Quinns

Born in the family home of her parents John and Anne at Ballinahown, Blessington Co. Wicklow in  1835, Bridget grew up as so many others have done, on the shared farm of the three Quinn families. We only know of two siblings, her brother Henry who married Eliza Mullee from Kilbride in 1866 and her sister Elizabeth who married Garreth Doyle from Baltiboys in 1860. 

About the year 1857, Bridget married Thomas Phibbs in Blackditches Roman Catholic Church and set up home at his place in Lug na Gun.

Thomas was the son of  Patrick (1782-1866) and Mary (Nee Tyrrell) who died on the 14th November 1864. Thomas and Bridget were blessed with a daughter Mary and two sons, Patrick and John.

        Mary, who was apparently reared by the Phibbs family, was later to marry Michael Nolan from The Commons Newtown Co Kildare in  circa 1886. They had six children John [1887]  Thomas [1889]  Ellen [1890]  Bridget [1891]  Mary [1893]  William [1895]

         In the 1901 census Michael was shown to be a widower and his wife Mary would have died between 1895 and 1901.

• Patrick was born on the 13th December1862. He was later to Marry Kate and they had two children, Thomas born in 1891 and Katie born in 1889. In the 1901 census they were living in Watkins Buildings Dublin.

• John who was born on the 22nd May 1864. He was later to emigrate to New Zealand and it was there in The Catholic Church, Lyelle, Westport, South Island, o.n the 10th April 1893, he married Margaret Edge, who was then aged 16. They had a large family and both of them died during the black flu in 1917. There are many descendants of John and Margaret in New Zealand and elsewhere. One of their grand daughters, Sister Anne  Phibbs, a Brigidine Nun in New Zealand, has rightly claimed Bridget Quinn as her Great Grandmother.

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Another sister Elizabeth, was married to a local man named Garrett Doyle. They had a son John, born around 1860, who inherited the tenancy of their farm in Baltyboys. About 1887 he sought clearance from the Landlord to marry his girl friend Mary, but was impeded by the fact that his two sisters were still in residence at their home place.

Without much consideration as to their well fare he evicted them  from the family home and left them on the side of the road.

Their first cousin John Quinn, in an effort to obtain compensation for the sisters, took a case against the Doyle's to the Assizes in Wicklow, but due to legal restraints, he lost the case. There is no knowledge as to what eventually became of them. 

As can be understood this incident was to cause bitter animosity between these two families and only waned with the passing away of those familiar with all the details.

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Henry was born in 1828 and died on the 18th February 1898. In 1866 Henry married Elizabeth Mullee 

(1840 - 1898 ). They had eight children, five girls and three boys.

We will now take a look at the life and times of this generation of the Quinn family over the period from 1866 until the death of the last one in 1964. Click on blue links for Nuns stories.

                                                         MARIANNE  QUINN

                                                                  1867 - 1939

The eldest of Henry and Eliza’s children, Marianne was born on the 1st of October 1867, she grew up in Ballinahown and might well have worked away from home before getting married to near neighbour Richard Pender in October 1895,( Richard’s sister Kate married James Byrne of Baltyboys in April 1895.)

The Penders went to live in Dublin, where Richard got a job in The Guinness Brewery. In the 1901 census they were living at No.7 Geraldine Square, Merchants Quay and three children had been born, George, Henry and John. Also living with them as a boarder was Marianne’s brother Patrick Quinn.

The next we hear of them is on the 1911 census when three more children had arrived, James, Mary Anne and Elizabeth.

They were now living at No. 50 Marrowbone Lane and sometime later they moved again to No. 6 Dolphin Barn Street.

              " Assuming that Richard filled in the census form in 1901, it certainly was not him that filled in the   

                 form in 1911, because in fact he was not there on the night of April the 2nd.

                 It was very likely that Marianne herself  filled in the form and in a reference to Richard,

                 who was described as a Brewery Labourer, she correctly added a note to say,

                 "He was out in Co. Wicklow," clearly indicating that he would not be listed elsewhere."                  

Marianne was five years older than Richard and in both census returns she falsified her age, for some reason or other, to give the impression that she was a year younger than him.

