I’m Hilary Kiely and I am an American married to an Irish man and raising Irish children in Galway. I am a graduate of the Heritage Studies degree programme at the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology. From the other side of the Atlantic, I hold a degree in Medieval Studies from Smith College in Northampton, MA. I have always loved taking an interdisciplinary approach to history. I believe in including literature, archaeology, folklore, myth and all other aspects of cultural heritage. I want to know what they ate and what they sang as much as the whens and wheres of things. I have found that digging into some very local stories has helped me feel a bit less of a “blow-in”. Many threads make the tapestry of Ireland. If you want to explore the stories your ancestors told, you will find this site will gradually fill up with all sort of oddments of heritage and “on this day ” in history types of posts. I hope you will enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy uncovering them.
If you’re interested in seeing the types of stories there may be to discover about your home place, please have a look at the local profiles page.
Contact me if you would like to discuss commissioning a history of your place in Ireland. You may find a special connection to stories your family told, or find unusual places to visit on your next trip to, or “staycation” in Ireland, or just get to know your own 5k better.
Listed with National Library of Ireland’s Family Research Centre
