My Garnish Island photograph illustrates February 2025 ina calendar from Glengarriff

Bryce House at the east end of Garnish Island … my illustration for February in the 2025 calendar produced in Glengarriff, Co Cork (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

February began today, and at the beginning of the month, as I turned the pages of a calendar, I was reminded of my visit to Garnish Island in June 2021. It was a road trip or ‘staycation’ as the Covid-19 pandemic travel restrictions were being eased, and it included three stopovers: two nights each in Dingle, Co Kerry, the West Cork Hotel in Skibbereen and Casey’s Hotel Glengarriff on the Beara Peninsula in West Cork.

It was also a three-island road holiday, with visits to the Great Blasket Island, Cape Clear Island, and then, from Glengarriff, to Garinish Island.

Glengarriff is about 20 km west of Bantry and 30 km east of Castletownbere, and the economy is heavily dependent on tourism. It is the gateway to the Beara Peninsula, connecting Bantry and Kenmare and there is a variety of shops, galleries, hotels, restaurants and pubs.

During that stay in Glengarriff, I took the Harbour Queen ferry from Glengarriff Pier on 18 June 2021 to visit Garnish Island in Bantry Bay. Garnish Island extends to 15 hectares (37 acres) and is also known by the alternative names of Garinish Island, Ilnacullin and Illaunacullin (‘island of holly’).

The island is renowned for its gardens, laid out in beautiful walks and it has specimen plants that are rare in this climate. The ferry trip came close to seal island, with its tame seal colony, and offered a sighting of an eagle’s nest.

It was my first and – so far – my only visit to the island. But now, four years later, one of my photographs on the island has been used to illustrate the month of February in a calendar for 2025 produced in Glengarriff by Deirdre Goyvaerts as a fundraiser, with the proceeds going to a local school, Scoil Fhiachna National School.

Garnish Island owes its present attractive presentation to John Annan Bryce (1841-1923), a Belfast-born Scottish politician who bought the island from the War Office in 1910, and his wife Violet L’Estrange. John Bryce and the architect and garden designer Harold Peto (1854-1933) were a creative partnership, and left us with an island that is now renowned for its gardens and buildings and the richness of plant form and colour that changes continuously with the seasons.

Bryce House, the gardens and the island have been open to the public since 2015 and are cared for the Office of Public Works.

The Goyvaerts family came to Glengarriff almost 60 years ago when Deirdre’s grandparents, Theo and Maria Goyvaerts moved from Belgium with their 11 children in 1965. Now, 60 years later, Deirdre Goyvaerts has assembled a collection of 12 photographs by seven photographers for her Garnish Island Calendar 2025, which also tells the story of Bryace House and the island.

My photograph of Bryce House is her chosen image for this month (February 2025), and also appears in the collage of photographs on the back of the calendar. The other photographs are by: Chris Hill (January, April, June, July and December), Robert Harding (March), Katharina Scnitzer (May, August), Lyne Media (September), Eoin Fealy (October) and Tim Squire (November).

The Garnish Calendar 2025 is produced by Deirdre Goyvaerts and sells at €10. It is available in most shops in Glengarriff.

Ireland’s smallest record shop in Dingle is my big hit in a colourful new guide book

The tiny Dingle Record Shop, on Green Street, is probably the most musical 10 square feet (3 sq m) in Ireland (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

When my parents realised that a young age I was thinking of working as a journalism, they had very different, opposing views of my career choice.

My father never accepted my choice: even when I had become Foreign Desk Editor of The Irish Times, with a high national profile and an international reputation, he continued to ask me when I was going to get a ‘real job.’

It was not as though journalism is not in the family: my foster father, George Kerr, was a journalist in the Irish Press, and Maire Comerford worked there too; I have one cousin who worked with the Irish Independent and two who have also worked with The Irish Times. Yet he continued to see me as working in the ‘arty farty world,’ and to urge me to return to the career of a chartered surveyor I had once trained for.

My mother, for her part, immediately encouraged me to start the Guardian – or the Manchester Guardian as she continued to refer it – as the standard for good journalism, and told me I could look to being published in National Geographic magazine as the measure of success in journalism.

I have remained a daily reader of the Guardian ever since. But, while I worked closely with the Guardian and Guardian journalists, and, I never wrote for it … and I never thought of writing for National Geographic.

But, a sumptuously illustrated, colourful new book published by the National Geographic in recent days arrived in the post from Boston early this week, and it includes one of my photographs, taken in Dingle, Co Kerry, almost two years ago.

As the Covid-19 restrictions were being lifted in Ireland that summer, I spent six or seven days on an early summer road trip from Askeaton, Co Limerick, to Co Kerry and west Cork, visiting Dingle, the Blasket Islands, Cape Clear Island, Baltimore, Skibbereen, Rosscarbery, Glengarriff, Garinish Island, Castletownbere, Gougane Barra and Millstreet.

Jack Kavanagh’s new book, Always Ireland, An Insider's Tour of the Emerald Isle, is designed for American readers who want a memorable guide for planning road trips in Ireland or a memorable gift to being home.

This travel guide covers every county of Ireland, visiting Ireland’s best-loved tourist must-sees, from the literary pubs of Dublin to the Cliffs of Moher. The book is divided into the five newly reimagined regions of Irish tourism: the Ancient East; Munster and the South; the Wild Atlantic Way; Ulster and Northern Ireland; and Offshore Ireland.

Visitors are invited to find coastal cliffs and centuries-old castles, art galleries and libraries, distilleries and pubs (especially the pubs of Kilkenny and Killarney), the Wexford Festival – and hurling, the ‘Heroic Game of Ancient Myths.’ There are more than 300 glorious National Geographic images, illustrating recommended itineraries, practical tips and insightful histories, with advice on where to stay, what to eat, and what to do, and recipes introducing the tastes of Ireland, from the ‘Ulster Fry’, soda bread and Irish stew to Guinness and Oysters and Irish coffee and its origins in Foynes, Co Limerick.

Jack Kavanagh began his career in journalism at the Irish Press. Here he introduces the Irish Diaspora around the world, alongside the Poet President Michael D Higgins; historian Diarmaid Ferriter; harp maker Kevin Harrington; singer-songwriter Christy Moore; wild animal conservationist David O’Connor; the writers John Banville, Frank McCourt and Roddy Doyle; and the film maker, Maire Comerford’s nephew, the film maker Joe Comerford, who wrote and directed Reefer and the Model (1988).

There is an interesting archival photograph of James Joyce in Paris with Sylvia Beach, the first publisher of Ulysses.

My photograph on page 137 is of the tiny Dingle Record Shop on Green Street, described in the caption as ‘probably the most musical 10 square feet (3 sq m) in Ireland.’ I photographed the shop when I was in Dingle on 13 June 2021, during that early summer road trip almost two years ago.

