THE
O’DONOGHUES OF BALLYDUFF – THE STORY SO FAR
By
Rod O’Donoghue
Originally published June 2014
Click Family Tree for the O’Donoghue family tree and for a map of the area
In the autumn of 2011, I
discovered where our family came from, after twenty years of searching. Since then I have made regular trips to north
Kerry in pursuit of the story behind the raw data. The time has come to bring all the strands
together. This will not be the last
time, but it feels appropriate. Consider
this a status report! As ever it will be
a mix of fact and interpretation and will recap some of the material included
in earlier blogs. These blogs have
detailed the analyses that have led to my interpretations, so I do not intend
to repeat that work. As background to
their lives, I will endeavour to give insights into the history and conditions
through which our ancestors lived. My
task is to make you feel what it would have been like to live through these
times.
The earliest known
characters in this tale are James Donoghue of Benmore and Ballyduff, born in
the 1770s, and Julia(na) Boyle of Knockercreeveen; they are my generation’s
ggggrandparents. I have interpreted that
James’s father was named Patrick.
Apparently any self-respecting Irish family in times gone by would have
been able to relate their family tree for seven generations back; I fail, as I
can only go back six, but my children conform!
Benmore/Ballyduff is a
townland in the civil parish of Rattoo in the barony of Clanmaurice in the
county of Kerry. It lies in the Catholic
parish of Causeway. There is a glossary
at the end of this article to give you background to these Irish land
divisions.
I suggest you print the
family tree and map so that you can follow the story with more understanding.
Arrival
in north Kerry
Their names are unknown
but it seems likely that our earlier ancestors moved up to north Kerry from the
Killarney area in the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries. It is also possible that they were
descendants of an ancient O’Donoghue tribe from many centuries earlier, but if
I was to place a bet it would be on the former case. They were probably living
in the northern barony of Iraghticonnor in the RC parish of Lisselton, which
became Ballydonoghue, or over the border in the county of Limerick. At some point they moved south into
Clanmaurice barony; in 1659 there were no O’Donoghues living there.
The
eighteenth century
Much of the living
conditions described here would have applied until the middle of the nineteenth
century, when many of our ancestors left Ireland.
A clear class system
existed. At the top were the landlords
and their agents. Next came the
professional people, government officials and shopkeepers in towns and various
levels of tenant farmers in the countryside.
Those farmers with small holdings were no better off than agricultural
labourers. Four out of five had less
than 15 acres and half of those less than five.
A simple barter approach
operated in trade. An agricultural
labourer would do work for the tailor, weaver, blacksmith and priest etc in
return for their services.
In the middle of this
century, Patrick [I]
Donoghue and his family lived in the townland of Benmore. They were Roman Catholics which made them
subject to the Protestant English Penal Laws; these were an attempt by the
English parliament to convert the native Irish by making their historic
religion an impediment to progress in life.
Patrick and his family were not wealthy but did have a certain status in
the community as valued artisans/trades people.
They had no church to worship in and had to follow their faith through
the offices of wandering priests who held the services in the open air. If caught, the priest would have been
executed.
The Stoughtons, the main
landlords in the area, were, however, of a less bigoted nature and allowed the
building of a Catholic timber church in what was to become Ballyduff village in
the eighteenth century.
The family would have
been Gaelic speaking and would have recognised their name as Ó Donnchú (short
for Ó Donnchadha). The Penal Laws were
trying to drive out the historic traditions in the greater proportion of the
population (over 90% of whom were Catholic).
An outcome of this was the dropping of the Ó by many people including
our family. It was not put back on until
they had moved to Poplar.
The family almost
certainly had enough land to be self-sufficient as far as food was concerned,
although it was a very limited diet of potatoes and milk, some vegetables but
little meat unless they killed one of their own few animals. Living so close to the sea and the River
Cashen one would have thought that fish would have figured as well but I have
been told that few could have afforded the equipment necessary to catch them. Perhaps a few herrings might have been
purchased on occasions. The only
luxuries would have been alcohol, soap and tobacco. The women smoked as well as the men.
The
major industry in north Kerry (apart from farming) was the growing of flax and
the weaving of cloth for ship sails, army tents, clothing and bedding. Milford House, Ballyduff was a major centre
from the 1730s.
Clothing was homespun:
men wore a shirt, knee breeches, a waistcoat, sometimes a tailcoat or overcoat
with a hat; women, a petticoat, midi-dress and a hooded cloak or shawl. Sundays were for dressing up. Apparently both men’s and women’s clothes
were brightly coloured. Shoes were a
luxury, very often only worn on Sundays for church or big celebrations. They would be carried to a point near the church
or other venue and only put on at the last moment. In fact I have been told that children still
went to school barefoot until the 1960s.
There is a picture in the
Ballyduff Magazine of a Mrs Margaret O’Donoghue still wearing a hooded shawl in
1990. Apparently Ballyduff women were
known for wearing green shawls. Her
husband was not one of ours, at least not in the more immediate past.
