Loughrea Ireland

******TRAVEL TUESDAY******

Today's travel post takes us to Loughrea, in County Galway Ireland......more specifically, the area of Baileban, which translated in Gaelic means "The Land of the Whites" We spent an incredible day with our relatives from my paternal grandfather's side of the family. They were so kind and welcoming. My Dad's first cousin, Bridie, rode on the bus with us for the day. She is an amazing woman......her memory is incredible and her mind is tack sharp. She is such a special person......gentle, kind, loving.......one of those people who has a loving aura around them and makes you feel like a better person for knowing them. I know that may sound corny, but it's the best way I can think of to describe her.

Bridie led our bus driver to Baileban, the Whyte Family property. It was such an incredible experience to be where my family originated. So much family history there!

The road along the family land:

My maiden name was White. My father's name was John White. His father's name (My grandfather) was William Whyte. The spelling of the family name changed at the Port of Boston to White when William arrived in America.  William was born into a loving family in Baileban, in 1888.  This is the house (which is now a storage shed) that my grandfather Willie was born in:

I can't even find the words to describe how incredible it was to be standing where my Grandfather was born and where he grew up. It touched my heart!

What an amazing experience it was to visit the family cemetery located on the land. I knew we were going to visit the cemetery but I never knew there was a little church on the property as well.

This next video embodies what this trip personally meant to me. I wasn't going to share this because it's so personal, but I decided to share it anyway. This is a video taken at the family cemetery of some of us meeting our cousin Bernie for the first time. I got rather emotional (I'm an emotional person by nature, what can I say?) :-) I'm wearing my heart on my sleeve by sharing this, but it truly signifies what this trip meant to me:

This is the gravestone of my Great Grandparents and three of their children, who were my Grandfather Willie's siblings. It breaks my heart to think of the heart ache that my Great Grandparents endured. Three of their children, including my grand father Willie emigrated to the United States *Willie was 18 yrs old when he left Ireland* and they never saw them again. Within the next couple of years, three of their other children passed way. This left them with one remaining child at home. Such an incredible loss for them.

Traveling along the family land, we passed this little bridge that ran over a small river. In my mind I could picture my Grandfather and his siblings playing in the water along the river so I snapped this photo out the bus window. I later asked Bridie if my grandfather played in that river and she replied with a resounding "Oh yes"

After we left Baileban, our bus driver drove us through downtown Lochrea, It was so amazing to see this little town, as throughout my life I would always hear about Louchrea and to be there myself was almost surreal.

We stopped to visit the Carmelite Abby in Loughrea. We first visited the churchyard and cemetery where the ruins of the original church remain.

We then went inside the current church

I lit a candle

We then headed to our final destination of the day.......the beautiful Loughrea Hotel......where the ten of us were invited to the 40th wedding anniversary party of our cousin Petula and her husband Willie. They are such a beautiful loving couple, and it was such an amazing experience to be gathered with our entire "Irish" family. We were served drink and appetizers at the rooftop deck, followed by a delicious dinner downstairs in the ballroom with music and dancing. It is another day I will never forget, and their hospitality meant the world to me.

Here is a group photo of us. I'm not sure who I passed my phone to so I'm not able to give photo credit to whoever took this group photo.

I never once used my Nikon on this day so all of these photos were taken with my Iphone. This day was all about the experience and about family!! I hope you enjoyed this personal blog post. This was the last day spent with our Irish family, and the future TRAVEL blog posts will be featuring photos from other various places in Ireland.