• TOM LANGAN (CAPTAIN STEELE) By George Langan.

    April 30, 2024
    Uncategorized

    Tom Langan (Captain Steele)

    Tom Langan who lived in Glenagragra was one of the best-known men in Munster during the 1798 Rising. He was known locally as ‘Captain Steele’ because he allegedly killed a man of that name during the said Rising in Co. Wexford. Tom, along with Gerald Fitzgerald, brother to John Bateman Fitzgerald, Knight of Glin took charge of operations around Glin parish. My aunt Maureen McInerney Langan told the story on how a party that included Tom, Murty McElligott and other Glin townsmen, raided the military barracks in Tarbert and stole kegs of gunpowder, which they carried upon their backs across the fields and marshes, seeking shelter in a cave within the Knight’s demesne during the process. This story she got from her father Paddy Langan of Glenagragra. The party were subsequently arrested which led to the imprisonment of Tom who was sentenced to be hanged. It is said that due to the intervention of the Knight the sentence was commuted from execution to transportation. The fact that his father Sean and uncle Michael MacPeadair had acted as agents for the Knight helped his case no end. He along with other political prisoners drawn from the ranks of the United Irishmen were transported to the penal colony of New South Wales which the English Government established in 1786 in an effort to overcome the overcrowding of prisoners in Britain. As a result, under the provisions of the Insurrection Act, the Justices ordered Tom at a sessions, held in the County of Limerick, to be transported for seven years as a disorderly person to the said colony. ‘Twas at the time Michael Og wrote the following lines – In 1799 the boors (foreigners) exiled Thomas Langan (son of John son of Peter) to Botany Bay. It was he who was called Captain Steele from the time of Vinegar Hill. He was responsible for the parish of Glin of the Knight. There were not many ‘’better Boys’’ than him in Munster during his time. On June 20th 1800, he sailed from Cork on board the convict ship ‘Luz St. Anne’, spending two hundred and forty days at sea eventually arriving at Sydney on February 21st 1801. The conditions on board the ship were appalling so much so that a mutiny broke out with Tom Langan one of the chief mutineers along with Marcus Sheehy and a Phil Cunningham. Sheehy, the ringleader, was shot and Tom and Cunningham would have received the same fate but for a Fr. Peter O’Neill who interceded with the captain of the ship on their behalf. The said Fr. O’Neill, who was aged 33, was the parish priest of Ballymacodda, Co. Cork. He was being transported for his alleged involvement in the death of an informer. The ringleaders can count themselves very fortunate to have the said Fr. O’Neill in their midst at all. Was it not for the fact that the late arrival in Cove of a letter from a Youghal Court of Inquiry instructing that he, Fr. O’Neill should be taken off the convict ship, Tom and his companions might have suffered the same destiny as Marcus Sheehy on that dark day.  Tom and Fr. O’Neill became very good friends thereafter. All the mutineers were sent to Norfolk Island, a colony where prisoners were dehumanised to such an extent that they almost cried out for death. Major Joseph Foveaux was the officer in charge of the prisoners there. Seemingly, he received some information that the Irish were going to take over the island. It was he who carried out those illegal barbarous deeds in the hope that it would avert any such takeover. It was said, ‘Neither male nor female were spared the anguish’. It was known as ‘the island of the hell of the doubly dammed’. In 1803, a decision was made to colonise Van Dieman’s Land, an island off Australia’s south east coast. This led to the evacuation of some of the prisoners from Norfolk Island.

    Convict List.

    As held under General Muster of New South Wales, Norfolk Island and Van Dieman’s Land, 1805-1806.

    Ref. – 3472. Reservation. – N.S.W. Status – Convict. Sex. – Male. Name. – Langan, Thomas. Ship of Arrival. – Anne. Trial Date. – Feb 1800. Trial Place. – Limerick. Sentence. – Life. Remarks. – Que. Pro. – n3001. Ao. – 3047. The remark ‘Que’ is the Clerk’s comment, generally noted after the sentence. This was an indication that the Clerk was questioning the accuracy of the sentence. On New Year’s Day 1810, Lachlan Macquarie was appointed Governor of New South Wales, replacing William Bligh (Bligh of ‘The Bounty’ fame). Lachlan appointed as his secretary a Major Finnucane who had relatives living in North Kerry, around the Tarbert area. At the request of Finnucane, Tom Langan was taken to Sydney and assigned as his servant there. The Finnucane’s were very kind toward Tom. He saved one of their children, Susan, from drowning. Susan later married Captain Hayes O’Grady and subsequently became the mother of the great Irish scholar Standish Hayes O’Grady. Macquaries wife, Elizabeth, was very popular with the Irish. She celebrated with them St. Patrick’s Day, which was supposed to be the first official recognition of our national day in New South Wales. Back home in Ireland, the Knight of Glin was having talks with the Limerick Grand Jury, urging them to secure the release of Tom Langan who had now spent ten years in captivity, three more than his original sentence. Apparently, an incorrect certificate of his sentence was transmitted to New South Wales, the vessel having sailed without a regular list of convicts on board. The following are three documents from the Australian National Archives relating to Tom’s release. Major- General Bunbury to Governor Macquarie. (Despatch per ship ‘Northampton’) Acknowledged by Governor Macquarie to Earl Bathurst, 24th June 1815. 12th Sept, Re- Transportation of Thomas Langan.  Downing St, 12 Sept, 1814. Sir, I transmit to you herewith the copy of a letter which has been addressed to me by direction of His Majesty’s Secretary of State for the Home Department, enclosing the copy of one from the Rt. Hon. Robert Peel, which states the circumstances attending the transportation of a convict, named Thomas Langan, from Cork to New South Wales in the ship ‘Anne’ in the year 1800. And I am directed by Ld. Bathurst to desire that this person may have permission to return to Ireland by the first opportunity. I have, &c, H.E. Bunbury. (Enclosure No 1) Under Secretary Beckett to Major General Bunbury. Thomas Langan to be permitted to return to Ireland. Whitehall, 7th Sept, 1814. Sir, I am directed by Lord Sidmouth to transmit to you the within copy of a letter, which has been received trom The Right Hon. R. Peel, relative to a man of the name of Thomas Langan, who sailed from Cork for New South Wales in the convict ship ‘Anne’ in June 1800, and to desire that you will lay the same before Lord Bathurst, and move His Lordship to be pleased to give directions to the Governor of New South Wales to permit the person in question to return to Ireland by the first opportunity. I am, &c. J. Beckett. (Enclosure No 2.) The Right Hon. R. Peel to Under-Secretary Beckett. Dublin Castle, 2nd Sept, 1814. Sir, In the year 1779, a man of the name of Thomas Langan was, under the provisions of the Insurrection Act, ordered by the Justices at a sessions, held in the County of Limerick, to be transported for seven years as a disorderly person, and who sailed from Cork for New South Wales in the convict ship ‘Anne’ in June 1800. It is apprehended that a correct certificate of the said Thos. Langan’s sentence was not transmitted to New South Wales, the vessel having sailed without a regular list of convicts on board; and application being now made by the Grand Jury of the County of Limerick that he may be allowed to return to Ireland, his term of transportation having long since expired. I am directed by the Lord Lieutenant to desire that you will lay the matter before Lord Sidmouth, with His Excellency’s request, that His Lordship will cause instructions to be transmitted to the Governor of New South Wales to permit the said Thomas Langan to return to Ireland by the first opportunity. I am &c. R. Peel. Tom’s eventual release came in 1817; his liberation being secured by a Captain Terence Murray of Balliston, near Shanagolden, whose father lost a leg in an encounter with George Leak’s reprehensible yeomanry near Shanid. Terence, who arrived in Australia in 1816, was an officer in the British Army. He was married to Ellen Fitzgerald of Newcastle West. There was great jubilation when Tom returned to Glin. A short while after that it appears that he lost an eye in a fight with a press gang. Once again Michael Og O’Longain mentions this in a verse of a poem that he composed for Tom; ‘Do bhain Sanasach suil as I gcomhrac aonfhir iar dteacht abhaile dho sa bhliain 1817’. (An Englishman knocked his eye out in a duel after he came home in 1817) However, having examined his pardon note dated 28th day of June 1815 and signed by L. Macquarie, it would appear that he had no sight in the left eye anyway prior to his release from Sydney as his description was given as follows ;

      Native Place – Glin, Co. Limerick.

                                    Trade – Labourer.                                 Age – 58yrs.                                 Height – 5ft – 3ins.                                 Complexion – Sallow.                                 Hair – Black and Curly.                                 Eyes – Hazel (left blind)                                 General Appearance – Slender – Weakly. Norfolk Island was used as a penal colony until 1856. In that year, settlers from Pitcairn Island were moved to the island, a distance of more than 3,000 miles. In 1914, Norfolk Island was separated from New South Wales and became s federal territory of the Australian Commonwealth. On his return home, Tom, spent much of his time in Ballymacoda with the aforementioned Fr. O’Neil, who, following his pardon in 1802, returned to his native Cork where he remained until his death in 1846. It is unlikely that Tom ever got married, as he would have been sixty years of age then. He died around the year 1845 and was interred in Kilfergus cemetery Glin, supposedly, in the same grave as that of the famous poet and piper, Sean Ban Aerach O’Flannagain, (merry white haired John). Sean, who was a native of Tulla, Co. Clare, spent much of his time around Glin as tutor to the children of the Knight, Thomas Fitzgerald. The reason for O’Flannagain being buried in the same grave as Tom remains a mystery. Johnny Hayes told ‘Launey’ that Sean Ban Aerach married a Kennedy girl from Nantinan and that she was a relative of the O’Longain’s, as Peadar O’Longain, Michael Og’s grandfather, was married to a woman of the same name. Maybe therein the mystery lies. However, Michael in all of his manuscripts there is no reference whatsoever to any of Sean Ban’s poetry. The following is a verse from Sean Ban’s ‘Aisling’, translated for me by my very good friend the late John Guilfoyle from Kilbeggan. John was a Sergeant in An Garda Siochana, and was fluent in the Irish language.

    ‘One time as I was before bad luck it came over me

    A woman was mine in Magh an Iubhair or lovely Nantinan

    A fresh and affectionate gentle woman without disgrace

    One who to London would go with me if necessary

    In lovely Glin there’s a woman of gentle good manners

    And in Athea is my hearts desire

    In Askeaton there’s a woman, and I tell you no lie

    I was struck on her, way back in my gay younger days

    Evermore while I live, shall I bother with anyone

    Except me and my baby, and we two together.’

