Reunion Day Arrives

Well, here it is "The Big Day," Saturday, 18 July. 

We didn't know how it would all be arranged, but we shouldn't have worried since the committee had lined up everything well. Traffic control, a shuttle bus (for old people like me with a cane), parking attendants and even an ambulance on the standby.

We got to park right here alongside of Clew Bay, just below the school:

We were on time, but the wise ones had come even earlier and parked in two fields above and below the school. Here is the crowd gathering in the schoolyard. They had a large tent set up for the attendees, a small tent for the priests to say Mass and another small tent for the children's choir. Well over three hundred people were said to have come. A lot of proud local people and a few "out-of-towners," like us from England, Boston, California, Wisconsin and elsewhere.

Before the program started, everyone was invited to take a tour of the school. We entered through the "boys' door." One of the 90-year old, former students explained that students would line up before school was to start along the south side of the school building, boys facing east, girls facing west, then in they would go through their separate doors.

The school was solidly built and is still well maintained. It is a private residence now, but you can still see that it was three large classrooms and auxiliary rooms as originally used. It's hard to get the size perspective, but it had thick stone walls and large timber framing.

They even had set out a few remembrances of "school days." Below is a one of the still-working, turf fireplaces that would heat each room, and alongside the fire were the bottles of tea and milk the students brought from home that was kept warm by the stove until lunch time.

We met a lot of very nice people as we toured. And they all said we were in the right place when we said we were looking for our Prendergast family line. There were many Prendergasts there, but none could recall the line back to the 1820's, 30's and 40's.

From the school tour, we hurried over to the big tent to look for a place to sit and then met Maura and John Kerrigan's daughter, as seen below, who was selling the reunion's commemorative booklet. Maura and John were two of the committee members who have been planning this event for an entire year.

They probably only got a good half of the people under the cover of the tent. The rest were already to handle the brief, off-and-on showers with their umbrellas in the great out-of-doors.

Below is a photo of the children's choir that sang during the Mass. And just beyond the man in the blue shirt are three of the five priests who had attended this school as children and were very proud to come back and concelebrate Mass. (The fourth priest was back in Dublin to have the funeral service for a brother-in-law who had passed away earlier in the week and the fifth priest was allowed to "sit this one out" since he had already had two Masses and two Baptisms earlier in the day.) Father Pat O'Malley was the main celebrant and he was also a great supporter of the reunion planners. He urged everyone to keep up the connection that had been created by the Accony School Reunion website at http://www.acconyschool.com/ .  (Sue took a lot of the photos you will see on that website.)

(Take a look there yourself and find out more about the history of the school and about the people and places in this area.)

The Mass was well done with many of the committee members taking part in the readings for the service. Gifts of remembrance of the past were presented and three of the men in their 90's who had attended the school were recognized.

As soon as Mass was over, they put out the tables and loaded them with sandwiches, sweets and tea. Just on the far side of the table in the photo below, in suit and tie and glasses is Pat Prendergast who was the master of ceremonies and chairman of the reunion committee. He is about to lead me on to see the man working on the Prendergast family history.

And there below is the man himself in the center, John Gibbons, a retired schoolteacher who is still discovering more and more about the family line. As recently as earlier in the week, he confirmed the locations of the three, main Prendergast families' homes and discovered a fourth Prendergast on the landlord's listings. Needless to say, the search goes on to flesh out the specific details of the family line. And John's niece, Deirdre, is the one who is working on putting all the facts that John is gathering onto a genealogy computer program.

And just as things are wrapping up, who should we run into but Margaret herself, looking younger and healthier each year that we've visited her. Her son, Tommie, didn't care to sit through the program, but she said she was thrilled to be able to meet so many people that she hadn't seen in ages.

Well, that was the first half of the Accony School Reunion, but the party continues as we move on to The Derrylahan's banquet room in the nearby town of Louisburgh for the evening's meal and entertainment.

