Praying in Ordinary Time 2021: 44, Ardfert Cathedral, Co Kerry

Saint Brendan’s Cathedral, Ardfert, Co Kerry … a 12th century cathedral with a story dating back to the sixth century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

During this time in the Church Calendar known as Ordinary Time, I am taking some time each morning to reflect in these ways:

1, photographs of a church or place of worship;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel).

This week, my photographs are from seven cathedrals or former cathedrals in the Diocese of Limerick and Killaloe. Earlier in this series, I have looked at Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, Saint Flannan’s Cathedral, Killaloe, and Saint Brendan’s Cathedral, Clonfert. My photographs this week are from Aghadoe, Ardfert, Emly, Gort, Kilfenora, Kilmacduagh and Roscrea.

The Romanesque west doorway in Saint Brendan’s Cathedral, Ardfert, is flanked by blind arcading (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Since my appointment as Precentor of Limerick, Killaloe and Clonfert in 2017, I have tried to visit all the cathedrals and former cathedrals in the diocese. This morning (12 July 2021), my photographs are from Saint Brendan’s Cathedral, Ardfert, Co Kerry.

Saint Brendan the Navigator is said to have founded a monastery in Ardfert in the sixth century, and the site includes three mediaeval churches, two ogham stones and a number of early Christian and mediaeval grave slabs.

Saint Brendan the Navigator was born near Tralee, Co Kerry, in 484. He was ordained by Saint Erc in 512 and established monastic cells at Ardfert, in Killadysert, Co Clare, at the foot of Mount Brandon, and in Clonfert, Co Galway.

It is said that Saint Brendan set off from Kerry on his many voyages. These adventures were called the Navigatio Brendani or The Voyage of Saint Brendan. As the stories of his seven-year voyage grew, pilgrims flocked to the Mount Brandon area and other early Christian sites.

It is also said he travelled to Wales and Scotland. After three years in Britain, he returned to Ireland and founded churches at Inchiquin, Co Galway, and Inishglora, Co Mayo. He also founded the See at Annaghdown in Co Galway, where he died in 577. He was buried at Saint Brendan’s Cathedral in Clonfert, Co Galway.

In the early 12th century, the Synod of Ráth Breasail in 1111 agreed that Ratass Church near Tralee would become the cathedral for the Diocese of Ciarraige or Kerry. However, it was moved to Ardfert by 1117.

The diocese was later renamed Ardfert and Aghadoe, but it is not clear that Aghadoe Cathedral ever operated as a separate cathedral or that there ever was a separate Diocese of Agahdoe.

Saint Brendan’s Cathedral, the earliest building on the site at Ardfert, dates from the 12th century, and the continued to be added to until the 19th century.

Most of the cathedral dates from the 13th century, although parts of the north wall date from the 12th century.

The East Window is a magnificent 13th century, three lancet east window. There is a spectacular row of nine lancet windows in the south wall. Below these windows there is a fine sedilia.

The cathedral has a Romanesque west doorway with outward pointing chevron decoration in the Anglo-Norman style. It is flanked by blind arcading with lozenge-stonework similar to that found in parts of south-west France

The battlements were added to the cathedral in the 15th century, as well as a small transept.

The south transept has been restored and is now being used as the main entrance to the visitor centre. Some of the original carving work has been moved into the south transept. The interesting items are on display, including two carved effigial slabs – said to be a bishop and an abbot – that once stood in the arcades on either side of the east window.

Other exhibits include head carvings and a gargoyle, while other gargoyles remain in their original places still in situ. Close to the main entrance of the south transept stands a 1.22 metre high ogham stone with a small portion of its original inscription: ‘CT (A) N QLOG’.

There are two smaller churches beside the cathedral. One of these smaller churches, Teampall-na-Hoe or the Church of the Virgin, dates from the 12th century. This is a fine example of late Romanesque architecture, although its chancel has long disappeared. It has decorated three-quarter columns instead of antae at each cornerstone, with heads and bird motifs on the capitals. A cornice decorated with spiral bosses supports the roof.

The west doorway is plain, but the south window has floral ornament and the chancel arch has chevron ornament.

