"Teach ceann tuí " means
"thatched cottage" . The picture above isn't the main house - but it was the only artsy shot I took on the property. The Monroe Cottage (farmhouse) in
Ardfinnan, Co. Tipperary, where Lord Michael and I stayed for 7 days, dates back to the 1700's and used to be a thatched cottage up until about 10 years ago. Thatched roofs are labor intensive and expensive to upkeep so the owners, Jackie and Monica Murphy, opted to go sans thatched.
Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of the inside so use your imagination. Click on
READ MORE! to see the cottage and additional pictures of this gorgeous property.
The main house stretches all the way to the right where that gap is. The far left is the formal sitting room, to the right of the doorway is the kitchen/dining room with a tiny sitting area in front of a fireplace, followed by two bedrooms and the bathroom. Pretty simple layout. Just watch those low ceilings.
Not sure what this building was used for.
Storage.
From the main road looking down the driveway.
From the house looking down the long driveway to the road.
From the driveway looking over at the owner's property.
Down the driveway to the road.
Evening. At the Monroe Cottage. In
Ardfinnan, Co. Tipperary.
"Camán" means "hurling stick" in Gaelic. Gavin down at The Local Bar in Ardfinnan got me this used hurling stick and Amanda (below), who barkeeps at The Local Bar, just so happens to be a hurler...so she signed the stick for me. Hurling's the national sport of Ireland. After watching the boys play Gaelic football (and seeing the bruises on Amanda), I'm not sure I'd be interested in partaking in a sport where they use this stick. Ouch.
There's Amanda...serving me up a Guinness!
Perfect poster girl for Guinness. To Arthur! And Amanda!
Just watch the video through the two-minute mark. What's really a hoot is listening to the crowd behind me and to my right. You think American fans go a little berserk? And click on 
Ardfinnan Minors - South A Champions - 2009. 
Michael made dinner a couple nights at the cottage. 
Michael wanted to take a series of pictures of me walking through this arch. He likes to take series of pictures of people walking. Here I'm waiting for that boxer to get its ass out of the shot. (If you click on any picture in this blog or others, you should be able to see a larger version of it. Sometimes it works - sometimes not.)
Resolved to the fact that the dog ain't goin' anywhere, I start walking. Said boxer turns to eyeball me.
I sort of turn to eyeball said boxer. Not sure who was vying for their Cecil B. DeMille moment - me, the boxer or Lord Michael.
One of the prettiest Irish lasses we ran into. She works at a pub - somewhere. They all run together. The pubs, that is.
