Cappamore, Galway to Adare

We actually had some time in the morning to not get up at oh dark thirty for breakfast. So we took the liberty of our time to head back down to the pedestrian shopping area of Galway for some...what else? Shopping!

PS. Do you remember when you were a little kid and your mom would be like "OH, look at that (insert something interesting or pretty here), GO stand next to it so I can get your picture!!" Maybe it was just me, cause I'm an only child. But, you would think at 26 years old my mother would've have let me grow out of that. But nope, here I am with "the pretty flowers" behind me...

And of course, here I am with Oscare Wilde and his brother.

After my one woman photo-shoot, my mom did some work at helping out Galway's economy. My father's wallet says you're welcome, Galway.

With my mom's purchases. Who knew so much could fit in such little bags...

The next part of our journey was to Cappamore.This is the village that my great-grandfather was born in and emigrated from.

I am huge into ancestry. I have an account with ancestry.com, and have been trying to find out more and more about my Irish roots (there's really limited documentation on them). Last year, all I really had to go on was my great grandfather's name and his birthday which we definitely knew. And we definitely knew his dad's name and brother's name. Other than that, not much else. So I went out on a limb and contacted the Parish in Cappamore. The lady there (Eileen) was such a wonderful, helpful lady and actually went through the church's old baptismal records to find my greatgrandpa and his sibilings. She gave me names and birthdates to work with.

Once I knew we were coming back to Ireland, and making a trip to Cappamore, I contacted them again. This time a woman named Winnie, was also helpful and pleased to meet me. She directed me to meet John Sheehy at the "Presbytery, Parochial House, Cappamore" in Cappamore at 2 o'clock.

So, we find ourselves at 2 o'clock in Cappamore at the church. Cause we know that presbytery = priest's house and usually the priest's house is near the church. But uh...no such luck. So, we see a lady walking down the street and ask her where the Presbytery is, she answers "in Doon." Doon is another village, so we probably looked at her all crazy and she's thinking "Stupid Americans." So then my dad is like "No, no. The Priest's house - Father Browne's house." And then, with a look of recognition, she tells us it's just down the street and around the bend.

While all this is going down, my mom busies herself with taking pictures. This is a monument to the children lost in the Famine.

So we decided to walk "just down the street and around the bend." And we see just a hedge. So my dad makes me go ask these ladies sitting in their driveway, who, knowing I'm a stranger are giving me the hairy eye ball. I, politely, ask them where Father Browne's house is and they lighten up and tell me it's just over the hedge.

So, we take the sketchy, one lane road to a house. Where I ring the doorbell and a friendly looking face answers the door. It's Winne, hooray, someone I know! She explains that Father Browne wishes he could be here, but he's doing 2 weddings and a funeral today. She also explains that John S. is running late but will be there shortly. She brings us into her office where she proceeds to give me a list of all the cemeteries in Cappamore and a list of their names. There are lots of O'Briens, but none of the first names that we need.

While we're waiting for John S., Winnie takes us to see Charlie Browne. That is Father Browne's bull that weighs over 2,000 lbs. My mom, of course, was obsessed.

Then John shows up. And you know how people say that Southern Americans talk fast? They ain't got nothing on John. I think I caught like every 5th word. I just kept smiling and nodding. And when I heard things like "James" or "John," I would spout out the corresponding birthdays to go with their names.

We explain to him that we can't find any of the names in the list of Cappamore cemeteries. I give him the back story...James O'Brien and Hanora Shanahan got married and had 5 kids. After the last kid, Hanora died (in Ireland), then James took the kids to America. After the kids were all settled in America, he came back to Cappamore to live out his last days in Ireland. John S. asks when Great-Great Grandpa came back, I give him an estimate of between 1910 and 1930. John explains to me that John (another one) is 90 some years old and knows everything - we should go talk to him to see if he knew GGGpa James.

I'm thinking, Great, a dead end. Why would John want to talk to us? Well John S. calls up other John and finds out his at the "daycare." Now, I won't lie, when I heard this I found it a little bizarre that a 90 some year old man is hanging out with 4 year olds, but whatever floats your boat. So John S. is all "get it my car, I'll drive you down to the daycare so you can talk to John!!" and practically skips to his car. My parents and I exchange glances and get in the car (the exact thing they've always told me NOT to do, get in cars with strangers) and John S. drives us down to the daycare. Which, by the way, was a 5 min walk from the church.

So, we get to the daycare, which turns out to be kind of like a nursing home. A bus comes every morning to pick up the old people, takes them to this place, they hang out during the day and then go home. Which, way less creepier than what I had going on in my head. John S. asks to see John. And here comes the CUTEST old man, with no teeth, all dressed in his sweater and suit. John S. explains to John why we're there (he was giving us the hairy eyeball too until then), and then asks if he knew a "James O'Brien." You could almost see John's wheels turning in his head as he started thinking. He talked about the O'Brien's that owned the Pub, the O'Brien's that were thatchers. But he couldn't recall someone who went to America and then came back. At the end of the conversation, he seemed really sad that he couldn't help us. But we thanked John.