    Thomas F. Culhane (Launey) in a letter to the Limerick Leader newspaper dated January 9th 1926 stated that at that time Tom Langan’s ‘grave may still be seen in Kilfergus’ cemetery. In the month of September 1987, the late Paddy Faley R.I.P. (‘Bard of Sweet Glenbawn’), and I paid a visit to Kilfergus in an effort to locate the grave but our efforts proved unsuccessful. Apparently, there are no records on hand for the old part of the cemetery and it seems to be a free for all out there at present. Once upon a time, the Langan plot consisted of six graves but that has now dwindled to approximately half of that. It is indeed a sad state of affairs as there is neither cross nor do stone mark the last resting place of two great honourable men.

    Tom Langan was 58 years of age. Height 5 ft-3ins. Dark curly hair. Blind in left eye. Regarding being blind in left eye – This contradicts Thomas F. Culhane’s statement in Traditions of Glin and its Neighbourhood where he says Tom lost an eye in a press-gang fight after he returning to Glin…

    List of convicts being transported to New South Wales that included Tom Langan are as follows..

    .

    .

    .

    Langan Tom contd……letter from the R.I.A. to George Langan re- info on Tom Langan (Captain Steele)….

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  • SEAN O’LONGAIN By George Langan.

    April 30, 2024
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    Sean O Longain.

    Circa 1771, thirty years after Michael Mac Peadair had left Glin, we find his brother Sean acting as agent for the Knight, Thomas Fitzgerald. It appears that sometime after Michael had departed for Cork, Sean left his home in Ballydonoghue and came to live in Glenagragra. He got married to Ellen Culhane of Meanus and they subsequently became the father and mother of the celebrated Tom Langan (Captain Steele). They had another son Peadar Ruadh O’Longain (died 1856) who was a noted seanchai. There is no record of any other son born to the family. As previously stated they had a daughter who was married to Johnny Hayes’s grandfather. Sean, along with brother Michael Mac Peadair, had a brother Patrick Langan and at least two sisters namely – Siobhan O’Longain and the aforementioned Kate Langan (who lived at McInerney’s). ‘Launey’ said that he (Launey) had an ancestress Mary O’ Longain who was an aunt to Michael Og. That would make her a sister of Sean’s but I would query that information. I am of the opinion that she was Michael Og’s grandaunt, (Sean’s aunt, not his sister) who was married to Donal Riabhach Culhane. Sean had another aunt Joan Langan, Mary’s sister, who married Dan Culhane a descendent of Donal Beag Culhane who escaped from the siege of Glin Castle by Carew. ‘Launey’, in a letter dated 16/2/1966 to Padraig de Brun outlines how Dan’s wife Joan use to urge her husband  (who was known as Donal a’Bhata) into battle –

    ‘Little Daniel and fair haired Daniel,

    Young Daniel and big Daniel,

    Deaf Daniel from Knockeranna,

    And Daniel of the sick, the skirmisher of Glin’.

    ‘Launey’ in another letter dated 9/1/1969 to Padraig de Brun states – ‘When John Bateman Fitzgerald (1706-1803) who was a friend of Count Daniel O’Connell promised him to raise a regiment in the Glin area; it was opposed by Sean O’Longain, the Knight’s agent and others’. Sean’s son the aforementioned Peadar Ruadh gave information about the dispute between his father and the Knight. Sean, by the way, was also agent for the Russels of Limerick. ‘Launey’ also states that most of the Langan’s of west Limerick descended from Sean Langan. Meanus, the birthplace of Sean’s wife Ellen. Meanus was part of Ballyculhane/Ballingoul back then. This was the ancestral home of the Culhane’s and by coincidence; it was also the homestead of Kit Culhane who was an ancestor of Paddy Brassil of Tarmons Hill. My former classmate, Sean Wallace (born circa 1951) formerly Tullyleague, Glin now residing in Dublin informs me that. Kit, who died circa 1890, was a cousin to the aforementioned Joseph O’Longain. Sean also tells me that Tom Stack from back in Kerry married the last of the Culhane’s. They had no family and Tom gave the place to his nephew Ned Horan whose family live there now. Ned continued to give his address as Meanus in the Tithe Books thereafter.

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  • JEREMIAH JOSEPH MC SWEENEY By George Langan.

    April 30, 2024
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    MARY6 O’LONGÁN(JOSEPH5, MICHEÁL Ó’LONGÁN ( MICHEÁL ÓG4 ), MICHÉAL MAC PEADER3 O’LONGÁN, PEADER2, ANCESTOR1 O’ LONGÁN) was born 13 Mar 1851 in Whitechurch Co. Cork, and was alive up to the 1901 and 1911 Census.  She married JEREMIAH JOSEPH MC SWEENEY. 

    Children of MARY O’LONGÁN and JEREMIAH JOSEPH MC SWEENEY are:

               i.  MORGAN PAT7 MC SWEENEY, b. 17 Apr 1873, at 2 Carolines  Row.

    Notes for MORGAN PAT MC SWEENEY:

    Known  in Irish as Murcadh   and in English  as Morgan  or  Patrick Morgan or Morgan  Patrick. He  was  named  after his   grandfather  Murcadh  Mc Sweeney of Moviddy  Co Cork,    landed  gentry  according to   John O’ Hart ‘s Irish  Pedigrees .   

              ii.  JEREMIAH MYLES MC SWEENEY, b. 28 Jan 1876, at 22 Russel  Place.

    Notes for JEREMIAH MYLES MC SWEENEY:

    Sponsors  were Michael O’Longán and Anne Murray . Mc Sweeneys  address 22 Russel  Place

             iii.  EUGENE MC SWEENEY, b. 1878, at 22 Russel  Place.

    Notes for EUGENE MC SWEENEY:

    Grace Mc Sweeney    was  sponsor.   This Eugene   must have  died  young  as there  was  another Eugene  born  in 1887

             iv.  MICHAEL T MC SWEENEY, b. 04 Jun 1880, at 22 Russel  Place.

    Notes for MICHAEL T MC SWEENEY:

    Sponsors  Margaret O’Longán  and Richard Duffy

              v.  MARY AGNES MC SWEENEY, b. 24 Jul 1882, at 22 Russel  Place.

             vi.  MARGARET MARY MC SWEENEY, b. 18 Jul 1884, at 22 Russel  Place.

            vii.  EUGENE JOS MC SWEENEY, b. 08 Jul 1887, at 22 Russel  Place.

    Notes for EUGENE JOS MC SWEENEY:

    John Pat  Murray  and  Caroline  Gilligan  (O’Gillogain )  were sponsors

    viii.  ANNA MC SWEENEY, b. 1889.

    Notes for ANNA MC SWEENEY:

    Alphonsus Ryan  and Anne  Fitzsimons  were  sponsors.

     ix. Joseph Mac Sweeney b. 1893

    Notes for Joseph Mac Sweeney

    I have been informed by Esther Fidgeon grand-daughter of Joseph Mac Sweeney b. 1893 as per the following – ‘My Grandfather Joseph Sweeney ( as he removed the Mac) married a much younger lady my grandmother Elizabeth O’toole from Wicklow. They had 2 boys Joseph (my father) b 1937 d,1984, and John (known as Sean) died young adult in 1962. Margaret (Greta) Mac Sweeney was my godmother, she was a pianist in the Abbey theatre in Dublin. I only met her a few times as a child. I believe she had one child Pearl, emigrated to Canada. She raised 2 of her brothers (not sure which, because he and his wife were tragically killed) children named Patricia (Patsy but also known as Dr. Leoni Mac Sweeney) and Billy Mac Sweeney (Dublin)’.

     It  was  rumoured    around  Glin    that  Mary  O’ Longan,   wife of Jeremiah  Joseph  Mc Sweeney emigrated   to   the U. S. A    and  took  with  her  all   the   O’ Longán writings .

    ANNA6 O’LONGÁN(JOSEPH5, MICHEÁL Ó’LONGÁN ( MICHEÁL ÓG4 ), MICHÉAL MAC PEADER3 O’LONGÁN, PEADER2, ANCESTOR1O’ LONGÁN) was born 18 May 1852 in Whitechurch Co. Cork.  She married AENEAS MURRAY 27 Apr 1874 in Pro Cathedral Dublin. 

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  • JOSEPH O’LONGAIN 1816-1880. By George Langan.

    April 30, 2024
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    Joseph O’Longain. 1816-1880.

     The youngest son of Michael Og and reputed to be one of the greatest of all traditional scholars. 

    Another undated letter of ‘Launey’s’ to the Knight of Glin states – it was Joseph who executed for the R.I.A. his famous lithographic facsimiles of the oldest vellum manuscripts extant such as the ‘Book of the Dun Con’. The letter continues – ‘He was probably the greatest penman of the 19th century and had an extraordinary command of the resources of the Irish language. He played a big part in the movement for the revival of the Irish language which began in the 1870’s and which was destined to have far reaching effects on the national life of the country.’

    Another letter of ‘Launey’s’ to the Knight dated February 17th 1959 states that Joseph was a friend of the ‘cracked Knight’. Joseph also executed the facsimiles of ‘An Leabhar Breac,’ ‘Leabhar na h-Uidhre,’ Book of Leinster etc. In the year 1849 Joseph wrote the following letter to Windele ‘Paul has received from his scholars whatever trifle was due; my brother, Peter, is teaching a sort of private tuition at a farmer’s house near home, his means are long exhausted; and as for my own earnings in troth it was too little for myself, yet out of that small sum I used to spare a little. Now if I had one 5/- that would buy 1/2 cwt of India meal, it would enable me to finish those MSS for which I would be certain to receive about £10, a sum which would enable myself and my family to weather out the bad year until we would have enough of our own corn.’

    A manuscript, with metaphorical coloured capitals, transliterated by him in the 1840’s, which was found some years ago in a farmer’s house in Dromin, Co. Limerick is now in Maynooth library.

    Joseph was also a 1st cousin to ‘Launey’s’ grandfather. ‘Launey’s’ father, who was also called Thomas Culhane knew Joseph well.

    A letter of ‘Launey’s’ to Padraig de Brun dated November 16th 1965 states ‘that Joseph used to visit his Langan and Culhane relatives in Glin very often.’

    There is a marriage recorded at Whitechurch, Blarney, Co. Cork on May 5th 1850 of a Joseph Long & Mary Hickey one of the witnesses being a Paul Long.

    (see Peter O’Longain above)

    This indeed is the wedding of Joseph O’Longain Langan.

