O'Dea Irish Bedding Factory

[pwaldron]

I just found a newscutting from the Irish Press of 29 Jan 1951 reporting the funeral of Sister M. Benignus (O'Dea).  Chief mourners included `Mrs. McCarthy, Rathgar', a niece.  Does anyone know if these were the sister and daughter respectively of the Michael O'Dea who set up O'Dearest?  If so, I have further information on the earlier and later generations of this O'Dea family.

Census returns confirm that the nun was from Limerick, as was Michael O'Dea - see

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Cork/Killaconenagh/Castletownberehaven_/1094576/

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Cork/Killaconenagh/Castletown_Bearhaven_Town/377766/

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Dublin/Arran_Quay/Eblana__Loane__Prince_Patrick__Bessboro_and_Carlisle_Tces____N_C_R__Phoenix_Park/1335400/

and

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Dublin/Rathmines___Rathgar_West/Orwell_Park/52384/

[Pastmagic]

This might be her:

http://www.corkpastandpresent.ie/places/streetandtradedirectories/1921guyscitycountyalmanacanddirectory/1921pages200to295/1921%20272-279.pdf


Or this:

http://www.archive.org/stream/irishcatholicdir00dubluoft/irishcatholicdir00dubluoft_djvu.txt

CONVENTS OF THE SISTERS OF MERCY.

Tralee

Moyderwell, Tralee
Killarney .
Castle town Bere
Ballybunion .
Superioress Mrs. M. Elizabeth Moynihan
Mrs. M. Evangelist Duggan.

Mrs. M. Scholastica Irwin

,, Mrs. M. Benignus O'Dea.

,, Mrs. M. A. M' Sweeney.

If it is maybe you could contact the order.

http://www.sistersofmercy.ie/microsites/southernprovinceheritage/index.html Nuns often have archivists who know the family relationships from sixty years ago!


Don't know the answer to your question, Sorry! PM

[pwaldron]

Thanks, pastmagic.

I may well try the Sisters of Mercy later.  At the moment, I am waiting to hear back from another possible relative.  The mourners at the nun's funeral also included `Mrs. Kenny, Ranelagh, Dublin' who must be the Mrs Lucie Kenny née O'Dea who lived three doors away from my father and grandparents in Ranelagh at the time.  This was part of a remarkable series of coincidences, as the Waldron/McNamara and O'Dea/Kenny families, although not related, have now crossed paths in Clare, Limerick and Dublin over no less than six generations.  Until I found this newscutting, I was not aware of any relationship between these O'Deas and the O'Dearest O'Deas.  I am hoping that Mrs Kenny's grandson will be able to confirm or refute the relationship.

Mrs Kenny's father was George O'Dea of Limerick:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Limerick/Glentworth__Limerick_No__5/George/1502930/

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Limerick/Limerick_South_Rural/Ballinacurra/625288/

George was 44 b. Limerick in 1901 and 50 b. Limerick City in 1911.

Sr. Benignus was 41 b. Co. Limerick in 1901 and 51 b. Co. Limerick in 1911.

Michael was 47 b. Co. Limerick in 1901 and 58 b. Co. Limerick in 1911.

Under 'O' at http://www.limerickcity.ie/Library/LocalStudies/ObituariesdeathnoticesinquestreportsfuneralreportsetcfromTheLimerickChronicle/Alphabeticallistingsofobituariesdeathnoticesetc/ is:

O'Dea Bridget 12/02/1921 Kilrush mother of George O'Dea, Limerick.

I know 'my' George's grandparents were from west Clare, but I'm not certain that this is the mother of the same George.

The oldest Bridget O'Dea in Kilrush was 58 in 1901 and 67 in 1911:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Clare/Kilrush_Urban/Henry_Street/1082188/

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Clare/Kilrush_Urban/Henry_Street/364115/

If she's the mother of the three children born in Limerick, she has obviously knocked a fair few years off her age.

On the other hand, George's middle daughter Bridget (4 b. Limerick in 1901) was alive but not at home in 1911; and Bridget's household in Kilrush in 1911 included none of her own children, but did include a granddaughter Bridie (14 b. Co. Clare).

