Tribute to the late Timothy Murphy, Castleisland

The committee of Castleisland District Heritage has been greatly saddened to learn of the death, on 7 March 2023, of Timothy Murphy, Limerick Road, Castleisland.  Timothy had a passionate interest in the local history of Castleisland, and his photographic record of the town is extensive.

 

Timothy was a friend of Castleisland District Heritage, and shared his knowledge and archive with us.  During the past years, we had collaborated on various projects including an article about the life of his namesake, Timothy ‘Mutt’ Murphy (no relation).[1]

 

Timothy was every inch a professional and a gentleman.  He had been putting the finishing touches to an article for our Project Main Street, an initiative to document the history of all Main Street properties.[2]  Timothy’s grandfather, Timothy Hickey Murphy, founded T H Murphy Ltd at 84 Main Street circa 1907.

 

We have decided to publish Timothy’s article about his grandfather’s business to mark not only the occasion of Timothy’s lamented death, but his wonderful achievements in life, and the worthy and lasting contributions he has bequeathed to local history.

 

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.

 

John Roche
Chairman
Castleisland District Heritage

___________________________

 

T. H. Murphy Ltd
By Timothy Murphy

 

The hardware and builders’ providers business of T.H. Murphy Ltd was established by Timothy Hickey Murphy at No. 84 Main Street, Castleisland.  The census of 1911 shows T.H. Murphy and Julia Murphy to be residing at Main Street, Castleisland.  In the column “Occupation” he has entered “Timber Merchant and Hardware.”

 

The business traded as T.H. Murphy and promoted itself as “General Grocer.”  It dealt in Provisions, Hardware, Timber, Glass, Paints, Oils, Ironmongery, Cement and Manure Stores, with a Saw Mill on the premises.  I started working in the business in 1964.

 

T H Murphy, 84 Main Street: The three-storey premises can be seen to the left of the photograph in the centre.  The advertisement (right) appeared regularly in The Taxpayers’ News in the 50s and 60s Images © Timothy Murphy

 

Provisions

My memory of the layout of the shop at that time was completely different to what we see in most shops now.  When one walked off the Main Street the counter was at the left-hand side, and it ran the full length of the shop from the front right to the back wall.  At the front of the shop was the provisions section.  My memory of products that were sold is Capital (brand) tea, half stone bags of sugar (the sugar was delivered to the shop in one cwt bags and had to be weighed out one-by-one into the paper bags), and a range of house cleaning products.  Also cigarettes – Gold Flake, Sweet Aftons, and Woodbines.  Garryowen tobacco came in a long bar, about 12ins long, and had to be cut into sections using a bow shaped knife.  A customer would ask for a “half-quart” of tobacco.  That would be one section.

 

Women

When it came to paying, some female customers would take a blue coloured air-mail envelope from their purse and extract dollar bills from it to pay for their shopping – a letter from a family member in America.  Exchange rate at the time was par.  Dollar and Sterling (no euro currency then) being of equal value.

 

Men

When it came to paying, some of the older men would turn their back to the counter to take out their purse containing their money.  They did not want anybody to see how much it contained – a hang-over from paying the rent to the Landlord’s agent

 

Shop Layout

At the front of the shop, on the right hand side were the garden and flower sections.  At the appropriate season of the year there would be a stand with packets of every kind of garden vegetable imaginable.  There was also a stand with packets of every kind of flower seed imaginable.  There were onion sets and shallots (onions).  Also, seasonal, rose-tree shrubs.  There was a section comprising of small wooden drawers where loose vegetable seed was kept – different varieties of cabbage seed (eg.Greyhound, York, to name a few), lettuce (e.g. loose leaf lettuce). carrot, parsnip, turnip, etc.  The seed was sold loose, and each customer’s requirements had to be weighed on a weighing scale and placed into a small brown paper bag.  It was a small-sized copper coloured scales.

