COMERFORD WAY: Patrick Comerford’s online journal on Anglicanism, theology, spirituality, history, architecture, travel, poetry, beach walks ... and more
The Cascades at Ennistymon … one of my photographs in the new ‘Co Clare Visitor Guide’ edited by Sally Davies (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Patrick Comerford
The site SmartTraveller365 is an online tourist service in Ireland providing tourists and visitors to Ireland with free online services and information on what to see and do in Ireland.
The SmartTraveller365 website and service include smart phone coupons that offer shopping and entrance discounts at many of Ireland’s top attractions, shops and experiences.
Sally Davies, Senior Manager of Irish County Visitor Guides with SmartTraveller365, is producing a new series of colourgul, slimeline, ocket-size and user-friendly visitor guides that now include: the Co. Clare Visitor Guide, the County Kerry Visitor Guide, the West Cork Visitor Guide and the West Cork Visitor Guide.
Nine of my photographs have been published as part of the Co. Clare Visitor Guide, and one more also appears in the County Kerry Visitor Guide.
The Harbour at Ballyvaughan … one of my photographs in the ‘Co Clare Visitor Guide’ edited by Sally Davies (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Initially, Sally Davies asked to use just one or two of my photographs from my blog. But eventually, she decided to use nine of my photographs in the 64-page Co. Clare Visitor Guide she has edited and one in her guide to Co Kerry.
I am reluctant to allow my photographs to be used commercially. Businesses need to be realistic about their costings and margins, and professional photographers need to be paid for their work, without being undercut by amateurs who use their phones for images on social media. I am also anxious to retain the copyright of my own creative work, and certainly do not want my work being used to promote religious, social, political or business values I would not otherwise endorse.
On the other hand, I firmly believe in promoting small, local enterprises of the sort that are facilitated by guides like guidebooks such as these new publications, and it is a pleasure to be involved in areas that I know so well.
During my five years in parish ministry in west Limerick and north Kerry, living in the rectory in Askeaton, my parochial areas included parts of the River Shannon and some of the islands in the estuary – although I was never quite sure which islands, such as Scattery or Canon Island were in my parishes and which were linked with my colleagues.
Tarbert in Co Kerry was at the heart of Kilnaughtin parish, and the ferry across the mouth of the Shannon to Killimer brought me directly to many of the places described in the latest Co. Clare Visitor Guide.
My role as Precentor in the chapters of the Diocesan Cathedrals also made me familiar with the two cathedrals in Co Clare, in Killaloe and Kilfenora. In addition, I was eager during those years to explore Comerford family stories in many parts of Co Clare, including Miltown Malbay, Spanish Point and Ballyvaughan.
So I was delighted that Sally Davies has used nine of my photographs in her Co. Clare Visitor Guide, which arrived a few days ago. These photographs are of:
• the Duck Inn in Sixmilebridge (p 7)
• the Teardrop Memorial, Kilkee (p 26)
• the Cascades at Ennistymon (p 36)
• Quin Abbey (p 38)
• Canon Island Abbey (p 38)
• Canon Island (p 46)
• Scattery Island (p 47)
• and two photographs of the beach and harbour at Ballyvaughan (p 49).
Georgie Comerford is remembered as Miltown Malbay’s greatest-ever footballer … he played for four counties and two provinces
In addition, the pages on Miltown Malbay in this new publication include the story of Georgie Comerford (p 31), a sporting star in the 1930s, drawing on biographical details and images on my blog:
Teenage Years
Underage Success
• In 1929 George captained Clare to win the inaugural All Ireland minor championship
.. In the Munster final Clare defeated Waterford 1-6 to 0-4
.. In the All-Ireland final Clare defeated Longford 5-3 to 3-5, with George scoring 1-2 of the Clare total from full forward
.. This remains Clare’s only All-Ireland title at this grade.
• In 1930 George was on the Clare minor team that retained the Munster title defeating Tipperary 2-1 to 1-3, but Clare were unable to repeat success at All-Ireland level.
Georgie Comerford is remembered as Miltown Malbay’s greatest ever footballer and played for four counties and two provinces …
In addition, Sally Davies has used one of my photographs in another guide to Co Kerry. My photograph of the Daniel O’Connell Memorial Church in Cahersiveen appears on p 42 in the 76-page County Kerry Visitor Guide.
The ‘Duck Inn’ at Sixmilebridge … one of my photographs in the ‘Co Clare Visitor Guide’ edited by Sally Davies (Photograph: Patrick Comerford,)
• The SmartTraveller365 guides are available to read online and to download HERE
‘Oh Crown of Light, Oh Darkened One’ (Leonard Cohen) … a Torah crown in the Jewish Museum in Vienna (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Patrick Comerford
We are in the countdown to Christmas, with just six days to go to Christmas Day. The last week of Advent began on Sunday with the Third Sunday of Advent or Gaudete Sunday (17 December 2023), and this is a very short Advent this year.
I have been in Dublin overnight, and I return to Stony Stratford later in the day, with a flight from Birmingham this evening. But, before the day begins, I am taking some time for prayer, reflection and reading this morning.
Throughout Advent this year, my reading and reflection each day includes a poem or song by Leonard Cohen. These Advent reflections are following this pattern:
1, A reflection on a poem or song by Leonard Cohen;
2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.
‘A sip of wine, a cigarette and then it’s time to go’ (Leonard Cohen) … wine at dinner in the Greek Chef, Lichfield, last week (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)
The Songs and Poems of Leonard Cohen: 17, ‘Boogie Street’:
‘Boogie Street’ first appeared as a song in 2001 on Ten New Songs, an album Leonard Cohen made with Sharon Robinson. On the CD Live in London, he says: ‘Shar Robinson wrote this tune.’ It is not clear whether this means that she wrote the tune and he wrote the words. But the liner notes say ‘Leonard Cohen/Sharon Robinson.’
But the lyrics were first written as a poem and appears in his Book of Longing along with other poems he wrote between 1994 and 1999 while he was on Mount Baldy.
The song, unlike the poem, prefaces as well as ends with the final stanza. That refrain is also included as a bridge or chorus in the middle of the song. As with all of Leonard Cohen’s songs and poems, there is a spiritual message in this song, yet the lyrics are tinged with an element of wry humour.
In the first verses of ‘Boogie Street,’ Cohen sings:
O Crown of Light, O Darkened One,
I never thought we’d meet.
You kiss my lips, and then it’s done:
I’m back on Boogie Street.
Professor Eliot R Wolfson of the University of California Santa Barbara specialises in the history of Jewish mysticism, and is also a poet who has three published collections to his name. He has written about the influence of Jewish mysticism, and particularly Lurianic Kabbalism, on the poetry of Leonard Cohen.
Eliot Wolfson’s study, ‘New Jerusalem Glowing: Songs and Poems of Leonard Cohen in a Kabbalistic Key,’ was published in Kabbalah: Journal for the Study of Jewish Mystical Texts, vol 15 (2006), pp 103-153.
In his commentary on the song ‘Boggie Street’, Wolfson assumes that the singer depicts a state after being unexpectedly struck by ‘the primordial light so bright that it glistens in the radiance of its darkness.’ This carries connotations of the revelation of light in Kabbalah, which springs out from its hiding place and is only to be seen thanks to its ‘concealing and clothing itself.’
