I take you to mean Ireland? Is calling it Eire a sign of celtic solidarity? hehe. I've never ridden in Ireland, but I spent 3 weeks driving all over the country, mainly the west coast, and man I can tell you all I wanted was a bike and some solitude. I recommend spending some time on the western coast, specifically County Cork, and just driving up and down those peninsulas, of which there are many. They are beautiful and sparsely populated, with gently twisting roads. Most of those roads are ancient and follow present or ancestral river beds, hence their gentle curves. The people are on another level of friendly - real, rural, Irishmen and women who work to live. I mean I can't even conceive of someone locking their doors there. Have a beer out on the green in front of the pub in Spring there, and you'll think you're in a little slice of heaven. Those SW peninsulas are also a great place to start because then you can just head North to the cliffs, and take the ferry out to the Aran islands, which are not to be missed. Hope this helps. Ever since that trip, a motorcycle trip to Ireland has been on the bucket list.
Give me a shout nearer the time Murray, i have time off then and if not away diving would be up for it.
Do it! I took my VFR for a lap around the island of Ireland last year. Great fun, good beer, and amazingly friendly people. I managed to combine this with a trip to the Isle of Man on the outward leg taking the Heysham Douglas ferry and spending a few days touring around the IoM catching up with ManxVFR and Diving Pete before heading from Douglas to Belfast. Managed to wander first to Ballymoney (home of Joey Dunlop who also has an impressive monument of IoM) visiting Joeys bar full of memories. If you are not in a rush ignore the GPS and forget motorways and main roads, and take to the minor routes and see where you end up. It was loads of fun with some splendid pubs and places to stay which I would have never found except by sheer luck. The Wild Atlantic Way is a hoot, with the road running along much of the west and south coasts. It is spectacularly uneven as it often runs across peat bogs with very insecure foundations so it was rather akin to a 1,000 mile plus theme park ride. The coast road from Galway to Clifden was amazing and totally empty unlike the direct N59 on the return leg. The west coast/Galway was my favourite (and it was not raining) - check out the impressive Cliffs of Moher, although when I was there it seemed half the population of Berlin was visiting too. Apparently on sunny days the place is often over-run, but they have special section for motorbikes (dozens when I was there) which is located about as close to the entrance to the site as you can get. From Sligo to Dublin there is a chain of minor roads running north of the N4 which trend south and east through County Cavan (some alarmingly bad road surfaces) and twist erratically through the stunning Irish Lake district. As usual there are plenty of pubs and a few with decent accommodation. If you are not in a rush, you can usually avoid the paid motorways by sticking to minor roads. I only paid to use the cross Dublin motorway tunnel to get direct to the port for the ferry back to Holyhead. Find some central accommodation and set aside a day each for Cork and Dublin, as both have excellent beer and plenty of things to do/see. Ireland and IoM - I will be back... Have fun. SkiMad
