The ditty said ‘all to one side like the town of Courtmac’ but up to the 1960s, coming into the village from Timoleague, it wasn’t like that at all.
In Sebera, all the houses were on the seashore side. The railway closed in 1961. At some stage the residents, or what remained of them, were relocated to St. Joseph’s Place and the houses were demolished.
That part of the village is now referred to as Siberia, but having gone to the local National School, which was between Upper and Lower Sebera, I never heard it referred to, alluded to or called anything other than Sebera, pronounced Sibeire. I knew the place and the people, but how reliable my memories are, we shall see.
Coming into the village, the first two houses were detached, stone-built, bungalow style. The O’Driscoll family lived in the first house – Joe O’Driscoll, who worked in the Esplanade Hotel as a gardener and guardian of the hotel’s beautiful orchard, his brother Jim, who was a stone mason and also worked as a general labourer and their sister Winnie. All were unmarried.
In the next house were the Cregan family. I remember Richard (Dickie) who died at a relatively young age, his sister Mary and bother Gerald. Gerald and his wife Callie lived in Cork city.
The rest of the houses in Upper and Lower Sebera were all alike – bar one. The flat roofs were either level with, or underneath the railway line. The backs of the houses were literally on top of the sea but above high water level.
From Cregan’s house down as far as the National School, none of the houses were detached. Mr. & Mrs. Tom Fleming lived in the end house. Tom was a general labourer, Mrs. Fleming helped in different houses. I do not remember any family.
Mr. & Mrs. Tim White, and their daughters Elma and Pauline lived next door. Mr. White was a carpenter. There may have been boys. I heard Pauline became a nun. Elma emigrated to England. A headstone has been erected in Lislee graveyard to her memory and that of the White family.
The Collins family lived in the next house. Annie Collins was a housekeeper in the village. Another sister and a niece, Lily Walsh, lived there too. Lily and I often did our school lessons together. We had a favourite place near the railway station, below the engine shed where a water wagon and a few railway vans (not carriages) were shunted into a siding. We were quiet – nobody knew we were there.
The Bulpin family lived next door to the Collins family. Mrs. Bulpin was a local lady; her single name may have been Whelton. Captain Bulpin had worked on boats plying between England and parts of Africa. There were no quarantine regulations in those days and he had beautiful parrots and other exotic birds. They had family, but I only knew Jackie.
Jackie Bulpin helped out on boats. One beautiful evening with a high incoming tide and a wind behind it, Jackie fell off Dr. Welpley’s yacht, Dawn Star, as he reached for the moorings. He was swept up towards the pier and was unconscious when pulled ashore. Somebody did a good job on him. Dr. Welpley owned the nursing home in Bandon, so, I have no doubt Jackie got the best of care. It goes without saying that Jackie could not swim. In those days fishermen and their families lived and worked on the water but naa’er a toe did they wet!
The entire Bulpin family emigrated.
Mr. Patsy Whelton, a fisherman, lived in the next house with Mrs. Whelton, sons Billy and Johnny, daughters Peggy, Nancy and another whose name I cannot recall. Nancy Whelton married Dan Joe Forde. They emigrated to England, as did all of the Whelton family, except Peggy. Peggy was employed in the Esplanade Hotel all her life and later lived in St. Joseph’s Place.
Another family of Wheltons lived in the adjacent house. Denis was always called ‘Dennisheen’ and his brother, who we were told was born in 1890 was ever known as ‘Ninety’ (not of course his real name). Both were bachelors. All their lives they worked on coal boats bringing coal from Wales to Ring Pier and to Courtmac.
In the next house lived Mrs. Ellis and her husband, John (I think). He served in the Royal Navy. Mr. Ellis may have been an Englishman, probably was. He was a very fine looking man, quite commanding. Sadly, he went down with his ship at the end of World War Two (1939-45). The grief was terrible. I think Mrs. Ellis was a member of either the Whelton or Madden families. She lived out her life in St. Joseph’s Place.
The Madden family lived next door. I remember Connie and Brendan. Brendan became Coxswain of the Lifeboat.
Mr. & Mrs. Cowhig lived in the next house with their daughters, Kitty and Mary. Mary married and lived elsewhere. Kitty married and was sacristan in the local Catholic Church for many years.
The national school broke the sequence. The first house below it was similar to the O’Driscoll and Cregan houses. Mr. Jack Mahony (or O’Mahony) and his wife, Shelia (nee Courtney) lived there. Of their family I remember Rita, who married Dan Joe Forde. They prospered in England after they emigrated there in the 1960s.
Mrs. Courtney, the widow of a seaman, lived in the next house.
Her next door neighbour was Mrs. Ellen Walsh, also a widow.
The next house was occupied by Richie Neill (O’Neill), a tailor, and his wife. They had sons and a daughter.
His father before him had also been a tailor. There was a huge window at the back of the house where he worked. It gave him wonderful light. A heavy covered table seemed to almost fill the room and Richie sat cross legged on the left hand side. His tailor’s goose (a heavy iron) and another iron, which wasn’t flat, were heated on a Primus stove.
He was a very good tailor. I didn’t have a coat bought in a shop until I was fourteen years old. That coat was bought in the Munster Arcade in Cork and it was a navy uniform coat needed as I was going to boarding school. It lasted through school until Leaving Cert. My first fashion coast was bought in Dowdens in Cork when I was eighteen and leaving for college in Dublin. I loved it to bits and many years later it went to someone who needed a coat. I didn’t part with it easily – some change in the times.
An O’Neill family also lived in the next house. I remember Miah and Patsy. Both married. Patsy and his wife Maisie lived on the terrace in the middle of the village after they married. His daughter Maureen and her family now have that house.
Denis and Nonie O’Driscoll and their family lived in the next house. Denis’s father (or grandfather) had been chauffeur to the ‘Ladies Boyle’ of the Earl of Shannon’s family. Theirs was the first car in the village. The three Ladies Boyle lived in the estate and residence that later became the Esplanade Hotel. James O’Driscoll’s family and his descendants were always known at ‘the Jimmy the Ladies’. An O’Driscoll, probably Denis’s brother, became a very well known Augustinian priest. Fr. Colman O’Driscoll, O.S.A. was a gifted orator. He was a well known preacher at missions and retreats all over Ireland. His sermons were very much appreciated when he visited his home. Despite his fame, the word in the village always was ‘Fr. Jimmy the Ladies is here for Mass tomorrow’!
Denis and Nonie O’Driscoll relocated to a house at the upper side of the village.
Miss Ellen Minehane lived in the next house. I was in her house. She was lonely and sad but I never knew anything of her life.
I think a Miss Murphy lived in the last house.
I seem to have mislaid one family – the Calnan family. I knew a daughter Hannah and a brother. The relocated to the first house on the main road at the Abbeymahon slip road. The house is now much extended.
The forge, with its blazing fire, was after the last Sebera house. Then came the big engine shed, and a wonderful turntable where the engines – the 90 or the Aragdeen – turned from the sea to face for Timoleague and Ballinascarthy once more.
When the railway closed in 1961, the railway tracks and rolling stock were sent to Nigeria. What a tourist attraction it would be if the train on its narrow gauge track was still plying its way between Timoleague and Courtmac. Like Sebera, the train is gone forever.
When school time in the national school was over at three o’clock, we, the schoolchildren, did not go home. Instead we crossed the road and went up to the wood to collect cipíns for the school fire and for many of us a visit to the church was an absolute. There were four statues, the Sacred Heart, Our Lady, St. Joseph and St. Therèse. The inscription under St. Therèse’s picture read ‘I shall spend my life doing good upon earth, after my death I shall let fall a shower of roses’. We said a special prayer to her to let fall a shower of roses on us – after all she had promised it! She did too, because the roses in the vase at her feet were inevitably left in place until they withered and the petals fell. We were very unsophisticated and easily pleased.
We might walk the railway line, jumping from railway sleeper to sleeper as far as the engine shed. I’d be more likely to have a drink of water from the pump. It might be quite busy here; especially if a coal boat was docked at the pier.
Deasy’s coal store was the first building on the off shore side of Courtmacsherry. It has now been converted into two houses. Then came the Allman-O’Donovan house and an Allman house. In the early part of the 1900s, George Allman was the principal teacher in the national school. Mrs. Allman may have been an O’Donovan. Their son, George Allman, taught in a Cork city school. The Murphys now own the Allman-O’Donovan house and the O’Brien family live in the Allman house.
The next house was and is still owned by the Jeffers family. In my memory, Captain Jeffers or his descendants were said to own three houses, this one and the aforementioned Allman and Allman-O’Donovan houses.
In the 1911 census it can be discovered that every house and building, bar three, were part of the estate of the Earl of Shannon. As was the norm, ground rent was paid on each and every one, however small, to the Earl’s local agent.
Adjoining the Jeffers house was the home of the O’Donovan family. Mr. O’Donovan (Thady the Guard), Mrs. O’Donovan, son John, daughters Joss, Kathleen and Eileen (Mrs. Kennedy) lived there. Thady blew the whistle, waved the green flag and stepped into the guard’s van – the last attachment on the train – before the train moved off. This is now the home of Billy Murphy and his wife Chrissie (nee Deasy).
Next door nowadays is home to the Cox family who are descendants of Thady the Guard. In my memory this was home to Maggie Liz Murphy.
Below Maggie Liz’s, there was a saddler where Mr. O’Mahony plied his trade. He was husband of Nora Fleming who later ran the Post Office. I think Mr. O’Mahony rented this property from a Mr. Murphy.
The house next door was and is Maddens. In my time Mr. Pats Madden and his wife, who was a nurse and midwife, lived there with their sons Donal and Joe and their daughters Mary (Mrs. Galway), Patricia, Veronica and Frances (Mrs. O’Neill). Mr. Madden was the Stationmaster and is featured in one of the DVDs of the Courtmac-Ballinascarthy Railway.
