrated, many to America.<\/p>\n

The Catholic survivors continued to press.\u00a0 Ireland began to be divided between Unionists (who called themselves Orangemen after William of Orange) centered in Protestant Ulster demanding no change in the 1801 Union, and Republicans, Catholics who wanted \u201cHome Rule\u201d \u2013 an autonomous (ideally independent) Irish Republic.<\/p>\n

By 1914, an outbreak of civil war between armed militias of Unionists and Republicans seemed certain, as Parliament was poised to pass Home Rule.\u00a0 Then World War I intervened.<\/p>\n

This frustrated a group of Republicans who staged a week-long rebellion in Dublin in 1916 called the Easter Rising.\u00a0 The violence was unpopular, but the British reaction to it more so, especially when the Rising leaders were executed.\u00a0 Then came the Brits\u2019 biggest blunder.<\/p>\n

To raise soldiers to fight the Germans, they announced they would now conscript Irish men into the British Army.\u00a0 Catholic Ireland exploded.\u00a0 It formed Volunteers into an Irish Republican Army (IRA) led by Michael Collins, who savagely fought British Army \u201cBlack and Tan\u201d units that indulged in massive looting and civilian torture.\u00a0 By 1920, Collins and the IRA were winning.<\/p>\n

By 1921, British Prime Minister Lloyd George was negotiating a treaty with Michael Collins.\u00a0 They signed an Anglo-Irish Treaty to create an Irish Free State with \u201cdominion\u201d status within the British Empire.\u00a0 Two provisos infuriated Republican purists:\u00a0 that six Ulster counties (\u201cNorthern Ireland\u201d) could opt out of the Treaty \u2013 which they immediately did \u2013 and that Irish Parliamentarians had to take an Oath of Allegiance to the British Crown.<\/p>\n

So a civil war erupted between pro- and anti-treaty forces within the IRA.\u00a0 Collins had to suppress the revolt, and was succeeding when, on August 22, 1922, near Cork, he was assassinated by anti-treaty IRA men.\u00a0 He was 31 years old. The whole country went into a state of shock.\u00a0 To this day, Collins is revered as Ireland\u2019s greatest patriot.<\/p>\n

The war slacked off and the Free State floundered until Eamon de Valera (1882-1975),\u00a0long-time IRA leader and founder of the Fianna Fail (Soldiers of Destiny) party, was elected Prime Minister in 1932. \u00a0With a couple of interruptions, he remained Ireland\u2019s Prime Minister until 1959.<\/p>\n

De Valera immediately repealed the Oath of Allegiance to the British Crown from Irish law.\u00a0 By 1936, he had the IRA banned as an illegal criminal organization.\u00a0 By 1937, he had a new Constitution adopted, making Ireland completely sovereign from Britain and changing the country\u2019s name to the Republic of Eire.<\/p>\n

At last, Ireland was free after 800 years of British subjection.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, it was one of Europe\u2019s poorest countries and remained so, slowly improving under de Valera, regressing under incompetent politicians like Jack Lynch in the 70s and corrupt ones like Charles Haughey in the 80s.<\/p>\n

Finally, Ireland figured out that low-tax, free-market entrepreneurial capitalism was the key to prosperity.\u00a0 The man who primarily figured it out was Charlie McCreevy, Ireland\u2019s Minister of Finance (1997-2004).\u00a0 The result of his policies was The Celtic Tiger.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what Ireland\u2019s now-booming economy became known as, with Ireland now one of the wealthiest countries in Europe, and ranked by the World Bank as having the\u00a06th highest GDP per capita in the world<\/a>. \u00a0It\u2019s a thrilling success story.<\/p>\n

Dublin is one of the hottest destinations in Europe for travelers.\u00a0 And no wonder, with Dublin Castle, Christ Church Cathedral, Trinity College\u2019s Long Room Library (where the Book of Kells and Boru’s Harp are displayed), and the Brazen Head Pub (Ireland\u2019s oldest, established 1198).<\/p>\n

\"Dublin<\/p>\n

Dublin Castle<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Christchurch<\/p>\n

Christ Church Cathedral<\/em><\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Long Room<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Brazen<\/p>\n

Brazen Head Pub<\/em><\/p>\n

But that\u2019s just the start. \u00a0There\u2019s\u00a0The Wonderful Barn<\/a>\u00a0in County Kildare \u2013 a huge stone corkscrew tower built in 1743 to house grain during famine – it\u2019s like no barn you\u2019ve ever seen.<\/p>\n

