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IRELAND: THE STAR WARS CONNECTION
The Ban Cheile* and I were fully charged and ready for our three-day adventure to South West Kerry to see if the Star Wars™ influence had changed the area in any way and also to enjoy a seriously chilled extended weekend break. If you’re a Star Wars fan you’ll know the cast and crew spent some time in and around Kerry while filming scenes for The Force Awakens and returned for the upcoming The Last Jedi. I’m pleased to report that other than an odd, and I mean odd, reference to the brief, but important, Star Wars experience (like a three foot storm trooper challenging an equally diminutive sith lord in the window of a guest house in Portmagee and a few “Skellig Wars” t-shirts featuring green-eyed puffins in Darth Vader gear) the Kerry coast has been…
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IRELAND: VALENTIA – ISLAND AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD
While the Ban Cheile* and I were on our Ring Of Kerry trip last month we based ourselves in the Valentia Royal Hotel on the small island off the Kerry coast. The island is just 11km long and 3km wide with a population of only 665 permanent residents – about the same as a very small neighbourhood in Dublin. Having said that it’s a fascinating place to spend a few days and since we were fortunate enough to have terrific weather it meant we could arm ourselves with our cameras and do the on tourist exploration of the island. Accessible only by a bridge at Portmagee (the small ferry from Reenard on the “mainland” – can you even call a bigger island a mainland? – to Knightstown only runs from April to late autumn). Valentia is steeped in history and…
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VALENTIA ROYAL HOTEL
The Ban Cheile* and I were really looking forward to our three-day stay on Valentia Island (Kerry, Ireland). We jokingly decided we’d go to South West Cork to see if we can follow the Force as it were. All true Star Wars fans know by now that the amazing scene at the end of The Force Awakens, where Luke Skywalker makes his big entrance, was shot on a tiny monastic island off the Kerry coast called Skellig Michael. We decided it was time for us to return to the area to see what the influence of the Force might have had on the place and to treat ourselves to a chill-out long weekend in the process. We arrived early the previous day to our hotel, The Royal Valentia Hotel. We’d stayed there some years earlier when it…
