Wingfield Road,
Trowbridge, Wiltshire
England
20th June 1981
Dear Mary Ellen,
Greetings to you. I hope that you are very well these days.
Thank you very much for your letter of 10th June, with all the news of your intended trip to Ireland in July. I hope everything goes well with all your plans. I notice you plan to visit many places while you are over. My sister will be very happy for you to pay her a visit. She has the Post Office there in Cahirdaniel. On your way into Cahirciveen, you will pass the home of Helen Sullivan, whose mother was my father's sister - Margaret Moriarty. I mentioned her in my first letter to you.
My sister has been to Boise, Idaho, and she has been twice to Boston. In 1964 she did a 6 month trip from the east coast to the west coast. She then visited another aunt Mary Moriarty who then lived with her married daughter in San Francisco.
I found your letter of 23rd January very interesting, because of the details you got from Boise about James Moriarty, who was my father's uncle. We had heard about him, but only very little. He would have been a first cousin of Myles Moriarty of Loughane.
Now you have enquired about where I was born, etc. Well here now is all the information I can supply.
My grandfather was Michael Moriarty , brother of James in Boise.
In my reckoning he too would have been a first cousin of Myles.
My grandfather had 11 children, all born in Cahirdaniel, where I too was born and my sister, and my deceased brother Jim.
Here are the names of my grandfather's children.
Patrick - married in Caherdaniel - with three sons - Michael, John, and James.
Myles - emigrated to Boise where he died. The name Myles keeps appearing in the family. not married.
Jim - emigrated to Boise, where he died in 1948. Not married.
Kate - emigrated to Boise, married and became Mrs. Parker. died in Boise.
Mary - emigrated to Boise, married, became Mrs Hoobing, Died in San Francisco in the 60's.
John - my father married in Caherdaniel, and died there in 1957.
Margaret - married in Caherdaniel, died there in Dec. 1980.
Edward - unmarried, lived in Caherdaniel, died there in 1953.
Michael - married in Sneem. Father of Mary and Eileen, Joseph (deceased) Christopher in New Zealand.
Ellen - emigrated to Boise in 1921 (last of the emigrants) died there in 1969.
Well now Mary Ellen what do you think of the above family. My grandmother said that none of them ever gave her any trouble. My grandfather died in 1927. I can just remember him. There are other families of the name in the Caherdaniel area. My aunt on my mother's side was married to another - Michael Moriarty. He worked at one time in Boston with his brother Myles (notice how that name Myles keeps appearing) showing a connection. Myles in America had a son also Myles, who must still be living in the Boston area.
The reason why my five aunts and uncles emigrated to Boise, was I expect because they had an uncle there. I cannot trace any more connections of James. Well I hope all this makes the picture a bit clear for you.
You may find the enclosed newspaper cutting interesting. This holy man was no doubt a kinsman of the family. A Franciscan church now stands in Killarney on the place where he together with his brother-in-law were hanged in 1653. Anybody will point out to you where this church is. So now Mary Ellen you will see that somewhere in your veins is the blood of martyrs, and scholars, and nobility from the far past
You asked me about Eileen Moriarty's address. Here it is -
Mrs. Fernando Guerrero, 41 Kilvinton Drive, Enfield, Middlesex, England. I have been speaking to her about you. She told me that your grandmother's stepsister, whose name was Ellie used to come to Sneem sometimes to visit her father when he was alive. I do not have Mary Moriarty's address, but she lives quite near Eileen.
It was a pity that when you last visited the new Hotel in Caherdaniel you did not enquire if there were any Moriartys living around. You would I am sure have been told about my sister. She controls all telephone calls to and from the hotel from her exchange office. She is well known throughout the area.
I have just had an interruption. My sister has been on the phone from Ireland tonight; today she was on off shore cruise from Caherciveen to visit the Skelligs, nine miles out. These are small islands with a famous history going back to the 9th century. On the boat with her were four of Tess O'Donoghue's family, one a nun in Los Angeles, another a Columban Father in the Philipine Islands. They told my sister of your intended trip to Ireland.
I must now write to Peggy O' Neill in Brookline. She told me that she spoke to you. Her mother was born behind the hill where your grandmother was born. Peggy gets cross with me because I have not gone back again to Boston, since 1966.
I hope you like the enclosed magazine from Dan Moriarty about all the Moriartys in the US. It will surprise you. It was sent to me last year.
I hope Danno Myles is coming along well, and is in good shape just now. Well I hope you have a good flight, and perhaps if you get to my sister she will put you on the phone to me, for a short chat.
God speed you and may you have a good trip, and may you discover more Moriartys in the homeland. You are returning like the Kennedy to your roots.
Good luck to you and all your family,
E. Moriarty"
I love the reference to the Kennedys!!
Father Edward was a bit mixed up re Ma's stepsister Ellie who used to visit his uncle Mike Moriarty in Sneem. Ellie, who we know as Nellie Moriarty, was my grandmother's sister - NOT her stepsister. I learned later that this Uncle Mike Moriarty lived in the original Cottages in Sneem.
"This clip is from The Kerryman (9/1/80) the weekly newspaper of the County Kerry. Castlemaine near Inch to where you will be going when on your visits. This information will add very much to your history of the Moriartys.
'Denis Sugrue of Milltown sent us an unusual card for Christmas. It was made by himself and contains a picture of the Penal Mass Rock - Poul an Aifrinn - in the wood at Killaclohane. It was there, on the Feast of the Assumption in 1653, that the Prior of the Dominican Monastery in Tralee, Father Thaddeus Moriarty, was captured by Cromwellian soldiers as he celebrated Mass.
He was subsequently held in the dungeon at Ross Castle and was hanged at Martyr's Hill, Killarney.
Father Moriarty was born in Castledrum in the parish of Castlemaine. He has been very much in the minds of the local people since 1971 when Bishop Casey went to Poul an Aifrinn to concelebrate Mass there with some local clergy. Every year since then, the Parish Priest, Father John Quane, (a Ballybunion man) has celebrated Mass at the rock in the wood.
The chalice used by Father Moriarty on the day he was captured, 327 years ago, is now preserved at Holy Cross Priory in Tralee.
Denis Sugrue tells us - with fervent hope - that there is a belief that Thaddeus Moriarty will be canonized some day.
In fact he was hoping that this would be 'in the not too distant future.
What a great day it will be for Castlemaine and Kerry when that happens!
We put through an enquiry to the Dominican Priory in Tralee this week to hear if anything is happening about the canonization of Father Moriarty.'"
In 1653 the English issued a decree from Dublin that banished all priests from Ireland - they had 20 days to present themselves for transportation from the country. Refusal would be considered treason, and death was the penalty. Father Edward's article shows us what happened. As of now in 2013, Father Thaddeus has been beatified by Pope John Paul II.
I vaguely remember speaking to that Peggy O'Neill who lived in Brookline - Father Edward mentioned her in his letter. I left a lot of my family research in our house in Ireland when we moved back to Watertown. Unfortunately, it wasn't there when I returned. So I don't have any more letters from Father Edward. He died on Halloween in 1993.
I love the inscription on his gravestone outside Caherdaniel Church where he is buried near the famine priest, Father O'Connell.
"I'd like to leave an echo whispering softly down the ways of happy times and laughing times and bright and sunny days."
Father Edward has mentioned his sister Maura of the Post Office several times. I never did visit her that summer or any other time I was in Ireland - now of course, I am sorry that I didn't. I have one quick article about her before we start prospecting.
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