Information is wanted of Thomas McNamara, of Glandree,

[Jimbo]

Hi Sharon, thanks for the clue that Anne Walker of the 1850 census might have a brother James McNamara in Virginia.

Hi Sheila, thanks for the link to the Ireland Reaching Out article on the Tulla Union Workhouse located in Garruragh townland. It clarified for me that "Tulla Union comprised the following parts of the civil parishes: Quin, Clooney, Inchicronan, Kilfinaghta, Feakle, Killuran, Kilnoe, Clonlea, Kilmurry, and Tulla". In my prior posting, I tried to estimate the number of workhouse inmates from Tulla civil parish in the 1851 census. The Clare Journal article of 9 May 1850 stated that 577 workhouse inmates were "chargeable to Tulla". These "paupers" could be from 10 different civil parishes, not necessarily from Tulla, so I deleted the two paragraphs with my earlier very incorrect estimate. The number of Tulla parish residents at a workhouse would likely be in the single digits.

With regards to Garruragh townland, and the number of houses (55) in the 1851 census and the number of tenants (24) listed in Griffith’s Valuation in 1855, my methodology states that when there were plural houses in GV, I counted as two (see note * for Garruragh and ** for Glandree below each townland summary). I suppose I could have counted as three or four houses, but there would still be a large drop in Garruragh's population from the 1851 census to the 1855 Griffith Valuation.

I think it is interesting to compare Garruragh with Glendree:

1) Why did Glendree townland between 1841 and 1851 decline by 45% and Garruragh townland declined by only 24%?
2) Garruragh had a large workhouse that was being built in 1850 and 1851. Its buildings could hold 500 people. Probably a lot of work available to Garruragh residents in its construction. A possible reason why the population of Garruragh didn't decline prior to 1851 as much as Glendree? Was the end of construction a factor in the subsequent decline through 1855?
3) Garruragh townland was nearby many large estate houses, such as Maryfort, compared to Glandree. Also it is very close to Tulla Town. Perhaps there was a larger population in Garruragh not reflected as tenants in Griffith Valuation compared to Glendree, as they had work as laborers at the large estates?

Since the Tulla parish records are from 1819 to 1881, one could easily count the number of Garruragh families (including Driminure, Rath, Ballyaskill etc) reflected in the baptism records from 1819-1846, to 1846-1861, and 1861-1881. Is the decline in the number of families in the baptism records consistent with the 1841 and 1851 census count of houses, and 19 households (18 tenants + 1) at Griffith Valuation? If 30 families in Garruragh were having children in the late 1850's, then clearly the estimate/calculation for Garruragh was understated.

Sheila, your defense of the convicted murderer, James Hurley, in stating his motive in killing John Sheehan was to get a free passage to Australia (the place to be, since he liked eating sheep's head) has conflicting evidence in the historical record. In 1850, all an Irishman had to do was steal a sheep and this would get him a sentence of 7 or 10 years transportation. Why kill someone? James Hurley was in Maryfort Wood for the sole purpose of killing another sheep for the widow McNamara, who he may have fancied, when John Sheehan confronted him. He did not want to get convicted of killing a sheep, with its sentence of transportation to Australia, so he murdered the herdsman whose job it was to protect his master's sheep flock.

In November 1850, the convicted murderer, James Hurley, was one of twenty convicts sent from Ennis Gaol to Spike Island prison in Cork (see Limerick Chronicle article in last posting). I researched these 20 convicts in the hope that a James Hurley might be found in the same prison passenger listing as another convict, perhaps under an odd spelling. No luck, but the results were interesting all the same:

Of the 20 convicts, 75% of the men (15) were convicted of stealing or killing a sheep or cow, sometimes with a "felonious intent"; 5% for murder (Hurley); 5% for assault; 5% for burglary; 5% for sacrilege; 5% unknown. See detail below.

Of the 20 convicts, 35% were sent to Western Australia (7 in total, 1 died on the way); 25% to Tasmania; 10% were discharged early (apparently in Ireland); 5% died at Spike Island prior to transportation; and 25% unknown whereabouts.

The 12 convicts who were transported all arrived in Australia in 1853. Convicts were sent to Tasmania from 1802 to 1853, so the Clare convicts were at the very tail end of that colony's convict history (only 4 later ships would arrive). Conversely, Western Australia had only just become a full-fledged penal colony in 1850, so the Clare convicts who arrived in 1853 were transported on just the 10th convict ship to arrive in Fremantle.

James Hurley was described as a "wretched looking elderly man", while all the convicts sent to Australia were men in their twenties or thirties. Western Australia did not want any convicts who were guilty of a serious crime such as murder. Thus, James Hurley was unlikely transported to Australia. Did he die in Spike Island? This was the case for one of the convicts, Thomas Hasset (#19 below), but there was no similar record for James Hurley. I also looked for Hurley under the Commane surname, as Sheila you had remembered last Christmas that “camán” is Irish for “hurley”, but still no luck.

The research for the 20 Clare convicts, first utilized the Irish National Archive's "Ireland-Australia transportation database" (which despite its name also includes convicts to Bermuda):

http://findingaids.nationalarchives.ie/ ... tegory=147

For the Clare convicts transported to Tasmania, I researched further using the "Founders and Survivors" website:

http://foundersandsurvivors.org/xmlportal/pubsearch

For the Clare convicts transported to Western Australia, I researched further using the Fremantle Prison website:

https://fremantleprison.com.au/history- ... t-database/

Tasmanian convict records are superior to Western Australia (WA) and New South Wales records, and include such detailed information as name and locations of surviving family members of each convict.

1) James Hurley: can only find newspaper accounts of murder conviction; unknown prison records.

The below convicts (2 through 12) were sentenced to 10 years prison / transportation:

2) John Minogue: no age reported, County Clare, trial 21 June 1849, cow stealing, transported on the Rodney on 24 November 1852 arriving in Hobart, Tasmania on 12 February 1853 with 339 convicts (TR 10, p31).

Note: A 19-year old John Minogue was convicted on arson at a trial on 2 July 1850, but his sentence was 7 years (and not 10 years), this other John Minogue was ordered discharged on 12 May 1855.

Unlike other convicts sent to Tasmania, could not find John Minogue on the Founders and Survivors website. However, in searching by ship (the Rodney), he was discovered as "John Minogan" with consistent trial date of 21 June 1849 and transportation for 10 years for stealing two cows. Born in 1831, single, laborer. Brothers "Patrick" and "William" of his native place (Clare); sisters "Peggy" and "Nancy", both of the Cape of Good Hope. Conditional pardon on 24 March 1857. Married Annie Bridget McNelly in Wangaratta, Victoria in 1865. Eldest son named Martin in 1867, total five children. Died on 1 January 1879 in Wangaratta, Victoria.

http://foundersandsurvivors.org/pubsear ... ain/om7978

3) Michael McNamara: no age reported, County Clare, trial 21 June 1850, cow stealing, convict ordered to be discharged on 10 July 1856 (TR 10, p33) — discharge presumably in Ireland. Another Michael McNamara was tried for cow stealing on 4 January 1850 (TR 10, p 31), but no information on transportation. A third Michael McNamara was convicted for stealing two cows - see discussion further below.

4) Patrick McInerney: unknown, most likely an odd spelling in convict databases.

5) Patrick McMahon: no age reported, County Clare, trial 11 January 1850, "killing sheep with a felonious intent", transported on the Robert Small in April 1853 arriving in WA on 19 August 1853 with 303 convicts.

According to the Fremantle Prison convict database, Patrick McMahon was born in 1822, a laborer, a widower, with two children. Ticket of leave on 16 May 1854.

6) John Burke: age 30, County Clare, trial 20 February 1850, burglary, imprisoned on Spike Island, with documents dated in 1852 (CRF 1852 B 2 ,CRF 1852 Misc 5). Possibly, same as John Burke, age 40, County Clare, trial 27 February 1850, burglary, transported on the Rodney on 24 November 1852 arriving in Hobart, Tasmania on 12 February 1853 with 339 convicts (TR 10, p30).

The Founders and Survivors website, for Tasmanian convicts, provided additional detail: confirmed age of 40 in 1853 (born 1812); labourer; convicted of "housebreaking, stealing corn"; married; wife Ellen, of native place; three children; sisters "Julia", "Nancy", and "Mary" of native place. Information subsequent to arrival in Tasmania is unknown:

http://foundersandsurvivors.org/pubsear ... ain/om7810

7) Martin Hallinan: age 20, County Clare, trial 28 February 1850, sacrilege (TR 10, p30). Another document dated August 1854, finds Martin Hallinan in Mountjoy Prison (CRF 1854 Misc34). The comment on the first document states "convict ordered to be discharged, 5 March 1856".

Michael Carty and Martin Hallinan were indicted for stealing a copper poor box and a brass rail out of the Church of O'Brien's-bridge, on the 11th January—Verdict—Carty not guilty, Hallinan guilty.

Clare Journal, and Ennis Advertiser, Monday, 4 March 1850

8 ) Thomas Nihill: no age reported, County Clare, trial 18 April 1850, killing two heifers, transported on the Rodney on 24 November 1852 arriving in Hobart, Tasmania on 12 February 1853 with 339 convicts (TR 10, p31).

The Founders and Survivors website, for Tasmanian convicts, has additional detail: age 27 in 1853, Thomas had a brother Michael in the 25th Regiment. Ticket of leave on 9 January 1855; conditional pardon on 18 December 1855. Died in Launceston, Tasmania, on 11 August 1877.

http://foundersandsurvivors.org/pubsear ... ain/om8033

9) John Barrett: age 26, County Clare, trial 3 July 1850, sheep stealing, transported on the Robert Small in April 1853 arriving in WA on 19 August 1853 (with 303 convicts). (TR 10, p34).

