Happy family resides where Purcells have lived since 1620
Families of Clonmel
You couldn’t imagine a school with a more beautiful setting than Killurney National School. Slievenamon rising behind you and the valley rolling out in front. Cecily Purcell recalls people coming into the school, perhaps they were there representing the Department of Education or maybe trying to sell something, and they would be talking away. Next minute, they would stop and just stare at the view, silenced by the beauty of the place.
Cecily took up her first job as a teacher here in Killurney, about fifteen minutes from Clonmel town. It became where she spent her entire career, becoming principal of the school, before she retired a few years ago. She believes that when you work or learn in a beautiful place like this, it makes a real difference.
Just down the road, you could say the same about the home Cecily and John Purcell have created. They raised their three daughters, Rebecca, Rachel and Roz here and now have two grandchildren, Finn and Sam. When they first moved in, they didn’t have a big garden but, over the years, the planting has flowed out into the surrounding fields. Roses, clematis, lavender, and apple trees all have their place. It’s a haven for nature too, they’ve spotted fox cubs playing on the lawn, badgers snuffling in the orchard and woodpeckers tapping away in the trees. Horses graze peacefully in the fields. It feels like a special place.
The fields around their home have names that evoke old memories passed on; The Mass Path, The Ball Alley, and George’s Field (named after a man long gone). As a teacher, Cecily knows the local history. Her husband John’s family have strong roots in the area. A carved stone by the front gate suggests that Purcells have lived in the area since at least 1620, back when the land was owned by the Duke of Ormonde. Despite the long history, Cecily holds these ties to the land lightly. She says that while they love it very much, they know that if they had to up and leave in the morning, they'd make the best of a new situation.
Born in Rahealty, just outside Thurles, Cecily grew up on a farm. At that time in Tipperary many people with an interest in horses would have kept a ‘point to point’ horse or a racehorse. Her mother and father had a select and very successful stud and they bred horses who went on to win Grand Nationals and Champion Hurdles. She brought horses with her to Killurney. Four horses, four bloodlines. She began to follow the family tradition of breeding horses which she stepped away from only a few years ago.
Her love and knowledge of horses led Cecily to becoming involved in the Clonmel Agricultural Show in 1977 and she has been a part of it ever since. She worked in the horse rings as well as other roles over the years, including Chairperson. She is currently the Equestrian Chairperson. The show is all-consuming, with preparations happening all year long for that one big day in July. This is even more impressive when you remember everyone involved is a volunteer. Cecily was already busy in January booking judges for July. Her garage is filled with boxes of rosettes, banners, dressings for the jumps and more, all carefully counted and labelled for the big day.
From the very first meeting of the Clonmel District Agricultural Society, as it was then called, there was always a spirit of innovation. No show is ever the same as the year before. The freedom is there to do that. If you're on the show committee, you come up with the ideas, you have a plan of how it might go and you'll be allowed to have a go at it and give it a chance. For 2025, they hosted new qualifiers for the prestigious HOYS (Horse of the Year Show) and the Royal International. Another labour of love for Cecily this year is creating beautiful tubs of flowers to dot around the rings.
Cecily saw the show through new eyes last year when her two young grandchildren came to the show. Their mother Rebecca helps Cecily consider how they can make it even more welcoming for families. The whole Purcell family get involved in some capacity, whether it’s helping out behind the scenes, sponsoring or stewarding on the day.
They are a close family, and all share a love of dogs, especially rescue dogs, as well as a sense of humour that can see the funny side of whatever life throws at them. And where does John fit into this busy household? “He does everything. We're just around him,” Cecily says, “but he does everything.” He was always the dad sitting in the car until the disco was over, ready to give anyone who needed it a safe lift home. One summer, when John was collecting Rachel from her late shifts at a summer job he would drive the other kids home too. Years later, they bumped into one of those young people, Nelson, now a successful Maître D’, and he remembered John driving him home and being so kind.
