August 29

Monday, August 29, 2011

Another late night meant another late morning! We met up with Mary (Keating) Mannion, who is grandma’s sister, so that we could see the Annacallagh home (where the Keating family lived). We ended up visiting for quite a while at Mary’s home with her, her daughter Carmel and granddaughter Evette. Then we headed out toward Annacallagh.  First we stopped by where the original Keating home Craughwell home (I’m thinking that this is like the neighborhood, and not the town because it was out in the middle of nowhere!).  The land is owned by somebody else at this point and the house cannot be seen.  We are guessing that the foundation could be found if you stomp around in the field some. It sounds like that home would actually be the one that Great grandma spent most of her time in here in Ireland. At Annacallagh we met up with Mary’s brother Johnny (John) and his wife Kay. They still farm and have all sorts of animals.  Shane (who is Mary’s grandson from her son Ciaran and going into 5^th grade) gave us a tour of the place.  We say a turkey, donkeys, horses, a bull, cows, sheep, chickens, ducks, geese, lots of cats, and dogs.  I loved it.  Shane showed us his horse Amigo and his brothers, Betty.  There are 29 horses total, but these are the only two that are broken and can be ridden.  The land is beautiful and green.  The old Annacallagh home was pretty big for its time. After visiting with Johnny and Kay, we headed down the driveway to Ciaran (Mary’s son) and Nicola’s home.  The have 3 kids, Ciara, Shane, and (another boy). They also have 2 foster children.  The one foster child we met was about 17 months old…it was nice to see a baby! It was getting late at this point, but Mary still wanted us to go and see her daughter Collette who lived a little ways away.  She has 4 little kids (the youngest being just a few months old) and they live in a beautiful and big home. We were all super tired at this point and ready for our drive back to Banagher! Mom is certainly becoming the professional driver!

Mom, Grandma, and Sean-it is SO GREEN!

Annacallagh

Donkey at Annacallagh

Annacallagh from the back

Horses :)

Grandma, Mary Mannion, Carmel, and Sean

August 28

Sunday, August 28, 2011

After another late night we had a late-rising morning.  We headed to Balinasloe to meet up with the O’Connor family. Patricia and John are the parents, Pat’s mom is Kathleen (great grandma Mary Niehouse’s sister who came to the US also).  Grandma Bowen and Pat spent a lot of time together while they were young.  Pat came to Denver each summer because her mom was a widow and had to work in the factory.  Pat was telling grandma that Mary (grandma’s mom) had met her husband (George, who was a doctor) while she was in nurses training. That was something that grandma didn’t know about! Pat was also telling grandma about when she visited and her dad would go on house calls. Grandma would go in to see the patients and Pat would stay in the car because she was sure the people didn’t want to see her!  Grandma would bring her bags of cookies from the patients. Pat and John’s children were there Sheila (and her husband Charlie), Sean (and his wife Mindy) and Sharon (with her husband Joe and daughter Daley).  It was nice to be able to meet up with them. The all live in Illinois (although Charlie and Sheila are getting ready to move to Dallas, TX) so they are actually pretty close to where I live.  Pat and John live in Gallina, which is just across the river from Debuque, IA. Back to Banagher and to pick up Dee and Bonnie and off to Ballymana for the family BBQ.  Once again Padraic and Honor are hosting for all of us!  Gerry and Aoife’s (his girlfiend) sister’s fiancé were doing the grilling. We had another nice time visiting with everybody….this time it was a little less noisy so we could actually hear everybody!!! A family friend brought out an accordion and started to play, Orla sang a few Irish songs and then a few people danced as well.  Time for the mass at the old Clontuskert abbey.  It was the St. Agustine’s feast day so each year on that day they hold mass at the old abbey ruins. It was a very neat place and the weather was great, too! It was a little windy, but the sun was actually shining all afternoon! At the abbey there are lots of the old Keating relatives buried. I took pictures of many of the headstones. Then we grabbed a quick bite to eat with the O’Connors and off to Craughwell to listen to some music and dancing at Cheeters. Rae, Sean’s cousin, even made me dance!  Luckily, he was a good leader and taught me how to waltz, the “rock and roll” and attempted the quick step. I think the waltz was the only one I actually got, but it was a lot of fun!!!

