I have many unanswered questions about the olden days in Connemara. Perhaps writing will help to crystalise them and assist in the process of answering some.
Having, now, some rudimentary knowledge about my forebears I can’t help but wonder about the day to day quality of their lives. What was it like to be Bridget Nee, whose mother was Mary Collins? What was it like to grow up and live at Culliaghbeg and Derrynavglaun? Why were my ancestors living exactly there? How did they come to be there? Had their families farmed that land for centuries; or had they recently arrived? Were they musical people? Did they descend from a known sept or a learned family?
It was thrilling to discover, ten years ago now, that we have fourth cousins in Ireland. It was thrilling to meet them. We had grown up, in Adelaide, not knowing, for certain, that we have Irish ancestry so uncovering information and cousins was an affirming revelation. My grandfather (John Marron) would have been very pleased had he lived to know this; his mother Rose Anne Mannion was born at Glencoaghan.
However now I find myself wondering about other things.
Michael Gibbons[1] answered one of my questions, at the Mannion Gathering at Clifden in 2012, when he said that, unlike many from Connemara, the Mannion ancestry was Irish only; when the Mannion family from Derrynavglaun, near Glencoaghan, lived in the stone house on the hillside near the spring in the nineteenth century, there were no English or Normans in their genealogy.
When my great grandmother, Rose Anne, came to South Australia with her father and brother in 1879 she was not yet five years old[2]. She spoke Irish. They moved in with her dad’s brother Michael Mannion, and his family, to their farm at Coomooroo. The three of them had sailed, without Rose Anne and Patrick’s mother Bridget Nee. Bridget had died when she was 30 in the infirmary of Clifden Workhouse on November 20, 1876 of dropsy[3]. By then Bridget had had five children. Martin’s brother Michael had applied for passage to South Australia for them in 1877[4] but when they finally came in 1879, on the Woodlark, it was only Martin and the two children.
Bridget Nee was from Cullagh. Culliaghbeg and Culliaghmore are near Leenane. Martin Nee, Bridget’s father, rented there at the time of Griffith’s Valuation (around 1855).
Civil Marriage Clonbur 1. 13 Jun 1869.
Martin Mannion of Glancloghin Farmer 30y (bach). His father Patrick Mannion, farmer.
Bridget Nee of Cullagh 23y (spin). Her father Martin Nee tailor.
Witnesses; Patrick Mannion , Margaret Nee
Husband’s father is deceased.
I wonder whether Bridget Nee walked along the footpaths or across the mountains from Culliaghbeg to Derrynavglaun to meet Martin Mannion. Or whether she and Martin Mannion met at a fair. Perhaps they travelled by horse and cart or perhaps they caught Bianconi’s bus. The Bus Station was at Canal Stage, close to Derrynavglaun[5]. Bianconi’s long cars were in operation since the 1830s. They changed horses at Derrynavglaun (Canal Stage).
Our great aunt, Aunty Cis[6], oldest daughter of Rose Ann, told Mum (Eunice Marron) that the name Collins is also significant to our family history. Rose Ann’s mother was Mary Collins. Tobias Collins and Martin Nee were both tennants at Culliaghbeg in the Landed Estate Court Rentals ( 1850 – 1855). Tobias Collins, farmer, of Cullagbeg County Galway, was fined 5 shillings in 1868 for riding a horse furiously in the street in Westport. In Griffith’s, a John Collins rents from Edward Browne in Culliaghbeg; Ellen Collins and Thomas Collins rent in Maumtrasna, nearby. Perhaps there are Collins and Nees in the area today?
I have been informed that the Mannions of Derrynavglaun were large tennant farmers. Certainly, the ruins of their house at Derrynavglaun are substantial when compared to the cabins we know many farmers and labourers inhabited during the mid ninteenth century.
I have read that Cromwell pushed the Mannions west from Menlough[7] or Killoscobe; perhaps this is the ‘further east’ that Karen Mannion mentioned several years ago, saying that the Mannions had come west with the Martins?[8].
