Beannachtaí an tSéasúir
(Season’s Greetings),
Hello,
everyone. Well, the holidays are almost upon
us and we are in the midst of finishing
up
our last minute shopping. The holiday season is
packed with long lines at the shops and malls,
bumper to bumper people, and finding ‘sold
out’ signs on the popular items. Then there
is all the cooking and baking, which is my favorite
part.
I
know you're busy but don’t forget
about Midnight Mass. It seems like we spend so
much time preparing for the celebrations, then
they are gone in one day. But it is a very happy
time that we spend with family and friends. Terry
and I have always wanted to celebrate the holidays
in Ireland and this year we will. Some of you already
know that we will spend my birthday (December 18th),
Christmas and the New Year with our Irish family
and friends this year. We have booked a stone cottage
on the outskirts of Mohill, known as Breandrum.
Terry
and I will fly out of Boston’s
Logan Airport in the evening, on December 17th,
and we
will arrive at Dublin Airport early in the morning
on the 18th. After we get situated with our car
rental, we will head west on routes N4 and M4,
which bring us into Dromod, where we will take
the cut-off through Bornacoola into Mohill. We
will spend most of our vacation in Co. Leitrim,
based in Mohill.
On
the afternoon of January 1st, we will take the
same route going east to Enfield,
where we cross over to the N3. From there we
will go to Dunsany, Co. Meath, where we will
spend the
last two days with our friends, Mary and Michael
Lydon. Then, on January 3rd, will head back to
Dublin Airport to catch our flight back to Boston.
We
purchased our air fare with Aer Lingus all the
way back in March, so it has been
a long time coming
for us. Now that the time is near, it seems like
we made our plans just yesterday. I will be writing
a lot of travel stories when we come back, and
I hope that they will be just as interesting as
the stories I have already written.
We
have a few new friends that we have met on line
whom we will
try to meet in person. There is Myra Reynolds,
Editor of the Leitrim Guardian, and Ronan Gallagher,
film maker, and Peter Heaney, London businessman,
who are both from Rynn. And, of course, we will
spend a lot of time with our long time friends
and aquaintances. We will also stop into The
Leitrim Genealogy Centre in Ballinamore, and
will go searching
the cemeteries for Terry’s ancestors.
I
still don’t have any new information about
my Casey ancestors or where they came from. There
is a possibility that we may go to the Port of
Sligo to check out the passenger lists of those
who emigrated to Canada.
There
is also a very good possibility that we will
meet my Polish cousin,
Anya, and her husband, when we are at the Lydon’s
in Dunsany, Co. Meath, near Dublin. They moved
to Dublin a few years ago and they live and work
in Dublin. They are going home to spend the holidays
with their family but will be back in Dublin on
December 31st. Terry and I will be in the area
on January 1st and 2nd, so we are trying to arrange
something. This will be the first time since the
1920’s that anyone from our branch of the
family will meet their branch. My mother and her
sister went to Poland and Russia with my grandparents
when they were teenagers. I’m very excited
about connecting with them.
We
have added a short film submitted by Ronan Gallagher
called Tall
Tales and Pony Tails.
This is a film on the Mohill Story-Telling Festival
and Horse Fair which is held every October Bank
Holiday weekend, and which was highlighted on RTE
Radio's Mooney show. It was filmed, directed and
produced by Ronan Gallagher; edited by David Spence;
and music was provided with kind permission of
Kila.
I
received an email from Phil O’Brien
letting us know that they now have their own web
site www.mohillbedandbreakfast.ie.
Their site has information and photos about The
Traveller’s Rest, their B & B, and
O’Brien’s Tavern, their pub. They include
local entertainment venues and festivals, Gaelic
football leagues, fishing in the many lakes and
rivers, and cruising on the River Shannon. Phil
and Jim, welcome to the world wide web!
Traditional
Irish Christmas Cake
I
mentioned the Traditional
Irish Christmas Cake in
the November newsletter, which I have now
finished making and it is on line. It
is a whiskey soaked fruitcake with marzipan
and royal icing. It takes several weeks to
prepare
but, if you start right now, it should be ready
just in time for Christmas. I have also prepared
another delicious dessert for those who prefer
no liqueur, which is Chocolate
Pots with Crunchy Irish Oatmeal Cookies.
Chocolate
Pots with Crunchy Irish Oatmeal Cookies
I am going to take a month off and
will not write a January newsletter. We will be
back from our
trip early in January and I will get back on track
in February. There should be a lot of great stories
and news to report.
On behalf of everyone here at LittleShamrocks.com,
I thank you for your patronage over the past year.
I wish you all wonderful Happy Holidays and a prosperous
2010. See you next year ...
Sláinte,
Tyna