The second church, Teampall na Griffin, is a plain 15th century church with an interesting carving of a griffin or wyvern on one of the windows. The corpus of decorated stone is stored in this church, but it is not open to the public.

In the north-east corner, a double rectangular niche contains a grotesque head with lips pulled back to reveal large teeth. This may be a variant of the ‘mouth-puller’ motif often found in Spain and west France.

At one time at the end of the 15th century, there was at least three rival Bishops of Ardfert: John Stack (1458-1488), John Pigge (1461-1475) and Philip Stack (1473-1495). Throughout the Reformation period, James FitzMaurice, a Cistercian monk, was recognised as Bishop of Ardfert (1536-1583) by both the Pope and the Crown.

The cathedral survived the Reformation, but the cathedral roof was destroyed during the Irish Rebellion of 1641.

The south transept was re-roofed and extended later in the 17th century.

The Diocese of Ardfert was united with the Diocese of Limerick from 1663 under Bishop Edward Synge, and Saint Brendan’s Cathedral became a parish church.

A new Church of Ireland parish church opened in 1871, and the cathedral roof was removed once again. After the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland in 1871, like other disused historic sites, Ardfert Cathedral was transferred to the Board of Public Works, now the Office of Public Works.

The three-lancet East Window in Saint Brendan’s Cathedral, Ardfert (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 10: 34 to 11: 1 (NRSVA):

34 ‘Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

35 For I have come to set a man against his father,
and a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
36 and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.

37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38 and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

40 ‘Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 41 Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; 42 and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple – truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.’

1 Now when Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and proclaim his message in their cities.

Inside the former south transept in Saint Brendan’s Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary:

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (12 July 2021) invites us to pray:

We pray for equal distribution of resources across the world. May we think globally in how we manufacture and consume products.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

The row of nine lancet windows in the south wall of Saint Brendan’s Cathedral, Ardfert (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Two mediaeval gravestone effigies – said to be an abbot and a bishop (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Philip Baker, the Jewish refugee from Latvia who became Irish chess champion

Philip Baker (1879-1932) was the Irish Chess Champion on four occasions in the 1920s (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

When Philip Baker filled out the census form in his small, single lodging room on Castle Street, Tralee, on the night of 31 March 1901, he may well have thought he was the only Jew living in Co Kerry.

He was a 22-year-old draper, and he gave his religion as ‘Hebrew’ and his place of birth as ‘Russia.’ There were four Jewish short-term guests staying at the Great Southern Hotel in Killarney that night, all linen manufacturers from London in their 20s. But the only other Jew who was resident in Kerry at that time was Amélie Bischoffsheim (1858-1947), wife of Sir Peter FitzGerald, Knight of Kerry, who were living at Glanleam on Valentia Island.

The paths of Philip Baker and Lady FitzGerald probably never crossed. She was the London-born daughter of the Dutch banker Henri Louis Bischoffsheim (1829-1908); her sister Ellen (1857-1933), the Dowager Countess of Desart, later became a Senator in the new Irish Free State and has been described as ‘the most important Jewish woman in Irish history.’

But Philip Baker’s accomplishments as a poor Latvian Jewish refugee fleeing the pogroms in the Tsarist empire are worth recounting. For Philip Baker (1879-1932) was an Irish Chess Grand Master who won the Irish Championship on four occasions in the 1920s, including three consecutive years, and a clothing factory owner who was regarded as a model employer. In time, he became the patriarch of an important Irish legal family.

The brothers David and Philip Baker were born in Riga in Latvia, then part of Imperial Russia. They were the sons of Simon Baker, a Jewish grocer or draper, and they came to Ireland at a young age, fleeing the pogroms in Tsarist Russia.

David Baker began his working life in Dublin as a ‘rags and metal merchant,’ a ‘draper’ and a ‘wool merchant,’ and at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, he lived in a number of houses in the narrow streets off the South Circular Road that became known as Dublin’s ‘Little Jerusalem,’ including Spencer Street, Raymond Street, and Greenville Terrace.

