€695k Kenmare home of the late Flicka Small is one to re-Joyce in

Epic books and epic cooking took centre stage at the home of the late foodie and James Joyce fan

Fri, 07 Nov, 2025 - 00:01

Catherine Shanahan

Kenmare, Co Kerry
€695,000
Size	227 sq m (2443 sq ft)
Bedrooms	4
Bathrooms	3
BER	C2

WHAT kind of home belongs to a lover of food and literature? One with lots of Plumtree’s potted meat as per James Joyce’s Ulysses?

In the case of the late Flicka (Felicity) Small, former chef, restaurateur, and Joycean scholar, the answer lay in a house where both kitchen and library — gut and mind — were equally fed.

Like a James Joyce novel, her Kenmare home hummed with life as she reared her kids, hosted women’s groups at cookery demonstrations, and indulged her love of literature by enrolling in a UCC outreach programme in Women’s Studies in 2000, which culminated in doctoral research, a lecturing role at UCC, and a PhD, completed in 2022, on The Semiotics of Food in James Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’.

Flicka on her graduation day, having completed a PhD at UCC in 2022.

The passion for food was always there — as a young woman she opened what her son, Tim Thoma, reckons may have been Ireland’s first vegetarian restaurant, The Pantry, in Kenmare, which later morphed into a wholefood store (see below the staff at The Pantry, known as The Pantry Girls, on their annual outing, with Flicka, second from left).

The Pantry Girls, with Flicka second from left

Chef Darina Allen brought students from Ballymaloe there in the early days, Tim says. The store, now with different owners, still exists, having swapped back and forth between different venues in Kenmare town.

Cookery demonstrations, where the kitchen table doubled as a stage, were a feature of life at the home Flicka built in 1999, on lands that once operated as a working farm.

Industrial size kitchen at Flicka's house

“She always wanted an old farmhouse,” Tim says, “so when this one came up for sale, she went for it.” It was the mid-1990s and Tim recalls summers spent camping on the lands and cutting back briars before construction work began in 1999. His mum’s focus was on planting an orchard before ever a brick was laid.

The original farmhouse cottage was beyond salvage, but Flicka took great care to ensure that the house that is now there was built exactly on the lines of the original, down to incorporating old cowsheds.

The house Flicka built at Coomnakilla North, Kenmare

Kerry-based DOD Architects and Landscape Designers, led by Dutchman Daniel Dusoswa (since retired), did the design, with input from Flicka and build work by local man Jeffery O’Mahony.

Flicka’s wish list included large double doors between the kitchen/dining room and adjoining sitting room to create a great big flexible party space.

“We had lots of New Year’s parties there, and both my sister Shona and myself had various celebrations there, like Leaving Cert and Halloween. There was plenty of room for people to stay over, with four double bedrooms and enough room to sleep half a dozen on the upstairs landing,” says Tim.

For Shona’s wedding, they erected a marquee in the field behind the house and the caterers worked out of the kitchen.

Shona Donovan Thoma in the gardens of the family home in Kenmare on her wedding day

Set against a backdrop of mountain and woodland and in the grounds of a house that wouldn’t look out of place in a fairytale, it was as fair a spot as you could imagine.

The MacGillycuddy Reeks rise up in the distance — the highest peak, Carrauntuohill, is visible — and there’s a glimpse of Kenmare Bay from the balcony of the main upstairs bedroom.

“Mum used to talk about how nice it would be to turn it into a writers’ retreat. It’s such a tranquil spot,” Tim says.

Indoors, the house is warm, bright, and welcoming , much like Flicka herself was.

Her careful attention preserved relics of the original cottage, like the redbrick above the sitting room fireplace. French doors, overhung with wisteria in the summer months, open from both the sitting room and the library to a south-facing terrace/patio.

Expansive gardens are set in an estate of 58 acres of mixed quality land, that includes meadows, shrubland, and woodlands, as well as several traditional stone outbuildings. A couple of wild horses roam the area, adding to the untamed beauty of this already magical setting in Coomnakilla North.

Selling agent Ron Krueger of Engel & Voelkers says there’s a good energy to the property.

“It’s a fine big holding that would be gorgeous for a family. It really is a handsome house in a very special setting,” the agent says.

Tim says it was “an amazing place to grow up”, and that his mum put her “heart and soul” into the garden, growing fruit and veg and plants and specimen roses. More recently, she had relocated to Guileen in East Cork, to be close to family, but didn’t get much time to enjoy it. She did, however, manage to organise a Cork Bloomsday festival (June 16 celebrates all things Joyce) in 2023, the year before she passed away, where she highlighted the Cork connection to the Joyce family: Joyce’s father John Stanislaus Joyce was born in Anglesea St and his grandfather married Ellen O’Connell, whose family had a large drapery business in Georges St (now Washington St).

Flicka’s home, now up for sale, radiates the kind of easy charm its late owner had.

Just a 10-minute drive from Kenmare town, it’s within walking distance (around 700m) of the Blackwater Shop, Post Office, and Tavern. Schools, creches, and restaurants are easily accessible by car. For outdoor enthusiasts, the home lies near the Kerry Way walking trail, with Blackwater Pier, Templenoe Pier, Cush Strand, and the Ring of Kerry Golf and Country Club all just a short drive away.

Mr Krueger, who is guiding the 227sq m house, with a C2 energy rating, at €695,000, is expecting interest from both domestic and international buyers.

VERDICT: Peace, privacy, and lots of natural beauty at this winsome Kenmare home. Could be an abode of bliss.

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