I recently went and stayed with friends in Fermoy, County Cork in Ireland for a close mutual friend’s wedding. I was staying with one of my best friends Nick and his fiance Jen, who now live there which is where she is from originally. They met in Jersey, which is where Nick is originally from and in fact where all three of us worked together at one point. They live in a lovely rural area surrounded by endless fields and they have two gorgeous dogs who we walked every day when I were there. I was only there for three full days, so we wanted to try and make the most of it. Nick picked me up from Cork airport and we went straight into Cork for some breakfast. Cork had a lovely feel to it and it was very clean and colourful, full of many traditional little cafes and restaurants. The Cork accent is lovely - the locals sound like they’re singing when they speak! Afterwards, we decided to go and have a blast on the go karts on what is said to be Ireland’s biggest track - Nick inexplicably managed to beat me again - I’m sure he has my kart rigged before we go!!! A torential downpour deluged the track halfway through too which made things nice and interesting! Afterwards, we went back to their cottage and met Jen and the dogs. We went and took the dogs for a walk down by the river Blackwater and it was great… It was so very peaceful and picturesque there!
Cork at dusk...
After a quiet night in, chatting and listening to music, we woke up fresh to travel to the wedding which was in Kilkenny - a good hour and a half away, but after a mix up with the timings, we were left with about an hour to get there… Cue panic stations!!! We probably should have had helmets on because of the speed we were driving at! The roads weren’t the best either (single carriageway most of the way) and we kept getting stuck behind tractors and horse drawn carts… but we managed to make it just in the nick of time as the bride turned up at the church! Phew!!! The bride was my ex-manageress from Jersey and good friend Marcella. The wedding went well, although I was asked in advance if I would read a short prayer for the faithful at the alter, along with four or five other people which I obliged to do, yet it made me really nervous. I was third in line, and after hearing two lovely, flowing female Irish accents it was my turn to project my not so soothing North-Eastern accent to all in the church! It went okay though, so I needn’t have worried…
Castle Kilkenny
After a quick drink in the local (a local custom apparently!), it was off to the reception at a beautiful hotel in Kilkenny - we were staying just down the road at another nice hotel, although it wasn’t quite as grand as the hotel that the reception was at! We had a beautiful meal and then enjoyed the night, which was filled with much dancing, laughter and of course drink!!! We then retired to the hotel. The next day, the weather was even hotter than the previous day which didn’t help the hangover, but we wanted to make the most of the time we had so we ventured into Kilkenny and looked around the shops, grabbed an ice cream and even went on an open top bus tour(!!!), which actually turned out to be really good! We met up with the wedding party later on back at their local pub, The Shamrock Inn, in the remote village of Knockanore, where a local band that had played at the wedding were playing again. It was a good laugh - Nick and I were in hysterics just chatting about random things outside and catching up! Jen’s brother picked us up and took us back home, where we again chatted away for ages. My flight was the next morning, and Nick drove me to the airport in good time and we said farewell. It was a shame to be leaving because I’d had such a great time, but as they say all good things must come to an end!!!
By Ben Charlton.
