Rural Ireland

[sunfiremarie]

Setting: Half in New York City, half in Ireland -- the 90's or thereabouts

Search Terms: Irish Villages, Rural Ireland Hostels

My character spends about a month in Ireland, staying, most likely, at a youth hostel, in a small town with little to no urban development. Angela Carter's essay on Bloomsday talked about how Dublin was developing rapidly

Comments

[rohaa]

Did you try simply googling for "youth hostel ireland" and variations thereon? It turned up a lot of youth hostels that you can book, and usually they have pictures as well, which you could maybe use to help you visualise your story :)

[the_gwenzilliad]

If you want a town big enough to have a hostel, that is fairly unchanged, Kilkenny is a nice one that lots of people have heard of/been to. THere will be a lot of info about Kilkenny on the web. However, it is a fairly large town as Irish towns that aren't Dublin go. If you want a more rural feel, maybe someplace like Sligo, that just has a tiny town centre and miles of countryside all around. Sligo will also have a hostel. In smaller towns, a B&B (bed and breakfast) is more usual. Irish B&Bs are often private homes that have been adapted for sleeping several guests. They will have four or five modest sleeping rooms upstairs, a guest dining area downstairs where an often very modest breakfast will be served, and the family living in the back of the house. B&Bs are sometimes ensuite (each room has its own bathroom), but sometimes guests will be expected to share a bathroom. This is less common around Dublin, where B&Bs are almost up to hotel standard (except the breakfast is still very modest usually

PS

[the_gwenzilliad]

(And you can still find Joyce's Dublin, if you know where and how to look. They can surround it with steel and suburbs, but they can't take it away.)

Re: PS

[sunfiremarie]

Thank you! This is very helpful. And your PS made me smile from the inside out.

[dorianegray]

IME, B&B breakfasts are reasonably substantial. In the last one I stayed in (in Wicklow town, a couple of months ago), there was cereal, yoghurt, toast (with butter and a choice of jams/marmalades), tea/coffee, orange juice, and a full fry.

[smellingbottle]

Did you mean modern Dublin was unrecognisable as Joyce's Dublin? That's certainly the case.

However, there is a considerable difference between Dublin and a village - not sure what you mean by a town with no 'urban development'. Google 'An Oige', which is the Irish youth hostel organisation, for information on Irish hostels and their locations.

[sunfiremarie]

I think I left out half a sentence -- I added that as a "so I know Dublin's out" piece, and was looking for rural alternatives. I think Silgo's got it.

[petitecrivan]

I was in Ireland for around a week in the spring and visited the Aran Islands. It's extremely small with very little urban development, but can be touristy. There are definitely hostels.

You could also check Hostelworld.com and see what is listed for Ireland.

[mmegaera]

Doolin is a small rural wide spot in the road with two hostels (when I was there in 1998) and a renowned trad-music-in-the-pubs deal.

It's not far from the Cliffs of Mohr (walking distance if you don't mind a bit of a climb), too.