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Published: June 18th 2008
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Here's proof
We are there,. Tuesday, June 17, 2008
D’Arcy of Galway, Ireland
With plenty of advice from former D’Arcy pilgrims (Dianne, Rick, Josh, Paul, Eric, etc.), we decided that today we would search out what we could of the family, D’Arcy of Galway. We had read in the Rick Steve’s guidebook that there were 14 significant, ruling families in the middle ages in Galway. They are more commonly known here as the tribes of Galway. D’Arcy is one of them.
We also knew that a former vicar of the St. Nicolas Collegiate Church was John D’Arcy and that a banner in the church had the crests of all 14 families. We wanted to find more. We asked around a bit and found a few more locations of the crests. One was in the middle of the main park in the city, Eyre Square. This is the same park where a bust of John Kennedy is located.
We also discovered that all 14 tribes had road round-a-bouts named for them in the Galway city. So, we set out to find the D’Arcy circle. We did and then decided to do what any good D’Arcy would do; I circled the round-a-bout three times. The other cars just
Here's D'Arcy
Dorsey points to D'Arcy crest on the famous family banner. There are three flowers with several crosses. stood back and watched.
We also spoke to a couple from the east coast of England who was visiting the St Nicolas Church. The gentlemen was interested in our story and said that he knew that the D’Arcys had originally settled in the south of England during the Norman invasion. He said that the same D’Arcy family was probably here when Cromwell sacked Galway in the 17th century. That may be about the time that our ancestor, Edward Dorsey, migrated to Virginia.
Anyway, after Galway, we headed south to visit the Cliff’s of Morh. It was cold, windy and overcast. But it was spectacular and worth the effort. The views from the cliffs were breathtaking. I have heard that people sometimes climb over the security fence and scale down parts of the cliff. Many have died. Dumb, real dumb people.
We did not have room reservations for the night so we needed to decide if we were driving to Dingle or to Killarney for the night. We needed to get going in order to arrive early enough to find a good place. We discussed the options in the parking lot of the Cliffs. We had a picnic lunch with some
John D'Arcy the Vicar
Here's the plaque that is in the church where Ricky made and sent his photo. French wine that we brought for this occasion. Finally, we decided to drive on to Killarney. Jackie set Bonnie to get us out of the mountains and on our way.
Bonnie picked some of the most incredible roads imaginable for the ride back. They were simply single land farm roads. How did these get in the data base? On one occasion we pulled as far left as we could and waited while a big tractor slowly came down the lane and passed us. The Irish farmer just gave us a big smile. I guess we were not the first lost tourist he had seen on his road.
As we drove we found better and better roadways. But as has happened before, I started tiring of the intense driving in strange conditions after so many hours. So, when we entered the village of Adare, a few miles south of Limerick, we changed our plan and decided to find a B&B for the night. We found one we liked and moved in.
For dinner, we drove back a couple of miles to the Adare Country Club for dinner. Our B&B host had suggested it. Mike had also recommended that I play this
Taaffes Pub
If you can find this pub, you can find St. Nicholas golf course if I had a chance. So, this became our plan for Wednesday.
It turned out to be a great dinner and a wonderful venue. This course had recently hosted the Irish Open. It was in great shape.
That’s it for now.
Tom & Jackie
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Joshua Dorsey
non-member comment
galway
I'm Jealous i wish i was there right now. That is one of the coolest cities i have ever been.