Family business for over 250 years.
Clenaghans has been in the same family for almost three centuries. Records show that along with the family farm, there has been a public house on the property for over 250 years.
Down through the generations
In the middle of the last century, the pub, farm and grocers was was passed from Kate Clenaghan to her daughter Winnifred "Winnie" Clenaghan.
You can see both here standing at the front of the house - on the left with a thatched roof!
Lavery connection
Winnie’s first cousin was renowned Irish painter, Sir John Lavery. Lavery was born in Belfast but orphaned at a young age and spent much of his young life at Clenaghans, keeping up a correspondence with the farm into his old age.
Lavery would go on to become the official painter of the First World War and a portrait artist to Winston Churchill, the British royal family, the major players of the Irish War of Independence and most prolifically, his wife and muse, Hazel Lavery.
Tragic loss of Eddie
Eddie Clenaghan, the brother of Winnie, was a talented sculptor and a protégé of Sir John Lavery. He had frequently visited Lavery's studio at Cromwell Place in London, where the two formed a close connection.
Tragically, in 1942, at the age of 47, Eddie was murdered while attempting to report a group of American GIs who had refused to leave the pub. His body was found the following morning, lying unconscious beside his bicycle.
Recent history
Winnie’s sister Rosa married James Downing, who owned the Derryhirk Inn near the Lough shore, where she herself settled.
When Winnie passed away without an heir, she left the pub to Rosa’s son, Seamus, who later passed it on to his youngest son, Ivan.
Ivan, who still runs the show today (with Buttons V by his side), has spent nearly 40 years transforming the original farm buildings into the unique apartments we now share with travellers from around the world.
