Irish chauffeurdriven vacation with Dave Hogan - REPOST SEP 14 2016

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To my many followers, especially those involved in these particular three tours.
Due to a computer error, three of my recent tour Posts were deleted from the Blog, and I am now reposting them.

They were the Blog posts for the following tours:

Phil and Barbara Reichart - Sept 13th- Sept 23rd
Dick Shannon - Sept 27th- Oct 6th
Pat Scanlon - Oct 8th- Oct 13th

Please note the dates of these Posts, as they are not being posted on the actual dates that these tours occurred.

Sincerely, Dave Hogan
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Irish chauffeurdriven vacation with Dave Hogan - REPOST SEP 14 2016

Today we made our way to Knock, and to the Holy Shrine, where Our Lady appeared in the eighteen hundreds, and which is now a recognised shrine, similar to Lourdes or Fatima. In this picture we have Phil and Barbara, with the shrine chapel in the background. The white figures behind the glass fronted, windows, depict the images of the actual apparition.

In this picture you can see the magnificent basilica, which was built for the visit of Pope Paul 11 1969.

Phil's great grandmother, Ann Winn, was born in Roscommon in 1840 and left for the USA, and Illinois, in her late teens. She married in the USA in 1862. Her husband's name was Doyle, and we have no definite information as to where he was from, other than that he was Irish also. Any further information with regards to this family would be greatly appreciated.

We came across this shop in Castlerea, and as it featured the Doyle name, we thought it might be nice to add it here.

This is a peat bog in Roscommon. Peat was the main fuel source for the people in Ireland, without which they would have had a serious fuel problem. You can see the peat stacked, in order to dry it out, before harvesting it and taking into dry storage for the winter ahead.

We passed Roscommon horse race Course on our way into the town, and here we have Phil with the course in the background.

We also passed this statue of St Patrick on the roadside outside Roscommon town, and were informed that that great saint had visited this spot during his lifetime.

Here we have Phil, pictured in the center of Roscommon town, possibly the town where his own ancestors lived, and departed from, during the famine. Phil is going to try to collect more information when he goes home again, and maybe come back in the future to discover more with regard to his family history.

Tomorrow we make our way into the Burren of County Clare and visit the Cliffs of Moher.