Renvyle & its Scenic Environs_clone

Cromwell’s soldiers from August 1651 until they
surrendered unconditionally due to severe food
shortages on 12th May 1652. The slave-ships soon
afterwards had full loads heading for the Emerald Isle of
the Caribbean. Nice to meet someone from your own
hometown when you land in a strange place! but not this
time. Who was waiting to buy the hardiest young men
and the best looking girls and young women only Henry
Blake! Less than twenty five years later the same Henry
sold his slaves and headed back to Ireland where there
was a nice estate going cheap in Renvyle.
3. Renvyle Estate had been confiscated from the
O’Flahertys in the 17th century by the British because
they would not bend the knee and accept the authority
of the British Crown in Renvyle. The seized-property was
then given to Richard Nugent, 2nd Earl of Westmeath in
1678.

Rusheenduff Lake
51

4. Nugent, being afraid of what the O’Flahertys might do to
him if they caught him on a dark night, quickly disposed
of the estate to one Henry Blake in 1680 who had
returned from Montserrat. Blake leased it back to the
O’Flahertys almost immediately and that kept the pot
from boiling over for the time being.

5. The O’Flahertys did a good job managing the property for
the Blakes – probably too good. Blake and his heirs called
every few years to collect their rent and approximately
one hundred and forty years later his descendants took
over the running of the estate themselves. Soon after
the take-over they built Tully Village in 1823.They owned
about 20,000 acres including almost the entire area of
Renvyle and much more besides that is until soon after
The Great Famine when his tenants were unable to pay
the rents due.

6. The Blakes sold off approximately 10,000 acres on 8th
February 1853 to Robert Wilberforce who subsequently
sold almost the identical area to Mitchell Henry who built
Kylemore Castle in the 1860s. Henry Blake, descendant of
his namesake who purchased Renvyle Estate in 1680 died
in 1856 distressed and broken-hearted due to the effects
of The Great Famine. The remaining Blakes sold out lock,
stock and barrel in 1917. Caroline Johanna Blake was a
niece of Henry Blake and also his daughter-in-law as she
was married to her first cousin Blake’s son Capt. Henry
Edgar Blake. Having established Renvyle Hotel in 1883
she stayed on in the area after the remaining Blakes sold
out in 1917 and moved to Cheltenham. She died on the
23rd February 1919 and is buried in Renvyle. Though
numerous and actively engaged in different spheres of
life in the 19th century in the local area, today there isn’t
a Blake to be seen within the entire precincts of Renvyle.
52

John Blake of Montserrat died in 1692 and his land and
enslaved workforce passed to his daughter Catherine.
She married Nicholas Lynch, an Irishman who owned
plantations in Antigua and St Christopher. By the 1740s
the Blake& Lynch firm had become one of the great
London commission houses in the sugar trade.

53

No 13
CRAMP ISLAND

1. Cramp Island is situated about one mile from the shore
near Renvyle Hotel. Once upon a time local people sailed
out there in curraghs to pick carrageen and periwinkles
and plentiful they were at that time. One man in
particular used to look forward to returning to Renvyle
every summer from Birmingham where as a bachelor he
lived and worked all his life. Before returning to
Birmingham he made sure he would have a good supply
of crannock which he would collect at Cramp Island and
bring back with him to England every year. It reputedly
had many dietary benefits. He lived a long and healthy
life.

2. Though known locally as Cramp Island its official name is
Crump Island supposedly called after a Doctor Crump
who once owned it.

Cramp Island
54

3. Nowadays it’s uninhabited since the 1950s because there
was no harbour on it or on the mainland facilitating it so
the government built houses for the last inhabitants who
from then on resided on the mainland. This put an end
to people being marooned on it due to bad weather.

4. Legend has it that a wedding group was once marooned
there when a disappointed expectee wasn’t invited and
he put a curse on the celebrations. They ran out of food
and alcohol and patience and the guy who felt sore for
not being invited got his revenge when the storm he
claimed credit for initiating howled for five days and four
nights.

5. In the fifth century St Patrick’s nephew named St Rioch
who was Bishop of Inishbofin lived for some time on
Cramp Island. He built an oratory on the south side of the
island and to the east of it are the vestiges of an old
cemetery where forty of his followers are reputed to be
buried. St Rioch himself who died in 480 AD [20 years
after his uncle St Patrick in 460] is reputedly buried in
Salruck Cemetery in Rosroe. St Rioch was a brother of St
Mel of Longford who professed St Bridget as a nun.

6. Salruck got its name from this saint, who was sometimes
referred to as St Ruck or St Rock. He is included in the
Litany of Saints compiled by St Oengus of Tallaght, who
died on 11th March 824. He compiled a catalogue or
register of saints that became known as the Martyrology
of Oengus, sometimes referred to as the Martyrology of
Tallaght.
55

No 14
CHAPEL HOUSE & CILLIAN

1. The ancient Catholic Church in Renvyle cemetery was
replaced by the ‘chapel house’ in the ‘Old Garden’ close
to Renvyle Hotel. This chapel house never seemed to
have a name or dedication to any particular saint.
Though built centuries ago on land that was and is
subsequently owned by the author’s grandfather, father
and brother in almost seventy years he never heard of its
name, except simply ‘the chapel house’.

2. Details regarding when or who built it are not easily
found. Local folklore tells of a rather unusual story. Henry
Blake the local landlord had difficulty getting his rent. His
tenant farmers were having even more strain and
hardship trying to find it for him. To teach them a lesson
and to encourage them to pay up promptly irrespective
of where they found it he desecrated the chapel house in
1834 by putting cattle into it. The following morning the
cattle were all dead.

Chapel House in the ‘Old Garden’
56

3. He regretted his defilement of the church and donated a
site of land at Tullycross where the present Church of
Christ the King was built in 1841 and is still in use. Close
by the chapel house in the ‘old garden’ an overgrown
well which may have been a holy well was located but is
no longer in use.

