22 April 2016; Kilkenny – out and about with relativity

Once the medieval capital of Ireland, Kilkenny has a rich heritage visible through its narrow streetscapes, historical buildings and landmarks. Butler House was once a dower house to Kilkenny Castle and was home to the Earls of Ormonde. You can stroll the manicured lawns and garden but the house is off limits to tourists. 🙁

St. Canice’s Cathedral was built in the 13th century. The round tower, built in the 9th century, is only one of two medieval round towers in Ireland that can be climbed – which of course, we did.

In the afternoon we programmed the GPS to take us to Bagenalstown to visit Maureen and Tom Doyle who are distant relations to Chris from Carl’s side of the family. We located the house and found some builders working on the roof who said Maureen was away at the shops and that she’d be back within the next hour. We decided to push on to the cemetery at Dumphrea to see if we could locate the final resting place of some even further distance relatives. We found the graves of Laurence & Mary Nowlan and many of their children. We spent some time picking out weeds and cleaning up the grave plot before returning to Maureen’s house.

Maureen was home when we returned and we discovered that her husband Tom had passed away over six years ago. She was very generous and hospitable to unannounced strangers purporting to be distant relatives from Australia. We enjoyed tea and scones and poring over her collection of family photographs. She is 81 and as sharp as a tack. She was able to recall every grandchild and great-grandchild without missing a beat.

Just as we were leaving she gave us the contact details for her brother Edward (Cork), sister Theresa (Limerick) and brother John (Galway). We shall see if our itinerary is able to extend to take in more relative sites.

In the evening we enjoyed some traditional Irish music during our meal at a local pub. Later, a five piece band setup and got the pub jumping with some great rock and roll favourites starting out with a couple of Prince retrospective covers. There were at least two hens night groups who had reached a level of inebriation that made for some fun watching their antics on the dance floor. We left the pub after midnight disappointed we couldn’t have stayed longer as the band was really, really good.