April 4 – 7

A block or so from the castle we found ourselves entering Treaty City Brewery, which boasts of having “Limerick’s Greatest Toastie” and indeed we would put this claim to the test.  Along with a round of drinks (beers, tea and coffees) we did get one of the sandwiches to split and it does rank up there with some of the best grilled cheese sandwiches known to mankind, comprised of Novak’s sourdough, onions braised in Harris Pale Ale, aged cheddar, and smoked cheddar.

The brewery is in what was once the home of Arthur Roche, thrice mayor of Limerick who operated his own brewery at the rear of this building up until 1756.  Limerick is called “Treaty City” because it is the historic site of the signing of the Treaty of Limerick on October 3, 1691, which officially ended the Williamite War.  This conflict was fought between the Jacobite’s (supporters of the Catholic King James II) and the Williamites (supporters of the Protestant King William III, or William of Orange).

We left the brewery and walked behind St. Mary’s Cathedral where we stopped briefly in a small sculpture garden where Gemma climbed around on some of the pieces.  From there we ambled to the center of town to discover that a big Hurling match was taking place that afternoon between Limerick and their archrivals from Cork.  Hurling is an outdoor team game of ancient Gaelic Irish origin, and it shares several features with Gaelic football, such as the field and goals, the number of players and much terminology.  It has been labelled as the fastest field sport in the world.

I won’t get into the intricacies of the game here except to say that a 2024 survey found that hurling was the favorite sport of 25% of Irish people.  And we witnessed that as we walked the streets, which were inundated with supporters of both squads, with numerous street vendors pedaling hats, flags and all kinds of merchandise with each team’s colors.  About this time, we realized that the lot where we had parked the car would close at 5pm and so Marty and Kris left to retrieve it, and the rest of us walked towards People’s Park where Gemma, Kim and Joanna spent an hour or two while I had a nice pour over. at Rift Coffee.

Soon enough Kris and Marty returned and we all met at The Copper Room, self-described as ”Limerick’s premier wine bar” for our first, but not last, tipple of the day.  Along with an order of Olives and Feta and one of Baked Brie (baked Tipperary Brie, rosemary, and walnuts) served with crusty bread, we enjoyed a Crianza, a Malbec, a Montepulciano and a Pinot Noir.  It was a nice stop, and our only regret was that we couldn’t stay longer. 

But, as it would turn out, after Jessica, Kris and Gemma walked to their hotel, our departure was just late enough for us to run into the thousands of fans leaving the Hurling match.  This meant a bit of traffic as we headed, but where the real trouble started was when we stopped at the Tesco near the hotel to pick up some supplies (more wine and whiskey and some food stuffs) we discovered that it appeared that of the 44,000 spectators at the match, many, if not most of them, had parked in the parking lot there, even though there were prominent signs stating that there was no parking for non-shoppers.   

This got us stuck in the lot for almost an hour and then added another 30 minutes as we crept along with cars leaving the lot on adjoining streets, most blocked off forcing us to follow a route that was circuitous at best, finally arriving back at our lodging much later than we had anticipated.  It turns out the hotel had hosted a watch party (we wondered what they were setting up for when we left that morning) and thus it was still crowded when we arrived.  We were all pretty hungry by now and so with no realistic options close by, decided to have dinner at the in-house restaurant, prepared to wait a good while given how busy it was.  But when we asked about seating, they asked if we were hotel guests and responding yes, we were seated immediately at a booth large enough to accommodate the seven of us. 

They offer a large selection of menu items and along with some more wine, I ordered the Penne Bolognaise with Garlic Bread (Traditional Beef Ragout flavored with Tomatoes, Mushrooms, Onion & Fresh Garlic, served with Parmesan Cheese).  Joanna opted for the Greene’s Seafood Chowder, standard fare at almost every place we would visit.  One thing I haven’t mentioned is that In Ireland, by law, pre-packaged food labels and restaurant menus must clearly declare the presence of 14 specific major food allergens.  These allergens must be emphasized, usually in bold, within the ingredient list or declared directly on the menu.

The next morning Joanna and I took advantage of the free breakfast , she doing the Short-Irish (Grilled bacon x 1, sausage x 1, black & white pudding, fried egg, hash brown & vine tomato) while I ate most of my substantially sized Omelet (Three egg omelet of your choice of ham, cheese, onion or tomato) before joining the others for the one hour drive to Doolin to explore the Cliffs of Moher.  We will cover the Cliffs in much more detail in future posts, but for now let’s just say that as we were still getting used to driving on the narrow roads here, it was an exciting trip out to the coast. 

Links

Treaty City Brewery: https://treatycitybrewery.ie/

Hurling: https://usgaa.org/hurling/

Rift Coffee: https://www.riftcoffee.com/

The Copper Room: https://www.thecopperroom.ie/