Ireland

Well I’m back (like Poltergeist). Writing, working, watching (bad teams) and crogging. In the interests of continuity, we’ll continue with an Ireland update or two each day, starting now …
So I’m outside on Achill Island taking these photos behind our hotel. The guy delivering bread drives up in a big truck. He’s a big, ruddy [...]

Step 1: Have the cousin of a friend open her home to you with the typical Irish hospitality. Nora, my friend's cousin, could not have been kinder or more generous. She deserves a Nobel Prize.
Step 2: Have said cousin have a 14-year-old daughter and a 14-year-old friend who enjoy shopping and YouTube.
Step 3: Let the [...]

Thatched roofs like this one are becoming a thing of the past in Ireland. We all know the idealized-John-Wayne-from-The-Quiet-Man thing, the cottage with the thatched roof. Now they are going away — replaced by slate. I'm told by a reputable operator of a B &B (is there another kind?) that their disappearance is brought about [...]

All the guide books said Doolin was a place to visit. Tiny little town southwest of Galway that is tucked inside the Atlantic. It's the home, the guidebooks say, of traditional Irish music. You may or may not like traditional Irish music, but if you're in Ireland you might as well listen to it. I mean, who wants [...]

The sheep in Ireland are pretty much everywhere. They stop traffic, lie on rocks and (if you watch carefully) do little jigs as your car drives by. The sheep pretty much rule Ireland — and at times they show a casual lack of proper decorum.
Take these sheep, who decided to take up residence in a [...]

Achill Sound is where my grandfather on my father's side was from. You'll find a lot of folks from Cleveland who trace their roots back to Achill in County Mayo. It's not a wealthy place, except in its natural beauty. This was the view outside the hotel window on a sunny Thursday evening:

My daughters of [...]

How does a round tower from the eighth century still stand while I-77 is constantly under construction? Did the monks from the ancient times, back when they drew the Book of Kells and did such incredible manuscript work, leave any blueprints? And if they did, why don't we use them?

Travel tip to those who leave for these parts: When you buy your plug adapter, the thingee (technical term) that allows one to use U.S. stuff in Irish plugs, be sure to check the U.S. end and make sure it has three prongs. If you don't and you have anything with you that uses three [...]

It's been 30 years since I last visited the home of my ancestors on Achill Island. Thirty long years, fraught with hard work, peril and walking back and forth to school in snowstorms and hail — uphill both ways.
It's a not-so-well-known secret that my older brother John is a Jesuit priest (he teaches at Loyola [...]

Well … internet access is not the simplest in the remotest parts of Ireland — which is where much of this trip goes since that's where the ancestors are from. So updating hasn't been as easy as expected.
These vacations are so personal, and I've always thought this posting pictures stuff was pretty goofy — until [...]