Beannachta¡ L Fh'ile P draig Duit ! St. Patrick's Day Greetings to You! I received the above greeting from one of our FERGUS subscribers who was born in Ireland and is now residing in London, England. This Jim Fergus hails from Co Louth, one of the counties which now borders Northern Ireland and is about a 1½ hr. drive from Co Tyrone. Perhaps I will find a connection with my FERGUS family, if we can go back far enough. Now that would be exciting! I thank you Jim for your greeting and expressing the greeting in the beautiful Gaelic language. My FERGUS lineage is not Irish, but for a wee bit of time, we did live on the Ireland, not being of the island, but temporarily (perhaps 50-100 years) from the island. My heritage is Ulster Scots, Scots-Irish, Scottish-Irish = those people who began in Scotland and migrated to Ireland. Some of them migrated further on and some may remain on the island today. Confusing, hmmmmmm, a wee bit. I am still trying to understand it all - not easy. Last night as I hosted a group of friends we read "The Breastplate of St. Patrick" in celebration of this day. Oh, 'tis a magnificent and rare writing attributed to St. Patrick. A year ago today I awoke in Coleraine, Northern Ireland on St. Patrick's Day. My SERVAS hosts shared this reading aloud as a prayer for our journey, before my friend, Louise, and I departed. We set off to enjoy the day driving the Inishowen Peninsula (thanks to the recommendation of another listmember - thanks again, Doc - webmaster of the current "Fergus Family Worldwide" webpage). Take a look at a map of the island of Ireland - you will find the Inishowen Peninsula to be the northernmost location in all of Ireland even though it is a part of the Republic. Searching a map, I had to also look to understand this geography. At Doc's urging, we headed for a day of magnificent vistas. Driving from Londonderry along the road following the western shore of Lough Foyle the scenery was spectacular. I snapped (what I consider to be;) a National Geographic photo upon entering Co Donegal - of the road sign welcoming all in both English and Gaelic. We drove through towns named Muff and Carrowkeel where we were in a que to travel with the other autos following the St. Paddy's Day Parade, before venturing on to Brown Shoulder, and Moville to the end of the road, stopping at the lighthouse at Inishowen Head to view the Atlantic Ocean and the rugged coastline. Oh yes, 'twas a fine day as we continued our journey through Gleneely, Culdaff, and Malin to Malin Head (the most northern point in all of the island of Ireland). Passing through verdant rolling hills we saw thatched cottages, sheep grazing lazily, and folks walking about enjoying this holiday. At Carndonagh we set our compass south through Drumfree, Buncrana, Fahan, Burnfoot, Newtown Cunningham, and Manorcunningham to Letterkenny. By then it was dusk. We still had to drive through the Blue Stack Mountains in the dark. When we reached Donegal town we headed directly west following the main road along Donegal Bay through Montcharles, Milltown, Dunkineely, the port of Killybegs (where much revelling was still going on), and then to our destination of Killybegs. We stopped to ask some teetering young revellers the directions to our hostess' home in the countryside. Still, we were not quite through with out St. Patrick's Day adventure, remember Louise? Since there are few road signs in Ireland and we had not realized that the descriptive landmarks would not be visible at dark. It was quite a guess to find the home where we would be spending a few days. Making a turn off the highway onto a straight road we decided was correct, we continued to drive on and on. Coming upon a lighted telephone booth we considered calling our Servas hostess, but then laughed as we didn't know where we were. Yes, we drove the road until it became a farm lane and ended up at a rather precipitous angle on the edge of a mucky tractor path. Taking a deep breath and using my best driving skills (my children will enjoy this statement!) I quickly reversed our direction at a rapid speed to escape the quagmire. . . fait accomplit! Our hostess was indeed awaiting our arrival. She greeted us at her brightly painted red front door which we had driven past on our way to experience the "end of the lane". There was a peat fire heating the main room and also serving as a cookstove for our dinner. Louise and I laughed as we retold our travel tales of the day. Ah, yes, 'twas a fine day to be in Ireland! Well, I do believe that as I view the sunrise this morning I see a wee bit of green along the skyline . . . Fondly, Cynthia Nichols Russell