Program 708: Favorite Tours in Ireland; Celtic Middle Earth; Ireland’s South Coast

Hear about how a locally operated tour can add depth and conviviality to your next trip to the Emerald Isle, then learn about the sophisticated ways ancient Celts mapped out their pre-Roman world. And get tips for exploring scenic West Cork — an untamed alternative to the tourist-trodden Ring of Kerry — and other highlights of Ireland's south coast.

• Ireland tour guide and guidebook co-author Pat O'Connor
• Graham Robb, author of "The Discovery of Middle Earth" (Norton)
• Ireland-based tour guide Barry Maloney, author of "Kinsale" (self-published)
• Feature narration by former TRS producer Sarah McCormic

• Pat O'Connor provides more than an hour's worth of Ireland travel tips in a presentation he gave in 2012.
• The Rick Steves online guide to Ireland.
• Graham Robb's works are listed on his publisher's site at W. W. Norton.
• Graham's 2014 book "The Discovery of Middle Earth," was released in the U.K. under the title "The Ancient Paths" by Picador / Pan Macmillan.
• The New York Times discusses Graham Robb's theories about Celtic migrations.
• Information for visiting the second-century Antonine Wall in Scotland.
• Barry Moloney hosts historic walking tours of Kinsale, Ireland. He's collected many of the tales he tells on the tours in his book "Kinsale."
• Barry describes more about his hometown Kinsale in an previous Travel with Rick Steves, on program #669 in March 2022.
• The Jeanie Johnston Famine ship is docked in the heart of Dublin and open daily.
• The Cobh Heritage Centre has exhibits on emigration during the Great Famine, and on the last stop of the Titanic on its ill-fated maiden voyage.