My Journies index page

I dreamed a dream of a mystical and ancient land. A land where the runes were once cast and a magical web was woven. This was a land where saint and scholar and bard were one, and many wise ones from around the ancient world came to study there. The High Priest of all the other lands said, "Pay homage to me, for I am the High Priest," And, the saints and scholars and bards said, "No! For we receive our wisdom direct from the Holy Land, and from the fish of the lakes and the fowl of the air; the wind from the mountains and the whispering of the trees." So, the High Priest sent the King to this land and forced the saints and the scholars and the bards to pay homage to the High Priest. Though later the King and High Priest became enemies, the King held this land in cruel subjection for eight hundred years; causing many of her children to starve and many others to leave. Those who had died called out from the ground in despair, yet, the runes had been cast and the web had been woven and the King was forced to leave. Slowly the crops began to grow and prosperity began to return to the land; prosperity paid for by the blood of those who died and the tears of those who left. This became an ancient and mystical land again, this land of my dream. This land of saint and scholar and bard; of Yeats and O'Carolan, Moore and O'Casey. This land of gorse covered hills, lakes and rivers bordered by rushes, with its green fields and lush peat bogs. This land of Tir na nOg. This land of Ireland.

Let me first say that not all the methods of research which I have used over the years were either efficient or productive. In many cases I blundered around, like a child in the wilderness, with nothing but a dream. I never knew my grandparents, but I gleaned a little of my maternal ancestors from the anecdotes of my mother. My father never spoke of his family, probably due to the early death of his father in 1921. For the first few years I failed to organise my notes and ended up having to go over the same material again and again. I did stick to one rule meticulously, maybe to a fault, but I would never use information which I did not first verify from a number of sources. Now a quarter of a century on from where I first began, I do not have thousands of people in my family tree but, at least I know that those that are belong there. I said at the outset that I never knew my grandparents; well, I know them now. Not only do I know my grand parents but their grandparents too. Below are some pages which I hope may be of some small assistance to others in their search for their Irish Ancestral roots.