According to the Fremantle Prison convict database, John Barrett was born in 1825, a laborer, married, with one child. Ticket of leave on 19 July 1854. Conditional pardon on 19 July 1856.

10) Richard Pilkington: age 20, County Clare, trial 3 July 1850, sheep stealing, transported on the Phoebe Dunbar in June 1853, arriving in WA on 30 August 1853 with 285 convicts (TR 10, p34).

According to the Fremantle Prison convict database, Richard Pilkington was born in 1831, a laborer, unmarried. Ticket of leave on 7 September 1854. Conditional pardon on 8 October 1859.

11) Martin Ryan: age 20, County Clare, trial 3 July 1850, sheep stealing, transported on the Robert Small in April 1853, arriving in WA in on 19 August 1853 with 303 convicts (TR 10, p34).

According to the Fremantle Prison convict database, Martin Ryan was born in 1823, a laborer, unmarried. Ticket of leave on 16 August 1854. Conditional pardon in April 1857.

12) Michael Lawlor: no age reported, County Clare, trial 9 October 1850, cow stealing, transported on the Robert Small in April 1853, arriving in WA on 19 August 1853 with 303 convicts (TR 10, p34).

According to the Fremantle Prison convict database, Michael Lawlor was born in 1827, a ploughman, unmarried. Ticket of leave on 25 August 1854. Died in 1865.

The below convicts (13 through 20) were sentenced to 7 years prison / transportation:

13) Patrick Hallinan: no age reported, County Clare, trial 16 June 1849, "killing a sheep with felonious intent", no details on transportation reported (TR 9, p191).

14) James Normoyle: no age reported, County Clare, trial 21 June 1849, cow stealing, transported on the Phoebe Dunbar in June 1853, which arrived in WA on 30 August 1853 with 285 convicts (TR 9, p193).

According to the Fremantle Prison convict database, James Normoyle died at sea on the voyage to Western Australia. He was 21 years old, or born about 1832, occupation shoemaker.

15) Patrick Lillis: no age reported, County Clare, trial 24 October 1849, cow stealing, no details on transportation reported in index (TR 9, p194).

16) Michael Darcy: no age reported, County Clare, trial 8 April 1850, ewe stealing, transported on the Robert Small in April 1853, arriving in WA on 19 August 1853 with 303 convicts (TR 10, p31).

According to the Fremantle Prison convict database, "Michael Darcey" was 27 in 1853, born about 1826, a laborer. He died on 8 October 1853, less than two months after his arrival in Australia.

17) James Hinchey: no age reported, County Clare, trial 8 April 1850, ewe stealing, transported on the Rodney on 24 November 1852 arriving in Hobart, Tasmania on 12 February 1853 with 339 (TR 10, p31).

The Founders and Survivors website, for Tasmanian convicts, has additional detail for "James Henchy": age 28 in 1853 (born 1825) ; single; labourer; father named "John", brothers "Joseph", "Patrick", "Michael", and sisters "Catherine" and "Hannah" of "np", his native place. Ticket of leave on 8 August 1854. Conditional pardon on 23 October 1855. Married Bridget McInerney on 23 February 1857 in Hobart. Six children. Died 17 June 1894 in Hobart.

http://foundersandsurvivors.org/pubsear ... in/ai32007

18) John Pinder: no age reported, County Clare, trial 8 April 1850, ewe stealing, transported on the Rodney on 24 November 1852 arriving in Hobart, Tasmania on 12 February 1853 with 339 (TR 10, p31).

The Founders and Survivors website, for Tasmanian convicts, has additional detail: age 35 in 1853 (born 1817); married, wife Bridget, and two children; brother "Michael"; sisters "Margaret", "Mary", and "Ann"; farm labourer. Ticket of leave on 5 September 1854; conditional pardon on 17 July 1855. John Pinder married Jane Miller on 20 August 1855 in Hobart. Died 7 December 1889 in Hobart.
http://foundersandsurvivors.org/pubsea ... in/ai55639

19) Thomas Hassett: no age reported, County Clare, trial 18 April 1850, sheep stealing, "convict died in Spike Island Gaol, Co. Cork on 2 February 1851", (TR 10, p31).

20) William Ryan: no age reported, County Clare, trial 24 October 1850, malicious assault, "convict ordered to be discharged on 9 February 1855", (TR 10, p35), presumably in Ireland.

********************************

In researching the convict Michael McNamara, #3 on the above listing, on the Founders and Survivors website, I discovered a different Michael McNamara from County Clare who was transported for 7 years (distinguishing him from #3).

This other Michael McNamara was sentenced to 7 years transportation for stealing two cows, trial on 21 June 1849, prosecutor John O'Brien of Clare. Born about 1831. A farm laborer. Father named Patrick, mother named Margaret, brother Patrick, sister Margaret. Michael McNamara was one of 342 male convicts who sailed on the convict ship Rodney departing Cork on 24 November 1852 and arriving in Tasmania on 12 February 1853. Conditional pardon on 5 June 1855. Certificate of Freedom on 8 April 1857. Married Ellen Cawley on 15 July 1858 in Hobart. Eight children. Michael died on 2 June 1876 (cemetery transcription of 1870 in below link is incorrect) in Port Cygnet, Tasmania.

http://foundersandsurvivors.org/pubsear ... ain/om7976

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/234 ... l-mcnamara

*************************************

THEORY: With a father named Patrick McNamara and his mother named Margaret, and a sister named Margaret, could the convict Michael McNamara have been from one of the missing McNamara families of Glandree (as outlined on page 13 of this thread)?

Patrick Sheedy McNamara (1803 - 1871 ?) and Margaret Doyle were the parents of three children in the Tulla baptism register (1819-1846). If their son Michael was the Tasmanian convict, then both were living in 1853.

Margaret Doyle appears to be related to the Doyle baptism sponsors for her children. Michael Doyle and Mary Enright were from Driminure / Garruragh as noted in last posting. Hugh Doyle was from Roslara.

A Patrick McNamara, of Glandree, a labourer, age 68 years, widower, died on 1 May 1871; informant Patrick McNamara (Tulla registration):

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/ ... 286630.pdf

.................... 1.? missing baptism register (March 1822 through August 1825)

.................... 1.? Patrick McNamara? baptized in a period of missing baptism registers? The convict Michael McNamara had a brother named Patrick. When the 68-year old Patrick McNamara of Glandree died in 1871, the informant was a Patrick McNamara. What happened to this Patrick McNamara?

.................... 1.? missing baptism register (June 1826 through May 1827)

.................... 1.1 Judy Sheedy (1828 - unknown), of Glandree, was baptized on 1 November 1828, father "Patt Sheedy", mother Margaret Doyle; sponsors Michael Doyle and Mary Enright.

If Judy Sheedy McNamara was the sister of the Tasmanian convict, then she died prior to 1853.

.................... 1.2 Michael McNamara (1830 - unknown), of Glandree, was baptized on 26 September 1830, father "Pat McNamara"; mother Margaret Doyle; sponsors Martin Meany and Sally Cavanagh.

The convict sent to Tasmania for stealing two cows?

.................... 1.3 Margaret McNamara (1833 - unknown), of Glandree, was baptized on 28 April 1833, father "Patt McNamara", mother Margaret Doyle; sponsors Hugh Doyle and Bridget Clanchy.

The Margaret noted in the convict records as the sister of the Tasmanian convict, Michael McNamara?


Was the Michael McNamara convicted of stealing two cows and sent to Tasmania, the son of Patrick McNamara and Margaret Moloney of Glandree? A definite possibility.

Searching for evidence that would refute my Michael McNamara convict theory, I searched the ancestry website for any family trees of the Michael McNamara who died at Port Cygnet in 1876. There were 66 family trees, with more than half of them stating that Michael McNamara was born in Corofin on either 15 June 1828 or in 1834, father Patrick McNamara (1804 - 1884 or 1889) and Margaret McCullough (born 1814, or various other years). Rath/Kilnaboy (Corofin) baptism records start in 1819 but there is no Patrick McNamara married to a McCullough. Or a Michael McNamara born to a Patrick McNamara. The surname McCullough, under any spelling variation, does not appear in the Corofin baptism register, nor is at all common in County Clare. The marriage certificate of Michael McNamara and Ellen Crowley (document loaded to family trees) does not state their parents. There is no evidence, such as a death record, for Margaret McCullough being the mother of convict Michael McNamara. Nor any mention of convict Michael McNamara according to his convict records having had a brother named Patrick and sister named Margaret. Many of the family trees have Patrick McNamara, Sr., of Corofin, going to the Scariff workhouse, where he died in 1884 or 1889, which seems a long way to go especially since there was a workhouse in Corofin.

Despite 50 plus family trees on the ancestry website stating that convict Michael McNamara of Tasmania was the son of Patrick McNamara and Margaret McCullough of Corofin, I reckon there is still a good possibility that he was, in fact, the son of Patrick McNamara and Margaret Molony of Glandree.

Regardless, the discovery of the 1871 death record for Patrick McNamara of Glandree is evidence that this McNamara family, of the laborer class, was not missing after all. They just weren't recorded as a tenant in Griffith Valuation. Sheila, I reckon this was your point for Garruragh townland that had only 18 tenants leasing a house at Griffith Valuation reflecting such a large population decline from the 1851 census. However, there could have indeed been quite a few Garruragh families of the laborer class who were not reflected as tenants at Griffith Valuation. And perhaps with Garruragh being in the vicinity of many landed estates, there would be a much higher percentage of such labor class families compared to Glandree townland.

