A friend of mine was telling me about her recent weekend in Ireland. She got a cheap flight from Edinburgh to Knock, County Mayo with Ryanair and stayed in the town of Westport. Now, Mayo is on my list of counties to visit to trace my Irish roots and I hadn’t even realised that there was such an easy way to get there. Within an hour of our chat I had booked 2 seats on a flight to Knock, car hire and a hotel in Westport. The hotel stay is free thanks to saving up our Tesco vouchers. Got to make some savings somewhere!

So now I have to plan our stay. One trip I definitely want to make is not genealogy related. “The Banshees of Inisherin” was partly filmed on Achill Island. If you’ve seen the film you’ll know how gorgeous it is. Achill Tourism have helpfully produced the Banshees of Inisherin Location Trail.

We also want to see more of the Wild Atlantic Way having explored some of the beautiful beaches of Donegal on our previous Ireland trips.

Westport also has some fabulous looking pubs and restaurants which I am looking forward to checking out. I’ve been told that Matt Molloy’s is the best pub in Ireland. We shall see.

But now to the main focus of my trip which is to visit the home town of my great, great grandmother

Sarah McLaughlin (there are many variations to the spelling of her name) was born around 1839 in County Mayo. There are no birth records available for that time but I know that her parents Daniel McLaughlin and Elizabeth Reilly were married in the Diocese of Tuam on 16 May 1833. The Parish is listed as Aughaval (Westport). Sadly, the priest didn’t record much information. There are no occupations listed, no parent details and no addresses. I do know that their witnesses were called Austin Gavan and Catherine Regan.

McLaughlin and Reilly are fairly common names in the area. I had hoped that Austin Gavan might help a bit but there are a few of them too. Austin seems to be one of the most common names in the records. That means that unfortunately I haven’t been able to narrow down an exact townland or spot to visit.

However, if they were living in Westport they must have spent time in the town and local area. We are going back a bit so I won’t see much from that time period. I don’t know exactly when Sarah left Ireland because the next record I have for her which is in fact, the first record I have for her is a Scottish record from 1856 when she married James Brawley at just 17 years of age.

Daniel and Elizabeth had a son for whom there is a birth record in Aughaval parish. Daniel was baptised there in June 1851 so the family were still in Ireland at that point. Austin Gavan was his Godfather so that was a friendship that lasted.

I don’t actually know if Elizabeth ever left Ireland. While Sarah’s father and three of her siblings are recorded in Scotland there is no record of her mother. Could it be that she was a victim of the Great Hunger and it was this that prompted the family to leave? I want to find out more about life in Westport at that time. I know I won’t find any records specific to the family and that’s okay. I just want to spend some time there and get to know the area where my great, great granny spent her childhood. Of course I’ll report back when we get home.

I know a fair bit about Sarah’s life in Scotland which I have written about previously. You can read the post by clicking here.