We started the day looking for Mary’s mother’s (Brigid Boyce) childhood home in Screen, in County Donegal close to where we were staying in Kilmacrenan. But finding it was tricky. We turned off the main road (N56) onto a path that was so narrow at points that bushes were rubbing against both sides of the car. After a couple of tries at finding the house on our own, we called Mary’s cousin John Murray and he showed us the left turn we needed to get there. Screen is a village, but there didn’t seem to be more than 2 or 3 homes.
Brigid’s three room home has been vacant for many years but wasn’t in bad shape. The roof and stone walls were intact as well as the hearth inside. The attached room for animals was torn down years ago, and there were two other buildings, one a small barn and the other a storage building for chickens and hay that was falling apart. Earlier in the day we visited Brigid’s mother’s (Mary Lynaugh) home that was in much worse shape with the roof and walls falling in. But one attached room is still good enough to house around a dozen sheep. Decendants John & Mary Murray live with their 9 kids on the property next to Mary Lynaughs old house. David and Mary Ellen Muldowney currently live adjacent to Brigid Boyce’s house.
On the way to nearby Milford, we visited St Brigid’s Church where generations of the families have gone to Sunday mass. From there, it was on to Carrigart for lunch at a Gaelic café before we continued to the Rosguill Peninsula and the Atlantic Drive. Weather was windy, cloudy and misty (yet again) but the scenery was wonderful even if not the best for picture taking.
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