[Sduddy]

Hi Jimbo,

Thanks again for doing so much research and giving us the results, set out so clearly.
And Sorry for missing that you had already noted that some lots in Garruragh and Glendree contained houses, rather than one house.

Jimbo, I wasn’t defending James Hurley – just providing a possible motive for the manslaughter (the judge distinguished between murder and manslaughter). But, as you say, he did not need to do a murder (or manslaughter) in order to be transported. One thing about the manslaughter of Sheehan puzzles me – the knife found on Hurley belonged to Sheehan, so how had Hurley killed the sheep?

About the McCullough name (in Clare it was usually Colloo, or Cullow), I agree that it does not suggest Corofin, but, rather, Tulla and Feacle, as the following topics on this forum show:
(1) “Culloo/Cullow and McDermotts Clare, Derby (UK) then Chicago”: http://www.ourlibrary.ca/phpbb2/viewtop ... lloo#p4666
(2) “Calloo family”: http://www.ourlibrary.ca/phpbb2/viewtop ... ugh#p11928

I agree that the prospects of employment in Garruragh, provided by the workhouse and by the nearby estates, were much better than the prospects of employment in Glendree, and this explains why the population of Garruragh did not decrease so much. My interest, though, is not so much in the population as in the number of houses – so often out of synch with the number of tenancies. I looked at the townland of Derrycaliff – another townland we gave close attention to – and noted that the number of houses remains almost constant between 1841 (26 houses) and 1851 (24 houses), a number not too far out from the number listed in Griffiths (22). Nevertheless, this slight difference makes it possible for Michael McNamara of Derryboy to have lived there at the time of Griffith’s Valuation, maybe in the role of caretaker for Mr. Hogan, or Mr. Loughrey.

When transcribing baptisms, I noticed that it was about 1850 (when, in theory, the famine was over) that the number of baptisms declined most noticeably. But we must take into account that the priests must have been in a state of consternation at this time and maybe not attending to the upkeep of records. We know now that the famine was over by then, but the people at the time still feared for the success of the potato crop. In her diary, on 20 Oct 1849, Elizabeth Grant writes:

A note from John Robinson – times very bad indeed, and if the potatoes really fail utter ruin will be the consequence – misery far beyond what we have yet seen … Worse and worse matters seem to be getting and what will be the end who can tell.

On 6 Nov 1849, she writes:

Bankrupcy is overtaking us all … on marches ruin rapidly – in the South and West it has left little behind it … the system of carrying off crops during the night in order to avoid the payment of rent has become quite general in the South and is even approaching us. Mr. Reid is the first victim – he is deservedly unpopular, yet it is a horrid dishonest revenge.

The loss of income from rents led to the dismissal of servants. Later in November Elizabeth Grant writes:

The Steward and gardener are dismissed from Russborough – nearly all the labourers – and two maids ….

(The Highland Lady in Ireland: Elizabeth Grant of Rothiemurchus, edited by Patricial Pelly and Andrew Tod).

Thanks, Jimbo, for following up on the 20 convicts sent to Spike Island in November 1850. The mention of Patrick McMahon reminded me of a really, really good article (with pictures) in The Other Clare, Vol 35 (2011), “Catherine McMahon of East Clare: Ruffling Colonial Feathers”, by Anne McMahon. I wish it could be made available to everyone to read. Here is the opening paragraph where the scene is set:

At midnight on the 4th February 1849 Catherine McMahon, with two of her brothers, Denis and William, was out in search of food on the slopes of Cappabane mountain. As the mist lifted they could see a flock of sheep grazing on nearby grassland. The owner of the flock was Darby Rodgers who held substantial tenements at Aughrim and Tobernagat. They killed one of his sheep and took three quarters of the carcass down the glen for their neighbour, widow Harte and her family.

The author goes on to say that they were arrested by three armed constables, members of regular patrols ordered during the Great Famine to search for animal thieves. They were taken into custody to await the Clare spring asizes due to commence on February 28. Note 1 in the References gives the source as “Outrage Papers, 5/279, County Clare, 1849, National Archives of Ireland. There were 279 convictions for sheep stealing in Clare in 1849”.
The author goes on to give some background information on the McMahon family, James McMahon and Margaret Blake, who had moved to Cappaghbaun from Dromindoora.
She describes Ennis Gaol at the time, explaining that the normal capacity was 115 prisoners, but at that time held 580. Bedding was on the floor. She quotes from the writings of Spencer Hall, who was visiting Clare, and who described the escorting of prisoners to the gaol. She takes the quote from “Life and Death in County Clare”, by S. Hall, in The Strangers Gaze: Travels in County Clare 1834-1950, edited by Brian Ó Dálaigh. This is available on clarelibrary.ie: https://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/cocla ... r_hall.htm.
Anne McMahon describes the Clare Spring Assizes of 1849, the arrival of the judges by coach, their lodging in Bindon Street, their procession to the courthouse, and she gives a synopsis of the opening address by Judge Baron Richards, in the course of which he enumerated the cases to be heard. “Seventy persons were to be tried for stealing sheep, twenty-two for cows, eight for goats, three for horses and seventeen for cattle”. She goes on to say that convictions for larceny had risen from 2,739 in 1843 to 10,534 in 1849 (Note 7 gives the source as Tables of the Number of Criminal Offenders Committed for Trial in Ireland 1849. Enhanced P. P., vol. 45, 1850, pp 16-17. The Governor of Ennis Gaol reported a number of instances to the Inspectors of Prisons in 1849 of offenders stating their aim to be transported "to a better country" (Note 9 gives the source as Cases of convicts who committed crime for the purpose of being transported. Inspectors General: twenty-eighth report of the general state of the prisons of Ireland. Enhanced P. P. vol. 29, 1950, pp 8-9.)
Catherine McMahon was sentenced to transportation for seven years and her brothers to ten. The rest of Anne McMahon’s article is an account of the subsequent events in Catherine’s life, with descriptions of Grangegorman Female Penitentiary, the voyage of the Australasia, and then on HMS Anson, Brickfields Female Hiring Depot and Cascades Female Factory. Catherine married twice. After much travelling and many adventures during her life, she died in 1906, aged 80, in Menzies, in Western Australia.

Sheila

P.S. Anne McMahon is the author of Floating Prisons: Convict Voyages to New South Wales 1823-37: https://www.hobartbookshop.com.au/produ ... _price_asc
Also Convicts at Sea: the voyages of the Irish convict transports to Van Diemen’s Land, 1840-1853, which has only 104 pages.

[Sduddy]

Hi Jimbo

The 1861 census figures show a huge drop in the number of houses in Garruragh - from 55 in 1851 to 23 in 1861: http://www.histpop.org/ohpr/servlet/Pag ... ageseq=422. Jimbo, if you can see a way to enlarge the image, please let me know. No, that's okay, I see it now.

I've been reading the last chapters in Sable Wings Over the Land, by Ciarán Ó Murchadha, and A Starving People: Life and Death in West Clare 1845 - 1851, by Ignatius Murphy, and realise now that the famine was not over in 1850, as I had imagined, and that the potato crop failed in some places that year. Ignatius Murphy provides a chart on page 89 showing the large drop in numbers between 1851 and 1861. It was that which set me looking for the Census Report for 1861. In Garruragh the reduction in number of houses between 1851 and 1861 is greater than the reduction between 1841 and 1851. A bit of an eye-opener for me.

Sheila

[Sduddy]

Hi Jimbo, again

This chart (from 1871 Census Report) shows that the rate of emigration from Co. Clare remained very high during the early 1850s: http://www.histpop.org/ohpr/servlet/Pag ... 118&zoom=4. Note a, at the bottom, states that "Enumeration of Emigrants from Irish ports did not commence till the 1st of May, 1851", so the figure for 1851 is for 8 months. The figure for the whole year would be about 6,312, I reckon.
I wonder how this information on emigration was arrived at. Were emigrants at every port in Ireland asked what county they came from? Or are the figures based on emigration from Clare ports, e.g. Killaloe, Kilrush?

According to a note at the bottom of the chart on page 9 of 1871 Census Report (Comparative View of Houses, etc), the decrease in the population is chiefly attributable to emigration: http://www.histpop.org/ohpr/servlet/Pag ... q=9&zoom=4. But I'm doubting that the deaths due to hunger and disease were counted during these years.

The figures for Garruragh are on page 61. You will see that the population of the workhouse is included. It was not included, but given separately in 1861: http://www.histpop.org/ohpr/servlet/Pag ... =61&zoom=4

Sheila

[Sduddy]

Well, I should have realised that the information in the Census Reports is derived from the censuses, so the emigration figures arrived at must be based on information given in the census form and not on questions asked at ports of departure, as I had imagined.The 1861 census form must have included a question on emigration.
This question was not asked in 1851. Just to be sure, I looked at the single completed 1851 census form for County Clare (I found only one online – for Michael and Mary Ryan and their daughter, Mary, living in Newmarket) : http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/r ... _00267.pdf. And no, there is no question about emigration. I was surprised to see that there is a question about persons who died since June 1841, contrary to what I’d imagined - see my doubts about that above.

Sheila

P. S. I've now looked at this archive.org site and see the contents page of the 1861 Census Report and see that there was no question about emigration asked in the 1861 census form. The figures for emigration seem to have been arrived at by this calculation: "Decrease by Emigration: Table VI - Showing the probable number of Persons which would have been in Ireland on April 7th, 1861, had Emigration and Immigration been equal during the previous decade, calculated upon the average number of Births and Deaths in England and Wales, being at the rate of 1 Birth to 31, and 1 Death to 45 of the Population" : https://archive.org/details/op1248757-1 ... emigration.

[Sduddy]

I feel must try to atone for saying that the famine over in 1850. In fact 1850 was a very bad year. There was an expectation that harvest work would be plentiful.

