Tues June 11, 2025
Hi Folks! Today we had another glorious sea day. So you know our sea day drill… sleep in, get educated, eat well, watch great entertainment and listen to live music. Can’t beat it!
So after a good long sleep we started with a nice lunch then on to get educated. The topic was called “The Past, Present and Future of Ireland”. They talked about how the majority of the history of Ireland stems from the differences between the Catholics and Protestants.
While it’s one island, it is made of two parts. Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom and has a population of 2 million people within 6 counties and is majority Protestant and called Unionist. The Republic of Ireland has a population of 5 million within 26 counties that are predominately Catholic and called Nationalist.
In 1609, Britain brought people from Scotland to Ireland who were Protestant and moved the Catholics off their land, this was called the Plantation of Ulster. Then the Irish Catholics revolted and the British sent Oliver Cromwell over to take back the land in 1649.
Fast forward to the 1960s thru the mid 90’s and that’s when “The Troubles” flair up between the Protestants and Catholics. In 1998, the Good Friday Agreement is signed to bring peace between both parties and have all parties be represented in government. After that there were still a few skirmishes but all in all the whole island now lives in peace. In essence, they can all get back to the pubs for drinking and live music! Lol
After that we listened to our favorite solo guitarist named Tiffany Harmon. She has such a great voice and also plays piano and is just easy to listen to.
We then got ready for dinner. Since it was formal night we got all dressed up and went to the Asian specialty restaurant Tamarind. We were there a few nights ago and loved the food. For appetizers we both got the Shrimp and Lobster (of course!) pot stickers (I actually got a double order, they are sooo good!). We both also got the Satay Sampler for the second appetizer. For the main I got the Crispy Duck. For dessert we both got the Yuzu Cheesecake. Everything was deeee-licious!
After dinner we went to the show which was the head female singer named Kyra Ventriglia. Her show was called “Class Act” where she sang songs from all the top female Divas. She has a great voice and stage presence. It was a really good show!
After the show we ended the night listening to the Blues at the BB King Blues Club. Tomorrow we are back in Ireland where we’ll be docked in Cobh which is the gateway to the city Cork. We’ve been all over Ireland but not to Cork so it should be fun! Hope everyone had a great Hump Day!
The Wandering Italian 