Newtown Great

Perhaps we are doing Peter an injustice in saying that he may never have visited Kilbride. Living conditions were improving all round during his lifetime with an increase in the number of fairs and local markets and bringing with it an improvement in road conditions throughout the countryside. There is no doubt that a smart looking pony and trap was available and if he had the back to back one that his son Patrick later enjoyed travelling in, then a family trip to Kilbride to visit his cousin Patrick and family and see the Corn Mill in operation, would have been a pleasant trip.

As we see from the records, Peter was in full possession of the farm, at the age of 27, in 1850. We find a reference to Peter in a book written in 2007, to mark the 125th anniversary of Blessington National School. It contains an extract from The Leinster Leader dated the 8th of July 1882 under the Title; Blessingtons Catholic Schools and explains that granite stones for the building of the school were required to be brought from Ballyknocken Quarries. At short notice one hundred and sixty farmers of the parish of Blackditches turned up with their horses and carts and each brought a load of stones from the Quarry to Blessington, accompanied by Rev. E Rowan P.P. and Rev Mr Hickey C.C., both of whom had arranged the entire operation. This building would in time be converted to become the first Catholic Church in the town of Blessington. The year was 1946, Father Joe Union P.P.

 The School Committee received the reverend gentlemen at the school. Rev.Thomas Heffernan C.C., Mr. Patrick Driver P.L.G., Mr Peter Mullee and several other gentlemen were present and joined in the demonstration of applause which greeted this noble band of farmers, showing in this practical way their appreciation of Catholic teaching.

On a list which acknowledged subscriptions in aid of the Catholic School building fund, we see where Peter Mullee of Newtown Great donated the sum of £2-0-0.

His headstone tells us that sadness kept pace with progress at Newtown Great as reference is made to the loss of his brothers and his own children, who had died young. No reference is made as to where they are buried but the accepted practice was to bury young children with their grandparents. Despite losing some of their children at an early age, Peter and Mary had at least one other surviving son, also named Peter and at least three daughters, Julia who was married to John Healy,Alice and Mary Josephine, who was married to an O’Reilly. This young Peter took on the tenancy of a separate farm of land also from the Blessington Estates and situated in a neighbouring area known as Blackhall.

When Peter senior died on the 18th May 1888, his eldest son Patrick was 16 years of age and it was with the help of his widowed mother Mary that he came into the eventual ownership of the farm at Newtown Great in the early 1900’s.

Patrick Mullee was a big man and from memories of him that are recalled by Tom Healy, we learn that he wore a bowler hat and on visits to his nephew John Healy in Blessington, he would arrive in a stylish back to back ponies trap, with a fine pony to pull it.

In the 1911 census returns Patrick is shown to be Head of the family and aged 40 years. Also there on the night of the census were three farm labourers, Michael Fox, Carberry Lawlor and James Kelly.

Horses were an important part of farming in those days and the Mullee family farm always had an abundance of them. Strong farm horses were used for the farming of the land, ploughing, sowing and reaping as there was no other means of doing it.

Another style of horse was for hunting and the well turned out ponies for the transport duties. Even the donkey would have been given a task or two to do. 

Keeping the horses in tip top shape meant that they had to be shod with new metal shoes at regular intervals. Jack Tyrrell of the Forge was the local Farrier and he was entrusted with this task and helped by his son Tom, they shod the horses either at Newtown Great or in the Forge at Blessington.

Tom can still recall members of the Mullee family and his work with their horses.

Patrick was now a very eligible bachelor farmer and with no apparent impediment to his marriage prospects, he decided to remain single. By so doing he signalled the end of the Mullee involvement with Newtown Great when he died in 1939, aged 67 years. He confirmed this for sure by failing to make a will when he had his faculties, as on his deathbed, in the presence of his confidant Dan Nolan of Tipperkevin and his solicitor Mr. Counihan, he was unable to append his mark to identify who he wished to inherit the now very valuable house and lands at Newtown Great. By all accounts Patrick had decided to leave the place to John Healy, In time and with the emergence of events still to unfold, this could well have meant that the eventual beneficiary would be John’s son Tom. Without the will to show this, the Succession Act came into play and as there was no spouse or children, the Estate went into probate.

His immediate next of kin was his sister Alice Josephine who lived in New York. Having emigrated in 1912, bringing with her to the States, twin nieces, Mary Josephine and Rosie Ignatious O’Reilly. Their parents were Patrick Joseph O’Reilly and Mary Josephine ( nee Mullee ) and they were born in No. 4 Frankfort Place, Upper Rathmines, Dublin on the 6th of February 1894 at 3-50 am.

They sailed from Queenstown (Cobh, Co.Cork) on board the Campania on the 16th of June 1912, Alice, who was born on the 21st of June 1875 in Newtown Great, was then 37 and the twins, were then 18. On leaving Ireland they were obliged to give the name and address of their nearest relative or friend, for the Manifest of Alien Passengers for the United States and they all gave; Aunt, Mrs. Annie Glynn of 67 Dalymount, Phibsboro, Dublin. She was Annie Kelly, who originally came from Baltiboys, Co. Wicklow.

On the 20th of March 1922 Alice was given a Certificate of Naturalization and on May 15th of that year she obtained an American passport, with the intended purpose of returning to Ireland to visit her relatives. To confirm her identity she gave as her referee the name Margaret Warner of 337 West 23rd Street New York, with instructions that the passport was to be sent to that address. There is nothing to suggest that this lady was the well known Educator, Biologist and Writer of  Children’s Books, of the same name (1858 – 1923).

In the census returns of 1930, Alice and the twins resided at 331 East 81st Street in the Borough of Manhatton, New York.

Tom Healy was born in 1928 and his Grand Aunt Alice acted as his Godmother along with an uncle, Michael Mahon.

Sometime after the death of her brother Patrick and acting on the invitation of John Healy, telling her that the house was available there for her, Alice returned to Ireland accompanied by her twin nieces Mary and Rosie O’Reilly. This was specifically to assist in the clearing up of Patrick’s affairs and the disposal of Newtown Great. This was in the mid 1940's when Alice was around 70 years of age. To assist in the Divide of Assets the lands were put up for sale through Fitzsimons Auctioneers of Naas. At the Auction, John Healy made a bid of £3,000 for the property, but he was outbid by another man acting on behalf of Alice. Having procured the farm, Alice proceeded to sell it on to Lorcan Harney in 1947.

Alice and the twins returned to America and we don’t have any record of Alice dying but we do have for the twins. Rosie died in March 1968 and Mary died in March 1975. None of them ever got married.

John Healy had also brought a man in to manage the farm named Tom Kelly, who was in fact a relative of the Mullee family, through his connection with the Kelly family of Baltiboys, where Patrick’s mother Mary came from. Farming on such a scale as was done here would require a number of farm workers and over the years they would have come from families that had cottages on the farm and from journey men workers who followed the work wherever it was available. These men would be billeted in a hayshed or whatever else was available and live on the food from the farmhouse kitchen. To keep the place running smoothly, Tom had on occasion to hire workers from around the neighbourhood to help with the threshing which would take up to three days to complete, hay making, sheep shearing and other events throughout the year. All this was in the period of time from Patrick’s death in 1939 up to the eventual sale of the farm in 1947. This farm was always divided in two by what could only be described as a Boreen, rather than a road. It is still a divided farm and is farmed separately by two members of the Harney family.