Origins

About seven years ago we heard that Sheila's firm was going to enact a sabbatical policy. At the same time I had a friend at the university who would regularly take students to France and study. I got to thinking -- maybe we could do this as a family for a semester! Our plan was to take one semester off and spend it in France, to learn the culture and, hopefully, the language. The preschool where our daughter was attending taught French and she seemed to have an aptitude (if not an interest) in the language, so, why not? The friend of mine studying in France kept referring to what I heard as "Cannes" and so we dreamt of days spent on the beach, seeing indie movies and bumping into famous people. Until I actually got an email encouraging faculty to apply for short term positions in Caen, France. I quickly emailed Sheila: "Is Caen the same as Cannes" (I had, you see, never been to France in my life). "Um... No" She replied. We quickly realized (thanks to the Google) that while on the coast, Caen was not the experience we were going for.

A few years and another kid later, we attended my nephew's wedding to an Irish gal in Omagh Ireland and fell in love (she is pretty cool too).

We spent two weeks touring the country and adjusting our dream sabbatical to this small, English-speaking (read: easier for the kids to handle the adjustment) country that was home to not only our newest relative, but to both of our ancestors-my grandfather emmigrated from Ireland in the late 1915 (thanks to my cousin, Jackie, and aunt, Bev, for clarifying that fact for me) and Sheila's ancestors are from Galway (her name, there is Kirwan and can be seen on street signs all over the place because they were one of the original fourteen tribes there). From there on out it was just an idea until I got an email from University College Dublin offering me a temporary assignment to teach during the spring semester of 2013. This blog will chronicle our adventures and help us keep in touch with our family and friends. Céad míle fáilte!