When I became interested in family history, Ma was already confused - she had dementia at the end of her life - and couldn't remember the circumstances. As I am writing this, I am wondering why my mother or aunts never asked Ma what had happened. Or perhaps they did, and she didn't know the details? After all, she wasn't even born when it happened.
If you can remember way back to the beginning of this blog, I mentioned that my father, my friend Beth, and I went looking for information about Jim Moriarty in 1977 at Foley's Pub in Inch - well, actually, my father was looking for information - we were along for the ride. I vaguely remember before we left on that trip that my mother and father were wondering about where Jim Moriarty had lived in Dingle, what was the Schoolmaster like, why did Jim go to live with him. I had mentioned in the blog that Mike Shea, my grandmother's neighbor when they lived in Loughane, had told my father to go to Foley's Pub for information.
So we did and found out that the house where Schoolmaster James Moriarty used to live was the Inch Post Office.
We stopped and met Kathleen Casey who now lived there and ran the Inch Post Office. When we told Kathleen our story, she said that she indeed knew the Moriartys. It was through Kathleen that I eventually began to correspond with my grandmother’s first cousins. Kathleen gave us Irish jam to take home to my grandmother.
We stopped and met Kathleen Casey who now lived there and ran the Inch Post Office. When we told Kathleen our story, she said that she indeed knew the Moriartys. It was through Kathleen that I eventually began to correspond with my grandmother’s first cousins. Kathleen gave us Irish jam to take home to my grandmother.
The following is the very first letter that I received in my quest for family information, and imagine how thrilled I was when it arrived!
"Rocklands
9/7/79 Ferrybank
Waterford
Dear Mrs. Manning
Kathleen Casey has just sent on your letter to me as she is not able to answer the questions you asked her. Kathleen was ill for some time last winter & unable to attend to most things, then we had a five months postal strike (just finished ) so no mail was forwarded anywhere from here.
By the way, I had better introduce myself. I am Nuala Aylward (nee Moriarty) daughter of the school master James Moriarty. Am the eleventh in our family of twelve & now aged 72. Your grand uncle Jim was brought up by my parents after his father, my uncle Myles Moriarty was drowned in Sneem. My father James Moriarty was born & raised in Loughane & came to Inch to teach in a school nearby. His brother Myles farmed in the home place until he drowned. He left a widow & (I think) 4 girls & 1 boy, Jim. Jim was a delicate child & my father brought him to Inch to raise & care for him. The widow married again to a Sullivan man. I believe the girls went to the USA. Jim joined the Police Force in Ireland but quit during the
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War of Indepence here. Then in the early twenties he went to US. He spent some time in the East probably with his sisters and went to Chicago in 1924 where I had a brother Con, RIP and two sisters. I guess he knew our family better than his sisters by that time. We all loved Jim - he was a real brother to us and we never thought of him as anything else. He was very tall and auburn haired & so kind & gentle. He married Bridget Gallagher in Chicago when both were middle aged. He died first but I can’t remember the year.
There are no relatives of ours in Inch now except my mother’s relatives. My eldest sister Mary Moriarty lives here with me & I have a sister Tess O’Donoghue lives in Bridge St. Cahirciveen Kerry. Tess knows more about the relatives in Sneem than I do as it is not so far from her & her late husband Denis, was very interested in tracing families. I have heard them speak of a Mary Moriarty who has a shop and Post Office in Caherdaniel, also not far from Sneem, who is related some way.
I spent ten years in Chicago & married there. My late husband Ed & I returned here to stay in 1935. We had four sons & a daughter - all married except one who died. So now I live alone with my sister Mary
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who is eighty eight & almost blind. There is a sister Catherine Callahan (85) lives in Chicago & a brother Monsignor John in St. Joseph, Missouri. Another brother & the youngest of the family Canon Myles is in Scotland. In the nephews we have two called Myles & I have a Dermot Myles so Myles is a favorite name.
Kathleen Casey is not related to the famous Steve, I imagine. He(r) folks come from west Kerry near Dingle.
