Kilcrohane Parish

Cottage in Killarney from Lawrence Collection

Theo Stoakley just talked about the geographical divisions of Ireland, and James Reilly discussed the purpose of Griffith's Valuation. But what about our family in Loughane? What was life like for them?  That's what I wanted to find out. We can guess from what we have learned that they lived in houses made with stone and mud walls with thatched roofs like the cottage above. They most likely had a garden to grow potatoes. Maybe a pig or a cow or some chickens.

At this time, I was talking with my grandmother as well as with my mother and father about what life was like in Ireland and also what it was like for the Irish when they came to the U.S. I was also researching the Sneem area at the Boston Public Library, local libraries, and any other source I might hear about. These were the days when you actually went to a library, a town hall, a cemetery  to look up something - nothing online in those days or at least I didn't know about it.

In the Belmont Library I found The Topographical Dictionary of Ireland written in 1837 by Samuel Lewis – this was shortly before the famine - he described Kilcrohane parish where Sneem is located. This is the earliest information that I could find of this area.

http://www.spirited-ireland.net/map/kerry/kerry1.gif

Lewis writes that Kilcohane Parish is situated 14 miles along the Kenmare River/Kenmare Bay - from Blackwater River in the east (near Kenmare in the above map) to Ballinskelligs Bay in the west.

Kilcrohane is nestled below a mountain range on the north. The parish is nearly 90,000 acres of rocky mountain, bog, and waste. In 1837 only a small portion is being tilled and that mainly for potatoes – sea weed is used as fertilizer. 

Although this postcard shows Glengarriff, I’m sure it was the same in the Sneem area. Mollie Crowley - Ma's first cousin - told me that she used to walk from her home near Glenlough Church down by Ma's house to Loughane pier. There she would collect seaweed and take it home in baskets carried by her donkey. Her father would use the seaweed in their garden.

In 1837 the main road coming from Kenmare through the parish is unpaved. The Kenmare to Waterville road is still the main road going through Sneem - it merges with the old road in places. The old road was much straighter. We know the part of it that branches off to the right as you leave Sneem. It goes out through Moneyflagh and Gortdromagh. Some of us have walked that part of the old road into Sneem. At Ardmore/Dennehy's cross, an old road climbs up to the top of Loughane cross - some of us have walked that as well. Someone said the power lines follow a lot of the old road from Kenmare to Waterville. It is this way that Daniel O’Connell, the Liberator/King of the Beggars, traveled by coach from Derrynane to Dublin or to the British Parliament. The Kerry Way - a signposted walk - now follows along this old road.

But in 1837 a road was recently built over the mountains from Killarney to Kenmare. Now plans are underway to build a road from the South Square in Sneem to Moll’s Gap where it will meet the new Killarney-Kenmare road. (This road from Killarney is the winding, twisting, narrow road that passes Ladies View.) It is hoped that the new road will bring some opportunity/prosperity to Sneem - “…it is expected that the new road from Sneem will tend materially to develop the agricultural resources of this wild and mountainous district.” Early in the century Alexander Nimmo had surveyed the area and thought that the widespread bogs could be reclaimed and used for agriculture.  

1993 Ladies View - JB, Donie, Dan, Joan Keohane, Mike, Cynthia Keohane, Mairead

Lewis also mentions Francis Christopher Bland, the local Sneem landlord who lives in Deryquinn Castle.  The Blands’ land in 1837 extends past the Blackshop to the cross for Staigue Fort.  Derriquin Castle is situated in a wooded demesne (manor) along the Kenmare River - the Parknasilla Hotel is located on land that formerly belonged to the Blands.

Derryquinn Castle from the Lawrence Collection in the National Library of Ireland. What a contrast with a house made with mud walls and a thatched roof!

Lewis writes in 1837 that there are two separate Roman Catholic districts. The eastern part of Kilcrohane parish, called Ballybog, contains the chapels of Sneem and Tahilla  (Catholic churches were called chapels since the time of the Penal Laws.) The western end, called Derrynane, contains Derrynane and Lohurt. Mr. Lewis comments on the “neat modern” chapel at Derrynane that was built by the late General Daniel Count O’Connell, Mr. O’Connell, and Mr. Hartop who was another local landlord. 

Lewis writes that the Protestant church in Sneem  “is a plain structure, erected about 1790.” The tithes paid to the Protestant church in Sneem were over 258 pounds annually. Our relatives, local Catholics, were forced to pay tithes in some form to the Church of Ireland until the early 1870s.

