Dear Johnny, Dear Ed,
Micheál Crowe is my great-grandfather, my mother Niamh's grandfather. Micheál's youngest daughter, Maura Crowe (b. 3 March 1918, d. 29 December 2008) is my grandmother.
https://notices.irishtimes.com/death/lawson/2420389?from_mobile=1;s_source=itirMaura married Michael Lawson (who died young of a heart attack, first heart attack, aged 39, final heart attack, aged 42) and had four children: Conor, Niamh, Carol and Siobhán. Siobhán (just a baby when her father died) married David Johnson and went to live in England, and had three children. Siobhán also died young of a heart attack, aged 39. Maura's other three children, Conor, Niamh and Carol, are thankfully all alive and well today (15 March 2024), living in Dublin, each of whom married and had three, two and four children respectively.
Here's what my mother has said about her grandfather: Micheál audited the accounts of railway stations around Ireland. He was known as a great referee for the GAA and he was a member of the GAA Central Council as well as secretary to the Dublin County GAA board. (Through my own research, I discovered from records that Micheál was a founding member of Dublin Fianna GAA club and played with them for seven years). Micheál died young, aged 39, from a brain tumour.
Maura was just a toddler when her father Micheál died. Mary, Micheál's wife, had to move to Dublin after Micheál's death with their four young children to get help from her family.There was no social welfare or state support in those days - you were on your own. The GAA got Mary a house on Iona Road in Dublin - this, as Maura always said, literally saved their lives. The family simply would not have survived without the support given by the GAA. Mary worked as a seamstress, from home, whilst raising her four children. She made everything, from dresses to coats, to wedding dresses. Mary was an excellent seamstress and secured a contract from the army to make uniforms. Maura remembers as a child getting up in the middle of the night to go to the toilet and would hear the sewing machine going - her mother worked all the hours God sent - as Maura put it, her mother "worked her fingers to the bone".
Thomas, the first born of Micheál and Mary's children never married and emigrated to England. Fergus died in childhood from pneumonia. Rosaline married Vincent Walker and settled in Bray, raising two sons. Maura and Rosaline were very close until Rosaline passed away from cancer (As a child, I remember my mother putting me in a [borrowed for the occasion] car when she regularly drove to Bray to pick up Rosaline to bring her to Rathgar for her chemotherapy and then would bring her home again). Micheál Francis emigrated to England and met and married an English lady, Anne. Micheál Francis and Anne had one son, Keith. Micheál Francis worked as a bus tour guide in England. He came home with his family to stay with Maura in Greenlee Road, Terenure on a number of occasions. My mother remembers her uncle Micheál as a lovely man.
If I find any photos I will post them here. It's great to see all the information on Micheál here - thank you to everyone who contributed. Incidentally, my mother only ever heard her mother referring to Micheál as Micheál, the Irish version of Michael. Never 'Micky'. :-)