Germany/Ireland — Sept. 07, 2010

After a full breakfast of eggs, sausage, pudding, bacon, toast, and tea (with orange juice to begin), I strolled around for a bit. I checked out the church which people had been leaving as I drove past the previous evening. It was Catholic, and had a Mass scheduled at 10:00.  At about 9:50 I got to the Tourist Information Centre, where the lady had maps of the town, bus schedules (I planned to take the bus to Dublin one day during my visit) and various leaflets. When I told her that my great-great-grandmother — who had emigrated from County Monaghan to Prince Edward Island with her husband, James White, in the early 1840's — was born a McKenna, she said I must meet Willie McKenna, who is a fount of information about the County, the McKennas, and the PEI connection.

I got back to the church at about 10:10 and was surprised to find that there was standing room only (with seats for at least 400). This is in a town with a population a little over 6,000 (my parish has about as many Catholics, and we get one tenth as many for weekday Mass — and that's not bad for our area).

After Mass, I went to move the car from the lot which is free overnight but costs one Euro per hour during the day, to one where the parking is free (a little bit past an area of long term parking for €2 per day. At the entrance to the free lot, after some speed bumps, the way narrowed to a single lane, and there were steel posts on each side. I was noticing the buildings on the far side of the lot when there was a loud noise and the car stopped suddenly. I had hit the post on the left, smashing in the fender and breaking the housing for the headlight. The piece inside the tire well was in contact with the tire, and the front bumper was loose. I drove the car back to the €2 long-term parking area, and went back to the B+B, where the owner was very helpful about lending me her phone to call the rental company to report the accident, and her husband later led me to a repair shop. The owner there informed the rental company that the car was not driveable, and I was promised a replacement by 10:00 the next morning. Thank goodness I had decided to take full collision insurance.

I had thought I'd spend the day driving to spots of interest in the counties to the south of Monaghan, such as Slane, the Hill of Tara, Trim Castle, Mellifont Abbey, the Boyne, etc., as time permitted, with probably a second day on Thursday. But after the accident, I had to spend the afternoon handy to the telephone so as to be available to the rental company.

Late in the afternoon, I met a couple who were staying at the B+B. They were originally from PEI and also had Monaghan ancestors but now live in western Canada, and they were planning to meet Willie McKenna that evening in a pub. We went by ourselves to the pub at about 5:30 and got acquainted. Then at 10:00 we returned and met Willie McKenna. He was planning to take them to the area our ancestors had lived in, called Donagh, the following morning. They invited me to join them, and I said I would. We'd leave about 10:30.

Frommer's guide to Ireland does not mention County Monaghan as having anything worth seeing (except for a reference to Castle Leslie in the part on Northern Ireland!), but Monaghan Town is pleasant enough and has its points of interest. More about that tomorrow.