Top picture-Claregalway Fransciscan Monastery
Bottom picture- Galway City


Ireland-Day 4

We awoke at 7:00AM. I believe Ireland is 8 hours ahead of EST. We headed downstairs for a continental breakfast. I know what Continental Breakfast means but I could also find another meaning. We were having breakfast with people from all over the world. It was like a cafeteria type kitchen with pitchers of juice, loaves of bread and jam, muffins, cereal, milk, even coffee and tea. The food was not arranged like a cafeteria but all over the counters for people to use. Everyone was responsible for their own clean-up. There was not much chatter, as I suppose most were sleepy. After they ate, they made their way to the sink to clean their dishes. I found staying at hostels very interesting. There was usually a common kitchen area with an assortment of dinnerware and utensils but all that you would need to prepare a meal. They were safe, clean, and varied. Some hostels had cool showers, instead of hot showers. It is wise to travel with a towel and some bedding as some do not provide this. If you need a towel, you can usually get an old towel for a euro for your use. It will be clean, but they are usually assorted as well. The experience is wonderful. The Irish are very good about conserving their energy. I know from past experience that it is wise to shower in the evening or early morning as mid day will get you cold water. I even hear there are meters for some folks electricity, that they need to feed with change. I recall in 1972, my cousin getting her first phone, in Castlerea, Co. Roscommon. It was a very rural country and most everyone was Irish. Now it is a more global country, with similarities to the rest of the world. After breakfast we went on the other side of the kitchen to use the restrooms and use the internet café. I emailed Lucia and also my husband.
             Then we were ready to shop. Galway City is great to walk around as there are many shops along the alley ways. Just watch your step as the market area in the morning is shared with delivery trucks. There are many neat shops with the proprietor’s name across the front. I found music, jewelry and maps there. I was most interested in traditional music, very early fiddle music from the 1920’s and on. The fiddle styles are very different from county to county. I also like the songs which tell of the struggles of the country, the drinking, and the heroes. 
             I recall my last trip when I was able to visit Slea Head in Dingle. We went to the Blasket Island Museum. I am unsure if this is the proper name without looking through my belongings upstairs, however that was a fascinating place. We learned about Peig Sayers, who was born in the latter part of the 1800’s. She lived on the Great Blasket Islands off the coast of Slea Head, and the islands are steep jagged rock jutting out of the ocean. It is a torrential place to live, the most isolated place in the world as the weather ruled any rowing back and forth to the mainland. They relied on each other for survival. Peig was a storyteller with over 300 stories to her repertoire. She was one of the most important people on the island and she was held in high regard by the islanders. I read her autobiography and she had small children come to pay their respects to her on her deathbed. Anyhow, anything about her is an excellent read. My correlation was the storytelling and the important role it played in Irish culture.
             Back to my original story, we left Galway city and headed up N17 towards Corrandulla where some of my ancestors are buried. We then looked for Clohaun and Kilgill where early Skerritt ancestors lived. If you blinked your eye, you would miss these quaint little townlands. We stopped at Claregalway Franciscan Monastery and got out of the care to walk around. It is a beautiful location in a big field between Galway City and Tuam. Walking through the graveyard, I was delighted to find 2 Dolly stones and a few Skerritt stones. We called Bridie again as we wanted to stop in again to visit before we left for the north. She had her daughter and boyfriend wait by the road, on the lookout for us. We visited about 2 ½ hours and had coffee, scones, tea, dessert. Again, Bridie was a gracious hostess. We had a very nice visit with some of their friends, the Murphy’s. There was a great deal of conversation from Chemistry, science, global warming, politics and just a variety of topics. Some of it was over my head, but I found it fascinating to listen. It was a relaxing afternoon. Bridie gave me a gift of a tiny plate with Cara written across it, which means ‘friend’ in Gaelic. I would miss them but was so grateful we had some opportunity to visit. 
             We left by 5:30 PM and were on our way to Sligo. The Murphy’s told us to visit Knock [religious shrine] but we took the wrong road and decided we had better try to stay on track. We did see the ruins of an old abbey with an ancient graveyard. It was named St. Mary’s Abbey, dating to 1280. We finally reached Sligo which was not a long drive at all. [For anyone who does not know, Ireland is about the size of the state where I live, Maine] When we arrived we were a little hungry. Sligo was a good sized city, so we were trying to figure out how to find our hostel. We did find it down by the waterfront, passing some old warehouses along the way. It was a large stone building, named the Harbormaster. We had lovely accommodations here as well. It had a community type TV/reading room. We checked the internet for email messages. Then we grabbed some free postcards at the hostel which were sepia colored pictures of a gent looking like Marquis de Lafayette sitting at a table with a bottle in front of him. We later had this brilliant idea to mail them to one of Debbie’s friends and write messages on the back appearing to be in various states of drunkenness. Then we would mail one every day. It does not take much to humor us. It was pretty funny as we laughed at length over this. I heard the recipient thought it was very funny as well. Afterwards we walked uptown to find a place to eat. We ate at an upscale restaurant named Bistro Bianoni. It was excellent and then we headed up a few blocks to McHugh’s. Here we sat on the end of a very large bar, alone. The place was rather dark but a nice place. We each had 2 Guinness’s and then we walked back to the hostel. It was a nice city, with buildings reminiscent of some of the 1945 era buildings back home. I particularly enjoyed the old signs which appeared vintage in many ways. I tried to call my cousin twice but lost money. Since she was in Northern Ireland, I am sure I was dialing wrong. We retired for the evening after we took showers. Tomorrow we will head for Donegal and be near the border for Northern Ireland.

St Mary's Abbey -1280

Below-Sligo city, Co. Sligo