Moytura's Irish
Bookshop

We now have a chat club which I hope you will join and use. It offers the chance to share and answer questions about all things Irish. Perhaps some of you will have common roots, family connections - 

If you have enjoyed your wander through the site I'd love to hear your comments, good, bad or indifferent, perhaps you'd sign my GUEST BOOK. 
Or EMAIL me with any suggestions you might have.

Name: Molly Maguire Bullister
Website:
Referred by: From Search Engine
From:  St. Simons Island, GA, USA
Time: Thursday, February 25, 1999 at 11:14:35
Comments:

I am signing on now just as I have completed my journey through your eyes.  I am so filled with emotion and tears of joy from the experience, I feel I must express it now before it passes.  Hopefully, we will be in contact later.  I am a 66 year-old Irish-American who found my soul in Connemara just 3 years ago while visiting my husband's family, the Bolustroms of Spiddal and Ballynahown, Co. Galway.  I had often heard my mother-in-law speak of the area and longed to go and find "our people" (seems to be an illness amongst us yanks)  I am preparing now for my third trip back beginning March 20 and ending sadly April ll.  for some reason, tears come always on the complete 7 hour trip home.  This year I am planning to spend a day on Cashel Bay with my husband's cousins there and from Charlestown.  Traveling your journey through the west has given me grand ideas for spending precious moments there.  I have copied your pages and will carry them with me.  I cannot express what a joy this has been and how fortunate am I that I can relive it over and over!  I feel we have been friends forever.  I also have 5 grown children and try to create things but hardly near the scale of your accomplishments.  Love and God Bless.
Your new friend, Molly

Name: Joanna  Trotter
Website:
Referred by: From Search Engine
From: Chicago, Il. USA
Time: Thursday, February 25, 1999 at 13:48:36
Comments:

Hello, I am from Chicago, My grandparents from Westport, Rossmindle, Killameena to be more precise.  I enjoy your web site, there is a lot of work put in there, thank you for your generosity.  May God (and the universe) bless the sharers of the world. I have been searching Irish sites for info on retreats spiritual, health, meditative not necessarily religious and definitely not costly, but to no avail.  Having lived in Kerry for almost 6 years I know they are out there but cannot get online info or thru the counsulate here or travel agencies or tourist board.  Maybe I should go back and live there and do this for a living.  Right now I am planning a visit with friends in July and August and wanted to go off on my own for a bit.  I know I can make my own retreat but being high tourist time and not being so disiplined I was hoping to have other options.  Do you know of any such places??  Or any of your friends? Suggestions if anyone has the time and inclination? Thanks for hearing me out and again for the informative, interesting and beautiful site.

As they say in your neck of the woods, fair play to you, you're a mighty woman.  Great site I shall pass it on to friends here and in Ireland.  Thank you for your time and generousity.  As I said before God Bless the sharers of this world.

Name: Molly
Website:
Referred by: Yahoo Games
From: USA
Time: Friday, February 26, 1999 0:04
Comments:

Loved reading your profile and follow-up!  I was in Ireland, Wales, Scotland & England this past September.  Had a beer in a Dublin pub and all the men were so friendly & nice when they learned we were from America.   Maybe we'll meet up at the tables in Yahoo one day soon.

Name: Tom Bowen
Website: Tom's Hood 
Referred by: From VoxPhone
From: Pennsylvania, US
Time: Friday, February 26, 1999 at 18:57:02
Comments:

Thanks Mary. This time I had a little more time to look around. Your page is a place I will come back to often. It is a nice walk around lovely places. I certainly am glad we met.

Name: Kevin Joyce
Website: Connemarble 
Referred by: Search Engine
From: Recess, Connemara, County Galway
Time: Sunday, February 28, 1999 at 18:04:45
Comments:

I found your delightful site while looking up Irish green marble. Invite you to our site, which we are upgrading in a week or so. Best wishes, Kevin

Name: Theresa
Website: Gram's Little Dolly 
Referred by: Another Site Link
From: New York,  USA
Time: Sunday, February 28, 1999 at 19:18:22
Comments:

I found you on the LOTH boards.  You have a truly beautiful site!  My Grandparents were from Mayo and Galway, and I always wanted to visit Ireland. Hopefully, I will get there soon! Your site is very informative, and makes me want to go even more! Great work!  Take Care!  :)

Name: Bob Griffin
Website:
Referred by: Search Engine
From: USA
Time: Wednesday, March 03, 1999 2:13
Comments:

Please pardon me right from the start - I have been to Blarney and kissed the Stone - my eloquence flows not from my mouth, as I am very shy, but from my fingers.  I have had a few gin and tonics tonight, feeling melancholy and the music accompanying your web site has put me in the proper mood - must be the "Irish" in me...........

