{"id":2983,"date":"2017-07-28T15:12:12","date_gmt":"2017-07-28T15:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ritrc.wpenginepowered.com\/ireland\/?p=891"},"modified":"2026-02-14T01:14:58","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T06:14:58","slug":"have-you-met-joe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ritvacations.com\/ireland\/have-you-met-joe\/","title":{"rendered":"Have you met Joe?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ritvacations.com\/ireland\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/07\/12748022_1213926008620929_7669087782788362702_o-e1501255038302.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/ritrc.wpenginepowered.com\/ireland\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/07\/12748022_1213926008620929_7669087782788362702_o-240x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-893\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">As you know, Royal Irish Tours is Toronto based, but it\u2019s their great network of Irish men and women on the ground that make it possible for RIT to make your dream holiday a reality.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">One of these people is west Limerick man Joe O\u2019Connor from Rathkeale.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">A coach driver with RIT for 12&nbsp;years, Joe loves Ireland and loves passing on the knowledge he has of the country to RIT customers.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cIreland has so many aspects to it. In the midlands you have the green, lush pasturelands, then near the coast you have the small mountains,\u201d Joe told me.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cThen in Donegal and Connemara you have the bogland and the turf that is used to heat the homes.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cIn places where they have the turf, they cut it and use it. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cThen there is the Burren in Clare. It means rocky, useless land. It\u2019s where [chief minister to King Henry VIII of England] Thomas Cromwell said, \u201cThere\u2019s not enough timber here to hang a man, not enough water to drown a man, and not enough clay to bury a man.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cFurther down into Kerry you have all the mountains. You have the Macgillycuddy\u2019s Reeks near Killarney and Carrauntoohil, the highest peak in Ireland.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cSo you\u2019ve got so many aspects to Ireland; if you drive two hours here you get a different lanscape.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cIf you drive two hours in Canada you\u2019re basically in the same place.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Joe likes to place guests in the culture of the regions of Ireland they visit, and uses media to do so, saying: \u201cI\u2019d show a film of <i>The Quiet Man<\/i>, when we\u2019re travelling in Connemara for example, as it was filmed there. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cIn Donegal I\u2019d play Daniel O\u2019Donnell music on the coach becaues he\u2019s a well-known singer from there.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cIn different places we play different things.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Joe is a passionate Irishman, but when pushed on a favourite destination within Ireland he plugs Mullaghmore, Co Sligo, saying:<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>\u201cIt\u2019s where British statesman and naval officer Lord Mountbatten was assasinated.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cIt\u2019s a beatiful drive up there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Joe \u2013 ever the RIT representative \u2013 is also keen to point out the good value of the 14-day coach tours, telling me: \u201cOf the 14 nights, you get dinner 12 nights, so people like that, because they know exactly how much it\u2019s going to cost them.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cOnce they have their money paid that\u2019s basically it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As you know, Royal Irish Tours is Toronto based, but it\u2019s their great network of Irish men and women on the ground that make it possible for RIT to make your dream holiday a reality. One of these people is west Limerick man Joe O\u2019Connor from Rathkeale. A coach driver with RIT for 12&nbsp;years, Joe [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":902,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-have-you-met"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Have you met Joe? - Royal Irish Tours<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ritvacations.com\/ireland\/have-you-met-joe\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Have you met Joe? - Royal Irish Tours\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As you know, Royal Irish Tours is Toronto based, but it\u2019s their great network of Irish men and women on the ground that make it possible for RIT to make your dream holiday a reality. 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