A Short Visit to Louisburgh, Roonagh, Accony & Murrisk

Our third day in Ireland is Friday, 17 July, and we are off to pick up the "Louisburg" book that Michael lined up for us last night. And the book is waiting for us behind John Staunton's pharmacy counter. John said to tell Michael that he will keep an eye out for more, but there was just the one this time.

From Louisburgh we went on to say hello to Tommie and his mother, Margaret, who live right next to Accony in Roonagh, near where the ferry goes out to Clare Island in the Atlantic Ocean. Margaret had gone to Westport with her brother, but Tommie had time for a short visit and also gave us directions to the Accony School where we would be heading the next day for the reunion. Here's their house below, but "no thanks" from Tommie when we asked for a photograph of him. He also said he wouldn't be getting to the reunion at the school since he felt he had put in enough time there as a student with compulsory education.

So, off we went to nearby Accony. According to the real estate signs you see below, there are a couple of properties for sale that we will pick up when we win the next European Lotto.

And we drove right past one of the old thatched homesteads that we have photographed over each of the past years. The good news is, Deirdre plans to build a summer home on the site in the future. She told us previously that she had hoped to rebuild the home just as it always was, but the building commission nixed that plan and they expect her to build a standard, contemporary structure.

Then down the road we continued, and there was the school in the distance...

And there is the "Accony National School" still well kept up and now the private residence of the James family who are opening up the building for Saturday's reunion. This school closed in 1971 as small schools in rural areas consolidated, just like back in "The States." There had been an earlier school as well, and, before that, a "Hedge" school.

But we had to hurry on to meet Patsy and her sister, Anna May, for lunch in the nearby town of Murrisk. Can you see the family resemblence?

Making a Few Visits to Chat

We woke on our second day in Ireland with plenty of "jet lag," but the "Full Irish Breakfast" at Hotel Westport gives you enough protein to carry on. So, we called Bridie and then Patsy to see if they were available for a visit.

If you were traveling with us last year, you know the way to get to Patsy and Joe's in Kilmeena...

...just head north out of Westport for a few miles, then turn left at the store...

...and head on to the sea (even though we were warned by our cousin, Margaret, not to be traveling down a road with grass growing in the middle)...
...when you get to the sea (Clew Bay), take the right fork and look for Patsy and Joe's green gate "up a ways..."
And there's Patsy, as gracious as ever (and Joe is out back surveying this year's garden).
We had our usual great visit with Patsy and Joe and got to hear about some of the local events that included a terrible rain storm with so much run-off that you couldn't even fish in a nearby lake---and a sad funeral that included a "boat procession" in from one of Clew Bay's islands to the church---a huge resort going up on one of the islands that would cost around 2000 Euro to stay for a weekend---and, worst of all, a bad northwest wind that blew most of the blossoms off Joe's apple trees, leaving them with only a few apples on a few trees. But Joe's vegetable garden looked great with tall onions, and potato vines that must have been two-to-three feet tall.

Well, we tied them up all afternoon with talk about family history and the like, then rushed back to Hotel Westport to have a chat with Michael (but without Bridie who was busy baby-sitting some of the grandkids). Michael has a hectic work schedule, but he still took time to visit with us for two hours before going on to another appointment.

That's Michael in the photo above, busy on the phone right after we mentioned in our chats about the Prendergast family line that there was a book called, "Louisburg: A History," that we couldn't find anywhere. Well, Michael just calls up the local author, John Lyons, and checks to see if there are any copies around. Mr. Lyons gives Michael two phone numbers of men who might know if there are any to be had and by the time Michael finishes talking to the second man on the list, he has the book all lined up for us to pick up. (Talk about a talented person.)

Just starting out on our holiday and already we had a chance to meet up again with some wonderful people.

Off We Go To County Mayo---Eventually

Aer Lingus airlines and Thrifty/Dollar car rental are no longer on our "favorites" list.

