History of Annascaul over the past 150 years
History of Annascaul and its social impacts over the last 150 years was a talk that Annascaul Historical Society gave in 2023. Before the talk they indicated that they secured funding to buy Valentia stone plagues for village sites commemorating important places in the village.
The village obtained funds through South Kerry Partnership but also through private fundraising they raised an additional 2,000 euro to fund the rest of the historical journey of the village.
John Hanafin Talks about the History of Annascaul
John Hanafin gave this talk in May 2022. He enjoys and has a humorous insight into looking at the societal implications and the economics of events in the village over the last 150 years. In a similar initiative Aido’s Annascaul Cafe and historical walks each Friday and Saturday at 6pm during the summer months
From the above and part of the Walking in the Footsteps of Annascaul History Annascaul Cafe and Pottery will provide walking tours in the summer of 2025 where a meal is included. See package here
Social history of Annascaul video
This is an amazing insight into village life and 150 years of social history Annascaul village. It looks at the characters that lived in Annascaul over the last 150 years. It talks about the mail road and how it didnt exits before 1840. Charaters like Bowler, Pierce, Daniel O Connell from Dingle, The Annascaul Casino and the Pallace Dance Hall . You can find the sound file for this talk here
The Mail Road in 1831 - The History of Annascaul Transcripts
” Can you all hear ? Good. Can you all hear me . Unfortunately I have a cold so I wont be projecting that well.
It is great to see the numbers here and it will be lovely to talk about the history of Annascaul. We’re very grateful and thankful as a committee that so many of you have turned up. The purpose of today’s walk is to raise a little funds for the historical group. Through Mary and Laurence work in general it has been possible to secure funding to buy Valentia stone plagues. for village sites, commemorating important places in the village.
With generous funding from South Kerry Partnership but it is necessary to raise about 2,000 euro over the next year to fund the rest of it . Hence the bit of walking and a bit of talking for the next few months
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Our council assures us that the road improvement through the village will begin in the second quarter
The council will do the work for us , new roads and new pavements in the village. Slabs that have been ordered will be laid in the pavement. We ordered 15 or 16 slabs so that is the purpose of today’s walk.
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Right, we have a beautiful village and I am delighted to promote and the beauty of the people here. This is a great place to start
The first settlement here , most of the settlement in Annascaul was up towards the lake towards Ballinacourty side or over east towards the Ballyvoher site
Annascaul village over 200- 250 years ago was effectively not, not here , What ever settlement was down as at the bottom of the village.
That was the first significant thing is that this road was built and that road up the Maum. The purpose of the road, These roads were built in the 1760s and there were British military roads and were built to link the garrison towns of Dingle and Killarney. They shortened the distance of the march by nine miles. Can you imagine that in relation to the history of Annascaul and how communications to the village improve things. Previously, there was no the road here, there was no road by the coast. T he road would go about 3 miles east of the village , up towards the hills, back Ballinacourty and out that way. So the middle here was not there.
Important parts of the development parts of the village is the main road through the village came in 1831 and that was the mail road, built by the British mail.
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Some Annascaul Train History
In relation to history of Annascaul the first settlement had happened down here in the 1760s onwards down the back road and up this way but he middle of the village started coming from the 1830s and 1840s onwards because they had a new road
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This bridge isnt ot part of the original 1760 military road there was no bridges here. The river is still crossed by fort. The river was still crossed by stones
In the 1830s road saw this bridge being constructed up it forward
So this bridge was the first bridge in west Kerry linking Dingle to the road, to the killarney road, to the Tralee road.
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The older road around here, the river walk brings you out at a place we call Sean Droighead and that bridge predates all of them. But this route comes from the 1760 building of the road and the 1830 mail road
Other significant things that we can no longer see but that belongs here is that building above there is the village presbytery but those grounds was where this railway station for Tralee and dingle lie
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There was a railway here until where it from the 1890 until 1953.
