HISTORY

Tournafulla comes from the Gaelic word Tuar na Fola -  The bleaching field of the blood. It is believed that this unusual name came from the bleaching of flax which was grown in the area in the 19th century and "Fola" probably came from faction fights which were rife in the area at the time. Tournafulla was part of Killeedy until 1838 when it became a separate parish. Like many other rural villages in Ireland, Tournafulla grew up around the church.

THE CHURCH

The construction of the present day Church began in 1855. However the roof was not completed until 1859 due to a shortage of funds and it was not until a loan was received from the Earl of Devon that this could be done. On the first of February 1859 Fr. Richard Shanahan said the first Mass here but shortly after he died and was buried in the site of the old church. This was located in the old village on the banks of the Allaughan. Following the great flood of 1839 the village moved to higher ground.

The old church was built with ash and stones and had a thatch roof. It was called "the chapel of the mountain of the curse" and no evidence of this church remains today except for a plain headstone set in stone which marks the original burial place of Fr. Richard Shanahan. Fr. Shanahan's remains were exhumed in 1994 and buried in the new cemetery. The site of the old village can be entered by a gate close to the parochial house. This was once a Mass path and is over marshy ground. There are also too other Mass paths, one for each end of the parish which can be walked.

THE GRAVEYARD

The Graveyard in the parish was opened in 1962 and prior to that the people of Tournafulla were buried in Templeglantine, Abbeyfeale or Monagea. There was also a graveyard at the site of the old Church on the banks of the Allaughan. It was located in a field called "The White Field" which was owned by Dinny Brown. There are no headstones here to mark the graves but there are some stone markers. In the grounds of the new graveyard there is a grotto and two priests have been buried here-Fr. Shanahan and Fr. John McCarthy.

THE OLD SCHOOL

The old national school was built in 1858 and was in use for over 100 years. It had two rooms-one for boys and one for girls and an out door toilet. The school which is know privately owned closed it's doors for the last time when the new school opened. A point of interest-the prize for the national treasure hunt, a gold bar, was found on the grounds of the old school!

St. Ita's Curse...

St. Ita had a convent in Killeedy and she had a dairy farm in Seconglass, Mountcollins. Legend has it that one evening while returning to Killeedy the people of Tournafulla set their dogs on her donkeys. Frightened the donkeys left the road and crossing some fields they stopped at the river Skule for a drink. St. Ita caught them and noticing that one of the donkeys was lame she pulled a thorn bush from it's hoof and bent the thorns downwards. On returning to the convent she set the thorn bush and it is said that it still grows today with all the thorns bent downwards. Seemingly the donkeys tracks can still be seen imprinted on some rocks in the river. After the incident St. Ita is said to have cursed Tournafulla so that the parish would never be without a widow or a widower, a smoky chimney or a blackguard!! This, however,  is not believed by the people of the parish.

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