The other photographs in this lavish book are places I have visited on that and so many other similar road trips. There is no Bunclody, Millstreet or Askeaton and a mere passing reference to Cappoquin, and the common mistake is repeated of referring to King John’s Castle in Limerick as ‘King John’s Castle’. But Jack Kavanagh is obviously proud of Glendalough in his native Co Wicklow.

Many of the places – from the library in Trinity College Dublin to the beaches of Achill Island – are familiar to most Irish people. But this book is aimed at the American market in particular. No Irish person I know speaks of ‘Éire’, the ‘Enchanting Emerald Isle’ or ‘Celtic Coffee.’ But this is a book by an insider and not for insiders.

If tourists do not bring this book with them at the beginning of their visits, they would be recommended to collect it at the airport on their way home, a thoughtful present or a beautiful reminder of their holiday and road trips.

• Jack Kavanagh, Always Ireland, An Insider's Tour of the Emerald Isle (Washington DC: National Geographic, 2023), 336 pp, hb, ISBN 978-1-4262-2216-0, $35 in US.

A visit to Rathdowney, Saint Andrew’s Church, and an interesting fountain

Saint Andrew’s Church, the Church of Ireland parish church in Rathdowney, was built in 1818 on the site of an earlier medieval church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

The summer ‘road trip’ this year also took two of us through interesting parts of Co Laois and Co Kilkenny, including the Midlands town of Rathdowney, Co Laois.

Rathdowney is about 30 km south-west of Portlaoise, in a south-west corner of Co Laois. It is squeezed between the M7 and M8 motorways, where the Abbeyleix to Templemore road crosses the road from Borris-in-Ossory to Johnstown, and has a population of about 1,300.

The story of Rathdowney dates from at least the 9th century. The ringfort that gives its name to Rathdowney, Ráth Domhnaigh, ‘Ringfort of the Church’, is mentioned three times in the Annals of the Four Masters, in the years 874, 909 and 1069. But the rath or ringfort was levelled in 1830.

Queen Victoria passed through Rathdowney during her first visit to Ireland in 1849. In a letter to her elder half-sister, Princess Feodora of Leiningen, she described Rathdowney as ‘a quaint village, surrounded by hills’ and ‘an idyllic small town.’

The east end of Saint Andrew’s Church, Rathdowney, Co Laois (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

I was in Rathdowney particularly to see Saint Andrew’s Church, the Church of Ireland parish church on Church Street. The church overlooks the town’s square, and was built in 1818 on the site of an earlier medieval church.

This Georgian Gothic church is known for its tower and needle spire and for its pointed-arch windows and doors. A carved plaque on the north porch reads: ‘AD 1818/Revd Marcus Monk Vicar/William Quinn/John Patterson/ C[hurch] Wardens. Rich[ar]d Dowling Sculpt[or’ Kilkenny.’

The church was renovated in 1865, when a projecting porch and a chancel were added, and it was extended in 1990.

The clock and tower and the west end of Saint Andrew’s Church, Rathdowney, Co Laois (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The surrounding churchyard contains 19th century headstone, most of them upright, and only few leaning and damaged. The mediaeval graveyard includes the possible site of castle-ringwork.

Saint Andrew’s Church celebrated its bicentenary in at a special service led by Bishop Michael Burrows of Cashel, Ferns and Ossory. Those present included Canon George Salter, Rathdowney’s last-ever full-time curate, who started in Rathdowney in 1949, the Revd Tom Sherlock, Archdeacon John Murray and the Revd Baden Stanley.

The Revd Richard Seymour Whiteley is the Rector of Rathdowney Union of Parishes.

The former bank on Church Street has an integral carriageway, a dormer attic, and a carved heraldic plaque (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Across the street from Saint Andrew’s Church, the premises of PP Ryan is one of the many architecturally interesting buildings on The Square. This terraced, four-bay, two-storey former bank was built ca 1875, and has an integral carriageway, a dormer attic and a carved heraldic plaque.

Eastholme Lodge is a Tudor Gothic gate lodge on the Square dating from ca 1865. Eastholme was once the home Captain Alfred Strode Pim, MC, who was managing director of Robert Perry and Son, brewers and maltsters, for 35 years and died in 1953.

A son of Richard Pim, a Dublin stockbroker, he was educated at Cheltenham and Oxford, where he was a contemporary of the Duke of Windsor, then Prince of Wales. When World War I broke out, he joined the Royal Irish Rifles, took part in the retreat from Mons, was badly gassed at Ypres and was reported ‘killed in action’ three times.

On the wall of Eastholme Lodge, the Perry Memorial is a limestone memorial fountain. The moulded base bears an inscription: ‘In memory of Geraldine wife of Alfred William Perry, Erkindale, Rathdowney, died June 1918.’

Geraldine Perry (née Radcliff) was a daughter of William Henry (Geoffrey) Radcliff, who was born in Wilmount, Kells, Co Meath and the widow of John Wallace of Knockfinn, the neighbouring farm, who died in 1900 at the age of 29 in Dublin. She married Alfred William Perry in March 1902.

Eastholme Lodge and the Perry Memorial in Rathdowney (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Alfred William Perry (1861-1942) bought Erkindale, also known as Erkina House, after Charles White died in 1895.

The Perry family was descended from Henry Perry, a Quaker from Shanderry, near Mountmellick, Co Laois. He was the father of five sons, many of whom became successful industrialists. Robert Perry, the eldest son, founded Rathdowney Brewery, of Perry’s Ale fame, and was the father of the Perry Brothers who founded Belmont Mills.

Another son, James Perry, was a director of the Grand Canal Company and was involved with the early development of Irish railways. With the Pims, another Quaker family, he promoted Ireland’s first railway line in Ireland, from Dublin to Kingstown (Dun Laoghaire). He was also director of the Great Southern and Western Railway and the Midland Great Western Railway.

The firm of Robert Perry & Co was founded in Clara by Henry Robert Perry in the 1850s, and was named after his father, Robert Perry, who founded Rathdowney Brewery in 1831.

The Perry Memorial Fountain at Eastholme Lodge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The Perry family sold Erkindale to the Thompson family in the early 1930s. But the Perry name can be seen too on the former premises of HG Perry & Sons, a terraced three-bay, two-storey house, built ca 1835, with an integral carriageway. It was renovated ca 1940, when the pub front inserted to ground floor.

In the same terrace, the former premises of Richard Williams & Sons is a terraced, four-bay two-storey house, built ca 1835. It was renovated ca 1890, when the shopfronts were inserted on the ground floor, including the projecting shopfront to the left.

The Meadow Meats plant, part of the Dawn Meats Group, stands on the site of the old Perry’s Brewery.

