AHERNS – FARMERS & EMIGRANTS
Ellen Halewood nee Barry, daughter of Peg Ahern who married Patrick Barry in 1911, drew up these family Trees below. She wrote them up many years ago for Terry Barry junior! Unfortunately these copies do not appear to be complete, but we were very fortunate that Ellen took the time to write all this and more down and share it with us.
James Ahern my Great Great Grandfather was probably born in 1796, he lived through several famines, the Union of Great Britain and Ireland and the Rebellion of 1798. We can only guess that he was born and brought up in the area of Harbour View, Garranefeen, West Cork. However it is probable that he rented an area of farmland around the area of Harbour View. It was likely that he rented this land from one Miss Esther Mary Alcock Stawell Riversdale of Lisnegar Rathcormac Cork, or more likely her antecedents. The Stawell family were Anglo Irish immigrants that owned land in Cork. Eventually the Aherns purchased this land from their Landlord.
I discovered in 2007 that James, and Mary Ahern, his wife, are buried in a graveyard called Currarane, just over a mile from Harbour View. The crumbling remains of two ivy clad walls of a small place of worship sit in the centre of this very small over grown grave yard. Now it is a very quiet small peaceful place, barely noticeable from the road in the middle of a pasture.
Several more shots of Currarene taken from inside the Graveyard area in 2007.
James Ahern married his wife Mary, who bore him three sons. Michael, John and Patrick, my Great Grandfather. And we are fairly certain that they had two daughters, Catharine born 1833 and Mary born 1835. He may have had a fourth son, James. This James Ahern only came to light recently when I researched the 1901 Census. James Ahern was born in 1842. Very little appears to be known about him. The only reference that I have of him is when he appears in his brother Michaels house on the night of the 1901 census. After that he seems to disappear. In talking to my Irish relations nobody seems to know anything about him, even his existence seems doubtful.
When James Ahern appears in the 1901 census he has already survived the famine as a very small boy. Now in 1901 he is a 59 year old man, where has he been in the intervening years? Where has he been living? How has he been supporting himself? Does he have any family of his own? What is his trade if any? Why is there no other reference to him? When his father bequeathed the family farm, it was bequeathed to his three brothers. All three were given a share of the family farm and were mentioned in the legal documents.
Was he named by his father and mother after his own father? He bears the same name and was their first apparent son. Every question I ask throws up yet another question and still no real answers.
James Ahern my Great Great Grandfather died on 1 Mar 1877 at the age of 81, his wife Mary died two years after him at the age of 75. They lived, worked, married, brought children into the world and raised them at Harbour View. By the time of his death in 1877 he possessed or rented three farms of land situated in the townland of Garranefeen in the Barony of East division of East Carberry and County of Cork. They contained respectively seventy acres, forty acres and two third parts or shares of sixty one acres two roods and six perches.
The Ahern side of my family have farmed these 60 acres at Harbour View near Kilbrittain in County Cork now for nearly 200 years. The land they farmed is also known in Gaelic as Garranefeen, I know that I have been privileged to have lived and worked with, and on this land of Garranefeen.
Our Great Great Grandfather James Ahern and his son our Great Grandfather Patrick Ahern, and his two brothers, their lives and land have been of special interest to me as I have lived, worked, and shed blood sweat and tears on their land with many of their descendents.
I believe that James & Mary had 6 children including my Great Grandfather Patrick, born 1828. Their 5 other children are listed here. Catharine b 1833, Mary b 1835, James b 1842, Michael b 1843, & John b 1857.
Over the years a number of legal documents have come to light that show how my Great Great Grandfather leased, and then with his three sons, purchased and then bequeathed and shared the land between my Great Grandfather Patrick Ahern and his two brothers, Michael and John, but not their brother James.
Listed here is a summary of the said documents.
Deed of Declaration of Trust
25th November 1882 an Indenture was made between Patrick Ahern (My Great Grandfather born 1828) of Garranefeen and his brothers John & Michael Ahern (as tenants, with Patrick as principal tenant representing the division of tenancies for his brothers John & Michael)
Agreement between Vendor and Tenant for Sale of holding & application for advance.