He married Yetty (Gertrude) Berman on 25 July 1899. She was a daughter of Abraham Berman, a self-employed draper and traveller, of 5 Oakfield Place, and his wife Rachel, both originally from Telshi in the Kovno district of Lithuania. David and Yetty were the parents of at least three daughters and a son. Like his brother Philip, David Baker too was noted chess player and played first board for the Clontarf Chess Club. He later moved with his family to Leeds.

Philip Baker was born in Riga on 31 March 1879. He began his working life in Ireland as a draper and a cap factory representative, and eventually owned his own clothing factory. He was a 22-year-old draper and was living in Upper Castle Street, Tralee, Co Kerry, at the time of the 1901 census.

The Aliens Register (1914-1918) shows he arrived in Dublin from Tralee on 31 January 1903. He was living at 15 Vernon Street, Dublin, on 9 September 1904 when he married Fanny Berman, a sister of David Baker’s wife Yetty. Her father Abraham Berman was 71 when he died at 5 Oakfield Place on 26 October 1919. Her widowed mother, Rachel Freda Berman, died at the age of 73 on 27 May 1922.

At first, Philip and Fanny also lived in the streets of ‘Little Jerusalem’ off the South Circular Road, including St Alban’s Road, Raymond Street and Wolseley Street. Their children included Edmund Salem Adam Baker, born 1905, died an infant; Joshua Baker (1906-1979); David Baker, born 1908; Isaac Baker, born 1911 (married Ellen Kelly); Sarah Rebecca, born 1911 (married Lazare Scheps); Sheila, born 1916 (married Barry Spain); and Sylvia ‘Lammie’ (1918-1984), who married Henry Aimers Wheeler (1916-1993), archaeologist, Office of Public Works and a president of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland.

Philip joined the Sackville Chess Club, which was founded in 1902, and soon became an Irish Grand Master. He was the Leinster champion in 1922 and 1926, and first became the Chess champion of Ireland in 1924, when he finished first in the Tailteann Games. With the Sackville Chess Club, he won the Armstrong Cup in 1926 and 1929, and he was the Irish Champion again for three consecutive years, in 1927, 1928 and 1929.

Later, as the proprietor of his own clothing factory, Philip was recognised as a model employer. He died at 77 Kenilworth Square, Rathmines, Dublin, on 18 April 1932, aged 53.

Philip Baker’s son, Professor Joshua Baker (1906-1979), earned a double first in Hebrew and Oriental Studies and Legal Science at Trinity College Dublin, and earned a gold medal and a scholarship to the US, where he completed his doctorate.

Josh Baker had a demanding practice as a senior counsel and legal expert, yet he lectured at TCD for 30 years in Hebrew and as Reid Professor of Criminal Law. His friend and colleague, Professor Jacob Weingreen, in his obituary in the Jewish Chronicle, praised his ‘lucid, analytical mind, genial personality, special sense of humour, and many acts of friendship.’

Another son, David Baker, was the Hebrew/Gaelic interpreter when the leaders of Israel and Ireland met.

Philip Baker’s eldest daughter Sarah married Leslie (Lazare) Scheps, a Swiss Jewish immigrant. Their daughter Rosalind married Judge Henry Barron (1928-2010), who was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1997. He presided over the inquiry into the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, in which 33 people were killed in 1974, and granted Ireland’s first legal divorce in 1997. He was also president of the Irish Jewish Museum.

A chess set in a shop window on the island of Murano in the Venetian lagoon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Comerford family members who were officers in the Royal Irish Constabulary

Detective Inspector Frank Comerford of the Royal Irish Constabulary

Patrick Comerford

The debate about appropriate ways of commemorating or remembering members of the Royal Irish Constabulary and the Dublin Metropolitan Police has continued throughout the week, and it is unlikely to be resolved in the near future.

It seems too easy for some contributors to this debate to forget that these were not outside police forces and that their members came from families throughout Ireland.

So, as the debate continues, I thought it might be appropriate to recall some members of the Royal Irish Constabulary who had connections with different branches of the far-flung Comerford family.

Sergeant James Comerford and Inspector Frank Comerford were a father and son who were officers in the RIC.

Sergeant James Comerford (1815-1905) was born in Virginia, Co Cavan, in 1816, although it appears his family was originally from Co Kilkenny, and he spent most of his career in the RIC in Co Kilkenny.

