Category Archives: Places

Festivals on Achill

 

 

The first time St. Patrick’s Day was introduced as a national holiday was in 1903. When Emily arrived back in Ireland in 1906, the holiday was in its infancy. There were no parades as such, pubs were closed as it was a holy day, and people celebrated mostly by attending church. But in Achill that was not the case. It might have been a sober day but it did not prevent the festival atmosphere. An article that appeared in the Mayo News on March 30th 1907:

La Fheile Padraig in Dooagh!
Concert and Play a Magnificent Success!
St. Patrick’s Day was fittingly celebrated in Dooagh. In the early morning a large procession headed by the village band and waving some beautiful banners marched to the chapel playing national airs all along the route. Mass was celebrated by Rev. D. Greeney CC, who preached an eloquent sermon on the life and mission of our National apostle. The Acts as well as the Rosary were recited in Irish. In the evening the venue was Dooagh National school where an Irish Ireland concert and play was met with almost unbounded success notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather.!

The unprecedented success of the entertainment was chiefly if not wholly, due to the energy activity and perseverance of Mrs. Weddall, Miss McWilliams, Miss Grey, Miss McCabe, the Misses Callaghans and a host of other ladies, upon who it reflected great credit. To them and to their lieutenant all the Irish Irelanders of the parish extended the most heartfelt thanks and trust their net endeavor in that direction will be more successful still. The committee in charge of the arrangements are deeply indebted to Mr McGreevey, Balla and Mr Fitzhenry, League organiser for their kindness in lending scenery and other decorations.!

The success of St. Patrick’s day led on to other Irish cultural festivals on the Island, especially “Under the auspices of the Gaelic League”. Emily and/or other members of the local branch of the League did the fundraising and organised them at various locations and times of the year. It was also the early days of tourism and such events attracted the people who attended cultural events.

A Gaelic League event advertised in the Cliadheamh Soulis in 1907

A Gaelic League event advertised in the Cliadheamh Soulis in 1907

Sources
Mayo News, March 30 1907. Page 4
http://www.nli.ie/1916/pdf/3.4.2.pdf
http://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/All-the-pubs-in-Ireland-used-to-be-closed-on-St-Patricks-Day.html
Cliadheamh Soulis 7 June 1907. P 7

 

 

Achill; the Early Years

Rockfield House, Keel, where Emily set up home with her husband

Rockfield House, Keel, where Emily set up home with her husband

Emily Weddall moved to Achill Island  in 1906 with her husband retired sea captain, Edward Weddall, whose compromised health, due to a tropical disease benefited from the fresh sea air.  Emily acquired Rockfield house, which once was a mission school in the 1840’s/50’s through connections established by her late father William John Burke who spent some time on Achill in the 1840’s.

Emily who was concerned mostly with the care of her husband, made time to indulge her passion and love of the Irish language and culture. A woman of means she had the resources and the drive to get involved in the beginning of the cultural revival on Achill. She naturally gravitated towards people who shared her interest and they to her. She joined forces with the local Parish Priest, Fr J Connolly and Seaghan Mac Enrigh, who had previously campaigned for the reintroduction of Irish in the schools and classes for children and adults alike.

Emily was already a member of the Gaelic League, which she joined when she returned to Ireland in 1906. and teamed up with Fr Connolly to form a local branch Grainne Mhoal (named after the pirate queen Grace O’Malley) in 1907/08. Over the next few years the people that would be pivotal to the revival would converge to make Achill, making it a hub for the Irish language and cultural revival.

The magazine produced by the Gaelic League, which Emily was a frequent correspondent

The magazine produced by the Gaelic League, to which Emily was a frequent correspondent

 

 

The Second Mrs Burke

No 40/41 Leinster Road, Rathmines, where Emily McArthur lived before she married,

The house on Leinster Road, Rathmines, where Emily McArthur lived before she married.

Emily McArthur became the second Mrs William John Burke on October 2nd 1861. The couple married in  St. Peter’s Church, Dublin, by witnessed by Henry Ashe and John Galbraith. The  marriage was solemnized by Rev Burke’s old friend Rev Hyacinth D’Arcy.

All that remains of St. Peter's Church, Dublin.

All that remains of St. Peter’s Church, Dublin. (Photo by Ciarán Parkes

Emily McArthur was living at an address on Leinster Road, Rathmines, possibly the one that the family lived in before her father’s death in 1829. Her new husband Rev Burke stayed in a rectory on Harrington Street, though it stated on their marriage certificate that his home address was still in his native Galway. It appeared that Rev Burke and his new wife did not return there but stayed on in Dublin, where their first child was born a year later.

The house on Harrington Road, where Rev Burke stayed before her married Emily's mother

The house on Harrington Road, where Rev Burke stayed before her married Emily’s mother

Rev Burke’s previous life in the West of Ireland was far from ideal. He had a long and controversial history there, and perhaps did not want to subject his new wife to it. Shortly after their marriage and birth of their child the couple moved on to Edenderry, Co. Offaly, where they had a better chance of living a peaceful existence. Their tranquility was lived, as it did not take long for the Rev Burke’s past to catch up with him…

 Thanks
Thanks to Ciarán Parkes for photo of stained glass window from St. Peter’s Church Aungier Street, Dublin.
Sources
http://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/details/991b890574938

Partings

After her mother’s death Emily McArthur returned to Ireland. She lived in Virgemount, Co Dublin (modern day Clonskeagh). Her brother Richard was still living in Yorkshire where he was a curate in the Ripon area, but shortly afterwards he would emigrate to Canada, leaving Emily without any intimidate family in Dublin.

Emily McArthur could not have anticipated that when her only brother left for Canada in 1856, it would be the last time she would see him. His destination was in the Ontario district, where he was Reverend “St. George’s Parish Church, St. Catherines. He was there scarcely six months, when he contracted Scarlett fever, which took his life. Richard Lyons McArthur was about 31 years old.

There is a dedication to him in  the churchyard with the inscription:

Here lieth the body of Rev. Richard Lyons McArthur, M.A. Trinity College, Dublin and for some months, curator of St. George’s Church in this town, departed life, 1857.

http://www.stgeorgesanglican.ca/

St George’s Church, where Richard Lyons McArthur was Reverend

Sadly Emily would never get to meet her grandmother or uncle.

Sources
http://www.nationalarchives.ie/genealogy1/genealogy-records/wills-testamentary-records/
Indexed by William Cooke – See more at: http://geneofun.on.ca/names/photo/1657812?PHPSESSID=c57b85dcb92a5737ef3c1bb74af9ec03#sthash.kz87qqjn.dpuf
http://www.stgeorgesanglican.ca/

England

The 1851 Census details the McArthur family as follows:

Mary McArthur – Head of household – age 51- Fund holder -Born Dublin

Richard L McArthur – Son – age 24 – Curate of Ordinance – Born Dublin

Emily McArthur – Daughter – age 22 – Fund holder – Born Co Down

The household had one servant, a local middle age woman called Isabella and a cousin Mary A Hudson also from Dublin Seemed to live with The McArthurs.

England

England

Mary McArthur moved again to a house on South George’s Square in Worcester. This was to be Emily’s grandmother’s last home. She died at the same address on July 27th 1855 of apoplexy (a stroke) she was only in her late 50’s.

Sources
http://search.findmypast.ie/results/united-kingdom-records-in-census-land-and-substitutes 1851.
England & Wales, FreeBMD Death Index, 1837-1915 for Mary McArthur; Ancestry.com