Accordingly, on 13 August, it was ordered that a final week’s rations would be issued to all outdoor paupers on Friday 16th , after which date all recipients of relief would henceforth be catered for within the workhouse … [T]he guardians anticipated that the workhouse population would continue to decline. They could not have been more wrong, because far from decreasing, the number of inmates rocketed out of all proportion. Agricultural work failed to materialise in the autumn of 1850, as it had in all the years since 1847, and as winter approached there was a flood of applications for admission to the workhouse.

(Sable Wings Over The Land: Ennis County Clare and its Wider Community during the Great Famine, by Ciarán Ó Murchada, chapter 11, “1850-1851, The Eve of Better Times”)

The workhouse referred to is Ennis workhouse, but I imagine that numbers increased in the other workhouses too. I may be wrong in that. The mortality rate in Ennis workhouse was very high. The guardians thought this was because the other workhouses admitted only healthy paupers and left all the sickly ones they had responsibility for in Ennis workhouse. Ó Murchada says that John B. Knox, the only guardian to visit the workhouse, found otherwise: less than 10d per week was being spent on each individual pauper, leading to their physical debilitation.

Sheila

[Sduddy]

We are often reminded that Griffith’s Valuation is not a census. Even as a substitute for a census, it is not very good. And I think it is safe to say that there were families living in Garruragh in the early 1850s, not shown in any surviving records. I think that by the time of the publication of Griffith’s, in 1855, some of these were already in the workhouse, either in Tulla, or in Ennis.

The building of Tulla Workhouse was sanctioned in Feb. 1850 and came into operation in 1852. In the meantime, paupers were admitted to Garruragh House. The Census Report for 1851 states there were 596 inmates in the workhouse on census night (March 30th), but that workhouse is Garruragh House, not the new purpose-built workhouse. It is hard to imagine how so many were accommodated in Garruragh House.
Here is what I wrote in Dec 2019 on Garruragh House in the topic "McInerney 1898 postcard from Killawinna to Belgium”:
Griffith’s Valuation shows Ignatius McInerney leasing a large farm in Cloondoorney More from James Molony (of Kiltannon house). I came upon a mention of Cloondoorney More in an article entitled “Tulla Workhouse in June 1851”, by Denis Moloney, published in Sliabh Aughty (No. 13) in 2007. Moloney says that, in the Spring of 1851, East Clare saw a return of the high rates of mortality previously seen in the winter of 1847 (“Black 47”). The Poor Law Commissioners responded by sending two eminent doctors, Dr. James Hughes and Dr. John Hill, to investigate conditions in the Union Workhouses in Co. Clare. They visited the temporary Workhouse in Garruragh House near Tulla and wrote a 36 page report (preserved in the British Public Records Office – P.R.O. HO 45/3969 “copy report of Drs Hill and Hughes”). Moloney says, “Garruragh House, an old eighteenth century mansion and demense previously the seat of the Harrison family and, by 1851, in the possession of Charles George O’Callaghan of Ballynahinch House, was taken on a fifty year lease by the Board of Guardians as a temporary Workhouse for the new Union [of Tulla]”. When the two doctors arrived on 30th June, 1851, the new workhouse was only half complete. James Moloney of Kiltannon House, Chairman of the Board of Guardians, escorted them to Garruragh House where over one thousand inmates, all women, were being accommodated (the men and the boys were still being accommodated in Ennis and in Scarriff).(Moloney explains that 256 of the deaths which took place at Scarriff and 94 of the deaths which took place in Ennis were chargeable to the new Tulla Union).
When the doctors had finished their tour of Garruragh Workhouse, they were taken to see a house in the townland of Cloondoorney More, which had been acquired by the Board of Guardians just a fortnight before. The doctors seem to have been pleased enough with Cloondoorney More: “Here were 52 children at their lessons .. the dormitories were clean ..”. It seems that these children had been selected to go to the house in Cloondoorney because they had not yet been infected by Opthalmia which was prevalent among the children in Garruragh. The doctors wrote, “there is a large range of buildings in connection with the farmyard of Cloondoorneymore, which the Guardians are about having converted into apartments for the children.”

I no longer have the reading ticket that enabled me to read that article in Galway University Library in 2019, and would love to be able to read it again. I wonder if it is available to read anywhere else?

Sheila

[Sduddy]

How so many could be accommodated in Garruragh House is truly mystifying, but it seems there was a shelter with a canvas roof erected at Garruragh. This is referred to in an article entitled “'The Late Disastrous Epidemic’ Medical Relief and the Great Famine “, by Laurence M. Geary – see page 57: http://edepositireland.ie/bitstream/han ... sAllowed=y.
Geary says,

[In 1849,] A contributory factor to the twenty-five per cent death rate in the Tulla hospital, according to the medical officer, was the poor condition of the building. The canvas roof left in both wind and rain. The floors were constantly wet and the wards full of smoke, 'from the necessity of lighting the fire on the floor'. [note] 36
Note 36: Report on the Commissioners of Health, Ireland, on the Epidemics of 1846 to 1850, pp. 1-11. [https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/bookvie ... 1183720-bk]

Here is the full text of the report on Tulla hospital:

[25% death rate] Attributed to patients in Fever or Dysentery being attacked by Cholera, also to the bad construction of the hospital, the roof of which, being canvas, admitted both wind and rain, the floor being constantly wet, and the wards filled with smoke, from the necessity of lighting the fire on the floor [Dr. Molony]

Sheila

[Jimbo]

Hi Sheila,

The timing of when the Great Famine ended appears to differ between sources, so I reckon there is no need for you to "atone for saying that the famine was over in 1850". Wikipedia states that it "was a period of starvation and disease in Ireland lasting from 1845 to 1852". If you check their source, it was the history "This Great Calamity: The Irish Famine 1845-1852" by Christine Kinealy (1995). Their ending year would differ from the better known "The Great Hunger: Ireland 1845-1849" by British historian Cecil Woodham-Smith (1962). The Encyclopedia Britannica also gives the years 1845 to 1849. The Ask About Ireland website (with its on-line Griffith Valuation reports) hedges somewhat stating that it "lasted until about 1850 but the worst years were between 1845 and 1849".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_(Ireland)
https://www.britannica.com/event/Great- ... sh-history
https://www.askaboutireland.ie/narrativ ... at-famine/

Tulla was noted as having a prosperous potato crop in 1851, yet still there was anticipation for large numbers of emigrants after the harvest was in :

The potato crop from Tulla to Limerick is in a most thriving condition, and especially in the neighbourhood of Broadford.

Numbers of the respectable farmers, towards O'Callaghan Mills, Broadford, Tulla and Ennis, have come to the determination of emigrating after the next harvest.

Limerick and Clare Examiner, Wednesday, 18 June 1851

Sheila, I don't believe a later famine in the 1850's was the cause of the large number of immigrants, but more the promise of a better life in America. When researching the various passenger listings for Eliza McNamara (page 33) there were many articles on the large numbers of immigrants, many which described them as being from the more prosperous and respectable farming families.

Thanks very much for providing the links both to the 1861 and 1871 census data. Sheila, on page 63 of the 1871 Census Report was a table summarizing the workhouse populations. Tulla Union Workhouse, located in Garruragh, had an inmate population of 256 in 1871, with another 10 employees. I've updated my analysis from a few postings ago for both Garruragh and Glandree townlands with the new census data, and revised the 1855 estimate when "houses" was used in a plot description:

Garruragh Townland (excludes workhouse):
1841 census: 402 people; 67 houses; average 6.0 per household.
1851 census: 305 people; 54 houses; average 5.6 per household. A 24% decrease from 1841.
1855 GV: 21 households *, estimated 126 people (x 6 per household). A 59% decrease from 1851.
1861 census: 127 people; 20 houses; average; average 6.4 per household. A 58% decrease from 1851
1871 census: 117 people (383 people less 266 workhouse); 21 houses; average 5.6 per household. A 8% decrease from 1861.
1901 census: 91 people; 18 houses; average 5.1 per household (non-workhouse related). A 22% decrease from 1871
1911 census: 103 people; 19 houses average 5.4 per household (workhouse closed in 1908). A 13% increase from 1911.

* 18 tenants, including 1 tenant with a plural "houses" in the description, which was counted as an extra 3.0 houses, = 21 houses.

For Garruragh townland the timing of the large decrease between 1851 and 1861 census years, apears to have occurred between 1851 and 1855. It is also interesting that after the workhouse closed in 1908, the Garruragh population increased in the 1911 census. Perhaps many residents left Garruragh in the early 1850's as they didn't want to raise their families next to a workhouse, with a reputation likely of sickness and disease?

Glendree Townland (% decrease in people):
1841 census: 788 people; 142 houses; average 5.5 per household.
1851 census: 431 people; 87 houses; average 5.0 per household. A 45% decrease from 1841.
1855 GV: 74 houses **, estimated 407 people (x 5.5 per household). A 6% decrease from 1851.
1861 census: 385 people; 74 houses; average 5.2 per household. A 11% decrease from 1851.
1871 census: 387 people; 72 houses; average 5.4 per household. A 0% decrease from 1861.
1901 census: 274 people; 52 houses; average 5.3 per household. A 29% decrease from 1871.
1911 census: 239 people; 50 houses; average 4.8 per household. A 13% decrease from 1901.

** 54 tenants, including 8 tenants with a plural "houses" in the description, these counted as an extra 2.5 houses, or plus 20 = 74 houses.

