Memories of Oughterard

My name is Eleanor Feely and I lived in Oughterard as a child in the late 60’s, where my father Jim Feely R.I.P. was the Garda sergeant. We lived opposite the Corrib Hotel and I whiled away the hours by sitting out the front playing with my five kittens and assorted captive mice in jam jars and exploring the river and local terrain with or without my tricycle.

Anyway, I have a distinct memory of exploring, from a child’s perspective a ‘far off land’ off the road to Seanafeistin..I think one of my school friends who lived there must have cajoled me venture down that long track to what was at that time ‘no man’s land’ of bog and moorland. My memory is of a very unusual place where thatched houses were in a circle and there was no connecting path or road. They were in a higgledy piggeldy circle..I wonder is this the old village that your members were referring to last year?..
Although I was only about 7 or 8 ..it struck me as strange..but now with hindsight, maybe it was because this was a village or hamlet constructed during or before Famine times. There were occupants there who were very kind to me as I recall.
Anyway, I’d love to find out about it..and to be assured my memory is not playing tricks on me!
Please put me on your mailing list as I live down the road in Co Clare and would love to take part in events.

I am an actor/writer/director working with the County Arts Office..and if anyone remembers me or my family (dad passed away in Jan 2007 rip), my brother John was born in Oughterard also and my mam, Essie..please say hello from all of us.. mam has great memories of an old banger of a bus which used to transport her, me and John to Salthill and the Finnerty family, the Dowds. Guard Dowd was a bloodhound when it came to detecting poitin, according to my late Dad)..the Admiral..I rem  Joan Tuck, The Gibbons family, Vanessa Moon, and many more and remember with affection our ‘forts’ in the woods near the now GAA pitch..also there was a lady with a cap who was a great fisherwoman..she would make a great character for a play..and Emer Kenny and family..what an awful tragedy to befall them.
Keep up your good work,