Ellen's Story Part 1- Visiting Barronswood and Kilnaspic in Kilkenny today

 

Visiting the home of Ellen Kinsella- my great-grandmother from Barronswood

Our Kinsella ancestors lived in Mooncoin Catholic Parish is in the southern part of County Kilkenny, about 8 miles north of Waterford and 30 miles south of Kilkenny city. The parish includes the villages of Mooncoin, Carrigeen, and Kilnaspic. The population of the parish is now about 2800 people. 

                                                     Mooncoin

The main road from Waterford, N24, passes through Mooncoin. If you want to visit the home of our Kinsella family, after leaving Waterford, you will pass through the village of Mooncoin on N24. 


Mooncoin is a delightful village with several places you will not want to miss!

James Comerford's pub, established in 1778, is one of the oldest family pubs in Ireland. 240 years old, it was there at the time of our ancestors. Richard Comerford was born in Kilnaspic in 1761, and James was his son, born in 1785.

You can read more about it here 

Also, do not miss the Rose Cafe - a vintage style tea room serving breakfast and lunch and full of wonderful baked goods!

Rose Cafe Mooncoin- Tripadvisor



Mooncoin village also has a petrol station and two grocery stores in case you need staples- Croke's and Blanchfield's Centra.

http://homepage.eircom.net/~mooncoin/information_page.htm

Af Mooncoin, you will turn off N24 on L7431 and head north to Clogga on the main road from Piltown to Kilmacow. (see map at top.) Google Maps will show you the route. Clogga, a townland of about 1 1/2 square miles, is surrounded by the Walsh Hills. Barronswood, or Kileavaroon (not shown on today's Google Maps) is at its northern peak. This was birth place of Ellen Kinsella.

Clogga and Barronswood



When you come to a fork in the road go right. Fork to right at this house
A right at the end of this road takes you along the boundary of the Kinsella farm fields. The homes appear to have been at the end of the long driveway after the right hand turn.


Here is a view of the Kinsella fields from the road. Our ancestors lived in a beautiful place, with some lush green farmland, some rocky hills, and a view of the mountains. This was Barronswood.
The cottage Ellen was born in, I was told, was torn down and is long gone. The Gilmartin's might be able to show us where it once stood.

These lush fields would have been the view from the Kinsella cottages in Barronswood. (Google Street Map)

Cows on the northern rockier end of the fields (Google Street view Map)

Then, as now, it appears that the homes were across the road from the flat fields, on the northern end, where the land is hilly and rockier. The Kinsella's and Gilmartins's lived in the homes marked a and b on the top right, across the road from section 3. Now new homes stand on the northern end of the fields, where the old homes were in 1849.

Griffith's Map 1849



3 abc land plot with existing homes on straight driveway off the road. This land plot equals 80 acres of 166 - so some of their land may have been across the road

                     Google street view- the homesite in a copse of trees
           Trees marking the entrance to the driveway (Google Street Map)


Flowering hedges along the boundary, with a house in the trees (Google Street Map)



After visiting the farmsite at Barronswood in Clogga, you will turn left and head north west to visit Tubbrid, then on west to Killinaspick. This map shows the gently rising Walsh Hills that rise abov the area.


Tubbrid Holy Well, Church, and Cemetery Ruins

There was a holy well, church, and cemetery in Tubbrid. The well and church are marked on the Griffith's Valuation Map, with the well about 150 feet west of the church, now an overgrown spring. Even in 1849, the church here was just a ruin. 

                               Map from Griffith's Valuation, 1849

Only part of the Tubbrid church remains, crumbling stone about 6 feet high and 2 feet wide. There is a walled graveyard nearby, quite overgrown, with some graves dating back as far as the 1700's. According to the Gilmartin family I spoke to, this is the resting place of our Kinsella ancestors. One of the eldest members of this family (now passed) knew exactly where the graves were in the cemetery. Our Kinsella's were in proud company.
Also buried there was John Walsh, who was the son of William Walsh, gentleman, of Barrabehey, who lived at Barrabehey Castle (of which nothing now remains) and died in 1635. His son, William, born in 1620, was among the Walsh landowners that lost all their lands and were transplanted to Connaught during Cromwell's invasion.
http://mooncoinhistory.ie/mooncoin-places-interest/

                                Tubbrid Church Ruins and Cemetery


Kilnaspic/Killinaspic
Following westward along the road we come to the village of Killinaspick (Kilnaspic.). Prior to 1870, there was a school located to the right of the present church. If Ellen Kinsella and her siblings attended school, they would have walked here. But in those days, literacy rates were very low. Children in the area now attend school in Mooncoin.

                                                   St. Killogue's Church  

The ruins of the old church, built in 1800, can be found in the cemetery. There was yet an older church on the site, a stone church with a thatched roof, which was used prior to 1800. So this site actually holds all three churches.


The new church, opened in 1866, is a neo-gothic structure made of stone.



Behind the altar is a beautiful Carrara marble sculpture made in Tuscany- a likeness of Michelangelo's Pieta.


                                           Kilnaspic Church Cemetery

There are a number of Kinsella graves at the cemetery- very likely relatives. Some date back to the first church built here prior to 1800. 

According to the Gilmartin's, our ancestor Thomas Kinsella  born about 1775 d after 1821 (father of immigrant John Kinsella) and his wife (Margaret Kelter) are buried here. The memorial was put up by his son, Thomas Kinsella, who lived in Waterford at the time. Thomas would have been the brother of of our John Kinsella. If I get to Kilnaspic, I hope to find this grave.

My great grandmother, Ellen Kinsella, was likely named after her aunt- her father's youngest sister, Ellen Kinsella, who married Thomas Walsh. Ellen Kinsella Walsh died in 1878 and Thomas Walsh in 1881. They are buried at the Kilnaspic Cemetery. The memorial says "In loving memory of Thomas Walsh, Kilnaspick, died Nov 14th 1881 age 76 years also his wife, Ellen Walsh, alias Kinsella, died Jan 21st 1878, age 62 years." (See separate blog post)


There are more recent Kinsella's buried here as well. Here is memorial for a John Kinsella, aged 93, who was born in 1911 and died in 2004. So there are still Kinsella families living in the area- the later John Kinsella who provided the memorial lived in nearyby Barrabehy.


In 2016 St. Killogues Church in Kilnaspic celebrated its 150th anniversary. Rev.Fr. Pat Comerford, orginally from Kilnaspic, was one of the celebrants. Those participating in the mass included a Kathleen Long-Walsh, Pat Kinsella, and Kitty Kinsella. So there are definitely Kinsella's still in the area.


Kilnaspic Church


Locations from Griffith's Valuation maps and Google maps


From the Kinsella homelands in Clogga, it is only a hop, skip, and a jump to see our other ancestral homelands- Garryduff, home of the Durney's, is only 8 miles, and Mullinavat (Rathnasmolagh) home of the Quinn's, is only 5 miles.





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