Categories: uncategorized
Date: 15 August 2005 01:00:30
was cool. We went to the Cathedral and saw the baptism record for my great grandfather, Anthony D'Arcy. We also discovered a genealogical centre in Corofin that does all the work for you! They started out as a youth training scheme, writing up all the data they could find onto record cards 25 years ago. You pay them and they do the research as they have all the records. They then send you a report with copies of all the certificates, etc. Call me a geek, but that's the sort of job I'd love.
Ireland is an amazing country. We travelled from Ennis to Killarney to Cork to Kilkenny to Dublin. We visited the Burren and saw ancient high crosses and an even more ancient tomb, counted 18 roadside Marys (and 1 Joseph), drove the Ring of Kerry (and parked my hire car in a big ditch, oops!), visited Bunratty Castle and talked to a dear old lady called Kitty (who had never left Kerry and yet her daughter had trained as a nurse in the hospital in E. London that my brother & sister were born in) found M&S, visited the former convent where my auntie was nearly a nun, not kissed the Blarney Stone (when I saw that it involved balancing precariously above a sheer drop), saw the Book of Kells for real and watched a man up a pole with a fire whip!! We didn't drink any Guinness (cos we don't like it), but managed some Jamesons and visited the distillery.
There was more that I could mention, but suffice to say I recommend a visit if you haven't been. The Irish can talk and even security at the airport was done with a smile and a joke among the xray machines. It is a beautiful and diverse country with so much to see and you could spend a week visiting any of the places we went to. It was also quite cool to be in Ireland as the IRA announced they were getting rid of their arms at last. The Irish have suffered, my great grandfather was apparently in the IRA 100+ years ago and I had never realised the extent of what the English did to them. I'll try to upload a couple of piccies (if I can work out how).