Well, you know you’re in the country in Ireland, when your relatives live on roads with no names like this.
(Bag End)
Glanworth is near Fermoy. One road through the town with a convenience store named O’Flynn’s.
Memo to famous science fiction author: we may be related.
Related, is it? But the clanna Fhloinn came to America from Loughrea, in the County Galway, and prior to that, they had lived around Ballinlough, Co. Roscommon. Ballinlough means 'the town by o'Flynn's Lake' and there is indeed a lake there, which I am told is good fishing. Atop O'Flynn's Mountain, the remains of the castle can no longer even be seen. There is a water tower there now.
The story locally is that after the Cromwell War [just yesterday, you see] a widowed Flynn was told she could continue to live in her house if she would only pay rent to the new English owner. She said she would do no such thing as that "and took her family to live with her relatives in Loughrea."
That I am most likely descended from a stubborn old woman explains much, quoth my wife.
We're moving on to Galway, so if I see anything of note in Loughrea, I'll post…
The remains of many castles, or at least abbeys and churches, dot the countryside here. Makes a strange contrast with the many new housing developments.