 

Underneath the back of the counter there were timber drawers for nails.  The nails were delivered in 4st boxes and the contents of each box were emptied into the appropriate nail drawer – 2ins nails into its appropriate drawer and all the way up to 6ins nails.  Again all customers’ requirements had to be weighed out – e.g. 7lbs of 4in nails.  Then there was sprigs (nails with a small head), and there were horse shoe nails – nos. 6, 7 and 8.  Also available were horse shoes, and studs.

 

Electrical items

1.5 and 2.5 cables, plugs, sockets, batten holders, switches, fuses, etc. All the requirements for a house.

 

Pig rings

Pigs were a great means of supplementing a household income.  They were cheap to feed as household waste would suffice.  To cater to this need pig rings and sow rings were sold.  Also pig ringers.

 

Seeds

At the end of the shop was the section for the hay seed.  The seed would be delivered in 8st bags and then emptied into galvanized drums that were placed along the end wall.  There were perennials (eg.S23 and Timothy) and clovers (e.g. White Clover).  The farmer would come in with his list of requirements, supplied by the local agricultural advisory officer who would be familiar with the soil type in the farmer’s farm, and each seed type would have to be weighed-out and placed into brown paper bags for each customer.

 

Each hardware shop that dealt in the sale of seeds had seeds barrows for spreading the seed.  These were let out, on loan, with no cover charge, to any farmer who would buy the seed from that particular shop – a source of problems during the spring time as everyone seemed to want the seed barrow on the same day.  It might be given to a certain customer with the understanding that he delivered it to a certain named neighbour when he had finished with it – which did not always happen.  Many are the time that a van had to be dispatched from the shop, collect the barrow, and delivered to the next customer.  There was also a smaller type seed sewing machine for the planting of the seeds in garden ridges.  Small enough to travel along the top of the ridge and drop-down the seed as it travelled along.

 

The business also catered to the fertiliser needs of the farmer.  The term that was used at the time was manure.  The business sold super, sulphate and potash.  There was no such thing in those days as Net Nitrogen, 0.10.20. or 10.10.20 and all the other mixtures that are on the market now for specific purposes.  The products were collected by lorry from the Goulding’s factory in Cork and then delivered to the customer, as required.  A product named slag was also sold.  This was imported from abroad and arrived in to County Kerry through the port of Fenit.  Lorries had to travel back to Fenit to collect it off the boat.  It was a black dirty product to handle.

 

Paints

There was a section for paint.  The major sellers of the day were Uno, Halls Distemper, and Snowcem.  All kinds of wood stains and varnishes were also sold.  Also used to paint houses and walls was yellow ochre.  Another means of decorating the outside of houses, outside walls, and outhouses was lime using a lime mix.  People would purchase a one stone bag of hydrated lime (again weighed out from a 4st bag), mix the lime with water and make the mixture.  There was a special brush made for painting this mix – a lime wash brush.  There a wide range of different types and colours of wall paper also available.

 

Gold leaf paper was also stocked.  Whenever a business put a fascia board containing its name across the front of the building the details were inserted as follows:  The timber was cut to size to fit across the front of the building.  Then every letter of the name would be measured out and marked with a pencil.  Every single letter then would be gouged out by the carpenter with a hammer and a special gouge chisel.  Then up to the shop for a box of the gold leaf paper.  The paper was placed bit by bit into the spaces that were gouged out.  Then measurements were taken again and panes of glass to cover the entire fascia board were put in place.  No readymade plastic signs in those days.

 

Hardware section

The hardware section was a truly amazing place with the wide variety of goods and products available.  For sale was a wide variety of pikes, shovels, brushes, spades, sleans, and all kinds of other farm yard and garden tools and implements, as well as Stanley tools and Diston hand saws.  Made to last.  Not disposable.

 

There was a shelf for wood screws.  Every size from a half-an-inch to 4in and all different thicknesses.  Nos 4, 6, and 8.  A customer might request one dozen 1ins. No 6 screws.  Just take down the box and count them out.  Nowadays all pre-packed.

