I have posted this on another forum so sorry for the repeat if some of you have already read it.

_______________________________________________________________________________

I'm back from my yearly pilgrimage to the mother country! The weather was beautiful for the most part. I don't usually do trip reports since I think my little wanderings would not be very interesting but I thought I would give it a go since I visited a couple places that might be of interest to some others.

Just an FYI...from being there last year, there is now a toll road on the N4 on the way to Kinnegad. It is now the M4 and the toll is E2.50. I thought that was quite high for people living there and going back and forth to Dublin for work. I don't mind since I only go through a couple times but I would not be happy if I lived there!

I was planning on going to the Maam Cross Connemara Pony Faire in Connemara again this year on November 1. My cousin said he would go with me but had a welding class on Tuesday night. So instead of leaving on Tuesday and staying the night we left early Wed. morning from Mullingar. When we got as far as Clonbur, we stopped for breakfast at John J. Burkes Public House. Kieran Burke greeted us warmly and said he would give us the best breakfast in Ireland! We mentioned we were on our way to the pony faire and he said, "For Jaysus sake...sure wasn't that yesterday." It is not on Nov. 1st every year as I thought...it is on the first day after bank holiday in November (which was Tuesday this year)..just in case anyone else wants to attend next year. Well, I had been there last year so I wasn't too disappointed, but Mr. Burke was determined to make it up to me and with the assistance of the "two best sheep shearers in Ireland", directed me to a lady that was very involved with Connemara Ponies. So off we went according to their directions, to Geraldine's house. We pulled up to her house and she came out with her two children and we explained that we missed the pony faire. She was so kind and drove us down to her pastures to show us her stock and then brought us into her house to see the registration books and all the information she had on the ponies. She explained what conformation type she preferred and what lines they came from. She offered us tea, which we politely declined, and then gave me her address and phone number for next year. We left, thanking her so much for her kindness.

While driving towards Clifden, we passed a beautiful Connemara stallion in a field. My cousin made a quick turn up the driveway to the house and I got out and spoke to an older gentleman about the ponies. He took us down to see the stallion and his mares. We spent about an hour discussing the horses and his experiences. He had a little museum built in the barn where he had all of the newspaper clippings and trophies that he had won over the years. We signed his guestbook and continued our journey. So it ended up that we had a much better experience than if we had made it to the faire.

My cousin is an Irish history buff and each year he researches someplace different to take me. Last year we did a Megalithic theme. This year it was the rebellion of 1798. We went down to Wexford on a beautiful sunny, cloudless day. We visited the 1798 Heritage Center in Enniscorthy, which is very good! We then had lunch at Rakkers (sp?) in Enniscorthy. Excellent! I had the salmon and my cuz had the prawns. They had lamb on the menu but they were out. Of course my cousin had to give the waitress a bit of a jibe about him driving all the way down from Mullingar just to eat the great Wexford lamb and here they are...all out of it! LOL The price for any of their lunch specials was E9.50 which I thought was good. We then set out for the battlefields of Oulart, Vinegar Hill, Boulavouge and The Harrow. There is a heritage center for Fr. Murphy near Boulavouge but we passed on that. It was getting a bit late and we were due to stop in a friends pub in Spink so we had to get on the road. The battlefields don't have much other than memorial signs but it is very moving to stand there and imagine what it was like back in '98 with the British charging and the rebels armed only with pikes and a few muskets. Vinegar Hill has a beautiful view also.

At the weekend I went to the very small village of Ballintogher, a few miles outside of Sligo Town. There was a Traditional Music Festival that weekend and I wanted to go to the set dancing workshop. Unfortunately, it was not set dancing but sean nos dancing. I had done some step dancing when I was young so I thought I would give it a try. It was quite a bit different, not as structured, but most enjoyable anyway.

I also wanted to see the Museum of Country Life in Castlebar. Someone on one of the travel boards had mentioned it and I looked it up on the internet. It looked interesting so I set out for it one day and planned on spending an hour or so there. I spent most of the whole day. There was no admission charge and the little tour was only E2.00. It is very well done. Shows the lifestyle of Ireland over the past and has a good audio-visual presentation. The grounds, Turlough Park, are beautiful as well. I had another gorgeous day of sunshine! I would recommend this to anyone that would be in the area. It is just outside of Castlebar.

My cousin had gone pheasant hunting in Sligo and had his little caravan parked outside my grannies house (which is rented). He invited me for dinner if I was near that night. He and his buddy were cooking steaks. So I stopped by and had a great meal in that little caravan. Then we headed over to the Brown Trout pub and met up with friends from the area. That was one of the best nights I had. We didn't leave until after 2 am. I think my cuz had a bit of trouble getting up at the crack of dawn for the pheasants the next morning!

I then headed over to Ballyhaunis to meet up with Midwest Irish Radio. They have that internet radio and I had met one of the hosts when he was in California. He invited me to come by the station when I was in Ireland and he would show me around. I pulled into Ballyhaunis and turned onto the road towards Claremorris. There was a little B&B there so I thought I would book a room and then go and ask in the pub where the radio station was. Well, when I came out of the B&B I looked up and there it was...right across the road! Everyone at the station was so nice and it was great to see the studio. They actually interviewed me on air which I wasn't expecting! The B&B was Avondale and it was pretty basic. The room was small but it was nice and warm and comfortable and the landlady was very nice. It was only E35 for a single and the breakfast was very good.

On my way back to Mullingar, I stopped by Knock again. I had never been in their museum so thought I would check it out. It also was very good. There is a little cottage set up inside that looks just like the one my mother was born in. I stood there all alone (I was the only one in the museum since it was before opening hours and they let me in anyway)....and could imagine my mother and her family sitting around the hearth.

The rest of my holiday consisted of hanging out with my cousins family and visiting friends and family in Sligo. I did take a kickboxing class in Mullingar. It was not the same as here ...no bags and seemed a bit more amateurish but my cousins daughter wants to keep going to the classes. It was a good workout anyway which I definitely needed after all the eating I was doing. I still gained 8 lbs. in the 2 weeks I was there :=( But happily, I have lost 3 of them already. I was trying to be good at first but succumbed to eating the full Irish breakfast a number of times. And of course there is no low-cal Guinness!! I downed more than a few of them in the 2 weeks.

So that's it for this year.