Been a few days since my last post. Miss W has been doing a lot of research on her family history at the National Archives and National Library of Ireland, both in Dublin. She will have lots of information to add to the history of the Jackson family. Luckily there was a great archivist at the archives who told Miss W to check the Outrage papers of Donegal in 1847. She also checked newspapers on microfilm. But she was disappointed that she couldn’t find the actual court records of the trial in 1847.

Before leaving Dublin, we headed out on the Hop on, Hop off bus. These are great for seeing the main tourist sites at a reasonable price. It also meant we didn’t have to drive on the narrow, one way streets of Dublin.

Leaving Dublin on Monday, we headed to Donegal to meet Fiona at her school in the hills behind Lifford. En route, we visited Bru na Boinne which is a fantastic Neolithic site with passages through huge mounds of earth. We didn’t realise you could only visit on a guided tour, so we were lucky to get on one to Knowth immediately we arrived.

Heading back on the main road through Northern Ireland (part of the United Kingdom), we started hitting slow traffic. Why? Probably tourists who were used to driving in kilometres per hour in Ireland now drove in miles per hour in Northern Ireland. Remember 50mph = 80kph

Finally found our way to Cloughfin National School near Ballindrait near Lifford. Fiona starting to worry as Miss W said we would be there around 2pm but we were closer to 3pm and Fiona had the keys to the B&B where we were to stay in Castlefinn.

More about our visit to the school in our next post.