Although the last passenger service was 1938 the freight train lasted another 13, 14 years taking fish and cattle from Dingle
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We know that the death knell of it as a passenger service was that a bus service has been established between Dingle and Tralee. The CIE bus would beat the train to Tralee. People had lost faith in the service as a passenger service. Remember it was a steam train , It was a hilly area and it didn’t have the power. We were after coming out of a 1930 early land 40s and we had economic war in Ireland and coal was not available to power the railway.
We were dependant on wet turf for steam for your train and so the train was becoming , not a viable option in west Kerry
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The railway station proper was still in that field. There are still remnants and stones. Those familiar with the village will know that the water tower is still up and the railway cottage is converted to a residence and a home now. Before we leave. Over there is obviously the South Pole and Tom Crean, as most of you will know Tom Crean as a arctic explorer. He and his wife bought that building. It had been a pub before them and it was ran as a pub.
His wife was the publican and his wife had come from Foleys pub in the village
History of some families in the 1900s in Annascaul
She was Nel Herlihy and 4 of the village pubs were Herlihy pubs. There were 10 pubs in the village in the early 20th century
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And where the new building is beside the South Pole that was one of two village smiths. The forge was there. That forge was run by the Cunningham family. A forge was important in any small agricultural village . The forge was where the horse was shoed and the cart wheel was banded, whatever implement had to be or work had to be done by the agricultural community people came from Minard, The Maum, Inch to the forge.
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So there were two in the village . We will head up the village. This walk will be an hour or hour and a half .
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John’s grand uncle We can see the gable of his house was the same Paddy Kennedy. Paddy Kennedy lost his life as a reprisal for the Ballinclare ambush of the black and tans truck in August 1920. John over the years has been very anxious to commemorate his grand uncle and the Ballinclare ambush
He has finally donated the site Hannah is standing on for a memorial for an ambush monument so the proposed. The funding for the work and the planning and the everything is secured and most of the money is secured and hopefully work commences in the next few weeks and it will be there by August 20th , so it is the 102nd anniversary.
Volunteer Reprisals in Annascaul
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This is a significant part of the village. This area of the village is called the Strand Road . Now we know it as Ardinane .Where we are now the village courthouse and the village courthouse had a couple of significant events
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Later on we will be stopping at the Walsh’s house. They were IRA volunteer commanders where they put up anti conscription posters. Conscription came to Ireland during the first world war and the volunteers opposed conscription.
The Walshes and all the volunteers opposed conscription. There was anti conscription poster on the window. It causes furore in the village. They were arrested for displaying the poster and their mother was thrown on the floor and everything. The Walshes were arrested and were tried in this courthouse and sentenced to time in jail in Cork.
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As a result of that. The Garda sergeant in Annascaul at the time was Garda Maloney was from Tipperary and was hated after that. His brutality on old Mrs Walsh and the fact that he intervened . He had escorted the Walshes to Cork to the jail and on his way back he came back by the rail, um, the railway The barracks was up in the middle of the village where Mary’s house is as he is walking up to the village and he was shot at from here.
So I’d like to think this was, this was the first shot of the Irish war of Independence. Maloney had a big heavy overcoat on the shot was from a shotgun and the pellets dispersed and it didn’t really penetrate so he wasn’t fatally wounded
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He got such a fright that he applied for a transfer was transferred out of here shortly afterwards.
When Paddy Kennedy was murdered at the foot of Gurteen’s Hill the inquest to his death was held in the court. The courthouse went out of use in the 30s.
Church of Ireland in Annascaul History
The Church of Ireland plays an important part in history of Annascaul. Behind us in the Eircom yard stood the parish church, Regarding the Church of Ireland church in the village. Unforunately they demolished it in the 60’s
Why did they knock it. It is such a travesty. Anyone who is familiar with the area, most of the church of Ireland churches here are quite small, rectangular buildings, so the church of Ireland church here was quite similar, on similar lines to the one in Milltown or St James churches in Dingle.
Looking at some records on the history of Annascaul this morning and in the 1866, it was the first rateable valuation of this area. They recorded 370 families living here in the 1850s , in the 1850’s evaluation there were 17 church of Ireland families
So this was church of Ireland church. The other significance of
church of Ireland is, Beside it, it had its own school house behind that railing. They recorded 4 pupils in the 1911 census
Protestant Church in Annascaul
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Lawrence calculates there are 60 graves in the cemetery . Annascaul’s church of Ireland community wouldn’t have been big enough for such a large graveyard but they had to have it.