As a sergeant in the RIC, James was based first in Johnstown, Co Kilkenny, and then in Urlingford, Co Kilkenny, and when he retired, he continued to live in Urlingford.

James Comerford married Catherine Tuohy (1827-1904), from Castleconnell, Co Limerick, and they were the parents of 13 children.

At the time of the 1901 census, James and Catherine were living in Urlingford. He was then 85 and she was 72. Living with them were their daughter Margaret (45), their son William (30), their daughter-in-law Margaret née Maher (29), both teachers, and their new-born grandson, later Major James Joseph Comerford (1899-1950).

Catherine Comerford died in Urlingford aged 77 on 27 October 1904; James died in Urlingford aged 90 on 16 November 1905. Their 13 children included District Inspector Francis (‘Frank’) Comerford (1861-1940), who was born in Urlingford, Co Kilkenny.

Frank joined the Royal Irish Constabulary and also married a policeman’s daughter, so that he was the son and the son-in-law of RIC officers. He married Mary Browne (25) from Tarbert, Co Kerry, daughter of William Browne (1835-1904), who was also an RIC officer.

William Browne was born in Waterford in 1835, and he served in Co Clare before being transferred to Co Kerry in 1861. He retired from the RIC in 1882. He lived for most of his life in Tarbert, Co Kerry, where most of his children were born, including his daughter Mary, who was born in Tarbert in 1866 (although other family accounts say she was born on the Island of Geese, Tralee). She married Frank Comerford in Tralee, Co Kerry, on 17 August 1892.

Frank Comerford was an RIC officer in Tralee, Co Kerry, Bagenalstown, Co Carlow and Ballymote, Co Sligo, before he moved to Tuam, Co Galway, in 1912.

In the year before the 1916 Rising, Frank played a key role in events in Tuam. Sean Mac Diarmada, Liam Mellowes and other nationalists set up a platform outside the Cathedral of the Assumption in Tuam after Sunday Mass on a May morning in 1915.

The rally was seen at the time as being pro-German and anti-English, and few people gathered to listen to the speakers or paid attention to them.

When Mac Diarmada said ‘England’s difficulty is Ireland’s opportunity,’ Inspector Comerford and Sergeant Martyn mounted the platform. Comerford caught Mac Diarmada’s hand and arrested him.

‘What for?’ said Mac Diarmada.

‘Under DORA’ Comerford replied, referring to the Defence of the Realm Act.

‘Let go my arm, I’ll go with you,’ Mac Diarmada said.

As Mac Diarmada placed his hand in his hip pocket, Mellows was heard to whisper, ‘Don’t fire,’ and Mac Diarmada’s automatic was seen to pass into the hands of Mellows.

Mac Diarmada was held overnight in Tuam before being moved, first to Arbour Hill and then to Mountjoy, and was jailed for four months. When he was released in September 1915, he joined the secret military committee of the IRB, which planned the Easter Rising in 1916.

It was said in Tuam that Frank Comerford ‘gained the goodwill of all by his tact and forbearance.’ When he retired, he received sincere tributes from all sections of the population of Tuam.

The general feeling was that had he not retired before 1920, ‘the sack of Tuam would never have occurred.’ No attack was made on the police barrack, and the friendliest relations existed between the police and people in Tuam, due in large measure due to the good offices of Frank Comerford.

He died at Saint Jarlath’s Place, Tuam, Co Galway, on 12 December 1940, aged 79.

Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Esmonde, VC (1831-1872), father of Eva Mary Comerford and father-in-law of James Charles Comerford (Photograph courtesy Roger Comerford)

In another branch of the Comerford family, James Charles Comerford (1842-1907) of Ardavon House, Rathdrum, Co Wicklow, married Eva Mary Esmonde (1860-1949), on 7 September 1892. She was a daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Esmonde VC (1831-1872) and a niece of Sir John Esmonde (1826-1876), 10th Baronet, of Ballynastragh, Gorey, Co Wexford, and Glenwood, Rathdrum, Co Wicklow, Liberal MP for Waterford (1852-1876).

