PART 1
BY JOHN FITZGERALD
A visit to Desart Court
When she was 77 years old in about 1958, Nell Dooley-Monaghan wrote to Callan’s local correspondent Peter Roughan to share some memories with him and his readers. Nell was a daughter of Jim Dooley who worked with Ben Thompson, a gamekeeper in Desart.
In the letter she wrote: “Dear Peter, You will no doubt be glad to hear from an old Callan woman. I left there in 1909. I was born, bred, and reared in the Foxcover, just at dear old Desart School. Mr. Cummins was my teacher, I should say of happy memory, because he was a brilliant teacher. He taught Protestants and Catholics, and I was a pal of all his children.
“You spoke of Stephan and Bridget Ryan. Bridget Kennedy was a cousin of my mother. God rest them all. My mam- Mary Kennedy- was born out in Cappahayden. You mentioned the Crokes of Westcourt, well, Tom Croke married my eldest daughter- Bettie; and Dan Maher of Great Oak is married to Mary, my second eldest girl.
“Jim Holden of Westcourt married my sister-Kitty-and they are now living in West Street in Dr. Phelan’s house. Our teacher- Mr. Cummins- had his hands full when we were going to school in Desart, the young Holme’s, the Thompsons, poor Father Peter Power of Ballywalters- he died out in Australia, so did Fr. Michael Walshe of Ballykeeffe. God rest them both. Mr. Cummins had his hands full.
“He had some brilliant scholars and some hard chaws too. I must say that his daughter-in-law- Mrs. Tom Cummins- is a really brilliant teacher too. She has secured the Carlisle and Blake Premium. You know what it means to get that coveted prize.”
Nellie went on to describe her experience of visiting Desart Court in its heyday. She found very little of the snobbery and class distinctions that we associate with such pre-independence aristocratic settings.
She was always happy when Lord and Lady Desart arrived at the Big House for their holidays from June to October. As a young girl she was welcomed into the house and often found herself seated at a vast table in the Staff hall, surrounded by as many as twenty servants.
To her innocent child’s mind, the imposing lofty rooms, the noble staircase, and the luxuriant ornamentation appeared unreal and dreamlike, so far removed was such magnificence from the simple lives of ordinary Callan folk.
In her recollection, the house had a “solid air of grandeur and opulence”. Airs and graces… and delightful eccentricities… characterized the day-to-day house routine of the aristocrats. They never seemed to work.
Whenever Nellie visited the palatial residence, she had a sense of important guests just “gliding” along corridors, or of the Lord or Lady basking in affluence or luxury.
Yet for all their wealth, the Big House people were kind and good-natured. There were the sumptuous banquets at the house, and the vast receptions for others of like status, at which etiquette reigned supreme as dignitaries held forth on the issues of the day.
But Lord and Lady Desart were generous to people less well off than themselves, and fair-minded in their dealings with the legions of workers and servants employed by them.
Nellie was mesmerized by Lady Desart’s refinement and nobility of manner. The schoolgirl trembled the first time the noble woman met her. Nellie was talking to a servant girl when the Lady of the House brushed past in a corridor. Catching sight of the humble urchin in conversation with a working class maid, she called Nellie over to her.
“This pleasant woman smiled” Nellie recalled, “She patted me on the head. Then she handed me a shilling that seemed to sparkle and shine…the coin reflected the light from a huge chandelier that hung from a ceiling in a room beside us.
“My gaze wandered to the open doorway leading into that room, to a galaxy of light that shone like radiant diamonds, and to beautiful carvings and oil paintings that adorned the walls. This was another world, I thought, but not my world.”
To be continued…
(Callan in Words and Pictures is available from Amazon)