 

In the section for the Tilly oil lamps there was a range of spare parts in case of need – burner, cock control, pump, vaporiser, wick, globe, and a special small glass container for the methylated spirits, in which was placed the thongs, to allow it to soak, to light the lamp.

 

There was the section for water fittings.  All the material at the time was in copper.  The trade name of the leader in the manufacture of the copper fittings was “Sambo”.  The shop kept the full range of these fittings as well as the half-inch and three quarter inch copper piping.  The shop also stocked wash-hand basins, toilet cisterns and bowels, and bathroom baths.

 

Sewer pipes

For all waste to leave a house, like now-a-days, a sewer was needed.  The sewer pipes at the time were glazed earthenware pipes each 3ft long with a flange on it to connect it to the next pipe.  The connection was then sealed with a rope called tar gaskin – a dirty sticky product to handle.  Nowadays 20 ft lengths of plastic pipe are used joined together with a straight connector and sealed with a rubber ring.

 

Flue Liners

To build the chimney in each house earthenware flue liners were used, each one a foot long. The chimney was built up along foot by foot placing the flue liners in place.  Sized 8” and 9”.  Now, to comply with building regulations for new houses, chimneys are not allowed as the burning of all fossil fuels is banned.

 

Oil and Glass Store

Behind the shop was what we called the oil store.  There were kept barrels of oil.  There was paraffin, methylated spirits, and boiled oil, to name a few.  The paraffin and the methylated spirits were kept in 25 gallon steel barrels with a tap on each one.  A customer would ask for a gallon of paraffin and it would be filled out of the barrel.  A customer would ask for a pint of methylated spirits.  It would be filled out of the barrel.  In those days a lot of rural parts of the country did not have electricity and they depended on oil equipment, lamps, heaters, in some cases stoves and ovens for everyday living.

 

The boiled oil was used to mix with red lead powder to make red lead paint.  This paint was used by carpenters and carriage makers to paint the newly manufactured horse’s cart.  It was a bright red and there was no better paint to preserve the timber of a cart.

 

Behind the oil store was the glass store.  Here glass was cut to size, as required.  The different types of glass that were generally available were: 24oz and 32oz plain window glass, reeded glass – broad reed and narrow reed, hammered glass (like with bubbles), and then for security there was reinforced wired glass.  Also mirror glass. Timber windows were made in joinery workshops, but the glass was not supplied.  So if a new house was being built all the windows would be delivered into the glass store, each pane measured separately, and the glass cut to size for each one.

 

Coffins

There was a section in this store where items for making a coffin were kept.  When a person died the custom was that a local carpenter would be requested to make the coffin.  To cater for this need the shop sold a number of the items necessary to make a coffin.  The coffin sides, the coffin ends, the lining, the furniture (the coffin plate, the cross, and the handles). The base and the cover were obtained elsewhere.

 

Saw Mills

Material for the making of a sash window.  Every window, regardless of where it was being used, had to be made by hand by a carpenter.  Material required was as follows:  2” x 2” sash for the sides and top of a pane – 2½” x 1½” bottom-of-the-top meeting bar – 2½”x 1½” top-of-the bottom meeting bar – 3”x 2” bottom sash.  If the window was to be divided 2”x 1” centre bar would be required.  To place the window in the opening 5”x 2” box window frame would be required.  In the bigger, heavy sash windows steel weights would be required to go behind the box timber frame.  A pulley wheel would be placed at the top of the box window frame, a special sash cord would then be tied to the steel weight, run through the pulley, and secured to the window.  The steel weight had to be the weight (approx) of the window.  All of this made the sliding up and down of the sash windows much easier.  The window was held in place with special sections of timber called, appropriately enough, window stops.

