Grace, grandeur, and generations at Limerick's Killeely House

NOW nestled among housing developments, Killeely House has a long and interesting history.

It dates to c.1790-1810 and was probably built as a glebe house. It is situated on a townland comprising over eleven acres and known as Glebe. Killeely House is a handsome, detached seven-bay, two storey house with half-basement. It features a central entrance with circular fanlight and limestone keystone, approached by a flight of steps and short limestone flanking walls. The house is distinguished by two full height, canted projecting bays either side of the entrance bay with high pitched polygonal roofs. It has square-headed window openings with cut-stone sills and timber sliding sash windows, six-over-six pane to first and ground floor, and three panes to basement. There are two one-storey over half basement single bays wings either side of the central block. Originally, a small gate lodge was located at an entrance on the Killeely Road, and the house was reached by a winding avenue that went around Killeely graveyard. Writing in 1836, Samuel Lewis described the house as a ‘large mansion, commanding a beautiful view of the Shannon… the living is £281 per year.’

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Rev. George Gustavus Baker held the rectorship of Killeely from about 1800 until his death on November 3, 1809. From 1812, Killeely House was home to Rev. Henry Lefroy and his wife Dorethea (née O’Grady) who hailed from Kilballyowen, Co Clare. The Limerick Lefroys were a junior branch of the Lefroy family of Carrigglass Manor, Co Longford. Their third son, Henry Maunsell, lived at Fern Hollow, Killaloe where he operated a milling business. The next person to live at the glebe was Rev. Thomas Franklin in the early 1820s.
By 1823, the Rev. William Lewis (1767-1859) and his wife, Anne (née Ryves) were living in Killeely House with their family. In 1827, Rev. William Lewis was appointed Vicar Choral of the Cathedral of Limerick. One of his sons, William Bucknor Lewis (1797-1870) was part of a small group of Protestant missionaries who travelled to Jerusalem to establish a mission to the Jewish people. Notice of his appointment was reported in the Limerick press in August 1824. Another son, Richard was an ensign in the 94th Regiment stationed in Gibraltar in the late 1820s. He rose to the rank of captain by the early 1840s. Richard married Margaret Anne Campbell in Gibraltar in April 1844, but tragically he died of fever in October of the same year.
During the dark years of the Famine, Rev. Lewis, his wife and his daughters played a central role in local relief efforts. Rev. Lewis was chairman of the Cratloe Relief Fund. His son, William, by now a rector in Smyrna (modern day Izmir in Turkey), sent £100 to aid the suffering of the poor in 1847. Some of the money was donated to the Thomondgate Relief Fund and it was spent on providing soup for the ‘very distressed families in the New Road.’ William Bucknor Lewis married Anne Purdon in 1826 in Izmir. The marriage produced four children.
Rev. William Lewis died in February 1859 at the age of 92. Killeely House was sold the same year and its extensive contents were auctioned. The sale notice was published in the Limerick Reporter on March 11, 1859. The contents included ‘of all the excellent furniture, carpets, sterling plate, plated ware, glass, some very valuable specimens of rare old China, hafted table cutlery, prints, paintings, four-wheeled covered car, new Brunswick Harness, and other effects’. The notice also lists the rooms in the house including entrance hall, dining room, drawing room, library, study, six bedrooms, parlour, pantries, and kitchen. The dining room contained a large table and eighteen dining chairs, thus providing some insight into the size of the rooms in the house. Following the departure of the Lewis family, the house was repaired at a cost of £366.
The next resident of Killeely Glebe was Rev. Thomas Elmes who took charge of the rectorship after Rev. Lewis died. In 1868, the poor law valuation of the land and house was £30, the land beside being let to tenants at an annual gross rate of £48. Rev. Elmes died aged 74 at Killeely Glebe on September 24, 1870.

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By at least 1901, Archibald Waterstone, a widower and two of his children were resident in the glebe. Archibald was a carpenter. He died March 25, 1911 and was described as a gentleman in his will. The house was next lived in by his son, Albert and family. According to a report in the Kerryman newspaper in 1926, Archie Waterstone introduced the game of Badminton to Kerry. In 1969, a Mrs Smyth sold Killeely House and contents.
It became St Martin’s Centre in the later twentieth century when it was acquired by the Salesian Order. These days it houses Learning Hub Limerick which was founded in September 2006. Learning Hub Limerick was formed with an overall aim of working in partnership with local education providers, families and young people to develop and implement practical and solution focused responses to the very high levels of educational disadvantage and early school leaving experienced by local communities on the northside of Limerick city.
My thanks to James Blake and Ugis Danilevics for facilitating a visit to the building.

Dr Paul O’Brien lectures at Mary Immaculate College.