Benlettery
Certainly Derrynavglaun and Glencoaghan are within the barony of Ballynahinch, the property since the eighteenth century, of the Martin family. It was from the Martins that the townlands were rented; quite close to the castle and the house facing Ballynahinch Lake. Could Irish tennant farmers have lived on a property without knowing the landlords personally? What also, of relationships between tennants? In the nineteenth century the women who chose to marry a Mannion from Derrynavglaun seem to have come from far parts of Connemara; Island Earach, Culliaghbeg and Omey Island. How did they meet?
I have seen old photographs of young people chatting on the mountains whilst minding the sheep in the summer pastures. I have read that the young people were sent to the mountains where they lived in rapidly constructed shelters for a summer season. Did my ancestors do that? Did they, perhaps, work at Bianconi’s dwelling, stables and forge?
Connemara schoolgirls
There was a National School in Ballinafad in 1842. Michael and Martin Mannion were literate; had they gone to school at Ballinafad, across the main Galway to Clifden road from Derrynavglaun? Michael was to marry Mary Coyne at the chapel at Killeen, Ballinafad[9] in 1858.
Connemara schoolchildren
When Bridget and Martin baptised their children at Roundstone did they walk from their home in Glencoaghan? Did they have shoes? In 1876 a Pat Mannion was paid for “carriage of a pauper” to the workhouse. Could this be Patrick Mannion, brother of Martin and father of Tommy (their father, Patt, had died before Martin married in 1869)?[10] In the Minutes of the Board of Guardians of Clifden workhouse ‘the Master reports that the storm on the night of the 3rd (November) blew some slates off the Fever Hospital and some off the Kitchen. A slater is required for some time to repair them”[11]. Repair was ordered. Was my great-grandmother in the Fever Hospital, at the time the slates blew off, with her deadly ‘dropsy’?
Also, in the minutes, I found – “ Having read the invoice for medicine ordered by Dr Brodie for the dispensary at Renvyle….the Board seeing such an excessive estimate as £61.4.7…. request that Dr Brodie revise the amount with the view of reducing same. Signed; Walter Wall. J Byrne, Richard Kearney”[12] Could my great-grandmother have lived had Dr Brodie had sufficient money with which to buy medicine?
“It is true that there has not been any neglect by the Clerk reported as that officer is most efficient and attentive in the discharge of his duties and in reference to the failure of the guardians to form a quorum for the discharge of business so frequently that the Poor Law Board should be reminded of the peculiar nature of the District – the great distance between the workhouse and the residences of the guardians and the difficulty of travelling long distances in the country in tempestuous weather.”
One paragraph comments upon the inmates not being provided with shoes. In response “the guardians beg to say that persons of as similar class to those referred to – who are maintaining themselves outside the workhouse do not wear shoes and the guardians consider it inexpedient to supply shoes to such as never have worn shoes when maintaining themselves – but in every case of an infirm or delicate person being recommended shoes by the Medical officer, shoes are at once supplied.”
In response to a letter of complaint from Rev P J Lydon on December 19th 1876 the following was given – “The Master states that the condition of the workhouse graveyard is not as stated in the letter now read for that same is fenced from trespass of cattle and that no coffins are exposed to view from want of sufficient covering of earth.”[13]
This is not to suggest that life was much easier here in South Australia. I have studied the lives of my other, Irish and non-Irish, ancestors and I have found hardship, shoelessness and sadness there too. (Although the above-mentioned Michael Gibbons suggested to me that those who went to America had it even tougher.)
Interior of house at Maam Cross.
Martin Mannion was only here in South Australia for twelve years. He went back to Clifden in 1890, leaving his two children behind. Rose Anne married the widower John Marron in 1895 and Patrick worked for the Railways. Both appear to have suffered from depression, possibly exacerbated by hardship during the next decade. The land here had been too densely settled north of Goyder’s Line[14] and the farms were too small to sustain the people so the process of giving up on farming and learning alternative means of earning a living had to be endured. Martin had tried farming, taking up land at Belton, but Belton is very dry and suitable only for stock on huge properties.
