History, Recordings & Folklore

Thomastown House originates in some substantially lesser form from at least the Caroline era, as the property is said to evidence elements from c.1640s, and over the succeeding century the then Bodkin house developed Southward into a c.1730s Georgian manor house set in parkland grounds, it is recorded as a “Gentleman’s Seat” in 1814 being held by Dominick G. Bodkin, Esq. and in 1824 & 1837 being the residence of Captain Henry Kirwan HP, later Southward development by the Clarke Family added on a c.1850s-70s Victorian three-bay two-storey gable-ended wing with five-sided two-storey projecting central bay (Pue 1741 & 1742, Leet 1814, Pigot & Co's Provincial Directory of Ireland 1824, Lewis 1837, Clarke v Bodkin [1851 13 Ir Eq R 492], Griffith 1857, Nolan 1903, Blake 1905, Kelly 1908, O'Sullivan 1934, Walsh 1989, Melvin 1991, Tuam Hearld 1998, Sherry Fitzgerald 2001, Galway County Council 2002, University of Galway 2011, Burke 2018, O'Sullivan 2022, National Inventory of Architectural Heritage 2023).

The House was saved from being burnt in the period of 1919-1923 during the Irish War of Independence and later Irish Civil War as unlike other Manor Houses in Ireland, it was the residence of the Catholic Clarke family (The National Archives of Ireland 2007). The neighbouring big house “Castlehackett House” owned by Colonel P. Bernard was burnt by 30 armed anti-treaty IRA men in December 1923 (McGowan 2023). The last of the Clarkes died in 1976 and the House and Grounds were left to the local Murphy family who resided in it for a number of years (Tuam Hearld 1976, Burke 2018, Murphy 2023).

The House and Grounds were in the ownership of the Keaney Family in 1999 (Tuam Hearld 1999, Land Registry 1999), under whose ownership two planning applications were made in 2003 to subdivide the parkland grounds in three, between: two proposed new dwelling houses and Thomastown House, those applications were refused, in part, because the proposals “would seriously injure the setting of a protected structure, the visual amenity of the historic structure and the designed landscape associated with it” (Galway County Council 2003). 

In late-2023 the Kane Family bought it as their private primary principal residence despite it being an uninhabitable, vacant and vandalised house set in bramble covered grounds and all in desperate need of repair and restoration (Land Registry 2023, O'Sullivan 2022).

Thomastown House has a number of significant recordings given its age, character and architectural merit, these include:

• National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (NIAH) GA043-125 / 30404301 Country House.

• National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (NIAH) Garden ID 5394 Thomastown House Gardens (Recorded on 1836 Ordnance Survey First Edition 6").

• Galway County Council’s Record of Protected Structures (RPS) Number 54, granted on account of “Appraisal: Regional value because of its age and architectural quality.” with “remains of ceiling freize c.1780”

• Recorded in the University of Galway’s Landed Estates Directory

• Recorded as a 1st Class House in the 1901 & 1911 Censuses 

In summary, the house has been an unwavering witness to Ireland's complex, rich and sometimes difficult history over the centuries from at least AD 1640 right up to the present day, that’s more than 380 years.

Prior to being a manor house in parkland grounds, it of course had an Irish name and was part of a larger land formation, use evidenced from the Mesolithic and Bronze Age, named "Turlach Na Rua" understood to mean 'the Dried Lake of the Red Cow' which under English rule was mapped as "the Common" or “Turloughnaroyey” and today immediately East of Thomastown House's grounds remains a 100 acre disappearing lake, or turlough, within a 121 hectare wildlife sanctuary designated as Belclare Turlough pNHA (Willmot 1939, Higgins & Gibbons 1987, Bunachar Logainmneacha na hÉireann 2008, O'Sullivan 2022, National Parks and Wildlife Service 2023). Just West of Thomastown House's grounds is “Chnoc Meá” or Knockma Forest Park, the forested circular hill walk featuring two Cairns, one folklore believes to be the burial ground of Queen Medhbh of Connacht and the other where the fairy king Finvarra or Fionnbharr King of the Connacht Sidhe holds court (Yeats 1888, Fáilte Ireland 2023).

More modern pre-1640 history would indicate that the area of Thomastown would have been native Gaelic O’Flaherty lands, prior to a branch of the Norman Hackett Family conquering the lands, driving the O’Flaherties back Westward beyond “Lough Hackett”, and the Hacketts then building Castle Hackett, in the 13th-century, and then in the 15th Century the Kirwans, one of the tribes of Galway, settled the land (O'Flaherty 1684, Yeats 1888, Spellissy 1999, Salter 2004, Lynch 2006, MacCotter 2008, Ó Muraíle 2008).