From the bridge they walked along a couple of streets and soon found themselves in the main square in the city centre where the park had been renamed after John F Kennedy in the 1970's.

"He was here just five months before he was assassinated," Jed commented as they looked at the memorial with its bronze sculpture of Kennedy's head. "June 1963 – it was here that he said "Though other days may not be so bright as we look toward the future, the brightest days will continue to be those in which we visited you here in Ireland." He chuckled. "I guess Toby or Sam could have phrased that better! And when he was in Limerick the same day, he said he would come back again in the springtime – but of course that never happened."

As they walked back towards the main shopping street, Jed pointed to the strange looking copper sculpture and fountain at the side of the square. "That's the Galway Hooker."

"The what?" Abbey's eyebrows shot up.

Jed laughed. "No, not that kind of hooker! It's supposed to represent the sails of the traditional Galway fishing boat."

"Why were they called hookers? Because they were used to hook the fish?"

Jed nodded. "Could be. It's generally agreed that the word comes from the Dutch, but no-one knows which word – whether it's hoeker which means hook and line fishing, or howker which means a small vessel."

Abbey nodded then glanced up at the row of flags with coats of arms on them that stood along the edge of the park. "These flags have the same names on them as all the traffic circles that we passed on the way into the city."

Jed too looked up at the colourful flags. "That's true." He did a quick count. "Fourteen – so they must be the Fourteen Tribes of Galway – the merchant families who dominated the city in the Middle Ages."

Abbey looked at him curiously. "Jed, how come you know things like this? You can't have had the time to research it all when you were in the White House."

"No, I found a few leaflets about Galway in the dresser at the cottage and read them this morning – your 'getting-ready-to-go-out' time always gives me a useful gap in my schedule."

"You don't have a schedule right now."

"I did this morning – my schedule was trying to get you out of the door in time for church at eleven o'clock today, rather than Tuesday next week."

"Very funny," Abbey commented dryly, then went on, "So what else did you learn in the – um – useful gap I provided for you then?"

Jed shot her an amused look. "You want the whole history of Galway City?"

"I'd rather have some lunch!"

"Okay"

As they turned from the square into the main shopping street, they were accosted by a group of students, holding out collecting cans for a famine appeal.

After dropping some coins into one of the cans, Jed said, "They must be at NUI Galway."

"NUI?"

"National University of Ireland. It has 4 campuses – Dublin, Cork, Maynooth and Galway. A guy I knew in London years ago – Alan Bremner, you probably don't remember him now – became Economics Professor at Dublin, and then moved to Galway. I used to call him quite a lot when I was in Congress, and when I was Governor too – what that man didn't know about behavioural finance was not worth knowing."

"Is he still here?"

"Probably – I remember him saying that they'd moved to Galway because his daughter was living here, and he wanted to be near his grandkids."

"Why don't you call him?"

"No idea of his number – anyway, he may have retired by now."

"Excuse me," Abbey stopped in front of one of the students who was rattling a collection can. "Do you know if Professor Bremner is still teaching at the University? Economics," she added.

The student shook her head. "Sorry – don't know the Economics Department – I'm doing English Lit. But James over there is an economist so he would know."

Abbey went across and repeated her question to the young man. "Yes," he replied, "Professor Bremner's one of my lecturers – brilliant man," he added, then, "Er – don't I know you from somewhere?"

"I don't think so – but thanks," Abbey said with a smile. "So okay," she continued to Jed, "all you need do is get the University number and they'll put you through."

Jed grinned at her. "You think of everything, don't you?"

"Of course!" Abbey said lightly.

They reached Quay Street – a narrow street lined with shops, restaurants and pubs, and stopped at a coffee shop for a toasted sandwich and cappuccino. Walking on, they reached Claddagh, the small fishing port at the mouth of the River Corrib, where it flowed into Galway Bay. Hand-in-hand, they strolled through the Spanish Arch and along the quayside, admiring the attractive colour-washed stone cottages that lined the quay and stopping to watch the dozens of swans and sea-birds that thronged the small harbour.