The former premises of Richard Williams & Sons and HG Perry & Sons (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Johnstown: a Georgian town in Kilkenny has been bypassed but not forgotten

Johnstown village in Co Kilkenny was planned by the Hely family in the 18th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

In my childhood days, the village of Johnstown in Co Kilkenny was a stopping point on the road journey between Cappoquin, Co Waterford, and Dublin. As children, we thought it was unique as a small village with such broad streets, a square and a tall church tower. But it must have been a stopping point for many other families too, halfway way between Cork (130 km) and Dublin (120 km).

Johnstown stands at the crossroads of the R639, the R502 and the R435 regional roads. But it is now longer familiar to families and so many motorists since it was by-passed by the M8 in December 2008.

During this year’s summer ‘road trip’ two of us returned to Johnstown, to see its broad streets, its square and the parish church, known as Saint Mary’s Church, Fertagh, with its landmark tower.

Johnstown is in the Barony of Galmoy, which takes its name from the River Goul. The village of Johnstown was first laid out in the early 1700s by either Sir John Hely (ca 1650-1701) of Foulkscourt Castle or his eldest son, George Hely of Foulkscourt House.

Sir John Hely, who gave his name to Johnstown, obtained a grant of the old estate of the Purcell family at Foulkscourt in 1697. He had become Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas in 1695, and he acted as Speaker of the Irish House of Lords in 1696-1697.

The planned village was developed in 1770 by John Hely of Foulkscourt, who was inspired by his estate village at Winterbourne Stoke in Wiltshire. The square became the nucleus of the village, with three houses in each quadrant, or 12 in all. The village developed and expanded from this square.

Saint Mary’s Church, Fertagh, perpetuates the memory of the parish of Fertagh dating back to the sixth century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

For many years, the Irish name of Johnstown was rendered as Cuirt a’ Phuca, meaning ‘the Haunted Court.’ But the legend of a ‘Pooka’ or ghost arose from a misinterpretation of the Gaelic name for Foulkscourt, Cuirt Phuco.

Saint Mary’s Church, Fertagh, perpetuates the memory of the parish of Fertagh, which dates back to perhaps the sixth century. The old Irish name of Fertagh was Fertae Caerach, which may mean ‘Circular Grave,’ and the name was retained through the centuries.

The tower of Fertagh was said to have been built by a mythical character known as the Goban Saor. But rhe area has long been associated with Saint Ciarán, the patron saint of the Diocese of Ossory, who is said to have lived in the locality and to have watered his cow at Tobar an Phuicin. A pattern was once held in the area on Saint Ciarán’s Day, 5 March. Kieran’s Road ran from Fertagh Church by the old churches at Borrismore and at Rathealy to Callan.

The early Celtic Church and the mediaeval priory at Fertagh were both dedicated to Saint Ciarán. The tower and an old wall dated from the 10th century. The limestone tower is 100 ft high and 50 ft in diameter at base.

Grangefertagh, a sixth century round tower 3.5 km north-east of Johnstown, is associated with Saint Ciarán of Saigir and was attacked by the Vikings in 865. A Viking Age brooch found in Ballyspellan in 1806 is now in the National Museum of Ireland.

The tower at Fertagh is said to have been attacked and burned in 1136 by Muirceartach O Loughlin of the Northern Ui Neill, who plundered and burned the churches of Upper Ossory. The chief master of Fearta, Eochaidh O Cuinn, fled to the tower with the community and church valuables, but the door was forced and the occupants and contents of the tower were destroyed by fire.

The ornamental entrance doorway was moved from the earlier church to Saint Mary’s Church in 1799 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

During the Anglo-Norman reforms of the Church in the 13th century, the Blanchfield family founded at a priory dedicated to Saint Kieran at Fertagh for the Regular Canons of Saint Augustine.

Royal letters in 1251 granted protection to the Prior and Canons of Fertakeragh and Ackidm Acarth (Aghmacart). The rectories of Fartagh and Donoughmore were appropriated to the priory, which had an estate of about 1,000 acres, including a grange or farmhouse by the River Goul.

At the suppression of the monasteries in 1540, the Prior of Fertagh, Robert Shortall, was given a pension of five marks. In 1567, the priory and its lands were granted to a branch of the Ormond Butlers.

The Church of Ireland parish continued to use the church of Fertagh from the Reformation until 1731, when the church was repaired and rebuilt as a parish church.

The church roof collapsed in 1780 and the church was abandoned. The ornamental entrance doorway of the west gable and the perpendicular style tracery East Window were moved to Saint Mary’s Church, Fertagh, in 1799. A small tracery window from the north wall and a carved polygonal baptismal font were later moved to Johnstown Roman Catholic church.

The decorative East Window was salvaged from the earlier, mediaeval Fertagh Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Saint Mary’s Church, Fertagh, is a well-composed modest-scale church with the standard arrangement of a nave that are typical of churches sponsored by the Board of First Fruits. The church tower and parapet stand out against the skyline.

The cut-stone dressings include a finely-carved doorcase of mediaeval provenance, and it is said the decorative East Window was salvaged from the earlier, mediaeval Fertagh Church.

This is a three-bay, double-height church built by the Board of First Fruits between 1796/1799 and 1801. It has a single-bay, single-storey vestry at the north-east, and a single-bay, three-stage entrance tower with a parapet at the west end.

The pitched slate roofs have clay ridge tiles, there is cut-limestone coping and cast-iron rainwater goods on squared rubble stone eaves. The random rubble stone walls may have been rendered originally rendered.

The squared rubble stone advanced corner piers on the tower have square-headed slit-style blind apertures, there are cut-limestone stringcourses at each stage on the tower, and the rendered battlemented parapet on a moulded cornice has stepped corner pinnacles and cut-limestone coping.

The pointed-arch windows are blind on the north side. They have cut-limestone sills, squared limestone voussoirs, Y-mullions in the nave forming a bipartite pointed-arch arrangement.

The East Window, with cut-limestone dressings, is said to have been salvaged from the mediaeval church of Fertagh. It has Y-mullions forming a four-part elliptical-headed arrangement with decorative overlights to the arch that have hood moulding over supporting squared limestone voussoirs.

The church is well maintained outside and inside, with stained-glass windows of artistic importance and a timber gallery at the west end. The surrounding churchyard has an array of gravestones with high quality stone masonry.

The other interesting antiquity at Fertagh is Kilpatrick’s Chapel, founded in the 15th century by the Mac Giolla Padraig alias FitzPatrick alias Kilpatrick, of Upper Ossory, to house the ‘Kilpatrick Tomb.’

Fertagh is in the Diocese of Ossory, but is grouped with Kilcooley, Saint Mary’s, Littleton, and Crohane in the Diocese of Cashel. The parish is vacant at present.

The pointed-arch windows are blind on the north side (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Soon after Johnstown had been laid out, its reputation grew in the early 18th century with the popularity of the mineral spa at Ballyspellan Spa Well. When Thomas Sheridan and Jonathan Swift visited the spa in 1728, Sheridan wrote a poem praising the medicinal qualities of the spa.

