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: Ray Walker
Website:
Referred by: Just Cruised On In
From: presently Newfoundland (originally County Down)
Time: Sunday, August 30, 1998 at 22:20:20
Comments:

like you said there's a lotta stuff here but I've enjoyed it so far. Hope to complete the tour in the not too distant future

Name: Larry Hanafy
Website:
Referred by: Just Cruised On In
From: Plano, Texas
Time: Monday, August 31, 1998 at 00:47:25
Comments:

I enjoyed browsing around your site very much.  Galway is my favorite place in Ireland.  I haven't been there since May '97 and your site made me feel a little "homesick".  Thanks.

Name: Janet Duncan Smirlies
Website:
Referred by: Just Cruised On In
From: Mississauga, Ontario Canada
Time: Monday, August 31, 1998 at 18:55:25
Comments:

I am in the beginning stages of tracing my Irish roots. My maternal great grandmother was from County Sligo (born around 1864). Where, I do not know so needless to say this is creating a dilema for me. I have briefly read your sight and it is very informative, and I shall read it more in depth in the coming days.

Name: Gary Sundblad
Website:
Referred by: Another Site Link
From: Marion,Iowa USA
Time: Monday, August 31, 1998 at 21:41:08
Comments:

I was doing a search for "celtic connections", the name of a radio program that's broadcast here. I'm just learning to play the tin whistle at the age of 43. Your site definitely met the requirements of the search, and I stopped by for a look. I took the entire tour. ( I assumed that was a requirement.) My, what a lovely homeland you have! Your choice of MIDI music was wonderful, and strangely enough, the tune playing on your
"Clonmacnoise" site just happened to be one I was attempting to play on the tin whistle earlier this evening. I know it as a hymn tune, but we must have "borrowed" it from your heritage. In regards to your site and the tune, thanks for sharing. Gary S.

Name: Dr Albert Monillas
Website:
Referred by: Just Cruised On In
From: NJ - USA
Time: Monday, August 31, 1998 at 21:19:39
Comments:

I loved your website; just came upon it! Being a West Coast Ireland lover, I ventured onto your sites and got lost. I loved all the pictures...  I cannot wait to be "in your neighborhood". Thanks for these terrific sites! My wife and I will be visiting Ireland, me for the third time this year.  This time, we will be staying at such places as Glenlo Abbey, Ashford, Cashel House, Merriman Inn and Ballynahinch Castle during the week of Nov 8-15. We will spend a day at Clonmacnoise!

Dr. Albert Monillas  (USA)

Name: Robert Bulbrook
Website:
Referred by: Word of Mouth
From: Hamilton, ON, Canada
Time: Sunday, September 6, 1998 at 00:37:21
Comments:

A lovely visit to Ireland - appreciate the reference to Gross-Ile, the Canadian connection. I have visited Ireland nine times in the last twenty years. The Irish seem to have a fair place for "America" (the U.S.) in their myth but very little awareness of, and the importance of the Canadian contribution in helping the famine victims who reached our shores. Canada was a landing point for Irish immigrants for many years afterward. My mother's father arrived in the late 1850's. Obviously his family survived the famine. The famine may have ended but the aftermath was still one of poverty and destitution that continued to force people to distant shores.  After the famine Trevellyan took his family on a  grand tour to France. My family's grand tour was in steerage in a crowded old boat.. Though my Canadian born mother died before she could ever go "home" to Ireland, she left the longing for "home"  in my heart.

Name: Maurice Mc Govern
Website:
Referred by: Just Cruised On In
From: melbourne australia
Time: Sunday, September 6, 1998 at 10:52:52
Comments:

I want very much to know about great grandfather who was John McGovern the governor of the Albany (western Australia) jail and whose son, Cecil Melville McGovern, died from the effects of being gased during the first world war, (Cecil died in 1927 at the age of 29)

Name: Dennis M. O'Malley
Website:
Referred by: Just Cruised On In
From: Elizabeth, New Jersey, USA
Time: Sunday, September 6, 1998 at 16:14:04
Comments:

Came across your site while looking for information on GRACE O'MALLEY.  The page on CONNEMARA was the one that was referenced.  What you have put together is fantastic. The music really adds that special touch.  I'll be back to vist the other pages from time to time.

Name: Rebecca Howe
Website:
Referred by:
From: Arizona State University Tempe, AZ
Time: Wednesday, September 9, 1998 at 13:45:51
Comments:

I have just finished scouring your web site, and I must say that it is a wonderful creation.  It is obvious that you are very proud of and knowledgeable about the West of Ireland, and because of this, I am hoping that you can help me.  I am a struggling writer, doing research for a historical novel, much of which is set in the west and southwest regions of Ireland.  I am particularly interested in the Aillwee Caves, the Burren in general, and Castlemain Harbour (and the area around it) in Co. Kerry.  If you could help me in any way, either by referring me to books that you think would be of help or by telling me a bit about these places, I'd truly appreciate it.  It has been very difficult to find information on these places here in the U.S. (particularly the area of Castlemain Harbour).  I would really like to know what these places look like, what kind of vegetation grows around them, what animals live there, the lay of the land, and anything that gives these locations their own special character.  Any help at all that you could provide would be very useful.  Thank you!

Name: jo
Website:
Referred by:
From: Arizona, USA
Time: September 9th. 1998
Comments:

Hi, I really enjoyed your web site; especially the section about Sligo Co. since that is where my Grandmother was born. Until reading it, I'd had no idea so many Irish had come to America through Canada!  I'll be back to see more sites of western  Ireland, as most books have so little - a few pages at best. Thanks for the information, in searching for Gilhooley/Lavin in Cos Sligo, Roscommon & Leitrim

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