Hi Jim
Yes, I think Fr. Jeremiah Vaughan probably had more “connections” than Fr. Bowles. Fr. Vaughan, who was P.P. of the parish of Doora and Kilraghtis (Barefield), was a native of Kilbane, Broadford, and was brother of Bishop Vaughan, bishop of Killaloe 1850 – 1859. Most of my information is from an article by Mary Kearns, “The Church of the Immaculate Conception Barefield – the Stained Glass Windows – the People of Barefield and Friends Abroad!”, published in
The Other Clare, Vol. 33 (2009). His obituary says that, during the lesser known famine of 1862-63, he went to America and delivered a course of lectures in all the large cities. These lectures raised much needed funds. He later set about the building of a church in Barefield, which was opened in 1871. This was one of the finest churches built at that time, and a symbol of the new powerful position of the Catholic Church in Ireland. At the opening ceremony, Fr. Lavelle from Cong, Co. Mayo gave the sermon. He was a great celebrity at the time and was the very essence of a nationalist priest. After the sermon, Michael G. Considine read a welcoming address to Fr. Lavelle. Considine is best known as the secretary of Ennis Trades Council - he claimed to have been kissed, as a child, by Daniel O’Connell, and was the driving force behind the funding of the Daniel O’Connell monument in Ennis.
After the ceremony, there was a dejeuner in the old chapel, at which 200 guests partook. No doubt many of these had contributed handsomely to the cost of the church. A plaque on the exterior north wall acknowledges the contributions of exiles in America.
The Considines in Cincinnati seem to have been well connected too. Among the "Newspaper Extracts relating to Clare 1778 – 1920" donated by Lucille Ellis:
http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclar ... _ellis.htm, is this item published in the Clare Journal of 28th Jan 1858: "Franciscan Church Willowbank. Receipt of £10 from Mr. Patrick Considine, Mount Erin, Cincinnati, America. Mr Considine is first cousin to the Messrs Cullinan, Thomas, Ralph and James". These Cullinans were gentlemen farmers and belonged to the higher echelons of society.
The Considines in Cincinnati gave some land for the building of Mount Saint Mary Seminary there. The following notices of their deaths show that they had remained unmarried, so maybe there are no descendants:
31st Jan. 1875: Considine – At Mt. St. Mary’s Seminary, Jan. 30, at 10.20 P.M., Mr. Michael Considine in the 70th year of his age. A Solemn High Mass of Requiem will be sung on Monday morning at 9 o’clock, for the repose of his soul, in the Seminary chapel, after which the funeral will take place. All friends of the Considine family are invited to attend.
Cincinnati Daily Enquirer (Ohio)
12 June, 1873: Considine – On Wednesday, the 11th inst, at the residence of her brother, Mr. Patrick Considine, in the Twenty ? Ward, Mary Considine. The funeral will take place on Friday morning at 10 o’clock.
Cincinnati Commercial Tribune (Ohio). (These newspaper notices I found some years ago when I was subscribing to genealogybank. com)
Jim, I don’t know why there was no priestly family among the McNamaras. Here are just some musings on the topic of priests in penal times, and not an attempt at explanation: As you know, the Penal Laws of the 18th century obliged many Catholic priests to register and undertake to desist from publicly practising any Catholic rites. One such priest, Connor macNemara, is listed here:
http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclar ... s_1704.htm. This law caused many Catholic priests to flee to Europe. From that time, until Maynooth was set up at the end of the century (1795), priests were trained in France, or Spain, or Belgium. The great expense of such training, I think, must have limited it to those families who had “well-born” connections in those countries, e.g., officers in the regiments (often called The Wild Geese) who had fled to France after the failure of the Jacobite side in Limerick in 1691. Not all of these priests returned to Ireland – so maybe there were McNamara priests who remained in France, Spain, or Austria. The families of these priests in Ireland, if they had remained Catholic, probably survived by keeping their heads down and refraining from ostentation. But they had the wherewithal to quietly send sons to Louvain, Salamanca etc. - and so a tradition began, which was continued later on by sending sons to Maynooth.
Here is link to an article on the Jacobite era, which mentions Teige McNamara of Rannagh (in Tulla) as a Jacobite supporter. Teige later lived in Ayle House, Feakle (very close to the border with Tulla). Because Teige did not surrender his garrison at Clare Castle until after the capitulation of Limerick, he managed to retain his Tulla estates:
http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclar ... te_era.htm. The author of that article, Brian O Dalaigh, is also the author of the article on Brian Merriman, mentioned earlier in this thread. In that article he mentions a Tadhg McNamara of Ayle (a descendant of Captain Teige, above) as a possible patron of Merriman, and he then elaborates a little on the McNamaras. In the course of that, he mentions that Captain Teige had a brother, John, who was a officer in the Spanish service. So this family is just the kind of family that I would have expected to send sons to Salamanca seminary in Spain, and maybe they did. Captain Teige died in 1741. His descendant, Tadhg, converted to Protestantism in 1775, somewhat belatedly, as, by that time, most penal laws had been relaxed, or overlooked at least.
So, if these McNamaras had ever given sons to the church, they certainly would not have done so after 1775. Maybe a tradition was broken at that point.
Sheila