Leisure was scarce but,
when their lives allowed, people went to sports (weight-lifting, throwing,
jumping, running), hurling games (which could turn into a real rough house
known as a faction fight, very often between historically opposed families) and
race meetings at Ballyeagh/Listowel. The
race meetings would generally coincide with a big fair with all sorts of
activities but mainly trading.
Dancing was a Sunday
evening pastime for the young people in the summer; certain cross-roads were
the usual venues. The instruments were fiddles, uillean-pipes (the Irish
bagpipe), bodhráns (like a tambourine), and accordions. In winter, visiting houses was the pleasure
with story-telling (perhaps with a visiting seanchaí)
and card games.
Famine and disease were a
constant hazard and life expectancy for children was low. An
extraordinary climatic shock, the ‘Great Frost’ struck Ireland and the rest of
Europe between December 1739 and September 1741, after a decade of relatively
mild winters. Its cause remains unknown but it caused severe famine.
Patrick and his wife are
thought to have had at least[ii] six children born in
Benmore and probably more. These
children also had the majority of their offspring in the latter part of this
century. His son James is my
generation’s ggggrandfather; James married Julia(na) Boyle. They were both probably born in the 1770s.
The parish priest, Father
Nelan, from 1786 to 1806 used to write pejorative comments against the entries
in the register. When he moved on, he
destroyed his records so that no one would ever know what he had said. Entries start in 1782. We would have known so much more if those
lost years had been available.
Hearthill
or Knocknacree and Ballyduff
Cnoc na croí has been
anglicised as Knocknacree, but it actually means the Hill of the Heart. It was a clachán
or cluster settlement of rather temporary dwellings which implies there was a
larger farmhouse nearby, probably Rattoo.
These houses would have been made entirely of mud.
One of the ways the
British army ‘recruited’ men was the press gang. In 1805 a group of marauding British soldiers
entered the village of Hearthill, just to the west of Benmore. All the inhabitants, seeing them coming and
recognising their intent, had hidden. In
their frustration the soldiers set fire to the village and left it devastated.
The villagers decided
that rather than rebuilding Hearthill they would create a new village in
Benmore townland and call it Baile Dubh (the dark town, in recognition of what
had happened to their home) or Ballyduff.
It was positioned beside
the ferry road (opened sometime between 1790 and 1800) which led down to the
River Cashen. This location was influenced
by the landlord, Stoughton, who recognised that people could ply their trades
and sell their wares on such a busy road and therefore meet their rental
obligations.
This was the period of
the Napoleonic wars, culminating in Waterloo in 1815. There followed an
economic slump which lasted for two decades and was accompanied by a series of
natural disasters. In 1816-18, bad
weather destroyed grain and potato crops and smallpox and typhus were rampant.
From the parish records,
it appears our family was living in the adjacent townland of Benmore in the
latter part of the eighteenth century.
Sylvester
Donoghue and his family[iii]
Sylvester[iv] is, I believe, the eldest
of Patrick’s children, but I cannot be sure for reasons already mentioned. Let us say he is the oldest in the records.
Married to Mary Flahive,
I have ‘found’ five children of this union.
Daughter, Ellen, was born in 1784 and married John Connor. Between 1808 and 1832 this couple had at
least seven children, the eldest of whom was Ellen, my generation’s
gggrandmother, as she married James and Julia’s son Thomas[v].
Sylvester
was of sufficient stature to have erected his own mausoleum in the historic
Rattoo churchyard just outside Ballyduff.
The inscription says ‘Erected by Sylvester O’Donoghue for him and his
posterity Anno 1820’ as in this picture.
I do not know how he
afforded such a considerable expense but he clearly was a man of some means,
derived, I surmise, from a trade/skill of some worth in the community. It does not appear that they had any
substantial land holdings for farming, so this is the only conclusion I can
reach. Just in front of Sylvester’s tomb
is one for a John Lawlor dated 1819. I
wonder if these two were friends and Sylvester decided to follow John’s lead. Behind Sylvester’s is a Boyle mausoleum, but
with no originating name or date.
The Rattoo complex of great house, round tower, churchyard and ruined abbey was
owned by the Gun family, the second largest landlord in the area. This picture shows the churchyard today from
the top of the tower. Sylvester’s tomb
is the second from the top on the left. As
we will see the O’Donoghues had a special relationship with the Guns.
The potato failed again in Munster in 1821, and people starved to
death in Cork and Clare.
But our O’Donoghues seem to have survived, as in 1825 Sylvester was
occupying an acre of land[vi]
on Chapel Land & Madegan’s Holding in Benmore. Part of his land was dedicated to the
adjacent church. I have been told that
there would have been a house on these plots.
His brother Bartholomew was nearby on another acre. Between them was a John Connor who was almost
certainly Sylvester’s daughter Ellen’s husband.
He also had an acre. Sylvester’s
son, Bartholomew, was on 6 acres in the east of the townland, which was a
relatively small holding.