Dingle was a port at the time and if people died on board or were lost at sea They buried these people here. There are strange name and no bearing to here. They were seamen that were lost at sea. Their remains , some of them are buried here. The church in Dingle . Those that are familiar with it
They know that the cemetery around the church was much smaller as it is in the town and they didn’t want the valuable space to be used for burying people that had no connection to the people in the town and so some of them are buried here.
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That church was built in 1820. Further on, a little further on. A little further in the 1840 , 1850 there was greater frenzy of evangelicals in the protestant community. It was a more robust form of Protestantism and it was funded mostly by merchants from Limerick and Cork. And West Kerry was funded by a group of Limerick merchants
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They levied tithes on the , Church of Ireland community. So they would get their investment back. So the church of Ireland west of Dingle were built by the board of first ???
The church or Ireland bishops . The diocese was Limerick and Ardfert . He did not want evangelicalism Protestantism to spread throughout the county. So he stopped it in Annascaul
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Stopping Evangelicalism in Annascaul
The bishop of Limerick built the house that Zack Phelan lives in . He sent a clerical diocese man here whose sole purpose was to stop evangelicalism in Annascaul which was stopped going further East So evangelicalism didn’t get hold in Annascaul.
It is known that the Church or Ireland rector lived in a different house up the strand road. owned by Bill Brosnan. He was the Parson’s Deacon. Even though the protestant community was small, it had a substantial presence. There were only 17 families but it had a church, a school and probably the two finest buildings in the village.
On the other hand there was no catholic church in the village.
There was no parish of Annascaul. That didn’t come till the 1840s
Re the history of Annascaul and the the catholic church we know there was one in Ballinacourty in the graveyard and one over in Ballyvoher.
There was no civil parish of Annascaul where it was broken up into Ballinacourty, Ballyvoher. Minard and at times were part of Camp. The church or Ireland church was much more organised and unified than its catholic counterpart.
Roberts grandfather remains are here .When they buried Roberts grandfather here in 1964 they did not allow catholic neighbors to pay their respects. Some of them said to hell with the restrictions and some did attend the service
There is a very famous poem “Burial of an Irish President” Douglas Hyde and all the dignitaries of the time hid behind headstones / grave stones of the protestant cathedral. They did not wish to go in. were afraid to go in. Changing times are here now In more recent times there is a church of Ireland community in Camp now. They hold meeting and events in both communities.
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Commemoration Monument in Annascaul
Next door to us there was a double row of houses that the O’ Briens. They were originally owned by Laides but Tom Crean’s daughters married into those houses. Those houses were then demolished and they went to Tralee . So the Quine family left the village.
The only part of the truck that was preserved after the ambush were the wheels axel and the two wheels of the truck.
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For years they were in the front gardens of John Kennedy’s . We have the wheels in our possession. The monument will be of Valentia slate. The plaque will have the details and the wheel will be the piece de resistance of the display. The wheel will be left in the original state. It will be intriqing to add this to the new history of Annascaul.
The Pedlar’s Lake Story
At the lake at the top of Conor Pass is called the pedlars lake. Because there was a pedlar, a tin smith, a pedlar was murdered and his body was disposed of in the lake. The pedlar was engaged to a lady who was from Inch. They had sawn their sovereign coins, cut their coins in half and the pedlars sawn cons were found in the possession of the murders and it matched the coins of the fina lady ?
The history of Annascaul indicates they were arrested and were to be transferred to the jail in Tralee. The journey was too long and so they stayed and were billeted overnight in the guesthouse in the hotel across the road .But they made their escape through the night by cutting a hole in the thatch and got out and were never seen again
They escaped certain execution.