Adjoining Madden’s house was the home of Sailor Donovan and his wife. Sailor Donovan was never called by any other name; he was built like and had a bushy beard like Hero on the old Players Cigarette packet! I never saw family. There was a door at the gable end of this house and the O’Donovans used to sit out and take the sun there.
Next came an intersection, after which is the house where the Wolstenholmes now live. I do not know who lived there in the 1940s.
The next house is now called Anchor Point. It was owned by the Deasy family and sold to Michael John O’Donovan who also had a home and shop some doors away. There was a milking shed and a dairy at the rear of this house and a feature of Courtmac life in the 1940s and later was the sight of Dan Joe Forde herding the O’Donovan cows from near Broadstrand, through the village and in between the houses to the stalls for milking. This is the Dan Joe Forde earlier referred to as marrying Nancy Wheltob from Siberia. This couple emigrated and prospered in England.
After another intersection there was, and still is, a distinctive red brick colour house. This was home to Mr. William (Bill) Twomey, Miss Hannah Twomey – a cook and housekeeper – and Miss Tottie Twomey. None married. Their house was a summer let to communities of Christian Brothers from small monasteries – Lismore, Mitchelstown and Midleton. Larger communities like the North Monastery and Blarney Street were based in the Esplanade Hotel, Miss Love’s and Miss O’Brien’s. This house is now home to Cornelius Whelton.
The next two houses were owned by the Deasy family who owned the coal store. They had two sons and three daughters. The sons were Pad Joe (Timoleague) and Bill who became manager of Woolworths in Kilkenny. Their daughter Chrissie (Mrs. Sheeran, Dublin) and her businessman husband were both killed in a U.S.A. plane crash. A second daughter, Una (Mrs. O’Brien) lived in Butlerstown where she ran a shop and bar and the third daughter died relatively young.
When Tim Severin lived in Courtmac, he rented the upper Deasy house and planned the ’Brendan Voyage’ from there. He could be seen testing it in its early stages around the harbour before moving the ‘Brendan’ to Brandon Creek in Co. Kerry.
The lower house was rented out to the McGibney family from Dublin. Mr. McGibney was a ‘steam riser’, the man who got out of bed in the small hours to light the fire in the train engine to raise enough steam to start and drive the train later in the morning.
The house was later let to the Fisher family. Mr. Fisher was a customs officer who boarded and examined boats when they docked at the pier with their cargoes of coal and maize. Mrs. Fisher was a Dublin lady, her brother, Mr. Perry, an organist lived with them. I remember sons Eamonn and Desmond and daughters Helen and Doreen.
The next house was home to Annie and Kitty O’Driscoll. These O’Driscolls came in from the country and they worked in O’Regan’s shop.
Next came the large shop and dwelling- up a step or two into the shop owned by Mr. Con O’Regan, a widower. This house is now divided in two.
At this juncture it is worth mentioning that other names appear at later dates as living in these houses at the upper end of the village. These were either purchases or relocations by families such as the Bulpins, Mr. Denis & Mrs. Nonie O’Driscoll of the ‘Jimmy the Ladies’ family and Mr. Jim Hodnett.
Mr. Michael John Donovan, his wife Mrs. Donovan (a sister of Larry Sexton of Sunview, Broadstrand), their daughter Mary and Mrs. Donovan’s sister Bridie lived in the house and shop below O’Regan’s. Mr. Michael John farmed near Broadstrand, had dairy cows and sold milk in the village. Bridie mostly looked after the shop.
After the intersection, came a pair of adjoining houses, both were shops as well as dwellings. In the first one lived Mr. & Mrs. John Donovan. They had two sons, Frank, who later worked in CIE at Kent Station in Cork and Tim, who joined the Augustinian Order and later became a teacher in England. They had two daughters, Kitty (Mrs. Casey) and Annie Mary (Mrs. O’Brien. Annie Mary inherited the property and she and her family ran the shop and newsagents for many years.
Next door, in the Fleming home and shop, I remember daughter Nora (Mrs. O’Mahony) and two sons, Richard (Sonny) and Timmy. When the local postmistress, Miss O’Brien retired, the post office was transferred to Flemings and Mrs. O’Mahony became postmistress. As mentioned earlier, her husband ran his saddlery business up the village. Their son, Diarmuid, lives in the house now.
Next door to Flemings, but not adjoining, lived two Miss O’Driscolls. When one is young, anyone over thirty is ancient, but these ladies were very old, at least seventy years old. They were always sitting inside one of the windows, always spick and span, and the house was spick and span too. They were the Miss O’Driscolls of the ‘Jimmy the Ladies’ family. The last of the Ladies Boyle, Miss Charlotte, died in 1894 and their residence was sold in 1897 to Mr. James Brennan. As girls went into service when they left school at fourteen or fifteen, I’d hazard a guess that with their connection to the Boyle family, these ladies worked in Courtmacsherry House and then, more than likely, stayed on until they retired, with the new buyer when he converted the house into the Esplanade Hotel.
Mr. John White, a retired navy man and his wife lived in the next house. They did not have family.
After an intersection there were two adjoining houses with their entrances on different levels. The post office was the first of these houses and it was run by the postmistress, Miss O’Brien. The adjoining house, which served as Rita’s Shop in recent times, was rented to holidaymakers and others.
Below Miss O’Brien’s houses, there were two adjoining houses, above the level of the footpath and an adjoining out-building that later became a pottery run by Mr. Nicholl. These have all been demolished and apartments built on the site.
These houses were owned by Mrs. Love (nee Morgan) of Morgan’s farm, near Ramsey Hill. Mrs. Love had a son, Robbie, and a daughter, Christina (Tina). In the summer months Robbie sold new potatoes and vegetables from the Morgan farm, door to door. It was a marvellous service, organic long before we heard of such things!
Tina ran the shop. She could be forbidding, but when you got to know her, she had a heart of gold. Behind the counter, she was in the business of selling bread, flour, sugar etc. but ask her for what she considered luxuries like biscuits or a tin of fruit and she would snap ‘tis far from tinned fruit your mother was reared’. Then, you got your tin!
Love’s second house, the upper one, was always a summer let to families or Christian Brothers and quite often was let through the winter too.
After Loves, came a dwelling house and bar. Its licensee was Miss Mary Eliza Jane Parker and her brother, Jim Parker. Neither of them married. The Young family now own the property and it is known as The Pier House.
The large building below Miss Parker’s was a coal store owned by Mr. Bob Ruddock. He was a very big coal importer. Mr. Bob Ruddock had the first and only petrol pump in the village. The sign said ‘MEX’ and the price per gallon for petrol was 1s.5d. (One shilling and five pence) Mr. Ruddock had a most unusual car. By comparison with today’s models, it looked like an armoured car. The word ‘ESSEX’ was across the steel radiator.
Overhead – up the steps which are still there – was a large hall. This hall was many things – somebody played the accordion and we had 4d (four penny) hops (dances), religious films were shown there. The films, such as ‘The Church and the Catacombs’, were black and grey and kept breaking down. Travelling shows performed there. Fit-ups put on plays such as ‘East Lynne’ and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. Later, much later, badminton was played there and teams from Courtmac competed very successfully in badminton leagues. The Aubin family bought the property from the Ruddock family and converted it into a dwelling house.
Recessed from the footpath is the home of Seamus Barry. In those far off times it was the home of a retired seaman, Mr. Kidney and his wife. Mr. Kidney was known locally as ‘Old Kidney’. Their son Jack married Juliette Collins of Collins Bar, later called The Anchor Bar.
Fuchsia House, next door, was home to Mr. Lambe, a retired national schoolteacher and Mrs. Lambe. One son was a priest in the Diocese of Ross and a daughter became Mrs. Stevenson. She lived in Edinburgh and her son Jimmy, a doctor, and daughter, Alison, a librarian, visited Courtmac for many years.
Adjoining Fuchsia House was a large, nine-bed roomed house, lived in by my uncle and aunt. John Sheehy was a national teacher and principal of the boy’s national school in Sebera and his wife Mary, nee Casey from Charleville, was principal of the girl’s national school. Their two daughters, Rita and May, became Mercy nuns in Carysfort Training College in Dublin. Their son, Sean, died young. He was a casualty of an inoculation tragedy when he was a boarder in an Irish College.
This house was divided later and opens on to the tarmacadamed lane leading to the entrance to the Coastguard Station. There is a well of spring water up the lane and it has been always known as the Wet Lane.
The Coastguard Station was in ruins when I was young, burned, like many all around Ireland, during the Troubles. It has now been restored and converted into apartments.
The large house below the Wet Lane, now owned by the Murphy family from Bandon, was the residence of Mr. Nicholas (Nick) Good and Mrs. Good. Mr. Good was an agent for the Earl of Shannon estate. I think it was the only ‘upstairs downstairs’ house in the village. It had two staircases, one for the family and one for the staff. Mr. Good bought his own residence and also the former RIC Barracks and the adjoining ‘Bay Window’ house. In the late 1920s, he sold the ‘Bay Window’ house to my late father, Maurice Sheehy and the Barracks to Mr. John Hodnett, who worked the quarries at the far side of Clonakilty and also the quarry at the back of Hamilton Row.
Mr. John Hodnett married a sister of Mary Eliza Jane Parker and after her death, he remarried. Their daughter Elizabeth was the daughter from his second marriage. The Hodnetts had a very good general grocery store run by Mrs. Hodnett until the early 1970s. Elizabeth became a national teacher and went to live in Drimoleague after her marriage. The house has had many owners since the death of John (Jack) Hodnett and his wife, including the Forrester and Wolstenholme families. It is currently owned by Richard and Michelle Browne who have it let to the community co-op run it as a community shop.