I didn't realize at the start of the search for the missing Civil War soldier Thomas McNamara that the townland of Glendree was so large. I can understand why in the old Bible in the possession of Paul from Michigan, as discussed awhile ago, its owner might have written "Parish of Gland" for Patrick McNamara if he had in fact been born in the townland of Glandree, given its large size. Plus, in the USA the term "townland" is not familiar, and I believe "township" is more commonly used. I have a hunch that Paul's great great grandfather, Patrick McNamara, born about 1846, will be the son of John McNamara and Bridget Coffey of Glandree, baptized in 1845. More research into what brought Patrick McNamara in the 1860's to Cleveland, a Fenian stronghold during the Fenian attacks on Canada, I reckon might provide interesting results.

***********************************

The building of Tulla Workhouse was sanctioned in Feb. 1850 and came into operation in 1852. In the meantime, paupers were admitted to Garruragh House. The Census Report for 1851 states there were 596 inmates in the workhouse on census night (March 30th), but that workhouse is Garruragh House, not the new purpose-built workhouse. It is hard to imagine how so many were accommodated in Garruragh House.

When the two doctors arrived on 30th June, 1851, the new workhouse was only half complete. James Moloney of Kiltannon House, Chairman of the Board of Guardians, escorted them to Garruragh House where over one thousand inmates, all women, were being accommodated (the men and the boys were still being accommodated in Ennis and in Scarriff).

How so many could be accommodated in Garruragh House is truly mystifying, but it seems there was a shelter with a canvas roof erected at Garruragh.

Sheila, your recent postings (above) wondered how 1,000 inmates could possibly be housed at Garruragh House. The "Tulla Temporary Workhouse", also known as "Tulla Auxiliary Workhouse" or "Garruragh Workhouse", was greater in size than Garruragh House, the landed estate house. The first newspaper account I could find was from November 1849 (note that newspapers frequently misspell "Garruragh" so I could have missed earlier articles):

Surgeon John Nihill, of Tulla, is, we are glad to hear, appointed physician to the Garronragh Auxiliary workhouse.

Limerick and Clare Examiner, Saturday, 3 November 1849

Garruragh temporary workhouse in April 1850 held 327 women inmates. By the 1851 census, this number would grow to 596 women inmates, but its capacity had also expanded:

TULLA UNION.
On Monday, the 15th inst, the first meeting of the new Board of Guardians for the Union took place . . .

A conversation then ensued, relative to the erection of sheds to serve as temporary accommodation, until the new workhouse was built, as it was ultimately decided that such sheds should be built; but as it was deemed desirable that they should be erected at Garruragh, where the temporary workhouse is situated, and that the Board should get a lease for ever of the ground, so that those sheds might be available to the Union at any future period, when required, the further consideration of the subject was deferred until a Committee of the Board returned from inspecting the place. On their return, the Board unanimously agreed to have the sheds erected in that locality.

The number receiving outdoor relief in the union by the last weekly return, was 4,061, at an expense for the week of 71 15s. 10d. The number in their temporary workhouse is 327, not including those at present in the Ennis and Scariff workhouses, who are chargeable to the Tulla Union.
. . . .

Proposed by Mr. J.P. Molony, seconded by Mr. R. Walton, and adopted—"That the Commissioners be requested to have the workhouse erected at Garruragh, near the present auxiliary workhouse."

It was also resolved by the Board that the allowance of meal to outdoor recipients between the age of 9 and 15 years, be 7lbs. per week henceforward.
. . . .
Clare Journal, and Ennis Advertiser, Thursday, 25 April 1850

MONDAY—JUNE 17.
James Molony, Esq., of Kiltannon, in the chair. Present—Henry Spaight, J.P., R.A. Studdert, J.P., . . . .[about 10 others] . . .

Mr. W.P. O'Brien, P.L.I., was in attendance, and informed the Board that he had last week received £130 from the Commissioners for the relief of the Union, and had also received £70 additional for the present week, making at total of £200; but that the Commissioners would hold out no expectations of any further advances, except that they would apply to the Lords of the Treasury for £250 to the fitting up and enlarging of the Temporary Workhouse at Garruragh.

The Chairman remarked that the Board should feel obliged to Mr. O'Brien for having pressed the claims of the Union so forcibly upon the Commissioners. He must say that those additional grants—together with the grant already received for clothing purposes had placed the board quite upon velvet.

Mr. J.P. Molony—Or, to use an elegant expression—it has "set us fairly on the pig's back" (laughter).

Mr. O'Brien had no doubt that the house at Garruragh could be made an extremely nice compact building by a judicious outlay of this sum of £250.

Clare Journal, and Ennis Advertiser, Thursday, 20 June 1850

Sheila, thanks for providing the link to “'The Late Disastrous Epidemic’ Medical Relief and the Great Famine “, by Laurence M. Geary, which gave detail on the construction of the "sheds" on the property of Garruragh House as approved by the Tulla Union Board of Guardians. These wooden sheds appear to have replaced the tents put up by the Ordnance department as early as 1847, which were the reported cause of the high 25% death rate at the Tulla Temporary workhouse in 1849.

Where temporary fever hospitals were sanctioned, the Board of Health recommended that an existing building be procured and adapted for the purpose. If this were not feasible, or if additional accommodation were required in existing hospitals, the Board supplied the applicants with plans for the construction of wooden fever sheds and bedsteads, of a simple and economical design, which had been drawn up by architect of the Poor Law Commission. These wooden sheds were preferred by the Board of Health to tents belonging to the Ordnance department which were used in some places for part of 1847. Three different types of tents were employed, hospital tents, marquees and round tents, which could accommodate 14, 4, and 3 fever patients respectively. Dominic Corrigan considered that marquees and round tents were 'ill adapted for hospital purposes'.

Source: “'The Late Disastrous Epidemic’ Medical Relief and the Great Famine “, by Laurence M. Geary – see page 58

http://edepositireland.ie/bitstream/han ... sAllowed=y

Just to make clear, in the 1851 census the large number of "paupers" at the Garruragh Temporary Workhouse were not housed in canvas tents, but in wooden sheds built in late 1850.

The Board of Guardians at their November 1850 meeting, had considered a different solution to housing the large number of "paupers" at the Tulla workhouse, which might have even made building the new Tulla Union Workhouse unnecessary:

TULLA UNION—Monday.
The usual weekly meeting of Guardians was held this day.
James Molony, Esq., D.L., Chairman. Present—Messrs James Robb, J.P. Molony, R.A. Studdert, J.P., Henry Spaight, J.P., William Watson, Thomas Liddy, and Cornelius McGrath.
W.H. Lucas, Esq., P.L.I., was in attendance.

At a previous meeting a lengthened report had been submitted to the Board by the Chairman, which entered into various particulars relative to the amount of indoor accommodation required by the union, and suggested that their present building at Garruragh with some additions would afford quite sufficient permanent accommodation for all the paupers of the union, without incurring the heavy expense of building a new workhouse. The concluding portion of the report was as follows:—

There are two sources of relief from the excessive numbers with which the workhouses of Clare are crowded, to which I think the attention of the Commissioners and of the Government should be forcibly called—one of these is emigration, and the other the formation of an orphan establishment for the whole County.

This Board, I have no doubt, is willing to advance the sum of £5 per head, towards defraying the expense of removing to New South Wales the female paupers who are of a suitable age. We have no other chance of lessening the vast numbers of this class; and it is lamentable subject to behold those young people, who would in Australia be useful members of society, investing their best years in our workhouses, where they are not only useless but a burthen upon the resources and industry of the country. But if the best sympathies of our nature are engaged for these young people, how much more must we feel for the orphans of those who have died in our workhouse, who are then left a burthen upon our resources and a charge upon us to educational and moral training, which involves the deepest responsibility to our Heavenly Father, and it is with the liveliest satisfaction that I have heard that our Poor Law Inspector, Mr. Lucas, as well as Mr. Briscoe, who shares with him the inspection of all unions in this County, have it in contemplation to advocate, both with the respective boards and with the Commissioners, a measure for combining in one establishment the orphans in the several workhouses in the County, and I feel assured that whenever the board is called upon for its co-operation, it will be found ready to adopt all such measures as are necessary to carry out the design.

If by emigration and the transference of our orphans we get 300 vacancies, and by giving relief out of doors to 500 aged and infirm persons, I should not despair of meeting the extent of pauperism which we may to encounter in the next six months with the indoor accommodation we should have at our disposal.

It was ordered that a copy of this report should be transmitted to the Commissioners.

The question arose upon this report as to whether they should have a new workhouse or adopt the views of the Chairman which were, that the Commissioners might make such additions to the building now at Garruragh as would render that an efficient and sufficient workhouse for the union, and that in order to effect this it would be only necessary for the Commissioners to include the site of Garruragh in the charges of the land that they are now in treaty for with Mr. O'Callaghan—and the necessity of building a new workhouse at an expense of between £5,000 and £6,000 would thus be obviated.

The majority of the Board took a different view of the matter, and were fully of opinion that it was necessary the new workhouse should be built and that with all possible despatch, as they were opposed to continuance of outdoor relief to any extent whatever. On a division it was carried by a majority of 9 to 3, that the workhouse should be erected.

Mr. Lucas was afraid that Garruragh house would not be found suitable as a permanent workhouse, even were Mr. Molony's suggestions carried out.
. . . .
Clare Journal, and Ennis Advertiser, Thursday, 7 November 1850

The Tulla Board of Guardians appears to have changed their minds in 1851 about sending female orphans to Australia. Leaving Plymouth on 15 July 1851 on the ship Calcutta were 28 female orphans, aged between 18 and 23, from the Tulla Union workhouse. See the story of all 150 orphans from Clare, including a list of passengers by workhouse origin, in "From Clare to Van Diemen’s Land: Some forgotten Mothers of Tasmania" by Michael MacMahon on the Clare Library website. Interestingly, included among the 150 orphan passengers were six McNamara's: one from Tulla (Mary), four from Scariff, and one from Corofin.

https://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/cocla ... s_land.htm

TULLA UNION.
At the meeting of the Board of Guardians, held on the 25th ult., a letter was read from the Poor Law Commissioners containing an extract from minutes of Scariff Board of Guardian, complaining that the Tulla Board retain their healthy paupers in the their own establishment, and send their sick to Scariff. . . . [a long discussion denying that this was the case] . . . .