Our 16-hour "home-to-bus/bus-to-airport/airport-to-airport/airport-to-hotel" journey turned into a 22-hour journey, thanks to some fog and Aer Lingus airlines and Thrifty/Dollar car rental. 

When Shannon Airport was "fogged in" we went on to land in Dublin. We got to sit on the plane on the tarmac for almost an hour before Aer Lingus decided to bus us back to Shannon---from the east side of Ireland to the west side. Guess the economy is tight all over and Aer Lingus discovered that buses were cheaper to use than airplanes. 

So, we were herded off the plane, across the tarmac, through baggage and customs, and then got to stand in an assembly area for another 45 minutes to wait for the buses to arrive. 

We thought we would be smart and just rent our car here at Dublin and drive a little longer to our hotel, but neither a phone call to Thrifty/Dollar at Shannon where we already had a car reserved, nor asking at the Dublin car rental counter resulted in a clear answer as to whether or not we could get a very necessary car with automatic transmission here in Dublin. So, before Thrifty/Dollar could figure it out, the buses were leaving, and off we went on a long bus ride across Ireland. ("Sit back and enjoy the scenery," you say? We would have loved to if we weren't so worn out from the flight and herding process.)

So, Aer Lingus blamed God for the fog and we accepted the two hours that that would add to the trip. But Aer Lingus added on the extra four hours for the bus trip, instead of flying back to Shannon as we had done on last year's holiday. And we blame Thrifty/Dollar for having trouble just giving us the facts that could have saved us the extra time.

Two more hours plus four more hours isn't a big deal by itself, but when you add it to a 16-hour trip for the senior member of our travel party, it was too long for a "rookie" traveler.

Sorry to start things out in "a rant." Surely, there are brighter days ahead......

......and there it is, our lovely Hotel Westport, patiently waiting for us to arrive:

And the town of Westport is just as lovely as always too. They look like they might be "on track" for another rating as the "Tidiest of Tidy Towns," just as they were last year.

Our friend, Bridie, had told us that she wasn't going to do as much this year on the "Tidy Town" beautification project, but she probably had a hand in getting things to look so nice as you can see in the flower baskets that are hung all about town:

So, the angry, "Ugly Americans" have been tamed by the beauty of Ireland already.

Welcome To Our 2009 Ireland Holiday "Travel Blog"

We're off again to Ireland---

---which means you are likely to be one of the "To All Those We Left Behind In America Again."

You probably arrived at this "travel blogspot" by clicking on this site's "URL" address found at the top of last year's "travel blogspot" at http://leftbehindinamerica.blogspot.com/ and a few people got a forewarning email for THIS new "URL" address at http://leftbehindinamericaagain.blogspot.com/ .

Now that you are here, please click on "add to your favorites" or "bookmark" this blogspot IF you would care to join us with quicker, easier access.

Travel entries will begin in mid-July 2009 as we:

1- "Crash" the school reunion in the Accony community of western County Mayo where our Great-grandmother Katherine (Prendergast) O'Keane was born and raised. Hopefully, a few old friends and many new friends will be met there as well.

2- Rest up from the reunion with a stay in Galway City and catch some of the annual Galway Arts Festival. (Would you believe one of the musical groups will be "Eau Claire, Wisconsin's" Bon Iver?)

3- Drive the coastline to check out the "new and improved" Cliffs of Moher as we head for a long weekend in County Kerry's town of Tralee and look for a few O'Keane/Keane church records in the area.

4- Wind up the holiday with a few restful days in County Cork's coastal town of Kinsale and try to be the ones providing the special luncheon for Maire and her friends.

Please note that this will be a shorter, 19-day holiday that reflects our "shorter finances" in these struggling economic times.

Fewer photos and less commentary should be great news for our friends and relatives that are curious but really don't want to sit through other people's "travel photos" and rambling commentary.

Maybe this "travel blogspot" will be a great disappointment for true travelers, since we are "going back" to many of the places we've already been to in Ireland.

BUT maybe having places and people great enough that you want to be "going back" to them can be a great journey too.