Castleisland Schools: Presentation Convent Girls

‘They shall shine like stars for all eternity in the Kingdom of His saints’ – Very Rev Monsignor Tobias Kirby, Rector of the Irish College, Rome, congratulating the Presentation nuns on founding a convent at Lixnaw in 1877   A 102-pg registration book for Castleisland Convent School Girls dating from the 1860s to 1947 forms…Continue Reading

Patrick O’Keeffe

The approaching annual autumnal Patrick O’Keeffe Festival in Castleisland provides opportunity to present material on this subject from the collection.   The foundation of the festival, now in its 23rd year, was sketched by John Reidy:   Noted piper, Peter Browne arrived in Castleisland late in 1992 and began researching the life and times of O’Keeffe for RTE…Continue Reading

Gaeilge

Céad slán chun na hÉireann, ‘si mo léan í go dubhach, Is chun Caisleáin Ghriaghaire, ní him aonar bheinn annsúd; Is mó óigbhean mhilis mhaorga do shilfeadh braon ós mo chionn ‘Gus nár ró-bhreagh an bás é seachas é dh’fhagháil i mBellvue.   Céad slán chun na hÉireann was composed in the nineteenth century by…Continue Reading

Irish National Land League

Castle Island … a village which has attained the unenviable notoriety of being considered about the worst in the country1   During the Land War, a reporter for the Illustrated London News stated there were ‘four roads going out of Castle Island, on every one of which a man has been shot within the last four…Continue Reading

Michael O’Donohoe, ‘The Master’

The month of September recalls the birth of the late Michael O’Donohoe, creator of this collection,  who would have this year – on the 26th of the month – celebrated his 80th birthday.1     Michael was born in Tralee in 1936, the eldest of three children of Matthias O’Donohoe (1898-1995) and his wife Catherine…Continue Reading

Tralee Board of Guardians

The hive contains more than it can support … the excess must either perish of famine or be destroyed by internal contests for food – Robert Torrens, 1817 An assessment of the level of poverty in pre-Famine Ireland can be made in the writings of nineteenth century political economist Colonel Robert Torrens.  In 1839, he…Continue Reading

The Seigniory of Castleisland

Michael O’Donohoe studied Rev James Carmody’s essay, Castle Magne, from which he created a summarised account of the last moments of Gerald, 16th Earl of Desmond.1         Michael’s account commences with the Earl’s concealment at a place called Glounaneenta2 (Glen of the cattle sheds) in March 1583, to the severing of his head –…Continue Reading

Samuel Murray Hussey

Nineteenth century land agent, Samuel Murray Hussey (1824-1913), finds a place in the collection.  Michael O’Donohoe studied Hussey’s memoir, Reminiscences of an Irish Land Agent and created his own index to the work.1   Michael made notes on the book and on Hussey genealogy, including Clarissa Hussey of Dingle, ‘a most beautiful benefactress to the religious and…Continue Reading

Castleisland Church of Ireland

Church history forms part of the O’Donohoe archive and includes Michael’s impressive 39-pg study of the Church of Ireland in Castleisland.  It commences with the division of land following the death of Gerald, 16th Earl of Desmond, in 1583:1   From 1587c onwards, the seigniory of Castleisland was owned by the Herbert family, apart from…Continue Reading