A reunion at an 18th-century family homestead in Leitrim

A U.S. Army officer’s unforgettable 1957 visit to his father’s birthplace after decades of letters and family memories and a huge family reunion.

In May of 1957, I paid my first visit to my father’s family homestead in Drumbreanlis, Carrigallen, County Leitrim, the first of my American branch of the Curran family to visit since my father left for the US in 1923 at the age of 22.

My father, Terence (Terry) settled in New York City and married Anna Cassidy, a native of Clogarnagh, Buck Hill, County Roscommon in 1929. I was born in 1933, the eldest of four surviving children.

During my early years, my parents’ only contact with their families in Ireland was through frequent letters. We had no telephone, and the Great Depression and World War II made it impossible for travel back to Ireland, even if my parents could afford the cost, which they could not.  I knew of my grandparents, my uncles Jim and Tom and my first cousins in Carrigallen -Marie, Shay, Peter, and Eamon Curran - by name and by an occasional picture sent with the letters. 

In 1955, after graduating from Manhattan University.  I entered the US Army as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Medical Service Corps and was sent to Europe in March of 1956.  After four months in Stuttgart, Germany, I was transferred to Verdun, France. 

During my stay at Verdun, I had the opportunity to travel and was able to visit Ireland for 17 days in May 1957. I spent several days in Dublin sightseeing, then visited County Roscommon to meet my mother’s sister, Theresa, and her husband, Eddie O’Connor and to visit a boyhood friend, Michael O’Sullivan, born in New York, but then living in Grenagh, County Cork.

But the most memorable part of my trip was my stay at the thatched cottage in Drumbreanlis where my father and his brothers were born, and where his brother Tom, and his wife Mary (nee Gallogly) were then living.

I recall the warmth with which I was greeted by them and by my Uncle Jim and Aunt Peg (nee Dolan) who lived nearby in Kivvy. To my mind even today, Tom and Mary lived in virtually a 19th century style - no electricity and no indoor plumbing. A turf fire served for both cooking and heating. The only electricity was a wet cell battery used to power the radio. When Tom opened the front door, young goats tried to come into the house.  Uncle Tom farmed the land but without any mechanical equipment or even horse-power. 

Ironically, I had been advised in a letter from my parents to stay with Uncle Jim, Aunt Peg and my four first cousins in Kivvy because they had a modern home, more comfortable than the old homestead. But, somehow, I had misplaced the letter and did not follow their advice.  Jim and Peg were also very gracious and I am sure would have been excellent hosts. But then I would have missed staying in the old homestead.

Uncle Tom and the Drumbreanlis Homestead, May 1957.

In later years, my father visited Carrigallen several times after my mother, Anna, died in 1970 and sadly he died while on his last visit home on July 19, 1979, at the Kilbracken Arms in Carrigallen, only a mile or so from his birthplace in Drumbreanlis.  

Over the years, my two brothers, Tom and Bill, and my sister, Rosemary, all came to Carrigallen, as did many of our children. Fifty-four Curran family members from the US and Ireland came to our first family reunion in June 2009, and, among the highlights was a visit to the ruins of the homestead and the placement of a plaque on the hearth.

Fortunately for the Curran Family, Eamon currently owns the homestead and keeps sheep on the property, and his sister, Marie now lives in their parents’ house at Kivvy.

Here, my cousin, Eamon Curran of Ballinamore, and Enda McGloin CC, the Mayor of Leitrim. unveil the plaque which reads: "Curran Homestead 1700—1979, Curran Reunion 28th June 2009".

My sister Rosemary’s daughter, Roseann, a physiotherapist, is married to a farmer, Fred Butler, and lives in Streete, County Westmeath.  Rosemary and her sons, Chris, and Kevin, visit Ireland often.

I have had the good fortune to visit to Ireland seven times over the past 67 years and even lived in Dublin for two months in 1995 while serving as a visiting scholar at UC Dublin’s Environmental Institute. But my first visit in 1957 to the Drumbreanlis homestead of the Currans remains the most memorable of all of my visits with the 2009 family reunion a close second.