Leonard Cohen’s repeated names for the divine in this song or poem – ‘Crown of Light, O Darkened One’ – call to mind the highest Sefirah in the Kabbalistic system: Keter or Crown, the infinite, boundless or Ein Sof, the highest point of the Sefirot.
Each verse of the song offers an initiatory and ephemeral experience of love taking place outside the ordinary world, and each returns the speaker to that ordinary world of ‘Boogie Street.’
As with many of the poems in The Spice-Box of Earth (1967), ‘Boogie Street’ also draws on the traditions in Jewish spirituality of welcoming the ‘Sabbath Queen’ or the ‘Sabbath Bride’ who descends from Heaven to heal the sufferings of the Jews.
The arrival and departure of ‘Her Majesty’ is marked by ceremonies. When she enters, everybody is happy; when she leaves, there is a strange sadness. But people take comfort in a symbolic ritual that includes inhaling the aroma of spices contained in an ornamental box, often made of silver, the spice box.
Spice-boxes are an essential part of Havdalah (הַבְדָּלָה, ‘separation’), the ceremony marking the symbolic end of Shabbat and ushering in the new week. Like kiddush, Havdalah is recited over a cup of wine. The ritual involves lighting a special Havdalah candle with several wicks, blessing a cup of wine and smelling sweet spices – referred to with humour in the words ‘A sip of wine, a cigarette and then it’s time to go.’
In this song, the soul would seem to be suffering from the loss of the Sabbath’s peace and the Sabbath soul called Neshamah yeteirah. Could this also recall Christ’s sense of being abandoned by the Divine as he is dying on the Cross (see Matthew 27: 46 and Mark 15: 34)? In both cases, we can see the song as describing the return of the soul to the body as something that is both painful and difficult.
In an interview with the New York Observer, Leonard Cohen said: ‘The evidence accumulates as you get older that things are not going to turn out exactly as you wish them to turn out, and that life has a dreamy quality that suggests that you have no control over the consequences.’
In an interview with Brian D Johnson in Maclean’s Magazine in 2001, Leonard Cohen said of Boogie Street: ‘… during the day Boogie Street is a scene of intense commercial activity … And at night, it was a scene of intense and alarming sexual exchange.’
Later, he goes on to talk of its metaphorical meaning: ‘Boogie Street to me was that street of work and desire, the ordinary life and also the place we live in most of the time that is relieved by the embrace of your children, or the kiss of your beloved, or the peak experience in which you yourself are dissolved, and there is no one to experience it so you feel the refreshment when you come back from those moments.’
He adds: ‘So we all hope for those heavenly moments, which we get in those embraces and those sudden perceptions of beauty and sensations of pleasure, but we’re immediately returned to Boogie Street.’
‘And oh my love, I still recall the pleasures that we knew / The rivers and the waterfall’ (Leonard Cohen) … the Cascades at Ennistymon, Co Clare (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)
Leonard Cohen, Boogie Street:
Oh Crown of Light, Oh Darkened One
I never thought we’d meet
You kiss my lips, and then you’re gone
And I’m back on Boogie Street
A sip of wine, a cigarette and then it’s time to go
I tidied up the kitchenette, I tuned the old banjo
I’m wanted at the traffic-jam, they’re saving me a seat
I’m what I am, and what I am is back on Boogie Street
And oh my love, I still recall the pleasures that we knew
The rivers and the waterfall, wherein I bathed with you
Bewildered by your beauty there, I’d kneel to dry your feet
By such instructions you prepare a man for Boogie Street
Oh Crown of Light, Oh Darkened One
I never thought we’d meet
You kiss my lips, and then it’s done
And I’m back, back on Boogie Street
So come my friends, be not afraid, we are so lightly here
It is in love that we are made, in love we disappear
Though all the maps of blood and flesh are posted on the door
There’s no one who has told us yet what Boogie Street is for
Oh Crown of Light, Oh Darkened One
I never thought we’d meet
You kiss my lips, and then it’s done
And I’m back, back on Boogie Street
A sip of wine, a cigarette and then it’s time to go
I tidied up the kitchenette, I tuned the old banjo
I’m wanted at the traffic-jam, they're saving me a seat
I’m what I am …
.
Saint John the Baptist with his parents Zechariah and Elizabeth … a mosaic in the Monastery of Saint John the Baptist, Tolleshunt Knights, Essex (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Luke 1: 5-25 (NRSVA):
5 In the days of King Herod of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly order of Abijah. His wife was a descendant of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. 6 Both of them were righteous before God, living blamelessly according to all the commandments and regulations of the Lord. 7 But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were getting on in years.
8 Once when he was serving as priest before God and his section was on duty, 9 he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and offer incense. 10 Now at the time of the incense-offering, the whole assembly of the people was praying outside. 11 Then there appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. 12 When Zechariah saw him, he was terrified; and fear overwhelmed him. 13 But the angel said to him, ‘Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John. 14 You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, 15 for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He must never drink wine or strong drink; even before his birth he will be filled with the Holy Spirit. 16 He will turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. 17 With the spirit and power of Elijah he will go before him, to turn the hearts of parents to their children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.’ 18 Zechariah said to the angel, ‘How will I know that this is so? For I am an old man, and my wife is getting on in years.’ 19 The angel replied, ‘I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. 20 But now, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time, you will become mute, unable to speak, until the day these things occur.’
21 Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah, and wondered at his delay in the sanctuary. 22 When he did come out, he could not speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the sanctuary. He kept motioning to them and remained unable to speak. 23 When his time of service was ended, he went to his home.
24 After those days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she remained in seclusion. She said, 25 ‘This is what the Lord has done for me when he looked favourably on me and took away the disgrace I have endured among my people.’
Saint John the Baptist in a window in Saint John the Baptist Church, Coventry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)
Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 19 December 2023):
The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘The Joy of Advent.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (19 December 2023) invites us to pray in these words:
Lord, we ask that your Spirit transform the days leading up to Christmas into a time of holy anticipation. Prepare our hearts as we joyfully await the chance to celebrate the arrival of our King.
Saint John the Baptist in a window in Saint John the Baptist Church, Coventry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)
The Collect:
O Lord Jesus Christ,
who at your first coming sent your messenger
to prepare your way before you:
grant that the ministers and stewards of your mysteries
may likewise so prepare and make ready your way
by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just,
that at your second coming to judge the world
we may be found an acceptable people in your sight;
for you are alive and reign with the Father
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
We give you thanks, O Lord, for these heavenly gifts;
kindle in us the fire of your Spirit
that when your Christ comes again
we may shine as lights before his face;
who is alive and reigns now and for ever.
Additional Collect:
God for whom we watch and wait,
you sent John the Baptist to prepare the way of your Son:
give us courage to speak the truth,
to hunger for justice,
and to suffer for the cause of right,
with Jesus Christ our Lord.
