Not From The Wind

NOT FROM THE WIND

A Family History

by Colman Rushe

Published by Colman Rushe at Smashwords

Copyright 2014 Colman Rushe

Author website: http://colmanrushe.wordpress.com

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Table of Contents

Preface

Chapter 1 - The 1839 Storm

Chapter 2 - Irish Origins

Chapter 3 - The People

Chapter 4 - Ancient Lifestyle

Chapter 5 - Ansbros in Balla

Chapter 6 - Ansbro Origins

Chapter 7 - The Great Famine

Chapter 8 - Agitation in Mayo

Chapter 9 - The Dwyers

Chapter 10 - Manchester Irish

Chapter 11 - Emigration

Chapter 12 - McManus

Chapter 13 - Lee

Chapter 14 - Manchester Deeds

Chapter 15 - Claddagh

Chapter 16 - Rushe

Chapter 17 - Workhouse Saga

Chapter 18 - Boarding Out

Chapter 19 - Workhouse Rescue

Chapter 20 - Political Unrest

Chapter 21 - Reynolds

Chapter 22 - Rushe in Mayo

Chapter 23 - Railway Encounter

Chapter 24 - Ryans

Chapter 25 - Howards

Chapter 26 - New Rushe Home

Chapter 27 - Dark Clouds

Chapter 28 - Murneen

Chapter 29 - Kelly Strikes

Appendix - Other Family Stories

Ethnoancestry

Links

Bibliography

PREFACE

He that careth not from whence he came, careth little whither he goeth

Daniel Webster.

***

Take care of the living; the dead will take care of themselves.

That was the dismissive reaction of one relative when told that I was compiling a family history. Most people to whom I spoke were reasonably enthusiastic and some were extremely supportive. Nevertheless, genealogy involves exploring the actions of our ancestors and recording the findings with accuracy and honesty. Understandably, this can cause discomfort to some family members. George Bernard Shaw summed this up: The danger of tracing your family tree is that you may find an ancestor hanging from a branch, either by his neck or by his tail.

What can we learn from our predecessors? Should we just leave them to take care of themselves and just get on with our lives? Vona Groarke articulates the doubts in her poem Or To Come :

"The dead know whatever the dead know

and they will have nothing to do with the telling

unless it is an air chanced on a gatepost by a wind

or a chord of water dripping in the well.

There are those who would let every headstone

keep a gap in it. And those who say that names

were meant to escape us; that our ends

should give the slip to all our aims. Who knows?"

When writing about some dramatic incident involving an ancestor, I often found myself wondering: What did he think? or How did she feel? It would be presumptuous to draw any but the most obvious conclusions.

But I consider that we can gain valuable knowledge from the dead by learning about their actions so long as we take account of the social, political and economic climate in which they lived. For this reason, I have tried to give a flavour of their times and some detail of the locations where they resided.

Compiling information about ancestors, and reviewing it in the context of contemporary circumstances, can force us to question our attitudes and opinions. In the past, we Irish regularly portrayed the British as the sole cause of most of our national ills. Of course, they often had a case to answer but our eagerness to point the finger of blame can give us an excuse to avoid taking responsibility and we sometimes abdicate our duty to closely examine our own accountability.

In Ireland, rational debate about the cause and effect of the famine is often stifled by this Blame the Brits approach. However, when examining the population density in pre-famine Leitrim, my curiosity was aroused and I delved further. The population of Ireland in 1841 was 8.18 million and growing rapidly. By 1911, it had fallen to 4.39 million due to famine, disease and emigration. If the Irish population had grown at the same rate as Scotland, we would have numbered 15.7 million by 1911. (In reality, the growth would have been much higher in Ireland due to our Catholic tradition of large families). This number would have been completely unsustainable and, at best, emigration on a much more massive scale would have been necessary. Alternatively, it seems to me, some other natural disaster would have befallen the Irish people. The perception that we would have had no problem if the British had somehow provided food for the population and ceased collecting rent needs to be challenged and debated. Perhaps, by studying our ancestors, we can learn more about ourselves and revise our attitudes.