Eva Mary Comerford’s father, Colonel Thomas Esmonde, was an officer in the 18th Royal Irish Regiment during the Crimean War. He only 26 when he was the first officer to enter Sebastopol on 18 June 1855 after the siege. He was decorated with the Victoria Cross for his part in the Battle of Sebastopol.

Later, Colonel Esmonde became a Deputy-Inspector General of the Royal Irish Constabulary. He died in Bruges after a riding accident in 1872, and is buried in the Central Cemetery. His grave was restored by volunteers of the Victoria Cross Trust in 2017.

Eva Mary (Esmonde) Comerford was three times tennis champion of Ireland. The stories of two of her children show how divided Irish families were at the time of the 1916 Rising.

One daughter, Mary Eva Comerford (1893-1982), of St Nessan’s, Sandyford, Co Dublin, is better known as Máire Comerford (1893-1982), the Irish Republican activist and journalist. Máire was raised in Co Wexford and Co Waterford. She first became active in politics as a Redmondite in Wexford Town, but then took part in the 1916 Rising. She ran a farm in Co Wexford before working as a journalist with The Irish Press from 1935. She is buried at Mount Saint Benedict outside Gorey, Co Wexford.

One of Eva Mary Comerford’s sons was Colonel Thomas James Comerford (1894-1959), who was also raised in Co Wexford and Co Waterford. He became a Second Lieutenant in his grandfather’s regiment, the Royal Irish Regiment, in September 1914. He was on active service at the Souvla Bay landing (Gallipoli), and was with the Royal Munster Fusiliers in August 1915, when he was badly wounded in the mouth and chest and was not declared fit for active service until December 1915.

He later told his son that he was in Dublin while his sister Máire was involved in the Easter Rebellion in 1916. He was moved to France, and took part in the latter part of Battle of the Somme and then in the of Messines and other battles in Belgium. He joined the Indian Army in November 1917 and spent 25 years in India. He was active in World War II organising supplies for the Chindits. He died aged 65 on 1 January 1959 in West Malling, Kent. He married in Bombay on 10 October 1921 Edith Isobel Donaldson; she died on 9 September 1990.

Colonel Thomas Comerford and Edith Donaldson on their wedding day in Bombay on 10 October 1921 (Photograph courtesy Roger Comerford)

Clonskeagh Castle, hidden in a discreet corner of suburban south Dublin

Clonskeagh Castle on Whitebeam Road … links to the 1798 Rising an a missing town charter (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Patrick Comerford

No 80 Whitebeam Road is an unusual building in the middle of suburban housing in south Dublin. It stands off a large roundabout and is difficult to notice behind the trees and shrub. I have often passed it by, and only noticed it in the corner of my eye. But this is Clonskeagh Castle.

I am in Dublin for a hospital appointment today, and on my way back from a visit to Saint Vincent’s Hospital I stopped to see Clonskeagh Castle, which stands on a roundabout, known locally as ‘The Circle,’ at the place where Whitebeam Road and Whitethorn Road meet.

Clonskeagh Castle is an interesting example of the Irish Georgian castle style. It is said the castle was built around 1798 for Henry Jackson (1750-1817), an industrialist and political activist, perhaps on the site of an earlier castle.

Jackson was probably born in Carnaveagh House in Ballybay, Co Monaghan, and in Dublin he became a leading member of the United Irishmen. His daughter Eleanor married one of the leading figures in the 1798 Rising, Oliver Bond (1762-1798) of Lower Bridge Street, Dublin. Oliver Bond died in prison of apoplexy on 6 September 1798, only days after his death sentence had been commuted.

In the aftermath of the 1798 Rising, Henry Jackson moved to America with his wife, Elizabeth McGrath, and many of their children and grandchildren, including the widowed Eleanor Bond, and settled in Baltimore, Maryland.

Elizabeth Jackson died in Baltimore in 1805; Henry Jackson, who had built Clonskeagh Castle, died in Baltimore on 30 June 1817; Eleanor Bond died there on 15 September 1843.

The family later claimed to be related to Andrew Jackson (1767-1845), the seventh President of the US (1829-1837), but there is no proof of this kinship.

After the Jackson family left Clonskeagh Castle, two large towers were later added to the castle in 1811.

