Wrapping Things Up

Monday, 29 July 2013

Our last full day in Ireland was spent wrapping some things up and starting on a new project.  After checking out of our B&B, we spent 15 minutes at St McCarten's Cathedral in Monaghan.  They were celebrating the ordination of a new priest, a rare occurrence these days.  St. McCarten's is a beautiful church and has beautiful stained glass windows.  It has no ties to our family, but it was still worth the stop.  Kathy took some great photos, the best of the trip, but only she will be able to see them in her mind's eye because she discovered there was no memory card in her camera - about 10 miles down the road.  Darn!

McKenna headstone
at Newtownsaville
Cemetery

Our next objective was to talk with Eugene Hackett in Newtownsaville about burial records.  When we reached the Hackett store, Aunt Kathy and Rich went into the store so we wouldn't overwhelm Eugene.  Turns out Eugene isn't well, and so they talked to Patricia, his daughter.  She showed them the burial records, and then told them that the records are not complete.  To try to get a better record, they recorded the headstones and then set a date to meet at the cemetery where families could tell them about their family plots.  Of course, many families did not show up - some because they had left the area, others because all the family members had died, and others for whatever reason.  We went again to the cemetery (we'd been there before) just to look at the McKenna headstones one more time.

With Brendan McKenna
on the land where Hugh
McKenna lived

We tried to call Brendan McKenna to see if we could meet with him, but there was no answer.  But you know how it is when a strange phone number shows up on caller id and you don't answer the phone?  Well, we thought that might be the case, and so we drove over to his house, hoping that the third time would be the charm.  And it was!  Brendan was able to tell us his father and grandfather's names, Michael and Johnny, and wished he knew more.  We told him that we would share whatever we found with him, and we hope that we can find something TO share!  Once again, it was awesome to meet with a cousin, and we KNOW that he is one.  That is our quinnly opinion (see previous post for definition of "quinnly").  Oh, and guess what?  Besides being a farmer, Brendan is also the gravedigger for the Newtonsaville cemetery.  

The group with Mary McKenna
at her home, an old church
where Hugh and Mary might
have been married

Next on our agenda was a visit to the Martin and Mary McKenna home in Clogher.  Remember that their home is in the old church where perhaps Hugh and Mary were married?  Mary was trying to help us connect with Father Dawson, the parish priest, about church records that might not be available in PRONI. Unfortunately, he had not returned her phone call, but she is going to continue to follow up with him.  She very kindly gave us a tour of their home, and it is beautiful.  They have done most of the work themselves or have designed what they've had built, like the front door.  It is so cool!  Mary is now family, and we wish we had had more time to spend with them.  We wish them the very best of luck in the All Ireland competition.  

Liz and Aunt Kathy
at Trinity College
in Dublin

Our goal was to leave for Dublin by 1:00 so that we might have time for one group to go to GRO to look for some records and the other group to go see the Book of Kells.  We made it to everything, although the three of us at Trinity College had to wait in line in a downpour, sharing one small umbrella, for 30 minutes.  We then met up in the Temple Bar region and had Todd's favorite lamb stew.  Todd, it really was delicious.

That evening, the two Kathys and Liz filled out forms to order records at GRO, and Rich and Reed worked on the spreadsheet so that we could quickly order the remaining records in the morning.  It was a race to the finish!