The Training takes place at Kirkullen Lodge, which is situated in the countryside of County Galway on the West Coast of Ireland. Although it is situated near lakes and beautiful countryside it is only a few miles away from the bustling City of Galway and only four miles from the sea at Galway Bay.
Galway is the largest county in Connaught, is celebrated in song and story throughout the world and is directly in the middle of Ireland’s western seaboard. A spectacularly beautiful county, it is a medley of contrasts - the wildest and remotest of countryside teamed with one of Europe’s most vibrant, popular and fastest growing city people come again and again, captivated by this most special of Irish counties.
Galway City
Galway City at the mouth of Galway Bay is both a picturesque and lively city with a wonderful avant-garde culture and a fascinating mixture of locally owned speciality shops, often featuring locally made crafts. Indeed local handcrafts are a feature of the entire region including hand knits, pottery, glass, jewellery and woodwork.
The city has many relics of its medieval past and is which is very apparent as you walk around. It has changed considerably over the last number of years and has an interesting mix of new and ancient architecture. The centre of the city is conveniently compact enough to ramble around comfortably.
Galway Airport is located just outside of Galway city, with services to Dublin, France, Holland France and UK. Galway is about an hours' drive from Shannon Airport, Ireland's second international airport. Galway is served by the Dublin-Galway railway line, with regular services to the capital. Quite a few different bus services gives regular connections to the rest of Ireland.
Although only 2 miles from the edge of Galway City, is situated at the gateway to one of the most bueatiful parts of the irish Landscape – Connemara. There is a fantastic wildness about the Connemara not found anywhere else in Ireland. Its coastline has weathered millions of years of Atlantic onslaught and it shows. Barren and rugged it has the raw beauty of a wild rocky terrain. Mother nature redresses its sometimes tempestuous environment with incredibly beautiful mountains and seascapes. There really is nowhere quite like it in any part of these islands. Its inland areas are rich in meadow lands, lush hedgerows, and heavily leafed trees. The coast, a maze of tiny walled fields, white bog cotton waving in the summer breeze, roadside banks of fuchsia and white sandy bays.
Music and Theatre
Galway is famous for its musical and street theatre scene which is both vibrant and varied. Galway is perhaps first noted for traditional Irish music which attracts thousands of people from all over the world and is kept alive daily in traditional pubs and by street performers. The city holds an annual music festival which started in 1996. The "Early Music Festival" which been includes European Music from the 12th-18th century which encourages not only music, but dance and costumes. The festival invites both professional and amateurs musicians.
Other yearly festivals include the Baboro Children’s festival, the Jazz Fesival, the spirit of the Voice Festival, The Oyster Festival and many more. Howerever The Galway Arts Festival which was first held in 1978 and since then has grown into one of the biggest arts festivals in Ireland. It attracts international artists as well as providing a platform for local and national and international performers. The festival features parades, street performances and plays, musical concerts and comedy acts.
Connemara
Connemara is a unique and very special part of County Galway. It is situated on the most western seaboard of Europe, and features breathtaking scenery, a rugged unpolluted coastline, dramatic mountains, numerous lakes and rivers, woodlands, and a National Park. A wide variety of outdoor activites includes fresh water and deep sea angling, walking, cycling, canoeing, surfing, sailing, swimming, diving, sea-cruising, snorkelling, golfing, pony trekking and bird watching.
The Burren
About 40 minutes drive from the Centre is the Burren an area of limestone hills occupying an area of over one hundred square miles overlooking Galway Bay. It is an area of scenic attractions where the clear light, reflected from the stone-grey hills, seems to radiate an air of timelessness, which is made more realistic by the presence of the many prehistoric remains that dot the fields and the valleys beneath. Here the unfolding layers of limestone form terraces on the slopes of the hills - a limestone desert but with a quick-changing landscape. Within a few miles may be seen verdant valleys, bright, green hills thick with hazel and bramble, while the grey heights are relieved by streaks of coloured vegetation contained in the fissures and rock joints.