A letter was received from the Commissioners stating, in reference to the resolution requesting the new workhouse to be built on land adjoining the present temporary workhouse, that the arrangements are now too far advanced to permit of the change proposed without incurring a loss.

Mr. Studdert suggested that they ought to give notice of the intention to surrender the temporary workhouse at Garruragh [Plot 13 at GV], as it was necessary they should give seven years' notice, and it was to be hoped that after the lapse of seven years they would not have any paupers to occupy it.

Clare Journal, and Ennis Advertiser, Thursday, 5 December 1850

At the time of Griffith Valuation (1855) in Garruragh townland, the temporary Tulla "Auxiliary" Workshouse was at Plot 13, and the custom built Tulla Union workhouse finished in 1852 was in Plot 14, which despite the numbering were not adjacent but separated by Plot 12 (140 acres of land, with a herd's house). In November of 1855, Tulla Union advertised the Auxiliary Workhouse to be let for a lease term ending in September 1857. In 1850, Tulla Union had given the required seven years notice, and thus the remaining lease term was less than two years:

Tulla Union.
TO BE LET,
THE LARGE AUXILIARY WORKHOUSE
OF GARRURAGH
From the present date to the 29th September, 1857.

All the Buildings are two Stories High, and newly built, with spacious Yards attached to each, and capable of accommodating 900 persons, the Buildings are admirably adapted for manufacturing purposes or for Barrack Accommodation. The Garruragh Auxiliary is situated One Mile of the Post Town of Tulla, Ten of Ennis and Fourteen of Limerick.

Proposals in writing to be received by me up to one o'Clock on Tuesday the 13th instant.
By Order, T. MURPHY, Clerk of Union
Board-room, 7th Nov. 1855.

Clare Journal, and Ennis Advertiser, Monday, 19 November 1855

The above description of the Garruragh Auxiliary workhouse, capable of accommodating 900 persons, and with its buildings being two stories high, was much larger than I had pictured. On google streetview, you can see the stone wall outlining Plot 13 of the auxiliary workhouse, and there is still a two-story ruin partly viewable behind overgrown shrubbery.

Sheila, while Garruragh townland had a large decrease in number of houses from the 1851 census to the number of tenants at 1855 Griffith Valuation, and a large decrease in population by the 1861 census, a Brennan family appears to have moved into Garruragh sometime post Griffith Valuation:

UNRESERVED AUCTION
AT GARRURAGH
On Tuesday, the 8th Day of April next.

MR. DANIEL BRENNAN having been obliged to give up a portion of his Land at Garruragh, on the 25th March, inst., has commissioned the Subscriber to Sell on the above day, on the Land adjoining the Union Workhouse at Tulla, the following Stock, which were selected with great care and judgment, are fanciful coloured, and show good breeding, they consist of
15 In-calf Heifers, all to calve in good time to a highly prized Bull.
10 Dairy Cows, some of which are Dutch and great milkers.
20 Two-year old Heifers.
4 Strippers very forward [an old cow well past her prime].
20 Prime Hoggets, and about
20 Ton of Well-saved Upland Hay.

The Stock must be Sold without reserve, and removed the same day; a few days, which will be named at Sale, will be give for removal of Hay. In-calf Heifers, Cows, and Strippers will be sold singly. The Young Stock in lots to suit purchasers, and the Hoggets in half scores.
Terms—Cash, with the usual commission added.
SALE AT ONE O'CLOCK.
Garruragh is 12 Miles from Limerick, 8 from Scariff, and 10 from Ennis.
JOHN C. RYALL, Auctioneer, Church Street, Ennis.
March 17, 1856

Clare Journal, and Ennis Advertiser, Monday, 31 March 1856

Sheila, this Daniel Brennan who was forced to give up a portion of his Land at Garruragh, must have been leasing Plot 12, which was adjacent to the Tulla Union workhouse, as described in the above advertisement. Plus, Plot 12 at Griffith Valuation was 140 acres, the largest holding in Garruragh, consistent with the large stock up for sale. Perhaps Daniel Brennan had large debts? Interesting that no Brennan appears as a tenant at Griffith Valuation; Plot 12 was leased by Michael Nelan (Neylon) and had a herdsman house on the property.

The identity of the Daniel Brennan who appears to have moved into Garruragh after 1855 GV is a mystery. He must be related to the John Brennan who with his wife, Catherine Ryan, had seven children between 1860 and 1869 whose births are reflected in the Tulla baptism registers. Their residence was reported as Garruragh, except for the youngest child who was born in "Tulla", where the family had moved. Their first born son, named Thomas, had Daniel Brennan as the baptism sponsor. Catherine Ryan Brennan died on 5 June 1871 at the age of just 32 years, leaving John Brennan, now a shopkeeper in Tulla, with a family of young children. Only five months later, on 7 November 1871, John Brennan married the widow, Mary Cooney Kelly, of O'Callaghan Mills, daughter of John Cooney. John Brennan's father was reported as Thomas Brennan in the civil marriage records; so Daniel Brennan was likely a brother, uncle, or a cousin, but not his father.

Sheila, the Brennan family had moved to Tulla town by the 1871 census, partially accounting for the decline in population from 127 in 1861 (John, Catherine, son Thomas) to 117 in 1871 (no Brennans). Brennan is not a common name in Tulla Parish. John Brennan of Tulla appears to have been well-connected in Clare political circles, at least he was during a local election campaign in 1879 :

CAPTAIN VANDELEUR IN TULLA.
From Our Correspondent.

Captain Vandeleur, arrived here on Wednesday, on this canvass, accompanied by his brother, Captain John Vandeleur, Captain Charles George Vandeleur, Ballinahinch, Thomas B. Browne, Newgrove, James Molony, Esq, Solicitor, Mr. John Brennan, Tulla, who is taking a very active part, in behalf of the gallant Captain. Every elector in the town was visited, and the promises of support he received far exceeded his expectations. He was heartily welcomed by all, and some voters, who had been in from the country, came and offered their support. On the whole his canvass was most successful here, and I am sure he was delighted with his visit to Tulla. He might have heard such expressions as "Well he is the best man after all. He ought to be good; his father could not be beaten." After spending three hours in Tulla the party returned to Ennis.

Clare Freeman, and Ennis Gazette, Saturday, 10 May 1879

***********************************

Four McNamara families disappear from Garruragh townland, but whether prior to the 1851 census or soon after is unknown. These families include (1) John McNamara and Bridget Rogers (2) John McNamara and Nancy Corry (3) Daniel McNamara and Mary Digaden, as well as (4) Thomas McNamara and Norry Connors, who moved to Tyredagh by 1845. Each of the four McNamara families had a daughter named Mary, who would be more or less the same age as the orphan Mary McNamara from Tulla Union workhouse who arrived in Hobart, Tasmania, on the ship Calcutta on 2 November 1851.

What became of Mary McNamara of the Tulla Temporary Workhouse once she arrived in Tasmania? Unfortunately, there were two Mary McNamara's on the Calcutta. One Mary McNamara quickly got a one year servant contract, wages of £9, on the 11th of November with a Mr. J. L. Stewart of Darcy Street (Hobart presumably). The other Mary McNamara had to wait until the 8th of December for her one year servant contract, wages of only £7, with a Mr. Henry Dilton of Glenorchy, a suburb of Hobart.

[Sduddy]

Hi Jimbo

Thank you for all that research, including the newspaper reports, which explain a lot. Indeed, you have the makings of an article on the two Garruragh Workhouses right there.

Good to hear that the canvas tents, used since 1847, were replaced by wooden huts in 1850.

Jimbo, I agree with almost everything you say, but, in fairness to me, I didn’t say that there was a later famine in the 1850s. I mentioned “hunger and disease”, and, from what I’ve read, I am of the opinion that hunger and disease were prevalent in the workhouses in the early 1850s.
I agree that the people who were emigrating were not the poorest people. They were on the second rung of the ladder. But the people on the lower rung, who had been so dependent on them, were left behind *. These, surely, must be the people who flocked to the workhouse in the early 1850s, and who got very meagre rations there – not enough to support life. I suspect that they were not wanted anymore and were considered “a burthen upon our resources”. I think the deaths of inmates, if explained at all, were ascribed to “underlying causes”, as we say these days when we want a handy phrase. The possibility that paupers would have survived, if they were allowed to remain in their homes and in receipt of outdoor relief, is mooted in Laurence Geary’s article, but we can see from the Nov 1850 newspaper report, which you quote, that the Tulla Board of Guardians were not in favour of outdoor relief.

Good work on the Brennan family. I noticed this family when I was looking to see if there was any family in the baptisms (giving Garruragh as their address) who were not listed in Griffith’s Valuation (and failing to find any).

As you say, Jimbo, four McNamara families disappear from Garruragh townland. There is nothing to say when they left, or where they went – maybe they emigrated, or maybe they took shelter (of some sort) in the Auxiliary Workhouse. But their disappearance tells a story – one quite different from the usual story of the second half of the century in which one son remains at home to take over the homeplace and one daughter is provided with sufficient dowry to marry.