‘I relieved your shoulder of the burden; your hands were freed from the basket’ (Psalm 81: 6) … a basket on a ledge in Aghios Giorgios on the Greek island of Corfu (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Patrick Comerford
Today is the Fifth Sunday of Easter, and I am planning to attend the Parish Eucharist in the Church of Saint Mary and Saint Giles this morning (15 May 2022). Before this day begins, I am continuing my morning reflections in this season of Easter continues, including my morning reflections drawing on the Psalms.
In my blog, I am reflecting each morning in this Prayer Diary in these ways:
1, Short reflections on a psalm or psalms;
2, reading the psalm or psalms;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.
Psalm 81:
Psalm 81 is found in Book 3 in the Book of Psalms, which includes Psalms 73 to 89. In the slightly different numbering scheme in the Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate, this is psalm is numbered as Psalm 80.
This is the tenth of the ‘Psalms of Asaph.’ These are the 12 psalms numbered 50 and 73 to 83 in the Masoretic text and 49 and 72-82 in the Septuagint. Each psalm has a separate meaning, and these psalms cannot be summarised easily as a whole.
But throughout these 12 psalms is the shared theme of the judgment of God and how the people must follow God’s law.
The superscription of this psalm reads: ‘A Psalm of Asaph.’ The attribution of a psalm to Asaph could mean that it was part of a collection from the Asaphites, identified as Temple singers, or that the psalm was performed in a style associated with Asaph, who was said to be the author or transcriber of these psalms.
Asaph who is identified with these psalms was a Levite, the son of Berechiah and descendant of Gershon, and he was the ancestor of the Asaphites, one the guilds of musicians in the first Temple in Jerusalem.
Asaph served both David and Solomon, and performed at the dedication of Solomon’s Temple (see II Chronicles 5: 12). His complaint against corruption among the rich and influential, recorded in Psalm 73, for example, might have been directed against some of court officials. The words used to describe the wicked come from words used by officials of the cult or sacrificial system.
Several of the Psalms of Asaph are categorised as communal laments because they are concerned for the well-being of the whole community. Many of these psalms forecast destruction or devastation in the future, but are balanced with God’s mercy and saving power for the people.
Psalm 81 relates to the themes of celebration and repentance. This psalm emphasises praising a God who saves and a national return to liturgical worship.
The concept of choosing to act on the desires and wants of humans rather than walking with God and being in his favour is brought to light in this psalm. It also calls for repentance from the people to reorder God’s protection upon them.
The reference to the new moon and full moon as well as the blowing of the trumpet in verse 3 may reflect the celebration of New Year and Tabernacles.
This psalm can be divided into two parts:
1, verses 1-5b: The beginning of Psalm 81 is like a hymn. The reference to the new moon and full moon as well as the blowing of the trumpet in verse 3 may reflect the celebration of New Year and Tabernacles.
2, verses 5c–16: This hymn is followed by an oracle. In particular, verses 6-10 describe ‘God’s deliverance of his people from Egypt,’ while verses 11-16 recall the past disobedience of the people and promise to give victory over their enemies if they obey God.
The teaching of verses 9 and 10 is similar to the beginning of the Decalogue, although the words for ‘strange’ god and ‘foreign’ god are different from the ‘other gods’ in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5, with the verb ‘brought [you] up’ and the order of the phrases reversed.
Some commentators argue that Psalm 81 is the poetic centre of the Psalter being the middle book (book 3 of 5), middle Psalm (8 of 17) and even point to the middle verses of this Psalm (Psalm 81: 8, 9 with ‘if you would but listen to me’).
‘Your hands were freed from the basket’ (Psalm 81: 6) … baskets in a shop in Ennistymon, Co Clare (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Psalm 81 (NRSVA):
To the leader: according to The Gittith. Of Asaph.
1 Sing aloud to God our strength;
shout for joy to the God of Jacob.
2 Raise a song, sound the tambourine,
the sweet lyre with the harp.
3 Blow the trumpet at the new moon,
at the full moon, on our festal day.
4 For it is a statute for Israel,
an ordinance of the God of Jacob.
5 He made it a decree in Joseph,
when he went out over the land of Egypt.
I hear a voice I had not known:
6 ‘I relieved your shoulder of the burden;
your hands were freed from the basket.
7 In distress you called, and I rescued you;
I answered you in the secret place of thunder;
I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah
8 Hear, O my people, while I admonish you;
O Israel, if you would but listen to me!
9 There shall be no strange god among you;
you shall not bow down to a foreign god.
10 I am the Lord your God,
who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.
11 ‘But my people did not listen to my voice;
Israel would not submit to me.
12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,
to follow their own counsels.
13 O that my people would listen to me,
that Israel would walk in my ways!
14 Then I would quickly subdue their enemies,
and turn my hand against their foes.
15 Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him,
and their doom would last for ever.
16 I would feed you with the finest of the wheat,
and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.’
Today’s Prayer:
The theme in this week’s prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) is ‘Advocacy in Brazil.’ It is introduced this morning this way:
Located in the capital of Brazil, the Anglican Diocese of Brasília is at the centre of political and economic decisions in the country. In February 2021, the diocese launched its own Department of Advocacy and Human Rights. The Revd Dr Rodrigo Espiúca was appointed as coordinator of the department. Under the pastoral leadership of Bishop Maurício Andrade, the diocese began to act on the national political scene, making the Church’s voice heard in debates, especially in matters relating to human and environmental rights.
In April 2021, the Revd Dr Rodrigo Espiúca participated in a public hearing with the Human Rights Commission of the Brazilian Chamber of Federal Deputies. During his speech, the Revd Dr Rodrigo Espiúca highlighted the importance of the Church being part of public debate, placing itself on the side of socially vulnerable people.
The creation of the Diocesan Department of Advocacy and Human Rights is an important milestone in the history of the Anglican Diocese of Brasilia, as it now explicitly represents the Church in the political arena.
The USPG Prayer Diary this morning (15 May 2022, Easter V) invites us to pray:
Holy Father,
we give thanks for the gift of family.
May we embrace those around us,
Remembering that we are all your children.
The Falls Hotel in Ennistymon … once the family home of the Macnamara family, who laid out the streets of Enistymon, Co Clare (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Patrick Comerford
In my search last weekend for some more Comerford houses and graves in Co Galway and Co Clare last weekend, I came across some distant but interesting links between the Comerfords of Kinvara and Kilfenora with the Comyn and Macnamara families of Co Clare, and stories that link the Macnamara family with Dylan Thomas, one of the greatest poets of the 20th century.
Henry Comerford (1796-1861), JP, of Merchant’s Road, Galway, and Ballykeel House, Kilfenora, Co Clare, is buried in Drumcreehy churchyard at Bishop’s Quarters, Ballyvaughan, Co Clare. His grandson, Captain Francis O’Donnellan Blake Forster (1853-1912), married Marcella Johnson (1852-1917), in Saint Andrew’s Church, Dublin, on 2 August 1879. She was the eldest daughter of Robert Johnson of Arran View, Doolin, Co Clare, and was described as the heiress of Sir Burton Macnamara.
So I started looking for the links with the Macnamara family, and came across stories about the origins of the Falls Hotel in Ennistymon, gold and silver salvaged from the Spanish Armada, and the writer from Co Clare who married the poet Dylan Thomas.
