SEAMUS FLANNERY, AGE 87, MONSEA (Part 1)

Very few thatched mud-and-stone build cottages of more than 300 years old survive today and I was very fortunate to meet Seamus Flannery in his well preserved cottage. I began by asking Seamus about his early days growing up in Castlesheehan farm, near the Shannon. He discussed his experience of many of the old farming techniques and also the tillage in the area. Because he experienced hard times and was in desperate need of financial security, he recalled having to pick beet in the snow. He told me he had hurled since he could walk, and that he played in the 1940s with Kilabangan and in 1942, ’43 and ’44 he and his team won the Miller Shield.