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Dr. Kemp Mabry column
Exploring the Emerald Isle
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    When I heard that Paul and Beverly MacGregor had been to Ireland (not once but four times) I invited them to visit, bring pictures and report on the Emerald Isle.
    This they did. Formerly residents of Statesboro, they now live in Metter where Paul is with Georgia Power and Beverly teaches preschool at Statesboro First United Methodist Church.
    Beverly had been a student at McEvoy Girls High School in Macon when Wife Evelyn taught there but she was not in Wife Evelyn’s class. Beverly was later graduated from Columbus, Ga., High School.
    Paul was graduated from Lanier Boys High School in Macon. He played football and knew many of my students when I taught at Willingham Boys High School in Macon. Public high schools in Macon are now coed.
    I had prepared outline maps of Ireland for each of us to use as we looked through their post card/photo album. There was the Circle of Kerry in County Kerry and the awesome Cliffs of Mohr on the west coast of  Ireland.
    They saw the Book of Kells, an early illustrated book based on the four Gospels. You may purchase a full color copy from a Swiss Company for $18,000.
    They stayed in bed and breakfast homes, getting to know the friendly folk who inhabit the land from which six ancestral lines of my family originated.
    There are contrasts of a prehistoric beehive dry stone building beside a home with thatched roof or more modern buildings nearby. The Irish live with 5,000 years of history and prehistory.
    Paul and Beverly were impressed with the colorful storefronts and the ever present flowers. And it seems as if everybody has a dog.
    Beverly explained that the Irish pub is a place where families gather for food and music. Music is everywhere especially guitar music in the pubs. I asked about the Bodraham drums but they did not seem to have heard many of them.
    The GSU Center for Irish Studies sponsored Irish Pub Nights at Archibald’s but Archibald’s closed. Harry O’Donaghue played the drum and as did Tom O’Carroll when they came to Archibald’s.
    The name “MacGregor” and Beverly’s “McBride” both are Scottish. They have also been to Scotland several times so a return visit to us is expected!
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