Our last morning at Marless House meant the last opportunity to indulge in the world’s greatest French toast. Tom and Mary Geraghty are among the nicest people we’ve met in Ireland, and staying with them is an absolute delight. Having been in the B&B industry for 33 years, they truly have it down to a science. 
We turned in our keys at Marless House and Mary and Tom wished us a safe journey home. Before heading to Swords in County Dublin (where we were scheduled to stay for the night before our morning flight home to Chicago), we stopped by the Galway West Genealogy Centre to thank Brian and update him as to our success.
Brian, dressed in a tan wool sweater, greeted us with his trademark smile, which always bespeaks a certain eagerness to perform further genealogical research. We told him that although we were unable to meet any certain relatives and narrow down the family in the 1901 census, we had spoken with many nice people and had left information with them and our addresses, in hopes that they will learn something and get back to us.
“Just to find your homeland,” said Brian, “is an amazing achievement. Did you feel at home there? If so, that’s all that matters.”
We admitted that we did feel a strange connection to the rugged landscape, and expressed our surprise of the accommodating nature that all of its people exhibited toward us. “Well they look at you like family returning home,” explained Brian. “They all know how tough times were and how people had to leave [for America]. They greet you as one of them, one of their people, coming back home.” Brian’s succinct words explained quite a bit. We thanked him one final time and wished him well, promising to contact him for further research should we come upon more leads once back in the U.S.
We took the N6 toward Dublin, planning a detour to visit the New Grange Neolithic burial mound near Drogheda. New Grange was an impressive display of neolithic life: a gigantic mound of earth and stone, built 5200 years ago (before the pyramids at Giza) and perfectly aligned with the sun's rays during the five days of the annual summer solstice.
After New Grange, we navigated our way toward Swords in County Dublin (just ten minutes north of the airport) where we were booked to stay at Annesley House. For the first time in both trips to Ireland, the Garmin GPS failed us and directed us northwest of the city. We managed to call Annesley House (thanks to my dad's iPhone having an international plan) and get directions back into town and to the B&B.
Annesley House, like it suburban surroundings, was small and compact. The adjacent en suite bathroom was downright tiny and clearly not designed for a 6'4", broad-shoulder person like my dad.
We dropped our things off and got directions from Anne, the proprietor of the B&B, to walk into town for dinner. We walked into the downtown, past the impressive Swords Castle, and enjoyed a burden and a pint at a rather Americanized pub. It was a welcome meal for the final evening before returning to the states.
After dinner, we headed back to Annesley House and packed up our bags full of all of the gifts that we had accumulated for the early morning trip to the airport. Our trip had come to an end and our time spent in Ireland seemed to fly by. It was an amazing journey of ancestral discovery that allowed us to answer, at least in part, the instinctually human question "Where do I come from?"
We turned in our keys at Marless House and Mary and Tom wished us a safe journey home. Before heading to Swords in County Dublin (where we were scheduled to stay for the night before our morning flight home to Chicago), we stopped by the Galway West Genealogy Centre to thank Brian and update him as to our success.
Brian, dressed in a tan wool sweater, greeted us with his trademark smile, which always bespeaks a certain eagerness to perform further genealogical research. We told him that although we were unable to meet any certain relatives and narrow down the family in the 1901 census, we had spoken with many nice people and had left information with them and our addresses, in hopes that they will learn something and get back to us.
“Just to find your homeland,” said Brian, “is an amazing achievement. Did you feel at home there? If so, that’s all that matters.”
We admitted that we did feel a strange connection to the rugged landscape, and expressed our surprise of the accommodating nature that all of its people exhibited toward us. “Well they look at you like family returning home,” explained Brian. “They all know how tough times were and how people had to leave [for America]. They greet you as one of them, one of their people, coming back home.” Brian’s succinct words explained quite a bit. We thanked him one final time and wished him well, promising to contact him for further research should we come upon more leads once back in the U.S.
We took the N6 toward Dublin, planning a detour to visit the New Grange Neolithic burial mound near Drogheda. New Grange was an impressive display of neolithic life: a gigantic mound of earth and stone, built 5200 years ago (before the pyramids at Giza) and perfectly aligned with the sun's rays during the five days of the annual summer solstice.
After New Grange, we navigated our way toward Swords in County Dublin (just ten minutes north of the airport) where we were booked to stay at Annesley House. For the first time in both trips to Ireland, the Garmin GPS failed us and directed us northwest of the city. We managed to call Annesley House (thanks to my dad's iPhone having an international plan) and get directions back into town and to the B&B.
Annesley House, like it suburban surroundings, was small and compact. The adjacent en suite bathroom was downright tiny and clearly not designed for a 6'4", broad-shoulder person like my dad.
We dropped our things off and got directions from Anne, the proprietor of the B&B, to walk into town for dinner. We walked into the downtown, past the impressive Swords Castle, and enjoyed a burden and a pint at a rather Americanized pub. It was a welcome meal for the final evening before returning to the states.
After dinner, we headed back to Annesley House and packed up our bags full of all of the gifts that we had accumulated for the early morning trip to the airport. Our trip had come to an end and our time spent in Ireland seemed to fly by. It was an amazing journey of ancestral discovery that allowed us to answer, at least in part, the instinctually human question "Where do I come from?"
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