Quin Abbey, founded by the Macnamara family (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
The Macnamara family is among the oldest families in Co Clare and they presided at the inauguration of the O’Brien Kings of Thomond. The Macnamara territory once included almost all that part of Co Clare east of the River Fergus and south of a line from Ruan to the Shannon. Those Macnamara chiefs were Lords of Clancullen, they founded Quin Abbey for the Franciscan friars, and in 1580 the family had no fewer than 42 castles in Co Clare.
The Macnamaras of Doolin and Ennistymon arrived in North Clare in the mid-17th century, when Teige Macnamara of Ballynacraggy settled in Drumcreehy (Ballyvaughan) in 1659. He married Ann Nugent and Teige and Ann were the parents of seven sons.
Their youngest son, Bartholomew Macnamara (1685-1761), was the ancestor of the Macnamaras of Doolin and Ennistymon. He married Dorothy Brock, daughter of a Mayor of Galway, and their youngest child, Ann, married Laurence Comyn of Kilcorney.
Bartholomew Macnamara was buried in the old church of Rathbourney, near Ballyvaughan. His eldest son, William Macnamara (1714-1762), married Catherine Sarsfield of Doolin, and so the Sarsfield estate eventually passed to the Macnamara family. After William Macnamara died in 1762, his widow Catherine married her second husband, Nicholas Comyn of Kilcorney, ca 1772, continuing the links with the Comyn family.
Dorothy, the youngest daughter of William and Catherine Macnamara, married her cousin David Comyn JP of Kilcorney and afterwards of Bishop’s Quarter. Their son, Peter Comyn of Scotland Lodge, New Quay, caused a political storm when he was hanged at Ennis in 1830 for burning down his house following a dispute with his landlord, Bindon Scott of Cahercon.
Francis Macnamara, the eldest son of William Macnamara and Catherine (Sarsfield), was born in Doolin in 1750. In 1774, Francis married Jane Stamer of Carnelly House, Clarecastle, grand-daughter of Christopher O’Brien of Ennistymon. Jane is said to have ruled over her husband and family with an iron fist. They built Doolin House, but in 1806 moved to Wellpark, near Galway, where he died in 1821.
Francis and Jane Macnamara were the parents of a large family, including: William Nugent Macnamara; George Macnamara; Francis Macnamara of Aran View; and Admiral Sir Burton Macnamara.
Sir Burton Macnamara, the seventh son, had a distinguished career in the Royal Navy. He took part in the Great Lakes campaign in Canada in 1812, and was present in the Ionian islands during the Greek War of Independence in the 1820s. He was a knighted in 1839. Later, he was appointed a vice-admiral, and then a full admiral of the reserve list. In the 1850s, Sir Burton bought a 732-acre estate at Tromora, near Miltown Malbay, and was a popular landlord. He married Jane Gabbett of Limerick, but they had no children.
Three weeks before his death, he had been appointed Deputy Lieutenant for Co Clare in succession to his nephew, Colonel Francis Macnamara who had died earlier that year. Sir Burton died at Merrion Square, Dublin, on 12 December 1876.
A memorial to the Spanish Armada in Spanish Point … Marcella Blake-Forster is said to have inherited gold and silver salvaged from a wreck of the Spanish Armada (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Sir Burton’s brother, Francis Macnamara, was given a farm at Glasha by his father and a sum of £1,000 when he married Marcella O’Flaherty from Aran. Francis and Marcella built a house at Glasha that they named Aran View. Aran View House is now a Georgian country house hotel in Doolin run by the Linnane family.
Marcella is said to have inherited fine gold and silver ornaments salvaged from a wreck of the Spanish Armada. When she died in 1856, they were inherited by her daughter Catherine Macnamara, wife of Robert Johnson JP, who married into Aran View. After Catherine’s death in 1867 the objects passed once more to her daughter – another Marcella – who married Henry Comerford’s grandson, Francis Blake-Foster of Ballykeale House near Kilfenora.
Major William Nugent Macnamara (1775-1856) was the eldest son and heir of Francis Macnamara and Jane Stamer. It was said, ‘He is a Protestant in religion a Catholic in politics, and a Milesian in descent.’ He was born at Doolin and educated at Trinity College Dublin.
Major Macnamara was a major in the Clare militia, a justice of the peace (JP) and in 1799 High Sheriff of Co Clare. He became something of a national figure after Daniel O’Connell selected him as his second in his duel with John d’Esterre in 1816. He was elected MP for Co Clare in 1830 and sat as a Liberal MP for 17 years.
He married Susannah Finucane, daughter and co-heiress of Judge Matthias Finucane (1737-1814) of Lifford House, Ennis, in 1779. Susannah’s mother, Ann O’Brien, was the only daughter of Edward O’Brien of Ennistymon House, and Ennistymon House passed to the Finucane family and later to William Nugent Macnamara’s son, Colonel Francis Macnamara, in 1843.
Major William Nugent Macnamara died in 1856 at the age of 81. His funeral in Doolin was described as the largest ever seen in Co Clare and extended for two miles.
Colonel Francis Macnamara (1802-1873), the major’s only son, was MP for Ennis (1832-1835), and High Sheriff of Co Clare (1839). When he married Helen Mc Dermott, the daughter of a Dublin solicitor, in 1860, he was 58 and she was 35. They moved into Ennistymon House in 1863 and made it their family home. He also carried out an ambitious building scheme in Ennistymon, laying out the streetscape that largely survives to this day.
The Macnamara estate extended to 15,000 acres in 1876, including large swathes of North Clare, some property near Ennis, 16 acres near Galway, and houses in Dublin, Galway, Ennis and Doolin. Francis Macnamara died in London on 26 June 1873.
Colonel Macnamara’s eldest son, Henry Valentine (Henry ‘Vee’) Macnamara (1861-1925), was educated at Harrow and Trinity College Cambridge (BA 1882). He was a justice of the peace (JP) and High Sheriff of Clare (1885). In 1883, Henry Vee married Edith Elizabeth Cooper, an Englishwoman of Australian descent who was described as ‘a formidable and capable woman who knew her rights and exercised them.’
Henry Vee lived at the height of the ‘Land War.’ In the ‘Doolin Cattle Drive’ on 22 September 1908, about 400 people watched as cattle and sheep were driven off his estate and through the streets of Lisdoonvarna. Later, 40 people appeared in court in Ennistymon.
During the War of Independence, Henry Vee and some friends were ambushed near Leamaneh Castle by the IRA in December 1919. During the Irish Civil War, a letter was sent to Henry Vee on 27 April 1922, telling him he was a ‘marked man’ and ordering him to leave Ennistymon House. Doolin House, still used as a Macnamara family holiday home, was burned down.
Henry Vee left, never to return to Ennistymon House. He died in London on 30 October 1925. By then, Ennistymon House had become a temporary barracks for the Garda Siochána.
The Cascades at Ennistymon … inspired by the Cascades, Francis Macnamara renamed Ennistymon House the Falls Hotel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)
Henry Vee Macnamara was the father of three sons and four daughters. Francis Macnamara (1884-1946), the eldest son, was educated at Harrow and Magdalen College, Oxford. In London, he was friends with Augustus John, George Bernard Shaw and WB Yeats, and published a book of poems. In 1907, he married Yvonne Majolier (20), the daughter of a French father and an Irish mother from Co Limerick. They spent part of their honeymoon at Doolin and at Coole Park with Lady Gregory and WB Yeats.
