We have just arrived back from a very successful visit to Chicago and Milwaukee – and took full advantage of the movies on offer in the airplane. One in particular caught my attention – it was a new film by Steven Spielberg. The director of Jaws and Schindler’s list always offers some great entertainment. In…

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We landed in St. John’s, Newfoundland at 11.00am local time. Just 3.5 hours behind Ireland (Cork, actually) – and the 5 hour plane trip was quite a lot less than our ancestors had to endure. I must say (unlike the photo above – which was taken later in the week) – the environment looked quite…

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When a new reader signs up for our weekly  Letter from Ireland – we ask them to supply the Irish surnames in their family tree AND the county their ancestor emigrated from. So far we have collected over 21,000 Irish entries in our database of Irish surnames representing over 3,750 different surnames. If you’d like to…

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Coming into the town of Tralee – the administrative capital of County Kerry – my mind always goes back to the Rose of Tralee festival. Specifically to the early 1980s and heading down to Tralee for the craic, sleeping only when necessary and wherever possible. Funny how those memories can colour your impressions of a…

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Irish countryside

We have just arrived back from a very successful visit to Chicago and Milwaukee – and took full advantage of the movies on offer in the airplane. One in particular caught my attention – it was a new film by Steven Spielberg. The director of Jaws and Schindler’s list always offers some great entertainment. In…

Read More