Martin married again a few years after he got back to Clifden. By that time Clifden was different. He seems to have become reclusive and over-protective of the two children he had with his second wife Nora Sullivan. Perhaps he had idealised Ireland whilst in Australia and was disappointed to find that home did not live up to his memories. Perhaps he had been reluctant to leave Connemara in the first place.
Son O’Rosey Mannion Words and Music by Steve Perry
these are lyrics to be sung to a song
something a little bit like what Rory Gallagher
would have done…..
She said I was born to have adventure
And cross the Goyder Line
Dont stay here scratchin from the stubble
Leave ur loved ones way behind
I am the son o’rosey mannion
n she sent me on my way
An I’m runnin hard f u dear
n I likely cannot stay
She said u have a nervous nature
She liked the cut a my jib
I said can u point me to the highway
Ifn u maybe know where that is
O yeah u are a cool one
Butter wouldnt melt in ur mouth
Yes I well know that direction
Its the one that travels south / / bell toll
I am th son o’rosey mannion
N she sent me on my way
An I’m runnin here f u dear
An I likely cannot stay
What u got u better hold it
So much blood n memory
Belong to me if I can take it
I’ll cross that crystal sea
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
The images of Connemara schools are reproduced courtesy of the National Library of Ireland.
The Maam interior is courtesy of University College Dublin, Library, Folklore Photograph Collection.
The images of rural Connemara (Benlettery and Ballynahinch) taken between 1893 and 1895 are reproduced courtesy of the James Hardiman Library, NUI Galway. They are to be found here – The Balfour Album
[1] A famous County Galway archaeologist.
[2] She had been baptised at Roundstone (Register 1) on 8.11.1874, her sponsors being Patrick Conry and Margaret Conry. In 1875 Patrick Conry and his spouse Honor Nee, who lived at Glencoaghan, had a daughter, Mary.
[3] After several years of searching I visited the Galway Archives where I read the Clifden Workhouse documents for around 1870. I was shocked to find Bridget Mannion’s death recorded.
[4] Immigration Certificate No. 222 was issued in March 1877. It was for both the Mannion and O’Toole families – Martin and Bridget and two sons – Joseph and Michael and Michael and Mary O’Toole. In 1877, Mary and Michael O’Toole arrived on the Scottish Lassie with their daughter Mary. They too lived at Mannions’ farm at Coomooroo (for ten years). Michael Toole was a cousin of Michael Mannion, probably a nephew of Michael and Martin Mannion’s mother.
[5] In 1853 at Derrynavglaun (Griffith’s Valuation House Books) we find Patrick Mangan (Mannion) with a house and offices, Christopher Mulkern, Charles Bianconi with a dwelling, stables and forge and John Fitzpatrick with a house. At Glencoaghan are Hugh and Arthur Mcnally, Mary Mangan, Bridget Mangan and John Mangan, all with houses.
[6] Born: Bridget Gertrude Ellen Mary Marron at Morchard, South Australia on July 15th 1898.
[7] Email from Leonard G Manning <LEN_MANGLES@bigpond.com>
[8] See also the journal IRISH ARCH. SOC. 9
[9] In the Field Books – National Library of Ireland – there were no houses in Derrynavglaun, Ballinafad and Glencoaghan worth 5pounds per year.
[10] From records of Clifden Workhouse from 15 April 1876.
[11] P 254 Minutes, Clifden Workhouse.
[12]P 225 Minutes, Clifden Workhouse Board of Guardians
[13] P 255 as above
[14] Although the north of South Australia is very dry, immigrants demanded that land be made available there for farming. The Government commissioned a study, to be carried out by Mr Goyder, of rainfall and other conditions. Mr Goyder marked areas where there was too little rain but there was such an outcry that they gave in and allowed the ‘opening up’ of the north. Bitter experience proved Mr Goyder correct.
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About the Author:
Jan Perry is from Australia and is a frequent visitor to Ireland.
