August 26 to August 29, 2008

2008-August-29

It appeared that the weather would hold and so the three of us went to Bushmills today – to tour the factory, have a taste of Bushmills whiskey and to (naturally) shop. We arrived about half an hour prior to the start of the tour so had a preliminary viewing of what would be available in the gift shop. Mom and I went on the tour, and George had a bit of a rest while we were gone and met up with us back at the bar (the end of the tour with your taste of Bushmills – your choice). I had a hot whiskey and mom had the 12 year old reserve straight. From there we went into the gift shop and I actually shopped and bought a few things that caught my eye while we waited for mom to decide which type of whiskey she wanted. As it turned out, she’d settled on duty-free Jamieson (not available at Bushmills for some funny reason) and so her purchases there were minor. We then drove into Bushmills village and as mom had zero interest in seeing nearby Dunluce Castle (she’d said seen enough castles) and as we had zero interest in wandering the small village shopping (we’d certainly done enough shopping), we agreed to go our separate ways and meet up under the clock tower in two hours time. George and I went to a small restaurant had a nice lunch (well George had an Ulster fry which to me counts as breakfast, and I had plaice and chips), and then drove on to Dunluce Castle (some three minutes away from Bushmills) – one of the finest castle ruins along the Antrim Coast. Dunluce Castle is steeped in history, and every time I see it I can’t help but want to explore the rooms, passageways, and grounds. The positioning of the castle on the jut of rock overlooking the sea takes your breath away, and, one evening a long time ago (during the heyday of the castle) while there was a large party of guests being entertained, it did just that to the cook and a number of kitchen staff, when the kitchen and the side of the rock it had been built on gave way and crashed into the sea below. We returned from our little jaunt, picked mom up and headed back to Larne, driving first to and then through Benvardin Gardens, and stopping at the Ulster SPCA. The USPCA is a huge facility that puts our SPCA and its tiny kennels and runs to shame. Once we'd finished patting dogs we returned to Larne to organize our packing and weights.

2008-August-28

We once again had a day that we could spend viewing some of Ireland’s beautiful scenery or attractions, and with our time in Ireland coming to a close it wasn’t an easy choice, but after discussing with mom (who decided she just wanted to stay home), George and I picked heading to Glenarm Castle to see the walled garden as our choice. The Castle itself wasn’t open for viewing as it is actually the private residence of Viscount and Viscountess Dunluce and their children. The Castle is now only available for viewing twice a year - one day in May and one day in September. The gardens however were lovely and we spent a fair amount of time just wandering about and admiring the different sections of the gardens, The Kitchen Garden, The Hothouse area, The Lower Garden, The Central Vista with its groomed hedges, fountain and stepped water features, and The Upper Garden with its heavily-laden fruit trees supported along the high wall. Pheasants complained noisily at our presence and we were able to photograph one particularly upset by our intrusion as he walked along the top of the wall. There was colour, form, and substance every where you looked and you could easily imagine yourself a Lord or Lady strolling through your garden in times past. I wondered how much time the present Lord and Lady might have to enjoy their garden with it open daily to the public, May to September, from 10 in the morning to 6 at night. We stopped and spoke with one of the friendly gardeners and she chatted plants with us, giving us tips on taking cuttings from the local hardy fuchsia plants which I was hoping to bring home. We ended our visit to the gardens by a stop in the tea room – a stone cottage at the entrance with whitewashed walls and tall mullioned windows overlooking the kitchen garden. Back in Larne, we stopped by Robert’s home and we were off to the cemetery to look at headstones of relatives of George and Robert and surprising, came across a “Tweed” headstone. After that, we drove down to the harbour to see the memorial for the Princess Victoria disaster of January 31, 1953. 135 lives were lost – including a distant cousin of George’s – William Dummigan who according to one of the survivors, pushed him into a lifeboat rather than jump in himself. While not recorded in the book “Death in the North Channel” Robert said that William was last seen on the hull of the upturned vessel. Only 44 people survived – all men, not one woman or child survived. Many bodies washed up on the Isle of Man days later. There was also a memorial to the gun running that occurred in order to deliver illegal guns to the Ulster Defense Regiment, who were arming themselves in response to the IRA having armed themselves. Larne is noted for this little bit of history and in fact, when we were staying down in Limerick the boyfriend of the young lady who was taking care of the animals (on hearing that we would also be going to Larne) responded to the effect of, oh yes, where the gun running was done. We enjoyed the small tour and history provided by Robert and then returned him to his home so he could begin his shift at work. Back at the house, mom was laying down, getting up on our arrival and heading into town for dinner. Both George and I stayed home and had a relaxing evening until we decided to head for bed.

