Magnificent Munster

Munster is located in the southern part of Ireland and consists of six counties: Cork, Clare, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford. Its main centers of population include Cork City, the country’s third largest city after Dublin and Belfast; Limerick, the nearest city to Shannon Airport; and Waterford, on the southeast coast. It boasts a wide range of scenery, including the sheer cliffs of Moher in County Clare, the breathtaking beauty of the Dingle Peninsula, and the lush dairyland of north Cork, Limerick, and Tipperary, with such historic landmarks as the Rock of Cashel and Cahir Castle.

A vacation around Munster alone would suffice for many travelers. Each of its counties offers a rich historical lore as well as sumptuous scenery. Suitable starting points for an exploration of the province include Cork, where there is an international airport with connections to Dublin, Britain and Europe, and Shannon Airport, Co. Clare, only 20 miles outside Limerick and the landing point for all transatlantic flights. There are also connections by ferry from Cork to Roscoff in France during the summer months.

Cork

Kinsale in County Cork is a popular holiday resort for tourists and native Irish alike. Known for its gourmet restaurants, yachting, sea angling, and golf, the town also offers Irish culture with its art galleries and historic architecture. Seven miles beyond Kinsale, The Old Head Golf Links is one of the most unique golf courses ever conceived, built on a 220-acre diamond of land that juts out over two miles into the Atlantic Ocean. A few of the prominent buildings in Kinsale include St. Multo’s Church and the Church of St. John the Baptist, as well as Desmond Castle, built as a custom house by the Earl of Desmond circa 1500 A.D. and used by Spanish occupiers as a prison for captured American sailors during America’s War of Independence.

Cobh is a seaport town on the south coast of County Cork and historically significant as the departure point of 2.5 million of the six million Irish who emigrated to North America between 1848 and 1950, beginning in the years of the Great Famine. The Cobh Museum houses the cultural, social, and maritime history of the town and the Great Island.

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