Saturday, September 3, 2016

Castleisland. . . . .a Grandfather's Birthplace




Before moving my photos of our fabulous trip to Ireland
off the laptop, safely archived on a portable hard drive,
I suddenly remembered I still needed to at least put a little 
memory of Castleisland on a post for Bob to look at 
now and then!  

We enjoyed visiting the small town in the Ring of Kerry, close to Tralee,
 where Bob's paternal grandfather was born and lived until leaving at a 
very young age for Boston in 1886.
We went there in hopes of finding more on our branch of the Sullivan
(then O'Sullivan) family. No luck though - you have no idea how many
thousands with that name came from that Kerry area. 

Our stay there at the River Island Hotel was so much fun, meeting
so many lovely locals who assisted us in looking through church and county 
records, tramping through crumbling cemeteries, and then sharing more than
a few drinks, some Irish dance steps, traditional songs and music. . . . . . and
 nonstop general chatter and laughter which all the Irish seem so comfortable with! 

We loved Ireland so much, as would you I'm certain if you've not yet visited.
If you have, like us, you know what I'm talking about.
We really do hope to return again before too long.
So dear Bob, this one's for you.




7 comments:

  1. I sure love traveling vicariously through you Mary.

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  2. Ah Mary! I loved Ireland when we visited for my brother's wedding with the amazing Irish welcome, pubs and friendliness of the place. It's lovely to see your photos of this lovely place! Take care xx

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  3. Mary, your photos brought alot of memories back for me. My husband, John and I traveled to Ireland in 2004 to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. We went to Kerry and had a wonderful time. We actually were all over Ireland. We spent some time with friends of ours that life in Ballyliffin. It was a wonderful 3 day celebration with them. We were in Ireland a total of 11 days and it was a trip of a lifetime!

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  4. Such lovely memories! I would love visiting here.

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  5. Ireland is a beautiful place to be sure! Unfortunately 5 days was all we had so didn't see this part.

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  6. I love Ireland too especially the Kerry area. What a shame Bon didn't manage to locate any information about his family. At least he's visited the place where they came from though. My husband has two lines of Irish ancestry but for both I have only a county no actual village or town so Bob's better off than we are:)

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