Our Final Day in the City

On our last day working in Ireland, John and I took the day off to spend the afternoon in Dublin (picture at left of the River Liffey at sunset). We took the city bus tour and made a few stops. It was supposed to be pouring rain all day. But when we got to downtown Dublin, the sun broke through the clouds and we had a great early afternoon with blue skies and nice fall temperatures. In fact, I was starting to re-think my choice of outerwear.

We made a few stops along the way today. The first was at Trinity College to catch a glimpse of The Book of Kells a beautifully illustrated set of the Gospel created in the sixth century and on display in the library.

We walked from Trinity to Grafton Street which really set Dublin apart from our trip into Belfast. There were people everywhere and from all over. There were street musicians, singers and those "statue people" who stand frozen and scare little kids to death. Dublin is bigger and more cosmopolitan than Belfast. While Dublin has seen it's share of rebellion over the centuries, it doesn't have the remnants of the recent violence that Belfast has dealt with.

Back on the tour bus, we stopped at the National Gallery before visiting Christchurch Cathedral (picture at left) for a quick stop before they held a late afternoon prayer service. We got to go down to the Crypt which was very interesting. There's a gold plate that was given to the cathedral by King William I (William the Orange) after winning the Battle of the Boyne.

Both Christchurch and St. Patrick's, just down the street, are Protestant cathedrals. We thought it interesting that Dublin does not have a Catholic cathedral, at least according to the tour bus driver.

Because it was late in the afternoon and the rain had returned, we didn't get to stop at the Guinness Brewery or Jameson Distillery. John did some shopping and we went started back for Hillsborough. After dinner and some evening tea, we're back to pack and get ready for tomorrow. Pattie's flight gets in at 9am; and John flies out at about 11am. The three weeks went quickly as everyone said it would. We've met some really great people, seen some unbelievable sights and hopefully have shot enough interviews and video to produce an interesting television program.

I'll try to keep posting on our next week's activities as Pattie and I explore the south of the island. I'll let you know what the Missoula 12 are doing today. And I'll also give my best and worst moments of our production. Hope you'll keep checking back.

Royals, Ruins and Rain

Well we got in late last night from Letterkenny and didn't realize we had a house guest of sorts. Just down the road in our home village, the Queen of England spent the night at the Hillsborough Castle.

I went to drop off my laundry today. Normally we have to drive by, go up the hill and do a u-turn to get to a place where we can park. The spot where we do the u-turn was blocked off by members of the PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland). When I got to Jeeves, the dry cleaners and laundry service for Hillsborough, I asked who was in town. The woman behind the counter said, "The Queen." My great reply was "THE Queen?"

Well I found out the Queen would be leaving in about 30-minutes. So we walked to the top of the hill, watched the policemen and military personnel get into position and following a trumpet fanfare and military salute, the motorcade departed. I didn't get the best picture (see the Queen waving at us above), but I got something.

Why was the Queen in Northern Ireland you ask? She cut the ribbon and toured a Coca-Cola bottling plant near Maze. Click here to read the story.

After our royal blessing, John and I went in search of the series of ruins near Drogheda, Ireland. We stopped at the Monasterboice Ruins first. Built in the late fifth century, the site now is protected and is surrounded by a cemetery. (See picture of the Celtic cross and the Round Tower that's more than 100 feet high.)





From Monasterboice, we went in search of the Mellifont Abbey. Compared to Monasterboice, the abbey is relatively new having been started in 1125. The place was huge. The visitor center was closed for the season so we just walked the grounds. More and more was added to the site over the centuries. The abbey closed in 1539 after King Henry VIII decided to close all the monasteries and abbeys (a nice way of saying it) after the reformation of the Church of England. (See picture at left)

After a quick trip to see the spot of Ireland's largest military campaign, the Battle of the Boyne, our luck with the weather finally ended just before out final shoot of the trip. It rained and rained hard as we made our way to interview Seamus Carr.

Seamus was great, as always. The other night, he took us dinner at the Monasterboice Inn near the ruins we toured today. Tonight he took us to the Bronte Steakhouse near the Bronte Homeland area of County Down. Seamus loves to tell stories of his trips to places like Moscow, Australia, Europe and of course Missoula, Montana.

Tomorrow, we put away our camera, lights and gear and become tourists for John's last day in Ireland. We'll take the bus down to Dublin and visit the capitol city of the Republic of Ireland. Then it's back to pack and get ready for John to go home.

An Artistic Day In Letterkenny

In 1997, Sean Barr (center in photo at left with girlfriend Maureen and friend John) was the only one of the original 12 Montana visitors from Ireland and Northern Ireland who had started going to "university." He was 23 years old and had an interest in media and art. Now more than 13 years later, Sean's artwork was on display for the first time in the northwest town of Letterkenny, Ireland.

Sean grew up a Catholic in a small down near Derry/Londonderry, Northern Ireland. He graduated from the University of Ulster in Belfast in Media Studies. He took a year off after college and moved to Australia where he worked on a banana farm and in construction using skills he learned while helping build a Habitat for Humanity house in Missoula.

Moving to Letterkenny, he started his own video production business and produced wedding and festival videos around Letterkenny. He said most of the business started to dry up when the economic recession hit Ireland. He said he decided to go back to his first love, art. He started painting landscapes in watercolors. Then he moved onto acrylics and an inspiration he first got while visiting Montana--Native Americans.

One of the most impressive pieces at the "Totems to Townlands" art exhibition tonight at the ArtCo Gallery in Letterkenny was Sean's portrait of Sitting Bull (see photo at left). Sean's style is varied. He has an expressionistic Wild Bill Hickok and a realistic watercolor of the cathedral in Letterkenny.

We spent the full day with Sean. We were going to start yesterday but he and his girlfriend of four years, Maureen, had trouble getting a flight back from a quick trip to London. He walked from Maureen's flat this morning. He's hoping to learn to drive a car someday but for now he bikes or takes the bus.

Sean had to make and paint a few last minute frames (see photo at left) for his nearly 15 works that were displayed at ArtCo. We helped him tranport his last few pieces to the gallery where he and the other two artists in the show decided where to hang everything. After an interview with us, home to changes clothes and off to the bus station to pick up a friend, he made his appearance at his first art exhibition.

About 40 family, friends and patrons of the three artists were on hand. Some pieces sold and some might sell over the three weeks the show will be displayed. Sean posed for pictures and talked to a few people. But mostly he just smiled because he's getting to do what he's always wanted.

"Brilliant" in Derry, Letterkenny and the Northwest Coast

We had a bit of free time today due to continuing changes in our schedules with some of our interview subjects. Sean Barr, who we had hoped to catch in final preparations for his art exhibition on Thursday night, got caught in a travel snafu and wouldn't be in Letterkenny until late Wednesday night.

After a really cold night, we woke to bright blue skies. So we decided to stop in Derry/Londonderry and Letterkenny to get cover video of both places. Derry/Londonderry, Northern Ireland's Walled City, has two names. The Unionists (mostly Protestant citizens) use the more British sounding Londonderry. Looking over the southern wall of the city, you get to see the last working class Unionist neighborhood on the west bank of the River Foyle. There are two murals that really stick out to those walking the walls. (See picture above.)

Similar to Belfast, the two neighborhoods are very close together. Over the west wall, the Republican (mostly Catholic) segment of the city uses the name Derry or Free Derry. (See picture at left.) There are many murals showing their thoughts on "The Troubles." In between the buildings that have the murals painted on them is the Museum of Free Derry that takes patrons through the strife from the Republican point of view. There are a number of historical panels, pictures and items from the civil rights marches, newspaper clippings and other items including audio from "Bloody Sunday."

On January 30, 1972, British troops killed 26 unarmed people who had gathered to march for civil rights. The British military said that some in the crowd were armed and needed to be controlled. The event has continued to be controversial. This past summer, more than 38 years later, the Saville Report into the shootings was released saying that the marchers were unarmed and condemning the actions of the military. The report brought an apology from the British Prime Minister. Click here to read more about the report.

After a morning reliving the sectarian history of Derry/Londonderry, we headed off to Letterkenny to get a view of the town from above. We checked into our hotel and headed for the rugged Irish coast of County Donegal. John, as navigator, found a series of great roads that took us around the mountains and next to the cliffs where we could look out at the storm brewing over the north Atlantic.

We got to travel through little wind swept hamlets with names like Dunfanaghy and Ballyboe. We crossed the River Ray and through Falcarragh and Gortahork. In the Republic of Ireland, all of the road signs, street signs, and buildings are in both English and Irish. But in this part of Ireland, everything is just in Irish.

It was cold and windy along the coast. Many of the houses had smoke coming from their chimneys. We saw bags of coal and peat pellets for sale. And while you would think these little places would be closing down for winter, we saw many tour buses stopping at B&B's for the night.

We motored back to our new home base (for one night) in Letterkenny, transferred our footage and ate way too much food again. Now it's off to bed before a busy last three days in Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Clanrye Group Training for Success

In what used to be the corrals for a rich homeowner outside Newry, Northern Ireland, the Clanrye Group prepares young workers and people with learning disabilites for placement in the area workforce.

The 11,000 acre national forest Slieve Gullion (view from the top of the forest at left) and the Courtyard buildings are home to the training center. General Manager Liam Devine oversees a wide range of training programs. Through their Wider Horizons program, twenty-one people aged 18 to 28 are currently working in Toronto, Ontario. It's one of five trips that Clanrye has in the planning for this year--two to Toronto, two to Boston and one to Montenegro.

These programs are similar to the Building Bridges program that brought 12 young people from the area around Newry, Dundalk and Belfast to Missoula in 1997. Devine said Clanrye decided to try an international program in 1996. He said he called Dennis Mulcahy from Project Children, the group that had been bringing young Irish children to the U.S. during summers. Habitat for Humanity came on board and the program was underway.

Missoula and Jacksonville, Florida were the first two places selected for the program. "It was through the hard work of Jon Agner that made it work," Devine said. Jon Agner was the Montana coordinator of Project Children. Agner traveled to Newry to help interview and select the original 12 students. In his free time from his work at the U.S. Forest Service, Agner found host families, dealt with all of the planning and worked with local Habitat leaders to make sure the program would be successful, Devine said.

More than 13-years later, Clanrye has now given more than 100 young adults a chance to travel abroad and work toward a career.

Off to Work with Seamus Carr

Seamus Carr (pictured left) works with wood, drives trucks, refurbishes old tractors and tells great stories. Seamus lives and works out his parent's house near Newry, Northern Ireland, a town near the border with Ireland.

Today he was proudly wearing his Missoula Club sweatshirt picked up on one of his 10 trips to Missoula since first arriving in 1997 with the Building Bridges program. Seamus is still very close with his Missoula host family Skip and Jodi Harden and their family.

In fact the week before John and I left for Ireland, Seamus was in Missoula. He came this time to surprise Jodi on her birthday. He said, "She couldn't talk for about 45 minutes."

Montana isn't the only place that Seamus has visited. He's traveled across Australia in an old bus, still has a 500 rubel note from a trip to Moscow, has been across Europe and hopes to get to Africa soon.

Seamus and his brother Paul (called Bubba by his siblings) are working on a few details at St. Patrick's Church (our fourth St. Patrick's shown at left) in the small town of Loughbrickland. The church was originally build in 1825 but had become rundown. Over the past year, the inside of the church has been complete refurbished in an almost contemporary look with dark wood and intricate tile work.