Church of the Transfiguration - Protestant church in Sneem - from the Lawrence Collection in the National Library of Ireland.

Mr. Bland, the local Sneem landlord, and the local Protestant minister support the parochial or public school in Sneem in 1837.  The parish priest in Sneem conducts a Catholic school in the Sneem chapel/church.  I wonder if our relatives attend it?

Compared to Sneem, a free school at Derrynane is supported by a bequest of £10 per year from the late General Daniel Count O’Connell. The O'Connells from Derrynane were local Catholic landlords in this area. Lewis reports about 250 children are educated in these schools. That doesn't sound like very many scholars!

“The ruins of Aghamore or Derrynane Abbey, founded in the seventh century by the monks of St. Finbarr, at Cork, … stand on a peninsula which becomes insulated at spring tides, and has therefore acquired the name of ‘Abbey Island.’ A portion of the walls has been washed away by the violence of the waves, but the remains are still considerable, and the eastern window nearly entire. Here is the family vault of the O’Connells.” 

MEM at O'Connell grave at Derrynane Abbey

“At Coode are the ruins of the old church, and on a hill about a mile from it is a curious hermitage, hewn out of the solid rock, said to have belonged to St. Crohane, the patron saint of the parish.” Brendan Galvin of the Blackshop organized a festival in St. Crohan’s honor in Castlecove every August. Mass was said at St. Crohane’s holy well, and then there was music and dancing outside the Blackshop. I enjoyed the music and dancing there many times!

1997 Helen Murphy McCarthy dancing with Brendan Galvin, and Patrick Murphy at the Blackshop - I've had the best times here.

(Brendan Galvin’s aunt Bridie was married to Mike Shea of Loughane who sent my father to Foley’s Pub in Inch in search of information about Jim Moriarty, my mother’s uncle.)

Lastly, Lewis mentions that “one of the most remarkable ancient structures in Ireland is Staigue Fort, which is generally considered to be unique. It stands on a low hill nearly in the centre of an amphitheatre of barren mountains ... The building, which is nearly of a circular form, is constructed of the ordinary stone of the country, but bears no mark whatever of a tool, having been evidently erected before masonry became a regular art. The only entrance is by a doorway barely five feet high, through a wall upwards of 13 feet thick … The fort is surrounded by a broad fosse (ditch or moat.) Various conjectures have been formed as to its origin and use, the most probable of which appears to be that it was erected as a place of refuge for the inhabitants and their cattle from the sudden inroads of the pirates of former times.”

We've all been to Staigue Fort - 1993 Mike, Julie, Keryn Schiavoni, Katherine Breen, Yvonne Burns hiding from pirates! The O'Connells were said to be involved in smuggling ...

So Lewis covered a broad area - Kilcrohane parish is 14 miles long. We know there are still a lot of mountain, rock and bog. Lewis talks about landlords. But what about Sneem and in particular Loughane?

What's with Griffith's Valuation?

One of Aunt Nellie Keohane's pictures - not sure exactly where it was taken 

A little more background so we have an idea of what was happening "back in the day."

In the previous letter,  Mr. Stokely mentions the General Valuation of Ireland carried out in the 1850s. The British Government wanted to impose a countrywide tax so Richard Griffith was commissioned to conduct a valuation of all the property in Ireland.  To ensure accuracy, Griffith wrote out detailed instructions for his workers and let them know that - if he found anything lacking - their services would be terminated. 

James R. Reilly writes in his article “Is There More in Griffith’s Valuation Than Just Names?” that before the valuation could be carried out, “the boundaries of every county, barony, civil parish, and townland in Ireland had to be scientifically surveyed and maps drawn.” The British Army Corps of Engineers carried out the survey of the land and made the maps.  The numbers on the maps for each townland correspond with numbers listed in Griffith’s Valuation. Therefore, if we can obtain the maps, we should be able to identify where each townland – and homestead - was and is located.

Example of what a page from Griffith's Valuation looks like.

This is a page from Griffith's Valuation of Kilcrohane Parish. I know it is difficult to read here, but this shows the valuation of a townland which will be important to our story - Glanlough Lower which contains Loughane - where Ma was born.

The first column on the left gives the numbers that correspond to the numbers on the Valuation map as James Reilly mentioned above.