Sheridan wrote, in part:

All you that wou’d refind your Blood
As pure as fam’d Llewellyn
By Waters clear, come ev’ry Year
To drink at Ballyspellan

Tho’ Pox or Itch, your Skins enrich
With Rubies past and telling,
T’will clear your skin before you’ve been
A month at Ballyspellan …

If dropsy fills you to the Gills
From Chin to Toe tho’ swelling
Pour in, pour out, you cannot doubt
A Cure at Ballyspellan.

Swift penned a retort that read, in part:

Dare you dispute,
You Sawcy Brute,
And think there’s no rebelling
Your scurvey Lays,
And senseless praise,
You give to Ballyspellan.

Howe’er you bounce,
I here pronounce
Your Med’cine is repelling
Your water’s mud
And sowrs the Blood
When drank at Ballyspellan.

Those pocky Drabs
To cure their scabs
You thither are compelling
Will back be sent
Worse then they went
From nasty Ballyspellan

Ballyspellan Spa is no more but the water that made it famous still flows into the well house at Ballyspellan.

Johnstown has been bypassed by the M8 since 2008 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Saint Fursey’s Church in Banteer, Co Cork, site of Ireland’s last pitched battle

Saint Fursey’s Church in Banteer, Co Cork, dates from 1828 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

One of the many small towns and villages I visited in Co Cork during this year’s summer ‘road trip’ was Banteer, south of Kanturk and west of Mallow in north Cork.

Banteer was at the centre of the last pitched battle of the Irish Confederate Wars, the Battle of Knocknaclashy, which was fought near Banteer in 1651, when an Irish force under Donagh MacCarthy, Viscount Muskerry, was defeated by a Cromwellian force under Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery.

Dr Patrick ‘Pat’ O’Callaghan (1906-1991) was born in Banteer on 28 January 1906. He was the first Irish athlete from Ireland to win an Olympic medal under the Irish flag rather than the British flag. He won gold medals at Amsterdam in 1928 and in Los Angeles in 1932, and he was the flag bearer for Ireland at the 1932 Olympic Games.

Saint Fursey’s Church, Banteer, Co Cork, facing the liturgical east (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Banteer never grew as a town or reached its promising potential. Banteer railway station, on the Mallow to Tralee line, opened on 16 April 1853 but was closed for goods traffic on 2 September 1976, although it remains open for passenger trains on the Dublin-Tralee route.

Today, the most notable building in Banteer is Saint Fursey’s Roman Catholic Church, a simple, single-cell church, with long side elevations and a stone façade.

Saint Fursey was involved in early missions to East Anglia and France and was said to have experienced angelic visions of the afterlife before he died in 650.

Saint Fursey’s Church, Banteer, Co Cork, facing the liturgical west (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Sant Fursey’s Church occupies a prominent corner site in Banteer, enhanced by the boundary walls and railings and by the piers and gate to the entrance.

The decoration on the façade of the church is minimal and is restricted to the cross finials and window surrounds. Inside, the church is more ornate, but retains its stained-glass windows and carved plaque.

This church dates from 1828, and was restored and enlarged in 1952. The decoration of the façade is minimal and restricted to the cross finials and window surrounds. It has a five-bay nave, a single-bay flat-roofed addition at the south gable, a pitched slate roof with carved limestone cross finials and dressed limestone coping at the gables, with a dressed limestone eaves course.

There are snecked sandstone walls on the east and north side, with a rendered south gable. The north gable has carved limestone plaques. The carved limestone font at the north doorway has a carved limestone stoup set into a pointed arch recess at the south doorway.

A carved limestone memorial in the church is dated 1834 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The round-headed windows have dressed limestone voussoirs and sills and are filled wth stained-glass. The round-headed door openings have timber battened double-leaf doors, dressed limestone voussoirs and ornate cast-iron strap hinges.

Inside, the church is more ornate, but retains its stained-glass windows and an interesting carved plaque. There is a coffered ceiling, a carved timber gallery, carved confession boxes and a carved limestone memorial dated 1834, with an urn and heraldic motifs in relief.

The cast-iron bellstand at the north-west of church has fluted, cast-iron, circular-profile columns with a cast-iron bell.

Saint Colman, patron sain of the Diocese of Cloyne, depicted in a stained glass window in the church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

At the east side of the site, the churchyard has carved limestone gravestones and cast-iron and dressed limestone grave surrounds. The snecked sandstone boundary walls have cut sandstone square-profile piers at the entrance.

The simple single-cell form of this church, along with its long side elevations and stone façade, make it a notable feature in Banteer. It stands on a prominent corner site, enhanced by its boundary walls and railings and by the piers and entrance gate.

Hub caps become street art in Banteer (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Returning to Youghal in the ‘Church Review’

A two-page feature on Youghal, Co Cork, in the October 2021 edition of the ‘Church Review’

Patrick Comerford

The October edition of the Church Review, the Dublin and Glendalough diocesan magazine edited by the Revd Nigel Waugh, Rector of Delgany, Co Wicklow, was distributed in parishes and churches throughout Dublin and Wicklow this morning [3 October 2021].

My monthly feature in the Church Review this month is a two-page spread (pp 12-13) looking at the charms of Youghal, Co Cork, including the mediaeval parish church, Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church, the Clock Tower, the legends about Sir Walter Raleigh, including the introduction of potatoes and tobacco to Ireland, the election of the first Jewish mayor in any town on these islands, and recollections of the writer and journalist Claud Cockburn.

I have happy but blurred memories of visiting Youghal from Cappoquin during my childhood years, and so it was a pleasure to rediscover Youghal during this year’s summer ‘road trip.’

Many people are familiar with the charms of West Cork, but the attractions of this part of East Cork are often overlooked.

But – more about Youghal on this blog tomorrow [4 October 2021].

Island hopping in Aegean-like summer sunshine in Ireland

A sculptor’s workshop close to Saint John’s Church in Knightstown on Valentia Island (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

It is two years since I have been in Greece. But now that the vaccine has been rolled out and – despite the forest fires and soaring temperatures in August – Greece appears to be as safe a place to be as Ireland.

I hope to be back in Crete later in September, returning to an island that has been almost like a second home since the 1980s.

But the warm sunshine earlier this summer in Ireland offered opportunities for some ‘island hopping’ in Cork and Kerry that was almost as inviting as ‘island hopping’ in the Aegean and the Mediterranean.

Over a number of weeks, two of us found the opportunities – more by accident than design – to visit Valentia Island and the Blasket Islands off the coast of Co Kerry, and Cape Clear Island and Garinish Island off the coast of Co Cork.

The Church of Saint John the Baptist, Valentia … is this ‘the most westerly Protestant Church in Europe’? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Returning to Valentia
by accident

As the first promises of summer arrived, we spent a day at Kells Bay House and Gardens and Kells Bay Beach on the north loop of the Ring of Kerry, and as the day, drew to a close we visited Cahersiveen.