A few of the doors on the north side of the church have expanded, so Seamus is there to make them fit together better. He takes the doors off their hinges, uses a saw to rip off an old piece of molding and then glues and nails the new molding into place. There's also a problem with one of the new sky lights. Seamus and Paul lift a 30 foot ladder into place being careful of lights and items on the altar. Seamus shakes the ladder as Paul heads up to the top. Brothers will be brothers. Seamus then takes his turn at the top and fixes the problem.

After he takes us to lunch in Newry, a light drizzle begins. Seamus shows that he had slowed down for us. He moves into his normal speed and has the doors fixed and re-hung in no time at all using some of the tools he's picked up on his trips to Missoula where he says tools are much cheaper.

Seamus then takes up a very narrow road to the Flagstaff Viewpoint (see the view at left) overlooking Carlingford Lough, a busy port near Newry between the Mourne and Cooley Mountains. He points out where he lives, where there are castle ruins as well as the flashing light from the lighthouse that's the final point before ships enter the Irish Sea.

He shows us the quarry where he crashed while four-wheeling in 2006 and almost lost his leg. This is where Northern Ireland (on the left of the river) and Ireland (on the right of the river) come together.

He feels at home at this place. He talks about a trail he goes running on, the forest where he takes friends to a little known castle and about the transport ferry taking trailers to Liverpool, England. He smiles when he talks about it. While he loves to tell stories about the places around the world he's visited and hopes to visit, this is home.

Church Services in Hillsborough and Newry

St. Malachy's Church (Church of Ireland) in our "hometown" of Hillsborough, Northern Ireland (pictured left) holds two different church services for their parishioners. Since the beginning of September, they've held a contemporary Christian service with newer music, a rock band and graphics on a screen. It looks and sounds a bit odd in the Georgian-style church originally built in 1662.

Later on Sunday morning, St. Malachy's holds the more traditional service. The church rector, Rev. Simon Richardson, said that reaction to the new service is split. "Some think it's the best thing to happen here in a long time," he said. "Others are wondering why we would do such a thing," he added. Rev. Richardson, an Englishman, has been in Hillsborough for four years. He and Rev. Mike Dornan, the curate, were very generous letting us capture video of today's traditional service.

The Cathedral of St. Patrick and St. Colman (Roman Catholic) in the border town of Newry, Northern Ireland holds one type of Mass but for two distinctly different audiences (pictured left). First up this afternoon was Mass said in Polish before the English version as the last service of the day. Ireland and Northern Ireland have had an influx of workers from eastern Europe and especially Poland since Ireland and England joined the European Union earlier this decade. So the Newry Diocese decided to reach out to the immigrants by holding a Mass in Polish.

Father Stanislaw Hajkowski performed both ceremonies. "It's an Irish name," he joked when he introduced himself to John. Father Stan, as he's known, spent much of the last decade in the United States working in communities with Polish immigrant populations. He was in Chicago before accepting the call to work in Newry. "Everybody in both places thought I was crazy," he said.

The Polish population in Ireland have not been greeted fondly in some areas of the island. With the worldwide economic recession, some in Ireland feel the Poles have taken jobs from local citizens. But the curate at St. Patrick and St. Colman's said there are jobs that the Poles are doing that the Irish look down at. Sounds similar to problems in the United States.

St. Patrick and St. Colman's is a Gothic cathedral built in 1829. It was the first Catholic Cathedral build after the Catholic Emancipation when Catholics could worship freely and legally in Ireland. The inside has ornate tile mosaic work on the floors and walls that took workers five years to complete. The building is beautifully lit up at night. And it's a bit spooky looking with the heavy shadows from tonight's overcast skies.

We had our first rain tonight. It drizzled off and on for a few hours this evening. In between services today, we got to watch a lot of soccer--first the English Premier League followed by First Division of the Spanish Football League.

Saturday with friends in Newry

Beautiful clear blue skies were overhead today as we finally made it to the Bernish Viewpoint (picture at left of one of the views) just west of the border city of Newry in Northern Ireland. We had attempted to drive up there last week but took a wrong turn and ended up finding our friend Declan Cromie.

We stopped by the Cromie farm to get a shot from outside the house. We thought we would be in and out quickly without being seen. But the kids came running down the lane, their father Declan followed and his brother Keirnan drove up from down the lane to check out who we were and what we were doing. Now that's a neighborhood watch.

Declan and Kiernan told us about the remains of an ancient church and graveyard not far from their houses. We didn't have time to check it out today but we hope to get back there this week.

We had to get into Newry to meet up with one of the Missoula 12 from the Building Bridges program who I had not made contact with before coming to Ireland. Paul Ferris (on the left in the picture with Ray and Seamus Carr) met us at the Canal Court Hotel for lunch.

Paul lives about 15 minutes away from Newry. Earlier in the week, Declan got Paul's phone number from a mutual friend and gave it to me. When I called Paul, he didn't answer. He called back later to tell me he was now a lorry driver (truck driver) and couldn't answer while driving. Paul also works as a joiner or carpenter but since the recession some of the jobs have dried up.

Paul wanted to meet at the Canal Court because he knows it well. He and his wife had their wedding reception here six years ago. They now have two children--a boy who's three-years-old and a girl who's 10-months. Paul used to drive long haul into Europe but was away for long periods of time. Now with the kids, he's taking day drives such as taking sheep from the Newry area down to the slaughterhouse in Wexford in the south of Ireland.

During their time in western Montana, the Building Bridges folks spent a few weeks in Helena working on the construction of the God's Love homeless shelter. While there, Paul met a Helena girl. She came to Northern Ireland once and he returned to Helena for a trip before the miles between ended their relationship.

Another of the Building Bridges folks, Seamus Carr also joined us for lunch. He knows about trips to Montana.When John and I left for Ireland, Seamus was in Missoula. It was his tenth trip back to Big Sky Country. Also from nearby Newry, Seamus runs a carpentry business and drives truck as well. We're meeting up with Seamus on Monday so more on him later.

