Description

Cottage Benbulben Co. Sligo

Benbulben is the setting of several Irish legends. It is said to be one of the hunting grounds of the Fianna, a band of warriors who are said to have lived in the 3rd century. One example is the story of The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Gráinne, in which the warrior Diarmuid Ua Duibhne (Diarmuid) is tricked by the giant Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn McCool) into fighting an enchanted boar, which later kills the warrior by piercing his heart with its tusk. McCool is also said to have found his long-lost son Oisín at this location. The mountain is said to be Diarmuid and Gráinne’s resting place. Also, in the 6th century, St. Columba fought a battle on the plain below Benbulben at Cúl Dreimhne (Cooladrumman) for the right to copy a Psalter he had borrowed from St. Finnian.

-From Wikipedia

This painting was originally commissioned back in 1982 for a cover of a book of Irish music and lyrics.

I had a copy of the book somewhere in the piles of stuff in my attic. I cannot remember the exact title but the painting depicts a real traditional Irish whitewashed, thatched cottage.

While it depicts a lyrical take on the old Ireland depicted here mostly for the benefit of nostalgic Irish Americans it has a deeper meaning for me personally.

When I was a young lad staying with my aunt Mary in Fountain Cross, Kilcurrish, Ennis, County Clare, I actually lived in this same cottage around 1956 with its new electricity but no running water or toilets yet. Yep, I had to fetch water from a well two fields away. And yes, I hoisted that bucket up on to the wall and over only once drenching myself when I slipped and it hit me on the head. Not sure if I ever really recovered 🙂

This cottage for me is real and painted exactly as the one I lived in with its stack of turf outside -except the location is different. Behind this one rears the beautiful mountain of Ben Bulben, in Yeats country, Sligo.

Behind the real cottage in Clare, there was small mountain but not quite as lyrical as the one here. Artistic license.

Brings back a whole lot of happy memories all the same. I was so blessed to be part of an Ireland long gone and lost forever but that’s progress.

Now we have Netflix in the house that stands on the hill in Kilcurrish in front of the old cottage, while the thatched roof is gone and the cottage is a cowshed now at least it still stands and I can never see it without thinking of its former cosiness and earthy splendour.