Well, folks, it feels like 200 years have passed since we were free to travel. I was summoned home from Ireland by the Covid pandemic as per the last posts in 2020 and spent 2 weeks in quarantine. After that I was free to stay at home, like everyone else, emerging for brief walks and sorties to the grocery store. That got kind of stale pretty fast. Thankfully, golf was permitted even in the summer of 2020 so fresh air and keeping up with at least my golfing friends, made for a return of sanity. This might be questioned by those who know me, but it was as sane as I'll ever get.
Fast forward to the present. The return to Eire is almost upon me. It will be a two-part trip with very little genealogy unless you count visits with cousins discovered through research and DNA testing. I've met folks connected on both sides of the family and they are all as wonderful and welcoming as the Irish are rumoured to be. I can't wait to reconnect - so watch out over there, I'm about to drop into your world once again. I'll be accompanied by two different friends, one for each part of the trip.
This trip will have two, or sort of three, phases. The first two weeks will be devoted to golfing and some minor tours in the Wicklow-Wexford-Carlow-Waterford-Kilkenny and maybe Tipperary area. Distances are not what we are accustomed to in Canada so visiting multiple counties will be easy. I've yet to visit every county on the island of Ireland. Maybe that can be a goal.
Following the golf, I'll be joined by a friend whose trip to Ireland was supposed to have taken place when Covid-19 rudely shut down the plans of pretty much everyone on the planet. This time, armed with masks, rapid tests, hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes, we'll hit the back roads of Ireland for a grand tour of a whole month.
There will be meet-ups with old friends and relatives, but mostly two of the St Pat's Sirens (hello to those not joining us) will be visiting some well-known and some lesser-known spots around the country. We'll spend €s and £s as we travel in the Republic and in the Irish portion of the UK – Northern Ireland. Probably more euros and pounds than we are actually planning as inflation has struck fear in the hearts of everyone everywhere.
Our final week will see us settled in a Dublin hotel to enjoy as many delights of the city as we can and there might be some genealogy opportunities there although, on this trip, they are not top of the priority list. That is the iffy possible phase 3.
Do feel free to follow us here as we wend our way around the country, er, counties. I'll post a couple of photos with the blurb of the day. I hope to post something each day although there may be gaps depending on access to wifi and the extent of exhaustion as evening comes around.
Tune in here as you wish. The latest post is always the one showing but feel free to drift down to the bottom and you have the option of moving back in time through earlier posts.
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The adventure begins on April 10th when we fly to Dublin and ends on May 24th when we fly home. We won't get to do everything we'd like to but we're sure going to make a good stab at it.
