HOLIDAYS in IRELAND

 My latest tour was with Nancy LaRochelle and her two sisters Karen and Mary and Karen's daughter, all the way from Springfield Mass.

It was early morning when my party  arrived at Shannon, as you can see from this photo of the almost deserted arrivals area. The three ladies, all sisters from the Quinlivan family from the Lissycasey area in County Clare, were home again at last This was a vacation they had been looking forward to for many years and despite many set backs down through the years it had now finally come to pass. Needless to say they were all very excited to be here and i was all set to go.

This first day was going to be a very busy one as we were destined to travel straight to their ancestral homeland of Lissycasey and some other small areas in that locality.

Fanny O'Dea's, a very famous pub in the Lissycasey area.

From the left, Karen, Emily, Mary and Nancy.

All the ladies pictured outside the Ballycorick church which would have been the family parish church where their ancestors would all have been baptised and made their first communions, had been married, and also where the funerals of those who stayed at home were all held.

Pictured together inside this lovely old church.

This is the old forge in Lanna where some of the family men would have worked.

After completeing our visit to all of the old family areas we moved on to the Cliffs of Moher stopping off at St Brigid's well. This is a holy well close to the cliffs and one where many people claim to have received answers to their prayers 

Not a great picture for our first sight of the Cliffs today as the mist from the ocean was rising up from below when we got there.

Now here we have a better view of these awesome cliffs.

After spending some time here we moved on to our final destination today, the lovely little town of Kinvara where we were to spend three nights.

Day 2

Here we are in Galway boarding our bus to the Aran Isalnds where they were to spend today.

Day 3

Today we were to spend in the Galway city area and here the ladies are pictured at the entrance to Galway's oldest surviving building, St Nicholas's church, right in the heart of the town. It was in this church that mass was celebrated for Christoper Columbus and his crew before they set sail for the new world as their ship had come into Galway port to take on their final supplies for their voyage.

Lynch's famous window from which Magistrate Lynch hung his own son for killing another man in a rage. Due to the young mans popularity nobody would hang him so the father hung him himself.

Day 4

High in the mountains of Killarney at the famous site known as Ladies View, from the left, Emily, Nancy, Mary and Karen.

Day 5

My ladies pictured together on the beach at Inch on the Dingle peninsula.

Another lovely picture on this glorious sunny day at Inch.

What a lovely picture of Nancy with this wonderful green patchwork quilt background as we made our way around Dingle.

Karens lovely daughter Emily, pictured with her baby lamb.

Emily enjoying the view of the Dingle beauty.

The ladies pictured together sitting on the low wall at Slea Head on the Dingle peninsula with the famous Blasket islands offshore in the Atlantic.From the left we have, Mary, Nancy, Emily and Karen.