Our Milesian Origins

07 Sunday Jul 2013

Posted by Janet Maher in Carlow Mahers, Mahers, Meaghers, Ordering From the Old Sod to the Naugatuck Valley

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Ancient Ireland, Cormac Mac Art, Early Irish History, Gaelic Ireland, Ikerrin, Irish Meaghers, Maher, Milesian Genealogy

(With some additions/edits, July 9, and Sept. 22, 2013, please also see the “Comments” section.)

While it is impossible for anyone to trace their lineage genealogically with proof back to ancient Ireland, understanding the long reach of some clans’ ties to their homeland may help to put in context the rebellious feelings that many had toward the waves of newcomers who eventually displaced them, became their landlords, or had forced their ancestors to relocate to barren parts of the island or permanently flee to other countries. Those willing to do DNA testing and participate in a surname group are potentially able to find information where no paper documents survive to neatly sequence their ancestry. One friend, a Maher who pronounces his name with two syllables, has discovered that his DNA result led him directly to Spain! What initially seemed perplexing is actually more exciting than having been pointed to a particular place in Ireland. His markers point instead to a pure connection to the most ancient origins of the native Irish, including the surname which evolved to Meagher/Maher.

The arrival of Ireland’s first population is steeped in mysticism and lore, as much a part of the poetic tradition as the sacred spirit of the place. Any ancient stories that have survived to this day may have some germs of fact involved, and the story of the Milesians is one that continues to be considered. In the early seventeenth century Brother Michael O Cléirigh/O’Clery, a Franciscan monk from Donegal, with the help of other scribes who were laymen, sought to create a comprehensive history of Ireland from as many ancient manuscripts as could be gathered. The men were all from upper class families and were trained historians. Their great work, The Annals of Ireland by the Four Masters, includes a genealogy of King Mhileadth/Milesius of Spain, through whose sons, Heber, Heremon and Ir, all the major clans of Ireland evolved from at least 1700 B.C. or earlier. Heber and Heremon were the first two of 183 monarchs who ruled Ireland from 1699 B.C. until the submission of the Irish kings to King Henry II in 1171 A.D. While the time frames may not completely align with what is now known, and surnames as we know them did not exist until more modern times, the details in the Annals of the Four Masters form the basis of accepted ancient Irish history.

The Meachairs/Meaghers/Mahers were one of the original Irish clans, descended from petty kings of Leinster and Munster, later among the ruling lords of County Tipperary, chiefs of Ikerrin, and among the noble chieftain families of County Carlow. Among the many sources I have consulted over my years of research I have seen several Irish surname maps. The one I have found most useful, with its inclusion of references to the Annals and other texts and explanations of incoming waves of surnames beyond the original Irish ones, is Kanes’ Ancestral Map of Ireland. It’s designers noted that among one of the primary Irish genealogy scholars, “Professor Eoin MacNeill, of the National University of Ireland concluded in his work, Celtic Ireland, that the Irish genealogical traditions are credible in detail at approximately 300 A.D. but not earlier.”

What follows is my accumulated understanding of the ancient tracks to today’s Mahers. The Nemedians, Formorians and Fir Bolgs have been explained as the earliest known nomadic peoples who lived in Ireland, each with their own characteristics as a race. From the eastern Mediterranean area, the Tuatha de Danann were a druidic tribe who worshipped the goddess Danu. They were considered to be Celtic gods, worshipped by the earliest Irish. As settlers in America would do centuries later through the formation of Native American reservations to contain those who already inhabited the land, the de Danann conquered the Fir Bolgs, allowing them to live, but constricting their habitation to the Connaught area while they settled throughout the rest of Ireland. [With the English conquest of Ireland in the seventeenth century, relocation to Connaught again became a form of banishment within the country.]

King Mhileadth/Milesius of Spain lived contemporaneously with King Solomon. When his sons invaded Ireland, they conquered and merged with the de Dannans. Lore alternatively has it that the de Dannans chose to live in the underworld, leaving Ireland to the conquerors. John O’Hart includes in his Irish Pedigrees the entire Annals of the Four Masters genealogies, beginning with Adam! According to this, Milesius was the son of Bilé and had a brother named Ithe. Bilé was the son of Breoghan (Brigus), king of Galicia, Andalusia, Murcia, Castile and Portgual, over which Milesius ruled by succession. Consult O’Hart for the complete story of the races and populating of Ireland.

