A descendant Dr. Brian Donovan: Dr. John wasn’t a big fan of my great x3 grandfather as he was very much a loyalist. But he wasn’t an Orangeman, but instead was a Mason. The distinction was lost on Dr. John, can’t say I blame him! I wrote a piece on John Donovan, the United Irishman, (an uncle of the man Dr. John met) which puts this in context. It was published for the gathering in 2000.
One of the family a subscriber to Dr. Daniel Donovan’s Sketches in Carbery.
John Glascott, Dublin Castle, (2 copies), mother Wexford Donovan, a Protestant sept of the O’Donovans originating in Carbery described by Dr. John O’Donovan as ‘rabid Orangemen”. He may have later changed his name to O’Donovan.
Varian Brush Manufacturers, Rochester, NY, Frank Croston, Finnegans Wake. The Varians of West Cork.
Sometimes a chance phrase in Finnegans Wake can prompt all types of associations. Here the phrases might be Varian the brush manufacturers
Those early Varian brush makers of Cork were of Huguenot extraction, or perhaps Unitarian Presbyterians, passionately concerned with social and political issues and, in time, with the Young Irelanders. Involvement with the latter led to one Isaac Varian spending time in Sunday’s Well gaol and, afterwards, taking off to live in London. He wrote poetry there, and journalism, and all the time went on making brushes.
When he returned to Ireland it was to live in Dublin where, at 91-92 Talbot Street, he set up Varian Brushes in 1856. And there the company grew and flourished, building and employees witness to the changing city and, in 1920, to the death in battle outside their window of Republican leader Sean Treacy.
Varian men, in earlier centuries and old pictures, were invariably white bearded. Patrick Varian’s grandfather was “a colourful character. He met my grandmother on the top of a tram in London. She was German, a violinist in the London Philharmonic.
“They used to go off to Africa for months, to Bahia and other places, to source raw materials for yard brushes. The bristle for paint brushes used come from all over the world; the stuff of twig brushes used come from Mexico. These days we buy the finished article from Mexico.”
His father, Ian Varian (his mother was Sheila), ran the company during the second World War. “There were lots of brush makers in Dublin then,” he points out, “around Capel Street and Christchurch. Getting raw materials into the country was difficult but my father used send food to England and get goods in return which he would then distribute to the other brush makers. At the end of the war the Irish Brush Manufacturers Organisation formally thanked him for his help. I have the letter still.”
There was a Varian brush manufacturing plant in Rochester New York in the 1850s. Frank Croston from a poor Protestant family from Ahakista, Durrus emigrated with his family c 1850s. He and his brother worked as teenagers in the Varian factory.
The were close links with the poor Protestant of West Cork who suffered severe distress in the 1820s with the collapse of the textile industry. Many emigrated to Rochester.
Emigration from West Cork, Rochester, NY, The Croston’s of Bradford and Haverhill Massachusetts
The Durrus Dukelows part of an emigration of Durrus and Schull Protestants to Rochester, New York. Through the Republican Party they created a political machine known as the ‘99 cousins’ which dominated city government in the mid and late 19th century, a replica of the Irish Catholic machines in other US cities. The Catholic branch of the family descended from John Dukelow emigrated to East London and with Durrus Swantons and Hurleys were active as Fenians in the 1860s. Later one of the extended family provided accommodation in a lodging house to Michael Collins when he went to London to work as a Post Office clerk.
Frank Croston 1852-1921, Probably born Reenaccapall. Parish of Kilcrohane, West Cork, Major Real Estate Developer of High Quality Commercial and Residential Property, Rochester, New York, Republican Party Activist. Varian Brush Making Family Possible Origin, Rooska, Bantry.
1741. Deed John Vickery the elder and John Vickery the younger, transfer one third of West Roosak to Richard Varian (spelled Veren) in consideration of marriage and a marriage portion and in deed and he transfers in 1774 half of his portion to his son Richard Varian the young and the remainder on his death. Witnesses Thomas Baker upwards of 60, Gortalassa (Kilcrohane) in 1774 and John Ferguson, farmer, Four Mile Water (Durrus). Registered 1791.
17th February 1775, St. Finbarrs Cathedral, Cork Richard Varian, Grace Ferguson, Farmer, Rooska, she Four Mile Water possibly Clashadoo Richard Varen (Varian) the Elder John Ferguson, farmer. Bantry Estate lease 1812 names James Ferguson aged 24 son of John farmer, Four Mile Water, James Edward Sullivan aged 7, son William, Park Place, Bantry, George Varian about 15 son of Richard Varian, Rooska, Richard Varian appears in tithe Applotments in 1830 for Rooska Deeds of 1751 involving the Vickeries John the elder and Younger refers to contemplated marriage. MLB
1800, deed (registered 1813). Thomas Attridge agrees to pay Richard Varian of Rooska an annual rent of £5.13. 9 for 40 years and out of one third part of Rooska excluding three small meadows at the north side of Varian house and half field called Parkeen. Witness, Rev. Daniel McCarthy, (Former Parish Priest Durrus then local clerk Lord Bantry), and George Chinnery, attorney, Bandon who knows Daniel McCarthy.
