A 6th Century Monastery, Irish Recipes and Baby Blankets

Céad míle fáilte, welcome to your Letter from Ireland “Shorts”.  Each Tuesday we’ll bring you a quick-read of some of our favourite and interesting Irish things for this week.

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FAVOURITE PLACES IN IRELAND 
Glendalough, County Wicklow. (see it on a map here)

Glendalough is a scenic and tranquil spot in County Wicklow known for being the site of a 6th-century monastery and settlement, the ruins of which you can still see today. We’ll let Carina tell you more about this special site in this Youtube video. (Recorded before we improved our video technique!) Our friends at Tuath have a great piece on the history here if you want to dig deeper.

For Letter from Ireland Plus members: Also check out our County Wicklow Homelands Feature here for much more.

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FEATURED IRISH NAMES – Top 10 Irish Surnames

Curious to see which Irish surnames are the most widespread and popular? This week, we want to highlight the Top 10 Irish surnames we encounter the most. See if your surname made the list.

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BOOK I’M READING NOW

“Irish Traditional Cooking” by Darina Allen. This book is a comprehensive guide to Ireland’s culinary heritage with over 300 traditional dishes. Darina Allen is a well-known name around here and each recipe comes with tips, historical insights, and common Irish customs. We really enjoyed Darina’s passion for Irish cuisine – evident in recipes like Sea Spinach Soup, Potted Ballycotton Shrimps, and Rhubarb Fool. Click here to see the book on amazon.

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IRISH WORD OR PROVERB

“Giorraíonn beirt bóthar“

Which translates to “Two shorten the road”.

Click here to listen to how a native Irish speaker would say it

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IRISH CRAFT/PRODUCT WE LOVE

John Hanly produces woven goods near Nenagh in County Tipperary. The business was founded in 1893 to support the local sheep farmers of the area and remains in the hands of the Hanly family to this day. We had a new addition to the Collins family over the past year and really enjoyed giving these baby blankets as a gift that will last. You can find out more about John Hanly here.

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RIDDLE OF THE WEEK

We’ll leave you this week with a new feature — a riddle or a brain teaser to test your thinking skills!

“Which 5-letter Irish surname can be spelled with just 2?“

Click here to see the answer.

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That’s it for this week. Send us an email with any of your own favourites for inclusion in future emails, or if you’re a plus member leave a comment below.

Slán for now,
Mike & Carina.

*Note: The above article may contain some affiliate links (for example Amazon) which means we get paid a small amount should you choose to purchase, at no extra cost to you. This helps us keep the show on the road!