Tuesday 17 December 2019

A sad Christmas Parting for 2 Ballyshannon Sisters in 1849

Margaret Carberry died on St. Stephen's Day 1849 the same year as her sister Jane landed in Australia as an orphan emigrant
Read the true story of two Ballyshannon sisters, one of whom went to Australia and the other who stayed at home in 1849.  For more local history an ideal Christmas gift is a quality limited edition hardback edition of "Ballyshannon Genealogy and History" available in A Novel Idea.
Ideal Christmas gift:  A Local History book available in a quality limited hardback edition with dustcover as above in : A Novel Idea Bookshop Ballyshannon and Four Master's Bookshop Donegal Town and for postal delivery contact the author anthonyrbegley@hotmail.com

Jane Carberry arrived in Sydney in 1849. Her sister Margaret Carberry was buried in Ballyshannon on St. Stephen's Day 1849
Two sisters were to go together to Australia but unfortunately fate intervened. These were the two Carberry sisters. Jane Carberry was born in Ballyshannon and arrived in Sydney, aged 14, along with a shipload of orphans from Ireland, including the other 18 girls from Ballyshannon workhouse. They landed in Australia from a ship called ”The Inchinnan" in February 1849. Jane Carberry was said to be a nursemaid and could read and write. She had no relatives in the colony. After assessment at Hyde Park Barracks she was sent to Yass to work, where she met Henry Gibson Kemp and they were married in the Church of England at Gundaroo (or Tumut) on 23 June 1850. Jane was in Australia less than a year and a half when she was married. Between 1851 and 1874 they had a total of 13 children about half of whom died in infancy. Jane died in Tumut New South Wales in 1917 and she is buried there.
Margaret Carberry was in Ballyshannon Workhouse and was originally to go with her sister Jane to Australia. However she took sick and was too weak to travel. She died in Ballyshannon Workhouse and was buried in St. Anne's Church in Ballyshannon on St. Stephen’s Day 1849. Their parents William and Ellen Carberry were both dead and in  the burial records at St. Anne’s Church in Ballyshannon are the following entries: William Carberry aged 65 was in the workhouse and was buried on 28th January 1847, his wife Ellen Carberry was buried in St. Anne’s on 14th May 1847.  
Christmas 1849 and the Carberry sisters were separated with Jane in Australia and her sister Margaret dying in Ballyshannon Workhouse. Jane was aged 14 when she landed in Sydney and Margaret was aged 15 when she was buried in Ballyshannon, the day after Christmas Day.  One wonders when  Jane heard of her sister's death?

The Carberry sisters are remembered along with 17 other  orphan girls at the Famine Orphan Memorial  beside the Workhouse and close to Fr. Tierney Park in Ballyshannon.
Ballyshannon has the only Orphan Girls’ Memorial in Ireland remembering 19 girls aged 14-18 from the area who were shipped to Australia at the height of the Famine. They left Ballyshannon in October 1848 and arrived in Sydney Australia in February 1849. They went to make up for a shortfall of females in Australia for domestic work and ultimately for marriage. Many of their descendants have visited the memorial in Ballyshannon and appreciate that the 19 orphan girls are remembered here. Well worth a visit so that these girls and their story is not forgotten. Their names and story can be read on the memorial.



       Ballyshannon workhouse today showing the  well-preserved admission block
through which the girls were first admitted to the workhouse
Ideal Christmas gift:  A Local History book available in a quality limited hardback edition with dustcover as above in : A Novel Idea Bookshop Ballyshannon and Four Master's Bookshop Donegal Town and for postal delivery contact the author anthonyrbegley@hotmail.com

 


Friday 13 December 2019

Three Christmas Letters to Ballyshannon from the trenches of World War One

Erne Street
Check out 3 Christmas letters  written from the trenches of World War One to local families in Ballyshannon. Places mentioned in this blog include Erne Street, Bachelor's Walk, Sheegus, Finner, Main Street, Rossnowlagh, Kilbarron, Rathmore, East Port, The Market Yard, The Rock Hall, The Erne Cinema, the Abbey, Legaltion and Belleek. For more local history an ideal Christmas gift is a quality limited edition hardback edition of "Ballyshannon Genealogy and History" available in A Novel Idea.

