Tag: BALLYGUILTENANE

DENIS MULLANE, LOWER DIRREEN, ATHEA, CO. LIMERICK By George Langan.

August 8, 2024

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On Feb 21st, 1903 at Glin church, Jeremiah Mulvihill, Aughrim, Moyvane, Co. Kerry married JOHANNA MULLANE, born on June 7th, 1866, died on July 21st, 1932, daughter of Denis Mullane and Johanna Scanlon. The witnesses for the wedding were Denis Mulvihill & Johanna Granvillle. Johanna Scanlon was born in 1822 in Dirreen, Athea, County Limerick. She died on Jan 27th, 1912 in Dromreask, Glin, County Limerick aged 90 years, her daughter Johanna Mulvihill present at her death. Denis Mullane, Derreen, Athea was a blacksmith by trade and had his smithy at the Lower Dirreen/Knocknagorna crossroads.  Denis died on March 11th, 1889 at Dirreen, Athea, aged 68 years, his son Patrick (Patsy) Mullane present at his death. Following the death of Denis, his widow Johanna, along with her son Patrick (Patsy) and daughter Johanna moved to Dromreask, Glin, Co. Limerick to a farm that had been vacated, when Johanna’s daughter Ellen Mullane, who was married to John Granville had emigrated to New Zealand. According to the 1901 census, Patrick (Patsy) Mullane was head of the family. Jeremiah Mulvihill married into the Mullane place in Dromreask. (Patrick (Patsy) was still there in 1905 as he was listed as occupier when present at the birth of Denis Mulvihill. (Denny Jer)

Census Years 1901 Limerick Kilfergus Dromreask Residents of a house

Residents of a house 5 in Dromreask (Kilfergus, Limerick)

Surname          Forename        Age      Sex       Relation to head         Religion

Mullane          Patrick            44        Male    Head of Family           Roman Catholic

Mullane (Scanlon)Johanna   70        Female            Mother           Roman Catholic

Mullane          Johanna          28        Female            Sister   Roman Catholic

From what we know Johanna Scanlon  and Denis Mullane had the following family of  5 –

(1)Margaret Mullane.

(2)Ellen Mullane.

(3)Patrick (Patsy) Mullane.

(4)Johanna Mullane.

(5) Mary Mullane.

(1) Margaret Mullane daughter of Denis Mullane and Johanna Scanlon married Mike O’ Shea who lived in Dromreask, Glin on the left side of the Athea to Glin road overlooking Blaine bog. Mike was the son of David (Dave) O’Shea & Mary Windle.  Mike O’Shea & Margaret Mullane had the following family of three –

David Shea born on January 5th, 1872 at Dromreask

John (Jack) Shea born on January 6th, 1874 at Dromreask.

Michael Shea born March 13th, 1876 at Dromreask.

Following Mike’s death from pneumonia on Feb 6th, 1876 aged 35 years, Margaret Mullane O’Shea emigrated to New Zealand taking with her, their three young children. Margaret didn’t re-marry after that.

Roadway into O’Shea’s, Dromreask. (Google Maps)

More on the O’Shea family.

David (Dave) O’Shea lived in Dromreask, Glin, Co. Limerick. He was married to Mary Windle from Knockfinnisk, Athea, Co. Limerick. Mary was born c1817 and died at Dromreask on Jan 7th, 1893 aged 76 years, Michael Wallace, her son in law living in Dromreask present at her death. David (Dave) O’Shea was born circa 1799 and died at Dromreask on Feb 13th, 1883 aged 84 years, his daughter Bridget O’Shea present at his death. Family from David (Dave) O’Shea & Mary Windle that I know of, as follows –

Mike O’Shea who was married to Margaret Mullane as above.

Kitty O’Shea born circa 1855, who on Feb 19th, 1878 married Mike Wallace aged 23 years, from Tullyleague, Glin, son of John Wallace. (Mike Wallace married into the O’Shea farm). The witnesses to the wedding were Johanna Windle and Daniel Culhane.

Family from Michael Wallace and Kitty (Kate) O’Shea as follows –

i.Jack Wallace.

ii.Mary Wallace.

iii.Johanna Wallace.

iv.Ellen Wallace.

v.David Wallace. Born Feb 1890 and died March 3rd 1890 aged 9 days, his father Michael present at death.

