Sunday and Monday, June 28-29 - Pirates of Kinsale Next on the Rick Steves itinerary was the town of Kinsale, just below Cork in southern Ireland. One of the reasons I was excited to visit County Cork was because I had another Irish ancestor connection here. After my great grandfather (the one from Sligo) immigrated to the United States, he met and married Elizabeth Collins who was from Cork. So after this trip I could say that I had visited the home towns of both my great grandparents.. Sausalito, Not. Kinsale was a more upscale town than other places we had visited. The Rick Steves book said it was like Sausalito (the little town on the other side of the Golden Gate bridge from San Francisco), but it reminded me more of Bar Harbor, Maine with ... read more

Thursday, June 25 - Kilmacduagh, Kilfenora and other Kool Keltic (Celtic) Names Two days in Galway was barely enough, yet we were forced to hit the road once again to drive to Dingle today. Along the way we had grand plans to stop at the Cliffs of Moher and The Burren. The long drives between destinations were definitely cutting into our sight seeing time by now and even sapping our energy but we had to press on. Our first stop of the day was another random countryside ruin of an old abbey called Kilmacduagh. I just love Celtic names. Put “Kil” in front of anything and it sounds ancient, cool, tough, and a little mysterious. Since we had a packed itinerary today Tiffany griped at the detour to Kilmacduagh but when I saw the round tower ... read more

Tuesday, June 23rd On the Road to Galway Choices, Choices We left Sligo for Galway Tuesday morning in what would turn out to be a long day in the car. Our plan was to hit a few major sites along the way like Connemara before arriving in Galway by dinner time. Guide books and tourist maps only point out the major sites, but as you drive along Ireland’s roads numerous distractions encourage you to pull over. A medieval tower there, an abandoned monastery there, hungry sheep peeking over the farmer’s fence looking for food. Imagine an American kid and an Irish kid talking about where they lived. The American kid says to the Irish kid, “I have a swing set in my back yard. What do you have ?” The Irish kid responds, “Nothing much, just ... read more

Sunday, June 21st Country Sligo is a wonderful introduction to Ireland. It’s not as touristed as the rest of the country but still just as beautiful with mountains, megalithic ruins, the ocean and a countryside full of farms. Most importantly, it is also the ancestral home of the Gilmore family before they emigrated to the United States over 126 years ago. Ancient Gilmore Family My brother Stefan and I were fortunate to have a written account of the Gilmore’s in Ireland handed down to us by our father’s Aunt Margaret that we used to do genealogy research on another trip 2 years ago. We were able to find the hometown of Tubbercurry, the townland where they lived (similar to a street or neighborhood) called Cashel South, and even a few cemeteries with Gilmore’s. Sadly, too many ... read more

Friday, June 19th At the beginning of this journey I wondered how we would handle the longer than normal vacation. Now that we are almost half way done I am surprised at some of the things I have discovered. It seems that 2 weeks is the right amount of time to unwind and finally relax. Being gone for 2 weeks is like getting a deep tissue massage instead of a back rub. You begin to remember what life was like before constant access to email, the internet, the news, fighting traffic and paying bills. As corny as it sounds, it is nice to have the time to stop and simply hear the birds sing. The difference in countries and cultures makes you think differently about yourself and your values and you come away with a new ... read more