Let’s see how good your movie trivia is !
Do the names Sean Thornton and Mary Kate Danaher ring a bell ?
Well Cong, our stop for tonight, is the town where this movie was filmed and the movie has a famous fight scene – drawing crowds from miles around, the fighters slug it out through the village, stop for a drink, admit grudging mutual respect for each other, and disagree over who is to pay for the drinks. If you guessed “The Quiet Man”, starring John Wayne & Maureen O’Hara, well done ! We are basically staying across the road from that pub !
We left around 9am this morning and after waiting half an hour (not quite !) for all the traffic lights to get across the bridge, we set off on our drive for the day. Like a lot of Irish towns we seem to have come across, the town itself often looks a bit drab, but head just a little out of the town and there are some swish properties around. Certainly not surprising here with Killaloe being right on the lough. A little north of Killaloe is a little town called Ogonnelloe which is the actual town nearby where Adrienne’s family came from. It is a nice spot on top of a hill also overlooking the lough.
The weather was again grey and overcast and the forecast was for things to get worse during the day. From here we headed west with our sights set on the stunning Cliffs of Moher. With the weather the way it was, we were just expecting to see them in cloud and fog however our weather fairy was being kind and actually managed a few glimpses of blue sky by the time we arrived.
The Cliffs of Moher
Having photographed the cliffs from every known angle 😂 we had a coffee in the visitor centre and then headed back to the car. This is one “sight” which actually caters to the tourists in as far as parking facilities – there is a huge carpark and a separate one for buses and campervans. Mind you, as we left, the queue to get into the carpark was stretched in both directions along the road and we had to squeeze through a gap to get out and on our way ! But it was not long before we were back to single lane “highways” as we drove toward our next stop !
Irish “highway” !
Next on our list of sights was the Burren National Park. It is an area of stark landscape, almost moon-like. Burren means “great rock” and the area is formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite and gypsum. Large cracks and odd shapes dominate the rocky landscape.
In one section is the Poulnabrone Tomb It is a megalithic tomb, one of Ireland’s most photographed archaeological sites (and we added to the count!). Dating from the Neolithic period, this distinctive monument has revealed a wealth of information about the lives and burial customs of Ireland’s very first farming communities. Poulnabrone is classified as a portal tomb by archaeologists, and there are approximately 174 of these monuments in Ireland. These tombs generally consist of two large portal-stones defining the entrance and a back-stone, all of which support the roof-stone.
The weather continued to behave as we drove on heading north now and into County Galway. Our last major stop was Dunguaire Castle, a 16th century castle on the edge of Galway Bay. It has been restored and was used in a film in 1969 – a Walt Disney film called Guns in the Heather – can’t say I’ve seen it.
Dunguarie Castle
We reached Cong just after 3pm and a one way street basically circles the town. All the movie sites are prominently signposted ! We are staying in Ryan’s Hotel and have a nice view overlooking the river. We then walked around town to take in the sights. There is a ruined Abbey, dating back to the 11th century and it is surrounded with nice parklands down to another river on the other side of town. There is a little stone hut on the side of the river built over the water – this is where the monks fished from in winter, through a hole in the stone floor ! We had dinner in the pub – again great pub food and a nice local pale ale !
The monk’s fishing hut !
We head further north tomorrow – and hoping the weather fairy stays with us !
Today’s Tour Trivia – A few snippets from The Quiet Man
The name “Mary Kate” for Maureen O’Hara’s character came from John Wayne’s wife, “Mary” & Katherine (“Kate”) Hepburn – the 2 ladies he loved the most.
Maureen O’Hara broke a bone in her hand when she slapped John Wayne in the first kiss scene in the movie.
There was no stunt double for the scene when Maureen O’Hara is dragged across the fields – Adrienne wouldn’t be in re-creating the scene though ! 😂