Whilst growing up we had only a vague feeling that our ancestry was partly Irish on our mother’s side. Mum’s grandparents, on the Marron side, had both died and her grandmother, Rose Ann Mannion, had actually been born in Glenhoaghan. It took years before I uncovered the information,however, once I had retired from work. We were all fascinated; Mum,before she died, Chris, Steve (my brothers) and I.
Mum and Dad had already visited Clifden but they were too shy to ask about the Mannions. Uncle Len, Mum’s brother, had visited too. The first time I visited I just looked around a little. I was with a couple of friends. We did drive up the skinny road into Glencoaghan and talk to some people there – by this time I knew that Rose Ann’s mother’s name was Bridget Nee and her dad was Martin Mannion.
Each subsequent trip was more and more revealing. It all culminated in the wonderful Mannion Family Gathering.
Hello Jan – we chatted many years ago now – sadly i missed the Mannion gathering so hope there’s another soon 🙂
I read this post with interest and think we should chat further again.
Something that strikes me reading your post is your comment about the size of the house in Glencoughan – my line are recorded there too over the same period as yours so it seems the extended family remained together/farmed together – though this was seasonal…they were also recorded as fishermen – I’d be interested to know who you record as your extended family? Do you know who Rose Anne’s brothers and sisters were?
Another matter which intrigues me is the Conry link – I have Conry’s recorded as sponsors at baptisms too and find Conry’s linking in when the family arrive in Hebburn, Tyne & Wear too.
I’ve had to step back from my research recently but will pick it up again soon – let’s see if we can find some missing pieces…have you done a dna test and pursued and links that way?
Dear Stephen,
I’m sorry it has taken me so long to find your message.
It was Francy Mannion who mentioned to me that the house at Glencoaghan (Derrynavglaun) was large compared to others. Yes, it would seem they stayed together and helped each other – even once our Mannions had come here. I did not know they were fishermen; where was that recorded? Rose Anne had one (surviving) sibling as far as I know – Patrick. He was older than Rose Anne and died here in South Australia. I don’t know much about the Conry link I’m afraid.
Yes I have done a DNA test. So has Chris, my brother – both with FTDNA. It was well worth it although we have not found any dramatic results. I do remember you Stephen, so does John Mannion from here. I’m going to Clifden for the Arts Festival this September.
Cheers,
Jan (Adelaide)
There is a lot of questioning in this piece about how couples met. Often they didn’t until they arrived at the church, unless they were neighbours and/or related to one another already, Marriages were arranged by parents or older siblings or other family members, In a society with limited resources it was essential to keep cash and stock moving around the community. In order for a girl to marry she would need a dowry and the amount of that dowry would determine what sort of match would be made for her. And to get that dowry, the family might have to wait until a son living in the family home “brought in a woman”…with a dowry. If his mother wasn’t keen on the idea of another woman in her kitchen, the son would have to sit it out till she relented or died. It would have been important to make a marriage which would benefit the land holding of the family by either adding to their holding, increasing their stock or bringing in some cash benefit to enable the family to rid themselves of surplus family members through passage money or marriage. Assisting family members to emigrate brought the added bonus of their financial contributions from overseas in dollars or pounds, Marriage was a business arrangement which enabled a family to remain on the land, The land was the priority – the feelings of the people involved in the marriage were irrelevant, The landowners were no different, Marriage was purely a business arrangement…as it still is in many parts of the world, especially in rural communities.
As for couples walking home after a baptism…it would be unlikely. Children were baptised as quickly as possible due to fear of Limbo. So it would have been unlikely that the mother would have been churched in time for the baptism. Until she was churched (for which one had to pay a fee) and had been cleansed of her sins connected with having given birth, she couldn’t enter the church, so mothers rarely attended the baptisms.
Stephen King from Glasgow, it’s been a while since we last communicated – 1999?
Where do you fit into our Mannion tree?
