The information in a marriage certificate/record was usually provided to the Registrar by the priest who officiated at the marriage ceremony. Some priests wrote “dead,” or “alive” under the father’s name. But there was no rule requiring this extra information and some priests did not give it. It’s possible that Mary Agatha was the daughter of Denis, the carpenter, and that she was unsure of his occupation; if Mary Agatha was the daughter of Denis, the carpenter, she was only 1 year old when he died on 15 December 1884. We need to keep an open mind as to whether Denis the carpenter and Denis the mechanic were the same man, but also take into consideration that Nolan was not a very common name in Clare, so there can’t have been many Denis Nolans about the place.
A Daniel Nolan was best man at the marriage of Elizabeth Nolan and James Farrell in 1899; I feel sure he was a relative of Elizabeth’s, but, again, I could find no further records for him. And I could find no record of the death of Edward Nolan, who was still alive in 1877 according to the record of the marriage of Mary McNamara and Denis Nolan.
Yes, Mary Nolan, who died in 1944, may be the mother of Mary Agatha, and it may be that they were both living in England up to the time of Mary Agatha’s marriage to Patrick Joseph McNamara in 1917. That would explain their not appearing in the censuses. If Mary, who died in 1944, was the widow of Denis Nolan, Carpenter, the age given at death (79) should be 89: age 79 would mean that Mary was born in 1865 and aged only 12 when she married, but the record of her marriage gives her age as 22. People often made a guess at the age of the dead person, so her age at death is not enough to decide that Mary was definitely not the widow of the carpenter, but it is enough to raise a doubt about it.
Patrick Joseph McNamara and Mary Agatha Nolan, who married in 1917, were living in Market Street when their first child, Mary Josephine, was born on 17 June 1918; Patrick Joseph’s occupation: Soldier. The birth of their second child, Eileen Veronica, on 26 July 1920, at the Militia Barracks, shows that Patrick Joseph’s occupation had changed to Police Constable. I wonder if there are records for him as a member of the R.I.C.? I gather from a radio programme I listened to recently* that some ex-members of the Royal Irish Constabulary were recruited to the police force created by the new Free State.
I agree that Patrick Joseph McNamara may well be the son of Patrick McNamara and Nora, who are in the 1901 census living in Market Street. The 1901 census shows that Patrick and Nora had a son, Patrick J., who was aged 18 in 1901; occupation: watchmaker:
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/p ... _/1069809/.
If Mary Agatha was the daughter of Denis Nolan, Carpenter, she would have been aged 17 in 1901 - about the same age as Patrick J. The 1911 census shows that Patrick (senior) was a Stationer, along with being an R.I.C. pensioner; that would explain his being described as a merchant in the 1917 marriage record. I notice that one of the witnesses is Mary E. McNamara – she may be the Mary Eillen McNamara who is living at home in Market Street in 1911:
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/r ... 001754070/. The Mary McNamara, who reported the death of Mary Nolan in 1944, therefore, could be either Mary Ellen, or Mary Agatha. I think if it was Mary Agatha she would have been described as “daughter” in the death record:
https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/ ... 230326.pdf. So we can’t be sure that Patrick remained in Ennis after the disbandment of the R.I.C. If he and Mary Agatha remained in Ennis, their deaths will be in the death records which now go to 1971. Searching for the deaths of Patrick and Mary McNamara between 1920 and 1971 is another day’s work!
* ‘The History Show’ broadcast Sun. 27 Feb 2022 – see “The Garda Mutiny” at no. 13 on this list:
https://www.rte.ie/radio1/podcast/podca ... ryshow.xml
Sheila