In the mid-19th century, Clonskeagh Castle was the home of George Thompson, who also owned lands in Mayne, Co Meath. His son, George William Thompson, was a solicitor at 9 Hume Street, Dublin, and in the 1870s he owned 521 acres in Co Cork, 819 acres in Co Westmeath and 70 acres in Co Meath.

Clonskeagh Castle was used as a jail between 1916 and 1922, when the prisoners there included local people involved in an attack on the ‘Black and Tans’ on Clonskeagh Bridge.

G&T Crampton carried out restorations and renovations at the castle in 1953. A decade or two earlier, in 1939-1940, Cramptons had built the houses Whitebeam Road, where the architects were Fuller & Jermyn.

In September 1972, the town charter for Tralee, Co Kerry, which had been missing for more than 130 years, mysteriously turned up in Clonskeagh Castle.

Tralee was granted borough status by King James I in 1612. The charter also gave Tralee the right to elect two MPs to the Irish House of Commons, and allowed for an annual fair on the feast of Saint James on 25 July, as well as a Saturday market.

The charter, written in legal Latin and on vellum, was found in September 1972 by a Dublin-based solicitor who was acting for the then owners of Clonskeagh Castle. The charter was found in an envelope addressed to Alice Rowan from Camp, near Tralee, Co Kerry. She was a daughter of the Ven Arthur Blennerhassett Rowan (1800-1861), Archdeacon of Ardfert (1856-1861), an antiquarian and local historian, and a grand-daughter of William Rowan, Provost of Tralee (1807-1811).

William Rowan was the Provost of Tralee who signed the return of Arthur Wellesley as MP for Tralee in 1807. But the future Duke of Wellington never sat for Tralee, choosing instead to represent Newport on the Isle of Wight. Alice Rowan’s aunt, Arabella Rowan, married as his second wife Charles Fairfield and they were the grandparents of Rebecca West (1892-1983), suffragette, novelist, radical socialist and friend of HG Wells.

The charter had been missing from Tralee since the borough council was abolished in 1840, and it is still not clear how it ended up in this suburban castle in Dublin.

There are two vaulted stone cellars to the left of Clonskeagh Castle which were known locally as ‘The Dungeons.’ In the past, local children could get into these cellars, and many left their initials on the roofs using candles.

In recent years, Clonskeagh Castle was divided into four apartments and was sold in the late 1990s to a single family that still lives there. The large basement and cellars, which ceased to be used in the early 20th century, became redundant and are now used only for storage.

When they bought Clonskeagh Castle in the 1990s, the new owners blocked one of the driveways and planted a large open grassy area in front of the castle with trees and shrubs, so that many people pass by without ever noticing that there is a castle in the middle of these suburban housing streets in south Dublin.

Some years ago, Robert Bourke architects were approached by the current owners to advise on cost-effective and sensitive repairs to the structure of Clonskeagh Castle and to consider new uses for the disused basement. The planned works included remedial works to the basement, alterations and repairs to the upper floors and an improved landscaping design.

Clonskeagh Castle on Whitebeam Road … hidden discreetly behind the trees and shrubs (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

A holiday weekend stroll on the beach at Castlegregory

On the beach at Castlegregory on the Maharees Peninsula (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Patrick Comerford

The weekend at the end of October is a bank holiday weekend in Ireland, for no particular reason at all. Even if Hallowe’en falls a few days later in the week ahead, it is still known as the Hallowe’en weekend.

Those of us of a certain age also know it as Michael O’Leary’s Weekend since was introduced 40 years by then Minister for Labour Michael O’Leary to the delight of workers in 1977 and as a surprise to his cabinet colleagues and employers.

Richie Ryan, who was Minister for Finance at the time, tried to have the decision reversed by the cabinet the following month. The extra day off work was equal to a 0.5 per cent increase in wages, and was probably introduced because O’Leary knew he could not get the backing of Liam Cosgrave’s cabinet for a May Day holiday.

A bank holiday at the very end of October is about as far away from May Day as you can get in the calendar. And there was no Spring feeling in the air this Bank Holiday weekend as two of us set out for a walk on the beach and to visit Castlegregory is on the north side of the Dingle Peninsula.

