I am half Irish, but I had never been to Ireland. My mother told me that her parents were Michael Kilbane and Bridget McCann Kilbane, and that they immigrated to the US from Ireland, I think early in the twentieth century. More specifically, they came from Achill Island on the northwest coast of Ireland in County Mayo. Wikipedia says that Achill is the largest of the Islands in Ireland. However, when our ferry landed in Inishmore, one of the Aran Islands, we were told that since Achill is now connected to the mainland by a road bridge it is no longer an island, and Inishmore is the largest of the Islands in Ireland. Mine is bigger than yours!
Since we would be in Ireland, I wanted to visit Achill. We were planning to stay in Galway, and as it is a two hour drive to Achill we could do it as a day trip. Over the years I had saved emails from my large extended family (my Irish Catholic mother had six sisters), and some of these relatives had described their visits to Achill. One forward from a distant cousin (that I have never met) mentioned: “I’m attaching pictures of three of the Kilbane cottages on the Atlantic Drive in Lower Sraheens.”
The night before our trip to Achill, I spent time in our Galway B&B researching online. First, Atlantic Drive was not correct; it should have been the Wild Atlantic Way that I have described, and which circumnavigates Achill island. I did internet searches for “Sraheens Achill,” “Lower Sraheens Achill,” and “Sraheens Kilbanes.” I found some stuff, but really very little. I found several cottages available on a for rent site, and from these rental sites found the area of the island likely to be Lower Sraheens.
My mother has a large extended family, who all lived in Cleveland OH. There were Kilbanes, Carneys, Cooneys, Careys, and Mastersons, who all came from Achill. My guess is that someone from Achill went to Cleveland, and all those who followed also went to Cleveland. Our guide on the Kinsale walking tour said people from Kinsale who went to the US all went to Philadelphia. And then on our drive into Achill, there was a sign that said: “Achill, twinned with the City of Cleveland.”
Based on my internet research, when we crossed the bridge and entered Achill Island, I turned south down a minor road that followed the east side of the island, looking for Lower Sraheens. I stopped and took pictures of cottages. Not terribly memorable, either the cottages or the photos.
I drove further, and then I saw a cemetery and we stopped. We walked through the cemetery, and I saw headstones for Kilbanes, McCanns, Carneys, Cooneys, Careys, and Mastersons. Most of these headstones were modern, from the past 30 years or so. I also noticed that a number of headstones said Shraheens, not Sraheens. It now seems likely that the earlier email from that distant cousin had a misspelling. Now if I search for “Kilbanes Shraheens” I get hundreds of hits, including some from ancestry.com bulletin boards about Kilbane family members. It is probably a good thing I did not have the correct spelling for Shraheens or else I probably would have been up half the night on the web!
This guy did something wrong!
From the cemetery, I walked down the road to take pictures of some sheep in the road, as well as pics of an old abandoned stone farmhouse without a roof.
Then a man and a teenage girl came by, walking along the road. I struck up a conversation, and he told me that a Kilbane lived right over there, pointing to a yellow two-story house. However, the guy would not be home right then, as he would be working in Westport (an hour drive) today.
He also told us about how sad it was that the island population had declined so much over the past thirty years. Young people moving to the big city. It turns out this man lived in the farmhouse right across the street, and that the girl was his granddaughter who lives in Dublin. I did not point out the irony of his children abandoning the island for Dublin.
My mother pronounced Kilbane as Kil-bane. An email from another cousin who visited Achill said “One thing I learned when I kept saying the name Kilbane, I got blank stares!! They pronounce it “Kilbawn” say I knew!!!!” So, I asked this man about the pronunciation, and he said it is Kil-bann, with the bann like in the banns of marriage.
I asked him about the spelling Shraheens vs Sraheens, and yes Shraheens is correct. I asked him about older graves since all of these were relatively recent. He said there was another, older, cemetery about two miles down the road, on both sides of the road. So we drove there and took more pictures. A really lovely spot by the water.
This was inside the abandoned church. I don’t understand it.
And the photographer at work.
We went as far south as the Carrickkildavnet Castle and then decided to head back to get some lunch. Great name, Carrickkildavnet Castle.
But then I stopped the car suddenly. Susan asked, “Why?” I said, “Come look.” There was a statue in honor of Johnny Kilbane! You ask, “Who is Johnny Kilbane?” According to Wikipedia, he was a boxer who held the World Featherweight title from 1912 to 1923 and is considered the #2 ranked featherweight of all-time. My mother talked proudly about Johnny Kilbane when I was a little kid, as he was a cousin of her father.
We had lunch at Kate’s Cafe, which was quite good. We had “toasties,” which is the Irish name for grilled sandwiches. I had learned all about toasties in a book had read called “Murder in an Irish Village” by Carlene O’Connor. When we travel to foreign countries we often read mysteries from that locale. We have discovered great authors and learned about local culture. I have read several novels by Tana French, who is a very good author. But her gritty stories take place in Dublin, and I wanted to find a detective who was in rural Ireland, perhaps The West Country where we would be traveling. I discovered Carlene O’Connor, whose detective lives in — wait for it — the small village of Kilbane in County Cork. Fictional village… I enjoyed it and ended up reading two of her books on the trip. These are examples of “Cozy Mysteries.” There is even a web site devoted to Cozy Mysteries.
Kate’s Cafe also had some funny signs on the walls.
The best sign was in the restroom.
At Kate’s Cafe I went up to the till (cash register) to pay for our lunch. While standing at the counter, I saw a signup sheet for some charity fundraiser, like a 10K run. I noticed two of the names on the list were Michael Kilbane and Neil Kilbane.
I am really glad I went to Achill to get a sense of where my ancestors lived.
Even though I did not find out anything about the Achill Secret Garden…