After 1825 there are no more mentions of Sylvester and his family or
descendants. What happened to them?
I restored Sylvester’s tomb earlier this
year. There are about six decayed coffins
in it but who they were for remains a mystery.
These pictures show the tomb before and after.
Ballyduff
This song ‘The Boys from Ballyduff’
was written by P.J. Sheehy on the occasion of the Ballyduff/Crossabeg
All-Ireland Hurling final in 1891. This
is the first verse; you’ll find the full version here[vii]
Just a mile or thereabouts from the lordly Shannon mouth,
There's a spot to which none other I'd compare;
It's a village, not a town though her sons have gained renown,
For the Boys from Ballyduff are always there.
That’s us – a bit diluted by now I suppose…
In
1660 the population of the Ballyduff area is estimated at 300, by 1841
it had grown to 4000. Much of this
increase was due to immigration from the barony of Iraghticonnor to the north of
Clanmaurice and also from across the Shannon in County Clare.
In
Ballyduff village in 1831 there were 448 people, 79 families (41
families were in agriculture, 28 in ‘Tradesman structures – Handicraft’) and 68
inhabited houses (3 uninhabited). By
1841 there were 331 people, down to 269 by 1851 and down again to 214 in
1861. By 1881 there were only 101 people
in the village.
The
majority of the houses in 1841 were thatched.
Four annual fairs (cattle and horses) were held in the village and there
was a police station and petty sessions were held every alternate week. It was quite a substantial place. It had a gravelly street, white washed
thatched cottages and a village pump.
In
the 1840s Ordnance Survey, Ballyduff, described as ‘one irregular street’, is
said to have boasted two publicans, three shoemakers, one nailor, three
tailors, two weavers and one carpenter.
They appear to have missed the smithy which appears on the 1841
map.
This
picture is of nearby Ballylongford in 1900s, but it is probable that Ballyduff
looked much the same in the mid nineteenth century. It does seem to follow the description above.
Historically in an Irish
family there was a differentiation between the ‘place’ (or home place) where
the original family home (perhaps a more substantial farmhouse, which would
have been described in censuses as house, land & offices in land records)
was occupied by the leading family member and the houses of the other ‘lesser’
family members. This still applied after
the English legal system was imposed but within the context of a landowner and
tenant relationship. These secondary
family houses were of a short term, much less substantial nature. There was also a difference between who was in the ‘place’
(ie long term person who owns/works farm) vs who was on the ‘place’
(short term from dowry or inheritance).
In
the Ballyduff area the number of houses in each townland were at least
four times the number of ‘places’ in the decades before the famine. During the famine these less substantial
houses reduced dramatically whereas ‘places’ hardly changed at all, suggesting,
unsurprisingly, that greater substance led to an increased likelihood of
survival.
I
have not found any evidence of a ‘place’ (rather than a house) for our family
other than perhaps the 6 acres in Farranedmond described later. I do not think we were of sufficient
substance for this differentiation to apply.
Birth
rates increased dramatically from 1783-6 at 23.5 births per year to 110 in
every year but one from 1833-46 and most would have been into the poorer sort
of housing.
In 1841 some 58% of the people in the barony of Clanmaurice lived in
mud cabins having just one room (thatched with straw or rushes), and 35% lived
in mud cabins with two to four rooms and windows. The cabins measured no more than fourteen
feet by eighteen feet, rarely over seven feet high and with a fire in the
middle of a mud floor ventilated through the wickerwork door. Some shared their cabin with their livestock.
Beds were not used until the start of the nineteenth century. People
slept on straw or rushes on the floor.
From the first decade of that century furnishings improved considerably
with a table, a couple of chairs and a couple of beds.
The church parish for our family was Causeway but in the adjacent
parish of Listowel, 75% of the rural livers were in one-room mud cabins. In the town it was 35%. I suspect Ballyduff, as a sizeable village,
would have been somewhere between these two numbers. I have been told that Julia Donoghue would
have lived in a thatched cottage, which I suspect would have had more than one
room.
A village of this sort would have had a strong tradition of
hospitality and sense of community.
The
two main landlords, in the later period, were Thomas Anthony Stoughton, whose
tenanted farms were at least 10 acres (other than in the townlands of Lacka
East, Leagh and Knoppoge South where some smaller acreages pertained) and
Wilson Gun whose holdings ranged from half an acre to 7 acres.
Conditions in the period 1800-50
In 1800, Clanmaurice had 400 acres under potatoes
with wheat 180; barley 150, oats 200; rape 100; rye 0. For Iraghticonnor to the north the acreages
were 400; 100; 150; 200; 100; 0. While
potatoes dominated, other crops were not insubstantial. For the poorer tenants, however, potatoes
were paramount.
Life was clearly a matter of survival for many. In 1817-8 famine was widespread and in 1821-2
many died of starvation and it is said that of a county population of 230,000,
170,000 were destitute in 1821. Further
local famines happened in 1829-31, 1835-7, in 1839 and 1842.