Nicholas Good’s house was sold to Colman O’Donovan, chargé d’Affaires in the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and later Ambassador to Portugal. His wife was Moll Brennan, a granddaughter of Mr. Brennan who bought the Esplanade Hotel from the Earl of Shannon estate. She was a sister of Joseph Brennan who was in the Department of Finance when Ireland became the Irish Free State and had its own currency. For many years his name was on the ‘Lady Lavery’ banknote. There were two sons and two daughters in the O’Donovan family. Maureen worked in the Gulbenkian Institute in Lisbon and is buried in Cintra. Peg became Mrs. Dawkins and lived in South Africa. Dan became a Cistercian priest and ministered in Australia and Diarmuid became a teacher, living in the west of Ireland.
MY HOME – THE TERRACE, COURTMACSHERRY
The house next to Hodnetts was my home. This terrace house in the centre of the village was the centre of my universe.
My father, Maurice Sheehy, was from Lackenduff, near Ring Harbour and he was the principal teacher in Lislevane National School. My mother, Mary A. Sheehy (nee Murphy) from Abbeymahon, was principal of the Girl’s National School in Timoleague. There were two of us; I have one brother, Gerard.
It was, and is quite an interesting looking house with an upper floor bay window facing the hotel end of the village.
Like all, or most of the houses in the village, it was originally in the estate of the Earl of Shannon. Under British rule it was the home of the resident Constabulary Sergeant (Royal Irish Constabulary) and the adjoining house (later Hodnetts) was the Barracks. There was access from the front room of the sergeant’s house to the adjoining front room in the barracks and also from the rear yard in the house to the holding cells in the barracks. Access to the barracks and to the holding cells shows how conveniently the sergeant had everything under his control. The last resident sergeant was Sergeant Hogan. I met his son, who told me he was born in the bay window room of the house. After 1922, the family re-located to east Cork and this aforementioned son ran a garage in Killeagh on the main Cork-Youghal road, called Fogarty’s Garage. The holding cells survived until 1993/94, when the then owner of the former barracks, a Mr. McLennan demolished then when he decided to open a restaurant.
Going down the village, we now come to The Terrace, raised above the roadway and the footpath.
Next door to our house Mr. & Mrs. Madden lived. Mrs. Madden was a nurse and midwife. Their stay was short and they re-located to the upper end of the village. Mr. Mick Galvin from Cork City, an engine driver and his sister Kitty lived there until well into the 1960s. The house was then bought by Mr. Jim Burke from Bandon. He developed the caravan site and tennis court below the hotel. After Mr. Burke and his wife and family went to live below the hotel; the house was bought and extended by Mr. Willie Fitzgerald and his wife, Kathleen (nee O’Mahony). After their deaths, it was bought by the present occupants John & Ann Murphy & family.
The adjoining house belonged to a Captain O’Donoghue. His widow had a B & B for many years and also ran a café during the summer months. When her daughter was widowed in the U.S.A., she returned to Courtmac with her son, Jimmy, and daughter, Betty. This family (Maynard was the surname) lived there during the lifetime of Mrs. O’Donoghue. Then the house was sold and for some years had various summer lettings to Coughlans, Hegartys and others.
Below O’Donoghues, was the house of Bert Jeffers. He lived alone for many years and in the 1940s he married a widow, Mrs. Nick Good. The house is now owned by the Minihane family.
Next door was the home of Mr. Patsy Neill, his wife Maisie and family. I remember their son, Jerry, who went to live in Dublin and their daughter Maureen. They also had two other sons, Liam and Pat. Maureen married Mr. Dan O’Mahony. They transformed the house from a single storey to a two-storey house. While the family went to live in Cork, they regularly visit Courtmac and stay in the family home.
There is a very big house with a front porch next door. This was the home of Sergeant O’Rourke (R.I.C.) and Mrs. Elizabeth O’Rourke (nee Sheehy) from County Limerick. Their son lived in Courtmac all his life. He didn’t marry. His sister, Queenie (Mrs. Mulcahy) married a Clonakilty business man; their son, Thomas, became a Detective Sergeant in the Garda Siochána. This house is now divided in two and is owned by two Slattery brothers, William and Conor and their families.
Adjoining O’Rourke’s house was a coal store. You would hardly notice it. It was bought by Maisie Shanahan (Shanahan’s Music Shop in Oliver Plunkett Street in Cork city) and her husband, a Mr. Jacob from Waterford city. Mr. Jacob was an architect. It was transformed into the bijou residence it is today.
The Waugh family, originally from Bandon, lived next door. Jack was a carpenter, his sisters, Bridie and Lena, ran a boarding house for many years and like many houses in Courtmac, they ran a café-restaurant during the summer months. Both traded very successfully. A widowed sister from the U.S. joined them in later years.
Mr. & Mrs. Howlett lived next door. Their son, Charlie, was a bank manager on the South Mall in Cork; Ulster Bank, I think. His sister Dorothy (Dot) married Henry Watson, a Cork city businessman. For many years, Dot let the house over the summer months. She later sold it to the Chaillet family from Paris. They still own it and use it mostly as a summer residence.
The house next to Howletts was the home of at least three generations of Ruddocks. Noble Ruddock and his wife, Edith, who taught in the Church of Ireland School near the hotel, lived there. Their son Robert (Bob) had a coal store near the pier. Later, Bob’s son, Noble, married Kathleen Good from Newcastle, England, a niece of Mr. Nick Good, agent for the Earl of Shannon. Noble and Kathleen had a son, Robert, and daughters, Barbara, Margery and Shirley. This part of the village has one house built on the seashore, built by Frank Ruddock, brother of Bob who owned the coal store. Noble Ruddock’s son, Robert, inherited this house and the family, though based in Cork, continue to use it as their summer base.
Before I leave the Ruddock family, Bob, who owned the coal store, had three daughters as well as the aforementioned son, Noble. Jane Ruddock married Jack Watson, a brother of Henry Watson who had married Dot Howlett, their next door neighbour. Edith Ruddock married one of the Cork city Whittaker families and went to live in Cork. Minnie Ruddock married a Mr. Mansfield from Co. Kerry. They emigrated to Adelaide, Australia.
Leaving The Terrace and returning to footpath level, is the bar that was owned by the Collins family, probably up to the late 1940s. One daughter of the house, Julia (Juliette) married Jack Kidney, a son of the house now owned by Seamus Barry. Juliette died young from T.B. I also remember a son, William Louis, who was the eldest and a daughter Marie. Marie became a nun in the convent in Clonakilty.
The dwelling is now known as ‘The Anchor Bar’. It was bought by Mr. Fleming, a builder who returned from England with his wife – a lovely lady who always spoke of her home in Staines, on the Thames in England. Mr. Fleming’s sister ran the bar for many years. She was fondly known as ‘The Snowy Maiden. Mr. Fleming’s son, Michael, runs the up-market restaurant, ‘Flemings’, in Cork. Another son, Pádraig owns ‘Anchor Bay Cottages’ and lives beside the Church of Ireland and two other sons, Billy and Noel, continue to run the popular ‘Anchor Bar’ with the help of Patrick, Pádraig’s son.
Now we have Hamilton Row. From the 1930s onwards it would have been like the following:
No.1. James (Jamesy) Barry.
No.2. Miss O’Donovan’s house and shop, later Annes Cottage.
No. 3. Coakley’s house and shop.
No. 4. Dr. O’Driscoll’s house.
No. 5. Mr. & Mrs. Jack Whelton & their daughter Peggy’s house and shop.
No. 6. Coughlan’s house.
No. 7. Calnan’s house.
No. 8. Blanchfield’s house, later R.N.L.I.
No. 1. Jamesy Barry was the father of John, Bill and Madge. The family were commercial fishermen, owning and working two trawlers. Madge sold ice cream during the summer months. She married Mr. Tom Brennan and they went to live in a bungalow at the top of the ‘New Road’, opposite the walk way entrance to Ramsey Hill. Madgie and Tom Brennan had one son, Gerard. He died in 2013 and was buried in Lisavaird. John Barry’s son, Seamus, owns the house which was Kidney’s, opposite the pier. No. 1 is now owned by the Fleming family.
No. 2. Hamilton Row was where Miss O’Donovan lived alone. When I was a child, I thought No. 2 was a big shop as shops went in Courtmac, but it was no longer stocked. Miss O’Donovan spent many hours standing behind the counter. It was sad; I suppose she was re-living other days. In the 1940s a Mr. Hodges, a retired bank manager, and his wife, Mrs. Anne Hodges, bought and re-constructed the house and gave the house its name, Anne’s Cottage.
Mr. & Mrs. Patrick Coakley lived in No. 3. Hamilton Row. Mrs. Coakley looked after the shop. Mr. Coakley bred and raced greyhounds. It is a big house and was let to families during the summer. Mr. Coakley had a herd of goats; they grazed over the quarry at the back of the house. The goats’ milk was sold for babies and children who had whooping cough – very common in the 30s and 40s. Later the family moved to a farm in Berrings.
No. 4 was home to Dr. & Mrs. O’Driscoll. Dr. O’Driscoll practiced in India for some time. On his way home he visited relatives in London and there met and fell in love with a young lady who had been presented at Court, a prerequisite in those days before being launched in society and marrying. He married her and she came to live in Hamilton Row. She was tall and beautiful and a well-known (in London) classical violinist). Passers-by were her only audience during many lonely years in Courtmac. Of their children – John emigrated to Canada and Nancy married in the U.S. Their daughter Sheila married Colonel Hughie McCarthy who was based in India and their children Pat and Maureen were born there. When Hughie retired, they came back to Hamilton Row. Hughie was the architect of the ‘Burma Road’, a walkway at the water’s edge, below the woods from Slattery’s Boat House to the Coves. The ‘Burma Road’ hasn’t survived the years.
