Having completed our 28 day artist residency, Brian and I hopped in Joseph’s car for “more than just a ride” to Ballymoney. Joseph gave us  in-depth insights about the countryside and its history. He could read the landscape as if it were a book. We stopped by this stream and I saw three dragonflies. Joseph said it was very unusual to see dragonflies there. As the dragonfly is my symbol for the ancestors, I felt we were on the right track!

 

Now we knew where Terry had procured the turf that he dropped off at the tower for us every few days!

ON TO BALLYMONEY: There were more sights to be seen between the place pictured above and and Ballymoney. Take a look at the map of County Antrim to see Cushendall and Ballymoney. Ballymoney is nearly directly west of Cushendall. The ride would have been perhaps an hour and half without the interesting stops we made along the way.

http://www.northern-ireland-travel.com/county-antrim-map.html

 

ARRIVAL AT BALLYMONEY: One of the first places we explored was this graveyard. The Church of Our Lady and St. Patrick is the only Catholic Church in the town of Ballymoney. We were hoping against hope that the names of my great grandparents David McDowell and Ellen Connelly would be in the baptism and marriage records there. I had visited their grave sites in the cemetery of St. Rose of Lima Church in DeSoto, Missouri, but I thought perhaps there might be a headstone with the McDowell or Connelly name on it. This was not the case. However, the exhilaration of the search was definitely present.

MORE TO COME!