At the end of the day and back at our home base in Hillsborough, John went for a run while I headed out for a walk when I noticed some great late afternoon light. I ran back into get the camera and drove through the country until I came to a nice spot to capture the sunset (picture at left). It was a gorgeous end to the evening.

Slow Friday in Hillsborough

Today was a slow day for us. We went in search of churches to capture video in on Sunday. We stopped by the Church of Ireland church here in Hillsborough. They're calling us back tomorrow with a yes, we hope. We'll check with a Roman Catholic church in Newry or Dundalk tomorrow.

John (pictured left shooting video on Wednesday) and I drove in search of a small country Catholic church near Hillsborough. We never did find St. Colman's.

But we did get to see a lot more of the countryside including passing the village of Maze, home to one of the high security prisons that was used by the Northern Ireland and British authorities to house high security paramilitary inmates from "The Troubles." Following the signing of the 1998 Good Friday Peace Agreement, the prison was closed in 2000.

We did find two of the four former Montana visitors who I had yet to find or make contact with. Yesterday, we went in search of Jerome Brooks using his home address from 13 years ago. Once we finally found his house, his father was just walking into the house. He invited us in and gave us Jerome's phone number. Mr. Brooks told us Jerome, his youngest son, works as a concierge in a high-end hotel along the southwest coast of Ireland. He got married about a year ago. Mr. Brooks has a fun to listen to. He liked to tell stories and then he would laugh with a high squeaky laugh.

We had heard that another of the Missoula 12, Paul Ferris, was living and working near the Newry/South Armagh area. Declan Cromie knew someone who knew Paul. So we got Paul's phone number and called him today. Paul called back this afternoon and told us he's married with two kids--a boy and a girl. We're going to meet Paul and Seamus Carr from Newry tomorrow for lunch. We now have information or have talked to 10 of the original 12 visitors.

The weather is about to take a change for the Fall. We've been very lucky with the weather so far. Pretty warm for this time of year and almost no rain. Everyone has been commenting on how lucky we've been. Today we stopped in the Hillsborough tourist information office. One of the women there said we would have snow in the next week.

I laughed it off thinking she was making fun of us being from the mountains of western Montana. John told me later that the long range forecast is for lows at or below freezing--just in time for our trip north to Letterkenny next Wednesday. As John said, with only six inches of clearance on some of the roads we've been driving, any slick roads would make traveling very exciting.

But we'll see if that stands. If you check three different websites on the weather for Ireland, you'll get three completely different forecasts. More on the driving tomorrow.

History in Dundalk

It was a dark, cool and damp Friday night in Dundalk, Ireland on December 19, 1975. People were walking the from the Town Square down Crowe St. across from the Dundalk Town Hall not far from St. Patrick's Cathedral. Taxi cabs were lined up waiting to take weary Christmas shoppers home. Some men had stopped into the pub to enjoy a pint or two before they went home for the weekend. A car drove up in front of Kay's Tavern and parked. (Picture at left is of site today.)

Martin Clarke was 24-years-old, newly married and a part-time firefighter. He heard what he thought was a car crash. A few seconds later, he said he felt his house started shaking. He told his wife he needed to get to the fire station and took off running toward the sound.

Clarke, who had an injured hand at the time, checked in at the Fire Station and then ran the three blocks to the site of the largest and most memorable car bomb in Dundalk's history. "It was just chaos," Clarke said about seeing the bombing site. He said, the pub was on fire, the bottom floor almost completely blown away. People were pulling the injured from the wreckage on Crowe St. Others were inside the building trying to get survivors out before the second floor of the building collapsed, he said.

Two of the people pulling survivors out of the rubble were the grandfather and uncle of Mark Larkin, one of the Building Bridges participants who came to Missoula in 1997. Mark's uncle received burns on his arms and didn't like talking about the event. Just a few years ago, Mark found out that his grandfather had also helped drag people to safety. His grandfather, uncle, aunt and baby had hailed a cab but were having trouble getting the baby's carriage folded up and placed into the trunk of the cab when the blast happened. That delay probably saved their lives, Mark's father Gerard said.

Shrapnel from the bomb scarred the granite on the face of the Town Hall building. St. Patrick's felt the shock as some of the windows in the cathedral were shattered. Two people died in the car bombing in Dundalk. A plaque remembering the event and the two men has been placed on the Town Hall. The piece of public art down the street from the Town Hall (pictured left) was put in place on the 30th anniversity of the event.

Martin Clarke is now an archivist with the Louth County Museum. We spoke to him today about the car bomb and how security has changed for people living on the border areas of Ireland and Northern Ireland since the signing of the Good Friday Peace Agreement in 1998, less than a year after the Missoula visitors returned home. In the past five years or so, he said the checkpoints as well as the lookout towers on the top of a number of hilltops and mountain tops near the border have been taken down.

At one time Dundalk was nicknamed "Gundalk" or "El Paso," but those names have now stopped. We have crossed back and forth across the border a number of times since we've been here. You would never know it. There are no border stops and no signs that says you're in one country or the other. The only way you know you've changed countries is to look at the speed limit signs. In the north, you see speed limit signs in miles-per-hour. Driving in the south, you'd see signs showing kilometers-per-hour.

A Visit to South Armagh Farming Country

An evening walk to check on his nearly 40 head of cattle is how Declan Cromie likes to end his day. "It's my golf, my way to relax," he said while strolling though one of his hilly pastures in Kileevy Township in southern County Armagh, Northern Ireland near the border with the Republic of Ireland. (The picture at left is the view of the Kileevy Township valley)

Today he finds part of the pasture's fence knocked over and a white charolais cross calf running loose.

Declan says having the cattle takes him back to when he and his father were running a dairy operation on this land. He started working on the family farm when he returned from western Montana in 1997 as part of the Building Bridges program. Declan was taking an agriculture class when he heard about the chance to go to Montana. Thinking of cowboys and mountains, he applied and was selected. He was 24 years old at the time and had been dating his girlfriend Fiona for a couple of years.