4. In another direction at the edge of the sea there is a
small cillian in which unbaptised babies were buried
while their souls went to a place called LIMBO. Both the
cillian and Limbo are now closed down and the souls of
those unbaptised babies are now happy in heaven while
their little bodies remain where they were buried often
in the middle of the night with the wild Atlantic Ocean
howling like mad only a few metres away.
57

No 15
TULLY

1. When the Blakes had all their land and every rood of
ground rented out to tenant farmers they still weren’t
making enough money or so they reckoned. Greed was
the ruination of them like so many others. They saw so
much money was being made they took over from their
agents the management of the entire estate themselves.
They built the village of Tully about 1823 and rented out
all the properties there to bring in additional income as
well as to facilitate the local people with shops, pubs,
school, police station, a fairgreen for selling livestock and
all the usual trappings of a village.

2. It was a busy place initially but declined rapidly in Famine
times. It even had a rent office and for many years a post
office until Nov 2018 when it was closed down. By then
the pubs and restaurants and many other shops, facilities
and amenities had already closed their doors and the
village lost much of its vibrancy.

Tully Village
58

3. Still, it retained its quaint character and tranquil walks, a
dispensary, one or two shops and petrol pumps, where a
few people including this author chose to remain. Its
proximity to the beautiful sandy Tully Beach and The
White Strand and lovely scenic views and its integral
place as part of the community ensured its continued
survival.

4. Tully is an ideal starting or finishing point for walking. For
a short walk of less than one hour, start in the village
going down the Quay Road to Gurteen Pier and Tully
Beach and up the Gurteen Road or do the same walk
anticlockwise. They don’t come much nicer with splendid
views in every direction. Another walk with magnificent
views is starting at Tully going back the High Road, down
through Rusheenduff and over the Low Road or again
doing the same walk anticlockwise - just two of many!

5. Along the way you will pass the coastguard station that
was built about 1876 and destroyed in 1920 during the
War of Independence, left lying there idle for decades
and is now converted into lovely new apartments
overlooking the sea. Further on you will see an old
graveyard, now overgrown where many of the Blakes –
the 19th century local landlords are now resting in peace.
A lovely Protestant church in this cemetery was removed
stone by stone less than one hundred years ago
ostensibly to avoid property tax payable by a much-
reduced congregation and today not a trace of it
remains.

6. Mary, Lady Heath from Newcastle West in Limerick, one
of the most famous aviators in the world at one time
landed her small plane on the sandy beach when she
visited the nearby hotel in April 1933 with her third
husband R. G. Williams. She took off again the following
59

day to much excitement of the local people. Sadly, she
died in May 1939 aged 42 after falling down the steps in
a double-decker tram in London. She suffered from
alcoholism and made a number of appearances in court
on charges relating to drunkenness. Her ashes were
scattered over her native Newcastle West, where her
father John Peirce-Evans bludgeoned her mother Kate
Dowling to death when she was one year old. Her father
was declared insane.
7. The Silver Strand, Killadoon and Carrowniskey beaches
that are good for windsurfing are just across the bay
close to beautiful forests and spectacular mountains
including Croagh Patrick and Mweelrea – the highest
mountain in Connacht.
8. There was tremendous excitement in the village one
Monday morning in September 2001. After many weeks
of preparation, the film Seventh Stream was ready to
start at around 7 am. Numerous local people (including
the author) got parts as ‘extras’. The day was clear and
dry and everyone was in top spirits and ready to rub
shoulders with Scott Glenn, Saffron Burrows, John Lynch,
Eamon Morrissey and many other film stars. At around
1.45 that day the horrific news of 9/11 came through.
Everything continued on though in a different and
sombre mood. This was one of a number of films shot in
Tully. Several episodes of Single-Handed were shot in and
around the village.
9. A blacksmith named James Lyden and his wife Mary lived
one time in Tully. The remains of their house can still be
seen opposite the Teach Ceoil. Harry Kane, captain of the
present England soccer team is reputed to now own this
ground, perhaps for building a vacation retreat later on.
One of the blacksmith’s sons Joseph married a lady

60

named Kate Cuffe in 1889. Kate was a national school
teacher in a school located a few metres away from the
present health centre on the same side of the road. Later
this school was located upstairs in present-day John
Nee’s shop.
10. The 1901 Census of Tullymore which includes Tully
village had many family names that are no longer
resident there. Some of these are: Joyce, Bedlow, Curran,
Crehan, Glynn, Jennings, Toole, Casey, Barton, Kerrigan,
Mannion, Malley, Corless, Lyden, Bailey, Elsley, Mason,
Bishop, Barry, Jones and Hall. By 1911 some of these
families were no longer recorded there but other families
who weren’t there in 1901 were then recorded. Among
those names in 1911 which have since disappeared are:
Burke, Stoat, Ward, Trivell, Painter, Mulvey, Mongan and
Lavelle. Some of these surnames are accounted for by
members of the Coastguard Station as well as perhaps
members of the RIC in Tully.
11. On Friday 25th February 2000 a helicopter carrying a
government minister with officials landed in Tully. The
country was in the middle of an enormous economic
boom. The government had so much money coming in
they didn’t know what to do with it so they were anxious
to get some ideas on how to spend it. The minister had a
notebook and a pen (that he normally carried with him).
A lot of OAPs who were nearly all strong supporters of
the minister were in the pub after collecting their
pensions. One of them was eighty years old that day. The
minister presented him with the birthday cake that was
acquired by somebody else while everybody bought their
own drink including the birthday boy. In the following
year a new slipway for launching small boats was built at
Gurteen Pier through representations of the minister.

