This is going to be a bit of a “Do as I say – not as I Did” story.  A cautionary tale perhaps.

So here we go.  Early last year I was looking through our calendar of things to be done and spotted an April sized hole in 2025.  “Do you want to go to Ireland in April 2025?” I asked Marg. “Sure” she replied.  That was the extent of our forward research, and I got busy on the computer and booked all the required air travel, hotel stays and car hire.  I put together quite an interesting itinerary with days put aside for visiting archives, libraries, and doing family research. More on that later.

Maybe I should have first checked to see what the weather would be like. I finally did get around to looking – Spring. That won’t be so bad I thought. Then I saw that it would not be Spring as we know it here.  Maximum temperature was going to be 14C which it rarely reached! And it might be a bit rainy at times. Well, it was almost all the time. No wonder Ireland is so green.  Our puffer jackets were the most worn items in our suitcases, and we had almost left them behind because they were “bulky”.

Misty Marina – view from hotel room in Waterford. Authors image.

The trip over to Ireland was long – as everyone knows.  We went an even longer way – Brisbane-Sydney, with a stopover night. Then Sydney-Dubai-Heathrow with another stopover night. And finally, Heathrow-Dublin, this drawn-out journey saved us thousands of dollars so worth it. Then BA ran out of meat dishes at lunch on the flight to Dublin – and guess who missed out?  Not happy – please pass the wine hostie!

We arrived in Dublin on a Saturday afternoon. Our hotel was well situated with lots of shops around. Everything was in walking distance. Very nice. We went book shopping on the Sunday finding a couple of very good book shops in Dublin. Books feature prominently in our holidays, we take at least one extra bag for them when coming home.

Monday and Tuesday were to be our first research days.  The National Archives one day, and the National Library the next, the only 2 days we had available in Dublin. Of course, we ran into problems.  Reader’s Tickets – we needed them to get in.  And we didn’t have them. No worries, we thought, we’ll just apply online for new ones and pick them up when we get there.  Well, you can apply online alright, but it may take 3-5 business days to produce!  Ooops. We definitely hadn’t factored in the delay in production. We totally missed getting to the National Archives, but did get to the National Library as they had a very quick turnaround. So, this is the first learning from this missive – make sure you have applied for your readers tickets well in advance and have packed them!  This wasn’t the first time we had been to Ireland, but we had gotten a bit complacent.  Don’t.

On the Wednesday we picked up a hire car at Dublin Airport and went driving – all over Ireland just about. As the song goes, we went everywhere. And it was all very nice and scenic, etc. The next bit of family history stuff occurred when we reached Ennis, in Clare, on the west coast of Ireland after about a week. Here we struck a patch of sunny days – not necessarily warm, but sunny. So, we decided to look up the church of Kilchrist parish, which was about 40 kilometres south of Ennis.

The Tomb in Kilchrist parish church, Clare. Authors image.

We found it in the village of Ballynacally and went looking for Doherty’s. This was supposed to be the place where they were. We found only one, but he was in a big tomb built by his father adjacent to the church, which was in ruins. I took photos of all sides of the tomb, to get the inscriptions. Then I had the brilliant idea to climb up on top – it was about 8-9 feet tall – to see if there was more writing on the lid, which couldn’t be seen from ground level. Well, I am not the fittest or most spry fellow around, but somehow I managed to get up there. A good belly roll and lots of huffing and puffing.  But no inscription up there!  Then I had to get down again. All I can say is that my dismount would not earn any points in any gymnastic competition.  My hip was a bit twingy when we got back in the car.  Over the next few days huge sore bruises would slowly develop on my leg from my hip to my toes! Therefore, clearly the learning is to not go climbing on ancient tombs!  The incumbents might get cranky and deliver a punishment on you.

A book we looked at in local history section of Longford library. Authors image.

If our outdoor activities relevant to family history research weren’t so successful in Ennis, then our indoor research was much more productive.  We went to the new library/family history research centre, once we found it.  It is brand new, only opened a few months before, and it was marvellous. This was mainly due to one of the senior staff manning the history desk when we arrived. His name is Michael Talty and he is listed as an Executive Librarian, and we recommend him as an information source if you are ever in Ennis.  I am interested in a Doherty who joined the British Army in Ennis in 1816, giving a likely birthdate around 1795 or so. There are very few BDM records for that period. Michael got busy and showed us records from about the 1850s – Griffiths, etc – which showed a healthy spread of Doherty’s in the Kilchrist area.  About 20 so we got maps of where their houses and land were located, who was renting from whom.  Michael also said that sources from the 1870-80s showed that the Doherty’s were all gone from the area by then.

Leaving Ennis, we headed north and became tourists again. We drove up through Galway and then over to the west coast of Ireland to a place called Clifden, still in Galway.  Marg wanted to see the Wild Atlantic Coast and it is indeed wild, and very pretty. We spent 3 nights there and then headed back to the east coast, however, somewhere along the way that day we picked up a flat tyre!  We knew nothing of it until we pulled up in a shopping mall carpark to get some lunch and the fellow following us kindly leant out his window and said, “You have a flat tyre!”  And it was. We also didn’t have a phone that could connect us to the local roadside assist people. So, we decided to drive on, pumping it up at every servo we passed which got tedious after a while.  We finally got to the hotel in Belfast and unloaded the car to find that there wasn’t a spare tyre!  The learning from this incident is to make sure, when you first collect a rental vehicle, that it has a spare tyre!

Fixing the problem was easy as we just rang the rental company and they organised everything. It just meant that I would lose a day running around with the car and not be able to go to PRONI with Marg to do research. Which was a good thing in a way, because I didn’t have a Readers Ticket, did I. When we were at PRONI last year I found that I had left my ticket at home. They wanted to charge me 15 pounds for a replacement!  I said no thank you, and went book shopping.  When we got home from that trip, I found my ticket sitting on my desk. So, I promptly tossed it in the bin as we were not contemplating ever going back to PRONI again … silly me, eh?  So, when we turned up at PRONI this time, they wanted 20 pounds for a replacement!  I went book shopping again. The learning from this fiasco is to never throw away a Reader’s Ticket.

After all these little dramas, we drove from Belfast to Waterford in one day and spent a week in a nice hotel just decompressing. We found a great little coffee shop in walking distance where we indulged every day – even if it was raining.

Hopefully I have given you a few really good hints as to what to do when you next visit Ireland.  Even though we really did enjoy our trip, we could have followed our own advice more closely.  Let our experiences be your guide – and have a good holiday.

Geoff and Marg sipping Champagne – Waterford Crystal factory showroom, Waterford. Authors image.