Ennis charity raffle 1871, winners published

[smcarberry]

Before I lose sight of my screen-shotted news item, here is a slice of Clare life in a decade largely lost to time:

Freeman’s Journal 26 Sep 1871 p.1

The Christian Brothers’ Raffle, Ennis

The following is a List of the Winning Numbers: -

Piano, won by Mr. Mitchel, Portumna.
Gold Watch, won by D. M’Namara, Ennis.
Musical Box, won by C. O’Brien, Ennis.
Two Sheep, won by Mons. Nono, Ennis.
Silver Watch, won by M. Meehan, Cloony.
Tea Urn, won by Rev. J. Fogarty, Ennis.
China Tea Service, won by W. Sheehan, Limerick.
French Time Piece, won by M. Cooney, Clare.
Dozen of Sherry, won by Mrs. Quin, Mullingar.
Pair of Lamps, won by J. Howley, Limerick.
Gold Ring, won by Ceppi, Dublin.
Cushion, won by Mr. Ring, Ennistymon.
Album, with Portraits, won by James Ennis, Dublin.
Last Supper, won by Mrs. Corbett, Killerk.
Pius IX, won by Miss Quinlivan, Gower Hall.
Gong, won by Mrs. Davoren, Clareen.
Pair of Statues, won by J. Mackey, Warren-street, Brooklyn.
Half-Barrel of Ale, won by Mons. Nono, Ennis.
Life of St. Patrick, won by M. Holohan, Carrahan.

Carefully proofread.

Brooklyn is the New York borough in Kings County, east of Manhattan island and not formally part of NYC until 1898. Warren Street was a well-known place for immigrants. Mullingar is likely the town in Co. Westmeath, but I have no clue why a Clare-minded Mrs. Quin was there. However, it is highly likely that “J. Howley” of Limerick was in the game due to that family’s close association with the Daniel O’Connell family of Kilgory, East Clare (although both he & wife Catherine nee Howley had died in the mid-1830s).

For those familiar with Ennis RC hierarchy of that era, my question is: Who is Mons. Nono, the man set up for a great mutton dinner complete with beverage ? It looks to me like this name was an alias, to anonymize the actual winner.

All in all, a complete surprise to learn of a raffle being held in Clare...and such a successful, popular one. Each of the raffled items speaks volumes as to what was valued in Western Ireland and was what available to the Christian Brothers for this venture.

[Sduddy]

Hi Sharon,

Mons Nono is Monsieur Nono (Belgian), who worked in Ennis as a teacher in St. Flannan’s College and as organist in the Cathedral. You mentioned him in a posting on 21 Apr 2008, entitled “More items for Ennis, central Clare, and undertermined places”:viewtopic.php?f=1&t=195&p=385&hilit=Nono#p385:

September 5, 1891, at the Cathedral, Ennis, Co. Clare, Ireland, by the Rev. P. O'Kelly, Mdlle [sic]
Marie Margarete, third daughter of Monsieur Nono (Professor of Music), Ennis, to Albert Wilson Hartley-Snow, {“Sequah”) of Hartford, Conn., U.S.A.
Freeman's Journal 9 Sep 1891

Ghislaine De Regge, the author of “The Notable Nonos”, gave a talk on the Nono family to the Clare Roots Society in December 2020 – the talk, “The Notable Nonos’ of Ennis” is available on youtube.

Monsieur Nono (1834-1895) arrived in Ennis September 1859, with his wife, Ellen O'Byrne, from Co. Wexford. The Cathedral was being built at the time. His position as music teacher at St. Flannan's did not pay very well and he needed to augment his income, so opened a Fancy Warehouse in O’Connell street, Ennis, where, among other things, he stocked musical instruments. Monsieur Nono started an amateur brass band and got into trouble when he marched the band through Ennis playing rousing tunes, unaware that Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, had died that day. He gave concerts in Ennis and Kilkee. A piano would be brought to the diamond rocks in Kilkee and the choir would stand around. Monsieur Nono’s last production was the opera, Faust, in 1895. He died shortly afterwards.
He and Ellen had ten children, most of whom had interesting lives, to put it mildly. The talk includes the adventures of the children and lasts for 1 hour and 10 minutes and then there are some questions – also interesting. However, if all one wants is information on Monsieur Nono himself, go to the 15 minute point, or thereabouts, and listen until the 30.50 point.

Sheila

[smcarberry]

Excellent to learn more of the very active Mons. Nono -- I would never have guessed that he was such a fixture of the Ennis scene. With 10 children I wonder how well that mutton stretched ? I guess the half-barrel of ale was well deserved and much needed.

As a personal aside on this, the English-Irish antipathy that was so well seated in Clare had its reflection apparently in my family's story about why my mother's ethnic blend included a Luxembourg line that for a long time enjoyed a solid, secure occupation in its small town bordering Belgium until the Treaty of 1839 shifted the border to include that small town in Belgium. My folks promptly left for Brooklyn where they had to start over again, including learning English and changing to dairy farming. When I started genealogy, that side of my family still made a point of passing along the fact that becoming Belgian was simply not acceptable. I am otherwise clueless what the issue was, and it's fine to hear that this Nono was actually a quite a guy, an asset to to his adopted home.

Thanks.

SMC

[Sduddy]

Hi Sharon,

Well, you can see now, from the Nono example, that your ancestors from the Luxembourg-Belgian border might have found themselves opening a Fancy Goods Warehouse in O’Connell Street, Ennis, instead of going into dairy farming in America.
To return to our muttons, i.e. the raffle and the names of the winners: it is interesting that some were from far-flung places, such as Mullingar. But I think it’s possible that some of the Christian Brothers asked their relatives to buy tickets. The Christian Brothers seem to have had the same policy as the Royal Irish Constabulary of sending their men well away from their native places. At least the 1901 and 1911 censuses show that none of the brothers in Ennis came from Co. Clare:
Christian Brothers, Ennis: 1901: http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/r ... 000462849/
Christian Brothers, Ennis, 1911: http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/p ... an/352974/

History of Christian Brothers in Ennis: https://www.ennisparish.com/our-parish/ ... -in-ennis/

Sheila

P.S. I found this note among the notes I took while subscribing to the British Newspaper Archives a couple of years ago. It shows that in 1863 one Christian Brother, at least, was allowed to come home to die in his native place: Clare Journal: Thur. 26 Nov 1863: Deaths. On the 9th inst., at Ennistymon, in the 33rd year of his age, Mr. James Joseph Blackwell, of the order of the Christian Brothers, and son of John Blackwell, Esq., Toureen Cottage, Kilshanny. Deceased was during the past five years engaged in the pious labours of the brotherhood in Dublin, Drogheda, Thurles and Cork.

P.P.S. There is a lot about the Blackwell families of Kilshanny in a article, by Desmond Norton: "Progress and distress on the Stratford Estate in Clare during the eighteen forties", published in The Other Clare Vol. 26 (2002), and also available at https://researchrepository.ucd.ie/serve ... a0/content.