Cahersiveen’s place in church history includes the story of Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty (1898-1963), who is known as the ‘Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican,’ for his daring exploits and the rescue of over 4,000 people, including Jews and Allied soldiers, in Nazi-occupied Rome.

The town’s Roman Catholic parish church is named the Daniel O’Connell Memorial Church, in honour of the monumental figure in Irish politics in the early 19th century. Saint Finian’s, the former Church of Ireland parish church in the town, has housed the Oratory Pizza and Wine Bar since 2016.

As the early summer sunshine continued to linger, we found ourselves on the ferry to Valentia Island once again, and visiting the Church of Saint John the Baptist in Knightstown, which claims to be ‘the most westerly Protestant Church in Europe.’

Previous Rectors of Valentia include John Godfrey Day (1830-1847), later Dean of Ardfert (1861-1879), father of Bishop Maurice Day of Clogher and grandfather of Archbishop Godfrey Day, Abraham Isaac, later Dean of Ardfert (1894-1905); the Revd Alexander Delap, father of the marine biologist, Maude Delap (1866-1953); and George Lill Swain, later Dean of Limerick (1929-1954).

The Sensory Garden was designed by Arthur Shackleton to cater for people with disabilities and was opened by Bishop Michael Mayes in 2005.

A sign outside the church claims it is ‘the most westerly Protestant Church in Europe.’ But, of course, that depends on how you draw the maps and boundaries of Europe. No doubt, churches in Iceland could make similar claims, but is Greenland part of Europe of part of the North American continent?

The Blasket Islands in summer sunshine … an invitation to a Mediterranean experience – but only in summer (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The literary legacy of
the Blasket Islands

The Great Blasket Island is one of the most remote parts of the Gaeltacht or Irish-speaking area of Co Kerry. It has been deserted since 1954, but remains a part of Irish literature and cultural identity because of the disproportionate number of islanders whose books were part of the school curriculum for generations of Irish schoolchildren.

Their books continue to be read, and most Irish people are still familiar with the names of Peig Sayers (1873-1958), no matter how negative their memories are of her book, and Muiris Ó Súilleabháin and Tomás Ó Criomhthain.

I am typical of my generation when I say I still resent having to read through Peig, and it helped to create many long-lasting negative images of how the Irish language was taught at schools in the 1960s.

But my schoolboy experiences of the Kerry Gaeltacht in Ballinskelligs have left me with a life-long affection for this part of Ireland, and a day-long guided tour of the Blasket Islands seemed inevitable during a summer visit to the Dingle Peninsula.

The Church of Ireland school on the Great Blasket set up by Mrs Thompson from Ventry lasted a mere two or three decades (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The Great Blasket covers over 1,100 acres of largely mountainous terrain, and is about 4 miles long and half a mile wide.

A number of books were written in the early 20th century by islanders, recording island traditions and way of life. These include Peig or Machnamh Seanamhná (An Old Woman’s Reflections) by Peig Sayers (1939), An tOileánach (The Islandman) by Tomás Ó Criomhthain (1929), and Fiche Blian ag Fás (Twenty Years a-Growing) by Muiris Ó Súilleabháin (1933).

During my visit, I began to feel sorry for Peig, with her arranged marriage, her sorrows, her hardships, the children who died without the joys of childhood, the reproaches for her grief and mourning, and the bodies falling out of coffins.

They were stories that should never have been imposed on young teenagers in the 1960s. My new-fond sympathy for Peig was complimented during that visit by comparisons of Tomás Ó Criomhthain with his Russian contemporary Maxim Gorky, placing him within the corpus of European literature of the day.

Cape Clear Island off the coast of Co Cork is intimately linked with the legends surrounding the life Saint Ciarán (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Saint Ciaran’s legacy
on Cape Clear Island

Clear Island or Cape Clear Island (Cléire or Oileán Chléire), 8 miles off the south-west coast of Co Cork, is the most southerly inhabited part of Ireland. Cape Clear is 3 miles long by 1 mile wide. Most of the 147 residents are bilingual in Irish and English, making this Ireland’s southern-most inhabited Gaeltacht island.

Mizen Head, the mainland’s most southerly point, is to the north-west. The nearest neighbouring island is Sherkin Island, 2 km to the east, and the solitary Fastnet Rock, with its lighthouse, is three miles west of the island. The boat trip from Baltimore this summer took only 40 minutes, with views of the rugged coastline West Cork and occasional sightings of dolphins.

Ferries from Schull and Baltimore arrive into the North Harbour, while the South Harbour is often a berth for yachts and pleasure boats.

Arriving on the ferry from Baltimore into the North Harbour, the first archaeological and ecclesiastical site the visitor sees are the ruins of a 12th-century church, close to the main pier, with Saint Ciaran’s Well beside it.

Saint Ciarán of Saighir gives his name to the ruined church and holy well at the North Harbour (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Saint Ciarán, the island’s patron, is allegedly one of Ireland’s four, early pre-Patrician saints. He is said to have been born on the shoreline beside the harbour, Trá Chiaráin, in front of the well, and the islanders gather there to mark his feast on 5 March each year.

Saint Ciarán of Saighir was one of the ‘Twelve Apostles of Ireland’ and was the founding Bishop of Saighir (Seir-Kieran). He remains the patron saint of the Diocese of Ossory. Sometimes he is called Saint Ciarán the Elder to distinguish him from Saint Ciarán of Clonmacnoise.

The reverence for Saint Ciarán is reflected in the proliferation of his name on Cape Clear Island, from beaches to holy wells, from churches to graveyards. Indeed, almost every family includes someone with the name Ciarán.

The ruins of Saint Ciaran’s Church, a 12th century rectangular church surrounded by a graveyard, face the North Harbour. A steep climb from the harbour and a 15-minute walk lead up to Saint Ciarán’s Roman Catholic Church, built in 1839. It is the southern-most church still in use in Ireland.

The Italian Garden is the outstanding feature on Garinish Island (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Mediterranean gardens
on Garinish Island

The Harbour Queen ferry from Glengarriff Pier brought us to Garinish Island at the mouth of Bantry Bay. Garinish is renowned for its gardens, laid out in beautiful walks and it has specimen plants that are rare in this climate.

Garinish Island extends to 15 hectares (37 acres). The gardens on Garnish Island flourish in the mild humid micro-climate of Glengarriff Harbour. This is an island garden of rare beauty, assisted by a mainly pine shelter belt, and known to horticulturists and lovers of trees and shrubs around the world.

The gardens were designed by the architect and garden designer Harold Peto (1854-1933) for the island’s owners, John Annan Bryce (1841-1923), a Belfast-born Scottish politician who bought the island from the War Office in 1910, and his wife Violet (L’Estrange).

