Land trip -- "The Glin Festival" -- and Wallace's

Wallace's Sailing Adventure on "Arbella"
Mike and Vicki Wallace
Sun 12 Aug 2012 08:00

52:34.3N 9:17.1W   The City of Glin is the center of the Wallace Clan.  It is "Home", and a place we have come to many times since our first visit as a family (Mike, Vicki, Shawn, and Amy) in 1988; and we are fortunate that "the Irish" have visited "the Yanks" many times also.  Life for us IS about family, and we value our close relationships with "the Irish"!  We carefully planned this land trip to coincide with Amy arriving from Colorado, and with the annual "Glin Festival".  This entry is all about the family, and may seem confusing to our friends, but here it goes.....  We started on Friday, August 10, visiting with Joe and Evelyn Wallace, and family.  Joe drove us around for JUST 20  minutes, and pointed out 35 separate homes that shelter Wallace's.  The family landed here from Scotland as part of the "plantation process" in about 1610 (following the British defeating the Irish and Spanish in the Battle of Kinsale in 1601 the British "planted" people from Scotland, and England to take root and dominate the populace to "tame the Irish Clans"...see the earlier blog entry "Kinsale..It all comes together here").  And, as Joe pointed out, the Wallace's were given some of the most rocky and useless land with the hills and fields surrounding Glin, yet, with their work ethic and perseverance, "the Wallace's" have done pretty well over the past 400 years, and they are all doing well today...with the center of the Wallace clan still in the town of Glin...same place they started 400 years ago!!  Saturday morning we picked up Amy at Shannon Airport, and went directly to Glin as the festival was underway.  We enjoyed Miread's Irish sausage and black pudding for early energy...and stocked up for "Arbella's" freezer!  Three of the lead events made for great fun:  1) the vintage tractor parade -- a dozen vintage (and I mean "vintage") tractors paraded down the main street; 2) the dedication of the new heritage trail at the Glin Castle, led by the wife of the Earl of Glin -- and we walked for 2 hours the challenging but breathtaking trail for a panorama view of the River Shannon, from the Atlantic to the southwest, to Limerick City to the northeast; and, the best of all, 3) the sheaf tossing contest -- brawny guys stick a pitch fork into a densely packed bale of hay and toss it over a bar  --  at 7:30pm, the bar was at about 12 feet with 20 contestants (the "All Ireland Sheaf Tossing Championship"), but it ended about 10:30pm with a winner, and the bar at 43 feet...unbelievable!!  And THEN, we were off to "The Welcome Inn" or "Wallace's Bar", run now by Claire Wallace, daughter of Joe and Evelyn.  WELL....the evening was another "memory of a life time"...all the senior (Mike and Vicki's generation) Wallace's and Lyon's were there (for the Lyons, their mother was a "Wallace", so they are cousins also).....and a large number of the younger generation (Amy's generation), and the youngest (next generation) kids were there also.  The pubs in Ireland in general, and especially Wallace's Bar, are a gathering place for the entire family...in 1980, we also had 3 generations present, but Amy was 14 and Shawn 16, so there were no kids in the next generation at that time.  In 1980, the "family party" went on until 3am....this time, we broke that simple record when "the Yanks" had to call it quits at 3:30am!  Of course, the highlight of the evening was "the crack", which started about 1am and continued to the end...while about half the family left about 1pm, about 30 continued to the end, "squeezing" (you have to touch or you are not close enough) into the same corner we used in 1980...and we had songs and recitals, one after another, as we cycled through the family...simply outstanding family fun and emotional bonding!  A quite emotional moment occurred when Sean Wallace and Sean Lyons made a joint presentation of a beautiful custom made metal Wallace coat of arms to Mike and Vicki (see picture)....this will hang in a place of honor in our Denver home!  We laughed, we hugged, and we hugged, and we hugged, and we cried...how blessed are we to have such wonderful family...same values, tight bonds, and strong family resemblance.  They are very welcome to visit us in Annapolis, and we know we will keep coming "Home"!  ....  Now here is a "key" to the pictures which follow (right now, we cannot easily integrate pictures into the text).  We limited this to 14 pictures, so many family are not pictured here, but we have over 100 pictures from throughout the day and night!:   1) Donal and Mags with kids (Sean Wallace's son); 2) Claire and Amy pulling a pint at Claire's pub; 3) Outside of the pub; 4) Glin is "on" the River Shannon, Mike, Vicki and Amy; 5) Vintage tractors; 6) Amy, Sharon, and Sinead; 7) Joe Lyons, Jimmy, Mike, Sean, Dan; 8) David, Amy, Colin; 9) Amy, Sinead, Ciara, Sharon, Avril; 10) Ciara, Mike, Avril; 11) Mary, Vicki, Sharon; 12) presentation of the Wallace Coat of Arms by Sean Wallace and Sean Lyons; 13) "part" of the extended family in attendance...not possible to get everyone in one frame!; 14) Tom Lyons, Catherine Lyons, Sean Lyons, Joe Lyons, Mike, Sean, and Joe.   Signing off, Mike!

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