Dear Cousins; My family came for a weeks holiday in Ireland, they spent several days in Wales, came on the Irish Ferry to Dublin where we picked them up. They returned last Saturday night on the Irish Ferry to Holyhead, Wales and then on to England where they will travel on military flights back to Virginia. We had a wonderful time. They missed the early ferry out of Holyhead (pronouced Hollyhead), Wales so Hal and I found a lovely Bread and Breakfeast and a cozy pub in Dublin near the port and enjoyed our evening. Our room had a lovely fireplace, tall ceilings (they must have been 14 foot tall walls), beautiful draperies and paintings, two double beds and all for 44 pounds. We picked the children up in the morning and headed back for the North of Ireland. The children were a little taken back by the security forces on the road, we had to go through the South and the North Security Forces, the south had found two cars carrying explosives going north, two cousins were involved. On Saturday we went to the "Giant Causeway" on the Antrim Coast, visited Dunluce Castle, which is a must for anyone visiting Ireland, it was foggy and misty, the waves crashing on the rocks below the 100 foot high cliffs and here sits the ruins of a grand castle (1640), earlier a fort, there is a picture of a Galley incised on the wall of the gatehouse. We took numerous pictures. Returned inland because of the heavy fogg, and went to Ballamena, shopped in the wool shops for yarn, and tried different foods, the bakeries had small sausage rolls, and sweets that the children tried. For our evening meal we went to the "Grouse Inn", in Ballamena, I recommend it highly, and as we were eating the bands started by the window, and you could hear the fife and drums going down the narrow streets. We heard two hours of the Loyalist Bands, made up of both adults and children, there was no violence but they had security forces and policeman on every corner. (Saturday 30 May the Jr. Orangeman Bands marched in Portadown and some 20 people were injured, 14 people were Security Forces the rest from the public sector by petrol bombs and such, we missed going through there by about 20 miles coming back from Dublin) Sunday we spent a wonderful day at church in Holywood and in the evening dinner and singing hymns with some of the congregation in Bangor. Monday saw us off the the "Ulster Folk & Transport Museum", located at Holywood it is alot like "Williamsburg", except not as large, it is being built and worked on. They also had a wonderful Museum telling of Irish History. From there we went to Carrickfergus Castle, north of Belfast, my early Warnock relative sailed from Carrickfergus port around 1775 to Charleston, South Carolina, and settled in the Old 96/Pendleton area. The Castle is wonderfully preserved, and they have a game room and clothing racks for children setup in the Great Hall. My grandchildren had a wonderful time floating around in lovely draperies and head pieces, they also had mail headress and shirt, and metal helmut and armour. They recreated and finished the dining hall, and have model people in costume sitting around the castle walls and inside. The Castle sits on a rock over looking the North Channel towards Scotland and across to the mainland to Bangor, with the waves washing up to the rocks it is quite a lovely picture. Tuesday saw us off on a tour of Strangford Lough. We stopped first at "Grey Abbey" where we had afield day in the cemetery, there were Walkers, Warnocks, Porters etc. buried there. I will go back and ask if they have a register of the graves (they were not open when we stopped). The Church Ruins were beautiful, and so peacefull, with wild flowers blooming, as you tramped through tall graves looking at headstones. I did take some photographs of the stones and will see what comes out that is readable. The Abbey was first called the "Black Abbey". We took the Ferry from Portaferry and went across to Strangford where we went through the Square Castle in downtown Strangford, the guide gave us an excellent tour and history of the area. In 1664 the Strangford Harbor was the 4th largest harbor in Northern Ireland : Londonderry, Tonnage was 2862, Percentage 37.4; Carrickfergus, Tonnage 2592, Percentage 34.1; Donaghadee, Tonnage 1179, Percentage 14.1, Strangford, Tonnage 368, Percentage 4.8; Coleraine, Tonnage 361, Percentage 4.7. By 1850 it had slipped to number sixteen in the charts being included with Tonnage arriving in Newry. We headed towards Downpatrick and stopped at the Ward Castle just outside of Strangford. We had tea in the Paddock Area, and the cold wind was cut by the buildings, and we enjoyed the warmth of the sun. Here again they had period costumes for the children to dress up in while we waited, along with old fashioned stilts for them to play with. The Castle has a very interesting history and was quite unique, the grounds were not as beautifull as "Mount Stewart's" gardens and cemetery, but were still lovely and the people wonderfully friendly and informative. In Downpatrick we visited the grave of Saint Patrick and two other early Saints, and just walked among the gravestones, the church (before 432, it has been rebuilt several times and I believe the ruins incorporated into