Peto and Bryce were a creative partnership, so the island is still renowned for its richness of plant form and colour, changing continuously with the seasons.

The Italian Garden is, perhaps, the outstanding feature of Garinish. Here, Peto’s genius, combined with Bryce’s ideas and resources, resulted in the creation of a formal architectural garden that blends with its natural setting.

The Martello tower on the island dates from the time of the Napoleonic Wars. Plans were drawn up for a mansion incorporating the Martello Tower, but it was never built. Instead, Bryce House, an extensive cottage, became the home of the Bryce family.

Among the guests were the writers George Bernard Shaw, who stayed on the island in 1923 while writing his play, Saint Joan, the poet Æ George Russell, and Agatha Christie.

Bryce House is presented as it would have appeared when the Bryce family lived there. A selection from their vast collection of important paintings, prints, drawings, and books is on display.

A theme throughout the house is the winged lion of Saint Mark, the symbol of Venice – yet another reminder of the Mediterranean during an island-hopping expedition in Ireland this summer.

This two-page feature was first published in the September 2021 edition of ‘The Church Review’ (Dublin and Glendalough), pp 14-15

Boyle’s Almshouses: 400 years of social housing in Youghal

Boyle’s Almshouses on Main Street, Youghal, Co Cork … a 400-year-old example of social housing (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

I have been writing in recent days about the former Benedictine priory in Youghal, Co Cork, the former Franciscan Abbey or South Abbey, and the nuns who maintained the mediaeval lighthouse in Youghal.

When the monastic houses were dissolved at the Tudor Reformation, towns throughout Ireland and England lost not only the spiritual life of these foundations, but also the hospitals and hostels that cared for the sick and offered care and hospitality to pilgrims and travellers.

To meet this need in the decades that followed, many wealthy and powerful individuals founded charitable institutions. A surviving example of one of these foundations is Boyle’s Almshouses on the corner of Main Street and Church Street in Youghal, founded by Richard Boyle (1566-1643), 1st Earl of Cork or the ‘Great Earl of Cork.’

These almshouses are a short walk down Church Street from Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church. They were built in 1624 by Richard Boyle, who had become Lord Boyle, Baron of Youghal, in 1616, and Earl of Cork and Viscount Dungarvan in 1620.

The almshouses are said to stand on the site of an earlier town house that was the residence in Youghal of the Earls of Desmond. The were built of local old red sandstone, probably taken from the former Dominican friary or North Abbey in Youghal.

Boyle had the support of the Corporation or town council of Youghal, and initially the almshouses housed six old soldiers, ‘six old decayed soldiers or alms men’, who also received a pension of £5 a year each.

The first residents were probably retired soldiers engaged in the Desmond rebellion. Later, the houses were extended to accommodate poor widows too. Widows and widowers were normally kept apart by assigning them to different floors. In their days, these were an early example of social housing.

Four of the six almshouses face onto Main Street, and the remaining two facing onto Church Street. Although they were built four decades after the death of James I, they have been described as being ‘most convincingly Jacobean’ in their style of architecture.

A carved plaque on the Main Street façade displays Richard Boyle’s coat of arms (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The Main Street or east façade presents a four-bay, three storey building, with a plain gable at the north end. The almshouses were originally gabled at the front, with heavy mullioned windows and thick hood mouldings above.

Some of the architectural details include six pointed arched doorways, the two mullioned windows on Church Street, and a carved plaque on the Main Street façade displaying Richard Boyle’s coat of arms.

These buildings have been described as the oldest surviving almshouses in Ireland, although they were built about 30 years after Sir Richard Shee’s almshouse in Kilkenny.

When a poll tax of two shillings was introduced in 1697, the residents of the almshouses were exempt. In later years, the residents were provided with fuel and an annual allowance from the Duke of Devonshire.

Two of the six almshouses face onto Church Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The almshouses retained their original form until the mid-19th century, when some of the houses were modified substantially. The flat elevation seen on Main Street today was created when a new roofline was put in, removing the original pointed gables. The building was stonewalled all round and the original interior was formed with two floors and timber partitions between the houses.

Bernard Powell, a local man who lived in one of the houses in recent years. He suffered from gigantism, and stood almost 7 ft tall. But the front door was little more than 5 ft high. Despite this obvious disadvantage, he continued to live in the almshouses until he died.

Under a proposal in 1976, the former almshouse were to become a library space. Only the façade of the almshouse was to be preserved, a new entrance was to be created, an interior garden would be created off a corridor on the way to the adult and reference sections of the library.

Instead, however, in recent years alterations and modifications were made to the buildings and they now accommodate senior citizens.

The original gables survive on the Church Street façade (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Lighthouses and lace … once the lot of the nuns in Youghal

The former Presentation Convent and Chapel in Youghal, Co Cork … is this work of Ashlin architecture in danger of being lost? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

Lighthouse-keeping and lace making seem o have been the lot of nuns in Youghal, Co Cork, for centuries.

The former Presentation Convent in Youghal was known for the word-famous Youghal Lace, once sought after by popes, queens, and all who valued exquisitely crafted garments without worrying about the price.

Wedding gowns and christening robes that were made of Youghal Lace would become family heirlooms.

The Convent Lace School was opened in 1852 by Mother Mary Ann Smith of the Presentation Convent and the world-famous Youghal Lace was made here.

The production of Youghal Lace grew out of the need to create employment in the area during the potato famine in the later 1840s.

When a piece of lace of Italian origin came into the hands of Mother Mary Ann Smith of the Presentation Convent in Youghal, she carefully unravelled the piece of lace, examined how it had been made, and then mastered the stitches.

Mother Mary Ann Smith then taught what she had learned to children in the convent who had shown an aptitude for needlework. This lace is made entirely by the needle, and the thread used is of very fine cotton.

The Convent Lace School opened in 1852 and flourished. In 1863 A shawl of Youghal Lace was presented in 1852 to the Princess of Wales, later Queen Alexander, when she married the future King Edward VII. It was the first of many presentations of Youghal Lace to the British royal family.

Youghal Lace was awarded several medals at in prestigious international exhibitions, including the Vatican Exhibition (1888), the Chicago World’s Fair (1893), the RDS, and the Exhibition of British Lace, London (1906).

The convent closed in the early 1990s, and the nuns’ coffins were reburied in the North Abbey Cemetery. A statue of the Virgin Mary once stood on a plinth on the Bell Tower overlooking the grounds and the nuns’ graveyard. The empty plinth can still be seen in the bell tower.

The building was refurbished and adapted as the Youghal International College, a Spanish second-level school, in 1992. But the building is closed and fenced off again, although it has been declared a National Monument.

Gothic decline at the former Presentation Convent in Youghal (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The convent chapel designed by AWN Pugin’s son-in-law, the Cork-born architect George Coppinger Ashlin (1837-1921), as part of the convent complex, with the former convent to the north, sharing a decorative scheme and architectural style.