Retracing their steps towards the Wolfe Tone Bridge, they paused at a stone memorial. "On these shores," Jed read from the carved stone, "around 1477 the Genoese sailor Cristoforo Colombo found sure signs of land beyond the Atlantic."

"Columbus came to Galway?" Abbey asked in surprise.

"So they say – and discovered signs of land across the Atlantic."

"A styrene fast food tray floated in on the tide?" Abbey suggested. "Or was it an empty can of Bud?"

"Cynic!" Jed scoffed. "In one of his books – I think it was D'Ailly's 'Imago Mundi' – he wrote a note in the margin saying something like 'Off Galway, men of Cathay float in tree trunks.'"

"Tree trunks? Seems like an awful long way to float from Cathay to Galway in tree trunks."

Jed grinned. "Sure does."

"So where the hell did he think Cathay was? Just around the corner?"

"A slight misjudgement of distance – and of course he didn't know that America was in the way!"

"What a jackass!"

Jed laughed as he caught hold of her hand again and they walked along the riverside path that led back towards the cathedral and the parking lot where they had left the car.

"Shall we drive along the coast for a short way?" he asked as he started up the engine.

"Sure, if you're happy about driving?"

"Hey, come on, I got us here, didn't I? And negotiated all those traffic circles on the way in – oh, I mean roundabouts, don't I?"

"You did well," Abbey laughed. "I didn't have to shut my eyes at all today!"

"Maybe every American who comes to Ireland should be made to drive around Galway City's ring road as a crash course in how to negotiate left-hand roundabouts."

"I'm not sure that 'crash course' is entirely appropriate in this context!"

Jed laughed. "You're right there. Okay," he said as they reached some traffic lights, "so if I turn left here, I think it'll take us down to the coast road."

A few minutes later they were safely on the coast road, driving west out of the city, past the beach resort of Salthill and then out through smaller villages which seemed to be catering for the tourist trade with small hotels and holiday cottages. Only when the coast road finally turned inland and started to climb did they reach a raw and wilder area of heathland with limestone outcrops and just the occasional thatched cottage.

"It's so different, isn't it?" Abbey commented.

"From what?"

"Well, even from the area where we were yesterday – that was all fields and farmland, and yet it's probably only about twenty or thirty miles from here. In the States you can go for hundreds of miles and the scenery hardly changes, especially in the mid-west. But here, it seems to change every few miles."

"And now you've got the Connemara mountains ahead," Jed replied, nodding his head towards the rugged line of hills. "Those are the Twelve Bens."

Abbey's eyes took in the sweep of the dramatic landscape ahead, then looked back over her shoulder. "Jed, can you pull over up there?"

"Why?"

"Because you need to see the view behind us too."

"Okay."

Jed stopped the car on a stony verge at the side of the road, and they both got out of the car. At this height, there was quite a strong wind blowing and Abbey had to keep brushing her hair back from her face as she turned to look back at the view across the bay. Over to their right were the dark shapes of the Aran Islands, ahead of them they could see the undulating outline of the Burren plateau, and to their left the land gradually flattened out towards the eastern extremity of the bay.

"Galway Bay," Jed breathed, almost reverently. "I don't think I've ever felt about a place like I'm feeling right now."

Abbey glanced round at him. "It's in your blood, Jed," she said quietly.

"Yeah." He looked quickly at her. "Mind if I go across to that small rise over there?"

Abbey watched him as he stepped on the limestone slabs until he reached a low rocky outcrop. For a few minutes he stood there, silhouetted against the sky, his thick hair blowing in the wind, his hands thrust into his pockets. Slowly his head turned, his eyes taking in the full panorama of the bay, and she knew, almost as if he was saying it out loud, that he was thinking about his mother and Eddy Bartlet.

'And now – if I can work it right – I know just how I can go back to Ballykane to find out more,' she thought, and felt her heart quicken at the same time.

TBC