61

No 16
TULLYCROSS

(Village)

1. For such a small village it has an amazing array of
amenities such as two pubs and a hotel, a take-away /
sit-down chipper, a community hall, a credit union, a car
repair garage, a defibrillator, a Catholic church and a
funeral undertaker. As well as those things it also has a
hackney service, a hairdresser, a photographer, a
clothes-bank, a football field though not much in use
nowadays and thatched cottages with close connections
to a college in Michigan USA for more than forty years.
And of course, it has Harry Clarke windows in the church
as well as a few Eir B&Bs. Once upon a time the Angelus
bell rang out twice daily at noon and 6 pm but nowadays
the bells no longer peal.

Tullycross Village
62

2. Apart from having the community hall, the village could
be regarded as the community centre of the entire
peninsula of Renvyle. It even had a letter box inserted
into an outdoor wall at one time for dispatching your
post as well as a public water pump. In times past it was
well equipped with grocery shops and butchers shops
too but ‘progress’ put paid to them. You could even book
your ticket for The Titanic and other White Star Line ships
there as well.

3. There is good community spirit and cooperation among
all the businesses in the village. Among other things this
manifests itself in the amazing array of Christmas village
lights they erect each year. For live music, craic, food,
drink, charm, ambience and hospitality this is the place
to be. The playing field that was given over free of charge
to the football club is now overgrown and no longer
used. It was never great as it was soft and boggy in places
but it was the best available at the time.

4. Tullycross is conveniently located right in the centre of
the whole community close to all facilities and amenities
on the Wild Atlantic Way roughly mid-way between
Donegal and Cork.

5. Fr Michael Keane from Claremorris served as a curate for
a number of years in Tullycross. He later became known
nationwide as the ‘cupid priest’ when he established the
Knock Marriage Bureau in 1968 which facilitated 48,000
introductions leading to 900 marriages. He had a ‘run-in’
with the Archbishop Dr Joseph Cunnane and he moved to
St Monica’s in Templeogue, Dublin. He later patched up
his differences with Dr Michael Neary of Tuam about
2000 and returned to his native diocese in Claremorris
where he remained until he died in August 2011 aged 86.
63

6. A time capsule was buried on Sunday 1st May 2016 in the
village during the annual Mussel Festival held each year
over the May bank holiday weekend. It contained various
different items including Sunday newspapers of that date
as well as at least four books authored by yours truly. If
things go according to plan this capsule will be unearthed
in fifty years time – that is Saturday 1st May 2066.

7. A short distance from this village there’s a hill in the
townland of Currywongan with apparently no name that
I will now call Marconi Hill. From this small mountain
Marconi sent and received radio messages from Canada
or at least experimented in doing so before he set up a
much larger operation at Derrygiimlagh, outside Clifden.
Some remains of his experimentations are still clearly
evident at the top of Marconi Hill.

8. Each year an annual commemorative walk takes place to
remember Margaret Sammon and all the local people
who died from cancer. Like many things in Ireland it
starts and finishes with the pub, this time the Anglers’
Rest in Tullycross which Margaret owned and ran with
her husband Patrick for many years until she succumbed
to the dreaded disease in 2003. The stunning scenery
along this 15-kilometre walk is inspirational.
64

No 17
TULLYCROSS

(Church)

1. Christ the King Church in Tullycross was built about 1841
sometime after ‘the Chapel House in the Old Garden’ was
desecrated by Henry Blake or his agents in 1834. He
donated the site in reparation for his unusual method of
trying to get rents from his tenants.

2. Originally it was a straight building (Mullaghgloss to
Derryinver) but later it became cruciform when the main
body (the Tully end) was added on in the 1820s. Canon
Bart McAndrew, residing in Letterfrack was PP of
Tullycross until 1920 when he was replaced by Canon
Canton. McAndrew was back again the following year
when Canton was appointed PP to Athenry in 1921. The
official reason for this unusual move was that he missed
his Connemara parish so much. A plaque on the wall in
this church commemorates his time in Tullycross.

Christ the King Church, Tullycross
65

3. Harry Clarke installed three stained-glass windows
representing St Barbara, St Bernard with the Immaculate
Heart in between them in 1927. Barbara and Bernard
were the names of Martha Gogarty’s parents. The
Gogartys commissioned the windows.

4. Padraig Pearse and his friend Mary Hayden, having
arrived one day in Clifden by train, cycled to Letterfrack
where they stayed in the Temperance Hotel. The
following day Sunday 3rd January 1903 they cycled to
Tullycross where they both attended Mass and cycled
back to Letterfrack afterwards before going for a walk
along by Kylemore and down the Inagh Valley. They
attended a concert in the Monks’ Hall that night where
Padraig noticed the sad faces on the boys even though it
should have been a joyous occasion. He was obviously
unaware of the abuse being perpetrated there by the
Christian Brothers at the time, which only came to light
many decades later.

5. On Sunday 3rd January 2016 to commemorate the 1916
Rising the author organised a meeting outside the church
where The Proclamation was read, some prayers were
said and a poem composed by the author was recited,
before a small crowd walked behind a tricolour relayed
by several different individuals including young boys and
girls from Tullycross to Letterfrack and back again. A
synopsis of each of the lives of the Signatories of the
Proclamation was attached to the breast of adults and
children in the crowd while they walked along.
Refreshments were served afterwards in the Angler’s
Rest with music and dancing later. This was possibly the
first of thousands of 1916 commemorations to take place
world-wide in 2016 celebrating the centenary of the
Easter Rising.
66

6. Harry Clarke and his brother Walter in North Frederick
Street, Dublin were near neighbours of Oliver Gogarty in
Parnell Square who purchased Renvyle Hotel and that’s
how Tullycross came to be numbered among the many
churches which are fortunate enough to have Harry
Clarke windows.
67

No 18
LETTERGESH

1. Lettergesh is a stunningly beautiful part of Renvyle, so it’s
not surprising it was chosen as a scenic backdrop in The
Quiet Man film and also Riders to the Sea and TV
commercials. It is located on the Wild Atlantic Way
looking out on the ocean that is dotted with many islands
some of which are no longer inhabited.

