Made an early start but decided we would visit the reclusive cousin first, just in case, he was up & dressed – quite dapperly(?) – we expected to find some some illkempt old hermit with matted hair etc. No family resemblance with him, (unlike your man Ger in the pub) & not sure what he was trying to tell us, but we managed to get out of him that back in 19th c Linnane family had land & a cottage which was right on the roadside about 500m out of town on the Corrofin road.
Drove there & took photos, no idea if anything to do with Linnane forbears but all we had to go on.
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| Possible Linnane cottage (as advised by Fachy L) didn't look that old to me |
Onto Ennis, the county town of Co Clare, & a lovely little city. The centre is all narrow little streets & old buildings, had fun finding a park, finally – after a couple of rounds – found a park in multistory carpark behind the centre of town and as we were walking into the department store to which carpark was attached, spied the reclusive cousin coming the other way with another chap – so smart togs were for a trip to town & he does usually hang around with hayseeds in his hair!
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| Street in Ennis town centre |
Ennis was the birthplace of James Costelloe, father of Timothy. We easily found the Costelloe Real Estate & had a chat with David Costelloe, very charming, however he did not think there was any connection because as far as he knew his family originated in Kildysart.
We then spent some time in the family history centre where the chap was most helpful, but to no avail for me, but for M he narrowed down the 4-5 parishes in Kerry that the Fitzmaurice name appeared, so that proved very useful later on.
From Ennis we drove to Shanagolden in Limerick, birthplace of M’s GG GF, Michael Sullivan. After making some enquiries managed to locate the priest’s sister (where he eats every night) but he had eaten already. A very kind lady, she rang him for us – he was busy preparing for a wedding & would be free at 8pm- then rang the pub for accommodation, lady there tied up & would ring back & confirm & then she recommended we go across the street for tea otherwise we would miss out & she would run across when she heard back from the pub, phew. A nice tea, fish and chips, a menu item which features often in Ireland – they love their fried food! Meanwhile priest’s sister came over to let us know, no rooms at the inn & she had booked us at the B&B at Foynes – just up the road – what a kind lady!
After tea down to the priest’s house - amazing that one man needs a large two story house – anyway most accommodating with the parish records but to no avail as we did not find Michael Sullivan in the records. Issue is with these records that they were transcribed from the original in a work for the dole scheme, original entries were in Latin, & as we found in later investigation, some errors ensued. Anyway had long chat to the priest about the state of the nation etc & he revealed that he loved Italy, it was his spiritual (and I don’t think he meant in the religious sense) home, in fact he got a call while we were there & said goodbye with ‘ciao ciao’ …. Well!
By this time it was 10pm & unsure about the headlights, lots settings & not really obvious, priest assisted with the comment “You’ll be foine with those to Foynes”
4ks down the road to Foynes & accommodation very nice, said to M – this may cost more than usual budget! We had a nightcap in the bar, where 4 older ladies were playing cards.
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| Foynes Inn, where we spent the night |
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