Throughout the early 1830s, cholera repeatedly ravaged the poorest
classes, and, in the decade as a whole, the potato crop failed on a local level
to some degree in eight out of the ten years. 1838 saw a savage winter, and ‘on
the night of the big wind’, snow buried the cottages and cattle froze to death
in the fields. Finally, in 1840-1844,
the potato crops partly failed three more times. Small wonder that the Irish
should feel God had abandoned them. "There is a Distruction Approaching to
Ireland", wrote one emigrant, "their time is nerely at an end"
(sic).
Why such a dependence on potatoes?
An acre and a half of potatoes would provide a family of five with food
for eleven months; to provide oatmeal to make porridge and bread for a similar
size family would require six acres of oats.
From 1841-51 the population of Rattoo civil parish declined 75% and
Killury 86%. This was the period of the worst
famine of them all in 1845-7, the agony not really being relieved until 1850. 1847 was the worst year. Clearly the failure of the potato crop was
the main reason, but it was overlaid on the population explosion described
earlier which exacerbated the situation.
Apparently this was partly caused by parish priests encouraging early
marriage in order to garner marriage fees.
However it seems clear that the policies of the English government were
a major contributor to the unforgivable distress, other crops than potatoes
being largely diverted to export markets.
People were reduced to eating nettles, grass,
kale and even seaweed leading to dysentery and cholera. Those who failed to survive the famine were
generally very small landholders and labourers. People were
dying all along the roads and were just buried in the adjacent fields.
Vast numbers of people fled from 1848 onwards,
without any resources, to Britain and the USA; our family amongst them, as the
O’Donoghue name virtually vanishes from Benmore and Ballyduff at this time.
A ticket to England cost five shillings (25p) or 2s 6d (half a crown
or 12.5p). But to get to America cost £5
which was beyond the means of the ordinary labourer. So most of the early emigrants to the USA were
tradesmen and strong farmers. Does this
explain why Thomas came to London?
Many landlords just left the people to their fate, staying on their
estates in Britain. Others went bankrupt
as there was no labour to work their estates.
The three landlords of our area, Stoughton, Gun and Rice, behaved better
than most according to local sources.
They did not go bankrupt and maintained good working relationships with
their employees.
The local people were
disillusioned, they thought bad times would never end. Agriculture was going to tillage, and less
horses were used. People could not get a
bit of land as landlords were consolidating and largely absent.
James Donoghue and Julia(na)
Boyle
I
do not know exactly when James and Julia(na) were married but it would have
been around 1790 I imagine, as most people married in their teens. Julia came from a nearby townland,
Knockercreeveen, I believe.
Almost
all marriages of property were arranged by the respective parents and the local
priest or a professional matchmaker would finalise the details including how
any property or dowry was to be handled.
Sometimes the couple would not meet each other until the wedding day or
a day or two before. As all our couples
came from a close geographic area they probably knew each other, but the
parents almost certainly fixed their marriages.
Whether our folk had enough property to fall into this pattern is hard
to say, but I suspect that they did as well-regarded artisans/trades people.
A
Kerry wedding was well supplied with food and drink and lots of music and
dancing. North Kerry weddings had an
unusual characteristic. ‘Straw-boys’
were uninvited guests who dressed up in helmets and gaiters of straw and joined
in the fun. They only received
hospitality, however, if they entertained the wedding party.
Funerals were used to bring people
for matchmaking. A form of marriage
proposal was ‘Do you want to be buried with my people?’
I
do not know what James did for a living but Julia may have been a seamstress/dressmaker
and perhaps ran a small shop in her cottage/house in the centre of the
village. She would have kept hens and
ducks.
They
had at least five children: Patrick, James, Mary, John and Thomas (b.1806) my generation’s
gggrandfather about whom more later.
Patrick
married Catherine Dee from Knoppoge and two children have been found, Mary
(b.1823) and John (b.1826). Prior to
1848 Patrick was living next to his mother in the village. Then he and his family disappears. I believe he came to London which will be the
subject of a future blog.
James
married Elizabeth Boyle from Ballincrossig and had Juliana, Ellen, Honora, Mary,
Patrick between 1836 and 1847. Prior to
1848 he was living alongside his brother, Thomas, my generation’s gggrandfather,
in Farranedmond in the east of Benmore, and then he and his family vanish from
the records.
Mary
married Thomas Ryle and they had Juliana, Michael, James, Ellen, Thomas between
1840 and 1852. They lived in the village
near to Julia until she died and then they took over her cottage.
John
married Joanna Boyle from Sleveen and they had Juliana, James and Mary between
1840 and 1845. I have been told that
this brother was shot trying to escape British soldiers, possibly during the
rebellion of 1848.
