On Monday Nancy and I began a week-plus tour of Ireland. My agreement with Adelaide Road Presbyterian Church was to preach 8 out of the 9 Sundays between July 1 and September 2, and the 29th of July is the one I will not be filling—so we have taken the time to see the country. At first we were thinking of flying to some exotic (and probably sunny) location outside of Ireland, as air fares in Europe are sometimes incredibly cheap, but we changed our minds. We decided to rent a car and drive to Irish places we have never seen, and with ten days there is time to do much of that on this relatively small island.

Our general route has been south from Dublin and then west—we will finish the trip by an eastward return to Dublin. The first day we traveled over small roads and ended up in a place called Clonmel, which is on the Suir River several miles west of the south coastal town of Waterford. We had never heard of the place, but found it to be delightful. Our hotel faced the river and the mountains, which meant both a beautiful sunset and a cheerful morning. The predicted rains did not materialize, so in the late afternoon I was even able to enjoy several miles of quiet country lanes from the seat of my bicycle.

The next day was a day of surprises. Early on in our time in Ireland Nancy had received two emails from one of her sisters reminding her that the ancestral homeland of one of their most prestigious relatives, Thomas Condon, was in Ireland and near where we were now traveling. Thomas was born in a small stonecutter’s home in Ireland but emigrated to the United States. He went west as a pioneer Congregational missionary, became a noted geologist and discovered of the famous John Day Fossil Beds. He was a founding faculty member of the University of Oregon, father of the first woman graduate of that university, and today buildings at both the University of Oregon and Oregon State University bear his name.

The information provided about the location of the Condons’ ancestral home by Nancy’s sister was somewhat contradictory, but it also reminded us that while reduced to poverty over the centuries by the vagaries of Irish political and religious history, the Condons had entered the country as part of the extended Norman invasion and for hundreds of years had been important and wealthy landowners in the area. This meant that physical remains of their holdings could still be around. So—the hunt was on.
First we went to an angler’s shop in Fermoy where we inquired about the whereabouts of a town that we knew no longer existed. The proprietor’s curiosity was raised and after two phone calls to relatives the general location of the homelands of the Condons and Roches (maiden name of Thomas Condon’s mother) was located. We next drove to that town and learned that the Condons and Roches had indeed lived in the area, and in fact the castle at the foot of the hill was probably one of the many built and owned centuries ago by the Roche family. We also learned that we could get more information from the Information Center of a town just 8 miles away.


So, after lunch in the café at the foot of the above mentioned castle we headed off for the next town, arriving at the Center we had been told to find just as a man was entering it. This particular gentleman actually knew little, but he did direct us to the local pharmacy with instructions to talk to Eileen, who he said knew more about the history of the area than anyone else in town. That we did, and it was true. Eileen was able to fill in some family details and give us a short history of the general events that would have led to Thomas’ emigration. She also directed us to the owner of a small shop in another village, one near a castle which was now only a ruin but that had certainly been built by the Condons as their family center centuries ago.


With that information, and duly noting that the local convenience store bore the name Roche and the local drapery/toy store the name Condon, our journey continued to


Mr. O’Sullivan at the small shop in Kilworth. There we learned from him that we had found what we were looking for—the ancestral Condon castle. It was not accessible as it was in the middle of a private gated field, but it was there—a new name but the right assemblage of stones. So off we drove, down the lane and into the field—not close enough to touch but close enough to photograph the single remaining tower of what 800 years before had been a grand edifice.


At the end of the day we had been at the homelands of the Condons and the Roches. We had seen castles owned by each of them. We had seen physical evidence that the lines still went on in the place Thomas had left behind 160 years ago. An interesting saga, and one which not only connected us with our roots, something the ancient Hebrews knew was significant, but which also reinforced the wisdom of our choice to stay on the island of Ireland for these few days…

But that is just the start. More about this journey to come.