West Coast of Ireland Tiki?

Leaving for walking vacation in the West Coast area of Ireland on Friday for 8 days. Will be based in Westport and putter up and down the coast. Any Tiki possibilities in that region or close by?

scigirl-
great question! i am heading there in October so i'll be curious to here the responses. please let me know how your trip goes and if there is anything that cannot be missed.

I'm on it, Tiki D! Don't know your age, but the two guides I've found quite useful so far are the Let's Go 2003 book and the Hanging Out in Ireland book. Both have good info for general topics and specific regions and the Hanging Out book is great for pubs, club scenes, outdoor activities, worth-it shopping and attractions. Its targeted to a youthful crowd, but I'm 37 and found the information quite welcome! But I'll pass along any good insider tips I pick up while there!

Er well, as a Mick of Hibernian descent...it kinda strikes me that the main (only?) reason to go to the
West Coast of Ireland is that it posseses its own unique, not-to-be-found-anywhere-else culture...personally I'd be just a tiny bit shy of completely devastated if I went there and found Tiki culture in evidence. As it is, Co. Tipperary and several others are already completely inundated with C&W music, nobody listens to Irish music any more. Is that what you really want, to see Irish "Tiki"? Like it ain't bad enough we have all these God-awful St. Pat's Day and Leprechaun caricatures to deal with? Yowch!

Irish things to do: pub sessions, concerts, ruins, churches, Arans (not just the sweaters), the Burren, and more and more! You want Tiki, try SoCal or Hawaii. Strangest request I've read on this forum to date, and you know I think you're a wise one...

:-?, emspace.

But Em, don't you think the people that LIVE there would enjoy a tiki bar? THey're probably tired of all that Irish jig and Guinness stuff. I bet they're gagging for a Mai Tai!

-- Tiki O'brian --
This is what happens when you mix Bushmills in your Mai Tai

[ Edited by: Unga Bunga on 2003-06-30 11:11 ]

Hmm, hard to say (love the jigging moai though)...is putting a Tiki bar into West Ireland the same as putting a McDonald's in an Amazonian village? Do we want to go here? I dunno, it's likely that the younger generation could be sick of the Guinness/Irish language/ruins/cathedrals/rolling green fields thing. They are probably craving all-night raves, E, street racing, perhaps even Mai Tais if they ever hear of them - but is this a good thing? You can get anything you want in Dublin already including smack aplenty - but the West is kind of the cradle of perservation of all things "Irish" (since that's where they were all exiled during the first phases of their dispossession).

I think it's good to remember the Irish only regained control of their own country (well, most of it) 80 years ago, and prior to that free expression of their traditional culture was a no-no. I don't see how they could be sick of it yet, but let's flop a bunch of Tiki bars, Starbuck's, Mickey D's, Wal-Marts etc. all over the place and see how it flies. And strip malls...lots and LOTS of strip malls.

Sorry, this is kind of a personal thing with me. It's true you can't keep a culture from becoming homogenized forever, but give 'em a chance to capitalize on what's truly [i[Irish[/i] before you turn the whole country into Dublin, which is more or less London writ small.

slainte,
emspace.

Emspace, Scigirl,
Most of Southwestern Ireland has been designated as part of "The Gaeltacht". Official governmentspeak quoted below:

A core task of the (Gaeltacht) Department is to promote the social, physical and economic development of Gaeltacht areas and to reverse the decline in the use of Irish as the principal means of communication in Gaeltacht areas. The Department seeks to achieve these objectives both through its own programmes and schemes and those of the bodies under its aegis. The key underlying objective of Government policy in this regard is to maintain the primacy of the Irish language and its related culture in the Gaeltacht.

So, Tiki culture officially unwelcome, even if not banned outright.

But, Scigirl, if you're walking the Ring of Kerry, when passing thru Ventry village hoist a traditional Irish beverage for me and I'll have a Mai Tai for you over here.

