Every now and then I like to take a little break, pack a few extra socks and a couple of shirts and take off for some distant place.

Well, this is one of those breaks right now, and I'm delighted to have you with me.

Welcome to Windows to the Wild.

I'm Willem Lange.

Last evening, I boarded the plane at Logan Airport near Boston with a bunch of fellow merry travelers.

And we flew 7 hours through the Dark East to Shannon, Ireland.

And we met the dawn as we landed the next nine days.

We're going to take you around this beautiful country.

We'll visit medieval castles.

Well, maybe see a puffin or two on the west coast of Ireland.

And we got a little surprise for you near the end of the trip.

Now, to help us navigate this beautiful country and deepen our understanding of Gaelic culture, we're lucky enough to have with us an Irish guide an all Irish guide 100% 102%.

Gerry Ronayne.

Gerry, it is a pleasure to work with you.

It really is great.

And travel with you to see you get to see a great week or we're going to have a beauty.

Now, you've been at this for a while.

I've been at this now for about 108 years.

I've been at this for 32 years.

32.

Why two years?

And you know more about Ireland than anybody else in the world.

I know enough about Ireland to get away with being a semi expert on.

Okay, That involves a certain amount of blarney A little bit of oil greases the wheel.

Well, it's a pleasure so far.

Well, we got a few more days coming up.

We do.

And we'll have, I hope, a wonderful time.

And where are we at the moment, Gerry?

Well, we're in a place called Bon Ratti where before there was the bon ratti.

This land was the site of a Viking trading camp.

That was around 970 AD.

Since then, it's been home or less to the upper crust.

The first fortress was built in 1250 of Earth and wood.

stone replaced those defenses.

And over time four castles were built.

Three fell during battles.

The Irish took back the Fourth Castle by force.

And that's where we are today.

A bin ratti is known for its beautiful Park, where they have reconstructed old houses from the 1800s, and it's magnificent castle.

The castle is from the 1400s.

That's one of the finest medieval castles in Europe.

It's massive in terms of size and really interesting because it has a wonderful collection of medieval furniture and you can freely visit the castle.

You can wander through to different rooms, you can get great views from the top.

You can visit the family apartments.

You can see how the soldiers lived.

You can see how visitors were treated when they came to the castle.

So it's a wonderful castle with this.

We're on the south coast of Dingle and the Dingle Peninsula is behind me.

The surf.

You see this coming all the way from America.

That's the mother Atlantic Ocean.

A little while we'll be up to the end of the peninsula and we'll take a ride out to the blasket islands if the weather's halfway decent.

There's a lovely narrow road looping around the Dingle Peninsula.

It runs for about 30 miles.

If you drive it, you'll pass a lot of history.

We're looking at the blasket islands.

That's great landscape and the big one.

And little white spots where the cottages used to be go.

Well, that's what's left of the cottages the roofs are blown in.

And all the people are gone now since 1955.

A long time ago, the great blasket island sits off the coast of the Dingle Peninsula.

It's about four miles long and a half mile wide.

The only full time residents on the great balsket Islands are seabirds and seals.

But there was a time when royalty, as it were, lived here.

They had a hereditary king until 1955.

On that island.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

They referred to one of the organizers of the King and the king's son, you know, But they're all gone now.

this is the Dawn Queen Cemetery, so don't count Cemetery as the cemetery for the blasket Islands.

And the blasket islands are out in the sea here.

And magnificent and rocky shapes.

But they were inhabited up until the 1950s.

The problem with the blasted islands is that there is no great depth of soil.

So to bury people, they would bring them across in open boats.

The two or three miles across here to the pier at dawn, Queen kind of a winding serpentine road that goes down there.

And then they would the cortege would come along here and off to this area here.

So this is where the people of the blasket islands are buried.

Well, this morning, we're in the heart of a peaceful Killarney and we're about to climb into a series of wagonettes their called Horse Drawn.

And we'll take a ride in the Killarney National Park.

if the horses get us there and I'm looking forward to it, going to be a beautiful day.

My name is Paul and the horse's name is Ginger, but I named her after my mother in law, Sir.

They're very similar eyes.

Our pilot for the day is Paul Tangey He's a guide with a sense of humor and a great patter and all guys we are entering the national park here now where there'’’s no motor traffic allowed.

Just for the horses, People walking or cycling.

That'’’s the landing gear.

There's three wheels on our wagon and we're still rolling along.

But so this area is known as monks wood, but the nuns wouldn't.

They didn't want to get out of the habit.

go away.

How many years you've been at this?

I'm doing nearly 40 years.

38 years, sir.

Wow.

Love the job hate the work.

You think you might make a career of it?

I'll try, sir.

Killarney National Park spreads out over 26,000 acres are mountains, forests and lakes all within its boundaries.

To get around the park.

You hike, bike or catch a ride with someone like Paul.

How many horses you've been through?

Oh, no, not too many, sir.

So you could work with a horse for 15, 16 years, you know?

I mean, true.

If you.

It's so tough to let them go.

It is.

It is.

Because you get very attached to them, you know, when you're working with them all the time.

They'’’re a buddy.

