Irish Castles and Ruins

ANCIENT CEMETERY
COUNTY KERRY, IRELAND

Why cemeteries?  Our history lies below our feet.  Much of what we know about our ancestry started with a name and date barely visible on a gravestone.  From that point, the investigation begins.  If you can find the final resting place of an ancestor, you have a starting point in your search for your ancestral history, a physical place that holds the clues to the generations that came before you.  These burial grounds are centuries old.  The original churches are ruins, yet many of these burial grounds are still active today.  The very size, design, and placement of the headstone can tell you something about the status of your ancestor at that time in history. Other times, the most magnificent headstones and crypts hold names that are now lost to history, that have no known descendants. It is a reminder that no matter how important we think we are today, we may be forgotten completely in the future of mankind.  The kind things we do today are points in time, important to someone, and important to our own self worth, but do not expect them to be remembered.  Live in the moment.  Enjoy the moment.  Enjoy the smile on the face of the recipient of your kindness.  That is your reward, not the words on a future gravestone.

LOOPHEAD LIGHTHOUSE
COUNTY CLARE, IRELAND