They were the parents of a son, John, and three daughters, Nicolette, Brigit and Caitlin, and Francis was also the father of another daughter named Katherine Patricia (‘Pat’), who was part of the family all her life.
Francis owned a converted Galway hooker, Mary Anne, and is said to have sailed from Doolin to Greece with some of Augustus John’s family as crew. After 10 years of marriage, he left Yvonne and their children for Augustus John’s sister-in-law, Edie Mac Neil, and they were married in 1928.
Francis recovered Ennistymon House in the 1930s, and began to convert it into the Falls Hotel, named after the nearby cascades on the Inagh River. This project was interrupted by Edie’s death, but by 1935 Francis had married his third wife, Geraldine Iris O’Callaghan (22), daughter of Colonel George O’Callaghan-Westropp (1864-1944), a woman less than half his age.
Within a few years, Francis had given up his plans for the Falls Hotel. He moved to a small house in the grounds, and leased the hotel to the O’Regan family, parents of Brendan O’Regan, later identified with Shannon Airport and Duty Free. Francis Macnamara then moved to Dublin, finally living at Sorrento Terrace, Dalkey. He died in Dalkey on 8 March 1946.
Francis Macnamara’s eldest son, Major John Macnamara (1908-1962), married Henriette Buffard, a French woman, and they had no children. After World War II, they moved to the US, where John worked as a civil engineer until Henriette’s death in 1962. He returned to England and died within a month. With his death, the Macnamaras of Doolin and Ennistymon became extinct in the male line.
Nicolette Macnamara (1911-1987) was the eldest of Francis Macnamara’s daughters. She painted under the name Nicolette Macnamara and also wrote six books. In 1931, she married Anthony Devas, who died in 1958. Seven years later, Nicolette married the widowed Rupert Sheppard, Professor of Fine Art in Cape Town University.
Brigit Macnamara (1912-1994) was the second of Francis Macnamara’s daughters. She has been described by friends as ‘a little eccentric,’ and changed her name by deed poll from Macnamara to Marnier. Brigit, who never married, was the mother of two sons, Tobias and Edward. She died in August 1994, just days after her younger sister Caitlin.
Caitlin Macnamara (1913-1994) was the third of Francis Macnamara’s daughters. Caitlin married the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas in Penzance in 1937. They later settled at Laugharne in Carmarthenshire in the ‘Boat House’ overlooking the estuary. This was their home until Dylan Thomas died in New York in 1953 at the age of 39.
Four years after Dylan’s death, Caitlin and their children moved to Rome. There she met Giuseppe Fazio, a Sicilian, in 1957. They never married, and their son Francesco was born in 1963. They moved from Rome to Sicily and lived in a house in Catania owned by Giuseppe’s mother. Their relationship lasted four decades until they died. When Caitlin died in July 1994 at the age of 80, she was brought back to Wales and buried beside Dylan in Laugharne.
Caitlin Thomas was also a published writer. She and Dylan were the parents of two sons, Llewellyn (‘Wellie’) Edouard Thomas (1939-2000) and Colm Garan Hart Thomas (1949-2012), and a daughter Aeronwy Thomas-Ellis (1943-2009), who was a writer and poet in her own right.
After visiting the Comerford, Blake-Forster and Comyn family graves, I returned through Lisdoonvarna to Ennistymon to see the Falls Hotel and the Cascades once again, stopped for coffee in Lahinch, and then watched the sunset at the pier in Fintramore, the ancestral home of Henry Comerford near Spanish Point and Milltown Malbay.
Sunset at the pier in Fintramore, the ancestral home of Henry Comerford near Spanish Point and Milltown Malbay, Co Clare (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)
George (‘Georgie’) William Comerford (1911-1988), a member of An Garda Síochána, played football for Clare, Louth, Dublin and Kildare, and for Munster and Leinster
Patrick Comerford
During my visits to Co Clare and Co Galway in recent weeks as part of this summer’s continuing ‘road trip,’ I have visited a number of houses associated with the Comerford family in places such as Spanish Point, Miltown Malbay, Ennistymon, Kilfenora and Kinvara.
Over the next few weeks, I hope to revise and update my family trees for different branches of the Comerford family in Co Clare and Co Galway. However, one well-known Comerford in Co Clare, with family connections in Limerick, seemed to continue to evade my efforts to find his place on the family tree.
George (‘Georgie’) William Comerford (1911-1988) was a member of An Garda Síochána and was a well-known Gaelic footballer who is remembered as Miltown Malbay’s greatest-ever footballer. He played football for four counties – Clare, Louth, Dublin and Kildare; and he played inter-provincial football for two provinces – Munster and Leinster.
Georgie Comerford was born in Whitegate, Co Clare, on 25 January 1911. But despite his name, he does not seem to have been closely related to two similarly-named contemporaries: George Comerford, who was a publican in Doonbeg, Co Clare; and George Comerford, whose father, Harry Comerford, was the station master in Ennistymon.
Instead, this Georgie Comerford’s father was Daniel Comerford (1866-1913), a sergeant in the Royal Irish Constabulary, and his grandfather was John Comerford, a farmer in Loughtagne, near Stradbally, Queen’s County (Co Laois).
Daniel Comerford was born on 2 January 1866 near Stradbally. He joined the Royal Irish Constabulary on 22 November 1888 and was posted to Co Limerick on 29 June 1889. On 12 July 1898, Daniel married Mary Anne Murphy, daughter of Thomas Murphy, carpenter, in Saint Michael’s Church, Limerick.
When he married, Daniel was transferred from Co Limerick to Co Clare, and he was an RIC constable, living at Ennis Road, Miltown Malbay, Co Clare, in 1901 and 1906.
Daniel was promoted Acting Sergeant on 1 January 1908 and became Sergeant-in-Charge of Quin RIC Station. Later that year, he was transferred to Whitegate RIC Station and was promoted to Sergeant on 1 October 1909. He was Sergeant-in-Charge of Whitegate RIC Station in 1908-1913.
Daniel died on 24 October 1913, at Whitegate, Co Clare, and was buried in Clonrush. His family then returned to Miltown Malbay, where Mary Anne died on 20 December 1946.
Mary Anne and Daniel Comerford were the parents of seven children:
1, John Alphonsus Comerford (1899-1902), born Limerick City 2 June 1899, died 2 December 1902, buried Ballard, Milton Malbay. 2, Thomas Gerard Comerford (1900-1900), born 24 July 1900, died 27 August 1900. 3, Eleanor Maud (1901-1986), born Miltown Malbay 13 June 1901, died 1986. 4, Daniel Christopher Comerford (1903-1980). 5, Joseph Comerford (1905-post 1930), born Miltown Malbay, 4 May 1905. 6, Michael Henry Comerford (1906-1906), born Miltown Malbay 29 April 1906, died 19 June 1906. 7, George (‘Georgie’) William Comerford, the famous Co Clare footballer.