2008-August-27

Mom was up early preparing the vegetables for dinner that I was to have prepared. We were up and out at a fairly good time this morning as we needed to go to the shops and get items for dinner - mom had taken the pressure off me (as, as of the evening before, I still hadn’t decided what to serve our guests for dinner). We went downtown and, at an amazing fast pace, managed to get all the ingredients and wine and head back.

We needed to get the goulash simmering as we’d been invited to have lunch at Robert and Sandra Ferguson’s (Robert is George’s third cousin). Robert is well into the family research and he brought out lots of information on family lines as well as some old photographs of long dead family members. One of the photographs included Robert’s grandfather standing in front of a Banner for the Loyal Orange Order 1239 Sandy Row chapter, which had on one side a depiction of King William of Orange and on the other, George’s great-grandfather, Worshipful Master James Dummigan. Apparently, the banner is no longer used for the parade marches, but at this point, it is unknown where the banner is. We had a lovely lunch and then had to head back at 3:00 p.m. to finish getting organized for dinner. Robert and Sandra promised to drop by later for dessert as they would then have a chance to meet Bill Humphries, who is related by marriage to Robert (even though they’d never met) and share some common interests and information with Bill and with David Evans. Rita and David also would share some common interests as she has family down in Australia and had just recently returned from a trip there.

Bill Humphries lives only minutes from Rita and picked her up to bring her to dinner. David was researching at PRONI and arrived not too long afterward. Dinner went well the conversations continued quite happily, into the evening.

2008-August-26

We presented mom with a number of options as to how to spend today; however, rather than travel to Ballycastle to the Lammas Fair and then on to either Bushmills, Dunluce Castle or both, or going into Belfast, or going to meet and visit with George’s ex-sister-in law, she said she preferred to just stay in Larne, and possibly walk down into town and browse the shops. George and I had promised Rita that we would get in touch with her when we visited Ireland, so we decided to call her up and go to her home in Dundonald (just on the outskirts, and almost absorbed by, Belfast) and then, if time permitted, to go out to Magheralin so that George could hopefully make contact with the Minister of the Church of Ireland there in an effort to see their early church records as they might relate to his family). We headed off and worked our way through what I think of as the maze through Belfast – attempting to avoid getting sucked into the vortex of the town centre – and arriving safely at Rita’s tidy, two-level, terrace home. We were treated to lunch out at a garden centre/shop/tea room and after lunch, continued in our search of the elusive article we’d been seeking and looking at some things that we haven’t seen in Canada. We spent quite a long while visiting Rita and decided that, rather than head to Magheralin, we’d continue on back to Larne. As it turned out, it was a good thing we did, as the Craigavon area had had some troubles the night before and there were still issues with road blockages. Apparently, some youths in a group of about 50-60 had been throwing bottle rockets at passing vehicles, and high-jacking other vehicles then setting them on fire. The vehicles had not yet been removed and there was a heavy police presence in the area. Driving a vehicle bearing southern Ireland plates into the area would not have been a good thing to do, so while we were oblivious to it until we heard it on the radio as we were arriving back in Larne, it was just as well that that is how the day went. When we returned home, mom had decided that she would cook goulash for dinner the next night as we were having the three of us, Rita, Bill Humphries (George's cousin), and David Evans (a fellow family researcher from Australia who is in the same area as us for just two days). I would take on the role of sous chef and anything else that needed doing.