Our first day in Ireland included a pub lunch in Dublin where we met Amaya who had a break from activities at Dublin City College for an hour. She also took us to her college so we could look around–it’s a small campus but clearly very old. Amaya stayed in Dublin to have an evening with her friends who were leaving for home the next day, and we drove into the country to the farm we are staying at in Nobber. Peter, the host, was waiting for us when we arrived and we had scones and tea. We were pretty tired, so we let Peter do the talking…and he was up for the task. He offered some pretty strong opinions on the English in particular. Hoping to curry some favour, I mentioned that my mom’s family background, the Maguires, was tied to Eniskellen. Peter paused and said “that’s Northern Ireland,” we have plenty of Maguires around here. I didn’t mention that my mother has been researching her Maguires for years, but clearly the message seemed to be that focusing on the Protestant Maguires 40 minutes away was unnecessary since there were plenty of Catholic ones in the Nobber area.