Irish Oddities

Travel Destinations That Show a Different Ireland

Lighthouses are for starters ... the Irish put a man on a buoy to guide ships into the right direction. This was not a hare-brained scheme to combat unemployment in the coastal regions but a rather original variation on a theme - Ireland's "Iron Men" are navigational aids shaped and painted like a "jolly old tar". A ship approaching the safety of a harbor will thus be literally pointed into the right direction. Navigation for dummies, by a (steel) dummy. See one at Rosses Point, guarding the way into Sligo harbor.

In Glencree (County Wicklow) you will find a German war cemetery, the last resting place of soldiers and civilians who died during the world wars. And of German spy Hermann Goertz ... who parachuted into Ireland to establish contact with the IRA. Goertz committed suicide after the war and his grave marker shows his rank as Major. Which he wasn't. The spy was only ever a Captain, Irish intelligence "promoted" him during his incarceration - in a faked contact with his Berlin headquarters. He (unwittingly) spilled the beans to the Irish, so the Irish rewarded him with a fake promotion ...

In County Tyrone you will see American farmsteads from the pioneers' days, complete with pumpkin fields. But only after you take a transatlantic passage on a sailing ship. The Ulster American Folk Park is one of the best museums in Ireland and details the emigration from Ulster to the "new world". Complete with historic Ulster buildings, a simulated "passage" and then a recreated American townland. Go there for the excellent bluegrass festival in autumn or on reenactment days ... when Union and Confederate soldiers slug it out.

If an Irishman tells you you are "as bright as a lighthouse in a bog" he means that you manage to be brilliant without actually being useful at all. Then why build a lighthouse at Kells (County Meath), miles away from the nearest shore? Actually the "Beacon" is not a lighthouse, it just looks like one. It is a memorial to a long-forgotten local celebrity. But it manages to confuse passers-by on the N3 regularly. Especially at dusk, when the observation platform on top is brightly lit ...

Have you ever heard of the Bull Island Mouse? If not, don’t worry - most zoologists haven't either. It is extremely rare and only lives on Dublin's Bull Island. You see, Bull Island is nothing more but an overgrown sandbank accidentally created when the North Wall was built. And some mice decided to settle there. Unfortunately darkish mice did not escape the beady eyes of predators on the sand for long. Those that survived slowly evolved into a unique population of sand-colored mice, known to zoologists as Bull Island Mice. Try to spot some ...

What is so special about O'Connell Bridge, you might ask yourself - the bridge at the lower end of O'Connell Street is architecturally unexciting, permanently covered in traffic jams and when you enjoy the view you have a good chance of being trampled underfoot by hordes of humans. But you might want to seek out a satellite photo on Google Maps ... O'Connell Bridge is one of the very few bridges that are actually wider than they are long! By the way, don’t get confused: another O'Connell Bridge can be found in St. Stephen's Green.

Remember those "Mad Max" films and similar dystopian science fiction? If you do, you will also remember those crazed mechanics that seemed to be bent on creating monstrous machines out of hitherto unrelated parts in these films. When you go for a ride on the Clonnacnoise & West Offaly Railway (the "Bog Train"), have a look at the machinery exhibited nearby. From tracked vehicles running on wooden tracks to all sorts of DIY-engineering on a grand scale. Or what looks like a caravan on rails - actually a crew vehicle with a small petrol engine. Mad Max in the bog ...

If you want to see mummies in Dublin you can take the conservative approach and visit the exhibition on Ancient Egypt in the National Museum. Or you can head for Saint Michan's Church on the Northside - for a moderate fee a guide will take you into the catacombs below and let you shake hands with a mummified crusader. Note that the guide usually spices up the visit by telling odd (and true) stories about how people lived or met their death and before being buried here. His banter alone is worth the entrance fee ...