Part 10. The people who made me

Now I think its time to tell you all about my grandparents as they were amazing, and Mum and Dad’s side were so different.  I only ever knew Dad’s mother but have heard so many stories about the rest that I’ve done some research and have quite a bit of info - and how interesting it is…

I will start with Mum’s dad, William Henry Jones from Brighton in England.  William was a Lance Corporal in the Connacht (Connaught) Rangers, a part of the British Army that was based in Ireland.  He was stationed in Galway in Bothormore Barracks and would have spent some time in Mountbellew as the guest of Sir Henry Christopher Grattan-Bellew, 3rd Baronet who was also a member of the Connacht Rangers at the time. I discovered that William’s father was also William Henry living in Brighton and working as a bricklayer and married to Lucille.  Grandfather William had one younger brother called Henry, and sadly we have no more information on them as somehow when William married my grandmother he lost touch with his family, and that was that.

William was, by all accounts, a brilliant musician playing the double bass, cello and violin.  I know he spent some time abroad with the British Army going to places like India, Egypt and Kuwait.  He also arrived in Suez in 1918 and took part in the Palestine campaign ending the war at Nazareth Palestine.  How amazing that must have been - and then he came back to Ireland to a country in turmoil.

Mum’s mother was Norah Devaney, daughter of Patrick Devaney.  Patrick was a coach driver for Sir Henry Christopher Grattan-Bellew and Norah Devaney was housekeeper to Sir Henry Christopher Grattan-Bellew.  So my grandmother would have been born and grew up on the Grattan-Bellew estate.  The Grattan-Bellews were Catholic landlords, very rare at that time, and were known to be very good to their staff and the people of the town.  I have been told by my Mum’s sister - my Aunt Josephine - that Sir Henry bought the house my grandfather and grandmother moved into when they married so that my great grandmother would have a home when she retired from work.

It’s easy to see how my Mum’s parents would have met, but it would have been very hard for them.  Ireland at that time was a very different place to now; he was a Protestant and she was a Catholic - and he was a British solider, a member of the occupying forces.  To my mind they must have been very brave.

Now to Dad’s family:  Dad’s dad, my grandfather on this side was Leo and we can trace his family forebears back to 1799 at Westport Co. Mayo.   It was no surprise for me to learn that on the 1901 Census of Ireland that the then16 year-old Leo was listed as a plumber, as indeed my own father became!    Grandfather Leo’s brothers were part of an important time in Ireland’s history…

Ralph (who my father was named after), John and Francis – and probably Leo too – all played a part in the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin, and we know for a fact that Ralph was in the GPO building on O’Connell St.   I can’t tell for definite if the other brothers were, but all of the stories that we were ever told had them running guns in a baby’s pram and being very involved in all the activities all over Dublin on that particular week.  Their involvement continued for the next few years working with Michael Collins.

When the treaty was signed with the British government, the brothers were on the side of “no” to the treaty.  I’ll stop boring you with a big history lesson but my vote has always been with Michael Collins and what he stood for – which would have made steam come out of Leo’s ears!   Ralph went on to be one of the founding members of a well-known political party that I have never voted for.

My grandfather Leo’s father was also called Leo and was a commercial traveller according to the 1901 census.  And his father was James John Lynch but was known as Leo – confused?   He was born in 1860, and his father was John Lynch, born at Westport Co. Mayo on Christmas day 1799 and a landscape gardener both in Ireland and the UK at Kew Gardens.  He didn’t marry until he was 50 years old, and after giving birth to 10 children between 1850 and 1866 his wife Mary died at the age of 45.   John’s father was a John Lynch about whom we have few details date-wise.  What we do know is he was a gentleman farmer who lost his land to Lord Sligo.  He believed his land was taken unlawfully and took legal cases to the House of Commons in Dublin and the House of Lords in London – unsuccessfully.  This would have been some time around 1750/60.

So, as you can see on my Dad’s father’s side the history is very interesting…   I’m afraid I’ve very little information about my Dad’s mother other than she was born in 1891 as Gertrude Byrne and by 1901 when she was 10 both her parents were dead as her brother Andrew was listed as head of household aged 23 in that year’s census.   They were living in two rooms on Upper Clanbrassil St. in Dublin.   By 1911 they had gone up in the world and moved to a house in Rathmines, Dublin, and 21 year-old Gertrude Byrne was working as a ladies tailor.  I’m not sure when her and Leo met or married, all I know is my father was their fifth child and born in 1922.   And my Nana Gertie (as she was known to us) died when I was about 11 – so she lived to a good age!

Looking back on all that I’ve just written, it’s amazing to think that gun-running rebels and fighters all ended up being connected to a British soldier and a family in service!

My father Ralph as a young man was working on the building of Merlin Park Hospital and went to dances at the Seapoint Hotel in Galway.  This was where my grandfather William played in, and was leader of, a band.  William asked his daughter Catherine – known as Kitty – to come and help out, and that is how my Mum and Dad met.  Apparently he had to chase her for a long time before she would go out with him, and the rest as they say, is history! 

Both Mum and Dad have now left us but as I’ve mentioned in a previous blog, I had the best childhood and would not swap any of it.  Mum and Dad were the best – here’s to you Ray (Ralph) and Kitty (Catherine).

More soon – and there’s lots happening with us in the here and now…  Don’t forget to join my Facebook group where there’s lots of photos and news items, plus if you’ve not already seen it there was a great feature in the Sunday Independent’s Life magazine last Sunday.

Ciao!

Eimear X