Today was a great day for a family reunion.

We started the day with a simple breakfast of tea and soda breads. We then headed off for a tour of the Isle of Dough Famine Village. The place was a very primitive yet very informative presentation of Ireland’s 1800s and early 20th century history.

After the Famine Village we were off to the Ballyliffen Country Club for lunch with mom’s cousins. It was a great time. We met Margaret Gallagher from Letterkenny, Madge Grant from Ballyliffwn, Kathleen Doherty from Letterkenny, Bridget Mulhern from Bermingham England and Sheila McConologue from Ballyliffen. Marge’s two daughters Deidre and Marie were also there. Kathleen brought a pile of old photos with her. She even had one of mom’s high school pictures. Stories were swapped and there was great conversation during lunch. Oh, Ann and I had the lamb shank and it was wonderful.

Now came the pictures. There were so many photos taken you would have though that Brad and Angelina showed up with the twins.

After just about exhausting everyones camera batterys we left the club and headed for the house Bridget was renting for a forte-night (2 weeks). There was more tea and biscuts, many more stories and a few more pictures taken. After an hour or so we said good bye and headed back to old Phil’s Barn (that’s the name of the house we are staying on).

Marie Friel, John’s wife, stopped by with some fresh baked scones. I put on tea, set out a plate of biscuts and we had a nice visit.

We weren’t done with the cousins yet. Alice Mcloughlin rang us and invited us down for some tea and scones. Have you been keeping track of the tea and scones? Mom’ cousin Ann from Bermingham England was over for Kathleen’s son’s wedding and is staying with Alice and Neil. We had a short visit at Alice and Neils as it was getting to be about 10:00pm and we had a very long day. I’m sure we will meet up with the cousins again while we are here. We are planning on visiting John (Rockstown) Friel and Aunt Rita tomorrow. John Heekin who is also from. England should be over tomorrow as well. It should be another nice day of visits.

We had no plans for the day today so we just took it as it came. It was a gray and damp morning. After our breakfast of tea and scones we sat around the sitting room for a little bit. Dad and I took a drive by the cliffs just down the road. We came to a gourge and saw an ugly side of Dunaff. There was trash all over the place. Apparently someone had used the high cliff as a place to toss rubbish into the ocean. I ventured to the edge while dad kept a safer distance. I noticed a car in at the bottom of the gourge. It was a relativly new VW Golf. On further inspection there were 3 wrecks in the gourge! Looking down the pit I now seem to remember one of the old wrecks being there the last time I was here in 2006. In the picture below the VW is under water and out of sight. It was an awsome natural site ruined by a very few. Dad and I continued on to the pier at Leian. There was a fishing boat unloading it’s catch of flounder.

On our way back to the house we came upon Ann as she was walking down the road. She was on her way to mom’s cousin Niel and Alice Mcloughlin’s. She stopped in and after a while I brought mom and dad by for a visit. We chatted for a few hours. We saw the little house where mom’s hermit great uncle. She had heard stories about him.

On the way home we drove up to the old Canny homestead which is the house Grandpa Canny grew up in. The yard had trash tossed about, an old stove by the side of the house. We looked around and took many pictures. There were old tools in the donkey cart shed that looked like they may have been in use when mom’s dad was ok the farm.

After a stop back home we then ventured off to find a place for dinner. The place that Ann had been longing to go to and have a helping of the lamb stew she has been talking about for the last 2 years. We got to the place and it was closed! After a bit of driving around we ended up at the Strand Hotel where we bumped into a family from Medford, MA. This was the second time we bumped into them in as many days. We met them last night at the Rusty Nail after I heard someone at their table say there was gah-lic in the sauce.

A quiet evening with dad reading his book and the rest of us just relaxing. Tomorrow we will be going to the Doagh Famine Village and then to a lunch to meet a large number of the “Con-Eddies” which is a nick name for the Canny’s who’s grand parents were Cornelious (Con) and Eddie. The Friel side is known as the Danny-Hats. I’m not sure what that means. I’ll find out though.

After mass on Sunday I changed into my jeans and sneakers and went for a hike up the hill. The fields and hill side as all very wet from all the rain they ahve recieved over the past month. Some of the fields out towards Clonmany are still flooded. I went up by a mountain stream and looked down over Dunaff and Rockstown.

After the climb down the hillside I took a walk down the road to the ocean. The ocean side doesn’t have sand and the rocks aren’t the little pebbles I’m used to on a beach. These rocks are softball and bowling ball sizes round rocks piled high like sand dunes. It is almost imposable to climb up with out causing a mini avalanch. The rock surfaces have been carved into bowl like surfaces. It looks as if a sculptor had taken a lifetime to create the natural art work.

