Connie had a terrible day today…woke up with stomach issues and was able to only choke down some tea and toast for breakfast. She managed to keep things under control until we got to our afternoon destination at the Sligo Park Hotel (a pretty swanky place I might add) then had to visit the facilities for awhile followed by a nap after Neil helped her back into bed. She was feeling much better after a 2 hour nap except from being a bit out of it after a day of troubles but felt well enough to head out for dinner. She had a Coke and some bread with various pate’s, spreads, and olives because it sounded good to her. Neil had a couple o pints and some garlic prawns…for which Connie will hate him later as it will surely make his breath smell.
Anyway; we still stopped by our scheduled destinations for a look-see on the way to Sligo although Connie mostly stayed in the car except for the Knock Shrine which was one of her must do’s for the trip.
Our first stop was right up the road a bit from the Ballynahinch Castle Hotel…we stopped and got a photo of the Giant of Connemara. It’s actually a statue of Conn a Mara (which is Connor of the Sea in Gaelic) who was an famous old guy here in the peninsula…so famous that they eventually named it after him. Looks like he invented Tebowing long before the more modern SEC football version did.
From there we grabbed a few shots of one of the many lochs (lakes) in the area since it was still sort of sunny and then headed off to the Knock shrine.
Another 70 kilometers or or so up the road we got the the Knock Shrine…which is dedicated to an apparition in August o 1879 when the Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, St. John the Evangelist appeared to a young girl and 15 witnesses surrounded by an altar, cross, lamb, and angels. It lasted about 2 hours and many miraculous cures have been reported over the years since. Here’s a shot of the more recently constructed Basilica near the site as well as the shrine which is at the location the apparition happened.
Neil zoomed in to get this last shot…and couldn’t help but notice that it looks a lot like Mary is telling us that it’s Fourth Down and a Foot to go…but maybe that’s just him. I think we’ll just call this one “Fourth and Short Mary” to go along with TD and First Down Jesus from earlier in the week.
From there we headed off to Clonalis House…which is the ancestral home of the O’Connor clan…who were the rulers of this part of Ireland (or at least part of the local bigwig group). The O’Connor’s might (or might not) be the ancestors of Neil’s 8 times great grandfather on his mother’s side Thomas Connor who might (or might not) have changed his name from O’Connor to Connor when he emigrated. On the other hand…Connor’s and O’Connor are very common names here so maybe this is all just a bunch of hooey. Connie wasn’t able to narrow down the ancestry any more than that Thomas was born Oct 29, 1619 in Ireland and died in Virginia in 1688. Anyway…here’s a shot of the house…doesn’t look much like a castle to Neil…but then he thinks a castle needs a moat and a drawbridge along with a dungeon…but that’s just him.
After that we headed for Sligo…Neil happened to notice a place where they were drying peat and stopped to get a couple of close ups for ya. The flat pieces are about 4 by 8 inches in cross section and 4 feet long or so…the stacked ones are maybe a foot or 15 inches long. Once dry they make really good firewood.
We got to the hotel and Connie took her aforementioned nap then we headed downtown and had dinner at Hargadon Brother’s Pub…Neil had his usual pint of Guinness followed by a pint of Franciscan Well Stout…which was really good as well. We stopped by the Tosco on the way back to the car and got more cookies and a Coke for some snacks.
Tomorrow we are going to figure out how to do some laundry early then head off to the Baloycroy National Park west of here. Sunday we have Mass and a couple of things to see that are a bit closer. After that we’ll cross over into Northern Ireland for all but the last night of our trip.
Cyas.