A Christmas Letter from the trenches to a Mother in Erne Street 
Before World War One began, Patrick McDonagh was an instructor in the Irish National Volunteers in his native Ballyshannon and also in the Belleek district. He would have enlisted in the army, on the advice of the Volunteer leader John Redmond. On the outbreak of war  in 1914 he served in the 2nd Division of the 4th Guards Brigade, British Expeditionary Force. He spent Christmas Eve in the trenches on the Western Front from where he wrote a letter home to his mother Bridget McDonagh 94 Erne Street, Ballyshannon.

I received your last letter all right. We spent our Christmas in the trenches, arriving at the firing line on Xmas Eve. I am sure that you all spent a good Xmas. It is hard on us out here, but these things cannot be helped. Hugh Moan is out here and in my Company. He was wounded early in the war and is out again. Paddy Fleming is here too, he came out from London and joined us while we were having the rest. The country is in a terrible state from heavy traffic. Thank God I am living and well and I shall hope to come out safe. I don’t think that the Germans will last much longer, let us hope so anyway. You can send me a tidy little parcel and make it as secure as possible and put my full address on it. Tell Tommy Moan that Hugh is doing fine and that he and I are together. Let me know how you all spent Christmas and tell me all the news.

I had a narrow escape on Christmas Day. A German bullet struck the top of my rifle breaking the top off clean and wounding a sergeant behind me in the trench. I am more than lucky when I was not killed at different times. I am writing this letter in the firing line and hope that you will receive it safe. Tell all the people I am asking for them and hope to see them soon again. We have our priest and doctor with us and the wounded are well looked after, every man receiving the Last Rites of the Church. Isn’t that a great blessing? Good-bye and God bless you all and pray for us out here suffering terribly to save our country from ruin.

                                                                                                                                             P.Mc Donagh

Patrick’s brother, John McDonagh, was in the 7th Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusilliers and was killed in action during the Battle of the Somme in 1916. He is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial along with seven other Ballyshannon men, as their bodies were not located. Those named on the Memorial  include; Corporal Patrick Melly, Finner, Sergeant Christopher Laird, Main Street, Private Robert Kearney, Rossnowlagh, Private Patrick Gallagher, Kilbarron, Private Frederick Armstrong, Private John Joseph McShea, Rathmore, and Private Hugh Moan. 

Ballyshannon born Soldier died in the trenches on 23rd December
Hugh Moan of Bachelor's Walk Ballyshannon who later died at the Somme, is mentioned in the letter from Patrick McDonagh, above. He was also in the Irish Guards and, as indicated above, he was wounded and returned home for a time. During his recuperation in Ballyshannon, he visited his former workplace at “The Donegal Vindicator” newspaper on East Port, where he indicated to the editor that he didn’t think he would be killed by the Germans. On the 23rd December 1916 Private Hugh Moan was killed in an accidental explosion in the trenches on the Somme.
Ideal Christmas gift:  A Local History book available in a quality limited hardback edition with dustcover as above in : A Novel Idea Bookshop Ballyshannon and Four Master's Bookshop Donegal Town and for postal delivery contact the author anthonyrbegley@hotmail.comAdd caption


A Ballyshannon man at the front before Christmas 1914

The following letter is from a Ballyshannon soldier, Michael Doherty, who was a member of the Royal Army Medical Corps. working in a military hospital in Rouen in France in 1914. He was in France for the early Battle of Mons and shared the optimistic viewpoint, that the Germans would be defeated and that the War would soon be over. Unfortunately this optimism was not to be realised, as trench warfare led to a war of attrition, with huge casualties for the next four years.



No. 1 Stationary Hospital

Rouen.

France 15th December 1914



Sir- I being a native of the picturesque village of Ballyshannon, I thought I might write you a few lines from the front. Well ever since I left my home last August, and set foot on the fair land of France, my life has been full of adventure. My first experience under fire was at Mons. My God what an experience, the bullets whizzed in hundreds round us as we were bringing in our wounded comrades to a place of safety, to dress their wounds and then temporarily alleviate their sufferings. We would then get them hurriedly into the ambulance and get them off as quickly as possible, as we were then retiring. I dare say you have long heard of that great strategical movement ,where our Generals saw the time right to turn about and pursue the enemy, as I think we let him as near Paris as ever he will get. Ever since that memorable date in September, we are driving the Hun back towards his proper border, and before long we will not have a German left in French or Belgian soil. 