In 1911, Bridget was married 47 years, 6 children born alive, 3 still living.

Living with Bridget and her husband Michael in 1901 were two further children, Mary (26 b. Kilrush) and Stephen (25 b. Kilrush)

The IGI reveals the following births to Michael O'Dea and Bridget Brew:

Stephen 26 Dec 1874 Kilrush http://www.familysearch.org/eng/search/igi/individual_record.asp?recid=100020062731

Alice 21 Mar 1880 Kilrush http://www.familysearch.org/eng/search/igi/individual_record.asp?recid=100407798505

Stephen was alive in 1911, aged only 26, living with his father, wife and children in a second house on the same street as his mother:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Clare/Kilrush_Urban/Henry_Street/364133/

Father and mother were both described as married, so this is hardly coincidence.  Father said he was married only 41 years, with only 4 children born alive, 3 still living.

The span of years from Michael born no later than 1854 to Alice born in 1880 is just about plausible, but it's hard to credit both parents independently miscounting their number of living children, so it appears that we are dealing with two different families.

The Irish Civil Registration Indexes at familysearch.org don't have a death of Bridget O'Dea in Kilrush in 1921, although there are a couple in the following quarter in neighbouring districts.

There is another George son of Bridget in the 1911 census:
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Clare/Creegh/Cloonenagh/360671/

[pwaldron]

Should the Limerick Chronicle notice perhaps have described Bridget as George's stepmother?

Michael O'Dea married Bridget Brew in Ennistimon PLU in 1870 Q1, which fits with his own 1911 census return:

Michael O'Dea, marriage, 1870 Ennistimon registration district, volume 4 page 345
Bridget Brew (same details)

I will have to order a photocopy of this marriage record and see if it perhaps describes Michael as a widower.

At http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/genealogy/don_tran/graves/shankill_graveyard_transcriptions_west.htm there is a tombstone inscription which fits neatly:

   In loving memory Nan O'Dea died 26th Sept 1931. Stephen O'Dea died 27th May 1951 his wife Margaret died 24th March 1912 R.I.P. Erected by Michael O'Dea (junior) in memory of his beloved mother Katherine (in memory of her) who departed this life May 12th 1874. May she R.I.P. Amen.

However, there is unfortunately a generation missing from the inscription.

My prior information from a note by my late grandmother was that Mrs Kenny's greatgrandparents were Michael O'Dea and Catherine Fitzgerald.

Can anyone separate all the above pieces of evidence into two different family groups, or confirm that they all refer to a single family with a monumental disregard for accuracy in census returns?

[pwaldron]

I think I was correct in questioning the description at
http://www.limerickcity.ie/Library/LocalStudies/ObituariesdeathnoticesinquestreportsfuneralreportsetcfromTheLimerickChronicle/Alphabeticallistingsofobituariesdeathnoticesetc/o.pdf
of "O'Dea Bridget 12/02/1921 Kilrush mother of George O'Dea, Limerick".

"mother of George" should probably read "mother-in-law of George" or "mother of Mrs. George", for an O'Dea married an O'Dea:

George O'Dea marriage Jan/Mar 1892 Limerick registration district volume 5 page 343
Katie O'Dea (same details)

A further search at
https://www.familysearch.org/s/search/index/record-search-advanced#searchType=records&filtered=true&fed=true&collectionId=1584963&surname=o%27dea&motherLast=brew
revealed all six children of Michael O'Dea and Bridget Brew, surely beginning with the future Mrs. George O'Dea:

Kate 23 Feb 1871 Kilrush
John 14 Jun 1872 Kilrush
Mary 3 Oct 1873 Kilrush
Stephen 26 Dec 1874 Kilrush
Ellen 30 Jul 1877 Clare
Alice 21 Mar 1880 Kilrush

Altogether a more plausible explanation than Michael having been a widower with a much older family born in a different county!

When Kate died on 26 Nov 1950, those who sent mass cards according to the Limerick Leader included `Mrs Peter McCarthy, Dublin', surely the daughter of Michael O'Dea of O'Dearest and thus Kate's niece-in-law.

[pwaldron]

I asked some of the local experts at last night's meeting of the Rathkeale and District Historical Society about the O'Dea family and learned a little more.

Michael (Mick) O'Dea who set up O'Dearest was a member of the first Seanad Éireann.  The Official Members database at
http://www.oireachtas.ie/members-hist/default.asp?MemberFirstName=michael&MemberName=o%27dea&disp=src
is missing his dates of birth and date and says he was an independent.  Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Members_of_the_1922_Seanad says that he was a member of Cumann na nGaedhal.

Senator Michael O'Dea donated two stained glass windows to Cappagh Church, county Limerick, one in memory of his mother Lucy (d. 25 June 1902) and the other in memory of his only son Bernard (d. 8 Dec 1916); see http://www.limerickdioceseheritage.org/Cappagh/chCappagh.htm for full details.

Thanks to Jim Riordan for the above information.

Knowledge that Michael was a senator enabled me to find his obituary (with photograph) and funeral report in the Weekly Irish Times of 1 Oct 1932.  The funeral mass was celebrated by Rev. Edward Cahill S.J., described as step-brother of the deceased man, as were Messrs. Patrick and John Cahill.  I have previously been told that the Cahills were actually Michael O'Dea's half-brothers and believe this to be correct.

The chief mourners also included a brother called Denis O'Dea.

[Pastmagic]

Interesting!

1922 election from Wiki:
One half the initial membership of the Senate was elected by the Dáil under the system of STV. The remaining half were appointed by the President of the Executive Council (prime minister), W. T. Cosgrave. Those elected by the Dáil were divided into two equal groups by lot, one assigned terms of three years and the other terms of nine. Those appointed by the president were similarly divided, and assigned terms of six and twelve years. The President agreed to use his appointments in 1922 to grant extra representation to the Protestant minority in the state, most of whom were former Southern Unionists, to promote inclusiveness in the new Free State. As a result, of the sixty members of the first Senate, as well as thirty six Roman Catholics, there were twenty Protestants, three Quakers and one Jew. Not only that, but it contained seven peers, a dowager countess, five baronets and several knights. The New York Times remarked that the first senate was "representative of all classes", though it has also been described as, "the most curious political grouping in the history of the Irish state".[2] Members included William Butler Yeats, Oliver St. John Gogarty and General Sir Bryan Mahon.
The opponents of the Anglo-Irish Treaty also opposed the new Senate, and thirty-seven of the senators' homes were burnt to the ground. Others were intimidated, kidnapped and the subject of assassination attempts. Nevertheless, the first Senate greatly influenced the guiding principles and legislative foundations of the new state.[2]
The first Chairman (Cathaoirleach) was Lord Glenavy, formerly the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland in 1916-21

The present political shenanigans probably relegates the Ist senate to the second" most curious political grouping in the history of the Irish state."

[pwaldron]

I was in the National Archives this afternoon so decided to check how much money Mick O'Dea had put in his own mattress:

Calendar of Wills and Adm'ons 1933
O'DEA MICHAEL (426) 10 May Probate of
the will of MICHAEL O'DEA late
öf "Creevagh" Orwell Park Rath-
gar Dublin Company Director who
died 25 September 1922 [sic] granted
at DUBLIN to Margaret McCarthy
Married Woman and Patrick Rooney
Solicitor.  Effects £57689 11s. 8d.

The year of death should read 1932.

[pwaldron]

I have now seen the original 1921 Limerick Chronicle obituary of Mrs Bridget O'Dea mentioned above, and it does indeed describe her as `mother of _Mrs_ George O'Dea, Limerick'.  She died `at her [unnamed] daughter's residence, Upper Henry Street, Kilrush'.  We know from the 1911 census that there were three surviving children - Stephen in Kilrush and Katie in Limerick and another daughter in Upper Henry Street in Kilrush.  The latter is most likely Mary, who was still alive in 1901, rather than Ellen or Alice, and was probably married, but there are too many Mary O'Deas in Clare to easily identify the correct marriage.