Hugh (Goff) Kelleher : Short Biography

My Grandfather Hugh (Goff) Kelleher was born in 1897 and raised in the Townland of Gurrananaguppal in the parish of Clondrohid. He married Johanna O'Riordan whose family were The Duck Riordan's from Terelton. I was named after her.  

He was a farmer just like all his ancestors before him. His father Dan Hugh Dan was  a farmer and also a road building company owner and was the largest employer in the parish of Clondrohid employing 12 men. Dan Hugh Dan married a Hannah (Johanna) Kelleher (born Kelleher) in 1893. Her father was Johny (The Mon) Kelleher and he owned a pub called The Mon and now called The Halfway Tavern as it is on the Clondrohid Road halfway between Clondrohid and Ballyvourney. She died when my grandfather and his siblings were young.

My grandfather unusually for these days only had 2 siblings 1 sister Julia Agnes and 1 brother Michael named after his uncle. My grandfather was named after his Grandfather Hugh. My grandfather's brother Michael was a great Irish footballer. However, whilst playing in a football match at Macroom Mills he took a bad turn and had to be brought home and he never left the house after that he died in 1920 1 year after taking the bad turn. He was only 22 not married with no children.

My grandfather's sister married a man by the name of Bob Buckley. They owned a shop called the Clondrohid Stores in Barrack Street Cork. My grandfather followed his children to England and eventually they sold the farm and that was the end of our family's farming and ownership of the land that had been in the family for many generations. My grandfather's sister was a bit of a rebel as she was in the cuman Na mon during the war of independence. I am sure my grandfather also played a part as he used to tell me stories about the Black and Tans and the burning of Clondrohid but the rest was a family secret that that generation never talked about.

Whilst the family are now gone from the area the farm and land is still called the Kelleher farm and the lane leading to the farm is still called Goff's Lane the nickname of my Kelleher family.