Have you been following the rediscovery of our Kelly family roots in County Antrim, Northern Ireland?

It started with a visit Mom‘s cousin Betsy made to their grandmother’s Irish homestead in 1958. She kept good notes, some of which I used in this story about the Kelly clan.

The twist to the tale was Dad’s father painted a portrait of the cottage in 1972. He used a photo from that trip. I always loved that painting, knowing it married Dad’s side of the family with Mom’s.

But it doesn’t stop there. Earlier this year, my third-cousin Adrian sent an email out of the blue. He’d come across the blog post about Betsy’s visit online while searching for something else altogether. He recognized his granda’s homeplace. We swapped information that weekend, and continue to do so.

It turns out his Granda Willie and my Grandma Cassidy were pen pals back in the 1960s. I had run across several letters, but hadn’t yet figured out the relation. Now it all made sense.

Adrian was kind enough to share this photo:

The letters, of course, made for fine content for this family blog, not to mention a poignant history lesson.

In Betsy’s “trip report” from 1958, she mentioned a cottage:

“Went back to tell William Kelly good-bye, then saw the house where Gram’s Uncle Patrick lived. It was really cute – low yellow house with thatched roof, tiny rooms inside. Outside are big gateposts with things that look like whipped cream on top, painted brown and white stripes. We met Neil John Kelly, who lives there now (Gram’s uncle Patrick was his grandfather). Real old wrought-iron gates with bird heads on them.”       

Adrian, who recognized the description, sent this photo of Rarity Cottage:

Of course, there’s an interesting family story.

Adrian shared this in a recent email:

That house was called Rarity Cottage and James Kelly, a descendant of Neil John Kelly (predictably James also has a son Neil John) still lives at that farm which neighbours Granda’s and our great great grandfather William Kelly’s farm. All that remains of Rarity Cottage are the smaller ‘whipped cream’ topped pillars and that outbuilding to the rear. It was previously owned by an eccentric gentleman named John Carey (1800 – 1891).

And who, you might ask, was John Carey?

John Carey was a Presbyterian Cleric born at Duneane, County Antrim, was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, and became a Presbyterian minister in Ballymena. He claimed he was a descendant of the sister of Anne Boleyn.

In 1839 he was minister of Albany, County Tyrone. He later moved to Brookvale Presbyterian church in County Down. He was involved in a shooting incident, and though he was arrested, lack of evidence led to his release. It is unclear how he spent the next seven years. In 1850, he went to live in Rarity Cottage, Toome. He earned a reputation during the Famine of lending money at extortionate rates of interest, but, at the same time he was said to have been a benefactor to the destitute.

He erected a fine pump in Toome and built a small schoolhouse, but it is his ‘Temple of Liberty, Learning and Select Amusement’ for which he is remembered. This extraordinary building had seating for one thousand five hundred people and had a fine organ and a fifty-candle chandelier. Its library contained five thousand books. It survived until 1910, when it was burnt to the ground.

The Dictionary of Irish Biography includes a lengthier write-up of this interesting fellow’s life. And here’s an article about the Temple of Liberty, including a photo of the doomed hall.

I wanted to end this story with one of Mom’s poems. Using the search term “rarity,” sure enough …

Once You Get To Know Them

Interesting:
how the dark and shiny shrub
had cones. Unexpectedly
it showed, beside the ones
we knew, or thought we did.
No one even guesses wildly what
it is, but all are waiting
for the answer. Someone knows.
For him it is no mystery; a rarity,
perhaps, but real. Like strangers
always are, when once you get to know them.

~ Joan Vayo ~ August 28, 1971

Thank you to Adrian, a stranger no more. And to Betsy and Granda Willie, Grandma Cassidy and Grandpa Vayo. And to all the cousins and siblings who’ve helped with stories and photos over the years as we remember, together.

---

“Once You Get To Know Them” ©1971 Joan Vayo. All rights reserved.

Please sign up here to receive an email notice when there’s a new Too Much Brudders story: