Day 26 Lahinch (continued)

An Gorta Mor - The Great Hunger

Located in County Clare, between the towns of Lahinch and Ennistymon, sits the memorial “An Gorta Mór” by Alan Ryan Hall. The monument is located between the local workhouse at Ennistymon and the site of a mass grave.

There was still more about the history of Lahinch that I wanted to share yesterday, but I feared the post would get too long, so I'm adding the extras into today's post.

One of the defining events of Irish history is An Gorta Mor - commonly known as the Great Potato Famine.  The picture above is located just outside Lahinch on the road to Ennistymon and is found opposite the mass grave in the paddock across the road.

These pics contain the explanation of the Great Hunger - sorry about the quality and my reflection in each one!!!!

The Famine in Ireland

Map of the area including the Mass Graveyard

Memorial Stone

Paddock where the Mass Graveyard is found

Emigration and the Famine

Ennistymon Union and the Great Famine

It's so hard to imagine how horrible this time must have been,

Again Wikipedia sets the scene for us :

The Great Famine (Irish: an Gorta Mór [ənˠ ˈɡɔɾˠt̪ˠə ˈmˠoːɾˠ]), also known within Ireland as the Great Hunger or simply the Famine and outside Ireland as the Irish Potato Famine,^[1][2] was a period of starvation and disease in Ireland from 1845 to 1852 that constituted a historical social crisis which subsequently had a major impact on Irish society and history as a whole.^[3] With the most severely affected areas in the west and south of Ireland, where the Irish language was dominant, the period was contemporaneously known in Irish as an Drochshaol,^[4] literally translated as "the bad life" (and loosely translated as "the hard times"). The worst year of the period was 1847, which became known as "Black '47".^[5][6] During the Great Hunger, roughly 1 million people died and more than 1 million fled the country,^[7] causing the country's population to fall by 20–25% (in some towns falling as much as 67%) between 1841 and 1871.^[8][9][10] Between 1845 and 1855, at least 2.1 million people left Ireland, primarily on packet ships but also on steamboats and barques—one of the greatest exoduses from a single island in history.^[11][12]

The information there states that the Great Famine lasted from 1845 until 1852.

Our Great Grandfather - John Curtin - emigrated in 1855, aged approx 24 years (we are still unsure of his birth date!), so our family must have been involved in this awful time.

You have to wonder how much that famine affected his decision to emigrate.

He had six siblings and his brother Michael had inherited the farm, so I guess there were not too many options open to him.

Antoinette at the Clare Genealogy Centre suggested that he would have been a prime candidate for emigration to Australia. He was a young married farmer with one baby and Australia was screaming out for people to work the land, after they no longer imported convicts. Apparently they were given free passage to Australia. 

It's amazing how this event about 12 000 kms away led to the Curtain family today as we know it!

Smother

The other thing I wanted to share today was related to the TV program "Smother"

I'm not sure if any of you saw it, but it is based in Lahinch. 

Apart from the story, I just watched it to see all the scenery around Lahinch.

Nice little video about behind the scenes filming of Smother.

But there's a connection between that story and our family!

Moy House - used in Smother

Moy House is a Georgian country house hotel in County Clare, Ireland, about 3 kilometres south of Lahinch off the N67 road near the village of Moy. Originally set in 15 acres of woodland on the River Moy, it was built in the mid 18th century as the holiday home of Sir Augustine Fitzgerald. Wikipedia

According to Antoinette at the Clare Genealogy Centre, that gentleman - Sir Augustine Fitzgerald - was the landlord of the Curtin farm at Tullygarvan. One thing I'm not sure of is how did the family come to own the land, after being tenants for so long??? Might need a bit more research for that. 

Once again it has a connection to the Rineen Ambush..

This comes from the Facebook page - The Vintage Lens - looking at times past in Clare

Last night, a new thriller drama called Smother aired on RTÉ. It was filmed around Lahinch, and the location of the main house in the story is the beautiful Moy House, which is in the townland of Carrowgar, just outside Lahinch. Moy House, which overlooks Cregg Beach, was built in the early 1800s. It was initially the summer residence of Sir Augustine Fitzgerald of Carrigoran, Newmarket-on-Fergus. By the end of the 19th century Major George Studdert was living there, until he died in 1909.
In April 1933, there was a failed attempt to burn Moy House, just before an A.C.A (Army Comrades Association) dance was due to be held there. Petrol was sprinkled over the floors and furniture of the downstairs rooms, and there were several marks where a light had been applied but failed to ignite. The owner at the time was Margaret Lehane, but the house had been unoccupied for some years. Margaret’s husband Dan and son Patrick had been murdered in their former residence in Cregg, by the Black and Tans, after the Rineen Ambush in 1920.

The follow up comments are quite interesting too, if you have the time to peruse them.

Meanwhile back to today...

These last few days I have experienced an important part of the Irish culture - how Lahinch deals with the death of one of the community.

The gentleman who died was Donal Kenny - owner of the Kenny Woolen Mills shop in the main street, and his son owns Kenny's Bar which I have frequented a few times for my Smithwicks.

When Mr Kenny died, the first I noticed was that the shop was closed.

Then the next day a black ribbon was attached to the door of both the shop and the pub.

Black Ribbon and Funeral Notice on the door of the shop

Black Ribbon and Funeral Notice on the door of the pub

So as noted on the Notice, they brought him to the Church at 6pm. Now the Angelus Bell goes religiously at 12 noon and 6pm. But this was a different toll... reminded me  of "For whom the bell tolls". So I went out to have a look. And people were everywhere, but especially gathered around the steps to the Church. And the entire staff of Kenny's pub were standing outside that establishment, as were the staff of the Woollen Mills. They stopped the hearse outside his shop and they carried the coffin up to the Church. I took a little video - I hope it's not disrespectful, but it does showcase the Irish culture in a very real way.

So it seems that after the coffin is brought into the Church, people offer their condolences to the family and then prayers are said. Then the actual funeral Mass is held tomorrow at noon. 

There is a certain reverence about his death, that the whole town acknowledges.

People are very close knit in this village, and although everyone knows everybody's business, it's at  times like these, that the bonding is very evident.

May his soul rest in peace. 

I also went to Doolin this afternoon, but I think I'll leave that  until tomorrow!