Keane of Kilnamona

The O'Dea Family

The O'Dea family, Ahasla, Kilnamona was descended from the Dysart O'Dea Clan.   In the mid-19th century, probably late in the great famine of the 1840's, the O'Dea brothers were dispossessed of their holdings  in Ballyashea, Kilnamona being unable to meet the rent when they fell on hard times.  

A female cousin, Bridget Kelly - a daughter of Connor's sister - (b. 1824!, 1901 census) from the townland of Drumcurrreen, Dysert then took charge of the original Ballyashea farm with the tacit acceptance of the O'Dea's.  In the meantime the O'Dea's moved to a house in Ahasla (adjacent to Drumcurreen) where they farmed a small holding held in common with other tenants.  It seems, the O'Dea's had hoped to recover the original Ballyashea land when their condition improved, but their plans were derailed when Bridget married her farm labourer, James Hegarty from Kilfenora in 1847 (He was much older - 43 years as derived from his death certificate of 1895, 91 years old; their first son Patrick (known as Patsy) was born in 1847).  Family lore has it that following this unexpected development, the O'Dea's planned to recover their lands forcibly but were dissuaded from this course of action. It is worthy of note that at least three of James Hegarty and Bridget Kelly's children had as one of their baptismal sponsors a Bridget O'Dea in the years 1852, 1854 and 1860!

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O'Dea families residing in Kilnamona, 17^th - 20^th c.

 Notes:

¹ There was no name assigned as to whom the land was disposed of at Ahasla in 1659.  Perhaps, Dermot may have continued farming there,  but by the nineteenth century the Synge family, Dysert were the Immediate Lessors of Ahasla.

² According to the Tithes Connor, Michael and Daniel each had nearly fourteen acres,

³ Ahasla was part of the ecclesiastical parish of Dysert until the mid-19th century when it was transferred to Kilnamona - nevertheless it continues to be part of the administrative and electoral district of Dysert (old spelling, now Dysart).

⁴ Following the Cromwellian wars of the late 1640's, Irish landowners were dispossessed.  Land titles was subsequently granted to subjects deemed to be loyal, i.e. Cromwellian soldiers/patrons but some of the old Irish world.  It is interesting to note that of the thirteen O'Dea families having holdings in Dysert in 1641 only one, John O'Dea, Drumcurreen, figured as tenant afterwards.

O'Dea fortunes in the early to mid-19th century

 * Area measurement up to the time of the Griffiths Valuations (1850s) was calculated in 'Irish Plantation Measurement' units; revised area in statute measurement in brackets: i.e. 1 Irish acre = 1.62 statute acres.

¹ From information furnished in the Famine Relief Committee Lists.

² Information given (to Michael Lynch!) by People Themselves. 

Inferences for the 19th Century O'Dea's:
The O'Dea's of the 1827 Tithes must have received identical portions of land from their father;  it also appears that the entire holding had never been officially separated to the individuals concerned.  As to why both Connor's and Michael's stated family size in the Relief Work List Review are identical poses questions as regards to their interdependency.  By time time of the Famine relief works (1846/47) Tim O'Dea seems to have become de facto owner of Daniel's portion of the O'Dea Ballyashea holding of Tithes (1827) which leads us to two conclusions, either Daniel had died by then and secondly Tim was the heir to Daniel's portion of the land, and thus would have been Daniel's eldest son. According to Irish  inheritance  custom the eldest son was given the name of his grandfather thus taking us back to the 18th century O'Dea. In contravention of the latter theory, when we come later to Timothy's children, his first born was named Patrick - the question arises was Tim a son of Daniel or of Patrick of Maghera or indeed was Tim's eldest son named Patrick after his unmarried uncle on his mother's side in the farm in Ballinacarra, Corrofin (see later)! 

The brothers, Connor (Con), Michael and Daniel O'Dea, probably were born prior to 1800 and were tenant land holders of some substance (over 70 statute acres) at Ballyashea, Kilnamona.  By the time of the Griffiths Valuations of the 1850s all three O'Dea's were no longer in Ballyashea and only Tim can be accounted for thereafter. It seems sometime around the Famine Relief Works Scheme they, or at least Tim (perhaps the others were dependent on him), were occasioned to move to Ahasla where Tim now worked a small, commonage wetland farm.  This move from the Ballyashea farms seemed to have occurred in the late-1840's (Bridget Kelly, born 1824, must have been at least over 20 years!).