    JOSEPH O’LONGÁN and MARY HICKEY had the following family ;

               i.  MARY6 O’LONGÁN, b. 13 Mar 1851, Whitechurch Co. Cork; d. 1894.

              ii.  ANNA O’LONGÁN, b. 18 May 1852, Whitechurch Co. Cork.

             iii.  MICHAEL O’LONGÁN, b. 11 Jun 1856, Whitechurch Co. Cork; d. Accidently   Drowned in  a Quarry.

             iv.  PAUL O’LONGAN, b. 07 Jul 1858, Whitechurch Co. Cork; d. 1922, Anglesea  Wales. (see Paul C. Stacpoole O’Longain below)

              v.  JOSEPH JUNIOR O’LONGÁN, b. 18 Apr 1861, Whitechurch Co. Cork.

             vi.  BRIDGET O’LONGÁN, b. 1863, Whitechurch Co. Cork; d. 1863.

            vii.  MARGARET O’LONGÁN, b. 28 Aug 1865, Whitechurch Co. Cork; d. 1921, Dublin.

           viii.  BRIDGET O’LONGÁN, b. 1867, 24 Nth  Summer . St  Dublin.

             ix.  NORA O’LONGÁN, b. 1872, 24 Nth  Summer . St  Dublin; d. 1872.

    We know that he was married by 1854 as an inspector visited a school in Teampall Geal where Joseph and his wife were teaching. The Inspector wrote the following report regarding his inspection – ‘Teacher appears deficient in energy. He is pretty constantly employed in translating Irish manuscripts, which may interfere with his proper vocation of schoolmaster’ He remained teaching there anyway up until around 1861 by such time he asked Windele if he could help in finding him an alternative post in Cork City. Says Joseph ‘to get rid of the drudgery of teaching and the vexatious inspection of inspectors’. Which sums what he thought of the said school authorities at the time. And I can tell you it hadn’t changed by the 1950’s early 60’s during my time at Ballyguiltenane Nationa School but as little. They said that they (the authorities and in many cases the schoolmasters) were victims of the system of the time. I can tell you who were the victims (and they weren’t the authorities) and we have the mental scars to prove it.

    In The Royal Irish Academy, a Bicentennial History 1785-1985 it states therein that ‘O’Longan, the Academy’s “scribe” received peremptory and contradictory instructions from the two angry scholars.’ Robert Atkinson in his praiseworthy preface says – ‘Save a few entries of errata that came under my notice in the collation of particular passages, the Table of Corrigenda (although not finally written out by him owing to his illness) is the work of Mr O’Longan to whom I also have to tender my thanks for information always ungrudgingly imparted, on the few points in which I have consulted him. I left this sheet open with a sad sense of foreboding that the transcriber would never see published the work on which he spent so much labour: he at least is beyond the reach of praise or blame. I cannot however omit the duty of recording here my testimony to the patient and faithful manner in which he discharged his office from the time I have had the opportunity of observing him: the work done by him was a labour of love that absorbed his life.’

    One of Joseph’s daughters took much of her father’s writings away to the U.S. and where they are currently, I do not know, maybe in some library over there.  Family tradition has it that this daughter married a man by the name of McSweeney and by all accounts had a very large family. The following is an extract drawn up for the learned body, the R.I.A. referring to Joseph as follows – ‘He belonged to a family in which the profession (of scribe)  was hereditary ; the names of himself, his brother, father and grandfather, all of them acting in this capacity are not likely to be soon forgotton. Biodh amhlaidh.’

    Joseph O’Longain used both the English and Irish versions of his Christian name from time to time. Joseph died in the year 1880 whilst still being employed by the R.I.A. doing translations etc. It seems that he worked tirelessly such was his dedication to the task in hand. In fact, the Academy compulsory retired him from his work due to his ill health as we can see from the following statement from the Academy –‘It is unnecessary to enlarge on the value of these important publications; but testimony may here be fittingly borne to the manner in which Mr O’Longan’s work on them was performed. It may be safely asserted that no one who ever saw him work doubted or could doubt his thorough earnestness in the performance of his task. The difficulty in his case was to prevent his overstepping the bounds of prudence in the work he endeavored to get through; the committee of Irish Manuscripts has had to intervene in the interests of his health and shorten compulsorily the time which he would have devoted to the interests of the Academy.’ We know that he died on February 11th 1880 as a question was asked in the British Parliament, ‘what was to become of the moneys that were laid aside for such works, following the death of O’Longain in 1880’?

    On March 1st that same year we read in the Irish Builder the following petition – ‘In our own time O’Donovan and O’Curry laboured with a zeal and with an efficiency which, in any other country than this, would have secured its due reward. As these Irish scholars worked, so has the late Joseph O’Longan, with no ambition for personal notoriety and no grabbing desire for money. Many educated folk who walked the City of Dublin month after month and year after year and prided themselves, perhaps, on their knowledge of the “Classics” knew not of the existence of the humble and devoted Irish scribe who was labouring from morning till night within the walls of the Irish Academy or by his own fireside, till the small hours of the morning. In sooth, poor O’Longan laboured for his country and for all time over the MS materials of Irish history and as, in the service of his country and his countrymen, his health was undermined and his death hastened, it is their bounden duty to see that his widow and children will never want.’

    Joseph O’Longain died on February 11th 1880 and is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery Dublin. His wife Mary Hickey was born 1833 in Co. Cork, and died 1894 in Co. Cork.

    From further research from my friend and classmate Sean Wallace hereunder is a closer look at some of the family of Joseph O’Longain & Mary Hickey ;

     Mary O’Longain, (daughter and eldest of Joseph’s family) –

    MARY6 O’LONGÁN(JOSEPH5, MICHEÁL Ó’LONGÁN ( MICHEÁL ÓG4 ), MICHÉAL MAC PEADER3 O’LONGÁN, PEADER2, ANCESTOR1 O’ LONGÁN) was born 13 Mar 1851 in Whitechurch Co. Cork, and was alive up to the 1901 and 1911 Census.  She married JEREMIAH JOSEPH MC SWEENEY. 

    Children of MARY O’LONGÁN and JEREMIAH JOSEPH MC SWEENEY are:

               i.  MORGAN PAT7 MC SWEENEY, b. 17 Apr 1873, at 2 Carolines  Row.

    Notes for MORGAN PAT MC SWEENEY:

    Known  in Irish as Murcadh   and in English  as Morgan  or  Patrick Morgan or Morgan  Patrick. He  was  named  after his   grandfather  Murcadh  Mc Sweeney of Moviddy  Co Cork,    landed  gentry  according to   John O’ Hart ‘s Irish  Pedigrees .   

              ii.  JEREMIAH MYLES MC SWEENEY, b. 28 Jan 1876, at 22 Russel  Place.

    Notes for JEREMIAH MYLES MC SWEENEY:

    Sponsors  were Michael O’Longán and Anne Murray . Mc Sweeneys  address 22 Russel  Place

             iii.  EUGENE MC SWEENEY, b. 1878, at 22 Russel  Place.

    Notes for EUGENE MC SWEENEY:

    Grace Mc Sweeney    was  sponsor.   This Eugene   must have  died  young  as there  was  another Eugene  born  in 1887

             iv.  MICHAEL T MC SWEENEY, b. 04 Jun 1880, at 22 Russel  Place.

    Notes for MICHAEL T MC SWEENEY:

    Sponsors  Margaret O’Longán  and Richard Duffy

              v.  MARY AGNES MC SWEENEY, b. 24 Jul 1882, at 22 Russel  Place.

             vi.  MARGARET MARY MC SWEENEY, b. 18 Jul 1884, at 22 Russel  Place.

            vii.  EUGENE JOS MC SWEENEY, b. 08 Jul 1887, at 22 Russel  Place.

    Notes for EUGENE JOS MC SWEENEY:

    John Pat  Murray  and  Caroline  Gilligan  (O’Gillogain )  were sponsors

    viii.  ANNA MC SWEENEY, b. 1889.

    Notes for ANNA MC SWEENEY:

    Alphonsus Ryan  and Anne  Fitzsimons  were  sponsors.

     ix. Joseph Mac Sweeney b. 1893

    Notes for Joseph Mac Sweeney

    I have been informed by Esther Fidgeon grand-daughter of Joseph Mac Sweeney b. 1893 as per the following – ‘My Grandfather Joseph Sweeney ( as he removed the Mac) married a much younger lady, my grandmother Elizabeth O’toole from Wicklow. They had 2 boys Joseph (my father) b 1937 d,1984, and John (known as Sean) died young adult in 1962. Margaret (Greta) Mac Sweeney was my godmother, she was a pianist in the Abbey theatre in Dublin. I only met her a few times as a child. I believe she had one child Pearl, emigrated to Canada. She raised 2 of her brothers (not sure which, because he and his wife were tragically killed) children named Patricia (Patsy but also known as Dr. Leoni Mac Sweeney) and Billy Mac Sweeney (Dublin)’.

      It  was  rumoured    around  Glin    that  Mary  O’ Longan,   wife of Jeremiah  Joseph  Mc Sweeney emigrated   to   the U. S. A    and  took  with  her  all   the   O’ Longán writings .

    ANNA6 O’LONGÁN(JOSEPH5, MICHEÁL Ó’LONGÁN ( MICHEÁL ÓG4 ), MICHÉAL MAC PEADER3 O’LONGÁN, PEADER2, ANCESTOR1O’ LONGÁN) was born 18 May 1852 in Whitechurch Co. Cork.  She married AENEAS MURRAY 27 Apr 1874 in Pro Cathedral Dublin. 

    Children of ANNA O’LONGÁN and AENEAS MURRAY are:

               i.  JOSEPH O’LONGAN7 MURRAY, b. 07 Mar 1881, 24 Summer Street Dublin 1.

              ii.  HANNAH JOS. MURRAY.

             iii.  ANNIE MARY MURRAY.

     PAUL6 O’LONGAN(JOSEPH5 O’LONGÁN, MICHEÁL Ó’LONGÁN ( MICHEÁL ÓG4 ), MICHÉAL MAC PEADER3 O’LONGÁN, PEADER2, ANCESTOR1 O’ LONGÁN) was born 07 Jul 1858 in Whitechurch Co. Cork, and died 1922 in Anglesea  Wales.  He married ELIZABETH O’CONNELL 1884 in Westham England.  She was born Abt. 1863 in Co. Kerry, and died 1920 in Essex.

         Children of PAUL O’LONGAN and ELIZABETH O’CONNELL are:

               i.  MARY 7 O’LONGÁN, b. 1886, England; m. KANE.

              ii.  JOSEPH B O’LONGÁN, b. 1887, England; d. 1959; m. CONQUEST, London.

             iii.  ELIZABETH THERESA O’LONGÁN, b. 1889, England; d. 1920, Essex  England.

             iv.  AILEEN O’LONGÁN, b. 1890, Fairview Dublin.

              v.  PAULINE GENEVIEVE O’LONGÁN, b. 1893, Blackrock   Cork; married. RAWKINS, Berkshire.

             vi.  ANNIE JOS. O’LONGÁN, b. 1895, Blackrock   Cork; married. GREENWOOD, Essex.

            vii.  PAUL CHARLES STACPOOLE O’LONGÁN, b. 1897, Blackrock   Cork; d. 1917, WW 1 Shot Down.

