County Clare and the Burren - Ireland 2014 - page 406

discover America on his legendary voyage, 900 years before Columbus and 500 years be-
fore the Vikings.
Cost and Hours: €9, Easter to Sept daily 10:00-17:00, shorter hours off-season, tel.
061/367-178, www.shannonheritage.com .
Getting There: The park is well-signposted nine miles (15 km) east of Ennis off
R-469, which leads out of town past the train station.
Nightlife in Ennis
Glór Irish Music Centre
The town's modern theater center ( glór is Irish for “sound”) connects you with Irish cul-
ture. It's worth considering for traditional music, dance, or storytelling performances.
Cost and Hours: €12-25, year-round usually at 20:00, 5-minute walk behind TI,
Friar's Walk, ticket office open Mon-Sat 10:00-16:00, closed Sun, tel. [phone],
www.glor.ie .
Ceol na hInse
This original stage show, housed in the local Cois na hAbhna Hall, is a fine way to spend
an evening. Like other ongoing Comhaltassponsored cultural productions, it's a celebra-
tion of Irish performing arts. The show is presented in two parts. The first features great
Irish music, song, and dance. After the break, you're invited to kick up your heels and
take the floor as the dancers teach some famous Irish set dances. Phone ahead to see if a
ceilidh is scheduled on off nights.
The Voyage of St. Brendan
It has long been part of Irish lore that St. Brendan the Navigator ( a . d . 484-577) and
12 followers sailed from the southwest of Ireland to the “Land of Promise” (what
is now North America) in a currach —a wood-frame boat covered with ox hide
and tar. According to a 10th-century monk who poetically wrote of the journey, St.
Brendan and his crew encountered a paradise of birds, were attacked by a whale,
and suffered the smoke of a smelly island in the north before finally reaching their
Land of Promise.
The legend and its precisely described locations still fascinate modern readers.
A British scholar of navigation, Tim Severin, re-created the entire journey in
1976-1977. He and his crew set out from Brendan Creek in County Kerry in a cur-
rach . The prevailing winds blew them to the Hebrides, the Faeroe Islands, Iceland,