Monasterevin

On Tuesday, August 6, we left Galway and drove to Monasterevin (sometimes Monasterevan), County Kildare. We thought it was pronounced Mon-a-STARE-a-vin, but it turns out it's more like Mon-a-sta-REE-vin. (Nope, that's wrong, too. If you figure out how it's pronounced, please let us know!)

Matt's paternal great-great-grandfather Christopher Hussey (sometimes "Hussy") was born in County Kildare in 1822 (possibly in Balakelly; not sure of his death year), and his paternal great-great-grandmother Ellen Coleman was also born there in 1822 (possibly in Lackagh; d. 1896). They were married in 1849 in Monasterevin, and Christopher owned a pub there at 3 Main Street.

Monasterevin is a pretty canal town, with a population of just over 4,000. They are very proud that they are "...the 11th largest town in Kildare." Here is our not-very-good photo of one of the canals with a little canal boat on it:

We saw several monuments to the Battle of Monasterevin and/or Father Edward Prendergast. According to Wikipedia: "On 25 May 1798 insurgents from the surrounding countryside marched on the town of Monasterevin in an attempt to capture it. The Battle of Monasterevin took place in the Main Street opposite St. John's church, which had been fortified by local yeomanry and militiamen. A charge by the Monasterevin Yeomanry Cavalry routed the insurgents....Later in the year Fr. Edward Prendergast was arrested and condemned to death for administering to the insurgent in their camp in Iron Hill near Nurney. He was hanged in the garden of Monasterevin House and buried there. Captain Padraig O’Bierne and a group of Derryoughter boatmen stole into the town under cover of darkness and removed the body to his home place of Harristown."

This plaque says, "Battle of Monasterevan 25th May 1798":

This plaque, built into the garden wall, says, "Rev. Edward Prendergast C.C. was hanged from a tree in this garden 11th June 1798":

This monument says, "Erected by the nationalists of Monasterevan and surrounding districts. To the memory of Fr. Prendergast who was hanged here in 1798 for the performance of his clerical duties towards the insurgents. And in the memory of the hero's (sic) who fought and fell for freedom in that sad but glorious period":

We also saw a few monuments to Gerard Manley Hopkins (not shown). According to kildare.ie, "During his time in Ireland (1884-1889) Hopkins was a frequent visitor to the Cassidy family of Monasterevin House, visiting Monasterevin on at least seven different occasions." The Monasterevin Hopkins Society holds an annual Gerard Manley Hopkins festival; unfortunately, we missed it by a little over a week.

Here is a photo of the current 4 Main Street (left door) and 2 Main Street (right door). We couldn't tell if these buildings were old enough to have served as a pub in the mid-1800s, and we don't know how the buildings were numbered back then.

We learned from the Monasterevin Community Centre that there had been buildings across the street from numbers 2 and 4 (in case odd-numbered buildings were on the opposite side), but they have since been torn down. This is what's there now:

Here's the mural on the side of the Monasterevin Community Centre building:

They also gave us directions to the local cemeteries and Catholic Church, but neither is probably old enough, and besides, neither Christopher Hussey nor Ellen Coleman were born in Monasterevin (as far as we know), and thus, we probably wouldn't find ancestors or relatives there.

Flannery's Hotel

While in Galway, we stayed at Flannery's Hotel. A very comfortable and friendly place, but a little farther away from the City Centre than we liked:

Photo from the Internet

The hotel is billed as being "family run." Apparently Frank Flannery was quite the handy guy:

Our room was similar to this one:

Photo from the Internet

The view from our window--some sort of playing field. We've been told many times that "the Irish love their sport":

One of the in-house restaurants:

The lobby:

A funny nook in the lobby. We never saw anyone sitting in this chair:

John F. Kennedy

From June 26 to June 29, 1963--allegedly "the best four days of his life," and five months before his assassination--John F. Kennedy visited Ireland, the first sitting U.S. President to do so. For information on his entire trip, click here.

(When we visited EPIC in Dublin, we learned that Kennedy is one of 22 U.S. Presidents with Irish ancestry.)

On the last day of his visit, Kennedy spoke at Eyre Square (aka, Kennedy Park; aka, John F. Kennedy Memorial Park) in Galway. This 6:34 video includes highlights from the event--click here.

There is a monument to the occasion, which included Kennedy becoming a "Freeman of Galway Borough," in the location in Eyre Square where he stood to speak. Being a Freeman meant he could graze his sheep in the park for free 🤣

The story goes that while in Ireland, Kennedy was very taken with the 37th Cadet Class of the Irish Defence Forces and asked that a film of them performing their drills be sent to the White House. When he was assassinated, Jackie Kennedy requested that those cadets perform the Queen Anne Drill (the funeral drill) at his funeral. In November 2013, eleven of the cadets returned to Washington, D.C., to attend the 50th anniversary ceremony. For a lively version of this story, click here.

Galway is very proud of its connection to Kennedy, and photos and other memorabilia can be seen in many places.

Here is a display dedicated to Kennedy's visit in the Thomas Dillon store's museum:

And here is a photo at Finnegan's, where we ate dinner on Sunday night. It shares wall space with James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, and many other Irish luminaries:

Claddagh

Perhaps you've heard of the Claddagh ring, the "Irish symbol of love." They have a design like this:

Image from the Internet

The ring's symbols mean, "The Hands are for Friendship, The Heart is for Love, And Loyalty is Shown with the Crown up above":

It turns out that the Claddagh ring originated in Claddagh, an ancient fishing village, which is now part of Galway. According to Wikipedia, "Galway has produced Claddagh rings continuously since at least 1700, but the name ‘Claddagh ring’ was not used before the 1830s. Although there are various myths and legends around the origin of the Claddagh ring, it is almost certain that it originated in or close to the small fishing village of Claddagh in Galway."

