Bringing Sunshine To A Very Rainy Ireland

Welcome to Ireland, we're moving along the west (left) side of the map---from Shannon Airport to the town of Westport.

Well, they didn't exactly call us "Mr. & Mrs. Sunshine" on our Sunday morning arrival in Ireland, but we did get several "thank you's" for having the sun follow us into a very rainy summer in Ireland. And, of course, we took full credit ;-).

It was raining in Dublin when we dropped off some of the plane's passengers, but the sun did come out in Shannon, just as we were landing. And we've been told that this summer had rain almost daily in Ireland, except for about five days in June. But maybe it's not exactly true that "the sun follows us everywhere we go," since the 4-day forecast is for more showers each day. And there was some "soft" rain showers several times today, but each was very brief so as to not make total liers out of us.

And we did make it for Sunday Mass in the town of Ennis in County Clare at the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul after picking up our rental car at Shannon Airport---even if we were a bit late for services due to getting lost no sooner than getting into town. (Did you ever see the steeples of a church only to lose them again and again as you wound your way through the city streets and the other buildings blocked your view?  Well, that was us alright.)

Hopefully, the "penny candles" we lit (now costing 25 cents, Euro---inflation has hit the churches too, apparently) helped us make the 3-hour drive up to the town of Westport in County Mayo for our first week at Hotel Westport.

We did take a lunch break and stop for gas just outside of Galway City in the little town of Oranmore where there just happened to be a "Keane" Pub & Restaurant with excellent food (that we read about earlier in a travel book)---but the management denied any relationship to our O'Keane/Keane line and made us pay the bill ;-). (And those silver barrels at the bottom of the photo would have nothing related to our family line, we're sure.)

We may be getting too old for this flying-all-night-and-driving-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-road-for-a-half-day, but after a pleasant meal and breakfast the following morning, we have started to feel a little more human. The meals are a nice part of the "Golden Package" we signed up for at this lovely hotel, with "Golden" being the nicest way that they could say "senior citizen." But it and the slightly "off season" rates" were the only way we could afford to stay here at Hotel Westport.

And, straight away, we called Patsy and Joe on our second day in Ireland, and they invited us over for a visit in their lovely community of Kilmeena, just north of Westport. That visit turned into a five hour visit that included tea and home-made Sultana bread, a tour of their beautiful lawn and gardens, follwed by a drive out to Croagh Patrick and Murrisk Abbey where we were introduced to some of our deceased Prendergast relatives.

You could never meet a kinder hostess and host than Patsy and Joe who are so generous in sharing family history, gardening techniques, and good stories.

We didn't quite wear out our welcome and have been invited back for home-made berry pie---but only after we get to the county town of Castlebar where the library there has a lot of additional family history and government records to help us track down Prendergast and, possibly, O'Keane/Keane records.

And just to prove that we are actually here in Ireland and not downloading photos of Ireland off the internet, Patsy took our picture inside of the ancient ruin of Murrisk Abbey for us to send back "To All Those We Left Behind in America."