Deighan family from Dublin
James Deighan
1830-1900
O’Connell Bridge and Sackville Street, Dublin, in the late 19C
I know very little about my great grandfather, James Deighan, except what I have learnt from the obituaries that were written about him when he died. The obituary in the Irish Independent said “The funeral cortege was so large and representative as to visibly indicate the high esteem and profound respect in which the deceased gentleman was held alike by rich and poor. His generous heart was such that his purse was always open towards the alleviation of poverty or the sustentation of charity”. I think this says much about his character. I would have liked to have known him. My father never knew his grandfather unfortunately as he was born 13 years after he died, but he was named after him. Even the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Richard Jones, attended the funeral.
He was born about 1830. I’m not certain of where but have recorded it as being in Dublin. My father did tell me the Deighans came from Monaghan so it is possible he was born there. I do not know the names of his parents but will keep researching.
He married Mary Brennan about 1860 but I’m not sure where. Their first child, Maria, was born in 1862 in Dublin. She was known as Cissie. They went on to have four more children; three boys and another daughter. The eldest son, Edward, went to England, married in Liverpool in 1895 and had at least five children. Terence, their second son, was born in 1869. He stayed home, married in 1905 and had one son. My grandfather, William Joseph, was the youngest. He was 18 years younger than Cissie and was closer in age to her eldest children especially since Cissie and her family lived with her parents at least until 1889. James and Mary’s other daughter, Charlotte, died in 1875 of measles at the age of 10 months.
James Deighan 1830 – 1900
Mary Deighan née Brennan 1840 – 1924
In July 1869 the family were living at 32 Philsbro Road, Dublin, as stated on their son’s baptism church record. Then 3 years later they were living at 121 Summerhill, Dublin, where James and the family remained for the rest of his life. In the City Directory of Dublin for 1872 it stated he was a licensed grocer and the secretary of the Licensed Grocers’ and Vintners’ Association attended his funeral. It has been recorded “that Licensed Grocers’ were regarded as successful businessmen and prominent members of the community. Many were financially quite wealthy. Their living quarters above the pub were spacious and well furnished, they employed maids to do the cooking and cleaning, their family were well dressed and highly educated. Their sons often went into the priesthood or medical profession. Many publicans delighted in showing off their horse and trap and seating their family in a prominent pew in church. They became quite active in civic affairs and charitable causes and were known for their generosity” I think this sums up James Deighan for me. His son, my grandfather, became a doctor after studying medicine at Trinity College, Dublin.
James died on 20th January 1900 having been ailing for 40 days with uraemia and he also had subacute gout. His funeral was on 23rd January at the Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin where his brother-in-law, Rev. Edward Brennan, was one of the seven priests officiating.
Children of James Deighan & Mary Brennan:
Maria Deighan 1862 – 1924
Edward Deighan 1865 – 1936
Terence Deighan 1869 – 1923
Charlotte Deighan 1875 – 1875
William Joseph Deighan 1880 – 1936
Sources:
Dublin Pub Life and Lore – An Oral History of Dublin’s Traditional Irish Pubs by Kevin C. Kearns
Legacy Pages for the Deighan family.
William Joseph Deighan
1880-1936
William or Willie as he was known, my paternal grandfather, was born in Dublin on 23rd June 1880 and baptised in St. Mary’s Pro-Cathedral on 24th August. His family lived at 121 Summerhill, Dublin, above a licensed grocer shop his parents owned. He was the youngest of five children and 18 years younger then his elder sister, Cissie (Maria). Cissie lived with her parents, for about four years, after she married Matthew Reilly so Willie grew up with her elder children and must have become fond of their three eldest little girls. He later named his own daughter after the eldest girl, Mary Agnes. He also had two elder brothers, Edward and Terence, and a sister, Charlotte, born five years before him who died when she was 10 months old of measles.
I don’t know which school he attended but he must have done well as he obtained his Matric at the age of 16. He went on to study medicine at Trinity College, Dublin, in 1898 and was registered as a Medical Physician in 1906. He had positions as House Surgeon at Bute Hospital, Aberdare, and House Physician at Jervis Street Hospital, Dublin. My father told me that Willie was the first person in Dublin to have a motorcycle. I noticed, in the 1902 Directory for Dublin, that the well known business Hutton, John & Sons was two doors away from where he lived in Summerhill . They were coach builders, motor car factors and cycle agents! Maybe this is where he bought his motorcycle.
William Joseph Deighan 1880 – 1936
In 1908, in the Pro Cathedral, he married Mary Margaret (Maud) Murphy from Christendom, Waterford. His uncle, Rev. Edward Brennan, married them and the witnesses were his cousin William Silke and Maud’s sister, Kitty. Later that year they moved to Greenwich, London, where their first son, William Joseph Gerard, was born in February 1909. I’m not sure where he was working but the census in April 1911 found the family living in Calvert Avenue, Shoredich. His mother was visiting the family at this time. Between 1908 and 1911 his mother and sister mortgaged their property so as to help him by a medical practice. They lent him £745. In March 1913 the family was living in Clapton, Hackney. My father, James Eric (known as Eric), was born here.
