Midlands Holiday to Limerick and Clare

A group of 24, together with NCBI staff from Laois, Offaly, Westmeath and Longford headed off on 19th of May to stay in the Quality Hotel in Limerick for four days. It was the first time that the full region joined up for such an event. We found the staff to be very accommodating to all our needs and the restaurant to be of high quality. A few members of the group also made great use of the hotel’s leisure centre.

Our bus drivers on loan, Jim McGrath and Ann Redmond, from NCBI Wexford, along with our newly appointed bus driver in the Midlands, Michael White, drove us to all our destinations, and Ann’s SAT NAV proved very useful on more than one occasion!

The group visited Bunratty Castle and Folk Park — some braving the narrow spiral staircases in the castle — and the village of Killaloe to take a trip on “The Spirit of Killaloe” cruiser on Lough Derg. Our excellent host, Jim Whelan, gave us the history of the area. We also visited the Brian Boru Heritage Centre in Killaloe and the Hunt Museum in Limerick with over 2000 artifacts, some dating back to the Stone Age. We were offered a handling session, with access to some of the oldest pieces, including a spear from the Bronze Age.

There was also plenty of time for some shopping and for some craic agus ceoil! Local musicians played on two evenings in the hotel bar. A highly competitive table quiz was held on the Wednesday night and is still under investigation due to accusations that some teams were cheating! Curiously, our bus driver and referee, Jim McGrath, has no comment to make on the situation! We visited Bill Chawke’s pub in Adare on our final night, and a spirited traditional session was a great finale to our week’s events.

A special thanks to all service users, bus drivers and staff for making this a holiday to remember!