Thursday morning we arose ready to hit the tourist trail. Zoë dropped Arthur at the babysitter, and then she and the girls joined us at our hotel for an another second breakfast. Next we loaded into Zoë’s Prius for a stop at the Tubbercurry library to return some books and then day long tour of the area. We traveled northward through Sligo and towards the northern coast. The scenery was beautiful and the weather was cooperative. We ended our travels in the village of Foxford, the birthplace of Zoë’s mom, Bernadette, and also the home of the Foxford Woolen Mills. The mill store is in a building that was once an elementary school, the one Bernadette attended.
A good two hours were spent shopping for some wool throws and eventually a slice of Victorian Sponge for Deb and a Lemon Meringue Pie for Mark as well as some chips for the girls and a bowl of soup for Zoë. We returned to Tubbercurry, we to our hotel to freshen up, and Zoë, Iris and Esmè to pick up Arthur and head home. Around 6:00 we drove back to the house after picking up some wine, and joined the family for take-out Chinese which was different from that in Omaha but quite tasty! The kids went down around 8:00 and we finished the wine and talked until 9:00 before returning again to our temporary quarters.
Friday, we returned to the house and we, together with the entire Highland clan, including the dog Blue, clambored into their two vehicles for a day’s drive. Garth had completed some work from home and so was free to join us for the day. We drove around, looking at homes they had investigated. Until Garth completes six months in his job, they are unable to apply for a home mortgage, but they are actively looking in order to get a feel for the housing market and the schools. A move to Sligo would remove Zoë’s commute and cut Garth’s to less than an hour. Needless to say, come February, they will be ready for the move from the small attached rental duplex to a home of their own.
We ended the day at one of their favorite beaches where the kids ran over the sand, Garth threw the tennis ball for Blue to chase, Deb and Zoë walked the sand, and Mark stayed seated at the camp chairs they had brought along. The North Atlantic creates some lovely scenes with the roar of the surf, the scent of the salt air, and the miles of sand available at low tide. The beach was cold, windy, but lovely; there were even some surfers in their wet suits playing in the waves.
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We returned home while driving through some mountains and enjoying the scenery. We arrived home around sunset and tucked in for their normal Friday night fare of pizza and a movie, sans the movie for the adults. We polished off another bottle of wine after Arthur was down - the girls curled up in the front room for some television time and the adults reminisced about our seven years of close friendship. The parting was truly “sweet sorrows” for us all, kids and adults, but we had determined that the evening time was best to say our goodbyes, as the next morning we would try for an early start for County Antrim and the Belfast area.
As we sat out front in out car waiting for the windshield to defog, Zoë came running out with Deb’s forgotten scarf, waving it in the air and saying “don’t leave, take me with you, I have a green card!” A good laugh to end a wonderful visit.
Saturday, we were packed and out after our last Murphy’s Hotel breakfast by 9:00. Our goal today was to reach County Antrim and the village of Ahoghill outside of Belfast.
Deb’s ancestors are from this area, and Abigail had tracked down some information on her genealogy sites about gravestones in the area. We arrived at Ahoghill around 12:30 and started the hunt. In requesting cemetery information from Google, we were non-pulsed to find over 14 cemeteries in the area. Where to begin? We stopped in a small grocery store to pick up some supplies and the helpful manager pointed us to one of the older cemetery sites at an older church. We arrived and started searching out the old tombstones, looking for some that were erected in the 1860’s with the name of Picken. We didn’t find any, but a helpful lady tidying a grave told us of a nearby cemetery that contained a few Picken headstones.
We traveled there, found the Picken gravestones, but they were newer. Deb surmised that the Mary Picken buried there, was her known Great, Great Aunt Mary, whom she had never met, but was aware lived in the area. As it was getting late and we had yet to drive a nearly three hours back to Dublin, we aborted the search and headed South. The traffic going through Belfast was hellish at 5:30 on a Saturday night, there were accidents and diverted traffic. We made it through and hopped on the divided highway towards Dublin and the airport. We arrived near 7:00, returned the car and hopped the rental service shuttle to the airport to catch a cab. Two young women students from France rode in the shuttle with us, and we learned they too were headed to the same area as we, so we shared a cab in from the airport. They were obviously on a budget, so we waved off their offer of sharing the cost of the taxi - there was no up charge for the additional passengers, and we were glad to do it. Deb was reminded of her summer of backpacking through Europe on a very tight budget.
We arrived at our destination, the Morgan Hotel, in the Temple Bar area, and loaded into our room. A nice room until the A/C kicked on; the rattle was so bad that we demanded a room change, which we were granted. We arrived in the new room, found it acceptable, and broke out the chips and wine we had provisioned in Ahoghill, in for the night and our last few days in Ireland.
Sunday morning we arose and had a leisurely breakfast. Mark stayed in the room to read for a few hours and Deb headed out for some minor shopping. She returned, we rested and then headed to Jamie Oliver’s Chequers Lane restaurant nearby for an evening meal.
Mark is a Jamie Oliver groupie, sometimes even cooking from one of the many Jamie Oliver cookbooks he owns. We each had a roast duck leg, over a bed of jammy red onions and accompanied by roast potatoes. For dessert, Deb had a huge chocolate sauce covered Profiterole and Mark enjoyed some Irish cheese and a wee nip of Connemara Whisky.