2. The Culfin River separates it from its adjoining townland
Glassilaun. The neighbouring landlords agreed on this
boundary but legend has it the Blakes put a fishing net
across the river though they only owned the west half
and the Thomsons claimed entitlement to three of the
many fish that were caught in the net (on one day).

Lettergesh Beach
3. Though not level the agricultural land is excellent for

sheep-grazing as well as for scenic views and sites in this
area if planning permission is at all possible command a
premium price.

68

4. Because of the extensive land area (or some other
reason) it is subdivided into Lettergesh East and
Lettergesh West which seems to be an important
distinction to local people. This distinction is noted in
records of people emigrating on numerous different
ships sailing to America and other places going back to
the time of the Great Famine.

5. Lettergesh sandy beach is where John Wayne won the
horserace and claimed the bonnet placed atop of a post
to win the heart of Maureen O’Hara in The Quiet Man
film shot there in 1951.

6. An iconic photograph of John Wayne cycling a bicycle
made-for-two with Maureen O’Hara up behind, both of
them pedalling in a carefree manner from Lettergesh to
Mullaghgloss, hung for many years in the Angler’s Rest
pub in Tullycross.

7. The national school in Lettergesh has a lovely tranquil
setting from which pupils are sometimes distracted by
dolphins frolicking in the sea which is part of the Atlantic
Ocean just a few meters outside the school windows.
69

No 19
ROSROE

Ludwig Wittgenstein was one of the world’s greatest
philosophers.
1. He was born in Vienna, Austria on 26th April 1889 and
went to the same school at the same time as Adolf Hitler
but they weren’t friends or at least he never claimed to
have been, but then who would? He taught at Cambridge
University UK from 1929 to 1947. He worked mainly in
logic and philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of
the mind and the philosophy of language. He was
influenced by many people including Dostoyevsky,
Bertrand Russell, grandson of Great Famine British PM,
Welshman Lord John Russell and Augustine of Hippo, son
of St Monica.

Ludwig Wittgenstein
70

2. He was born into one of the wealthiest families in Europe
from whom he inherited a fortune in 1913. He served in
Austro-Hungarian army in the 1st World War from 1914 -
1918.

3. He initially donated much of his inheritance to artists and
writers while he suffered periods of deep depression
during the 1st World War and gave away the rest of his
entire fortune to his brothers and sisters on condition
they would not give it back to him. Three of his four
brothers committed suicide, something he also
contemplated himself. He worked as a hospital porter in
London during World War II keeping secret the fact that
he was one of the world’s most famous philosophers.
One of his lecturers at Cambridge university (before he
lectured there himself) was Dr Con Drury (a psychiatrist
born in Wiltshire UK of Irish parents) who married Eileen
Herbert, matron of St Patrick’s mental hospital in Dublin,
where Wittgenstein attended as a patient. Drury and
Ludwig became good friends. ‘There’s the key’ said Drury
‘take a break in my house down in Rosroe. It will help you
recuperate and may give you inspiration for your
writing’. Ludwig was on the next train west and stayed in
Rosroe from April until October 1948. He died from
prostate cancer in Cambridge UK on 29th April 1951 aged
62.

4. A few quotes of Wittgenstein:
● Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be
silent.
● A serious and good philosophical work could be
written consisting entirely of jokes.
● I don’t know why we are here, but I’m pretty sure
that it is not to enjoy ourselves.
● Hell isn’t other people. Hell is yourself.
71

● If people didn’t do silly things nothing intelligent
would ever get done.

● The problems are solved, not by giving new
information, but by arranging what we have
known since long.

● Not how the world is, but that it is, is the
mystery.

● Never stay up on the barren heights of
cleverness, but come down into the green valleys
of silliness.

● At the core of all well-founded belief lies belief
that is unfounded.

Paul Henry - a visitor and short-term resident at Rosroe.
1. Paul was a great Irish artist famous for depicting West of

Ireland landscape scenes. He was born in Belfast on 11th
April 1876. He lived in Rosroe for a short time.

Painting by Paul Henry
72

2. Some of his most famous paintings are A Connemara
Landscape, The Bog Road, Launching the Curragh and
Connemara Cottages.

3. He lived in Achill from 1910 until 1919. He loved Achill
but his wife Grace Henry didn’t like it and they returned
to Dublin. She then had a relationship in 1920 with
Stephen Gwynn [1864-1950], who was a captain in the
British Army in World War I while he was MP for Galway
Borough [1906-1918]. He was one of five Irish MPs who
enlisted and served in the British Army in the Great War.
He supported the recruitment drive for Irishmen to join
the British War effort in World War I. The two love-birds
later took off together travelling around Europe mainly in
France and Italy. The relationship continued as Grace and
her husband Paul broke up in 1924 and legally separated
in 1930. After Grace died in 1953, Paul married Mabel
Young in 1954, a British artist who was born in the Isle of
Wight in 1889, a long-time friend and lover since 1924.

4. Paul Henry died from congestive heart failure in his home
at 1 Sidmonton Square, Bray, Co Wicklow on 24th August
1958, aged 81, survived by his wife Mabel.
Richard Murphy - a short-term resident of Rosroe.

1. Richard was an Anglo-Irish poet who was born at Milford
House Co Mayo on 6th August 1927. He spent much of his
younger days in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). His father
William Murphy became Governor General of the
Bahamas. In 1954 he settled in Cleggan ferrying visitors
and tourists to Inishbofin in his hooker-type boat Ave
Marie. He purchased High Island in 1969. A holy well
there is named Brian Boru Well after Boru’s visit in 1014.

2. Later Murphy divided his time between Durban in South
Africa and Sri Lanka. A book about his life called The Kick
73

was published in 2002 from detailed dairies which he
kept over five decades.
3. He spent the latter years of his life in Sri Lanka where he
died on 30thJanuary 2018. His father and mother are
buried beside the Protestant church in Clifden but he is
buried in Sri Lanka.

