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Mary our hostess at Glen House, Youghal is the salt of the Irish earth. Still going strong at 75 years she maintains her B&B to keep her busy and to meet new people.
It is just like staying with a favourite auntie or grandma who is genuinely interested in all you have to say. You do feel like you should be making her the cup of tea.
We depart Youghal heading east, and along the way we find the replica of the famine ship Dunbrody at New Ross, County Wexford, the prime departure point for those in the south east escaping famine struck Ireland.
The Dunbrody, an 1840s cargo ship, took on a dual role during the Great Irish Famine to carry desperate Irish emigrants to the US seeking a better life and in many cases simply to survive.
But first they had to survive the five week voyage in miserable cramped and unhygienic conditions, resulting in typhoid and cholera killing up to 20 percent on each trip.
At the exhibit there is an Irish American hall of fame to recognise the contribution of the Irish through US history and Irish Americans today such as the actress Maureen O’Hara.
Continuing on the road to Wexford at Saltmills, New Ross there is the other Tintern Abbey, founded in the twelfth century by William, the Earl of Marshall, and named after Tintern in Wales.
It was said that William on his first visit to Ireland after his inheritance as Lord of Leinster found himself dancing with death when his ship was struck by a storm off the east coast and was close to sinking.
He vowed that if he safely reached the shore he would start an abbey wherever he landed. As a result 3,500 hectares were granted to the Cistercian order to establish an abbey at Bannow Bay.
William was also the patron of Tintern Abbey in Monmouthshire in Wales, so he brought monks from Wales to settle in the new foundation in Wexford and they named this abbey in honour of their original home.
The abbey was converted into living quarters in the 1500s and further developed as a home for the Colclough family where they lived until as recently as the 1960s.
We take a detour along the coast to see the pretty village of Kilmore Quay with its white washed thatched cottages and little church.
Our last night in Ireland is in a lovely converted castle, Killiane, Drinagh, just a short distance from Rosslare harbour where we will be leaving by ferry for Wales.