Emily’s Father, Rev. Burke did not officiate any cermony during his time in Ballinasloe, with the exception of a marriage in nearby Taughmaconnell. He was well over 70 at the time and not as active in the church as in his missionary days.

Rev. Burke who, was never far from controversy in his missionary days made the newspaper columns frequently, now he hardly appeared in them now at all.  Again with one exception of a court case form 1875, he was not reported on at all. The case concerning land involved the Rev, his brother Patrick and the local Rector, Rev J. Moran of Kilcolgan Co Galway. The case centered around land leased by his father in the 1830’s from the Rector of Kilcolgan, which had come up for review. The court ruled in favour of the lease being granted to his brother Patrick rather than Rev. Burke.

The Commissioners established the right of Patrick Burke, and held that the lease made to the Rev. Mr. Burke was invalid.

The only other references to Rev. Burke in his latter years were the issue of a dog license and a listing in the paper of an event that he and Mrs. Burke attended in Dublin, the year before he died.

Bible in Saint John the Evangelist Church of Ireland, Church Hill, Ballinasloe, County Galway

Rev Burke was now in his late seventies and after an eventful life it was a time of rest for him. But he may not have got the respite that someone of his age deserved, there was a huge upsurge of hatred  against coverts in the early 1880’s. It is hard to say if he suffered any further persecution as he did in the past.

The violent persecution of Connemara’s convert community between 1878 and 1884 was without precedent. Its direct result was the winding down of the Irish Church Mission’s activities in the west of Ireland. It is difficult to identify what sparked the particular aggression towards converts and and mission personnel that began in late 1878, although underlying causes are clearly evident.

 

lectern in St John the Evangelist Church, Ballinasloe

Sources

http://www.ballinasloe.org/articles/article.php?ID=13

The Freeman’s Journal, Monday, January 11 1875.

Moffitt, Miriam. Soupers & Jumpers: The Protestant Missions in Connemara, 1848-1937. Dublin: Nonsuch, 2008. P 136

Thanks to Saint John the Evangelist Church of Ireland, Church Hill, Ballinasloe, County Galway for allowing me to photograph the church.

In 1872 Rev Burke was transferred from Castlejordan to Ballinasloe, in his home County of Galway. Emily was five years old. The family took up residence at a address on Dunlo Hill in the town. Rev Burke may have owned the property, as according to Griffiths Evaluation 16-18 was owned by a William Burke. Although it is impossible to say which house the family may have lived in because numbers change due to houses being built and demolished over the years. Below are a few houses that are possibly from the time Emily lived there.

Below is a view of Dunlo Hill as it is today.

Sources

http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/IRL-GALWAY/2003-01/1042002347

Emily Weddall spent about five years in all in Edenderry. Most of that time was spent without the presence of her father, as he spent most of his time away from home on missionary work. On a meager income and with a growing family to provide for it was necessary for him to earn extra income lecturing in the UK. In a later lecture he admits that he and his family were starving on the £92 a year salary.

LEICESTER ANTI-ROMANIST ASSOCIATION

The Rev. W. J. Burke, formerly Parish Priest and Vicar-General in the Church of Rome, but for the last 23 years a Clergyman of the United Church of England and Ireland, will deliver in connection with the above Association, the following LECTURES in the Large Room, Temperance Hall on THURSDAY and FRIDAY Evenings, March 26 and 27, 1868.

Thursday Evening:- Subject: “The Disloyal Teaching and Practices of Maynooth, and the Confessional.”

Friday Evening:- Subject: “How Romish Priests and Bishops, if so minded, could as easily put down Fenianism as they created it.”

The above subjects were pretty weighty and caused a huge backlash against him, but they also paid well and sometimes there was a collection afterwards for Rev Burke. His talks used to fill lecture halls all over the UK, but it was not just the subject matter that drew the audiences Rev. Burke was an excellent orator. Since the early days of his conversion he gave impassioned speeches of the “Errors of Popery” and was instrumental in the conversion of many Catholics to Protestantism. He was also a determined letter writer expressing his opinion of religion freely. His strong views did not make life easy for him and his family, inviting backlashes and even violence against them.

Emily’s formative years were not easy by any standard. From an early age she witnessed hatred, violence and persecution firsthand. As she grew it did not get any easier, but she also saw determination, resilience and courage in her father. Perhaps this is where she first learned these traits herself. As she grew life did not improve greatly for her in some incidences things got much worse before they got better.

Sources

Leicester Journal March 20, 1868. Page 5

06 December 1870 – Sheffield Independent – Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England

Since changing his religion Emily’s father suffered persecution from those who disapproved of his choice. He and his family were targeted verbally and sometimes physically as most converts were. It was over twenty years since he renounced Catholicism from the alter in his hometown of Kinvara in Co. Galway. That day he was stoned by the local community, who did not take kindly to his perceived betrayal of his background and faith.

The hill near Windsor Terrace, Edenderry, mentioned in the article

Rev. Burke moved several times in the two decades since but no matter where he went the

persecution against him followed. Even when he moved to Edenderry, sufficiently far away from  his native West of Ireland the violent attacks continued. One such attack occurred when Emily was one year old. This was probably one of many, as most incidents went unreported. The Dublin Daily Mail carried the following story in October 1868:

A correspondent writing from Edenderry, King’s county, says—” Last Sunday night, October 11th, as the Rev. William J. Burke, incumbent of Castlejordon, and his family were engaged in family worship, a party of ruffians came rushing down the hill towards Windsor Place, where the Rev. gentleman resides, and flung a volley of stones at his drawing room window, breaking several panes of glass, and damaging the woodwork. The cowards fled immediately.

 

Sources

Dublin Evening Mail, October 18 1868

Emily’s younger brother and the last of the Burkes was born in September 1869. He was named John Jasper Joly BurkE. Like Emily and Richard he was born at Windsor Terrace, Edenderry and like Emily (Arabella) his middle names Jasper Joly were after the Joly family of Clonbullock, near Edenderry.

The couple Jasper Robert Joly and his wife Maria Arabella Armit Joly, friends of Rev and Emily Burke and possible God parents to Emily and John Jasper, were owned land in the area. Jasper Robert Joly’s father Rev Henry Edward Joly had county Clare roots and may have known William John Burke when he was a young man too.

Sept. 24, at Windsor-place, Edenderry, the wife of the Rev. William J. Burke, incumbent of Castle Jordan, diocese of Meath, son. 

John Jasper was the last child born to Rev and Mrs Burke, completing the family.

Sources

29 September 1869 – Kings County Chronicle – Offaly, Offaly, Republic of Ireland.

Ancestry.com. Ireland, Select Marriages, 1619-1898 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. Original data: Ireland, Marriages, 1619-1898. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.: FamilySearch, 2013.

http://www.landedestates.ie/LandedEstates/jsp/estate-show.jsp?id=2206