The eldest surviving son, Daniel Christopher Comerford (1902-1980), was born Miltown Malbay on 10 December 1902. On 4 August 1922, he joined the new National Army as an infantry private, during the Irish Civil War.
Daniel emigrated to New York in 1925 and lived there for at least five years before returning to Miltown Malbay. In the 1930 census, Daniel and his brother Joseph are recorded as living in Astoria, Queens, with their cousins the Furlongs.
Daniel returned to Co Clare and he married in Miltown Malbay on 7 June 1939 Emelia (Amy) Wilson (1907-2003), a daughter of Leonard Wilson (1867-1932) from Portadown, Co Armagh. Leonard joined the RIC in 1888 and was posted to Clare that year. He married Bridget McMahon (1865-1934) in Miltown Malbay and was posted to Co Limerick in 1898. While he was stationed in Limerick, Bridget ran the family business, Wilson’s Pub, on Main Street, Miltown Malbay. Leonard was promoted Acting Sergeant on 1 October 1902 and Sergeant on 1 December 1905. He retired in April 1913, and when he died on 10 April 1932, he was buried in the Church of Ireland churchyard in Miltown Malbay.
Sergeant Daniel Comerford’s youngest child, Georgie Comerford, was born in Whitegate, Co Clare, on 25 January 1911, and he was only two when his father died. He attended primary school in Miltown Malbay and secondary school in Ennistymon. Miltown won the first minor championship in Co Clare in 1924, and won it again in 1926 and 1927. Georgie Comerford was on all those teams and played with the Clare minors in 1929 when they won the All-Ireland.
He joined the Garda Síochána in the late 1920s. He was the only non-Kerry player on the victorious Munster Railway Cup team in 1931, when all other 14 team members were from Co Kerry. He was a member of the Ireland selection for the Tailteann Games in 1932, representing his native Co Clare.
He played in the All-Ireland final for Dublin at Croke Park in 1934, when Galway scored 3-05 to Dublin’s 1-09. He also won a Railway Cup medal with Leinster in 1935, this time representing Dublin.
As a garda, he was stationed in Athy, Co Kildare, for a number of years in the mid-1930s. He captained the senior championship winning team in 1937, and played for Co Kildare in the Leinster Final in 1938, when, for the second time in three years, Kildare were defeated by Laois.
When he was in his mid-40s, George Comerford played football for Co Louth and won a championship with Dundalk Gaels in 1945. In retirement, he returned to live in Co Clare. He died on 20 July 1988 in Miltown Malbay and was buried in Ballard Cemetery.
Updated: 17 August 2022
Georgie Comerford is remembered as as Miltown Malbay’s greatest-ever footballer … he played for four counties and two provinces
The Church of Our Lady and Saint Michael in Ennistymon, Co Clare, designed by Liam McCormick and Frank Corr (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)
Patrick Comerford
After last weekend’s ‘road trip’ visit to Comerford houses and sites in Ennistymon, Co Clare, including the former Comerford shop on Main Street and the remains of the West Clare Railway, two of us visited the Church of Our Lady and Saint Michael, one of the interesting pre-Vatican II modern churches in Ireland.
In the Roman Catholic Church, Ennistymon parish is part of the Kilfenora Deanery in the Diocese of Galway, Kilmacduagh and Kilfenora. The parish includes the two neighbouring towns of Ennistymon and Lahinch. The present parish priest is Father William Cummins and the curate is Father Des Forde.
The Church of Our Lady and Saint Michael in Ennistymon is the main church in the parish and was built in 1954 by Father John Jennings to replace an earlier, nearby church, built in the early 19th century.
Inside the Church of Our Lady and Saint Michael in Ennistymon, facing the liturgical east (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)
The Church of Our Lady and Saint Michael was designed by the Derry-born architects, William Henry Dunlevy McCormick (1916-1996) and Francis Michael (Frank) Corr. They successfully won the competition to design a new church for Ennistymon, Co Clare, in 1947. At the time, Liam McCormick was convalescing from tuberculosis in Greencastle, Co Donegal.
McCormick was one of founders of modern Irish architectural movement and also one of the most important church architects in Northern Ireland. He was responsible for designing 27 church buildings and many commercial and state buildings, including the iconic Met Éireann building in Glasnevin.
McCormick was educated at Saint Columb’s College, Derry, but later studied architecture in Liverpool, where he graduated in 1943. On his return to Northern Ireland, he began working for Derry Corporation and later for Ballymena Urban District Council.
Inside the Church of Our Lady and Saint Michael in Ennistymon, facing the liturgical west (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)
McCormick and Corr formed an architectural studio, Corr and McCormick, in 1948, and they designed the new church in Ennistymon to seat 1,000 people. The church was built in 1952-1954, the contractors were Farmer Bros of Dublin, and the church was opened on 8 December 1954.
The church is considered one of the first modern churches designed in Ireland. This is a gable-fronted, double-height church, with a stepped central breakfront, a single-bay, four-stage, bell tower, and a single-bay, single-storey, bow-ended baptistery. It is oriented on a west-east axis, rather than the liturgically traditional east-west axis.
There are eight-bay nave elevations and an eight-bay, single-storey, side aisle on the north (liturgical south) or right side.
The single-storey, side aisle on the north (liturgical south) side of the church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)
The church has roughcast rendered walls, and full-height timber windows at the glazed entrance bay, with concrete mullion and transoms forming a large cross. The timber, multiple-paned clerestory windows, are separated by rendered columns.
The church has a pitched copper sheeted roof on the nave, and there are flat roofs on the tower, aisle and baptistry. The tower belfry has concrete louvres to tower belfry.
Inside, the church retains many of its original features, including built-in confessionals in the side aisle, marble altars, altar rails, a gallery at the rear and the artistically interesting Stations of the Cross.
The Stations of the Cross form one continuous fresco along the south (liturgical north) wall of the church. They were completed in 1955 by the Cork-born Dominican friar and artist, Father Aengus Buckley (1913-1978) of Limerick. They were presented by James Shaloo of Chicago, formerly on Carhuclough, Ennistymon, who died in 1965.
The Stations of the Cross painted by Father Aengus Buckley form one continuous fresco (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)
The McCormick and Corr studio continued until 1968, when Liam McCormick then formed McCormick Tracey Mullarkey. McCormick continued to design churches until he retired in 1982, and he later completed a number of private commissions, including John Hume’s house.
McCormick’s offices were firebombed in the 1970s, with the total destruction of his professional records. He was also an accomplished sailor and member of the Irish Cruising Club, where he was flag officer.
McCormick died on 28 August 1996. His best-known work may be Saint Aengus’s Church in Burt, Co Donegal. It was voted Ireland’s ‘Building of the 20th century’ in 1999 in a readers’ poll organised by the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland and the Sunday Tribune.
Most of Frank Corr’s work dates from after the 1940s. He later formed a partnership with Oonagh Madden.
The former high altar and sanctuary area (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)
The second church in the parish is the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Lahinch. This too was built in 1954, and also replaced an older church.
The third church in the parish, the Church of Saint Columba in Clouna, was built in 1846.
