Brennan family from Laois or Queen's County, Ireland
Black spot marks Arles
Mary Deighan née Brennan abt 1841-1924
Mary Brennan
1841-1924
Mary Deighan née Brennan, my great grandmother, was born about 1841 in the Parish of Arles in Laois, Ireland, which is also known as Queen’s County. I have not yet been able to find a record of her baptism and hence her parents but I suspect her parents may be William Brennan and Mary Walsh.
I know she had two brothers, Denis and Edward, as they attended her husband’s funeral and were described as brothers-in-law of her husband. I have not found any records for her brother’s baptisms either. She had a sister Anne (Annie) who married Thomas Lee and they are both buried in the same grave as Mary and her family members. Also Anne’s baptism shows her parents as William Brennan and Mary Walsh.
The 1911 census shows Denis Brennan with his wife, Bridget, and a child, Mary, who was five years old. The census states that Denis and Bridget had been married 13 years which means they were married about 1898 and he was about 29 years older than Bridget. I have not been able to find any record of their marriage so far. Denis was a farmer and lived in Woodlands, Queen’s County.
Edward Brennan became a priest and officiated at his brother-in-law’s funeral along with six other priests. He served as parish priest in Mountrath, Laois, for 45 years from 1884 to 1929. When the 1911 census was taken he was living at 12 Cook Street and had a visitor, Annie Carey, staying with him, who I believe was his niece. The obituary for James Deighan mentioned other brothers-in-law one of whom was a Patrick Carey of Tomanerin, Co. Wicklow. In the 1901 census for that place I found a Patrick Carey there with his wife, Margaret, who I believe was Mary’s younger sister. Patrick and Margaret had 12 children and Annie was the fifth child and second daughter. Margaret was born about 1865. To date I cannot find the baptisms of Patrick and Margaret’s children but they are all registered as being born in Rathdrum, Wicklow. Rev. Edward Brennan also married Mary’s son, William Joseph Deighan, in 1908 in the Pro-Cathedral, Dublin.
Another brother-in-law at the funeral was Gerald Byrne of Linkardstown, Carlow. In the 1901 census I found him and his wife, Julia, with four children and another child, age 3, recorded as a visitor and born in Dublin. Her name was Eileen Reilly who I believe was Mary’s granddaughter. Mary’s eldest daughter, Maria known as Cissie, who married Matthew Reilly, had a daughter Eileen who would have been 3 and is not recorded as being with her parents on census night. So I’m sure that Gerald’s wife, Julia, is another of Mary’s sisters. She was born about 1851.
Mary married James Deighan about 1860. Maria, or Cissie as she was known, was born in 1862. She was their first child. Mary had four more children of whom the youngest, William Joseph or Willie, was my grandfather. She had him when she was 40 years and he was 18 years younger than his eldest sibling, Cissie. She also lost a child, Charlotte, at the age of 10 months to measles which must have been very hard. She would have helped James in the grocer shop/pub in Summerhill, Dublin, and took over after he died with the assistance of her son, Terence. The 1901 census records her as employing two people. Also her grandson, Charles Reilly, was staying there.
Between 1908 and 1911, I believe she sold the property in Summerhill and possibly helped Terence and his wife to move to Wexford while she and Cissie, who was now a widow, bought a property at 2 Summerville Park, Rathmines, Dublin. Sometime later she and Cissie mortgaged their property to lend £745 to her son, Willie, so he could buy a medical practice in London. He recorded this in the will he wrote in July 1915 that this debt was to be repaid to his “darling mother” upon his death.
When the 1911 census was taken she was visiting Willie and his family in Shoredich, London, where he was working as a doctor. She again visited the family about 1917 as there is a photograph of her with the family.
In August 1923 her second son, Terence, died and was buried in the same grave as his father, sister Charlotte and his brother-in-law Matthew Reilly, Cissie’s husband. On 3rd May 1916 she was recorded as being a sponser or godmother to Brendan Connellan, her great grandson and Cissie’s grandson, when he was baptised at Terenure, Dublin. Cissie’s daughter, Gretta, married a Joseph Connellan.
Mary died on 6th July 1924 and was buried in the same grave as James and other family members at Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin.
This is ongoing research.
1901 Census showing Mary living with her sons Terence and William. Also Charles Reilly, her 10 year old grandson, was visiting.
Mary Deighan née Brennan with her son, Willie, his wife, Maud, and her grandsons Gerard and Eric … taken about 1917.
Mary Deighan, née Brennan, with a Deighan grandchild. Date unknown.
Children of James Deighan and Mary Brennan:
Maria Deighan 1862 – 1924
Edward Deighan 1865 – 1936
Terence Deighan 1869 – 1923
Charlotte Deighan 1875 – 1875
William Joseph Deighan 1880 – 1936
Sources:
Legacy pages for the Deighan family