In 1909 Patrick Ahern (tenant) purchased approx 57 acres at Garranefeen for £214 from Miss Esther Mary Alcock Stawell Riversdale of Lisnegar Rathcormac Cork.This money was an advance from the Irish Land Commission to be repaid under the Irish Land Act of 1903 with interest.
Land Registry Register of Freeholders Ownership Patrick Ahern
01 December 1911 These 21 acres at Garranefeen are subject to an annuity of
£12 – 7s – 2d as of this date and payable half yearly to Irish Land Commission until the advance of £353 has been repaid in interest vested in Patrick Ahern (James)
£353 in 1911 would be roughly equivalent to £35,000 in todays terms
£12 paid twice a year would only = about £192 in todays terms.
12 April 1912 Registered. Patrick Ahern (James) is the registered owner of Garranefeen. With Irish Land Registry
19 November 1914 The Bank of Ireland is registered as the owners of a charge on these lands for all present and future advances to said Patrick Ahern not exceeding in the whole £190.
26 November 1918 Advance is Discharged.
Below are copies of the documents that are briefly noted above.
The three copies above are The Declaration of Trust 1882. The four copies below are the Agreement between Vendor and Tenant for sale of Holding & application for Advance 1909.
The last set of documents below are dated 1911, 1914 & 1918 respectively and are – Land Registry Register of Freeholders Ownership Patrick Ahern.
James Ahern ( Great Grandfathers Brother) born 1842
As previously mentioned James Ahern was born in 1842. Very little appears to be known about him. The only reference that I have of him is when he appears in his brother Michaels house on the night of the 1901 census. After that he seems to disappear. In talking to my Irish relations nobody seems to know anything about him, even his existence seems doubtful. But he does appear in the1901 census as Michael’s brother. If a mistake was made on the return, then I am innocently guilty of creating a small history for a Great Uncle that appears to have left very little trace of his life when compared to his father and brothers.
When James Ahern appears in the 1901 census he has already survived the famine as a very small boy. Now in 1901 he is a 59 year old man, where has he been in the intervening years? Where has he been living? How has he been supporting himself? Does he have any family of his own? What is his trade if any? Why is there no other reference to him? When his father bequeathed the family farm, it was bequeathed to his three brothers. All three were given a share of the family farm and were mentioned in the legal documents. Did he have a trade of his own and did not want a share in the family farm?
Was he named by his father and mother after his own father? He bears the same name.
Patrick Ahern my Great Grandfather was born in Ireland in 1828 ? and survived the famine of 1846 and the years of famine that followed. He somehow, amongst many others managed to avoid the spectre of emigration and lived, farmed the land and married one Ellen Donovan. She was born in 1849 according to their Marriage Certificate, they were married on 3rd November 1877 at the Catholic Chapel at Rathbarry near Clonakiilty. She died on the 11th March 1906 aged 72 according to the local death Register. Ellen Donovan was originally from Camus near Clonakilty! They raised a family of eight children, including my Grandmother Peg Ahern.
According to the 1901 census my Great Grandfather Patrick Ahern was born in 1841. The 1911 census puts his age at 79 which would make his date of birth 1832! Therefore in 1901 he was apparently 60, in 1911, ten years later he was 79 when he should have been 69 and when he died on 9th September 1922 his death certificate states the “Cause of death” as “Senile Decay”. This was an archaic phrase that today would be termed as Alzheimer’s, or Dementia. This refers to the progressive loss of mental capacity that leads to dementia and personal helplessness. The majority of the cases recorded were most likely Alzheimer’s. According to the local Death Register his age at last birthday was 93!
Despite the fact that he lived to a ripe old age and did suffer from some form of Dementia, it was likely that he lied about his age for various reasons now unknown by us.
The Record of Patrick Ahern’s marriage to Ellen Donovan in 1877 appears above.
Patrick Ahern (my Great Grandfather) born in 1828 and died in 1922, he married Ellen Donovan in 1877, Ellen was born in 1851 and died in 1906, they had 8 children including my Grandmother Margaret Ahern, known as Peg, she was their second daughter & third child was born in 1882. All 8 were born at Harbour View.Their first child, James Ahern, Uncle Jim was born on the 31st November 1880, a day that does not exist, probably a transcription error, but it still stands today in official records! Mary (Moll) Ahern their second child was born in 1881. Catherine Ahern, known as Auntie Kit was born in 1885. My Namesake, Uncle Mick, Michael Ahern was born in 1887. Uncle Pad, Patrick was born in 1889. Dan, Daniel Ahern was born in 1891. Their last child, another boy Jeremiah, Uncle Jerh was born in 1892.
