Day 23 Memories of the early days in Tullygarvan

Nora in her house at Tullygarvan

Over the three weeks that I've been here, I had the privilege of having a few chats with Nora about what life was like in Tullygarvan when she was younger. I've recorded these conversations so that I don't forget all the fabulous memories she has of life in those days.

Here's a link to the part where she talks about the farmhouse.

(Nora struggles a little with her hearing, and I struggle a little with the Clare accent!!)

The Farmhouse

Nora talks about the fact that the farmhouse in Tullygarvan where she now lives goes back over three generations. In fact it's quite possible that my great great grandfather lived in this very place. It was originally just one room with partitions, but later on they adapted and expanded as times allowed.

In the photo above if you look to the left of Nora, in the doorway, you can see the thickness of the walls - the white part!

Some of the things she mentions in that part of her memories is that electricity was connected when she moved there, but they only had one light - in the kitchen. The rest of the house used paraffin lamps.

Also originally the water was not connected to the house and it was only in relatively recent times that they were able to build a bathroom and a kitchen.

Here's the porch at the front of the house that she mentions

The porch at the front of the house

Here's the kitchen

Nora's kitchen

She also talks at the start about when she moved in, her mother-in-law Marie Curtin (Nee Considine) lived there with them. She said Marie's husband Austin had died quite a while before that. 

Nora's husband Pat had a brother Sean and sadly he died with trouble with his lungs.

To put Nora and her husband Pat into the family tree, here's a pic of their lineage

Where Nora fits into the family tree

So Nora was the wife of Patrick Curtin. Sadly Pat died n his early 50s and left Nora with two young  children (Sean and Marie) and the farm to run.

Pat's grandfather, Michael, was the brother of my great grandfather John, who emigrated to Australia.

Nora shared some memories of the jobs she had to do on the farm.

Nora's memories of milking the cows

Getting paid to have cows and closing the shed

The original shed

Sean's Bulls today

Nora's garden outside the porch.

There's so much more in those interviews, but it will take more time to edit them, so that I can share parts of her story

She is an amazing lady though, to have coped with so much in her life. It was such a delight to talk to her over the past few weeks and I hope we can talk some more. 

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PS Meant to add some pics of the beach today - it was a glorious day in Lahinch!

Swimmers were out today!

Lahinch Beach this morning

Lahinch Beach this morning