As we are walking out of the daycare, John S. is like let's go back to the Father's house and look through Baptismal Records and see if that will  help us find anything. So back off to the Father's house we go...

Once we get there, John S. is like "OK, help me find these books." And starts opening doors of the rooms downstairs. I was standing in the hall, a little uncomfortable with going through this guy's stuff when John S. yells at me from in the room "Well, help me!" So my parents and I go in the room and I almost died. There was stuff EVERYWHERE. My parents who thought my teenage room was bad, almost passed out. I don't think there was one inch of carpet not covered in paper or crayons or just something. The three of us just slowly backed out of the room.

Winnie came back then, and told us where the books were. In another room, that was just as bad. We were only able to find a Baptismal book for a certain year span, but it covered my ggpa's brother's birthday. And I not only got the name of his God parents, but that they didn't actually live in Cappamore proper but in a subdivision of it.

As I'm looking through this book, John S. is calling every O'Brien he knows. Cause he's going to ask them if they knew a James O'Brien. My dad insisted that it wasn't necessary. So John S. tells us we should go to a cemetery in Doon, cause there are some O'Brien's there. He offers to drive us, but we said that's ok, we have Mel. He then tells me to check at St. Camillus Hospital in Limerick, that's where they keep birth/death records for Limerick County.

All in all, it wasn't that successful of a trip. I was actually hoping, miraculously, to find the grave of my gggpa. But it provided a good story that will be passed throughout the family, and I can't say enough about the great people there. They were so friendly and so helpful, and wanted nothing more than for me to find what I was looking for...

After our adventure, we took some touristy pictures and then stopped in the local pub for a drink. We had a Cheers for our family roots.

Dad and I, in front of the Cappamore sign

Mom & Dad with the town center behind them

The stained glass window in the Catholic Church. My dad took it as a sign.

After our pint, we got back in the van and headed to "The Old Cemetery" in Doon - John S. had given us directions there. We took our time looking through all the old headstones, and I kept apologizing as I was stepping on the graves. Am I the only one who feels bad stepping on people? Who knows, our relatives could've been there, there were so many old headstones that didn't have writing on them anymore cause the elements had wiped them clean.

Mel helped us look through the cemetery for familiar names. There were a lot of people vested and hopeful that I would find something. Disappointingly, we didn't find anything there.

The Cemetary

After about 45 minutes of not finding anything, we decided to call it a day. Like I said, I was kind of disappointed that I hadn't found out anything concrete. But I loved being able to go back to where my family came from, and meeting the people we met was definitely worth it.

After the cemetery, Mel drove us to our hotel in Adare. We decided to take a walk through the town before dinner.

Our hotel

My dad was like "Wendy, why don't you take a picture with PEOPLE in it?" So she turns to me, and takes this picture. Even my dad is in on the solo picture conspiracy.

Adare is known for its houses with the thatched roofs. My mom loved them. No, seriously, she took like 100 pictures of them. But I'll just show 1.

After our walk, we headed back to the hotel for dinner at the restaurant there.

Dad, with his drink at dinner.

And a map of our day's travel...

Killarney to Galway

This morning it was up and at 'em for our trip to Galway. As we drove along the coast, Mel kept asking me if I wanted to stop and take a swim in the ocean, 14 degrees Centigrade, that would be about 57 degrees Farenheit. Yeah...no thank you.

Here are some crazies, swimming in the ocean.

Our first major stop was Lahinch, yes, a Golf course. Apparently it's world renowned. The guy who took the picture below was an American who's been coming since the '70's and is a member. My dad was practically green with envy.

Not too sound like a snob, but the clubhouse amenities weren't as nice as the country club my parents belong to. But I guess they spend their money on what matters most, the course.

Family at Lahinch.

Dad, with the course behind him.

The green/fairway.

After Lahinch, we drove past and stopped at a memorial for St. Brigid. Apparently, other than St. Patrick, she is the bomb diggity saint in Ireland. In the picture below, you can see a white wall with an opening in it. If you walked inside it was like a little cave, where people would put mementos of loved ones lost, candles, rosaries, etc.

On the other side of the road, is a monument to and the grave of Cornelius O'Brien. Good old Uncle Corney decided to build O'Brien's Castle at the Cliffs of Moher (pictures farther down). And built this little statue in memory of himself, he also wrote his own epitaph. He was, humble, if nothing else...

'Sup Uncle Cornelius?

