The History of The Irish...Worldwide
Wexford Ancestors & Druids
UPDATE: My Irish Backpacking, No-Low Budget, Roving Reporter Tour So Far!
The Ferry to Rosslaire across the Irish Sea from Pembrook or a flight to Dublin from Warwickshire and a train down to the Parish of Carne and the most likely villages of my Scallion and Doyle ancestors? A bus to one of the two hostels in Gorey and/or pick up a tent and sleeping bag and camp out at beautiful Carnesore Point. Well as a 60 year old this isn't the accommodation of my dreams but a good pair of shoes, a carry on knapsack filled with protein bars will sustain this old body and my excitement will carry me as if I have wings! Just to tour the County of Wexford on the hunt for the old church ruins, crossroads and villages of my Irish immigrant ancestors is so exciting to me that staying in quaint little b&b's will be icing on the cake if I can find the resources, if not no matter the Ireland leg of my tour is pretty wide open!
TheNewWildGeese.com site works beautifully on my Playbook, using my Blackberry phone as a modem and connected to my bluetooth keyboard, although I have to edit immediately as the only way to delete is one 'hit' on the delete button at a time and since I went 'offline' this has all now become my portable computer. This and my summer night shift job is all assisting me to achieve my dream of finally getting to Ireland but all the connections and research has been limited by lack of time and wifi.
I will be recording short clips of video on my playbook for a personal doc series called By Her Roots Part 2 which I will write and edit when I return in September. I am planning on blogging as often as possible on my journey for my friends and family. Where do the druids come in? I will also be looking for any and all known and not so well known druidic sites within the lands of my ancestors, as in Carne, and apparantly there is a stone circle in Wexford that is not well known that an author of druid material has offered to show me if he can find it again! That part of my investigation will start with Stonehenge, Avebury Glastonbury and the stone circle at Stratford, all areas of my midlands needle-making ancestors.
I have created a spreadsheet that shows the crossover of surnames, dates and parishes of my Scallions, Johnsons and Doyles in Wexford and Halifax Nova Scotia from 1770-1820 and have some people in Halifax combing through their copies of Terrence Punch's 'Erin's Sons' (4 volumes) http://www.amazon.ca/Erins-Sons-Arrivals-Atlantic-1761-1853/dp/0806... as I have only been able to glean some valuable bits of info from ancestry's snippets and google books previews but I got some great stuff. Terrence Punch has said I am on the right track but sadly he does not have a list of immigrants by county so I am working on it myself and depending on my contacts in Halifax to assist with this and other books on early Nova Scotia Irish immigrants as at this point all I have enough money for is a one way ticket to London but am working very hard and keep adding to the cookie jar.
I will try to post a couple times a week as this trip is unfolding quickly and responses to my queries are coming in fast now. If anyone has friends or family in Wexford that could assist me I would greatly appreciate it if you would forward this blog to them. I have connected with a man on http://www.irelandxo.com who is looking into the fact that most likely it was one of his ancestors that was a sponsor at a baptism for one of my Scallions in 1794 in Ballysheen near Lady's Island or Ballyphane as it is known now and were the 'lobster pot' is. Henry Healy has informed me that sadly there is no volunteers to assist the diaspora in Wexford but there is a genealogist so I have posted what I have so far on the 'Parish of Kilscoran' page which I have been told by Wexford Union office is where the records for all the little 'hamlets' and parishes I have listed are kept and that there are a lot of records yet to be transcribed so I am trying to find out who to contact for those. I have attached the spreadsheet that I started which is in the initial phase as I have a lot more data to insert. I really feel like I am on to something and very close to connect many of Wexford's Irish descendants in Nova Scotia to their origins for the first time. I do not have any clues as to my County Mayo O'Neills, my Maguires, Connors, Hacketts so I will probably just hang out in Wexford...although Dr. Tyrone Bowes of http://www.irishorigenes.com and Adrian Martyn the Martin tribe of Galway historian have a pint at the pub waiting for me...may just take the train out there and fly out from Galway!