The single-storey, bow-ended baptistery in the (liturgical) south-west corner of the church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)
A rusting bridge in Ennistymon is a reminder of the West Clare Railway … and of Harry Comerford, the first station master (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)
I have also known for many years of Comerford family connections with Ennistymon, Co Clare, so two of us decided to return to Ennistymon last weekend in search of a Comerford shop, and also found a Comerford link with the West Clare Railway, made famous in the Percy French ballad, ‘Are you right there, Michael?’
Ennistymon is less than 4 km east of Lahinch, and 26 km west of Ennis, and is on the edges of the Burren. Just as people in Lahinch resent road signs that spell the name ‘Lehinch,’ people in Ennistymon have difficulties with the official spelling ‘Ennistimon.’
The town is colourful and picturesque, with brightly painted, attractive shop fronts, plenty of coffee shops, and a variety of shops that include bookshops, music shops and good food shops.
The Cascades and the Falls made Ennistymon a tourist attraction (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Ennistymon grew from just three small houses in 1775 to 120 houses in 1810. Tourism developed in the 19th century with the attraction of the ‘Cascades’ on the River Cullenagh or Inagh, and the opening of the Falls Hotel on the site of the former Ennistymon House.
The West Clare Railway was built in the 1880s to connect Ennis and the coastal villages, towns and resorts of West Clare. A later extension reached Kilrush and Kilkee. It was narrow gauge line and was served by steam and later by diesel locomotives. It drew freight, cattle and passengers and carried the post on a 70-mile stretch for over seven decades.
The West Clare Railway was beloved by the people of Co Clare, who treated it like a local bus service. It is said the friendly engine drivers would even drop off passengers outside their door.
When building work began on the line, the first sod at Miltown Malbay was cut by Charles Stewart Parnell on 26 January 1885.
When Ennistymon railway station opened on 2 July 1887, it was yet another boost to the economy of the town and of West Clare. Postal services quickened, newspapers from Dublin became available on the day, Kilkee became known as the ‘Brighton of the West,’ and the Lahinch golf course was laid out.
A train arriving at the old railway station in Ennistymon … the photograph was taken by a later station master, Roger Joanes
The company was often criticised for its poor timekeeping and lack of punctuality. This reputation was compounded by the por quality coal and turf used to run the locomotives, which rarely allowed the boiler to reach full capacity. This reputation was celebrated – or ridiculed – by Percy French in his ballad written in 1902.
Percy French wrote the song after successfully suing the railway company for loss of earnings, when a late running train in 1896 prevented him from arriving on time for a performance in Kilkee. It is said the train was late because river water was being used to fill the water tank at Ennistymon, and the boiler filled with weeds.
The company, in turn, appealed the ruling, but French was over an hour late for the court hearing in Ennis. He told the judge he was late was because ‘I took the West Clare Railway here, your honour.’
The railway company was unsuccessful in its appeal.
For many of the early years of the line, Harry Comerford was the station master in Ennistymon, and his family remained in the Ennistymon for many generations.
The former Comerford shop and home at 14 Main Street, Ennistymon … now the Spar supermarket (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)
Harry Comerford was born Henry Comerford in Co Clare ca 1869, a son of George Comerford, a farmer, and the naming pattern in his family – including names such as Henry, George and Isaac – indicate this family was closely related to the Comerford families of Spanish Point, Doonbeg, Galway, Kinvara and Kilfenora, whose houses I have been visiting in recent weeks.
Harry’s father, George Comerford, may be George Comerford who was originally from Spanish Point, Co Clare, and who moved to Doonbeg, Co Clare, in 1839.
Harry Comerford was the Station Master in Ennistymon when he married on 7 November 1899, in Saint Alphonsus Church, Limerick. His wife, Margaret Lysaght, was a daughter of Daniel Lysaght, shopkeeper, of 14 Main Street, Ennistymon, and the witnesses at their wedding were George Comerford and Marianne Tuohy. This George Comerford may be George Comerford
George Comerford, who was the best man at this wedding, may be George Comerford (ca 1852-1925), shopkeeper of Doonbeg, Co Clare, making him Harry’s eldest brother.
While Harry Comerford continued to work as the station master in Ennistymon, Harry and Margaret Comerford ran a thriving china shop and a bar and boarding house. Henry died in Ennistymon on 23 June 1930, aged 65; Margaret died on 8 June 1952, aged 82. They were the parents of eight children.
Their eldest surviving daughter Mary married Joseph Maloney, who ran a drapery shop at 10 Main Street, Ennistymon (witnesses: Thomas Gallery, Lucy Comerford). A son, Henry Joseph Comerford (1907-1985), later lived at Terenure Park in Dublin. Another son, Isaac Francis Comerford, was a teacher. The youngest daughter, Lucy Comerford (1908-1972), carried on the family business at 14 Main Street, Ennistymon, until she died on 29 July 1972.
The former Comerford home and business at 14 Main Street, Ennistymon, later became Paul Haugh’s butcher shop, and is now the Spar Supermarket in Ennistymon.
Meanwhile, the government decided in the early 1960s, to close many railway lines in the west of Ireland, arguing they were not profitable, without taking account of the public service they provided. The West Clare Railway closed on 31 January 1961, and its closure had an adverse effect on the economies of Ennistymon and the other market towns along the route. It was the last operating narrow gauge passenger system in Ireland.
Much of the line, its rails and sleepers were sold off. However, one engine was restored in 2009, and now runs on a short stretch of the line at Moyasta Junction near Kilrush. Part of the old West Clare railway bridge, including the parapets and steel beams, can still be seen in Ennistymon, south of the bridge at the Falls. The Station House B&B marks the site of the old station building.
The parapets and the rusting beams of the former railway bridge in Ennistymon … a reminder of Harry Comerford and of Percy French (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)
Are ye right there Michael, by Percy French (1902)
You may talk of Columbus’s sailing
Across the Atlantical Sea
But he never tried to go railing
From Ennis as far as Kilkee.
You run for the train in the morning
The excursion train starting at eight
You’re there when the clock gives the warnin’
And there for an hour you’ll wait.
And as you’re waiting in the train
You’ll hear the guard sing this refrain:
Are ye right there, Michael, are ye right?
Do you think that we'll be there before the night?
Ye’ve been so long in startin’
That ye couldn’t say for certain
Still ye might now, Michael,
So ye might!
They find out where the engine’s been hiding
And it drags you to sweet Corofin.
Says the guard: ‘Back her down on the siding
There’s a goods from Kilrush coming in.’
Perhaps it comes in two hours,
Perhaps it breaks down on the way.
‘If it does,’ says the guard, ‘by the powers
We’re here for the rest of the day!’
And while you sit and curse your luck
The train backs down into a truck.
Are ye right there, Michael, are ye right?
Have ye got the parcel there for Mrs White?
Ye haven’t, oh begorra,
Say it’s comin’ down tomorra
And well it might now, Michael,
So it might.
At Lahinch the sea shines like a jewel,
With joy you are ready to shout,
When the stoker cries out: ‘There’s no fuel
And the fire’s tee-totally out!
But hand up that bit of a log there
I’ll soon have ye out of the fix
There’s a fine clamp of turf in the bog there
And the rest go a-gatherin’ sticks.’
