Allen Blog- Three generations later. Going Home

 

                                             Allen Blog- Three generations later. Going Home.

                                           My trip back to County Meath Ireland in Spring, 2023.

In the spring of 2013- after nearly ten years of research, I was finally going back to see the home of my ancestors.

We stayed at Brogan's Bar and Grill in Trim. (If you go back to Ireland, get your bnb or hotel reservations early! Most places are filled, with an onslaught of tourists and Ukranian refugees.)

We walked across the oldest bridge in Ireland to explore the charming town of Trim...a market town surely visited by my ancestors who lived just a few miles down the road.

We looked in awe at Trim Castle and other medieval monuments that had stood, untouched, for centuries.

Since we were taking a train and bus around the country, I had asked about available transportation from Trim to Dangan on a Facebook page for Summerhill. We had planned on just walking around, and hoping to find the Allen farm from my information on Google Maps. Then one woman posted, asking for the name of our family who had lived in the area. I answered with details, never expecting the response which came. Amidst friendly offers for driving us to Dangan, came one that caught my eye. 

A gentleman named Martin said he would be glad to pick us up in Trim and show us the field where Johnny Allen had lived- which was now owned by his brother. Martin, who became a dear friend, had a home right across the road from the farm where our Allen ancestors lived so many years ago. 

He and his wife showed us the church in Dangan, new since our family left, although John Allen and Catherine Allen Burns would have worshipped there. 

Then he drove us by the old church where Hugh and his family worshipped. It is now a private home.

But the biggest thrill came when he took us to "Johnnie Allen's Field" - still called by that today- where our Allen ancestors lived so many years ago. Martin advised us that once there was a fine stone cottage there, where the Allen family lived. The cottage is gone, but we walked the fields among the cattle that graze there.

We saw the old bridge where the Knightsbrook river runs across the farm. Once, Martin said, it had been a good fishing river, full of salmon. We saw old trees nearby where the cottage once stood near the river.

We visited Martin's home and from his yard, we could see the ruins of the Dangan Estate, which bordered the Allen Farm.

The next day we had another wonderful experience! We met our Irish cousins! Valerie Byrnes showed us the stone cottage and store of Catherine Allen Byrnes- Hugh's youngest sister, who stayed in Ireland. It is being restored by another descendant of Richard Allen and Margaret Sweeney Allen.

Valerie is a genealogist herself, and has kept many letters that Catherine sent to her daughter, Maggie, who immigrated to America. She had pictures as well, and had visited back and forth with that branch of the Allen family.

                                            We also met another cousin Paeder Byrnes, and visited the cemetery at Moy where our Sweeney ancestors are buried, including my 3rd great-grandfather, Hugh Sweeney.

Our hearts were full. It was the perfect culmination to years of research. We had connected with the roots of our past and made new friends. Now we vowed to bring more cousins home to Ireland, to experience the wonderful people and sights of the old country our ancestors so cherished.