We had a surprise visit from mom’s cousin Marge, her two daughters and cousin Bridgit who is visiting from England. We had a nice visit and will be meeting up with them tomorrow along with a number of other cousins from the Canny side of the family.

We had a late dinner at The Rusty Nail. Marie Friel was working and the place was packed. It’s so odd to see little babys and children at the bar. We have seen this at almost every pub we have been in.

We had a quiet evening. We spent time reviewing photos and videos of the trip so far. We sure have been to a lot of places and seen a lot of things.

We got up this morning and were greeted by a spectacular sunny view of the bay. We had a simple tea and biscuits. We took a quick drive around to get our bearings and a trip to Clonmany to use the ATM.

We went to the 10:30, or half 10 as they say here, mass and met up with John, Marie and their 3 children.

After mass we went over to visit with Aunt Tessie. Mom’s cousin Dan was over from Australia. He is going back tomorrow. Greats and his wife Anne are off to France tomorrow to celebrate their 25th wedding anaversary.

After our visit with Aunt Tessie and mom’s cousins we went to the Friel’s store / Post Office for some supplies.

Enjoy the pictures of the house, the view from the porch and a picture of the store.

We started the day with a simple breakfast at Mary’s. Just some toast or corn flakes. We said our good byes and hit the road at about 10:30 am. Lunch was just past Galway. We ran into a wedding there. We also stopped in Knock to visit the aporition site (Lady of Knock).

The Tomtom GPS seemed to have a mind of it’s own. It took us on the “fastest” route but not nessisarily the smartest. This became painfully obvious at the very end of the trip. Instead of going through Clonmany the Tomtom took us along the coast for the last 5 miles and the last 2 miles were some of the the most harrowing of the trip… And that’s saying something. We went over the Gap of Mamore. Google it! It was a true drove through a mountain pass. Damn you Tomtom!!!

We got to Dunaff safe and sound at about 9:30 pm. We drove from the very bottom of Ireland to the very top. A trip of over 350 miles and 11 hours in the car.

We had a bit of a visit with John and Gerard before settling in for the evening.

Thank goodness Ann thought to pick up some bread and scones for breakfast because we ended up having tea and bread for supper. Not a fancy dinner but it hit the spot. Tomorrow is another day. Ann and I will more than likely go to mass at St. Michaels at 10:30 if we are up. That’s all for now. We are looking forward to a relaxing couple of days.

Today started the day at Mary’s with a wonderful Irish breakfast. This was our first breakfast with white pudding and black pudding. I was waiting for this. Breakfasts have been a fried egg, rashers (ham), sausages and a tomato. I went out to the driveway to take a little walk and look at the potatos in the side yard and the calves next door at John and Nellies (see the picture below). We went to mass this morning as it is the Feast of the Assumption. Ann lit a candle for her mom at the church. After mass we bumped into Tim Collins (no relation to Michael). He had some great stories about the town. Tim goes to Boston every St. Patrick’s Day and attends the big St. Patrick’s breakfast. We passed Carrberry Lane along the way. After mass Ann and Mary took a trip to Clonakilty. Mary has a hair appointment. My mom & dad took a drive into Clonakilty as well to walk around the town shops. We met up with Ann and Mary and took a trip just up the road to Michael Collin’s birth place. The foundation of his house is there along with the standing house where he was born.

After this we went back to Mary’s house to relax. Mary prepared a wonderful lasagna, chips, mixed vegies and some garlic bread. John does not like garlic at all so Nellie fixed him a piece of steak and brought it over from next door.

It is after dinner now and I am writing this post as we retired to the sitting room where a lovely fire is on. Mary made a nice Irish coffee for mom and me. Ann and Nellie are going over the Murphy Book to see who is related to who and how. John entered the sitting room with a sparkle in his eye and a bottle in his hand. He asked my dad if he would have a drop. “What is it?” my dad asked. “It’s the illegal poteen” came the answer in a hushed voice. “It smells like grappa” my dad said and we followed this with a discussion that contained words and phrases like “tastes like kerosine” and “smells like old socks”. The surprise is that it tasted pretty good. This is the real deal. A friend makes it in a home made still. They don’t get raided nearly as often now since they started using gas foe the still rather the turf. There is no tell-tail smoke from the turf fire. Irish coffee, poteen a warm fire and good conversation… Could it get any better than this? I don’t think so.

We will begin the 350 mile trip to Dunaff in the morning. It is going to be a VERY long day! It will be about 10 hours in the car. I’m not sure I will be able to get to the blog tomorrow. I’ll try but if you don’t see a post don’t worry, I’m just tired. Next stop Dunaff!

