martinebrennan.com
  • Failte
  • The Brennan Blog
  • African American Genealogy
  • Kerry Snippets
  • martinewrites
  • Brennan

The path

8/28/2017

4 Comments

 
Picture
I have always loved the unsignposted roads and paths you can find all over Ireland. I am entirely curious about where the road will lead. One friend often jokes that my favourite roads are those that have a green grass spine running up their middle. My children plead with me not to detour 'just to see where the road might lead.' Many times I have ended up in some unsuspecting farmer's backyard. The road 'less-travelled' is a real place to me, full of memories and experiences that I treasure.
This is a picture of one such road. The picture itself tells many hidden stories. The hat I am wearing is one of the many I knitted after my daughter Hannah died. I knitted through grief and despair until the power of speech returned to me. The walk was a painful one for me as I struggled with mobility problems that have plagued me since a car accident in 2012. The walk is called the Kerry Camino and it is an old pilgrimage path between Tralee and Dingle. After Hannah's death I lost the faith that had sustained me through many trying times and as I struggled physically I also struggled spiritually. I did not know the path, and I did not know if I could complete the journey but I was angry and my anger made me determined.
I could not talk to my fellow pilgrims as I needed every ounce of my energy to keep on walking through the pain. But I just kept putting one foot in front of the other because there was no other way. I had to keep moving. I had been immobile for far too long. And if I did not keep moving I would get stuck in the middle of nowhere. The parallels to my day to day life were astounding me as I walked....
All around me the landscape was beautiful. I was a tiny speck in the scene. This comforted me. If I was so small, then my grief was small too. All around me were symbols and signs of destruction and survival. Old, abandoned stone cottages, modernised farmhouses. Even the path I walked on had borne the heavy steps of those who had survived Penal Laws, An Gorta Mor (the Great Hunger), and  the death of loved ones. 
I was not alone as I walked. My ancestors had walked this path before me.
I felt held up by my faceless, nameless ancestors.
In the silence, my daughter Hannah felt as near to me as her living, breathing older sister.
I felt something changing inside me, a shifting of my grief and despair, and a wonder at the over-arching Something that I could feel but could not name. 
I had begun to return to life.
And now it is time to write it down....


4 Comments

    RSS Feed

    Author

    Martine Brennan, public historian in the making, genealogy researcher, writer, speaker. London born Irishwoman

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    March 2020
    March 2019
    August 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    August 2017

    Categories

    All
    Adopted People
    Ancestors
    An Gorta Mor
    Autosomal DNA
    Autosomal DNA Testing
    Bear Witness
    Born Still
    Catholic Emancipation 1829
    Cheryl
    Christian Charity
    Christmas
    Civil Registration Ireland 1864
    Close To My Heart
    Cousins
    Create A Beyond Kin Family Tree
    Daisies In The Wall
    Dr Ibrahima Seck
    Empathy
    Enslaved People
    Family Tree
    Famine Graveyard
    Field Of The Angels
    Genealogy
    Genealogy Research
    Holocaust Memorial
    Http://slavenamerollproject.blogspot.ie/
    Irish Genealogy Research
    John Cummings
    Justice
    Justice In Action
    Light In The Darkness
    Louisiana
    Mississippi
    Mitochondrial DNA
    New Year
    Penal Laws
    Pilgrimage
    #POCGenealogy
    Remembering
    #RememberingforJustice
    Restorative Justice
    Rod Moorhead
    Sacramental Records Of The Roman Catholic Archdiocese Of New Orleans
    #SayherName
    Sculptor
    #SlaveNameRollProject
    Slavenamerollproject.blogspot.ie/p/about-project.html
    Slavery
    Soul
    Spiritual Journey
    Stillbirth
    St John The Baptist Parish
    The Beyond Kin Project
    The Beyond Kin Project Directory
    Thednadetectives.com/
    The Great Hunger
    Wailing Wall Of Jerusalem
    Walk Alongside
    White Privilege
    Whitney Plantation
    Www.martinebrennan.com/dna.html

www.martinebrennan.com

#RememberingforJustice

Contact Us