Category Archives: Family

Enid Attends Alexandra College

Enid Betts was enrolled by her Aunt Emily at Alexandra College, Dublin. Emily and her older sister Miriam, Enid’s mother attended it’s sister school the Irish Clergy Daughters’ School decades before. Alexandra College was a fee paying school, when Enid attended but when her mother and aunt were in school, they attended a greatly reduced rate as their parents hadn’t means then, nevertheless both girls received a great education.

By the time Enid was a pupil at Alexandra College it was a prestigious girls school ahead of it’s time in many respects.

Courtesy of Alexandra College

Founded in 1866, Alexandra College set out to fulfil the need for advanced education for young women at a time when the prevailing system did not provide them with any opportunities for real academic involvement, or prepare them for any engagement in public, social or academic affairs. Read more

Some of Emily’s friends and fellow Gaelic League members and Nationalists such as the Gifford sisters and Dorothy McArdle and lifelong friends Eva O’Flaherty and Dr. Kathleen Lynn.

Enid would graduate from Alexandra College and pursue a career in nursing inspired her aunt Emily no doubt.

Earlsfort Terrace, where Alexandra College once stood

Sources
https://alexandracollege.eu/about

Enid’s New Life

Emily enrolled Enid in her new school Alexandra College in Dublin. At the time the school was on Earlsfort Terrace on the same street Emily attended it’s sister college, the Irish Clergy Daughter’s school. Where Emily attended school as a boarder Enid was a day pupil and stayed with her aunt Emily’s friend  Colm O’Loughlin, one of the people pivotal in the setting up of Scoil Acla.

Colm Ó Lochlainn 1892 – 1972

William Gerard O’Loughlin was born in Dublin on the 11th of October 1892. His father John O’Loughlin was a travelling sales representative for a printing company. His mother was a Delia (Bridget) Carr from Limerick City whose family were wealthy and in the printing business. Read more

Before Enid had a chance to settle she would be renamed Siobhan the more’ Irish’ version of of her name, be initiated into the Gaelic League and meet all her aunt Emily’s friends.

Sources
Photo thanks to John ‘Twin’ McNamara
http://scoilacla.ie

Colm Ó Lochlainn

Enid Arrives

On this day 105 years ago Enid Cecily Patricia Betts arrived on the docks at Liverpool from her native Australia. She was barely fourteen years old, thousands of miles from home and appeared to have traveled alone on the steamer, Themistocles. Who knows what was going through her mind when she disembarked in the cold damp climate of North Europe, quite the opposite of the hot and arid atmosphere of South Australia. Her aunt Emily, who Enid may have only met for the first time could have met her in Liverpool, to accompany her on to Dublin and then to the alien territory of West of Ireland.

Enid born in 1898, was the eight and last surviving child of Henry Samuel Marsden Betts and the second of his third wife Miriam, Emily’s older sister. Enid was only eleven months old when her father died in February of 1899. He was almost 60 years old when she was born, old by today’s standards but not uncommon back then. Her brother John Ulick was three years older and her half siblings were about a half generation older still.

It is impossible to guess at why she came to live in Ireland, when her mother and brother were both in Australia, perhaps it was for the purpose of Education. Emily had her enrolled  in Alexandria College, where she attend as a boarder. Founded in 1866, the college was one of the first girl’s second level schools in Ireland, where Church of Ireland families sent their daughters. Some of Emily’s life long friends such as Dr. Kathleen Lynn attended a generation before. Both Enid’s mother Miriam and Emily attended the Clergy Daughter’s School which was connected to the college.

Emily no doubt would have made her niece feel welcome and introduced her proudly to everyone she knew. Enid may well have taken after her aunt in her fearlessness, but nothing in Australia could have prepared her for the events that would unfold over the next few years. Life was certainly about to get exciting for young Enid.

Sources
http://interactive.ancestry.com/1518/30807_A000561-00419/25736319
“Family Notices.” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954) 1 Jun 1898: 1. Web. 29 Oct 2013 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article14139882>.

History of Rockfield House; Part 2

 

Emily and friends outside Rockfield House

Emily’s ownership of Rockfield house was short enough lived. In the winter of 1918 she was on the brink of loosing it again, but it was nothing to do with the Mission Estate this time, it steamed from an event that was unfolding over three thousand miles away, the Russian Revolution. Emily had stocks and shares in Russian industry, which generated a substantial income for her for more at least a decade. These investments became worthless overnight and she lost her financial mainstay.