The weather was very nice today. It started out with a few clouds and Dingle Bay was as smooth as glass. Dad settled the bill with the inn keeper and for the second time he has to remind an inn keeper that we owed twice what they had asked for at check-out.
We headed down the Dingle penninsula towards Slea Head. There was amazing views again. The roads in places were even more narrow than on the Ring of Kerry. We continued to the 2500 and 4000 year old fort and bee hive huts. Mon enjoyed the 2 minute walk up to the bee hive huts. It was a walk up a goat path.
We continued on for a while, took more pictures and tried to find Slea Head. 20km later we asked son fellows that were pouring a foundation where Slea Head was… we had passed it about 20 minutes ago. At least we had stopped there we just didn’t realize it.

We continued to Rosscarbery. The last few miles were on a cow path! A real cow path. The GPS had taken us down an old and not very often used road. There was one spot on the road that we all thought we were going to drop off the edge of the earth!
We met up with John at theCeltic Ross Hotel. He took us back to his farm. We got out of the car and were greeted with that good old fresh farm air. As an extra bonus the slury truck had just laid down a fresh coat of liquid manure next door.
We took an evening stroll on the beach. The moon was shining bright and we even saw a couple of seals in the ocean. We retired back to Mary’s lovely home for some drinks and great conversation. We will be starting Friday with Mass as it is the Feast of The Imaculant Conception. I’m not sure what therest of the day will hold but Im sure it will be an adventure.

The drive along the Ring of Kerry was amazing. The views were breath taking and the weather even cooperated most of the time.  As we have done on each road trip so far, we stopped at a road side pub for a bite to eat and a few shops in the mountains to look around.

Lunch stop in the mountains

The pictures do not begin to give the views any justice but I posted a few to try and give you a feel for what it was like. Every place you looked was another postcard. Here is a picture looking right across from our lunch stop.

The view from out lunch stop

I also can not even begin to describe the drive. Picture if you will driving down Route 95 at 65 mph… now shrink the road to only 2 lanes (one north and one south) but keep the same speed… now shrink the road down again to a suburban side street – you know, the ones that are so small they don’t need center lines – for those of you that remember my grandparents cottage in Norfolk… that size road – and keep the speed the same… now place that road in the mountains… with cliffs as shoulders… without guardrails… with hairpin turns… oh and throw in a dozen or so tour full sized tour buses coming the opposite way AND if that’s not enough fun toss in the odd piece of huge farm equipment coming at you.  Oh, I forgot to mention the slick road conditions from all the rain and flooding… oh yeah… and the terrible road conditions (pot holes that I swear swallowed up a sheep or two… oh wait… ALL FROM THE LEFT SIDE OF THE ROAD!!! and that’s the drive.  Ah yes, a relaxing drive in the country.  We went straight to Murphy’s Pub in Dingle after the drive.  It was a very long day.  We left the B&B at about 11:00 am and back to Dingle at about 7:30 pm.

It really was a beautiful day.

Along The Ring of KerryInside Murphy

Next stops: The rest of the Dingle Peninsula and then off to Roscarbery.

Mum at Murphy

We had a grand time at the pub last night. We had a late dinner at Murphy’s, walked around a bit and at about 9:30 found ourselves at O’Flaherty’s for a pint and some great music. The evening ended with more rain. This morning it is raining a bit harder than yesterday.

We are on our way to the Ring of Kerry and may make our way up Conor Pass.

Here are a few shots from yesterday.

One of the fishing boats on Dingle Bay

Pub in the rainEnjoying the music at O

Were are on the road again from Shannon to Dingle Town. Driving through the Dingle Peninsula or “Doing the Dingle” as it’s sometimes called offers some spectacular sights and some… shall we say, breath taking driving. When I say breath taking I mean the “Oh my gosh we’re gona’ die!” gasps. The roads are VERY thin and the folks here drive them at 80 – 120 KPH (Kilometers per Hour). We made it to Dingle safely. We saw some amazing scenes along the way. We stoped at a roadside pub for lunch. Some pictures are below. It only took about 2 1/2 hours to get to the B & B. When we got to the B & B, a working dairy farm, we got out of the car, took a whiff of the “fresh country air” and were greeted by the owner with, “I think you’re scheduled to be here in a few days.”. Checking the confirmation sheets… he was right! We had planned to arrive on the 12th and leave on the 14th but there must have been a typo made during the booking because the paper we had and the owner’s record shows us ariving on the 14th! Now we are homeless! No worries… No worries! The owner’s brother owns a B & B in town, right on Dingle Bay! He gave his brother a call and we were all set. The new place is AMAZING!!!. The porch off the guest sitting room looks right onto Dingle Bay (see the picture below) and we are a very short walk to Dingle Town. This worked out very, very well! So we are off to the pub for a pint and some fish and chips. I’ll update everyone on that in my next post.