Mary Milward Reilly in Dublin

The Sunny-Side Cottage, Ennistymon

We know that right after our great grandmother was widowed in September 1894, 39 year old Mary Frances Milward Reilly remained in Ennistymon for a time  at the Sunny-Side Cottage with her young (8 year old) son.

Patrick, AKA: Gillie was enrolled at the Christian Brothers School (CBS) in Ennistymon  on August 18, 1896.

Or, he might have left the school to relocate in Dublin on that date.

I am not sure how to interpret this graph........... 

We do know that Mother & Son were living in Dublin when the Census was taken in 1901.

However, it is still a mystery as to why she chose to go to Dublin.

Mary Milward Reilly had been a country girl all of her life and Dublin was the big city.

As far as we have learned, she was alone in Dublin. 

Most of her siblings were in America.  

Although they were 13 years apart, the relative she seems to have been the closest was her husband's cousin, Ida Burke-Browne Galwey-Foley.

Their friendship could have been based on several levels.

Their sons were friends.

They were both equestriennes.

They both had attended school at the Convent of Mercy.

Their parents knew each other.

But, in 1901, Ida and her family were living 130 miles away at Carrickmacross, not Dublin.

What we do know ~

In the 1890s, the West of Ireland, which included Ennistymon, was disrupted by violent Land War "outrages" which pitted landlord against tenant.

Although the Land League urged peaceful means of protest, many of the dispossessed peasantry took the law into their own hands and joined a secret agrarian society, headed by the mysterious Captain Moonlight, to attack landlords' property, particularly their livestock. 

These attacks, known locally as "moonlighting", in turn prompted reprisals, creating a spiral of violence.

This news clip from 1891 states that in Clare in just the previous three months, there had been:

Firings with the intent to murder;

Firings into dwellings;

Malicious destruction of property;

Malicious mutilations of dumb animals.

All of these crimes were attributed to "Moonlighters" and "Outrage-Mongers".

Nearly 100 agrarian murders occurred in Ireland between the start of the Land War in 1879  and 1887.

In a sweeping revolutionary statement, the League had proclaimed the right of every tenant farmer to own the land he worked on. 

Because of the abuses heaped on tenants by some landlords, it had an immediate impact.

Here are some examples of "outrage":

As you can see, this was a very serious situation.

The Land League, established in 1879, challenged the excesses and cruelties of the landlords. 

Secret Societies were then spawned and violence was not far behind. 

Lord Leitrim, a West of Ireland landlord, was executed in broad daylight.

In 1882, the bodies of two men working for Lord Ardilaun (the Guinness family who owned nearby Ashford Castle, in Cong) were dumped in Lough Mask.

The agent of the hated Lord Clanricard was shot dead, along with a Claremorris landlord.  

In Ballinrobe, Lord Mountmorres, a progressive and compassionate landlord who had never evicted his tenants, was shot dead. 

Lord Frederick Cavendish, the new Irish Chief Secretary, was assassinated in Dublin, in Phoenix Park, along with Thomas Burke, the country’s most senior civil servant.

This was the political climate in County Clare when Mary Reilly made her decision to leave Ennistymon. 

Someone in the family has a letter written by Mary to Ida in which she implores Ida to never allow Gillie to ever return to Clare.

Until understanding its historical context, that note confused us.

Now, we believe, she worried that Gillie might be targeted because his father and grandfather had been landowners and land agents.

She feared for his life if he were ever to return to County Clare.

Henry Patrick Reilly and his son would have been directly in the path of the violence which targeted landlords and land agents.

At any rate, in 1901, Mary and Gillie were "lodgers" at 52, Upper Leeson Street in the Rathmines, Rathgar section of Dublin.

As a Lodger, meals were served to Mary and Gillie and their room was tidied.

Upper Leeson Street is still one of the most prestigious and highly sought after residential addresses in Dublin4.

In the 19th century, Leeson Street would have been busy with the comings and goings of not just the Irish elite - the Lords, Ladies, bishops, judges and other pillars of the establishment - but, also, each household's team of servants and the many tradesmen, shopkeepers and other professionals earning their living by serving the needs of the elite.

These grandly impressive old buildings seem to stand out of time and, with their brightly painted doors, are the most familiar aspects of what is known as "Georgian Dublin". 