Mr. & Mrs. Jack Whelton and their daughter Peggy lived in No. 5 Hamilton Row. They had a small shop which was looked after by the ladies. Mr. Whelton was a quarry man. Like many, he worked beyond Union Hall or thereabouts. This house had both summer and long term lets. A ship’s captain had his wife and family there for safety reasons during and after World War Two (1939-45). He was Captain Vanderberg, a Dutch national, who owned a ship which plied between Courtmac and England, bringing maize and coal. Peggy Whelton was a very beautiful, very athletic, very talented girl. After her parent’s death, she lived alone in the house.
Coughlan’s house was No. 6. Hamilton Row and it was home to Mr. Coughlan, a retired school teacher and Mrs. Coughlan. Their son, Pádraig ỚCochláin, became secretary of the Technical Branch of the Department of Education, and another son, Nollaig, became a bank manager, a third son joined the Civil Service and a daughter, Rita became a national teacher and married a farmer ‘across the bay’ from Courtmac.
No. 7 was owned for many years by the Calnan family of Cork city and Bandon. It was used for many years solely as a summer residence by the family. It was distinguished by having a blue and gold Papal Cross over the doorway, probably commemorating the 1932 Eucharistic Congress. That plaque survived until very recently when it was removed during renovations to the house.
No. 8 Hamilton Row was known as Ivy Cottage. It was owned by the RNLI and in the 1930s/40s it was home to Mr. Percy Egan, the mechanic on the lifeboat and his wife. They did not have any family. It was lived in later by Geraldine Blanchfield and her husband, Garda Sgt. Deasy and their family. I do not know if they owned the house or rented it. The family moved to Abbeyside, Dungarvan when Sgt. Deasy was promoted. One generation on saw their son, Austin Deasy elected at Fine Gael T.D. and appointed Minister for Agriculture. His son, John Deasy is now a T.D. for Waterford. Miss Ross, a retired nurse, lived in Ivy Cottage for many years.
An intersection divides Ivy Cottage from the next two occupied houses. The first was owned by Mr. & Mrs. Kelly and family. Mr. Kelly was the stationmaster at Timoleague, one daughter lived and married in Dublin and a second daughter, Sheila (Julia) married a creamery manager, Mr. Tadgh O’Sullivan. A third daughter, Éilish, worked in Dublin and married a widower, Colonel Saurin.
Next door is the Lifeboat Inn. It was previously called Cronin’s Hotel. It was inherited by a daughter of the Cronins called Maggie and she became the licensee. She married a sea captain, Mr. John Murphy. They kept a very up market hostelry – all polished brass and mahogany. They had no family. There was a big yard at the back where there was a milking shed and a dairy. They kept a cow which grazed in the adjacent field. Padraig Fleming’s house is now built in that field. Every evening the Murphy’s employee, Dave Dempsey, walked Daisy from the field to the stall and after milking, the mild was taken across the dairy to be sold. I would wait my turn with my boiled sweet can (complete with lid) for my milk with my penny. We always got a ‘tuille’, that little bit extra; it amounted to about 1/8th of a pint.
In the 1960s, the property was sold and the contents were auctioned off. My mother bought quite a few items, among them a very unusual item – a ship’s ‘compactum’. This is a ship captain’s wardrobe, beautifully crafted, with hanging space and storage space in the door of the wardrobe which swung open and closed with a secure clasp. It most definitely took two crew members to take it off and later take it back on board.
I should also mention that there was also a door to door milk delivery from Cahalanes of Woodpoint Farm. Tim Cahalane had a stainless steel churn on a long cart. Three measures with a hanging handle hung on the inner rim of the churn – one pint, a ½ pint and ¼ pint. Later Michael John Donovan sold milk up the village.
Another intersection and two more houses. Travara Lodge, now a Bed and Breakfast, was owned by Mr. Ned Burke from Bandon (butcher) and Mrs. Burke (nee Fitzgerald).Mrs. Burke was a daughter of Sir Edward Fitzgerald who was knighted during his term as Lord Mayor of Cork. They had sons, John and Tom and a daughter, Joan (O’Callaghan). Tom was a surgeon in at least two Cork hospitals and had a summer residence near Dunworley.
My parents were teachers. Hannah Cotter from Broad Strand and Brigid Duggan looked after us. Brigid had spent most of her life in Scotland and was a mine of information about many things. We called her Auntie B. As a very small child, when I walked past the house now called Travara Lodge, I was always fascinated by an image in the beautiful fanlight over the front door. It showed Androcles taking a thorn from a lion’s paw. I never tired of the story. One day it was gone. To this day I wonder where it went. Rumour was that it went to Woodbournes, at the far side of Broad Strand. I would love to know.
The last house in the village proper is now called The Golden Pheasant. In the early 1900s it was owned by a Bandon merchant, Mr. Joseph Brennan whose father, James, bought the residence of the Ladies Boyle and converted it into the Esplanade Hotel. After Mr. Brennan the house had several owners. In the 1940s’50s, Major Teddy Lawton and his wife, Molly (nee Neville, Bandon) lived there. They had two sons, but one died in infancy. Major Lawton’s brother, Dr. Finbarr Lawton, also lived there and later married a Miss Downey from Bandon.
Later still, Major Day, ex British Army, lived there for many years and he was always accompanied around the village by his dog, Peter.
Muriel Derwent and her parents established the Golden Pheasant craft shop on the premises and this now continues in conjunction with a café under the present owners. The premises still have very beautiful gardens.
So what do I remember about everyday life as a child growing up in Courtmac.
Looking out the window in the morning there was nearly always activity on the water. Jamesy Barry and his two sons Johnny and Billy headed out the harbour on their trawlers and fishing families like the Wheltons and the Maddens left in their open boats – two oarsmen and maybe a third man sitting on the gunwale at the back of the boat. At certain times of the year they ‘seined’ for salmon. A half circle of netting was drawn in from both ends. It was very heavy work and the hope was that they would have netted a salmon or two when the net was drawn in. Most evenings fish was sold door to door, twine threaded through their mouths. Pollock, whiting, sometimes cod, mackerel or herring in season, periwinkles and cockles in the summer months and also sand dabs were the varieties on offer. I never saw lobster or salmon sold door to door. Crabs, in those far off days, like mullet, were considered dirty feeders.
Barry’s fish would come ashore in timber boxes, water, maybe from melting ice, would be dripping out of them. In the early days they were put on the train to Cork the following morning, in later years a refrigerated van waited at the pier.
The village had its two churches, a national school, a post office and telephone, three public houses, three coal stores, a forge, a daily train service to and from Cork city, one petrol pump, a milk round morning and evening from two dairies and ten shops.
The shops were:
Wheltons sold sweets, lemonade, cigarettes and postcards, pens and pencils, copy books and sundries.
Coakleys sold bread and goat’s milk.
Miss Donovan sold sweets.
Madgie Barry sold ice-cream.
Hodnetts sold general groceries and was always very well stocked.
Loves had general groceries and was also very well stocked, especially with brown and white flour, oat meal, butter and homemade jams.
Flemings was a general grocery.
John O’Donovan was a newsagent and also sold other sundries.
Michael John Donovan had a small grocery business and dairy.
Con Regan was a newsagent and sold potatoes, vegetables and general groceries.
The parish priest, Fr. Burke, lived beside Barryroe church in Lislevane. The curate lived in Courtmac in the house beside the church at the upper end of the village. When I was young there was a dynamic young curate, Fr. John Sheehy (no relation). He was a member of a very well known political family, the Sheehys of Skibbereen. One was a T.D. and known as ‘The Father of the Dail’. Courtmac was connected to the ESB grid in 1933, thanks to Fr. Sheehy’s foresight, and I suppose not a little political ‘pull’ was involved. There is a stone commemorating the event on the water’s edge near the tennis court. Fr. Sheehy died very young and is buried in the grounds of the church in Courtmac.
Frank Ruddock, a carpenter and shipwright was a brother of local business man Bob Ruddock. He built beautiful clinker built boats on the side of the street opposite the coal store.
The railway station has been converted into a seashore home by a Dr. Dowse and called Lobster Cottage. But Frank Ruddock’s house, which he built himself with local help, is the only purpose built seashore house in the village. The craftsmanship of the gate of the house, a ship’s wheel, is notable for its workmanship. It was made by Denis O’Driscoll who, at one time, was Coxswain of the lifeboat.
In my youth Courtmacsherry was a village with beautiful gardens. Looking at the 1911 Census and perhaps up to what we call ‘The Troubles’ (1920/21) there was a large British presence in the village. They were mainly the residue of employees of the Shannon estate, R.I.C. and the Coastguard. There must have been some great gardeners among them. Many of the houses had large sloping gardens at their backs. Walking through the village it is possible to look through the intersections and see that many of the gardens are stepped and are well looked after but others have become too much for their owners. Who ever had lived in our house in the years prior to my father purchasing it must have had great gardeners because we had the most beautiful ‘Olde English’ garden anyone could wish for. My mother kept it that way. In 1946, the government introduced the ‘Compulsory Tillage Order’ directing that non-productive land be dug up and planted to alleviate food shortages. My father – God rest him – committed a sacrilege and did just that – potatoes planted – but never saved! Nothing could ever restore our beautiful garden.
An unusual feature of the Hamilton Row houses was that they had their gardens across the street.
The Ruddocks built a tennis court in the centre of the village and in recent years they have given over ownership of it to the community. Many were allowed to use the tennis courts at Kincraigie; courtesy of the owner, Mr. Bill Barrett. The Esplanade Hotel allowed us children to play croquet on the lawn and use the tennis courts there.
Courtmac had a nine hole golf course from 1933 up to 1946. It was beyond Ramsey Hill on Morgan’s land. The Compulsory Tillage Act put an end to the golf course.
