Visit Tom & Tina Cummins' Carrigmore Farm and their Self-catering Irish Farm House ... http://www.carrigmorefarm.com
Pete and Diana Downey spent 10 days in Ireland tracing some of Pete's roots and the spending time with Tom and Tina Cummins on their farm. There's never a dull moment with Tom...shown here ready to go racing through the fields on his Quad with Pete hanging on for dear life on the back...more Pictures.
Day by Day Itinerary
Diana and Pete Downey made a trip to Ireland...leaving on July 3, arriving in Shannon on July 4. We heading North to track some of Pete's heritage in counties Sligo, Leitrim, and Monaghan...and came south to spend 5 days with Tom & Tina Cummins in their Carrigmore Farm House south of Doon, County Limerick, returning on Friday, July 13.
Diana has been doing her family tree and also investigating Pete's family tree through his McManus-Cunningham ancestors in upstate New York. She found that Pete's great, great grandfather, Bernard Cunningham married Maria O'Brien, the Grocer's daughter from Ballymote in County Sligo. Their son, Daniel Cunningham, would emigrate to America to become grocer and businessman in Little Falls, NY.
Daniel married Jennie McGurty, whose mother was a McTiernan from the Dromahair/Sheskin area of County Leitrim.
Pete's great grandfater, Patrick McManus and his wife, Barbara Kelleher McManus, emigrated from Ballybay, in County Monaghan in the early-mid 1860's to Fly Creek, NY, near Cooperstown. , Daniel and Jennie's daughter in New York.
We would visit Ballymote, Dromahair/Sheskin, and Ballybay before heading south to Cashel and Doon.
Rosses Point - Cunningham Country
McTiernan Castle at Sheskin & Drumahaire
Ballybay - Patrick & Barbara McManus Country
On to Cashel...Doon...and the Cummins Farm
A Visit to Greg Downey - Irish Famhand
On the drive up from Shannon to Sligo, we pulled up to the church in Ballymote and found the adjacent cemetery. Some young people introduced us to the old man coming up to the church entrance. He moved to town from the farm, but after his wife died, he had been spending time learning the names of those buried in the cemetery. When we asked for O'Brien, he thought a moment, then said, "Follow me."...leading us to a large O'Brien monument just outside the ruins of the old church. We would continue to get such help throughout the trip.
The view across to the "new" church shows that there are actually very few documented headstones in an old Irish cemetery....mostly stone markers with no designation...in typical famine graveyard style.
We stopped by the corner grocery, but couldn't find any traces back to the O'Briens or Cunninghams. But we learned that at one time, Ballymote had 24 pubs and 6 grocers...now down to 6 pubs and 3 grocers.
The Cunninghams, Pete's grandmother Celia's family, were from Rosses Point, northwest of Sligo. We had stayed at Rosses Point in our 2005 Downey Family Trip to Ireland, and found this a highlight of the trip. On this trip, we stayed at Ardtarmon House in Drumcliff, north across the bay from Rosses Point.
Ardtarmon House was a beautiful country manor house.
Walking around the house through the portal...
We found our self-catering cottage, which is now a couple of rooms in what had once been the family barn.
The next day, we headed out for a day trip to find Dromahair and Sheskin in County Leitrim...the homeland of the McTiernan's. A McTiernan married a McGurty...and Jennie McGurty, married Daniel Cunningham, Pete's great-grandfather.
As we drove past Lough Gill, we found Parkes Castle...not Diana's Parks...on the shore of the lake.
We had found Michael McTiernan's website that gave the description and pictures of the McTiernan Castle in the townland of Sheskin in the barony of Drumahaire,
Michael gave the GPS coordinates...N40 03' 09.4" W75 24' 14.1" which we were able to map into a Google Maps location of the Sheskin House.
The Sheskin land had been in the family since Hugh I born in 1708...and Michael got a picture of Hugh VIII and his niece in front of the castle at left....as well as a picture of himself and Maureen Bower...
Michael gave us a picture of the entry gates to the Sheskin Castle. It was this picture that was critical in Diana spotting the entrance through the undergrowth.
After a couple of passes on the road, we did spot the gates and the Castle beyond. It seemed that there was a lot more overgrowth than in the pictures above. We found the main house...originally 11x22 ft containing 2 rooms, and the barn beyond. We captured video of the stream flowing by gate and the front of the house.
Diana found negotiating the gates into Sheskin as a challenge.
Again, we had been very lucky to find local experts who had known Hugh McTiernan. We stopped at the local pharmacy shop in town of Dromahair to ask for help in finding the house in Sheskin. The local pharmacist Cait, knew of Hugh's house and gave us directions to get us close. By the time we had returned, she had called her father, who had been a good friend of Hugh VIII. We found that Hugh had died in mid-2006, and they gave us directions to the local abbey where Hugh had been buried.
The walk to the friary took us by the
Bonet River, which was really
roaring that day as we captured it on video.