As time progressed Richard was upgraded from being a labourer in the Brewery to a higher level with more responsibilities.

We are not privileged with having the exact details of what happened, but an incident occurred in an area where Richard was responsible for.

The Brewery, while giving good constant employment, demanded in return a high degree of honesty and fidelity from all its workers and any breach of trust was dealt with severely and in Richard’s case, lead to his instant dismissal.

This setback had a devastating effect on himself, his wife and growing family and worse was to follow.

Richard does not appear to have ever got another job and it seems he spent a lot of time at his sister Kate’s place in Baltyboys. Helping with the various farming tasks, working alongside his brother in law James Byrne and their teenage son John.

It was while cutting hay from a rick that Richard suffered a hearth attack and died on the 19th of Nov. 1919 aged 56 years. Although his death certificate gave his age as 46, confirmed by his wife Marianne.

He was buried in the old Burgage Cemetery and re-interred in the New Cemetery in 1939.

Back in Dolphin Barn Street things could not be any worse as Marianne struggled to survive,

In the meantime in Baltyboys John Byrne had married her niece, May Quinn, daughter of her brother John and created a double inter family relationship.

John and May had four children, Kathy, James ,John and Richard, all born at home in Baltyboys.

As another confinement was imminent and some concern was being expressed about the need for hospitilisation, Marianne offered to facilitate this by bringing May in to her house, which was adjacent to the Coombe Lying In Hospital.

So it was that Anne (Nan) was born there on the 15th of March 1929.

The Byrne family continued to expand and Gretta and Tom were born at home followed by Maura and Betty, both born in Holles Street Hospital, when in 1939 with the outbreak of World War 2 imminent, another situation developed similar to 1929 and the Coombe was the preferred hospital with the pre confinement facility available at Dolphin Barn Street.

However things were not the same as before and the feeling is that Marianne was no longer there, having become a patient in Saint Kevins Hospital following a stroke.

May had her baby Phyllis, in the Coombe on the 31st of August 1939 and Marianne died in Saint Kevins on the 16th of October 1939, from Cardiac Failure following Paralysis.

Her remains were brought to their Parish Church, Our Lady of Dolours in Dolphins Barn on Tuesday Oct.17th and after Mass on Wednesday morning she was buried in Burgage Cemetery.

This New Cemetery had just opened to replace the Old Burgage Cemetery, which was about to be covered over and lost forever under the Blessington Lakes.

Ironically at this time between July 3rd.and Sept. 23rd, also in the year 1939, the mortal remains of those buried in the old cemetery were removed to a section reserved for them in the new one, including those of her late husband Richard, buried there in Nov.1919. After the sudden death of Richard, he was interred in the Pender family grave and lay there in peace with his father George, until this upheavel. As the exhuming of the remains took place, Richard's were claimed by his brother George, with the following details recorded:

Richard Pender, aged 56 years, Roman Catholic, Farmer. Address Baltiboys, Buried Nov.1919.      Despite the errors in this, the proof of identity is acceptable.

 Also on record as having been buried in this plot are the following;

George Pender, aged 86 (Richard's father) also buried originally in 1919, John Pender aged 86, Michael Byrne, aged 70 and Mary Byrne aged 86. There was no mention of George's wife Mary Anne (Savage)

As there was no Headstone, all the remains in this grave were re-interred in the New Cemetery, with only a marker stone to confirm that a burial had occurred. The exact location of the grave originally numbered in the records as 576 -577- 578,  has now been established and it is situated just after turning left at the cross roads in the cemetery, on the left hand side and beside the Headstone erected to the memory of Benjamin Butler and other family members.

From what we have established it can be assumed that Marianne was interred in this grave alongside the remains of her husband Richard      

To complete the Byrne Family makeup, Bridie, twins Teresa and Bernie and Paddy were all born in Holles Street Hospital.

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Elizabeth was born in 1872 and lived to be ninety two years of age, dying in 1964. She spent her life mainly in the convent of Mercy, Mount St. Josephs, Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia. Her religious name was Sister Mary Xavier. 

