30 Jun 2012 – Back Road in Brownstown/Co Meath

Tue: appreciations to Ann for meeting me at the station. Ann crossed my path in 1965 and is my first Irish friend. She is also the first Irish who invited me to her home to meet her parents and she made scramble-eggs. Such kindness can never be forgotten when one is quite alone in a foreign land at the age of 15! Today she is a grandmother of Rebecca & Shannon, cute 18 months identical twins!

Wed: O’Connell & Grafton St in DUB with the maddening crowds! The quiet side street is Ann St S where WEST Jewellers used to be and the only jewellers in DUB where life’s journey has left footprints!! Today it is John Brereton Jewellers…

Poor Mick (Ann’s husband) had to be at the outpatients at the Mater Hospital due to a bad infection to his recent surgery. This is the first encounter to hear of patients with pants and shoes on during surgery and recovery in bed… !

Thu: Dún Búinne/Dunboyne=Búinne’s stronghold with history dated bck to the Middle Ages. Hair appointments for the ladies! Thanks to Ann & Mick for a delicious Irish Hereford steak dinner at The Mint Leaf Restaurant**** and a pleasure to meet Mick’s bro & wife, John & Marion.

 http://www.irishracing.com/v5search?prs=john+Kiely&prw=all

Lunched at Carton House***with an enchanting boat house by the river.

Carton House was one of Ireland’s greatest stately homes and one time ancestral seat of the Earls of Kildare and Dukes of Leinster. This 1,100 acres/4.5 km² is located 14mi/23km W of DUB, in Maynooth, Co Kildare and possessed Ireland’s finest example of a Georgian-created parkland landscape. In the 2000s much of the estate was redeveloped into two golf courses and the house into a hotel complex.

Nothing can ever diminish my domestic comfort and happiness but illness and death – Stella Tillyard in Aristocrats