While reading the evidence before a parliamentary enquiry into land tenure taken in Bantry in 1844 and came across a reference to a tenant paying his landlord with a £3 note.  I never came across this before, I do remember the old orange 10 shilling note.

When I checked it out the history was interesting.  Ireland apparently joined sterling in 1825 (currency fluctuations are not new) and the Bank of Ireland was given authority to issue notes.  Included was the £3 and 30 shilling notes.

In 1844 a farm laborer was lucky to get 8p. per day and the salary of a Resident Magistrate started at £300 per annum.  If you took  a laborer now at a low €75 a day that would give the value of £3 at €6,750 or the pay of the modern equivalent of a Resident Magistrate a District Justice at €123K then the value of £3…

Obituary of Canon TJ Walsh, Cork Historian, 1984.

Father Walsh’s writing display an amazing knowledge of sources of going back to original material and are a testament to his keen intelligence.  When he was Parish priest in Durrus in the 1960s his sermons ranged over historical figures such a Aonghus Ó Dalaigh the Kilcrohane poet, alas it was lost on his congregation.

History Balckrock Father Walsh c 1963

In time to come his work may again be appreciated by the public.

Father Séamus Coombes who wrote the obituary was himself a noted historian in particular of West Cork themes.

Companile erected 1860 by Alexander McCarthy, MP bronze plaques commemorating historical figures of McCarthy Sept, Diamond Hill, Blackrock, The Galweys of Dundanion, Joseph Nagle d 1757, Clogarán Cléireach (Mass Bells) and old bell of St. Michael’s now in Columbus, Georgia, USA from Father Walsh’s History Blackrock. Cork, c 1963

Briseann an Duchais Trí Súil an Chait, The Maverick DNA of Black Jack Fitzgibbon, (Lord Clare 1749-1801), First Irish Born Attorney-General of the 18th Century, Pioneer of World-wide Metropolitan Policing, his sister Lady Arabella Jeffares, Blarney, Supporter of Tenant farmer and Rightboys, sister Eleanor married to Cork Barrister, Dominic Trant, the insult of Trinity Fellow Patrick Duignan to Father Arthur O’Leary, ‘The Friar with the barbarous Surname’ and an account of the Cork Rightboys in 1785 by Cork Apothecary John Barrett Bennett.

Bennett’s account is reproduced in an article in 1984 JCHAS by James S. Donnelly Junior, of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  He is a leading authority of Cork and its Political and land History.  He acknowledges his debt to his graduate student Irene Whelan Hehir who laboured for months in deciphering Mr. Bennett’s account written for family consumption in 1785.  Donnelly’s introduction sets out the overall backdrop in terms…

https://www.google.ie/maps/place/Passage+West,+Co.+Cork/@51.8720621,-8.3362128,13z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x4844849b81c2dae5:0x0a00c7a99731cef0

Cork Blackrock and Passage Railway Route network, Railways, Steamers Cork Harbour, All year, Seasonal. Omnibuses, Great Southern and Railway Network Cork Area post 1909.

From Colm Creedon’s Book.  Interesting how the Harbour area is treated as a unit.

Colm Creedon Chronicler of West Cork’s Railways (1849-1961) and Cork and Passage Railway (1850-1932).

https://durrushistory.com/2012/10/16/colm-creedon-chronicler-of-west-corks-railways/

Looking up the Church of Ireland records for Bantry I came across Thomas  Young Cotter, born in Bantry in 1805.  His father Richard may have been born on Cloyne, Co. Cork and he married Ellen Young in London.  It is possible that she was of the Bantry Young family who were prominent merchants and engaged in the fishing business.  The Youngs are probably in Bantry since at least 1600. Richard was a purser with the Royal Navy in the West Indies and was late joined there by Thomas.

Thomas’s medical history is documented in a biography

http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/cotter-thomas-young-1923

He had a literary turn editing the South Australian Magazine and The South Australian Almanac.  His father had earlier published ‘Sketches of Bermuda’

From Bryan Richards

According to the Muster List of HMS Cerberus, Richard Cotter was born Abt. 1776 Cloyne County Cork. I now discovered Richard and Ellen Young married twice, once in Bantry and again at what is now known as the Queen’s Chapel Savoy…