Why the move to Ahasla may have been in part due to practical support of the said Kelly cousins who lived nearby in Drumcreen; one could easily imagine their arrival disrupting an existing arrangement among a small group of farmers already working the commonage. They were likely descendants of Dermot O'Dea, Ahasla (see 1641 in Table above) but no O'Dea was tenanted in Ahasla (or anywhere in Dysert) according to the 19th century Tithe census (which in the case of Dysert referred up to the year 1843 or slightly earlier!, see ClareLibrary). 

The subsequent life of Timothy O'Dea

The long term hereabouts of the O'Dea brothers Connor, Michael and Daniel (who may indeed have been dead) subsequent to eviction is unclear - probably still in their mid-50's, emigration to U.S. may have been an unlikely option for them. We next hear from Griffith Valuations that Timothy (born, 1826) held Ahasla lands (66.5 (statute) acres in common with three neighbours) in the mid-1850's. This is also supported by records held in the Land Commission Valuation Office (LCVO, Dublin).  By the 1875 LCVO noted that this land had been apportioned out, Timothy receiving  ~17 acres. There is no information on any of Timothy siblings (a Pat O'Dea living in nearby Maghera may have been a brother and perhaps is the same Patrick O'Dea who was sponsor in baptism for an Ahasla neighbour's child in the 1850's, Kilnamona church records). These records also refer to Timothy/Thady O'Dea of Ahasla interchangeably depending on the administering priest.

It seems that Thady O'Dea married a Bridget Donohue probably in 1854/5 (Timothy was titleholder to the Ahasla land as per  Griffith Valuations) and they produced a daughter, named Mary in December 1855 (Kilnamona baptismal records).  Bridget must have died (deaths were not recorded by parish church) as the next baptismal entry for Timothy/Thady O'Dea of Ahasla referred children born to  Kate McMahon. In fact, Thady married Catherine  McMahon, from Ballinacarra, Corrofin apparently in 1860 (marriage  probably carried out in bride's parish of Rath, Corrofin); he was then in his mid-30's while Catherine seems only to have been aged about 20 yrs (latter deduced from the 1901 census). 

The children to Thady and Kate were:  

Patrick (January 1861);  Mary (March 1863 - this is strangely a repeat of the name Mary, see above!), and a son Michael (March 1864); Cornelius (April 15th 1868; the 1901 census incorrectly suggests 1870/1; more on Cornie later); and (as the Kilnamona Church records to hand only go up to 1868) some uncertainty arises as to the dates of birth of the next two of Thady's family: Daniel (b. 1869!) and John (b. 1870!). 

Pat (Patsy) emigrated to the U.S. and married a Pilkington girl, formerly from Tullassa, Kilnamona, and lived in Mayniard, Mass. (no family); Mary after a time as a housekeeper for priest in Inagh, went to the U.S., joined the nuns for a time and later died in a road accident returning from Mass; Michael died of  T.B. in the 1930's;  John died in 1930's/40's!, aged 68 (daughter Catherine Killae, Mass.); Dan  married a McInerney from Cliften, Corrofin, they had twins and he was old when he died in the U.S.;  and Conor (Cornelius,  Cornie) inherited the Ahasla farm. 

Above: Four members of the O'Dea family: from left: Dan; Cornie; Mary; and Patsy (a faded/damaged photograph taken probably, 1920)

In 1860's/'70's, Timothy (Thady) built a new house in Ahasla. The original house to which the O'Dea's moved to from Ballyashea was situated on the main road a mile distance from the Ahasla farm. Thus, the new house was built on the farm in a sheltered location alongside a quiet stream. Later, when the old house became unoccupied and fell into ruin (no rent valuation put on it before 1903), the site was exchanged with neighbours (probably related, see Thady's first marriage to a Donohue) together with its attached plot of ground in lieu of another small parcel of land. It is an interesting footnote that in the Land Valuation Office documents, Conor O'Dea is described as Immediate Lessor to the occupier, Mortimer (Murty) O'Donoghue, of this house and property in 1903.