Now I think I have answered all your questions as well as I can so I hope the information will be of help to you.
Hope you have a nice vacation over here. My sister Tess O’Donoghue will be glad to help you if you are in Cahirciveen.
I revisited Chicago in ’72 with Ed and last October by myself.
If there is anything else you wish to know I will be glad to help.
Your cousin
Nuala Aylward"
9/7/79 Ferrybank
Waterford
Kathleen Casey has just sent on your letter to me as she is not able to answer the questions you asked her. Kathleen was ill for some time last winter & unable to attend to most things, then we had a five months postal strike (just finished ) so no mail was forwarded anywhere from here.
By the way, I had better introduce myself. I am Nuala Aylward (nee Moriarty) daughter of the school master James Moriarty. Am the eleventh in our family of twelve & now aged 72. Your grand uncle Jim was brought up by my parents after his father, my uncle Myles Moriarty was drowned in Sneem. My father James Moriarty was born & raised in Loughane & came to Inch to teach in a school nearby. His brother Myles farmed in the home place until he drowned. He left a widow & (I think) 4 girls & 1 boy, Jim. Jim was a delicate child & my father brought him to Inch to raise & care for him. The widow married again to a Sullivan man. I believe the girls went to the USA. Jim joined the Police Force in Ireland but quit during the
"2
War of Indepence here. Then in the early twenties he went to US. He spent some time in the East probably with his sisters and went to Chicago in 1924 where I had a brother Con, RIP and two sisters. I guess he knew our family better than his sisters by that time. We all loved Jim - he was a real brother to us and we never thought of him as anything else. He was very tall and auburn haired & so kind & gentle. He married Bridget Gallagher in Chicago when both were middle aged. He died first but I can’t remember the year.
There are no relatives of ours in Inch now except my mother’s relatives. My eldest sister Mary Moriarty lives here with me & I have a sister Tess O’Donoghue lives in Bridge St. Cahirciveen Kerry. Tess knows more about the relatives in Sneem than I do as it is not so far from her & her late husband Denis, was very interested in tracing families. I have heard them speak of a Mary Moriarty who has a shop and Post Office in Caherdaniel, also not far from Sneem, who is related some way.
I spent ten years in Chicago & married there. My late husband Ed & I returned here to stay in 1935. We had four sons & a daughter - all married except one who died. So now I live alone with my sister Mary
who is eighty eight & almost blind. There is a sister Catherine Callahan (85) lives in Chicago & a brother Monsignor John in St. Joseph, Missouri. Another brother & the youngest of the family Canon Myles is in Scotland. In the nephews we have two called Myles & I have a Dermot Myles so Myles is a favorite name.
Kathleen Casey is not related to the famous Steve, I imagine. He(r) folks come from west Kerry near Dingle.
Now I think I have answered all your questions as well as I can so I hope the information will be of help to you.
Hope you have a nice vacation over here. My sister Tess O’Donoghue will be glad to help you if you are in Cahirciveen.
I revisited Chicago in ’72 with Ed and last October by myself.
If there is anything else you wish to know I will be glad to help.
Your cousin
Nuala Aylward"
Nuala’s letter answered the question I always had – why did the schoolmaster take her only son from Ellen Leary Moriarty? Even though he was so young – only 8 ½ or 9 - surely he would have been some help to his mother.
This second letter from Nuala tells us a little more about Jim.
"Telephone No Rocklands
051 75733 8/8/79 Ferrybank
Waterford
My dear Mary Ellen,
Forgive my not answering yours sooner but I have been kept fairly busy. This is the time of year when friends relatives and my own family & grandchildren come to visit and it keeps me occupied.
I have parts of an old diary of my Fathers. it seems he was born in Jan. 1860. He had brothers Con & Myles & sisters Helen & Maggie as far as I can figure out. There are addresses for Con & Maggie in Newport R.I. Helen married a man named Murray. they both died leaving two children who were raised by Uncle Con & his wife who had no children themselves. These people I name were your grandmothers uncles & aunts. The younger of those two children died on Oct. 30th last. She was Helen Nicholas & visited our home in Inch several times. She lived in Virginia D.C.