A copy of Uncle Jim’s Birth Certificate appears below!
We have established that this family photograph was probably taken between 1911 & 1921. To the right of the picture are two dogs, presumably Harbour View farm dogs, it seems that over the years the Dogs at Harbour view seem to have a habit of being included in the Photographs!
The man in the centre of this picture is my Great Uncle James Ahern (known as Uncle Jim) in the uniform of the South African Mounted Police about 1902. Uncle Jim’s sister is my Maternal Grandmother, Margaret Ahern (Peg), she married my Grandfather Patrick Barry in Ireland in 1911. A copy of this photograph hung in our family home in Sittingbourne for as long as I can remember.
The photograph below was passed to me by one of my cousins in 2022, little did we know that the photograph featured above was a cropped photograph from the original photograph below! I am presuming that the inscription on this photograph was made by my Aunt, Ellen Halewood nee Barry, my father James Patrick Barry’s sister. Ellen’s daughter Mary Halewood kindly gave me this photograph.
The next Photo below was taken at Harbour View, Cork, Ireland, our Ahern’s ancestral home. The man in the hat is Patrick Ahern, James Ahern’s father. Patrick was born about 1847? and lived through the famine. It appears that he either did not know the precise year he was born or had a reason to be vague about his real age!…..The small boy standing next to him is his first Grandson, my father James Patrick Barry. My father was born in Hong Kong in 1913 and had returned to Europe with his mother Margaret Barry, nee Peg Ahern in 1916. his father returned to Europe in 1918 when his overseas service in the Naval Dockyard in Hong Kong had finished and he was waiting for his next overseas posting.
Patrick Ahern with his grandson James Patrick Barry at Harbour View Ireland with Ivy and Terry the dog about 1916.I had the privilege to meet two of Patrick’s sons, my Grandmothers brothers, they both managed to avoid emigration like their father and lived and farmed in Ireland. Jeremiah (Uncle Jerh) born 1891.I met Jerh in 1963 when i was 6 years old on my first visit to Ireland, i probbaly met Patrick (Uncle Pad) who was born in 1887 also in 1963. Indeed I lived with one of them (Uncle Pad) at Harbour View during the summer and autumn months of 1972, 1973 and 1974 . He was then a very old man and had returned to Harbour View his birth place and the farm he had lived and worked as a young man.
Francisco Quiroga known as Panchito
1924 – 1940
For as long as I can remember, part of our family story featured Panchito: the little Bolivian boy who was adopted – well, not exactly legally so – by my mothers dearly loved older brother,’uncle Jim’: the adventurer, the traveller, the enigma, the mysterious uncle whose mystique was enhanced by the Panchito story! His mother died soon after he was born, and she, knowing that Panchito’s father was a ne’erdo well, asked Uncle Jim to care for him. This he did, & brought him up as his own child, not telling Panchito the truth about his birth. In 1933 when I was seven & we were living in Park road in Sittingbourne waiting for 35, London Rd to be built, one summer day Uncle Jim arrived, (as usual for him, giving little notice) bringing with him Panchito. He had decided that he would like him to be educated in Europe, rather than in Bolivia. I remember very little of that visit except that on the morning when our Latin American visitors were due to leave for Ireland I woke up with ‘mumps’. I was not allowed to get up, nor to say ‘good bye’ to Panchito, in case I was infectious. I insisted that I was fine and that the swelling was a result of my having been hit in the neck by a cricket ball when my brother Terry & Panchito & I were playing in the garden the previous evening.
We too, later went to Harbour View as was our wont, where we enjoyed an idyllic summer, one of many, but that of 1933 was a particularly fine one, the days seemed one long spell of sunshine & pure enjoyment. The beginning of September brought a return home for the start of the school year & for the 9 year old Panchito a new life in the Dominican convent in Cabra in Dublin. I recall hearing how he had to be dragged from his father’s arms & how the nuns spread out the skirts of their habits to hide him from the departing figure. Even at the tender age of 7 I felt & ached for him. But I could not fully appreciate the terrible loneliness that must have engulfed the child as he was absorbed into the strange Convent school routine. His father was about to return to La- Paz & in those pre- air travel days the journey was a long one, & letters went by surface mail so it would be many long weeks before Panchito heard from him.
