Oh thank you all.

Well the time in Dublin and the itinerary as outlined are given (we're actually riding horses all day every day we're not in Dublin, not in a bus or whatever), what I was hoping for was "Oh, you are going to xyz village, the ABC pub there has brilliant music the other pub in the village they just drink and smoke and glower"--casting one's net upon the waters you know. You never know in a setting like Mudcat who is from where or who has been where or who knows where.

As to food, I've been poor and I've been an alpinist, so beans and rice, with rice and beans for variation, a can of tomatoes for a thrill, 25 days straight, is old hat to me, so boiled cabbage & bacon might even be a change. On the whole (except for recently) you don't go to English-speaking rural areas for culinary thrills.

(I'd druther boiled cabbage and bacon than what you get in "good" restaurants in the non-urban South of the US, for example.....sad but true. Makes England of the 50s look absolutely Epicurean.)

As to driving--my solution to driving in "wrong side o the road" countries is to demand a stick-shift--the oddness of shifting with my left hand keeps my brain on target, and remembering where the traffic is. My English friend when she is here keeps a prickly bracelet thing on her right hand, when she's driving, for the same reason.

Roundabouts are a piece of cake, maybe because I ride in a high-speed, precision equestrian drill team where I have to be aware & match speed left & right to other moving bodies--some with unreliable steering and brakes! (oh the thrill of riding in a quadrille with a stallion & a mare in heat.............)

But if you haven't done it before, GUEST,leeenia's driving suggestions are good.

I've printed out the specific recommendations above, but have a question--

"If you do nothing else in Dublin, visit Kilmainham gaol"--from Fionn & Jim Dixon both.

Please forgive my ignorance and also lighten it--educate me, (and Naomi aged 17)-- Why?