Most of the time, I have access to broadband; so most of the time, my interest is more academic than practical. This week my parents are visiting Ireland and we are in Lehinch, a golfing/surfing town on West Coast of Clare, near the Cliffs of Moher.

We are renting a house with WiFi – but I didn’t get the network key for the first 24 hours. I got dizzy and kind of shaky – but I survived. I did contact the keep of the net key twice and visited the library in that first day.

At the library I learned that public access to broadband is tough to come by here. There was no WiFi access in the library but I could use their computers to check email. (No help when/if I needed to update a web site.) The librarian thought that there might be a coffee shop in Lisdoonvarna with WiFi. That’s about 30 minutes away.

I was kind of surprised. There are plenty of signs for residential broadband here –so it is available, but not for visitors. I don’t know the numbers but I have to think that tourism is a huge chunk of the economy here – and I have to think that both golfers and surfers are a pretty wired group.

If I knew that Lisdoonvarna was the “most wired city” in the area – I would have focused my attention on accommodations there. It got me thinking of the Get Broadband communities back home and the number of resorts I work with in the area and how much broadband is a selling point for a visitor like me. And I like to think I’m a desirable visitor. My kids are too young to be too much trouble; I have too many kids for me to be too much trouble; and cost isn’t my first question – access to broadband is.