Maureen Kelley-Olson's Posts - The Wild Geese2024-03-29T14:28:45ZMaureen Kelley-Olsonhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/MaureenKelleyOlsonhttps://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/68534582?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blog/feed?user=379hneiqi0x8t&xn_auth=noConey Island, Co. Sligo Looking Out at Sligo Baytag:thewildgeese.irish,2017-09-17:6442157:BlogPost:2224312017-09-17T10:00:00.000ZMaureen Kelley-Olsonhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/MaureenKelleyOlson
<p><strong><span class="font-size-5">T</span>he others climbed down to the beach, and I had my "moment" of arrival in Ireland</strong>: "This is where it all began!" It was so beautiful I felt the tears just well up.<a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84721759?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="750" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84721759?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" class="align-full" width="750"/></a></p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-5">T</span>he others climbed down to the beach, and I had my "moment" of arrival in Ireland</strong>: "This is where it all began!" It was so beautiful I felt the tears just well up.<a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84721759?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="750" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84721759?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" class="align-full" width="750"/></a></p>Coney Island, Co. Sligotag:thewildgeese.irish,2017-09-17:6442157:BlogPost:2223262017-09-17T10:00:00.000ZMaureen Kelley-Olsonhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/MaureenKelleyOlson
<p><strong><span class="font-size-5">O</span>n the Second Morning of our tour</strong>, we traveled to Coney Island...( and yes, Coney Island in New York is named for her!) Our guide Martin Byrne serenaded me with Maguire's March, in honor of my Irish Language Teacher here in Richmond, Denis Maguire.…<a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84722057?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84722057?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"></img></a></p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-5">O</span>n the Second Morning of our tour</strong>, we traveled to Coney Island...( and yes, Coney Island in New York is named for her!) Our guide Martin Byrne serenaded me with Maguire's March, in honor of my Irish Language Teacher here in Richmond, Denis Maguire.<a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84722057?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="750" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84722057?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" class="align-full" width="750"/></a></p>Embracing a Scholar, a Storm and Sligo's Sacred Spacestag:thewildgeese.irish,2015-12-07:6442157:BlogPost:1772352015-12-07T01:00:00.000ZMaureen Kelley-Olsonhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/MaureenKelleyOlson
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<p><strong><span class="font-size-5">I</span>n October, we spent time traveling in Ireland</strong> via a tour from <em>Wild West Irish Tours i</em>n October, a prize for winning last spring's <a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/group/the-wild-west-of-ireland-you-won-t-forget-your-fir?" target="_self">"The Wild West of Ireland: You Won't Forget Your First…</a></p>
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<p><strong><span class="font-size-5">I</span>n October, we spent time traveling in Ireland</strong> via a tour from <em>Wild West Irish Tours i</em>n October, a prize for winning last spring's <a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/group/the-wild-west-of-ireland-you-won-t-forget-your-fir?" target="_self">"The Wild West of Ireland: You Won't Forget Your First Time"</a> competition produced by TheWildGeese.Irish.</p>
<p><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84715937?profile=original" width="171" class="align-right"/>Dr. Michael Roberts of the Sligo Myths & Legends Summer School came to fetch us. He spoke about Carrowmore, the megalithic cemetery dating to about 5700 B.C., mentioning that, from the beginning, man has sensed a presence of a God who created all of creation, and that that worship has followed the cycles of nature: winter to spring to summer to fall, day to night, birth, childhood, youth, young adulthood, maturity, old age and eventually death.</p>