In Sebera, all the houses were on the seashore side. The railway closed in 1961. At some stage the residents, or what remained of them, were relocated to St. Joseph’s Place and the houses were demolished.
That part of the village is now referred to as Siberia, but having gone to the local National School, which was between Upper and Lower Sebera, I never heard it referred to, alluded to or called anything other than Sebera, pronounced Sibeire. I knew the place and the people, but how reliable my memories are, we shall see.
Coming into the village, the first two houses were detached, stone-built, bungalow style. The O’Driscoll family lived in the first house – Joe O’Driscoll, who worked in the Esplanade Hotel as a gardener and guardian of the hotel’s beautiful orchard, his brother Jim, who was a stone mason and also worked as a general labourer and their sister Winnie. All were unmarried.
In the next house were the Cregan family. I remember Richard (Dickie) who died at a relatively young age, his sister Mary and bother Gerald. Gerald and his wife Callie lived in Cork city.
The rest of the houses in Upper and Lower Sebera were all alike – bar one. The flat roofs were either level with, or underneath the railway line. The backs of the houses were literally on top of the sea but above high water level.
From Cregan’s house down as far as the National School, none of the houses were detached. Mr. & Mrs. Tom Fleming lived in the end house. Tom was a general labourer, Mrs. Fleming helped in different houses. I do not remember any family.
Mr. & Mrs. Tim White, and their daughters Elma and Pauline lived next door. Mr. White was a carpenter. There may have been boys. I heard Pauline became a nun. Elma emigrated to England. A headstone has been erected in Lislee graveyard to her memory and that of the White family.
The Collins family lived in the next house. Annie Collins was a housekeeper in the village. Another sister and a niece, Lily Walsh, lived there too. Lily and I often did our school lessons together. We had a favourite place near the railway station, below the engine shed where a water wagon and a few railway vans (not carriages) were shunted into a siding. We were quiet – nobody knew we were there.
The Bulpin family lived next door to the Collins family. Mrs. Bulpin was a local lady; her single name may have been Whelton. Captain Bulpin had worked on boats plying between England and parts of Africa. There were no quarantine regulations in those days and he had beautiful parrots and other exotic birds. They had family, but I only knew Jackie.
Jackie Bulpin helped out on boats. One beautiful evening with a high incoming tide and a wind behind it, Jackie fell off Dr. Welpley’s yacht, Dawn Star, as he reached for the moorings. He was swept up towards the pier and was unconscious when pulled ashore. Somebody did a good job on him. Dr. Welpley owned the nursing home in Bandon, so, I have no doubt Jackie got the best of care. It goes without saying that Jackie could not swim. In those days fishermen and their families lived and worked on the water but naa’er a toe did they wet!
The entire Bulpin family emigrated.
Mr. Patsy Whelton, a fisherman, lived in the next house with Mrs. Whelton, sons Billy and Johnny, daughters Peggy, Nancy and another whose name I cannot recall. Nancy Whelton married Dan Joe Forde. They emigrated to England, as did all of the Whelton family, except Peggy. Peggy was employed in the Esplanade Hotel all her life and later lived in St. Joseph’s Place.
Another family of Wheltons lived in the adjacent house. Denis was always called ‘Dennisheen’ and his brother, who we were told was born in 1890 was ever known as ‘Ninety’ (not of course his real name). Both were bachelors. All their lives they worked on coal boats bringing coal from Wales to Ring Pier and to Courtmac.
In the next house lived Mrs. Ellis and her husband, John (I think). He served in the Royal Navy. Mr. Ellis may have been an Englishman, probably was. He was a very fine looking man, quite commanding. Sadly, he went down with his ship at the end of World War Two (1939-45). The grief was terrible. I think Mrs. Ellis was a member of either the Whelton or Madden families. She lived out her life in St. Joseph’s Place.
The Madden family lived next door. I remember Connie and Brendan. Brendan became Coxswain of the Lifeboat.
Mr. & Mrs. Cowhig lived in the next house with their daughters, Kitty and Mary. Mary married and lived elsewhere. Kitty married and was sacristan in the local Catholic Church for many years.
The national school broke the sequence. The first house below it was similar to the O’Driscoll and Cregan houses. Mr. Jack Mahony (or O’Mahony) and his wife, Shelia (nee Courtney) lived there. Of their family I remember Rita, who married Dan Joe Forde. They prospered in England after they emigrated there in the 1960s.
Mrs. Courtney, the widow of a seaman, lived in the next house.
Her next door neighbour was Mrs. Ellen Walsh, also a widow.
The next house was occupied by Richie Neill (O’Neill), a tailor, and his wife. They had sons and a daughter.
His father before him had also been a tailor. There was a huge window at the back of the house where he worked. It gave him wonderful light. A heavy covered table seemed to almost fill the room and Richie sat cross legged on the left hand side. His tailor’s goose (a heavy iron) and another iron, which wasn’t flat, were heated on a Primus stove.
He was a very good tailor. I didn’t have a coat bought in a shop until I was fourteen years old. That coat was bought in the Munster Arcade in Cork and it was a navy uniform coat needed as I was going to boarding school. It lasted through school until Leaving Cert. My first fashion coast was bought in Dowdens in Cork when I was eighteen and leaving for college in Dublin. I loved it to bits and many years later it went to someone who needed a coat. I didn’t part with it easily – some change in the times.
An O’Neill family also lived in the next house. I remember Miah and Patsy. Both married. Patsy and his wife Maisie lived on the terrace in the middle of the village after they married. His daughter Maureen and her family now have that house.
Denis and Nonie O’Driscoll and their family lived in the next house. Denis’s father (or grandfather) had been chauffeur to the ‘Ladies Boyle’ of the Earl of Shannon’s family. Theirs was the first car in the village. The three Ladies Boyle lived in the estate and residence that later became the Esplanade Hotel. James O’Driscoll’s family and his descendants were always known at ‘the Jimmy the Ladies’. An O’Driscoll, probably Denis’s brother, became a very well known Augustinian priest. Fr. Colman O’Driscoll, O.S.A. was a gifted orator. He was a well known preacher at missions and retreats all over Ireland. His sermons were very much appreciated when he visited his home. Despite his fame, the word in the village always was ‘Fr. Jimmy the Ladies is here for Mass tomorrow’!
Denis and Nonie O’Driscoll relocated to a house at the upper side of the village.
Miss Ellen Minehane lived in the next house. I was in her house. She was lonely and sad but I never knew anything of her life.
I think a Miss Murphy lived in the last house.
I seem to have mislaid one family – the Calnan family. I knew a daughter Hannah and a brother. The relocated to the first house on the main road at the Abbeymahon slip road. The house is now much extended.
The forge, with its blazing fire, was after the last Sebera house. Then came the big engine shed, and a wonderful turntable where the engines – the 90 or the Aragdeen – turned from the sea to face for Timoleague and Ballinascarthy once more.
When the railway closed in 1961, the railway tracks and rolling stock were sent to Nigeria. What a tourist attraction it would be if the train on its narrow gauge track was still plying its way between Timoleague and Courtmac. Like Sebera, the train is gone forever.
When school time in the national school was over at three o’clock, we, the schoolchildren, did not go home. Instead we crossed the road and went up to the wood to collect cipíns for the school fire and for many of us a visit to the church was an absolute. There were four statues, the Sacred Heart, Our Lady, St. Joseph and St. Therèse. The inscription under St. Therèse’s picture read ‘I shall spend my life doing good upon earth, after my death I shall let fall a shower of roses’. We said a special prayer to her to let fall a shower of roses on us – after all she had promised it! She did too, because the roses in the vase at her feet were inevitably left in place until they withered and the petals fell. We were very unsophisticated and easily pleased.
We might walk the railway line, jumping from railway sleeper to sleeper as far as the engine shed. I’d be more likely to have a drink of water from the pump. It might be quite busy here; especially if a coal boat was docked at the pier.
Deasy’s coal store was the first building on the off shore side of Courtmacsherry. It has now been converted into two houses. Then came the Allman-O’Donovan house and an Allman house. In the early part of the 1900s, George Allman was the principal teacher in the national school. Mrs. Allman may have been an O’Donovan. Their son, George Allman, taught in a Cork city school. The Murphys now own the Allman-O’Donovan house and the O’Brien family live in the Allman house.
The next house was and is still owned by the Jeffers family. In my memory, Captain Jeffers or his descendants were said to own three houses, this one and the aforementioned Allman and Allman-O’Donovan houses.
In the 1911 census it can be discovered that every house and building, bar three, were part of the estate of the Earl of Shannon. As was the norm, ground rent was paid on each and every one, however small, to the Earl’s local agent.
Adjoining the Jeffers house was the home of the O’Donovan family. Mr. O’Donovan (Thady the Guard), Mrs. O’Donovan, son John, daughters Joss, Kathleen and Eileen (Mrs. Kennedy) lived there. Thady blew the whistle, waved the green flag and stepped into the guard’s van – the last attachment on the train – before the train moved off. This is now the home of Billy Murphy and his wife Chrissie (nee Deasy).
Next door nowadays is home to the Cox family who are descendants of Thady the Guard. In my memory this was home to Maggie Liz Murphy.
Below Maggie Liz’s, there was a saddler where Mr. O’Mahony plied his trade. He was husband of Nora Fleming who later ran the Post Office. I think Mr. O’Mahony rented this property from a Mr. Murphy.
The house next door was and is Maddens. In my time Mr. Pats Madden and his wife, who was a nurse and midwife, lived there with their sons Donal and Joe and their daughters Mary (Mrs. Galway), Patricia, Veronica and Frances (Mrs. O’Neill). Mr. Madden was the Stationmaster and is featured in one of the DVDs of the Courtmac-Ballinascarthy Railway.
