From Florida

A much belated final post. It's seems to have taken me this long to shake the deep malaise that leaving Ireland and coming to mid-summer Florida has lodged in my soul. When we left the Bunratty Castle Mews B & B to head to Shannon Airport, the ambient temperature was 58 degrees, the sky was blue, and there were beautiful scattered white puffy clouds and a light breeze. Weighing heavily on my mind was that, when we left Florida, the temperature had set a new record - hovering around 100 - and I would soon return to take down the hurricane plywood, cut four weeks worth of grass, and return to work Saturdays and Sundays in the heat at Sandridge Golf Club. I bought a final futile lotto ticket in the hopes of a quick and cheap redemption that would send me into comfortable retirement and a holiday house in Westport - but, of course, no such luck. The only remedy was to quickly give Candee my first monthly installment to fund a return to Ireland in the next year or two. She had it the next day.

So, a final recounting of our meeting with Mr. Owen O'Callaghan. As arranged, we met with Owen on Monday at half nine. He was a most courtly, urbane, and hospitable gent and we spent about an hour or so sitting in his boardroom overlooking Cork City. He was a storehouse of information and anecdote, and our time with him went quickly. He lamented that he didn't have more time to plan for our visit - his sister (who knew more about the family, he said) was off on business to Dublin, and there hadn't been enough time to pull together the four or five local O'Callaghans who could walk up and down the family history with ease. He asked if we'd be returning and promised to pull these people together at a dinner he would host in our honor. We assured him we'd be back in the near future.

Owen presented Mom with a beautiful book on the O'Callaghan clan and we insisted he inscribe it. As previously mentioned, Owen had found an O'Callaghan in Boston, a professor of history at Fordham and Boston College, whose father had left from County Cork at the turn of the century. O'Callaghan fils had spent a lifetime researching the family and Owen had promised to serve as patron, underwriting the cost of publishing the book. The book is really quite lovely, with pictures of famous O'Callaghans and of O'Callaghan castles past. The picture above is of Dromaneen Castle, the seat of the O'Callaghan family in the town of Mallow, County Cork. This is where the clan settled after they had to flee from their seat of power at the Rock of Cashel around the year 1000. Owen has purchased the property and hopes to restore the castle and turn the surrounding area into a resort. Perhaps we'll stay there in a future visit.

Alas, no golf for me on this trip. I had driven out from Cleggan to scout the Connemara Golf Links, where I thought I'd catch a round, and was impressed by the beauty of the place. Not as finely groomed as Lahinch or Royal County Down, but a beautiful seaside setting nonetheless. Last trip to Ireland, I had deposited Candee in Ennis for my round at Lahinch, and in Newcastle for my round at Royal County Down. Both cities did not possess enough charm for a several hour abandonment, especially in the "worst summer weather in Ireland's history." Didn't have the heart to abandon our group to a similar fate this time, so I put on my big boy pants and deferred my passion to a future trip.

What a trip this was. And what a blessing to have, once again, visited the Emerald Isle.