Kitty died on March 1st, 1890 aged 35 years which would give her a birth year of 1855. Following Kitty’s death Mike Wallace re-married to Margaret Geoghegan, Turraree, Glin, Co. Limerick as follows – Margaret Geoghegan (Daughter of John Geoghegan & Catherine Mulcaire)  b21 4 1859) m.23 2 1893 to Michael Wallace,  Dromreask, Glin, aged 41 years, born 1852, son of John Wallace, Tullyleague, Glin, the witnesses being Michael Culhane and Mary Geoghegan. Margaret’s age given as 32 years on marriage cert – children from that union as follows –

(1)Patrick Wallace

(2)Brian Wallace

(3)Catherine (Katie) Wallace.

(4) Michael Wallace

(5) Thomas Wallace.

None of the Wallace family married. I knew Brian, Katie and Tom as I saved hay there in the 1960’s with my grandfather Paddy Langan and some years afterwards I mowed rushes with a tractor and mowing bar there in the days when I was a vital cog in the well-oiled machine of my father’s agricultural contracting business. Donie Wallace, Tullyleague nephew, son of Daniel Wallace inherited the farm and subsequently sold it on to the Forestry Dept. The entire farm is now under plantation as can be seen from photograph above.

Mary O’Shea who on July 3rd, 1873 at Glin church, married her neighbour James O’Donoghue, son of Patrick O’Donoghue, Dromreask, the witnesses being Thomas Morgan & Johanna Walsh.

Bridget O’Shea whom on Feb 10th, 1891 married John Wallace from the Mall, Glin, a cooper by trade, son of Daniel Wallace who was also a cooper and who was alive. Bridget’s father Dave O’Shea was listed as being dead.

Margaret O’Shea married John McInerney, Ballyguiltenane, Glin before 1865. Family as follows –

i.Elizabeth (Liz) McInerney who on Oct 10th, 1903 married Jack Wallace, Tullyleague, son of Johnny Wallace, Tullyleague and Margaret Costelloe, Tenakilla, Ballyhahill, the witnesses being, James Wallace & Margaret Cregan. Can’t locate a birth cert for Liz, must be born pre 1864. Marriage of Johnny Wallace & Margaret Costelloe as follows – Johnny aged 29 years, son of John Wallace and Margaret aged 22 years, daughter of ? Costelloe were married on Feb 14th, 1874 at Glin church, the witnesses being,  Michael Costelloe & John Wallace.

ii.Mary McInerney born on April 6th, 1865 at Ballyguiltenane.

iii.John McInerney born on July 13th, 1869 at Ballyguiltenane.

iv.Michael McInerney born on March 26th, 1871 at Ballyguiltenane

v.Sarah McInerney born on April 4th, 1873 at Ballyguiltenane.

vi.Patrick McInerney born on April 19th, 1875 at Tullyleague.

vii.David (Dave) McInerney born July 12th, 1877 at Ballyguiltenane who had three sons that I know of as follows – Dave McInerney, Ballinamadough, Johnny McInerney, Ballyguiltenane & Paddy McInerney. South Mall, Glin town. Paddy McInerney married my aunt Maureen Langan, daughter of Paddy Langan & Babe Fitzpatrick, Glenagragra and had one daughter Maura McInerney ,born 19–.

viii.Margaret McInerney born on April 21st, 1880 at Tullyleague.

(2) Ellen Mullane, who on July 23rd, 1873 at Glin church married John Granville, son of Maurice Granville and Mary ?, the witnesses being Nicholas Granville & Margaret Hanrahan. Margaret Hanrahan lived in the farm next to Nicholas Granville. Bill Woods lived there in my time. Mary Granville died a widow at Dromreask on Dec 25th, 1882 aged 70 years, her son John Granville present at her death. Maurice Granville died of heart disease on July 25th,1878 at Dromreask, aged 70 years, his son John present at his death. It’s of the belief that John Granville & Nicholas Granville, were 1st cousins.

Family as follows –

Mary Granville born May, 9th, 1874.

