My sister Jean and I flew over to Ireland to visit Siobhan, who was in college there. We crashed on the floor of Siobhan’s dorm room at UCD. Siobhan had classes so sometimes Jean and I would forge out on our own. We went to visit Clonmacnoise. We were the only ones there. The place was closed. (We had been in Ireland as kids, when my dad took us there on his sabbatical. So we went to seek out those places again.) We went to Galway, stayed in the funniest hostel ever – the Stella Maris! – and then took the boat out to the Aran Islands. We drove around County Mayo, the land of our O’Malley ancestors. The three of us took a little day trip – a half-day really – up to the passage tomb of Newgrange, north of Dublin. Weirdly, we had NOT visited here as children. It was magical, and I’ve been to Newgrange every time I’ve gone since then. My sisters and I had so much fun. We had some epic adventures. So glad Jean and I did this.
This picture is on my fridge.
