Gypsymorph
I had another look at the various census returns which Michael Tansey appeared on realising that I hadn't really looked properly at them before in an attempt to establish his place of birth and this is what I've found.
1851: Born Ireland
1861: Born Ireland
1871: Born Ireland
1881: Born Sligo, Ireland
1891: Born Ireland
1901: Born Sligo, Ireland
Sligo certainly seems the best place to start searching. However, I also think that clues re his family might be found closer to home i.e. Macclesfield. I was very surprised to find a high concentration of people with this surname in that town. Macclesfield must have had some significance rather than just being a random place to get married. The connection with England seems to have stretched back beyond Michael's generation.
I hadn't realised that Michael Tansey senior had married again after Bridget's death producing three more children. At first I didn't think it was him (see 1901 census) but his address and occupation details match with the information given on Bridget's death certificate. Also listed in the household is the sixty-year-old widow, Catherine Bowers described as Michael's sister. She too was born in Sligo.
Interestingly on the 1871 census I found a Patrick Tansey (aged 42) born in Ireland - but living in Burslem - who had a son called Michael whose place of birth was given as Macclesfield. Perhaps Patrick was Michael's brother.
My great great grandfather was Michael Henry Tansey (son of the above) and he died due to a fall aged just 38. And his sister fell down stairs and broke her neck. They don't seemed to have had happy lives.
Jay