filíocht na Gaeilge Research Papers (original) (raw)

This essay is a study of what would appear to be the only surviving original letter written by Pádraig Phiarais Cúndún (1777-1857), whose correspondence from Deerfield, Uttica in New York state is of widespread interest. The letter was written 1823 three years before Cúndún left for America and is the only letter of his extant: Maynooth C. 93 (e) ff. 35-6 (Russell Library). It was owned by Eugene O'Curry (1794-1862)at one stage. The letters sent by Cúndún from Utica to his home area of Ballymacoda, County Cork were edited and published by Risteárd Ó Foghludha in his book, Pádraig Phiarais Cúndún 1777-1856 (Baile Átha Cliath 1932). The originals of the letters are now lost. The Ó Foghludha volume also contains poetry composed by Cúndún: the poetry and letters are closely connected.

The letter which is the subject of this essay was written 1823, three years before Cúndún left for America and is now catalogued as Maynooth C. 93 (e) ff. 35-6 (Russell Library, Maynooth University, Ireland).
The letter, ‒ written to Cáit Graídhin/ Kate Green(e), Ballylarkin, Callan ‒ is chatty in tone and says ‘Ata fhios aige an tteachtaire i. Uilliam Graídhin ca bhfuil do chuid trusgáin... [the messenger William Green(e) knows where your furniture is to be found.’] It presumes acquaintance with various people in Cúndún’s native area, Ballymacoda, Co. Cork. He mentions one man by his nickname, ‘Maitias an Mhéaradh,’ which would indicate close local knowledge. Also concerning property in some way is the sentence ‘Déanthadsa mar adúbhart tú liom a dtaobh na nídhthe sin aige Mícheal Ó Hige...’, [I will do as you said to me concerning those things that Michael Hickey has]. Cúndún says that ‘is iomdha sgéal triobulóideach ar mhoran dona comharsain’ [many of the neighbours have troublesome stories to tell]. These trouble concern tenancy and land issues.

The letter is on a single page with a seal. The obverse side has the name of the addressee: ‘Chum Cáit Graídhin a mbaile Ui Larcáin lámh re Callainn’ [to Kate Green in Ballylarkin near Callan] and that of the Callan diarist Amhlaoibh Ó Súilleabháin/Humphrey O’Sullivan with the date ‘August 2nd. 1825’ attached to the name of the latter. Therefore, Ó Súilleabháin had the letter by that date.

Amhlaoibh Ó Súilleabháin/Humphrey O’Sullivan is also mentioned in the body of the letter:

Ceiliúraim duit ní a dearamad Mhaghaisdir Graídhin na Amhlaoibh Ui Shúiliobhain atáim ann so gan nios mó do rádh leó na mar adeirim acht ata iomurca dithionuis orm mar ata an teachtaire ag imeacht
- - -

mo bheannocht chum Mághaisdir Graídhin
mo bheanocht da mhnaoi do ghnáith
mo bheanocht chum leaghthóir na Laoi
flaith eagnach íoguir áig –

Padraic Cúndún

Seana Choill abpuroisde (sic) Bhaile Mhacóda laimh re hEóchuil
an daradh la fidhcead do n (sic) mí seo Guine no June 1823.

[Greetings to you not forgetting Master Green(e) or Humphrey O’Sullivan not that I am forgetting them while not saying anything more to them, but as I say I am in too much of a hurry as the messenger is departing

Mo blessing to Master Green
My blessing to his wife
My blessing to the reader of the (river) Lee
The sensitive, eager, brave prince

Pádraig Cúndún

Shanakill in Ballymacoda parish near to Youghal
22nd June 1823]

(I’m not sure what is referred to in: My blessing to the reader of the Lee/
the sensitive eager brave prince)

The relationship between Kate and William is not clarified but as they were both adults in 1823 she is likely to have been a sister who came to live with them as a ‘visitor,’ as they are described in the 1841 census, although she may have been otherwise related. The census also refers to them as ‘a class in Ireland which is frequently dependent.’

Although they were in many ways dependent, such women were useful on a labour-intensive farm. A book published in 1963 may be an anachronism in the context, but nonetheless, the ethnoautobiography from Newcastle, Co. Tipperary, An gleann agus a raibh ann has a very positive account of such a person:

‘M’aintín ba mhó a bhíodh timpeall gnóthaí an tí i gcónaí... Deirfiúr do m’athair ba ea m’aintín Máire... dá mhéad an smacht a bhí ag m’aintín orm bhí an-chion agam uirthi, agus nuair a bhínn i bponc nó i dtrioblóid éigin neamhghnách is chuici a rithinn le mo scéal agus ní chun mo mháthar.’

