Kelly and the Ferry Boyos loose in Ireland

February of 2000

 

Kel, Patsy Keegan, JJF, Frank Duggan stopping for a pint at pub on Mulroy Bay, Fanad Peninsula, Donegal, Ireland.
At Pat Keegan's home in Letterkenny, with Julia on left.
We had come to Lough Derg in Donegal. Joe Ferry, the elder, had made a retreat here before emigrating to States. Many come to Station Island, in the middle of the Loch, fast for days, as had St Patrick 1700 years ago. This small ferry boat takes the penitents across to the island
Kel at the gate, then later in the day a warm welcome from cousin Pat Clarke Keegan at her home in Letterkenny.
JJF amidst standing stones of Beltany, a 4000 year old neolithic circle, on a hilltop with a commanding view of Northern Donegal. No one near on the evening we tramped up the footpath from the small townland below outside the village of Raphoe. Remind JJF about the "Schmoe from Raphoe" - few are the people in this world whose lives are so narrow that there is nothing he can find to talk to them about - he found two in a pub in Raphoe. "Chrssakes, they've never even been to Letterkenny - its only 15 miles from here They done nothig, are interested in nothing, and have been nowhere." Kelly and I, usually awed bystanders watching Mr Congeniality befriend any and all strangers, watched, thrilled, as this conversational tragedy brought Jimmy to sputtering silence.
Here Kel, at Magheraroarty Pier is examing a curragh, still used by the fisherman of Inis Bo Finne. It is made of a latticework of strippling covered with canvas which is soaked with tar to make it watertight. This boat has two rowing stations, the four oars are on the ground below it.
JJF and John Ferry saying a prayer after mass at St Finans at their Aunt Bridget's grave. Beside her to the left is the grave of her parents, and also Bridget's nephew, Seamus. Uncle Hughie and the other JimmyJacks are buried at the other end of the graveyard.
On the shortcut to Ballyboes. We are riding a farm path that parallels the northern flank of Muckish Mountain. The boggy fields here keep a russet color all the winter, springing green again in March and April.