Patrick Guilfoyle, b. 1880 in Driminure, Aughrim, Tomgraney.

[Sduddy]

I’ve been reading an article by Mark Holan on the ambush at Feakle Post Office on 7 Oct 1920: “Feakle ambush & reprisals: Multiple views of an event”: https://www.markholan.org/archives/9036. This includes some of the testimony given by Patrick Guilfoyle, on 10 Dec 1920, to the American Commission on Conditions in Ireland: Interim Report, 1921 - see endnote 2 for the full testimony: https://archive.org/details/evidenceonc ... Pittsburgh

Patrick had visited Feakle at the time of the ambush (7 October) and was able to give a clear account of it in December. He does not mention his birthplace, and, while he refers to his wife’s relatives in Feakle, he does not give her maiden name.
The article by Mark Holan tells us that Patrick born in Scarriff on 29 Mary 1880 and had emigrated to the U.S. in 1900, aboard the Celtic (see endnote 10). I found some further details: Patrick was born in 1880 in Driminure, in the townland of Aughrim, in the parish of Tomgraney, to Patrick Guilfoyle and Mary Burke. Patrick Guilfoyle (sen.) had married Mary Burke in 1876. They had four children: Mary in 1877, Thomas in 1878, Catherine in 1879, and Patrick in 1880. When Patrick was born his father was already deceased. His mother then married John Jones, a farmer in Aughrim, in 1882. They had four daughters. In the 1901 census John Jones is a widower, Mary having died in 1895. The Guilfoyles, Mary’s children by her first marriage, are not living at home in 1901. Her daughter, Catherine, had died aged 7. We know that Patrick had emigrated and I suspect that the other two had also emigrated. John Jones married again in 1908, but had no more children.

Patrick Guilfoyle mentions his wife’s family as the reason for their visit to Feakle. I think she was Kate Rodgers, daughter of Timothy Rodgers, Cloonusker, Tomgraney parish. Looking at Tom McDowell’s list of emigrants, I see that a Julia Rodgers, born 1892, emigrated on 20 Sept 1915, aboard Philadelphia; her nearsest relative: Father, Timothy Rodgers, Clonusker, Scarriff; her destination: Sister Mrs. P. J. Guilfoyle, Morgan House, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: https://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/cocla ... grants.htm. Julia Rogers, aged 9, was living at home in Cloonusker, Tomgraney, in 1901. Also her sister, Annie, aged 14: http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/p ... r/1085044/. In 1911, they are both living in Feakle town, aged 19 and 24: http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/p ... wn/368047/. Anne is a dressmaker. I believe this is the sister-in-law that Patrick Guilfoyle refers to in his evidence. And I think she is the Annie Rogers, who emigrated, aged 32, on 19 Sept 1921, aboard Baltic; nearest relative: Mother, Mrs. Bridget Rodgers, Clonusker, Scarriff; destination: Sister, Mrs. Kate Guilfoyle, 1248 Irwin Ave., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Scarriff Parish register of baptisms gives the date of Catherine’s baptism as 31 Dec. 1876, The civil record of her birth gives 1 Jan. 1877: https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/ ... 106336.pdf

Patrick died in 1946. Mark Holan says that his obituary does not mention his testimony to the Commission. So he is owed this mention on Clare Past Forum.

Sheila