Barmeath Castle would make great film location

A FEW weeks ago I was at the Wednesday session of the Ferrard Daycare Centre and met some very interestng characters, not least author Ciaran Burke.

He produced ‘A Walk Down Memory Lane’ some years ago and it features a lot of stories about the Clogherhead district down the years.

One centred on an incident in 1937 when he was coming home from school and encountered a truck towing a caravan on the Callystown Road.

Behind it walked a man dressed in Franciscan garb, with brown open sandals and they pulled into the ‘Green’ at Callystown. That saw the arrival of the ‘Monk of Callystown’ to the district.

He had light yellow hair, a beard and blue eyes and Ciaran would often visit him on his way home from school.

He saw him as a wandering scholar from Ireland’s monastic age. He could speak several languages and Fr McDonnell, the local PP, would often visit him, but knew he wasn’t a monk in the traditional Catholic sense of the word.

He had a soft English accent and became known as Brother Malachy. He was secretive in his manner and soon it became known that he was some secret agent for the Facist movement that was gathering pace under Sir Oswald Mosley in Britain.

Letters addressed to Brother Malachy named him as Malachy Binnsent, a native of Surrey.

He’d often walk into Drogheda and was spotted in the early mornings with a map and notebook on the lands at Almondstown.

Early in 1939, Brother Malachy left Clogherhead, thanking the neighbours and indeed forwarded money to those that had helped him in any way.

Nothing was heard of Brother Malachy until 1944 when Father McDonnell announced one day at mass that Brother Malachy had died in action in France.

He had kept his Clogherhead address by his side as he fought for the Germans in WWII. The Red Cross had found his details and and sent the letter to the priest.

So ended the story of the Monk of Callystown and why he came to Clogherhead remains a mystery to this day.

Ciaran’s book also features the story of the ‘stray’ sod at Barmeath Wood and the dangers of walking on it. Apparently, if you do, it can cause a prolonged illness.

So that takes me to the heart of this piece. I was out for a stroll with the mighty crew of the Drogheda Ramblers in Barmeath recently and what an incredible place it is.

The grounds are stunning and fair play to the Bellew family for the work they put into it. And I couldn’t help but think - wouldn’t it be a great place for a film. Now, where’s Darren Thornton’s number again?