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Killian Homeplace
What's on this page:
- Reclaiming half of a family homeplace in Ireland
- Reclaiming the other half to restore the entire homeplace
[Note: I originally posted this page calling this property the Killian Homestead, but Joan Killian Gallagher tells me that that word is not used in Ireland and so the correct term is Killian Homeplace. -- CT]
REALIZING THE DREAM OF RECLAIMING A FAMILY HOMEPLACE IN IRELAND
In 1998 Joan
Killian Gallagher began the restoration of the original
cottages on the Irish farm where her great grandfather, Laurence
Killian, was born in 1833. Fifteen years later the restored Killian
Homeplace
received the All Ireland Pride of Place Award. The 60-acre compound has
been reimagined as a meeting place that fosters the educational and
cultural exchange for students, relatives and friends from all over the
world. In an article in Enterprising Women magazine, Joan wrote: "For as long as I can remember, it has been my dream to have a little stone house somewhere. … On Sept. 19, 1996 I had even written in my journal, "Who knows what my stone cottage will look like, or where it will be … maybe Ireland. It may be old, but for sure it will be in a beautiful, peaceful place, and I will be content there." Less than 2 years later she was the successful bidder at a land auction in Longford, Ireland, for half of the Killian homestead that included the Killian farmhouse. Her article "Going Home" in EnterprisingWomen magazine tells the story of the purchase, renovation and reinvigoration of this ancestral property.
Going Home, by Joan Killian Gallagher - (PDF file
size = 1 MB)This content first appeared in Vol. 6, No. 3 of Enterprising Women magazine (www.enterprisingwomen.com) and is being reprinted with permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.
RECLAIMING THE OTHER HALF OF THE HOMEPLACE TO RESTORE THE WHOLE
A
follow-up article in the same magazine adds to the story, beginning:
"In the heart of Ireland on the banks of the River Shannon, my great,
great grandmother did something absolutely unheard of in her time. In
1893, Anne Furey Killian took a stand and bought the family farm. She
took advantage of newly enacted land legislation and broke free of
controlling British landlords that had held them economic hostage for
centuries. As tenants, the family enjoyed few rights and women had even
less. But she was utterly determined to become the proprietor of her
family land so that her children and their children would always have a
place to call home. This formidable woman, Anne Killian, was 82 in 1893
and had been widowed for almost thirty years." Joan goes on to tell the
story of acquiring the property and restoring it, explaining the steps
in her own story and her motivations for restoring the Killian
Homeplace to her family. The Heart of Ireland, by Joan Killian Gallagher -
(PDF file
size = 1 MB)This content first appeared in Vol. 20, No. 3 of Enterprising Women magazine (www.enterprisingwomen.com) and is being reprinted with permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.
VIDEO: A FAMILY VISIT TO THEIR HOMEPLACE IN THE OLD COUNTRY
This 10 minute video was made when Joan Killian Gallagher and some of her family traveled to Ireland to visit the restored Killian Homeplace.
Joan writes: The video aired on November 9, 2022 at 7:00 PM on the RTE, Ireland’s national television station on a prime time program, Nationwide. It was a really big deal. It’s the one program that people watch right after the news. They shot 7 hours of footage to get that 10 minutes. It was an exhausting day!
VIDEO: RESTORING AN IRISH HOMEPLACE AND CONNECTING IT TO NOTRE DAME
In this additional video (under 2 minutes) Joan talks about acquiring and restoring the Irish home where her great-grandfather was born, and then actively connecting it to the University of Notre Dame, honoring the fact that her father and a number of others from her family have pursued their education there.
The two articles above were posted by Joan Killian Gallagher as a featured item on this site on November 3, 2019. The videos are new. Thank you, Joan, for sharing these stories, images and videos, and congratulations on being able to keep this homeplace within your family.