We then made the drive over to the Cliffs of Moher. They have a visitors center you can walk through before hiking up the Cliffs. It explains how the continents shifted, resulting in the formation of our current continental set-up. And how, with sea levels rising, and more shifting the eastern/southern half of Ireland will be under water in 150 years. Hopefully the inhabitants of that area get the memo. It also had a 3D video of the animals/birds that live in and around the Cliffs, and you know our family, can't resist watching cute animals swim/fly around.

After touring the visitors center, we made our way to the main attraction.

Family at the Cliffs of Moher

So pretty

O'Brien's Castle

I wanted to go up to the top of O'Brien's castle, but that required 2 Euro (which I did not have). I tried the whole "can I get a family discount?" the guy looked at me like an idiot and sent me on my way. I'm sure he gets that all the time...

My attempt at doing some National Geographic work

I mean, how pretty! Good work Mother Nature!

On our way to Galway from the Cliffs of Moher, we drove past the Benbulbin. Now, I don't know if there is a secret Irish name for this but Mel kept calling it "The Burn" or at least that's what I thought he was saying. Apparently I need to work on interrupting my Irish accent...he also referred to it as "that God Damn rock" - so I just rolled with that.

We also stopped to take a look at St. Brigid's Well. I told you, they love them some St. Brigid. Looking at that Wikipedia page, I feel like I didn't do it any justice. Mel literally pulled the car over on the (wrong) side of the road and we just stared at it for a minute and then drove off. He didn't explain what a big deal the well seems to be, sorry St. Brigid!

St. Brigid's well.

We made it to Galway in the mid-afternoon. My mom decided to take a nap while my Dad and I took a walk around the city and scoped out our options for dinner.

After our little walk, we got back to the hotel for enough time to power nap and then head to dinner. After dinner, we decided to walk down the pedestrian/shopping street. We wanted to figure out our options for the next day's shopping spree and have a plan of action mapped out.

Also, I found a real life no kidding European gelato place. I cannot even begin to describe my excitement. I went to look at their flavors and my heart stopped beating. They have "After Eight" - which is basically mint chocolate chip but 1,000 times better. I hadn't had any since Italy 2006. Then I saw that they had Nutella flavored too...I, may or may not, have done a little happy jig right there in the gelato place.

Expressing my excitement about the Gelato flavors.

The Pedestrian Street

After Gelato, we walked around some more and then finally found our way back to the hotel.

A map of the days adventures...

The Dingle Pennisula/Killarney

The next day, my mom decided to veg out at the hotel for the day while Mel took me and my dad for a drive around the Dingle Peninsula. It is a part of the Ring of Kerry, which is the landscape that everyone thinks of when they think of Ireland.

Our first stop was the beach! I love the beach, but this was a very different beach than the ones that I'm used to. For one, the tide was WAY out. For 2, there were mountains surrounding it. And three, it was COLD. 

Me & Dad on the beach

Along our drive, we encountered more sheep. I told you, I saw enough of them to last me a lifetime. This time, the little guy decided he wanted to take a break in the middle of the road. I have video (coming later once I get it from my mom's video camera) of Mel yelling at the sheep and telling it that it's a disgrace, pretty hysterical.

We stopped at a few "photo ops" along the way. This is known as Conor Pass - Wikipedia describes it like this "its the highest mountain pass in Ireland, a tight, precarious road, weaving its way around the sharp cliff faces and past the high corrie lakes." And it was no joke, I'm really glad we had someone driving who knew where they were going, and about driving on the other side of the road.

Because of the mountains, and the amount of rainfall they've had this year, there were actually a pretty good amount of 'waterfalls' along the road.

Dad, with the valley behind him.

After driving along the Ring of Kerry some more, we stopped at the "Beehive Huts." They were thought to have been built in 2,000 BC - pretty crazy. While we were there, we actually got to watch some archeological dig they were doing.

The entrance to the hut - they were small people

Can you imagine a family living in one of these?

My dad and I with the Beehive hut

After visiting the huts, we drove around the tip of the coast, and then back through the town of Dingle. We stopped there to grab some lunch and then headed back to the hotel.

At the hotel, we picked my mom up and then headed into the town of Killarney for some walking around and shopping.

Downtown Killarney

After the shopping spree, we still had some time to kill before Mel picked us up, so we stopped into a pub for some tea (for me and Mom) and a pint for Dad.

There was a Notre Dame fan there, who tried to tell my dad it was "rude of Navy to score 10 points." To which my dad replied it was "rude of Notre Dame to not take a knee with a minute left, and run up the score on Navy." And then the guy fell silent...awkward. I think the little old Irish man sitting in between them felt the tension, so he told a joke. One that no one understood or got the punchline, but we all laughed when he did to be polite.

Mom & I at the Pub

Dad with his pint

After our town excursion, we came back to the hotel, ate dinner and then re-packed our suitcases cause we were leaving Killarney the next day for Galway.

Sunset from my room

 And the visiual of the day's drive...