Page 14 - Trip to Ireland Final Flip Book

Missing from the map, the abandoned roads

Reach across the mountain, threading into
Clefts and valleys, shuffling between thick

Hedges of flowery thorn.

…Their arthritic fingers
There stiffening grasp cannot

Hold long on the hillside –
Slowly the old roads loose their grip.

Old Roads

By Eilean Ni Chuilleanain
(born 1942)

We had no reservations – only that B & B directory but the
owners of all the B & Bs seemed happy to call ahead and made

a reservation for us at our next planned stop. We are staying

another night at Castle View so we decide to go into Galway

and stop in Clarenbridge at the Abby Craft Shop (I get a

handkerchief for mom) and then we go on to Galway. We stop

at a tourist information center on the edge of town where they

have some nice local pottery (Tara Co.) and get directions to

the city center. M has been to Galway and is dreading the

traffic but it isn’t as bad as she remembers. Maybe that is

because I’m driving. I do great except for hitting a few curbs

with the car’s wheels. Now I understand why our rental car

looks like it had been through a Moorish invasion and been

raped and pillaged.

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