......We Are On Our Own Now

HEY!  Bet you thought I forgot all about my readers, didn't you?  No, not true.  We have been busy for the last few days and would come back to our B&B totally whipped.  But we did make great finds.

Our main reason for going up to Northern Ireland was to do research on our family trees.  We didn't find a whole lot to actually hold in our hands, but we hope to have some things mailed to us back home.  So let's start from the beginning.  Karl had a lot more info about his great grandfather, but he did have some holes to fill and I didn't have a lot of info on mine, but hoped to find anything I could.  We did discover that to find most information you really needed to know what church they belonged to, what townland-parish-and county they lived in and what dates you were looking for.  So we started on Karl's first.  When his aunt died he found an obit of his great-grandfather and another Hutchinson (Robert) that he was told by two other aunts that was no relation to his family.  Well, we found a genealogist who looked into the info that Karl had and found out that Robert was probably a brother to his great-grandfather that the family wouldn't acknowledge (soap opera time).  And he also found out that the story he was told about his great-grandfather rowing a boat over from Scotland to Ireland didn't happen because a Carlisle Hutchinson was shown as leasing property in Armagh Co. as far back as 1850 and a Samuel Hutchinson on the same land as early as 1830.  So he now needs to see which Carlisle was still in Ireland at this time - great-grandfather or great-great-grandfather.  Plus to find out who Robert really was.  THEN the genealogist's found the land that was leased and showed us where is was in comparison to today's map.  We did find the land, but there wasn't anyway we could get closer because it was about 1.5 acres back in a field full of barley.  I told him that there wasn't a crop growing and the land was just dirt I would have gone exploring, but I didn't think the farmer would have appreciated my walking through his crop.

I wasn't so lucky.  I didn't have enough info for anyone to even start looking so I have ordered copies of my great-grandfather's marriage license and then I can see who his father was, what church he was married in and all the other stuff they need.  Then I have the contact of a lady in Ballymena who will check for me when I get the info to her.  So after two and a half days of research we decided to take a bus tour of Belfast.  It was very enlightening to see how the city is still divided.  There is actually a wall circling part of the city to separate the two major problem neighborhoods.  One is called Shankill and they are totally Unionlist which means they want Ireland to be united as one country, but the other area is called Falls and they are completely Nationalists and they want to keep Northern Ireland as part of the UK.  In Falls they have murals that depict a lot of our protesters and radical leaders who fought for one cause or another.  They hang the Union Jack proudly on homes, light posts, and drape across the street.  It's really crazy to see.

After we did the tour it was close to traffic jam time so we decided to stay in town for dinner and wait for the traffic to clear out.  We were directed to the oldest pub in Belfast,  White's Tavern was opened in 1630!  And has been operating continually the whole time.

 

Today we took off from Belfast and drove the Causeway Coastal Road.  It follows the coastline from Belfast, east, to the north and takes you to the Giants Causeway (more on that in a moment).  Any way, our first stop was at Carrickfergus Castle in the town of Carrickfergus.

 

The castle used to be the home of the Earls of Ulster, which is what Northern Ireland is called.  The first part of the castle was built in the early 1100's and was used until World War II.  It is almost completely intact except for a tower that has deteriorated.

Our next stop was Torr Head.  If you look closely at the picture you might see a building on the very tip of the outcropping.  That is where you are the closest to Scotland, only 12 miles away.  And I climbed that thing too!

Then we got to a place called Carrick-a-rede rope bridge.  It is a 30 meter deep and 20 meter long chasm that connects a small island to the shore.  It was erected by salmon fishermen years ago.  Did I go over it?  Not on your bloody life!!!!!!!

 Our last stop was at the Giant's Causeway.  It's a unique rock formation on the seashore that looks like someone put paving stones down for decoration.  But since it is in Ireland there is a story behind it (of course).  As the story goes - a long, long time ago an Irish giant named Finn MacCool was creating the coastline of Ireland when he was challenged to a fight by a Scottish giant named Benandonner.  Finn accepted and built the causeway so that he could walk to Scotland.  Well, when he went over he spied on the Benandonner and saw that this guy was HUGE!!!  So he ran back to Ireland and told his wife, Una.  Well, Una (being the smart woman that she was) she dressed Finn in baby clothes and put him in a large cradle.  When Benandonner came to see where Finn was, Una told him that Finn wasn't there right then, but would love to introduce him to their baby.  Beneandonner freaked out when he saw the "baby" and assumed that if the "baby" was this big, Finn must be enormous so he ran back to Scotland destroying the stones as he ran so that the giant Finn couldn't come over and get him.  Either way, fable or fact, the formations made by volcanic flows are amazing!