Maurice Granville born on Nov 1st, 1875 and died at Dromreask on Jan 23rd, 1881 aged 5 years.

Johanna Granville born on March 16th, 1877.

Margaret Granville born on May 23rd, 1878.

Ellen Granville born on Nov1st, 1879 and died at Dromreask on Sept 15th, 1884 aged 4 years.

Denis Granville born on April, 5th, 1883 and died at Dromreask on Sept 6th, 1884 aged 16 months.

Ellen & John Granville emigrated with a young family to new Zealand where more family members were born.

Nicholas Granville, age 50 as in Census hereunder, a labourer from Ballyguiltenane was the son of James Granville, and Julia ?. Julia died a widow at Dromreask on Oct 11th, 1885 aged 80 years. Her husband James Granville died on June 18th, 1881 aged 65 years, his daughter in law, Nicholas’ wife Judith (Julie) present at his death in Dromreask. On Feb 19th, 1870 at Athea church, Nicholas married Judith (Julie) Enright aged 27, daughter of William Enright, Dirreen, Athea, the witnesses being ? Granville & Michael Mulvihill.

Family as follows –

James Granville born on Dec 1st, 1870.

Mary Granville born on Sept 13th, 1872.

Elizabeth Granville born on April 4th, 1874.

Julia Granville born on March 4th, 1876.

Johanna Granville born on Aug 1st, 1877 at Ballyguiltenane/Dromreask, one and the same place back then.

William Granville born on April 26th, 1879.

Census Years 1901 Limerick Kilfergus Dromreask Residents of a house 15

Surname         Forename       Age      Sex      Relation to head        Religion

Granville         Nicholas          50        Male    Head of Family           Roman Catholic

Granville nee Enright   Julia     56        Female            Wife    Roman Catholic

Granville         James 30        Male    Son      Roman Catholic

Granville         Johanna          23        Female            Daughter        Roman Catholic

James (Jim) Granville, son of Nicholas as aged 30 in census hereunder married Katie Shanahan. Katie Shanahan was an aunt to John Shanahan, Glin who was married to Hannie ‘The Weaver’ Mulvihill. Hannie was a sister to Paddy ‘The Weaver’ Mulvihill, Tobbertoureen, Moyvane who was married to Mollie Shanahan, Glenagragra. Paddy ‘The Weaver’ married into the Shanahan place. Molly Shanahan’s mother was an aunt to Paddy Faley, Glasha & Glenbawn. The Mulvihill farm was bounding the Lyons farm in Dromreask. Donie Lyons was telling me that the Mulvihill children came across the mountain and along by his place on their way to Ballyguiltenane school. James Granville died at a relatively young age and his widow Katie re-married to a Paddy Granville, Listowel, no relation to James, so I was told by Buddy Feury. It was said that Katie brought him home from Listowel in an ass and cart. James Granville’s house was situated opposite to where a local road known as ‘the new road’ has its intersection with the Glin/Athea road and is still known today as ‘Granville’s Cross’.

Granville’s Cross at the R524 Glin/Athea road. Nicholas Granville’s house was situated on the side of the road in the shrubs to the left on the R524. Aughrim hills on the background.

Photo 2007.

Census Years 1911 Limerick Kilfergus Dromreask Residents of a house

Residents of a house 15 in Dromreask (Kilfergus, Limerick)

Surname         Forename       Age      Sex      Relation to head        Religion

Granville         James 41        Male    Head of Family           Roman Catholic

Granville nee Shanahan Catherine       38        Female            Wife    Roman Catholic

Granville         Nicholas          64        Male    Father Roman Catholic

Granville         Julia     74        Female            Mother           Roman Catholic

Mc Auliffe       Bridget            11        Female            Cousin Roman Catholic

(3)Patrick (Patsy) Mullane aged 44 in census, son of Denis and Johanna Scanlon Mullane remained single in life. Patsy lived at Dromreask with his mother Johanna and his sister who was also called Johanna.  Following Johanna’s marriage to Jer Mulvihill (below) a major rumpus (for want of a better word) occurred resulting in Patrick (Patsy) having to vacate the place hence his name not appearing in the 1911 census. Patsy was there up to 1905 as he was listed as occupier at the birth of Denis Mulvihill. I’m being told he finished up living back in Dirreen with his 1st cousin, Mary Mullane Scanlon. In fact Brian Moriarty, (Brian being the great grandson of Michael Griffin and Mary Mullane) you are correct where you say you found a Patrick Mullane boarding with Timothy Scanlon at Dirreen, Athea. Timothy Scanlon was married to Mary Mullane, Patrick (Patsy’s) Mullane 1^st cousin as per census hereunder. Timothy Scanlon married into the Mullane home.