Within six months of returning from Montana, Declan (pictured left) and Fiona were engaged. They were married in 1998 and have six children, four boys and two girls ages 10 to 18 months. Declan and his father sold the dairy cattle in 2000. His father died in 2004. The cattle he has now are for beef. Fiona says he has the cattle to remember his father.

The four boys, who came along to check on the herd, help their father run down the calf and get him back into the pasture. They hold the fence posts for Declan to pound them back into place with a sledgehammer. They also help feed another small herd in a different pasture. The boys would rather throw the hay at each other. But when the cattle start getting riled up, Declan tells the boys to settle down.

Family and business still mix in Declan's life. He now works in concrete construction with his father-in-law Eddie and brother-in-law Sean McComish. Earlier today, they were pouring a concrete slab for a new house not far from Declan's home.

Sean worked the loader and dumps the concrete into place. Declan (working in picture at left) and Eddie raked it into place. Then using a 2-by-4 as a float, they worked together in perfect unison to put the finishing touches on the slab.

Declan said he hopes they get the big to build the rest of the house. But for now he's happy to keep finding work near his home. "I'm not much for traveling," he said. He said a lot of workers went into Dublin, a nearly two-hour one way trip, to work for more money during the housing boom earlier this decade. Now they have no work, he said.

Between the concrete business, the cattle on the family farm and his wife and six kids, Declan seems happy. He says he'd like to return to Montana some day. But for now, he's found a way to make a living and live in the place he loves.

Notes: We spent the evening with Declan and his family. His wife Fiona, while totally against talking to us on camera, was a natural. They made us chicken curry with rice for dinner. Declan's brother Kiernan was there too. We met Kiernan the other day when we were searching for Declan. They were all great to visit with and have a cup of tea. They were so welcoming to John and me. And the kids were great. Of course, they mugged for the camera but they were very well behaved and fun to be around.

For the record, the Kileevy Gaelic Football team, featuring Declan's oldest Tiernan, won two games but ended up losing the final match in extra time this past weekend. Tiernan was still a bit upset about that match.

We have not been good luck for the home teams since we've been here. Dundalk and Kileevy both lost games we attended. The national teams playing in pool play for the Euro Cup haven't fared much better in our time here. But at least we've brought some decent weather. We hope it continues to hold off from raining too much.

Laura McShane and her Mom

When 20-year-old Laura McShane (pictured left with her mother Bernadette) stepped off the plane in Missoula, Mont. as part of the Building Bridges program in 1997, she looked beat. She remembers people holding a banner welcoming the group of young Irish men and women to Big Sky Country. But they had been traveling for 24 hours and she wanted to sleep.

It didn't take long before she was homesick. She made lots of long distance phone calls back to her mother Bernadette in her hometown of Dundalk, Ireland. "It was quite a bill," Bernadette remembered. Laura has always relied on her mother. And it's no different today.

Laura has almost always been working since she returned from Missoula more than 13 years ago. One of eight kids, she first got a job at a Heinz plant in Dundalk before going to work in a retirement home. On her off days, she studied for exams that gave her certification to work with developmentally challenged people. She's been working in a rehabilitation house for the past three years. But it's been Laura's private life that hasn't been so smooth. (In the picture at left, John visits with Bernadette and Laura)

Laura said she got in some bad relationships that didn't work out. She gave birth to her first son Sean in 1999. Five years later, she was pregnant again. This times didn't quite go as planned. She told us that the baby was premature and had to spend time in the neonatal wing of the hospital. At 10 weeks old, the baby died. Laura says she was told the baby died of a blood disorder. Later, she said, the tests came back negative. She said they then told her the baby died of cot death also known as sudden infant death syndrome.

Laura was devastated. She said she was wailing and wouldn't let them take the baby away. She said when someone would let her know they were sorry for her loss, it just made her more upset. At the funeral, she said she didn't want to see the coffin closed. And she said she very nearly jumped into the grave at the burial. She was in a very dark place.

But her mother was there for her. Laura moved back home to be with her family. Bernadette quit her job at a daycare and looked after Sean while Laura was grieving. Laura went back to work but the anti-depressants she was taking made her almost a zombie, she said. Laura said she would come home from work and just sit in her room watching television. If anyone would come to check on her, she said she would lash out at them.

She started thinking about Sean who was then only five. She stopped taking her medication and decided to move forward for her son. She saved up her money and bought a house. About the same time, she decided to learn how to drive. Two-and-a-half-years ago she gave birth to her second son Kyle.

Sean's (pictured today at left) now 11 and in his last year of primary school. Kyle has just started to attend day care. They stay with his grandmother and the rest of the family while their mother is at work. Bernadette, herself an only child, likes her house to be open to anyone. Family, friends and friends of friends all come and sit for a chat. She lives in a working class neighborhood not from the Dundalk Institute of Technology where we visited last week. "It's a madhouse," Laura said. "But I like it that way," Bernadette continued.

Last Christmas, mom came to Laura's rescue again. Laura was leaving a Christmas party when she tripped and broke her ankle in three places. Unable to get around on her own to finish shopping for Christmas, her mom pushed her around the stores in a wheelchair. "I wanted to go one direction and she would push me in the other," Laura laughed.

Laura is now taking Sean to open days at a number of secondary schools to see where he'll be next year. She's very excited that Sean will be confirmed next year as well. And it won't be long before young Kyle is off to preschool. But Laura doesn't have to worry too much. Her mom will be there, only a five minute drive away, for all of them.

Mortar destroyed and Arms Found in County Louth

You may have seen the Missoulian item on the mortar being destroyed and a Real IRA arms cache being found in County Louth. We've spent the past couple of days in the county seat Dundalk which is about 20 miles north of where the arms were found. Click on the picture to the left to get a better idea of where everything is.

