A Night With Old Friends

t was our first Saturday night in Mohill and we decided to go to O'Carolan's Pub. We thought that we would run into some of our old friends there. We were right!

We walked in the door and headed toward the far side of the bar. Who do you suppose was sitting there at the bar? It was Paedar MacRaghnaill and his girlfriend, Ilene. Terry and I stopped and, with huge smiles on our faces, greeted our old friends. They were very happy to see us and joined us at a table.

I told them all about LittleShamrocks.com and that they were mentioned in a few stories. I asked them if I could take their photo to put on the website and they kindly obliged. We asked them if they had gone to Egypt as they had told us that they were going when we were in Ireland for St. Patrick's Day 2005. They said that they did go and had a wonderful time. They mentioned how awesome it was standing next to the pyramids in the Valley of the Kings.

As we reminisced, another couple came over and greeted us. We had met them in 2005 and their names were Pascal and Pauline. Pauline even remembered what I was wearing that night, which was a Kelly green sweater that she had admired. Then I remembered that we had made up nicknames; they were P & P and we were T & T. I asked them if I could photograph them for the website, too, and they agreed.

The six of us visited for a quite a while and, then, who should come to say hello but Gerry Mahan. He was one of the people we had met on our first trip in 1998. We had a nice visit with him as well and I asked him for a photo, too. He laughed and said jokingly, "I will probably get a visit from the FBI" but he agreed to let me take a picture of him.

We stayed at the O'Carolan's Pub until almost 10:00 PM but, because we were still experiencing a bit of jet lag and were tired from walking around in old cemeteries, we retired early. We promised that we would meet them again on the next Saturday night and that we would stay for the dance.

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