My father, your grandmothers uncle was educated in Sneem until he went off to be trained for teaching. He taught in other schools in this country until he was appointed to the school near Inch. The Moriartys were all from Loughane & it would be impossible to say how long they were there. Probably many centuries. The farms used to pass from
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from Father to son and nobody kept note of time. Like my mothers folk in Inch (Fitzgeralds) they were always there or at least in living memory.
Jim, your grandmothers brother went to U.S.A. about 1921 so he could have been a godfather to your Mother. I think he went to Chicago in 1924 to be best man for my brother Con who married then. He (Con) died last December. R.I.P. Also perhaps he knew my sisters better than his own, being raised with them. As a boy when his Father drowned, he was very delicate which was the principle reason I believe my parents took him. I often heard my Dad used to take him to Dublin for treatment & he wore a spinal brace for years. But he grew up to be a fine man and one of the very best. R.I.P. His wife Bridget died a few years after he died.
You asked about Uncle Myles' & my Dad's parents deaths. They died about the years 1881 - Mother & Father about 1884 & Myles sent my Dad telegrams according to diary.
As I told you in last letter my sister Tess O'Donoghue Bridge Street Cahirciveen knows more about the families than I do, and a Mary Moriarty in Cahirdaniel Post Office is a cousin of ours too. Can't understand why it should have been hard to get any information around Loughane unless all the old folk are dead
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It wouldn't be surprising if there were no people there who would remember. My Dad died in 1939 aged 79. So he would be 119 years old, if he lived.
My sister Mary who lives with me is 88 years and sometimes gets confused too. My brother (Monsignor) Sean left here to go back to St. Joseph Mo. He was home for a month. Also had priests, one a nephew from Chicago & a niece, a nun who never visited Ireland before.
Your visit in October will be short but if you can visit Waterford I will be very pleased. But please phone first as I will be taking a vacation sometime - as soon as I can manage - and would feel dreadful if you came & found the house empty.
Hope your grandmother is keeping healthy & not suffering from any of the ailments most elderly people are afflicted with.
Will finish now, hoping you & all my relatives are well & happy. God Bless
Your sincere cousin
Nuala Aylward"
Nuala mentions Mary/Maura Moriarty of the Cahirdaniel Post Office again – we've already spoken of her – her brother Reverend Edward Moriarty answered a letter I had sent to Maura and told us about his family and his uncle James Moriarty, a pioneer in Idaho.
Nuala’s sister Tess O’Donoghue provides a little more information about young Jim Moriarty.
" 'St. Brendan's'
Bridge St.
Cahirciveen
Dec '79
Dear Mrs. Manning,
Sorry for not replying to your letter sooner, but I had been away when it arrived. Re - Moriarty family - I am afraid I can add very little to your information, except, my father James Moriarty was born and reared in Loughane as also were his brothers Myles & Con & 3 sisters. his father (my grandfather) owned the farm in Loughane . at his death the farm became Myles. Myles married Ellen O'Leary a neighbor and had a son Jim who was raised with us in Inch and four girls, who went to America. I knew only one, Nellie who lived in Loughane with her step-brother - but Nellie spoke of
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sister of hers Kate who lived in Boston and had a son a priest. I think she is dead. I've never met her tho she had been home to Loughane a few times.
My father brought Jim to Inch with him when (Myles) his father died. He lived with us except for a holiday to Loughane to see his mother & sisters every year and joined the R.I.C. he left the force the time of the Irish trouble in 1920 & went to his sisters in Boston. he later went to Chicago where I had 2 sisters & a brother. he died there later.His mother wasn't very strong after husband (Myles) died, so she married again and lived in Loughane for a long time after her second husband's death - I think Mary Moriarty would give you surer information regarding the other members of the family or if they are alive.
