Five things to do

1. Listen: to traditional music (known locally as the craic) at Murphy’s Bar in Killarney Town in County Kerry. Renowned as an Irish music pub, Murphy’s has live music every night in the summer and every weekend in the winter. It’s been run by the Murphy family since 1955, offering great pub food all day plus accommodation.

2. Stroll: through the Irish National Stud in County Kildare. Make sure you see the stallion Invincible Spirit, sometimes billed as the “daddy of all daddies” because his stud fee of ¤120,000 ($180,000) for each service brings in about 80% of the facility’s revenue. And visit the surrounding Japanese gardens, reputed to be the finest in Europe.

3. Pretend: to be a passenger on the Titanic in the Titanic Experience at Cobh (pronounced Cove), housed in the original White Star Line ticket office. Cobh was the last port of call for the ill-fated ship before it hit an iceberg and sank on April 15, 2012. Your ticket has your passenger name (123 people embarked at Cobh) and at the end of the tour you discover whether you survived! Take time to visit the nearby promenade and if you’re lucky, as I was, there will be a band playing.

4. Take: a jaunting car ride through the beautiful and wild Killarney national park to Ross Castle. Keep an eye out for red deer as the park is home to the country’s last native herd. Gaze out at Lough Leane, against a backdrop of distant mountains, and see if you can make out Carrauntoohil, one of Ireland’s tallest peaks. Ross Castle is a 15th-century tower house and was the last to be defeated by Oliver Cromwell and the English in 1652. Also enjoy a cruise on Lough Leane from Ross Castle.

5. Walk: on the mystical Cliffs of Moher in County Clare. Ireland’s most-visited natural tourist attraction, the cliffs have been carved by ocean and weather into fantastic shapes. On a clear day you can see the Aran Islands, Galway Bay, the Twelve Pins and the Maumturk mountains in Connemara as well as the Dingle Peninsula and Blasket Islands in Kerry.