The Cinel (descendents) Meachair trace our earliest lineage from Fionnchada/Finnachta, son of Connla/Conla, son of Cian, who was killed in the Battle of Samhair in A.D. 241. Cian was one of three sons of King Oillioll Olum, King of the Provence of Munster in the third century and Munster’s first absolute King. Cian’s brothers were Eoghan More and Cormac Cos.

Oillioll Olum died in A.D. 234. His father was Eoghan Taighlech, also called Owen the Splendid and Magh Nuadhat. Taighlech was descended from Milesius’ son, Heber. Joseph Casimir O’Meagher (Some Historical Notices of the O’Meaghers of Ikerrin) noted that Eoghan Mor was called Mogh-Nuadadh and was killed by Conn of the 100 Battles. This was the same line as the O’Carrolls, overlords (princes) of what had once been a large stretch of area in northern Munster (Ely/Eile) that included the barony of Ikerrin, the original home of the O’Meaghers.

According to Kane’s Ancestral Map of Ireland, some ancient Mahers were also descendents of Cormac Mac Art and Conaire Mor, both descendents of Heremon. Cormac Mac Art was the son of King Art Eanfhear, Monarch of Ireland A.D. 227 to A.D. 266. [The chapel of Cormac Mac Art at the Rock of Cashel is presently being restored.] Eanfhear was the son of King Conn of the Hundred Battles, Monarch of Ireland A.D. 166 to A.D. 195 (or, from another source, A.D. 123 to A.D. 157). According to this map the Maher lineage of Conaire Mor appears to have died out. He had been “sixteenth in descent from Heremon” and his line included King Conaire the 2nd, Monarch of Ireland A.D. 157 – A.D. 166.

The common ancestor among the various pedigrees in Joseph Casimir O’Meagher’s compilation is Oilioll Oluim. These pedigrees had been created by different scribes for important occasions, and one was copied from the Psalter of Cashel. Saint Benignus (Beonna), the bishop of Armagh after Saint Patrick, was a descendent of Oilioll Oluim, as was Saint Cronan, Abbot of Roscrea, Tipperary, the largest town in the barony of Ikerrin.

In 1659 Sir William Petty’s census showed Meaghers in several neighboring areas of Ireland. In Kilkenny: Galmoy (23); Fassagh Deinin [Fassadinnen] (12); Kells (17); Cranagh (18); Callan (17). In Tipperary: Clanwilliam (14); Ikerrin and Eliogarty (190); Iff and Offa (21); Lower Ormond (12); Slievardagh (40). Five Meaghers each were in Idrone and St. Mollins counties in Carlow, near Kilkenny and in Middlethird. In Decies, Waterford, there were six. Of the 26,684 residents of Tipperary then, 24, 700 were Irish, with the remaining English. In 1841 fifteen per cent of the people living in Tipperary lived in Ikerrin. In that year six thousand lived in the excellent farmland of Roscrea. The townland of Tullow Mac James in Tipperary, near Templetouhy, was noted as “one of the oldest residences of Clan-Meagher, and furnished many distinguished representatives at home and abroad.”

I have compiled surnames with noble ancient Irish roots from the Kane map for the counties of Tipperary, Kilkenny and Queens (Leix, Laois) Counties:

Kings: Tipperary (Kings of Cashel) – MacCarthy, O’Brien, O’Callaghan.

Princes: Tipperary – O’Carroll, O’Donnegan, O’Donohoe, O’Brien; Kilkenny – O’Carroll, O’Donaghue; Queen’s County – MacGilpatrick (Fitzpatrick).

Ruling Lords: Tipperary – MacBrien, O’Cuirc (Quirk), O’Day (O’Dea), O’Dinan, O’Dwyer, O’Fogerty, O’Kennedy, O’Meagher (O’Maher), O’Sullivan; Kilkenny – O’Brennan (Fassadineen area), O’Brodar; Queen’s County – O’Dempsey, O’Dowling, O’Dunn, O’Moore.