At the end of the walk, it climbed to the old Creevelea Friary, the last monastery to be built before they were banned by Henry VIII in the middle of the 16th century. The brothers returned in 1601 and in 1642, were run out again by Oliver Cromwell. The old friary was finally abandoned late in the 17th century and is now used as a cemetery.
We were able to find Hughes grave in the main chapel, marked with a wooden cross until the final monument is installed...typically waiting a year after his death.
The old friary still shows some of the beautiful architecture of its day.
After our day in Dromahair and Sheskin, we returned to Ardtarmon House, and decided to walk their path down to the sea...
This is a beautiful walk through the grounds...
...past the cattle grazing in the field...
...and on down to the sea.
...we looked across to Rosses Point and Cunningham country, where we stayed on our2005 trip. Not a great sand beach on this side of the bay as we had across the way, but some beautiful views from the tip of the peninsula. We had a good walk down, but the rain poured all the way for our walk back to the house.
On our 3rd day, we headed to Ballybay, the McManus home town. Along the way, we stopped for a view of a beautiful waterfall.
Ann Kniskern had told family members that Patrick McManus and wife, Barbara Kelleher McManus, had emigrated from Ballybay to Fly Creek, New York sometime during the American Civil War. Patrick and Barbara would arrive with their two oldest sons, Phillip and James, who were born in Ireland. Mark Ryser, a cousin descended from James, gave use the rest of Patrick and Barbara's children - Anna, Elizabeth, John (Ann Kniskern's father), Cecilia, Margaret, Barbara, Mary, Peter, and Thomas. Peter J McManus was Peter Downey's maternal grandfather.
We checked into the Ardmore Guest House in Ballybay, and then set out to explore Ballybay and McManus country.
After our discovery of Ballybay, we drove to the south via Dublin to Cashel. We were on the way to Doon and the Cummins Farm south of Doon. Cashel is known for the rock of Cashel and is the old Downey home town. This view is up the main street with the Kearny castle shown on the right...where we would enjoy a few drinks later in the week.
We arrived at the Carrigmore Farm House on the Cummins Farm. Tina, Tom, and Robert were actually returning from a week in Turkey, so they had arranged for John O'Brien to lead us down after 8 PM Saturday Evening Mass in Doon. This would be our abode for the next 5 days...
This was called Mike's House since Mike Downey's visited twice this year.
This was Tom's parents' home before their passing. This is where Tom grew up...just down the lane from Tom and Tina's current home. The main living area is very cozy and comfortably furnished...
...including a wood burning fireplace.
The kitchen eating area has the kitchen table as well as has sofa and chairs.
There are two large bedrooms with double beds off of the living area, another single bedroom off of the eating area, and a stairs to the loft with two additional beds...easily accommodating 7 comfortably.
The outdoor farm courtyard has a large table and barbeque.
The house, officially named Rockview at Carrigmore, provides a view of its namesake...a large deposit of flint rock left by the glaciers. Later in the week, Tom Cummins would take Pete up on the rock for a view...and a fast escape from a local bull.
On Sunday, Tom and Tina took us up into the mountains for a Sunday Dinner along with Orla, Robert, and Tina's mother, Ann Downey.
This was a delightful place with many great views from the hotel and along the way.
After dinner, we retired to the lounge, where Diana and Tina talked...
But the after dinner event was the televised Muenster (Southern Ireland) Hurling Championships matching Limerick against Waterford. Of course, Tom is a long-time Limerick fan...while Ann was more neutral as a Tipperary fan..."Tipp all the way". But Tipp had lost to Limerick on June 16. It was a good game, but in the end, the favored Waterford would end up beating Limerick.
Back at the house, we caught Tom in the midst of a catnap in his car after going out for a paper. No wonder he was tired...returning from a week in Turkey to have two guests.
After his trip with his family in the spring, Greg Downey was able to find summer work on the Tom Hayes farm, Rathcoole, outside of Fethard. So we made a trip to see Greg on his summer farm.
The master of milking in his domain. One of Greg's jobs is to do the evening milking...bringing in over 40 cows and lining them up in shifts for the evening milking. Greg's Grandfather, John, had done similar chores while on Great Grandfather Leo's farm.
The house on the farm is a large on with Tom Yates family and his parents all living there.
We caught a picture of the two Toms, Tom Yates and Tom Cummins as they discussed the project of renovating the old stone barn. Tom and Greg were tearing out the original stone floor to replace it.
Greg has made friends with the Yates children and their dog...He truly seems to love his summer on the Yates Farm and is living with some very nice people.
Besides caring for the farm, Tom works in taking soil samples. in Driving around the beautiful countryside with Tom, it seems that he knows everyone. Here he talks with a farmer that we met driving his tractor as Tom showed Pete the local country side.
And we spent some time at Anna Moore's pub in Doon...shown flying the Limerick flag.
On the farm, Tom put Pete in "wellies", and put him to work picking onions while he sprayed the potatoes. Tom told Pete to pick a dozen...while Tina wondered how she'd ever use that many.
