I can't remember all the details of my first trip to Ireland in 1980 as a teenager, but Killarney and Dublin certainly stand out in my mind.
In 1980, July or August, I was about to be a sophomore at Litchfield High School, Litchfield, Minnesota. I was on the varsity swimming team, played the French Horn and Cornet, a First Class Girl Scout, and become an international traveler. I told my swimming coach I was going on vacation, as I was missing swimming practice, but didn't say I was traveling to Ireland. Looking back, I'm not sure why!
Far away from my Minnesota home, I posed for a photograph in Killarney, County Kerry, Ireland, standing near Aghadoe Heights Hotel with a view of Innisfallen Island in Lough Leane, part of the Lakes of Killarney.
My brother Paul M. Walsh, a college student at St. Cloud State University, snapped the photograph while I was wearing a sporty Irish cap, very similar to one I own today, maybe called a Kerry Cap. It’s likely the cap came from a nearby shop in Killarney, a style that can be found at Mucross Weavers today, if not identical. I recall my brother and I both got Aran sweaters at Blarney Woollen Mills during our trip to Ireland after kissing the Blarney stone.
It could be I received the gift of the gab, or eloquence, after kissing the Blarney Stone at Barney Castle, but that's really not for me to determine. Merriam-Webster describes blarney as skillful flattery and nonsense. The phrase 'to be full of blarney' would be an extreme case of the gift of the gab, or a great deal of hooey, and perhaps more than one visit to Barney Castle and kissing of the Blarney Stone.
Walsh Family – Jannet L. Walsh stands at the graves of her Irish born Great Great-Grandparents, De Graff, Minnesota, September 29, 2022. Her Walsh family lived at least 35 years in Kingston and Wolfe Island, Ontario, Canada, after departing Ireland, and before settling as pioneers in Dublin Township, Swift County, Minnesota. Other branches of her Irish family also lived in Canada before migrating to the United States.
There were five people in our 1980 Irish travel party including my aunts Agnes and Margaret, uncle Stanley, brother Paul, and myself. We arrived and departed Ireland out of Shannon Airport, and traveled in a tour bus visiting Waterford, Wexford, Killarney, the Ring of Kerry, and Dublin, or that's what I can remember today. I kept menus from restuarants from the trip, but I can't seem to find them now.
In Dublin, we visited Trinity College, the Book of the Kells, walked down Grafton Street, toured by Phoenix Park, and more. I've tried to remember the hotel I stayed in Dublin, but yet to remember, but it did have a swimming pool, along with a stage where I watched for the first time Irish dancers and a harpist play.
Blarney stone - This is a handpainted rock of the Blarney Castle, located in Blarney, County Cork, from a 1980 trip to Ireland, with the price tag still on the back.
Photos from my first trip to Ireland with family have recently been recovered. I’ve received a photograph from the trip, but at first, was not able to determine the exact location around the Lakes of Killarney. First, I thought the location was at the Europe Hotel, Killarney, where my family stayed.
I reached out to numerous local Irish folks in Killarney, including McCarthy’s Killarney Carriage Rides, for help to determine that exact location. (In 2014, I made a video with Martin McCarthy around Killarney National Park, Irish Jaunting Tour.) Certainly, a jaunting driver could help me locate a scenic location in Killarney from 1980! I'd love to return to the exact location and take another portrait.
The photograph taken by the Lakes of Killarney seems a lifetime ago. I’ve since visited Ireland a total of five times and found my family’s origins in rural County Kerry, associated with two townlands. Where I was standing in 1980 near the Aghadoe Heights Hotel, today I can say I was approximately three miles from where my family lived in Townland Dromkerry sometime in the early to mid-1800s, complete with a view of the Gap of Dunloe.
All of this not far from the Kerry Woollen Mills, and Kate Kearney's Cottage, the start of the Gap of Dunloe horse and cart rides. Digital online records have allowed me to recover my family's history, and place of origin, something unthinkable during my first visit to Ireland as a teenager with my first US passport in hand.
(About Video – This is a guided tour by jaunting car, a traditional horse-drawn carriage, by Martin McCarthy of Killarney, Ireland. McCarthy is called a jarvey, a jaunting car driver. He gives visitors guided tours in the Killarney National Park, area lakes, Muckross House, and more, sharing history and folklore in the traditional Irish taxi. The jaunting car is pulled by Jessie, a gelding Gypsy Vanner Horse. McCarthy also operates a bed and breakfast at his home called Shepherds Lodge. The commute to work is easy as he keeps his horses at his home and drives his jaunting car to Killarney’s jaunting car center where tourists can take a ride or can also be picked up at their hotels. Family photographs are included of my Irish family, originating from Killarney. Video shot Jan. 29 to Feb. 8, 2014 Killarney, Ireland Dublin, Ireland. Learn more about McCarthy’s Killarney Carriage Rides at Facebook.)
My late father Martin J. Walsh Jr. visited Killarney in 1953, the first known member of our family to return to Ireland, but didn’t have the chance to see where our family lived in the 1800s. You can read about my father's visit to Ireland, and view his vintage Irish travel photos, here on IrishCentral.
What has not changed for me since my first trip to Ireland as a teenager to today is that I can't wait to return to see what I might uncover about my Irish ancestors, including culture, heritage, and meet again with my Irish friends. I've made friendships along the way, and rented rooms or cottages from local Kerry families. People I've met at gas stations, called petro stations in Ireland, helped me navigate unmarked country roads, including one brave man driving a truck, or lorry, carrying fresh cow's milk, directed me to Townland Knockanarror, another location associated with my family, located between Killarney and Barraduff on the N72 road in 2011.
Family from Canada and Ireland – This is a portrait of Catherine Summers Walsh (1833-1909), and her husband Michael J. Walsh Sr. (1812-1901), great-great-grandparents of Jannet L. Walsh of Murdock, Minnesota. Undated photo, late 1890s to early 1900s. The couple married at St. Mary’s Cathedral, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, 1857. They had eight children born in Ontario, and baptized on Wolfe Island, Ontario.
I've also come to understand my family's migration was not a straight line from Ireland to where I live today in rural Dublin Township, in Swift County, Minnesota. More than one line of my Irish family first migrated to Canada, Ontario and New Brunswick, before heading south to the open prairies and farmlands of Minnesota where I live today.
I've been very lucky, or just persistent, to splice together just enough pieces to tell a more complete story of my family's migration from rural Ireland to rural Minnesota, including 35 years spent on Wolfe Island, Ontario, Canada, located in the St. Lawrence River and Lake Erie. What surprises me even more, are all the people pointing me ahead to find more and more lost details about my Irish family.
It's a story we want to hear and tell of our family's origins. Searching for family history, genealogy, provides a way to carry on our heritage to the future.
There might be someone seeking details about their family as simple as wanting to understand their Irish last name, exactly where I was as a teenager in 1980 Ireland. Are you ready to become the storyteller of your family, and keeper of a weath of sacred family history? Start hunting for your family history!
*Jannet L. Walsh of Murdock, Minnesota is a photographer, writer, and educator. She is the author of the forthcoming creative nonfiction quest narrative “Higgledy-Piggledy Stones: Family Stories from Ireland and Minnesota,” scheduled for publication in 2023 by Shanti Arts Publishing. Walsh is recipient of a Southwest Minnesota Arts Council Growth Grant funded by the McKnight Foundation, 2022-2024. You can follow Walsh on Facebook and Twitter, and on her other social media channels, with the hashtag #IrishFamilyHistoryDetective.
This article was submitted to the IrishCentral contributors network by a member of the global Irish community. To become an IrishCentral contributor click here.
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