Noble Chieftains: Tipperary – MacCormack, MacGilfoyle, O’Brien, O’Cahill, O’Carroll, O’Connelly, O’Cullenan, O’Hogan, O’Hurley, O’Kean, O’Lenahan, O’Lonegan (O’Lonergan), O’Meara, O’Mulcahy, O’Ryan, O’Shanahan (Shannon), O’Skelly (O’Scully), O’Spellman (O’Spillane); Kilkenny – O’Callan, O’Hely (O’Healy), O’Keeley, O’Ryan, O’Shea; Queen’s County – MacEvoy, MacGorman, ODuff, O’Kelly, O’Lawler, O’Regan

Wishing all my readers and followers well as we learn more about our ancestry!

References:

Bhreathnach, Edel, and Cunningham, Bernadette, editors, Writing Irish History: the Four Masters and their World, Dublin, Ireland: Wordwell, Ltd., 2007.

Finnerty, William, Annals of Ireland by the Four Masters

Kane Ancestral Map of Ireland, Kane Strategic Marketing, Inc., P.O. Box 781, Harbor Springs, Michigan, 49740; Limerick, Ireland, 1993.

Maher, Janet, From the Old Sod to the Naugatuck Valley: Early Irish Catholics in New Haven County, Connecticut, Baltimore, MD: Apprentice House, 2012 [This book is 400 pages and includes 336 images. It may be obtained at: Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, CT; Naugatuck Historical Society, Naugatuck, CT; and Quinnipiac University Bookstore, Mount Carmel Branch, Hamden, CT. In Baltimore it may be purchased from Loyola University Bookstore and The Ivy Bookshop. Online it may be purchased from Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Amazon UK, and from me via Paypal or by check (P.O. Box 40211, Baltimore, MD, 21212).]

McCaffrey, Carmel and Eaton, Leo, In Search of Ancient Ireland, The Origins of the Irish from Neolithic Times to the Coming of the English, Chicago, IL: New Amsterdam Books, 2002.

O’Hart, John, Irish Pedigrees: or, The Origin and Stem of The Irish Nation, Fifth Edition in Two Volumes, Dublin, Ireland: James Duffy and Co., Ltd., 1892. Online.

O’Meagher, Joseph Casimir, Some Historical Notices of the O’Meaghers of Ikerrin, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., American Edition: NY, 1890. Online.

Shaw, Antony, compiled by, Portable Ireland, A Visual Reference to All Things Irish, Philadelphia, PA: Running Press, 2002.

Traynor, Pat, Milesian Genealogies from the Annals of the Four Masters

Walsh, Dennis, Old Irish-Gaelic Surnames, A Supplement to Ireland’s History in Maps

Meagher/Maher Women, Some New Connections

13 Monday May 2013

Posted by Janet Maher in Carlow Mahers, Early Irish Catholics in Connecticut, History, Kilkenny Mahers

≈ 11 Comments

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From the Old Sod to the Naugatuck Valley, Irish nuns, Sisters of Mercy

Freshford Cemetery, Kilkenny, Ireland, ©July 2011

(Revised June 30, 2013)

After publishing an almost 400 page book summarizing more than six years of extensively detailed research, I still have many questions. However, I am thrilled to have recently discovered the names of three Maher-related women and, through them, to reveal here some important connections! One is related to Waterbury, Connecticut’s beloved parish priest, Reverend Thomas Francis Hendricken (Ann), one, to the founding of the Sisters of Mercy in America (Frances), and another, to the founding of the Sisters of Mercy in New Zealand (Ellen/Cecilia).

Bishop Thomas Francis Hendricken

Although the first Irish Catholic settlements in New Haven County, Connecticut began to take hold in the mid 1820s, it was not until 1847 that Waterbury received its first resident priest, Reverend Michael O’Neil. In 1855 he was replaced by Father Hendricken, a native of Dunmore, Kilkenny, Ireland. Thomas Francis Hendricken was the son of John Hendricken and Anna Maria Maher. He was leader of the Waterbury Catholic community through complex decades of history, including during the Civil War, until his consecration as bishop of Rhode Island in 1872. He was credited with the completion of Naugatuck’s Saint Anne’s Church (the first Catholic church there), the purchasing of land for Naugatuck’s first Catholic cemetery, Saint Francis, and the building of the first Immaculate Conception Church in Waterbury’s downtown. Had Ann Maher Hendricken’s son been related to the Mahers of New Haven county, I wonder? Had he requested placement in New Haven county, Connecticut due to such possible familial connections that had already become interwoven there by the 1850s, after Ireland’s Great Famine?