Needless to say Panchito had already endeared himself to his new found Irish family: Uncle Jerh, Auntie Moll, Uncle Pad, my mother (Auntie Peg) & my father, whom he christened Uncle Barry to distinguish him from the other Uncle Pad & also ‘Uncle’ Paddy Coghlan: The latter a cousin & great friend of Uncle Jim’s & later to be his brother in law, when his sister Rita married Uncle Jerh. Panchito loved my brother Terry & later became fond of me, though actually he was very jealous. He put me in a wheelbarrow & delivered me (pretending to be dead & enjoying the fun) to the front door of Harbour View. He went into the house announcing to my mother’ Auntie Peg, your beautiful (heavy sarcasm) daughter is dead’. He had very limited English as Spanish was his first language but he learned fast. We took Panchito to our hearts as did everyone. Terry and I were warned that we were never, on any account, to reveal the fact that his father was not in fact, his father. He adored him & would say ‘My father is king of the world! People may wonder at Panchito’s naivete but we have to remember that he was brought up in a very relaxed atmosphere where my uncle had an extended household. He helped educate & looked after so many people. Panchito’s name was in fact Francisco Quiroga & in Bolivia where the mothers surname is added, e.g. Ellen Ahern Lazarte, his having a different name would not have been strange. In La Paz obviously he had felt loved & secure & I think it was a tremendous testament to the Irish relations that they accepted so readily this little boy from a completely different culture, who therefore sustained this feeling of security in the knowledge that he was truly loved. I learned many years after, that the local gossips among the neighbours had had a field day, convinced that Uncle Jim was Panchitos natural father. In the course of time when Uncle Jim’s offspring did come to Ireland & each one in turn so obviously was an Ahern, bearing no resemblance physically to Panchito, perhaps the gossips regretted their rash judgement.
Back to Panchitos story. He settled into school life. Here he was helped enormously by the support of Paddy Coghlan & his wife, Kathleen who visited him regularly at school & in turn had had him to stay in their home in Dublin. In the holidays of course, he went to Harbour View where his Auntie Moll who loved him as if he were her own son, cherished & supported him. In the summer holidays he, Terry & I enjoyed weeks of happiness. Terry & Panchito being that little bit older than I, had more freedom & were allowed to cycle far afield & to boat & to fish & I envied them.
By 1936 he had moved to Castleknock a boys school in Dublin. That summer Paddy Ahern & his father, Uncle Mick were home from New Jersey USA! For three months so the three boys continued to enjoy what to me seemed an idyllic existence. In those days when rural Ireland was much less sophisticated & when the majority of visitors were Irish/American, English natives returning for holidays, the trio must have appeared as quite a novelty: Terry the ‘English’ boy with his English accent & formal manners; Panchito, the small dark Indian featured boy with an unpronounceable name; & Paddy Ahern (New Jersey) the real American teenager, dressed in ‘plus fours’ & wise cracking with his fast talking patter. Everyone around knew them. They would regularly cycle the 17 miles to Camus to visit Uncle Jerh in his newly acquired farm & they would stop half way for lemonade & biscuits at a small road side shop Mary – Murphy’s. Mary’s greeting was always – ‘Is it east or west?’ Whichever it was, told the whole story.
As the years went on, the link between Panchito & Auntie Moll grew closer & he would make plans for how, when he grew up, they would travel the world. In 1937 like so many of us, he was delighted when Jerh & Rita were married & he was at the wedding of course. I think Uncle Jerh would have liked him to be his best man, but he was just too young.
