Hiking, Biking, Boating, Touring, Climbing, Riding, Flying, Running,
and Exploring in HOME AT FIRST's destinations.

ADVENTURE OF THE MONTH — MARCH, 2004

        We like Adare. We start with that just in case you come to the conclusion that we don’t. Adare is a fancy, a folly, more than a little bit tongue-in-cheek, and, perhaps, all the more Irish for it. Like Main Street in the original Disneyland, Adare is all about fulfilled expectations, about images becoming reality, and about nostalgia turning a profit. Adare is Irish slight-of-hand, and the selling of an Ireland-that-never-was to the Irish-who-really-aren’t.

        Adare—a small town southwest of Limerick city in Central Ireland—is cleverly enough disguised not to be an embarrassing clichι. The town is a perennial finalist in the Irish "Tidy Towns" competition, and its fame as a showpiece has spread far and wide. In fairness, its conception resulted more from the self-delusion of the town’s own landed gentry than a scheme to commit liposuction on visitors’ wallets. Still, the town seems blissfully schizophrenic: perfectly comfortable going about its business while busloads of shutterbugs descend on its Main Street every day.

TODAY'S ADARE: IRELAND THAT NEVER WAS?

        Adare begins its slight-of-hand by appearing to be largely medieval. Driving into Adare from Limerick you must pass by a 15th century Franciscan Friary, and the substantial ruins of the 13th century Norman Desmond Castle, before crossing the 14th century road bridge over the River Maigue and entering the town. Adare boasts (a honest use of the verb) no fewer than 3 ancient church buildings including an Augustinian Priory (14th century), and the only Irish example of Trinitarian monastery (14th century), these now being (respectively) the town’s Protestant and Roman Catholic churches.

        All of these ruined or remodeled structures are window dressing for Adare’s real drawing card: its row of pretty-as-a-roll-of-film thatched cottages that line Main Street just as one drives into town. And they are pretty. The pastel painted cottages each carry heavy, drooping, ornamental thatches that seem more like blankets than the neatly trimmed utilitarian thatches one still can see on some Irish cottages. No, these are Snow White thatches so perfect that one expects the Seven Dwarves to be tenants here, dressed as leprechauns, of course.

DO ADARE'S PRICEY THATCHED
  RESTAURANTS PROVIDE A    
GLIMPSE OF MODERN IRELAND...

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

        Home at First’s Central Ireland cottages are a short day trip away from Adare
in and near pretty Irish villages of their own. Visit Adare and most of the
Republic of Ireland from your home base in
CENTRAL IRELAND