 

Having made the frame and the window it next had to be measured up for glass.  The window opening was lined with putty, and the glass was beaded in on top of the putty.  The glass was then held in place with other special sections of timber called parting beads.  All the work of mortising the items together was hand done – hammer and chisel.  Then to keep the sashes locked in the position a sash fastener was fitted.  Then a window sill board was fitted on the inside of the window.

 

All of this to make one window.  Nowadays there are joinery factories that produce timber and aluminium windows, with the glass fitted, all ready to be installed where required.

 

Putty

Putty was delivered in 4st steel drums, soaked in linseed oil to keep it soft.  A customer might ask for a half stone of putty.  Go to the drum and weight it out, loose.  With the linseed oil, a desperate messy job.  Now it comes pre-packed.

 

Material for the Making of a Pony’s Car

First of all the material had to be acquired, timber.  The men working in the saw mill would be dispatched out to the forest in Mount Eagle, Brosna to cut down trees.  No chain saws only cross cut saws.  The trunks then rolled onto a lorry with planks and brought into the yard.  No lorry hoists.  In the saw mill there was a special saw called a rack bench, 40ft long.  There was a 6ft diameter saw blade placed in the centre of the bench, 20ft of the bench on either side of the blade.  A tree log was hauled into the saw mill and placed on the bench.  The bench was placed on rollers and it was moved forward by turning a handle (a strong back required).  While the tree was going through the saw there were two men in attendance behind the blade – one to throw paraffin oil on the blade to keep it from overheating, and the second man stood so that when the cut in the log appeared he drove steel wedges through the cut to keep the timber from squeezing on the blade.  The tree would be sliced into planks of wood in this fashion, 1”, 2”, and 3”, thick depending on requirements.

 

Then the planks were cut to the required width in the rip saw, a saw with a 5” blade.  When cut, each plank was then marked out with a pencil as to what it was to be cut-up for.  To make a horse’s car the following would be required:  fellows to make the wheel.  The size of each fellow was marked exactly on the plank using a template.  There would be different size wheels, and templates used depending on what size wheel was required for  a horse’s car, a donkey’s car, etc.  It was not the case of one size fits all.  Then there were shafts, hub, axle, side guard rails, and the rails.  Other items that would be made from the planks would be grass boards and tumbling paddy teeth.

 

Band Saw

Each item was cut to shape as marked, one by one – spokes, fellows, grass board, treadles, ploughing quoins, hay skitter teeth, side trees and spade trees  All of the items were then cut to the required shape on the band saw.  There could be panic during the summer time.  A farmer out cutting hay with his mowing machine.  Bang.  The mowing bar might hit a stone in the ground and break the grass board.  Drop everything, all the work stopped, and go as fast as possible into T.H.’s to get a replacement grass board.

 

Railway Station

The train was the principal means by which most goods were delivered to the town.  They were brought in by train and then delivered to the customers by lorry, owned and driven by Jerh Dee Horan, Castleview.  Jerh’s father performed this service before him, with a pony and car.  The last train left the town in November 1976.  Nowadays most deliveries are done by couriers.

 

Cement

This product was delivered to Castleisland by train to the railway station – 12 tons (240 bags) in each wagon.  The product was loaded onto a lorry and brought up to a store in the yard where it was unloaded and kept until required.  It might be collected from the store by a customer, or if there was a bigger quantity required, loaded onto a lorry and delivered to the customer.  Handled three times.  No fork-lift trucks.  All this handling now history.  Mostly ready-mix cement now.

 

Crushing Mill

This was where oats and barley were crushed into a fine powder so that it could be fed to farm animals by farmers.

 

Staff

The old staff that I can remember that were working in the builder’s providers yard when I started working in the business were Bill Kerins, Tralee Road; Jack Shea, Killally; Danny Horan, Castleview; Sonny O’Mahony, College Road; Patie O’Connor, Limerick Road; Tommy O’Sullivan, Desmond’s Avenue and ‘Buddy’ Barry, Church Street, to name but a few.

