The author’s four-week adventure in Ireland was based out of this home in Kinsale, a convenient hub for a variety of activities. 
Ireland’s rugged coastline is even more spectacular in person. 
Cows lie down on the job in a pasture near Kinsale. 
Kinsale’s Garden of Remembrance is dedicated to the hundreds of New York CIty firefighters who were killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. 
The Skibbereen Heritage Centre chronicles the devastating impacts of the Irish Potato Famine. 
The Michael Collins Centre in Clonakilty is dedicated to the life, impacts and memory of Irish revolutionary Michael Collins. 
Replicas of Michael Collins and his fiancée, Kitty Kiernan, stand inside the Michael Collins Centre.
It was a new adventure for me. Rent a house through Airbnb in Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland, for 30 days and invite family and friends over for an assigned week. And it worked well. The house had six bedrooms, nice views of the lush green Irish countryside and river, lots of outside sports equipment, and cows leaning over the fence.
And, of course, there’s golf, of which there is plenty in Ireland.
One of the objectives of this trip was to play golf at Old Head Golf Links, perhaps the best golf course in Ireland. It is a profoundly beautiful seaside course that reminds one of the great courses like Pebble Beach and Bandon Dunes. It was only 10 minutes away from our house and was a golfing experience of a lifetime.
I spent the first week alone, enjoying the solitude, quiet walks and good books. My golfing friends arrived for the second week, and it was all close family during the final two weeks. This mix of people made for great and different experiences throughout my time on the Emerald Isle.
Kinsale was an ideal location. It reminded me of a peaceful, seaside New England sailing town. It’s close to many wonderful historical sites for touring, and has been labeled the gourmet center of southeast Ireland.
Finns’ Table was our favorite restaurant, followed by Fishy Fishy and Blue Haven. I have never had more succulent seafood. Each dinner was followed by opportunities to listen to the joyful sounds of Irish music at the town pubs, like Kitty Ó Se’s and Blue Haven, where my grandchildren were more than welcomed.
Kinsale is well positioned for day trips. The well-preserved Charles Fort, dating from the late 1600s. The fort represented many of the battles fought for independence by the Irish against the British. Strategically located at the entrance to Kinsale harbor, it housed many a British garrison over the centuries.
Farther south in the town of Clonakilty was the Michael Collins Centre. This was our first step into the sadness of Ireland and its sometimes brutal history. The museum held many of the historical records, films and artifacts of Collins’ life.
Michael Collins was one of organizers, campaigner and heroes of the Irish fight for independence from the British. He was head of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, led the insurrection against the British, which began with the Easter Rising of 1916.
It was just another defeat for the Irish during two centuries of rebellions. But the execution of 12 rebellious Irish patriots shocked the world. In the following months the British realized they had lost the battle to keep Ireland subjugated.
Collins negotiated the best treaty he could get. However, the agreement allowed for the six northern counties to remain separate and loyal to England, resulting in a subsequent civil war in Ireland and Collins’ eventual assassination at the hands of his fellow Irishmen in 1922.
Following the trail and the many tears shed for the Irish was a visit to the Skibbereen Heritage Centre, a museum chronicling the Irish Potato Famine. Skibbereen, also located on the southeast coast, was one of the hardest hit during the famine years of 1840 to 1860, and the museum contains horrifying images and statistics of that era.
It was not the best exhibit for my young grandchildren, but so necessary to understand the sacrifices of their forebears from centuries ago.
It is so important to remember that more than 1.2 million Irish lost their lives to starvation due to the failure of the potato crop and the failure of the British to provide any relief to those in dire need of food.
The famine caused more than 1.5 million Irish to emigrate to the United States and Canada during this period. Between the starvation and emigration, Ireland population would drop by one third and never really recover for more than a century.
The wave of Irish immigrants had a profound and positive impact on the United States. These Irish-Americans would go on to build the Empire State Building, subways and train tracks in New York. Four U.S. presidents — Andrew Jackson, Woodrow Wilson, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan — would trace their ancestry to these Irish immigrants.
While we concentrated on Irish history, we also had a chance to visit a unique memorial. Mary Murphy, an Irish immigrant and a nurse working for many years in New York, dedicated a piece of land she owned in Kinsale to the firefighters who lost their lives in the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City. In a magnificent Garden of Remembrance, there is a tree planted for each of the 343 firefighters who lost their lives in the attacks.
My grandson asked, “What was 9/11, Grandpa?” So this visit turned out to be an important teaching moment for the my 7-year-old grandson.
We would move on to other amazing adventures. A visit to Blarney Castle was fun, as was our trip to Cobh. There is a museum dedicated to the victims who lost their lives in the sinking of the Lusitania, which was one of the precipitating events that drew the United States into World War I. Interestingly enough, the ruins of that great ship remain just off the coast in only 300 feet of water.
We were all affected by both the beauty of Ireland’s cliffs, shores and deep green lands, as well as the dynamic and tragic history of the country’s southern part. These experiences made for a wonderful and packed four-week stay in the Emerald Isle.
— Frank McGinity is a Montecito resident. The opinions expressed are his own.