In a letter to her friend Margot Trench, she expressed that her income had been “denied from Russia” and was in great financial difficulty. She had at that stage returned to work as a nurse to survive. It is an ill wind that does not blow some good as the old saying goes, in Emily’s case it was the flu epidemic of 1918, where her services as a nurse were in great demand. She got a post at the Meath hospital straight away. It was at that time that perhaps the full extent of her financial woes were realized and the possible loss of her home.

“I had to leave Rockfield as I am getting no money from Russia… Miss O’Flaherty is at Rockfield now for the winter and it is nice to know she is in the house and looking after things…”

Emily did not loose the house then and there, but held on to it until 1925, when she got her husband’s estate sorted out nearly two decades after he died!The house and grounds were bought by the Catholic Arch-Bishop of Tuam Dr, Gilmartin.

Sources
National Library of Ireland. Department of Manuscripts, MS 46,331 /6 – 10 Coffey and Chenevix Trench papers, 1868-2007.
http://www.genealogy.nationalarchives.ie/
Photo courtesy of John ‘Twin’ McNamara

History of Rockfield House; Part 1.

Edward and Emily Weddall arrived on Achill as newlyweds sometime in 1906, where took up residence at Rockfield House in Keel. The couple’s new home was acquired through contacts with the mission estate in Dugort, where Emily’s father lived for some time in the 1840’s. Although the mission was well disbanded at that state they land was still in the hands of

Rockfield was a former school house for orphaned boys, when her father lived on the island, it closed as a school some time afterwards and may have been occupied by many people over the six decades before Emily occupied it.

Although it is unclear when the house was finally Emily’s, it was owned by the Mission Estate at Dugort, when she and Captain Weddall moved in in 1906. Six years later the Land Agitation episode of the winter of 1912/1913 changed the land ownership of the Island for good.

This event in history was recorded for the National Folklore Commission; The Schools’ Collection in 1937/38. The informant was by Pádhraic Mac Pháidín, the headmaster of Tonatavally, on Achill. 

St Thomas' Church on the Achill Mission Estate

St Thomas’ Church on the Achill Mission Estate

About 30 years ago the C. D. B. [Congested District Board] was buying up the estates in the poorest part of the West. The people wanted the “Achill Mission” to sell and they refused. An agitation was commenced and eventually they agreed but wanted to retain the lands of the Colony and other Protestant Settlements in the Island. the Protestants became infuriated at this juggling and the Catholics promised them support moral and material. This was in 1912. the leaders were Rev. Fr. Colleran, Darrell Figgis and William Egan, a Protestant gentleman of Slievemore.To these must be added the name of Walter Bourke another Protestant, who by verse and organising ability gave impetus to the movement…

…A system of boycotting was adopted, and Grierson was compelled to get two “Emergency men” from outside. A mass meeting was convened and the people marched in a body to the Rent office and demanded that the land should be sold…

Master Mac Pháidín remembers that the Agitation went on for the entire winter of 1912/13, but was resolved eventually in the Spring. With the perseverance of the locals and under the guidance of   Fr. Colleran the Land Wars ended quietly, the people of Achill the victors.

Mr Scott sold out immediately at the commencement of the agitation and Mr Pike did likewise a short time afterward. the Achill Mission and Mrs McDonnell did so at last.

The remarkable thing about the whole saga was it disproved the popular opinion that Catholics and Protestants were on opposite sides. In a letter to the Mayo News Anita tells of how the people of Achill from different backgrounds and religion united to sort out the situation for the good of all.

In conclusion it is pleasant to be able to state that Achill offers an emphatic denial of the much talked of division between Protestants and Catholics in Ireland. In Achill, if anywhere for reasons too long to explain here we might expect to find sectarian feeling very strong. Yet today, in striking vindication the Irish Protestant from the Irish Catholic we find the Protestant Dugort  tenants united with their Catholic neighbors, and as anxious as they are to free Achill Island from the blighting influence of the Achill Mission trusteeship…

The victory over the establishment was the end of the old system and the beginning of the new, although it would take almost a further decade. It would take nearly two decades before Emily would finally have full ownership of the house and land only to have to sell it again.

Sources
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0086, Page 318 Tonatanvally, Co. Mayo
The Mayo News, April 12 1913