On our first day here we went to Northern Ireland, but were so jet lagged that we never thought about getting our traditional magnet. Since we were heading south today we decided to first make a quick trip into Northern Ireland and see if we could find a souvenir store.  After stumbling on a very interesting laundromat and “waiting room” and two fruitless stops we ended up in a small gift shop in a very small town. Not only did we get our magnet, we also had a terrific chat with the clerk— one of a very few we could actually understand. We shared memories of the night Bobby Sands died in 1981 (our first night ever in Ireland) and talked about how most residents feel about living in a divided country. We were surprised to learn that they have a choice of passports — British, Northern Irish, and /or Irish and the advantages of having both British and Irish. She told us that ever since the Good Friday agreement, there is no more  discrimination over being catholic, no more having to put that on job applications, and that the Republic of Ireland gave up claim of sovereignty over Northern Ireland. She said that most people don’t care if country is or isn’t united,  although they do have great health care under Great Britain. 

We also discovered over lunch that we both continue to have the “Talk to Me” tattoo on our foreheads. A waitress stood by our table telling us the most unbelievably personal information. But, as happened in Germany and Rio, we couldn’t understand her! We knew she was speaking English, but could only catch a few words here and there. I was able to fake it enough for her not to realize that we couldn’t understand her, but Brian just sat there looking like a deer in the headlights. 

This afternoon we took a tour and tasting at an Irish Whiskey distillery. It was interesting, but in truth, the three that we sampled were not appealing.  Here are a few pictures of the tour.