I have had the pleasure of spending a night in Galway and it was not the Sunset on Galway Bay but the Moon, and what a glorious site it was, watching it rise out of the Bay and flood the night with the most cheerful light.  It was a fortuitous visit to Galway as I and my family were on vacation from a posting (I'll use the 'local' term) to Africa with the 'Foreign Service' and on our way back after a brief visit to the States (no, we didn't visit McDonalds or Burger King!!!) we planned a stop in Ireland, just because. Our plane landed in Dublin and we spent the night in a local B&B recommended from the airport - what a disaster......I had three children and two of them were very young and, well you know kids!!!!  Anyway, the BBC1&2 nor ITV had much of their interest so they made their own.....much to the dismay of the over 80's crowd watching Coronation Street!!!  My poor wife was upstairs taking a cold bath (no warm showers in this hostelry) and was aghast to find out that there were no curtains in the bath.....after disrobing slinking along the floor the slip into the tub and doing the reverse on the way out.  Horny old goat that I am, I wish I was there to watch.....anyway, I digress.  The next morning we set off.  No itinerary and no schedule except we had to be back in ten days to catch our flight back to Africa (Dublin-Gatwick and then to Monrovia via British Caledonia Airways).

Anyway, back to the trip....drove out of Dublin and headed north destination unknown.  Spent the first night in a seaside town, name escapes me. There was a fair at the time, we took the kids over but it really didn't have too much to offer but, there was a posting for a get together at the hall that evening.  What the heck, when in Rome...... it is a memory that lives to this day. A nice get together of locals downing pints and whiskeys, nice music etc but the memory is my little daughter standing on my feet while we danced. She was thrilled that Dad was dancing with her!!!  The approving smiles and the waiting pint on my return made me feel more than welcome. The next day off again in our rental vehicle - driving on the 'wrong' side of the road and shifting gears with the 'wrong' hand.  As I said, no destination but the road in front of us. The highlight of every day for all of us was the beef barley soup at the pubs and dad having his pint of Guiness. Now I have had Guiness while I was in England - not the same. I should be on the Guiness/Ireland tourist board because my plea would be....."Drink Guiness, it's good for you.....but tastes BEST in Ireland!!!!"  That damn Blarney Stone has me in its grip now.......Next night was spent in a town called Glen Gariff.....easy to remember since my name is Griffin!!  I was totally in awe of the rocks and rock mountains that led us there. We stayed at a B&B - a real one, unlike the hotel B&B the previous night.  I felt so uncomfortable when I arrived, like an unwanted guest. We really didn't mix that night, although invited to have drinks in the parlor. The next morning at breakfast, what a fool I was because they were the nicest people, the kids went out and played, the little harbor came right up the back of the house - a glorious sight and the people, both the owners and other guests so friendly.....my only true regret for the entire tour was not opening up to feel at home...of course I had not kissed the Blarney Stone yet!!!  So now we are in the southern part and still following the road around.....next stop Galway. Well, that sounds kind of definitive but it was not.  As I said we were driving with no itinerary but as we got to Galway and drove through the town, not a lot really appealed to us so we kept going. Just outside of the city center we passed a Motel that kind of reminded us of a U.S. Holiday Inn.  Barbara and I looked at each other but decided something that 'posh' would be beyond our budget and kept driving. Well, it was getting late and the sun setting so we said, what the heck, we'll spend the extra money and headed back. Gee, all these words, I hope you're not bored but catching the excitement!!  Checked in, cheap rates, great rooms, fabulous dinner and then to the lounge....heck if your in Ireland its a sin not to drink the whiskey (or is it whisky??- I think thats Scotch but that's another story....in Scotland on another trip...!!) Entertainment in the lounge - a couple of local lads with a guitar but as I'm downing my whiskey a light starts to reflect on the bay and there it is ..... MOON OVER GALWAY BAY.....the thoughts of my Dad and the times we would sit at the kitchen table and sing...geez, I'm getting weepy now, but there you have it. Thanks for the reminder.  If you're interested in the rest of our trip, I'd be glad to relate but suffice it to say one of the fondest, dearest and sweetest memories was our trip around the Isle and watching the MOON RISE OVER GALWAY BAY. With fondest regards and best wishes, love...

