Co CLARE – IRELAND – There was a young chappy named Earl…..

Who lived all his life in a whirl.

He got in a spin,

which created a din,

and made his poor wife's toes curl!

Ta dah..

Today we visited Ennis and Limerick (hence my above tribute)

Limerick is only about 25kms from here.

It is on the river Shannon.

We also went to King Johns Castle.

The parts of of both towns we saw seemed very down trodden and under financial stress.

(e.g. lots of vacant and bordered up shops…… a bit like Armidale when I think about it!)

Ireland is having a financial crisis, which we didn’t notice in Dublin.

However, in other places it seems wealthy.

Rather than a lot of very old houses, some areas seems to have a lot of houses built in the last ten years.

Most homes seem nearly new.

I have been wondering about this, and I have a couple of theories.

The first is that maybe the roads have improved for people to access these areas.

The second is that the banks have been generously lending money.

Lending people lots of money to build new houses that are now worth less than the mortgages they have on them….

Until next time, Kim