And while you’re breakin’ bits of trees
You hear some wise remarks like these:
‘Are ye right there, Michael? Are ye right?
Do ye think that you can get the fire to light?
Oh, an hour you’ll require
For the turf it might be drier
Well it might now, Michael,
So it might.’
The former Comerford home and shop on Main Street, Ennistymon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)
Ennistymon is named in a popular version of the song by Brendan O’Dowda, who added lyrics that may not have been part of the original:
Kilkee! Oh you never get near it!
You’re in luck if the train brings you back
For the permanent way is so queer
It spends most of its time off the track.
Uphill the old engine is climbin’
While the passengers push with a will
You’re in luck when you reach Ennistymon
For all the way home is downhill.
And as you’re wobblin’ through the dark
you hear the guard make this remark:
‘Are you right there, Michael, are ye right?
Do you think that you'll be home before it’s light?’
‘Tis all dependin’ whether
The old engine holds together —
And it might now, Michael, so it might! (so it might),
And it might, now, Michael, so it might.’
Ennistymon is a colourful town with brightly-painted shopfronts (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)
Ballykeel House, or Ballykeale House, near Kilfenora, Co Clare … one of the few ‘big houses’ in north-west Clare and once a Comerford family home (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)
Patrick Comerford
Saint Fachan’s Cathedral in Kilfenora, Co Clare, is one of the many cathedrals in the Diocese of Limerick and Killaloe. Although it no longer functions as a cathedral, it remains one of the churches in the Ennis Group of Parishes.
I have visited Kilfenora and the cathedral, with its unique collection of high crosses, since moving to this diocese in early 2017.
But for many people, Kilfenora is associated with either the Kilfenora Ceilí Band or with the television comedy series Father Ted (1995-1998), which filmed many scenes and episodes in Kilfenora as an important filming location. Indeed, Kilfenora is so closely linked with the television comedy that it has often hosted a ‘Father Ted Festival.’
Kilfenora is the gateway to the Burren and is also one of the oldest urban settlements in Co Clare. However, I wanted to return to Kilfenora as part of this year’s summer ‘road trips’ to visit Ballykeel House, or Ballykeale House, just outside the town.
This house was home to a number of generations of the Comerford family. This branch of the Comerford family were merchants in Galway, but they were also closely associated with the tragic events in Kinvara, Co Galway, during the Famine years in the mid-19th century, which I recalled in a blog posting on Sunday evening.
So, after visiting Kinvara and the former Comerford home at Delamaine Lodge, two of us set off through Ballyvaughan and Lisdoonvara to visit Kilfenora and Ballykeel House.
Ballykeel House is a sharp contrast to Comerford Lodge at Spanish Point, another Comerford family home I have visited in recent weeks. Ballykeel House was one of the few ‘big houses’ in north-west Clare. It is said the many guests there over the last two centuries include Daniel O’Connell and Éamon de Valera.
Ballykeel House was originally built by George Lysaght of Woodmount, Ennistymon, in the late 18th century, and George Lysaght was living there in 1814.
Samuel Lewis, in his Topographical Directory, refers to Ballykeale as the seat of the Lysaght family but that a Mrs Fitzgerald was living there in 1837. Two years later, Ballykeel House was bought in 1839 by Henry Comerford (1796-1861), the Galway merchant who almost bankrupted himself and his family by buying the Kinvara estate from Sir William Gregory.
Henry Comerford’s younger daughter, Henrietta Emily Comerford (1837-1881), married Isaac Breen Daly (1835-1871) in 1858, and Henrietta’s father seems to have lived briefly at Ballykeel House in 1861. However, Ballykeel House was inherited by Henry’s eldest daughter, Mary Josephine (1827-1862), who married Captain Francis Blake Forster (1817-1881), High Sheriff of Co Galway in 1878.
Mary Josephine (Comerford) Blake-Forster died on 2 December 1862, but Ballykeel House continued to descend through her descendants in generation of the Blake-Forster family.
Her son, Captain Francis O’Donnellan Blake-Forster (1853-1912), lived in Ballykeel House, Kilfenora, and at Castle Forster, Kinvara, Co Galway. He married Marcella Johnson (1852-1917), in Saint Andrew’s Church, Dublin, in 1879. She was the eldest daughter of Robert Johnson of Arran View, Doolin, Co Clare, and the heiress of Admiral Sir Burton Macnamara.
Francis O’Donnellan Blake-Foster was living in the house in 1906. When he died in 1912, the house was inherited by his son, The O’Donnellan (‘Donie’) Blake-Forster (1886-1938). In 1934, he married Julia Conole (1903-1998), daughter of Michael and Bridget Conole, shopkeepers in Kilfenora.
The O’Donnellan Blake-Forster died in 1938, and Julia Blake Forster was still living in the 1940s, when the paintings in the house are listed in a file in the Irish Tourist Association.
Ballykeel House, or Ballykeale House, near Kilfenora, Co Clare in the 1940s … it was inherited by the Blake-Forster family from the family of Henry Comerford
Ballykeel House is a classical house of cut stone with a central bow. It is a detached, five-bay, two-storey over basement house, with three-bay full-height bowed sections at the centre of both the front façade and the rear of the house.
The entrance has a prostyle diastyle Tuscan portico that is approached by a curved flight of steps. Tuscan columns flank the timber panelled door with a simple entablature above.
There are tripartite window openings in the garden front and timber sliding sash windows, although some windows were replaced ca1990.
The house has cut-limestone walls with raised architraves, aprons at the ground floor windows and string course at the sill level on the first floor of bow. There are curved cut-limestone walls in the basement area and at the steps leading up to the entrance. There are four cast-iron chute covers at the cellars with high relief motifs. The flagged basent area has cut-stone vaulted recesses in the external retaining wall.
The house was reroofed in recent years. This is a hipped artificial slate roof with rendered chimneystacks and a moulded eaves course.
A detached, single-bay two-storey gable-fronted outbuilding has pinnacles and eight-bay side elevations. A detached four-bay single-storey byre in now in ruins. It had segmental-arched openings.
The gateway at the front has four cut-limestone piers with curved walls and a pair of square-headed pedestrian gates set in the curved walls.
In recent years, the late Ann Marcella Mellett (née Blake-Forster), a teacher, lived there until she died on 24 August 2018. Her husband Fachtna Mellett, continued to live at the house.
Ballykeel House came to national attention in 1988 when Fachna Mellett accidentally unearthed a flat stone near the house and uncovered a skeleton. The skeleton lay on its back facing the east. His hands were laying by his side, and he had a full set of teeth.
The site was excavated by the Office of Public Works and the radio-carbon date for the skeleton was given as ca 400 AD. This is 32 years before the traditional arrival of Saint Patrick in Ireland, and the site is about 0.5 km from Kilfenora Cathedral.
Was this a Christian burial? Had Christianity a presence in Kilfenora before Saint Patrick? The find gave increasing strength to the argument that Kilfenora is one of the oldest settlements in Co Clare.
The O’Donnellan Blake-Forster (1886-1938) and his wife Julia (1903-1998), outside Ballykeale House (Photograph: Helen O’Halloran / Vintage Lens Photo Archive