The next time Panchito saw Uncle Jim was at Christmas 1938. How could any one have foreseen that it would be the last time? Unknown to either Panchito or any of the family, in the meantime, Uncle Jim had married Berta Lazarte & they had a little boy, John, now nearly two years old. Sadly John had a serious fall as a baby & as a result had some brain damage & was unable to speak. Uncle Jim had brought him to the States for treatment, & had left him with his brother (Uncle Mick), Auntie Dinah & Maura & Paddy while Uncle Jim made a quick trip home to see Panchito & tell him his news! Panchito, was by nature very jealous & this news that his father had another family must have been bitter sweet to him. The over-riding belief that his father could do no wrong ensured that Panchito accepted the change in the family structure. I know that he confided some of his misgivings to his Auntie Moll, but his loyalty to his father remained steadfast. Uncle Jim (who never gave any warning of his travels) had called en route to Harbour View at our house in London Road in Sittingbourne.
A knock on the door & there he was! About 3 days before Christmas. I was sent early to bed & he, my father & mother & Jim stayed late into the night talking & hearing about Uncle Jim’s wife & small son! When he left next morning he took Terry with him to spend Christmas at Harbour View. Was I jealous?!? Little did we realise then how short Terry’s & Panchito’s young lives were to be.
During the next school year Panchito, at some date (which I now do not remember accurately) contracted German or maybe Measles, & the school authorities, anxious to clear the infirmary as quickly as possible before whatever holidays were imminent, sent the boys home too early. Panchito, as a result, became very ill, contracted pneumonia & pleurisy. When we arrived for the Summer of 1939 he was confined to bed for the majority of the time & had a resident nurse. He never returned to Castle knock & instead went to live with Uncle Jerh and Rita. He attended the secondary school in Clonakilty – he thought that at the local school Francisco Quiroga was a somewhat difficult name to handle & so he decided to be called Frank Ahern!
Rita’s first baby had been born dead in October 1938, and sadly Panchito did not survive to welcome Patrick Francis born on October 9th 1940. (The Francis was after his maternal grandfather & after Panchito too.)
Panchito’s health deteriorated; by this time he had been diagnosed as having T.B. & after a spell in a sanatorium he returned to Harbour View to die aged 16, on July 30th 1940. By this time the second world war was in progress & efforts by Uncle Jim to get home were thwarted at every step. Everyone was desolate at Panchito’s death but no one more so than Auntie Moll who never really recovered from the trauma of the illness & death of the young boy she had come to love as her own. Travel in wartime was not easy. There was no question of a holiday that year & my parents had been unable to secure travel permits to make the journey to Harbour View. We finally managed to secure permission but only weeks after Panchito’s funeral. My mother & I (my father had to remain at work) spent two weeks at Harbour View: a strong contrast to those previous idyllic summers. By December 1943 Terry too was dead & in May 1945 Auntie Moll followed her two dearly loved nephews. Uncle Pad eventually moved to Camus & Harbour View house was closed and the land let to grazing.
Eventually in 1966 Uncle Jerh’s son Frank Ahern, Camus & his wife, Teresa reopened the house & began to work the farm. Their son Patrick is now taking over the farm. I think that he, along with his brothers and sisters have been happy in the place where once lived a little Bolivian boy, Francisco Quiroga who came to be known (& loved) as Frank Ahern.
Ellen Halewood (Barry)
May 2nd 1998. Newcastle on Tyne
Panchito on Horseback at Harbour View.
Our Grandmother Margaret Ahern, Auntie Peg (My sisters namesake) was born 1st Jan 1882 at Garranefeen. She died in Medway Hospital,Gillingham, Kent, UK, on the 9th January 1959.
Margaret Ahern spent her early years at Harbour View. As a young woman she obtained a position with a Mrs Margaret Buckley in her business premises, 5 Harbour Row Queenstown, (now Cobh) Cork. This was a live-in position and she trained as a milliner. While she was living and working here she met her future husband Patrick Barry who was living and working close by in Queenstown, at the Naval Dockyard Hawlbowline.
She married Patrick Barry who lived in Queenstown Co Cork; they were married in the Catholic Chapel of Kilbrittain Chapel on the 9th July 1911. Her trade according to her wedding certificate states that she was a milliner. Patrick Barry was employed as a Dockyard Clerk by the British Admiralty at the Dockyard at Hawlbowline and soon after they were married he had the opportunity to be posted abroad to the Naval Dockyard in Hong Kong.
