The ancestral home (or "the home place" as Irish people refer to it) no longer stands having been demolished in recent years. It was lived in up until the 1980s by Mick & Mary Burke until they built a new bungalow on the farm. The house was then used as a farm shed until it was demolished.The photo above taken in the early 70s shows Mick and Mary in the kitchen of the house with their daughter Marie and son Micheál (Gaelic form of "Michael"). Micheál now farms the Kilmacow farm, the fourth generation of Burkes to do so. The photo was taken by Catherine Burke (a daughter of Bill Burke who had emigrated in 1899) on a visit to Ireland in 1971. What I love about this photo are two things that make it uniquely Irish. Firstly, the picture of the Sacred Heart (of Jesus) in the top left hand corner. The practice of consecrating the family to the Sacred Heart was widespread in Ireland until the 1960s. Families placed a picture of the Sacred Heart in some prominent place in the home, below which a lamp was kept constantly burning. This was the centre of the family’s spiritual life. To this day, the Sacred Heart picture with the eternal lamp evokes the mood of 1950s and 1960s Ireland. Secondly, in the centre above the dresser is another common item in Irish homes in the 1960s, a framed collection of three photos - Pope Pius 12th, President John F Kennedy and Pope Paul 6th - which emphasises the Catholicism of the time and the pride in President Kennedy's Irishness and Catholicism. We had one as well at home which hung in the parlour (the good room!) for years until the pictures of us as children replaced the famous trio. I have since rescued the original photos.
Between 1829 and 1842 Ordnance Survey Ireland completed the first ever large-scale survey of an entire country. Acclaimed for their accuracy, these maps are regarded by cartographers as amongst the finest ever produced. On this map a house and farm buildings are marked on the Kilmacow site so it was present at that stage. Who owned this house and farm prior to John & Mary Burke I haven't found out yet. I reckon they got married around 1860 and presumably became tenants on the farm around this time. In the 1901 census the house is described as a stone house with a slate roof with up to 4 rooms. There was a stable, a cow-house, a piggery and a barn reflecting the mixed nature of the farm. In the 1911 census the house has increased to 5 rooms and a calf house and fowl (poultry) house have been added.
Below are pictures of the house when it was no longer lived in and was used as a farm shed. The house is unusual in having no windows at the rear. There was a garden to the front of the house. These pictures were taken by me when I took Les and Toni Burke to visit the farm in the 1990s. Les's grandfather, Patrick Burke, emigrated from here around 1885.
