My home country is Ireland and,more precisely, my "home" is the peninsula of Inishowen in the County of Donegal in the North West of Ireland.I hope to see Ireland United one day.I am not into violence, if it can be avoided, and believe that what is presently necessary in Northern Ireland is a political settlement which has the support of BOTH a majority of Catholics AND a majority of Protestants(and if the two main communities there (i.e. Catholic and Protestant) cannot agree on some form of settlement then the British- and Irish Governments should impose a settlement which treats both traditions equally).

So much for the serious stuff.Years ago,in both Ireland and Scotland, the "Clan" was much more important as a social unit than it is today(everybody living in the same area had the same family name).Nowadays, having the same surname as someone else means that there is a distant relationship by blood.My "clan" has its own website so if you are curious about the ancient history etc of the "Mc Laughlins" check out The Clan Mc Laughlin Association (Incidentally "Clan" means family in Gaelic.)The emblem at the top of my main page is the Mc Laughlin coat of arms. The photograph at the start of this paragraph is of Aileach, the ancient seat of the Mc Laughlins (click on the image for a picture of the interior) . Just below are links to two pages telling some of the ancient history of the Mc Laughlin Clan.