fall is in the air

first football game cheering first soccer game

one of the last sunsets of summer

my litte kewpie doll

day 11 Kilmainham Gaol and Guinness

one of the "better" cells, this one had a wooden pallet to be used as a bed painted by the wife of Joseph Plunkett, Grace Gifford married Joseph Plunkett one of the leaders of the Easter Uprising the day before he was shot.

staircase in the jail. the women and children in the jail were kept in the basement. the youngest person held here was only 7 years old

view of the inside, the Victorian wing

jail yard

cross marks the spot the where the leaders of the rebellion were excuted.

this concludes the the travelogue of the Scots Irish tour, hope you enjoyed it.

my final meal in Ireland, not very traditional but it tasted really good.

The best part of the trip were the wonderful people i met, both on the tour bus as well as the local people i met about town. Pat and Frank at the pub, shop keepers, the taxi driver that took me to the Harley Davidson store and waited for me off the meter while i brought my boys Irish Harley shirts.

The worst part of the trip was i was trying to fix one of my companions camera and managed to erase all of her photos. I felt horrible, but R was very gracious and forgiving. I brought her a new memory card and offered to pay to retreive her photos from the memory card. I also sent her a cd of my photos and a dvd of photos set to music as a I'm sorry give. The most valuable lesson i learned was 'NEVER, EVER TOUCH SOMEONES CAMERA"

day 10 Strokestown park house

outside the house

i thought this little device was nifty. I could use one of them school room in Strokestown park house

several generations of childrens toys

balcony where the lady of the house would give the kitchen help directions

beauty shot

documents from the famine found in the house

in the walled in garden

storm clouds on the way back to Dublin

ha'penny bridge over the river Liffy

rainbow in Dublin

day 9 Achill Island and Deserted Famine Village

on the way to Clew Bay to Achill Island Clew Bay

i love that way the cloud's shadow is on the mountain side I believe this mountain is Slievemore, on its slope is the Famine Village

the sheep in Clew Bay are not fenced in, they just roam thru the hills and the roads

Famine Village ruin, one of the 100 or so on this hillside. This was an emotional place for me.

another ruin

view thru a door way

in the end they only thing the people had was a beautiful view.

Clew Bay is a recreational area. People load up their caravans (campers) and camp on the beaches of the bay; there are many water sports to do and one of the golf courses has fences around the greens to keep the sheep out

day 8 Ulster American Folk Park and Westport

this statue is in the visitors center and start of the park tour, the start of the immigrants journey one of the recreated buildings

attendance record in the school.

beauty shot

another beauty shot

in the hold of a "coffin ship" named that because 30% of the passengers died before the ship reached American shores

top side of the ship.

memorial to W B Yeats at St Columba's church in Drumcliffe. Yeats is buried in the cemetery My favorite poem by Yeats is "Host of the Air"

St Columba's church

one of the many high crosses in the graveyard

most of the roundabouts have art in them

view from my window in the wonderful little town of Westport. My window sill was very deep and i sat there several time with my cuppa and watched the world go by. We went to Matt Malloy's ( of the famed Chieftain's) the music was in the back back back room and we never made it back there, so we ended up at another pub. we were invited to sit with Pat and Frank a couple from county Tyrone who were in Westport on vacation. What great craic!

the city square in Westport. It stayed light until almost 10:30 pm while we were here. I walked around the city for several hours, shopping and stopping for a scone and tea. Westport is a place i would visit again.

day 7 Giant's causeway and Walls of Derry

just a beauty shot carrick a rede rope bridge used at one time by salmon fisherman. the bridge is not rope any more, it is made of wire rope and douglas fir. this wasn't one of our stops, darn it, but we stopped right before the entrance to take pictures

the mountain at the giant's causeway. there is a path you can walk to get to the top but it takes about an hour. we did have several members of the tour walk the "high road" then climb down the 162 steps to get down to sea level

the young lady at the top was from Ireland on vacation, i had climbed up to that level to take pictures, then it dawned on me how was i going to get down??? the young ladies husband gallantly offered to help, but i just sat down on my rear and slid down step by step

like a giant playground

a view of the rocks that are still below ground

the young lad at the edge was making me nervous! the rocks were a little slick and he was really really close to the edge. i had to walk the other way because of my fear he would slip in, his parents were ok with him being that close

i went out as far as the young one with the green shirt

my friends from kentucky. they all traveled together and were most delightful. they always invited me to hang with them. the bad part about traveling alone is you don't have anyone close to share memories with. their newspaper at home will publish their picture if they show the newspaper

surfers in wet suits

hands across the divide, very powerful. In Derry

some of the protest and civil rights painting in Derry

they look like photographs, i'm confused about "the troubles" and plan to research more

walled city of Derry

bishops gate

i think this is st eugene's cathedral

another view of bishop's gate