Kilfenora Co Clare & the Burren

Wednesday 1 June 2011

Good night's sleep, basic accomodation, but clean, used by burren walkers, at breakfast we spoke to 2 couples who had been in the pub the previous night, we had thought perhaps German, however in the am sounded French & transpired they were from Strasbourg French Alps near German border & they were speaking a local dialect., bit French & bit German. The wives, about our age, one school welfare officer & other teacher, both retired, but husbands still working, teacher & forestry worker. Had a good chat over breakfast on the state of the nation, EU economy etc & one thing they mentioned which I thought was very interesting was that with the GFC various EU countries going bad, but Germany not among them & that this was of great concern to people of their parent’s generation who had been through WW2 & were already jumpy after the reunification of East & West Germany that once again Germany was big & strong! Hadn’t even occurred to me.

First up we went to the priest to see if he could offer any further info. But although we found the records in original book nothing further discovered. Priest – Father Crosby - was a classic, like out of Father Ted & he made a couple of calls for us on the spot – conversation went something like – in broad Irish accent – “Oive got a couple of Australians here wanting to find out about some fella called Linnane who lived here about 75,000  years ago”  He had no luck on his calls, but said he’d keep trying & call in at the hostel if he had any luck

Kilfenora main street

Kilfenora is the site of a cathedral dating to 12^th century, partly ruins, home to celtic crosses from that era, and the first cathedral in Ireland, there was an abbey there from 6^th century by a St Fachtnan. We investigated the graveyard around the old cathedral, plenty of Linnanes but no way of knowing if relations or not.
By that time Linnanes pub was open, Kilfenora is the home to Kilfenora Céilí Band, famous Irish music band, & long time member Kitty Linnane (now dead) is the present publican Gerard’s mother. Gerard was behind the bar & a distinctly tepid reception from "your man Gerard" when I explained my enquiry, ie how long his family had been in the town & what he knew about previous generations etc , his reaction went something like this “Well you are probably more interested in that than I am, I have plenty of cousins & I knew my grandparents”  M & I just looked at each other and I said to Ger – I will be back tonight & I have something to show you….  More later

Old cathedral ruins from 12th C Kilfenora

Field behind the hostel Kilfenora, note the celtic cross

Countryside around Kilfenora

Portal tomb in the Burren from Neolithic period, between 4200 & 2900 BC

The Burren - stony place - limestone pavement landscape

West coast Co Clare

We drove around the town & rural Ireland, narrow winding roads, lots of granite drystone walling as field fences, not many tall trees, and the few there were bent over by the wind. The Burren itself a real moonscape only dark grey. Looked at ancient burial tombs, quite a popular spot, buses & the lot, I hope not to meet one of the buses on the road, given the width of the road & whatever shoulder there is falls away to deep ditch. M commented that it was a pity they couldn’t find something to mine in the area to help the economy. I think that the burren is a protected geographical feature and helped the economy by tourism.

The day was awful - rain, wind, but we battled the elements (& the roads) up to Ballyvaughan, which was a very pretty little coastal village, (which I think was friend CH grandmother’s birthplace) From there we went onto Doolin & stopped for a cup of tea at the famed O’Connors pub. The place was fairly hopping at 3 in the afternoon, with people eating vast meals with once again the extra big bowl of mashed potatoes (as well as chips) Spoke to a couple from Ennis who had come out for a meal, discussed plan of driving along Cliffs of Moher, they thought too foggy and we wouldn’t see them, but we gave it try anyway & drove on…….until thick fog enveloped the car. No no, narrow winding roads, uphill, downdale & thick fog, I don’t think so.

It was quite late by the time we got back to Kilfenora, but the priest had left a note with Orla at the hostel, so we walked over to see him, he didn’t have anything extra to provide, though he had spoken to Gerard L’s cousin, who was a historian but reclusive type of chap. Information he provided however, unsure of the relevance.  Headed to Linnanes pub armed with the photos of great grandfather Timothy Costelloe, G not there but young chap behind the bar, who turned out to be G’s son, nearly fell over when he saw the photos, as TC & G as alike as peas in a pod, strong family resemblance (& not just because of balding head & beard!) Anyway G returned from funeral he had been at & after a while (yes it took some time – he was a hard nut to crack) he conceded that there may be some similarity. 

I had wanted to add the picture of g  gf TC (for comparison purposes) but it is a funny format & wouldn't link in, I will have to try later.

Orla from the hostel had told us that there was Irish music at Linnanes on Wednesday night, so we decided to eat there, but G said he hadn’t started it yet as business has been so quiet. (talking to others on the trip it turns out that pubs really suffering due to the economy, young ones get a slab from the offlicence & get tanked at home – much cheaper, who would have thought – in Ireland! Another B&B chap we spoke to later on, thought it was about time pubs suffered, they had been the root of all evil in Ireland, taking food out of the mouths of children etc)

The no music  being on at the pub was a bit embarrassing for us as we had passed on the info to the French couples at the hostel & they had come also,  Not to worry, had a chat with G & took some photos for Mum, she will be very chuffed and G asked for a copy of the photos which I will email when I get home. We had our first Irish stew for tea, very nice, meatier than I thought.

At this stage in the proceedings it dawned on us that we had only Thursday & Friday if we wanted to make use of local archive centres as it was a bank holiday on Monday & we flew home on Tuesday, so back to Vaughans pub to settle up with Orla so we could get an early start the next morning.