Mother Mary Frances Warde, daughter of Jane Maher, courtesy of Mercyworld.org

In Ireland, Carlow’s Father James Maher, nephew of Cardinal Cullen (head of the Irish College in Rome) had mentioned that the nuns in Carlow were needed in America, thus serving as the catalyst for the entrance of the Sisters of Mercy order into areas across the sea. America’s part of this story began with the birth of Frances (Fanny) Warde, in 1810, youngest child of Jane Maher, wife of John Warde, in Mountrath, Queen’s County/Laois, Ireland, eight miles from the town of Abbeyleix. Jane died shortly after Fanny’s birth, leaving Fanny’s siblings Daniel, William, John, Helen, and Sarah.

The Warde family residence, Bellbrook House, had been “situated in the most beautiful part of the country.” Due to his willingness to voice his controversial political opinions, however, John Warde’s home and leases were taken by Lord de Vesci, Viscount of Abbeyleix, and transferred in trust for himself to Sir Robert Staples. With their father subsequently needing to relocate to Dublin in order to find work, the motherless children went to live with their uncle William Maher in Killeany, also in Laois.

Fanny Warde, later Reverend Mother Mary Francis Xavier, was the first Sister of Mercy professed by Foundress of the Irish order, Catherine McAuley, and she became Superior and Novice Mistress of Saint Leo’s Convent of Mercy in Carlow. Mother Frances’ sister, Sarah (Mother Mary Josephine Warde), also became a nun. In 1838 Mother Frances’ cousins, Ellen Maher (professed as Sr. Mary Cecelia) and Ellen’s half-sister Eliza, also joined the order in Carlow.

In 1843, Sister Cecelia succeeded Mother Frances Warde as Superior in Carlow when Mother Frances and six other sisters were chosen to emigrate to America to establish the Sisters of Mercy order in Philadelphia. Included in this first group were: Sr. M. Josephine Cullen, Sr. M. Elizabeth Strange, Sr. M. Aloysia Strange, Sr. M. Philomena Reid, Sr. Veronica McDarby, and Sr. Margaret O’Brien, under the direction of newly-ordained Bishop Michael O’Connor. Mother Frances and the other nuns worked as teachers, and eighteen more convents were established before her death in Manchester, NH, in 1884. [Note: Sisters Strange and Reid may have been relatives of the Stephen and Catherine Maher family of New Haven, as I understand Mother Cecilia to have been.]

Mother Cecelia Maher, courtesy of Mercyworld

Mother Cecilia Maher, daughter of John and Alicia Maher, courtesy of Mercyworld.org

In 1849 Mother Cecilia, along with six other members of the community in Carlow, one from Dublin, and one from Sydney, Australia, left Ireland to work in a New Zealand mission. Mother Cecelia established the Sisters of Mercy in Auckland, built convents and schools throughout the area, was the Superior General of her community and remained deeply involved in New Zealand as a teacher and social worker, caring for the sick and the orphaned until her death in 1878. Her grave is behind Saint Mary’s Convent, which she built in Poonsonby.

According to her Mercy International Association biography, Mother Cecilia (Ellen) had been the daughter of John and Alicia (or Adelaide) Maher, born September, 1799 in Freshford, Kilkenny. Her mother, like Mother Frances’, also died young, and her wealthy father was said to have remarried a woman named Ellen. Joseph Casimir O’Meagher’s data pertaining to the Mahers of Kilkenny aligned with this information in relation to one William Meagher, whose son, John, lived in Freshford (Some Historical Notices of the O’Meaghers of Ikerrin, 1890). O’Meagher, however, noted the name of John’s second wife to have been Jane Harold. Might one or the other, Jane or Ellen, have been a middle name that the woman was known by? Might O’Meagher or the biographer have made a mistake in this first name? Otherwise, the combined children’s information brings the story of Mother Cecilia into further focus. John’s daughter was said to have helped in the rearing of her five step-siblings to whom she was very close, and due to that choice, deferred her entry into the religious order until she was 39 years old.