Click here to read the Irish Times story.

Click here to read the Missoulian story.

A Morning with the Larkins

Mark Larkin (pictured left) has pretty much spent his entire life in Dundalk, Ireland. Except, of course for time in Denmark, the Canary Islands and 10-weeks in western Montana in 1997 as part of the Building Bridges program.

Mark is now 33-years-old and a recent graduate of the Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT) in Creative Media. He was working for an American computer hard drive company when he came upon an advertisement about a video game design class at DkIT. He started taking more classes at night and was about to start going to school full-time when he was "made redundant" or laid off. He took his severance money and jumped into the next stage of his life.

By his second year, Mark was writing, directing and acting in a student film. you can see Mark's second year film by clicking here. For his final year project, Mark and his teammates created a Flash program that uses logos captured by a webcam that then work as a trigger to play a short video movie to instruct viewers about advertising methods. Mark said he liked this project because it forced him to learn some new computer software. He's very adaptable to new software. He watches online tutorials and gets involved with online communities to teach himself what he wants to know.

Since graduating, Mark's been looking for work in Ireland but not finding much success. He said the recession has stopped a lot of the media work that was being done here. But he keeps himself busy by creating posters for the musical acts that perform at his friend's night club in Dundalk. He also designed two scarves for his favorite team Dundalk FC.

Mark is the first member in his family to graduate from college. As you might expect, Mark's parents are extremely proud of their oldest son. Gerard Larkin, Mark's father, said he and his wife Marie (pictured left) were lucky because all three of their children were just great kids. He said Mark would come home from grade school, have a wee bit to eat and lock himself in his room until he finished his homework.

When we were done with the interview, Gerard and Marie made us tea and served us biscuits (cookies) and cheesecake. We got to talk to them about Mark, their other kids and grandkids as well as Gaelic football. Marie works at the railway station in Dundalk following in the footsteps of her father and her grandfather. Gerard worked there too but was laid off. Married 35 years, Gerard remembers the first day he and Marie met. "It was the 23rd of December," his story started. Marie blushed and said, "He always remembers the dates." It was great to get to meet the Larkins. They are very proud of what their son has accomplished. "He always speaks very highly of Montana," Gerard said.

Now Mark is continuing to learn. He's using the language program Rosetta Stone to learn how to speak Swedish. He will journey to another country on Wednesday when he travels to Sweden to help his brother do finish work on a new house. He'll also spend some time looking for work possibly with a video game designer. "They say there's no recession in Sweden," he said. "It sounds like a good place to be."

In the afternoon, we traveled to the coast west of Dundalk and Newry and took yet another back road on the way home to Hillsborough. This part of the coast (the Mourne Mountains are pictured at left) is much different from what we saw in the northeast. It's much more commercial and setup for tourists. Once place even had go-carts and miniature golf just down the road from an medieval castle.

We're getting around with more confidence these days. We only had to turn on the "sat nav" or GPS when we got into Dundalk to find the Larkin's house. Tomorrow it's back to Dundalk to have lunch with another of the Missoula visitors, Laura McShane.

A New Kind of Football for a Sunday Afternoon

It wasn't quite a Vikings/Packers game but today's tournament of the U-10 kids at the Carrickcruppen Gaelic Football pitch was really fun to watch--especially #14 Tiernan Cromie (pictured at center in picture to left). Tiernan had a couple of goals and helped his team into the final game.

Gaelic football is a bit soccer, a bit rugby and a bit football. The ball is always in motion. A player with the ball can only take three steps with the ball before he or she has to hand pass (knocking the ball to a teammate by bouncing it off your hand similar to an underhand volleyball serve), bounce (which you can only do once or you get called for double dribbling) or toe tap (where the player kicks the ball back to themselves) before having to drop kick the ball forward. The whole time, defenders are trying to take the ball from you and score. A ball into the goal is worth three points and a ball between the uprights is worth one.

Tiernan is the son of Declan Cromie (at left), one of the Irish and Northern Irish visitors to Missoula in 1997. At the matches, Declan was a lot like other fathers watching their kids compete in a sporting event. He's yelling encouragement and instructions at his son. Declan is the father of four boys and two girls. Tiernan is the oldest at 10 years old. Tiernan in't the biggest of fellows playing right full forward. Most of the time his defender was much bigger. But Tiernan is a scrapper. He got himself into the fray and was very good with using his body to keep the defender away.

We'll be meeting again with Declan at work and with his family on Thursday. Tomorrow we head back to Dundalk to speak with Mark Larkin and his family.

Late Night in Dundalk

What started out as a bit of a slow day picked up and ended late in the night. Today we were off to Newry to capture establishing shots of the fourth largest city in Northern Ireland and where some of the former Missoula visitors live. We went to the top of one of the hills in town and found another St. Patrick Church. What are the chances? (photo on left)John said we have used too many churches as establishers so we headed downtown Newry to show some city action. Trying to get to another street, I started down the wrong way on a one-way. I got pulled over in time, and a nice older gentleman driving the car the correct direction stopped to say "You've got a wee bit of a problem." I think that's what he said.

Looking for a better high point to get a view of the entire River Clanrye valley, we headed up to a place called Bernish Viewpoint. The signs took us up a very narrow (even more than the normal narrow) road into the hills near Newry. Then either the signs stopped or we got lost. But it all worked out well for two reasons.

First, we found a neolithic burial chamber called the Ballymacdermot Court Tomb (pictured at left). The monument is dated to between 2500-4000 B.C. and has great views of the Mourne and Cooley Mountains.

While we were lost, we came upon a road sign that said Seavers Road. I remembered that one of the Missoula Twelve lived on Seavers Road. So we took off in one direction along Seavers Road, got directions from a man mowing his lawn and headed the other way. One more stop to ask for directions and we were at the family home of Declan Cromie. Declan was the oldest of the visitors to Missoula in 1997 at age 24. We got to meet most of Declan's nine brothers because it took us three chances to finally find the correct house.

