Spring in Ireland 2022

Since 2010 when we first visited Ballyvourney, we have loved Saint Gobnait’s shrine, holy well and cemetery and felt the pull of the ancestors who came from this beautiful rugged land on the border of Cork and Kerry.
Finding the specific location of John and Mary Dineen Sweeney’s land has been an epic journey with many twists and turns.Finding that my great great grandparents, John and Mary,lived next door to Gobnait’s and the holy well and along the Old Road that leads Over the mountains to the sea before they left for homesteading in Wisconsin, is such a gift .
We were having lunch with our long time friends Eileen and Peader on our final day of this visit and brought them up to date on all that we’ve learned about over the last two years about John and Mary Sweeney and his brother Cornelius Sweeney.
Peader realized that he knew from local oral history and a quick review of the map,exactly where John and Mary Sweeney’s farm was.
(Peader grew up just down the road from The farm on the other side of Gobnait’s shrine).
We finished lunch and headed out and Peader gave us the history only a local historian can have while his wife Eileen , a librarian offered more background on the old road that passes by Gobnait’s shrine and the Sweeney farm.
The old road dates back at least to the 1700’s, follows the passes over the rugged mountains to the sea in Bantry and was the road used for all transport and travel .Læs mere