<p>Dr. Roberts explained how sacred spaces and living spaces were laid out in similar fashion. He noted that sacred spaces often started at a source of water, typically a spring stream. A circle was cleared around that spring by stripping the bark, causing the nearby trees to fall and clear that circle, creating a sacred grove at the heart of the new community. The settlement was laid out in concentric circles that approached an oval shape as they grew larger. The remnants of these are the basis for what are known as the fairy forts.</p>
<p>On our way up the hill to the stone circle and the large tomb, the sky turned dark, a strong wind whipped up sideways, followed by rain, and then ice, again, falling sideways. This lasted for about 10 minutes, and then the sun came out again.</p>
<p><img width="128" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84715945?profile=RESIZE_180x180" width="128" class="align-left"/>From Carrowmore, Dr. Roberts took us to Tobernalt, a holy well. The spring was created, according to legend, from the tears of a young woman for her dead lover, killed by a rival for her affections. She died of grief, and her tears, supplemented with father's, flowed into the spring, with the resultant stream filling Lough Gill. Meanwhile, her funeral pyre became lodged in the lough, becoming one of its islands. </p>
<p>Tobernalt has been a holy place from long before Christianity and is now a shrine to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The site holds a plain stone pillar that served as an altar in the days when the Catholic Mass was outlawed. Dr. Roberts told us that we could lean into a hollow in the altar, or fit our fingers into a set of holes to ask for any physical ailment to be removed.</p>
<p>This place was the quietest, most still place I have ever been, despite numerous people there to pray. I cannot describe the experience in words. It was one of the most meaningful moments of the tour.</p>
<p>The legend is related in more detail in Dr. Robert's book "The Cailleach of Sligo: Stories and Myths from the Northwest of Ireland," in the chapter "The Lake of Tears." He tells it much more meaningfully than I ever could.</p>Many Thanks to The Wild Geese and Wild West Irish Tourstag:thewildgeese.irish,2015-11-25:6442157:BlogPost:1763032015-11-25T14:00:00.000ZMaureen Kelley-Olsonhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/MaureenKelleyOlson
<p>I cannot Thank Gerry Regan, Michael and Trish of Wild West Irish Tours and the staff at WOW Airlines enough for the trip of a lifetime! I've been without Internet access, and will be getting together with Dan again over Thanksgiving to retell the trip to family and friends and get our pics together ... I was able to get some great shots before my camera quit, and luckily Dan was able to get what I did not. I'll also be showing him how to upload and attach pics to e-mail!</p>
<p>BUT THE…</p>
<p>I cannot Thank Gerry Regan, Michael and Trish of Wild West Irish Tours and the staff at WOW Airlines enough for the trip of a lifetime! I've been without Internet access, and will be getting together with Dan again over Thanksgiving to retell the trip to family and friends and get our pics together ... I was able to get some great shots before my camera quit, and luckily Dan was able to get what I did not. I'll also be showing him how to upload and attach pics to e-mail!</p>
<p>BUT THE TRIP! I was up at 4:30 a.m. the Wednesday morning of and was SO excited. Did not arrive in Dublin until 10 a.m. Dublin time. 5 a.m. our time on Thursday. The Hotel was full, so they put us up at a lovely B & B nearby. We crashed for a few hours and then ventured out to see what Dublin is like.... For one thing SO HUGE compared to Richmond! We really just had time for dinner, and a stroll around the neighborhood. </p>
<p>Friday was a leisurely morning. Martin Byrne had to do some juggling of vehicles to accommodate us all, then he collected the others from the airport, and then Dan & Me from the B & B. It was amazing to me that we crossed from Dublin to Sligo in just 2 1/2 hours. I was just so full of joy I could hardly take it all in! There's no way to describe how vibrant the greens are there! I was having fun with the place, and road names in Irish, and every round-a-bout has a name! I can't for the life of me remember the Irish word for roundabout, but there was Bó Rua The Red Bull roundabout and Uisce Tómás, Tom's Whiskey Round-about... We stopped for lunch at the big hotel in Carrick on Shannon, and then Martin stopped at the Statue of the Celtic Warrior to show us the pass that was the crossroads for most of the major battles in the West Coast of Ireland. He spoke of Red Hugh O'Donnell, and The Battle of the Curlews having taken place here, and that all of the castles of Sligo, except for Parke's Castle, had been dismanteled either during or after battles with the English. I will stop here, because this is where my pictures begin, and I will finish the story with pictures as early as I can in the week!</p>The Summer's Gone and I Dream of Ireland!tag:thewildgeese.irish,2015-09-11:6442157:BlogPost:1700302015-09-11T21:00:00.000ZMaureen Kelley-Olsonhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/MaureenKelleyOlson