1807 Extract from deed: Stephen Hutchinson, Clonee, heir and eldest son of Hugh, Clonee, died 1804, landlords of Clonee to Michael Sullivan, farmer, (married Mary Vickery, Whiddy 1777), KIlvenogue for a rent of £39 lands part of Kilvenogue labounded on west by Sullivan’s holding, south by Clashadoo, on the east by George Bakers (Rooska) and Richard Varian holding by the high road to Bantry through KIvenogue for the lives of Michael Sullivan, John Vickery son of James Vickery of Rooska, aged about 9, John Vickery son of John Vickery Ballycomane, witness Rev. Daniel McCarthy, Bantry (former Parish Priest of Durrus likely clerk to Lord Bantry), John? O’Sullivan, Gent, formerly of Ballinale now (1807) of Carrigbui (Durrus)
Maurice J. Power, Associate of President Cleveland. Thousands come to Rosscarbery to Celebrate Father Powers Miracles on St. John’s Eve. 1858 St. Johns Eva, Beautiful Irish from a Crippled Beggar, bare ulcerated legs. Thadeus O’Mahony, Bandon born Professor of Irish TCD. Tom Hungerford Landlord, a Tenant of his father. Grandfather’s Bleachery, Flax Meitheal. West Cork Delegatee to the Dungannon Convention 1782.
Recollections of Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa, Breast Fed Until He Was 3. Boss Croker: Maurice J. Power, Associate of President Cleveland. Thousands come to Rosscarbery to Celebrate Father Powers Miracles on St. John’s Eve. 1858 St. Johns Eva, Beautiful Irish from a Crippled Beggar, bare ulcerated legs. Thadeus O’Mahony, Bandon born Professor of Irish TCD. Tom Hungerford Landlord, a Tenant of his father. Grandfather’s Bleachery, Flax Meitheal. West Cork Delegatee to the Dungannon Convention 1782.
William Garde Browne (1815-1877), Coolcower House, Macroom, listed 1846, listed 1843, 1875-6. Provisional Committee Cork/Killarney Railway 1845. William Cross,1841, Magistrate, Landowner, Macroom Poor Law Guardian. 1841 enquiry scathing about effects of middlemen, discount banks, from which tenants borrowed for rent, three run in particular by Edward Ash, Macroom, William Guarde Brown, Coolcower, Philip Cross Esq., Shandy House, a Magistrate until deprived, he boasted he acquired a large lot of land from profits of banking. Cross estimated rate of interest at 20% but when legal expenses time etc. factored in at 40%. Probate 1887 £40,000.
Earl of Grey Scheme 1848-1850. Girls shipped to Australia aged 15 to 18 from Workhouses, Skibbereen 110, Kinsale 29, Bandon 20, Dunmanway 14.
Courtesy Sile Murphy, Dunmanway Historical Society 2010.
Research into the records of Melbourne Maternity Hospital suggest that approximately 1 in 15 women had difficulty in childbirth due to famine induced contracted or deformed pelvis.
The Great Hunger had decimated the population of Ireland, resulting in more than one million deaths and two million emigrants forced to flee starvation.
Between 1849 and 1851, the Earl Grey scheme took girls aged from 14 to 19 from workhouses across Ireland to work in Australia as servants, and to help populate the new colony.
After the horror of starvation and loss of family and home in the Irish Famine, surviving the destitution of the infamous workhouses and enduring an arduous sea voyage, the orphans reached a strange and intimidating new land. But they must also have had feelings of hope and optimism.
An excerpt from The Argus, which was Melbourne’s main newspaper of the day, on April 4th, 1850 said: “Another ship-load of female immigrants from Ireland has reached our shores, and yet, though everybody is crying out against the monstrous infliction, and the palpable waste of the immigration fund, furnished by the colonists in bringing out these worthless characters …”.
Another excerpt from The Argus on April 24th, 1850 of a citizen echoed society’s clamour:
“The whole country cries out against the further admission into our colony, of such degraded beings as the majority of the female orphans have been found.
