Yesterday while sitting outside on a seat watching the world go by a man sat down beside me and asked if I knew who he was. I was honest and said no. He turned out he was Brendan Coughlan from Eyrecourt, a son of Dan Coughlan. Now hundreds of years ago the Coughlans were one of the chief tribes in County Offaly and owned a number of castles and big houses and lots of land. Cloghan Castle and Rachra Castle were owned by Coughlan and they owned a big house at Charleville about four miles from Shannonbridge.With Cromwell arriving in the sixteenth century one of Cromwells men - Lestrange was given Charleville and Coughlan was told "togo to Hell or to Connaught" He chose what seemed to be the easier option and built his house at the mouth of the River Suck in County Galway about two miles from Shannonbridge.
They were known as the Mac Coughlan and the eldest son was mnown as The Mac - pronounced Mawe.
Now Brendan Coughlan whose mother was Nelly Lucas told me that his late father Dan was the eldest of the family and was The Mac.
Dan Coughlan was born in 1908 and attended school in Shannonbridge and told Brendan that Legs Diamond was in his class.Dan had seven sons and five daughters and his eldest son Donal is now The Mac and he is married and has a son and lives in Conneticut. If you happen to be in Cloghan Castle you will see a potrait of one of the Mac Coughlans on display.
It is said that one of the Mac Coughlans had 40 children.
Brendan had two granduncles in the priesthood and Father Joe Coughlan Kilconnell won a sailing regatta in Shannonbridge in 1919 and while coming upstream with the boat for the race it sank three times. Brendan has the trophy that was awarded that day. His other greatuncle was Father John ? Coughlan stationed in Taughmaconnell and this man kept a number of greyhounds. By coincidence my father used to walk the dogs for this priest.