*Here is a bit from Elizabeth Grant’s diary dated May 14 1850:

Markets dull, people ruined; the better sort emigrating with money, leaving the Paupers of all classes at home to starve together. It is melancholy really to walk along the roads the day before the steamer sails for America: such crowds following the poor wretched carts with the rickety baggage in it, all the women in tears, all the men surly, and yet they leave want behind them and have hope before them.
(The Highland Lady in Ireland: Elizabeth Grant of Rothiemurchus, edited by Patricia Pelly and Andrew Todd)

Sheila

[Sduddy]

Elizabeth Grant, quoted above, is the maiden name of Elizabeth Smith, and she is probably better known as Elizabeth Smith. It is as Elizabeth Smith she is referred to in The Irish Famine, an illustrated history, by Helen Litton (Wolfhound Press, 1994). I like that little book very much, and recommend it to anyone who wants a short history of the Great Famine (135 pages). Short as the book is, Litton gives due weight to the important realisation that the famine brought with it, i.e. that Ireland was not an equal partner in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and could never hope to be treated as such. She gives space for a quote, not often aired, from A Voice for Ireland, A Famine in the Land, 1847, by Isaac Butt [a Conservative]:

What can be more absurd – what can be more wicked, than for men professing an attachment to an imperial Constitution to answer claims now put forward for state assistance to the unprecedented necessities of Ireland, by talking of Ireland being a drain upon the English treasury? … If the Union be not a mockery, there exists no such thing as an English treasury. The exchequer is the exchequer of the United Kingdom.
Ireland has been deprived, by the Union with England, of all separate power of action. She cannot do now, as in the days of her parliament she might have done – draw upon her own resources, or pledge her own credit, for objects of national importance. Irish men were told, indeed, that in consenting to a Union which would make them partners with a great and opulent nation, like England, they would have all the advantages that might be expected to be realised. How are these pledges to be fulfilled, if the partnership is one of loss, and never of profit to us? If, bearing our share of all imperial burdens – when calamity falls upon us we are to be told we then recover our separate existence as a nation, just so far as to disentitle us the state assistance, which any portion of a nation, visited with such a calamity, had the right to expect from the governing power? If Cornwall had been visited with the scenes that devastated Cork, would similar arguments have been used? Would men have stood up and denied that Cornwall was entitled to have the whole country share the extraordinary loss?

A Voice for Ireland – see end of page 20 and beginning of page 21: https://books.google.ie/books?id=qgcanQ ... &q&f=false

Sheila

[Jimbo]

Hi Sheila,

On google street view when you look over the stone wall surrounding the auxiliary workhouse (Plot 13 on GV), there is indeed "a two-story ruin partly viewable behind overgrown shrubbery". Given the context of my posting, the implication to a reader, as well as my own assumption, would be that this was a ruin of Garruragh workhouse. When, in fact, it is a tower house ruin of Garruragh Castle, owned in 1580 by Donagh and Rory MacNamara according to "Tulla places of interest" at the Clare Library :

https://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/cocla ... 028---.htm
https://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/cocla ... terest.htm

Also, even upon further research, it is difficult to determine the month and year when Charles George O'Callaghan of Ballinahinch first leased out his Garruragh property (Plot 13) as a temporary workhouse, first to Scariff Union, and then to Tulla Union when it was carved out of Scariff and Ennis districts in 1850.

In January 1849, Scariff provided what appears to be budget detail to determine rates based upon the poor law valuation of property. The costs included annual labor costs (£3,136) as well as the below costs (£7,403): rents at their workhouses and hospitals:

Rents of additional workhouses and hospitals:—Moynoe, £120; Reddon's Store (£80), house (£50), £130; Kirby's, £100; Clum's fine (£50), rent (£4), £54; Hogan's, £24; Molony's, £24; Hickey's £15; 4 acres of land £25; depots for relieving officers, £12 and 10 shillings; burial ground purchased, £85; drugs, &c, for half-a-year, £200; repairs, £500; buildings, £800; insurance, £6 and 5 shillings; furniture, £120; three fever hospitals in electoral divisions, calculated at £10 a week each, £1,560; valuation of union, £250; preparing rate books for collectors, £41; printing and advertising for one year, £200. Subtotal = £4,267. Total with labor costs = £7,403.

Dublin Evening Mail, Monday, 1 January 1849

The workhouses in Scariff Union listed above were very location specific, such as "Reddon's Store". However, Garruragh was not mentioned in the listing. Its valuation of £50 at Griffith Valuation was in the range of the individual workhouse costs for Scariff Union. The three fever hospitals, each costing £520 per year, did include a fever hospital in Tulla:

We learn that some cholera patients which were taken into the fever hospital at Tulla have spread the disease among the fever patients there.

Clare Journal, and Ennis Advertiser, Monday, 26 March 1849

TULLA CHOLERA HOSPITAL

In Hospital 8 o'clock, a.m., 10th April = 21
Admitted +7
Died <1>
Discharged <1>
Remaining in Hospital, 11th April = 26

Total number of admissions, 93; total deaths, 45; total discharges, 21; in Hospital, 26.

JAMES MOLONEY
JOHN NIHILL

Clare Journal, and Ennis Advertiser, Thursday, 12 April 1849

I suspect that the "Tulla Fever Hospital" was the same as the "Tulla Cholera Hospital", and one of the three Scariff Union fever hospitals noted in the 1849 budget newspaper article. Sheila, in the article entitled “'The Late Disastrous Epidemic’ Medical Relief and the Great Famine “, by Laurence M. Geary, this was where Dr. Molony of the Tulla hospital (Scariff Union) had to explain the high percentage of deaths. Tulla hospital treated 504 patients; 126 died; 25% death rate, for the period from July 1847 (when weekly reports first began) to August 1850 (when the Temporary Fever Acts expired). The explanation given, dated 7 November 1849, was due to cholera and poor construction of the hospital (see complete explanation in prior posting by Sheila). Note that the time period of the data in the table (through August 1850) table continues well beyond when the explanation was provided (at 7 November 1849).

The earliest weekly records, as noted above, started in July 1847, but it is not clear when the Tulla fever hospital started its operations. The death rate through April 1849 was incredibly high at 48% (93 patients, 45 died). It lowered subsequently. In April 1849 the population of Tulla Fever Hospital was only 26 patients. Given that the Tulla hospital only ever treated 504 patients through August 1850, I suspect that its population never exceeded 50 or so and likely much less on any given day.

Sheila, the Tulla fever hospital was a relatively small operation compared to the main Scariff Union workhouses at Moyne, Scariff, and Tomgraney, or in Ennis Union. Or compared to the Garruragh Temporary Workhouse with a population of 327 in April 1850 and 584 at the 1851 census. There is no evidence that the Tulla fever hospital, noted to be poorly constructed with a canvas roof, was ever located at Garruragh prior to 1850. Especially if its operations began as early 1847, then its owner, Charles George O'Callaghan, was leasing the Garruragh House location to other tenants. After the custom-built Tulla Union hospital was created nearby in Garruragh (Plot 14) and opened in 1852, afterwards the Garruragh Temporary Workhouse (Plot 13) was used to treat and segregate fever patients until it closed in November 1855 (and then sub-let until the end of Tulla Union's lease term in September 1857).

In the 1851 census for Tulla Parish, a separate workhouse and hospital are reported at the bottom of the census table (page 42): Tulla Town (population 1,215 in 1851), Tulla Workhouse (12 men, likely workers, and 584 women), and Tulla Hospital (15 men, and 37 women). I suspect that this is the Tulla fever hospital, which was not there in 1841 and disappears in 1861. Tulla Workhouse was located in Garruragh townland, where was the Tulla Fever Hospital located?

http://www.histpop.org/ohpr/servlet/Ass ... nd,%201851

The first mention of Garruragh workhouse was in late 1849, when it appeared that Scariff Union was just beginning to obtain senior management for an 1850 start of operations:

Surgeon John Nihill, of Tulla, is, we are glad to hear, appointed physician to the Garronragh Auxiliary workhouse.

Limerick and Clare Examiner, Saturday, 3 November 1849

SCARIFF UNION
The Board of Guardians will at their Meeting on Tuesday, the 11th day of December inst. proceed to Elect the following Officers, viz.:—

ASSISTANT MASTER for Garruragh Auxiliary, at £20 per annum,
ASSISTANT MATRON for Garruragh Auxiliary, at £10 per annum,
ASSISTANT MASTER FOR Tomgrany Auxiliaries, £15 per annum,
With Apartments and Rations.

Applications will be received by me up to 4 o'Clock p.m, on the previous day, and candidates must attend personally on the day of Election. Each of the Assistant Masters will be required to enter into a bond with two sureties for £100, and the Assistant Matron for £50, with like sureties, for the due performance of the duties required, and the tenders in each case must name the proposed sureties. Applications will not be received after the hour named.
W.M. PHILLIPS.

Limerick Chronicle, Saturday, 8 December 1849

The hiring of the Master for the new Garruragh workhouse was delayed by Tulla Union. Either there were no suitable candidates or else the new Tulla Union guardians wanted to do their own hiring:

TULLA UNION
APPOINTMENT OF MASTER POSTPONED.
The Guardians of the above Union will, at their meeting on MONDAY, the 15th of April next, proceed to the election of a competent person as Master for the Union workhouse. Persons who have experience in Workhouse management will have a preference. Salary to be fixed on the day of election, and not to exceed £50 per year with rations and apartments.

