Two days to go and as I made my way to Dublin, I drove through Castlebar to visit Strokestown Park House in County Roscommon. There are three parts to see. There is the 18^th century mansion with its original furnishings, a walled garden, restored to look as it would have during it’s heyday, and the Famine Museum which contained original documents and pictures to explain the great Irish famine of the 1840’s. Truly truly awful. I mean, the population was something like 8 million before the famine and in only a few years, due to death and emigration, 1 million! Even today, they are not up to the original number. It was the poorest social class that suffered. They were the landless laborers. This place was interesting because they still had the papers of the times and you could see how the landowner, this Major Mahon, legally responsible for his tenants, decided it was cheaper to send them out of the country than to pay for their upkeep in the workhouse (which was absolutely appalling, by the way – they had pictures.) So, he bought passage for 1,000 of his tenants to Canada and almost half of them died during the voyage due to a combination of already poor health and the unsanitary conditions on the ships. Poor people. I spent quite a few hours in this museum. It was heartbreaking. All because of the potato blight. Remember that granny guide? She told me the potato blight started in the U.S. and was airborne to Ireland. She was pissed about it too! These Irish ate 14 pounds of potatoes per day. Imagine. But that’s about all they had so when the blight hit, starvation set in fast.

Anyhoo, I was not too upset to hear that Major Mahon was shot and killed, assassinated. (took me about 3 tries to spell that)They even had the gun on display.

And, speaking of display, descendants of the family have lived in the mansion until very recently. They started going broke and eventually the elderly couple was living in just one room of the place while everything else moldered away. These gorgeous silken draperies decaying and water stains on the beautiful crown molding. It is in the process of being restored but in the meantime, I could go all over the house and touch whatever I wanted to, walking on the original carpets. Crazy. I could have picked up a priceless antique and walked out with it. (I didn’t.)

This was my favorite thing. A child's tea set. And, it includes wine glasses!  haha

The weird thing is that I am reading this book by Elizabeth Waters set in post-war Britain wherein the family has gradually closed up the house and moved into just three or so rooms of their ridiculously huge family manse because they cannot afford the upkeep. Quite a coincidence. It’s called “The Little Stranger.” Really creepy ghost story, if you're into that kind of thing.