The Hurleys of Lisheens - intermarried with O'Leary, Barrett, Collins.

Lisheens Townland, Kealkill, on the eastern rim of the Bantry Township, West Cork.
("Lisheens" is an Anglicization of the Irish word for stone circle.)

Over several generation, this farm was the home of the Hurley family of Lisheens,
situated on the hill above Kilmocomogue Graveyard and Lady's Well.
(See my diary for more details: Filming Celtic Women in Music (2000).

Our maternal grandparents were Jeremiah and Bridget Hurley (nee Barrett):
John, (b. 1919), an engineer, settled in East Cork, father of six children.
Mary Bridget (b. 1921), a nurse, gave up nursing when she married, as was required by law in those days. Mary brought seven children into the world, and returned to nursing when they were adults.
Gerald (b. 1923), suffered polio and never married.
Denis (b. 1924), inherited the family farm. When our father bought the farm, Denis moved to Oakland, California, became a landscape gardener, and married in his 40s - no children.

Our grandmother, Bridget Hurley (Ni Barrett, former nurse), and grand aunt, Jane Barrett (retired dietitian), lived on the Lisheens farm with us.
Behind the farm, on the southern hill, an ancient Ringfort gives expansive panoramic views of the countryside, all the way to Bantry Bay.
Lisheens is quite a climb via back roads - convenient for my mother's family during The Troubles, which traumatised all who lived along the main road - especially along the main low roads, bordering my father's family farm at Lackareagh.

In 1954, the Lisheens farm was sold to Cornelius "Con" and Ellen "Nell" McSweeney,
and we moved down the hill to Pearsons Bridge.

Our father's parents were Denis O'Sullivan and Margaret Mary Keohane.
His O'Sullivan grandparents were Timothy O'Sullivan and Mary Costigan.
His mother, Margaret Mary Keohane died in 1932, age 32, following long-term "pneumonia complications". His father died in January 1959, age 88.
I remember my grandfather's wake, at the farm, and long funeral march into Bantry -
standing around the grave and fighting back tears when they lowered him into the grave.
He was always so kind to me.
My mother sent me to keep him company after school periodically.
He was confined to the bed. I still have 2 pennies he gave to me - one English and one Irish.
I can't remember what he said exactly about them, but I know it was about "the Troubles" -
representing victory over the English - as "before" and "after" evidence.

- Jack F. Sullivan, USA, 1940s


- Jack Sullivan with family: New York 1940s

- John Francis Sullivan, Equestrian trainer, Lisheens farm, 1953

Pearsons Bridge - over the Ouvane River.

The house that Jack built!
In 1954, we moved down the hill from Lisheens farm to Pearsons Bridge.

While building our home on the edge of the Ouvane River at Pearsons Bridge, (including making the concrete bricks), our father also led the effort to bring electricity to the region.
As a local man said to my sister Carmel many years later: "He was a man! He was more than a man."
But he was not happy with Irish politics:
"Too little for too many. Too much for too few." - John F. Sullivan
Two years after we were settled at Pearsons Bridge, in 1957, our father returned to the USA:
Two years later, we followed him to San Franscisco, on 22 November 1959.

Childhood memories remain close to the foreground of our minds.
My visions of the landscape where I grew up are vivid:
Playing on the Ouvane River at Pearsons Bridge;
Daily adventures on our journey to Kealkill National School, two miles away.

Friends and cousins were spread out but we always felt close to them.
I rode my bike to piano lessons in Bantry every Saturday, so that is deeply etched in my memory.
The brain goes through a major growth spurt at that age and when something traumatic happens, the memory stays with you. We know many people who have said that they went through dramatic changes in their lives at that age and they have all agreed that those memories remain vivid - along with a ripe sense of humour - wisely choosing to be serious without being somber.

Sullivan siblings, in front of the Keane family's home, 1958, Pearsons Bridge
Maireid, John, Jerry, Noreen, Carmel, Daniel - and baby Viva crawling away.


Taken on the day of Noreen's First Commune:
Dresses made by our mother (mine was red).
Aunty Jane knitted Daniel's jumper (cat on fence / flower pots).

[John and Jerry couldn't keep still for this photo]

Noreen, Viva, Carmel, 1960, Eureka Street, San Francisco

Viva and Dan: "First communion" 1963