Islands of Ireland: Wade to the Waterford island 'built' by Kerry rain

Heavy rain in Kerry fills the River Blackwater which flows to the sea at Youghal — the silt load is ultimately built up into river islands including Bushe's Island
Islands of Ireland: Wade to the Waterford island 'built' by Kerry rain

Bushe's Island, near Lismore, County Waterford in the River Blackwater. Picture: Dan MacCarthy

“When it rains in Kerry, we know all about it here,” says Sr Mairéad Ní Dhonnchadha of the Cistercian monastery of St Mary’s Abbey, Glencairn, County Waterford. In periods of high rainfall huge volumes of water flow through the River Blackwater from its origins in the Mullaghareirk Mountains in the east of Kerry to the sea at Youghal.

As the river gradually levels off from higher ground as it passes through Mallow and on to Fermoy, it deposits its silt load which ultimately build up into islands. These, in turn, are broken up and form parts of new islands further along or are washed out to sea.

There are several islands along the course of the Blackwater’s 169km — only a few of which are named. We have previously visited Lefanta Island near Cappoquin where some of the earliest settlers in what became Ireland settled in the Mesolithic period, about 8,000BC. Also appearing here, was Camphire Island [link below] to which boats in an annual regatta would race in the 19th century and beyond.

Bushe’s Island is further upriver again beyond Lismore and before Fermoy is reached. Lismore has several other named islands, though over the years others have joined the riverbank. St Mary’s Abbey overlooks the slender, elongated Bushe’s Island, fringed with deciduous trees but bare otherwise.

Bushe’s Island is so named not due to lack of imagination but after the Bushe family which used to occupy the mansion from which St Mary’s Abbey is derived.

If Bushe’s Island were in England it would be known as a bitmay — a small island in a river that connects to the mainland when the river is low. There is probably an Irish word for the same geographic feature other than oileán.

In 1609 a castle was built on the site of the current abbey at Glencairn. That was Ballygarron house which was constructed by the Earl of Cork, Richard Boyle.

By 1695 the house was rebuilt and expanded by a Cromwellian soldier, Richard Gumbleton. By the 18th century it was further rebuilt and renamed Glencairn Abbey.

In the 19th century the Bushes enter the picture when Lavinia Gumbleton married Henry Amyas Bushe of Kilfane, County Kilkenny, a significant landowner. The house and estate was converted to the present abbey in 1932.

Henry had a famous uncle, none other than Henry Grattan MP, of Grattan’s parliament (established from 1782 to 1798). Another branch of that family leads to the current owner of Little Saltee Island in County Wexford, Patrick Grattan Bellew. Henry held the office of high sheriff of Co Waterford in 1826, which was an annual position and by all measure, not too taxing.

However, one incident in Henry Bushe’s jurisdiction gave cause for a Dublin newspaper to have a 'hissy fit'. In 1828 County Kilkenny was under the yoke of the Insurrection Act with martial police on patrol in Dublin ‘heavy dragoons with scarlet coats and Waterloo helmets’. The newspaper reported a ‘daring outrage’ where a shot was fired in the window of an estate by a group of brigands known as Moll Doyle’s Boys.

Consequently, the minute ‘bitmay’ under discussion, not 500 metres from the abbey, was named after the family. It is an inauspicious place and it can be presumed that the Bushe family had some nostalgic connection to the island, perhaps as the location for a family outing.

Dromana Gate bridge is a Hindu Gothic gate dating from around 1830, 5km south of Cappoquin. The gate was originally built from wood and papier mâché to greet the owner of the Dromana Estate, Henry Villiers-Stuart and his wife, Theresa Pauline Ott of Vienna, on returning from their honeymoon in 1826. The couple were so enchanted with the gate it was reconstructed in stone in later years. The gate structure was restored by the Irish Georgian Society in the 1960s and again by the Waterford County Council in 1990. Picture: Larry Cummins
Dromana Gate bridge is a Hindu Gothic gate dating from around 1830, 5km south of Cappoquin. The gate was originally built from wood and papier mâché to greet the owner of the Dromana Estate, Henry Villiers-Stuart and his wife, Theresa Pauline Ott of Vienna, on returning from their honeymoon in 1826. The couple were so enchanted with the gate it was reconstructed in stone in later years. The gate structure was restored by the Irish Georgian Society in the 1960s and again by the Waterford County Council in 1990. Picture: Larry Cummins

A connection to the British Raj of India survives in the name of a wood on the Glencairn estate: Khyber Pass Wood, reflecting perhaps the military assignments of the family. And about 12km away very near to where the Finisk river joins the Blackwater is the remarkable bridge of Dromana which looks like it was transplanted from Bangalore. This was named for one of the Villiers family who had returned from a spot of empire building in India to be gifted the bridge on his wedding. The Villiers and the Bushes were intimately acquainted with frequent visits between the families, often with light operas and pantomimes performed. Far away from those nasty Moll Doyle’s Boys.

How to get there: Difficult. From a position 2km east of the village of Ballyduff it is possible to wade through the river to reach the island. Otherwise, kayak from the village, mindful of weirs.

Other: glencairnabbey.org

landedestates.ie/family/3245

Finn’s Leinster Journal 22/02/1823

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