I’ve been interested in my heritage as far back as I can remember and with the advent of the Internet it has made doing research so much easier. I would appear that one arm of my family were starved out of Ireland by the British back in the 1830’s. I early on in the year I visited Westport which was the last recorded place I have of my ancestors in Ireland. I was amazed to see a snowcapped mountain on the outskirts of town which I discovered to be Croagh Patrick. Croagh Patrick is a place of pilgrimage and one day I vow to return to climb the mountain as hommage to my ancestors.

Though my ancestors are recorded as having used Westport as a staging post to leave Ireland I am lead to believe they actually came from a village about 40 miles to the south east. Alas there is no further trace of them before Westport.