Thady died from a heart condition in August 1884 at the age of 58 (as per death certificate), and the land was registered to his wife, Catherine in 1885.   In 1893, Conor (Cornie) (23 y.) married Mary Hegarty (19 y.- there is some uncertainty about her age also, see later!), of Maghera, Inagh.

The wherabouts of Catherine O'Dea in later years!

The year of Catherine/Kate's death is unknown as it apears not to have been State registered. However, while there was no reference to Kate as living in Ahasla in the 1901 census, a widow named Catherine O'Dea (60 yrs.) was recorded as a 'lodger' in nearby Drumcurreen with a widow Mary Kelly (44 yrs., retired farmer!) and her sons Michael (14 yrs.) and Timothy (8 yrs.).  Intriguingly, this Mary Kelly may have been Thady's daughter (Mary) of his first marriage, and thus a step daughter to Kate of Ahasla. Kate may well have gone to reside with her after Cornie's marriage in 1893, as the Ahasla home was a small dwelling.  Also, Mary's age fits fairly well (see above) and indeed the said Kelly's were cousins of the O'Dea's (see first paragraph)!  

Interestingly, Willie Hegarty of Ahasla (aged 87 in 2007) recalled hearing as a child from his elders of a Kate O'Day (sic) who had operated a shibeen (i.e. an unlicensed premises selling alcohol) in Drumcurren.  It seems that her regular patrons included drivers of the horse drawn mail coach which operated between Ennis and Lisdoonvarna and which passed nearby on the (then main) road from Ennis to Ennistymon. Another interesting anecdote (via John Donoghue, Drumcreen) relates to a Mr Margaret Tierney of Ballynagonnaghtagh, Dysert, as a sister of Kate.  Margaret's age in the 1901 census was stated as 62 which fits closely to Kate's age (60). There is no mention of this Kate in the 1911 census so it is presumed she had died in the meantime. 

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Maghera relations of O'Dea's
The Hegarty side of the family were from Salaghrim/Maghera, Inagh (ecclesiastical half-parish to Kilnamona), a townland adjoining Ahasla.  Thady Hegarty, one of a family of four, married Biddy Griffey from the neighbouring Kilmaley parish. They in turn had six children, namely, Mary, the eldest, born in 1871,  Pat, Mikie (Michael), Johny, Bidzie (Bridget), Kate and possibly another who may have died at birth.  As well as farming, Pat and Mikie (who lived for a time in the U.S., was married there to a Clune girl from Cloonanaha, Inagh but she died within a year) were shoemakers/ cobblers (see 1901 census) working from a top floor garret of their home in Maghera (a shoe last of theirs is in the possession of Willie Keane, Ballyashea), where both lived with their sister Bidzie.  All three remained unmarried, Bidzie the last of the three to die in the 1960's. 

The Cornie O'Dea family
Mary Hegarty married Cornie O'Dea in 1893. Cornie and Mary had two girls, Minnie (b. 1894) and Bridget (b. 1896) (more on Bridget later on). Additionally, there were two infant sons who died at/near birth. Minnie married Jack O'Keeffe, Toureen East, Kilnamona in 1924. Minnie had two daughters, Nora and Mary Anne. Nora graduated as a General Registered Nurse from the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin (~1951), marrying in 1960 a consultant surgeon Peter Dawson, studying in Ireland from South Africa. They returned to South Africa and raised a family of four children (Siobhan, medical doctor; Peter, solicitor; Michael, architect; Rodney, medical doctor).  Mary Anne married Drewy (Andrew) Keane in 1966 and they live without issue on the Keane farm in Ballyashea (see Andrew). Jack O'Keeffe died of pneumonia in 1946 and Minnie survived him by 40 years (1986).