"3
My father James Moriarty went to school to Glenlough and later went to Dublin to train for a teacher. when he was trained a new school was built in Killeenagh Inch & he applied for it & got it. he taught there until 1925, and my husband taught there for some years after.My fathers & Myles mother's name was Mary Sweeney. I think she came from Cahirdaniel. some years ago I met some relations of hers but don't know if they are still alive.
My fathers brother Con, went to Boston & got married, had no family but raised his sisters two children Helen & Joe Murray. all that family are dead. Helen died just twelve months ago. Con died suddenly as did my father & 2 sisters.
I hope I have given you some information.
"4
I am not surprised at Mike O'Sullivan not knowing anything of the Moriartys. long ago people did not discuss their families - which I think was a pity. some of my own family couldn't be bothered.I hope you'll understand all this. I suffer a lot from arthritis & find writing difficult.
Wishing you & all yours Very Happy Christmas & New Year.
God bless
Tess O'Donoghue."
Interesting that Tess wrote that Ellen Leary was not strong after Myles drowned. We know that she was pregnant. How did she and the 4 girls survive?!? Did Con Moriarty and his sister Margaret Dwyer send money to Ellen? What about their younger sister Helen - she hadn't married Joe Murray yet - did she help out? Did Ellen's sister Hannah send money from Hartford? Maybe her brothers sent money also.
But what about daily living? What about turf for the fireplace that was used for cooking - who was cutting turf and harvesting it? What about water for cooking, drinking, washing clothes, and bathing? There was no running water at that time - it came from a well. I remember going with Larry and Hannah to the well at Danno McCarthy's for water - this was in the 1980s. You had to be strong to carry a bucket or two that distance - and how many would you bring each day? What well did Ellen Leary use?
Maybe it was a relief for Ellen Leary to have the Schoolmaster take her son Jim to Inch - especially if he had health problems - he was about 8. Did she think that the schoolmaster would take good care of Jim - better care than probably she could provide. Her three young daughters remained, and another child was on the way. Was she hoping it was another boy who might be able to help her? We did hear that Ellen did not want to break up her family - what about that? Inch was a good distance from Loughane in those days.
And imagine how sad that parting was - not just for Ellen but for Jim's three little sisters - who was going to take care of them? They lost their father - now they lost their big brother. They were so young - did they know what was even going on? They knew something horrible happened from all the upset in the house. There was no body, but was there some kind of wake? A funeral Mass? Or was there nothing but neighbors stopping by and the Schoolmaster coming. I guess we'll never know.
And how did young Jim Moriarty feel about being taken way from his home? He probably hardly knew the schoolmaster, and here he was heading off with him!
But what about daily living? What about turf for the fireplace that was used for cooking - who was cutting turf and harvesting it? What about water for cooking, drinking, washing clothes, and bathing? There was no running water at that time - it came from a well. I remember going with Larry and Hannah to the well at Danno McCarthy's for water - this was in the 1980s. You had to be strong to carry a bucket or two that distance - and how many would you bring each day? What well did Ellen Leary use?
Maybe it was a relief for Ellen Leary to have the Schoolmaster take her son Jim to Inch - especially if he had health problems - he was about 8. Did she think that the schoolmaster would take good care of Jim - better care than probably she could provide. Her three young daughters remained, and another child was on the way. Was she hoping it was another boy who might be able to help her? We did hear that Ellen did not want to break up her family - what about that? Inch was a good distance from Loughane in those days.
And imagine how sad that parting was - not just for Ellen but for Jim's three little sisters - who was going to take care of them? They lost their father - now they lost their big brother. They were so young - did they know what was even going on? They knew something horrible happened from all the upset in the house. There was no body, but was there some kind of wake? A funeral Mass? Or was there nothing but neighbors stopping by and the Schoolmaster coming. I guess we'll never know.
And how did young Jim Moriarty feel about being taken way from his home? He probably hardly knew the schoolmaster, and here he was heading off with him!
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