the building each time) was closed, which was a disapointment as the guide had promised to get me a list of graves if available. Will return there soon. Wednesday we went to Market in Bangor and had lunch in the "Cozy Teapot". The children enjoyed Market and the colorful vendors and their stalls, my daughter enjoyed the fish market from Portavogie and the Italian stand with peppers, garlic, honey, pesto, chili sauce, olives etc being displayed. We also found a wool shop that had lovely Irish Wool Sweaters for sale in Bangror. Wednesday night we went to church at Holywood, and a friend of ours is preaching there that taught our son and daughter-in-law at Lubbock, Texas he has two wonderful books out in the states, "God of the Towel" and "Jesus Hero of Thy Soul", the first book is up for a Christian Book Award. Thursday it rained so hard that we just crashed! Friday saw us at Bru na Boinne, a World Heritage Site, and an active dig. It consists of three main tombs "Newgrange" built over 5000 years ago, "Knowth" built over 3000 years ago and "Dowth" which they are starting to excavate. We went inside Newgrange, the passage was narrow going into the mound and it had a ritual basin on the right hand of the cruciform (cross shaped passage), on the left and right was art work and the ceiling was a corbelled roof about 6m high and is waterproof. All three of these are mounds, with many smaller mounds surrounding the area with underground passage ways between them, my husband and grandaughters crawled through one passageway. They had wonderful museum and Tea Room. Friday night saw us staying at a Youth Hostel in Glencree, which sits in the hills south of Dublin, and is very, very beautiful with waterfalls and streams gushing down the hills over the rocks with firr trees bordering the streams, and the hills are planted with firs. We shared our Hostel with a family from Toronto who is on teacher exchange in England, a family encluding grandparents from Australia, three students from France. We lit the fireplace with peat, and the smell is really unique, sat around drinking tea and talking until they yelled lights out and we slipped into our sleeping bags. Saturday we visited the German Cemetery at Glencree, and an old Abbey, now used as a conference area for business men. Next on our list was the National Museum in Dublin where we visited the "Viking" Exhibit. and had tea, we stopped at a pub in Dublin for Irish Stew and Fish & Chips, then we proceeded to the Irish Ferry, where we had a very tearfull goodbye. Plan to go to the Public Records Office this week. Nina J. Beard Strahm Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Dear Cousins; My family came for a weeks holiday in Ireland, they spent several days in Wales, came on the Irish Ferry to Dublin where we picked them up. They returned last Saturday night on the Irish Ferry to Holyhead, Wales and then on to England where they will travel on military flights back to Virginia. We had a wonderful time. They missed the early ferry out of Holyhead(pronoucedHollyhead), Wales so Hal and I found a lovely Bread and Breakfeast and a cozy pub in Dublin near the port and enjoyed our evening. Our room had a lovely fireplace, tall ceilings (they must have been 14 foot tall walls), beautiful draperies and paintings, two double beds and all for 44 pounds. We picked the children up in the morning and headed back for the North of Ireland. The children were a little taken back by the security forces on the road, we had to go through the South and the North Security Forces, the south had found two cars carrying explosives going north, two cousins were involved. On Saturday we went to the "Giant Causeway" on the Antrim Coast, visited Dunluce Castle, which is a must for anyone visiting Ireland, it was foggy and misty, the waves crashing on the rocks below the 100 foot high cliffs and here sits the ruins of a grand castle (1640), earlier a fort, there is a picture of a Galley incised on the wall of the gatehouse. We took numerous pictures. Returned inland because of the heavy fogg, and went to Ballamena, shopped in the wool shops for yarn, and tried different foods, the bakeries had small sausage rolls, and sweets that the children tried. For our evening meal we went to the "Grouse Inn", in Ballamena, I recommend it highly, and as we were eating the bands started by the window, and you could hear the fife and drums going down the narrow streets. We heard two hours of the Loyalist Bands, made up of both adults and children, there was no violence but they had security forces and policeman on every corner. (Saturday 30 May the Jr. Orangeman Bands marched in Portadown and some 20 people were injured, 14 people were Security Forces the rest from the public sector by petrol bombs and such, we went through there several hours after it happened coming back from Dublin) Sunday we spent a wonderful day at church in Holywood and in the evening dinner and singing hymns with some of the congregation in Bangor. Monday saw us off the the "Ulster Folk & Transport Museum", located at Holywood it is alot like "Williamsburg", except not as large, it is being built and worked on. They also had a wonderful Museum telling of Irish History. From there we went to Carrickfergus