Donkey love!

Arrived in Dublin! Flight was good despite being delayed due to those nasty thunderstorms in Toronto on Fri night. We quickly picked up our rental car at the airport and headed for Tipperary. We are staying in the smal. Town of Clogheen at The Old Convent hotel - a former convent of the Blessed Heart order who were nurses and teachers in this area for many years. This whole area has gone mad over the final hurling championship of which the Tipperary team is a finalist. The team colours fly from almost every home and business. The final is on Sunday on Sunday.

A young American woman and her Irish chef husband bought the convent 6 years ago from the nuns and have turned it into a first rate hotel and restaurant - the food is excellent. They raise their own chickens and also have a few rescue donkeys on site. They told us a very funny story about the donkeys. They had 3 female donkeys to start and then heard of a neglected and abused male donkey who needed a home. They initially said no because the male donkey had not been neutered but relented and put the donkey in a separate pen away from the other donkeys. However despite his poor health and physical condition the male donkey got out of his pen the first night, headed for the female donkeys and managed to impregnate all 3 donkeys in one night! They now have 7 donkeys living on site.












Sunday we got up early, had a huge Irish breakfast and hit the road. We headed for Ballybacon church to visit the grave of my grandfather Richard Walsh. The church is in a remote rural area of Tipperary with stunning scenery of the Knockmealdown mountains. His grave is among many others from the Walsh family.












We then headed off to search for the Walsh "ancestral home" near Ardfinnan where my grandfather, his parents and 8 siblings lived. We got a bit lost and asked a woman walking along the road for directions. Turned out she is married to my second cousin Paddy Duggan whose mother was a niece of my grandfathers. Within minutes we brought to their home introduced to everyone, plied with wine and had 2 hours of hilarious conversation. Here are some pics of Paddy, his wife Nora and daughter Ellen









After all that we finally arrived at the Walsh ancestral home where Anne Walsh who married a nephew of my grandfather still lives.






The place is a bit dilapidated with farm animals wandering about (see horse above). Only in Ireland would someone say about their home "the house seems a bit small but we built an extension on in 1901"! I learned quite a bit more geneological information about the Walshes from Anne which was great. Then we drove on to the Condon ancestral home, an ancient Norman keep near Mitchelstown. Very interesting and rare tower built with curved corners




On tomorrow to Westport to hopefully climb Croagh Patrick. Weather has been amazing - sunny and warm both days. Even the locals can't believe it!

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