James,
my generation’s ggggrandfather, died before 1848 and possibly as early as the
1820s as his name does not appear on the 1825 land records. His corpse would have been ‘waked’ with
relatives and friends visiting the house during day and night to receive
hospitality according to the means of the family. If James and Julia were comfortably off, she
would have provided drink, tobacco, clay-pipes and snuff in the kitchen and the
ladies were taken into ‘the room’ for tea and gossip. Unless the death was particularly tragic the
‘keening women’ would not have appeared until the removal of the remains to the
church and the burial in the churchyard.
Where
was he buried? He might have been in one
of the six decayed coffins in Sylvester’s tomb in Rattoo churchyard. He might have been represented by one of the
unnamed small headstones in the same churchyard; unnamed because if the local
people could not write their memorial in Irish they preferred not to be named
at all in protest. When Wilson Gun (see
below) closed the churchyard to any more burials because of the disruption they
caused, they were moved to Raheala down the road, which was probably opened in
the 1840s. In famine times it was known
as County’s Acre and that may also be where James was buried.
His
memory has lived on however as there has been a James (sometimes more than one)
in every generation that followed
Julia
was a tiny lady (as was her own daughter, Julia), I suspect she was the engine
of the family. But when they all left
she stayed behind. Probably she felt too
old, in her 70s, to go through all the upheaval. She had a nice, little, rent-free for life,
thatched cottage and garden in the middle of village opposite the church and
her daughter, Mary, had stayed with her husband, Thomas Ryle, so why leave? This was the view from her front door, or at
least a later version of it. Her cottage
was on the same land as her nephew-in-law Simon Halloran, the husband of her
niece, Mary Boyle; another reason to stay.
Rattoo House and the Gun
family
Rattoo (Rath Thuaigh) means Fort of the Northern Plain and it is a place of
both historical and mythical significance.
Ley lines converge on the tower.
This
family and their community at Rattoo played an important role in our family’s
lives.
The
Guns came to the area in around 1700 from Liscahane Castle in Ardfert (further
south). They had at least two other
houses in the locality before moving to the current Rattoo Great House in
around 1836. Prior to that time their
residence was Rattoo West in the townland of Lisnagoneeny about a mile south of
Ballyduff (see picture left).
Rattoo
Great House incorporated the churchyard, the round tower and a ruined
Augustinian abbey. In our ancestors’ time this house was much more extensive
than today with further building to the left and stables. I have been unable to find a picture of that
time but here is how it looks today.
The
Gun who interests us most is Wilson (see left) who was born in 1809. He had one older brother William Townsend and
four sisters, one of whom was named Elizabeth about whom more later in this
section. Their father, Townsend Gun,
died in 1812 and their mother, Amelia Wilson, in 1849.
Wilson
married Gertrude Allen in 1839 and they had three children, one of whom, Emma,
married George Browne of Listowel in 1862.
There
are a number of pointers to the close relationship that our family had with the
Guns.
In
1820 Sylvester was allowed to erect his mausoleum in Rattoo churchyard.
In
1832 Julia acted as sponsor to Wilson’s illegitimate daughter, Catherine[viii], whose mother was
Catherine Rahilly. The parish register
records his residence as Rattoo Lodge near the future Great House. The photo opposite is said to be Julia
outside Rattoo Lodge probably with Catherine; the date is unclear but the age
of the child suggests early 1840s. By
this time Julia would have had at least four children of her own.
I
have been told that the family worked/lived at a big house with horses and
Julia’s son Thomas was a farrier It has been suggested to me that Julia may
have been a dressmaker/seamstress and may well have worked for both the Guns
and the other landlord, Thomas Stoughton, who lived at Ballyhorgan House.
As
a minimum I think we can assume that they were valued servants.
In
1852 Julia’s son Thomas had a daughter in Poplar. One of the godparents was an Elizabeth Gunn
(see above), so her family felt a desire to be represented. Perhaps less relevant, but at least a
coincidence, a Nicholas Browne was a witness at the marriage of Julia’s
grandson, Thomas, to Mary Sullivan in 1865.
Ballyhorgan House and the
Stoughton family
The
Stoughtons arrived in the Ballyduff area in the sixteenth century when Anthony
Stoughton, a clerk at Dublin Castle acquired Rattoo Abbey and lands. In 1750 Ballyhorgan
Great House was built by another Anthony.
The
Stoughtons were the most significant of the landlords in Ballyduff and they
were the owners of all the property our family rented. For James and Julia the specific individual
was Thomas Anthony Stoughton (1818-1885), who was an absentee landlord but a
well-regarded one who generally visited in the summer. His father, another Thomas Anthony, had
acquired a big estate at Owlpen in Gloucestershire by marriage.
When
the Stoughtons visited they were greeted by ‘cordial hearty cheers’ and a
monster bonfire was lit at the gates of the house. In the evening a dance took place, and refreshments
were distributed with ‘a liberal and bountiful hand’.
The
fact Julia was allowed to have a rent-free life tenancy for her cottage from
the Stoughtons suggests an established relationship.
