Ireland with Munchkin

I'm finally getting back into the swing of things after our family holiday, my 40th birthday and my step-sister's wedding.  Maybe the blogs will be a bit more regular now... Or maybe not!  Munchkin's potty strike is over, though she hasn't done anything other than sit on it recently.  The journey back from Ireland wasn't as bad as expected, normal service has been resumed!  I think part of the problem on the journey there may have been teething.  Munchkin is still teething, but it was molars on the way to Ireland.  Now it's canines and they don't seem to be as bad.

We spent our holiday in County Monaghan in the Irish Midlands.  I got confused, and told everyone we were going to County Meath!  We stayed in self catering accommodation just outside the small town of Ballybay.  We had a great time, though I wouldn't call the area a tourism hot spot.  On the first two days, we visited small tourist attractions where we were the only guests and were given personal tours by the owners!  The Wildlife and Heritage Centre is worth a visit, though I was initially put off going by the emphasis on its collection of stuffed animals.  We managed to avoid most of them and concentrated on the live animals and birds.  The following day we went to Sam More open farm (so small it doesn't even have a web site!) where we saw lots of animals and birds, went on a buggy friendly walk, and Munchkin played on the vast array of bikes, toy cars and toy tractors.

We were close to the border with Northern Ireland and visited the north twice.  There's no form of border crossing and two things gave away that we were in Northern Ireland: the British road signs and fortified Police stations (:-().  We were there in marching season and there had been trouble in Belfast, so we gave it a wide berth.  Thankfully there was no trouble elsewhere (to be honest we weren't expecting any, so the idea of going to Northern Ireland didn't bother us at all).  We made use of our National Trust membership and went to The Argory.  Our walk around the gardens was enjoyable but I don't recommend the house for small children.  Admission is by guided tour only.  The tour is long, and at entirely the wrong pace for a toddler; she was bored and tearful and we eventually asked if we could leave.  It didn't help matters that the guide was a little nervous and forgot what she was saying every time Munchkin cried!  Our other NI visit was to Enniskillen.  This was much more successful.  We took a boat tour departing from Brooke Park, which has the best toddler playground I've ever seen.  The tour took us past Enniskillen Castle and several other sites of interest before stopping off at Devenish Island, where we saw the remains of a monastic site.  We took the first tour of the day, which I would definitely recommend as the later tours appeared to be packed.

There was a brilliant soft play close to where we were staying.  GR8 Entertainment in Castleblayney is free for children under 2 and has special offers for repeat users in the school holidays.  We also took Munchkin to the beach for the first time, at Blackrock near Dundalk.  The beach is sandy and child friendly, but not really suitable for swimming since the tide goes out a really long way.  All in all, it was a successful holiday and we'd like to go to Ireland again.