It felt like a great privilege for Cecily to have the chance to teach her three daughters in Killurney National School. They happily accepted the division between mother and teacher, even calling her Mrs. Purcell at school. Of course, it wasn’t always without comment. Once, when the children were telling the class their news, it came to Roz’s turn. She chatted at length about their cat who had three kittens and kept talking until one of her classmates piped up, frustrated. "Roz, will you ever stay quiet? She knows. She's your mother!”
Cecily studied teaching in Limerick, the first year that teaching was offered as a degree there. It was an interesting time, as teaching changed from being knowledge-centred to being child-centred. There was a new primary school curriculum and a move towards making learning a more enjoyable experience.
For Cecily and John’s generation, having a job for life was considered the pinnacle. Her children have grown up knowing that they'll probably have varied career; that there will be many paths to take and many different opportunities. Cecily sees a freedom in this. Freedom within your job and freedom within your thinking. When she hears what all the children that came through her schools doors are doing, she finds it marvellous. The directions people can go. And it's so interesting. And they're so interested in it. People aren't just pigeonholed. This generation have a healthier attitude to work. Their life is not their job. They grew up learning about having a balance. She thinks that if people are fulfilled and happy in their work, it's never a job to them, it's more than that. They're bringing something to it.
Of her three children, Cecily says they are better versions of herself and John. She taught them her can-do attitude. Her mantra is “you learn more from your mistakes”. Of course, you set yourself up not to make a whole lot of mistakes, but if it does happen, you try to learn from them. If something goes wrong, the first question is, what are you going to do next? She knows that her children are capable and can turn their hand to anything. Her approach is let them do it. Let's see what happens. They'll manage if it goes right or if it goes wrong. While her and John might shake their heads sometimes, they never voice their reservations. They trust them when they’ve taken chances, like Roz leaving university to pursue modelling or Rachel opening a coffee shop, Fetch, in Clonmel.
Cecily is pragmatic about retiring from both teaching and breeding horses. She’s a great believer in the enthusiasm and energy of the next generation, in work and family, to take on the mantle and make a go of it. Meanwhile, she has more time to devote to the Clonmel Show, her garden, and, when she gets a spare moment, her art.
When she was teaching, Cecily sometimes found it hard to be in the company of adults because the children were more real, more kind, and so much more fun. In them, she saw the best of us. Cecily is very quick to praise others; the teachers she'd worked with, the tireless volunteers at Clonmel Show, her husband, her children, and the hundreds of children she taught in Killurney National School. She was flummoxed when I suggested that maybe all of these people are just as lucky to have had her in their lives.
FAMILIES OF CLONMEL
Clonmel Applefest in conjunction with the Clonmel Nationalist are delighted to share the ten stories that comprise its ‘Families of Clonmel’ book launched during last September’s Applefest. Ten Families originally from or who have lived in Clonmel for at least 10 years are included in the book for which nominations were sought and secured after a lengthy selection process. For each cohort, the family head was interviewed in their homes with a final photograph by John D. Kelly included with the wider multigenerational family. Families come from a wide spectrum of backgrounds, from well-established Clonmel natives to more recently arrived families. Included in the book are: The Burkes, Caseys, Dempseys, Gleesons, Hacketts, Hewitts, Mcnamaras, Molloys, Purcells, and Sheikhs. All shared what they enjoy doing together and why family is important to them.
This project would not have been possible without the participation of a vibrant cohort of locally-based committed community writers who took an interest, interviewed and wrote about the selected families under the mentorship of Nenagh based Sean O’Connor, an accomplished writer, poet and editor. This ambitious project was made possible with a grant from the Arts Council of Ireland and additional support from Age-Friendly Tipperary and The Museum of Hidden Histories.
The festival theme in 2025 was ‘The Ties that Bind’ and these stories demonstrate love, humour and caring in a very real and meaningful way. Copies of the book can be purchased for € 12 at Hickey’s Bakery, the Narrow Space Gallery and Chou’s Cottage (including via shops’ websites).
About the writer
Niamh Donnellan is a writer and poet living in Callan. She won the Anthology Short Story Award 2020. Her debut picture book Little Irish Folklore Friends was published by Gill Books in 2024.