    Paul Charles Stacpoole O’Longan. Second Lieutenant 41st Squadron Royal Flying Corps and The Royal Irish Regiment. Killed in action on the 1st of June 1917 aged 19. He was the son of Paul O’Longain, (HM Customs examining officer), and Elizabeth O’Longan of Blackrock County Cork. He is buried in Oosttaverne Wood Cemetery, Heuvelland, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

     From further research by Sean, we read as follows –

    Paul Charles Stacpoole O’Longan,(son of Paul & grandson of Joseph O’Longain.)

    MAY 31, 1917.

    ‘WHAT a mass of latent talent there is, to be sure, in the squadrons of the Flying Services. In various forms it is always-cropping out. The other day a modest little booklet reached this office, between the covers of which are gathered together ” Last Post ” and a few other poems by P.C. Stacpoole-O’Longan, Royal Irish Regiment and a ” Wings “ man now away in France. Although not yet out of his teens—some of the verses were his work at 16, some at 17, and the last in the tiny volume, which we reprint below,

    When Mr. O’Longan was but 18 yrs of age there is a distinct strain of originality about the young poet’s thoughts…’

    As already stated this  is the grandson  of Joseph Long, (Seosamh  O’Longán)

    He   brought the “Dúchas “ the  gift of  poetry  with   him  as follows ;

    Sleep  on ! Sleep on, beneath the deepest wave.

    Unmeasured e’en as thine own genius ; swayed

    Not by a careless breath. Thou wert obeyed

    Within thy span by us ; but naught could save

    ‘ E’en thee, our firmest rock : thou hadst to slide

    Also into the sea of death. Have rest

    Within thy ghostly sphere, for we are blest

    By thine example. Thy virtues still abide

    With us, stern warrior : they must always last

    Until the very stars fall from the sky.

    I heard our guns afar (and held my breath),

    Smiting the foe upon the Danish waste. . b

    The loud victorious echoes rolled by

    And formed fit wreath for thy brow Wrapt in death.

    P. C. Stacpool-0’Longan.

    MARGARET6 O’LONGÁN(JOSEPH5 O’LONGÁN, MICHEÁL Ó’LONGÁN ( MICHEÁL ÓG4 ), MICHÉAL MAC PEADER3 O’LONGÁN, PEADER2, ANCESTOR1 O’ LONGÁN) was born 28 Aug 1865 in Whitechurch Co. Cork, and died 1921 in Dublin.  She married JAMES O’GIOLLAGAIN 1885 in Dublin.  He was born 1860 in Malta, and died 1944 in Dublin.

    Notes for JAMES O’GIOLLAGAIN:

    This   family   moved  from Emmet  St  to    3 Fairview  Avenue  according to 1911 Census  until 1912.   

    Children of MARGARET O’LONGÁN and JAMES O’GIOLLAGAIN are:

               i.  MARIANNE7 O’GIOLLAGAIN, b. 09 Apr 1900, at 11 Emmet  Street Dublin.

              ii.  CARMEL O’GIOLLAGAIN, b. Abt. 1886, at 11 Emmet  Street Dublin.

             iii.  JOSEPH O’GIOLLAGAIN, b. Abt. 1896, at 11 Emmet  Street Dublin.

             iv.  JAS JULIAN O’GIOLLAGAIN, b. 16 Mar 1894, at 11 Emmet  Street Dublin.

              v.  ANNE O’GIOLLAGAIN, b. Abt. 1898, at 11 Emmet  Street Dublin.

             vi.  MARGARET O’GIOLLAGAIN, b. Abt. 1890, at 11 Emmet  Street Dublin.

            vii.  BRIDGET O’GIOLLAGAIN, b. Abt. 1901, at 11 Emmet  Street Dublin.

           viii.  ITA O’GIOLLAGAIN, b. Abt. 1904, at 11 Emmet  Street Dublin.

             ix.  THOMAS O’GIOLLAGAIN, b. Abt. 1887, at 11 Emmet  Street Dublin.

                    x.  JOHN GABRIEL O’GIOLLAGAIN, b. Abt. 1891, at 11 Emmet  Street Dublin.

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  • PAUL O’LONGAIN 1801-1866. By George Langan

    April 30, 2024
    Uncategorized

    Paul O’Longain. 1801-1866.


    Paul O’Longain. 1801-1866.

    Paul was the first to go to Dublin. He was employed by the Royal Irish Academy until his death, on August 18th, 1866. It was he also who taught Irish to the nineteenth century patriot, Thomas Davis. Kate Langan (who may have been married to McInerney) of Tullyglass, Glin, reared Peter and Paul. Thomas F. Culhane (‘Launey’) has referred to this in a letter to Garreth Hayes dated 8/12/1954 as told to him by Johnny Hayes and that story is verifiable as the twins were born on November 31st 1801 in Cork a year before Michael Og and his family moved to West Limerick. We know that Michael returned to Cork circa 1806 but his family did not join him ‘till 2yrs later. I am of the opinion that Kate was a grandaunt to the said twins as their father Michael Og was an only son. Kate was either married to a McInerney or just staying in the McInerney home, of the same family, one of whom undertook the daunting feat of swimming the river Shannon from Glin across to Clare for the prize of a bottle of brandy hence the nickname of one of their descendents Paddy ‘Brandy’ McInerney. Patsy Scanlan lived in the place thereafter. Patsy’s descendants still occupy the holding. Bridgie McInerney born circa 1880 was married to Patsy Scanlan’s father. Bridgie’s father’s name was Tom McInerney a first cousin to John McInerney. John had a son Dave who in turn had a son Paddy who wasmarried to my aunt Maureen Langan of Glenagragra. Sean O’Dalaigh, in 1846 in a letter to Windele the aforementioned antiquarian said ‘I met Paul Long in Kilkenny on his way to Dublin with about an assload of Irish manuscripts wherever he made them out’

    From around 1817 to 1820 he was translating for the Bishop John Murphy and for a James Roche. From 1820 he carried on his work in several places around Cork, in a school, a farmer’s house in Glanmire and after that with his brother Peter, (Peadar.) He set up home in Chnoc Bui (Knockboy) in 1822.

    He was back again in Cork in 1847 as we can see from a letter to Windele dated July 30th that same year. The letter was from an tAthair Ciniféic ón Teampall Geal –

    ‘Dear Sir, I beg to inform you that Peter and Paul Long,

    our Irish scribes, are at present in very great distress. As this is a

    moment in which every Christian is doing works of charity and

    beneficence even to those who have not merited it, I hope that you may

    do something to relieve them in their present difficulties. They are

    expecting the office of interpreters at the forthcoming elections. As a

    great deal is in your power, I recommend them to your charity.’ 

    Paul wrote seven translations for the said priest between 1840 and 1850. He was employed by the R.I.A in the year 1854. Paul O’Longain went to his ,eternal reward August 18th 1866 at 24 North  Summer, St  Dublin 1.

    Notes for PAUL O’LONGÁN:

    Paul  known as  Pól   was  twin  brother  to   Peter  known   as  Peader. They  were  both  scribes   as  was  their  younger   brother Seosamh   (Joseph  )   All three  brothers  used  both the   Irish  and  Engluish  form of the   name  or  a  combination . Such  as  Joseph  Long    or   Paul O’Longan. Paul   was  a  schoolteacher  and   remained   a bachelor . It  would  appear  that  he  lived   later on   with  his  brother  Joseph in  24  Nth  Summer  St   close to   Mountjoy  Square in Dublin.

    In relation to Johnny Hayes above –

    Johnny Hayes of Tullyglass was a relative of the O’Longains, his grandmother being a daughter of Sean O’Longain of Glenagragra and a sister to Tom (Captain Steele) Langan. Johnny, who was a great seanachai was born circa 1840 and was married to Margaret Wallace an aunt of Paddy Wallace senior, Tullyleague. Johnny’s son Daniel married Kate Woods, daughter of Jeremiah Woods and Mary Windle. Kate Woods was a 1st cousin to Nora ‘Norrie’ Woods who was married to my great grandfather Tom Langan. 

    Johnny Hayes told ‘Launey’ that when Michael MacPeadair O’Longain was near his death he wrote a poem, one of the verses, which went as follows:

    ‘From far off Glin, if my relatives come,

    They may wish to stop at this monument,

    Take from me,

    They will find me, motionless, in a narrow coffin

    In the bright Church, beside the road.’

    The last of the Hayes’s in Tullyglass was Dan Hayes Jnr., who died in the 1970’s.  He was unmarried. A Breen man from West Kerry either took over or bought the place and built a house there circa 1980.

    ——————————————–

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  • Fr.Cornelius Hunt. By George Langan.

    April 17, 2024
    Uncategorized

    Fr. Cornelius Hunt as mentioned in John Griffin’s letter, attended the funeral of Bishop Patrick Moran, Dunedin in 1895. Bishop Moran was from Co. Wicklow. Fr. Hunt’s father was John Hunt from Dromada, Athea and his mother was Mary White from Coole, Athea. They had a shop and pub in Athea.  Fr. Hunt  was born on April 23rd 1865 at Athea village where Dick White’s public house stands. Fr. Hunt’s grandfather was Timothy (Thade) Hunt and his grandmother was Ellen Tierney. His great grandfather was Con Hunt and his great grandmother was Mary Horgan from near Ballybunion, Co Kerry.

    The Hayes family from Fairystreet, Athea had a shop there before the Hunt’s. The Hayes’s came to Athea from around Liselton, Ballybunion, Co. Kerry and had a forge in the village. They left the village to settle in Fairystreet where they carried on the blacksmith business.

    FR. HUNT’S LETTER.

    The W.A. Record (Perth, WA : 1888 – 1922)

     Sat 14 Oct 1905 

     Hibernian Australasian Catholic Benefit Society

    The Monastery, N.Perth,

    8th October,- 1905.

    To the Secretary, 

    H.A.C.B. Society, Perth, W.A.

    Dear Sir— I very much regret not being able to attend the’ public meeting to be held this evening in the Hibernian Hall in furtherance of the interests of your society. It was very kind of you to invite me not only to be present, but also to give a. short address re your society. However, owing to the short notice, and arrangements having already been made for Sunday’s ecclesiastical work, it is impossible for me to be present.  Let not my absence, however, be misunderstood or misconstrued. It would have been a pleasure, as well as a privilege  for me to be with you this evening for I am heart and soul in sympathy with the object of your meeting. For. the last thirteen years I have been advocating the interests of your society in Australia and so far I have seen no valid reason why I should not do so ; and please God, I will continue to do so, throughout the length and breath of our great Commonwealth, wherever my apostolic  or missionary labours may bring me during -the course of my life; And why should I not ?. A good priest will look not alone to the spiritual interest of the people, but also to their material or temporal needs and do all he possibly can to alleviate them. Our Blessed Lord did so. And surely, with a view to this no better advice can be given than that, our men, and women too, should become members of a “Benefit” Society. Death will certainly come, and it is generally preceded by sickness ; or again, we may be, and very often  are sick,  though not unto death ; what ah advantage then is it not, to be a member of a Benefit Society ; and especially the H.A.C.B.S, the leading Catholic and Irish Society, not only in this State, but throughout Australasia. For while the total membership of the various Catholic Benefit Societies in Australia is about 33,500. the H.A.C.B.S. has a membership roll of 25,000. 