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Comment by Bit Devine on July 22, 2013 at 2:14pm
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There are decent, affordable B&Bs throughout Ireland. The Bue Door in Wexford town is usually quite reasonable, I think around 50€. It is at City Centre so very pedestrian friendly. Around Gorey, Hillside B&B is usually around 45€
As to the Stone Ciircle, perhaps it is the one at Robinsontown to which they are referring?
A few years older, and you would qualify for the Irishrail pass... but it is still an affordable means of getting around. You would take the rail up into Dublin and then transfer across to Galway
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Comment by Alannah Ryane on July 22, 2013 at 2:28pm
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Hi Bit! Thanks for the info. 25 a night is all i have in my budget that is how much the hostels are I still have to phone the campsite in Carne for prices, a b&b once in a while will be my treat especially if I cannot get a bus back to a gorey hostel or carne camp and I still have to check out staying in Dublin and Galway although I do not want to stay in hostels in those cities. I do plan on that rail pass a train across Ireland totally appeals to me. Rick Steves says if you take overnight trains you miss the scenery but you gain a nights accomodation. The area of the circle he mentioned in Wexford is near Clonroche and Adamstown and he also mention the 9 stones at Mount Leinster which appear to be ancient, in a straight line, about 18 inches high and 2 feet apart and missed by most people. I will check out my map (although i need a good Ireland road map going into some travel agents this week) for the robinstown circle. I have not even thought about checking into seniors discounts I keep forgetting I am a senior now lol they may not even let me into the 'youth' hostel!
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Have you checked out couchsurfing, http://www.couchsurfing.org/regional_info.html?country_id=68? It could be another option for you.
It would be a struggle to find a decent hostel in either Galway or Dublin at that price. In Galway, I would suggest Lynfield House, just down from the train station.
RS wouldn't be my first go to guy but there are a lot who follow him.
I am familiar with most of the circles and stones in Wexford. I would have to check my notes for those sites.
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Comment by Ryan O'Rourke on July 22, 2013 at 2:52pm
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Alannah ... Check out Snoozles Hostel for your Galway stay. I've heard good things about it, and it's typically between 25 and 30 Euros per night.
http://www.snoozleshostelgalway.ie/
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Lol yea RS doesn't travel on my budget nor does he go on genealogy quests through crossroads and hamlets, i am very excited about my journey I wish I could hop off the train in Mayo and meet some O'Neills and also the Maguire/McQuarry area in Fermanaugh and Enniscorthy Castle. Read so much about them re: flight of the earls and since my Matthew Maguire was born in 1739 the gap isn't that wide and his son signed his name McQuarry on his marriage record in Halifax so they must have clung to their roots. I can't even find any descendants in NS now. Lol need a year to do this ireland tour!
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I have often said that to do what I want to do properly, I would need 32 months...one month for each county...perhaps one day when I win that elusive lottery ;-)
Those O'Niells are a far-flung bunch. I have clients with O'Niell roots in Down, Armagh, Kilkenny, Cork, as well as Mayo...
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Thanks Ryan and Bit for these great suggestions and links I really appreciate it and they so help to build my confidence in this trip! The more accommodation and transportation options I have the better I feel. Since I am traveling light I will upload my short video clips to my youtube channel whenever i find wifi and use that as storage and then post photos on this blog as I update. Thanks again for the support! Bit I have to keep putting the O'Neills and Maguires and Connors and Hacketts and O'Driscols out of my mind as I look at the map....man after 13 years of researching online and in books going there for a diasporic descendant after 200 years is still so overwhelming I agree totally about the one month per county thats why I do not feel bad spending most of my 2 weeks in Wexford and only in the Carne parish might as well 'go native'!
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No probs, Alannah. Be sure to give me a shout if you need anything while you're here!
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I will 'need' you to meet me and Adrian Martyn (Martin tribe historian) and Dr Tyrone Bowes (irishorigenes.com) for some pints ...I will find out what their fav put is in Galway!
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Ryan Snoozle's Hostel in Dublin is amazing! 20 euros for one night in 4 woman dorm I thought I might have to sleep in the airport as I have early morning departure when I leave thanks!
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