Ireland day 7 - Saturday 11th June

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We were delighted to be able to visit Philomena, my Mum’s childhood friend, today.

Mum grew up in the village of Carrigallen, a small village in Co. Leitrem on the shores of a small lough. She was cared for by her grandmother, Frances ‘Granny’ Nixon, while her mum, Bella, worked away from home as a maid in Lissadell House (lissadellhouse.com). Bella’s siblings, Harry and Billy, also lived in the cottage with Mum. Bella’s 2 other siblings, Rosaline and Bob were working away from home. Rosaline was a maid; I’m unsure where but possibly with Bella at Lissadell, and Bob was a Merchant Seaman.

All had emigrated to England at some point in the 1950s.

While I was growing up we visited Carrigallen a few times, staying with Philomena and her family. Mum died in September 1992 at the young age of 59, and we had had little contact with Philomena for many years before then, and none since

A few weeks ago, while thinking about the Ireland trip, I decided to find out if Philomena was still around. After a quick internet search, I discovered that her husband, Peter, had sadly died in 2015, but couldn’t find any links to Philomena. I emailed the Carrigallen church with some context, and a request that my contact details be shared with Philomena so that if she was well, and wished to, she could contact me. The email was sent at around 22:30 on a Tuesday. At about 13:30 the following day my phone rang; it was Philomena! We had a conversation peppered with laughter and tears, and arranged to meet while I was in Ireland. That was today!

Philomena lives a couple of miles outside Carrigallen, about an hour east of Cloonloo where we were staying, so before our agreed meeting time, we headed over to the village for a wander and to see how clear my memory of the village was.

My memory wasn’t bad considering it was about 45 years since my last visit. I remembered the main street, the lake, the school, the garage and the pub. The pub had been an important part of our visits as it was owned by Philomena and Peter, had been where we stayed, and was the center of village life. I remember drinking ‘red lemonade’ as a child, and was thrilled that it’s still available today! I did of course partake ? The name of the pub had changed, and I didn’t remember it looking like it does now inside, but the red lemonade made up for that.

We were welcomed into Philomena’s beautiful home by her and Yvonne, one of her 6 children. Another of her daughters, Audrey, popped in to say hello. We spent some time poring over some photos I had brought with me. The photos were of Mum as a child and adult, Granny Nixon, Bella and her siblings and second husband, Ron, as well as a couple of other more distant relatives and friends.

Philomena told tales of when she and mum were growing up, how every door in the village was open to the other villagers, and how Billy and Harry, both with beautiful singing voices, had taken part in village entertainment. One story was about the local Garda giving Billy a summons for riding a bike without a light. Billy went in front of the magistrate and was fined 5 shillings. When he left the courthouse the local Garda met him and said he’d pay the fine; apparently he had been under pressure from his sergeant to show how hard he was working, so occasionally fabricated some minor infractions for the local young men and paid the fine himself. The funny thing was, said Philomena, ‘Billy said, ‘I never had a bike!‘’

We were taken to a beautiful golf club for lunch – Slieve Russell – and left with very full bellies. There were 2 wedding receptions taking place that afternoon, and as we left one of the brides was at the entrance looking absolutely beautiful with her handsome groom at her side. Yvonne told us that the function area that reception was in held 600 people!

We went back to Carrigallen to see whether the grotto by the Catholic Church was the shrine I remember from my childhood. I came to the conclusion it wasn’t, and that what I remember was probably from a completely different village!

Having said au revoir to Philomena and Yvonne, with huge thanks for their wonderful hospitality and delicious lunch, we drove back to Cloonloo. I decided to go for a quick wander to walk off some of the lunch, and give my legs a bit of a stretch after spending most of the day sitting down. Susan stayed at the cottage playing her fishy game and chatting to her daughters.

The quick wander turned into a 5.5k walk when I spotted a sign to Wynne’s View. It was a lovely walk along a single-track road lined with trees and fields, some with drying peat. There were cattle, sheep and ponies to say hello to while being serenaded by lots of birds. I was befriended by a black Labrador at one point; she insisted on following me up the road, so I had to backtrack a bit to return her home.

The view point looked over a lough and some hills – lovely! I made it back to the cottage in time to miss the rain shower, and we had a snack for supper with a glass or two of wine.

My steps today were around 14500.

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