Departed Boston (Aer Lingus) at 7:15 Monday 4/10/2017, and landed in Shannon about 5am local time Tuesday 4/11. Got rental car: driver is on the right hand side of car, stick shift (much cheaper and more available than automatic) with stick to driver’s left. Driving on the left.
Driving in Ireland, especially when jet-lagged, never having driven on the left before, driving a stick shift (on the left side) after having driven an automatic for years, is a white-knuckle experience. Offline google maps took us on lots of small roads (barely one car’s width) with ancient stone walls and thorny hedges on either side. Crazy.
We stopped in Killarney, which is a fairly tourist-y town, but it was great to get out of the car for a bit. We took a walk in part of Killarney National Park, which was beautiful. 
Lots of these trees with massive tangles of shoots:
Then back on the road. We took many, many pictures of sheep and lambs. 
Finally we arrived at our first B&B – Whispering Pines in Kenmare. 
Here’s a picture of Ann standing outside the B&B (actually taken on our last day in Kenmare.
Mary Fitzgerald, the innkeeper, greeted us as if we were long lost family and made us feel welcome.
That night, we went out to a local pub (the B&B is a short walk to town) named Foleys and heard a nice singer + guitar player.
Here’s a picture of the musician.