Jane was born in 1869 and lived to be eighty four years of age, she died on 29th August 1953. She spent her life in the Convent of Mercy, St. John’s, Newfoundland and was known in her religious life as Sr. Mary Berchmans. 

Bridget - Sr. Mary Kierans, was born in 1876 and died in 1960. She was based in the Convent of Mercy, All Hallows, Brisbane, Australia.

Kate was born in 1882 and before joining the nuns she was bridesmaid at her brother John’s wedding to Annie Mackey. Unlike her sister nuns, who were in the teaching profession, her calling was to nursing and unfortunately she contracted the dreaded disease of leprosy and died at the young age of thirty years in 1912. She spent her short religious life in the Convent of the Good Shepherd, Bangalore, India. She chose the name Sr. Mary Bridget.

What a marvellous record this was with four sisters from the one family in the small townland of Ballinahown who gave their lives in the service of God in far flung parts of the world. Never again were they to see each other and only one of them, Aunt Jane ever got home to the land of her birth and to see her family again. Their only contact with each other was by letter and the letters they wrote home regularly, always indicated that they were up to date with news of the others. Remarkably, they were in time, writing to and getting letters from grand nieces they hadnever seen, and sending holy pictures and medals, perhaps hoping for more postulants to follow them into the religious life but alas, with one exception, it was all in vain.

Now what happened to the three sons of Henry and Elizabeth.

                                                      PATRICK QUINN OF BALLINAHOWN

                                                                      1879 - 1947

Big Pat as he was known by, was born in Ballinahown on the 23rd of December 1879. He grew up on the shared farm of the Quinn families  and he was aged 19 when both his parents died in 1898.

Pat would have known only too well, that with his older brother John, the new man in charge, there was going to be no place for him here and it was time to be making a move.

As luck would have it his sister Marianne had married Richard Pender and they were living in Dublin. With Richard already in the Guinness Brewery and they crying out for well recommended strapping young country men, Pat ticked all the boxes.

Not only that but with a little adjustment the Penders were able to invite him to come and be their boarder.

So it was with the Penders that we find Pat in the 1901 census living at 7 Geraldine Square, Merchants Quay, then aged 21.

This house was sub divided in three parts, No7A, 7B and 7C, each part having two rooms.

A family named Daly, from Cavan occupied 7A, probably the ground floor. While the Penders, Richard, Marianne and three children aged 4, 2 and 3months, along with Patrick Quinn occupied the first floor 7B.

It was what happened regarding 7C that raised a query.

The census enumerator, Patrick O’Meara, decided to fill in a form for 7C in the name of Patrick Quinn, stating that he could not read or write, entitling himself to put a mark for Patrick’s signature.

This was highly irregular as the Pender’s return clearly showed Patrick Quinn in 7B and stated that he could read and write.

If there was an extra person recorded in the census of 1901, it had to be Patrick Quinn, late of Ballinahown.

Proof that Patrick could indeed read and write came from another source. In a letter that his sister, Sister Bridget ( Katie) sent from India to her sister in law Ann on Dec 9th 1905, she referred to her brother Pat as follows;

      Many thanks for the photo. Please thank Pat for me.

      What a fine strong man he has grown into in a few years

       He was so boyish looking when I left home, I hope his leg

       gives him no pain. Please tell him I should have been much

       better pleased if it had been accompanied by a letter from    

       himself for I know he has got plenty of time at his disposal.

       It would not take him long to write a few lines.

The next big event in Pat’s life was his marriage to Mary Anne Molloy, which took place in the Church of the Three Patrons Rathgar, known as the Maids church, on the 27th Sept. 1906. They were both aged 27 years. Mary Anne came from Kylebeg, Lacken and there is no indication that her family were in any way related to Pat’s mothers family from Kilbride. She gave her address as 32 York Road where she was employed as a servant in the home of Frances and Matilda Price, aged 81 and 77 and members of The Irish Church.

Her bridesmaid was Rosanna Maguire also from Kylebeg and a servant in the home of Nicholas Hore at 18 New Street. Best man was Michael Clarke from Ballinahown, who later owned a pub in Francis Street.

