Mooching Around Mayo

Last week Lucy and I went over to Ballina for the afternoon. Lucy really wanted to go to the Penneys there which is a fantastic two-story shop and so much better than the Sligo one. As for me I don’t ‘do shopping’ or when I do I complain about it so I dropped Lucy off in the town and went exploring.

I headed in the direction of Lough Conn and the Nephin Mountain. There were still some small traces of snow on top of the mountain.

I went to see the Addergoole Titanic Memorial Park. In 1912 fourteen people from Addergoole set sail on the Titanic, they were all hoping for a new life in America, eleven of them perished when the boat sank.

The 3 survivors from Addergoole all took up residence in the USA.  Annie Kate Kelly, became an Adrian Dominican Sister in Michigan and became known as Sister Patrick Joseph; her fellow nuns called her ‘Sister Titanic’.  The other two survivors were Delia McDermott who married, had three children and ran a boarding house in Jersey City and Annie McGowan who married and lived to the ripe old age of 95 in Chicago, Illinois.

It’s a very moving memorial in a beautiful setting under the shadow of Nephin Mountain.

You could only try to imagine the excitement that these people must have felt as they were beginning their new life.

When I stopped the car at the memorial park this little robin came up to meet me. I started to talk to him and I swear he was listening to me.

I asked him if he was hungry and I think he nodded, so I got some granola out of the car…don’t ask 😉

Anyway I fed him, had another little chat with him and headed back to meet Lucy.