Later today I will be going over to see my son. Together we are going to plan our holiday. Liam has decided that he wants to go to Ireland. I have booked the flight (bmi) and booked the hire car. Provisionally I have booked our first two nights B&B in Ireland. We will stay in Athlone. This is in the Irish Midlands, about 100 miles from Dublin. As we don't get into Dublin until 3 pm (we pick up the car at 3.30 pm) I figure that, allowing for the horrible rush hour traffic in and around Dublin, that Athlone is about as far as I will want to drive on our first day.
One of our reasons for going to Ireland is that Liam wants to discover some of his Irish roots. His grand ma, my mum was born in a small town called Clara, in County Offally. This is about thirty miles from Athlone so we intend to visit and see if we can find any Fagans in the church yard or the High Street. Athlone is also a good base to visit Clonmacnoise monastic settlement (established circa 536). A good way to visit is a cruise down the Shannon, otherwise we shall drive down, its only 5 miles from Athlone.Clonmacnoise also harbours the Irish National Peat Bog Park and I am looking forward to taking a walk through it.
My mum always called herself the girl from the bog and we never used to know what she meant. But looking at the Road Atlas yesterday I noticed that Clara is surrounded by the "Clara Bog"
The rest of the holiday is as yet unplanned. The car needs to be returned by midday 23rd; our return flight is 3.30 pm, 25th. Liam wants to see something of Dublin so it makes sense to return to Dublin perhaps on the 22nd via the Mourne Mountains and Powerscourt House and Falls (tallest in the UK at 200 odd feet).
Anyway, its all very exciting. Liam and I haven't been away on holiday together for several years. His summer holiday is usually full of things for him to do which doesn't allow for our having time together. So this opportunity comes as a joyful surprise.
Hope it all goes smoothly!
Posted by: Mac McLernon | 06/02/2008 at 09:33 PM