Dúchas na Sionna members pictured recently at Hastings Farmhouse
DÚCHAS Na Sionna CLG has been granted permission by Clare County Council to restore the near-two hundred year-old Hastings Farmhouse building in Shannon.
They lodged plans in May to transform the farmhouse into a cultural centre and heritage site which Clare County Council have given the green light for them to proceed with. A services facility will also be built by the voluntary group using traditional packed clay walls as in the riverside farmhouse.
Situated between Shannon Crematorium and Illaunmanagh Graveyard, the former family home of the Hastings family was first referenced in the Ordnance Survey Map of 1840. The farmhouse was at the centre of a busy 27-acre farm for many generations until the death of John Hastings in 1968.
Last residents vacated the house in the 1970s. The building was previously used as a safehouse by the IRA during the War of Independence from 1919 to 1921 where British Brigadier General Lucas was imprisoned before later being released by the volunteers.
Built directly from the surrounding clay soil, the lime-washed building with mud-packed walls suffered badly from vandalism in the 1970s, and after the thatch roof was burned, vines and vegetation took hold and the rain and wind devastated the walls over the following four decades. Rediscovered in 2012, a group of voluntary locals emerged and they battled the briars, cleared the site and began their conservation work.
Now, more than a decade later, Hastings Farmhouse is to be restored to its rightful place and John O’Brien, chairman of the voluntary group said,: “We’re delighted to receive the news that Clare County Council has granted Dúchas na Sionna planning permission to restore the farmhouse and to build a new services facility. We’re not quite there yet in the planning process and we will also have a lot more work to do before the rebuilding starts early next year, but it seems to me that thirteen years after we started on this project it’s a very lucky day for the farmhouse and for Shannon”.
Olive Carey, the secretary of Dúchas na Sionna said they are really looking forward to restoring Hastings Farmhouse and opening the exhibition gallery space, the meeting venue for the community and the training facility for local companies and organisations “We have used the Hastings site for traditional craft building courses and for Heritage Week events and are undertaking a three-day archaeological dig ahead of our annual fun day on Sunday next, August 24th. The event begins at 2pm where the community will be entertained and learn more about the history of the house”.