In 2007, 52 Upper Leeson Street was on the market for €4.8 million.

Master Bedroom

 

While his mother lived here on Upper Leeson Street, Gillie was attending Terenure College which was only about 5 miles away .......

Yet, he was a boarding student.

We do not know how long Mary stayed living at Leeson Street but according to her death record, her address in 1904 was 37 Waterloo Place.

Waterloo Place, off Waterloo Road and Burlington Road, was a short street located behind Upper Leeson.

85 Waterloo Place

We don't know when Mary moved here. 

At the time of his mother’s death in August 1904, the records at Terenure College had Mary still living on Leeson Street. However, on her death record, this was her address. 

Mary Frances Julia Milward Reilly died of heart failure at Dr Steevens Hospital on August 2, 1904. 

She was only 49 years old. 

Her only son, Gillie, was now an orphan. 

He was 18.

Dr Steevens' Hospital in Dublin was one of Ireland's most distinguished eighteenth-century medical establishments. 

The hospital is built around a quaint old courtyard, with its arches forming a sort of cloister all around, and with peculiar attic windows that cut across the intersection of the roofs at each corner. 

It was about 5 miles from Mary’s home on Waterloo Place.

L

The first time I had read this record from Glasnevin Cemetery, I was very curious about the column - 

"Name & Address of the Informant of Particulars and who had made Arrangements for Burial".

The entry:

Pete & Thomas Farrell

66 Marlborough Street

Who could this be? In my research, this is the first time I had come across these names. I wondered if the Farrells might have been friends of hers.

Sadly, I was disappointed to learn that this is just the name and address of the Undertaker - Farrell’s Carriage and Undertaker Establishment. 

Where did her funeral take place? Who attended? 

In 1904, Mary had 8 living siblings.

John Henry had been in Kentucky since 1867.

George Robert was a Civil Engineer living on Clonroadmore Road in Ennis. Did he come up to Dublin for his sister?

Frederick Freeman O'Brien had been in Boston since 1870.

Charles Albert had emigrated to Boston in 1868.

Dr Edwin Oswald, MD was living in Southhampton, England.

Francis William had emigrated to Boston in 1891.

The baby of the family ~ Richard ~ despite a promising start ~ seems to have had a difficult life. Born in 1866, he was 4 when his father died and I do not know when his mother passed away. 

He moved to Boston in 1893 and was living with his brother, Frank, there in 1900.

The next record we have for Richard was Christmas Day 1909. Forty-three years old, he was arrested for public drunkenness and living in the Ennis Workhouse.

I doubt if he traveled to Dublin for his sister's funeral.

There was another daughter born in 1859 named Ruth Eliza but the last record we have for her was in 1880 when she was living in Ennis.

So, the only available sibling was George in England.

Maybe Ida came down from Carrickmacross and brought Gillie back home with her after his mother’s funeral. 

Mary Frances Julia Milward Reilly, the 49 year old widow of a Landed Proprietor was laid to rest on August 5, 1904 in the St Bridget section of Glasnevin Cemetery.

In June 2017, the American descendants - 14 great grandchildren and 13 great great grandchildren - of Mary Milward Reilly joined together in a Cousins' Project to restore her headstone in Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin. 

Although none of us had ever met her, we all came together to honor her out of the love, respect and gratitude we all share for her only child - Patrick Henry Reilly - our grandfather ((and great grandfather). 

It was such an awesome feeling to have organized such a project. 

And - we are all very pleased with the result!

The restored headstone. 

Mary Frances Julia Milward Reilly (1855-1904), Rest in Peace.

 EPILOGUE 

History gives a nation its bearing on what it is and how its people are affected by what has happened in the past. 

Its kings and queens, its wars - with victories and defeats - these all mold a nation’s culture into the way it views itself in the present. 

In the same way, a family history presents how a family has survived and come to terms with the great social and cultural experiences of the ages.

We hope these stories will give each member of our family a foundation and, in some small way, explain how we came to be what we are today.

Hopefully, through these vignettes, our future generations will gain a knowledge of the energy and dynamism, the loves and hates, the errors and mistakes, the victories and failures, the struggles and successes that make us what we are.

Our family history presents a fascinating read - and, hopefully, some lessons to be learned in the process.