I should know the name of the guesthouse and the family who owned it
Many of you will know about wind measurements is called the beaufort scale
Daniel Beaufort’s father was John Beaufort. The fathers didnt like the accommodation being offered and described it as squalid
British Navy Pensioners Retire
It is important to note that British Navy Pensioners played a very important role in the history of Annascaul. These buildings, John Brosnan’s building or teach Sean who as we used call it Sean Evans’s house cousin. That building was built by the British Navy pensioners . In Annascaul over 100 years ago it was farming community
The first son have gotten the farm but the subsequent son. Alot would have gone as RIC officers and here there was a tradition of joining the British navy because the navy, the coast guard had a presence at Minard castle and you could, well you couldn’t formally enlist but you could make an official enlistment at the coast guard station and they would give you the fare from Annascaul to Cobh where you formally joined the British navy.
So in the period of Tom Crean. If you have a look at the records
Navy Pensioners Build houses in the village after the 1890s
There are 16 people who officially joined the British Navy. So you served your time in the British navy and when it came to retirement they came back here with a pension so they had the means and the money to build some of the the more modern houses in the Village. So the cut stone house. Most of them follow the same pattern.
The other significant thing here. Annascaul had, land lord would be the wrong but they had two land owners or right owners where rates or a stipend was paid to them.
At the bottom of the village there was a lady called ??? and the Pierces lived across the road here and Maggie Pierce and her family got the money for the rates from the house owners at the bottom part of the village.
And when we move to the top which is now the Leprechaun pub
The Moriarties owned that and then Rory o Shea. They were the rate owners at the top part of the village .There were 10 village pubs. Most of the pubs were alive 130 or 140 year old
The pubs I can trace our pub history of Annascaul back to roughly the time of the mail road in 1840
I am the 4th generation of my family and there were 2 generations, the Herlihy before .There were 6 generation in that pub. Most of these house in the village were the same with 6 generations
Jimmy O Donnel’s shop was bought by his father and it was a Kavanagh shop before then It was one of 9 general shops in the village. Most of the buildings in the village have a story to tell. They provided a service, or a trade or something in the general area.
So I am , over the next wile I am anxious that that history is kept and is preserved. Like all villages , there is a story to tell and it is important to tell those stories and record it.
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The history and Economy of Annascaul in the 1900's
How did a village of this size support 10 pubs ? The economy had a huge impact on history of Annascaul. The village , Annascaul village, goes from Minard to the top of the Maum . The village itself only had 100 families living in it, whereas the greater community had 500- 600 families.
The village, I would know from the pub point of view
My mother was born in the 30’s and was raised in a pub and she would tell me that when growing up was difficult from financial from every point of view
The village depended. It had 12 fairs. For most of the history of Annascaul they held a fair day on the 14th of each month. Ther were 2 big fairs, the Ballinclare fair in October and May. So the pub would have to make enough money on the Ballinclare fair day to last till the next one or the fair day , the 14th of the month. So the farming.
There wasn’t much money at the time in Ireland in the 30’s and 40’s. No-one had money. Most people were self sufficient. . Money was not too important. Most , they was alot of helping your neighbour. There wasn’t the exchange of money. The farmers would come to the fair and spend what they had. Sell the cow. They provided the woman of the house with most of the money.
Retired navy officers had regular monthly incomes. So did retired RIC personnel with regular pensions. They were the everyday life blood in the village for the publicans anyhow. This village is a small village but it had 3 or 4 tailors, 3 or 4 dress makers , a couple of cobblers. It even has a lady at the backs of Dan Foley’s pub where Marie Kennedy house is now . Marie calls her house Mary Lane but Mary Lane made habits for the dead.
The village had a bakery down below where Mick Devine’s house is, where we stopped at the protestant church. Just below the protestant show where Denise Brosnan or “Denisheen the Baker”
“Denisheen the Baker” had a thriving business
he had vans on the road supplying bread to outlying villages
“Denisheen the Baker” was a character in the village
I grew up hearing about “Denisheen the Baker” . “Denisheen the Baker” died the day I was born. “Denisheen the Baker” was a good, he kept the pubs going. He probably kept the pubs gong by himself. “Denisheen the Baker” liked whiskey
Because he liked whiskey his teeth were all rotten. We had a dentist in the village.
