Travel 2012: Go Wild West
10. Feb, 2012 
9 Comments
You'll visit Ben Bulben--and some secret places thereabouts.
If Michael Waugh said to you, “How would you like to come with me to Ireland for 10 days to meet all my neighbors?” you might not jump at the chance. But the small groups who’ve traveled to Ireland’s West on Waugh’s “Wild West Irish Tours” have enjoyed every minute of his tours to his old ‘hood.
After all, one of Waugh’s neighbors is Dermot Healy, award-winning novelist, playwright and poet. They became such good friends that when Waugh took up residence in Sligo after retiring from the U.S. Coast Guard he would dog-sit for Healy when he was away.
Waugh and wife, Trish O’Donnell Jenkins, now divide their time between Virginia and Sligo, where they lead small groups—only 4-8 people—on tours of Ireland’s breathtaking west coast, including Sligo, Leitrim, Mayo and Donegal, and occasionally points south.
You’re not going to miss the best parts of Yeats Country. You can’t go to Sligo without visiting Ben Bulben, after all, and Waugh can arrange for a day of hill walking with a friend “who just likes doing it.” But Waugh also has unexpected treats in store for you.
“We pride ourselves in going places the Irish Tourist Board doesn’t know about,” says Waugh, a Bronx native whose family came from Clare and Derry.
That includes the mysterious fairy glen near Knocknarea, the burial spot of Queen Maeve. Most people make the arduous climb to the top of the cairn for the panoramic views. They don’t go to the fairy glen, because nobody but the locals knows about it. “I’ve taken many people here and they all react the same way—they become stunned and quiet,” Waugh told me when we met recently for coffee in Chestnut Hill. “I’ve had people from all faiths tells me they felt close to God or to nature. Everyone who goes there has a spiritual experience.”
He’s also pressed his friend, folklorist and author Joe McGowan, into leading tours of holy wells that are often hidden away on farms. “We have to tiptoe over the walls,” laughs Waugh. One of his groups insisted on stopping to watch a group of men tug a bullock out of a mud pit. Afterwards, the farmer invited them in for tea.
You’ll go to the local ceilis (“Not something put on for tourists”) and enjoy evenings at Ellen’s Pub with Healy and other locals who tell stories, recite poems, and punctuate the night with laughter. “We went to see Dermot at his cottage one day and when we were leaving, I noticed that one of the group wasn’t there,” recalls Waugh. “Then I see her in Dermot’s car and they’re driving to Ellen’s!”
A friend has border collies so he can arrange a live demonstration of sheepherding. And for a group he took at Halloween, he even found a local haunted house. “This house was occupied by poltergeists,” he says. “The people who own it are Protestant, but they brought in the Jesuits to say Mass for three months in a row.”
In fact, says Waugh, since his groups are so small, he can customize the tours to each individual. “What makes us work is the people,” he says. “No matter what you want to do, I can call up a friend who does it.”
Tour Dates for Wild West Irish Tours are April 19-29, May 3-13, May 17-27, June 7-17, July 5-15, July 26- August 4, August 16-26, September 2-12, September 19-29, October 4-14. The price, $1599 per person, doesn’t include airfare but covers the cost of mini-bus travel and accommodations at a family owned guest house with cottages on a scenic peninsula in West Sligo. For more information, call 571-236-9650 or email info@wildwestirishtours.com. Go to Waugh’s website to read more about its “life-altering” vacations.
Story info
The part of Ireland that Michael Waugh brings tourists to is magnificent in its diversity. Lakes, small mountains, streams, fields, bogs, and the Atlantic Ocean never too far away. Unfortunately, this hidden and unspoilt part of Ireland is under threat from hydraulic fracturing, where hundreds and hundreds of frack pads with up to 24 wells per pad, are planned for as early as 2014, pending licensing and EPA reports. Fermanagh is under the shadow of the drilling towers as well, containing the start of the river Shannon, a geopark, and the most beautiful of Ireland’s highlands and lakelands. Ironically, the only growth industries in Ireland last year were agriculture, food production and exports, and , TOURISM. Not mass produced tourism, but people who appreciate the wildness, the solitude, the clear air, and clean water, and the uniqueness of our part of Ireland. Tourists will not come to a gas producing industrialised rural area. Full stop. Please email our minister for the environment, Phil Hogan, philip.hogan@oir.ie and tell him really politely that anyone contemplating a visit to beautiful Sligo or Lovely Leitrim, or charming Cavan, might not come if faced with frack pads, heavy truck traffic on tiny rural roads, and a degradation of an unspoilt countryside, that should be a legacy for future generations, not a devastated landscape. Yours, slan, Shane from Sligo
Thank you to Irish Philadelphia for writing such a nice article about our tours and the places we visit. We love bringing people to this wonderful part of the country and we are delighted that we have quite a few people from PA. already booked to go this year. As for Shane’s heartfelt message about fracking,we agree that this area is unspoilt and this is one of the main reasons we love it so much. We agree with Shane and are doing our part in this regard. Now, anyone ready to go to the Wild West and see for yourself?
Michael Waugh & Trish Jenkins
I took this tour and had a wonderful time. This was my second time to Ireland. Loved not being among the tourists but among the Irish people themselves. Go and find your Irish self.
was that good ,eh? It’s on my agenda
If you want to get away from the cares of the world – come very quickly, because it will soon be utterly ruined. The Irish government is planning on using the dreadful hydrofracturing process to extract gas from below this beautiful countryside. Despite all the evidence of poisoned water and toxic land and severe harm to people and animals, they are going ahead with it. France and Bulgaria have banned the process and many US cities and communities have done so too.
If you would like to come to the Ireland that we love, please write to your nearest Embassy or email them, or do so directly to the Prime Minister Enda Kenny at webmaster@taoiseach.gov.ie
You will be helping us and also saving Ireland for you
Johnny Linehan
I don’t know where to begin. I have always wanted to travel to Ireland but I was reluctant to go because I didn’t want to have to travel with 40-50 people stuffed on a large tour bus then follow someone with an umbrella giving a verbal tour that I couldn’t hear anyway.
I was told by a friend of miine that there was a couple, Mike and Trish, that offered tours to Ireland with no more than 8 persons a tour. Long story short. I called and booked. It turned out to be the most wonderful experience of a lifetime.
Michael and Trish are excellent guides, full of detailed information and great senses of humor. The Wild West Irish Tour was way beyond my expectations. I love Ireland and the people. I have booked another tour. This time Im taking my family members and we will have our own private tour and vacation .
Get away from those large tour busses, Wild West Irish Tours is the way to go!!
Sounds great, hadn’t heard of it before and will mention to anyone I know coming over to visit. we moved to the area 14 years ago as I had first come to college in Sligo years before and fell in love with the north west. I can see Benbulben from where i live now, I have travelled a bit and always happily returned to within view of Benbulben. The sea, beaches,mountains, lakes, waterfalls are much appreciated by someone who comes from an inland, flat county
A very beautiful non-traditional tour. It was amazing to see some if the hidden treasures of Ireland! Thanks for sharing the beautiful traditions of Ireland with me. Michael and Trish were amazing tour guides! They are lots of fun and have amazing energy.