Census Years 1911 Limerick Kilmoylan Derreen Residents of a house

Residents of a house 46 in Derreen (Kilmoylan, Limerick)

Show all information

Surname         Forename       Age      Sex      Relation to head        Religion

Scanlon           Timothy          40        Male    Head of Family           Roman Catholic

Scanlon (Mullane) Mary        39        Female            Wife    Roman Catholic

Scanlon           Catherine       8          Female            Daughter        Roman Catholic

Scanlon           Annie 7          Female            Daughter        Roman Catholic

Scanlon           John    5          Male    Son      Roman Catholic

Scanlon           Denis   4          Male    Son      Roman Catholic

Scanlon           Micheal           2          Male    Son      Roman Catholic

Scanlon           Mary   1          Female            Daughter        Roman Catholic

Mullane (Patsy )Patrick          60        Male    Boarder          Roman Catholic

O’Connor         Joseph 28        Male    Servant           Roman Catholic

Healy   William           25        Male    Servant           Roman Catholic

The 1911 census for the Mulvihill family now reads as follows –

Census Years 1911 Limerick Kilfergus Dromreask Residents of a house

Residents of a house 14 in Dromreask (Kilfergus, Limerick)

Surname         Forename       Age      Sex      Relation to head        Religion

Mulvihill         Jeremiah         40        Male    Head of Family           Catholic

Mulvihill (Mullane) Johanna 44        Female            Wife    Catholic

Mulvihill         Hanna 7          Female            Daughter        Catholic

Mulvihill         Denis   5          Male    Son      Catholic

Mulvihill         Mary   4          Female            Daughter        Catholic

Mulvihill         Patt     3          Male    Son      Catholic

Mulvihill         Honorah         1          Female            Daughter       Catholic

Mullane (Scanlon)Johanna   88        Female            Mother in Law          Catholic

Mc Inerny       Thomas           21        Male    Servant           Catholic

Thomas McInerny (McEniry) (Male Servant above) lived in the next farm to Mullane’s/Mulvihill’s. Jimmy Lyons, Derra, Listowel (father of renowned flautist and singer Donie Lyons) would later buy the McInerny (McEniry) place. (Spelt McEniry as well)

(4)Johanna Mullane daughter age 28 in census married Jer Mulvihill and became the parents of

Hannah Mulvihill.

Mary(Molly) Mulvihill, born Nov 1st, 1906.

Patrick Mulvihill.

Norah Mulvihill.

Denny Jer Mulvihill. Denny Jer married to Dora Barrett, Knocknagorna, Athea, as already stated above.

(5) Mary Mullane emigrated to New Zealand and married Michael Griffin from Glenagragra, Michael having emigrated some years before her. (George Langan)

No comments on DENIS MULLANE, LOWER DIRREEN, ATHEA, CO. LIMERICK By George Langan.
John Griffin 1853-1935. By George Langan.

April 17, 2024

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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 26^th 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 8^th 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

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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.

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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/

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DENIS MULLANE, LOWER DIRREEN, ATHEA, CO. LIMERICK By George Langan.

(1)Margaret Mullane.

(2)Ellen Mullane.

(3)Patrick (Patsy) Mullane.

(4)Johanna Mullane.

(5) Mary Mullane.

Roadway into O’Shea’s, Dromreask. (Google Maps)

Family as follows –

Granville’s Cross at the R524 Glin/Athea road. Nicholas Granville’s house was situated on the side of the road in the shrubs to the left on the R524. Aughrim hills on the background.

Census Years 1911 Limerick Kilfergus Dromreask Residents of a house

John Griffin 1853-1935. By George Langan.

John Griffin (son of George Griffin & Johanna McGrath)

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