James
Donoghue’s brother, John, rented 14 acres at Bishopscourt, the townland
adjacent to Ballyhorgan, and must have been close to the Stoughtons. Close by was a Michael Ryle on 24 acres; he
was possibly Thomas’s father. It seems
highly likely that other members of the family worked at Ballyhorgan House. The Stoughton and the Gun families were very
close.
East Benmore and
Farranedmond
In
1825 Bartholomew Donoghue was living on six acres in East Benmore. By 1846 this holding appears to have passed
to James and Thomas (called Tom), our generation’s gggrandfather and his
brother. It was and is now called
Farranedmond in the later records.
When
James and Thomas gave up the land, it was taken by a Simon Halloran, who was
married to Mary Boyle, a niece of Julia’s.
Simon was also the tenant on an eight acre piece of land in Ballyduff on
part of which Julia was living.
Simon and Mary had their
first two children in Knockercreeveen where Julia came from. Mary’s father, Patrick, Julia’s brother, was
a comfortable farmer on 38 acres, suggesting that the Boyles were rather better
off than our family.
Education
The
Penal Laws forbade education to the Catholic Irish and the churches were
closed. In the eighteenth century Kerry
was renowned for what were called its ‘hedge schools’, in which it is said even
Latin and Greek were taught. As the name
implies children were taught in the open air by teachers, who if they were
caught would be subject to the full force of the law, even death. A boy had to be left on watch to ensure they
were not spotted. No one could offer
premises to the teacher because that was also against the law.
In
1782 the law was relaxed to allow schools to occupy premises and the existing
hedge school in Ardoughter, within walking distance of Ballyduff, had a
permanent building. The children were
taught reading, writing and arithmetic in Irish. English was taught if a teacher was
available.
In
1831 the National Education Act was passed which led to the creation of the
National Schools still in operation today.
The first in the Ballyduff area was at Slievadra in 1843, again within
walking distance, but all the teaching had to be in English which left the
children in total confusion.
If
the family left Ireland between 1848 and 1851, it would appear that Julia
(b.1834), James (b.1836) and Catherine (b.1839) might have taken advantage of
the schools, as infants started at six.
However our only available evidence of the educational standard of our
Irish-born ancestors is whether they signed their names or used a mark (a
cross) on the occasion of their marriage in London. Julia and Catherine used a mark in 1854 and
1873; but Thomas (b.1844) signed his own name in 1865. I was told by an uncle that Thomas had
schooling (in London), and it was he who appears to have put the O’ back on the
name. Did girls get less attention in
the Irish schools?
Ellen Donoghue and John
Connor
Ellen
(b.1784) was the daughter of Sylvester.
John Connor was a family friend and in 1825 occupied the plot of land
between those of Sylvester and his son, Bartholomew. They had at least seven
children between 1808 and 1832: Ellen (b.1808), my generation’s gggrandmother,
Daniel, Mary, Honora, John, James, Margaret.
Connor
is a very extensive name in north Kerry, let alone Ballyduff. In 1825 a William and a Maurice were living
close by John. By 1851 there were a
number: Jeremiah, Joseph, John (with houses close to Julia) and Patrick, all
living in Benmore/Ballyduff,
Thomas Donoghue and Ellen
Connor
Born
within two years of each other, they were first cousins. Marriages at this degree of consanguinity
were not unusual at the time and sometimes served to seal relationships by
keeping property in the family.
Thomas was a farrier who probably learnt his
trade at the smithy at the south end of the village a few properties down from
his mother.
A
farrier's routine work is primarily hoof trimming and shoeing. In ordinary cases, it is important to trim
each hoof so it retains its proper orientation to the ground. If the animal has a heavy work load, works on
abrasive footing, needs additional traction, or has pathological changes in the
hoof, then shoes may be required.
Additional tasks for the
farrier include dealing with injured or diseased hooves and application of
special shoes for racing, training
or ‘cosmetic’ purposes. Horses with certain diseases or injuries may need
remedial procedures for their hooves, or need special shoes.
Apprenticeships were
possible for the young in the nineteenth century in shops and all the various
trades – a list of these is provided in the notes[ix]. They could lead to the
person setting up on their own and gaining artisan status, which is what
happened in our family I believe.
Some of the trades were
handed down from one generation to the next, so it is probable that Thomas’s
father and other relations were in the smithing/farrier trade.
Their
wedding would have been in 1833/4. Their
children born in Ireland were Julia (b.1834), James (b.1836), Catherine
(b.1839), John (b.1841), Thomas (b.1844 see baptism record below), my
generation’s ggrandfather, and little Ellen (b.1847).
Sometime
between 1848 and 1851 the family left for London, possibly via Dublin, but
James and Ellen did not go with them. I
suspect that Ellen died, as she was born in the worst year of the famine and
disease was everywhere. But what
happened to James?