The second column gives the name of the townland and the names of the tenants in that townland. This is where we will find our relatives.

The third column gives the name of the lessors - the person to whom the rent is paid. What can be surprising is that it is not always the landlord collecting the rent! In one case here in Glenlough Lower, William Brennan is renting some land from the local landlord James F. Bland. But William then rents out some of his holding to others who pay rent to him. In our case this column will tell us to whom our relatives paid rent.

The 4th column will describe the "tenement" or what kind of holding our relatives are renting - house, office which is a farm building, and/or land. Sometimes just land was rented or just a house and garden.

The 5th column gives the area in acres, roods, and perches.

Reilly writes “The holder of less than five acres was labeled a 'cottier or laborer'; small farmers usually held between five and thirty acres, and the large farmer occupied more than thirty acres … Prior to the Great Famine, a farmer saw little harm in subdividing a rented holding to ensure the economic well being of each son as he married; and in some cases, even the sons-in-law received as dowries of their brides some share of the farm.” 

Imagine you have a holding, and then you give parts of it to your sons or sons-in-law so that they will have a place to live and some land. The Irish had large families in those days. Your holding gets smaller and smaller.  There are more and more people living on what was the the original holding.  This is what happened in the Great Hunger or the Famine - more and more people were living on smaller and smaller  holdings - potatoes were the basic food - and sometimes the only food. When the blight struck those potatoes .... disaster. Many people had nothing else.

The last column gives the value of the land, then the value of the buildings, and finally the total of both which is the rent that is paid.

Reilly goes on to explain that the tax on the buildings was an estimate of the annual rent a landlord could expect from a tenant. “Construction materials, age, state of repair, and dimensions of the house or office were the factors used to determine taxable value. A house built of stone and brick in perfect repair with a slated roof is rated at a higher value than one constructed with mud walls roofed with thatch.  The house of mud walls, thatched roof and needing repair is still rated higher than the dilapidated, scarcely habitable structure euphemistically called a cottage.”

I imagine my relatives were living in a house with mud walls and a thatched roof - I hope they weren't in a dilapidated cottage.

So if Ma was born in Loughane, how come there aren't any Moriartys listed in this valuation of Glenlough Lower?

A Little Background Before We Start

I knew from my beginning research that Catholic records in Ireland are scarce before the 1840s.

So, in trying to find out about my family, I was not hoping to find any relation to Brian Boru! I was just interested in finding my great-grandparents.

I promise this is not an Irish history lesson – but just a quick background before starting my story.

Ireland has a history of being invaded - by Vikings, Norsemen, and others. The English invaded several times, and although they eventually became rulers of this small country, they were unable to subdue the natives and bend them to an English will  - despite military force and the Penal Laws. As we all know, the native Irish lost their lands – they were taken away and given as payment or rewards to English soldiers and civil servants who helped crush the Irish.

In a further effort to suppress the Irish, the English government abolished the independent Irish Parliament in 1800 and merged it with the English Parliament. Many of the “gentry” moved to London after this – that’s where the power was - as well as the social scene for their families. They became absentee landlords – their estates in Ireland were used to support a lifestyle in London that they could not afford. High walls - some still seen today – surrounded the landlords’ estates to keep out the native Irish. Their agents were responsible for extracting rents from the Irish tenants. The rents were forwarded to the landlords – many of whom never set another foot in Ireland. They had no connection with their tenants. What once was a somewhat paternalistic relationship between landlords and tenants was now lack of interest in their tenants but  an increasing dependence on their rents to pay for increasing mortgages on their Irish estates and their English lifestyle.

By the 1840s, the majority of Irish land was in the hands of a few landlords. The Irish were renting small parcels of land and were trying to survive. Their rents were increased if they made any improvements on the land. The majority lived in poverty. They raised potatoes to feed themselves. If they raised any crops, they sold them to pay the rent. Or if they were lucky enough to have a pig - again they sold it to pay the landlord. They cut turf for fuel. They were forced to pay tithes to the Church of Ireland even though the vast majority of native Irish were Catholic. This is how my relatives lived! in their own country!

Let’s talk about County Kerry.

When I was first looking into my family’s history, I started with Sneem because my grandmother - Margaret Moriarty Keohane who was known to everyone as “Ma”- had been born in Sneem. She was now spending a lot of time at our house. It was easy to talk to her about her family, and even though she was becoming confused, she still had some memories. And as I mentioned previously, I had recently met and spent some time with her nephews and nieces in Loughane. I wanted to learn what caused so many of our relatives to emigrate – and what brought them to Boston?

