Photo Disclaimer: These are all my photos. They are all in RAW format and have not been processed by my camera nor by me in Lightroom or Photoshop, or programs of similar nature. So yes, the grass really IS that green, and the sky really IS that blue. All of the photos are "clickable" meaning that you can open larger views of them.
Not too far from the shadows of St. Feichin's current church, are the ruins of Fore Abbey and the original St. Feichin's church. It was begun in the 10th century. There is not much ornamentation to the buiding. The outside is the stone that was taken from the nearby mountain that separates Fore from Lough Lene and Collinstown.
Fore Abbey as viewed from the parking lot (car park) from the street. Notice the angular, winding, stone path. This is the walkway to the Abbey.
The original St. Feichin's church (10th century) as viewed from the car park. Notice that it is on the side of a hill and notice the rock outcropping at the top of the mountain. That is where the rock was quarried for the church and the Abbey. 
You can see the old cemetery there as well as the quaint signage that dots the rural landscape. 
A sign explaining the church. Notice it is in both Gaelic and English. Gaelic is now the official language of the Irish isles. But Ireland is also a Bi-lingual state and has both languages throughout. 
A close up of the English portion of the sign. 
A very, very old baptismal font. It is made of stone. There were carvings on each side, very plain by our standards, they are not recognizable now. 
This is one of the few ornamentations of the church. It is a very simple cross, cut into the door lintel.
The doorway into the church. It is a very steep stairway climb down into the church. There is not much room between the foot of the stairs and the doorway.
Notice the cutout in the wall beside the Altar. Probably where a statue or candles would have been. To the right is the sacrarium. You can see the piscina protruding from the wall. The Chancel part of the church was built in the 1200s
This is the east window. It is behind the altar and was built in the 15th century.
This is the upper part of the window. Notice how it is stone and arched. This was done in the 15th century. 
A cross and protrusion from the left side of the altar. It probably held a candle at Mass. 
The archway connecting the nave and the chancel. It was built in the 1930's.
The view of Fore Abbey from the 15th century windows in the chancel of the church.
The small mountain (I believe it is called Hill of Houndslow) outside of the church. Lough Lene is on the otherside of this hill. 
Joe walked up to this building but it seemed to be in use and of private property. 
A view of the church from the graveyard. This is the east side of the church.
A view from the northeast corner of the church. 
Sign describing St. Feichin's Mill. 
Ruins of St. Feichin's Mill. This is where St. Feichin built a mill where there was no water. The water flows underground from Lough Lene is considered a small miracle. 
One of the Wishing Trees. The water flows from the mill to under this tree. At the back and under this tree is ruins of a small ancient bath like structure. Near Mayday, locals bring their children who are in need of healing to be dunked into the waters of the well. Parents and family tie articles of clothing, of those needing healing, to the tree.
Fore Abbey. You can see one of the Archways leading to the abbey, as well as the stone walkway. You can also see one of the residents of the Fore abbey now. There was quite a herd there and they were curious about us. 
Welcome to Glenidan! This is the ONLY sign you will see in regards the townland of Glenidan. It is literally the "Rock with Glenidan on it" by the locals.
Doyne's (pronounced Dine's) Pub in Glenidan. This is the only "public" building in Glenidan. They serve alcohol only - no food. They were quite taken back when two Americans came through their doors. They asked Joe what we were doing and Joe told them we were looking for Flynn's. They directed us to Collinstown where Mr. F. Flynn lived and that he knew ALL of the Flynn's in the area. SO we headed back to Collinstown to find Mr. Flynn and SOMETHING to eat (It was after 2 when we FINALLY found Glenidan).
A Major cross roads in Glenidan. See how there are no street names? No where are their street names. Just km markings for the closest town. To get your bearings, the Pub is directly to the left and out of the picture. The road to the left (not visible but the sign points in the direction of the road) goes behind the Pub, as the Pub sits on a corner piece of land. Straight ahead is where I "think" that the Flynn land was. I won't know for certain until we do research from the Land Valuation Office. to the right is another road that goes through the country and leads back to one of the main roads to Castlepollard I believe. Behind us are two roads leading back to Collinstown. 
When we were originally searching for the pub in Glenidan, the road to the left where the pillar is, is how we came up. We literally stopped here and turned around and went back. At the back of this pub are grain silos and it looks like the backside of a farm. You can not see the front of this building from that section of the road, and it definitely did not look like a pub when we went there. That road is very tiny (literally a one car road)and the shrubs are built up very close to the road, as are the homes. on our final attempt at finding Glenidan (with our third set of directions), we came up the e road as you see it. This is the road that you turn right on as you come to the "Welcome to Glenidan sign"
A clearer picture of the Glenidan crossroads sign. Glenidan is not on ANY of these white signs anywhere in the area. We headed back to Collinstown and stopped at the Delicatessen/Gas station/grocery store/Wal-mart to grab a bite to eat. Joe wanted a tuna fish sandwich with Mayo. He left me and went to the restrooms. I said again that He wanted Tuna fish with mayonnaise. She asked "in addition?" And I replied "yes", thinking that she meant in addition to the tunafish salad. I know how some people are, heck Joe will add may to my egg salad, but i think it is just fine on plain bread. I was mistaken. She whipped out a knife and grabbed a HUGE glob of BUTTER and began smearing it on the bread, and then added mayo. My stomach lurched in revulsion. I didnt' have the heart to tell her then that we did not want butter on his sandwich. It's a good thing that Joe
We had driven my mr. F's house and he had been mowing his lawn. We headed there after we ate and stopped in. Luckily he had stopped mowing his lawn and was having a conversation with a gentleman (of about my age) in a car on the street. i totally could barely understand the man in the car at all. Mr. F invited us in and we chatted about genealogy for a good 30 minutes before his wife came back "from town." (Dublin)
He was looking for a number for a family member and could not find it anywhere. He then called his wife on the phone and she had just happened to be at the end of the drive. she obviously asked him who was here and he said his "wealthy, millionaire relatives from America." We all laughed and he hung up and we waited for her to come in.
When Mrs. F came in, she greeted us and asked us if we wanted anything to drink, we politely declined. She immediately said "I saw you at mass this morning." We replied in the affirmative. She looks and says "Mr. F, did I not tell you, I saw two foreigners at mass this morning? And did I not tell you that she was so lovely with her pretty veil on, and so nicely dressed?" She then proceeded to tell me how wonderful it was that I veiled and that you did not see that much anymore.
Mr. and Mrs. F were delightful people and we can't wait to make more of their acquaintance. We stayed as long as we possibly could and they offered to show us around to the Flynn graves at St. Feichin's (ones we had seen), but we had to politely decline. Had we known Dublin better, it would be fine, but we both wanted to get back to Dublin before nightfall as to assure ourselves that we would find our hotel.
We regret that we have no more pictures of the area. we had planned in our minds that this Mr. F would have told us exactly where to go and we would be on our way there and happily snapping pictures.
We made it back to Dublin in time and ate dinner in the concierge room. We had salad and steak kabobs with a red sauce on them. Dessert was more of those shot glasses with wonderful custard and berries, and the bananas, caramel and chocolate.
