Knockbrack - Speckled Hill (Photo)

Knockbrack (Speckled Hill)
Ardfert, County Kerry, Ireland

This photo, circa 1927, is of the ancestral home of the McGRATH clan - my mother's family. It is called Knockbrack, or Speckled Hill in Gaelic. My grandfather, John Michael McGRATH, was born here in 1871. He left for the United States in 1897, and the farm and farmhouse were left to his younger brother, Eugene. The son of my grandfather's brother, my first cousin once removed, Mickey McGRATH, still lives here. He is a bachelor, a retired dairy farmer who tells wonderful stories. We visited him in February 1994 in this very house, and caught about an hour of his family stories on video-tape. Priceless!! This photo was from a Christmas card, sent by my grandfather's brother (Jeremiah Aloysius McGRATH) to his brother "in America" in 1928. To see an image circa 1973, click here.