Irish Rovers: Part II

(warning: Long and picture-heavy post...)
Saturday, May 26: We left Blarney about 10 that morning after a filling Irish breakfast. Zac even ate his black pudding. Do you know what that is? For those who don't, it's made of blood...yes, blood, fried up nice and crunchy-chewy. I hear it's delicious, my mom ate it all the time growing up and loved it! She won't touch it now that she knows what it is, and though I'm open to trying almost any type of food at least once, I don't count blood as food. Zac does, apparently, yuck! We got to Cashel and went up to see the Rock (of Cashel), aka St. Patrick's Rock. It was the traditional seat for the kings of Munster and has the ruins of the round tower, cathedral, chapel, cemetery full of Celtic crosses, and an amazing view! Next stop was Clonmacnoise, an ancient religious center with more ruins and even awesomer Celtic crosses. I've always liked Clonmacnoise, it's easy for me to imagine life in the settlement, looking over the Shannon River. It's less touristy than Cashel and Blarney, etc.

From there it was on to Ballinamuck and the Prunty clan! We only got lost a little bit on the way to Ballinamuck, but some nice fellows on the roadside helped us out, after trying to convince us it was really Ballinalee we were after. Here's one of my favorite parts of the trip: We got to Ballinamuck and I couldn't remember exactly where Uncle Seamus lived, so we stopped at Dillon's Pub and I zipped in to ask. Peter Dillon was at the bar serving the patrons and after we'd said our "hello, how are you"s he looked at me closer and said, "And you're the Prunty girl!" What a feeling of belonging -- I didn't grow up there and have really only been back a handful of times, it really made me feel at home. Anyway, we chatted for a minute, I admitted to forgetting how to get to Seamus', he reminded me and we were off to have a wonderful evening up with Seamus, his girlfriend, Teresa, and the boys. He has 5 boys, Shane, Patrick, Gary, Philip, and Mark, ages 13-24, and the four who were there were so cute with Bran and Nuala! We really had a great time and a delicious Irish dinner. We stayed at Granny's house that night and the next, it was sad being there without her (Shane is officially in Granny's place now, but he let us have it for the two days), it felt empty without her warmth, but I often felt like she was there in a small way. Uncle Padraic, Aunt Bernadette, Susan, Mary, and Michael came down that night (they live just up the lane, you can see their place from Granny's) for a little visit, it was great seeing them all!

Sunday, May 27: Auntie Margaret, Uncle Paddy, and one of their girls, Laura, dropped by in the morning to visit, then Uncle Seamus and his Mark came again, then Z, N, B and I headed off to visit Auntie Eliz, Uncle Pee and their family. We had dinner at their Laura's new house (absolutely gigantic and gorgeous!) and visited with their other two daughters, Tanya and Jenny. Laura's little girl, Shannon, and Tanya's little guy, Joseph, were so fun and adorable, it had been a while since I'd seen them and they were so big! They entertained Nuala incredibly, she sat on Laura's knee just laughing away at their hijinks. On our way back to Granny's we stopped in Drumlish to see Auntie Helen, Uncle Seamus and their boys. Well, just David, Paul was in Milan, he's quite the traveller! Our visit was way too short, but it was so wonderful to see them! Nuala babbled away to David, and Bran seemed to really like A.Helen. I always think Bran looks a bit like David did as a baby, and A.Margaret and my mom both see Paul as a baby in him, so we'll see! That evening Margaret's boys, James and Padraic, dropped by Granny's to visit, and U.Padraic and company came down again. We had a terrific time catching up ever so briefly with everyone -- I didn't see 4 of the cousins, but hopefully next time (well, or the ones in Canada...)!

Monday, May 28: We stopped by Seamus' place in the morning to drop off Granny's key and to say goodbye. He tried to get us to stay for a big ol' Irish breakfast, but we had already eaten, so he settled for giving us a tour of the farm. There's always something new going on there! He's a cattle dealer and has his own cows as well, and all sorts of equipment and things, many of which he's helped design himself (special calving pens, magnetic feed spouts to catch harmful metal pieces, etc.), he's amazing! His place is on the original family homestead, and the house my mom and everyone grew up in is still right there, used as a shed of sorts, now. I love seeing what goes on there, and Z does, too. We went to the cemetery on our way out, to visit Granny and Grandad's graves, as well as that of Uncle Seamus' wife, Rosaleen. All such wonderful people, we miss them, but know we will see them again. As we were leaving a crazy hail storm popped up for about 3 minutes, then gave up, it was weird. Then we headed off to Sligo, out west.

We got to Sligo about an hour and a half later, and drove to our B&B in Drumcliffe, right at the foot of Benbulben, a very cool-looking mountain. Very cool. Zachariah really liked the sheep on the mountain. Every so often he would exclaim, "look how far up those sheep are!" Five minutes later, he'd say it again. I think he would like to be a shepherd, really I do. This is kinda funny: in Blarney our B&B hostess was Ann, and she had a little dog named Toby. Well, in Drumcliffe, our hostess was Ann and her dog was...you guessed it! Toby! And he was another little yappy fellow. Hmmm...coincidence...? We had a great time, it's so scenic out there! We drove along the coast and to Glencar lake and waterfall and just had a beautiful, relaxing time. We went to WB Yeats' grave that afternoon, also. A little off-topic: While nannying in Belgium I rode a train out to the family's house. Sometimes I had to wait a while because from the house back into Brussels the train only came every hour. I always had a mini-book of Yeats' poems in my bag, so I read/re-read a lot of his stuff. I do like him.