    I will not say more about the advantages – many and great as they certainly are from a spiritual as well as a temporal point of view – but I will ask you to bear with me while I write an extract from the “Pastoral Letter” issued by the Cardinal Archbishop, the

    Archbishops, and Bishops of Australia, including our own good and zealous Bishop, Most Rev; Dr. Gibney, and which they addressed to both clergy and laity as late as last month.

    Amongst other, tilings they write : — “Our age is……”

    Here we .have the. highest ecclesiastical authority in Australasia recommending Catholic Benefit- Societies, and giving  the place of honour, and rightly so, to the H.A.C.B.S, I trust then that tonight’s meeting will be a great success, and that the roll of membership of the Berth Branch will be considerably increased and that your branch will grow and flourish in numbers and spirit – a spirit of faith, hope and charity according to your motto – until we see your branch, as we  hope to see Perth itself, second to none in Australia.

    Thanking you most sincerely for your invitation, and regretting that I cannot be present at to-night’s meeting while wishing it a great success.

    I remain, dear Mr. Secretary,

    yours faithfully, 

    CORNELIUS J. HUNT, C.SS.R.

    P. S. – All the Redemptorists are one with me in their appreciation of, and good wishes for the. H.A.C.B. Society.

    The W.A. Record (Perth, WA : 1888 – 1922) 

     Sat 27 Apr 1907 

     Page 19 

     Mission at Southern Cross.

    ADDRESSES BY REV. FATHER

    HUNT, C.SS.R.

    We take the following from the “Southern Cross Times” of April 20th 1907.

    The Roman Catholic Mission, which commenced in the Church of the Sacred Heart on Sunday last, and has been continued throughout the week, has drawn large congregations to bear the Rev. Father Hunt. At the morning and evening services the church has been well- attended, .. not only by Roman Catholics in Southern Cross and district, hut the representatives of other denominations. The Rev missioner is a powerful preacher, with a most earnest and convincing delivery, and while some who had heard him during the week, may not have agreed with all the theological views he expounded, they could not help being impressed by his thorough earnestness in advancing the particular dogmas of the Church of Rome. On Thursday night- the church was well filled to hear the Reverend gentleman deal with that subject which has caused so much discussion between the Anglican and Roman Catholic adherents, namely, the Real Presence. It is a fascinating theme’,, and .can be listened to with interest from both standpoints. Fr. Hunt‘ founded his address on the text from St. John’s Gospel, “There is One in your midst whom you know not.” The preacher then declared that he justified the real presence by the remark of Christ himself when at the Last Supper he said  to His disciples, “Take, eat; this is My hodv, which is given to you. Do this in commemoration of Me,” and -in reference to the wine the Lord said, “Drink ye all of this ; for this is; My blood,” etc. The Rev. missioner claimed it was made absolutely ‘ clear in the Bible that the bread and wine were, by the mysterious power of God, changed, and became the actual body and blood of the Church. Father Hunt  then explained the difference between

    consubstantiation, as recognised by Anglicans, and transubstantiation, as believed’ in absolutely by the Roman Catholics. The Rev. gentlemen concluded his address by an earnest appeal to all Roman Catholics to regularly attend Mass and to recognise that Christ was in their midst when present in the house of God. It was announced that the mission would close tomorrow (Sunday) night

    .

    The W.A. Record (Perth, WA : 1888 – 1922)  View title info

     Sat 4 Oct 1913 

    Father Hunt, C.SS.R. at the Cathedral.

    The Very Rev. Fr. Hunt,C.SS.R., formerly Superior of the Redemptorist Monastery, North (Perth, preached to an over-crowded congregation on Sunday evening last in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. The preacher took his text from the Gospel read in the Mass of the day — The care of the ruler’s son— “Unless you see signs and wonders you believe not.” These words suggested to Lim”a very important and practical subject. In a country where all are not of the same faith, it is necessary to know why we believe and the reason of the faith that is in us. Faith is a supernatural gift of God, by which

    we firmly believe whatever God has revealed. Without such faith there is no salvation ; without, faith it is impossible to please God, says St. Paul. Mark the word, riot hard or difficult, but impossible, to please God. Only those who please God shall be saved. That faith is necessary for salvation is declared in clearer and more emphatic terms, and they happen to be the words of Our Lord Himself — ” He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be condemned,” or as the Protestant version of Holy Writ’ has it:”He that believeth not shall be damned.”

    Faith is called a theological virtue because it has God for its primary object. In God we believe, in God we hope, in God we love. Of the three theological virtues faith is the most important. As we cannot trust in anyone or love anyone unless we know them, so we. cannot love God or trust in Him unless we know Him. It is by faith we know Him. Faith is a spiritual light that illuminates the intellect. It is God’s gratuitous gift— not a reward How are we to know what to believe. ? Everyone wants to be saved.Christ died for all,- but all are not saved : “Other sheep I have that are not of this fold.” They are His—He claims them — “Them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice, and there shall be one fold’ and one Shepherd.” He does not always let them go their own way. He did not command them to read the Bible. He commanded them to hear the Church which was the pillar and ground of Truth — “They shall hear My voice” —”Go ye and preach the Gospel “

    A command to “Search the Scripture” did occur in the New Testament, but we must consider the circumstances under which those words were spoken. A sign or a proof had

    been asked of Our Lord that He was the Messiah. The reply of Christ was ah obvious reference to the Old Testament only, particularly the Psalms of David and the (Prophecy of Isaiah, where His coming was announced. The New Testament was not ‘at the time written,’-‘ hence the command to search the Scriptures was not equivalent . to a command of reading the Bible.

    If men were to hear the Church she must speak., When she spoke she was to fulfil the injunction of Christ —”Teach them ALL things whatsoever I have commanded you.” There must be no picking or choosing — all or none. It was by the testimony, teaching, and authority of the Catholic Church that we were to know what God has revealed, for she alone can, and she alone does, claim to be the one fold of Christ.

    The preacher concluded by complimenting his audience on the progress of Perth — spiritual and material — since his departure from among them six years ago, and also on the privilege accorded to their Bishop by his elevation to the Archieniscooacy.

    Father Hunt left for Ballarat by the mailboat on Tuesday.

    Screenshot 2018-09-16 14.35.15

    Ballarat and Wendouree Victoria, Australia taken from Google Maps.

    Advocate Newspaper, Melbourne,

    Sat Dec 6th 1913.

    Diocese of Sandhurst.

    (By Our Own Correspondent)

    Very Rev Fr. Hunt C.SS.R. and Rev Fr. Kelly C.SS.R. arrived in Bendigo last saturday. The Rev Father’s are conducting a Jubilee mission in the parish. The mission will be continued for a week.

     Tribune (Melbourne, Vic. : 1914 – 1918) 

     Sat 30 May 1914 

    The Bishop of Ballarat.

    Double Jubilee Celebration.

    Eloquent Appreciation by Very Rev. Fr.

     Hunt, C.SS.R.

    On Sunday last His Lordship- the Most Rev. Dr. Higgins, Bishop of Ballarat, celebrated the golden jubilee of his ordination to the priesthood, – and the silver jubilee of his elevation to the episcopate. In honour of the occasion, Masses were celebrated throughout the morning, attended by overflowing congregations.

    At 11 o’clock, Solemn Pontifical High Mass was celebrated by the Most Rev. Dr. Reville, Bishop of Sandhurst, the Very Rev. D. Foley of Terang, being the assistant priest, the Rev. J. Hennebry deacon, and the Rev. M. Mulcahey sub-deacon. Bishop Higgins presided at the throne, assisted by the Very Rev. Arch-priest Marshall, vicar-general of Maryborough, and the, Very Rev. M. Shanahan of Hamilton. The Most Kcv. Dr. Carr, Archbishop of Melbourne, and the Most Rev. Dr. Mannix, Coadjutor Archbishop, had scats in the sanctuary; the Very Rev. John Ryan, S.J., and the Very Rev. S. O’Hare being their chaplains. The Rev. T. Kennellv acted as master of ceremonies, and was assisted by the Rev. J. B. Roper. The Very Rev. Dean Nelan (Colac), and the Rev. Father Francis Clune, C.P., superior of the Passionist Fathers, Marrickville, Sydney, were also present. The altar was beautifully decorated for the occasion by the ladies of the Altar Society, attached to the Cathedral.

    ‘Weber’s Mass’ was rendered by the choir, under the- conductorship of Mr. Walter Gude, assisted by a strong orchestra. The beautiful music was capably treated both by the choir and instrumentalists, while in the hands of Mrs. J. P. McManamny (soprano), Miss Lena Allen (contralto), Messrs. Chas, Hager (tenor), and P. Thornton (bass) the solo work was well sustained.

    JUBILEE SERMON.

    Father Hunt, Rector of Wendouree Monastery, preached the special sermon, which very appropriately dealt with the Bishop’s jubilee. He took for his text Romans xiii., 7 — ‘Honour to whom honour is due’……….

    Advocate (Melbourne, Vic. : 1868 – 1954) 

     Sat 29 Aug 1914 

    THE LATE REV. THOMAS SHEARMAN, C.SS.R

    The Rev. Thos. Shearman^ C.SS.R., passed away after a somewhat severe illness at’ the Redemptorist Monastery, Wendouree, on Saturday, August 22nd at. 9.15 a.m. The Very Rev. C. Hunt.’ C.SS.R.. B.A.. was present but had to leave for Maitland to give the retreat to the clergy.

     Freeman’s Journal (Sydney, NSW.

    5 April 1917

    Much sympathy has gone out to the Very Rev. C. J. Hunt, C.SS.R., Superior of the Redemptorist Fathers in Victoria (writes our correspondent) in the sad bereavement the zealous missionary has just sustained by the death of his saintly old Irish mother, who passed away to her reward at Athea, Co. Limerick Ireland. Father Hunt received the. sad intelligence by cable last Tuesday week. Many prayers will be offered up for the eternal repose of the soul of the deceased lady, if for no other reason, in gratitude to Father Hunt and his noble band of self-sacrificing missionaries, who have done and are doing so much for the honour and glory of God and the salvation of souls. The deceased lady was in the 83rd year of her age. She went to Mass daily, and received Holy Communion daily. It was her custom to visit’ the church and go around the Stations of the Cross daily. There were ten in family, five sons and five daughters. Two daughters became, nuns, one of whom died. The other is Sister Alphonsus, of the Hospital of St. John of God, Goulburn. A Requiem for the repose of the soul of Mrs. Hunt will be celebrated in St. Mary’s Monastery, Ballarat, on a date to be named. It may be mentioned that Mr. Hunt, sen., predeceased the venerable lady. — R.I.P.