Adjoining Madden’s house was the home of Sailor Donovan and his wife. Sailor Donovan was never called by any other name; he was built like and had a bushy beard like Hero on the old Players Cigarette packet! I never saw family. There was a door at the gable end of this house and the O’Donovans used to sit out and take the sun there.
Next came an intersection, after which is the house where the Wolstenholmes now live. I do not know who lived there in the 1940s.
The next house is now called Anchor Point. It was owned by the Deasy family and sold to Michael John O’Donovan who also had a home and shop some doors away. There was a milking shed and a dairy at the rear of this house and a feature of Courtmac life in the 1940s and later was the sight of Dan Joe Forde herding the O’Donovan cows from near Broadstrand, through the village and in between the houses to the stalls for milking. This is the Dan Joe Forde earlier referred to as marrying Nancy Wheltob from Siberia. This couple emigrated and prospered in England.
After another intersection there was, and still is, a distinctive red brick colour house. This was home to Mr. William (Bill) Twomey, Miss Hannah Twomey – a cook and housekeeper – and Miss Tottie Twomey. None married. Their house was a summer let to communities of Christian Brothers from small monasteries – Lismore, Mitchelstown and Midleton. Larger communities like the North Monastery and Blarney Street were based in the Esplanade Hotel, Miss Love’s and Miss O’Brien’s. This house is now home to Cornelius Whelton.
The next two houses were owned by the Deasy family who owned the coal store. They had two sons and three daughters. The sons were Pad Joe (Timoleague) and Bill who became manager of Woolworths in Kilkenny. Their daughter Chrissie (Mrs. Sheeran, Dublin) and her businessman husband were both killed in a U.S.A. plane crash. A second daughter, Una (Mrs. O’Brien) lived in Butlerstown where she ran a shop and bar and the third daughter died relatively young.
When Tim Severin lived in Courtmac, he rented the upper Deasy house and planned the ’Brendan Voyage’ from there. He could be seen testing it in its early stages around the harbour before moving the ‘Brendan’ to Brandon Creek in Co. Kerry.
The lower house was rented out to the McGibney family from Dublin. Mr. McGibney was a ‘steam riser’, the man who got out of bed in the small hours to light the fire in the train engine to raise enough steam to start and drive the train later in the morning.
The house was later let to the Fisher family. Mr. Fisher was a customs officer who boarded and examined boats when they docked at the pier with their cargoes of coal and maize. Mrs. Fisher was a Dublin lady, her brother, Mr. Perry, an organist lived with them. I remember sons Eamonn and Desmond and daughters Helen and Doreen.
The next house was home to Annie and Kitty O’Driscoll. These O’Driscolls came in from the country and they worked in O’Regan’s shop.
Next came the large shop and dwelling- up a step or two into the shop owned by Mr. Con O’Regan, a widower. This house is now divided in two.
At this juncture it is worth mentioning that other names appear at later dates as living in these houses at the upper end of the village. These were either purchases or relocations by families such as the Bulpins, Mr. Denis & Mrs. Nonie O’Driscoll of the ‘Jimmy the Ladies’ family and Mr. Jim Hodnett.
Mr. Michael John Donovan, his wife Mrs. Donovan (a sister of Larry Sexton of Sunview, Broadstrand), their daughter Mary and Mrs. Donovan’s sister Bridie lived in the house and shop below O’Regan’s. Mr. Michael John farmed near Broadstrand, had dairy cows and sold milk in the village. Bridie mostly looked after the shop.
After the intersection, came a pair of adjoining houses, both were shops as well as dwellings. In the first one lived Mr. & Mrs. John Donovan. They had two sons, Frank, who later worked in CIE at Kent Station in Cork and Tim, who joined the Augustinian Order and later became a teacher in England. They had two daughters, Kitty (Mrs. Casey) and Annie Mary (Mrs. O’Brien. Annie Mary inherited the property and she and her family ran the shop and newsagents for many years.
Next door, in the Fleming home and shop, I remember daughter Nora (Mrs. O’Mahony) and two sons, Richard (Sonny) and Timmy. When the local postmistress, Miss O’Brien retired, the post office was transferred to Flemings and Mrs. O’Mahony became postmistress. As mentioned earlier, her husband ran his saddlery business up the village. Their son, Diarmuid, lives in the house now.
Next door to Flemings, but not adjoining, lived two Miss O’Driscolls. When one is young, anyone over thirty is ancient, but these ladies were very old, at least seventy years old. They were always sitting inside one of the windows, always spick and span, and the house was spick and span too. They were the Miss O’Driscolls of the ‘Jimmy the Ladies’ family. The last of the Ladies Boyle, Miss Charlotte, died in 1894 and their residence was sold in 1897 to Mr. James Brennan. As girls went into service when they left school at fourteen or fifteen, I’d hazard a guess that with their connection to the Boyle family, these ladies worked in Courtmacsherry House and then, more than likely, stayed on until they retired, with the new buyer when he converted the house into the Esplanade Hotel.
Mr. John White, a retired navy man and his wife lived in the next house. They did not have family.
After an intersection there were two adjoining houses with their entrances on different levels. The post office was the first of these houses and it was run by the postmistress, Miss O’Brien. The adjoining house, which served as Rita’s Shop in recent times, was rented to holidaymakers and others.
Below Miss O’Brien’s houses, there were two adjoining houses, above the level of the footpath and an adjoining out-building that later became a pottery run by Mr. Nicholl. These have all been demolished and apartments built on the site.
These houses were owned by Mrs. Love (nee Morgan) of Morgan’s farm, near Ramsey Hill. Mrs. Love had a son, Robbie, and a daughter, Christina (Tina). In the summer months Robbie sold new potatoes and vegetables from the Morgan farm, door to door. It was a marvellous service, organic long before we heard of such things!
Tina ran the shop. She could be forbidding, but when you got to know her, she had a heart of gold. Behind the counter, she was in the business of selling bread, flour, sugar etc. but ask her for what she considered luxuries like biscuits or a tin of fruit and she would snap ‘tis far from tinned fruit your mother was reared’. Then, you got your tin!
Love’s second house, the upper one, was always a summer let to families or Christian Brothers and quite often was let through the winter too.
After Loves, came a dwelling house and bar. Its licensee was Miss Mary Eliza Jane Parker and her brother, Jim Parker. Neither of them married. The Young family now own the property and it is known as The Pier House.
The large building below Miss Parker’s was a coal store owned by Mr. Bob Ruddock. He was a very big coal importer. Mr. Bob Ruddock had the first and only petrol pump in the village. The sign said ‘MEX’ and the price per gallon for petrol was 1s.5d. (One shilling and five pence) Mr. Ruddock had a most unusual car. By comparison with today’s models, it looked like an armoured car. The word ‘ESSEX’ was across the steel radiator.
Overhead – up the steps which are still there – was a large hall. This hall was many things – somebody played the accordion and we had 4d (four penny) hops (dances), religious films were shown there. The films, such as ‘The Church and the Catacombs’, were black and grey and kept breaking down. Travelling shows performed there. Fit-ups put on plays such as ‘East Lynne’ and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. Later, much later, badminton was played there and teams from Courtmac competed very successfully in badminton leagues. The Aubin family bought the property from the Ruddock family and converted it into a dwelling house.
Recessed from the footpath is the home of Seamus Barry. In those far off times it was the home of a retired seaman, Mr. Kidney and his wife. Mr. Kidney was known locally as ‘Old Kidney’. Their son Jack married Juliette Collins of Collins Bar, later called The Anchor Bar.
Fuchsia House, next door, was home to Mr. Lambe, a retired national schoolteacher and Mrs. Lambe. One son was a priest in the Diocese of Ross and a daughter became Mrs. Stevenson. She lived in Edinburgh and her son Jimmy, a doctor, and daughter, Alison, a librarian, visited Courtmac for many years.
Adjoining Fuchsia House was a large, nine-bed roomed house, lived in by my uncle and aunt. John Sheehy was a national teacher and principal of the boy’s national school in Sebera and his wife Mary, nee Casey from Charleville, was principal of the girl’s national school. Their two daughters, Rita and May, became Mercy nuns in Carysfort Training College in Dublin. Their son, Sean, died young. He was a casualty of an inoculation tragedy when he was a boarder in an Irish College.
This house was divided later and opens on to the tarmacadamed lane leading to the entrance to the Coastguard Station. There is a well of spring water up the lane and it has been always known as the Wet Lane.
The Coastguard Station was in ruins when I was young, burned, like many all around Ireland, during the Troubles. It has now been restored and converted into apartments.
The large house below the Wet Lane, now owned by the Murphy family from Bandon, was the residence of Mr. Nicholas (Nick) Good and Mrs. Good. Mr. Good was an agent for the Earl of Shannon estate. I think it was the only ‘upstairs downstairs’ house in the village. It had two staircases, one for the family and one for the staff. Mr. Good bought his own residence and also the former RIC Barracks and the adjoining ‘Bay Window’ house. In the late 1920s, he sold the ‘Bay Window’ house to my late father, Maurice Sheehy and the Barracks to Mr. John Hodnett, who worked the quarries at the far side of Clonakilty and also the quarry at the back of Hamilton Row.
Mr. John Hodnett married a sister of Mary Eliza Jane Parker and after her death, he remarried. Their daughter Elizabeth was the daughter from his second marriage. The Hodnetts had a very good general grocery store run by Mrs. Hodnett until the early 1970s. Elizabeth became a national teacher and went to live in Drimoleague after her marriage. The house has had many owners since the death of John (Jack) Hodnett and his wife, including the Forrester and Wolstenholme families. It is currently owned by Richard and Michelle Browne who have it let to the community co-op run it as a community shop.