 

Deliveries

Deliveries of all the building material to customers was made by a lorry that the business owned, and the delivery of small items was made by a small pick-up truck.  The truck driver was the above named Sonny O’Mahony and he was later replaced by Paddy O’Connor.  Paddy was known far and wide as ‘More Power.’

 

Town deliveries

For deliveries in the town the business used a horse and cart – there was a stable at the back of the builders’ providers’ yard to house the horse.

 

Fuel

As well as building material the business also dealt in the sale of coal and briquettes.  In addition to its business of coal and briquettes the business took on a new product that arrived in the Irish market.  Bottled gas.

 

T H Murphy: Early Years in South Africa

 

Prior to setting up in business in Main Street, T. H. Murphy had lived overseas as far afield as South Africa.  From documents in the possession of the family, including a map of a gold-mine, he appears to have invested in Heslop’s Creek (or Hislop’s Creek) in the De Kaap Goldfields during the gold prospecting era of the 1880s and 1890s.[3]  Certainly he sold shares in Dublin in 1907, in all probability to help finance his new business venture in Castleisland.

 

Crown Waterrecht map (left) held in family papers.  In the centre, an 1887 map of the Kaap Gold Fields held in the University of Cape Town.  On the right, T H Murphy sold shares in the Lydenburg Gold Farms

 

It is not known what took T H Murphy to South Africa but it is known that he served in the Second Boer War in Bethunes Mounted Infantry – No. 539 Trooper T. Murphy.[4]  From family papers, his service record can be determined as follows:

 

1899 – Oct 26th – Discharged from Bethune’s Mounted Infantry – reason, being time expired

1900 – May 9th – Transferred to the Mounted Police in which he served as a sergeant

1900 – Dec 26th – Retransferred to Bethune’s Mounted Infantry, taking up his original rank in that regiment

1901 – Mar 20th – Discharged – Disbandment of the Corps. Service abroad 10 years

 

He served with distinction.  He was awarded the Queen’s South Africa Medal with four clasps, which recognised his participation in the Boer War campaign in four actions. [5]

 

The following account of his bravery in the field was sent to me by his grandson, Tim Costello:

 

It was a dark and rainy night when we saw a white flag being raised from the trenches in the Boer camp.  Knowing this to be the flag of surrender, we ordered our ‘cease fire’ to be sounded.  Our Colonel Hamilton immediately rushed over to the Boer trenches to accept their surrender.  But one of the Boers did not heed the surrender flag and trumpet sounding, and he fired his rifle at the Colonel who immediately fell to the ground, badly injured in the shoulder.  The Boers then continued firing at our troops again who fell back to our trenches leaving the wounded man on the ground between us and the Boers.  They began to pour a tremendous fire of gunshot onto our troops.  But, heeding no danger to himself, Sergeant Murphy ran back, crouching from the rain of bullets, to rescue the injured soldier.  Sgt Murphy then lifted him up to carry him back to our lines, lucky not to have been shot himself in the gunfire.  He was subsequently awarded the Queen Victoria South Africa Medal for his extreme bravery under fire, saving the life of a comrade.

 

A description of the South Africa Medal has been kindly prepared by Mr Tommy Martin, Consulting, Training and Mediation, Castleisland:

 

Relief of Ladysmith 15 December 1899 – 28 February 1900.  Awarded to those in Natal north of and including Estcourt.

Tugela Heights 14-27 February 1900.  Awarded to those of the Natal Field Force, exclusive of the Ladysmith garrison, employed in the operations north of an east-west line drawn through Chieveley Station.

Orange Free State 28 February 1900 – 31 May 1902.  For service in the Orange Free State where no clasp for a specific action in the Orange Free State had been received.

Cape Colony 11 October 1899 – 31 May 1902.  For service in the Cape of Good Hope where no clasp for a specific action in the Cape had been received.

