Both my family and my wife's family have Irish roots, but my wife's are broader and deeper. So far as I know, my Irish ancestors come exclusively through my great grandmother, Margaret "Maggie" (Conner) Tew. Her mother and father came to America about 1851 and both of them were from Roscommon County, Ireland. My wife's family on both her father's and her mother's side go back to Ireland. My wife's O'Kane ancestors come from County Derry/Londonderry and the area around Dungiven. The principal Irish surnames in the tree of our sons thus include: Conner, Kelley, O'Kane, Jeffs, Hayes and Collins.
In 2009 my wife and I spent three weeks in Ireland and did a complete circumnavigation of the island. Here are several photographs taken during that wonderful trip. Based on our experience, the Irish people are truly among the friendliest in the world and Ireland is amongst the most beautiful countries!
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These prehistoric mound monuments at New Grange in the Boyne Valley
were built around 3200 BC -- making them older than Stonehenge and the Pyramids |
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One of the Skellig islands off Valentia, County Kerry.
The white is not snow -- it is tens of thousands of seabirds |
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| The harvesting of peat in the Whitlow Mountains |
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| Coffee house on Valentia Island |
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| Fuchsia lined walk overlooking a valley in County Kerry |
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| Mizen Head, the most southwesterly point of Ireland |
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| Kinvara, Ireland across Galway Bay from the City of Galway |
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| A "beehive house" -- some of the oldest structures in Ireland (2000 BC) |
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| Rainbow over Dublin on our last day in Ireland! |
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All photographs by the author (June - July, 2009). All rights reserved. No reproduction or use of these photographs is allowed without the permission of the photographer/author.
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Copyright 2013, John D. Tew
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