There were two glaring pieces of misinformation on their marriage certificate.

His father Henry and her father Daniel, both deceased, would have been none too pleased to have seen their children refer to them as labourers, whereas they were both farmers of long standing. So what was the reason for this calculated error? 

Father Charles Malone who performed the marriage ceremony would have been none the wiser as to their background. Accepting that they came from labouring families, he probably would have been satisfied with a fee of ten shillings, whereas if he had known they were farming people, he would have at least expected a pound.

Their first child Elizabeth, (Lil) named after Pat’s mother, was born on the 11th of June 1907. The others arrived in quick succession, Mary, Berchi, Margaret, Dan and Harry.

In the 1911 census they had settled in Rialto Cottages, which was a typical Guinness residential area and where they spent the rest of their days. Pat died on the 4th of February 1947.

JAMES QUINN OF BALLINAHOWN

1884 - 1907    

James Quinn was born on the 29th of August 1884, in the home of his parents, Henry and Eliza at Ballinahown, Blessington Co. Wicklow. He was the youngest of eight children and he was 14 years of age when his parents both died in early 1898.

He would have attended the local primary school and be a valuable help in working the farm now in the ownership of his elder brother John. 

James was still living at home in 1901 when John got married to his first cousin Ann Mackey and probably because of him being too young at 17, he was not invited to act as best man at the wedding. Or maybe it was because there was enough family involvement with sister Katie acting as bridesmaid.

In 1902 with John and Ann’s first baby born and another on the way, his sister Katie well advanced with her arrangements to become a nun in the Good Shephard Order, his sister Bridget also deciding to leave her place of employment in Dublin and follow her two sisters by joining the Mercy Order of nuns.

James had also decided that there was no place for him at home in Ballinahown and for some reason or other made his way to the town of Gorey in Co. Wexford.

Legend has it that he actually cycled there, perhaps maybe only the once or he may have returned home to visit on occasion, using the same mode of transport.

We come now to the year 1905 and there is reason to be concerned about his well being when we see a reference to him in that famous letter written by his sister Katie, now Sister Bridget in Bangalore, India.

Written on the 9th of Dec.of that year she says to her sister in law;

"I was so very sorry to hear of poor James being ill. I hope he is nearly alright again, I shall pray much for his recovery. I hope to write to him soon”.

What ever about the letter arriving, the prayers were not heard because James became more unwell and whoever he worked for as a clerk, or whoever he stayed with, were unable to mind him any further and he was committed to the Gorey Infirmary where he died on the 28th of June 1907. In the very month that his Brother Patrick’s first child Elizabeth ( Lil) was born.

The Gorey Infirmary was used up to the late 1930’s. It was really the Hospital of the Gorey Workhouse and was situated in an adjoining field. It was the only available Hospital at the time and a patient who survived described her vivid recollections of the draconian systems that applied there.

James died from Empyema – Phthisis – Pulmonatis, in short Tuberculosis and because of the nature of his illness his burial would have been done quickly and unceremoniously.

Burials in Gorey had reached crisis point, with the Rector of Kilnahue parish refusing any more in their churchyard and the Guardians of Clonattin Cemetery would only allow burials from the Workhouse and unclaimed bodies from the Infirmary, to be buried in a mass grave.

As a relief situation the local landlord Mr. Ram decided to grant one acre and two roods of land formerly known as Charlottes Grove at the rear of the Workhouse, as a burial ground for a charge of £4-0-0 per annum.

A reference to it in 1999 stated; This Workhouse Cemetery, where so many are interred is neglected and overgrown, a poor memorial to our people of Gorey.

That was the situation until in 2004 a local man, Derek O’Sullivan and his wife Tina along with their two children Ronan and Tara, decided to undertake the massive task of cleaning up the burial ground and using their own machinery they have converted what was a wilderness into a beautiful lawn cemetery. James is buried here with nothing to show where.

There are no headstones here, only marker stones and these have been re-arranged to allow for proper maintenance.

Pattern Sunday (The Blessing of the graves) will now be held on an annual basis with mass being celebrated at the new altar.

