18. Eire (Ireland)
And in County Cork, the craic is good and the bowls are flung with underarm abandon along the crooked backroads.
Betting is fierce as spectators leap asunder from the cannoning bullets.
And in the distance, the hulking shadow of St Kevin’s (‘longest building in Europe!’), built to encase the insane.
jpm
50 words for 50 countries 
Oh yes, you bring back memories of living in County Kerry – driving cars between the potholes down the middle of the road, people with limbs missing from farm accidents, bachelor pubs where men swivel on their stools to stare at you.
Hi Carol – yes, parts of Ireland really are a moment out of time aren’t they – I was so lucky to be in Cork with 3 local friends, and later spent a lot of time in Donegal, where my best friend married her man on Boxing Day one year, and the lock-ins and caileaghs at the local pub were something else. Kerry is totally beautiful – how long did you live there for?
I lived there 2 or 3 years from 1979 and the MacGillycuddy’s Reeks that were my mountain view left a permanent imprint on my mind.
Great stuff Julie. Wonderfully atmospheric. Love it.
Thanks Brian – given you were likely to be my most critical reader of this entry, that counts for heaps!!!