Arising out of that a coach house and bar were developed on the site. It is also said that Daniel O'Connell stayed here in the early nineteenth century. Revamping the nineteenth century house in 1999, John also unearthed the underlining dilapidated flooring tiles that came from the old Dripsey Paper Mills. John notes that his father Timothy (from Carrignavar) married into Faha House in the 1950s. His father John was from Béal na Blath. John's mother Kitty Healy was an only child. Prior to that, the Healys have been rooted in the area for many centuries.

Seamus Healy from across the reservoir in Walshestown has completed extensive work on the Healy family in the region. A Gaelic Irish names, the Healy names was also known as O'Hely and O'Haly but the 'O' in the names is rarely found in present day times. The Healy name is one of the commonest names in Ireland having at one time 47th place in the list of commonest surnames. At one time, the Healys in Donoughmore Parish were the owners of c.22,000 acres across 40 townlands and possessed the land for a 1,000 years until the time of Oliver Cromwell and the dispossession of land, when the Healys were dispersed in Ireland and abroad.

In Seamus Healy's family tree, he has traced back the Faha House Healys to Andrew Healy, who was born in 1785 and who died in 1864. John was married to Mary Downey and they lived in Walshestown. John had four brothers Denis, James, William and John and one girl, whose name is unknown. The parents are also unknown. In fact in Griffith's Valuation of property in Co. Cork in 1852, Andrew, John and sons have a collective land bank of 92 acres in Walshestown, which was leased from Lady Carbery. Denis went onto to attain lands in the adjacent townland of Castleinch. It was a son of Denis, whose name was John that went to live in Faha house, where the Burkes now live.

Interestingly, in 1852 Richard Griffith also records another family relative also called Denis Healy who had a cottage with relatively no land in Faha.

On my recent visit, John Burke noted to me that his grandfather was Denis Healy. He died in 1959 in his seventies and hence was born in the 1890s. Denis, apart from being a farmer, went fishing a lot for salmon in the Lee. He also at one time one a trophy for best horse at Coachford Show. He was married to Ellen McCarthy from Clashanaifrinn, Ovens. She was sister to Edward McCarthy, who was founder of the Maynooth mission to China. The accompanying and evocative pictures tell more of the story of the Healys and reveal more of the human and natural pulse of this very interesting area of the Lee Valley with a rich cultural heritage. And as Mr. Healy in his book The Healy Story notes, "the heritage of the past is the seed that brings forth the harvest of the future".

To be continued…

Comments (0) »

Show/Hide comment form

Name

Email

Title

Comment

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment