My husband passed away 3/31/15. I did not need a boulder up side my head to make me realize that tomorrow is not guaranteed. But a boulder it was to be.  We had many plans but alas, that was not in the cards. I promised my husband that I would not sit in the house and wither away. What better way to keep that promise than to go to Ireland and explore? What little I know of my "roots" is my family, the Parhams, left England for Ireland. Where it goes from there I know not but it will be…

I have been to Ireland twice. But I NEED to go one more time. On my first trip my best friend and I rented a car and had the most amazing visit. But even then we knew that we weren’t seeing the “real” Ireland. By the time we got to the Blarney Castle, we didn’t even want to go in – and we didn’t. There were so many tourists and it just didn’t appeal to us. By then we had been several days into our visit and we found that what we really enjoyed…

One May we rented a house on the shore of Lough Swilly in Rathmullen, Co. Donegal, within sight of the cove that launched the famous Flight of the Earls.

Just after dawn one morning, as my wife and granddaughter slept, I grabbed my camera and car keys and slipped into sweat pants and a plaid shirt and went out the door into the fresh Irish morning. I drove north up the coast road for four or five miles then turned off onto a narrow lane that disappeared between bight…

Hoping to win The Wild West of Ireland contest.

Ireland has always held a special place in my mind and heart and fantasies.  From pictures and reading; I see Ireland as an exciting and beautiful country physically, spiritually, culturally and historically.  

Irish people are strong, hard working, romantic, talented, and witty.  I love their humor.

Celtic Woman is beyond description with my feeble skills with…

(Resurrected below are a few travel tips I scrawled to my much-loved older sister/guide a decade ago.  She prevailed upon me to enter them in your contest.  If some other lucky blokes win, perhaps they'll find them useful.)

Hey, Helen - The Ireland thing is for real.  The mistake most people make in…

The Grace of My Grandfathers

I arrived at dawn at the airport in Nairobi, Kenya jet-lagged from my 30-hour journey from San Francisco.  A battered taxi conveyed me over the rutted highway into the city and to the overcrowded matatu that would carry me several hours into the bush for three months of medical relief work with AIDS orphans. …

I am a 68 years old descendent of an of an Irish immigrant to the United States. Michael Leonard was my ancestor. He immigrated to Canada in 1829 and went from there to Lockport, Niagara, New York. He worked on the canals and farmed in Wiscosin until his death in 1861. My dream was to visit Ireland and walk the land and breathe in the air that my great greats had originated from. I have a fairly active imagination since I am a photograph, teacher and artist. 

I visited Ireland in May…

What an exciting opportunity this might be - to win a trip to Ireland at age 77.  When I was 32 years of age, my husband and I won two tickets on Aer Lingus to Ireland.  While our grandparents had emigrated from the auld sod in the early twentieth century, John and I had never set foot in the Emerald Isle.  What a delight when we saw the green fields from our airplane seats!

We went immediately by car to my grandaunt Alice McMahon's cottage in Miltown Malbay.  Alice had emigrated to…

The W.B.Yeats Society of New York observed its 25th anniversary June 9  with a "Roast and Toast"  of founder Andrew McGowan at the National Arts Club. The event also celebrated the 150th anniversary of the birth of William Butler Yeats, the immortal Irish poet and playwrite, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923. Yeats was born in Sandymount, Dublin, on June 13, 1865.

The stellar evening at the landmark NAC offered readings of Yeats's poetry, as well as in-person and video…

How I long to walk with Yeats to Benbulben's mountain top to view lovely Lissadell and the Strand's shoreline;

then on to visit Drumcliffe Churchyard and the High Cross there.

Then onward and southward to Gort in County Galway to walk along the pathways at Coole Park,

and sit under the Autograph Tree;

and end my day at Yeats dear home at Thoor Baylee.

Tell us why YOU want to experience the ‘Wild West’ of Ireland, and you might win a free 9-day…

Remembrances of the First Time

Farewell to my friends and relations as we leave to go

To the place of my ancestors, so long lost in the fogs of Donegal

We walk on the cliffs that sing with the wind that

Once filled the sails of escape and sadness

I long to trace those roots back to times filled with hope...and gladness

Send…

A trip to the West of Ireland would be a lifetime dream come true for me.  I have never been to Ireland and have always had a great longing to go.  I live in the western side of San Francisco and have many Irish friends and neighbors.  There is a spirit among these people like no other I have felt before.  My Irish friends are loving, spirited and proud people with a gift of gab.  I love spending time with these lovely people.  I have some Irish roots but have not formally explored my…

Well, considering that I have yet to contribute anything to this site, now seems like an excellent place to start. My knowledge of Irish culture is considerably lacking and I wish to amend this vexing predicament, preferably by going on an all inclusive trip to Ireland. Though I may have an innate fondness for all things potato related (or the "starchy tuberous crop" as it is described on Wikipedia), I wish that there could be something more substantial and less spudly connecting me to my…

Dearest Ireland and your Wild West heart, 

I'm sorry that I haven't been able to visit you, yet, Ireland. Somehow, I've known you my whole life without having met you, and always felt we would meet one day. I let it live deeply and quietly within as I dreamed myself into a…

My childhood was blessed with but one grandparent, my County Donegal, Ireland born grandmother.  Fondly I remember "Gamma's" pancakes sprinkled with sugar and warm milk, her boiled apple dumplings and fried doughboys, along with supervised bedside prayers each evening...bodily sustenance and soul food.  Most precious of all, though, were tales of her homeland, last seen as a young woman, which always ended with, "When my ship comes in, Patsy, you and I will go to Ireland".  The seed was…

You never forget your first time in Ireland.  Actually, you never forget anytime spent in Ireland.  Like many others, to me, Ireland feels like home.  Yes, it may sound trite or clichéd, but it is so true!  This is not only because I have Irish ancestry, it is also because I seem to have always been drawn to Ireland.  I have…

          My first trip to my ancestors homeland was one I will never forget. I was so excited to finally be able to see the land where my Great Grandparents lived. The place  that my family would talk about so often. How hard it must of been for them to leave a country they loved so much because of famine and travel to an unknown land so far away never again to see there beautiful birth place again. We arrived in Dublin from an over heated plane. The heat valve got stuck(we were told) and…

Ok, so really I’m completely obsessed with and addicted to Irish butter. We eat it every single day. To be exact, I did the math and we eat 24 ounces every week, which comes out to…drumroll please….72 pounds/32.5 kg a year! It is the best butter on the planet so of course it comes from this magical country. That being said, Ireland is literally in my blood in more ways than one! I’ve always known that my roots on my mother’s side go…

I was thrilled to hear that long departed Brendan Behan, one of my fellow Irish storytellers, has finally been resurrected. “Brendan at the Chelsea Hotel,” a new play about his time in NYC has recently opened off Broadway to tumultuous reviews and much ribaldry, women chasin’ and bar hoppin’. Behan, a rebel, carouser, drinkin’ man’s drinkin’ man, racounteur and above all a writer, taught us that you can be both a fighter and a writer.

I have here in my possession a letter written to…

So ... you think you know Rudy?

You know he went to Notre Dame, and through sheer perseverance he won a spot on the football squad. Because everyone admired his grit so much, he got to suit up for the last game of his senior year, and…