Friday, April 12, 2013

.My Ireland Story

         Barnastooka, Kerry, Ireland- 'My Little Ireland Story'  ©   & videos     Dec2012
In 1969 or ’70 during his travel through Europe my father went to Ireland, Kerry. 
His grandfather, and his brothers, were from Barnastooka before going to America. 
My father had heard them talk about the homestead and he wanted to have a look.  
At the time he went it was a dinky little hamlet, a few houses and maybe 2 or 3 pubs.
(The photo is of the ancestral farmhouse.)
So he stops into a pub to ask directions & when the men there hear the family name
they cheer — it turns out almost all of them have the same last name. . hahaha.
The family name is Healy.   I  learned  that around the turn of the century  it was the
2nd most common name in those parts, and still prevalent today.
Anyway--the guys in the pub had some strange ideas about America–this was 1970, 
long before the internet made the world small. . .when people wrote letters and
a long-
distance phone call  was a big event. The guys thought that because he was
American 
he was rich {no}. . do you know cowboys in the WildWest? {no}. .do you
know movie 
stars like John Wayne? {no}. . . I found this quite charming.

................................ .................... the house on the hill
looked on the web for Barnastooka and found a cool video where someone {a distant cousin, it turns out}—justbput the camera on the dashboard and drove around the little country roads. It was pretty and sometimes there  were sheep on the road.        .             .

                                                           

A few years ago I was  talking with a guy in Dublin online, a casual thing. I told him about my Irish blood and relayed this story. Before I  could mention the family name Healy, he told me is great-grandfather was from Barnastooka
and said the name –that blew me away. Neither of us  knew if the great- grandfathers were brothers but were surely related some way. So here we are talking and it turns out we’re distant cousins ! {another one}. 
                                                     

 (Go mbeirimíd beo ag an ám seo arís !) 
(May we all be alive this time next year)
                                                         
 Barnastooka

 {Credit: Paudie Healy}
Driving Down from Barnastooka .(Going Back the Way We Came)
 {credit & permission from Paudie Healy}