High Sheriffs for Co. Cork 1863.

Meeting Urging the Building of Pier At Bantry at a cost of £2,000, November 1862.

Lifting the Bonnet, The McCarthy Blood in the Shouldhams of Coolkelure, Dunmanway and Lord Carbery of Castlefreke, other West Cork landlord Families lineage.

To let  1766 lands during minority of Master Shouldham, aged 7 years Dunmanway, 800-900 acres at Gleanarough apply Dr. Creagh or James Galwey at Tullyglass near Enniskeane.

The Shouldhams of Coolcelure, Dunmanway descend from the 1737 century marriage of Shouldham of Kerry and Miss Anaste McCarthy the heiress of the remaining McCarthy Estates in Dunmanway. She probably conformed to the Church of Ireland as a Shouldham appears in the Convert Rolls. One of their descendants marries Lord Carbery as set out in Guy’s Directory for Co. Cork of 1875-6.

Ironically the McCarthys as well as the O’Mahony and  O’Donovan families migrated from Co. Limerick to West Cork in the early 13th century, having being displaced by the Normans.  Current DNA evidence would suggest that an elite group migrated and the local West Cork people adopted their surnames which might explain the numerous septs of the various families in the area.

https://durrushistory.com/2013/10/02/maps-1801-1803-shuldham-estate-10000-acres-dunmanway-co-cork/

Other West Cork families such as the Townsends have a similar background. The main line of the family originated from the early 18th century marriage of Colonel Townsend and Miss Galwey, she again appears in the Convert Rolls. If female descent was given the prominence it deserves the family might be know as the Galweys.

Looking at the Cork Magistrates from 166o to 1922 on the surface they appear as a monolith,  predominantly with English names and largely Protestant. However, in the Church of Ireland, it was common for children to be given their mother’s maiden name or even their grand mother’s surname as Christian names. Looking at legal documents and listings of Magistrates where the full name is given, it is surprising at the patterns which emerge.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZvT84JCKTIhMqqZjJsF_AUJLH8S820ksObykwOty3wg/edit

It is necessary to leave religion aside and concentrate on the full name. Then behind the headline name the old Cork names appear, Hiberno Danish/Norse: Cotter, Coppinger, possibly Galwey and Meade.   Gaelic: Roynane, McCarthy, Terry, Morrough, Coughlan, O’Donovan, O’Hea, Cronin.   Norman: Barry, Roche, Hodnett, Fitzgerald, Lavellan, Uniacke. In a sense the incomers grafted onto a rootstock of the upper echelons of the local population and in time became assimilated.

The Whites of Bantry (Earl of Bantry) invented a spurious genealogy in the 19th century in the opinion of Paddy O’Keeffe the Bantry Antiquarian. He did detailed work on the family and concluded they were from strong farming stock in Co. Limerick of Norman descent. Like the Bernards of Bandon they assembled their estate by commercial acumen. In their marriages they marry into Gaelic families: the descendants of Brian Ború (O’Brien of Dromoland) and the McGuinneses of Co. Down (Lord Ardilaun)

19th Century Secondary Education in Co. Cork, The Case of Mr. Knight’s Academy for Civil, Military, Naval. and Collegiate Boarding and Day School and Others.

It is hard at this remove of universal 2nd and 3rd level even getting towards 4th level education to appreciate how difficult in Ireland (at least in the 26 counties) the education of children beyond primary level was, until the advent of free second level education, in the mid 1960s.

Given the sectarian nature of society, education generally broke into confessional provision.  For Catholics the educational religious orders slowly began to provide a level of second level education.   Girls were probably better provided for.  For Protestants there was in West Cork the Bandon Grammar School. The Classical School in Shannon Square in Clonaklity and St. Faughnan’s School, attached to the Cathedral in Rosscarbery.  There was a limited Catholic attendance at these schools. Even someone like Dealy/Daly of Bantry, a timber merchant and ship owner confessed to a nephew in Canada in the 1840s that but for the kindness of friends he would have had to take his boys from that school due to inability to pay fees.

An alternative for those who could afford it was schools like Mr. Knights, and others in Cork.  Apart from the fees the parents would have had to pay to have the son (mostly) provided for by way of staying with relations in Cork or as a boarder. Only those with some level of comfort could afford this.  These schools were often mixed religiously and Denny Lane the note d Cork, lawyer, businessman and character often looked back with affection ,at the cross religious friend he made at such an institution.

The alumini rolls of Trinity College Dublin and the Kings Inns give some information as to the schools attended including Dr. Hamblins and others.

In the 20th century a hodgepodge of provision was provided by schools such as Tom Hosford’s in Skibbereen, the Boy’s Club in Bantry from the 1950s and various others short lived as one in Dunmanway for a few years in the 1940s.  For better off Catholics there were additional places at schools such as the Diocesan Seminary at Farrenferris in Cork, Rochestown College or St. Colemans Fermoy, for a limited few with proficiency in Irish the preparatory college in Ballyvourney. There was also a slow roll out of technical schools.

A limited number of scholarships were available but funded from the rates on property.  The farmers did not want rates increased so there was a limit to that.

The State’s capital budget was not applied to augmenting human capital rather to Soviet style projects like mega arterial drainage schemes together with a vast engineering workshop in Inchicore, with little long term benefit, or the bankrolling State Companies, again along Soviet lines of producing industrial alcohol from potatoes or in the tariff protected cartels with the Danish  cement manufactures (Cement Ltd.) and others.

The overall effect was that until at least 1970, many  young adults left their home townland armed with little more the their Primary Certificate and cardboard suitcase to labour in the factories and sites of England. Hewers of wood and drawers of water.  They came from the same pool which nowadays  provide data scientists, engineers and business people. Since the 1960 the only country in the world to surpass Ireland in educational attainment is South Korea.

https://durrushistory.com/2013/12/22/report-of-comissioners-of-education-on-classical-schools-including-midleton-kinsale-clonakilty-and-bandon-co-cork1812/

https://durrushistory.com/2015/06/14/keep-your-water-boys-exhortation-from-woman-of-the-house-at-ardfield-clonakilty-west-cork-1890s-to-use-urine-for-clothes-washing-in-lodging-house-attached-to-cramming-school-where-boys-includ/

https://durrushistory.com/2012/09/29/tom-hosford-a-unforgettable-schoolmaster-skibbereen-early-mid-20th-century/

The inserts are from Guy’s Directory, 1875-6, Co. Cork, available online Cork past and Present