Cornie's latter years

Two traumatic incidents occurred late in Cornie's life. One incident known in the family related to Cornie who with his daughters were haymaking on the late Patrick McMahon (Cornie's brother-in-law) farm in Ballykinacorra, Rath, when threathened and chased off the meadow by interested McMahon parties. The year that this happened is not clear but from Land Registry records, Patrick's unmarried sister sold the family farm  in 1903 just a few years after Patrick's death.  Another incident occurred about 1920: Cornie had been granted in fee a small one-acre field in the redistribution of Thomas Crowe's land at Ballymongaun.  During the war of independence, probably in the summer of 1921, while Cornie was working this land, passing Black-and-Tan auxiliary soldiers accosted him in the field, terrorising him on his knees and threatening him with instant execution.  Cornie's tragic death from acute enteritis occurred on 22 August 1922 after a short illness of 14 days (per death certificate); there is cause to believe that the previous incidences may not have been unrelated to his death.

Bridget O'Dea

Bridget O'Dea had been apprenticed to a dressmaker in Ennis for a period of  four years most likely prior to the first years of the 1920's. Cornie's wife Mary, and daughter Minnie (until her marriage to Jack O'Keeffe in 1924) managed the Ahasla farm while Bridget practised the trade of dressmaking in the homestead at Ahasla.  Bridget married Pat Keane of Ballyashea (see marriage photo over) in March 1925, the latter marrying into the Ahasla farm.  Bridget continued her dressmaking career over three decades, even through the times of general scarcity during the 2nd World War Emergency, when she was adept at transforming 'old clothes from the U.S. into new suits' for her neighbours. Her mother Mary helped with the farm and in the rearing of an increasingly large Keane family, remaining active until she was overcome with cancer, aged 73, 9  March 1944 - incorrectly aged 26 in the 1901 census but correctly aged 41 in the 1911 census (National Archives);  Mary had been in receipt of  the old age pension (then granted on reaching seventy years of age) for a number of  years before her death.

Over: Pat and Bridget's marriage photo; below: Left: Bridget and right: Mary Brody (nee Keane), Delia Carey (nee Keane) and Bridget Keane (nee O'Dea), 1957

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In her earlier years, Bridget played Irish music on the violin with some skill, and was also useful on the concertina (a relic of the Maghera household, who were also concertina players).  Occasionally she would render in song with a pleasant voice her party piece  'Way down upon the Swanee river...'.  A gentle person, she had a good dress sense with a keen eye for fine fabrics, quality, style and fashion (her children received their first communion in white suit!). Whenever possible she loved attending the annual musical shows put on in nearby Ennis where she admired the elaborate and colourful costumes of the cast as much as she enjoyed the music. She had great reserves of strength, which were called upon in difficult times, such as lack of sufficient finance and the early death of a husband.  She had a deep Christian faith and was a good observer of the foibles of people coupled with a quiet sense of humour.  A  competent business person with a sense of justice*, she carried herself with dignity.  Pat died on 18th January 1952, age 57 and Bridget survived him by 30 years, dieing on 27 October 1982, aged 86 years.  Both are buried in the family plot in the old graveyard, Kilnamona (RIP) (see Pat).

*After a local mother who had recently had her new coat made by a dressmaker in Ennis dispatched her son to Bridget with a second hand suit to be remodelled; she promptly turned him on the door step advising it should be taken to the aforementioned dressmaker (personal memory)!. 

Postscript

Above photos (from 2001) show the ruins of the old O'Dea family homestead on the Ahasla farm with its spring well from which water was  drawn (still in use by foresters).  Looking closely, flowering plants (Montbretia; Crocosmia) can be seen growing wild near the front wall - this is only fitting as a beautiful rose garden was maintained there when occupied. After the Keane family moved to a new house in 1934, the Ahasla house was occupied by Martin Brody and family, before being finally abandoned in the mid-1950's. The Ahasla farm has been disposed of  a number of  times since the 1960's and is now utterly transformed under forestry. In recent times (1990s-2000s) the new owners have built two houses on the farm nearly the old O'Dea home, the latter now having been restored as a workshop. 

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Shown over is theheadstoneon the O'Dea family grave at Dysert, Over:  the ruins of Dysert Church (under patronage of Dysert O'Dea) with the remains of a Round Tower, and near left, the ornate doorway rich in iconry (a replica of which was displayed for many years in the National Museum, Dublin as a fine example of the middle ages).

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