How This All Started - Another Trip to Ireland - This Time With GeeGee

MEM at O'Brien's Castle at the Cliffs of Moher

So GeeGee and I headed to Ireland in June 1978 to attend my cousin Eileen O'Sullivan's wedding. We had 2 weeks before meeting up with Julie O'Connell in London for our bus tour through central Europe.

We hit the Cliffs of Moher - this was long before it became so commercialized!

MEM buying a tin whistle at the Cliffs of Moher. This gent was selling them there for years.

We were fascinated by the sign for a bar and an undertaker in the same place!!

We stopped in Ennistymon, County Clare because Granny Flanagan - Ann Dickie's mother - who lived across the street from me on Marshall Street was from there. I wanted to see where she grew up - what her home town was like.

MEM at Muckross




We stopped in Muckross in Killarney. I wanted to show GeeGee some of the sights before we headed for Sneem.

We took a trap into the Gap of Dunloe. Can you tell it was a cool day?
I suppose we bought those Aran sweaters on that trip. 

So after some sightseeing, we headed for Sneem. We spent about a week there - so we began to know some of the local people. I used to go into the Blue Bull Pub in the late morning for coffee while I read the newspaper.

I drank more than coffee in the pubs. Here we are in the Sneem House.

Uncle Mike told us to come out to the house the morning of Eileen's wedding. Now, Loughane is about 6 miles from Sneem, and the Glengariff Church is in the opposite direction over mountains into Cork - not exactly a quick trip!

We were welcomed with the local custom - a glass of whiskey - it is a sign of hospitality. Here I am below with Hannah and Uncle Mike as I try to drink my glass as well as GeeGee’s!!  She always came up with an excuse not to drink it - so everyone gave hers to me! And I hate the taste! Then I had to drive that twisty road to Glengarriff after those whiskies!

Eileen with Kate's aunt and our Uncle Larry O'Sullivan in Loughane.

Patsy's wife Kate - and GeeGee with Marlboros because we all smoked in those days. Notice the ring toss game on the wall behind Kate. My kids would play with that in later years.

Outside the Church in Glengariff.

 It is a custom, at least in Sneem, to take group pictures outside the church after the wedding. Patsy John L and Gussie McCarthy on the left were the two best men. Then Mrs. and Mr. McCarthy - parents of the groom. Connie McCarthy and Eileen with Uncle Mike behind them and Lena beside Eileen.  Then comes Elsie and Peggy McCarthy - the bridesmaids - I seem to remember they had an altercation at the reception - not sure if with each other or someone else. Did one of them end up with a black eye?

The reception was at the Kenmare Bay Hotel - so we drove back over the mountains from the church to Kenmare. In the picture above we have Kate and Patsy, Uncle Larry O’Sullivan – Uncle Mike’s oldest brother, me, and Dick Boland who is a nephew of Uncle Larry’s wife. They were from New Jersey. Dick was 78 in 2008 according to Mollie Hummel, Larry’s daughter.

“THE” Johnny Casey of Loughane that we and future visitors drooled over – he was dancing with GeeGee at the reception at the Kenmare Bay Hotel.

MEM dancing with Larry. There weren't too many dancers! 

So we enjoyed ourselves at the reception - meeting more relatives and more neighbors . Above is Danno McCarthy who is a cousin, Paddy Casey who is a Loughane neighbor, GeeGee, Larry, MEM, and Johnny Casey - Paddy's brother - another neighbor.

At the end of the reception, we were told to head for the pub at the top of the town - everyone would be there. But, as we were leaving, we came upon Lena and Hannah, Larry's mother and sister, sitting alone with no drive home. So we took them with us. I was flying over those twisting turning roads until poor Hannah was sick in the backseat. I pulled over until she recovered - all the while worrying that we would not get to Loughane and back into Sneem before the pub closed. Nice, right?! 

Well, we didn't make it to the pub in time - the door was locked. We hung around for a while in case anyone came out or in case anyone was let in.  No luck - so we went back to the B&B.

Maybe it was the next day that we went to eat dinner at Cait's cafe - the Sacre Coeur. 

Whenever it was, we bumped into someone we knew! Uncle Larry had taken Uncle Mike and Lena out to dinner. And who should the waitress be? Johnny Murphy's mother - she was still working there!

Lena, Uncle Larry, MEM, Eileen Murphy, Dick, and Uncle Mike

The next day or so, GeeGee and I were driving Kate to Tralee Hospital to see her aunt who had fallen and broken her leg. We met Philip at our B&B - he was heading to Killarney - so we took him along. Eileen had asked us to take her friend Connie Ryan to the train station in Killarney - so we picked him up in Loughane. 