Slainte,
-JTD

Whew! Didn't mean to get so many livers in an uproar! Don't lecture me on preserving culture - I'm Cajun and have fought long and hard to maintain and refresh the traditional music, food, dance in my original home area of southeastern Louisiana. I just wanted to know if there was a nice place to get a good Tiki drink or if the tat shops were likely to have any Tiki items of interest. Perhaps I should have been more specific - I actually don't want to see a Kowloon looming on the Irish coastline! I am going there specifically to hike and enjoy the natural beauty. So, if anyone has info more along my line of thinking, let me know!

Not to worry, you never got my liver to the uproarious state, though my strong tone probably made it seem that way. :)

JTD put down the goods all right, it really is the most traditional part of the country, and I should emphasize here I never meant to EQUATE Tiki with Mickey D's - God forbid, but it is an expression (however beuatiful) of an alien culture that would look awfully out of place. If you should find a mug in a thrift shop in Galway City though, or a good brisk Mai Tai in a pub in Mayo, more power to you! Have fun, and

go raibh maith agat,
emapace.

Scigirl,
Your fine, everyone's liver is still intact.
I am hardcore Irish, and I would not mind at all finding a Polynesian restaurant\bar in Dublin to break up the blarney. I was there last year and did not see any Tiki cult, though I wasn't looking.
How was your trip?
Cheers!

Thanks Unga Bunga! I'll let you know how the trip went (I fly out tomorrow - evening of July 4th from Boston: could it be any worse?)! Am looking forward to it immensely. 9-12 miles of walking per day through the West Coast region...can't wait!

Oh and to think I needed a new thread to start this topic, silly me. I'm Irish born and still living (all be it with an abnormally high pulse rate caused by Blue hawaiis and rum punches) in Ireland. Dublin which is where I'm from (London writ small apparently) has just about cornered the market in alcoholism so I think we alcoholics are entitled to get sloshed any way we please and in as much of a mock pardisian atmosphere as possible. Oh for an Irish tiki bar instead of just ol lads pubs and super bars holding 500 punters at a time! Unfortunately, the chances of such are slim to none. In fact I'm probably the most likely candidate to set one up despite the fact I've no experience as a publican (not republican). I think it's wrong to assume that a tiki bar is some sort of cultural invasion or that it would necessarily only happen if some "outsiders" came over here and set one up. Even if it was a cultural invasion it would be a welcome one in comparison to Will and Grace, Britney Spears and Big Macs. Oh listen to my bile! There is nothing particularly sacred about the Irish landscape either, our rolling green fields (what's left of them) are not of Irish origin, the most common grass in Ireland (the cow eating sort) is for the most part an imported variety, as is our iconic potato. I suppose my point is Ireland along with many other countries is a thorough mish mash of cultural influences some worse and some better than others and I for one think it could take some contamination from a tiki bar here and there. My tirade is now over, you may all unclench your livers! ....Oh, and as for the Gaeltacht and Gaeltacht areas in the West, my feelings about it are mixed, not least of all because I, like many others from supposedly less "Irish" parts of Ireland, was shipped off there for summer holidays, no doubt in some attempt to make me more "Irish" again. Also, I would strongly emphasise there's a big difference between what a place has to "offer" on a two week visit and what it's like to live and grow up there. A culture can suffer from stagnation as easily as invasion.

:drink: Cheers go raibh míle maith agat!

“Paradise is exactly like where you are right now... only much, much better.”

[ Edited by: lone tiki? 2006-06-05 09:13 ]

Well put Loney.

Lone Tiki, Man I wish you'd piped up earlier King Kukuleles playing in Dublin today, but it's kinda late now I'm writing this.
Get yourself a cheap Ryan air flight and come over to http://www.thelondonluau.co.uk, a few guys from Kerry are coming too.

On 2006-06-05 15:31, cheekytiki wrote:
Lone Tiki, Man I wish you'd piped up earlier King Kukuleles playing in Dublin today, but it's kinda late now I'm writing this.
Get yourself a cheap Ryan air flight and come over to http://www.thelondonluau.co.uk, a few guys from Kerry are coming too.

I'm quite close to wetting myself! Thanks for the info!!!!