 

Official Discharge Papers of T H Murphy, and the South Africa Medal, with four clasps  Images © Timothy Murphy

 

Return to Castleisland

 

The sale of shares in early 1907 suggests this was in all probability the year in which T H Murphy Ltd opened its doors in Castleisland.  In that year, the name of T H Murphy appears at a meeting of the Castleisland Quadrille Club when a tribute was paid to departing station master, Thomas Rosney.  His name also appears as member of the Tralee Board of Guardians in 1907 and, in 1908, as an elected member of the Castleisland Social and Literary Society.

 

Timothy Hickey Murphy was born at Reaglass, Crinny, Castleisland on 2 April 1874, second child (of six) of farmer Timothy Murphy (1839-1880) and Mary ‘Mean Lar’ Hickey (1853-1916).[6]  He was six years old in 1880 when his father died, and his mother remarried and had a further seven children with her second husband.[7]

 

We may conjure that T H Murphy was educated locally, and left Ireland in the early 1890s to seek his fame and fortune.  After his return to Castleisland, he married Julia, daughter of farmer Denis Brosnan of Tullig, in 1908.[8]  The marriage took place in Castleisland Parish Church on 14 January of that year.  On the marriage certificate, T H Murphy was described as ‘merchant’ indicating he had set up his business by then.[9]

 

T H Murphy and Julia Brosnan on their wedding day (centre) and to the left and right, their respective places of birth, Reaglass and Tullig

 

Timothy and Julia had five surviving children, Mary, Denis, Timothy (‘Teddy,’ my father), John, and Lil.[10]  Denis and Lil entered religious orders.

 

Sadly, history repeated itself.  My father was aged six when Timothy Hickey Murphy died on 11 May 1920, aged 44 years:

 

At a meeting of the Tralee Board of Guardians, Mr P Curtin proposed, and Mr J P Slattery seconded, a vote of sympathy on the death of Mr T H Murphy, Castleisland, a former member of the Board, and it was passed unanimously.[11]

 

T H Murphy Ltd was subsequently run by my grandmother, Julia, assisted by her two sons Timothy and John.  Julia Murphy outlived her husband by more than thirty years, and died in 1953:

 

On November 24th, at the Bons Secours Nursing Home, Cork, Julia, widow of Timothy H Murphy, Castleisland, Co Kerry, and mother of Rev Denis J Murphy, Maynooth Mission to China, Philippine Islands, and Madam St Rita, Drishane Convent, and aunt of Rev Denis J Costello, The Seminary, Killarney.  Deeply regretted by her sorrowing family, sisters and brothers.[12]

 

T. H. Murphy Ltd continued to operate until the early 1990s. The premises is now occupied by Cute Cut, Ladies & Gents Hair Salon.

______________________

[1] ‘A Portrait of Castleisland Artist, Timothy ‘Mutt’ Murphy’ – see http://www.odonohoearchive.com/a-portrait-of-castleisland-artist-timothy-mutt-murphy/.  This article was published in the journal, Earls, Axeteers and Hoggies (2020) produced by Castleisland District Heritage.

[2] IE MOD/C92.  The first article in this endeavour – ‘The Island Centre’ by John Roche – was published on this website http://www.odonohoearchive.com/project-main-street-castleisland-the-island-centre/

[3] The district is described as follows: ‘The Lydenburg and De Kaap Goldfields, as at present known, are included within a line passing W. from the northern point of Swaziland, through the Tafelkop mountains, thence N. through Lydenburg and along the Orighstad River to its junction with the Blyde. Now turning S., the line follows the edge of the berg, or eastern face of the Drakensberg mountains, to near Spitzkop, and thence back to its starting-point on the border-mountains of Swaziland.’

[4] The Boer War (11 October 1899-31 May 1902) was fought between the British Empire and two Boer States, the South African Republic (Republic of Transvaal) and the Orange Free State, over the Empire's influence in South Africa.  It is also known variously as the Boer War, Anglo-Boer War, or South African War.  Initial Boer attacks were successful, and although British reinforcements later reversed these, the war continued for years with Boer guerrilla warfare until harsh British counter-measures brought them to terms.

