Family can be complicated, but it's still awesome

I'm in Dublin again. I just got back this evening from Co. Mayo, where I spent the last three days quite tangibly tracing my family roots.
I stayed with my 3rd and 4th cousins (I think) in Castlebar. It was really cool just to be able to meet such distant relatives, and it was also really neat that they happened to be really cool people and housed me for three nights and drove me around. Yep, family is awesome. So, shout out to Claire and Michelle and the rest, who are probably reading this.
We drove out to Beltra (not the one in Co. Sligo) where the family (I won't bore you with the specifics) still owns my mother's mother's mother's land. There's not much there if you didn't grow up hearing about that 38-acre plot as a sort of legend. But I did, and it was pretty sweet to see it, even from the road.
And the girls also brought me to see their family's old land, where Mom's Nana's siblings/cousins/nephews/whatever were born. See? I told you it was complicated.
Went to the museum of country life nearby, which was interesting and taught me a lot about the history and culture of the country around the time Bridgit/Beatrice Doherty lived there. (Even that's not simple!)
Then we hopped over to Knock, where Mary appeared. Yes, that is quite cool, even though (through my own fault) we didn't get there till after dark.
Overall, it was a successful few days. The Irish countryside is really beautiful, even in this rainy, windy January weather. And, yep. I'm going to the Guinness brewery tomorrow. Post again soonishy!
Ciao,
-Ganchi