Holiday Weekend in Clones and Cavan

We spent the weekend in the ancestral homeland of Clones, Co. Monaghan. Eric's great, great grandparents were from that area of Ireland before they emigrated to the USA. Charles McManus, born 1826 in County Fermanagn and Mary Ann Mulligan, born 1839 traveled through New Orleans in 1848 on The Blake. We met a few very helpful and interesting locals while we were there, who were interested in our history as much as we were. As it turned out, our waitress on Saturday night was a young girl also with the name Mulligan, from a small town outside Clones of Kileevan (also in Co. Monaghan). According to the other locals, this is where the Mulligans typically came from. The McManuses on the other hand, are typically from Newtownsbridge, which is actually across the border in Northern Ireland. The present day border in this area is a bit insane, we past back and forth between the Republic and the North at least 5 times just getting to and from Clones. So at the time they emigrated, there wasn't the current border distinction. After seeing the sights in Clones, we drove to Kileevan and Newtownsbridge (both are less than 4 miles away, in opposite directions) and visited the catholic churches and graveyards. I managed to find recent grave stones for Mulligans in Kileevan and McManuses in Newtownsbridge, just as our helpers suggested. Unfortunately the county library was closed for the weekend, but this trip provided a chance to get a feel for the area as well as a couple contacts who said they were willing to help out with any future research in their area.

In addition to our homeland exploration, there was a Film Festival going on in Clones and we scored some free passes and tried to take the kids to a show on Sunday morning. After about 15 minutes Isabella was so scared she said she wanted to leave, so that was the end of it for us. On Sunday after naptime we went to another small town of Virginia, in Co. Cavan for their Pumpkin Festival. We were interested in the soap box derby and street entertainment, but ended up staying late into the night for the parade of lights and fireworks display which were pretty spectacular.














So it turned out to be a fun weekend for everyone and the kids slept the whole way home and stayed asleep. Today is a bank holiday so no work, but school is also off for the week, so it could be a long one for Suzi and the kids.