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Liverpool to Baile an Sceilg, County Kerry, Ireland - 30th July 2017

After discovering that car hire for our two-week trip to Ireland was nearly as much again as the holiday itself, it was decided that Nosher would drive our own car over to Kerry instead and pick up Isobel and the boys from Kerry Airport. This first required a 4.5 hour drive to Liverpool, which would have been fine apart from trapped nerve in the lower back which went off about four hours before leaving, and which involved almost getting trapped in the bogs at Sandbach Services on the M6, thanks to some extreme pain. Nosher's last visit to Liverpool had been on a school trip to the two cathedrals back in around 1977, and so it was good to have a couple of extra hours to go and visit "Paddy's Wigwam", otherwise known as the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King, for the second time. And in an almost-unique reversal of childhood memories - completely unlike, say, Wagon Wheels - it actually seemed a lot bigger now than it did at the time. Sadly, the cathedral itself was closed for a service, so it wasn't possible to check whether the inside still smelled like a densist's surgery - another memory from the first visit. The biggest revelation though was reserved for the journey from the cathedral to the Port of Liverpool near Bootle, where unexpectedly epic scenes of dereliction were beheld - mile after mile of abandoned warehouses and now-cleared wasteland hinted at both how staggeringly vast the docks of Liverpool once were and just how much they have disappeared since. The knackered back didn't allow much walking-based exploration, but it was absolutely amazing and was probably worth a whole day of poking around in its own right. Eventually, after checking on board the overnight freight ferry and crashing out in the cabin for eight hours, arrival in Dublin occurred at about 5.30am, so there was a bit of time to swing by Da Gorls' house, as they're always up at stupid o'clock anyway, and crash out for a couple of extra hours before the 3.5 hour drive down to Kerry Airport in Ireland's south west, and beyond to our first port of call - Baile an Sceilg, deep in the Gaeltacht.

next album: Baile an Sceilg to An tSnaidhme, Co. Kerry, Ireland - 31st July 2017
previous album: A SwiftKey Innovation Week, Paddington, London - 27th July 2017

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The derelict Littlewood's building is spotted

The derelict Littlewood's building is spotted

The epic derelict Littlewood's Building

The J&C Moores Ltd building

The Celtic Corner pub in Liverpool

Chinese takeaway on Green Lane

Liverpool's Catholic cathedral

View of the Anglican cathedral from the steps

The cathedral's central 'wigwam'

Modernist sculpture

The streets of Liverpool through stained glass

Great Orford Street and some basic graffiti

The revamped Albert Dock, near the Liver Building

An epic derelict warehouse

Cleared docks

Derelict wet dock and clock tower

Some of the acres and acres of cleared wasteland

More of the epic derelict warehouse

Clarence Graving (Dry) Dock

Some business cling on near Clarence Graving Dock

An old swing-bridge control room

A warehouse that looks like an aircraft hangar

More derelict warehouses

Down at Liverpool Port

Nosher's room for the night

The Winkies in Dublin Bay at around 5am

The new Poolbeg Generating Station

Poolbeg, near the Winkies

A view from the ferry

Looking up the Liffey

Nosher's car and random other vehicles

The Odlums silos on the docks

Nosher drives through Killarney to kill time

Street and barbershop in Killarney

Farranfore station in the rain, after a car kip

Bridge over the railway at Farranfore

Farranfore station manages to look derelict

Isobel and the boys pile out of Kerry airport

Cashing in on the Force Awakens connection

Our €20 just gets us fish and chips for tea

Cable O'Leary's bar

The Roving Swan - the world's oldest Seine boat

Fred runs around

There's some rock/trad in Cable O'Leary's

Outside, Fred kicks around

Our first view of the beach

A boat out at sea

There are palm trees on the beach and everything

Dancing breaks out in Cable O'Leary's

Harry's not impressed by the noise

Guitar and fiddle

A drunk dude does some drunk-old-man dancing

There are just a few empty barrels outside