His rooms at the time at the back of the Moriarty hotel. Up on the wall and at the back there were sets if dentures.
And every time “Denisheen the Baker” required a set of dentures he would go up and put his hand up. The worst part of the story apparently “Denisheen the Baker” and his mother shared a set of dentures. “Denisheen the Baker” liked the drink so the set if dentures was disappearing regularly.
The houses behind, people lived in them but obviously they had to survive . This house now where Patricia is living in . I was telling her last night. This house was Sheehans or Shuhan
I don’t even know their back ground but they had some kind of an educations that was beyond the ordinary. they got a secondary schooling. People here finished primary schooling and that was a far as it went. And if you wanted to go any further, you had to do a thing called the primary cert and if you wanted to be a clergy man or something you had to have a little latin.
The Sheehans provided the grind services for the village
So they existed. There was a son, two sons and a father, They were reclusive people . but provided a little bit of extra learning for those going one from the village That is how they made their livelihood.
Across the road was the village hotel, O’ Donnells hotel, It was one of the village hotels .Dan Foleys pub was there. That was Herlihy’s pub. Below Herlihies there was a shop. Scannell’s shop, a 100 odd years ago before it was general merchants shop. It was Moriarties I think.
It sold meal and flour. Below that house where John Broasnan house was Sculleys and he provided a taxi service but they had a garage
The one below was a pub. The one above Hannifin’s bar, my pub was a tailor, Lynch’s.
The RIC Barracks
Mary’s house above was the RIC barracks at the time. That later became Landers garage.
So every house in the village had something. The cinema . Sunday night or Friday are two nights. Mary Courtney shop had sweets
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The yard we are standing in now was the RIC Barracks, the remains of the original barracks is the old fireplace
When the Eiri Amach and the War of Independence happened, was declared Michael Collins from Dublin decreed that all RIC barracks and their presence be destroyed so the barracks here was burnt in 1920. Burning of the RIC barracks makes up part of the history of Annascaul which led to a weakening of the british control in the area.
The RIC building had already been vacated. All RIC at the time were under threat and so all activity was concentrated in Dingle
So the barracks in camp, Castlegregory they were all burnt out in 1920
This building then became Landers garage and it then became the cinema
It was Connors Across the road was Connie Courtney shop and Tea room
Connie Courtney’s shop would supply sweets for the cinema on Fridays. Connie would supply penny sweets or ice-cream
He died in 1979. and Mary lived on until 1993.
Liam Shanahan would come on a Tuesday and Thursday with cameo cakes
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Bowlers Estate
The building across the road is Brendan Falvey’s bar and next door is Murphys. They all came from a guy called Bowler and his estate. He owned the building next door to Aidan’s cafe. It was a pub. But Bowler, in the very early 1900’s Bowler sold, carried a horse to Dingle and he sold the horse at Dingle fair but he didn’t get paid for his horse. He went into a rage over it.
People from Tralee bought the horse. He intercepted them here at the village as he hadn’t got his money for the horse . But he had a big knob of a stick and he knocked the man off the horse and beat him within an inch of his life.
But he didn’t die. But the RIC were here at the time and because Bowler was known to them. The RIC told Bowler. “If your man dies you will be”….
They advised him to leave.
Bowler left his business in the village and he went to Ameri
The Building of the Railway
So the site of your pub and Murphys was parts of Bowlers estate and the Pierces came and built. The building of the railway is an interesting part in history of Annascaul. The Pierces came from America. He had made money out of the railways in America and he knew the importance of providing facilities for the railway
The railway was coming to Annascaul or was coming through Annascaul at the time.
The railway station was to be around the middle end of the village and he identified this area as a place to build his hotel or his guest house, his accommodation for the railway. He built the building and his daughter ( You have a photograph inside in the bar ) and his daughter was put in charge
he went back to America.