Nor has their cry been raised without reason, for we venture to say, every vessel that brings an increase of this kind to our female population, brings a melancholy increase to the vice and lewdness that is now to seem rampant in every part of our town. From this class we have received no good servants for the wealthier classes in the towns, no efficient farmservants for the rural population, no virtuous, and industrious young women, fit wives for the labouring part of the community; and by the introduction of whom a strong barrier would be erected against the floods of iniquity that are now sweeping every trace of morality from the most public thoroughfares of our city.”
Nonetheless, most orphans flourished – they married and raised families in the harsh conditions of the new colony. Great numbers would live to see the dawn of the new 20th century in their new land.
1894 William Martin Murphy’s son Denis died in Davos, Switzerland, skiing accident he had been assisting his father on building of the Skibbereen to Baltimore Railway.
Cutting now road entrance to Skibbereen from Baltimore
The Skibbereen to Baltimore Railway was an 13 km. extension of the Cork, Bandon and South Coast Railway (CB&SCR) in West Cork, opened on May 2, 1893. It served as a vital, albeit temporary, rail link for the port of Baltimore, closing along with the rest of the West Cork lines in March 1961.
William Martin Murphy (1845-1919), MP, 1884, The Square, Bantry, and Dartry Hall, Rathmines, Dublin, b Castletownbere, child of Denis Murphy, building contractor, and Ann Marie Martin. Ed. Belvedere College, Dublin. 1869 built Barryroe Church, Clonakilty. Moved to Dublin 1875, railways, tramways, newspapers, Clerys Department Store, M.P. 1885, M Mary Julia Lombard d James F. Electrified Dublin Trams 1896. 1890 Skibbereen Quarter Sessions sitting with Circuit Court Judge Ferguson on Schull licensing appeal cases. Magistrates, John Edward Barrett, William Murphy, M.P., George Robinson, Somers. H. Payne, W. S. Payne, Henry R Marmion, Samuel Jagoe, O’Donovan, John R. H. Becher, William Norwood, Carew O’Grady. Donor £40 second largest after Lord Ardilaun £500 in 5 instalments on behalf of the Bantry Estate 1894 son Denis died in Davos, Switzerland skiing accident he had been assisting his father on building of the Skibbereen to Baltimore Railway. 1895 to the Bantry Foreshore Reclamation Fund. Closely associated with Tim Healy. 1918 largest donor Gearhies Fishing Disaster. 1916 meets Lloyd George to oppose partition. listed 1913. Buried Glasnevin Cemetery. Features in James Joyce, ‘Ulysses’, ‘How’s that for Martin Murphy, the Bantry jobber?’ (12.237)
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1890, Will of Denis Murphy, Builder, Bantry, Builder of Bantry Pier, Father of William Martin Murphy. 1919, William Martin Murphy, Derrymihan, Beara and Dublin, businessman. Estate £250,000. He left a range of businesses with a substantial asset value, including Dublin’s tramway system, hotels in Dublin and Glengariff, Cleary’s Department store, a range of railway shares and various properties including a builders yard in Bantry (which is still in business). He had also invested heavily in the Dublin newspaper industry.
Bantry Gang: Healy Brothers, Thomas, Solicitor, M.P., Timothy, M.P. , Queen’s Counsel, Governor General Irish Free State, Tim, Sullivan Brothers, Alexander Martin, Owner ‘The Nation’, Founder Irish Parliamentary Party, M.P. Queen’s Counsel, Timothy Daniel, M.P. Composer ‘God Save Ireland”, Donal, Secretary Irish Parliamentary Party, M.P, Lord Mayor of Dublin, Harrington Brothers, Tim, Teacher, Journalist, Author of The Plan of Campaign, M.P., Barrister, Lord Mayor of Dublin, Ned, Organiser, M.P., William Martin Murphy, International Businessman, Railway Contractor, owner Irish Independent, Dublin United Tramways, M.P., James Gilhooley, Fenian, M.P.
1909 Bantry Feis. Patrons include Canon (Church of Ireland) O’Grady, James Gilhooley, M.P., Tim Healy King’s Counsel,M.P., Maurice Healy, M.P., The Earl of Kenmare, Magistrates, Dr. O’Mahony, Benjamin O’Connor, M. O’Driscoll, William Martin Murphy, Alexander Martin Sullivan, King’s Counsel, Dr. M. J. McCarthy, Patrick (Rocky Mountain) O’Brien, Dromore. Prizewinners, Industrial Section.
1899, Bantry, Funeral of Miss O’Connor, Wreaths From William Martin Murphy and Family, Buyer of Cleary and Co, Dublin, Attendance, Magistrates, John Daly, Barry O’Leary, John Cullinane, James Gilhooley Member of Westminster Parliament, James Manders (Butter Merchant), Doctor Thomas Popham, William Warner (Merchant), Thomas R. Hurst (Publican).
West Cork History 