Ireland Trip Day 11, Enniskillen, Ulster Northern Ireland and Dublin

We left the lovely Killibegs bright and early for Dublin.  We just crossed a bit of Northern Ireland on the way, no check points or passport viewings as you'd expect when you travel into another country.  Before this we had been in the Republic of Ireland but Northern Ireland is still part of the United Kingdom.  Most of the fighting/bombing there now is between those who want to stay in the UK and those who want to join the Republic,  maybe still along religious lines or maybe because they are used to fighting each other.  Our first stop was in Enniskillen at the Integrated Primary School.  In the late 1980's there was a bomb blast in the fighting in Enniskillen that killed several.  A group of parents decided to start an integrated school,  they raised all the funds at first and only three years ago the state built them a new building.  They turn away students every year.  It is integrated from the Board of Govenors to the 4yr old like this: 40% Catholic, 40% Protestant, 20% Other.  The children begin the year they turn 5 and most are only 4, so my grandson , Brayden, would be in school there.  They attend here until they are 11 then they move to the next level.  There are 31or 32 students in each classroom with one teacher and one aide who teach everything, including PE, Art, Music and Spanish!  Even recesss has directed play.  It was an amazing place where 7 year olds do computer graphics.  Our visit there just wasn't long enough.

Next stop was the Ulster American Folk Park.  This was a nice outdoor museum depicting the mass migrations from Ulster to the States (mostly) including Irish cottages, etc of the period, a full ship display and then full sized displays of the States,  It was pretty neat the was they did the ship--you walked on the wharf in Ireland, got onto the ship and the walked off the ship onto the wharf in the States, very clever.  I was particularly taken by the birthplace of Robert Campbell (the very Robert Campbell of my research on the Town of Kansas) as well as some museum displays involving he and his brother Hugh.

The birthplace of Robert Campbell, Mountain Man, Millionaire and one of the owners of the Town of Kansas.

 This panel is inside the museum, they got it right as far as they went.  Always a problem for museums, not enough space to really cover anything.

 I think this was the Pennsylvania homestead.  The way it's situated looks  like it might be in Pennsylvania, or Missouri.

This is the Irish cottage, the thatch on this and the other buildings must be a foot thick!

Here at the park they also have a building dedicated to the study of those who left.  They are building a database of names so I went over to check on our William Hickham who left Belfast, Ulster, Ireland.  He wasn't on their database as it doesn't have much before 1800, I believe he left in the 1770's.  I did learn that there where a lot of  Ulster Scots-Irish that left Ireland for the States then so that fits.  They were kind enough to give me some internet sites to visit.

After our visit we got back on the bus and headed to Dublin, arriving late, tired and hungry.