West Virginia has some really unique, wonderful places -- like the small swiss village Helvetia.
But have you heard of Ireland, W.Va.?
The small town is located at the southern end of Lewis County and was settled by Irish immigrant Andrew Wilson in the early 1800s. In his later years, Wilson became known as "Old Ireland." A few years after Wilson died and the first post office was being located in the town, community members named the area "Ireland" in honor of Wilson.




Irish royalty blessed us with their presence, and a bunch of other hometown floats tossed out candy, coins and necklaces. A person donning an mask and nametag saying "Old Ireland" handed me a pearl onion -- I have NO idea what this means and have researched the heck out of it. If anyone knows of some Irish tradition, please let me in on the secret.

A pearl onion? No clue.


The sandwich was only $3, plus there was a jar for donations. So plus a drink and chips and a donation, I spent like $5 for my meal.
Outside of the kitchen was a huge table full of all kinds of condiments. I slathered some cole slaw, onions and thousand island dressing on my sandwich. Confession: I'm not crazy about sauerkraut, so I was masking some of that taste.
But, overall, this was pretty tasty. And fun.
Afterward, it was up to the road to watch some road bowlers.

So many people gathered and took turns throwing their respective cannonballs down the road. I mostly tried to avoid getting run over by the cars that occasionally passed through, keep warm in the rain and not get hurt by a wayward cannonball. I think it was a success.

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