Visit to Cill Rialaig Village in Ireland

From 14 June - 5 July  2012 I will visit Cill Rialaig village (c.1790), set high on a cliff at the very edge of Ireland in Ballinskelligs, County Kerry.

The Cill Rialaig Project (founded by Dr. Noelle Campbell-Sharp) was a voluntary group who rescued and redeveloped the 5 stone cottages in the pre-famine village of Cill Rialaig, as a retreat for artists from Ireland and abroad.

I want to imagine and make new work about my great great grandmother Mary Anne Varian who was an Irish orphan girl from Cork who arrived, aged 16, at Fremantle on the Clara in 1853. She married my English great-grandfather James Markwell, (who turns out to have been a ticket of leave convict called John Marks). Mary Anne had 13 children, 11 of whom survived her. They lived in York, Masons Landing and Chidlows Wells.

I have a family history story of these two and a photograph if anyone would like it. Unfortunately i have not been able to find anything more out about Mary Anne Varian before she arrived in Australia. I am hoping I can find out more when i visit Cork.

cottage at cill rialaig