Beattys Overseas

Our departure from Dunlewey on Tuesday brought us into Letterkenny, a larger city in Donegal. It is here that some of John's father's relatives reside.  They are the McLaughlins who are known in the town as shoemakers, and as the guys who run the local boxing club.  John's great uncle John, in fact, was a Hall of Fame boxer, as is his son Jack.   

Letterkenny was fun and very friendly. We were lost when driving into the city, and when we stopped to ask a young man walking down the street if he knew the nearest internet cafe, he recognized our American accents and told us he had lived in California as a boy. Well, Whitney was thrilled and chatted him up about all the fires in Malibu & San Diego and oh-isn't-it-terrible and when did you move back to Ireland and do you miss California because I do, blah blah blah.  On a chance, John asks the boy ''Have you ever heard of the Letterkenny Boxing Club?'' And the boy smirks and say, ''Sure, I belong to it.''  Well, we should have known:  Just like all our experiences in Ireland thus far, the very person we ask happens to know exactly who we are looking for. 

We found a cozy inn to stay us for the night, which had Internet Access (thank God!), and in the morning we went out to find the McLaughlins.  Turns out, they live about 400 yds away from the inn where we had slept, and were so welcoming to us for a midday visit with tea, scones & biscuits.  When John mentioned Dillon's hotel, where we had spent the night, cousin Jack replied that the site of the current hotel was where his Mom's place of birth-a thatched cottage- had been.

John's father Danny has met & spent time with his Letterkenny cousins many times before, but for John is was only his second visit with them.  Jack and Máiréad have his father John living with them, who was in great spirits to have us visit.  John remembered visiting with everyone when Aunt Suzy was alive , and what a wonderful time they all had.  Jack's brother Niall also came to see us, and we had a wonderful time discussing family history together.  John McLaughlin was the master shoemaker in Letterkenny, and also an accomplished boxer who won a title in the Hall of Fame, and taught his sons about boxing at his Letterkenny Boxing Club.  Jack is a Hall of Fame boxer as well, and spends quite a bit of his time coaching at the Boxing Club.  Nile was a boxer as well, and a referee more recently.  We had such a nice time talking about great uncle John's life as a boy, and what he remembered of his sister, John's grandmother.  We couldn't stay with them long enough for a proper visit or to pore over family photos together, but that will be for the NEXT visit to the Emerald Isle!!!!!  Thank you for everything, McLaughlins!

- Whitney