So now that I've explained how I found Ballyvaughan, it's time to dissect what draws me back each year.
Ballyvaughan is a rural village. There are a handful of pubs, a small grocery store, one church-St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, a couple of gift shops, several eateries, a tiny post office, a small health clinic, the Saturday Farmer's Market, the Sunday Craft Fair, and a lovely assortment of special days throughout the year. It has everything you could need or want while on holiday.
Christy, Mary, Catherine & Tom
Then there are the people-the warm, welcoming, hard-working, fun-loving people. Each year they welcome me back like a long lost cousin. At the top of that list of special people are Tom and Catherine, and Tom's sister, Mary and her husband Christy. Tom is the local hackney driver, with Catherine filling in the gaps. Catherine is the very first person I met as I walked off the plane in Shannon. She and son, Aiden, picked me up, along with friends and family back in 2008-our first time to spend a month. These loving people take care of me, and not just my transportation. From serving as resources to providing my social network, they are there for me. And, I host them for dinner as often as possible, and take lots of photos of their family and surrounding community.
With Mary @ Farmer's Market
Catherine & I sharing good times.
People ask me if I rent a car in Ireland. I tell them no, I rent a Tom. Between Tom & Catherine and Mary, all my transportation needs (which are very few) are taken care of. Plus, the village is on a bus line, which travels 45 min. to Galway, where you can take buses and trains throughout Ireland, including a 2.5 hr. train ride to Dublin. So the village is ideally situated public transportation and Tom takes care of airport runs and local sightseeing trips
There are many beautiful places in Ireland but none more breathtaking than Ballyvaughan. Situated on Galway Bay and in the heart of the Burren, it has a mystical quality about it. The Bay ebbs and flows in a magnificent variety of colors, washing up onto a rocky shore, full of treasures for the boys to collect.
The Burren, "great rock," is a limestone plateau occupying an area of over one hundred square miles in North Clare. Here the unfolding layers of limestone form terraces on the slopes of the hills - a limestone desert
but with a quick-changing landscape. The limestone formed as sediments in a tropical sea which covered most of Ireland approximately 350 million years ago.
At least two glacial advances are known in the Burren area. However it is probably the effects of the last glaciation (the Midlandian) that are most in evidence in the National Park. It is thought that most of the Burren was overrun by ice during this glaciation.
Solutional processes have widened and deepened pre-existing vertical joints, or lines of weakness in the rock resulting in the formation of an extensive system of fissures (grykes) separated by flat pavement like slabs (Clints).
The Burren is also famous for its plantlife. Limestone-loving plants such as foxgloves and rock roses grow here and rock's microclimates also nurture plants found in the Artic, Alpine and Mediterranean regions. Botanists have attempted to find out why, but no one has come up with a complete answer. Here too in The Burren, 26 of Ireland's 33 species of butterfly have been recorded, including its very own, the Burren Green. Does all of this not have my name written all over it?!
More on my ties to Ballyvaughan in the next post.
topped living there full time, I spent lots of time there with my beloved grandparents—Nana and Bampa.
of the trailer, pilled high with cotton, to the cotton gin. I collected eggs with my grandmother; “helped” her churn butter, bake bread, and cook all sorts of delectable foods from scratch. Bampa taught me to play dominoes at the age of 7 and then boasted to everyone that I beat him and “I swear I didn’t let her win!” I was always happy on the farm. The reason: I felt totally loved for myself, with few expectations.
And most importantly, I feel loved and accepted as me—not as a Mother, grandmother, sister, chaplain, Deacon—just me. And as much as I treasure each of those roles most of the year, it’s so wonderful to return to my beginnings—my farm environment and just being me.