On one of my first trips to Ireland, I had picked up a small booklet about Sneem, which was written by Mr. Theo Stoakely. In the 1970s, when I was making my first trips to Sneem, Mr. Stoakely was teaching school in Kenmare and was married to Dr Ruth Stoakely, who was the local doctor in Sneem. Since it seemed he knew something about Sneem, I wrote to him for information about the local area. I gave him some basic information about my grandmother. The following letter is his reply.

"Ankail, Tahilla,
Killarney, Co. Kerry.
17th August 1980.
Dear Mrs. Manning, 
     Thank you for your letter of 20th July which I received about a fortnight ago. I am glad you enjoyed reading "Sneem - the Knot in the Ring", but I fear it will be quite a long time before the enlarged edition is available. Tracking down the required information is a time-consuming business for one person, but I keep working at it and hope to put it all together one day.
     No, I am not a native of these parts, in fact I am really a rank outsider, having been born in England. However, I had a strong Irish Connection in the shape of two uncles who were clergy in the Church of Ireland, and it was on a visit to one of them that I first set foot in Ireland in 1923. I took my degree in Trinity College, Dublin, and was a schoolmaster in England for many years after the end of the second world war. My wife was born in Dublin and is the doctor for the Sneem area; she knows the Mike O'Sullivan you mentioned. We bought our land in Kerry in 1964 and having been living here permanently since 1960.
     One reason for wanting to write a detailed account of Sneem and district is that no one has attempted it so far. Consequently I am unable to recommend to you any books on Sneem - there just aren't any. As you remark, even Tom Barrington's "Discovering Kerry" (frequently called "The Kerry Bible") devotes only a few pages to the area. This part of Kerry has been the subject of almost complete neglect, mainly because it remained primitive for a long time, and was almost depopulated during Cromwellian Times. Also, compared with places such as Kenmare, Tralee and Dingle, Sneem is a much more recent centre of population,having started to develop only late in the eighteenth century.

     Numerous books contain references to Sneem, but for the most part they are short and don't give much idea of what life was like in the old days. However, there are some worth mentioning. I am assuming that you have good library facilities in the States, and that your local public library will either have or be able to get a copy of any given book.

ALFRED PERCIVAL GRAVES - To Return To All That. Published by Jonathon Cape:London 1930. The author of this book wrote the ballad 'Father O'Flynn', which as you will know, is about Father Michael Walsh, the P.P. of  Sneem from 1829 to 1866. Chapters IV and V give a wonderful account of what life in the Sneem area was like for members of the gentry class.

JAMES FRANKLIN FULLER - Omniana. Publishd by Jarrold's, about 1918. This is another book written from the point of view of one of the gentry. There are only a few pages dealing with the area, but there is a valuable account of 'Father O'Flynn'. 

SEAMUS FENTON - It All Happened. Published by Gill and Son, Dublin, 1949. This is written from quite a different point of view. The author was of the old Gaelic stock - and lets you know it. He had a chip on his shoulder concerning the Anglo-Irish and the book is spoilt by his vicious references to them. However, the book is redeemed by its marvelous description of Sneem fair in 1885.

No one to my knowledge has written about life in the area in the early 1800s. The chief landlords were the Blands,who came from Yorkshire in 1692 and were in the Sneem area from about 1750 to 1933, although they sold up their estates about 1890. I am at present in correspondence with the present head of the family, who lives in Northern Ireland. The Blands were good landlords who looked after their tenants well, and I have never heard anyone say a word 

"against them. In 1891 the Blands sold out to Colonel Warden, of whom many old people of Sneem alive today have the unhappiest of memories. He imported staff from Scotland and evictions became quite common. It was understandable, although regrettable, that during the troubles in 1922 he was burnt out and fled to England. There were numerous other gentry living in the district last century, but in the main they were in houses leased from the Blands. Several of the "Big Houses" of those days still exist today.

As for dancing at the crossroads, there was - and still is - a concrete square at Oysterbed Cross, and another at Kelly's Cross. The latter would be the one your grandmother remembers near Glenlough School - now a church. I fear I haven't been able to give you much help, but if there are any other questions you wish to ask, please write and I will do my best,

Your sincerely,

Theo Stoakley"

I include the letter below so you could see how it looked - this was communication in 1980!