     Advocate (Melbourne, Vic. : 1868 – 1954) 

     View title info

    Sat 28 Sep 1918 

     Page 14 

    THE REDEMPTORIST FATHERS

    VERY REV. C. J. HUNT,C.SS.R., B.A.,

    APPOINTED

    RECTOR OF WARATAH.

    The Very Rev. C. J. Hunt; C.SS.R., B. A., who has been appointed Rector of Waratah, N.S.W., has done yeoman missionary work in Australia. As an earnest, convincing preacher who appeals to the heart, he has few equals, and no superiors, on this, side of the line. For six years the rev. gentleman has filled the responsible position of Rector of St. Mary’s Monastery, Ballarat, and in his case, the historic question may be aptly put: ‘If you seek, a monument, look around !’Monuments of his love of the beauty of God’s house and the place where His glory dwelleth’ may be seen in more than one direction in the Golden City. During the six years of his able and fruitful administration as rector, numerous missions and retreats have been given by this worthy son of St. Alphonsus Liguori, to whose missionary Order much of the vitality and strength and permanence of the faith

    of Patrick and Brigid is due. The beautiful St. Mary’s Church at Wendouree, with its three marble altars, marble Communion rails, rich stained-glass windows depicting events in the lives of Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Alphonsus, and the beautiful Stations of the Cross (Italian oil paintings), attest the artistic and Catholic taste of Fr. Hunt, and the appreciation of his and his confreres’ labours in the vineyard of the Lord; for funds to defray the cost of these works came, not only from Ballarat and Victoria, but from places much farther afield, where the remembrance of the work of the Redemptorists, ‘ad majorem Dei gloriam,’ is. still fresh and green in the minds of those who have benefited by their zealous labours for the salvation of souls. For over six years (1900-1907) the new Rector, of Waratah was the Superior, of the Redemptorists in Western Australia, and during that

    time he built the fine monastery and church in Perth. His Grace the Arch-bishop of Perth (the Most Rev. Dr. Clune, C.SS.R.) was in those strenuous days the most zealous and efficient, and easily the most eloquent, of Fr. Hunt’s coadjutors, or fellow missionaries. It is of interest to recall that the Victorian house of this great missionary Order was founded from Waratah in 1888. We gladly join with the well-wishers of the Rector of

    Waratah, and their name is legion, in wishing him many more years of successful missionary work.

    Screenshot 2018-09-16 12.11.47

    Waratah, N.S.W., taken from Google Maps.

    No comments on Fr.Cornelius Hunt. By George Langan.

  • John Griffin 1853-1935. By George Langan.

    April 17, 2024
    Uncategorized

    John Griffin  (son of George Griffin & Johanna McGrath)

    John Griffin b. Mar 1853, Ballyguiltenane, Glin, Co Limerick, d. 21 Oct 1935, Invercargill, New Zealand. (Ballyguiltenane was often given for Glenagragra back then). John emigrated to New Zealand circa 1876 and lived on the South Island where he married  Mary Dooley b. 11 May 1867, Fearagha, Tuam, Co. Galway, m. 28 May 1889, Invercargill, d. 27 Oct 1945. John Griffin & Mary Dooley had the following six children –

    i.John George (Jack) GRIFFIN b. 4 Nov 1890, Wreys Bush, Southland, d. 15 Apr 1956, Te Tua who married Lilla Rose Hamilton b. Abt 1886, m. 27 Oct 1915, d. 13 Mar 1950, Te Tua.

    ii.George Griffin b. 16 Jul 1891, Invercargill, d. 14 Dec 1918, Tuatapere, Southland.

    iii.Gerald Griffin b. 23 Aug 1893, Orepuki, d. 12 Jun 1974, Te Wae Wae, Southland who married Edna Louisa Bone b. 9 Nov 1897, Riverton, Southland, m. 25 Apr 1926, Orepuki, d. 12 Feb 1985, Tuatapere, Southland.

    iv.Margaret Cecelia (Cis) Griffin b. 9 Oct 1895, Orepuki, d. 23 May 1966, Invercargill who married Joseph Henry (Harry) Lobb b. Abt 1884, m. 14 Apr 1915, d. 27 Apr 1939, Tuatapere, Southland.

    v.Winifred Bridget (Winnie) Griffin b. 23 Jan 1898, Orepuki, d. 20 May 1971, New Plymouth who married John Stephen (Jack) Kissick b. 16 Dec 1890, Manaia, m. Jun 1923, d. 16 Apr 1960, New Plymouth.

    vi.Mary Teresa (Monica) Griffin b. 26 Jul 1901, Te Tua, d. 19 Nov 1927, Tuatapere, Southland.

    John Griffin, along with his brother Michael were extremely friendly there with George Lynch of Glasha (my great granduncle) who had emigrated there a few years earlier. John Nolan, Ballyhahill, great grand nephew of the said John has in his possession a letter  confirming same and was kind enough to forward me a copy as per below.. This letter which is dated 1910 was written by John Griffin and posted to his family in Glenagragra. John Griffin died in the year 1935 and is buried in New Zealand. Michael Griffin is also interred in his adopted country. In this letter to his kinfolk in Glenagragra John Griffin wrote the following –

    Willow Farm,

    Te Waewae,

    February 26th 1910

    ‘My dear brother Patrick I have received your letter which gave me great pleasure to know you and brother George and sister Johanna is still living. Brother Michael is dead 14yrs next May. He was married to Mary Mullane, Denis Mullane’s daughter near Athea. They had one daughter, I have not heard from them this last ten years. She lives in the North island. Dear brother Pat my history would be long one and would take a long time to scrawl it down. I started farming in 1882. Brother Michael and myself took 500 acres of land but we sold out about twenty years since. Brother went to the North Island where he settled down in a farm and I remained in the south island. I took up 600 acres of first class land but I may state it was all bush and the railway is now through it. Te Waewae station is in my place and we have also built a Chapel in my place and also a Dairy Factory. I have six children, three boys and three girls. My oldest John is 20 past, George is 18 past, Gerald is 16 past, Margaret 14 past, Winnie 12 past and Mary 9. John is 6 feet three inches high. My wife’s name is Mary Dooley. She hailed from the County Galway. I meet George Lynch, Michael Connors and Mrs John Connors, that is Kate Connell, they are all well and very well off. They are making about £1,500 a year. Cousin Pat Culhane, wife and family are all well and doing well. I had a letter from cousin Michael Griffin the same time as yours. I never meet any persons newly out from home. The latest I met was Father Hunt from Athea he held a Mission in our Chapel. He was the best missioner I ever heard. I hope you will let me know how things are. How is sister Johanna situated I have not heard much for years. New Zealand is a good country for any study person. Farmers have to pay men 25 to 30 shillings a week. I found saw mills and flax mills as high as 12 shillings per day and girls get from 12 to 25 shillings per week and get half day off every Wednesday. This is nice climate we don’t get much frost or snow in this part we are living on the banks of the Pacific Ocean. I did not know brother William was dead. Dear brother I must conclude by wishing you and brother George and sister Johanna and all my friends a long and happy life. I would like a trip home but the journey is so long. Good Bye dear brother and sister.

    Address J Griffin, Farmer,

    Te Waewae,

    Southisland, N.Z.

    In another letter dated Sept 8th 1913 he went on to say how much the family appreciated the presents that they received by post from Glenagragra. ‘It was very thoughtful of you to send such nice keepsakes’. He was very bad with rheumatism and himself and the wife went to Dunedin 200 miles away for a change. The last twelve months was the wettest he had seen in New Zealand for the 37 yrs he had been there. He plants about 12 acres of potatoes a year. He has a digging machine that could dig about 3 acres a day if he had the hands to pick them. He hadn’t seen George Lynch for awhile but he’ll be going to see him soon. He knows where he lives as he was there about 30 yrs ago. He met George at Invercargill Cattle Show. ‘George lives 70 miles from me’. Pat Culhane and wife were doing well, they are farming 200 acres and they had a daughter in the convent. He went on to say ‘ tell cousin Kate Carroll that Jim Carroll never came to New Zealand, I heard he was in Victoria some years since I heard.’

    There wasn’t many around him in NZ from the old place but amongst his neighbours there was a fair sprinkle of Irish. The parish priest had five chapels in his parish which was over 20 sq miles one of the chapels being in his place. There was a mission starting in the parish and the parish priest would be staying with him next week. He finished up by once again thanking them for the presents and thanked God for all the kind mercies to them all.

    No comments on John Griffin 1853-1935. By George Langan.

  • Jack Connolly, Ballinamadough, Glin, Co. Limerick. By George Langan.

    April 4, 2024
    Uncategorized

    JACK CONNOLLY (1916-2013)

    Taken from Turtule Bunbury’s Vanishing Ireland and from Facebook.

    Farmer – Glin, Co Limerick

    Our sincere condolences to the family of Jack Connolly who passed away on Saturday 16th November aged 97. Jack appeared in the second volume of the Vanishing Ireland series. This is his story from the book………..

    ‘Keep your eyes open, your legs closed and send home your money’. That was John Healy’s wise counsel in the book ‘Nineteen Acres’ and it was the best advice Jack Connolly’s four sisters got when they left Ireland in the 1930s, two for the USA and two for England. Emigration was in the blood. Their uncle Mick sailed for India with the Christian Brothers but later became a gardener in England. ‘But you know what they say?’, says Jack with merry eyes. ‘The fool is always left behind’.[i]

    ‘I’ve never been out of Ireland’, says the 92-year-old farmer. But he quickly takes comfort in the fact that the late Mary Lynch from up the way never even left the parish of Glin and all her brothers and sisters fetched up in America too.

    Jack’s father Patsy did not leave Irish shores either. Patsy’s father Paddy moved west from Glenagragra, near Athea, to Glin in the 1860s. He took on the lease of the modest 16-acre farm which stands on the high ground above the Knight of Glin’s demesne. The farm has fine views across the Shannon to the rolling hills of Co Clare where his wife Margaret McMahon was born. She had crossed the river to work in Glin Castle as a young girl.