According to O’Meagher, John Maher’s family was: John Maher (1769-1836), of Freshford, brother of William Maher of Killeany, married Alicia Murray, of Kilkenny, in 1792. Their children: William J. (1800-1875, married Anne Maher, no children); Emanuel Murray (born 1802, died unmarried); Mary, Ellen (a nun), Adelaide, and Michael (who died in America). John Maher married a second time to Jane Harold (Limerick). Their children were Kate, Margaret (a nun), Elizabeth (a nun), Jane (a nun), and Fanny (a nun). [See my posting of August 8, 2011, The Mahers of Kilkenny.]

Four of Mother Cecilia’s step-sisters also became Sisters of Mercy. Jane professed as Sr. Mary Pauline, and both she and Fanny emigrated to America. Eliza, as mentioned above, entered the Carlow convent under the direction of Mother Frances Warde.

[Notable, in my opinion, was the existence of a school in Hartford, Connecticut, run by the Sisters of Mercy, where one Jane Maher was principal in 1860. Might she have been one of the above-mentioned sisters who went to America? According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, “In 1852 Mother Warde opened houses in Hartford and New Haven to which free schools were attached.” In the 1860 U.S. Census were Jane Maher, 35, and nine other Sisters of Mercy, teachers to 33 young girls in Hartford.]

O’Meaghers’ research noted John Maher as the brother of William, of Killeany. If Ann Maher Hendricken was also from this family it would mean that Bishop Hendricken, of Waterbury and Rhode Island, was related to both Mother Cecilia Maher and Mother Frances Warde and their families!

I believe ever more strongly that Adelaide Maher, wife of John Quigley, buried in the main section of Saint Francis Cemetery among the primary early Irish Catholic residents of Naugatuck, was a daughter from John Maher’s first marriage. She, among others, are discussed more fully in my book, From the Old Sod to the Naugatuck Valley: Early Irish Catholics of New Haven County, Connecticut. If I am correct, she would have been Mother Cecilia’s sister! The existence in this small borough of someone related to her would have likely driven her choice to emigrate with her children to this fairly remote place in 1864, apparently after the death of her husband. That connection would likely have been my great great grandfather, Patrick Maher, born in 1811, from Queen’s County, head of the only Maher family in town at that time. He and my great great grandmother, Anne Butler, were said to have been the first Irish Catholics to settle there in 1842.

Since so much family history research has to do with studying surnames that are predominantly male-based, I find it especially satisfying to have found connections among women, who so often become “lost in the crowd” due to the changing of their original surnames through secular or spiritual marriages.

This post is dedicated to the memory of a contemporary Anne Butler, for whose kindness and project-related friendship I am forever grateful. I will never forget our serendipitous meeting one miraculous day at Saint Francis Cemetery during our separate routines of tending the graves. May her soul rest in peace.

Resources:

Carlow County – Ireland Genealogical Projects, Prof. Donal McCartney, Rev. James Maher P.P., 1793-1874; http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~irlcar2/Fr_James_Maher.htm

Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Maher, Mary Cecelia, 1799-1878; http://www.mercyworld.org/heritage/tmplt-foundressstory.cfm?loadref=180

IrishHeritageTowns.com, Abbeleix, Rev. Mother Mary Frances Ward; http://abbeyleix.irishheritagetowns.com/rev-mother-mary-frances-ward/

Memoirs of the Sisters of Mercy, Pittsburgh, PA; http://archive.org/stream/memoirsofpittsbu00john#page/4/mode/2up

Mercy International Association, Mother Cecelia Maher; http://www.mercyworld.org/heritage/tmplt-foundressstory.cfm?loadref=180

Mercy International Association, Frances Warde, Joan Freney, RSM; http://www.mercyworld.org/heritage/tmplt-foundressstory.cfm?loadref=176

Mercy International Association, Heritage; http://www.mercyworld.org/heritage/landing.cfm?loadref=201

Mercy Parklands Hospital, Our Mercy Story; http://www.mercyparklands.co.nz/?page_id=10