At the family BBQ:

Padriac, Honor, Rusty and her family

Orla singing

John and Pat and their family

Jon and Pat inside the old Colohan home

Inside the old house

The Abbey

Uncle Jack (James Keating)

Sean's father (Peter Keating

 Views from around the Abbey

August 27

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Today we headed to the Cliffs of Moher. We were planning to follow our guidebook’s trip from the Cliffs of Moher through the Burren. We headed down to Lahinch where the drive started.  On the way we stopped at the Dunguaire Castle in Kinvarra.  It is beautifully set right on the water and supposedly they host mid-evil dinners each evening. Then down to Lahinch where there were TONS of people trying to surf in the wind and cold water.  There really weren’t big waves, but the parking lot was packed and if was a family affair.  We stopped for lunch in Liscannor and ate some yummy sea food at the Anchor Inn.  Fish and chips fresh caught and delicious!  The Cliffs of Moher were beautiful.  The visitor’s center was also wonderful and full of great information.  After a pretty cloudy and a bit rainy morning, the sun was peeking out and shining on the cliffs.  The WIND was a bit crazy though!  I had some video of grandma pretty much being blown away! Back into the car and up the road. We took a short side trip down to the little town of Doolin, just across a little bay from the Cliffs. The town was pretty cute and you can take cruises from there out underneath the Cliffs. We also had to stop and take a peek at the Doolin Pitch and Putt….a golf course, but just pitching and putting.  It was sure in a beautiful location right on the water!!! Further up the road we drive through the Burren.  It is a part of the country that is very rocky with hardly any real soil.  We stopped at the Poulnabrone Dolmen. It is a portal tomb and one that is very well preserved.  Two slabs of rock standing upright with one large slab up on top.  Pretty impressive and the people buried there date back to 3000 or 4000 BC. That is a LONG time ago!!! As we were there the sun was beginning to set and the lighting was neat. Back down the road and we had to stop again just past Kinvara because the sunset was beautiful and we wanted pictures!  The sun was setting just over the mountain sticking out into the bay and the clouds were all lit up.  Hopefully the pictures show at least some of the beauty! Then the long drive back to Ballinasloe where we met up with everybody from the wedding for a continuation of the party at the Duck Inn. More food and music and lots of people who were family, cousins, friends, etc!!! Now if only I can remember some names.

Dunguaire Castle in Kinvarna

The view from the Castle

Mom and Grandma checking out the view from the Castle

The Cliffs of Moher

Grandma and Mom blowing away!

Cows at the Cliffs

Doolin Pitch and Putt...the ocean is just over the edge!

Poulnabrone Dolmen

Sunset on the way home

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!

August 25

Thursday, August 25, 2011

In the morning we headed to Clonmacnoise, an old monestary.  It has a huge moat surrounds one of the old buildings to protect it from the ancient invaders coming up the Shannon river.  We got caught in a rain shower and checked out the visitors center and gift shop. There are cows that wander in the fields that surround the old building on the hill. Then we headed back to Ballinasloe and went to the back to get some Euros and stopped at a shop called Salmons. We ran into Gerry (Gerard Colohan) Then across the street to Supermacs for French fries and ice cream.  Were Sean found Kevin Dolan, Orla’s soon to be husband. Then on to Ballymana to the Colohan home where we met Honor. We also met Gerry’s girlfriend Aoife.  They were all busy getting ready for the big wedding the following day.  I felt bad because all of a sudden they were handing out cake for everybody to munch on…always having to host! After meeting Honor and seeing her and Padraic’s home we met up with the Colohan’s from Oregon at the Tesco to get groceries for dinner.  That was a big undertaking!  They had 16 people staying in their home, and most of them there at the store!  Dinner was at their rented home here in Banagher.  I met so many new people….lets see if I can get them all straight over the next few days.  Mostly the Colohans are decendants from Great-Grandma Niehouse’s Uncle James, who she was sponsored by to come to the USA. Her Uncle James had 13 kids and lived in Kansas (somewhere near Hayes). There are also the Bollers, who are also from one of James’ children. It was a late night and we met lots of people!!!

