Tom spent a summer 1978 in wildwood NJ Went to pennsylvania…read more ? papavlatossr@yahoo.com Please let me know ? Thank you

Tom is a most wonderful man and excellent driver! He knows all the places to stop and all the right…read morepeople. You'll be lucky to have him as your driver. I was over in September last year and traveled with him. Hope when I get a chance to go back to Ireland I will be able to tour with him again.

Attended a 40th Birthday party here. I cannot speak to the rooms as the hotel was fully booked…read more The hotel is situated just off the motorway and would be a good 1/2 way stopping point. The staff I encountered were all very friendly. The hotel itself is large, very well maintained. There are a number of function rooms and larger ballroom for weddings etc. The food we had on the night was excellent and again the friendly service was great. I was able to buy 3 pints for the price I pay for 2 here in Dublin so I would count that as a bonus. I doubt I would ever have the need to return but certainly if was in the area I would.

Stay regularly on work - handy spot just off the motorway, no hassle parking etc. Rooms clean…read more Internet plug in to phone line in rooms, wi fi in reception area. V nice pool, sauna etc. Food in restaurant v good. There's also a separate chinese rest in the hotel.

This is a great hotel actually. Clean, bright and in a great location. We were there for a family…read morereunion and it was a great set up for being near everything from a good sized mall to the pubs on the street. I would definitely visit again.

Had a rough start here with some mechanical issues in the room but the staff quickly responded…read more This was a nice finish to a 10 day excursion across Ireland and although the places we stayed were fun. It was nice to get somewhere that was a bit more quiet with modern conveniences and some privacy. The rooms were clean. The staff was awesome. And the underground parking was highly appreciated.

This is the Bridge House Hotel - Char Bistro inside the…read morehotel. This is our second time dining here while we're in town from Clonaslee, which is just a 15 minute drive away. The place is spacious, has a full bar with plenty of draft options, and the food and service are great.

The Bridge House is probably the biggest bar in Tullamore, and it certainly has the most prominent…read morelocation, so it was fairly natural that we decided to head in for our preparatory tipple on a recent first visit to the town. And we almost immediately regretted it. The bar felt very much like a hotel bar (which actually makes sense, as the Bridge House is a hotel): bit too open plan, carpeted floor and old people everywhere, all round over-polished feel and a consequent lack of ambiance. There was even a guitar-toting duo singing lacklustre covers in one corner, which was blasted around the pub at irritating levels. We were the only people under forty in the place, but occasionally groups of young people would wander in and then leave almost immediately, as if they were looking for somewhere else. Curious to find where this surely close by spot was, and eager to get out of this chintzy heck-hole, we finished our drinks and left. Easily the least atmospheric place I was in on my short sojourn in the town. As we were leaving, though, there was already a queue of people outside the nightclub next door, and this was before eleven o'clock! We made a collective mental note to check it out later, and headed up the town.

I visit this camp site once every year it is a good spot for anyone who likes water sports or…read morefishing. The only thing that bugs me about the site is the electricity. The amps it gives out will not work the fridge even in the caravan. Thank god for gas. the toilet block is clean but old and the owner is bang on. I go with my wife and son. My son loves it and if he is happy we can relax too. It is one of those sites when you add up the good and bad you keep going back so give it a try and see what you think.

Stayed here the weekend. The room itself was nice; only downside was that there were 2 mattresses…read morein stead of 1 double size, which was a bit awkward. Other then this we had a lovely dinner in the restaurant, and left for our room just before the band was ready to start the music; so we missed this. Location was great, and the atmosphere of the lodge was nice; we will be back for Valentines!

This place was the best place for me to eat and to accommodate in. The potatoes have the best…read moreflavour with the chives in it also their gravy is so divine you would want it with every single meal. And the staff are so kind and helpful to the customers and the owner and the manager always try their best to be friends with everyone. I would HIGHLY recommend

