A Little about Dingle
A Little Dally in Dingle
I have a brochure entitled Dingle’s Hidden Treasure and it includes some fine art work at St Mary’s Church with its associated cultural and spiritual centre, and I can tell you why the word hidden is used. Some murals by Nano Nagle who apparently founded the Presentation Sisters and a fresco of The Last Supper by Eleanor Yates were all secreted away behind the closed doors of occupied classrooms where lessons were in progress as we tippytoed past. I would have liked to have seen them but then the purpose of the building was education and I believe in that as well.
There are some colourful stained-glass windows too by 20th century Harry Clarke which have their own charming style but I missed taking photos of those as well.
However, two things I did achieve were firstly the photo of the church roof and stalls made of Spanish Oak and the altar made of Italian marble. Second was the historic purpose of labyrinths and mazes. It puts a whole new meaning for me on all the ones I have seen, including the maze at Blackgang Chine on the Isle of Wight, where rescuers can stand on a platform and guide the lost ones out, the one at Hampton Court Palace Gardens dark and razored neat to within an inch of its unnatural life, and the recent one on St Agnes Isles of Scilly. The one in St Mary’s church grounds at Dingle was very kind and I think it would have worked for me but generally I think I must be a little way on the spectrum because, far from soothing away the troubles of an upset mind, mazes with hedges, where one cannot just run across the rings to the exit, wind me up with frustration and do absolutely nothing for my usually calm and well-ordered mind. Yes, the first circle onto the spectrum me.
After Limerick and before a bit of a challenge on the horizon we decided on a nice circuitry walk around Dingle. We headed westwards along the main road and then turned up to the right onto the main road, part of the Atlantic Way, past some nice houses, many open for the B&B trade and with pleasant views over Dingle Bay.
As you can imagine there are many pubs in Dingle and we thought we’d give the Dingle Inn a try after our walk, we were thirsty after all. I have no doubt a great evening can be had there with live music and a touch of Gaelic dancing thrown in, but we were becoming aware of the pubs that are genuine Irish, friendly small and personal, compared with those that have grown to accommodate mass tourism, seasonal trade. Apart from three paralytic gents, whom Rob was convinced hadn’t been home from the night before, we were the only ones there. Some other folk came in but when they saw the trio of legless locals they turned tail and almost ran out. We had spotted another pub just up the road that boasted visits of characters from the American TV Series ‘Cheers’ so we wandered back there but sadly it was closed.
So back through the little streets to the quay area and the first two pubs were full with diners, one publican telling us in brief but to the point words that there was no room at the inn. A few more paces towards the marina and away from the town centre we found The Marina Bar where a warm welcome awaited us and we enjoyed a little refreshment. Then back on board to prepare for the next stage of our passage northwards.
