Boherbue

On Saturday, we finally drove into Boherbue, the town where my maternal great-grandfather Carroll was born. I was happy enough be in the area where a fair part of my DNA came from and wonder how many people that I saw at the café, supermarket and pub were related to me as 5^th or 6^th cousins. Dee asked the barman and he was quite helpful. In fact, he drove me 1 minute down the road (leaving the bar unattended) and showed me the green house where a gentleman called Loui could help me in my search. Loui is a 80+ year old retired teach who is a font of local knowledge. I later found out he was out of town on a holiday. I was lucky enough to not need his services.

There didn’t seem to be any people left in the town called Carroll and I wasn’t really planning on knocking on their door and embracing them as long lost kin. That’s too ‘National Lampoon European Vacation’ for me.

My Mum told me that the original home was probably knocked down but had sent me 2 photos of the place taken in 1984. I was able to show them the photos on my laptop.

The bartender’s grandfather and mate were at the pub so I showed them the 2 photos. The grandfather was able to give me very exact directions to the place as it was still standing. Since it was only in the late afternoon and the sun was setting in only 5 hours we drove to look. I’m generally dubious of locals giving directions (eg Go down the road and turn right at the tree) but his was right on the money.

Comparing the photos to the building, you could see that the original walls had been given another layer of concrete and the original doorway had been made a window and another window was made as a new door with a little entrance coming out of the house.

Even though the window panes and frames were gone, the doors were locked. That didn’t stop Gene and me climbing through a window to look inside. Knowing you were standing in a house built over 150 years and lived in by your ancestors isn’t something that most non-indigenous people in Australia would normally experience.

The bartender was pretty chuffed.

We decided to stay in the town Church’s carpark as it was close to the pub and near a take-away shop that sold hot, garlic potato chips with cheese (OMG!). The pub was hosting a 21^st birthday party that night, so I saw the youth of the area socialising when I was uploading photos and FBing.

While I was in the pub, one of the boys tried to open the driver’s door which was locked but his mate reminded him that the bloke in the pub owned the camper van, so he ran off. I seem to have that effect on people. Later on in the night, someone stood on the back step but departed when I called out, “Would you kindly fuck off!”

J

Today, we drove to Dublin and intended to see the Bloom flower festival but with 100,000 people expected there, we decided to visit the National Museum of Ireland. Whilst good, we decided to find a caravan park for the night and not continue our exploring of the city. Tomorrow we’ll have a full day of exploring Dublin, especially seeing another page of the Book of Kells and a chocolate factory.

And it just hailed!