St. Patrick's Purgatory and Ballinasloe

While I was at Letterkenny, Co. Donegal, I accompanied a group of parishioners on a one-day pilgrimage to Lough Derg, also known as St. Patrick's Purgatory.

Traditionally, pilgrims go during the summer and spend three days on the island, walking in bare feet and fasting. But lately they have added one-day pilgrimages during August and September.

You need to take a ferry to get to the island. The day begins with prayer in the church. Then you have a penitential lunch of soup and sandwich. I was looking forward to my penitential lunch, but the priests on staff grabbed me and the curate from Knock and brought us in to eat lunch with the staff. Then, since it was apparently the largest crowd they have ever had on the island, they asked if we would help with confessions. So I spent a couple of hours in the confessional. I guess that was my penance.

After confessions, we celebrated Mass, and then headed home.

The "penitential beds" that St. Patrick and his companions slept on.

After my stay in Letterkenny, I went back to Dublin for a few days (where I stayed at Mercy Center) and then went to Ballinasloe for a few days. It is in the heart of "Curley" country, but I still didn't have any luck finding Curley relatives. It was while I was in Ballinasloe, though, that Martin Curley took me to East Keeloges, where we met Michael Kilcommons and his family

St. Michael's Church, Ballinasloe

One of the side streets in Ballinasloe

There is a nice park in Ballinasloe, near an 18th century bridge that incorporates a medieval bridge.

The marina leads to the River Suck, which also runs through the area that the Kilcommonses came from.