Minnie's Orchard

It may be hard to believe , but the site which now houses the Lough Shopping Centre ( formerly the Togher Shopping Centre ) was once home to an old house and grounds known as Minnie's Orchard. In 1968 the land was leveled and all traces of its former use completely erased from view. But look carefully ( as shown  below ) and you will see a tantalizing remnant of its past.

Minnie's Orchard circa 1967
House located in heavily overgrown plot

The 1911 Census shows Cornelius and Mary Curtin as married owners of the orchard and employing a farm servant Mathew Smith who had come from England looking for work. Previous occupiers of the plot were Denis Callaghan in 1850 and Dan Dennehy in 1901.

1911 Census - Curtin Family

Curtin residence 1949
To left and rear of Garda Station

The Curtins they had no children at the time but would go on to have 3 daughters Minnie , Nellie and one unknown. The land consisted of a 2 story dwelling with four windows to its front. It also had in addition to its use as an orchard , a piggery , fowl house , potato house and a boiler house , its outbuildings numbering 6 in total. Cornelius also found work as a van driver for Phair's bakery. *It is thought that after the death of Con Curtin and his wife that the property eventually passed to the O'Leary family.

Aerial view of modern day site

Yellow line indicates surviving walls

Minnie Curtin was a " lovely , quite woman " ( ref: Anne Hegarty ) who lived in a cottage on the site of the now Lough Shopping Centre. Her house and orchard was bounded by a high stone wall to the rear of the old Garda Station and also fronted the main Togher Road. She had an unimpeded view of the Lough due to the high elevation of her land. It is known that she also kept a donkey which brayed morning , noon and night! She ran a fruit and vegetable shop on Barracks Street with her two sisters ( Nellie and other unknown ) , all three of whom lived together and never married. When all had passed including Minnie in 1956 the house and land was sold off. Minnie is mentioned in Richard Henchion's book , The Land Of The Finest Drop as attending to a neighbour called Mary O'Leary who had died of heart failure in 1926. Today it is home to the aforementioned shopping centre and Hanley's Garage. It should be noted that Caughlin's , her next door neighbours lived in Ardmanning house and had Orchards extending all the way back to what is now Earlwood Estate. Some remnants of these orchard walls can still be seen today.

Site as seen in modern times

Seamus Caughlin:
We lived in Earlwood and played in Minnie's during the sixties as kids until the trees were cleared for the supermarket.

 

Aerial view : Note stone walls to rear
of Ryan's Supervalu ( right side car park )

 

 

Michael Nolan:

I remember going up to that orchard with my mother in the early 60's to buy apples. I always thought it belonged to Ardmanning. I believe a woman called Dollie Davis bought the house.

Original orchard wall
between block wall and retaining wall
 

The car park to the side of the shopping centre shows a strange assortment of three walls , each one behind the other! This can be explained very simply. The stone wall ( or middle wall ) is the original orchard wall ; the block wall behind it was constructed between 1958 and 1963 and acts as the rear wall of the back yards on Earlwood Estate while the smaller wall in front of the stone wall was erected soon after the site was cleared in 1968 and acted as a retaining wall to shore up the old stone wall from a possible collapse. The actual foundation of the stone wall is the deeper of the three extending beneath the ground , while the block wall sits on earth located halfway up the height of the stone wall while the retaining wall quite literally sits on the ground.