 JOHN QUINN OF BALLINAHOWN

1874 - 1940    

John, the eldest son of the family was born in 1874 and he died on 29th August 1940. On the 19th of February 1901, John married Ann Mackey who was born in 1868 and died 15th April 1917. Ann was John’s first cousin by virtue of the fact that his father Henry and Annies’ mother Bridget were brother and sister. They had six children:

·       Mary born in 1901 married John Byrne.

·       Henry born in 1902, stayed on the land and later married Nan Kelly.

·       Elizabeth born in 1905 married James Taffe and they had no family.

·       Thomas born in 1907 remained single and worked as a barman in Dublin.

·       James born in 1909 remained single and stayed on the land.

·       Bridget born in 1910 remained single and worked in fine houses in many parts of the country and is now quietly retired and living in Dublin...known to all and sundry as Aunt Bridie.

( Bridget died on the 9th of march 2009 at the age of 98, the last of the family )

John’s wife Annie died on 15th April 1917 and he decided to marry again, to another near neighbour Margaret Kavanagh, who was born in 1872 and died on the 10th September 1945. They were married in February 1919 and they had one daughter Kathy born in 1920. Kathy married Walter Balfe and lived in Carrig until she died on 16th November 1993. Margaret, or Mag, as she was better known, seems to have got on well with her six stepchildren.  She was a kind and loving type of person and was particularly good to Mary (May ) and was ever ready to help out any time she was needed in nearly Baltyboys.

John had inherited this portion of the farm when Henry died in 1898 and ran it until the lake came in 1939. He was known locally as Long John. He re-settled in a farm at Donadea, Co. Kildare, where he lived until his death on 29th August 1940. As can be seen he did not live long after the upheaval in his life style. His sons Harry and Jim also made the move to Donadea with him as did his second wife Margaret and her daughter Kathy. The womenfolk obviously did not like living  in Co. Kildare and soon after they returned to Margaret’s ancestral home in Carrig.

The house and farm at Donadea where Harry had developed a substantial cattle business, has been sold. Harry’s wife, Nan, was a local woman from Co. Kildare and she now lives in a Nursing Home. Harry married late in life and they had no children. Harry’s last will and testament is an interesting insight as to how things changed in the period from 1939 to 1991. Previous to that the value and extent of the Quinn holdings in Ballinahown had altered little for the three generations that we have looked at. Harry was one of the lucky ones who had to move out. The farm in Donadea gave him opportunities that the restrictive impediments in Ballinahown would never have permitted. The farm in Donadea of approximately 70 acres cost no more that £1500 when they bought it. In 1986, he sold 64 acres and retained 6 acres which included the residence and farm buildings. The combined value of both were in the region of £170,000 when he died in 1991.

So now we see how the carefully planned farming scheme of the three Quinn families designed back in the late 1700's came to an end by the development of the Poulaphuca Reservoir in 1939 (for more information see Beneath the Poulaphuca Reservoir). It would be pure guesswork to imagine how it would have ended if there never was a lake but it is obvious that the name of Quinn, so staunchly handed on up to then, would have disappeared in at least two of the families.

The first indication of how the divide was agreed came from the Griffith Primary Valuation records of 1854, (note ) which showed how the then owners were levied. Patrick and Myles paid £30.0.0 each and John paid £15.0.0. Proof eternal that the system survived is to be seen in the compensation paid by the E.S.B. and agreed by arbitration in 1939.

·       John Quinn Senior, grandson of Patrick, was paid £1,400.0.0 for 73 acres of land and a house.

·       Joe Quinn, grandson of Myles, was paid £1,350.0.0 for 72 acres of land and a house.

·       John Quinn, grandson of John, was paid £800.0.0 for 38 acres of land and a house.

These three men were third cousins to each other. John Quinn senior was obviously given this title to distinguish him from the other John, who was two years younger. This correct information refutes the version of the families relationship to each other, which is written in chapter 25, page 933 of the book “Wicklow History and Society”. and copied in later publications.