The people whom we meet in this story were not involved in what is conventionally known as making history. They were not at the forefront when major events were taking place. However, I tend to agree with Bronowski in The Ascent Of Man who stated:

History is not about events but people.

Some of the incidents and traumas which our predecessors experienced are as dramatic and as tragic as the well known national events which occurred during their lifetimes. The manner in which they survived and carried on with their lives shows tremendous fortitude and speaks volumes about the kind of people they were. Their response to the great obstacles placed in their paths speaks to us more eloquently than anything they could have written.

The traditional method of tracing one's origins involved following the male line which gives us our surnames and through which property passed to the next generation. This has too often resulted in a perception that the female line is somehow less relevant. Genetically, intellectually and in terms of our personality and behaviour, we are products of both our parents and of those who raised us. Indeed, it could be argued that the female line has had more impact on us. In past generations, our ancestors spent far more time with their mothers during their formative years and, it seems safe to say, inherited their life values and behaviours from the maternal line. For this reason, I have endeavoured to follow the female lines as well as the male lines in each family.

I have been assembling bits and pieces of information since 1992 when my first tentative moves in this direction were encouraged by my mother and father. The project was put aside for various periods until interest was rekindled by some morsel of information or inquiry. I had many rewarding and a few frustrating days in the Public Registry Office and the National Archive in Dublin. It is difficult to convey the thrill of holding and examining the original Census Form which was handled, sometimes completed and often signed by an ancestor who may have lived through the Great Famine in the 1840s. As a result of the increasing interest in genealogy in more recent years, many of these documents may now only be viewed on photocopy or microfiche. I was privileged to be able to sift through the originals.

I should point out that the ages and dates of birth which I have quoted are based, in many cases, on the Census Forms. This method can lack accuracy because the people often misstated their ages. Some may have done so deliberately and others may not have been certain of their year of birth. In the 1901 Census, it was not unusual for people to round their age up or down to the nearest ten years. Consequently, by the 1911 returns, some persons appear to have aged up to fifteen years in the decade. Another factor was the introduction of the Old Age Pension in 1908. Many people suddenly disclosed that they were born significantly earlier than they had indicated on previous Census returns. Where possible, I have used other sources such as birth and marriage records to verify the information.

Finally, I regard this as a work in progress. New sources of information are becoming accessible regularly. For example, many records are being made available in searchable form on the internet. I am confident that it will be possible to add more detail about the families as time goes on. Of course, the most valuable sources of information have been the recollections and memories of family members. Any further such anecdotes or material would be much appreciated.

My thanks are due to my parents Coleman and Kitty Rushe, John Rush, Sean Rushe (for his notes on his talk with our grandfather), Cecil McGrath and Betty Fox, all of whom gave me information about my side of the family. Equal appreciation is due to Bridget and Pearse Ansbro, Molly McManus, Jim McManus and Liz Glynn for information about Bridget's forebears.

This is dedicated to my children, Stephen and Kathryn: I hope it will help them to understand and be proud of their origins.

Finally, the title comes from an old Irish expression: It wasn't from the wind he (or she) took it. This saying was used by older people when they saw a young person displaying some mannerism, trait or talent which had been inherited from an ancestor. Other winds which blow through this narrative include the Big Wind of 1840, the winds which dictated the fate and prosperity of fishermen, proverbial winds of change in Ireland and England and the allegorical scatterin' wind which dispersed some of the people in this book over three continents.

Colman Rushe

March 2004

***

Addition to the Preface.

Following the printing of the original edition, which I distributed among some family members, my research has continued intermittently. This has been spurred on by the publication of further records and by contacts with various people in person, by email or by letter. It was suggested by my cousin, Kevin Ryan, that I make the book available in ebook form. Before doing this, I decided to do an update in order to reflect the additional information which I had gathered. For example, new research enabled me to significantly expand the segments about the McManus family of Leitrim and the fate of the Ryans of Cappamore.

