Things don’t always go as planned. Two years ago, when I was 38, I ran down the ramp at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium and crossed the marathon finish line in just under four hours. Perfect, I thought. Two more years, and I’ll be 40 and in prime condition to finally qualify for the Boston Marathon.

But that was then. Now, as my Aer Lingus flight taxied toward the gate in Dublin, Ireland, things had changed. I was now 40 and still had my Boston Marathon dreams but qualifying in Dublin wasn’t on my mind. ... Read More

     With a name like Patrick Magrady, you might suspect Irish roots, but my husband had never visited the land where his grandparents were born. So when he brought up the idea of a special vacation to celebrate turning 60, I planned a trip to Ireland that would put us in Downpatrick, his ancestral home, on his birthday.

As part of our two week self-drive tour of Ireland, we used Belfast as our base for touring the north.  My first surprise when approaching Belfast from Dublin was that there was no border crossing into “Northern... Read More

A friend of mine is excited but terrified about her upcoming trip to Ireland. Last year, as I planned a trip to Ireland with my 14-year-old son, I too was anxious and apprehensive about the trip.

Digging online about the family name (we pronounce it Do-RAN, in Ireland it’s DOR-an), I determined it was likely his paternal side of the family came from County Wexford in southeast Ireland, just north of Waterford. Since we would first be in Dublin, then explore the west side of Ireland and wind our way south and east to County Wexford, I really couldn’t imagine how else to accomplish all of this in a week but... Read More