Before completing the Quinn story, we must record some details of a mysterious health problem that entered your section of the family when Henry married Elizabeth Mullee. Elizabeth who was twelve years younger than her husband, was a victim of this malady, having inherited it from either her father or her mother. This very rare problem, to which there is no known cure, is only now being investigated by the medical profession. It is a muscular disorder, where the muscle wastage is not replaced naturally and it has been described, but perhaps not fully explained, as a form of Muscular Dystrophy. It is very inhibiting, effecting all parts of the body, but particularly noticeable in the limbs. It is not life threatening as many of the victims have lived normal life spans. It has no defined criteria and can be passed from father to daughter or from mother to son or vice versa. It has one very positive feature in that if an offspring in a family is not effected, then it will not occur in any of their descendants. Elizabeth passed this on to only one of the eight children she had with Henry.

Their fourth child and eldest son John, was the one it passed to. As we have seen, John had six children in his first marriage and all of his three sons but none of his three daughters were effected and this is how it became isolated to one family only, (these sons did not have children)  His one daughter, Kathy, of his second marriage was effected.  Four of her daughters and none of her three sons were effected. Two of these girls have passed it on, in one case to both of her children and in the other case to one only of her two children.

By a strange co-incidence also, the great World War 11 began in September 1939, just as these families in West Wicklow were forced to move from their homes. Because of a worldwide scarcity of almost everything, rationing was introduced for food, footwear, clothes, flour, etc., adding to the misery of everyone.

I hope that everyone noticed that all the direct ancestors we have written about were farmers. Byrnes and Quinns, their in-laws and their neighbours farmed their lands for centuries and no doubt they were a hardworking, God-fearing type of people, who lived and learned and passed on the faith.  Noticeable too was the fact that most of their marriages were to local farming people, uniting families of the areas in which they lived.

This was a very resilient family, having survived right through the famine period without any deaths being recorded. This, despite the fact that the population of parts of Wicklow, were halved in the period from 1841 to 1861. Between the years of 1868 and 1887, a total of 20 births were recorded in the three houses in Ballinahown. The next birth recorded was in 1901 and a total of eight were recorded up to 1932, when the last child to be born in the Quinn’s houses was Joseph, son of Joe Quinn, whose other three children were born in their home at Alliganstown, Ballymore Eustace, Co. Kildare. Joseph was actually born during the great snow storm of 1932 and cousin Henry (Uncle Harry) and neighbour John Byrne were obliged to fetch the doctor who travelled on horseback by various diversions to arrive on time.

Comparing your lifestyle with theirs would be a futile exercise, but it might be no harm at all to give a few insights into how they managed to do things that you would take for granted. Take electricity for example and think for a minute how anyone or any house could manage without it to-day. Pause for a moment and remember it was the making of electricity that drove your ancestors out of their houses and their farms. The thatched farmhouses you see in the photograph of Ballinahown are typical of the type of houses that were to be found all over Ireland North and South. They were thirty five to forty feet long, twenty feet wide and the walls were six feet six inches high. They were divided into three rooms, (no bathroom) and with only one external door.

There is one of these houses, re-built exactly as it was, in the Folkpark at Bunratty in Co. Clare.  The house stood originally where Shannon Airport is to-day. A visit to this or other Folkparks is well worthwhile, as there you will see the irons, toasters, cookers, washing machines, food mixers, cooking utensils, fridges, wardrobes, beds and bedclothes of the bygone era, that people of our generation can still remember very well.

Having told you all about her family let us now tell you something's about Mary Quinn or May as she was known by her family and friends.

Being the eldest child of a family in those days was a different story than it is today. With the rest of her brothers and sisters born over a space of ten years, she would quickly have become a second mother and have to do many chores around the house and farm.

The norm would have included getting water from the well, milking cows, feeding calves, helping in the fields with the haymaking and on the bog with turf cutting, washing clothes by hand in a large tub and ironing them with an iron heated in the open fire. Daily chores would also have included cooking and baking bread on the same open fire with the pots suspended from an overhead crane. Minding her younger siblings would have also featured greatly in her already busy life. She went to school in Lacken, walking the three miles there and back every day.