Two Irish Coffees with a side order of Sinn Fein

After a nice night at Buncara (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buncrana) and an exchanging of read books with unread ones at a public park (with howling cold winds) we headed towards Rosses Point (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosses_Point), a town near the city of Sligo (said Sly-go) that was being lashed by atlantic winds.

A morning tea diversion to the Grianan Aileach, a 2,000 + year old stone defensive position for the locals (http://www.welovedonegal.com/grianan-aileach-grianan-ailligh.html) was fantastic as was the lunch time diversion to Ardara, a village that does traditional weaving (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ardara,_County_Donegal). We bought a meter of wool for Dee and Gene's shawls. There was a fair bit of drooling over the hand loom and twill wool.

After being buffeted by the Atlantic winds through the night, we headed towards Carrick-on-Shannon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrick-on-Shannon) but was diverted again at the very start with the 5,500 - 6,000 year old Carrowkeel Megalithic Cemetery (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrowkeel_Megalithic_Cemetery). It was a great opportunity to point out to Gene that we probably had ancestors who have been here when it was actively being used.

We showed up at the Thatched Inn (http://www.andersonspub.com/) too early, so we spent the day looking at the town, shops and the town's famine cemetery. The pub was very nice but we couldn't meet the owner as he was meeting Jerry Adams the leader of Sinn Fein. Dee even thinks he was coming to the pub later the night. There was a funeral of a popular man the following day, so he may have come for that. From the comments of the few people there, it obvious it wasn't the place for an impartial discussion about the troubles..... We finished our excellent Irish coffees and retired for the night.

After a morning of domesticity (ie washing and drying of clothes) we headed for Cauldwell. As is the main theme for this adventure, we were again distracted by field of drying peat and a Norman keep (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athenry).

The Norman keep was awesome. When I measured it out, the original keep was exactly the same size as the one we were going to build outside of Brisbane. It was great to see what it really looked like.

Tomorrow we are seeing Bunratty castle and Boherbue, the town that my great grandfather came from.