Driscoll - Neil - Rineen, Castlehaven to Rotherhithe

[Sonas]

Kezd, do you mind if I ask you for further information about this 1860s uprising in Union Hall. Do you have a date for it and is this detailed in a book or newspaper report?

[kezd]

Hi there, 
Yes, 1863, recalled by O'Donovan Rossa in his recollections.  I have attached a pdf (fingers crossed). 

[Sonas]

Thanks kezd. The way I'd read this is that O'Donovan Rossa and John Limrick were squaring off against each other in a show of power. I'd be a bit dubious about relating this incident back to evictions. While evictions obviously happened, I do think most people emigrated because they thought they'd have a better life in England or elsewhere.

Miggs 191, the incident of the man being shot in Castletownshend happened in 1936, so a good number of years after the troubles of the late 1910s-early 1920s. I'm not sure why you say "men... were 'advised' to go to England for work" and have 'advised' in quotation marks.

The man who was shot was writing references for men who wished to join the Royal Navy but there would be a long tradition in this area of  men joining the Royal Navy, with or without this one person. Because of the local fishing industry, men were accustomed to being at sea and the Navy was probably a more logical, natural choice than the army. I'd have numerous men in my family who joined the Royal Navy (not one joined the army though). My great-grandfather for instance, returned to fishing when home and after leaving service. A lot of these men, I would think at least, would have gone of their own volition. Fishing was very much a subsistence lifestyle at the time for most and with the Navy, there was the security of a pension afterwards.

[kezd]

I think it was an unsettling incident that ruffled people and highlighted the precarious relationships between the local Irish and the controlling powers.

[Sonas]

I think it was an unsettling incident that ruffled people and highlighted the precarious relationships between the local Irish and the controlling powers.

What I was trying to say was that the 'ruffling' was likely done completely on purpose. All the people that are described as crowding into the village, I would guess, were coming to have a look at what the fallout of this would be. O'Donovan Rossa was trying to achieve change. 'Ruffling' people and inflaming them to action would help him to achieve this. I don't know where John Limrick was born but it is possible that he was 'local Irish' as well and just had different political sensibilities to O'Donovan Rossa.

[dathai]

john limrick on tithe applotments and griffiths valuation and possible descendants on 1901/1911 census from myross area.

[kezd]

John Limerick shows up on the Griffiths valuation as a landlord in the Skibbereen Union.  This includes land in Kilfaughnabeg, Kilmacabea, and Castlehaven (one of my Driscoll's I think). There is a William too.

[kezd]

I will make the assumption that John Limerick, and John Limrick, are the same person ().  John Limrick was the Magistrate of Union Hall.
"The rumor spread through the country that we would go to Union Hall next Sunday again, and that rumor was met by another one from the English side of the house that if we went we would never come back alive; that we would be shot down like dogs. It would never do for us to be intimidated; our cause would lose prestige. Sunday morning came, and after mass and breakfast some twenty or thirty of us from Skibbereen were on the road toward Union Hall. Limrick, the magistrate, had sent out requisitions to all the surrounding police barracks, calling the police to Union Hall that day, and on Sunday morning the police were marching in from Ross, Drinagh, Leap, Drimoleage, Ceharagh, Skibbereen, Glendore and Castletownsend. War and rumors of war were in the air, and the people the country around, seeing the armed police marching on the several roads toward Union Hall, followed them into the little city. The Men from Ross brought a band of music with them. They crossed the bay from Glendore in boats, and as the boats approached the quay at Union Hall Limrick, the magistrate, stood there and forbade them to land."
(ARTICLE OCR TRANSCRIBED
FROM THE
BROOKLYN EAGLE
July 5, 1885)
The Fenian Movement - Donovan O'Rossa

It goes on about the movements of people that day. There was no bloodshed, but it certainly highlighted the tensions.  It would seem that this could be part of the incentive for my John Driscoll and others, to leave at this time.  That is drawing a conclussion with not much in the way of evidence, but it must have been a hard decision to leave with 6 children and possibly another on the way. Pressure would have been on people involved in the movement.

Can anyone confirm that Limerick (the landlord) and Limrick are the same person?

[miggs 191]

Sonas,
Our family story is that many were almost told to leave as it would be good for them .There wasn't anything else.  Of the boys my mother went to school with almost all were killed in the British Merchant Navy . If you were a girl you came to England to nurse and there would be no NHS in the UK without the Irish .Luckily my lot had their head above water and money coming from the States.
Have you lived in South west Cork?  West Cork was a very poor place even in the 1960s . :'(Over all the centuries the money came one way or another from the UK and later the States. Ireland's greatest export was and still is people. We spend our time searching the world for our lost families when they shouldn't have had to leave in the first place. All countries go through periods of horror but Ireland seems to have had more than its fair share. Tragically mainly caused by Britain.(In my opinion)
I continue to search for my missing great aunts and uncles and their families and thank God that I am still in touch with many who made those journeys.
I wish all who continue their search good luck.