Transcription of narrative from the Schools Collection XIX.
Written by Biddy Callaghan, Oughterard, c. 1937.
“I live in Claremount in the parish of Oughterard and in the barony of Moycullen. There are thirteen houses in it now, there were only six in it long ago. There are eleven of them slated and two thatched. There are a few ruins of houses in it. One in Byrne’s field and there are two in a field belonging to Fahys. There was an old forge in it long ago belonging to a man called Molloy. There is an old flour mill in it also. The wheels of the mill are to be seen in the old house yet.
There is only one man over 70 years. There is some good land and some very bad land. There are alot of bogs in Claremount. There is an old graveyard in a field belonging to Byrnes. Long ago the people used to bury children that were not baptised in it. The people then sowed alot of trees in the field and it is like a wood.
There is one river called Srúrain an Cláir in Claremount, it comes from the bogs in Claremount. The river goes under the ground in John Conneely’s field in Tonwee and the river goes to the Owen Rife river.”
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I suspect this rather charming account is by my relative Bridget Callaghan. She was one of the eight children of Joseph and Mary Callaghan, who lived (according to the 1926 Census) at Clare Cottage. She was born in 1924, so would have been 13 or so when writing this. She ended her days in London. If it is indeed her, then her elder brother Patrick, a schoolmaster in Galway (though I’m not sure where), ended up marrying my aunt Mary, both of them living in Leicester, England. It would seem most of Joseph’s family left the Oughterard area; perhaps (having come from Mullingar) because they had no strong family roots there?
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