They thought the railway was at the bottom end of the village opposite the bridge
So the traveler that as likely to come wasn’t walking up here . He was staying below or in Moriarty’s hotel. So it didn’t work quite as well as he had hoped
( Near Falveys Bar ) You have the Creans before Callaghans came into it . Both building were owned by a dingle man called Daniel O’ Connell. Daniel O’ Connell was a horse trader and he traded in horses.
The currency of the first world war was horses because they were needed for soldiers . He bought horses but he paid dear for them and after the war ended. The market for horses collapsed and he went basically bankrupt
He was Mikeys grandfather and he needed a bail out.
He had married an old lady from Camp, (not an old lady ) but a lady Ellen Moynihan. He needed cash so he decided, he made the wife move . He brought his sister in law also. These stories are just so engaging to the history of Annascaul. This is social in its implication. She was in her 40s back to the village and he divided the house in two. She was in the second part of the house. He assumed that she was not going to marry. She was a spinster woman.
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When she came to the village she was in her 40s and the house would revert back to him when she passed on. Unfortunately she met a cobbler next door, Edmund Crean. She married Crean and they had 2 children. Unfortunately O’ Connell’s plans to consolidate did not go to plans
Crean was one of several cobblers in the village. Do you remember Paddy Houlihan. ? Crean the cobbler, his apprentices , he was an altruistic man, maybe a clever man as well. He adopted , He would bring kids , mutes from orphanages to the village. So that is how Paddy Houlihan arrived to the village. He was Edmund Crean’s apprentice
Paddy was one of the original volunteers in the 1916 brigade in the village
He was the village postman and character.
Butter to Africa and to the UK market
The butter part is fascinating in the relation to history of Annascaul. We will stop outside the community centre. The community centre is interesting in that there was a butter buying family from Cork called the Holland.
Holland for a period the building behind it and it was a used for butter, barrelling and selling butter. So my great grand father was a cooper by trade
Barrel Making
The history of Annascaul and barrel making is equally interesting. There were two coopers in the village and my great grand father would have come from west Minard and he needed to be near the Hollands. He provided the barrels for the butter. He bought a pub by a foreclosure auction. It had ran into rent arrears from the Herlihy family that owned the pub.
The pub was auctioned off and they got a part of the proceeds to go to Van Diemen’s Land in Australia.
So that is how Charles Devane originated and how my great great grand father came to the village as a barrel maker. He wasn’t interested in the pub and he built a workshop at the back of the pub making barrels and he gave the license to his wife as the licensee for the pub because women were exempt from paying rates and he provided the barrels for Mrs Holland’s butter making business here.
Butter from Annascaul and west Kerry went to the British army. Most of the butter from West Kerry ended up in South Africa. It took 6 weeks from the butter in Annascaul to reach South Africa. 48:18
It takes 6 days by horse for the butter from Annascaul to reach the port in Cork and 5 weeks from the port in Cork to go to South Africa.So the butter needed to be heavily salted. And the barrel he made. Not like the barrels you see nowadays with the 40 gallon barrels.A barrel was a small 5 gallon barrel and it weighted roughly about 15 kilos / 30 pounds weight
The building just below us. In those days there were 2 joiners in the village.Workshops in the village was Sullivan’s and Egans married into. the Dinny Dans.
And the one beside us, the second one. This was the Welshes’ houseThey said that the Welsh’s were the better crafts men and better carpenters but the Dinny Dans had the better timber.
The Walshes didn’t have the money .Quality of the timber is very dependent on its age
We know that the Walshes would wait for the timber to age whereas the Dinny Dans were clever and would . And the Dinny Dans. I dont know was it a brother in law was involved in McCowens timber yard in Tralee. So the better parts of timber were put aside for them.
49:55 If we were talking before about the wheel the carts , the wheels were timber . The banded wheels that were on the carts .The Walshes would make the better wheel but the wheel from the Dinny Dan’s would last longer.
And you can see that above us is the banding where the wheel was laid
The metal band by the black smith was put on the wheel. You can see on the side walk above here. We will just stop in front of Walshes work shop
The first shot of Independence
Do you remember below when I was talking below about the first shot of the war of Independence about Sergeant Maloney, this was the house the Walshes
lived in.
