Sullivan introduced her 94-year-old great-aunt, Joan, while Ms. The full-house crowd was a diverse mix of ages: Ms. Sullivan sings an assortment of Celtic classics like “The Fields of Athenry,” mixed in with her own original songs, and, as they always do at any proper singsong in my mother’s hometown, Dunmore, a bit of Johnny Cash and country, too. “We talk the same, we have the same music, the same humor, that same fire and resiliency. “Whenever I meet Irish people, they don’t feel like strangers to me,” Ms. Sullivan, who grew up on the Avalon Peninsula, attests she “was born and raised on Irish music.” Given her lilting accent, you could have easily convinced me she was a distant cousin of mine raised in Galway, but she has never even been to Ireland and recalls that, “as a little girl, I don’t think I had ever met anybody from Ireland.” Yet she said Irish music was omnipresent in her childhood home, from Mary Black and Christy Moore on records, to her grandmother’s memorable rendition of “Galway Bay.” Just across the way at Edge of the Avalon Inn, we were pleased to find a Friday-night concert from the singer-songwriter Jackie Sullivan and her performing partner, Karla Pilgrim (15 Canadian dollars). The visitor center, like the Lighthouse Picnics, is only open June through September, but if you get a nice fall day you can still stroll through the site, then hike down the Ferryland Lighthouse Trail - bring your own picnic and expect an even more remote experience this time of year, when visitors are fewer and further between.) (Admission, including access to historical exhibits in the visitor center and a recreated 17th-century kitchen, is 16 Canadian dollars. And like almost everywhere we visited on the coast of Newfoundland, social distancing is hardly difficult.Īfter the hike back to the small town of Ferryland, we strolled through the Colony of Avalon, where an active archaeological dig has unearthed elements of Sir Calvert’s 400-year-old settlement, including a cobblestone street and the remnants of a bakery/brewhouse. So while this perfect picnic spot could easily become a tourist magnet, instead only a handful of families lolled about while we enjoyed our lunch. The best part is that they keep this experience extremely limited (make reservations far in advance). By that point, “the Irish were virtually the sole occupants of the southern half of the Avalon,” wrote John Mannion, a historical geographer who researched the Irish-Newfoundland experience on both sides of the Atlantic.Īfter ordering, you’re given a blanket and a flag so the server can bring the meal to your picnic spot of choice. Over the years, many who came for the fishing season stayed permanently, a migration that boomed during the early 19th century. This area’s Irish heritage dates back to the 1600s, when a fishing colony established by George Calvert (later Lord Baltimore) lured Irish servants and laborers. This stretch of Newfoundland shares many links with Ireland, beyond the striking green landscape.
Over and over again, as we drove down the coast I found myself marveling, “It looks just like Ireland.” But I couldn’t stop comparing it to another, more earthly location. We were as east as you can get in North America (not counting Greenland), so the edge-of-the-world comparison was apt. It was the first of many leisurely breaks we would take on our slow road trip through Newfoundland’s Avalon Peninsula. Our picnic blanket was spread out on a high cliff, with green-capped rock stretching alongside us, endless blue ocean in front. “It looks like the edge of the world out here,” my wife, Holly, mused, not disapprovingly.
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