Miss Geoghegan, Ballyogan, Chairperson in 1917.

[Sduddy]

The latest issue of The Other Clare (Vol. 47) is yet another great issue of that journal. I was ready for an increase in price but it still only €10.
One article, “The East Clare By-Election in 1917”, by Joe Power, mentions a Miss Geoghegan of Ballyogan, and I would like to know her first name. Although her address is given as Ballyogan, which is in Ruan parish, I think she is from the townland of Rinecaha, which is in Kilkeedy parish, usually called Tubber. Both townlands are very close to each other. Joe Power says,

At a Sinn Féin meeting on behalf of de Valera at Tubber on Friday 6th July, the chair was taken by Miss Geoghegan of Ballyogan. This was a unique occasion, as it was the first time that a public political meeting was chaired by a woman in the county. The Clare Champion report added that this honour was probably due to her work in the Irish Ireland movement (note 23: Clare Champion, 9 Jul 1917).

There were two families of Geoghegan (very often spelled “Gegan”) living in Rinecaha (in the registration district of Corofin): (1) Bartholomew Geoghegan and his wife, Mary Considine, who was from Knockreddan, Inchicronan parish (usually called Crusheen);
(2) Patrick Geoghegan and his wife, Mary Quinn (I failed to find a record of that marriage which took place about 1890).
Does anyone know the first name of Miss Geoghegan, please?

Sheila

P.S. For information on the Irish-Ireland movement, see a preview of "Women and Irish-Ireland: The Domestic Nationalism of Mary Butler", by Frank A. Biletz, in New Hibernia Review (Spring 2002) pp 59-72: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20646366

[Sduddy]

Well, there is a Miss S. Geagan (“Miss S. Geagan (now Mrs. J. O’Brien, Rincaha, Tubber, Co. Clare)”) among the members of Cumann na mBan formed in Kilkeedy (Tubber) in 1917. This was the Kilkeedy Company of the 3rd Battalion of the 4th Brigade of the 1st Western Division – scroll down to the fourth page: http://mspcsearch.militaryarchives.ie/d ... CMB-75.pdf

This “Miss S Geagan” must be Susan who was born to Patrick Geoghegan and Mary Quin in 1900: https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/ ... 766510.pdf
There is another Susan Geoghegan in Rinecaha, daughter of Bartley Geoghegan and Mary Considine, but she died unmarried in 1931: https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/ ... 326832.pdf.
But can it be possible that Susan Geoghegan, who was born in 1900 and aged only 17 in 1917, chaired a meeting of Sinn Féin that year? I don’t think so.

Sheila

[Sduddy]

I am having second thoughts about Susan Geagan/Geoghegan and now think that she may not have been considered too young. I’ve looked at most of the members of that Cumann na mBan company in Kilkeedy and see that many of them were in their teens in 1917:

Miss Lena Hawes (younger sister of Joseph Hawes*) is Helena Hawes, aged 11 in 1911: http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/p ... ss/351862/

Miss Lena Scanlan is Hellen Scanlan, aged 9 in 1911: http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/p ... oe/351353/

Miss M. A. Forbes is probably Mary Forbes aged 11 in 1911: http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/p ... ss/351859/

Miss Ellen Waters is probably Ellen Waters, aged 10 in 1911: http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/p ... ul/351287/

Miss M. O’Rourke is probably Mary ORourke, aged 9 in 1911: http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/p ... en/351333/

Miss B. Kelly might be Bridget Kelly, aged 15 in 1911: http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/p ... gh/351280/

Miss K. Forbes is probably Katie Forbes aged 16 in 1911: http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/p ... en/351834/

Miss D. Murray is probably Delia Murray, aged 18 in 1911: http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/p ... an/351863/

• Joseph Hawes took part in the 1920 Mutiny of Connaught Rangers in India. His witness statement is in longhand and difficult to read: https://www.militaryarchives.ie/collect ... WS0262.pdf. This piece in History Ireland, by Prof. Thomas Bartlett, tells the story, but it is a mistake to say that Hawes was from Kilrush - he went to live in Kilrush and worked there as a barber, but he was from Kilkeedy (Tubber): https://www.historyireland.com/the-conn ... july-1920/

Sheila

[Sduddy]

Well, I looked at Joseph Hawes’ witness statement again, and realised that it was not so difficult to read afterall. It is well worth reading, so I’ve transcribed it, staying true to the original, I hope. It was made in 1949 to the Bureau of Military History https://www.militaryarchives.ie/collect ... WS0262.pdf.

Joseph Hawes Witness Statement.pdf

(176.32 KiB) Downloaded 557 times

Sheila

[Sduddy]

It is a shame that I did not listen to this lecture, which Oliver Hawes, grandson of Joseph Hawes, gave in Kilrush, in 2016, when my hearing was still okay. As it is, I found it hard to catch a lot of what was said. It would be good to have the text of the letter Joseph Hawes wrote home from Maidstone prison in 1922: https://www.mixcloud.com/waldronp/olive ... ival-2016/. But it’s great that the lecture was recorded, at least.

