Ireland- Day 8- August 13- Visit with Family - Part 1

 With my cousins Noreen and Ger today on fabulous drive to Ballyroan,  Aughmacart, Coolkerry and Rathdowney area in County Laois. Every time our family returned to Ireland on holidays we visited the cemeteries where my Grandparents were buried. shared stories and precious memories about their lives and the legacy they left us. We’d pray at each gravesite and connect with them in this “thin place where earth and heaven embrace in the love we shared and continue to experience in their presence always with us.

The Cribben, Ballyroan Meehan ancestral cottage

View from cottage in Ballyroan

With Ger - enjoying my favorite soft ice cream 

Gravesite of Grandparents Jack Meehan and Katie Doyle Meehan and Uncle Paddy Meehan

Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Molly Meehan gravesite 

 

Augnacart where my Grandmother Bridget Neary Beale was buried

Grandmother Bridget Neary Beale was buried here.

When we stopped at bridge over Erkina River , the only person I knew from childhood drove up- Paddy Delaney. And the in-laws of Ger and Noreen - Bridget and Eugene.
It was one of serendipitous- grace-filled surprises we did not plan or even know where each of us would be. 

Coolkerry-Carroll’s field looks exactly as it did when I was a child.

Eugene and Bridget, Noreen and Ger

Noreen and Bridget 

Coolkerry

River Erkina

Coolkerry cottage- my first home

Grandfather Pat Beale

Grogan Chapel-where my parents were married 

Gravesite of Martin Meehan, Aunt Peg and Uncle Jack

Rathdowney 

Shrine to Blessed Mother on site of old Chapel 

Green building- site where Royal Bank was- place Dad worked as a porter

At Abbeyleix Hotel with Noreen and Ger