    Patsy’s brothers went to America. ‘Uncle Jack’ was due to take on the farm but instead found work on the railroads of Illinois. ‘Uncle Dan’ became a policeman in New York where his grandson is still on the beat today. When his money was made, Dan sent money home to convert the thatched farmstead to slate and to install a new cooking range in the kitchen.[ii]

    Meanwhile, Patsy Connolly ran his small farm and sought work elsewhere in this landscape of small rush-filled fields, thatched cottages and rickety roads. He drew stones from the quarries for the surrounding roads. He did nixers at a nearby blacksmith’s forge. And he became a thatcher of considerable renown. He was very particular about the wheaten straw he used, and would not touch straw that had been through a thrasher. ‘Broken straw wouldn’t last two years’, explains Jack who was frequently at his father’s side, stuffing the rooftops. ‘If you did it right and you had a good cut of reed, the roof would last you about 10 years’.

    Patsy’s distaste for threshers may have stemmed from the time his index finger was sliced in two by one such machine. Jack was with him that day and recalls his father washing the severed bone in a stream, wrapping it in a cloth and taking it home. He spent the best part of a month in the Limerick infirmary. A neighbour was killed turning hay when his tractor seat unexpectedly buckled, hurtling him under the reversing tractor.

    Patsy’s wife Sarah concentrated on raising their six children, keeping the house in order and milking the cows. She was a Lynch from Ballyculhane and had also grown up on a farm.

    In 1918, Sarah Connolly went into labour at the thatched farmstead and gave birth to her sixth and final child, Jack. Ireland was in the throes of the deadly Spanish Flu epidemic which killed two of Sarah’s siblings. The War of Independence was also close at hand and Glin went through what Jack describes as a ‘lively’ time. During the Civil War, he recalls how his uncle and first cousin, both IRA members, were obliged to go on the run. Patsy was cutting hay with a scythe when a truck arrived at the farmstead. ‘It was the Staters’, says Jack, referring to the army of the Irish Free State. ‘They turned the house upside down and pulled everything out, but found nothing’. (Check this?)

    Jack went to school in Glin, a half-mile saunter through the Knight’s estate. It was a doddle compared to the long march his elder sisters and brother had to make to their school down in Ballygoughlin. Mick was lucky to survive a bout of pneumonia he picked up during one such walk. ‘He was crossing a ditch and fell into a dyke. His clothes were drowned but he never told us. They had to get Doctor McDonald down. If a doctor came to you at that time, you were bad’.

    ‘I don’t know if there were any nice teachers at that time’, chuckles Jack. The head teacher was a ‘hard but fair’ man, backed up by a mild-mannered young man called Duggan who taught Irish for 2 ½ hours a week. ‘But I have no Irish at all now’, he admits. ‘There wasn’t much of that around here’.

    Jack secured his first job at Glin Castle at the age of 12 when he was singled out by the Knight to carry his bag during a shoot. ‘All the lads in Glin had a job carrying the bags for everything they shot and for the cartridges they used’, he explains. ‘We got five shillings in the end. It was a fortune. And lemonade’. He was later employed as a beater, charging headlong into deep thickets of laurel, bramble and gorse, urging woodcock and pheasant to fly into the path of the hidden guns. As well as their pay, beaters were rewarded with ‘a keg of stout and sandwiches made from real baker’s bread’.

    During the Emergency, the Glin estate was subject to a Compulsory Tillage Order by which the Knight was obliged to convert much of his lawns and his coursing field into barley, oats, wheat and potatoes. Jack remembers the Knight walking around one rainy afternoon, watching the men at work and muttering: ‘They tell you everything about what to sow but they tell you nothing about the damned weather’. Once harvested, Jack helped drive the crop to the pier in Glin from where it would cross the Shannon to the mills of Kilrush. As well as crops, there was always the cattle to be looked after. Spare a thought for the milkman Ned Scanlon and his wife who milked all thirty cows by hand twice a day. ‘I don’t think there was a machine in the parish of Glin at that time’, says Jack. [iii]

    When not working, Jack entertained himself playing football with the lads, walking the farm and enjoying the occasional drink. There were plenty of dances in those days, at the hall in Glin, on the pier and sometimes, ‘they had platforms at the crosses [cross-roads] where we’d meet on Sunday evenings and it used to be marvelous’.

    In about 1945, he came across young Mary Culhane of the same parish, the mother of his eight children and to whom he has now been married for 59 years.

    Jack is a quietly lucid individual. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of family pedigrees in the area. Not only is he able to identify any man or woman down to their nearest (or farthest) second cousin twice removed, but he can reel off the year of their birth, their occupation and their present address. And of course, he is so venerable that when he talks of Young Bobby Scanlon, it takes a while to work out that ‘Young Bobby’ is now in his late 70s.

    Jack once came upon an elderly woman sawing up a tree. When he offered to help, the woman pointed at the logs she had already cut and, presumably a slight breathless, said ‘Ah no, sure this will warm me twice’. Jack Connolly may be one of the oldest men in County Limerick but boasts a similarly impressive vigor for life. [iv]

    FOOTNOTES
    [i] ‘He was a good man to work, he’d milk cows early … Willy Hayes said he was the only man who would stay all day milking a cow’.

    [ii] For Jack and Dan’s generation, the first emigrants were expected to send home enough money to enable the younger ones to obtain the passage across the Atlantic. The younger ones were to send money to pay for the maintenance of their parents. When Dan came to admire the stove, he was dismayed to see the room filled with smoke. He summoned Danny Dalton the stonemason and suggested he take a gauge from the top of a nearby hill to see was the chimney above or below it. Danny replied that the chimney stopped short some 6 inches under the hill’s summit. ‘Rise it another foot’, replied Dad. Danny did and the fire smoked no more. Dalton’s father built the stone kiln at Glin, as well as various cow-houses around and about, as well as a blacksmith’s forge by the nearby crossroads and perhaps the pier too.

    [iii] ‘There were 3 in the kitchen garden then. There was 4 in the farm… and a milkman and his wife. Ned Scanlon was the last man there. Mikey’s father. Before that it was Jack Daney and his wife. They milked by hand. They had no machine at that time. I don’t think there was a machine in the parish of Glin at that time. There were 24 cows and they were all milked by hand. And they fed the calves. That was his work, every summer, from the 1st May to 1st December. They got a house, one of the lodges. The cows were milked in the farmyard. They had housing for 30 cows’.

    [iv] The original farmstead was felled in the 1960s to make way for Jack’s present home. The Connolly’s farm stands opposite the farm of local historian Tom Donovan. Tom’s grandfather returned from 10 years in America to buy land opposite. (He was one of three boys dispatched to the USA with nametags around their necks so a relative could identify them when they got there; two later came back to Ireland). The Donovan’s place originally belonged to a ploughman called Cassidy who worked on Glin. Many of the families who came to work there were Scottish, like Jameson, Cassidy and Ayres, a gardener at Glin of Scotch origin, whose sister sold their land when she moved to Australia.

    With thanks to Tom Donovan, Peg Prendeville and the late Knight of Glin.

    **************

    The new ‘Vanishing Ireland’ book by photographer James Fennell and historian Turtle Bunbury has been short-listed for Best Irish Published Book of the Year 2013. Please cast a vote c/o http://www.irishbookawards.ie/vote

    See also https://www.athea.ie/2013/11/knockdown-news-201113/

    No comments on Jack Connolly, Ballinamadough, Glin, Co. Limerick. By George Langan.

  • Katie Lynch. By George Langan.

    April 3, 2024
    Uncategorized

    Lynch Katie (daughter of William Lynch, Glasha & Ellen O’Shea, Ballinagoul, Glin) Mike Connolly found when looking at the Glin Parish records and at the 1901 census survey it appears that there were two Katie Lynch’s in the family. The first Katie being born March 21st 1883. Her sponsors being – John Connolly & Maria Connolly. She must have died as a child but I can’t see any birth recording for this Katie under the BMD’s from 1864. Lynch Katie born March 18th 1888, Mary Lynch present at the birth, baptised March 27th, at the Immaculate Conception Church, Glin.  (13 yrs old in 1901) Emigrated to the U.S on the Oceanic from Queenstown, accompanied by her sister Bridget Lynch who was known to the Wright family as ‘Auntie’ arriving in New York on September 28th, 1910. Married on April 28th, 1918 to her 2nd cousin Thomas Joseph Lynch, son of James Lynch, Glasha. (James was my great-grandfather) After marriage lived at 228 W 4th St. Manhattan. In 1930 living at 1803 Mahan Ave Bronx. and in 1941 living at 344E 176th St. Bronx. Katie died May 10th 1942 (mother’s day) at Fordham Hsp, Bronx from pulmonary tuberculosis. Tom and Katie had the following two children:

    i.Thomas Lynch was born March 28th 1919. He got married circa 1940 but sadly his wife died from cancer approximately eight months into the marriage. She was pregnant at the time of her death. I don’t know her name. In 1941 he enlisted as a private in the US Military. Tom re-married in the early 1950’s to Frances T. Tucker, born May 9th 1919 and died October 1975. There was no issue from this marriage. Tom died October 28th 1990.

    ii. Ellen Lynch was born on February 7th 1922, died July 2nd 2003 at St. Raphael’s Hospital, New Haven, Connecticut. On May 28th 1941 at St. Margaret Mary’s Rectory, 125 E. 177th St, Bronx she married Jack Allen Wright born July 5th 1918, Dwight, Illinois. Ellen and Jack had three children:

    1.‘Living’ Wright.

    ‘Living’Wright born March  ????, Bronx, New York, worked as an Operating Room Nurse, is now retired and living in Charleston, South Carolina. She remained single in life.

     2.‘Living’ Wright.

     ‘Living’Wright was born march ????, Bronx, New York and is now a retired electrician living in Durango, Colorado., married Waller from Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. family of 1 ‘Living’

     3.Diane Wright.

    Diane Wright….born September 25th 1954 in New Haven, Connecticut.  Married to Vella, two children – Living

    Diane speaks of her ancestors…..”On this St. Patrick’s Day 2023, I wish to honor my Irish and Scots-Irish ancestors. My mother’s parents came to New York from County Limerick separately in 1911 and 1913 during a wave of Irish immigration. They were second cousins, sharing the same great-grandparents, but married in New York and had their two children, my mother being one, there. Unfortunately they were ill with TB much of their lives and both died in 1942 so I never knew them. They were fervently Irish and although came from an Ireland still under British rule they entered their home country on the US censuses as the Irish Free State. Dad also had Irish ancestors, but they were from north of the border and were Scots-Irish. His ancestor Alexander Stewart II came to America in 1716 and his son Alexander Stewart III (my 5 x great grandfather) is a recognized Revolutionary War Patriot by the DAR, having stored arms in his home in Fairfield, CT. Two very different stories from two different eras. Slainte!”

