Thursday May 8th& Friday May 9th

 Yesterday I flew from Glasgow to Cork.  The plane was a bit of a surprise – it was an ATR 72 which is a turboprop plane and only seats about 80 passengers with 2 seats on either side of the aisle so quite small. The only entry to the plane is at the rear and the stairs are incorporated into the door which drops down. It is a while since I have been in a commercial plane as small as this one. But in spite of its size we managed to get in to Cork 10 mins early.  

The hotel is on a hill overlooking the city. 

If the cab driver is to be believed, the population of Cork is only slightly bigger than Hobart.  I managed to walk up and down the hill three times within the first 3 hours of my arrival. First to collect the framed photo I had arranged as a gift for the sisters at one of the convents we are visiting, then to take my washing to a laundry I discovered on my first trip, and later to a restaurant for dinner. 

There are 5 others in the group that I am travelling with in Ireland, all staff members from schools set up by Irish nuns from the Presentation order. We are here to visit the founding convents for our schools and other places that are significant the the Presentation order.

Today we headed for Waterford, not to see crystal, but to visit the Edmund Rice (founder of the Christian Brothers) Heritage Centre. There are a surprising number of links between him and the Presentation Sisters who established St Mary’s College.  From there we went to the old Waterford Presentation Convent, now a specialist medical centre, which has a chapel designed by Pugin.  

A large part go the afternoon was taken up with a planning meeting and working out how many bottles of baileys and whiskey we had to buy as gifts. All in all, today was not a spectacular day from the photographic point of view.  Perhaps tomorrow!

PS today I was sent a photo of a Puffin taken by our fellow lodgers at Dervaig on Mull.