Kilworth Co. Cork is where my grandfather was born and raised before he moved to England and like a few of my extended family before me I wanted to see the place where he was born to his father Jack who was the local blacksmith and his mother Mary who ran the local shop right out of her living room window.
Finding the town was pretty straightforward and then I had to find the sign that everyone had posed next to before me…again easy.
Then our directions were a little more vague as we were looking for the 4th house in where the old forge used to be and the hand ball court would run next to the building.
We thought we would park up and have a look around by foot. It was a nice old village and we had a great time asking people where the old forge was and while everyone (including the Garda on a coffee break) was very keen to help we were still getting nowhere.
Numerous calls to dad to get more information was definitely helping but in the end one of the pubs opened and we went into ask and they were all extremely helpful and we had found the place in no time. It would have been fantastic to see it as an old forge yet it was still really nice to make my Irish pilgrimage! T