A bank holiday weekend walk on the beach at Castlegregory (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017; click on image for full-screen view)

Castlegregory is halfway between Tralee and Dingle, and outside the summer season as a population of about 250. The Parish of Castlegregory includes most of the north-east portion of the Dingle Peninsula. In summer, the village is a popular holiday resort, with spectacular beaches on the Maharees Peninsula and golf and facilities.

Castlegregory is named after a castle built in the 16th century by Gregory Hoare, a local power-broker. The castle was destroyed during the Cromwellian wars in 1649. There are, however, a few stone fragments. Many of the tragic romantic stories about the castle are fictitious inventions. Some say that before the Great Famine was a town.

Castlegregory is at the foot of a sandy peninsula known as the Maharees. This peninsula is a sandy pit for much of its length, with sand dunes giving way to earth and rocky ground near the north end. The sand dunes create a unique ecosystem, and there are lengthy beaches on both sides of the peninsula, which separates Brandon Bay to the west and Tralee Bay to the east.

The Brandon Bay beaches are open to the North Atlantic and often receive long rolling swells that can provide excellent surf given suitable wind and tide conditions. The peninsula is dotted with campgrounds and caravan parks and contains three hamlets – Fahamore, Kilshanig and Ceannduiche – that are home to local pubs and restaurants.

Off the peninsula are a number small islands, known as the Maharee Islands, or the Seven Hoggs, which is also the name of a local pub. On the largest of the Magharee Islands, Illauntannig (Oileán tSeanaigh), the ruins of a seventh century monastic site founded by Saint Senach include two oratories, three beehive or clochan huts, and three examples of a leacht or altar.

A reminder of the old railway line … Michael O’Neill’s Railway Tavern in Camp (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Castlegregory was the terminus of a branch line of the Tralee and Dingle Light Railway. The railway station opened on 1 April 1891 and closed for passenger and goods traffic on 17 April 1939, although a monthly Tralee-Dingle cattle train continued until the main line closed in 1953.

On our way back to Tralee, we stopped at Michael O’Neill’s Railway Tavern in Camp, a traditional musical pub that is also a reminder of the railway line that once linked Dingle and Tralee.

The Blennerville Windmill and an old cottage (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Earlier, on our way to Castlegregory, two of us stopped at Blennerville (Cathair Uí Mhóráin, ‘the town of the Morans’), about a mile (1.6 km) west of Tralee on the N86 road to Dingle, where the River Lee enters Tralee Bay.

Blennerville was once the port of Tralee, and is connected to the town centre by the Tralee Ship Canal. There is local speculation that this was the ancient site of the Tramore ford, the only escape route afforded to the 15th Earl of Desmond from Tralee towards the south, before his capture and execution in 1583.

The name of Blennerville was given by Sir Rowland Blennerhassett (1741-1821), 1st Baronet, who made this his residence. A bridge was built at the site in 1751, and in 1783 Sir Rowland Blennerhassett renamed it Blennerville after his family.

Blennerville Windmill, Ireland’s only commercially operating windmill, was built in 1800. For most of the 19th century, the port at Blennerville was used by emigrants as a gateway from Kerry to North America, and the Jeanie Johnston was the most famous of these ships.

On the banks of the River Lee at Blennerville (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017; click on image for full-screen view)

When the Tralee Ship Canal opened in 1846, Blennerville lost its place as Tralee’s port. The village went into decline, and the windmill closed and fell into ruins. The Tralee and Dingle Light Railway opened in 1891, connecting Tralee and Dingle on one of Europe’s most western railway lines. A station operated at Blennerville until the line closed in 1953.

Blennerville Windmill was bought by Tralee Urban District Council in 1981, and it opened to the public in 1990.

<

The Beamish Bug … an old beetle in the grounds of the Railway Tavern at Camp (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Hallowe’en is not until Tuesday evening, but Michael O’Leary’s Bank Holiday weekend continues tomorrow. The clocks went back last night, and, as we like to say in Ireland at this time of the year, you would notice the evenings are beginning to close in.

Inside the Railway Tavern at Camp (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)