Thanking the Great Grandparents {Mostly}

After catching Easter Sunday Mass at the Cathedral in Killarney {they do magnificent things with rocks in Ireland!}, we headed north to enter Clare by Ferry across the Shannon. The skyline on either side of the river is here dominated by power stations, but the change in landscape is significant, with stretches of the undulating road being lined by post and rail fencing instead of the more ubiquitous stone walls. The weather, while not prohibitively harsh, still demanded covered ears when out of the car, and rain jackets to the fore.



Ennis and Killaloe both had their enchanting quaint elements, but also reassured us that a couple of generations of cold wet misery may well have been circumvented by our famine-fleeing ancestors. I found the narrow streets with their brightly coloured shop fronts delightful to stroll through, despite the occasional puddle splash as a car squeezed past. The relentless cold drizzle proved challenging to keep off the lens of the mobile phone's camera, as Dom lined up images of great great long lost relative Daniel O'Connell's statue in the main street of Ennis.



Practical and time constraints found us admiring the interior of an ancient Protestant church in Killaloe, rather than the Catholic alternative in which Maggie's forebears were married. {Though we did find tombstones for people with the surname 'Scott' on the other side of the sectarian divide!}