Yeah.

You know, And they look after you.

You look after them.

Like when I go home, I kiss my horse and pat my wife.

But you don't have a wife, I would guess.

Yes, you do.

She's a long suffering woman.

But the three rings of marriage, the engagement ring, the wedding ring and the suffering.

out here to our right.

This is Killarney'’’s largest lake.

Oh, it's just.

It's.

This lake is known as Lane, which means Lake of Learning.

We also call it the Lower Lakes.

You've got three lakes, the lower the middle and the upper, and all three lakes meet at the point called the meetings of the water and you've got the highest mountains in Ireland.

They're in the background, guys.

These are the McGillicuddy rings.

McGillicuddy actually quite a popular family name of the area.

Reeks means Misty or Smokey.

And if we're all familiar with the name McGillicuddy Lucille Ball, then the name.

And there's 3414 feet and two and a half inches in height.

Within the park, There are mansions and beautiful gardens.

After Paul entertains us on our ride into the park, he drops us off at McGrath's house.

This is one of the nicest places in Ireland here, and it's partly because it's so beautiful that they chose this as the site of the house.

Used to be an old hunting lodge.

And then in the 1850s, Queen Victoria, who had been to Ireland, only once, decided that she wanted to come and see some of the beauties of Ireland.

So she decided to come here to Killarney and Lord Killarney, who had his castle on the far side there.

He wanted to host her, but the guy who owned this place as well, Cardinal Herbert, he wanted to host her as well.

Big thrill you know, for these families to host the royal family, you know, a real big deal to get close to the top of the pyramid.

So he decided to extend his hunting lodge.

And this is the house that he built here.

And then you have the gardens.

So if you want to if you like gardens and if you want a beautiful treat, then just here to the left of the house, you have a little walkway down to the gardens.

There's not so much formal gardens.

It's more Parkland garden, but a beautiful Parkland garden.

But anyway, just brought you up this little pathway here, because we're at the same latitude now as Newfoundland.

So I remember when I was a child growing up and you would read, you know, you see the Tarzan comics and so on in the jungle, and you'd see plants like this thing behind us here.

And you would think the jungle, you know, But like, here we are, and it's growing perfectly happily here, you know?

So it's a tree fern and isn't it?

But they come from, as far as I know, New Zealand anyway.

Good morning.

We're about to leave Killarney now and move north toward Galway and the Cliffs of Moher.

It looks like another beautiful Bluebird day here in Ireland.

I don't even know if they have any blue birds but you know what I mean.

It's going to be a beautiful day.

So stick with us.

The Cliffs of Moher run along the Atlantic Ocean for eight miles.

There's something inspiring about them.

Their calls out to artists, musicians and, of course, geologists.

Well, we're at sea again.

We're on the west coast of Ireland, just off the cliffs of Moher, Moher which is probably the most popular tourist attraction in west or west of Ireland.

The cliffs right behind me, the rise above 700 feet out of the sea, just beautiful, spectacular cliffs of sandstone and slate and shale.

And about 330 million years old, roughly different from the Carboniferous era.

And the cliffs are pockmarked with colonies of seabirds, all kinds of crazy bird puffins and kittiwakes and shearwaters.

Everything beautiful, whether it was in the day or not, I don't know.

The sun isn't quite on the cliffs yet, so we won't get a good really look at them.

But they're.

They're fantastic cliffs, don't you think?

We couldn't get close enough to photograph the birds, but this view is not too shabby.

We arrived back at the dock and head to town, and the Doolin music house.

Christy Barry and his partner Sheila have spent a lifetime playing music and telling stories.

Doolin House is a great place to relax and experience Irish hospitality.

We leave town and head north along the coast to Galway.

It's a harbor city that's mainly pedestrian, so we'll be on foot most of the day.

Good morning, everybody, and welcome to the City of the Tribes of Galway.

It is my privilege to guide you through this medieval city today.

And we're going to start off at the Spanish arch and then go around and up Kevin's lane.

and then the Saint Nicholas Church, which is the oldest church in Ireland in continuous service since 1320, built as a Catholic church.

Then, when Cromwell served came in 1652, it became a Protestant church.

Ten years later, it's reverted back to the Catholic Church.

Then in 1691, a year after the Battle of the Divine Charity, our Red King Billy Spies came here and it became a Protestant church again.

So you're right in the center of the city.

And behind me, this building here at Lynch's castle, which is now a bank, is the best preserved building we have in Galway.

It was built by the Lynches at the same time as the church.

And if you look at the architecture of this building and Saint Nicholas Church, they're very similar in building.

It would have taken in McCambridge as well.

And if you take the plaster off the just it finds this limestone.

I see you find the limestone everywhere because the layers of Galway city is the exact same today as it was in the 15th 1600s.

Well, now, Liam, you almost walked the old man's legs off.

And what age are you?

87.

So we're nearly the same age.

Yeah, we are not.

You were only 22 when Kennedy came here.

I was teaching school, so that was it.

Just what a great walk.

And I learned so much.

But your'’’e a great walker.

Nearly as good as I am.

Well, I'm.

I'm.

