More Ireland

The BBC has the second article in a series by Andrew McCarthy about driving in Ireland:

Driving distance in Ireland is misleading and irrelevant. You can cross the entire country, east to west, along the M4 and M6 motorways in three hours. But a drive of less than a hundred kilometers from Galway to Clifden in Connemara can take twice that, especially along the coast roads.
The bustle of the university town is left suddenly behind on R336 and, within ten miles, you’re deep into the Gaeltacht (Irish speaking) country. Inside Tigh Hughes' pub in the insular town of Spiddal you’ll hear little but Gaelic spoken. By the time you get past Cashel, the R342 is being pushed around like a piece of string along the filigreed coast. Unexpected bays reveal themselves, just when you thought you were miles from the sea. Roads are often unmarked out here. You will get lost. A desire for order needs to be reconsidered and the road simply followed. Inland, rough, un-manicured tundra rises up into the mountains of the Twelve Bens (photo). This is Connemara: Ireland’s Ireland.
Somehow you’ll find yourself in Roundstone on the R341 at some point, and you’ll be glad you did. The view out to sea is postcard-ready and the people welcoming. Eventually all roads west lead to Clifden, the furthest outpost in County Galway. Luckily, the bustling market town has several decent pubs.

Rico says his own driving experience in Ireland (in the late Pat Leamy's big Jaguar) resulted in a lot of briar scratches down the left-hand side, as Rico attempted to stay over on the narrow roads...

You can read Part One here.