    Jack Wright was still alive when I wrote the following…..Jack is still alive today living in the U.S. In fact, it was only yesterday; February 7th 2008 that Jack rang my mother  at her home in Glasha.  I had the privilege of meeting Jack and Ellen back in the summer of 1994 while they were on one of their many visits to the land of their ancestors. (George Langan & Diane Wright) 

                                         

    Diane Ellen Wright

    September 25, 1954 – August 18, 2023.

    Taken from her Facebook page

    Beloved wife of Paul and loving mother to Jarrah and Jade, plus her four dear cats: Nimbus, Mystic, Otis & Pepper. Diane dedicated herself to helping her family live out their dreams, to assisting students learn English and to people learning more about their family history or travellers hoping to journey to the United States. An active and keen volunteer at the Desert Botanical Gardens and at Phoenix International Sky Harbor airport, she was a lover of classical music, an active quilter, and in years gone by, a cross-stitcher and knitter.

    A loyal and trusting companion and friend to all who knew her, Diane passed away peacefully in her home surrounded by her family and cats. Words cannot express how much Diane shall be missed.

    ‘Wright Jack, New York….Photo to George Langan from Diane Wright….Jack was married to Ellen Lynch, my mother’s 1st cousin. Photo of Jack Wright 2003. Says his daughter Diane....”Although Father’s Day is over now I wanted to post a photo of Dad. Here he is doing one of his favourite things–poking through a flea market looking for bargains”.

    .

    Left – Jack Wright, Ellen Wright, Lil Lynch and my mother Delia Langan. Photo 1980’s at Glasha.

    No comments on Katie Lynch. By George Langan.

  • William Lynch. By George Langan.

    March 31, 2024
    Uncategorized

    Lynch William (1) 1860 -1910.

    (son of George Lynch 1)

    (8)William Lynch (1)  was baptised July 7th 1860 his sponsors being Patrick Lynch and Maria (Mary) Higgins. Patrick Lynch being his uncle, brother of George. Maria Higgins being the sister of Con Higgins, Glasha. William applied to work in the Civil Service as a Prison Warder at Kilmainham Jail in Dublin in the early 1880’s. On Oct 6th 1890, William married Elizabeth (Lizzie) O’Connor  at Baldoyle RC Church.

    Elizabeth was the daughter of Patrick O’Connor and the niece of Elizabeth O’Connor who  in 1846 married a man by the name of Flewett who was the deputy Governor of Kilmainham Jail. The Flewett’s came from Chester, England and memorials to that family can be found at the Anglican Cathedral there. The witnesses for the marriage of William Lynch and Lizzie O’Connor were Daniel McCartan and Mary Jane Flewil. Dan McCartan who came from Co. Down was a solicitor and was married to a Cussen girl from Newcastle West, Co. Limerick. Whether she was a relative of the Solicitor Cussen’s in N.C.W. I do not know. When William died the said Dan McCartan was an executor to his will and for a brief time was part of the firm. At the time of their marriage they were both living in Howth, Co. Dublin. Lizzie’s family were builders who built in and around Howth where Lizzie acquired some property. Following their marriage, they moved into Mount Pleasant on Thormanby Rd, a house with land around it. William studied law, qualified as a solicitor in September 1894 and took up rooms at Lr. Ormond Quay, Dublin 1. Each Christmas Lizzy would send a tin of biscuits down to Glasha and and in return a turkey would be delivered to the O’Connor home in Howth. William’s grandson Bryan Lynch reminds me that gifts were also passed to a Mrs. Wallace in Glin parish. The only Wallace that I know of with a Lynch connection is Johanna Wallace, wife of David Kelly, Ballygoughlin. The Lynch’s and Kelly’s were very close friends so close that David Kelly’s son Ambrose (Amby) was my grandfathers’ best man (George Lynch) on his wedding day. It was a practise back then that many wife’s carried on using  their maiden names following their marriages and so could be the case with Johanna Wallace.

    When my mother was in the Meath Hospital in 1923 with her leg complaint, she remembers Lizzy calling in to visit her. Says mother, ‘’she always wore a hat and a veil over her face’’. My mother has no memory of William and Lizzy coming to Glasha; how could she as William died in the year 1910, however, she has a vivid recollection of William’s son Marcus Lynch coming to visit on several occasions. Patsy Connolly, the harness-maker from Glenagragra was often known to pass the following remark ‘’tamaill an dire, and there was Marcus’’. Patsy’s home was the local gathering house so to speak back in those days. My aunt Joan O’Connor remembers how she along with her uncle Paddy Barrett paid a visit to Marcus Lynch a solicitor at Ormonde Quay back in 1948.

    1901 census for William Lynch, Howth, Co. Dublin as follows :

    William, age 40, birthplace Co. Limerick, head of family.

    Lizzie, age 34, birthplace Howth, wife.

    Marcus, age 9, son.

    George, age 7, son.

    John Lynch, age 30. Relation to head of family not given.

    Emma Brady, Queens County, (Co.Laois) servent.

    1911 census for same family as follows :

    Lizzie, age 44, head of family.

    Marcus, age 19, son.

    George, age 17, son.

    Nora, age 9, daughter, scholar.

    Mary Meehan, age 31, bookkeeper.(niece of Lizzie)

    Mary Jane Gibney, female servant. This must be the Mary Jane Flewil, one of the witnesses at William’s wedding.

    William died suddenly from appendicitis in 1910 at the age of 50. Elizabeth died in 1946 aged 77yrs.

    Family of William Lynch and Lizzie O’Connor, four, as follows;

    (1) Marcus Lynch 1890-1959.

    (2) George Lynch.b1894.

    (3) Nora Lynch 1900-1916.

    (4) William Lynch (2) b1907

    (1) Marcus Lynch 1890-1959 (son of William (1) took over the family practice when he qualified in 1914. He married Mary McLaughin R.I.P. 1988, year of marriage, September 1935. Frances was from Derry. Marcus died of cancer in September 1959 at the age of 69yrs. They had the following family –

    (i) Gregory Lynch b1936. It would appear that Gregory Lynch remained single in life.

    (ii) John Marcus Lynch b1938 who in 1970 married Helen McElligott.

    Family from John Marcus Lynch and Helen McElligott, three as follows ;

    Private Lynch b19.. who Married Private McMahon and had the following family – Private male McMahon, Private female McMahon Private female McMahon and Private male McMahon.

    Private Lynch b19.. who married Private O’Malley and had the following family – Private & Private O’Malley.

    Private Lynch b19.. who married Private Freeman and had the following family – Private Lynch b20.. and Private born 20..

    (iii) Bryan Francis Lynch b19– who in 19– married Louise Kissane.

    Family from Bryan Lynch and Louise Kissane, two, as follows –

    (1) Private Lynch. b19– who in 20– married Private Connolly and had a daughter Private Lynch b20–.

    (2)Private Lynch born 19–.

    Louise Kissane’s parental ancestors came from Leitrim East, Newtownsandes (Moyvane), Co. Kerry. Her grandfather John Kissane moved to Co. Tipperary in the early 1900’s. He acquired quite a large farm of land not far from Tipperary town. Her father John Kissane was a pharmacist there and was president of the Irish pharmacy’s association. It was he in fact that was responsible for the unification of both the north and south pharmacies. Her granduncles in Leitrim East were of a family of 15 siblings, one of whom was Annie, who apparently did the majority of the work, not alone within the house but also around the farm. Their mothers’ name was Walshe. There were at least two priests among the fifteen, a Fr. Maurice Kissane and a Fr. Eddie Kissane both of whom emigrated to Syracuse, New York and were very close friends of a Mary Windle over there. (Mary Windle’s sister Kathy was married to my uncle James Lynch, Leitrim Middle, son of George Lynch, Glasha). In 1956 Fr. Maurice and Fr. Eddie made a special donation of funds towards the altar in Moyvane Church. They were attached to St. Michael’s Rectory, Onondaga Hill, Syracuse, New York. Fr. Eddie was ordained in 1919 and went to his eternal reward in 1973.

    Michael Kissane remained in the home place and married a Scanlon girl from Coolnacoonagh, Tarbert. This Scanlon girl was the sister of Michael, Mary, Katie and Brigid Scanlon who, on August 15th 1893 were tragically drowned in the River Shannon when a fishing boat that they had hired for a pleasure trip that day to Co Clare, sank on the return journey from Moyne Quay. In total seventeen people lost their lives on that fateful evening. The owner of the boat, Maurice Murphy and his son Paddy were among the seventeen that perished. (For more on the disaster see Ballyguiltenane Rural Journal 1981 p50 and B.R.J. 1992 p129 articles submitted by Tom O’Connor and Tom O’Donovan.)

    Louise Kissane’s mother was Tess Reidy from Castleisland. They had a publichouse/grocery shop in the town, the rear of which stood facing towards the local river. Michael O’Sullivan is the current owner of the Kissane farm in Moyvane. Michael’s grandmother was another member of the Scanlon family, either a sister or a 1st cousin. The last of the Kissane’s, John Kissane,  died tragically circa 1974/5.

    (2) George Lynch  (son of William Lynch  was born in 1894, qualified as a solicitor in 1916 and set up practice in Carrick-on-shannon, Co. Leitrim. George married Frances O’Neill from Mullingar circa 1916 and in the early 1920’s became State Solicitor for Sligo/Leitrim. George and Frances had a family of 6 as follows –

    (i) Brendan Lynch.

    (ii) Declan Marcus Lynch.

    (iii) George Lynch.

    (iv) William Basil Lynch.

    (v) Gerald Lynch.

    (vi) Hilary Lynch.

    (i) Brendan Lynch 1918-2007 married Mary Leech. Brendan who was a state solicitor lived with his family in Carrick-on-shannon, Co Leitrim. My grandfather George Lynch along with his sons Mick & Dan, paid a visit on Brendan in 1969.  Dan was home on holiday from Chicago.

    (ii) Declan Marcus Lynch was married to Ruth ? and had 6 children.

    (iii) George Lynch emigrated to the US and joined the priesthood there. He was ordained in 1954, Fr. Ibar George Lynch and administered in Seattle until his death in 2007. (the vocation seemed to follow along the generations)

    (iv) William Basil Lynch R.I.P. 2006 married Bernice Shortall and had 5 children.

    (v) Gerard Lynch b1937 married Judith Shiels 1968/9 and had 2 children.

    (vi) Hilary Lynch married David Baker and had 2 children.

    (3) Nora Lynch. (daughter of William Lynch (1) was born 1900 and died of TB at the age of 16 in 1916.

    (4) William Lynch (2) (son of William Lynch (1) born 1907 died aged 1yr in 1908.

    No comments on William Lynch. By George Langan.
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LANGAN'S HISTORICAL A-Z, INDEX & DIARY BY George Langan

A YEAR-TO-YEAR INDEX & DIARY ON HAPPENINGS IN WEST LIMERICK & BEYOND.

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