John
Stephen, I have only recently been pointed in the direction of this article and believe we might be fairly closely related. I am from Hebburn, Tyne and Wear. My mam’s grandfather was called John Mannion. He was married to a lady called Margaret Lydon and they had 5 children including my grandmother Mary. Their youngest daughter was called Catherine and she married a man called Richard King. Is this your family?
Jan,
I read your narrative with great interest. It seems there may be intersections of our families in the distant past in Connemara and Clifden
My grandfather was a Coyne and his father had married a Mannion – but then that’s not uncommon.
You may wish to read a narrative I wrote several years back and shared for 2012 celebration. I is on this site under the title: John Bernard Coyne in America.
My great grandmother, Bridgit Walsh Lydon, was from Maam and emigrated from Clonbur to Pittsburgh and then on to Minooka, a village south of Scranton, after marrying Thomas Lydon (who was killed in the coal mines). Another family who emigrated from Maam were the O’Neills. Michael and Mary Joyce O’Neill had a large family, and four of their sons went on to play major-league baseball in the first quarter of the twentieth century. As manager, Steve O’Neill led the Detroit Lions to their only World Series championship and was also the manager of the Cleveland Indians.
Very interesting research.
My Mannions/Mannings were in Co. Roscommon in 1798, but like yours probably came from the area around Menlough, Kiloscobe, Galway.
What an interesting article. My interest is piqued by your reference to Martin NEE. There are several men of that name in and around Clifton in the middle of the 19th Century. My great, great grandmother, Sarah NEE had a brother Martin according to her convict records in Van Diemen’s Land. She was born about 1830 and transported for stealing a cow in 1851, right at the end of the famine.
Do you know anything more about this Martin? We don’t, nor do we know anything about her parents. Any comments would be appreciated.
In 1955, my parents and I met a Kate Nee in a Connemara pub and camped in our van outside her farm cottage for a few nights. She had a young son and daughter living with her then.
Hugh Brody starts his 1973 book, “Inishkillane: Change and Decline in the West of Ireland”
by describing a memorable 1966 meeting with a Kate Nee, then 60. This Kate had 13 children, 9 of whom emigrated or left the land. Brody says that one girl married a local farmer.
I’ve often wondered whether it was the same Kate Nee we met and whether I could connect with any of Kate’s family. Having returned to Connemara several times over the years from Perth, Western Australia, I’d be delighted to hear any news of the Nee family.
You could check out ‘A Connemara Family’ on youtube, its about the Nee family including Kate who was older then, it was made in the early eighties. Its kind of bleak yet beautiful and haunting at the same time.
Anyone know of a Matthew Greene, who married Hannah King in Roundstone? They had a son, ThomasGreene, born December, 1820. Their grandson- Coleman John Greene was born about 1880 and emigrated to Northampton, Massachusetts around 1895 with his brother, John, and their parents. Coleman married Mary Ellen Cahallane, (from Dingle), in Northampton . They were my grandparents. Eileen ( ecam92@aol.com)
Hello I have read through your article and am interested in the Collins connection, my Grandfather was from Clifden during the late 1880’s his father was a farm labourer and died when he was about 12 his siblings were farmed out and he was put with the local priest but he ran away at about 14 to Dublin where he joined the army and was sent to the Anglo boer war ( obviously too young) His name was Laurence Collins
My great great grandfather was Patrick manion from menlough born around 1821 my great grandfather was Michael manion born 1851 in clifden in 1862 they visited a Ann manion in lanikshire Glasgow Scotland .
https://archive.org/details/aconnemarafamily/aconnemarafamilyreel1.mov John James women you describe sound like my great gran mother Kate nee this a film showing they life
Hi Joy – I would be interested in discussing your great great grandfather Michael who could be my great great grandfather Thomas’ brother AND I think i have details of the Ann Manion in Lanarkshire who they visited – I live in Glasgow. Stephen King
Apologies – both our great grandfathers namely Michael and Thomas 🙂
Wonderful find here Jan and well written and researched! I came across this article incidentally as I was looking at sites in Ireland where my family was from, Inishlackan Island, Roundstone (Cloch Na Ron), Ballconeelly just north of Roundstone–all in Connemara. Anne Mannion was my great grandmother and she married Martin Gould. I just recently discovered that Roundstone had attracted Scottish fishermen in the mid-1800s, I guess the Herring fishermen. The other names of my family from Inishlackan are O’Reilly or sometimes just Reilly, Woods, McDonaugh…Conneally.
