Since we uncovered the origin our family (see Finding School Hill), we have tried to find more information and photos of the area.  The Oklahoma Ryans recently went to Ireland, and made their way to Newport, Tipperary.  Once in the Newport area, they drove to Castlewaller, which was a major center of activity for our Ryan, Campbell, McDonald and Hill ancestors.  Most of our families had farmed north of this castle, anywhere from 1 to 2 miles from this castle. 

We want to thank the Oklahoma Ryans for this contribution.  Initially I was going to summarize Millie Ryan's letters, but instead I've highlighted some of her comments, which explain her trip better than anything I could've written:

On the way to Dublin.  We had originally planned to pick up the rental car and leave Dublin on our arrival, but our luggage didn't make the change in Chicago (we just barely did) and we had to stay overnight...we left Dublin on Wed. and drove to Kilkinney then onto Waterford....went to the Waterford Crystal plant on Thurs morning....then onto Cashel ...drove to Tipperary town on Friday morn and went to the Heritage center

The use of Nicknames.:  ...the Heritage Center gave us the list of Ryan "Nicknames".  They asked us our Ryan nickname and we told them we didn't know it.  It seems there are so many Ryans, and a lot with the same first names, that they started attaching a nickname to seperate the families. (Note:  We have also seen these nicknames in our research, but didn't understand their significance until now).

On the Road to CastleWaller.  The heritage office was closed... we mentioned Castle Waller and got directions.  We pull up to the drive and we can see a home attached to the back of it.  A man comes out and we tell him why we are there.  He didn't understand us at first...he was a bit hesitant.  It took awhile for him to comprehend that Don's last name was Ryan.  He told us the land was returned to the Ryan Family and that his Mother's father had been born in the Castle. ..the castle is now on the historical registry and they are the ones who should try to preserve it.  He said the stones were taken from it over the years to build houses.  His grandfathers nickname was Daddy, so they were the "Daddy Ryan" branch.  (Maybe we should create our own nickname?)

This man's name was Thomas Tanner.  His Mother was a Ryan.

My favorite story from Millie.   Our son David met some men on the train ride to the World cup, who were Elvis impersonators and he was able to buy a ticket from them at face value.  He sat with them in great seats 4 rows up.  One of them had the last name of Ryan and Dave pulled out his laptop and showed them the pictures of Castle Waller.  He loves to visit with people and they enjoyed seeing what he saw in Ireland.  Dave is able to call us from his computer

After leaving Newport, the trip in Ireland went something like this.  We went onto Limerick, Cliffs of Moher, the Burren and stayed two nights in Galway.  From there to WestMeath where we tried to find some record of Don's Mother's Father, William Shannon.  Stayed in Moate to go to the Heritage Center and they did a search, but no trace of him. Went back to Dublin and to the National Library of Ireland.  They didn't have a trace of him either.