Dublin and Beyond (09-05-19)

Along the way to Dublin:

We were driving around the Castledermot area looking for the area where my family, the Bullocks, used to live when the GPS took us down a dirt road that ended at a gate.








We had to turn both cars around in a small space in order to get out, and I noticed a car coming from the other side of the gate, but didn’t think much of it. We drove down the street and pulled off so we could discuss where to go next, and the car I saw earlier pulled up behind me and a woman got out and asked if she could help us.

I told her we were looking for where the Bullock family used to live - she laughed- her husband is a Bullock! We spent a couple of hours with him and he showed us where the house used to be- it’s gone and the land sold. But we did find an old fireplace grate, which he gave us.

The three of us piled in our car and drove to Kilkea Castle.  That's where, unbeknownst to me, my 4th great grandfather is buried.

After a quick bite to eat he took us to his aunt's house.  She was giving me some family history and then says “ did you know Peggy Collins?” Wow! Peggy was my aunt. She remembered her well and said her daughter Diana had written to her when Peggy died.

 She then shows me pictures of a relative in CA who was celebrating her 100th birthday in 1989. I was skeptical about a California Connection (I know of no California relatives) until I saw two of my aunts in one of the pictures.  It was fun to make the connection with relatives, and now I have more information to add to my family tree!

Instead of staying in the city of Dublin, we stayed in a suburb, and took the train in for one whirlwind day of sightseeing.

The “hop on/hop off" bus was a convenient way to get around and see the sights, especially with rain in the forecast. We started the day with a  walk past the Oscar Wilde statue in Merrion Square.

Next up was a short visit to the Archaeology and History Museum.

The amount of gold jewelry, some dating back to 1200 B.C. was incredible. Apparently the wealthy used to bury their baubles in a hole in the ground, called a hoard,
so lots pieces would be found together.

I wanted to visit at least one cathedral, and we chose Christ Church-mostly because we were walking right past it.

This is one of the oldest cathedrals in Ireland (there has been a church here since 1030) and is known for its history and architecture.

I really enjoyed all the nooks and crannies (small chapels) contained in the main church.

It was here that Handel's Messiah was first performed, in 1742.

All the walking had made us hungry so we finished the day at Brazen Head, the oldest pub in Ireland.

The room we sat in was the oldest, built in the 1600s.

On our way back to the train station we stopped briefly at the Garden of Remembrance. This cross shaped reflection pool was built to remember those who gave their lives fighting to free Ireland from English rule, in the Easter Rising of 1916.

The next morning we shared our last breakfast with Mike and Julie. We are splitting off, as they are flying home from Shannon and we are leaving from Dublin.

Paul and I spent our last day exploring along the coastline, starting in the small town of Wicklow and driving up through Dublin to our hotel.   

We were happy to pack a lunch and spend the day walking the beach collecting sea glass. We even found a red piece!

Emly / Tipperary (09-02-19)

Emly is a small parish near Tipperary, and the home land of Mike's  O'Brien ancestors.

He wanted to share the history of  the area, which included a walk  to this megalithic tomb, known as Duntrylegue Passage Tomb (Darby's Bed).

This burial site dates to approximately 3500 B.C!

We chose not to step inside.

The heather was in bloom, but pictures do just not do it justice!

Our tour also included the ruins of Moor Abbey,  founded in 1471 by Aunfrun O’Briain, a Franciscan monk.  Ireland has many ruins of Abbeys, monasteries and churches.    

This one looks pretty good, considering it's been burned to the ground twice!

With only two nights in Emly, we didn't have much time to explore- we had to save some time for relaxing, after all.

Mike has distant relatives in the area, so the night that he went out to the pub with them, the three of us played some pool, and took advantage of the only hot tub we have had access to on this trip!

The Dingle Peninsula (08-30-19)

Along the way to Dingle: We stopped at the small town of Listowel, to look at an old tower castle. 

It was interesting to see this relic in the middle of a modern town.

Built in 1303, only 1/3 of it is left.  It fell into disrepair in the 1700s, and was bought by the Hare family- but they never lived in it.  Whoever owns the castle owns the title of Earl of Listowel, and that's what the family was after.

In the 1800s the church of Ireland used the stones to build their church and a few years later the Catholics used more of them to build their church.

Our cottage on Inch Beach has a great view of the bay, and we were lucky enough to have good weather for an hour, so we could sit out and enjoy it.

That was pretty much it for good weather for a while so we decided to suck it up and walk the beach in the rain, the following morning.

Done with our walk, it was time for a drive. We took Slea Head Drive around the peninsula to the western most point of Europe .

It is here that the first transatlantic telephone cable was run to Newfoundland and where they say the “next Parish over is Boston".

There are several sites to see along the way, some more of interest than others. There were two places where scenes from Star Wars was filmed but the heavy fog kept us from seeing them .

Off the point lay the Blasket Islands. 

Populated by fewer than 200 people, they were pretty isolated from the mainland, with their only method of reaching it being small boats they made themselves. 

Being isolated, their language was more pure Irish, and in the early 1900s

Scholars started coming  from all over to learn Irish from the islanders.

In the 1940s,  most of the young had left for America, having heard about how great it was (many of them landed in Springfield, MA). The oldest daughter would go first, as she had work experience and was able to save money. Once established she would save enough for another passage and send it home for the next sibling. That one in turn would work to save for the next sibling's passage, and so on, until so many were gone, the island could no longer sustain itself .  In 1953 it was abandoned and the inhabitants moved to the mainland.

Nearby Killarney National Park is Ireland's first national park, created in 1932 when the Muckross estate was donated to the Republic of Ireland.

It has some of the oldest woodlands still existing in Ireland.

We walked for about 3 miles in those woodlands, around a lake, then took a boat back to the Muckross House.

Our boat driver highly entertaining telling us 
stories and joking with us about where we were from.







 At the end he said he would tell people about us saying we were a foursome traveling the world looking over our shoulder trying to stay ahead of the grim reaper. He was born in Boston but left at age 2. He wore a New England Patriots hat as a child but had no idea what they were, and played with a hockey stick but had never seen a hockey game.

The nightlife in Dingle had us wishing we had stayed in the city itself, or at least within taxi distance, but as it was, we had to have a designated driver.  Paul took one for the team, so to speak.

The fun pub was the one that was in an old hardware store, with musicians playing behind the counter, but the better music was across the street at the Dingle Pub.

Not wanting to drive in the dark, we made it an early night.







Before we knew it, it was time to move on to our next destination- the small town of Emly.

Along the way: We stopped in Foyne, at the Flying Boat and Maritime Museum.  This small museum, which showcases the "flying boat"  is really neat, and has an interesting benefactress- Maureen O'Hara.  She was born in Dublin, and her husband was the first Lead Pilot for Pan Am Airlines, the first US airline to fly a transatlantic route.

These flying boats were bigger than land planes because it was easier to land on the water, but by 1946, technology had advanced enough that large planes could now land on a runway, and these planes became obsolete.

During WWII, commercial flights from the U.S. to Ireland landed in Foyne, and although Ireland was neutral, the Irish shared intelligence with the Allied forces, and the weather experts here were instrumental in providing weather information during the invasion of Normandy.