John Molloy

Erected by Sarah Molloy of Rathmore in memory of her beloved husband John Molloy

Who died on the 7th of February 1892, aged 77 years

His daughter Margaret who died on the 2nd of March 1874 aged 19 years

His son Michael who died on the 3rd of April 1892 aged 22 years

Among the various properties that John and later his son Darby would add to their estate, this house and land was their home place. The Griffith Valuation records clearly show that this farm was shared equally between the Molloy and Byrne families and had been from the beginning, existing through three generations and spanning over a hundred years.

Both families paid half the annual tax, £36-5-0 each, out of the total levied, £70-0-0 on the land and £2-10-0 on the buildings. Another item that brought attention to this arrangement was the 1911 census details. Both families are listed as being side by side and similarities in the returns indicate a possibility that both the families shared the houses and out offices, as well as the land.

Extracts from the records.

  1863;  John Molloy   --- Andrew Byrne  ---  Shared this 107 acre farm equally between them.

  1893;  Darby Molloy ---   John Byrne    ---  Continued to do so.

  1936;  Mary Molloy   --- Thomas Byrne ---  Continued to do so.

A local man,Jim Sargeant, who remembers the families and who actually worked with the Byrne family as a young man, does not recall getting any indications that this was one farm, shared by both families.

Jim remembers the last of the Byrne family,Thomas son of John and Anne and how he became a kind of recluse after losing part of his leg.

A neice of Thomas came to live with him and manage the farm. She employed Jim as a farm servant and for some years he did all the farm work such as ploughing, reaping etc.

Jim remembers clearly the set up as it existed, without knowing all the facts, and he has related a few of them.

The clipping of the horses was regarded as an important event and when he had finished, the horses had to be paraded past Tom's bedroom window to get his approval.

On entering the farmyard it was necessary to go around the gable end of Molloys house to get to Byrne's part of the yard. This meant bringing the horses across a cobbled area which used to upset them.

Jim remembers well Michael Molloy and his wife Madge and indeed other members of the Molloy family as they went about the business of farming their part of the land. Without displaying any signs that would indicate what the joint effort between the families was.  

This property was purchased from the landlord by Darby Molloy and John Byrne in the year 1907.

On the night the census was taken, April 2nd 1911, those present in that house in Rathmore West were;

• Sarah, widow of John, head of the family and then aged 82

• Her daughter Mary aged 59

• Her son Darby aged 53 and his wife Maria aged 43, along with their five children then born;

  • John aged 9, Mary aged 8, Margaret aged 5, Sarah and Brigid, twins aged 2.  Another son Michael, and a daughter Elizabeth, had not been born as yet

• Also there was Sarah’s and her late husband John’s nephew Darby Molloy, aged 70 years who had buried his wife Brigid the previous year. His place of birth was given as Wicklow, confirming that he was a son of Patrick from the Corn Mill in Kilbride and a brother of Eliza (Quinn) and Michael who emigrated to Illinois in the U.S.A.

Listed alongside the Molloy family were the Byrne’s, who shared the farm with them;

• John Byrne head of the family aged 65, his wife Anne aged 55 and their son Thomas aged 27

• Also present was James Doyle aged 42 and described as a labourer.

IF ANYONE HAS ANY INFORMATION AS TO WHAT THE RELATIONSHIP WAS BETWEEN THESE TWO FAMILIES WE WOULD APPRECIATE HEARING FROM THEM.

The headstone Sarah had erected for her husband John in Kilbride Cemetery, tells us that he died on the 7th February 1892, aged 77 years. On his death the lands and all he possessed passed to his son Darby, who married Maria Slattery and by all accounts these two men were astute operators in the business of farm management and expanded their holdings extensively, by taking control of at least four additional portions of land, as shown in the Griffith Valuation records.

These were, another 11 acres in Rathmore West, 82 acres in Greenmount, which was taken by John’s brother Michael when John died in 1892, 133 acres in Newtown which transferred to Anne Melia in 1905, 83 Acres at the Slatequarries and 100 acres in Wolfestown, alongside Michael’s 53.

John (Darby’s eldest son) married Mary Healy whose family owned a Public House in Kilteel. This was purchased in the name of Mary’s mother Anastatia in 1906, along with two acres of land. It was previously owned by John Byrne in 1861 and John Eustace in 1901. In 1930 it passed to Minnie Molloy, who was in fact the above Mary Healy, in 1933 to Mary Walsh and in 1963 to James McGuinness. He sold on the licence and the Pub closed.

Mary Healy was an only child and her wedding to John Molloy took place in the parish church of Eadstown Co. Kildare, on the 7th of April 1926. Conducted by Father J.F. Kelly P.P. and their witnesses were Michael Molloy and Mary Mahon. The Healy family had connections with Kilbride, which proved to be beneficial for them, because on the death of her relatives, Mary came into possession of their farm in Kilbride, where they came to live in 1930. At that time they had two children, Sean and Mary and Brid was the first to be born in Kilbride. They went on to have four more children, Michael, Anne, Josephine and Nuala.

From his farm John could look down on the river Lisheen and see where, at a small clump of trees, the weir was put in place by his ancestors to extract the water used to operate the Corn Mill at the other end of the village. His grandfather John would have played his part in the working of this enterprise before leaving for Rathmore.

This is the only Molloy or Mullee family to be found in the Kilbride district today and many of John and Mary’s family live in homes built on the land where they were reared. “Big John” was the only family member with connections to the Corn Mill, to return and live in Kilbride and this was after his family had been in exile in Co. Kildare for close on a hundred years.

His eldest son Sean inherited the farm from his father, after he died suddenly in 1977. Sean himself, who worked in The Guinness Brewery, pre-deceased his wife Anne (nee Doran). They had already built a new house adjacent to the old one, which had been demolished with great haste in an overnight operation. Anne had little interest in farming as such and having no direct connection with Kilbride, she quickly moved to dispose of her interest in the farm they lived in. This was to the great consternation of Sean’s siblings, as was the decision to have his burial in Eadstown Cemetery and not alongside his parents John and Mary, who are buried in the new section of Kilbride Cemetery.