We stopped at a pub in Cahirciveen and whom should we bump into? Uncle Larry and Dick!!  Uncle Larry had left Sneem that day without saying goodbye. He said it was too hard to say goodbye to Mike so he left without telling him. He asked me to tell Mike and the family that he had left – that was not pleasant – they were very upset. Mike said Uncle Larry had done this before – when he emigrated to America. I guess it must have been very difficult for Larry to leave home. 

Kate, Dick, Philip, MEM, Uncle Larry, Connie Ryan in Cahirciveen.

Saying goodbye and getting ready to hit the road to Killarney again.

We had a nice hour or so with Uncle Larry and Dick - got to know them better - a new branch on the family tree that I was starting to put together.

But we had to catch a ferry to meet up with Julie in London so we headed for Kinsale a day or so later.  We stayed inside  Kinsale at the White Lady the first night - here we met some locals and some non-locals. 

We took Uncle Jim Keohane out to the Dunderrow Pub - he was very quiet - not like when he would be talking to my father! The second night we stayed at the Dunderrow Pub – it did Bed & Breakfast - this was the night before we took the ferry from Cork to Swansea. What would Aunt Nellie ever think of us spending so much time in the Dunderrow Pub?!?!? 

We found the ferry and headed for London and more adventures!

We spent 30 days on this bus - in the back in the smoking section.

But, after the bus tour, we returned to Sneem. We spent a lot of time with Patsy and Kate and with Larry. We were back in Loughane almost every day. We were really getting to know this part of the family. We also were meeting Larry's friends - we were going to pubs and dances with him. We were learning more about Sneem.

But, GeeGee and I managed to drag ourselves away from Sneem – alright, I admit it - GeeGee insisted that we leave. She wanted to see more of Ireland. We drove to Galway and stayed in Roundstone where we met my father’s cousin Mary King. Of course, we also visited Mrs. Connolly in Ballyconneely - she was like family. 

Julie Connolly giving me pointers on haycocks. She also showed me how to dig potatoes.

Mrs. Connolly, MEM, Julia - look at that front yard!!

While we were in Roundstone, we were trying to find some Raffertys for GeeGee - unfortunately, we didn't find any of her family, but we did meet Joe Rafferty and his son.

I was enjoying these trips to Ireland – they were becoming more and more interesting. I was meeting more of the locals and more relatives – I was learning more and more about my family history and what life was like in Ireland.

Whenever I returned from a trip, my father and mother would be waiting to hear whom I had met and what I had learned. As I said before, Mike Shea, my grandmother’s neighbor from Loughane, would call to find out what news I had for him about Sneem. Most emigrants like to hear news from home.

And although she had dementia, Ma (Margaret Moriarty Keohane) still remembered some of her childhood and her neighbors in Loughane. My father would be playing Irish music in the kitchen, and we would talk about our trips. Ma would tell us bits and pieces about her early life and the people she remembered.

On one of my early trips to Sneem, I met Dan Brennan of the old road from Loughane to Ardmore Cross. He remembered Ma and said she was a great dancer. He used to dance with her at the platform at Ardmore – I call it Paddy Dennehy’s Cross.

My mother and I used to dance with Ma in our kitchen on Marshall Street in Watertown while my father played Irish music. I always made Ma lead - and she never minded - she was so happy to be dancing.

I also started reading about Ireland and going to Irish dances - with my mother and father - at Memorial Hall in Brighton – it didn’t hurt that there were a few single Irish guys like John McClure and Jerry Quinn who asked me to dance. I had already been going out to Irish pubs with Julie, Beth, and GeeGee for years.  Now I started going to Irish dances at the VFW in Brighton, Irish football matches at Dillboy Field, and the various Irish Football Banquets with my sisters, Christine and Jody.

I took Aunt Nellie to Ireland one summer – 1981 – she stayed at Acton’s Hotel. I had some great times with cousins Anne and Vincie O’Sullivan when I stayed in the old cottage in Ballythomas – Uncle Jim had died since my last trip. Anne was Uncle Jim’s granddaughter. I visited more relatives with Aunt Nellie – I found their stories very interesting - I even tape recorded one visit. 

Then I went to Sneem and almost forgot to go back to pick up Aunt Nellie because I was having such a good time with Larry – I met the men he worked for and spent time with their families. I went to the bog and hayfields with him as well as to pubs and dances. I was enjoying this time in Sneem.

I continued spending summers in Sneem. I enjoyed visiting the old people to hear what their lives had been like – I was asking them if they remembered my grandmother or anyone in her family.

Suddenly it hit me - I realized that I was turning into my father! 

I had even begun to look up Baptismal and Marriage records – I had started taking genealogy classes - I had written up a short history about the Moriartys.  

I was WORSE than my father!!!!!

This blog is an expansion of that short history that I wrote, but I have also included what I know about the Keohane side. I feel my purpose in life is to write my family’s early history so that, as far as possible, no one is forgotten. And this blog is the perfect way to share that story!