And my camera had no batteries this day :(

August 23-24

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Travel Day- first flight out of Des Moines at 7:15am to Newark, NJ.  Tried to read my Angela’s Ashes  book but the flight was pretty bumpy. LOOOONG layover in Newark where I spent time updating our Pettitt Page blog (after 6+ months).  I also felt an earthquake…my first one ever, while waiting in the airport. Kind of crazy! I’m not sure I ever need to experience an earthquake again, and I’m just glad it wasn’t big where I was at so that our travel plans were disrupted. Then Mom and Grandma joined me and we ate some food and got ready to board the plane to Shannon, Ireland. Once on the plane, we waited for maintenance to fix an air conditioner switch problem (for about and hour and a half).  Finally we took off on our way to Ireland!

We made it!  Shannon Airport...time for my mom to drive on the wrong side of the road!

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

We arrived in Shannon at about 8am, picked up my bag and went to pick up the rental car. Mom was pretty nervous about driving on the left side of the road…I would be too! She wanted me to navigate, and so we ended up getting a GPS from the rental car people.  We weren’t sure how helpful it would be because most places don’t have actual addresses! Our first stop was to be Adare to check out all some of the old thatched-roof houses.  We picked Adare public car park (parking lot) as our “destination” on the GPS and headed off down the road.  We ended up who knows where in what looked like somebody’s driveway!!! So we picked some place on the GPS in Adare, but on Main Street…and this time we made it there.  Mom’s driving skills were put to the test right away with our first detour down teeny tiny roads with big trucks coming the other direction. Adare was a nice little place.  We took some pictures of the houses with thatched roofs and walked around town for a bit.  Then we headed on to Banagher to find where we were going to stay. We had printed directions from the Shannon airport to Banagher, and also tried the GPS again.  The GPS didn’t always agree with our directions…in fact it thought we weren’t on a road for most of the trip….at this point we are not sure we can rely on this silly GPS!! We made it to Banagher using the printed directions, but then can’t find the house.  Remember, we don’t have an actual address, just a printed picture, some “directions,” and a house name “Glebe House.” We stopped at the Top gas station to ask directions.  The one lady tells us that Cuba Avenue that the house is off of is half of the town…not so much help! We have a number for Sean’s temporary Ireland cell phone, and the other lady at the gas station pulls out her cell phone and dials the number for us.  Sean is in Ballinasloe and says he’ll be right there to lead us to the house.  Shortly he arrived and leads the way.  We would not have found the house without his help! Bonnie and Dee had lunch all made and ready for us. Ham, cabbage, and potatoes. Then Sean takes us to Ballinasloe to pick up a phone for us to have at the Tesco. We went to Ballymana and saw the old Colohan (Colahan) home where Mary Colohan grew up.  She was Great-Grandma Niehouse’s mom. Padraic came down and showed us the little stone house and gave us a tour.  It used to have a thatched roof. It has a tiny little bedroom that the kids slept in and on top of, a fireplace, and another room in the back.  He has an old griddle, pot, kettle, saw, turf cutter, all there as well.  He told us that the fireplace had to be dismantled (literally the mantle taken off) because at one point the government allowed only one functional home on a property and they had their new home next door. Pretty neat stuff! Then we drove down the road toward the bog where they cut the turf and up through Ballinasloe. We drove by Uncle Jack’s old home where mom stayed when she came in her teens.  At this point it is empty and along a much bigger street than it used to be.  Across the street you can still see the water pump that they used to get water each day. Sean drove us back to Banagher and we all crashed…so much travel made us TIRED!

In Adare...we finally found it!

Cathedral in Adare

Thatched-roof houses in Adare

Mom, Grandma and I in front of the Old Colohan home

Inside the Old Colohan home

The bog!

Ireland Trip...

So way back at the end of August to the first part of September my mom, grandma and I went to Ireland.  No kids...can you believe that?  Without the kiddos, I was able to type up what we did each day...the people we met, the places we saw...and then I came home and look where the time went! This poor blog is more than a bit neglected. The whole Hannah starting school followed shortly by the whole first trimester thing meant that I haven't posted anything about this wonderful trip!  I THINK I'm up for the challenge now :) The next few posts will be about my trip.  It is mostly for my own records that I'm putting my "trip journal" and pictures on here, but feel free to read/skim/check out the pictures if you have some free time!