The National Archives, U.S. Census, 1860, 1st District, Hartford, Connecticut, Roll M653_78, page 958, Image 435, Family History Library Film, 803078

New Advent, Catholic Encyclopedia, Mary Frances Xavier Warde; http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15553a.htm

Quigley Genealogy Page (Maher relatives of Cardinal Cullen); http://homepage.eircom.net/~johnbquigley/Maher040502.htm

Sisters of Mercy, New Zealand, Auckland 1850, A Voyage Made ‘Only For God;’ http://www.sistersofmercy.org.nz/who-we-are/dsp-default.cfm?loadref=6

Some Historical Notices of the O’Meaghers of Ikerrin, Joseph Casimir O’Meagher; http://archive.org/stream/somehistoricaln00meagoog/somehistoricaln00meagoog_djvu.txt

From the Old Sod to the Naugatuck Valley: Early Irish Catholics in New Haven County, Connecticut may be obtained at: Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, CT; Naugatuck Historical Society, Naugatuck, CT; and Quinnipiac University Bookstore, Mount Carmel Branch, Hamden, CT. In Baltimore it may be purchased from Loyola University Bookstore and The Ivy Bookshop. Online it may be purchased from Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Amazon UK, and from me via Paypal or by check (P.O. Box 40211, Baltimore, MD, 21212).

Transcriptions.1 – Killinane Graveyard

19 Friday Aug 2011

Posted by Janet Maher in Carlow Mahers, History, Kilkenny Mahers, Tombstone Transcriptions

≈ 15 Comments

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Carlow, Kilkenny, Maher, Tombstone Transcriptions

Killinane Graveyard Entrance, July 2011

Killinane Graveyard, Maher Graves, July 2011

Between Paulstown, Kilkenny and Old Leighlin/Leighlinbridge, Carlow on Route 724 is an old cemetery, Killinane, that has several Maher graves in it. According to the 1844-45 Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland, Killinane was in the barony of West Idrone. This barony included “part of the parishes of Cloydagh, Killinane, and Wells; and the whole of the parishes of Old Leighlin and Tullowcrine. Its only town is part of Leighlin-Bridge; and its chief villages are Royal Oak and Old Leighlin.” In 1841 the population was 8,435 and it was in the Poor Law Union of Carlow. (pg. 309)

This was an unexpected find as we were driving past, having gone back first to look at and photograph Wells Cemetery, which appeared to be Protestant. Unfortunately I was unaware of the standing stone that was apparently nearby, another of the many reasons to return to Ireland whenever possible.

Places mentioned on the Maher stones in Killinane Graveyard include: Closutton, Clorusk, Bagenalstown, and Royal Oak in County Carlow and Moanmore, in County Kilkenny. I have kept the spellings as they appeared on the stones. There is a habit in Ireland of people darkening white marble stones with paint or other substances, then sanding down the surface to reveal recessed black lettering. While this cannot be good for the stones, it is also unfortunate for others to come upon, as we did here (#7), before someone had returned to finish the job. Thankfully, I was able to make out the inscription. On two graves were also included the names of the stonecutters and their locations.

John Hayes’ lists of surnames included in Griffiths Valuations, index abstracts, include fifteen Mahers in Killinane. I believe that relatives of at least some of those listed will be found to match up with these graves. See Ask About Ireland/Griffiths Valuations for further details. Since so many records were lost and destroyed, Griffiths tabulation of leaseholders and their landlords after the Great Famine is very helpful in trying to locate families. This, in combination with microfilms of baptism and marriage records from Family Search, can keep one quite busy and help in piecing various parts of puzzles together. I recommend James R. Reilly’s article that explains Griffith’s Valuations if this is the first time you’ve heard of them.

Transcriptions of Maher Graves in Killinane Graveyard, July 2011

1. Sacred Heart of Jesus Have Mercy On the Soul of Jeremiah Maher, Closutton, Who Died Nov. 12^th, 1915, Age 77 Yrs. Also His Sister, Maria Maher Who Died Sep. 28^th, 1914, Aged 73 Yrs. [Phelan R. I. P. Royal Oak]

2. Erected by Thomas Maher of Clowsutton in memory of his beloved wife Anne Maher alias Walsh who depd. this life April 18^th 1861, aged 50 years. Also one of his children who died young. Also the memory of Thomas Maher above mentioned died May 2^nd, 1866, aged 66 years.