Declan is 37 years old now, married and father to six children aged 10 down to 18 months. His wife was away for her sister's birthday so our stop really took him by surprise. Declan's youngest brother Kiernan put on tea and served us cookies while we spoke to Declan. Declan's working in concrete and construction right now. His family ran a cattle ranch but he said they had sold the cattle a few years ago.

Declan and Kiernan told us the stories about being stopped by the Northern Ireland/British Army at checkpoints for hours on end. They said the checkpoints finally went away only about four years ago. The mountain top Army lookout positions also went away recently as well. They said it was difficult just to go to town just five miles away. We set up a time to shoot with Declan when he told us that his oldest son was playing in a Gaelic football game in the morning. So we'll be there tomorrow. It was great to find Declan today.

The regular football (soccer to us) was on tap at the historic Oriel Park home to the Dundalk Lillywhites of the Premier Division of the League of Ireland. We were a bit late coming from Declan's place, finding the pitch and searching for a place to park. Former sports reporter John was in his element. He headed right down to the side of the field and shot away. The picture at left was a free kick by Ross Gaynor that found the goal. But the Sligo Rovers were too much on this day and won the match 4-2. The Rovers had much louder fans who sang for pretty much the entire second half. John said we're lucky we can edit the audio because there's more than enough cursing.

From football, we returned to ancient rock formations. We drove to the nearby Ballymascanlon House Hotel and Golf Course. The course doesn't look like the kind of course you'd expect in Ireland. It's not a links course and actually looks more like Meadow Lake in

Columbia Falls. We walked behind the hotel, between the seventh and 13th fairways to a spot behind the fifth green to find the 4,000 year old Proleek Dolmen tomb (pictured at left). I do have a picture that shows the flag stick on the fifth green in the background but thought this one might be better.

After dinner in Hillsborough, we drove 45 minutes back to Dundalk to be at Jockey's Pub for an Irish music sing along. There were four musicians playing the fiddle, the drum, the button accordion and the Irish flute. The Celtic Clan (pictured at left) was nice to listen to but there was no sing along because John and I were the only ones actually there to listen to them. They were nice to talk to in between songs. Forty-five minutes back home on the motorway, copying the footage and still pictures onto my hard drives, getting the batteries on charge and writing this entry, it's now 2:30am and I'm bushed. We leave in six hours to watch 10-year-olds playing Gaelic football in Camlough (pronounced cam-lock) followed by shooting mass, we hope, in Dundalk. Should be an interesting day.

South to Dundalk

Dundalk is the largest "town" in Ireland. There are more than 35,000 people who make their homes in Dundalk. It is the middle point between Belfast and Dublin on the east coast. You may have tried the beer they brew in Dundalk called Harp Lager. It's also home to St. Patrick's Cathedral (pictured left). There are beautiful stained glass windows and intricate tapestries inside the cathedral. The cathedral is right in the center of the city square.

One of the other interesting features in town is an old windmill. But the it's the new wind turbine on the campus of Dundalk Institute of Technology that now stands high on the horizon. We were at DkIT to speak with a recent graduate and former Missoula Building Bridges visitor Mark Larkin. Mark was 20 years old when he came to Missoula to work on the Habitat for Humanity projects.

When he returned he did some painting work before landing a job for a high-tech U.S. company. In nine years, he worked his way up from being on the production line to being promoted to supervisor. One day he found out the company was closing down and his job was being made redundant (a nice way of saying he was laid off).

Over the years, Mark had developed a love of film so he enrolled at DkIT in media communications. He finished his course work this summer and will walk through graduation in December. Since he's finished school, Mark has been looking for work and creating posters for bars that have live music. He said he realized the recession has made it tough to find jobs in Ireland. So he's expanding his search to include Sweden where his brother moved a few years ago. Mark is using Rosetta Stone to teach himself Swedish before he leaves next week.

Today we shot video as Mark took us on a tour of the department's new building. The building used to be a tobacco factory until about 10 years ago. DkIT bought the historic building and had it converted to add computer labs, artist studios, music rooms and recording studios. Mark ran into many of his former lecturers. Even the department head showed off the building for us. Mark's a bit jealous of the current students and their opportunity to work in such a great new facility.

We'll be back in Dundalk Monday to interview Mark and his father. We also hope to capture video of Dundalk's soccer team, the Lily Whites, when they play Sligo tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed for that one. (Sorry for the lack of pictures today but I'm having trouble with Blogger tonight.)

We found what Lewis and Clark could not

Today we were off for a two-hour drive to the northwestern township of Letterkenny across the border in the Republic of Ireland. On the way there, we found the Northwest Passage that eluded Lewis and Clark. I can't imagine they missed the sign along the motorway. I wish we could have stopped for a picture.

Also along the way we passed the Ulster American Folk Center. John checked out our guide book to see what they had there. They have a replica ship that the immigrants took to the new world, a homesteader shack and even Civil War reenactors. Too bad we couldn't stop.

As I said, this was our first time to cross the border into Ireland. There's no visible crossing or passport requirement. There's only a sign that says the speed limit will now be shown in kilometers per hour rather than miles per hour. Of course, there's a new currency as well, euros rather than English pounds. And all of the signs are bi-lingual in English and Irish.

Letterkenny (picture at top left is of downtown) is a pretty town that's really expanded in the past few years. The town, not yet a city, sits along the River Swilly. It's a beautiful valley but it's only 45 minutes to the northwest coast and not far from where Northern Ireland will be staging a surfing event at the end of the month. Surf Ireland--who knew?

You have to call Letterkenny a town not a city. To achieve city status, a town must have a cathedral (which they have) and a university (which they do not have but are trying to start). We were there to meet up with the first of our former Missoula visitors Sean Barr.

