Archbishop Mannix (1864-1963) of Melbourne, Australia, from Charleville, Co. Cork, attempted visit to Ireland 1920 refusal of British Government to allow him land, and later ‘Arrest’.

There is a document online of the congratulations to the new Rector of the Irish College, Rome c 1922 on his election.  They are an interesting snapshot of Irish Catholicism worldwide at one of its high points.  Some of the cables and letters contain detail such as the unhappiness of some of Archbishop Mannix’s clergy at his autocratic style.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Mannix

http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mannix-daniel-7478

Obituary by Paddy Madden of Paddy O’Keeffe (1897-1980), Businessman, Spanish Consul, Historian, Yachtsman, Local Sources such as Bob Triggs Beara, Mr Dennis Poet of North Side, Danny O’Donovan Ballycomane Durrus, Fellow Historians, Canon Tj Walsh Cork, Bernard O’Regan Aughadown, John Emmet O’Donovan, John T. Collins Cork.

He reckoned that Bob Triggs descended from an English Utilitarian Itinerant Minister who landed in Beara and married a Cronin woman.

The obit refers to his papers in the Cork Archive.  In each box are multiple files and folders often scraps of information in a hand very difficult to decipher.  The cross referencing is truly amazing going from the 12th century to just a few years before.   He had a particular interest in the various Septs of the Beara O’Sullivan family and was in contact with such Historians as Basil O’Connell a descendant of Daniel O’Connell the compiler of the O’Connell Tracts.

The papers are currently under the excellent care of the Cork Archives in Blackpool.

http://www.corkarchives.ie/

Sometimes the papers contain oblique references to the difficulty of doing business in the stagnant Ireland of the 1940s and 50s the stasis of Government bodies such as when he refers to the White Elephant of the Schull Ice Plant and how happy he was to have left the business of trawler owning.

His correspondence with fellow historians sometimes contains  phrase which in these time jar.  This would include families ‘perverting’ to mean Catholics converting to the Church of Ireland due to the Penal Laws or on marriage.

In around 1960 a Colonel Syms of South Carolina asked him to check out various strands of the West Cork Syms/Syms families and went onto describe how he was involved with the Friendly Sons of St. patrick and led the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Savanna leading the Fighting 64th.  Paddy was perplexed as the Symms were a Planter family.  This view would now probably be archaic as those world wide of  a Cork Protestant background would look to their ancestral home-place without the baggage of mid 20th century Ireland.

The obit by Paddy Madden/Padraig O Maidín, County Librarian put it well.  His papers are a resource when investigated and collated and hopefully digitised will be a resource  for Cork related themes for aeons into the future.

At his own expense he commissioner engineering surveys of the Old Garryvucha and St. Finbarr’s Graveyard in Bantry.

Survey St. Finbarr’s Graveyard, in Catholic Church, Bantry, West Cork, Commissioned by Paddy O’Keeffe 1955.

History of Whiddy Island, Bantry Bay, Co. Cork from 1261, from Paddy O’Keeffe papers

1588 Map of Beare and Bantry from Public Record Office, London, showing Soldiers besieging Castle, Deer in Glangariff, Churches, castles, Houses, Ships, with Commentary, 1958, by Bantry Antiquarian Paddy O’Keeffe.

Sketch of Cork Historian John T Collins, 1964 by Raymond Piper

https://durrushistory.com/2014/06/16/survey-st-finbarrs-graveyard-bantry-west-cork-commissioned-by-paddy-okeeffe-1957

 

 

Soldiers of the Irish Brigade, 18th Century France.

https://www.google.ie/maps/place/Ballydehob,+Co.+Cork/@51.5630077,-9.4553674,13z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x4845a1fdfeb67da7:0xa00c7a99731e680

Advertisement, 1842, in Irish with Roman script,  by Thomas Swanton for Ballydehob Fair every Thursday for Pigs, Sheep, Potatoes, Butter, Fish, Free of Tolls together with original handwriting on Etymology of West Cork Irish for coffin 

There were so many Swantons in the Balldehob area that it was formerly known as ‘Swantonstown’.  Various family members were land owners in the District.  Many of the family were Methodist.

Letter 6th March 1837, to ‘The Nation’, by Thomas Swanton, Crannliath, Ballydehob, re Distress East Schull and Irish Independence and correspondence with son of Seán Ó Coileáin, Poet

https://www.google.ie/maps/place/Pass+of+Keimaneigh,+Co.+Cork/@51.8140045,-9.3072468,14z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x48451ac614a49b71:0x8199fc72e0b254c0

Pass of Keimineigh, 1840.

View of Merchant’s Quay (Dunscomb’s Marsh), 1750 with unreclaimed land on river, Dutch Billies, Doorway of Merchant’s House 1796 and Dunscomb Mansion Mount Desert, Cork.

The Dunscomb family were prominent merchants in 18th century Cork.   Their mansion was located on Mount Desert, Lee Road.  The present nursing home built on the site has a photograph of the early 18th century mansion prior to demolition.

http://landedestates.nuigalway.ie/LandedEstates/jsp/family-show.jsp?id=2532

 

McCarthy Estate 1919
http://archive.irishnewsarchive.com/olive/apa/ina/SharedView.Article.aspx?href=IEX%2F1919%2F02%2F04&id=Ar00624&sk=91955F57&viewMode=image

 

Obituary Mr. John Copithorne, Kilcoe, Skibbereen, West Cork, and Mrs Ann Copithorne 1908.