I being an Irishman, I must praise the Irish Regiments for the valour and endurance, which irresistibly call to mind the deeds of Irish Regiments on the main battlefields in the years that are past. We are proud to be fighting side by side with our Irish brothers, the rallying cry being the defence of the small nations and the moving of Europe from the stranglehold of Prussian militarism. 

When the history of this cruel war will be written, in its pages will be found illustrations of the chivalry, gallantry, and dash which have always signalled the Irish soldier. We are today fighting over the same battlefields on which our forefathers covered themselves with glory in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Every time the Kaiser’s legion tried to pierce our lines we have repulsed them with heavy losses. We too have lost many brave men, but our losses are small in comparison to the enemies. We will fight on, encouraged by our past victories, and hope to return soon to our dear homeland with victory inscribed on our standard. Hoping that it may yet fall to the lot of an Irish Regiment to capture the Sausage King.

With every good wish to yourself and all the readers of your esteemed newspaper, for a very happy Christmas.

I am,

Yours faithfully,

No. 4156 John Doherty R.A.M.C

Another well-known Ballyshannon man who fought at the Battle of Mons, Sergeant Frank Stewart, 2nd Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusilliers, interviewed later in November 1914, when he was back at home  having been wounded, spoke of his reaction to fighting at Mons. “Yes, my knees shook, there is no doubt of it, but that passes away and you think the more about it, it does not come again.” He spoke about the soldiers’ anxiety about not having a smoke.

Our fellows got very few cigarettes and yes you never got a smoke all night. Great scott talk about wars, battles and alarms. Every now and then the want of cigarettes and having to do without a smoke when they had them, seems to have been the trouble. Shrapnel and Germans were the only incidents. We turned when General Joffre gave the order but there was not much trouble until the Marne. They would not fire when we were in open order but when formed four the shrapnel came flying.

Frank Stewart was a pioneer of cinema in Ballyshannon in the Market Yard, The Rock Hall and the Erne Cinemas and is still well remembered by the older generation of cinemagoers in the area.

Kathleen McFadden (nee McIntyre of Sheegus) at her uncle Eddie McIntyre's grave in France
Edward J. Mcintyre was born in Sheegus, Ballyshannon on the 9th August 1891, the son of Denis and Maria Mcintyre. Denis was a local fishermen like many of his neighbours in the Abbey. Edward had worked at the building trade in Ballyshannon before emigrating to the United States in 1912. When America entered the war he joined Company B, 306th Infantry and served on the Western Front in France. He was killed in action in the Argonne Forest region north-west of Verdun  on 27th September 1918. Corporal McIntyre is buried in the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery. A family anecdote recalls that the McIntyre family at Sheegus ,first heard about his death from a neighbouring family called Tunney from the Legaltion area. The Tunney family had received a letter, from one of their family, who was in the same regiment as Edward McIntyre, and who told them of  his death. The Tunney family went down to the McIntyre’s home and told them the sad news. Later Mrs. Maria McIntyre received the following letter from the American Army.

  Co. B, 306 Inf.

    6  Dec. 1918

My Dear Mrs. McIntyre,
It is with a heavy heart that I answer your letter of Nov. 15th to inform you, if you have not already been told, that your son, Edward, was killed in action on Sept 27th, apparently the very day upon which you last heard from him. He died the death of the brave, fearless, manly soldier that he was in leading his men against a German machine gun position. A bullet killed him instantly and he was later buried where he fell, upon  the ridge west of the “Baricade Pavilion” in the depth of the Argonne Forest.

I was personally very much attached to Corp. McIntyre. He was the finest type of clean, vigorous, good-natured Irishman. On the march, in  quarters, in trenches, or in action, he was always the same reliable, quick-witted, fine-appearing soldier, loved by his comrades and his officers, the life of the platoon, and one of the best non-commissioned officers in the company.  I miss him as much as any of the dear lads that this ghastly war has taken from us.

God help and comfort you. If this letter is the first means of your knowing of your great loss, I hope it may also convey to you a sense of the homage that we feel toward his mother.The men of the old company join me in extending to you, our sincerest sympathy and good wishes.

Your servant,

Theodore S. Kenyon, Capt. 306 Inf.

Ideal Christmas gift:  A Local History book available in a quality limited hardback edition with dustcover as above in : A Novel Idea Bookshop Ballyshannon and Four Master's Bookshop Donegal Town and for postal delivery contact the author anthonyrbegley@hotmail.com