Toto, I have a feeling I'm not in Gwynedd Valley anymore!

Hello All!

We have safely arrived in Ireland! Here's a short recap of our travels Friday and Saturday:

On Friday, August 5th, we met at GMC in the Loyola Hall parking lot at 9:30am in preparation for a 10:30am departure. At 10:00am we had a wonderful sendoff ceremony and started off our trip with a wonderful, supportive, and endearing Mercy beginning in preparation for our pilgrimage to the "Motherland". (aka Dublin) Thanks again so very much to all those who made this trip possible; we will keep you updated over the course of the trip!

After leaving GMC we embarked on a two and a half hour van ride to JFK airport. (Thanks Father John and Brittney for the ride!) We arrived at JFK shortly after 1:00pm and then, after eating lunch and going through security, we departed from the United States on our flight for Dublin at 5:45pm.

Here's a picture of our Ireland crew before leaving JFK and also a picture of our flight, Aer Lingus flight 104 towards Dublin, before departure:

Finally, after a little more then six hours in the air, we arrived in Dublin, Ireland safely at about 5:00am Dublin time. We had quite a bit of luggage and after little sleep on the plane, we carted our luggage through the airport.


After a short two hour van ride we arrived in Belfast, Northern Ireland and slept, slept, slept! (And a few of the pilgrims also shopped for lunch making supplies and slept after that.)

We hope that each of you continue to follow our pilgrimage through Ireland as we get closer and closer to being in the same place where Mercy began and walking in the footsteps of Catherine McAuley and her fellow sisters.

Thanks for reading,
Have a grand day!

Steven Rufe