Doesn’t it seem funny today - in a world of instant communication - when we have iphones, tablets, computers/laptops, email, IM, text messaging, Facebook, tweets - even the “old fashioned” telephone - that Mr. Stoakely would ask me to WRITE to him if I had questions? What a big difference in 30+ yrs! And he wrote on a typewriter!! On airmail stationary that was less expensive than sending a letter!! If you could look closely, you could see where he made typing errors and corrected them. Reminds me of typing term papers when I was in college.

But I can still remember how excited I was to receive any little bit of information about any of the relatives or anything about where they came from – and back in the 1970s/1980s, the news usually came by snail mail. My mother and father would be as excited as I was when a letter arrived in the mail!!

Since we will be talking about the geographical divisions of Ireland, especially the townlands, I have included another of Mr. Stokely’s letters, which gives some background information.

"Ankail,
Tahilla,
Killarney,
Co. Kerry.
24th August 1981

Dear Mrs Manning, 
Thank you for your letter of 12th June. I was very sorry to miss you last month I was at home on the 13th, 18th and 19th, when you hoped to be in Sneem, but I expect you didn't have enough time to get round everybody.

I also have to thank you for your letter of 24th January and to apologise for not answering it earlier. Unfortunately it must have got put on one side, but your June letter jogged my memory and I found it.

I fear I am not really qualified to answer all your questions, as the area you are interested in - Glenlough, Loughane, etc., - is rather outside the area I am studying in detail. I believe at one time the main landlord in the Sneem area - Bland - owned land as far away as Castlecove and that his agent in those days was William Jermyn of Scart. I believe also that a lot of his outlying lands were sold about 1873 , but I don't know whether someone else took them over or whether they were sold to the tenants.

However, I can deal more easily with your question about townlands and maps. I expect you know that the townland is the smallest named division of land in Ireland. The whole country is divided into:-
Provinces; there are four of these, each being subdivided into
Counties; of which there are 32. I am of course considering the whole island, as it was before partition. Each county is subdivided into
Baronies; of which there are 273 in the whole country. In this part of Kerry we are in the Barony of Dunkeron South. Baronies are subdivided into
Parishes; here we are in Kilcrohane. And finally parishes are subdivided into
Townlands; of which there are about 62,000 in the whole of Ireland. The area of a townland may be only a few acres, but in mountainous or waste areas there are townlands of two or more thousand acres. You are correct in understanding the origin of the townland as the land associated with a farm or homestead or a group of such. Although this system of subdivision of the land was in use in the 17th century, it was not until the General Valuation of Ireland in 1851 that their boundaries were fixed and the Anglicised versions of their names were standardised.
Unfortunately there are no small-scale Ordnance Survey maps which have all the townlands marked and their boundaries shown. It is necessary to use the six-inch plan if this information is required, and the snag then is that each sheet covers a very small area. There used to be a map called the townland Index which would have been very helpful to you, but it is long out of print and quite unobtainable.
Incidentally, Loughane is not a townland. Although the townland is the smallest subdivision of land, some of them have names applied to smaller parts of them. these smaller named areas have no precise boundaries and so cannot be called subdivisions; the Ordnance Survey refers to them as sub-denominations. Loughane is not shown on the 1" and 2" maps.
Sincerely, Theo Stoakley"

So I think we need a break before we continue!

How This All Started - Another Trip to Ireland - This Time With GeeGee

MEM at O'Brien's Castle at the Cliffs of Moher

So GeeGee and I headed to Ireland in June 1978 to attend my cousin Eileen O'Sullivan's wedding. We had 2 weeks before meeting up with Julie O'Connell in London for our bus tour through central Europe.

We hit the Cliffs of Moher - this was long before it became so commercialized!

MEM buying a tin whistle at the Cliffs of Moher. This gent was selling them there for years.

We were fascinated by the sign for a bar and an undertaker in the same place!!

We stopped in Ennistymon, County Clare because Granny Flanagan - Ann Dickie's mother - who lived across the street from me on Marshall Street was from there. I wanted to see where she grew up - what her home town was like.

MEM at Muckross




We stopped in Muckross in Killarney. I wanted to show GeeGee some of the sights before we headed for Sneem.