My Grandfather, Patrick Barry and my Grandmother Margaret Ahern were married just up the road from Harbour View (My Grandmothers home) in the Catholic Chapel in the small village of Kilbrittain, Co Cork on 9th July 1911. Patrick had presumably, already volunteered or been posted for overseas service with the Admiralty to Hong Kong before his wedding day had been set.
But first, they had to get there. Records show that Patrick Barry travelled on the S.S.Mooltan, a ship belonging to the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company. The Mooltan sailed on the 14th July 1911, departing from the port of London. This was only 5 days after Patrick and Margaret’s wedding, not much of a Honeymoon!
For some reason, my Grandmother, Margaret Barry, nee Ahern did not travel with him at this time but followed him later to Hong Kong.
My Grandmother and Grandfather were living at 1 Togo Terrace, Kennedy Road Hong Kong when their first child was born. James Patrick Barry, my father, born on the 14th January 1913 in Hong Kong. His mother would have been 31 years of age when she gave birth to Dad. Dad’s Hong Kong birth certificate of which he was justifiably proud of, and it amused him and us immensely as it was signed off by the “The Head of the Sanitary Department”!
Peg Ahern, nee Barry with her son Jimmy Barry & husband Patrick Barry in Hong Kong about 1915.
Thursday the 26th June 1919, my 6-year-old father and his parents left Liverpool for Bermuda via New York for my Grandfathers next Dockyard posting. They travelledon the SS Baltic an Ocean Liner of the White Star Line, until 1905 she was the largest ship in the world! The passenger list states that all 3 of them are British Citizens, but as a Race or People they are Irish, and their last permanent residence was London, England. The name and address of their nearest relative were given as P Ahern, Harbour View, Kilbrittain. (My Great Grandfather) The passenger list gives my Grandmothers age as 32 therefore she was apparently born in1887. Peg would never see her father again and Jimmy would not see his Grandfather Patrick Ahern again as he would die in 1922 while they were still in Bermuda.
According to this Death Certifcate of Patrick Ahern, my Great Grandfather, he was 93 when he died and was apparently born in 1829.According to his Marriage record he was born in 1847!
On the 15th September 1925 the “Orbita” a passenger ship of the “Royal Mail Steam Packet Company” arrived in the port of Southampton from Bermuda via New York, they travelled Cabin class and there was an addition to the family, Terence Barry aged 4 who was born in Bermuda on 6th June 1921, his older brother, my father James was now 12 years old. Their mother according to the passenger list was aged 38, which gives her birth year as 1887. Their proposed address was H.M. Dockyard Sheerness where my Grandfather was employed as a clerk. Despite the fact that my father said he had never visited the U.S.A it seems he may have been mistaken, well at the very least he had seen America albeit from a distance at least twice in 6 years!
Peg and Patrick were to have one more child Ellen Barry; she was born 17th June 1926 in Sheerness. Ellen was always a bit miffed that the rest of her family, parents included were all born in either exotic or picturesque places in the world. Peg and Patrick would spend most of the rest of their life mainly in Sittingbourne, but they would regularly holiday in Ireland.
The photo below probably taken in the 1930’s at Harbour View does not for a change appear to contain any dogs, but strangely my father, Jimmy Barry appears to be holding a Chicken or Turkey!!
The Photograph above is the original B&W image taken at the Wedding of Jerh Ahern to Rita Coghlan, November 1937.
The same Photograph, that appears below was kindly Colorised by Ciaran Mulhern & we have managed between us to identify most of the people who appear in this great photo, mainly thanks to Ellen Halewood nee Barry.
Ellen Halewood’s accompanying post card relating to the Photograph above appears below.
Michael
Great uncle Mike’s family feature in the photo. Jack you will have perhaps known or heard of. Son (Michael) NAN. Margaret (Margie) Sullivan. 3 sisters missing (SIS) NELL & Mary. So only Jimmy missing – probably back doing the milking. Colm RIP in front row is Paddy Coghlains eldest son. Just realised only Nolaig survives!
Ellen
Ariel view of Harbour View
Kilbrittain, Co Cork, Ireland c 1978.
The house, farm and land where my Grandmother Margaret Ahern, and my Great
Grandfather Patrick Ahern and his family lived and worked, and where I lived
and worked for a year 1973-1974.
Michael Patrick Barry 2024