August 26

Friday, August 26, 2011

Because of our late night we slept late! The others were off to Kevin and Orla’s wedding and mom, grandma and I headed to Birr.  We drove through a cute little town called Shannon Harbor where there we tons of boats. We all had to laugh at a sign we saw that read something like “Attention Boat People: Please take your trash!” We planned to go to the Birr Castle and Garden’s, but decided that it was a bit expensive for our tastes…especially since you can’t even go inside the castle! So we walked around the town of Birr and checked out the castle from the outside.  Birr was definitely a bigger place than Banagher! Then we headed to Portumna to another castle. We go there at 10 til 6 and they closed at 6….we might head back there again at some point. Then it was time to head back to Banagher to get ready to head over to the “afters” which Padraic had invited us to when we had visited the day before. So we headed to the reception and met once again MORE new people.  We started laughing and saying that pretty much everybody is a cousin of some sort!!! We did meet Mary Mannion (who was a Keating). She lives close by to the Annacalagh place where Great Grandma was lived until she was about 16 and came to the US. We also met her brother Johnny who actually lives in the Annacalagh home. Another super late night….let’s hope we can recover for another busy day!!!

Kevin and Orla

The wedding party

First dance (and a BAD picture!)

Grandma and the guy she "dated" while visiting Ireland when she was younger

Shannon Harbor

This sign was by the harbor...and we liked it!