Politics
North
Kerry has always been a very Republican area and Ballyduff has its own
tradition as the memorial in the town square, commemorating those who died in
the 1916-19 period, gives evidence. Our generation’s
gggreat uncle, John, was apparently part of that tradition and died fighting
for Ireland’s independence. His last
known child was born in 1845 and so it must have been sometime after that that
he was shot. I am not aware of any
anti-British actions in Kerry at that time so, if it happened, it was most
likely to do with events, which started in the summer of 1846 when Young Ireland
became a political movement and broke away from Daniel O’Connell’s Repeal
Association. O’Connell wanted self-rule
for Ireland within the British Empire, whereas Young Ireland was after total
independence.
The Young Irelander Rebellion,
a failed Irish nationalist uprising, part of the wider Revolutions of 1848 that affected most of Europe. It took place on 29 July 1848 in the village
of Ballingarry,
South Tipperary. After being chased by a force of Young
Irelanders and their supporters, an Irish
Constabulary unit raided a house
and took those inside as hostages. A several-hour gunfight followed, but the rebels fled
after a large group of police reinforcements arrived.
The exodus and aftermath
The
famine, the financial difficulties and absence of the landlords (with the
dependence on very often venal local agents) leading to the consolidation of land
and eviction of tenants, the repeal of the Corn Laws and the forbidding of the
sub-division of land (a longstanding tradition in Irish families) all
contributed to the mass exodus from Ireland in the 1840s. People just had nothing to lose as conditions
at home were so awful.
Those
of a community who had left before sent money home to help their relatives and
told tales of lands of plenty.
Immigrants tended to settle in the same neighbourhood as their fellows
from home, maintaining their traditional relationships.
Many
needed help to pay for their journey to a new land and there was very little
difference between paying their fares and maintaining them in the workhouse for
a year. In 1847, the earlier system of
granting free passage to the British Colonies for certain classes of people was
resumed. Included were agricultural
labourers, shepherds, female domestics and farm servants of good character. These colonies were desperate for labour to
help develop their virgin territory. Some landlords contributed to the cost of this
programme, but not in Ballyduff.
However
it was not just the helpless who left but also the strong and able-bodied who
in the words of the Kerry Evening Post of 14 April 1847 were ‘carrying with
them the capital and the sinew of the country’.
It
was seldom that an old man or woman emigrated as we have seen with Julia.
As
you can see from the family tree we have an awful lot of people to account
for. Those who went to America would
have taken a boat from Tralee or Cork, probably the former.
Those
who went to Britain could have left from Tralee, Cork or Dublin (perhaps via
Tarbert on the Shannon to the north of Ballyduff).
During a period of time when London must have appeared
incredibly remote, a passenger service operated between Tralee and London. This was run by The London and Limerick
Steamship Company, it called periodically at Portsmouth and Plymouth. The passenger fare for a state cabin was
21s. Weekly sailings were also available
to and from Liverpool. The fee for a
state cabin was 15s, whilst to travel steerage one paid 7s 6d (it must be borne
in mind that these sums of money would have been beyond the means of the
majority of the population at the time)
With Thomas, my generation’s gggrandfather, and his
family there is evidence that they went to Dublin (probably by coach) and then
on to London.
But
that’s a tale for another time…..
Notes
[i]
I have assumed the name Patrick because James and Julia’s eldest recognised son
was given this name and Irish naming
practice would have meant that this was his paternal grandfather’s name. I cannot, however, be sure that there was not
another son before Patrick so it is really conjecture.
[ii]
I have to say ‘at least’ because often the priest baptised the child in the
family home, wrote the details on a scrap of paper and then lost it. I have
also been told that religious practice was not that rigorous in those times and
children may not have been baptised at all.
[iii]
The evidence for Sylvester Donoghue being in our ancestral line is very strong
but I cannot prove it. Local experts
tell me that I can be assured that Donoghues in such a local area would have
been related.
[iv]
Sylvester is an unusual given name in this part of Ireland and my books do not
give me any idea of what the Irish equivalent may have been. He is the only Sylvester Donoghue in Causeway
and the only other Sylvester Donoghues from 1760-1850 are all from
Glenflesk/Killarney. In Causeway there are other Sylvesters - McEgan, Horgan, Crounin, Brassil, Murphy,
Markum, Connor – but that is not a lot.
[v]
First cousin marriages were not uncommon in what was a geographically limited
society
[vi]
This data is derived from the Tithe Applotment books which only recorded
agricultural land.
[vii]Just a mile or there
abouts, from the lordly Shannon mouth
There’s a spot to which
none other I’d compare,
It’s a village, not a
town, tho’ her sons have gained renown,
For the Boys of Ballyduff
are always there.
For courage, beauty,
grace, they need not hide their face,
At a wedding, a pattern
or a fair,
And should you want a
friend, there is always one to lend,
For the Boys of Ballyduff
are always there.
In Clonturk Park they
fought, when the Boys of Wexford thought,
With their camans to
their credit they could spare,
But they found out to
their cost, when they fought the fight and lost,
That the Boys from
Ballyduff could beat them there.
