Some parting thoughts about Ireland

In the clouds above Ireland.

The Irish leg of our pilgrimage was a great success. It was such a rich and meaningful experience to meet relatives and see the places from where our family came. Sometimes it was almost overwhelming. Seeing the graves, the famine ship, and our living Irish relatives brought home the importance of history in our lives today. Ireland seems alive with layers and layers of the past.

It may sound like Americans over romanticizing their native land, but there is truly something unspoiled about Ireland. It is less shiny and corporate than the United States. There are no billboards on the country roads. The roads themselves are a combination of charming and challenging. The ritual of having tea is still very important. And we were beneficiaries of the wonderful Irish hospitality from both family and strangers. Our Irish relatives welcomed us into their homes with great excitement and affection. Jamie Doyle, someone we met by knocking on his business door, gave us the fantastic tour of the Brownstown countryside. We used the word humbling a lot in Ireland.

The weather was unbelievably changeable. In Glendalough, in the span of three minutes, it hailed, it rained, and the sun shone brightly. From the weather, it is easy to see how the Irish notion of shift-shaping that Thomas Cahill talks about in "How The Irish Saved Civilization" came to be. The ever changing light, atmosphere, temperature had to influence the Irish folk tales and world view that reality is fluid and ever-changing and that beings can turn themselves into something else.

Luke has been such a good traveler on this trip, tolerating long drives, our constant photography, and endless conversations about family genealogy with patience and good cheer. Now that we are in Scotland, he is having good fun with his new Haitian-Scottish friends.

This was John's first trip to Ireland and, as I hoped, he loved it. We didn't get to see everyone and everything we wanted. This bodes well for return trips! We are looking forward to hanging out with our friends in Scotland and seeing some of this beautiful country.

During the times of Penal Laws in Ireland, Catholicism was outlawed and the Irish had to celebrate Mass in secret. This rock served as an altar in the Irish countryside and was brought by Irish immigrants to Scotland and now has a place at the Carfin Shrine.

Back to Dublin

John and Luke with John's cousin Brid Harris and her husband Tony.

On Tuesday we motored from Killarney in the southwest to Dublin in the northeast, about a four hour drive. Driving in Ireland is one of the biggest challenges for us. The driver sitting on the right side of the car combined with driving on the left side of what are often very narrow roads makes for an exciting experience. To keep yourself, your passengers, and other drivers on the road alive, you must violate your driving instincts. It takes a lot of concentration and I find myself saying "Left, left, left," frequently as a reminder. When we first started this driving adventure, both John and I tended to drive too far to the left to avoid the center line and the oncoming traffic. This caused whoever was in the passenger seat to cringe as the car seemed to be perilously close to the wall or curb on the left. I think we both have improved as the days have gone by. On the plus side, we like the roundabouts. They help with traffic flow and once you get onto them, they are kind of fun.

The drive to Dublin, mainly on N7, a spacious four lane highway, was the easiest yet. And well worth it as we are visiting some of John's Dunne relatives, who like us, are related to those in the New Ross-area cemeteries. They live in a Dublin suburb called Portmarnock. John's cousin Brid has done phenomenal genealogical work and spent time explaining the family history.

Our relative Nellie Dunne is on the left. We found her grave in the New Ross area. She died at age 21 of TB. On the right is Brid's mother.

We are the grateful recipients of her and her husband Tony's hospitality during our last two days in Ireland. 

View from Luke's room at Brid & Tony's.

They hosted a meal Tuesday evening. Their son Andrew and his wife Clare, Brid's sister Maureen and husband Michael and four of their children attended. We met Brid and Maureen a few years ago when they came to Peoria and we learned about the Ireland branch of the Dunne Family. It was all great fun!

John discusses family history with Brid and Maureen.

Maureen's husband Michael and John get it all figured out.

Luke throwing a rock into the Dublin Bay. The structure in the background is a Martello Tower, one of a series constructed in 1804.

The following photos are taken from a cliff walk in Howth.

Tony, John, and Luke with a lighthouse in the distance.

Good bye Ireland. We'll miss you!

The Ring of Kerry

The weather was a bit better for our drive around the Ring of Kerry than the day before.

                            

How did I ever get along without Google Maps? I have a terrible sense of direction and even managed to get us lost with it. Or maybe that's not the way to put it. As Morgan Rock Loehr put it in the New Yorker , "I hesitate to use the word 'lost' because 'not all those who wander are lost.' But I don't know where I am."

Getting lost led to a beautiful walk. . . 

. . . to some gorgeous scenery.

 

"Looking back from the great civilizations of twelfth-century France or seventeenth-century Rome, it is hard to believe that for quite a long time--almost a hundred years--western Christianity survived by clinging to places like Skillig Michael, a pinnacle of rock eighteen miles form the Irish coast, rising seven hundred feet out of the air." Kenneth Clark

Carroll's Cove (I think)