Library Forum

Very best wishes to Anthony and Maureen on their retirement from the county library with sincere thanks and appreciation for their enormous and valuable contribution to our county and the documentation and archiving and sharing of its history.

Polycarp

Remarkable character dead. A Kilrush correspondent says the death this week in the Kilrush Hospital of a remarkable old lady, with the peculiar cognomen of "Biddy Belfast," removes a figure that during life gained some notoriety in West Clare, by reason of the extraordinary dwelling-place she select...

I don't think any records from the 1850s survive, Susan. This is a great pity. In the "Clare Journal", 26 September 1861, in a display advertisement for the college, there is a list of matriculating students for the years 1857, 1858, 1859, 1860 and 1861. In this same advertisement it states that Spr...

There are also distress and compensation claims held in the UK National Archives at Kew, those submitted to the Irish Distress Committee, later the Irish Grants Committee. This Committee looked at loss and damage sustained in Ireland for the period 11 July 1921 to 12 May 1923. The archive of the Com...

There are certainly some Clare coroners reports in the National Archives of Ireland in Dublin, Bob, with years covering at least the period 1916 - 1927 and bearing the code N.A.I. CC/Clare.

I do not know if the Archives have coroners reports before 1916 or after 1927 but I suspect they do.

Polycarp

There is a photograph in the Clare Champion, 9 February 1952, of Herr Schneider of the firm of Schneider of the Black Forest, Germany, putting the finishing touches to the clock on the tower of the cathedral in Ennis. The newspaper says the new clock cost £800. The caption to the photograph of Herr ...

There is information on this in John Prendergast's book "The Cromwellian Settlement of Ireland of Ireland" at pages 101 and 149. That might be a good place to look.

Polycarp

Hi Lyn, There was a Dr Thomas Page who reported on a typhus epidemic in Ennis in 1837. Dr Thomas Page is cited in Timothy P. O'Neill's article 'Clare and Irish poverty, 1815 - 1851' in Studia Hibernica , vol. 14, 1974, pp. 7 - 27 at page 22. The citation quotes 'Report on Ennis fever hospital 1837' ...

This subject is dicussed in the 28th report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records and Keeper of the State Papers in Ireland (1896), available in the Local Studies Centre in Ennis. See pages 5 and 6 of the Keeper's report. The 1896 report suggests that the marriage licences were not transferred ...

Hello Maurice,

On the Ordnance Survey map of 1840, Abbeyhill Fort is in the townland of Lisduff, parish of Tulla, not far from the townland boundary with Knockadoon.

This is about a mile or so south, south-east from Tulla town.

Polycarp

Hello Matthew, See generally Brian Ó Dalaigh's essay, 'A history of Sixmilebridge, county Clare, 1603 - 1911' in Karina Holton, Liam Clare and Brian Ó Dalaigh (editors), "Irish villages: studies in local history" (Dublin, 2004) at pages 243 - 280. Ó Dalaigh has a section, Transport and communication...

John D'Arcy (c.1789 - 1868) was governor of the county gaol in Ennis from c. 1833 to 1863. Another D'Arcy, Giles D'Arcy (who may have been the son of John) also had association with the gaol. John D'Arcy retired as governor in May 1863. These D'Arcys may possibly be connected with the Darcys you ask...

The following Q&A about the pass words for the Terry Alts appeared in the "Ennis Chronicle" of 8 June 1831. "The following is a correct copy of the Pass terms, used by the Terries in Clare, extracted from "Lady Alts" scrap book:- What's your hith? My hith is six feet odd. Were you up early? I was. W...

An interesting article in the current issue of Irish Roots magazine, issue number 87, third quarter 2013, suggests that Jacqueline Kennedy's Irish great-grandparents, the Currys and the Merritts were from County Clare and not County Cork, as previously assumed. Jim O'Callaghan in his piece suggests ...

Hi Barry, See "The Saturday Record" (Ennis), 30 July 1927. There is a piece headlined 'Great sportsman passes away. Dr. John Purcell dies in England'. It states that the late John Purcell was the brother of Mr. W. Purcell, ex Co.C, Baura House, Feakle; of Mr. D. Purcell, Bauryanne, Feakle; and of Mr...