Killasser

I didn't sleep much on the boat, and the sunrise over Dublin harbor was spectacular; my first impression of Ireland as the ferry motored into the harbor was that it was unnaturally green, just like in the pictures. I shouldered my pack and hitched out of Dublin, catching a series of rides that took up most of the day. The last ride dropped me a couple of miles from where Martin was born. Turning to shoulder my pack I was immediately struck with very strong deja vu. It took me a few moments to realize that I had seen the countryside I was now looking at before, but in some faded black and white photographs that I had seen as a child in my grandparent's home in Philadelphia.

The house that Martin built
Killasser, Co. Mayo, Ireland

I walked down the country lane in the late afternoon sunshine and asked farmers in their fields the way to Carrowleambeg. Whether they actually knew or not they pointed me on and within an hour or so I was walking up the drive to a small, white house where Martin's sister Maggie still lived with her son and his family. The house had been built by Martin in the early 20's just before he left. It seemed like so little time since I had left home and now I was sitting by the turf fire in the kitchen of a family home I'd never been to, drinking tea with a family that I'd never met.

The house that Martin grew up in
Killasser, Co. Mayo, Ireland

The homestead in Killasser is known locally as Carrowleambeg, which is Gaelic for "Small William's land". Nearby is a place called "big William's land" as well. The land was sub-divided from a larger plot some generations back, but the mysterious William's name stays with it. Across the driveway from the new house is the old house, now used as a milking shed for the cows. I was amazed to stand in this shed which could barely fit 4 cows and the milk tank and think of the parents and 8 children who grew up on that tiny building. Martin had always been so proud of owning his row house in Philadelphia, and standing in the house he came from I could see why.