Sealed proposals accompanied with testimonials and naming two sureties in £200 each will be received by me up to 11 o'clock a.m. on the above named day, when candidates are required to attend.
By order, P. SHANNO, Acting Clerk of Union

Limerick Chronicle, Saturday, 30 March 1850

Two other advertisements by Tulla Union were in the same newspaper, one for miscellaneous articles and the other mostly for food (but no fruits or vegetables):

TULLA UNION.
The Board of Guardians of the above Union will, at their meeting on Monday, the 8th of April next, consider Tenders from Persons willing to supply the under-mentioned articles, for the period of three months from the above date, to be delivered at the Workhouse at such times in such quantities as may be required, vis. :—

Best White Bread, at per 4lb loaf; Brown Bread, at per 4lb loaf, composed of one half Rye Meal, and the other half Whole (Wheaten) Meal; Oatmeal at per ton; Rice, at do; Rye Meal; Barley Meal; 2d and 3d Flour, at per bag; Tea; Whiskey at per gallon; Porter, at per dozen; Soap (brown) at per cwt; Salt, fine; Scale and Loaf Sugar, at per lb; Candles (dipt and mould); Starch at per lb; Pepper; Washing Soda; Best Beef and Mutton; Coarse Beef and Mutton; Best New Milk, at per gallon; Turf at per 120 kishes; Coffins for in and out-door paupers, stating scantlings, &c.; Hardware generally.

The Guardians will also on the same day consider tenders for Hot Plates, and for fitting them up at the Workhouse at Garrura in accordance with the instructions of the Board.

Sealed Tenders, naming securities, and properly endorsed, with samples, where practicable, will be received by me up to 10 o'Clock, a.m. on the above day.
By Order, P. SHANNON, Acting Clerk of Union.

Limerick Chronicle, Saturday, 30 March 1850

The mention of coffins does bring up the mystery as to where the Tulla workhouse paupers, both the women at the temporary Garruragh workhouse, and later men and women and children at the custom-built Tulla Workhouse were buried.

TULLA UNION.
The Tulla Union is one of those recently formed. It is composed of districts previously belonging to the Scariff and Ennis Unions. The premises occupied as a Workhouse are within a couple of miles of the town of Tulla, at a place called Garroora [Garruragh], and were formerly tenanted successively, by Mr. Bolton, Mr. Sheehy, and other gentlemen. The property belongs to a "Minor" O'Callaghan, a gentleman who, we believe, holds a commission in the army. No Board has as yet been elected for the Tulla Union, though nominations are made; but we are informed that Ex-officio Guardians are acting, and not withstanding that there are some unquestionably well disposed and popular among them, yet we are sorry to hear their corporate decisions are most inauspicious to the salvation of the poor. We are told that, at the meetings which have taken place, they summarily lopped off large numbers from the outdoor relief list, slicing away a section one day of the former Ennis Union poor, and then trying their "prentic han" on the starvelings of Scariff. We certainly think those gentlemen should exercise a little forbearance, until, at any rate, they have the concurrence of the elected Guardians of the Union. Precipitancy in the reduction of the relief lists may, aye must be fatal to human life; and Heaven knows there is too much of that species of destruction in other quarters already. In Limerick Union, and in almost all the other Unions we know of, there are people who delight to adopt the example of the "foresters" before spring time; that is, hatchet in hand to "thin" right and left in proportion to their own ideas of the number, that should be left standing on the soil. Human lives and trees are cut down exactly on the same principle and with about an equal degree of sympathetic consideration. We hope the Tulla gentlemen will forbear. That of course will be our duty; but we trust that we shall be able to off to the public reports credible to their humanity as men, their charity as Christians, and their characters as Irishmen.

Limerick and Clare Examiner, Saturday, 30 March 1850

In 1850, only women were housed at Garruragh Temporary Workhouse. In April 1850, upon the creation of Tulla Union, there were 577 men at Scariff Union and 400 men at Ennis Union workhouses who were chargeable to Tulla Union as this was their native place. The new Board of Guardians at Tulla Union showed little forbearance, humanity, charity or character as Irishmen, when later in 1850, with winter soon approaching, they requested in a letter to the Scariff Board of Guardians to discharge the Tulla paupers as they were no longer willing to pay for them. Truly shameful behavior. The focus appears to be on their clothing and not how the men would survive without food and shelter when discharged from the workhouse.

TULLA PAUPERS.
A letter was read from the clerk of the Tulla Union, directing the Board to discharge the paupers which were present in the Scariff Workhouse. This occasioned a rather amusing discussion, in which some of the Guardians suggested that the paupers should be turned out naked—others stated that the Tulla paupers were in the habit of coming to the workhouse in such habiliments as were not worth preserving. It was suggested by the Chairman that they should state in reply to the Tulla Board that they could not discharge their paupers until they sent clothes for them.

Mr. J.P. Molony said that the Tulla Board would not sent clothes, and if the Scariff Board would not discharge the paupers, they should support them in future at their own expense.

It is likely the Commissioners will be obliged to interfere for the purpose of settling this disputed point, and seeing that the paupers are not turned adrift in their state wherein
_______________ Nature first made man,
When wild in woods the noble savage ran, **
The Board were occupied for the remainder of the day in transacting the ordinary business.

Clare Journal, and Ennis Advertiser, Thursday, 12 September 1850

** By English poet John Dryden (1631-1700), who first coined the term "noble savage" in this poem. After reading the full poem, I found it ironic which words were left out when referring to the Irishmen at the Scariff workhouse:

I am as free as nature first made man,
Ere the base laws of servitude began,
When wild in woods the noble savage ran,

[Sduddy]

Hi Jimbo

Very interesting, indeed.
About the Fever Hospital: during Clare Library History Week, last month, I read this article, “Remembering the events in Tulla parish while under the occupation of the British Military Forces”, by Jane Halloran Ryan and Stephen Kelly. The article is in four parts, the first being “A Brief History of Tulla Workhouse”, by Jane Halloran Ryan: https://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/libra ... khouse.pdf. You will see that Jane Halloran Ryan says that a fever hospital had been in operation in the early 1840s in nearby Garruragh Castle. Nevertheless, I am confused about the location. Is Garruragh Castle also Garruragh House?

When I was subscribing to British Newspaper Archives and looking at the Clare Journal newspaper, I took some notes (in a rather haphazard way). After reading your post this morning, I did a search for “Fever”, but found nothing on the Fever Hospital except this: Mon 5 May 1856: Tulla Union: Tenders for Rough Dashing the New Fever Hospital at the Workhouse.

The following are some other notes I made. I think I have used the one about Clonloum and Rev. Quade’s protest previously, but maybe under another topic. And some others are from reports already quoted by you (above).

Thur 25 Apr 1850: page 3: Tulla Union: On Monday the 15th inst., the first meeting of the new board of Guardians for this Union took place in Tulla. The elected Guardians for the Union are – Mr. R.B. Walton, for the division of Rossroe; Mr. Thomas Corbett, for Clouney; Mr. Thomas Sampson, for Dangan; Mr. Henry Bingham, for Kilkishen; Mr. T. Spaight, for Newgrove; Mr. Pat Corbett, for Quin; Mr. John Pat Molony, for Tulla; Mr. Conelius McGrath, for Ballyblood; Mr. T. Lyddy, for Ballinahinch; Mr. James Robb, for Cahir and Kiltannon; Mr. John Molony, jun., for Killinena; Mr. Michael Silver, for Rathclooney.

Thur 6 Jun 1850: page 1: Tulla Union: The Rev. Mr. Quade, P.P., brought before the Board the case of 272 individuals who had been recently evicted at Clonlown on Mr. O’Callaghan’s property. The greater number of their houses were pulled down, and the poor people had no place of shelter, save the miserable huts they were able to erect by the ditch sides. He wished the Board to make some provision of those poor people – as they were in danger of perishing.
The relieving officer for the district having been called before the Board and questioned on the subject, stated that 114 of this number were in receipt of relief. (more).

Thur 20 Jun 1850: page 2: Tulla Union: At the weekly meeting of this board held on the 10th inst., a letter was read from the Commissioners sanctioning the appointment of Thomas Bourke, Charles Hunt, Richard Shannon and Michael Ryan as relieving officers of the Tulla Union, and stating that £20 is too low a salary. Also a letter refusing to sanction the appointment of Mr. James O’Neil as master of the Tulla workhouse, and directing the board to proceed to a new election; (more).
Mr. Boland, the contractor for supplying out door relief, having applied to the board for permission to substitute rye meal instead of Indian meal for 14 days. The board consented.

Thur 12 Sep 1850: page 2: Tulla Union: dispute with Scarriff Union re clothing of paupers.

Thur 24 Oct 1850: Page 3: Tulla Union and the appointment of a teacher.

Thur 7 Nov 1850: Page 3: Tulla Union. Election of Schoolmistress: Tenders received from Margaret Collins and Anne Corbett.

Thur 21 Nov 1850: Tulla Union (proposal to emigrate young women).

Thur 5 Dec 1850: page 3: Tulla Union. Appointment of Margaret Collins as teacher

There is a gap of several years here.

Mon 10 Jul 1865: Tulla Union. Male and Female Convalescent Fever Wards

Thur 13 Sep 1866: Tulla Union and the Cholera.

Yes Jimbo, some of the words in Dryden’s poem were conveniently omitted.

Sheila

[Sduddy]

Hi Jimbo

I am trying to stay with the Fever Hospital in Tulla until we find out where it was located, but, as always, getting distracted. There's a sentence or two on Tulla on page 54 of this "Correspondence from January to March, 1847, relating to The Measures Adopted for the Relief of the Distress in Ireland": http://sarkoups.free.fr/relief1847.pdf. No mention of the Fever Hospital, but interesting just the same.

Sheila

[Sduddy]

Hi Jimbo
I see now that Garruragh House and Garruragh Castle are in the same location. The last edition of the 6 inch map shows “Garruragh Castle” where "Garruragh House" is marked in the first edition. See second last map ("MapGenie 6 inch last edition map") in the gallery of maps here: https://webapps.geohive.ie/mapviewer/index.html

Sheila