Pat Walsh was a captain of the volunteer regiment of Annascaul and his brother was also involved. They very republican in orientation so it was on these windows anti conscription notice that caused the uproar and the furore.
An RIC barracks had a sergeant and usually 4 policemen so in a small community there was plenty of policemen, not alot to do but they made their presence , under order felt.
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So Sergeant Maloney barged in the door to take down the conscription and Mrs Walsh inside the door opposed him and Maloney threw here on the floor and her sons were subsequently arrested .Patrick Walsh spent 4 months in Cork jail on account of it. and existed on a diet of blighted rotten potatoes while he was there.
So you can imagine the feeling towards Maloney. You can imagine why he was shot at
Next door here was their workshop.
Where we are now was once a workshop. It wasnt quite as good when the IRA in were in 1916, when they were…
This was their meeting point. This was the drill hall.
When they began in 1914. In 1914 the volunteer column was established here. These volunteers were laughed at. The toy soldiers in the village. In the subsequent event with the executions of the 1916 leaders and the fact that they had spent time in jail and all that, changed peoples opinion. So over a period of time instead of being seen as amadáns wasting their time on a useless cause it became an important part of the village.
Before the Creamery Board
So before the Creamery Board was established in Ireland. The people around here were farmers so the milk, ( was it the company from Tralee or who was it bought originally from. ) There is a platform here to collect the milk and a truck came to collect the milk. It was separated like . It was the cream
The butter maker had gone for 30-40 years . She didn’t exist any more
The war… My great grandfather’s business was fecked by the first war because timber was gone. Metal came during the 1914-1918 war . So you had metal barrels . So my grandfather, Johnny the cooper was down in the 1911 census as a as an apprentice cooper and his brother Tadgh is an apprentice cooper as well but by the 1921 census he is a publican and Tadgh was a postman.
He messed around a little as my mother would say. There were still cooper implements out the back of the pub when she was a young one. He was able to make a barrel but there was no demand for it.
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But demand for it, things had change, village had changed
Times are changing
The police .., remember he RIC barracks is burnt down, we are at the crest of getting Independence so when the Garda Síochána came into being. They built the Garda building Barracks in the village in the 1930s
For a while at the first stages of independence the Garda barracks , Garda Síochána barracks moved around , a while up at the arch deacons, a while below in the building next to the court house. But they needed their own building so that was a residential. So the sergeant had his own quarters and they put him on this side of the building.
Ashes shop. Ashes black pudding shop traces back a hundred odd years as a butchers and a general grocer.
As we go up these buildings become new and newer. There were very few buildings a 100 years odd at the turn of the century, 1900s.
There were very few building up at this side of the village. These date from there on
Frankie Nashes house, The red house behind us was village guest house, tea room. The interesting thing about this house is a stone built house and every stone in this house. Frank Keen, the Ashes and the O Donnells. The O Donnell’s built it originally, They came from Dromabhalla they quaried every stone in Droma bhalla and came to the village by a horse and cart. So it was a stone house and it was plastered and the block work was cut out of it. It was a substantial house for its time
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The house across the road is Kennedys, They know it as the house of the priests. ( were there 4 of them ) where the other houses were missing at this end of the village but that house was always there. There were no houses in the spaces in between. The Moriarties house and that house was always there.
This is another one of the tailors , the Ferriters . This was the Ferriter’s , The building above . They were one of three or 4 tailors, three dress makers , Spillane , Edmund Crean and a couple of cobblers,. 100 odd years ago. They served the village well. We can only wonder at the amount of trading in suits at that time It is hard to imagine
And behind us, we see the original parts of the railway, up at the presbytery. The railway ran behind the village and ran up to that fence. It emerged at the front of, at ( O Shea’s ) Moriarty’ hotel and then over parallel on the main road
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The Pierces
He, Pierce envisioned the rail station here. That is why he bought the site below where Brendan’s pub is from Bowler, . So he would be 50yards from where the railway station was. So he misjudged it. imagines the site of the hotel being here and, .. Next stop we stop at the church.
