Connecting with Curleys

 I am currently enjoying the hospitality of Gerry and Assumpta Burke. Gerry took me yesterday to speak with a woman from the area who told me about different Kilcommonses and Curleys, and gave me leads. Today Gerry and I went to see Father Joyce, an SVD, who is related to the Kilcommonses. We had a nice tour of the castle that now houses the SVD community. Bert Curley, son of Michael William Curley, used to run the print shop there. His son Shane now runs the shop. When we went to see Shane, he was not there. We headed off to see Bert Curley at home, but he was at a funeral. I spoke with his son, who confirmed that he had an uncle, Pat Joe Curley, a priest in Mississippi. He also mentioned an uncle Michael Curley, who lives in Old Tappan, NJ. We then headed off to see Bert's sister, Sr. Agnes Curley, R.S.M., but she was not home.

We went for lunch, and it turns out that very likely the Curleys were there at the same place having the repast after the funeral. Sr. Agnes just phoned a little while ago to say that she was driving over to see me. Given their connection to Kilcommonses and Joyces, and the fact that they come from the same area, they are very possibly relatives.

    

Glenstal Abbey

A few weeks ago, I took a bus from Ballinasloe to Galway, another bus from Galway to Limerick, and a taxi from Limerick to Glenstal Abbey in Murroe.

The abbey is on about 500 acres, and includes the monastery, a boarding school, a farm, and a dairy herd. It was founded from Maredsous Abbey in Belgium in 1927, and is located in what was the Barrington estate, an 1839 castle designed to look as if it had been built in the Middle Ages.

Depending on the day, you may be greeted as you drive or walk in by the herd of dairy cows. It is a fifteen-minute walk from the front gate to the monastery.

The monastic office uses mostly Gregorian chant, and some of the offices each day are in Latin.

The area is great for walking. There are a number of paths through the woods. The monastic cemetery is down one path.

Glenstal founded a monastery in Africa, now an independent house. Two of the monks are buried there, but they are commemorated in the cemetery at Glenstal.

There is also a Mass rock on the property, in what is called Cappercullen Glen. It dates to penal times, when it was illegal to practice the Catholic faith in Ireland. Sentries would be posted up above, to warn those down below if the authorities were coming.

The approach to the Mass Rock

The Mass Rock from the rear

During penal times, the rock woud have been unadorned. The altar and any other items needed would have been set up for Mass, and taken down immediately after Mass was over. In more recent times, a permanent altar has been installed, and panels from the ruins of the old Cistercian monastery have been incorporated.

St. Patrick's Purgatory and Ballinasloe

While I was at Letterkenny, Co. Donegal, I accompanied a group of parishioners on a one-day pilgrimage to Lough Derg, also known as St. Patrick's Purgatory.

Traditionally, pilgrims go during the summer and spend three days on the island, walking in bare feet and fasting. But lately they have added one-day pilgrimages during August and September.

You need to take a ferry to get to the island. The day begins with prayer in the church. Then you have a penitential lunch of soup and sandwich. I was looking forward to my penitential lunch, but the priests on staff grabbed me and the curate from Knock and brought us in to eat lunch with the staff. Then, since it was apparently the largest crowd they have ever had on the island, they asked if we would help with confessions. So I spent a couple of hours in the confessional. I guess that was my penance.

After confessions, we celebrated Mass, and then headed home.

The "penitential beds" that St. Patrick and his companions slept on.

After my stay in Letterkenny, I went back to Dublin for a few days (where I stayed at Mercy Center) and then went to Ballinasloe for a few days. It is in the heart of "Curley" country, but I still didn't have any luck finding Curley relatives. It was while I was in Ballinasloe, though, that Martin Curley took me to East Keeloges, where we met Michael Kilcommons and his family

St. Michael's Church, Ballinasloe

One of the side streets in Ballinasloe

There is a nice park in Ballinasloe, near an 18th century bridge that incorporates a medieval bridge.

The marina leads to the River Suck, which also runs through the area that the Kilcommonses came from.

Some more pictures from Dublin and Letterkenny

Here are just a few pictures from my two stays in Dublin, and from my stay in Letterkenny.


I came upon this store on one of my walks through Dublin.

There are many public monuments in Dublin. This is one of two memorials to the Famine. It is one of the many famine memorials throughout Ireland.

"Famine" by Edward Delaney, St. Stephen's Green, Dublin

St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin

At St. Patrick's Cathedral is the reputed site of St. Patrick's well.

The Law Officers Memorial in Dublin

Scenes from Letterkenny (where I spent three weeks at the cathedral).

The Church of Ireland Church (parts date to the 17th century) on the left, the R.C. Cathedral (1901) on the right.

In Letterkenny, I met one of the Church of Ireland priests, who made sure I saw the monuments that are found going up the hill from Cathedral Square.

The monument to those killed in the First World War

The monument at the site of Sentry Hill, where the men would watch our for the British while Mass was being celebrated at the local Mass rock.

One of the doors of Letterkenny Cathedral

Pretty much every town of any size had a workhouse during the Famine, and they all had cemeteries with unmarked graves.

View of Letterkenny from across the river

Touring County Donegal

I am now at Glenstal Abbey. It is nice to be back in a monastery with common recitation of the office. I will post some pictures of Glenstal later, but I just wanted to put up some of the other photographs I took first.

I have been blessed in having a number of people take me around to see the sights or to visit relatives. Fr. Eamonn Kelly, the administrator of St. Eunan's Cathedral, Letterkenny, several times took me around County Donegal.

One of the places we visited was the site of the Franciscan monastery where Friar Michael O'Clery, the chief writer responsible for the Annals of the Four Masters, lived. The Annals is a history of Ireland composed in the first half of the seventeenth century, and the source of much early Irish history. The monastery is in ruins and, like many such sites, is filled with graves both old and more recent.

On the same day, we went to Donegal Castle, in Donegal Town, built by the O'Donnell chieftain in the 15th century, with 17th century additions by the Brooke family, who took it over.

We also visited and prayed at another holy well.

Fr. Eamonn Kelly

It was interesting trying to figure out why different objects were left there. There is a tradition of leaving coins, but there were also things like  a belt (someone praying to lose weight?) and a cigarette lighter (someone praying to give up smoking?) There seem to be no "official" caretakers of the many holy wells. Someone in the neighborhood seems to take it upon himself or herself to be responsible for the upkeep of each well.

We also visited the mountains at the sea.

as well as the Glencolmcille Folk Village that Fr. McDyer helped the people of Glencolmcille put together as a way of attracting tourists and giving the local people work in an attempt to stop the flood of emigration.

There are cottages decorated in the style of each century from the 18th to the 20th, as well as a schoolhouse, fisherman's cottage, and pub/grocery..

And the views continued on the way home.