Ballyshannon Woman Nursed with Florence Nightingale in the Crimean War

Florence Nightingale and Ballyshannon Link

Saturday 16th May 2020. This blog remembers  a forgotten Ballyshannon woman, in the caring profession, who worked with Florence Nightingale the founder of modern nursing who  was born 200 years ago. She  lived in East Port  in the town and was with Florence Nightingale during her humanitarian work, tending to the sick and the dying in the Crimean War. It is also of interest that a Ballyshannon man won the Victoria Cross in the same war.  This local history blog is dedicated to all the health care workers locally who are doing a magnificent job in caring for our communities.
Saturday 23rd May. Next week's blog remembers a huge annual social event and Ballyshannon's best known character today  who sang duets with his sister 75 years ago.

Local Links to Florence Nightingale

A Ballyshannon lady Mrs. Margaret Coane was one of those who volunteered and went with Florence Nightingale to the front in the Crimean War (1853-1856). She was married to William Coane a tailor on East Port and was the mother of Ms. Mary Coane who also lived on East Port in the town. She lived in the far end of East Port just past where the Vincent Shop was until recent times. 
By the time of the 1901 Census Margaret Coane had died and her husband William was aged 62 and still lived in East Port  with his daughter Mary who was aged 26 and was a tailor's machinist. A regular occurrence is recorded in the 1911 census when William is now aged 77 and his daughter Mary is aged 39 and is listed as a seamstress. Ages in the 1901 and 1911 census  for many families are not too accurate at times! Anecdotal evidence is that because the old age pension came between the 2 census that ages increased by 1911!

Florence Nightingale- "The Lady with the Lamp"

 In 1938 Ms. Mary Coane had letters and photos in her home on East Port, received from Florence Nightingale “The Lady with the Lamp.” Whatever became of those valuable memorabilia one may never know? Perhaps they are still in an attic somewhere in the area? There are people still living in the area who remember Mary Coane as an elderly lady shopping in Morgan's shop in East Port. This Coane family were Catholics.

A Coane family lived on the Port as far back as 1786 when there were was an atrocity committed by the army from the Barracks at the bridge, resulting in the shooting dead of two innocent women named as Elinor Madden and Mary Mountain. One was shot adjacent to the barracks and the other near the Diamond in the town. These random shootings followed on from an army raid for poteen at the tavern of Denis McGowan on the Port. The soldiers were chased back across the bridge from the Port and the soldiers opened fire killing both women in what was a crowded Ballyshannon with the Fair Day in progress. In the shootings which followed a bullet lodged in a chest of drawers in Coane’s house in the Port.

There was also a very well known Coane family who were extensive landowners at Higginstown House, the ruins of which stand on the high ground overlooking the town of Ballyshannon about a mile or so above the Fr. Tierney Gaelic football park.They belonged to the Church of Ireland religion. There are also members of a Coane family who were Catholics  from Parkhill Ballyshannon and who are buried in the Abbey graveyard

Mary Coane of East Port remembered her mother who had worked with Florence Nightingale in the Crimea,talking about pilgrimages she made in the 19th century to Tobarshannon a holy well which was rediscovered recently during the  By-Pass excavations at Ballyhanna. Holy wells like St. Patrick's Well in the Abbey were once very popular places of devotion. The Abbey Well  is in a scenic location which is well worth a visit as the grotto and stations are still intact.

Lieutenant John Augustus Conolly born at Cliff Ballyshannon fought in the Crimean War and 

won the Victoria Cross. This was the same war in which Florence Nightingale came to prominence.

Second Ballyshannon person in the Crimea at the same period as Florence Nightingale

The Conolly family were the major landowners in the Ballyshannon area as they had bought the Folliott Estate for £52,000 in 1718. In 1831 Colonel Thomas Conolly commenced work on building Cliff House overlooking the Erne.  By August 1832 he had moved into his new house. The Conolly’s had resided at Cliff  prior to the building of Cliff House in 1831-1832, and John Augustus Conolly was born at Cliff, on the 30th May 1829. He joined the 49th Princess of Wales’s Hertfordshire Regiment and fought in the Crimean War, where on the 26th October, 1854,  the day after the charge of the  Light Brigade, he  won the Victoria Cross.

Lieutenant John Augustus Conolly, was commanding a company engaged in piquet duty that morning. During a surprise attack by the Russians,outside Sebastopol during the ‘great sortie’, on October 26, 1854:

                       Lieutenant Conolly was in command of his company on outlying picket.The Russians hurled themselves on the Second Division. They were met, in the first instance, by the 49th, resolutely led by Conolly, in frequent short, sharp charges, he himself engaging several of them in hand-to-hand fight,one after another, till at length, from loss of blood, he fell insensible, and had to be borne off the field. His gallant behaviour, no less than that of his men, elicited a General Order, in which all were deservedly praised. Soon afterwards he was promoted Captain into the Coldstream Guards as part reward for his bravery and devotion.

Conolly’s courage was observed by Lord Raglan and resulted in the award of the Victoria Cross in 1857. After his military service, Connolly served in the Dublin Metropolitan Police.He died at the  Magistrate’s House, Curragh, County Kildare, on the 23rd  December 1888 and is buried in Mount Jerome Cemetery, Harold’s Cross, Dublin. 

Limited edition quality hardback with dust jacket as above available when things return to normal in A Novel Idea and Local Hands Ballyshannon and Four Masters Bookshop Donegal Town. Also available for postage from anthonyrbegley@hotmail.com

Topics include: How to go about Tracing your Roots/The first settlers in the area/ Newly researched history of the town of Ballyshannon and the townlands in Kilbarron and Mágh Éne parishes/ Records of the first travellers and tourists to Ballyshannon, Bundoran, Belleek, Rossnowlagh and Ballintra/An aerial guide to place names along the Erne from Ballyshannon to the Bar/Flora and Fauna of the area/ A history of buildings and housing estates in the locality/Graveyard Inscriptions from the Abbey graveyard, St. Joseph’s and St. Anne’s /Rolling back the years with many memories of the Great Famine, Independence struggle, hydro-electric scheme, Gaelic games, boxing, handball, Boy Scouts, soccer, mummers, characters, organisations, folklore and lots more.