The Backstory to the Ireland Trip

Meg, Coll, and Jaws in Cashel, originally uploaded by jawsmurphy.

I come from an Irish family: The Murphy’s. We’ve always been proud of our heritage, growing up hearing stories of the large Irish Catholic family that we come from. Strange as it may seem, some of my fondest memories from grade school are from the funerals of some of my family in San Francisco at the Irish Cultural Center. The Irish definitely have a way of celebrating the life of a person, as opposed to merely mourning a death. These were the times that I was able to hear all the stories of the extended family in San Francisco. And this was when I started to learn about who I was, and where I came from.


My parents were the first to make the trip across the pond to the Ireland, naturally. My two older brothers were in charge while they were gone. These days we got to stay up late eating ice cream and playing board games, filmed a horror movie with all the siblings, and even covered for a brother when he had his girlfriend over. (though I would never tell...)

My parents returned, and showed us pictures from their trip. We got to hear stories of visiting castles, listening to music, and trying to understand what the heck the family from county Cork was saying through their thick accents. We saw pictures of the greenest land you could ever imagine, with rolling stone walls as far as the eye could see.

It was only a matter of time before we each made our own journey 'home'. Sean and Blythe went a few times while they were studying abroad in London. Beejay and Elena went after they were married, where Elena told Beejay that they were pregnant (with Declan). Megan decided to get her master’s in Theatre and Performing Arts at Trinity College in Dublin. Colleen and I were planning to visit her before she came back stateside.

And so we did, accompanied by Jeff, from August 28 - September 4, 2007...

Posted by *erin* | 11:25 PM