Ireland Visit

Forum for discussion about Wargaming, Painting, Books, Terrain, Research and general banter!
Post Reply
User avatar
Mulciber
Master Sergeant
Master Sergeant
Posts: 74
Joined: Fri Nov 22, 2013 5:46 pm

Ireland Visit

Post by Mulciber » Wed Oct 12, 2016 11:10 am

Recently the Mem and myself paid a long talked about visit to Northern Ireland by way of a drive from Rosslare to Enniskillen. Simply marvellous all round, people, sites, food, accommodation, all fantastic.
From the perspective of this forum the highlights were:
The Battle of the Boyne site.
Enniskillen.
Generally getting a feel for the landscape and distances.

I really enjoyed the Boyne site and thought they've done a very good job with the Visitor Centre, a decent, even-handed, well presented set of displays. Sure, maybe not enough detail for those who've read more deeply about the period but then, that's what libraries and forums like this are for, perhaps. But for the general public I thought it was good and enhanced by great facilities. Planning to return to actually walk the battlefield properly using the walkways and trails. The little book (with cd) outlining the battle by Harman Murtagh is a nice accompaniment to the site, very well illustrated with various photos, maps, pictures from the period and modern ones from Richard Hook, it seems ideal as a guide to doing walks or drives to see the main points of the action.

The visit was made particularly special by the wonderful kindness of the gentleman manning the shop. I got into conversation with him about the difficulty of tracking down Michael McNally's "The Battle of Aughrim" and was bemoaning the fact that the publishers have no intention of reprinting and that secondhand copies seem to go for anything from £100 to £165... Five minutes later he found us in the lovely gardens and handed me a spare copy that McNally had given him. Both he and the Visitor Centre refused absolutely to take a penny for it. Astounding kindness.
Post Reply