[My aunt was the one who was always engaged in housework... my aunt Máire was my father’s sister... however, even though my aunt had a great deal of control over me, I was still very fond of her, and any time I was in a fix or in some unusual kind of bother it was to her I would run with my story and not to my mother.]

This is the description of the Green(e) family holding in Griffith’s Valuation, which was completed in Kilkenny in 1853:

Name of townland:
Moanmore Commons

Name of immediate lessers:
John Greene

Description of tenement:
Free

Content of land:
1 acre 2 roods 23 perches

Net annual value of land:
£0 15 0

Net annual value of buildings:
-

Total annual value:
£0 15 0

In 1872-3 ‘Catherine Green, Ballylarkin, Callan’ had full ownership of a farm of 5a. 6r. 5 p, valued at £2-5-0. This may have been a consequence of ‘acute subdivision of holdings’ and/or she may have had land rented besides. ‘Catherine Greene... farmer... widow,’ was still head of the family in 1901, aged 65. Her house was ‘second class’ and consisted of four rooms at ‘Scotsbo, Ballylarkin.’ Many of her family emigrated to America.

Amhlaoibh Ó Súilleabháin/Humphrey O’Sullivan had land rented at Baile an Bhailéisigh (Molassy), next to Ballylarkin and had planted potatoes there, so it is not difficult to see how he and the Green(e)s might be acquainted.

He has this entry in his diary for 31-10-1827:

Do bhaineadar beirt fear aon bharille deag potataoi dhomh o maidin go tri a clog um thrathnóna, ar se áireamh deag talmhan i móinteán bocht Eadhmuind Mic Craith laimh le Mulaise: sgilling d’fhearaibh, dá tuistiún do mhnáibh

[Two men dug eleven barrels of potatoes for me this morning till three o’clock in the afternoon out of 320 yds. of land in Edmond McGrath’s poor moor near Molassy: a shilling to men; eight pence to women.]

The Green(e)s are likely to have been in Ballylarkin before 1823. The following inscription is to be found in Kilbride graveyard, near Callan:
Erected by Edmund Dwire in memory of his father James Dwire who dep… March 14th 1807 aged 76 yrs. Also his daughter Catherine Green alias Dwire died Jan. 17th 1819 aged 20 yrs. And his daughter Mary Shea alias Dwire died 25th Jan. 1819 18 yrs. Also her father Edmund Dwire of Ballylarkin who dept… 25th Oct. 1829 aged 68 yrs.

The Dwire and Green(e) families were neighbours.

Catherine Green(e) of the 1901 census was the last person with that surname to hold the farm. The family was subsequently known as Tyrrell and the man who now lives on the farm told me that they originally came from south-west Waterford or thereabouts and that there was a family grave in St. Agustine’s church, Abbeysisde, Dungarvan. I found the grave and it had this inscription:

ERECTED BY

MRS. KATE GREENE

OF BALLYLARKIN

CO. KILKENNY

IN MEMORY OF HER FOND

HUSBAND

MR. JOHN GREENE

WHO DIED

1ST. JANUARY

1870 AGED 44 YEARS

Pure be the earth above thee
Consort of my happy days
None knew thee but to love thee
And named thee but to praise

Requiescat in pace

Also her son

JOHN

who died Novr 19th 1889

in the 23rd year

of his age

on whose soul

sweet JESUS have mercy

This John (ob. 1-1-1870), buried in Abbeyside, was a son of William Green and Margaret Tracy and was baptised in Callan on 28-7-1824. (The ‘forty four years’ above is slightly inaccurate.) Abbeyside is about forty kilometres from Shanakill, Ballymacoda so, although not immediately close, contact by land or sea between families in the two places is not inconceivable.

It is possible that the Green(e)s were originally O’Sullivans, ‘the most numerous surname in Munster.’ It attracted what MacLysaght calls agnomen forms:

Green(e) This well-known English name does duty in Ireland for a number of Irish names, see Houneen, MacGreen, Fahy, MacAlesher, MacGlashan, Greenan and Guerin. It is also an O’Sullivan agnomen, glas.

The purpose of my essay is to establish who Cáit Graídhin/ Kate Green(e) was, where she came from, why she was in Ballylarkin and why Cúndún might have been writing to her. The secondary standing of ordinary women at the time means that most of my account is contextual.