The pump reminds me. We always had good doctors in Annascaul. We had a Dr Kane. He recognized the significance of having proper water scheme in the village . Dr Kane campaigned for water and there were 4 water pumps. The council put them into the village in the 20s. This was one, there’s another one down below at John Brosnans. There is one at the top of this road and there is one at the bottom of Annagap. Prior to that the water supply in the village came from a few wells.
Mairead’s grand father built this house for £100, possibly 100 years ago
The original site of these house at the top end of the village , the Curtains and the O Briens. They came to Annascaul as general labourers for the railway. They built the railways in the 1890s. Labourers maintaining and lay the line for the railway.
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So that is what bought Maireads great great father to Annascaul
So across the way to Moriartys hotel or O Sheas hotel
It was always a fine building in the village
It belonged to the landlord of the area and connects to the Hicksons and the O Sheas. O Sheas collected the land rents for the upper parts of the village.
It played an important part to the history of the village and village life.
Behinds us the church. As I was saying to you. Annascaul didnt even have a parish. The parish came in the 40s. It had 2 churches. A church in Ballyvoher which dates from the 13 century. Church in Ballyvoher collapsed . The church in Ballynacourty had partially collapsed and was taken down in the early 1800s. So for 50 years Annascaul parish didnt have a church. And there was a mad notion they would buy, it still wasn’t a civil parish so they started building 2 churches in the village. There is a church here and a church at the bottom end of the village. One for Ballyvoher which is this one and one for the Ballynacourty side of the town
The bishop in Killarney got wind of this and knew of the 2 churches in the village.. The church here was at a more advanced stage and so he decreed that this church become the village church. The church below on the back road in Pats Fitz’s field. They dismantled that and they used the the stone to build the ball alley at the bottom end of the village.
So this church, Fr Carroll dates him in the 1830s., The Hicksons donated the land. . They were the landlords across the road. The civil union of the Annascaul parishes of what we know today happened in the amazing 1840s
So Camp, Lack and Annascaul became a union of parishes. They had a parish priest and they had an organised structure and record.
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So we no longer had the in fighting of different parishes or different churches.
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The Casino
This building was the village casino
Upstairs they would play card and get up to devilment. Any one who had a bit of money would play cards. It wasn’t a licensed premises . It had a colourful period
Ball Room History
The palace ball room is the second last stop. For those if you not familiar with Ireland. In relation to the history of Annascaul and elsewhere throughout Ireland we know that is in the 30’s 40s’ 50’s the big past time in Ireland on a Sunday night or Friday night was the village dance hall. So this was Annascaul’s village dance hall. This was the Palace Ball Room.
This was built by 2 brothers. The McCarthy brothers
It was a busy ball room. It served the entire peninsula , from Castlemaine, Castlegregory, Dingle and beyond.
They would say, the pay, I don’t know what it would have cost to go into the ball room . I often hear that Mike McKenna, He was the security and he would go down to Eugene Mccarthy, to his house with 2 buckets, Tin buckets of money.
The dances stopped in the 60s. The night of the bad storm. They were sheltering at the side of the gable . They were lucky there wasnt injuries
They would put on plays there also and the youth club went on there too.
It was a central part of village life
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Tommy’s mother had the house just above the dance hall.
Bridgie had a shop and she provided the mutton pies She was also well known for feeding the dancers.
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The last port of call s the school. The new school was built in 1914. This is the village school. It celebrated the centenary a few years ago now. It had been a school before that. In the building of the new school. We will call this the new school. Most of the supplies came by railway. There was a brown dray horse spent a couple of years down to the railway. It was build by Kennedy. They were the contractors.
The time the slate had to come to the school, it came by the railway that passed outside the school. The railway carriage stopped outside the school. There was a chain of kids that brought the slate in. So it is still the village school. In fact in the last few days we are delighted to welcome 5 or 6 Ukrainians to the school. We hope their stay in Annascaul is rewarding and happy.
Behind us is the sports pitch. The field as we now know it was established in the 50s. The previous field was back in Ballinclare
Brendan has a photo of the field from 1929
We are really happy you came and hope you enjoyed. “