Here is our so-so photo of The Claddagh, including a few Claddagh swans and one of the few hooker sail boats (the black boat closest to the wall) still in use:

There are quite a few stores in the Galway City Centre selling Claddah rings and other jewelry. Each one is the "best" for its own reasons 😉. I'm not sure what made this shop the best, but I liked the murals:

Thomas Dillon's (not shown) is one of the best; they claim to be the "Oldest Makers of the Claddagh Ring since 1750." They had a fun little museum in their back room showing "the oldest Claddagh ring," "the smallest Claddagh ring," plus displays of memorabilia from Galway's history.

Exploring Galway

Warning: Galway will one of the European Capitals of Culture for 2020, and they are expecting 1 million more visitors than in normal years. If you are hoping to visit in 2020, they recommend you book your accommodations as far in advance as possible.

On Monday, August 5, we explored Galway--partly via Hop On Hop Off tour bus, partly by walking around.

The weather varied from gray-and-threatening to torrential rain, so our ability to take photos was somewhat limited.

Here's the view from our bus:

Galway is known as the "City of Tribes"--historically, it was run by 14 powerful families/tribes. There is a flag for each tribe along one edge of Eyre Square, a public square in Galway. According to Wikipedia, "The earliest endeavour to formally enclose [the park] was recorded in 1631." Here are a few of the flags:

The Galway Hooker (a type of fishing boat) fountain, also in Eyre Square:

The Spanish Arch (locals call it "the Sparch"):

We explored the Galway City Centre:

It was a bank holiday, so shops were opening later than usual, if at all. A guy and his elderly dog were setting up an outdoor display of photos of the Irish countryside, farm animals, and more. We told him our story about traveling around to the birthplaces of some of Matt's emigrant ancestors, and that we had recently been in Swinford. "County Mayo!" he said, and then he took a good look at Matt. "You have a big F-word Mayo head!" he exclaimed. "Everyone I've met from County Mayo has been big and strong."

So of course, we had to buy several photos, including one of a goat named Ronnie, because he looks like Ronnie Drew of the Dubliners.

Here is a statue of Oscar Wilde with a man stuck to his back:

Galway is a city of festivals. Our tour guide said "We'll have a festival for a book or an oyster." Although Ed Sheeran is not from Galway (in fact, he's British!), he apparently spent time as a busker in the Galway City Centre, and so Galway has claimed him as their own. One of their festivals is called "Paint the town Ed." We saw these young buskers, and they were excellent:

We wondered if O'Maille is related to O'Malia (one of Matt's family names; aka, O'Malley):

We ate dinner at Finnegan's:

Heading to Galway

Next we headed to Galway. It took us only about 1.5 hours to drive from Frenchpark to Galway, but until we hit the M17, it was a rather harrowing trip, with narrow, twisty roads and no verges (aka, shoulders) to speak of.

At times, it bucketed down rain. This may look like a photo of a puddle, but it is actually our windshield--if you look closely, you can see the yellow line of the road through it (we had pulled over for a bit):

Other times, it cleared up, and we could see the cows hanging out in their rock-walled cow pens:

It was raining again when we went into Galway to try to find some dinner:

The rain didn't stop us from admiring the patrol ship George Bernard Shaw:

Fairymount and Frenchpark

Next, we drove to County Roscommon, specifically Fairymount, to look for Matt's Corcoran ancestor. His maternal great-grandmother Mary Ann (or Annie Mary, or Ann Mary) Corcoran was born in "Fairymount, Frenchpark" in 1865 (d. 1897).

Fairymount is tiny and there isn't really any sort of "downtown" or even Main Street. (And there really isn't any cell service, either.) It turns out Fairymount is a townland in the Frenchpark parish. From Wikipedia, "In Ireland a townland is generally the smallest administrative division of land, though a few large townlands are further divided into hundreds. The concept of townlands is based on the Gaelic system of land division, and the first official evidence of the existence of this Gaelic land division system can be found in church records from before the 12th century, it was in the 1600s that they began to be mapped and defined by the English administration for the purpose of confiscating land and apportioning it to investors or planters from Britain."

From townlands.ie, Fairymount has an area of "...676 acres, 2 roods, 7 perches...Nationwide, it is the 6518th largest townland." Thank goodness for those roods and perches, amiright?!  😉

We found a rock:

I could not find the meaning of "Mullach na sí"--perhaps it is part of the placename, or perhaps it means "Welcome to...." I did find a horse of that name who was racing from about 2006 through 2009. Here is Mullach na sí in retirement:

Photo from Internet

The area had some pretty houses with lots of acreage, often accompanied by one or more types of livestock. There was also a school and this picturesque building:

And this fella was laughing at us from his tree:

The Church of the Sacred Heart, Fairymount was built in 1876, so perhaps too "recent" for Matt's direct ancestor:

Photo from Internet

There is a cemetery in Fairymount:

There were quite a few Corcoran headstones, but they were mostly too new to be ancestors (although, again, perhaps they were relatives.) However, Patrick Corcoran, if born in Fairymount, might be Matt's great-great-uncle. The headstone says, "In Loving Memory of Patrick Corcoran, Fairymount, Died 2 May 1947 Aged 79 Years," thus born in 1868:

But we were being watched:

And being surrounded:

And so we left to take a look at Frenchpark, population under 500. We had lunch here, at the Corskeagh Lounge & Restaurant Steak House:

Here is Matt standing in front of the St. Asicus (a disciple of St. Patrick) Catholic Church, which was built in 1815. Perhaps this is where Matt's ancestors worshipped when they could get to "town":