A Family from Clare County

Genealogy, Archaeology, History, Heritage & Folklore

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Karen MacLeod
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Jun 01, 2007 4:28 pm
Location: Pictou County, Nova Scotia

A Family from Clare County

Post by Karen MacLeod » Mon Jun 04, 2007 2:43 pm

Many Nova Scotians boast an Irish ancestry. The Honourable Nicholas Hogan Meagher 1842-1932, “the Judge from Mabou”, was the son of Daniel Meagher of Killaloe, Clare County, Ireland. Daniel left Ireland about 1818. One of Nova Scotia’s foremost family researchers and historian, Terrence Punch, tells us in Some Sons of Erin in Nova Scotia that Daniel went first to Newfoundland and then on to Cape Breton in Nova Scotia. There he married a Mary O’Brien and raised a family of nine. Nicholas, one of the younger sons, became well educated and eventually spent many years in the courts of Nova Scotia and eventually became a Supreme Court Judge. He was, it seems, colourful and cantankerous and also loyal, just and loving. His nephew Neil McNeil, who also attended the same school in Cape Breton, went on to become an Archbishop of Toronto. So, these two sons of Clare County, Ireland certainly placed their stamp upon Nova Scotia and Canada. It seems also that Nicholas Meagher spent a few years in Pictou County doing odd jobs before the opportunity for further study arose. Mr. Punch states that Nicholas walked a long way from the Mabou area of Cape Breton to Pictou County in order to search for work. Did Nicholas remember tales of Killaloe as told by his father Daniel? Somehow I expect he probably did, as those first generations of emigrants often regaled their offspring with the stories of the homeland.
Karen MacLeod
Moderator Pictou's Past
New Glasgow Library

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