I'm enjoying it, but, you know, you'll never lose it by day.

In my day.

Oh, we never lose it.

I guess every day it's something exciting.

Yeah, Yeah.

If you're in Ireland, you can't help but listen to the music everywhere.

That's what we did in the seacoast town of Roundstone.

Within the walls of an old Franciscan monastery.

It's a shop.

That's where you'll find Malachy Kearns.

Good morning, everybody.

Welcome.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Maliki is my name.

Malachy Kearns.

But nobody in Ireland calls me that.

It's Maliki.

Boren.

Maliki is a master craftsman, a musician.

He makes and plays a drum of goatskin stretched across a wooden frame.

A skilled player strikes the skin in a variety of ways, producing subtle and exciting sounds.

Most loved Irish.

The bow on this drum is very old, but in Ireland it also represents freedom.

Our victory for us.

England.

When England ruled Ireland.

You know, if you were singing an Irish song, your rent was doubled to was all farmers everywhere.

Interweaving of family didn't just family of two sizes.

There's 14, 16 and 18 inch bodhrans and the size the dimensions aren't so critical.

It's about the skin and the playing.

So the making process is a like we have here.

This is goatskin, and it's fabulous to work with as the best skin for drum making, I believe.

Pivot it falls out of my hand.

falls out of mine too.

now you can do rim shots.

Yeah, very posh.

And you don't use the other end at all.

(Singing) Very well done.

Thank you.

It's a beautiful early afternoon in Connemara.

It's rocky and barren and craggy.

And we see a lot of sheep.

And that's about it.

At the beginning of the story.

I promised you a treat as a dog lover.

I look forward to this.

Stop.

Yeah.

It's a family run farm where Joe Joyce trains border collies.

They charge up and down hillsides as steep as any in New Hampshire's White Mountains.

Come, come So the reason we have the dogs, obviously, is to collect our sheep.

I have 200 sheep scattered out on that mountain over there.

They go from this ridge to that ridge there.

Cody, thank you.

When I have 200 sheep on the mountain, that's five farmers of sheep mixed in together for the border town with over a thousand sheep on that hill across the lake walks, shouting, walks.

And yet the most difficult thing to teach these dogs to do apart from showing up, is to take the sheep away from me, steady now, good girl.

That must be 45 degree back yard.

I think it's even steeper.

I was told they.

So when I went building this house here, they told me I was a bit crazy.

Well, you are.

That's the gradient you had.

What I was thinking.

I was looking at what I'd be looking at when I'd have the house put in here.

Yeah, I want the dogs when we are walking the dogs like the dog is working for us.

So really, when I start with the young dogs, I always look at a dog that's more biddable to me and more friendly.

And I'm always looking at the nature and the temperament because it's very important that the dog is happy working.

We say goodbye to the Joyce family and their dogs and say hello to a historic Irish distillery.

Killbegan began distilling whiskey in 1757 and ran into some bumps along the way.

And after 201 years of operation, the wheels that powered this place went idle.

In the early 1980s, the town folks raised enough money to open it as a working museum.

Shortly after it reopened as a business.

Behind me is the old mill wheel that powered this 19th century distillery.

Beautiful system of Brooks and locks and waterways.

Here is it's fantastic.

I'm looking for a heroin to tie to it and spin around for an old fashioned movie.

But now we're about to sample a bit of the Killbegan whiskey in the old 19th century distillery.

I can't wait.

that's Irish.

We depart till beginning for our final destination, Dublin.

If you've never experienced a musical pub crawl.

you will now.

(Singing) (Singing) Oh great!

There's a building on O'Connell Street where an important chapter of Irish history was launched.

The General Post Office Building offers an immersive look back at the 1916 Easter Rising.

It was an armed insurrection against British rule.

The uprising lasted six days.

Nearly 500 people died.

The 1916 rising was a rebellion against British rule in Ireland on the 24th of April 1916.

On Easter Monday, a collective of rebels, people who wanted to fight against British rule took over various buildings around Dublin City, and they made this building their headquarters.

The proclamation of the Irish Republic is one of the most important documents in Ireland, if not the most important.

It was written and signed by seven gentlemen who became leaders of the 1916 uprising.

Five of these seven men were situated in the GPO during the rebellion.

The proclamation states that the Irish people would no longer acknowledge British rule and that Ireland's men and women had declared a republic.

We end our story at the Glasnevin Cemetery prior to its consecration in 1832, Irish Catholics had no cemetery in which to lay their dead.

So we're 190 years old this year.

It was established by the man buried beneath that round tower behind me.

A man by the name of Daniel O'Connell.

Now he established Glasnevin Cemetery as a place to bury people from all walks of life.

It's a non-denominational cemetery.

So we had people from all religions and of non.

Well, we're saying goodbye here.

Our last day here in Dublin at the Glasnevin Cemetery, which I guess is appropriate for a good place to end.

And we've had a wonderful time, and I'm glad you came along with us.

I'm Willem Lange and I hope to see you again on Windows to the Wild.

Support for the production of Windows to the Wild is provided by the Alice J. Reen Charitable Trust, Bailey Charitable Foundation.

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