valeriesbookofme

My family has loved photographs for a very long time. Although they weren't very good about noting WHO the people in the photographs were, I have photographs and copies of photographs that date back to the late 1800s. For example, this is a photograph of my great great grandfather Torrance, my great grandfather and his brothers: Obviously the oldest man in the photo is my great great grandfather. But which one is my great grandfather and which are his brothers? Who knows? And when was the photo taken? Well, my great great grandfather died a pauper in Glasgow in 1870 at the age of 79. No mention of sons being present with him on his death certificate. My great grandfather was living in Lancashire England at the time, on the verge of marrying my great grandmother. So this photo must have been taken--in the mid 1860s? Before his sons dispersed? It is a genealogical frustration which could so easily have been fixed if whoever first possessed the photo could have written on the...

Richard had read a few websites about Glenveagh Park and was excited to go see it. We had also read about a place called "The Poisoned Glen" and wanted to see that as well. As the weather in Donegal can be fairly grey, we weren't surprised to wake up and see grey skies. But grey skies over intense green and shrouded mountains make for a feeling of peace and timelessness.    This was the view of the Clady River across from An Chuirt.  Somewhere behind that cloud is the famous Mt. Errigal. It is the tallest (2,464 ft) mountain in Donegal and was voted 'Ireland's Most Iconic Mountain' by Walking & Hiking Ireland in 2009.   After encountering it several times over two days, I can well understand why. Dunlewey Church We were hoping we could find The Poisoned Glen before we arrived at Glenveagh Park but we missed the turnoff. Never mind, we had another day to find it. Glenveagh Park is a designated Special Area of Con...

We left Boyle a little after one o'clock and arrived in Sligo at 1:30ish. There was a good parking lot across from Sligo Abbey so we found a space there and went looking for a restaurant. Sligo looked a bit tired, a bit grey. But we found a good Asian Street Food restaurant and enjoyed some lunch. Using my phone's GPS, I figured out where the two cathedrals in Sligo were. Actually across the street from each other. We walked up the street, up to the Church of Ireland Cathedral. Unfortunately, though, its gates were locked. It only opens on Sunday, only for services. Disappointing because it looked like a beautiful cathedral from the outside. The Catholic Cathedral was open, however, and it was beautiful as well: View through the gate of the COI Cathedral Above the entrance to the Roman Catholic Cathedral After visiting the Cathedral, I visited Sligo Abbey. It wasn't an "abbey", it was actually a Dominican friary, built in 1253. It was dest...