Don't know where you were when you were in Ireland but I would say with the exception of the larger cities, much of Ireland is as it was. Just look at Lawrence photos of the 1890s. I have several and there are many many more at the website http://www.otherdays.com/ Since we are in Ireland on a yearly basis, over the years I have purchased prints of family homeplaces. An example is The Mall in Westport County Mayo only difference is that the street is now paved and cars are parked at the curbs during the business hours. There is one I just bought of a woman driving a pony cart along the road in the townland Belclare toward Croagh Patrick. It may have been my great Gran! We rent a cottage about a1/2 mile from this scene next to my g grans former family home. After marriage she moved 1/2 mile down the road. My Irish cousins still live on the same land they had been tenants back to who knows when and purchased in 1878. The scene each morning as I leave the cottage and have a cuppa is no different from my ancestors viewed over 150 years. Jump in the car and I'm in Westport in 5 minutes and current time! Wexford is the same where my husband's family still resides. The village of Kilmore Quay. In Waterford, the village of Ballyduff Mor and Ardmore where other family originated is for the most part unchanged. Yes, the old and new is sometmes mixed but taste the countryside and the one lane roads. Get lost, as we often do, but go to the Heritage Parks to learn the history. The Celtic Tiger is roaring and many changes have happened but the old is there, be adventurous. Mary Ellen Chambers Lakewood Ohio