This is how you get emails automatically into your inbox whenever I post a new blog post from Ireland. The trip has been amazing already and its only been a few days.
My intention is to reconnect my family lineage, both upstream and downstream to our Irish heritage. There are reasons the stories have been forgotten. There was pain they were leaving behind and it was painful to leave home. With the amnesia, there is also the loss of the indigenous cultural threads of being Irish; the language, the songs, the stories, the teachings from the land, the crafts and the unique wisdom these connections possess.
My quest is to return and pull a rope back to the ancestral land and discover what was left behind and what medicine there is for living a full human life and going forward, ancestral gifts for the future generations.
Subscribe below to read along on my journey. Comment below what your personal interest is and feel free to share any of the posts that are meaningful to you.
Slainte!
Mark
Hi Mark! I am interested in seeing pics and reading stories of your ancestral journey in Ireland. I’m from lands nearby but sadly haven’t been able to trace exactly where. We think we have either Irish or Scottish roots, but it’s a mystery as of yet. Happy seeking and traveling!
It’s amazing what can be discovered when the dream is kept alive and the pursuit is dedicated, consistent. My dauhgter and I have named peaks and troughs as the language of such a pursuit. We have played in those waves over here. The ocean, she will not relent, and as humble beings we learn how to be in those waves, in that water, highs, lows, pursuits, play and recovery.
You are such a beautiful being. Thank you for you. I am walking with you with a full heart.
Thanks for the love Lori. Being here is a dedication to the ropes past and present. Connections are being made now that have been severed from trauma 140 years ago.
Hello Mark,
I was able to travel to Ireland, Co. Wicklow to find my ancestors grave. When we arrived in Carnew, I felt an instant connection. Drawn to church like a magnet, found their graves. I did not meet any ancestors, so would love to see and hear how that plays out for you. Good Luck!
Hi Liz,
I will be talking with a county roscommon geneologist tomorrow. I’m following an anecdotal oral thread that my mothers cousin remembers his mother saying that she sent packages back to ireland, to Roscommon. We have been unable to find the names located in the national database of records, so tomorrow we take the ground up intuitive approach.
hi Mark,
Am curious about your ancestral quest as my grandmother’s roots are Irish and my first wife, sadly deceased, is from a little island called Arranmore off Donegal – from which a number of Falkland folk seem to have come. I’m also struck by the deep call of people in the US to their ancestral roots in UK or Ireland. Johnny Cash traced his roots to Falkland where i live and loved this place – and his lovely daughter Roseann (singing perchance in Skibbereen Arts Festival tonight) still sings beautifully of the ship (“the Good Intent”) that first brought them from here to there. Also just heard a fairly recent song of hers called “the River and the thread” that reminds me of the Ubuntu philosophy “I am because we we are: –
A feather’s not a bird
The rain is not the sea
A stone is not a mountain
But a river runs through me.
All the best in tracing the threads of your lineage.
The ancestral quest is about the whole bundle of how to be indigenous again in a complex time. Knowing my own roots and learning about the irish diaspora, the role of colonization in the famine and the struggle of native societies to keep their unique language and culture is key to evolution of a regenerative nature-connected community.
Hey Mark – if you find yourself traveling west of Dublin and have some extra time, there is a mansion (more like a palace) called Castletown House in Celbridge that was built by an ancestor of mine named William Conolly. He never had kids of his own, so the direct lineage is from his brother. It’s a pretty amazing place I was fortunate to visit about 10 years ago.
Enjoy your travels!
Thanks Bill, sounds fun. I just went through their, but will not be going back to that region. Cool connection!
Mark