dingle is a real place

I went to Ireland by myself (and it was great)

Leann Schneider Webb
July 10, 2025

If you prefer to listen to an audio version of the newsletter, click play above!

The Dingle Peninsula is where the concentration of red location markers is.

Do you see the sleeping giant? He took a nap on his way to Scotland.

Dingle town (Daingean Uí Chúis)…

…in West Ireland is part of the Wild Atlantic Way, which encompasses the south of Ireland near Cork, all the way through the Kerry Peninsula and Dingle Peninsula, past the Cliffs of Moher, to Galway. Dingle is a Gaeltacht, which is a town or region where Irish is formally recognized as the first language and it is dedicated to the preservation of Irish culture and language.

I tried to learn a some Irish before my trip and it is extremely hard. I learned “milk.” (Bainne, sounds like banAH(?).)

I spent four nights in Dingle in early June. Most people spend one to two nights while they do a Wild Atlantic Way road trip, and many just pass through for a lovely afternoon.

This is the outside view of my Airbnb.

This is the view from inside.

My host’s name was Carmel and she was wonderful and also, Cillian Murphy lives “just over the hill,” so.

Food

Eating is the best way to connect with people, anywhere, and it’s one of my favorite parts of traveling. I’ll try (almost) anything at least once, and I like to taste the local specialty. When I was in Dingle, the fresh catch everywhere was hake.

Terrified to discover that THIS is what hake looks like. But, I guess, corpses are always kind of terrifying, regardless of the species.

Fenton’s hake (that’s a fish) special with a side of roasted potatoes was phenomenal. The lemony sauce was perfect and didn’t overwhelm the fish, which was tender and light. There was some sort of tomato tapenade with it as well. I got the sticky toffee pudding for dessert and I would go back to Dingle just to eat at this restaurant again.

I did a little bit of performative reading in the window of Solas. I only actually read like two pages; I spent most of my meal flirting with the waitresses. Solas is heading for a Michelin star, and they deserve all that shine. I had a sardine on a caramelized (?) cracker (??) that changed my life.

When everyone is walking around Dingle town with an affogato—that’s espresso poured over ice cream—this summer, you have me to thank. There’s a coffee stand just a few shops down from Murphy’s ice cream (there are two Murphy’s ice creams within, like, 800 yards of each other and the coffee stand is in between) so I walked my SEA SALT ice cream to the barista and asked if she could pour espresso over it. To my delight, she was delighted to so.

Peacocks and Puffins. (And sheep.)

They really do have more sheep than people.

Did you know?

There is an island called The Great Blasket, whose last permanent residents were evacuated in 1953. The crossing to visit can be very choppy, making it impossible to land sometimes. If you brave the small boats, you can see seals, puffins, all other manner of sea bird, and if you’re lucky like I was, a pod of small dolphins!

The Great Blasket with a herd of seals on the beach.

Before!

After!

BOOKS I BROUGHT WITH ME

Check out SOME OF US ARE LOOKING by Carlene O’Connor for a Dingle-based, West-Ireland, vet-solving-crime-with-brooding-detective. (#2 in A County Kerry series.)

Check out AS YOU WERE by Elaine Feeney, award winning debut novel by West Ireland author. Dark humor, contemporary lit fic. (I have not finished this book yet.)

My preferred travel guides.

For years I’ve sworn by DK Eyewitness travel guides. I love their full color pages, history and culture summaries, and bite-size descriptions of the in-between places. Recently, I’ve used Rick Steves’s specific itineraries for trips in Normandy and Burgundy, France and Ireland.

Over the course of a meal I had lovely conversations with three women, all from the US, all dining solo, including an OBYGN from Arlington, VA, a dual-passport holder from New Mexico looking to move, and an introverted Texan on a bus tour around Ireland.

All the pubs in Dingle (of which there are, like, 32 in a five mile radius) host music starting around 9pm. In search of a fiddler, I asked at five pubs before I found Bob Griffin’s Bar where a fiddler would be playing. Two French girls, a couple from Cleveland (!), a couple from New Jersey, some Irish friends, and myself all chatted while listening to the music.

Ireland was wonderful, mostly because of the conversations I had with strangers.

Take Action!

Jesse is our Zohran Mamdani!

Jesse Vogel for City Council and Mounir Lynch for Columbus City Schools.

Mounir Lynch is a Columbus High School graduate and wants to fight to make CPS safe for all students and get teachers the resources they need. Support his campaign for Columbus City Schools.

Jesse Vogel is an immigration attorney who worked for Columbus Refugee and Immigration Services and is endorsed by the Working Families Party. He has plans for fare free buses, free pre-k, and affordable housing. Support his campaign for Columbus City Council.