Gleesons Cottage

Killuran (Clare)

This tiny rural cottage at Keelderry near Bodyke in East Clare was once home to Ireland's oldest man, Paddy Gleeson (1904–2010) who was interviewed and photographed at his fireside not long before he departed his beloved cottage.

Born nearby on his maternal grandfather's farm at Clooncool, Paddy was the eldest son of publican Bartholomew Gleeson and Agnes  Boland (c.1882-1911) of OCallaghansmills. Bart Gleeson, originally from Sixmilebridge, emigrated to the US circa 1918 with his family. Paddy, age 14,  stayed behind to mind an elderly aunt and remained in Ireland, where he died a bachelor.

Its construction closely resembles the famous Land League Cottages built during the Land War of the 1880s (the mass movement to rehouse those evicted and their cottages tumbled). Paddy's stories have been preserved in "Vanishing Ireland" by Turtle Bunbury & James Fennell. 

Now, Paddy Gleeson's Cottage, a remarkable time capsule snapshot of traditional Irish rural domestic life of yesteryear, has been placed for sale, with all its furniture and life accoutrements still intact.

[Posted by Rua Mac Diarmada]