The chapel, in a mixture of Romanesque and Gothic styles, is typical of churches of its type and time, with features such as the round-headed windows, a bellcote, and steeply-pitched roofs and gables. The variety of materials used in building it add decorative emphasis to the façade and textural variety to the streetscape.

The gable-fronted chapel was built ca 1880, with slightly projecting gabled transepts, four-bay nave elevations, a gabled single-bay single-storey porch at the south side and a gabled bellcote and carved limestone pinnacles at the end.

The chapel is part of a group that forms an imposing and unusual feature on the streetscape of the town. The attached former convent, built at the same time, is a ten-bay, three-storey block with advanced end bays, a gable-fronted, single-bay, single-storey porch at the front elevation and a six-stage, square-profile tower at the north.

The other architectural features include sandstone chimneystacks, dressed limestone quoins, carved limestone bracketed eaves courses, the cross finial, and the round-headed windows.

I hope this important Ashlin chapel, now vacant on a prominent site, is not facing the same fate as the one that has befallen the former Chapel and Mercy Convent in Skibbereen in West Cork, abandoned to the elements after a fire some months ago, to fall into disrepair and decay. The convent and chapel in Skibbereen were designed in the 1860s by Pugin and Ashlin, and the neglected convent chapels in these two towns – one in East Cork, the other in West Cork – have been parts of architecturally significant ecclesiastical complexes.

The former Loreto Convent is being transformed into a modern apartment complex (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Further south on the same road in Youghal, the former Loreto Convent campus has been on the market in recent years and is now being converted into apartments in a new development known as Ashton Court.

This site includes the former Loreto Convent and Secondary School, Marymount House, halls and outbuildings on about 4.2 acres of mature grounds on elevated site, with sea views over Youghal bay with its sandy beaches and panoramic views of the River Blackwater.

The former convent is an imposing, red-brick, two-storey over basement building. It was built ca 1850, and was originally known as Ashton Court. It later included a library, conservatory, and first-floor oratory. The former chapel had been converted into a community room.

The former school buildings were extended in mid-1970s, and refurbished and extended in 1991. The school closed in 2006, leaving the site to slowly fall into disrepair.

Naas-based Redbarn Construction Ltd bought the listed property as part of an immediate €6 million investment that also includes restoring a local cinema and an unfinished housing estate. The Loreto site plan envisages about 40 apartments in a gated development, some with access from Golf Links Road. The plans also envisage turning a small cottage close into a coffee shop and newsagents.

There has been a lighthouse overlooking the Blackwater estuary since the late 12th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The two former convents are immediately north of Youghal Lighthouse. It stands on the site of the first lighthouse in Youghal, built there over 800 years ago by Maurice FitzGerald (1194-1257). It is interesting, therefore, that this first lighthouse was maintained by the nuns of Saint Anne’s Convent for centuries.

That first lighthouse fell into disrepair after the nuns’ community was dissolved during the Tudor Reformation.

More than 30 ships were wrecked off the coast of Youghal in the 1820s alone. The merchants of Youghal demanded a new lighthouse be built on nearby Capel Island. But the authorities declined, and for over a decade the merchants and the local authorities fought over the ideal location for a new lighthouse.

Capel Island was then chosen, and building work started in the late 1840s. But local opinion changed, a new location was sought, and the half-built lighthouse on Capel Island was abandoned.

Finally, a new lighthouse opened in 1852 – in the same place where the nuns had run one from the 12th century. The half-built lighthouse on Capel Island can still be seen, and the entire island is now a bird sanctuary.

The last lighthouse attendant in Youghal moved out in 1996. Since then, the lighthouse has been fully automated and is now run from Dublin.

‘No Parking, Day or Night. Emergency Access Only’ … the gate in front of the former Presentation Convent Chapel in Youghal (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

A former Gothic chapel, school and parish hall at South Abbey, Youghal

The former chapel of easte at South Abbey stands on the site of a 13th-century Franciscan Friary in Youghal, Co Cork (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

For much of the 19th century, the Church of Ireland parish in Youghal, Co Cork, had not just one but two churches. During my ‘road trip’ visit to Youghal last week, as well as visiting Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church, I also visited the former chapel of ease at South Abbey, which later served as a parish school.

South Abbey and the street it fronts take their name from South Abbey, a 13th-century Franciscan Friary in Youghal.

The Franciscan Friary or South Abbey was founded in 1224 by Maurice FitzMaurice FitzGerald, 2nd Lord of Offaly, and he was buried there in 1257. This was the first Franciscan foundation in Ireland.

Originally, Maurice FitzGerald planned a castle on the site. But, after some of the workers were treated harshly by his eldest son, he changed his design and founded a religious house.

Maurice FitzGerald died in 1257, and the Franciscan friary was completed in 1260 by his youngest son, Thomas. His grandson, Thomas FitzGerald, ancestor of the Earls of Kildare, founded the Dominican Priory or North Abbey.

The Franciscan Friary in Youghal was dissolved, along with other monastic houses, during the Tudor Reformation in the 16th century and none of its remains survive today.

The church at South Abbey, built in 1817, was designed by the priest-architect Edward Marks (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The Church of Ireland parish in Youghal built a new church at South Abbey as a chapel of ease in 1817. The church built at a cost of £1,200, of which £900 was a gift from the Board of First Fruits and £300 was raised by subscription. The Duke of Devonshire, who lived at Lismore Castle, gave £100.

The internal dimensions were 18 x 9 metres. In addition, there was a bell tower and a porch. The staircase and upper floor were insterted at a later date when the church was converted for use as parish school.

The church was designed by the Revd Dr Edward Marks (1791-1869), an architect who was later ordained a priest in the Church of Ireland.

Edward Marks, a son of the architect Edward Marks, was born in Cork in 1792, and studied at the Dublin Society’s School of Architectural Drawing from 1812.

Marks married Martha Hammett of Waterford in Saint Patrick’s Church, Waterford, in 1815 and the couple lived in Waterford. Martha died in Waterford at the age of 23 on 4 December 1817, 18 months after their marriage, having given birth to a son, (Dr) Alexander Hammett Marks.

Edward Marks had designed the chapel of ease at South Abbey that year. He remained in Waterford for a time after Martha’s death. While he was still living in Waterford, he designed a school and schoolmaster’s apartments in Lismore in 1819 for Colonel Currey.

But Marks then gave up architecture and to study for ordination in the Church of Ireland. He entered Trinity College Dublin, in 1821 at the age of 29, and received the degrees BA (1825), MA (1832), and BD and DD (1840).

He was ordained in the Diocese of Raphoe in 1825, and returned to Dublin, first as curate of Sandford Parish (1830), Assistant Chaplain of the Molyneux Asylum (1835), and then as Resident Preacher and a Minor Canon in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin (1837) and a Vicar Choral (1839).