For those of you Lee cousins who have been following along with all of my genealogy obsession…read more.. I have an update on my research on the Mary Jane Dease line. The last some of you heard, I had found some shocking information that indicated that she was not a daughter of the Deases of Turbotston House in Co. Westmeath according to James Dease's will. I was shocked, but not totally surprised, because there had been soooo many mistakes and untruths in Aunt Gert's family history, that I wondered if she hadn't dreamed up/fabricated a little of the royal ancestry. And yet, I still thought that there was some truth to it too. So even after finding that record, it did not sit right with me, and I continued to dig for information and search for other records or other information. I wanted to see an actual copy of the will, rather than just an abstract, and started asking people in Ireland where I could find the will. I was told that virtually ALL the wills in Ireland were lost in a fire in the 1920s. But a man named Betham had collected genealogical info on many of the more influential families and made notes in a book of "replacement wills" for as many of these important individuals from the info he could pull together. We are fortunate enough that Mary Jane Dease's father was one of these wealthy men and that he made one of the faux wills from whatever family records and cemetery stones he was able to find. However, that also leaves a lot of doubt in the soundness of the proof. It definitely does not rule her out any more. And I'm still linking to too many distant relatives along that line for it to be bogus. But since her birth record is among the church's missing records, and she left the country in her early 20s, she left behind no records in Ireland, so there were no records for him to find to include in the Dease faux family will that was "rewritten" decades after her father died when she was four years old. - Heck! Probably after SHE died! But for now, there just seems to be way more evidence weighing in the I am reinstating her to the family So, Ann, I apologize. You get your Saint Oliver back! And everyone else, we are still related to Henry VII. (Sorry!) AND every one of his wives!!! But, in double checking all of this, I came across a new story, that I had to read and reread and double and triple check, because it was so convoluted and unreal that I couldn't believe it was true. But I have to share it, because the history lover in me just can't believe it, and all the amazing history stories seem to always be on my Dad's side, so it's about time, the Lee side gets one! This one is unreal!! George Washington's father, Augustine, died when he was just 11 years old, and he went to live with other relatives until he reached adulthood, including his much older half-brother, Lawrence Washington, who owned Mount Vernon. I wonder if he ever whiled away time pestering the estate's miller, William Daniel Poole, (who happened to be my father's 4th-great-grandfather) with annoying questions...? But Augustine Washington's father, Capt. Lawrence Washington, also died when his son, Augustine was young - just three years old. Augustine's mother, Mildred, then married George Gale, moved back to England, and died a year later. Washington's family sued Gale for Mildred's thousand pounds of inheritance and they won. As a result, the children were awarded to a cousin of Augustine's, Needham Langhorne. It just so happens, Needham's brother, William Langhorne, was the 4th great-grandfather of Theresa Plunkett, Mary Jane Dease's mother!! So George Washington's father was a foster child in our family (mansion)! And that is just one of many, many fascinating stories in the many branches of Mary Jane Dease's family tree. If you are interested, let me know, and I can continue on with many more stories for you! Following up on some family history here. Pardon.

A second cousin of mine, John Donohoe, and his wife Bridie, were the owners of Turbotston in the…read more1980's and 90's. Always liked going there and getting the tour from John. I remember the spiral staircase and possibly some wooden 'doors' attached to walls, just for symmetry's sake. There was a chapel, and, I believe, a wine cellar too. Since only John, his wife, and her mother lived there, they used to close off most of the house in the colder months. Last time I visited, maybe around 2006, there were workmen painting inside. We walked around a bit and they never even noticed us. The house was out of the family by this time. John once told us that on the day of the auction to buy, he and his wife went to Mass to pray that they *didn't* get it! They did, and I'm glad of it!

When I went to Tullamore recently, I have to admit that my expectations were not terribly high…read more Tullamore was not where we had intended going to at all, but we had cycled an extremely circuitous route from Dublin, it was almost getting dark and Tullamore was the only town on the map of any size within about 15 miles, so we landed up there at about half eight last Thursday without any fore-knowledge of the place. I had made a booking with Loughney's only minutes before on the road from Kilbeggan, and I was seeking any sort of B&B-type place to lay the head for the night. All the other B&Bs were full (this happened to be the week of the Tullamore Show), and Loughrey's was €35 per night per person, so I wasn't in any position to argue. It emerged that Loughrey's was a guesthouse rather than a B&B, and it was nicer than a lot of hotels that I have stayed in. The rooms were nice and clean, tea and coffee making facilities, spacious bathroom, individual bath-mats - really nice. The bar downstairs seemed pretty quiet, but then again this was very early on a Thursday evening, so maybe it picks up later in the night. The staff were pretty helpful, arranging a place for us to lock-up our bikes and all that. There is a nightclub at the back but it only opens at the weekend, so we were unable to experience it's undoubtedly manifold delights. We had to go elsewhere for our nocturnal entertainment (of which more later). The one thing about the otherwise lovely accomodation in Loughrey's is that the pub is on the main street, so there are loads of trucks thundering past all morning, and also the place is always roasting, the corridors and everything. Still, if you go to bed fluthered (as we all did) you should be alright. When we descended the next day to get our complementary breakfast (served til half past eleven for those of you that are interested), we experienced the low point of our stay at Loughrey's. There was only one waitress, and she took an awful long time to bring us our cooked breakfasts. And she only brought us our tea ages after the fries, by which time we were all thoroughly thirsty and irritable. And our toast was brought over by a cleaning lady, who seemed to have been press-ganged into serving duties by the harried waitress, and who didn't seem to comprehend our requests for butter, which arrived even later still. Plus, I had to ask on three separate occasions for a glass of water. I mean, jeez louise! Still, breakfast aside, Loughrey's is a pleasant and inexpensive place to stay if you visit the surprisingly enjoyable town of Tullamore.

After leaving another pub (mental) in Tullamore, myself and my wife went searching for somewhere a…read morelittle more quiet to have a drink before going to bed. I was rather speechless when I walked in to Loughrey's because inside is all modern with good low volume music playing. There is a night club (entrance around the corner) if that is your thing but the bar itself is perfect for a chat even on a Saturday night. There are even a few decent beers available and I was glad to have some Paulaner on tap. They also had the new Smirnoff €5 mojito machine. If you get hungry there is a Thai restaurant right in the pub!! We both loved it.