There is a good photograph of Joseph Hawes included in this piece entitled “When the “Devil’s Own” Said “No””, by Neil F. Cosgrove: https://praoh.org/when-the-devils-own-said-no/. That piece tells us that Jim Daly was executed the day after Kevin Barry was hanged in Dublin (on 1 Nov 1920), so the song “Kevin Barry” could equally well have been sung for Jim Daly. “Kevin Barry” sung here by Paul Robeson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSjO9rIwn5M

Sheila

[Sduddy]

Getting back to the young women in the Kilkeedy Company of Cumann na mBan: I’d failed to find any record for Eliza Mangan, but then I read the chapter entitled “ Memories of Tubber and Kilkeedy during the “Troubles” ”, by James O’Loughlin, Rockforest, in The Parish of Kilkeedy, a Local History (p. 211), and saw that he mentions Matty Mannion among those who took part in the War of Independence. And I realised that “Mangan” was a version of “Mannion” – then I found Eliza, aged only 7 in 1911: http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/p ... im/351247/

James O’Loughlin mentions a hurling match, but I don’t know if it was the same one that Joseph Hawes alludes to:

Our pastime in Tubber was hurling. Every Sunday after mass we practised in some field. The team reached the final and the match was played against Clonlara. During play the military invaded the pitch and the game was held up for some time. A priest approached the officer and the match was allowed to continue. That was about 1919 and Clonlara won by 2 points.

James O’Loughlin goes on to say that in order to finance the team a dance would be held in the school in Tubber or Boston (both schools were in the parish of Kilkeedy). He says “when some one came home on a holiday from America there would be a lot of dancing in the houses, and there would be a big dance at some house before they went back”. I suspect that those going back to America brought others with them; we can see from the list of members, submitted to the Military Service Pensions Office in 1936, that, of the 24 members named, 11 had gone to the U.S.A.

I think only a very few members of Cumann na mBan were granted a pension, and I think those members who were awarded pensions had to fight hard for them. It was much more difficult for women to prove active service than it was for male participants. Their role, often, was carrying messages, looking after those on the run and those who were wounded and providing safe houses. Nevertheless, they were essential.

Sheila

[Sduddy]

Well, I’ve been listening (several times) to the recording made by Paddy Waldron of the lecture given by Oliver Hawes, grandson of Joseph Hawes, in 2016, and I’ve made a good stab at listening to and transcribing the letter that Joseph wrote to his mother in 1922. It is held in the National Archives and is dated 18 May 1922. My question marks signify difficulty hearing, and dots (…) signify whole sentences that I failed to hear:

Dearest mother,
Just a line hoping to find you and all at home in the best of health, as this leaves me and my comrades at present, thank God. I suppose you are thinking I must be dead, dear Mother, when I had not written for such a long time but, as the saying goes, ‘better late than never’. I will not be able to write again until July, but it’s not my fault - you know that your son Joe would write every day if I was allowed to.

When is the election coming and what side will get in, the Free State or the Republic? Who is opposing De Valera for the County Clare? I myself think the Free State should be returned as we now have got the same freedom as Australia and Canada, and it would take hold from(?) 1914. This is more than I have ever expected or wished for. But Irishmen have fought and spilled their blood for this, so we need not thank any country for …today. That(?) country that Irish fought for…. and looks calmly on while that country is going through the furnace. Don’t think, Mother, for one moment, that I would not wish Ireland to be a Republic. I would walk smiling to the scaffold tomorrow if I thought Ireland had a chance to be a Republic. But I think we have no chance at present, so I hope peace is soon restored, as it looks very bad over here for Irishmen to be fighting among themselves. If we get anything it is by uniting together and we should get it. I’m glad to say some of my comrades were released in March. They were doing a sentence of 3 years. There were 8 of them and they are now in the Free State army. Michael Collins sent a solicitor named McDarragh(?) to see us in March and he told us that they had been trying to get us released and that he was also going to write to you. Let me know if he did so, or if anyone wrote to you. We would not much mind doing our prison sentence every day if we only knew that the Irish Government and the people of Ireland tried to get us released. I suppose we are only 4 private soldiers. We do not count. Athough there were 13 others besides myself sentenced to death for the cause of Eireann, while one of this number poured out his heart’s blood 7000 thousand miles away. His name was James Joseph Daly…. I still suppose they still say it’s nothing.

Well mother, I hope the O’Byrnes(?) in Scarriff wrote to you. They are friends of Walty Kennedy from Kiltartan(?). There were 4 of them in Sinn Fein doing 2 years. They knew me well from home. If they did, remember (?) Fitzpatrick and his Missus. I hope you told them what we were in prison for. Although we were not released we were here for a just cause. Also Pete and Maggie and Bertie(?) and Jim and Joe Linnane and all the boys. Tell them I send my very best love and wishes. Not forgetting [sister] Delia. How is she getting on? And the Misses Quins and … Bowman(?). I suppose he is a captain in the Irish Free State army now. Sister Lena, tell her I send my best love and wishes from my prison cell, and though my body is here my spirit is in Eireann. Lena can send a note in your letter when you write. And send me a good long letter. Let me have all the news. I now close with fondest love to you, Lena, Mattie, George and John, may God and his blessed Mother bless you all and keep you safe till I return once more to my native country, Eireann. Goodbye my dearest and fondest mother, from your loving son, Joe.

I think Joseph’s sister, Delia, was no longer living at home when that letter was written.

It is often assumed that Joseph Hawes was in the Connaught Rangers during WWI, but Oliver Hawes explains that he enlisted in the Munster Fusiliers on 6 Jan 1916 and was in the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. He was wounded and spent some time in hospital in Cairo and sent two postcards home from there. He was discharged on 19 Feb 1919 and enlisted in the Connaught Rangers the very next day.

Sheila