74

No 20
FAMINE WALK & Killary Sheep Farm /scuba

diving

1. Famine, fear and fantastic scenery all seem combined as
part and parcel of our beautiful Irish heritage. For a rich
food-producing country like Ireland having to endure one
of the worst famines of the 19th century while being kept
subjugated under British rule will remain forever, in
many people’s eyes an indictment on the British
government.
On the other hand, the generosity of ordinary British
citizens including English people at local level is
acknowledged. Many of these people did not approve of
what was being done to Ireland in their name.

Famine Walk
75

2. Today Ireland is ranked as one of the ‘most food-
secure’ countries in the world even pipping the
United States into third place. Great Britain is not
self-sufficient in food and currently declining in
percentage terms each year. Less than one month
after exiting the EU in January 2021 Ireland
prevented a major crisis between the EU and the UK
over the triggering of Article 16 of the Northern
Ireland Protocol. This may have saved Britain a food
shortage and maybe even a famine or worse. Ireland
is now Britain’s best friend in the EU. Relations
between the two countries could even be described
as ‘warm’. It’s nice to know your neighbour has
plenty food so you might borrow a few potatoes in
an emergency. Ireland supplied Britain with plenty
beef and other foods during the Second World War
and was in no hurry about getting paid. Similarly
Britain offered Ireland ‘a quick loan of a few billion’
during the credit crisis of 2008 and said: ‘pay it back
in your own time. We know ye well enough and how
honest ye are’.

3. To walk in the footsteps of famine victims along
unsurpassed splendour and beautiful scenery start at
Bunowen and walk along the Killary Fjord and continue
past the Killary Sheep Farm, which you might like to
include with your famine walk and spend some time
there as it is on the route to Rosroe or you could turn left
through a gap in the mountain.

4. Either way you will arrive at Salruck where an ancient
graveyard contains coffin-less bodies from The Great

76

Famine. This walk including the sheepdog training
demonstrations at Killary Sheep Farm which you would
thoroughly enjoy, takes about two and a half to three
and a half hours. St Rioch is reputed to be buried in this
cemetery while his mother St Darerca is buried in Coill
Mor cemetery in Valentia Island and his uncle St Patrick
is buried in Armagh. The Catholic Church in Valentia is
named in her honour and her feast day is just 5 days
after St Patrick’s Day – 22nd March.
5. Ludwig Wittgenstein, Paul Henry and Richard Murphy
lived at different times in the same cottage owned at one
time by Dr Con Drury at the end of the Little Killary. A
short distance in the other direction Oscar Wilde had a
holiday home at Lough Fee. There is no fee! for driving
past or viewing the chimneys of his house through the
trees but the driveway and the property are now
privately owned and are not open to the public.
6. Not far away is the stunning Glassilaun Beach often used
for its outstanding natural beauty in TV commercials and
occasionally for outdoor weddings depending on
weather. This crescent-shaped beach with an adjoining
tidal island is a safe beach for swimming, bathing,
building sandcastles, picnics or just simply relaxing and
letting the world go by! A Mass-rock from the Penal Days
is located a few metres away from this spectacular
beach. Close-by is a Scuba Diving Centre of which more
details are available online.

77

No 21
LEENANE

1. Leenane is one of those villages that make Ireland’s
scenery and splendour world-famous. It is located in Co
Galway close to the border of Galway and Mayo. Among
its many attractions are the Ashleigh Falls, one of many
background scenes in The Field made in 1989.

Ashleigh Falls
2. A cruise ship with commentary onboard in different

languages, serving beverages and food leaves ‘Nancy’s
Point’ a few times each day taking passengers on a
never-to-be-forgotten tour of Killary Harbour – Ireland’s
only fjord.
3. King Edward VII and family members landed in Leenane
in July 1903. They were enthralled with the scenery and
the beauty of the place. The stone walls from the

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Famine times running up the sides of mountains are still
there to be seen.
4. The bridge designed by Nimmo, swept away due to
torrential rains in July 2007 is now replaced by a new one
in the centre of the village beside the Sheep and Wool
Centre (and coffee shop with award-winning delicious
scones!) One of the most scenic graveyards in Ireland is
in Leenane.
5. Mussel farming and salmon farming produce emanating
from the fjord in Leenane sometimes decorate posh
tables in far-away places such as Paris, London, Beijing,
New York and other places.
6. A well-loved local woman Bina McLoughlin who died in
2001 noted as a ‘shepherdess’ as well as for her
storytelling, singing and dancing was one of the great
characters of the West of Ireland. A taxi-driver passing
through Leenane one day in 2016 was telling his
passenger about this lady who had a special place in the
life and times of Leenane people and the entire wider
area. The passenger happened to be a Massachusetts
historian who there and then conceived the idea of
making a film about Bina often referred to as The Queen
of Connemara. The historian teamed up with a filmmaker
to make an hour-long documentary called the Queen of
Connemara.

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No 22
DOOLOUGH

1. If people could eat and digest the beautiful scenery
around Doolough many lives would have been saved
during the Great Famine when approximately six
hundred starving people died on one day alone - Friday
31st January 1849. They were making their way to Delphi
Lodge to be officially registered in the hope of receiving
some food or aid to keep them alive a little while longer.
When they got there after walking perhaps eleven miles
or more they were told to turn back as they were getting
nothing. Many of them were blown into the lake and
drowned in what today is one of the most beautiful and
serene lakes in Ireland. Others just collapsed and died
where they fell.

2. In 1988 a commemorative walk led by veteran
broadcaster Donncha O’Dulaing was initiated and
afterwards held annually from Delphi to Louisburg.
Other years it was led by, among others, Bishop
Desmond Tutu and Choctaw Indian chiefs in recognition
of help donated by their ancestors during The Great
Famine.

