Wednesday, June 6, 2018

TURTLE BUNBURY | WRITER, “AT HOME IN IRELAND”

HOME: Lisnavagh estate in County Carlow, Ireland, has been the Bunbury family home since the 1660s and used to be one of the largest Big Houses in Ireland. My grandparents reduced the house’s size considerable. Today, my brother and his family live there and run it as wedding venue. Six years ago my wife, Ally, and I built a two-story, old-style farmhouse in a corner of the estate, where we’re raising our two small daughters amid  wheat fields, oak trees, and cattle. ANIMAL HOUSE: My grandmother-who was a bit of a character-once entered Lisnavah House on a horse and rode through. INN CROWD: It’s rare to find a traditional pub with guest bedrooms above, but there are a few around, such as McCrthys Hotel in Tipperary. Enjoy the pub’s ale, banter, and music, then simply stumble upstairs. And then I have a soft spot for County Kerry, where I sometimes stay in a stone cottage overlooking Ballinskelligs Bay and the rollicking Atlantic Ocean. It’s one of nine cottages which, a hundred years ago, were part of a small community of Irish speakers including the renowned storyteller, or seanchai, Sean O Conaill.

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