Giant's Causeway

There is a World Heritage site in County Antrim in Northern Ireland that was declared so by UNESCO in 1986 which was also declared a natural nature reserve by the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland in 1987. It is a beautiful, peaceful site and I have never been to any place like it. It is the Giant’s Causeway.

The Giant’s Causeway has two theories on how it was created. One of the theories is scientific and the other is mythology.

The scientific theory holds that the Causeway was created through volcanic action about 50 to 60 million years ago. The lava was molten basalt which squeezed through chalk beds to form a plateau. While it was cooling, the lava formed the hexagonal columns which make up the Causeway. I find it amazing that the columns are very close in size and that there are so many of them. They extend right into the water.

The second theory which is mythology involves two giants, Fionn mac Cumhaill, who was Irish, and Bennandonner, who was Scottish. Apparently, Bennandonner challenged Fionn mac Cumhaill to a fight who accepted the challenge and proceeded to build the Causeway to make things easier for them to meet. From this point, there are two versions of the tale.

The first version is that the giants met and Fionn won the challenge.

The second version is that Fionn saw how big Bennandonner was, turned, and ran to hide. His wife, Oonagh, disguised Fionn as a baby. Bennandonner saw him, and thought that this was Fionn’s baby, and how much larger the father would be, turn and ran, destroying the causeway as he went.

It is an interesting tale, either way.

The area that is covered with the columns are slippery when wet, and have been worn through time, weather, and humanity. If you venture out on the columns, you need to be extremely careful. A fall could result in a broken limb, a sprained ankle, or a dunk in the cold North Sea/Atlantic Ocean, which has a strong current. I did fall, but fortunately, all the damage that I did was twist my ankle resulting in walking with a cane for about a week and some irritating dull pain with the occasional sharp twinge.

There are some trails that you can follow, one of which seems to be fairly easy to do. The site has a visitor center at the entrance that you need to go through. You can then walk to the Causeway which will take about twenty minutes according to the guides. If you don’t want to walk, you can take the bus which runs about every twenty to thirty minutes depending on attendance.

I enjoyed the ride down and back to the top. I also took a look at the immediate surroundings after my slight incident. I want to go back some day and follow one of the trails that I saw that looks safer than the columns.

Be Careful What You Say, You May Have to Eat Your Words

Be careful what you say.  This may be something you may hear in time of war.  There are other times you may hear this, such as, the hearing of a family secret that you don’t want generally known.

A few years ago, I have learned that this also applies to family history.  I was talking to a friend when we were travelling back to Petawawa from Ottawa together.  We were talking about family history.  Some of her background is French Canadian.  I told her that I could guarantee that I had no French Canadian blood.

Boy, was I wrong.  The following week, I felt that I should do some work on my mother’s line and started entering in some information on her father’s line.  I had been told that it was my great-grandfather, her grandfather, who came from Ireland and settled in the Perth area.  Well, that was not true.  It was my 2x great-grandfather, Thomas Farrell, who came to Canada.  His son, Francis, married Mary Ann Jackman from Bathurst Township, Lanark County.  Mary Ann’s grandmother was Eliza Fournier, born in Louiseville, Quebec.

Eliza’s family had moved to Lanark County, and Eliza married Ottawa Valley Irish as many French Canadians did.  Eliza’s ancestry in Quebec goes back to the early 1630’s and 1640’s.  I have still to do a thorough investigation of the family ties.

I have spent some time researching the Perth military settlement and looking for my ancestors who were affected by this move by the British government at the time. Prior to starting my research, I had wondered why Eliza’s family moved from Louiseville to what is now Lanark County. As part of my research, I learned that her father, Jean Baptiste Fournier, and her brother, Jean Baptiste Fournier, both had served in the British army for a number of years including the duration of the War of 1812. This military service earned 100 acres for each of them and were fortunate enough to each have one half of the same lot.

I mentioned in earlier that Eliza married an Irishman. His name was John Jackman and emigrated to this area in 1820. He purchased land from one of the soldiers who fulfilled all of the requirements for a grant and had his paperwork in order.  Their eldest son married Mary Katherine Farrell who was a granddaughter of Edward Farrell. Edward is an interesting person. He also served in the British army but instead of fighting in the War of 1812, he fought in the Napoleonic Wars.

When I first met Joyce, she was greeting me at church on my first time there as a member of the congregation. I felt that there was a relationship that went beyond friendship there, but I didn’t know why I felt that way. I felt the same thing with her daughter, Denise.

About a year after the trip to Ottawa, Joyce asked me to help her with her family history.  A different friend had helped her by doing a draft.  As I went through the material that she provided, I saw a familiar name.  I checked it out on my tree and examined her line closely.  I found out that we are related.  I have been attending church over the past 4 years thinking that Joyce and Denise were friends but not realizing that they were family!!  My seventh cousin twice removed is related to many on Alumette Island and has relations throughout the area. It’s quite astonishing to find that you are related, albeit distantly, to someone who has a heritage in an area where you thought that you had no relatives.  

Joyce and I are close in age and it made a big difference to me to have a family member where I had never anticipated having one. Joyce and I became closer in our friendship because of the familial relationship that we found. We never hesitated in helping each other out. I am hoping that Joyce can visit us here in Newfoundland.

As I said earlier, you need to be careful about what you say as you will never know when you may have to eat those words. And, hopefully, it will be a good reason why you have to eat them.