Another great Irish bed to sleep on, with a lovely breakfast which for the first time included a fresh fruit salad – just what I needed. I don’t know if it’s because we have been tired or not, but the beds have been great since we arrived almost a week ago.

The weather today doesn’t look too promising, with winds and rains forecast but hey we did travel to Ireland in winter, so we shouldn’t be complaining too much. Our first real stop (if you ignore the quick detour into the Monaleen GAA Club to pick up the boys) is to meet up with Counsellor Mike Fitzpatrick who will be acting as our tour guide this morning. Mike was the mayor of Limerick and now has a new role as the National City of Culture Director, and is leading the team for a bid for Limerick to be the European Capital of Culture 2020.   He is certainly very passionate about this town. If I am completely honest my view of Limerick has been let’s say, not all that positive however spending the morning with Mike has changed my mind, not completely but somewhat.

There are some really beautiful places here, but there is still an undercurrent of it being a struggling town. Limerick is set on the Shannon River with the earliest settlement dating back to 812 AD, however the word on the street is that there were probably people here well before that.  The Vikings and the Irish fought over this area and it was eventually taken over in the 10th century… The poor Irish!  In the 1170’s the Normans ousted the Irish, with the English King John I ordering that a castle be built in 1210. The motto for Limerick is “an ancient city well versed in the arts of war”, I am yet to find an Irish city that isn’t! 

   
    
 Whilst we didn’t go into the castle today, we did spend some time in St Mary’s Cathedral which is Limericks oldest building founded in 1168. It was originally a Roman Catholic Cathedral however during the Reformation, it became the property of the Church of Ireland. A lovely Minister took the time to talk with the group about the history of this (very Catholic feeling about it ) Church, with its dynamic history which includes being a meeting place for Vikings, feeding leper colonies, and having bodies ripped from their burial plots the day after funerals – yep good stuff !    

    
 After our visit to St Mary’s we set off to meet with the Mayor of Limerick at the Limerick City and County Council building. Liam Galvin is the mayor who was elected to the position at the annual meeting of the Council in June this year. Mayor Galvin is a farmer by trade and will be in the position for just one year, whilst on the Council for five years. Major Galvin took us all into the chambers and was very happy to answer questions, and talk about the linkages between our two nations.

 After our meeting the group split up with Steve and Vic taking off to traverse the landscape alone, which included visits to Munster Stadium, where they had a private tour for two and the fabulous Hunt Museum.  The Museum exhibits one of Ireland’s greatest private collections of art and antiquities, some dating back to Neolithic times (or so Vic tells me) – he does have some awesome photos.  I headed with some of the group to the village of Adare, which is not is fabric shop despite comments from the boys ! Described in the guide book as Ireland’s prettiest village (which it may be but I am unable to judge) it is about 16 kilometres from Limerick and has won the tidy towns competition a number of times, this is song hung that they are very proud of as there is a lot of signage advertising this through out the village.

It was a lovely place to spend a wet afternoon, the only thing that could have improved it for me would have been if I had been wearing rubber boots and had felt at liberty to jump in the puddles. It reminded me a little of ones of the little towns in the Southern Highlands, with antique shops and old money – splendid. To top it off I spent a bit of the afternoon with one of the Adelaide nanas on the trip which was really lovely.

   
    
   The Catholic Holy Trinity Church is really stunning, founded in 1230 it has undergone significant restorations , they have done a great job. 
   
    
I have prided myself of being back to the bus with time to spare each time, but today it was tough, this was a beautiful tranquil space that I found a little hard to leave, but we are here for the footy! 

Back to the hotel to rug up and then back out to the Limerick University, tonight is our second game and the stakes are high. It is a rougher game than last night , with a bit of niggling, the end result is another win to the Australians, then back to the GAA clubhouse for drinks and pizza. Some of us leave to come back to the hotel with the bus driver, leaving others behind to enjoy the local hospitality !  Tomorrow morning we say slan  to Limerick.