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Kiely's Kitchen

Kiely's Front  
The Kiley's Kitchen  

The Kitchen is situated directly behind the shop and is compact and cosy with a large fireplace still showing the steel eye (buckan) that once held a crane-a crane that helped cook many a hot dinner through the 1800's. A fireplace that through the famine years did not have much food to put into the pot.A fireplace with black soot that still shows the path of turf smoke all those years ago.A kitchen that once echoed to the sound of our native Gaelic tongue. The sacred heart picture still hangs in the kitchen signed by the eldest son of Jack and Nora Kiely (Fr Michael Kiely). For an Irish mother the tradition of having the eldest son a priest was a blessing, maybe a mixed blessing in this case as Fr. Michael was assigned to far away Australia. His family's loss was Australia's gain. In Sydney they benefited no doubt from his charm and reverence along with another Listowel priest and friend Fr Carmody.The Kitchen was small and light was scarce but it was warmest room in the house.The fire was an open fire large and smokey for the size of the room. We now have an old turf range here but also showing clearly is the opening for the original fire place. A turf range was used here since the 1920's.

 
  Carol Kiely Stanley range
The staircase rises through the kitchen and has many under stairs compartments. The meticiously filed away paperwork receipts etc stored under the old stairs. The tidy positioning of hardware items in the shelves and the hoarding of knick knacks was so typical of the time in Ireland. The resourcefulness of the last man and woman of the house (Richard (Dick) and Marie Kiely) in saving items of value and indeed one may argue items of little value left a more complete picture of the way we lived and the harsh economic realities of the time.

Religious items and statues were placed throughout the house. The Kielys were a obviously a family of deep Catholic faith, and in many ways the house resembled a shrine. There was not a part of the house that did not have a holy medal picture or statue.