McNamara of Bodyke (Ballymacdonnell)
Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2014 12:24 pm
Am seeking further information on the family of Michael McNamara who as born was born in 1845 on a farm at Ballymacdonnell, a townland some two miles from Bodyke, Co Clare. In 1864, he emigrated to Melbourne, Australia, where he was destined to become part of Australian royalty when his daughter Sarah became First Lady to Australian Prime Minister James Scullin, another child of Irish émigrés.
In 1874, he was married in Ballarat to Sarah Simcocks. Born in Killarney, Co Kerry, in 1843, Sarah was twelve years old when she sailed for a new life in Australia with her family. They too settled in Ballarat where her father George Eyre Simcocks served as a Civil Engineer.
Sarah was evidently ahead of the game when it came to women’s suffrage. In 1891, the 48-year-old Kerrywoman was one of 30,000 women who signed a petition urging the Victorian State Government to concede that ‘Women should Vote on Equal terms with Men'.
The McNamaras had eight children between 1874 and 1889. During this time, it is assumed that Michael received word from home regarding the infamous Bodyke evictions of 1887 in which eighty year old widow Margaret McNamara was one of two people evicted from Colonel John O’Callaghan’s estate. It is not yet known how Margaret McNamara was related to Michael.
Michael McNamara passed away in 1909, two years after Sarah’s marriage. His widow Sarah survived him until 1924.
Sarah Marie McNamara, the fourth child, was born on 21st April 1880. She was working as a dressmaker in Ballarat at the time of her marriage to James Scullin (1876-1953) on 11th November 1907. He was the son of John and Ann (née Logan) Scullin, a Catholic couple from Londonderry. His father worked on the Irish railways before he emigrated to Australia in his 20s.
A passionate supporter of the evolving labour movement in the early 20th century, he became a lynchpin of the Australian Workers Union. In 1906, the ALP put him up as the candidate for Ballarat against Prime Minister Alfred Deakin. Scullin inevitably lost but he impressed the party with his vigorous efforts to win.
The following year he married Sarah McNamara. The marriage was childless but Sarah was a pivotal player in his subsequent political career, particularly as his mentor and protector when the ill health that plagued him in his childhood returned to torment him. An active and well informed member of the Labour party on her own account, she often filled in for her husband at social events were he was too sick to attend. She also made her presence felt at parliamentary sessions, a rarity amongst the wives of Australia’s political elite at that time.
During the war, Sarah’s brother Thomas Francis McNamara served at the Somme.
He served as Australia’s 9th Prime Minister (and 1st Labour PM) from 1929 to 1932. On 28th November 1930, the Scullins visited Bodyke, nearly seventy years after Sarah’s father had emigrated from there. The Clare Champion remarked: ‘The heroine of a modern Sentimental Journey, she had travelled from the Antipodes to visit for the first time the home of her ancestors and to make the acquaintance of a host of cousins hitherto unknown to her except through the medium of letters or through her recollection of the remarks made by her father concerning them.’
In 1874, he was married in Ballarat to Sarah Simcocks. Born in Killarney, Co Kerry, in 1843, Sarah was twelve years old when she sailed for a new life in Australia with her family. They too settled in Ballarat where her father George Eyre Simcocks served as a Civil Engineer.
Sarah was evidently ahead of the game when it came to women’s suffrage. In 1891, the 48-year-old Kerrywoman was one of 30,000 women who signed a petition urging the Victorian State Government to concede that ‘Women should Vote on Equal terms with Men'.
The McNamaras had eight children between 1874 and 1889. During this time, it is assumed that Michael received word from home regarding the infamous Bodyke evictions of 1887 in which eighty year old widow Margaret McNamara was one of two people evicted from Colonel John O’Callaghan’s estate. It is not yet known how Margaret McNamara was related to Michael.
Michael McNamara passed away in 1909, two years after Sarah’s marriage. His widow Sarah survived him until 1924.
Sarah Marie McNamara, the fourth child, was born on 21st April 1880. She was working as a dressmaker in Ballarat at the time of her marriage to James Scullin (1876-1953) on 11th November 1907. He was the son of John and Ann (née Logan) Scullin, a Catholic couple from Londonderry. His father worked on the Irish railways before he emigrated to Australia in his 20s.
A passionate supporter of the evolving labour movement in the early 20th century, he became a lynchpin of the Australian Workers Union. In 1906, the ALP put him up as the candidate for Ballarat against Prime Minister Alfred Deakin. Scullin inevitably lost but he impressed the party with his vigorous efforts to win.
The following year he married Sarah McNamara. The marriage was childless but Sarah was a pivotal player in his subsequent political career, particularly as his mentor and protector when the ill health that plagued him in his childhood returned to torment him. An active and well informed member of the Labour party on her own account, she often filled in for her husband at social events were he was too sick to attend. She also made her presence felt at parliamentary sessions, a rarity amongst the wives of Australia’s political elite at that time.
During the war, Sarah’s brother Thomas Francis McNamara served at the Somme.
He served as Australia’s 9th Prime Minister (and 1st Labour PM) from 1929 to 1932. On 28th November 1930, the Scullins visited Bodyke, nearly seventy years after Sarah’s father had emigrated from there. The Clare Champion remarked: ‘The heroine of a modern Sentimental Journey, she had travelled from the Antipodes to visit for the first time the home of her ancestors and to make the acquaintance of a host of cousins hitherto unknown to her except through the medium of letters or through her recollection of the remarks made by her father concerning them.’