Nicholas Good’s house was sold to Colman O’Donovan, chargé d’Affaires in the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and later Ambassador to Portugal. His wife was Moll Brennan, a granddaughter of Mr. Brennan who bought the Esplanade Hotel from the Earl of Shannon estate. She was a sister of Joseph Brennan who was in the Department of Finance when Ireland became the Irish Free State and had its own currency. For many years his name was on the ‘Lady Lavery’ banknote. There were two sons and two daughters in the O’Donovan family. Maureen worked in the Gulbenkian Institute in Lisbon and is buried in Cintra. Peg became Mrs. Dawkins and lived in South Africa. Dan became a Cistercian priest and ministered in Australia and Diarmuid became a teacher, living in the west of Ireland.
MY HOME – THE TERRACE, COURTMACSHERRY
The house next to Hodnetts was my home. This terrace house in the centre of the village was the centre of my universe.
My father, Maurice Sheehy, was from Lackenduff, near Ring Harbour and he was the principal teacher in Lislevane National School. My mother, Mary A. Sheehy (nee Murphy) from Abbeymahon, was principal of the Girl’s National School in Timoleague. There were two of us; I have one brother, Gerard.
It was, and is quite an interesting looking house with an upper floor bay window facing the hotel end of the village.
Like all, or most of the houses in the village, it was originally in the estate of the Earl of Shannon. Under British rule it was the home of the resident Constabulary Sergeant (Royal Irish Constabulary) and the adjoining house (later Hodnetts) was the Barracks. There was access from the front room of the sergeant’s house to the adjoining front room in the barracks and also from the rear yard in the house to the holding cells in the barracks. Access to the barracks and to the holding cells shows how conveniently the sergeant had everything under his control. The last resident sergeant was Sergeant Hogan. I met his son, who told me he was born in the bay window room of the house. After 1922, the family re-located to east Cork and this aforementioned son ran a garage in Killeagh on the main Cork-Youghal road, called Fogarty’s Garage. The holding cells survived until 1993/94, when the then owner of the former barracks, a Mr. McLennan demolished then when he decided to open a restaurant.
Going down the village, we now come to The Terrace, raised above the roadway and the footpath.
Next door to our house Mr. & Mrs. Madden lived. Mrs. Madden was a nurse and midwife. Their stay was short and they re-located to the upper end of the village. Mr. Mick Galvin from Cork City, an engine driver and his sister Kitty lived there until well into the 1960s. The house was then bought by Mr. Jim Burke from Bandon. He developed the caravan site and tennis court below the hotel. After Mr. Burke and his wife and family went to live below the hotel; the house was bought and extended by Mr. Willie Fitzgerald and his wife, Kathleen (nee O’Mahony). After their deaths, it was bought by the present occupants John & Ann Murphy & family.
The adjoining house belonged to a Captain O’Donoghue. His widow had a B & B for many years and also ran a café during the summer months. When her daughter was widowed in the U.S.A., she returned to Courtmac with her son, Jimmy, and daughter, Betty. This family (Maynard was the surname) lived there during the lifetime of Mrs. O’Donoghue. Then the house was sold and for some years had various summer lettings to Coughlans, Hegartys and others.
Below O’Donoghues, was the house of Bert Jeffers. He lived alone for many years and in the 1940s he married a widow, Mrs. Nick Good. The house is now owned by the Minihane family.
Next door was the home of Mr. Patsy Neill, his wife Maisie and family. I remember their son, Jerry, who went to live in Dublin and their daughter Maureen. They also had two other sons, Liam and Pat. Maureen married Mr. Dan O’Mahony. They transformed the house from a single storey to a two-storey house. While the family went to live in Cork, they regularly visit Courtmac and stay in the family home.
There is a very big house with a front porch next door. This was the home of Sergeant O’Rourke (R.I.C.) and Mrs. Elizabeth O’Rourke (nee Sheehy) from County Limerick. Their son lived in Courtmac all his life. He didn’t marry. His sister, Queenie (Mrs. Mulcahy) married a Clonakilty business man; their son, Thomas, became a Detective Sergeant in the Garda Siochána. This house is now divided in two and is owned by two Slattery brothers, William and Conor and their families.
Adjoining O’Rourke’s house was a coal store. You would hardly notice it. It was bought by Maisie Shanahan (Shanahan’s Music Shop in Oliver Plunkett Street in Cork city) and her husband, a Mr. Jacob from Waterford city. Mr. Jacob was an architect. It was transformed into the bijou residence it is today.
The Waugh family, originally from Bandon, lived next door. Jack was a carpenter, his sisters, Bridie and Lena, ran a boarding house for many years and like many houses in Courtmac, they ran a café-restaurant during the summer months. Both traded very successfully. A widowed sister from the U.S. joined them in later years.
Mr. & Mrs. Howlett lived next door. Their son, Charlie, was a bank manager on the South Mall in Cork; Ulster Bank, I think. His sister Dorothy (Dot) married Henry Watson, a Cork city businessman. For many years, Dot let the house over the summer months. She later sold it to the Chaillet family from Paris. They still own it and use it mostly as a summer residence.
The house next to Howletts was the home of at least three generations of Ruddocks. Noble Ruddock and his wife, Edith, who taught in the Church of Ireland School near the hotel, lived there. Their son Robert (Bob) had a coal store near the pier. Later, Bob’s son, Noble, married Kathleen Good from Newcastle, England, a niece of Mr. Nick Good, agent for the Earl of Shannon. Noble and Kathleen had a son, Robert, and daughters, Barbara, Margery and Shirley. This part of the village has one house built on the seashore, built by Frank Ruddock, brother of Bob who owned the coal store. Noble Ruddock’s son, Robert, inherited this house and the family, though based in Cork, continue to use it as their summer base.
Before I leave the Ruddock family, Bob, who owned the coal store, had three daughters as well as the aforementioned son, Noble. Jane Ruddock married Jack Watson, a brother of Henry Watson who had married Dot Howlett, their next door neighbour. Edith Ruddock married one of the Cork city Whittaker families and went to live in Cork. Minnie Ruddock married a Mr. Mansfield from Co. Kerry. They emigrated to Adelaide, Australia.
Leaving The Terrace and returning to footpath level, is the bar that was owned by the Collins family, probably up to the late 1940s. One daughter of the house, Julia (Juliette) married Jack Kidney, a son of the house now owned by Seamus Barry. Juliette died young from T.B. I also remember a son, William Louis, who was the eldest and a daughter Marie. Marie became a nun in the convent in Clonakilty.
The dwelling is now known as ‘The Anchor Bar’. It was bought by Mr. Fleming, a builder who returned from England with his wife – a lovely lady who always spoke of her home in Staines, on the Thames in England. Mr. Fleming’s sister ran the bar for many years. She was fondly known as ‘The Snowy Maiden. Mr. Fleming’s son, Michael, runs the up-market restaurant, ‘Flemings’, in Cork. Another son, Pádraig owns ‘Anchor Bay Cottages’ and lives beside the Church of Ireland and two other sons, Billy and Noel, continue to run the popular ‘Anchor Bar’ with the help of Patrick, Pádraig’s son.
Now we have Hamilton Row. From the 1930s onwards it would have been like the following:
No.1. James (Jamesy) Barry.
No.2. Miss O’Donovan’s house and shop, later Annes Cottage.
No. 3. Coakley’s house and shop.
No. 4. Dr. O’Driscoll’s house.
No. 5. Mr. & Mrs. Jack Whelton & their daughter Peggy’s house and shop.
No. 6. Coughlan’s house.
No. 7. Calnan’s house.
No. 8. Blanchfield’s house, later R.N.L.I.
No. 1. Jamesy Barry was the father of John, Bill and Madge. The family were commercial fishermen, owning and working two trawlers. Madge sold ice cream during the summer months. She married Mr. Tom Brennan and they went to live in a bungalow at the top of the ‘New Road’, opposite the walk way entrance to Ramsey Hill. Madgie and Tom Brennan had one son, Gerard. He died in 2013 and was buried in Lisavaird. John Barry’s son, Seamus, owns the house which was Kidney’s, opposite the pier. No. 1 is now owned by the Fleming family.
No. 2. Hamilton Row was where Miss O’Donovan lived alone. When I was a child, I thought No. 2 was a big shop as shops went in Courtmac, but it was no longer stocked. Miss O’Donovan spent many hours standing behind the counter. It was sad; I suppose she was re-living other days. In the 1940s a Mr. Hodges, a retired bank manager, and his wife, Mrs. Anne Hodges, bought and re-constructed the house and gave the house its name, Anne’s Cottage.
Mr. & Mrs. Patrick Coakley lived in No. 3. Hamilton Row. Mrs. Coakley looked after the shop. Mr. Coakley bred and raced greyhounds. It is a big house and was let to families during the summer. Mr. Coakley had a herd of goats; they grazed over the quarry at the back of the house. The goats’ milk was sold for babies and children who had whooping cough – very common in the 30s and 40s. Later the family moved to a farm in Berrings.
No. 4 was home to Dr. & Mrs. O’Driscoll. Dr. O’Driscoll practiced in India for some time. On his way home he visited relatives in London and there met and fell in love with a young lady who had been presented at Court, a prerequisite in those days before being launched in society and marrying. He married her and she came to live in Hamilton Row. She was tall and beautiful and a well-known (in London) classical violinist). Passers-by were her only audience during many lonely years in Courtmac. Of their children – John emigrated to Canada and Nancy married in the U.S. Their daughter Sheila married Colonel Hughie McCarthy who was based in India and their children Pat and Maureen were born there. When Hughie retired, they came back to Hamilton Row. Hughie was the architect of the ‘Burma Road’, a walkway at the water’s edge, below the woods from Slattery’s Boat House to the Coves. The ‘Burma Road’ hasn’t survived the years.