He died on 7 May 1869 at the age of 77; his second wife, Joyce Anne, died on 27 April 1872. His memorial tablet in Saint Patrick’s says he ‘laboured zealously and faithfully in this Cathedral and Deanery upwards of 32 years.’ During that time, ‘the Schools, especially the Infant School which he established, were the first and constant object of his fostering care.’

The chapel of ease at South Abbey became a school and parish hall in 1888 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The chapel of ease at South Abbey continued in use until 1888, when it became a school on the ground floor, with a parish hall above level. It continued to function as a school and parish hall until 2011.

This is a listed property fronting directly onto the street at South Abbey, and it continues to make a notable impression on the streetscape of Youghal. Its gothic style is typical of churches of the time. The architectural features include the pointed arch openings, the centralised parapet, the towers and the porch.

There are elements of Neo-Tudor style too in the four-centred arch opening and square headed surround and in the cruciform incisions. The design is emphasised by the dividing buttresses at the nave and symmetrical façade. The Y-tracery in the windows adds decorative interest to the façade and is well crafted.

South Abbey House, at No 7 South Abbey, part of a terrace of elegant Georgian houses (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The former church faces a terrace of elegant Georgian houses on South Abbey, including the house at No 7, known as South Abbey House. The terrace was built ca 1780, and the most striking feature of No 7 is the large, finely crafted and unusual door surround.

South Abbey House is a terraced four-bay four-storey house with an integral carriage and this striking door surround was added in the late 19th century. It provides a central focus and decorative emphasis to a building of regular proportions and simple elegance.

This pointed arch opening has a decorative render surround incorporating engaged columns, a timber panelled door and a render canopy supported by columns with decorative capitals, and a round-headed arch with a decorative surround and cornice.

The diminishing windows of the house are typical features of townhouses of its time and emphasise the vertical thrust and elegance of the façade.

As for the South Abbey national school, it moved in 2011 to a new premises on the Golf Links Road, leaving the old school empty.

The large, finely crafted and unusual door surround at No 7 South Abbey (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Myrtle Grove in Youghal has links to Walter Raleigh and Claud Cockburn

Myrtle Grove, Youghal, Co Cork … associated with many of the legends about Sir Walter Raleigh (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

When I was visiting Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church in Youghal, Co Cork, as part of last week’s summer ‘road trip,’ I was disappointed not to be able to have a proper look at Myrtle Grove.

This Tudor house beside the gates of the churchyard is said to have been the home of Sir Walter Raleigh, and was also the home of the writer and journalist Claud Cockburn, who wrote regularly for The Irish Times, as did many of his sons.

Myrtle Grove is said to stand on the site of the house of the Wardens of Youghal. With its tall chimneys, oriel windows and many gables, the house is a rare Irish example of an unfortified, late mediaeval Tudor style stone house. It is said to have been built by Sir Walter Raleigh, and there are many legends associated with his time in the house.

It is said that a panicked servant at Myrtle Grove dowsed Raleigh in water while he was smoking the first tobacco in Ireland.

Raleigh reputedly brought the first potatoes from Virginia to Ireland in 1585, and planted them at his home at Myrtle Grove. For the following two years he was mayor of Youghal, where Queen Elizabeth I granted him 42,000 acres (170 sq km) of land.

At Myrtle Grove, he entertained the poet Edmund Spenser, who is said to have been inspired to write the last verse of the ‘Faerie Queene’ while looking out the window of Myrtle Grove.

Four yew trees in the gardens are said to have been planted by Raleigh, and he made his final trip from Cork to the West Indies in 1617.

However, many of the legends in Youghal about Walter Raleigh date to the romanticising of his links with Youghal by Samuel Hayman in his New Handbook for Youghal (1858). The Hayman family acquired Myrtle Grove in the 18th century, and renovated the house in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Myrtle Grove, Youghal, seen from Saint Mary’s Churchyard … the house was the home of the Blake, Arbuthnot and Cockburn families in the 20th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

In the early 20th century, it was the home of Sir Henry Arthur Blake (1840-1918), who had been Governor of the Bahamas (1884-1887), Newfoundland (1887-1888), Jamaica (1888-1898), Hong Kong (1898-1903) and Ceylon (1903-1907). He was born in Limerick, and died at Myrtle Grove in 1918.

Two years earlier, in 1916, Blake’s daughter, Olive, and her husband, Major John Bernard Arbuthnot, moved into Myrtle Grove with their family. Their youngest child was the writer and artist Patricia Evangeline Anne Cockburn (1914-1989). When the Arbuthnots moved to London in 1918, Patricia was left at Myrtle Grove with her widowed grandmother.

In 1940, after a divorce, Patricia married the journalist Claud Cockburn (1904-1981), and they returned to Youghal to live at Myrtle Grove in 1947.

For many years, Claud Cockburn was a columnist with The Irish Times while I worked there, and some of his sons, including Patrick Cockburn, also contributed to The Irish Times. Patrick’s godmother was Lady Clodagh Anson, who once lived at the Towers in Ballysaggartmore, in Lismore, Co Waterford.

Patricia and Claud Cockburn moved to Ardmore, Co Waterford, in 1980. Claud died on 15 December 1980, Patricia died on 6 October 1989; they are both buried in the churchyard of Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church, Youghal, under a tree planted by her mother in memory of her brother and close to the gates of Myrtle Grove.

The grave of Patricia and Claud Cockburn in the churchyard of Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church, Youghal (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Myrtle Grove remains in private ownership and is closed to the public, but is being renovated and restored. The house is a rare example of an unfortified 16th century Irish house to have survived with much of its original form intact. It retains its original character and some interior features that may date back to the 1580s.

The Tudor features include the steep gables, oriel windows and tall chimneys. This is a detached triple-gabled six-bay three-storey house, built ca 1550, with a porch-oriel at the front, dormer windows at the rear, and an oriel window on the south elevation.

The oriel over the porch has a rendered pediment. The square-headed window openings have sash windows in the gables and on the second floor, and bipartite sash windows on the first and ground floors. The round-headed window opening in the oriel over the porch is flanked by four-over-four pane timber sliding sash windows.

The oriel window on the south side has six-over-six pane timber sliding sash windows. The round-headed window at the rear has a spoked fanlight, and there is a round-headed door opening in the porch.

The house has rendered chimneystacks, a pitched slate roof, and a weathervane. The rubble sandstone masonry walls are covered with roughcast render. Leading into the house, a pair of square-profile rendered piers have double-leaf timber gates and a pedestrian entrance.

The Church gate lodge beside Myrtle Lodge at the entrance to Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church is also an attractive and eye-catching building, with a gable-fronted porch with an heraldic plaque, pointed arch windows and square-headed windows, a pointed arch opening at the porch, and timber battened door.

The Church gate lodge beside Myrtle Lodge at the entrance to Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)