Full-day conference with Irish experts – Public Record Office of Northern Ireland/Ulster Historical Foundation introduction to Irish family history and historical research using resources like PRONI and other major Irish repositories – stay next to PRONI in Titanic quarter hotel
Overnight Belfast

Morning – Visit ‘Titanic, the Exhibition’.
Afternoon – Ulster Folk and Transport Museum: the sorts of original buildings the ancestors knew.
Overnight Belfast

Drive to the Giant’s Causeway, via the Antrim Coast road, one of the great scenic sights of Ireland; afternoon tea and exploration of a typical north Antrim church and churchyard.
Overnight Belfast

Morning – drive to Derry and explore the famous ‘Walls’ and Cathedral with all their significance for Irish history and emigrant memory.
Afternoon – Visit the Ulster/American Folk Park and the Mellon Centre for Migration Studies.
Overnight Enniskillen, County Fermanagh

Morning – Visit one of Ireland’s great 18th century country houses and explore the story of the Fourth Earl of Belmore, Governor of NSW, 1868 to 1872.
Afternoon – a cruise to Devenish Island on Lough Erne providing a sense of early Christian Ireland.
Overnight Enniskillen, County Fermanagh

To be advised but will be a day focused on the Irish Famine emigration to Australia and the role of the infamous workhouses in that emigration. This will involve a visit to a surviving workhouse, and the site of a poignant Irish family emigration from this area to NSW over a period of 25 years in the mid 19th century.
Overnight Carrick on Shannon, County Leitrim

Morning – Visit Strokestown Park House and Ireland’s Famine Museum
Overnight Ballyvaughan, County Clare

A day touring in the Burren region of north County Clare an area rich with Irish/Australian emigrant connection: this will include visits to Corcomroe Abbey, Ballyvaughan Catholic church (built with Australian emigrant money in the 1860s), the unique limestone pavement scenery of the Burren, Paul-na-Brone ancient dolmen and the Cliffs of Moher
Overnight Ballyvaughan, County Clare

Morning – Visit Stradbally Church of Ireland and burial site of Australia’s most influential Irish Governor, Sir Richard Bourke, 1832 to 1838
Afternoon – drive to Tullamore, County Offaly, with visit to Birr with its 18th century environment
Overnight Tullamore, County Offaly 

To be advised but focused on doing family and local history research in an Irish rural area as opposed to the big centres in Dublin.
Overnight Tullamore, County Offlay 

Touring to Killarney via Clonoulty and Rock of Cashel, Tipperary, with the story of Ned Ryan the emancipist known as the ‘King of Galong Castle’, NSW, and the fabled Rock of Cashel towering over the lowlands of south/central Tipperary.
Overnight Killarney, County Kerry 

Tour the Ring of Kerry visiting Derrynane House, ancestral home of the Liberator of Catholic Ireland, Daniel O’Connell, encompassing the story of the strong O’Connellite links with 19th century Australia
Overnight Killarney, County Kerry

Day 14 – Saturday
A day of pure scenic pleasure and connection with old Gaelic speaking Ireland touring the Dingle Peninsula with its stunning views towards the Blasket Islands, ‘next parish America’: visit the Great Blasket Centre where the life of the Blasket islanders is told.
Overnight Killarney, County Kerry 

Day 15 – Sunday 26 September 2021
Visit the Nano Nagle Centre, with its intimate connections with mid-nineteenth Australia, and the story of the convict transportees and early assisted emigration from Cork to NSW featuring Cobh Harbour … ‘the last of Ireland’ … and the Cobh Heritage Museum
Overnight Cobh, County Cork 

Day 16 – Monday 27 September 2021
Tour to Enniscorthy, County Wexford, to the site of the Battle of Vinegar Hill, 1798 after which many were transported to Sydney: visit Enniscorthy Castle Museum.
Overnight Glendalough, County Wicklow  

Visits in Wicklow taking in the early Christian site of Glendalough, the Dwyer/ McAllister Cottage (with its links to Sydney’s 1798 Memorial at Waverley Cemetery), an Australian emigrant site at Trooperstown, ‘Avondale’ home of Home Rule leader Charles Stewart Parnell (a household name in Irish Australia) and the ‘Meeting of the Waters’ at Avoca, about which Thomas Moore wrote a song famous among Irish emigrant communities everywhere (statue of More in Ballarat, Victoria).
Overnight, Glendalough, County Wicklow 

Tour to Battle of the Boyne Centre, County and site of Monasterboice High Cross, County Meath, both with important Australian historical connections.
Overnight Dublin 

full day conference – Introduction to Dublin repositories
Overnight Dublin 

Dublin repositories research day
Overnight Dublin 

Tours of Dublin featuring Australian connections or further guided research if desired.
Overnight Dublin 

End of Tour