Teamwork...Tom helps Pete hose the dirt of his "wellies."
While Tom taught Pete potato farming and onion picking, Tina and Diana worked on Tina's plans to open the farm house as a self-catering weekly rental.
We visited the Downey Farm at Ballyfowloo on our way to visit Paddy and Joan Downey. Tina picked some beautiful flowers for the table.
We visited Paddy and Joan Downey at their home as they were in the midst of remodeling with new doors and windows and adding a new bedroom and bath and a family room.
Paddy showed us the land adjoining his home where he had originally grown up. He's since sold it to a man who's built a large home.
A view from the field in back shows the new construction in gray...the new bedroom and bath addition on the left...the new family room in back on the left.
On our way back through Cashel, we stopped and said a prayer for Sheila Downey, who died in February of 2006. It was Sheila who was key in linking Peter Downey Australia with Mike Downey to reopen Downey family relationships.
Tom had just picked up his Quad All Terrain Vehicle, and wanted to test it out. So he came by to get Pete and put him up on the back. You haven't lived until you see the fields from the back of Tom's quad as you hang on for dear life.
Tom took us up to the top of Carrigmore on the adjoining property to get this amazing view over his property with his and Tina's home on the left and the Carrigmore Farm House in the center. It so happened that there was a bull with his cows in the field, so we went around to the adjoining field and came in from the back because you don't mess with a bull. But as we were enjoying the view, Tom looked down pointed. We saw the angus bull coming up the field toward us. As Tom said..."He knows where we are, and he's coming for us. Keep quiet and follow me." So we moved fast and slid down the back side of the rock...and quickly hoping across the rock fence to the quad.
Of course, the bull gave us a story for that evenings gathering at the Kearney Castle bar in Cashel. We had the Irish "traveling team" that had come across to Matt and Kristy's wedding in July 2006...Tom and Tina Cummins; Paddy, Joan, and Aidan Downey; Maria Tierney; and Margaret and Michael Bulfin. Joan Downey shows her normal happy self while Aidan and Diana look on.
Tom poses with Margaret Bulfin, while Paddy look on.
Pete with Maria Tierney and Margaret Bulfin.
Michael Bulfin, shown with Tina. Michael helpd us as we tried to figure out how to approach a website to advertise the Carrigmore Farmhouse. We hadn't heard any response from emails, and had been wondering if he was getting them. He had received them, but was a man of few words. He agreed to an occasional response..."Got it."
Aidan wears a New York Yankee shirt. Pete promised to send something from the Detroit Tigers, who beat the Yankees to get to last years Baseball World Series.
Thursday was our last full day...beginning with fruit. bread, and jam...and Tina's flowers from Ballyfowloo.
We met Paddy Shanahan, who has been helping out at the farm on Thursdays for many years.
Tom Cummins showed up with a new pair of wellies that would fit Diana. He knew that he wanted to go into the building where he kept his "ladies"...his Irish Setter pups. We had shown the pups in an earlier picture on the Mike Downey Family trip at a few months after they were born in December 2006. They are now maturing into absolutely beautiful dogs. Diana fell in love as they surrounded her.
That night we drove through Limerick to pick up Orla after work...and then headed to an unmarked house in the hills. It was here that the locals would drop in for a night of music and singing every Thursday night.
Although we arrived about 9:30 PM, we were a bit early, so Pete had time to learn how to do the first pour on a pint of Guiness. Orla captured Pete's pouring lesson on video. Although getting a lot of encouragement, no one offered Pete a job, or the opportunity to cap it off.
The farmhouse had an old open hearth fire...
The music was opened the "session" by a young violinist from the local area. We had all ages of players and singers. Tom Cummins would later entertain us by singing his "party piece" while others joined in.
The owner, James Patrick Ryan, on the right came out of the kitchen and began to lead the playing and call upon people for singing. It was amazing that he and the banjo could seem to accompany in any key as soloists would perform their singing.
The family dog attached himself to Orla...
The local soloists would perform the old Irish songs. We had to leave about 12:30AM to catch a plane in the morning. Orla stayed on with some of her friends. She said that singers and players kept arriving after we left, finally breaking up after 3 AM.
This was truly a slice of old Ireland...perhaps how it might have been the night before John and Mary Downey headed up the path at Ballyfowloo carrying their two young daughters into a new life in America.
We were up early the next morning to catch our plane and drop Orla off in Limerick for work. But first Orla had to try the car that her mom and dad had purchased for her. Just a little paperwork and her coming up with the insurance, and she'll be off.
A final thanks to Tom, Orla, and Tina as they got up to see us off. Robert was still in bed. We had a great trip in finding some of our heritage the first week, and then the enjoying the unbelievable hospitality of the Cummins during our second week. It's good to stop for a while and see how people live their lives in another land. We appreciate Tom and Tina, and our other Irish relatives for making room for their American cousins from Michigan.
God Bless...
Pete & Diana
