I could have spent hours there if my kids weren't little. For a history buff, it's got great detail and you can really sink your teeth into the exhibits.

Go visit Cong. Tiny little village about 45 minutes away, towards Galway. Beautiful ruins and right on a river. But it's famous for being the filming location of The Quiet Man.

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though he returned in time to lead his team to the state championship where they lost to Grubbs.

He is really just scratching the surface here and is likely (IMO) to become the best QB recruit ND has landed in a long time.

It's a longstanding, delayed promise to my daughter, who is a museum curator.

By the way, for those not familiar, in the Mayo accent, the town is pronounced "Castle-bear", with a slight roll of the r. And Ballina is pronounced "bal-in-AH", with the "bal" rhyming with "gal".

No one will correct you for pronouncing Castlebar like it's spelled; some of them do too. They will correct you if you say "Bun-LEEN-uh".

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Long, uneven rocks, and the wind whips pretty good. For teenage kids with endless energy, it’s fine. For people our age, getting in hiking shape is a good idea.

Couple things I’ll add is we took the kids to the Irish Museum in Castlebar and enjoyed it.

https://www.museum.ie/en-ie/museums/country-life

The Shebeen is worth a stop for some good pub food and drink. It’s my cousin’s favorite haunt.

https://croninssheebeen.com/

Adding one: if you go to Achill Island, check out Lynott's Pub. Drinking there felt like crashing the set of a Synge play.

Denis Quinlan, he's another second cousin of mine, but on my mom's (Limerick) side. He lives in the Westport city center.

Denis is also a native Chicagoan (he was two years behind me at our high school) but with his dual citizenship decided he couldn't take anymore of Trump after he retired and bought the place in Westport. He's by no means unique in that regard.

question. When we did it, there was fog such that you could barely see an arm's length in front of you. So, that raised the degree of difficulty quite a bit. It's not super steep, but much of the path is on loose stones between the size of a golf ball and a tennis ball. But it's not like the Grand Canyon where if you lose your footing, you could literally plunge off the edge. I think walking sticks would help a lot. And the view from the top is pretty amazing -- the fog lifted just as we got there.

I will say, if it's foggy, it's hard and I wouldn't do it with kids. If not, I think anybody 12ish or older would be good to go.

Thanks for the rec on Croagh Patrick. What's the difficulty level?

There are great pubs in Westport, including one owned by Matt Molloy of The Chieftains. Great traditional music scene.

Take a drive out up to Achill Island for some spectacular coastal scenery, including the White Cliffs of Ashleam.

I'm biased but if you take a drive to the Delphi district, which is the southeast quadrant of Mayo south of Clew Bay, you can go west towards Louisburgh and then turn south to the Doo Lough Valley - Doo Lough is a beautiful mountain lake - visit the roadside Famine Monument, down towards the Killary fjord (the only fjordi in Ireland), east to Leenane, Galway, where you can then pick up the N59 back up to Westport. The Killary separates southern Mayo from the Connemara district in Galway. If you go that route you'll pass by where my grandfather was born and where my cousins still live. Their houses face the Killary, in fact. There's also a boat tour you can take. Look for my family name on signs in the area, including in the Westport city center. It'll be the only place in Ireland you're likely to see it.

If you're so inclined you can take the drive along the southern bank of the Killary on the Galway side towards Clifden and visit Kylemore Abbey which has a Notre Dame association - see the link below - worth visiting even without the ND connection.

https://kylemore.nd.edu/

Lastly, in the opposite direction, from Westport you can go through Castlebar, then turn north towards Ballina, and then farther north to Downpatrick Head for some more spectacular cliffs and view a stone pillar in the middle of the ocean. Be advised you can walk right over the cliff if you don't watch it.

seisiun.

And hike up Croagh Patrick.

Matt Molloy at his pub.

Unfortunately, he wasn't playing.

If you guys have any must-do's in the area, let me know!

The family (including his parents and his 2 sisters) emigrated to Chicago in 1887. They were from a farm only about a mile east of town. It is very, very possible your family and mine knew each other, I would say even likely, especially if your ancestors were shopkeepers or publicans, in which case it's a certainty. The family name is Gibbons, and I must have about 80 second cousins named Gibbons because my grandmother had 6 brothers. One of my second cousins went to ND, two years behind me, and lived in Morrissey.

As an aside, I think Mayo is the undiscovered part of Ireland in terms of tourism. The guidebooks skip over it, and miss some truly spectacular scenery. Maybe that's a good thing. And Westport has become a rocking town with great pubs.

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Both of my grandparents were born on James Street in Westport in the 1880s, across the street from one another. Depending on your great grandfather's age, I'd gather they knew each other.

for those guys and any prodigal son of TPG who wants to come back. We will feast on the fatted calf.

Mayo and Limerick for me.

His daughter, my grandmother, married my grandfather from the land above the Killary.

Hope you can still grab a beer with Slainte in person.

I expect him to be near the top of the rankings (not that it matters) by the end of next season. He was a consensus top guy until he reclassed.

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Well, that and Tipperary.

visiting my cousins on the north bank of the Killary fjord.

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Even though my family are Cavan and Tipperary.

Miss that guy but politics got in the way.

Miss JD too.

--
"F--- everyone who isn't us."
#Team128

Cursed as they may be in the All Ireland championship

Langrishe, Go Down is a beautiful novel.

Irish Gaelic footballer for Co. Mayo.

I didn't dare say Hutchinson, of course.

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4 star DE from Don Bosco chose ND over Penn St. Had offers from OSU, Georgia, Oregon, Texas, etc.