Ancestral call of the castle — if it can be found or isn’t being threatened by a motorway

AS a fifth-generation descendant of Ireland, I always had a calling to visit my ancestral roots.

During a recent holiday I decided to realise this ambition by putting aside a few days to visit areas linked to my past. To the best of my knowledge, I am the first of my family to visit since my great-great-grandfather’s departure in the 1800s.

One of the sites that I wished to visit was the O’Leary Castle of Carrigacurra, near Inchigeela in Co Cork. This proved to be more difficult than I had imagined given the lack of local signage and identification on tourist maps.