Travels with Gunther and Kara 
hi yall – hope yer feelin’ better connie – mebbe sumpin u et ??? hope u r snappin’ back ok…
ok, here goes…
didn’t know or ever hear ’bout the Detroit angle – cornfused the beejeezus outa me, so ‘ol ‘puterboy went surfin’ – coupla links fer ya –
http:historydetroit.com
szgenes.com/lucke_meyer/index.htm
-surname index – L – laubenthal (1st wife named meyer – we are cross-referenced by last name)
hope I put those in right…
ok, Detroit – founded 7-24-1701 by a French dude – Antoine de la Mothe, Sieur de Cadillac. now he aint irish, he aint german, BUT… he arrived in mobile bay in 1713 as guvner of Louisiana (seems old/new mobile wuz the capital of new france/Louisiana back then), left + returned to france in 1717 – no mention of any germans involved, only hizzoner followed by the Bienville brothers, et al – they went on to found n’awlins… so, I’m thinkin’ (scary thought) ’bout the irish connection, wonderin’ on ancestry + such, started surfin’ backasswards – the 2nd link above will take ya where I been, ok ?
so…
our dad, JB – born 9-10-16, sunflower
passed 11-18-92, mobile
his dad, our granddad – George William – born 11-3-1881, Holgate, ohio
passed 11-8-1952, mobile
his granddad, our great granddad – John Jacob – born 1-31-1845, Prussia, Germany
passed 6-26-1922, city unknown
civil war pow part of 1865, 2 wives, worked as
a farm hand
his great granddad, our great great granddad – Jas – born 1810, no other info located (yet)… probably not a lotta info to be gleaned though – ellisisland.org had no name matches in its database.
mebbe sumbody smarter than me kin help – goes without sayin that records from the early/mid 1800s are gonna be damn sketchy – jas probly got here pre-ellis island anyway – did sum “ships manifest” huntin’, no luck there…
curious though – when I wuz in Germany (’74-’75), I checked a few rothaus (courthouse) city registries – no “Laubenthal” listings to be found – Germany wuz still divided then + if I aint mistaken Prussia wuz part of east Germany, other side of the wall – that could have some bearing… by the way, “Laubenthal”, literally translated from the german, means “lion of/in the valley”… dunno ifn there’s any way at all to trace forward from the connor/O’Connor end of things, don’t seem likely. still it would be way cool if there wuz a way to fill in summore of the blanks…
wordy cuss, aint I !!! I thought yall might find summa dat helpful, wish I coulda found more – oh well…
yall be good – hope yer feelin better connie – vacation aint no time fer the barfalonus…
p.s. – will update the above if/when I kin dig up sumpin new…
p.p.s. – I still think them sheep’re purty…
me
Yeah, she’s feeling better today…24 hour bug.
All that stuff about founding Detroit is what she found out on Ancestry.com and through her genealogical research she’s been doing…it all means bupkis to me.
I keep wondering if the dye on the sheep is water soluble or not. Seems like if it was it would wash off when it rains and if it wasn’t then the wood would be stained when the shear them…although I guess they bleach and then dye it whatever color they want so maybe it doesn’t matter.
> >
UPDATE…
ooops…, rong button – check this out – googlemaps shows a “Laubenthal Beyern, Germany” – WTF !!! roughly 200 miles or so southeast of Frankfurt – looks like a heavily forested area, one road thru it (don’t see any buildings) mebbe a small village/hamlet… Jeez, never knew it… the german courthouse city registries I checked (kaiserslautern, landstuhl, honaeken, ramstein) never found a family name for “Laubenthal”, yet they have a village by that name not that far away ? wonder why/how they didn’t know that – strange… I kin understand “we have no one by that name in this town” – i’ll buy that – but these registries (some old + handwritten) never made mention of a small village with the same name just up the road a ways. mebbe its not much more than forestland or a wide spot in the ‘bahn, but hell, it’s there…
records located indicate john Jacob died in mobile – if I ‘member correkly he shows up in ohio census in 1880, 1890, 1900, mobile census in 1910. missed that 1st time around… ich liebe deutche, but I wanna be irish too – luv the brogue, know what I mean ???
if connie (glad she’s better) is into genieology(?), mebbe she kin throw a rope over jas + previous generations’ info – I’m commin’ up dry so far huntin’ family trees in Germany – don’t figger jas ever made it stateside, + while I could still order dinner in german the sites I’ve seen so far are all in german – I aint that good – sprecken zie deutche anybody ??? been lookin’ fer a site with one o’ them itty-bitty US flags, one click + you bees translated – aint nary a one… max nix (oh well)…
yall be good, glad c is doin ok, have a brew or 2 (or 17) fer me – seamus O’, signin’ off…