Bob Griffin

Name: Ed Hagan
From: Raleigh, NC, USA 
Website:
Referred by: From Search Engine
Time: Wednesday, March 3, 1999 at 21:50:12
Comments:

Very interesting account of your journey combined with history and great pictures. I only wish I could have seen something like this before my only visit to Ireland some 30 years ago. I visited most of the places you covered, but knew nothing of the significance of the towns and sights. I hope to visit again in the next year and this time I will be better prepared.

Name: Marilyn Dennison
From: Vermont, USA 
Website:
Referred by:
Time: Saturday, March 06, 1999 17:38
Comments:

Dear Mary,

I played bridge with you and checked your profile...wonderful website..sent it to my team teacher who is Irish...she will love it...also another teacher in Vt. with whom I play bridge....and has designed her own.  Now for the question about the piano music....can you tell me what it is and what cd it is on.? You certainly have done a magnificent job with your site and family...the two young boys are quite gregarious looking....I teach that age...

Saturday: I have spent the entire afternoon reading your entire site.  As I stated earlier..... WONDERFUL.  It is terrific that you have found a career change which you enjoy so much...so creative, well written, and well designed.  I am envious of you but grateful for people like you that entertain non-creative ones like I.

Sincerely,
Marilyn Dennison

Name: Dale Johnston
From: Edina Minnesota USA
Website:
Referred by: Another Site Link
Time: Saturday, March 6, 1999 at 13:13:51
Comments:

I am tracing my ancestry, my Great Great Grandparents, who were born somewhere in Ireland. I suspect they entered Canada at Grosse Ille, Quebec. What a great presentation of Grosse Ille. I too am a Graphic Designer. Thank you for sharing your creativity.

For those who have just joined me on this page why not go to the beginning of our travels and see some of the places in The Start of Our Journey through the West of Ireland. 

My Place Amongst the Stones gives the history of my company name, Moytura - a celtic heritage going back thousands of years. 

We journey to my own parish of Lackagh - a small village just 12 miles from Galway with a mighty big history. Learn all about the Battle of Knockdoe - one of Ireland's bloodiest of conflicts in the 16th century.

We then move on to take a quick jaunt around Galway City; and then to the heart of Connemara - with its wild and wonderful beauty. 

From there we journey south into County Clare and see The Burren - a place that has lain undisturbed since the Ice-age and of immense botanical, ecological and archaeological importance.

Visit Ireland's finest early monastic heritage centre in Clonmacnoise, County Offaly; and to my favourite of all the early Christian Church locations - Clonfert, South County Galway, with its beautiful tiny 12th century Cathedral of Saint Brendan. Come with me around the grounds and see the Bishop's Palace and the 1000 year old Yew Walk. 

While on the Clonfert pages, you can learn a potted history of Saint Brendan the Navigator, possibly the first European to set foot in North America in the 6th. century. And join me in the celebrations when this tiny cathedral was listed in the World Monuments Watch 2000 most endangered monuments.

Come with me on my 'Famine Journey' which starts in Westport, and moves to Sligo, my Dad's County and the departure port for many of the 'Coffin Ships'. This part of my journey ends in Grosse-Île on a tiny island east of Quebec City. 

On this page you will learn some of the history of our Famine Refugees and find the final resting place of over 6,000 of my country folk who died within sight of their first freedom in over 300 years. This is where many of the Irish roots in North America started.

Our Journey moves on to other places on that visit to Canada where we see Quebec City and some of Ontario's lovely places and then to two of Canada's famous Catholic Shrines - Saint Anne de Beaupré and to Cap-de-la-Madeleine.

Finally, join me on my pilgrimage to a peaceful haven in a war-torn country in Medugorje in Bosnia-Hercegovinia. The other areas of my Web site can be found in the drop-down box below.

I have added links pages of other places related to the places we visit, links to leisure activities in Ireland i.e. golf, fishing, horse riding, sailing in Ireland, festivals, entertainment etc. and some of my friends' home pages. 

Don't forget to bookmark this page and return to take up on more of your journeys with me. Oh .. and please sign my Guestbook if you have enjoyed your travels. Go raith míle maith agat - thanks a million

For those of you who are interested in tracing family links contact the Genealogical Society of Ireland