Several years ago, my wife, Kaye, and I accompanied one of our sons and his wife on a self-guided tour of Scotland.

It was beyond beautiful, and we found the surname "Little" in many places.

We were quite certain that our ancestors lived in the Scottish Highlands and emigrated to Northern Ireland in the 17th century, but we didn't learn much to fill in the blanks.

Thanks to abundant assistance from several more-than-magnanimous genealogists, we were later able to trace our more recent roots to the Northern Island town of Letterkenny in County Donegal. Imagine the thrill of finding the ship's manifest and learning my great-great-grandfather and two of his children sailed from Derry to America in 1848. For them and countless other Irish people, those were the worst of times during the potato famine, and their trip to Philadelphia on one of the infamous "coffin" ships was horror personified.

I had the recent opportunity to accompany my very Irish daughter-in-law Judy (Connell) Baker to the Emerald Isle, where we took a fantastic bus tour, visiting places I had only dreamed about.

We didn't make it to Letterkenny, but did get to spend time in Derry City, where we took a tour and learned a great deal of that city's colorful history.



THROUGH THE BOGS
While chatting with guide Martin McCrossan as we walked the medieval walls, I told him my "Little" story, and I asked if he could point out where my ancestors might have waited to board the ship bound for a land where they had been told that "the streets were paved with gold."

He pointed across the street and told me that the City Hotel where we were spending two nights had been built on the precise spot where emigrants waited to be loaded onto the famine ships.

That news took my breath away. I instantly became lost in reverie, trying to imagine families saying tearful goodbyes as they held out what often proved false hope of a better life in America.

We visited many popular tourist spots in Ireland and spent two nights in the haunted Cabra Castle, hoping for a ghostly sighting that sadly never materialized, if you know what I mean.

The Ulster American Folk Park was of particular interest to me with its thatched buildings and informative artisans. I don't think I could ever become accustomed to the odor of burning peat but thoroughly enjoyed our bus tour through the bogs.

Imagine my thrill investigating the 5,000-year-old burial mounds at Knowth. I was in heaven.

We spent two nights along the Liffy River in Dublin, enjoying long discovery walks around the city. We also took in the "hop on, hop off " bus tour with stops at the famous Guinness Storehouse and the Dublin Zoo. I was overcome with emotion as I entered the ancient Trinity College Library and viewed Ireland's most famous manuscript, "The Book of Kells," and other treasured documents.



LEARNING THE ROPES
We had been miffed when our flight out of JFK in New York City had been forced to turn back with mechanical problems, and we missed the first part of our tour by being delayed until the following night. After that, though, things went smoothly. We landed at Shannon Airport and flew out of Dublin for the trip home when it was all over.

That was Judy's fourth trip to Ireland, and she was a great help in teaching me the ropes on the tour. She cried when it was time to leave. Kaye held down the fort here in Morrisonville, but we spoke by phone every day and hugged when I walked in the door as if we had been apart for months.

That's just as it should be. Ain't love grand?

I snapped 1,107 photographs and taxed my laptop's capacity as I uploaded them for future viewing.

I loved listening to the marvelous Irish accent of our bus guide Paddy and will always treasure his oft-repeated phrase when he liked something "very, very mootch (much)."

I was also thrilled to hear Gaelic being spoken and learned that "Slan go foill" means "Bye for now."

Have a great day and please, drive carefully.

Gordie Little was for many years a well-known radio personality in the North Country and now hosts the "Our Little Corner" television program for Home Town Cable. Anyone with comments for him may send them to the newspaper or e-mail him at gordandk@aol.com.