Ireland by Nancy, Chuck, Kathy & George: One Month to "I" Day

A Little History

As far back as I can remember I always knew I was Irish. But the realization of what it means to be Irish did not manifest itself until later in life. I became the recipient of some ancient photos of ancestors I never knew. Some I did know, but never as young as they were in the photos. Naturally this started my search for connections. Who are my ancestors? Where did they come from? How can I pass this information on to my children who will, one day in the future, be asking the same questions.

There is still so much more information I want to learn about my family. But now is the time I want to see where they lived, walk the ground they walked, maybe even find GreatGranpop Cornelius Mulhern, Mulherrin or O'Mulherrin's brother's family from Glenties or Ballybofey, who never made the long trip, on a cramped immigrant steamer, from Donegal to Ellis Island. Maybe "Nannan" Catherine McKeon Mulhern, Claremorris, County Mayo, who would marry Cornelius' son, William James, had a sister or brother who missed the boat to Philadelphia in 1894.

What does it mean to be Irish? I wish I could put it into words. All I can say is that it is a warm feeling, pride, deep in your heart, that ancestors had the forsight to bring their future to America. Through the years of growing from adolescence to adulthood and now the waning years of our lives, the connections have been kept alive through these ancient photos and the realization of what it means to be Proud and Irish.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

One Month to "I" Day

Gosh, it seems like only yesterday we started planning for this voyage. Now here it is only one month away. Just about everything is set. We all were lucky enough to purchase our flight tickets before the prices started rising early in the year. The only item left to complete is the rental of a cottage for the six days we will be in Donegal. That detail should be complete in a day or so.

The bare bones of our visit is as follows:
Nancy and I are travelling early to visit friends in Kilkeel. We'll be staying in Carlingford for a few days then driving south to meet up with George and Kathy at Shannon Airport. Then it is off to Donegal for six days. Ancestral roots will drive our focus in Donegal but we expect loads of time for touring all the local venues of historical interest, including Mulhern's Pub, and maybe a few others.

When we wear out our welcome in Donegal we will drive south to the Seabreeze Lodge in Galway and spend two days checking out Co Mayo connections around Claremorris, the shrine at Knock, climbing Croag Patrick, The Burren and the Cliffs of Moher.

One interesting bit of information I have found, the Choir Director and Organist at the Cathedral of the Assumption in Tuam, Co Mayo, is named Catherine Mulhern. This is only a few miles from where my grandmother was born. Of course her name was not Mulhern at the time, but McKeon. But who knows what connections could have developed over the past 133 years since Catherine McKeon's birth. Maybe we will need to attend Mass at The Assumption on the Sunday we leave that area.

Then it is off to Tralee and the Dingle Peninsula, Kerry, Skellig Michael, Killarney and a visit to Cork for a look at Kathy's family roots. If we are still aware of where we are and what we are doing, and if someone has kept track of the days, we will head to Innisfree House in Bunratty to wind down before heading home.

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Christmas, An Earlier, Simpler Time

A friend of mine from Ireland sent me this. I thought you might enjoy it. I hope Annie Dunne does not mind, she is a distant cousin of my maternal grandmother, Margaret Dunn(*e).
White-Washed Walls
by Annie Dunne,
Rathcoole, Co. Dublin,
In the 1920s when I was a little girl Christmas was a lot different for us children than it is for the children of today. We got no expensive toys. Actually if our parents had the money that some of these toys cost, they would consider themselves very rich indeed. Nevertheless we were very happy and very excited about Christmas. In fact, we'd be counting the weeks and days for months beforehand.A few days before Christmas the grocery boy would arrive in a horse and cart or dray as a horse cart was called at that time. Before he came into the house he would hang a little bag of oats on the horse's head to keep him quiet while he was coming into the house. He would carry a large box in and put it on the table. There was always a huge big coloured candle in it. There would also be currants and raisins, spice and candied peel. All the ingredients for the pudding and cake. Next day my mother made a big fire in the grate and hung on the pot-oven, then she made the cake and put it in the pot. The lid would be put on then and lots of red hot embers piled on top of it. I always loved the smell of the cake baking in the pot-oven and can still remember the raisins bursting up through the top of the cake when she raised the lid. We usually gathered sticks in the woods for the baking. During the previous week my mother would have white-washed the kitchen walls. On Christmas Eve my mother or father would go out to the woods and bring in great bundles of holly and ivy. This my mother would put up behind the pictures and on top of the dresser.Before Christmas too an old man often came, he carried a bag on his back. We called him Martin McCann the Rabbit Skin Man. We called him that because he collected dried out rabbit skins and my parents kept some for him if they had any. We were always very excited to see him. He would reach down into his bag and bring out Christmas decorations and pictures called Mottos. The pictures usually had a black shiny background. Some had a picture of Santa Claus with lots of holly and berries and the words 'A Merry Christmas'. There was one I'll always remember. It was a picture of a beautiful woman with lovely children around her and the words 'What is a home without a Mother?' As it was always near night when the old man arrived, my parents would let him stay overnight, sitting by the fire in a big chair. He would start off again on the road the next morning after he'd had something to eat and a cup of tea. My mother would then tack up the new pictures on the clean white wall.Well, all was ready for Christmas and Santa Claus which made us very excited. We always went to bed early on Christmas Eve and after we were tucked in, our Mammy came in and gave us a small drop of sherry out of an egg cup. I'm sure she thought it would put us to sleep quickly. One time, one of my sisters, who was always thinking of food, said 'Thanks Mammy and I wish you a Happy Christmas dinner'. On one occasion I couldn't go to sleep for a while so I was still awake when my mother tip-toed into the room and rummaged in the press for a few minutes. I didn't let her see that I was awake so I saw her putting a Christmas stocking on my bed and the same on my sister's bed.It was then I remembered that I had seen her hurrying into the room with something out of the grocery man's box under her apron. I didn't tell my sisters about my secret. But it made me love and appreciate my mother a lot more because I noticed how tired she looked. It was also out of the box she got the sherry. There was also a small bottle of whiskey and some bottles of stout and a Christmas Brack in it. They were presents from the Grocer. They were called the 'Christmas Box'.On Christmas morning itself we had to be up early as first Mass was at seven o'clock and it was four miles to the chapel. It was a novelty having the oil lamp lighting in the morning time as it was usually only lit at night, but it was still so dark at six o'clock in the morning. For dinner we seemed to have a lot of food on our plates and my father would have a bottle of stout with his dinner as a special treat, we'd have fowl and stuffing and bacon or ham and H.P. sauce. I always remember how hot it tasted. By the evening of Christmas Day all the little toys out of the Christmas stocking would be broken and thrown about. There would be a bugle and tiny weighing scales, a few sweets and lots of coloured paper. Next Day St. Sephen's Day my father would be out working and Christmas would be over for another year.

Kathleen & George

My grandparents, James Fallon and Margaret Meehan, were both born in Ireland. They came to the United States where they were married. They had two children, Margaret and James. My mother, Margaret Fallon, married Thomas Dickinson in June 1947 and had six children. Kathleen, Eileen, Maureen, Peggy, Beth, and Jim. I, Kathleen, stayed single for many years until I met this wonderful man named George Mulhern. We will be celebrating our tenth wedding anniversary in December, 2008. Our Ireland trip with Nancy and Chuck Mulhern is our dream. We do not know who is more excited, Nancy and Chuck or George and Kathy.

Ireland by Nancy, Chuck, Kathy & George

A Little History

Thursday, August 21, 2008

One Month to "I" Day

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Christmas, An Earlier, Simpler Time

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