The Irish roots of the Bronte sisters

The Irish roots of the Bronte sisters

BANBRIDGE, Northern Ireland—To most travellers who love Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre and the other novels of the Bronte sisters, the Bronte Parsonage Museum in the west Yorkshire village of Haworth is the mecca. But the story didn’t start there. It began in Ireland, in rural County Down, and now fans can visit what is called the Bronte Homeland.
It’s an auto tour, clearly signposted with brown shingles, along a 16-kilometre circuit south and east of Banbridge and in the shadow of the famous Mountains of Mourne. This is where Patrick Brunty (the name change came later) taught school (and romanced one of his students!) and preached his first sermon after he was ordained in 1807. “Patrick was a very talented man in his own right. The girls got the talent from the father; it was in the genes,” says Jason Diamond of Banbridge District Council, who helps publicize the tour. “Here’s a man who came from a two-room stone cottage in Ireland and he produced not one but three of the greatest authors in the canon of famous literature.”