Castle, north of Belfast, my early Warnock relative sailed from Carrickfergus port around 1775 to Charleston, South Carolina, and settled in the Old 96/Pendleton area. The Castle is wonderfully preserved, and they have a game room and clothing racks for children setup in the Great Hall. My grandchildren had a wonderful time floating around in lovely draperies and head pieces, they also had mail headress and shirt, and metal helmut and armour. They recreated and finished the dining hall, and have model people in costume sitting around the castle walls and inside. The Castle sits on a rock over looking the North Channel towards Scotland and across to the mainland to Bangor, with the waves washing up to the rocks it is quite a lovely picture. Tuesday saw us off on a tour of Strangford Lough. We stopped first at "Grey Abbey" where we had afield day in the cemetery, there were Walkers, Warnocks, Porters etc. buried there. I will go back and ask if they have a register of the graves (they were not open when we stopped).The Church Ruins were beautiful, and so peacefull, with wild flowers blooming, as you tramped through tall graves looking at headstones. I did take some photographs of the stones and will see what comes out that is readable. The Abbey was first called the "Black Abbey". We took the Ferry from Portaferry and went across to Strangford where we went through the Square Castle in downtown Strangford, the guide gave us an excellent tour and history of the area. In 1664 the Strangford Harbor was the 4th largest harbor in Northern Ireland : Londonderry, Tonnage was 2862, Percentage 37.4; Carrickfergus, Tonnage 2592, Percentage 34.1; Donaghadee, Tonnage 1179, Percentage 14.1, Strangford, Tonnage 368, Percentage 4.8; Coleraine, Tonnage 361, Percentage 4.7. By 1850 it had slipped to number sixteen in the charts being included with Tonnage arriving in Newry. We headed towards Downpatrick and stopped at the Ward Castle just outside of Strangford. We had tea in the Paddock Area, and the cold wind was cut by the buildings, and we enjoyed the warmth of the sun.Here again they had period costumes for the children to dress up in while we waited, along with old fashioned stilts for them to play with. The Castle has a very interesting history and was quite unique, the grounds were not as beautifull as "Mount Stewart's" gardens and cemetery, but were still lovely and the people wonderfully friendly and informative. In Downpatrick we visited the grave of Saint Patrick and two other early Saints, and just walked among the gravestones, the church (before 432, it has been rebuilt several times and I believe the ruins incorporated into the building each time) was closed, which was a disapointment as the guide had promised to get me a list of graves if available. Will return there soon. Wednesday we went to Market in Bangor and had lunch in the "Cozy Teapot". The children enjoyed Market and the colorful vendors and their stalls, my daughter enjoyed the fish market from Portavogie and the Italian stand with peppers, garlic, honey, pesto, chili sauce, olives etc being displayed. We also found a wool shop that had lovely Irish Wool Sweaters for sale in Bangror. Wednesday night we went to church at Holywood, and a friend of ours is preaching there that taught our son and daughter-in-law at Lubbock, Texas he has two wonderful books out in the states, "God of the Towel" and "Jesus Hero of Thy Soul", the first book is up for a Christian Book Award. Thursday it rained so hard that we just crashed! Friday saw us at Bru na Boinne, a World Heritage Site, and an active dig. It consists of three main tombs "Newgrange" built over 5000 years ago, "Knowth" built over 3000 years ago and "Dowth" which they are starting to excavate. We went inside Newgrange, the passage was narrow going into the mound and it had a ritual basin on the right hand of the cruciform (cross shaped passage), on the left and right was art work and the ceiling was a corbelled roof about 6m high and is waterproof. All three of these are mounds, with many smaller mounds surrounding the area with underground passage ways between them, my husband and grandaughters crawled through one passageway. They had wonderful museum and Tea Room. Friday night saw us staying at a Youth Hostel in Glencree, which sits in the hills south of Dublin, and is very, very beautiful with waterfalls and streams gushing down the hills over the rocks with fir trees bordering the streams, and the hills are planted with firs. We shared our Hostel with a family from Toronto who is on teacher exchange in England, a family encluding grandparents from Australia, three students from France. We lit the fireplace with peat, and the smell is really unique, sat around drinking tea and talking until they yelled lights out and we slipped into our sleeping bags. Saturday we visited the German Cemetery at Glencree, and an old Abbey, now used as a conference area for business men. Next on our list was the National Museum in Dublin where we visited the "Viking" Exhibit. and had tea, we stopped at a pub in Dublin for Irish Stew and Fish & Chips, then we proceeded to the Irish Ferry, where we had a very tearfull goodbye. Plan to go to the Public Records Office this week. Nina J. Beard Strahm