Sean (shown to the left) was the oldest of the students at 23. He was taking classes at Ulster University and was living in Belfast. After coming to Missoula, Sean worked at some jobs in Belfast and before finishing his degree in Media Communications. He moved to Letterkenny and started his own video production companies. For Killer Snail Productions, Sean produced videos of music festivals and community events. Lady Bird Productions was his wedding video business. But with the recession, the money for productions has dried up a bit, he said.

So now at age 36, Sean is producing fine art. He works in water colors and acrylics. He has some very haunting images almost out of a zombie movie as well as street scenes of places such as Galway and an amazing portrait of Sitting Bull that was inspired by the book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. Sean's first ever exhibition will be held in Letterkenny on October 21st. We'll be there with our cameras as he finishes his work, the framing, the hanging and finally the opening.

On our drive back, we decided to go through Derry or Londonderry depending upon your political leanings. We haven't notices much vandalism or spray paint tagging on any of the road signs except for the signs that say Londonderry. In some areas, the London part has been blacked out. In other areas, the Derry part is covered. And in some places, both sides have done their part to cover up the entire city name.

I told you that there had been a car bombing in Derry. John thought it might be a good video to capture. So we went in search of the site. The bomb and car were parked behind a branch of the Ulster Bank. It blew out most of the windows and left a part of the wall blackened. A thick fence behind the bank was just twisted metal. And the Ulster Bank sign was mostly smashed. The bank was closed, and the road had just opened today. It was kind of eerie to be there taking pictures of the place.

Aside from the recent bombing and the 1972 incident that was named Bloody Sunday, Derry is a beautiful city. It's called the Walled City because of a mile long stone and brick wall that was built in the 1600's. The wall (that's me on the wall in the picture to the left), located on the banks of the River Foyle, surrounds some of the higher end shops, pubs and restaurants. Also inside the walls is St. Columba Cathedral which was the inspiration for the hymn Amazing Grace. We had dinner at a pub within the walls (Shouldn't Irish stew just be called stew over here?) before driving two hours back to Hillsborough. Tomorrow we travel south for the first time to Dundalk, Ireland.

Interesting Finding

There was an interesting article in The Guardian, a daily newspaper from Britain. It says a survey conducted by the University of Liverpool shows there's support for republican terrorist groups in Northern Ireland. Click here to read the article.

Londonderry (or just Derry) suffered a car bombing on Monday. We'll be passing through Derry tomorrow.

Travels to the City

We were off to capture cover footage of the city of Belfast today. We decided to save ourselves the headache of driving in the city and trying to find and pay for parking by taking the Belfast Express bus from a park and ride near Hillsborough.

Once in town, we were on the red bus of Belfast City Tours and off around town. The tour guide was very informative and had some interesting story about the different parts of Belfast we passed through.

One of the first spots we went by was the Odyssey Complex. A huge indoor sports arena, the Complex was created when the city fathers decided to bring in a non-secular sport. The sport? Ice hockey. The tour guide said there were only two ice hockey rinks in the country. I guess they're hoping it will catch on. To get folks excited, the Boston Bruins of the NHL were here over the weekend playing a pre-season game vs. one of the top teams from the Czech Republic. The tour guide told us that two proposed nicknames for the team were the Belfast Bombers and Belfast Bullets. Both were thought to be inappropriate. So they went with the Belfast Giants instead.

We moved along to the Titanic Quarter. The Titanic was designed and built in the shipyards here in Belfast. There's a huge influx of money in this area to build it up in anticipation of the centennial of the Titanic disaster in 2012. The tour guide said the Titanic disaster can't be blamed on Belfast. "It was fine when it left Belfast," he said. "The hired an English captain and a Scottish navigator who would hit a Canadian iceberg. So you can't blame us," he added. Later we got to see the Titanic but it was spelled Thai Tanic, a thai restaurant downtown. Very clever.

Then it was off to the Stormont Estate (picture above) where the Northern Irish Assembly meets. Down the hill from the house of government was a small peace park. It had a small statue of two people hugging each other and showing how the city's factions can come together. The tour guide, apparently on loan from a comedy club, said "That's was the Assembly does at the end of each day--group hug."

There were also drive-bys and stories about markets, cathedrals, hospitals, courthouses and jails before we moved into the most dramatic part of the tour. The center of "The Troubles" in Nothern Ireland can be linked to two streets--Shankill Road that's home to the Protestant unionists and The Falls Road that's home to the Catholic republicans. Both areas have very colorful murals painted on the sides of buildings (picture of the Shankill to the left).

They two neighborhoods are almost directly next to each other--not miles but only yards apart. Since the Good Friday Peace Accord of 1998 (less than a year after the Irish young people left Missoula), the bombings, shootings and killings have nearly stopped. John and I stood in a square that the tour guide said no one could walk through without being shot at only 15 years ago. Now there are mothers walking with their babies in strollers and elderly folks walking by. Very intense stuff.

When we went through these areas on the bus tour, it had begun to rain. So I guess it was all right when we noticed that the bus really didn't stop too long at the Hop-On/Hop-Off stops. Then I realized we needed to push the buzzer to let the driver and tour guide know that we wanted off. So we continued all the way through the end of the tour, got on another bus and got off at a few spots along the way to capture our video.

Then instead of waiting for the next tour bus, we walked back to the City Centre and decided to end our day with a pint of beer at the legendary Crown Liquor Saloon (picture left). The saloon has a great looking back bar, dark church stalls like in you'd see in European churches and serves the best whiskeys around. I went with a pint of Guinness while John tried the Belfast Ale. Good end to the day.

A bus ride back to our car and dinner at a Lisburn italian restaurant called Uno and back to bed. We have a long day planned for tomorrow as we head north and west to the Republic of Ireland and the town of Letterkenny to meet up with the first of our former Missoula trainees, Sean Barr. More on Sean and his art tomorrow.