ATHLONE, REPUBLIC OF IRELAND

the Center of IrelandAthlone is a strikingly beautiful city dramatically situated on the Shannon in the very middle of the country. It is halfway between Galway (an overrated tourist trap) and Dublin and with a bypass that allows traffic to avoid the city entirely these days it is even less known as a place to visit than it used to be. Which is unfortunate. The center of Ireland has some of the most fabulous sites in it in counties like Offaly Westmeath North Tipperary Roscommon and eastern County Galway. Clonmacnoise Clonfert Cathedral the prehistoric site at Crochan along with wonderful small towns and cities like Athlone Boyle Birr Banagher Roscrea Eyrecourt and access to the richly beautiful south midlands and southeastern coast--it's all more than worth getting out of Dublin or away from the overused tourist track of the West Coast with hideous Galway and its silly publife as the maddening exemplar. If all I needed to do was bury my nose in a jar of foam and make myself stupid (which I don't) why would I want to do it while climbing over other similar lunatics in a town like Galway which has ruined itself with reckless sprawl in recent years and the worst traffic in the Republic? It's a place worth getting out of and onto the open road to a real place like Athlone that nobody visits in the spectacular Irish Interior.I've run out of characters. Go and see for yourself.Daniel Meehan