Doolough Valley
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3. On Friday 31st January 2014 – the 165th anniversary of
that horrendous event in Irish history two people walked
that same route in sad memory of so many lives lost. It
was a bitter cold day too but it was dry and they had
shoes on their feet and they weren’t hungry or thirty. All
they met were about two cars on the eleven-mile
journey and saw one farmer tending his sheep high up on
the bleak mountainside. They were the author and his
son-in-law Pat Coyne.
On a cross commemorating these famine victims a quote
by Mahatma Gandhi is engraved: ‘it has always been a
mystery to me how people can feel honoured by the
humiliation of their fellow human beings’.

4. A trip through this valley of two lakes nestled between
two mountains of untouched nature is an out of the
ordinary experience. ‘Doolough’ means the black lake.
Driving through this enchanted place you might feel the
tinges and emotions of history running through your
veins.
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No 23
CROAGH PATRICK

1. Croagh Patrick is the most-climbed mountain in the land
of poets, legends and dreamers and indeed in the entire
world. It stands 2,610 feet high in west Mayo about an
hour’s drive from Renvyle. It was on this mountain that
Ireland’s patron saint St Patrick reputedly drove the
snakes out of Ireland when he spent forty days and
nights on it in 441 AD.

2. From the summit of ‘Ireland’s Holy Mountain’ you can
enjoy panoramic views of Clew Bay which is endowed
with 365 islands. One of these was purchased by John
Lennon of the Beatles fame. Another was purchased by
Princess Grace after her visit in 1961 but her plans were
scuttled by Mayo Co Co and so she sold it off again.

Near the top of Croagh Patrick
Her grandparents John Henry Kelly and Margaret Costello
were born in Drimulra outside Newport, a short few miles

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from Clew Bay. Another one of these islands was chosen
by the Moonies who enjoyed screaming at the top of their
voices in the 1970s but they too moved on as they felt
unwelcome there.
3. People climb this mountain every day of the year but
Garland or Reek Sunday, being the last Sunday in July
each year, is a special day for doing so. At one time up to
one hundred thousand people would climb it on that
Sunday but such numbers have dwindled big time with
perhaps as few as ten to twenty thousand doing it
nowadays. Even so, it is estimated that one million
people climb it each year.
4. It’s as easy to get into heaven as it is to get into the small
Catholic Church on the summit! due to its size and the
enormous crowds there when it is open. This church and
holy pilgrimage is under the auspices of the archbishop
of Tuam who climbs it himself and says concelebrated
Mass there each year on Reek Sunday.
5. For additional penance and in reparation for their sins
many people climb it in their bare feet. As a pilgrimage
site for over 1580 years it has a lot of interesting
ecclesiastical history as well as Irish history associated
with it especially in relation to famine times when
Choctaw Indians sent over whatever help they could to
save the nearby starving Irish people.
6. At the summit there is a space marked out as St Patrick’s
Bed. In 2015 a local man from Renvyle (the author) slept
there overnight on his own on a cold and rainy night
even though it was in the month of May, perhaps one of
very few to have done so since St Patrick himself 1,574
years before him. He wrote a book about his pilgrimage
called ‘Croagh Patrick & Me’.

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7. St Patrick used the three-leaf Shamrock to explain the
mysteries of the Trinity. Its cousin the four-leaf clover is
regarded as a very lucky plant. ‘A good friend is like a
four-leaf clover, hard to find and lucky to have!’

8. Near the base of the mountain a Great Famine Memorial
bronze sculpture by John Behan depicting a coffin-ship
with skeleton bodies being gently placed overboard into
the ocean was unveiled by President Mary Robinson in
1997. Down a laneway beside the Famine Memorial is an
Augustinian Church which was desecrated in 1542 by
forces of Henry VIII under the Dissolution of the
Monasteries Act 1535. A church on this site is reputed to
go back to the days of St Patrick.
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National Famine Memorial
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No 24
MEAMTRASNA and surrounding area

1. Meamtrasna, Lough Nafooey, Tourmakeady and
surrounding areas are endowed with unsurpassed
natural beauty. This beautiful mountainous rural
setting that is conducive to sheep farming with
spectacular views of idyllic lakes may have contributed
to a horrific event in 1882 known as the Meamtrasna
Murders for which at least one innocent man Myles
Joyce was hanged in December of that year. He was
pardoned posthumously more than 135 years later in
2018.

Myles Joyce and two neighbours
2. Not far from that scene English actor Robert Shaw

lived with his wife and family for a number of years in
the 1970s where he intermingled and got on very well
with the local people until he died from a heart attack

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aged 51 while driving home from Castlebar to his
home in Tourmakeady in August 1978. He starred in
numerous films most notably Jaws, A Man for All
Seasons, The Sting and From Russia with Love
3. Near the centre of the village in Tourmakeady beside a
now roofless church Protestant archbishop Thomas
Plunket lays buried with impressive iron railings
surrounding his forlorn grave. He is best remembered
as a cruel landlord who evicted many Catholics from
their homes for not sending their children to
Protestant schools.
4. His daughter Katherine Plunket is regarded as the
longest-lived Irish person ever - that is from 1820 to
1932, yes 112 years! right through The Great Famine
years. The Famine of 1845 to 1849 and other smaller
famines such as in 1879 didn’t worry the Plunkets,
such was their wealth. In Ireland whenever anyone
makes a claim someone else will make a counter-
claim! St Kevin of Glendalough who was born in 498
AD is reputed to have been 120 years old when he died
on 3rd June 618 AD.
5. A cruel land agent named Charles Boycott lived in
Lough Mask House in the 1880s. He created misery for
his already poor tenants, treated them harshly and
earned for himself the derision of the entire area until
he was completely ostracised. His surname became a
new word in the English language. He left the area
concealed in a sack on an ass cart to shield himself
from the wrath of the local people.
6. The Battle of Tourmakeady took place on Tuesday the
3rd May 1921 during the War of Independence in
which the Irish Republican Army South Mayo flying