Hi Stephen my greagreat grandad was Patrick manion/mannion he visited his sister Ann in Lanarkshire Glasgow Scotland with his son my great grandfather Michael mannion who was a young boy in 1862 in the house at the time was also a Alexander lyons .I found that my great grand father Michael w as born around 1849. They were only visiting Scotland from ireland. Years later Michael married a margaret gordon who was from pityme in county Durham england. They married at st Mary’s church in 1882 in Stockton on tees county durham on the marriage certificate Michael’s father was a visitor from ireland. Michael came over from ireland for work at the iron works they lived at 12 acklam street portrack county Durham england my father is the grandson of Michael my father was also called Michael mannion his best cousin was Alexander lyons I find this weird as in the 1862 in the house in Scotland was Alexander lyons age 18 and my great grandfather Michael mannion. Other family who are doing the family tree have said the mannions from Scotland are related down the line. Maybe we are Stephen .I’m living in the northeast england. I’m hopeing to go to Scotland to find out what info I can.also my father before he died visited ireland a place he always wanted to server he died. I am also hoping to visit one day. Hope to here from you Stephen you never know we could be related some were x
Hi stephen I think we are related it would be nice to here from you x
Hi Stephen here is my number 07961281922 hope to here from you joyx
This Comments section does not allow us to read the content!? I can see there are 19 comments and would like to read Susan Sullivan’s comment who may be responding to mine but can’t access it? Am I looking in the wrong place?
Susan maybe you could email me at macconraoi@hotmail.co.uk
Best wishes,
Stephen
Any Idea please of the date of the photograph of the interior of the house at Mamm Cross
This article is very, very interesting and knowledgeable to read.
I would love to obtain some more knowledge on Patrick Conry, Margaret Conry and his spouse
Hunor Nee.. I have relations handed down through folklore of many generations that my folks came from the clonbur , clifdeen Mam cross areas APPROX……….
I do know they travelled all over the world, USA,,Canada Australia UK, Scotland. South Mayo.
There seems to be connection’s with surnames Nees, Conry, Grealish, Joyce and some more all from Connemara area, of Co Galway and Co Mayo,
Some of the generations are extremely helpful, while others seem clannish and do not want to realise this valuable folklore, resulting in some that has sadly passed away and has already being lost for good. PLEASE HELP in any small way possible. I would apricate this greatly. Thanks, Martin Conry/Conroy Co Mayo, Ireland.
Hello cousins!
I live in the United States and am attempting to build up my family tree. I have tracked my 3rd great grandfather, Darby O’Toole to Fakeeragh along with the other Tooles. I am so excited to finally make more of a connection to his wife’s surname of McGrath and find an answer to the connection of the O’Malleys. Additionally, I believe the O’Flaherty name may be another connection to a DNA match who still lives in Ireland.
If anyone else connected to the Tooles would like to get in touch or share their stories, I would be very excited to hear from you.
Hi Stephen King and Joy Mannion.
This is Martin Conroy back again since I left a research note jan1st 2023 above.
I have recieved no replies.
Does anyone have any info on Nee, Grealish, Conry connections.
You can contact me by email mconroy751@gmail.com
or phone 087 6272751
oh my. i am reading this and my head spins. My mother was a Philip Conry (Conroy) and her mother a Bridget Nee from Mullaghglass , Galway. Her grandparents were Patrick Conroy / Mary Mannion and John Conroy / Bridget Kearney (Carney). My mother always told me we had relatives named Gibbons, Joyce, Coyne and my grandmothers’s sponsor when she arrived in Boston ,MA was her aunt, “Mrs Lydon”.
Too much for me to unravel! but I suspect kinship.