(Chorus)
I’d not like to have the
cheek, of their daughters pure to speak,
But I tell all the other
young fellows beware
That when cupid’s arrow
fly, ‘neath a bright and sparkling eye,
I’d not like to be the
target, I declare.
(Chorus)
When they leave their
native soil, in a foreign land to toil,
And to earn a decent
living everywhere,
They’re the chosen few,
they’re the honest men and true,
For the Boys of Ballyduff
are always there.
(Chorus)
And should you want a
drop, call into McDonnell’s shop,
When the shadows of the
night have ended care,
There you’ll find some
jolly tar, to attend behind the bar,
To the social Ballyduff
Boys there.
For courage, beauty,
grace, they need not hide their face,
At a wedding, a pattern
or a fair,
And should you need a
friend, there is always one to lend,
For the Boys from Ballyduff were always there.
[viii]
Catherine married a Patrick Horgan of Meenogahane. Wilson Gun treated all his illegitimate
children well; all girls were named Catherine.
He offered the newly married couple the townland of Clashmealcon, but
rather than dispossess the existing tenants they decided to go to America. James died quite soon after that and nothing
more is known of Catherine. She is the
Kate in the folksong ‘Sweet Kate of Ballyduff’ I am told.
[ix]
Bakers, blacksmiths, candle-makers, carpenters, cart and carriage-makers,
coopers, dressmakers, dyers, harness-makers, masons, millers, milliners,
nailers, painters and glaziers, shoemakers, tailors, tanners, thatchers and
weavers
Glossary
Barony
Civil parish
Civil
parishes in Ireland are units of
territory that have their origins in old Gaelic territorial divisions. They
were adopted by the Anglo-Normans and then the Elizabethans, and were
formalised as land divisions at the time of Cromwell. They no longer correspond to the boundaries of Catholic
parishes, which are generally larger. Their use as administrative units was
gradually replaced by poor law divisions in the 19th century, although they
were not formally abolished. Today they are still sometimes used for legal
purposes.
Townland
"The
townland is the smallest and most ancient of Irish land divisions, and is the
goal of all family researchers in identfying the origin of their ancestors. The
townland was named at an early period and they usually referred to a very
identifiable landmark in the local area such as a mountain, a bog, an oak
forest a village, a fort or a church. The townland became standardised as a
basic division in the 17 th century surveys by people with little knowledge of
the Irish language. As a consequence many place names were either lost or had
their meaning or construction altered." Brian Mitchell, Inner City Trust
1989.
Sources
& acknowledgements:
People
without whose help I could not have written much of this article and to whom I
am very grateful.
O’Connor,
Bertie
O’Connor,
Mossie
Quinlan,
Sean
Ryle,
Gerard & Sean
Main
books, publications and web sites:
Bary,
Valerie – Houses of Kerry,
Ballinakella Press, 1994
Birdwell-Pheasant,
Donna – The Home ‘Place: Centre and
Periphery in Irish House and Family Systems from House, Family and Construction of History
Birdwell-Pheasant,
Donna (source) – Ballyduff and Causeway
Villages in the 1840s, Ballyduff Magazine Vol.4, 1992
Cantillon
(Houlihan), Kathleen – My Search for the
‘Old Street’, Ballyduff Magazine Vol.2, 1989
Dowling,
P.J – The Hedge Schools of Ireland,
Mercier, 1968
Gaugan,
J Anthony – Listowel and its Vicinity,
Mercier, 1973
Guerin,
Michael – Listowel Workhouse Union,
1996
Lucid,
Geraldine – Nineteenth Century Emigration
from County Kerry, Blennerville Gateway to Tralee
O’Brien, Charles - A
View of the state of agriculture in the county of Kerry Anno 1800, JKAHS
Vols 1 & 2 1968 & 1969
Ó
Conchubhair, Padraig – Ballylongford and
the Great Famine
Ó
Conchubhair, Padraig – The Hedge Schools,
Shannonside Journal 1994
O’Connor,
Noel & MacKenna, Patsy – Origin of
Ballyduff Village, Ballyduff Magazine Vol.1
O’Connor,
Noel & MacKenna, Patsy – The
Stoughtons of Ballyhorgan, Owlpen, Gortigrenane, Ballynoe and the Big Houses
1590s to 1925, Ballyduff Magazine Vol.2, 1989
O’Connor,
Noel & MacKenna, Patsy – Did you
know? – Ballyduff Magazine Vol.1
O’Connor-Kerry,
Bertie – Slievadra School: 150 years of
education, Ballyduff Magazine Vol.5
Quinlan,
Sean – The Great Book of Kerry Vols
1-3, Cló na Ríochta, 2007-9
Quinlan,
Sean – Kerry: The Kingdom, the Power and
the Glory, Cló na Ríochta, 2012
The Population of
Ballyduff village as recorded at each census year 1841-71,
Ballyduff Magazine Vol.4, 1992
Wikipedia
The latest O'Donoghue Family Tree (one click on tree to see full size)