We took a trap into the Gap of Dunloe. Can you tell it was a cool day?
I suppose we bought those Aran sweaters on that trip. 

So after some sightseeing, we headed for Sneem. We spent about a week there - so we began to know some of the local people. I used to go into the Blue Bull Pub in the late morning for coffee while I read the newspaper.

I drank more than coffee in the pubs. Here we are in the Sneem House.

Uncle Mike told us to come out to the house the morning of Eileen's wedding. Now, Loughane is about 6 miles from Sneem, and the Glengariff Church is in the opposite direction over mountains into Cork - not exactly a quick trip!

We were welcomed with the local custom - a glass of whiskey - it is a sign of hospitality. Here I am below with Hannah and Uncle Mike as I try to drink my glass as well as GeeGee’s!!  She always came up with an excuse not to drink it - so everyone gave hers to me! And I hate the taste! Then I had to drive that twisty road to Glengarriff after those whiskies!

Eileen with Kate's aunt and our Uncle Larry O'Sullivan in Loughane.

Patsy's wife Kate - and GeeGee with Marlboros because we all smoked in those days. Notice the ring toss game on the wall behind Kate. My kids would play with that in later years.

Outside the Church in Glengariff.

 It is a custom, at least in Sneem, to take group pictures outside the church after the wedding. Patsy John L and Gussie McCarthy on the left were the two best men. Then Mrs. and Mr. McCarthy - parents of the groom. Connie McCarthy and Eileen with Uncle Mike behind them and Lena beside Eileen.  Then comes Elsie and Peggy McCarthy - the bridesmaids - I seem to remember they had an altercation at the reception - not sure if with each other or someone else. Did one of them end up with a black eye?

The reception was at the Kenmare Bay Hotel - so we drove back over the mountains from the church to Kenmare. In the picture above we have Kate and Patsy, Uncle Larry O’Sullivan – Uncle Mike’s oldest brother, me, and Dick Boland who is a nephew of Uncle Larry’s wife. They were from New Jersey. Dick was 78 in 2008 according to Mollie Hummel, Larry’s daughter.

“THE” Johnny Casey of Loughane that we and future visitors drooled over – he was dancing with GeeGee at the reception at the Kenmare Bay Hotel.

MEM dancing with Larry. There weren't too many dancers! 

So we enjoyed ourselves at the reception - meeting more relatives and more neighbors . Above is Danno McCarthy who is a cousin, Paddy Casey who is a Loughane neighbor, GeeGee, Larry, MEM, and Johnny Casey - Paddy's brother - another neighbor.

At the end of the reception, we were told to head for the pub at the top of the town - everyone would be there. But, as we were leaving, we came upon Lena and Hannah, Larry's mother and sister, sitting alone with no drive home. So we took them with us. I was flying over those twisting turning roads until poor Hannah was sick in the backseat. I pulled over until she recovered - all the while worrying that we would not get to Loughane and back into Sneem before the pub closed. Nice, right?! 

Well, we didn't make it to the pub in time - the door was locked. We hung around for a while in case anyone came out or in case anyone was let in.  No luck - so we went back to the B&B.

Maybe it was the next day that we went to eat dinner at Cait's cafe - the Sacre Coeur. 

Whenever it was, we bumped into someone we knew! Uncle Larry had taken Uncle Mike and Lena out to dinner. And who should the waitress be? Johnny Murphy's mother - she was still working there!

Lena, Uncle Larry, MEM, Eileen Murphy, Dick, and Uncle Mike

The next day or so, GeeGee and I were driving Kate to Tralee Hospital to see her aunt who had fallen and broken her leg. We met Philip at our B&B - he was heading to Killarney - so we took him along. Eileen had asked us to take her friend Connie Ryan to the train station in Killarney - so we picked him up in Loughane. 

We stopped at a pub in Cahirciveen and whom should we bump into? Uncle Larry and Dick!!  Uncle Larry had left Sneem that day without saying goodbye. He said it was too hard to say goodbye to Mike so he left without telling him. He asked me to tell Mike and the family that he had left – that was not pleasant – they were very upset. Mike said Uncle Larry had done this before – when he emigrated to America. I guess it must have been very difficult for Larry to leave home. 

Kate, Dick, Philip, MEM, Uncle Larry, Connie Ryan in Cahirciveen.

Saying goodbye and getting ready to hit the road to Killarney again.

