Re: [Leica] Ireland, Republic of

[John Coan <jcoan@alumni.duke.edu>]

Christer,
Nice story.  As a 22 year old I spent a week driving around Eire by myself.
Loved the experience.  And you are right, the people are very friendly and love
to talk.  Because I was by myself I enjoyed this very much for the
companionship.  I stayed mostly in guest houses, and thus got to know the
families running the accommodations too.  I got some good photos too, with a
new (in 1975) Rollei 35S, which I bought on my trip the week before in England
out of necessity.  My Minolta SRT-101 had taken a fall and suffered a jammed
shutter.  I still have that wonderful camera too!
John

Christer Almqvist wrote:

> Very recently I went around all of Ireland for a good week and have just
> gotten back. I took a lot of photos of people in the street and there were
> only three instances when somebody objected. Twice it was not really an
> objection, the persons just wanted to make sure their friends got into the
> picture too, or  they wanted to start up long conversations. This is the
> major problem with street photography in Ireland; they take your making a
> photo of them as a good way of starting up a never ending conversation with
> you.... Otherwise it is a street photographer's paradise, they actually
> like being photographed.
>
> I visited at least a dozen photo shops looking for Paterson's FX 39
> developer. None had it, but this may be because of the Irish's slight
> aversion against anything British. I was not impressed by the shops in any
> other respect either, poor selection of b+w films and they were very
> expensive. One shop had a few Leica and some lenses including a Nocitlux.
>
> One evening I was spotted by a local Leica owner, and the following evening
> I spotted him although he was using a non-Leica lens.
>
> Food was not very good, but it was quite expensive. I wonder if the food is
> bad because the beer is good or if the beer is good becasue the food is
> bad. When looking for rooms in smaller towns I made a point of asking to
> see the room before deciding on taking it, and that proved to be wise on
> several occassions. There is no correlation between price and quality of
> accomodation in smaller towns. Pubs often offer accomodation, and I found
> that if I liked the pub, then the rooms were OK too. The Bridge Hotel in
> Arklow is a good example of this. Beware of the so-called 'best' restaurant
> in Arklow and the restaurant in the Limerick Ryan Hotel
>
> In Dublin I would recommend Bloom's  Hotel which is good value and
> centrally located for everything, particularly pubs with entertainment.
>
> --
> Christer Almqvist
> D-20255 Hamburg, Germany and/or
> F-50590 Regnéville-sur-Mer, France