3. Erected by Jeremiah Maher of Clorusk in memory of his beloved father John Maher who died July 29, 1876 aged 72 yrs. also his mother Mary Maher als. Ryan who died June 9, [1873] aged 58 yrs. also his brother John who died July 5^th 1865 aged 20 yrs. also his sister Mary who died Dec. 11, 1860 Aged 27 yrs. also two brothers and one sister died young. Also The Above Named Jeremiah Maher Died Nov. 4, 1905 Aged 61 Yrs. And His Wife Catherine Maher Died Nov. 29, 1912 Aged 63 Yrs. Also Their Son Thomas James Died May 23, 1898 Aged 12 Yrs. And Three Children Died Young. And Their Son John Died July 17^th, 1945 Aged 60 Yrs. Also His Wife Annie Maher, Nee Kavanagh, Died Oct. 31^st, 1972, Aged 87 Yrs. And Their Grandson John Maher Nolan Who Died In Infancy Also Their Daughter Mary O’Keefe Who Died 14^th Jan. 1988 Aged 71 Yrs. Requiscant In Pace. [On the back:] When a few short years of toil are past We reach that happy Shore When divided friends at last Meet to part no more.

4. Of Your Charity Pray For The Soul of Michael Maher, Main Street, Bagnalstown, Who Died July 23^rd 1909 Aged 48 Years Also His Wife Catherine Maher Nee Mulligan Who Died March 28^th 1960 Aged 87 Years R. I. P.

5. Of Your Charity Pray For The Repose Of The Soul of Philip Maher, Closutton Who Died [18^th] Jan. 1870. Aged 55 Years Also Their Grandchild Marianne Maher Who Died Young. Also Jeremiah Died 23^rd March 1907 Aged 59 Years. Also Edward Died 10^th May 1909 Aged 59 Years. Also Annie Maher Died 29^th Oct. 1917 Aged 63 Years. Also Kate Maher Died 8^th Nov. 1919 Aged 52 Years. Also Elizabeth McDonnell Daughter Of Above Edward Maher Died [7^th] Jan. 1963 And Her Children May & Frances Who Died Young R. I. P. [Hughes Carlow]

6. Erected By Patrick Maher Royal Oak In Memory Of His Father John Maher Who Died Dec. 4^th 1915 Aged 78 Years and his sister Bridget Sister M. Peter Who Died Jan. 20^th 1916 Aged 58 yrs. Also his brother John who died Nov. 12^th 1918 Aged 26 yrs. And his mother Mary died Jan. 23^rd 1927 aged 82 yrs. Also his brother Michael died in Waco, Texas, U.S.A. Sept. 19^th 1941 aged 56 yrs. And the above Patrick died April 6^th 1950 aged 67 yrs.

7. In Loving Memory Of Thomas Maher, Moanmore, Died 18th Apr. 1872, His Wife Elizabeth Died 10^th June 1897, His Two Daughters, Bridget and Elizabeth Died Young, His Son Jeremiah Died 12^th Apr. 1959, His Wife Kathleen Died 17^th Mar. 1942

Patrick Maher Stone, Killinane Graveyard, July 2011

Killinane Church Ruin at Cemetery, July 2011

Darkened Thomas Maher Stone, Killinane, July 2011

References:

Reilly, James R., CGRS, Is There More in Griffith’s Valuations Than Just Names?, pdf online of entire article can be downloaded from this link: http://www.deliapublications.com/More2Griffith.htm or from a direct keywork search.

The Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland: Adapted to the New Poor-Law, Franchise, Municipal and Ecclesiastical Arrangments, and Compiled With A Special Reference to the Lines of Railroad and Canal Communication, As Existing in 1844-45, Volume II. D-M, Dublin, London, and Edinburgh: A. Fullarton and Co., 1846. (http://books.google.com)

Maher Matters

~ Ancestry Maher/Meagher/Meachair

Category Archives: Carlow Mahers

Our Milesian Origins

Meagher/Maher Women, Some New Connections

Transcriptions.1 – Killinane Graveyard