Mary Margaret (Maud) Murphy 1984 – 1955 (taken about 1902)
St. Mary’s Pro-Cathedral in Dublin, taken in 1993
Marriage certificate of Willie Deighan and Maud Murphy on 8th January 1908
William Joseph Gerard 1909 – 1976
In 1915 he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps with the rank of Lieutenant and wrote his will on 19th July 1915 on notepaper from the East Anglican Casualty Clearing Station. He must have written it while on leave as his niece, Eileen Reilly, was a witness.
He must have known he was to be sent to Gallipoli. He was promoted to Captain before leaving. On 28th July 1915 the Royal Edward, a passenger liner, which had been commandeered as a troop ship, sailed from Plymouth for the Dardanelles. The ship called in at Malta and here he sent a post card, with a picture of a donkey and cart, to my father, who was nearly 2½, with “love from Daddy” on the back.
Next the ship arrived in Alexandria on 10th August where it docked next to the troopship Alnwick Castle which was carrying Australian and New Zealand troops. The Royal Edward left on 12th bound for the Isle of Lemnos, the base for operation on the Gallipoli Peninsula. On 13th August it was steaming north and about mid-morning the ship was struck by a torpedo. The troops on the Alnwick Castle, which the Royal Edward had passed earlier, saw a splash of spray near the stern. Within minutes the ship dipped suddenly and very soon one of the funnels was under water. Many of those on board did not have their lifebelts with them and tried to go below to their bunks to get them while others were trying to get on deck so there was real panic on board. Some lifeboats were launched but there was chaos as some could not be launched, due to the listing of the ship, so officers ordered men to jump. It was 4 to 5 hours before the Soudan, a hospital ship that had passed the Royal Edward earlier, on route to Alexandria, arrived to help the survivors having received the Royal Edward’s wireless operator’s last signals. The Soudan took a couple of hours picking up men in the lifeboats and in the sea. Willie was one of the lucky ones and survived but the long time spent in the sea, before being rescued, greatly affected his health. About 1000 men were lost with about 600 being saved.
It must have been a terrible experience to go through. He was taken back to Alexandria and then back to England. He was discharged from the army on 11th April 1917 and later awarded the Silver War Badge, Victory and British War Medals.
R.M.S. Royal Edward
Post card from Malta – August 1915
He returned to Clapton Square and was in partnership with a Dr Smyth in ‘Deighan & Smyth’. In 1919 he moved the family to Woodside Grange Road, Finchley, and his daughter, Dorothy Mary Agnes, was born in January 1920. He then decided to move back to Dublin about 1921. Whilst in Ireland he sat for more qualifications. The family lived at 2 Avoca Terrace, Blackrock. I was told, but cannot remember by whom, that the family had to leave urgently, about 1925, after a group of men came looking for him. I believe it was to do with the Civil War in the Republic and may be was because he had been in the British Army.
He took the family back to London and about 1926 bought a practice at 78 West End Lane, West Hampstead. He also had a practice at 82 Harley Street, London.
He took the children on holidays to France and Cornwall but Maud stayed in London.
He practiced for ten years but in the last six months of his life his health was failing. On 24 August 1936 he died of chronic nephritis, hypertension and tubercular epididymitis. He was 56 and told my father that the length of time he was in the sea water, twenty years earlier, contributed to his condition. A Requiem Mass was held for him at the Church of the Sacred Heart, Quex Road, Kilburn and he was buried in Hampstead Cemetery.
He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine and the Royal Academy of Medicine of Ireland and a Member of the British Medical Association. He also was an Anesthetist at Hackney L.L.C. School Treatment Centre and at Battersea General Hospital, Medical Officer at the Infant Welfare Clinic Harlesden, formally Deputy Commissioner of Medical Services at the Ministry of Pensions and a Specialist on the Ministry of Pensions Medical Board (Metropolitan Area)
Willie and Maud Deighan with their sons Gerard and Eric taken about 1914.
Gerard and Eric Deighan about 1917
Willie Deighan with Eric, Dorothy and friends in Dijon, France about 1928
Dorothy M A Harvey née Deighan 1920-2013
Children of William Deighan & Mary Margaret Murphy:
William Joseph Gerard Deighan 1909 – 1976
James Eric Deighan 1913 – 1976
Dorothy Mary Agnes Deighan 1920 – 2013
Sources:
The Irish Times – Past Imperfect www.irishtimes.com>motors
The Times dated 18th August 1915
www.royaledward.net
Hampstead and Highgate Express. Dated Saturday 28 August 1936
Legacy pages for Deighan family