Mr. & Mrs. Jack Whelton and their daughter Peggy lived in No. 5 Hamilton Row. They had a small shop which was looked after by the ladies. Mr. Whelton was a quarry man. Like many, he worked beyond Union Hall or thereabouts. This house had both summer and long term lets. A ship’s captain had his wife and family there for safety reasons during and after World War Two (1939-45). He was Captain Vanderberg, a Dutch national, who owned a ship which plied between Courtmac and England, bringing maize and coal. Peggy Whelton was a very beautiful, very athletic, very talented girl. After her parent’s death, she lived alone in the house.
Coughlan’s house was No. 6. Hamilton Row and it was home to Mr. Coughlan, a retired school teacher and Mrs. Coughlan. Their son, Pádraig ỚCochláin, became secretary of the Technical Branch of the Department of Education, and another son, Nollaig, became a bank manager, a third son joined the Civil Service and a daughter, Rita became a national teacher and married a farmer ‘across the bay’ from Courtmac.
No. 7 was owned for many years by the Calnan family of Cork city and Bandon. It was used for many years solely as a summer residence by the family. It was distinguished by having a blue and gold Papal Cross over the doorway, probably commemorating the 1932 Eucharistic Congress. That plaque survived until very recently when it was removed during renovations to the house.
No. 8 Hamilton Row was known as Ivy Cottage. It was owned by the RNLI and in the 1930s/40s it was home to Mr. Percy Egan, the mechanic on the lifeboat and his wife. They did not have any family. It was lived in later by Geraldine Blanchfield and her husband, Garda Sgt. Deasy and their family. I do not know if they owned the house or rented it. The family moved to Abbeyside, Dungarvan when Sgt. Deasy was promoted. One generation on saw their son, Austin Deasy elected at Fine Gael T.D. and appointed Minister for Agriculture. His son, John Deasy is now a T.D. for Waterford. Miss Ross, a retired nurse, lived in Ivy Cottage for many years.
An intersection divides Ivy Cottage from the next two occupied houses. The first was owned by Mr. & Mrs. Kelly and family. Mr. Kelly was the stationmaster at Timoleague, one daughter lived and married in Dublin and a second daughter, Sheila (Julia) married a creamery manager, Mr. Tadgh O’Sullivan. A third daughter, Éilish, worked in Dublin and married a widower, Colonel Saurin.
Next door is the Lifeboat Inn. It was previously called Cronin’s Hotel. It was inherited by a daughter of the Cronins called Maggie and she became the licensee. She married a sea captain, Mr. John Murphy. They kept a very up market hostelry – all polished brass and mahogany. They had no family. There was a big yard at the back where there was a milking shed and a dairy. They kept a cow which grazed in the adjacent field. Padraig Fleming’s house is now built in that field. Every evening the Murphy’s employee, Dave Dempsey, walked Daisy from the field to the stall and after milking, the mild was taken across the dairy to be sold. I would wait my turn with my boiled sweet can (complete with lid) for my milk with my penny. We always got a ‘tuille’, that little bit extra; it amounted to about 1/8th of a pint.
In the 1960s, the property was sold and the contents were auctioned off. My mother bought quite a few items, among them a very unusual item – a ship’s ‘compactum’. This is a ship captain’s wardrobe, beautifully crafted, with hanging space and storage space in the door of the wardrobe which swung open and closed with a secure clasp. It most definitely took two crew members to take it off and later take it back on board.
I should also mention that there was also a door to door milk delivery from Cahalanes of Woodpoint Farm. Tim Cahalane had a stainless steel churn on a long cart. Three measures with a hanging handle hung on the inner rim of the churn – one pint, a ½ pint and ¼ pint. Later Michael John Donovan sold milk up the village.
Another intersection and two more houses. Travara Lodge, now a Bed and Breakfast, was owned by Mr. Ned Burke from Bandon (butcher) and Mrs. Burke (nee Fitzgerald).Mrs. Burke was a daughter of Sir Edward Fitzgerald who was knighted during his term as Lord Mayor of Cork. They had sons, John and Tom and a daughter, Joan (O’Callaghan). Tom was a surgeon in at least two Cork hospitals and had a summer residence near Dunworley.
My parents were teachers. Hannah Cotter from Broad Strand and Brigid Duggan looked after us. Brigid had spent most of her life in Scotland and was a mine of information about many things. We called her Auntie B. As a very small child, when I walked past the house now called Travara Lodge, I was always fascinated by an image in the beautiful fanlight over the front door. It showed Androcles taking a thorn from a lion’s paw. I never tired of the story. One day it was gone. To this day I wonder where it went. Rumour was that it went to Woodbournes, at the far side of Broad Strand. I would love to know.
The last house in the village proper is now called The Golden Pheasant. In the early 1900s it was owned by a Bandon merchant, Mr. Joseph Brennan whose father, James, bought the residence of the Ladies Boyle and converted it into the Esplanade Hotel. After Mr. Brennan the house had several owners. In the 1940s’50s, Major Teddy Lawton and his wife, Molly (nee Neville, Bandon) lived there. They had two sons, but one died in infancy. Major Lawton’s brother, Dr. Finbarr Lawton, also lived there and later married a Miss Downey from Bandon.
Later still, Major Day, ex British Army, lived there for many years and he was always accompanied around the village by his dog, Peter.
Muriel Derwent and her parents established the Golden Pheasant craft shop on the premises and this now continues in conjunction with a café under the present owners. The premises still have very beautiful gardens.
So what do I remember about everyday life as a child growing up in Courtmac.
Looking out the window in the morning there was nearly always activity on the water. Jamesy Barry and his two sons Johnny and Billy headed out the harbour on their trawlers and fishing families like the Wheltons and the Maddens left in their open boats – two oarsmen and maybe a third man sitting on the gunwale at the back of the boat. At certain times of the year they ‘seined’ for salmon. A half circle of netting was drawn in from both ends. It was very heavy work and the hope was that they would have netted a salmon or two when the net was drawn in. Most evenings fish was sold door to door, twine threaded through their mouths. Pollock, whiting, sometimes cod, mackerel or herring in season, periwinkles and cockles in the summer months and also sand dabs were the varieties on offer. I never saw lobster or salmon sold door to door. Crabs, in those far off days, like mullet, were considered dirty feeders.
Barry’s fish would come ashore in timber boxes, water, maybe from melting ice, would be dripping out of them. In the early days they were put on the train to Cork the following morning, in later years a refrigerated van waited at the pier.
The village had its two churches, a national school, a post office and telephone, three public houses, three coal stores, a forge, a daily train service to and from Cork city, one petrol pump, a milk round morning and evening from two dairies and ten shops.
The shops were:
Wheltons sold sweets, lemonade, cigarettes and postcards, pens and pencils, copy books and sundries.
Coakleys sold bread and goat’s milk.
Miss Donovan sold sweets.
Madgie Barry sold ice-cream.
Hodnetts sold general groceries and was always very well stocked.
Loves had general groceries and was also very well stocked, especially with brown and white flour, oat meal, butter and homemade jams.
Flemings was a general grocery.
John O’Donovan was a newsagent and also sold other sundries.
Michael John Donovan had a small grocery business and dairy.
Con Regan was a newsagent and sold potatoes, vegetables and general groceries.
The parish priest, Fr. Burke, lived beside Barryroe church in Lislevane. The curate lived in Courtmac in the house beside the church at the upper end of the village. When I was young there was a dynamic young curate, Fr. John Sheehy (no relation). He was a member of a very well known political family, the Sheehys of Skibbereen. One was a T.D. and known as ‘The Father of the Dail’. Courtmac was connected to the ESB grid in 1933, thanks to Fr. Sheehy’s foresight, and I suppose not a little political ‘pull’ was involved. There is a stone commemorating the event on the water’s edge near the tennis court. Fr. Sheehy died very young and is buried in the grounds of the church in Courtmac.
Frank Ruddock, a carpenter and shipwright was a brother of local business man Bob Ruddock. He built beautiful clinker built boats on the side of the street opposite the coal store.
The railway station has been converted into a seashore home by a Dr. Dowse and called Lobster Cottage. But Frank Ruddock’s house, which he built himself with local help, is the only purpose built seashore house in the village. The craftsmanship of the gate of the house, a ship’s wheel, is notable for its workmanship. It was made by Denis O’Driscoll who, at one time, was Coxswain of the lifeboat.
In my youth Courtmacsherry was a village with beautiful gardens. Looking at the 1911 Census and perhaps up to what we call ‘The Troubles’ (1920/21) there was a large British presence in the village. They were mainly the residue of employees of the Shannon estate, R.I.C. and the Coastguard. There must have been some great gardeners among them. Many of the houses had large sloping gardens at their backs. Walking through the village it is possible to look through the intersections and see that many of the gardens are stepped and are well looked after but others have become too much for their owners. Who ever had lived in our house in the years prior to my father purchasing it must have had great gardeners because we had the most beautiful ‘Olde English’ garden anyone could wish for. My mother kept it that way. In 1946, the government introduced the ‘Compulsory Tillage Order’ directing that non-productive land be dug up and planted to alleviate food shortages. My father – God rest him – committed a sacrilege and did just that – potatoes planted – but never saved! Nothing could ever restore our beautiful garden.
An unusual feature of the Hamilton Row houses was that they had their gardens across the street.
The Ruddocks built a tennis court in the centre of the village and in recent years they have given over ownership of it to the community. Many were allowed to use the tennis courts at Kincraigie; courtesy of the owner, Mr. Bill Barrett. The Esplanade Hotel allowed us children to play croquet on the lawn and use the tennis courts there.
Courtmac had a nine hole golf course from 1933 up to 1946. It was beyond Ramsey Hill on Morgan’s land. The Compulsory Tillage Act put an end to the golf course.
