Looking for the Irish Family

We know precious little about the McNally family. My grandfather Arthur McNally was born in Loughshinny in the Skerries area of Co. Dublin in 1891. I’ve visited Loughshinny a couple of times now and seen the new bungalow on the plot where their house stood, next to the old school which is now a community centre. The house and land was sold by one of my uncles after the death of the younger sisters sometime in the nineteen-eighties.

After contacting the Parish Priest in Rush I’ve been given a contact in Loughshinny and I’m now dying to make another visit out to the area.

I’ve walked down the road from the school to the harbour, the pretty little fishing harbour which seems to have changed little in centuries. It’s a wild, beautiful place, full of history and geography all sea, sky and rocks and changing light and weather.

Arthur McNally is listed on the 1911 census as farmer’s son, living in Ballykea, Loughshinny with his mother and father and four sisters, Mary, Catherine, Margaret, Jane (Jennie). It seems Catherine was the only one to marry. She became a Clifford (or a Colgan?)

There is a bit of an enigma here as the story goes that he ran away to sea at an early age. His sons all remember the wonderful seafaring tales he told them and these in turn were passed on to us. Of course it’s all a bit vague and lost now. I was told he went to New York on sailing ship carrying merchandise. One of the last mercantile sailing ships to cross the Atlantic. I was also told about Arthur working the boats from Cornwall to Manchester, carrying tin and about what a hard life this was.

It therefore seems a bit strange to see him listed on the 1911 census as farmer’s son aged 20. Arthur was married in 1916 in Salford, Manchester so his seafaring days can’t have been that many unless he was home between jobs at the time of the census.

He lived for the rest of his life in Salford and worked on the Manchester and Salford docks. He had six sons to Hannah Keogh who was born in Salford but came from Irish family who had originally come over from Ireland at the time of the famine.

They lived in the streets of terraced houses leading down to the docks, streets of poverty and grime surrounded by the chimneys of the ‘dark satanic mills’ and gas works. The contrast between the sea and the sky of Loughshinny couldn’t be greater and I wonder how Arthur could have felt leaving that beautiful place for work on the docks where the labouring was hard. I can only conclude that the conditions in that part of rural Ireland can’t have been idyllic. The farming may have been growing a few potatoes from hard, rocky ground.

Arthur’s parents were Laurence McNally 1859-1943 and Margaret Hoare (born In Rush)

1863-1943. We have found baptism and marriage records and I now know they are buried at

Baldongan graveyard . They attended the Catholic Church in Rush. There was no church in

Loughshinny and apparently the Catholics were allowed to take a short cut through the demesne

of Kenure Estate to attend mass.

The Victorian church in Rush was replaced by a new church right next door sometime in the seventies. The old church has been converted into a library, which despite winning prestigious architectural prizes, has suffered from the cuts in Irish public service spending and had its opening delayed.

His grandparents were Arthur McNally and Catherine Ryan (born1827) They were married in 1848, presumably in the church at Rush.

The 1901 census provides this fascinating information Catherine McNally aged 74: living at house 27 Loughshinny, occupation shopkeeper and grandson Arthur aged 10. If this is Arthur he’s on the census twice as he’s also clearly listed at the same house next to the community centre with his parents and the figure of Michael Ryan who is the uncle of Arthur’s father, Laurence, and seems to be the owner of the property. The 1901 census also shows James Hoare aged 72, fisherman, living in house 138 Rush town. He is a widower living with daughter Bridget and could be the father of my great-grandmother.

Arthur married Hannah Keogh, daughter of Laurence Nolan who was born in Westmeath, Ireland and his wife Elizabeth Callaghan, also born in Westmeath. They went to the UK in the years that correspond to the Irish potato famine. Sadly, the only clue we have is Westmeath and it’s a pretty big place.

There is a lot more research work to be done here and another trip out to Loughshinny is being planned.