January 2, 2018
Shortly after leaving our rental cottage, I was stopped by the Garda (police) at a road-side checkpoint. The officer asked if I had a "full license?" I do and offered to show him. He replied that this was unnecessary "you wouldn't lie to the Garda" he said with a smile. I am pleased to report that, it being 9:00 am, I passed my random sobriety test.
We stopped at the County Clare Genealogy Center to see if we could get any more information about the family. Apparently, almost everyone who emigrated from County Clare settled in the Boston area (1). While there are a large number of Irish-American socials clubs in the Boston area, my grandmother once told me she met my grandfather not at a general Irish-American club, but at a County Clare social club in Boston.
As we drove across Ireland, we stopped for gas (petrol) at the Barack Obama service plaza. The former president had visited the small town of Moneygall while in office; one of his ancestors (presumably on his mother's side) had emigrated from Moneygall to America in the 1850s.
(1) In my travels in County Clare, people often asked me exactly where in Boston I lived. The local residents' knowledge of the geography of Eastern Massachusetts was quite impressive.
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