Dear Ol Donegal

Hi All, We are now in Donegal...It has been raining most of the day so we went shopping and found a nice B&B to settle in for the night. We were out late last night with the Doddys of Ballymote and thoroughly enjoyed their hospitality. At the B&B in Ballymote the owner, Peter loaned us a book written by Michael Hanna for a local politician about the History of the Taaffe family in County Sligo. Come to find out Edward Taaffe built the replica of the Ballymote Castle in Austria, current day Czech Republic...this may be the answer we were all trying to find out how the Doddys came from Sligo to Austria to Czechoslovakia. Much research still needs to be done but I believe we found a big part of the puzzle. I have everyones email that we met in Ballymote so we will surely keep in touch. Even Cairan, the editor for the local paper took our picture and will put it on the Ballymote.ie website sometime next week...All in all, it felt like we were home and the Doddys were a gracious bunch. Tommorrow we are going along the coastline near Donegal where the highest cliffs in Ireland are...and some gardens that were recommended along the way. Not sure where we will end up after that....you'll know when we arrive. Jerry and Sue we had a cone with a 99 today. Thanks for the heads up...and Jerry I can't find Baalyswine anywhere on the map. Send Fodors on a mission! Take care all! The Doddys