Our third day in Ireland is Friday, 17 July, and we are off to pick up the "Louisburg" book that Michael lined up for us last night. And the book is waiting for us behind John Staunton's pharmacy counter. John said to tell Michael that he will keep an eye out for more, but there was just the one this time.
From Louisburgh we went on to say hello to Tommie and his mother, Margaret, who live right next to Accony in Roonagh, near where the ferry goes out to Clare Island in the Atlantic Ocean. Margaret had gone to Westport with her brother, but Tommie had time for a short visit and also gave us directions to the Accony School where we would be heading the next day for the reunion. Here's their house below, but "no thanks" from Tommie when we asked for a photograph of him. He also said he wouldn't be getting to the reunion at the school since he felt he had put in enough time there as a student with compulsory education.
So, off we went to nearby Accony. According to the real estate signs you see below, there are a couple of properties for sale that we will pick up when we win the next European Lotto.
And we drove right past one of the old thatched homesteads that we have photographed over each of the past years. The good news is, Deirdre plans to build a summer home on the site in the future. She told us previously that she had hoped to rebuild the home just as it always was, but the building commission nixed that plan and they expect her to build a standard, contemporary structure.
Then down the road we continued, and there was the school in the distance...
And there is the "Accony National School" still well kept up and now the private residence of the James family who are opening up the building for Saturday's reunion. This school closed in 1971 as small schools in rural areas consolidated, just like back in "The States." There had been an earlier school as well, and, before that, a "Hedge" school.
But we had to hurry on to meet Patsy and her sister, Anna May, for lunch in the nearby town of Murrisk. Can you see the family resemblence?
What a wonderful blog. I came across your blogspot when checking out the accony school reunion, where my mate's mother in law attended. I helped him do some work her cottage, which is just up the lane from the Kerrigans' farm. What kind and hospitable people the Louisburgh people are. I hope to go over to visit again in the near future. It is good to get away from England to where the more important things of life still have a place.
ReplyDeleteGed Tierney, England
i think u should post a picture of the natinol school every kid that goes to louisburgh deserve a chace of glorey
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