Ireland travel

Where to Find the Real St. Patrick

Published March 17, 2023 | By Clark Norton

Ireland's Cashel Rock, also known as St. Patrick's Rock, in County Tipperary, Ireland. Photo by Dennis Cox/ WorldViews.

I admit I was a little surprised several years ago when I toured the entire island of Ireland and discovered that St. Patrick — the patron saint of Ireland and largely credited with bringing Christianity to he country — actually did much of his missionary work in and is reputedly buried in County Down, which is now part of Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom.

It was a quarter-century ago (April 1998) that “The Troubles,” as they were called — an often violent class-related and sectarian three-decade conflict in Northern Ireland between those who wanted to remain in the UK (mostly Protestants) and those who wanted to break away and join the Republic of Ireland (mostly Catholics) — ended in the Good Friday Agreement to settle the issue peacefully.

Because my grandfather was a Protestant born in County Fermanagh, in what is now Northern Ireland, before he… Continue reading →

Posted in Baby boomer travel, cultural travel, European travel, History, Holidays | Tagged Ireland travel, northern Ireland, Northern Ireland travel, St. Patrick, St. Patrick Centre, St. Patrick's Day | 1 Comment

Seven Great Places to Visit — Once

Published March 20, 2021 | By Clark Norton

Elephants at watering hole in Etosha National Park in Namibia.
Photo by Dennis Cox/ WorldViews

In this post, contributing writer Robert Waite tackles the eternal problem of where not to go next — not because he didn’t love going there the first time, but because….well, there are lots of different reasons, and I’ll let him explain. He also offers advice for readers who would like to go.

By Robert Waite

As vaccines continue to roll out, thoughts once again turn to travel. For baby-boomers, it has been a lost year, subtracted from whatever travel-time we have left.

In my last post for clarknorton.com, I discussed seven places to which I would love to return, to linger longer. In this post, I give you seven places I’ve been to, loved, but will likely never see again, for various reasons.

Each deserves your consideration, post-COVID. Here goes:

Posted in Baby boomer travel, Bucket Lists, Foreign travel, Travel Behavior | Tagged 88 Temple Trail Japan, Antarctica travel, Easter Island travel, Egypt travel, Ireland travel, Luxor Egypt travel, Machu Picchu travel, Namibia travel, Peru travel, Shikoku Japan travel, Southwest Ireland travel | Leave a comment

According to government and private surveys:

Leading-edge baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1955) and seniors account for four out of every five dollars spent on luxury travel today.
Roughly half the consumer spending money in the U.S.--more than $2 trillion--is in the hands of leading-edge baby boomers and seniors.
Baby boomers (born 1946-1964) travel more than any other age group.
When asked what they would most like to spend their money on, baby boomers answered “travel” more than any other category, including improving their health or finances.