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Quills craft store, County Cork
Flung out on the far-western reaches of Ireland, Cork comes very close indeed to the misty-eyed vision of the country many visitors hold in their imagination.
Follow the country’s three bony-fingered peninsulas out into the Atlantic and you’ll find an epic, wind-lashed coastline riddled with vibrant seaside villages, their harbours bustling with fishing boats bringing home the day’s catch.
Meander east and you’re swept along by half a millennium of struggle and turbulence, the tide of history leaving an enduring mark on the towns of the south coast. Away from all this potentially overwhelming drama, the gentler, rolling hills of the north ooze a more sedate charm.
And, of course, there’s Cork city, nonchalantly pushing Dublin out the way as it swaggers into the 21st century. If you want cocktail bars, modern-art galleries and avant-garde theatre, they’re all here.
What will stay most with you, though, in both city and countryside, is that stomping live-music session in a creaky old pub, that meal of the finest, freshest Irish produce, and the steady humour of a population fiercely proud of its past and confident of its future.
The Irish coast begins the slow build of beauty that culminates in counties even further west and north, but what you find here in Cork is already quite lovely.
Ireland's second city is first in every important respect, at least according to the locals, who cheerfully refer to it as the 'real capital of Ireland.
Narrow winding streets lined with artsy little shops and a handsome harbour full of bobbing fishing boats and pleasure yachts make Kinsale (Cionn tSáile) one of Ireland's favourite mid-sized towns; its superb foodie reputation is just another...
From Skibbereen the road rolls west through Ballydehob, the gateway to the Mizen, and then on to the pretty village of Schull.
Cheerful, brightly coloured Clonakilty is a bustling market town that serves as a hub for the scores of beguiling little coastal towns that surround it.
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