We had a nice hour or so with Uncle Larry and Dick - got to know them better - a new branch on the family tree that I was starting to put together.

But we had to catch a ferry to meet up with Julie in London so we headed for Kinsale a day or so later.  We stayed inside  Kinsale at the White Lady the first night - here we met some locals and some non-locals. 

We took Uncle Jim Keohane out to the Dunderrow Pub - he was very quiet - not like when he would be talking to my father! The second night we stayed at the Dunderrow Pub – it did Bed & Breakfast - this was the night before we took the ferry from Cork to Swansea. What would Aunt Nellie ever think of us spending so much time in the Dunderrow Pub?!?!? 

We found the ferry and headed for London and more adventures!

We spent 30 days on this bus - in the back in the smoking section.

But, after the bus tour, we returned to Sneem. We spent a lot of time with Patsy and Kate and with Larry. We were back in Loughane almost every day. We were really getting to know this part of the family. We also were meeting Larry's friends - we were going to pubs and dances with him. We were learning more about Sneem.

But, GeeGee and I managed to drag ourselves away from Sneem – alright, I admit it - GeeGee insisted that we leave. She wanted to see more of Ireland. We drove to Galway and stayed in Roundstone where we met my father’s cousin Mary King. Of course, we also visited Mrs. Connolly in Ballyconneely - she was like family. 

Julie Connolly giving me pointers on haycocks. She also showed me how to dig potatoes.

Mrs. Connolly, MEM, Julia - look at that front yard!!

While we were in Roundstone, we were trying to find some Raffertys for GeeGee - unfortunately, we didn't find any of her family, but we did meet Joe Rafferty and his son.

I was enjoying these trips to Ireland – they were becoming more and more interesting. I was meeting more of the locals and more relatives – I was learning more and more about my family history and what life was like in Ireland.

Whenever I returned from a trip, my father and mother would be waiting to hear whom I had met and what I had learned. As I said before, Mike Shea, my grandmother’s neighbor from Loughane, would call to find out what news I had for him about Sneem. Most emigrants like to hear news from home.

And although she had dementia, Ma (Margaret Moriarty Keohane) still remembered some of her childhood and her neighbors in Loughane. My father would be playing Irish music in the kitchen, and we would talk about our trips. Ma would tell us bits and pieces about her early life and the people she remembered.

On one of my early trips to Sneem, I met Dan Brennan of the old road from Loughane to Ardmore Cross. He remembered Ma and said she was a great dancer. He used to dance with her at the platform at Ardmore – I call it Paddy Dennehy’s Cross.

My mother and I used to dance with Ma in our kitchen on Marshall Street in Watertown while my father played Irish music. I always made Ma lead - and she never minded - she was so happy to be dancing.

I also started reading about Ireland and going to Irish dances - with my mother and father - at Memorial Hall in Brighton – it didn’t hurt that there were a few single Irish guys like John McClure and Jerry Quinn who asked me to dance. I had already been going out to Irish pubs with Julie, Beth, and GeeGee for years.  Now I started going to Irish dances at the VFW in Brighton, Irish football matches at Dillboy Field, and the various Irish Football Banquets with my sisters, Christine and Jody.

I took Aunt Nellie to Ireland one summer – 1981 – she stayed at Acton’s Hotel. I had some great times with cousins Anne and Vincie O’Sullivan when I stayed in the old cottage in Ballythomas – Uncle Jim had died since my last trip. Anne was Uncle Jim’s granddaughter. I visited more relatives with Aunt Nellie – I found their stories very interesting - I even tape recorded one visit. 

Then I went to Sneem and almost forgot to go back to pick up Aunt Nellie because I was having such a good time with Larry – I met the men he worked for and spent time with their families. I went to the bog and hayfields with him as well as to pubs and dances. I was enjoying this time in Sneem.

I continued spending summers in Sneem. I enjoyed visiting the old people to hear what their lives had been like – I was asking them if they remembered my grandmother or anyone in her family.

Suddenly it hit me - I realized that I was turning into my father! 

I had even begun to look up Baptismal and Marriage records – I had started taking genealogy classes - I had written up a short history about the Moriartys.  

I was WORSE than my father!!!!!

This blog is an expansion of that short history that I wrote, but I have also included what I know about the Keohane side. I feel my purpose in life is to write my family’s early history so that, as far as possible, no one is forgotten. And this blog is the perfect way to share that story!