LUCEY, Humphrey "Free" and Catherine (née Wall)

Humphrey (1902-1974), or "Free" as he was known, was the youngest in a family of 14 children born to Cornelius and Julia Lucey.   “Free’s” mother died when he was an infant of less than six months old, and he was raised by his sisters under the watchful eye of “Nora”. In adulthood, he entered the Land Commission and spent most of his life working with the Department of Agriculture in counties Clare, Limerick and Tipperary before retiring in 1967 to a farm at Ennis in Co. Clare. “Free” married Catherine "Toddie" Wall (1907-1994), daughter of Patrick and Susan (née Cuddihy) of Killadysert, county Clare at Ballynacally in 1942 and they raised two children: a daughter, Mary, and a son, Cornelius, who was known in childhood as Niall and in adulthood as Con.

Mary worked with the AIB (Allied Irish Bank) for five years prior to her marriage to Michael Patrick O'Connor, a bank manager, in 1971.  Mary and Michael are now retired and live on a small farm at Glin in Co. Limerick.

Con graduated from the University College Dublin in 1972 with a degree in Agricultural Economics and joined the staff of the Irish Farmers' Association in November the following year. Con has never married and today, he is head economist of the Irish Farmers' Association, a position which requires him to travel regularly back and forth to Brussels. He lives in Rathfarnam in Dublin city.

“Free” died in March 1974, aged 70 years, and was buried on St Patrick’s Day at Ballynacally, Co. Clare.  “Toddie” died just ten days before Christmas in 1994, aged 87. Prior to this, she had been living in a nursing home in county Clare and, given her advancing years, had been keeping reasonably well.

During her life time, “Toddie” was once the proud owner of Clondegad House, which she inherited from her father in 1962. The house is described in a late 1980s article by Ann Slattery as “... a 19th century, two-storey, three-bay, hip-roofed building with a central fan lit front door, facing south-east down the Owenslieve River valley, with its nearby waterfall.” The article further states that the original dates back to 1641; was rebuilt and designed by Henry Whitestone, the architect of Ennis Courthouse, and included an 83-acre farm.  According to local folklore, the meaning of ‘Clondegad’ is the valley of the two gads. In another interpretation by the author of the book Houses of Clare, ‘Clondegad’ is translated from the Irish form, Cluain da cead, to mean ‘The Articifers Field’. In July 1985, ownership of the property passed from the Lucey to the Slattery family. ) Below Clondegad House.