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Home Page > Blogs > News blogs > Periscope > It’s the weather, stupid: Ireland becomes a different country when the sun shines -- From Kerry to Donegal the island in the sun sparkles

Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

It’s the weather, stupid: Ireland becomes a different country when the sun shines -- From Kerry to Donegal the island in the sun sparkles

Posted on Thursday, September 13, 2012 at 08:04 AM

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Swimmers at the Forty Foot at Sandycove, Dublin (Laura Hutton / Photocall Ireland)

I have just spent ten blessed days in Ireland, with not a drop of rain in sight and the summer of deluge just a distant memory.

Is there a country anywhere that is so different when it is in sunshine or in shadow?

When it comes to Ireland I’m more convinced than ever that it is the weather, stupid.

All summer while in New York I had heard of the awful conditions, the pitiless rain and the storm clouds every day.

I heard tales of midsummer fires lit in the grate, overcoats worn on trips to the stores and flooding and dismay everywhere.

I was apprehensive -- and then I went back for the best two weeks of the year.

Dublin for the Notre Dame game felt like Florida in March, just right. The American fans thrived in the sunshine. Grafton Street and Temple Bar were awash in a blaze of color, pageantry and parades.

The game itself was under clear blue skies, and I’m sure the folks back home thought this was some kind of summer wonderland place.

My next stop was West Kerry where my father hails from, which encompasses Dingle and its heartland. When the sun shines the towering mountains, pristine beaches and picture perfect villages and towns put Tuscany in the shade.

When it rains the same scene is transformed to one of grey monotonous gloom with the mountains looming like dark shrouds over the landscape.

While in Kerry I spent a day at the postage-stamp size Killarney racetrack, with the Magillicuddy Reeks, the largest mountain range in Ireland, in the background. The sun was shining down, a band was playing and we sat in an outdoor bar full of patrons cheering on their selections.

Some stray Americans from the Notre Dame game in Dublin walked around, utterly blown away by the beauty of the day and the surroundings. Again, the good weather made all the difference.

We ate dinner outside at the top-class Hotel Europe with the Lakes of Killarney directly in our vision on the kind of evening and dramatic light that film directors would kill for.

Little wonder that from Queen Victoria on down, visitors have marveled at the place.

The drive back from Kerry to Dublin was on an unforgettably warm day, and the Irish landscape never looked better. From mountainy Kerry to the flatlands of Laois and Kildare and on into Dublin, it seemed like the late summer bloom has spread a perfect sheen of light and glorious color across the land.

Later I drove on to Donegal to accept the Tip O'Neill Donegal Diaspora award.

It is many years since I had been there, but the beauty of the Buncrana/Derry region blew me away.

Again, I was seeing it at its best. Lough Swilly in the morning light, visiting the castle where Wolfe
Tone was kept after his capture, driving around the isolated but utterly beautiful Inishowen peninsula was good for the Irish soul.

So there you have it, an antidote to the all the bad weather stories you heard about Ireland this past summer season.

“Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines” Shakespeare once wrote in a sonnet. I don’t think that can ever be true in Ireland, where the sun makes the summer.

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bobby | Sep 13, 2012, 07:32 PM EDT

Some Americans might think it rains in Ireland most days but in fact average rain fall amounts over the last 100 years annually in Dublin is 28 inches. In New York it is 41 inches.

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cillowen | Sep 13, 2012, 02:34 PM EDT

sometimes one gets lucky - i've been in luck the times i've been

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CitizenWhy | Sep 13, 2012, 01:03 PM EDT

Ha ha, every time I've visited Ireland it's always been sunny. England too. But I had a relative in England who threatened to kill himself if England had only 11 days of sunshine, as it had the previous summer. That was still being said on the 21st day of sunshine that I was there.

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Mairin67 | Sep 13, 2012, 11:37 AM EDT

Ireland is definitly heaven on earth when the weather is good...but it takes the rain to make it look that way and if the sun shone all the time, Ireland would be overrun with tourists.

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bobby | Sep 13, 2012, 11:19 AM EDT

It is a lovely warm sunny day in Central Dublin. It is very busy so im sitting in Merrion Square having a late lunch. Enjoy your day all.....

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Willipotts | Sep 13, 2012, 10:46 AM EDT

Hey Niall you forgot to mention that Navy was also there as was I. Spent week before and week after the big game. Weather was ideal. Down the east coast to Wexford and Cashel. The countryside was incredibly green and beautiful. Homes were immaculate, looked freshly painted and just trimmed hedges. Gorgeous dosen't begin to describe it all!

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KathyCallahan | Sep 13, 2012, 08:48 AM EDT

I'm smiling this morning just reading about the sun shining in Ireland. And I'm still looking forward to being in Sligo in January for a 'very long weekend' Yeats retreat. Less crowded and more room to sit and talk by the fireplace! Maybe we'll even see the Sun. I remain open to the possibility. On another note: DesiLu productions got it right when they named a comedic genius character of Irish descent: Magillicuddy. Lucille Maggillicuddy

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