Or\u00a0Newgrange<\/a>\u00a0in County Meath. \u00a0Here is the magnificent Megalithic Passage Temple built over 5,000 years ago (3200 BC) in worship of the Ancient Irish Sun-god Dragha. \u00a0Together with the massive temples of Knowth and Dowth, it comprises the\u00a0Br\u00fa na B\u00f3inne World Heritage Site<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Wonderful Barn<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Newgrange<\/p>\n

Newgrange Megalithic Passage Temple<\/em><\/p>\n

In County Mayo there\u2019s the small village of Cong \u2013 where John Wayne\u2019s iconic movie\u00a0The Quiet Man<\/a>\u00a0was filmed in 1951. \u00a0Directed by John Ford, co-starring Maureen O\u2019Hara, it is one of the most beloved films of all time. \u00a0Many of the locations are still there, from the bridge Barry Fitzgerald and John Wayne crossed, to Pat Cohan\u2019s pub where Wayne\u2019s climactic fight with Victor McLagen ends.<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>\u201cQuiet Man\u201d Bridge\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Beyond<\/p>\n

Cohan\u2019s Pub in Cong<\/em><\/p>\n

Speaking of movies, there\u2019s the\u00a0hideout of Luke Skywalker<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 who, as the latest Star Wars movie reveals, resides on the extraordinary island of\u00a0Skellig Michael<\/a>\u00a0off the coast. \u00a0It is a\u00a0World Heritage Site<\/a>\u00a0as a nature sanctuary and as the earliest monastic complex of the first Irish Christians in the 600s.<\/p>\n

Of course there are castles, such as Ireland\u2019s iconic medieval masterpiece,\u00a0The Rock of Cashel<\/a>, built on the site where St. Patrick converted the King of Munster to Christianity in the mid-400s. \u00a0And Kilkenny Castle at Ireland\u2019s medieval capital, with its\u00a0Medieval Mile.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Rock of Cashel<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Kilkenny<\/p>\n

Kilkenny Castle<\/em><\/p>\n

Jackson and I, however, had to drive quite a bit to find his Whitty ancestors\u2019 birthplace.\u00a0 Cromwell\u2019s soldiers seized Ballyteige Castle in 1649 together with all Whitty lands, and the Whittys dispersed.<\/p>\n

Thanks to the research of a distant relative, Maura Whitty in Wexford, we learned that my wife\u2019s great-grandfather (thus, Jackson\u2019s great-great), James Patrick Whitty, was born in 1869 in a farmhouse on land called Kyle in the remote Wicklow mountains.\u00a0 That\u2019s where the family fled to after Cromwell.<\/p>\n

The farmhouse is gone and there\u2019s only fields and countryside now \u2013 but what gorgeous country it is.\u00a0 They call Ireland the \u201cEmerald Isle\u201d for good reason.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s astonishing that such a breathtakingly beautiful place as Ireland could be the scene of so many centuries of oppression and tragedy.\u00a0 Perhaps even more astonishing is how the Irish people are triumphing over their past.<\/p>\n

Kyle is very much like Doolis, the farmland of Michael O\u2019Regan.\u00a0 Both are far Beyond the Pale.\u00a0 But as Ronald Reagan understood, it\u2019s often a good and useful thing to be beyond the borders of \u201cacceptable\u201d society.\u00a0 In that direction lies freedom.<\/p>\n

For some great reading, here are a few articles I know you’ll enjoy!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Misunderstood: Common Misconceptions About Countries that Don’t Seem to Disappear<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ireland\u2019s Visa Program<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Living Warm and Dry in Cosy Southeast Ireland<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Wexford, Ireland. \u00a0Ronald Reagan\u2019s origins are even more humble than Abraham Lincoln\u2019s log cabin. His great-grandfather, Michael O\u2019Regan, was born in a hut of mud and slats in farmland called Doolis near the village of Ballyporeen, County Tipperary, in 1829. The O\u2019Regans, like most of Ireland\u2019s rural poor, lived on potatoes.\u00a0 When a fungus […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":366,"featured_media":15416,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[20315,20316,2920,20321,20319,20327,20322,20323,5336,9016,2596,6158,14711,16662,20314,20325,20324,20317,20326,20318],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/jpeg-20.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15401"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/366"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15401"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40292,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15401\/revisions\/40292"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15401"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=15401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}