This edition also incorporates corrections to the original. Incomplete or erroneous information which I received many years ago from local family history sources resulted in some incorrect conclusions. For example, I discovered that there were two John Rushes in Claddagh. One was married to Margaret Tierney and the other, my ancestor, was married to Mary Tierney.

Similar confusion arose with the Ansbros in Balla. I originally searched in the Prison townland for a Thomas Ansbro born in the 1870s who had siblings named Martin, James and John. However, when I visited the area, locals told me that there were two Ansbro families living close by and I revisited my research. I discovered that indeed there were two Ansbro families in the area. James Ansbro and John Ansbro both had children named Thomas, Martin, John and James. (They may have been brothers or cousins which might account for the similarly named children). I have now clearly established that John Ansbro and Rose Cunnane were the parents of Tom Ansbro who went to Manchester.

The original publication included photographs and family trees. There can now be viewed by following the links at the back of this book.

In addition to those mentioned earlier, I would like to thank the following people who gave me further information. Fiona Rushe from Moycullen, Eric Rush from Nebraska, John McManus from Buckinghamshire, Rick Hutton from Idaho, Micheal McGrath from Dublin, Kerry-anne Manning from Australia, Glynne Jones from the UK, Karen Ryan from Australia, Mary O'Donoghue of Dublin, Alan and Dennis Moore from Australia and Liz Glynn of Manchester each contributed to the expanded work.

Since 2004, we have lost Liz Glynn, Frank Kelly, my uncle Johnny Ryan, my father Coleman Rushe and Bridget's mother Kay Ansbro (McManus). All are remembered fondly and are sadly missed.

Colman Rushe

August 2013.

CHAPTER 1 - The 1839 Storm

The Night of the Big Wind

It started on Little Christmas and it lasted until the Day of Judgement. Many thought that it signalled the end of the world and it left a lasting impression on most of the lucky ones who survived it. It devastated the countryside, terrorised the people and even caused the dead to rise.

In Ireland, January 6th, Little Christmas, is also known as Nollaig na mBan (Women's Christmas). In 1839, it fell on a Sunday. It was a bright pleasant morning and there was a light blanket of snow on the ground. As this was traditionally a rest day, people were gaily making preparations for the ceilis and entertainment which were planned for the evening.

By mid afternoon, the temperature had risen and it was unseasonably humid. Even the slightest breeze seemed to fade away and it became curiously calm. A light wind gave temporary relief around 9 pm but, within a short time, this had developed into a howling gale. By midnight, at the start of the day which in Ireland was traditionally associated with Judgement Day, there raged a hurricane which would cause devastation and loss of life throughout the country.

Roofs were blown off houses. Other buildings were also damaged or destroyed. Most of the dwellings were thatched and some merely had the straw blown away. The less fortunate occupants saw the roofs collapse inwards and catch fire. Torrential rains, high tides and the sudden thaw resulted in major flooding. Deaths were caused by collapsing buildings, fires, flash floods, drownings at sea and freak accidents throughout the country. There were also many reports of people being maimed and others were blinded by flying cinders. Hay and oats ricks were blown away as were the winter supplies of turf and firewood. Cattle, sheep and pigs were killed or sustained such severe injuries that they had to be destroyed. Birds, particularly crows and seabirds, suffered terrible damage and indeed crows became almost extinct in some counties as a result of the storm. It was estimated that three million trees were blown down. The dead were raised when, near Belfast, two coffins were exhumed when the gale uprooted trees in a graveyard.

While the reported death toll was a relatively modest 219, this statistic disguised the impact of the tempest. The next major catastrophe to effect Ireland was the Great Famine six years later and this is remembered due to the loss of life it caused. However, as the historian R F Foster points out, more people were made homeless by the Big Wind than lost their homes in 1840-50 during the evictions following the famine.

It is indisputable that