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column ambushed and defeated a far superior number
of British soldiers and Black and Tans.
7. One of the teachers in the Irish College in
Tourmakeady in 1909 was 31 years old Sinead
Flanagan (Bean DeValera), born in June 1878 at 20
Quay Street, Balbriggan. One of her pupils that year
was Eamon DeValera, born in New York, in October
1882. They married the following January in Arran
Quay Church in Dublin. She died on 7th January 1975,
aged 96 one day before their 65th wedding anniversary.
Eamon DeValera who later became one of the 1916
Leaders, Taoiseach and 3rd President of Ireland for two
full terms died seven months later on 29th August
1975.
8. Mick Lally, one of Ireland’s finest and most
recognisable actors who played Miley in Glenroe for
many years was born in Tourmakeady in 1945. He was
a founding member of the Druid Theatre in Galway. He
died in August 2010, aged 64.

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No 25
CONG

1. Cong village is synonymous with The Quiet Man filmed
there in 1951 starring John Wayne (-‘a man’s got to do
what a man’s got to do!’), Maureen O’Hara, Will Danaher
and many others. Pat Cohan’s pub, the scene for part of
the friendly fist-fight between John Wayne and Will
Danaher is still there on the corner.

John Wayne & Maureen O’Hara
2. The last undisputed High King of Ireland Turlough

O’Connor lived in Cong and was buried there in 1198
before being exhumed and brought across the country to
be reburied at Ireland’s most famous and prestigious
monastery at that time Clonmacnoise.

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3. The Cross of Cong specially made for the High King in the
12th century which is now kept in the National Museum
of Ireland in Dublin was for several hundred years kept in
the Augustinian church in Cong.

4. The National Museum gave a few bob (reputedly £100)
to the local priest Fr Waldron towards a new roof on the
Catholic Church when the thatched one was blown off on
the Night of the Big Wind in 1869. His successor Fr
Lavelle didn’t agree with that arrangement at all and
attempted to take back the Cross of Cong to its ‘rightful
place’ but ran into a brick wall in the form of security
men at the museum, where it still remains.

5. Not far from the ruins of the Augustinian church Cong
Abbey the Monks’ Fishing House that was built about six
hundred years ago can still be seen and visited for free.
The river flows directly underneath the house where the
monks used to drop a line and hook a fish swimming past
whenever they felt like a fresh catch for dinner.

Monks’ Fishing House
6. The picturesque village of Cornamona and its serene

hinterland of stunning scenery is nestled between Cong
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and Maam enjoying splendid views of Lough Corrib and
its many islands including Hen’s Castle of Granuaile fame.
7. Luxurious and opulent Ashford Castle a short distance
away can be visited for a fee. Its history goes back a long
time. A ‘recent’ addition was added on a mere two
hundred years ago. Benjamin Guinness purchased this
castle in 1852 and it has changed hands many times since
then and has hosted many famous visitors including
American President Ronald Regan and his wife Nancy.
8. Thousands of years ago in ancient Ireland a famous
battle took place between the Firbolgs and the Tuatha De
Danann. This happened outside Cong village at Moytura,
where Sir William Wilde built a holiday home on lands
owned by his mother [Emily Wilde (nee Finn) from
Ballymagibbon, Cong] and called it Moytura House. In
recent years it was owned by David Evans, better known
as The Edge lead guitarist for U2. It has changed
ownership since then but it still remains a private
property.

91

No 26
MAAM / MAAM CROSS

1. This area of Maam / Maam Cross is the centre of
Connemara with Maam Cross being the main intersection
of the north / south road crossing the east / west main
road from Clifden to Galway.

2. Up until recent times one of the oldest fairs in Ireland
was held here each year at the end of October when
people especially from all over Connemara and indeed
from all over the country and maybe outside the country
would gather for the annual Harvest Fair. In recent years
although it still takes place the numbers have dwindled
considerably.

3. A railway station one time serviced this centre and at this
station Padraic Pearse alighted when he first went to
Rosmuc in 1903. In recent years attempts to lay a railway
line and bring back the train service for a short journey
on either side of Maam Cross have been initiated by
some railway enthusiasts. This is the location from which
groups of people begin and end climbing the Mamturk
mountain range. It is also the start and finishing point of
the annual Connemarathon which takes place each year
in March with international athletes of the highest
calibre taking part.

4. In the townland of Tinakill between Maam Cross and
Maam lies the ruined cottage that featured in The Quiet
Man film. In the village of Maam Alexander Nimmo’s
one-time private residence is now Keane’s pub.

5. The Bogmans Ball that was held for many years in
Peacocks of Maam Cross was a very posh affair with
bow-ties and grand attire for men and women even
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though its descriptive title might suggest otherwise.
People came from far and near to attend this special
function which was held annually. This started off purely
by accident when turf cutters and harvesters had finished
saving the turf for Screebe Power Station and Renmore
army barracks in Galway. They were well due a hooley,
which they initially organised in 1959 to celebrate their
hard work and it continued on for many years after that.

‘The Quiet Man’ Bridge
6. Beside Peacock’s Hotel there is a replica cottage of The

Quiet Man which is open most of the time and where
people can look inside at their leisure.

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No 27
ROSMUC

1. When Padraic Pearse first came to Connemara with his
friend Mary Hayden in January 1903 he took
accommodation in Letterfrack. He returned hurriedly to
take up a job in Dublin as editor of An Claidheamh
Soluis– an Irish nationalist newspaper, replacing its first
editor Eoin MacNeill. He remained editor until 1909.

2. He may have wished to brush up on his Irish language
competency, but sadly Irish had been replaced by English
at that time in Letterfrack. In any case it looks like he
was on the look-out for a site for a holiday home.

