St.Clearans House

St.Clearans House is one of the few big houses left standing. The area in which it is situated is named after it. It is situated between Craughwell and Loughrea. It is a splendid Georgian manor house surrounded by a 100 acre estate.

In the early nineteenth century, the entire land of Ireland was owned by a few thousands landlords. The landlords were protestants who were descendents of English settlers. The landlords used to live on huge estates in large country mansions such as St.Clearans with their families. The local people used to call these houses the "Big House". Also at the time in the towns the rich lived in elegant Georgian houses.

In all the time it has been standing, St.Clearans House has had a number of owners. In the early nineteenth century one of these owners was a man called Burke. He was a landlord. Also at this time landlords were not only the owners of the land but they were also the local magistrate or judge and therefore had control over law and order in the area. They were also a member of the Grand Jury which looked after the local affairs just as the county council does today.

When Burke owned St.Clearans, a man called Anthony Daly was accussed of shooting at the St.Clearans gamekeeper. Daly tried to prove his innocents. He was put on trial and Burke was the judge and sentenced him to be hung. The gallows were about a mile away from St.Clearans on top of Seefinn Hill. The ladies in the Burke Family secretly watched the executions from two windows of an upstairs bedroom on the south side. After the hanging the windows were blocked up so there was no view of the hanging ground from the house.

After the hanging, the widow of Anthony Daly put a curse on St.Clearans. Part of the curse was that the rooks would never build in the trees around St.Clearans and the Bog wood. And ever since the rooks have never built their nests in St.Clearans and the Bog wood. the splatters of Daly's blood was to be seen on the back gates before they were demolished.

A woman called Mrs.Studd who was a Catholic owned St.Clearans during the war. When asked she contributed to Sinn Fein. Whilst she was living there, petrol was brought to burn the house. The volunteer Pat Connaughton who collected Mrs.Studd's subscription would not allow the house to be burned. And that is the story on how the house survived.

The River in the estate

At that time the locals had a custom. They used to raid the orchards at night. One night a gang from Clostoken were after leaving a house they had been visiting. They decided to raid the orchard in St.Clearans grounds. A few of them had got over the wall into the orchard when all of a sudden the whole place shook. before the place shook, there had been lots of apples to be seen on the trees and after, there was not an apple to be found.

In later years the cinema giant John Huston who died in 1987 at the age of 81 lived in St.Clearans House. John Marcellus Huston was born in Nevada, Missouri on August 5th 1906. Son of the noted actor Walter Huston, an Irish emigrant. Following in his father's footsteps, John became an accomplished actor and director. It was as a film maker that he established a reputation as an artist of great flair, imagination and technical brillance. In the forties a substantial body of his work brought him to the forfront of a thriving film industry, principally through films such as "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre", "Key Largo", "The Asphalt Jungle" and the timeless master-piece of war "The Red Badge of Courage".

Then in 1951, Huston took a break prior to starting work on another film "The African Queen" and faith in the form of a friend in the Guinness family, brought him to Ireland for the first time. The friend who helped shape the next most exciting part of his remarkable life was Lady Oonagh Oranamore and Browne, one of three famous Guinness sisters. Houston had been invited to Ireland to attend the Galway Blaxers Hunt Ball in the Gresham Hotel, Dublin. He had always enjoyed English hunt balls. But such was the air of abandon at the Gresham that the startled visitor now could well believe that the Blazers got their name from setting a house on fire by throwing champagne into the fireplace at a party. After the ball, he went to stay at the Oranmore and Browne hunting lodge in Lugalla, Co.Wicklow. Huston fell in love with Ireland and lived for a couple of years in houses near Dublin, but the lure of the West as a hunter paradise brought hime to Galway.

One day he was hunting between Loughrea and Craughwell when he crossed a field and saw a house in the distance, behind a ruined tower. It was St.Clearans House. Some months later Ricki, his fourth wife, was staying with friends Derek and Patricia Trench for the Galway Races. She spotted a lovely old house that was vacant and for sale. By an extraordinary coincidence it was St.Clearans House.

Huston duly purchased the house and 100 acre estate from the land commission for a small sum, but he spent a fortune on renovations and additions over the next two years. It was an important time in his life. Here he reared his children, amongst them Angelica, now an Academy Award winning actress. He filled his house with valuable paintings and rare art objects, especially from Japan, China and Mexico.

His assistant Glady's Hill came to live at St.Clearans where the day to day scene was generally in the hands of a dynamic lady called Betty O'Kelly. She and groom Paddy Lynch also supervised the buying of horses. Huston reckoned the Irish were the best horsemen in the world with the possible exception of the Afghans. The resident vet was Tommy Kelly, a tiny man in his eighties who could tame even the biggest and wildest hunter. Dr.Martin Dyer who died in 1988 looked after the human patients. Two or three illnesses and as many hunting accidents occured at St.Clearans while he was in attendance and his diagnosis and treatment invariably proved correct.

Huston had great affection tooo, for the many other local people who made his years in St.Clearans so memorable. Martin Tierney who taught young Tony Huston how to fish. Master of the Blazers Paddy Pickersgill who graciously allowed John to become Joint Master, a post he held for ten years. Dereke Trench and Tim Durant, Paddy Lynch, Tommy Holland his neighbour who did santa every christmas, the Creagh family, Margaret McCarthy, Mary Bodkin, Paddy Coyne and Mary Lynch.

Amongst the guests were Peter Patrick and Ann Hemphill, Edmond and Maria Mahony, Bill King and Anita Leslie, Tommy and Eileen Kelly, Dick and Bea Lovett, Ellie and Fifi French and Noble prizewinner John Steinbeck and his wife Elaine.

The courtyard of St.Clearans owned currently by the Corbett Family.

When Huston bought St.Clearans, he opened up the two windows on the south side which had been blocked up for many years despite warnings from the locals that Daly's ghost would return. John Steinbeck showed an interest in following up the story but was dissuaded by a Loughrea priest who was an authority on the subject. The priest also revealed that after Daly's hanging another man on his deathbed confessed to having shot the bailiff.

After eighteen years in St.Clearans, Huston knew it was time to move on. Parting with the staff was the hardest aspect of closing St.Clearans, but from a personal point of view departure from a place he loved so well brought a lunp to Huston's throat that stayed to hurt him for many a long day.

The next owner was Kevin Mclory who was film director. Then a American Attorney bought it and when he died Merv Griffin bought it. He turned it into a manor house where people can stay and dine. There website is http://www.merv.com