Final Full Day – Titanic Experience

During our last visit home to Cohasset and Scituate, I was talking to my old High School friend Jeff Treanor about this trip to Ireland. Jeff recommended going to the Titanic Experience Museum in Belfast if we could. Thank you Jeff for a FANTASTIC recommendation! What a moving, and emotional few hours. This is an extremely well done journey back in time. We learned a great deal about the rise of Belfast as an industrial city with a world class shipbuilding industry, second to none in the world. Titanic was an engineering wonder ahead of her time, and was also fitted with the most luxurious of accommodations. There were several unfortunate events that lead ultimately to her tragic sinking, and subsequent loss of life. We learned of them all, and were saddened to hear the story in detail again. For me, there was some consolation in seeing how much the tragedy changed in terms of maritime safety regulations and policies. I’d like to believe that those changes made it possible for Grandma to pass safely from Cobh to New York a little over a decade after Titanic finally fell beneath the surface of a cold ocean. She boarded a ship that traced Titanic’s path with a better understanding of the risks of the open ocean. Grandma made it to America, and a new life.

We left Belfast glad we had come, but a bit disappointed that we didn’t have more time there. It really is a cool city, that of course has also seen its fare share of tragedy and sorrow with events like the sinking of the Titanic, and the more recent fearful times of The Troubles. I hope to be back someday to see more of Belfast.

In a little less than four hours, we arrived at our final stop for a night near the Shannon airport in a cute spot beneath the shadows of Bunratty Castle (featured pic). Our hostess Dolores recommended Dirty Nelly’s for dinner, and we again were not disappointed. Nelly’s has served castle guards here since 1620, and remains largely unchanged. It was a bit more crowded than we have become accustomed to on our spoiled vacation, but the service and food were both excellent. We have returned to our room to repack our bags and prepare for the trip home.
I’ll wrap things up with a summary post tomorrow from what has really been an incredible trip for Stacey and me! 🇮🇪