Today we slept in a little before we joined the group for breakfast. It was very fun to wait for Natalie in the dining room as she is very sunny in the morning. We had our breakfast as Natalie hugged the cat figurine in the dining room. After breakfast we packed the car and then made our plans for the day. We decided to walk down as a group to see the baby lambs that Celia, our B&B owner, had adopted. Celia gave us four bottles of milk to feed them. We were all very excited to get to feed the lambs, especially Natalie. When we got to the pen, the lambs could tell we had the milk and they were fighting fiercely to get a spot. Natalie and Amy fed the littlest lamb and when ... read more

We woke a little later than normal today since we had a late night out in the Dublin pubs. We stayed at the Glenkeen house in Inchicore, just outside Dublin. This was a very lovely B&B, which is owned by a relative of someone we know from Syracuse. Glenkeen house is undergoing some kitchen renovations, so we stopped for breakfast at the Red Cow Inn. Our breakfast was lovely and just what the doctor ordered after a late night out. We got ourselves on the road to Templemore around 11am. The road from Dublin to Templemore was pretty good and we had a smooth ride most of the way. Once in Templemore, we headed in the general direction of the B&B and ended up on a back road when the hedgerows looked like they were going ... read more

We all slept well at the Drummnd hotel and woke to the sound of owls outside our window. We put ourselves together and got our breakfast. Eileen tried fried soda bread and decided to stick with the regular toast from now on. We packed the car and headed back into to Derry. With the excellent directions from the hotel front desk attendant we ended up finding the walking tour meeting place early. We were able to make a stop at the bank and Starbucks before the tour started. Our walking tour was led by Garvin. He was a smart chap with a great sense of humor. He was a little hard to understand as the accent in Northern Ireland is very thick and reminds me of a Scottish accent. Garvin gave us a tour inside the ... read more

After our late night pub crawl, it was hard to get out of bed today. We finally made it thru the shower and down for breakfast. Siobhan did not disappoint this morning and our breakfast was delicious. We gathered our things and Eammon checked us out of Taur Beg. Eammon was a great Irish character and I think he wanted us to stay and chat with him for awhile. We got ourselves together and on the road. We headed back thru Rossaveel towards Connemara. We decided that today would be Holy Day, or the day we would hit some of Ireland’s most well-known Catholic hot spots. It so happened that many of these were within the beautiful Connemara region in the upper western part of the country. Connemara is known for the marble that is excavated ... read more

We asked fr our breakfast early this morning, but we still ended up late for mass. My mother arranged a special mass in memory of my grandmother and all the deceased members of the Brennan Family. My grandmother passed away 5 years ago. She died only 4 days after we returned from our last visit to Ireland. My mother spent several hours with her the day after we returned telling her about Cross and all her nieces and nephews. We believe that she was waiting to hear that everything back home was alright before she passed away. The mass started promptly at 9:30 and was over before 10am. The priest was very efficient and was not on the Irish time standard we had seen previously... where things started 2-3 hours after they were scheduled. :) After ... read more