Padraig Pearse’s Cottage
Three months later in April that year he purchased a
beautiful site overlooking a tranquil lake for £10 in
Rosmuc where the Irish language is fluently and
beautifully spoken. He subsequently built a lovely

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thatched cottage there to which he came on holidays
each year. It was in the peaceful setting at this cottage he
composed poetry and drafted his famous ‘O’Donovan
Rossa’ oration that he delivered at O’Dovovan Rossa’s
graveside as he was lowered into the soil in Glasnevin in
1915. That speech is now regarded by many as the spark
that ignited the flame of Irish freedom proclaimed at the
GPO on Easter Monday 1916 and declared in January
1919 which subsequently led to Irish Independence at
the end of the Tan War. ‘We stand here today at Rossa’s
grave not in sadness but rather in exultation of spirit ...
but the fools, the fools, the fools! – they have left us our
Fenian dead and while Ireland holds these graves, Ireland
unfree shall never be at peace’.
3. To commemorate the 1916 Rising and Pearse’s legacy a
new interpretive centre has now been opened beside his
thatched cottage which is now a national heritage site
under the care of the OPW [Office of Public Works].
4. In his travels around the country before settling in
Dublin, Monaghan poet Patrick Kavanagh spent some
time in Rosmuc.
5. It is also home of famous Irish light middleweight boxer
Sean Mannion who won 42 and was Never Knocked
Down in over 50 fights.

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A documentary called Never Knocked Down and also a
film called Rocky Rosmuc have been made about him.

Mayor of Boston at NUIG
6. The current 54th Mayor of Boston Marty Walsh’s father

John Walsh came from Callowfeenish, Carna and his
mother (Mary O’Malley) came from Rosmuc.
Marty Walsh as Mayor has a long-standing offer to
undocumented minors of Boston for them to sleep in
City Hall or his personal office which he has named the
Eagle’s Nest.

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No 28
ROUNDSTONE

1. The beautiful village of Roundstone is sometimes
described as a ‘botanist’s dream’ because of the rare wild
flowers that blossom there. The village and picturesque
harbour were designed in the 1820s by Scotsman
Alexander Nimmo with a backdrop of Errisbeg Mountain,
approximately 1,000 feet high and Innisnee Island a short
distance from shore.
Not far away are two stunning beaches Gurteen Beach
and Dog’s Bay connected with intervening tombolos.

Roundstone
2. In the 1830s Franciscan monks settled in Roundstone and

established a monastery there. Today all that remains is
the gateway entrance and the bell tower.

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3. Alexander Nimmo is still fondly spoken of in the west of
Ireland for all the bridges, roads and harbours he
designed and built. He is reputed to be buried in
Roundstone though he died in his home at 78
Marlborough Street in Dublin in 1832 aged 49. He
worked in Ireland from 1811 (but born 1783 in Fife,
Scotland). He designed a new harbour at Dunmore
Waterford; he improved the harbour at Cobh. He was
commissioned by the Knight of Kerry to design a new
village called Knightstown in Valentia Island. He designed
the road from Galway to Clifden. In the 1820s he
designed more than 30 harbours along the west coast of
Ireland. At Limerick he designed the Wellesley Bridge -
so named after the Duke of Wellington- Arthur Wellesley
- constructed between 1824 and 1835, which is now
called Sarsfield Bridge. He died before the Clifden to
Westport road - one time called Nimmo’s Road - was
finished in 1834. He lived at Maam in his own specially
designed house which today is Keane’s pub in the middle
of the village.

4. About 12 kilometres from Roundstone is the village of
Cashel where General Charles de Gaulle stayed while
visiting Ireland in 1969. A secluded and tranquil spot with
beautiful views still retains ‘de Gaulle’s Seat’ at the
Cashel House Hotel. The Liberator of France during the
Second World War unexpectedly resigned in the
aftermath of a referendum in 1969 and then came to
several places in Ireland including Cashel where he
relaxed and wrote part of his memoirs during his sojourn
there.
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No 29
BALLYCONNEELY

1. Ballyconneely is famous for so many things it’s not easy
to know where to start. On an elevated site there stands
a monument to two pioneers of aviation John Alcock
from Manchester and Arthur Brown from Glasgow - the
first two men to fly nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean
from St John’s in Newfoundland, Canada. They landed
their Vickers Vimy on 15th June 1919 in Derrygimlagh,
Ballyconneely. People going to the 9.00 am Mass in St
Joseph’s Church in Clifden looked skywards almost in
disbelief. Their plane was powered by two Rolls Royce
Eagle 360 hp engines. Flying through fog, with no
gyroscopic instruments, the electric heating systems
failed while it was very cold in the open cockpit. They
flew into a snowstorm, drenched by rain making things
even more difficult.

John Alcock & Arthur Brown
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2. The carburettors also iced up and Brown had to climb out
onto the wings to clear the windscreen. They nose-dived
after more than fourteen hours flying in what appeared
to be a suitable field which turned out to be a bog in
Derrygimlagh, Ballyconneely.
Unfortunately, Alcock got killed at an airshow in Paris six
months later in December 1919, aged 27. One of the
propellers is still in use as a ceiling fan in Luigi Malone’s
Restaurant in Emmet Place, Cork. Arthur Brown died in
October 1948, aged 62.

3. Very close to the same landing site in Derrygimlagh,
Marconi had already set up a radio station which
transmitted the first trans-atlantic commercial radio
signals in 1901 to the same St John’s in Newfoundland,
from where Alcock and Brown took off in 1919.

4. One of the best golf courses in Ireland is in Ballyconneely
but be aware and observe the Covid 19 restrictions. You
could lose your big job if you’re getting paid out of the
public purse!

5. A magnificent structure stands on the site of one of
Granuaile’s castles where she resided in the 15th
century. It still amazes people who can see it clearly from
the road.

6. Nearby 17 US airmen who lost their lives when their
bomber crashed into the nearby Atlantic Ocean during
World War II are remembered by a memorial plaque
near the entrance to the golf course.

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