<p><strong><span class="font-size-5">T</span>hanks to everyone who posted good wishes</strong> on my win of the Wild West of Ireland Tour: Kathryn Ann, Fran, Bit, Angela and anyone else I've neglected to mention. A special thanks to Ger Regan, Mike & Trish of WIld West Irish Tours, Jon Ragnar Jonsson and all the others at WOW Air who are helping to make this happen.</p>
<p>My mother has decided that it's just too much for her to travel across time zones. My sister and both my aunts had…</p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-5">T</span>hanks to everyone who posted good wishes</strong> on my win of the Wild West of Ireland Tour: Kathryn Ann, Fran, Bit, Angela and anyone else I've neglected to mention. A special thanks to Ger Regan, Mike & Trish of WIld West Irish Tours, Jon Ragnar Jonsson and all the others at WOW Air who are helping to make this happen.</p>
<p>My mother has decided that it's just too much for her to travel across time zones. My sister and both my aunts had plates too full to make the trip... All of us in the time between July and August. Sooo... I'm going with my mother's brother Dan, my uncle.</p>
<p>Dan is close in age to me, and was my go-to person for advice during my college days. He introduced me to "Doctor Zhivago," The Clancy Brothers, and took me drinking the first time, so I'd know how to handle myself when I was tipsy. Now we're two old retired people, and I'm very grateful to his Love, Ramona, for letting me borrow him for this adventure!</p>My Wish to Visit The Wild West of Irelandtag:thewildgeese.irish,2015-05-29:6442157:BlogPost:1589792015-05-29T14:30:00.000ZMaureen Kelley-Olsonhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/MaureenKelleyOlson
<p>I often tell my friends that the only way I'll ever make it to Ireland is to win the Lottery or to write the great Irish-American Novel. I am disabled, and on a limited income, so there's very little chance to save up for something like this. If I go to Ireland I would like to take my 78 y.o. Mother for the mother/daughter trip of a lifetime. I would like to give her the trip that she and my Grandmother had always hoped to make to my Great-Grandmother’s home. I remember my Great-Grandmother.…</p>
<p>I often tell my friends that the only way I'll ever make it to Ireland is to win the Lottery or to write the great Irish-American Novel. I am disabled, and on a limited income, so there's very little chance to save up for something like this. If I go to Ireland I would like to take my 78 y.o. Mother for the mother/daughter trip of a lifetime. I would like to give her the trip that she and my Grandmother had always hoped to make to my Great-Grandmother’s home. I remember my Great-Grandmother. I was astonished when at the age of six my mother told me the story of how Great-Grammie walked all night, bare-footed in order to save her shoes, from Carraroe to catch the train to catch the boat to Boston. She was 16 years old, an orphan, and on her own. She traveled to Boston and then on to Maine where she raised a family of ten children on various Islands off the coast with her lighthouse-keeper husband. They lived off the land and sea much as she had growing up in the Wild West of Ireland. Grammie crocheted Irish Lace to earn her passage. There were five girls in her family, and once Grammie landed in the states she sent money back to bring her sisters here. They all spoke Irish. From the age of six I have wanted to make the trip full circle, from the Mid-Atlantic, to the Rocky Coast of Maine, to the Wild West of Ireland. The Literature, the Language, the Music and Dance cannot entirely capture the true spirit of Ireland unless I can also feel the wind on my face, and meet the people who live and work there. I long to experience it all, my own family history first hand together with my Mother.</p>
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<p><b>Tell us why YOU want to experience the ‘Wild West’ of Ireland, and you might win a free 9-day trip there, courtesy of Wild West Irish Tours and WOW Air.</b> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://thewildgeese.irish/group/the-wild-west-of-ireland-you-won-t-forget-your-fir" target="_self"><b>Get the details!</b></a></p>
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