[5] ‘A little more imagination might have been brought into play to give a distinctive name to the occasion when the King conferred the 3,000 medals on the valiant soldiers returned from South Africa.  ‘Medal Day’ is plain speaking and clear speaking, but the element of the picturesque is lacking.  All the same, it was a brilliant ceremony, unique, as for it there was no precedent, and was the King’s own initiation all through.  The medals were all exactly alike from that given to Lord Roberts down’ (Belfast Newsletter, 17 June 1901).

Another Castleislander who received the South Africa medal with clasp in the first Boer War was Staff-Surgeon William Thompson, formerly of Sandville,  He was mentioned in despatches; see account of his career in Kerry Evening Post, 19 February 1896.

[6] Timothy Murphy married Mary Hickey in Castleisland on 14 February 1872. They had issue Anna (born 1873, died in Chicago), Timothy Hickey Murphy (1874-1920), Michael Murphy (1876, died in Chicago), Lawrence Murphy (a twin, born 1877, died in Chicago), John Murphy (a twin, born 1877, died in Chicago), Denis T ‘Denny’ Murphy (1879-1950) husband of Anna McCarthy (1883-1955) of Mullingar (both died in Chicago). 

Mary ‘Mean Lar’ Hickey (1853-1916) was the daughter of Lawrence ‘The Crock’ Hickey and Honora O’Sullivan (born 1830) of Bawnaskehy, who married in Castleisland in March 1851.  Her siblings were Julia Hickey (born 1857 in Crinny), wife of Maurice Enright; Catherine Hickey (1859-1879) who married Mortimer Sheehan; Jack Hickey, who married Nora Brown, Scartaglin and Lawrence Hickey (1863-1950) who married Mary Murphy (1867-1930) of Knockauntee in February 1887.

[7] Mary (Hickey) Murphy married secondly, in 1884, to Patrick T Murphy (1841-1934).  Their children, all born in Castleisland, were: Catherine ‘Katie’ (1886-1933) who married Cornelius Michael Brosnan (1885-1933), both died in Chicago; Thomas (born 1887) who married Mary Mannix, died in Chicago; Daniel (born 1889), priest in New York; Honora (1891-1972) who married John Curtin, El Monte, California; Mary ‘Molly’ (born 1894) BVM nun in Florida, died in Florida; Patrick (born 1895) who married Nora Mannix; John ‘Jack’ (born 1898).

[8] Julia Brosnan (1885-1953) was the daughter of Denis P Brosnan (1846-1903) of Tullig and Ellen Keane (1856-1907) whose burial place is Old Killeentierna, Currow.  Julia’s siblings were Katherine Brosnan (1878-1945) who married Patrick Cahill (1874-1913) both died in London; Ellen Brosnan (born in 1880) married Thomas Prendiville (born 1878) of Killarney in February 1901; Hannah Brosnan (born 1889) married John Nappi, USA, died in USA; Margaret Brosnan (1883-1950) married Michael McElligott of Castleisland who died in Castleisland in 1950; Marian Brosnan (1887-1940) married Bill Costello (1891-1961) of Castleisland; Nora Brosnan (1889-1950); Brigid Brosnan (1891-1951) married John O’Mahony, both died in London; Agnes Brosnan (1893-1976) married Edward Meagher of Killarney, who died in Killarney in 1941; Patrick Brosnan, died aged six months; Elizabeth Brosnan (1897-1967) married Tim Costello, chemist, Drumcondra, Dublin, who died in Dublin; John J Brosnan (1895-1978) married Elizabeth O’Loughlin (1897-1979) in Cordal; Maurice Brosnan (1899-1959) parish priest in Australia, died 13 November 1959 in St Margaret Mary’s, North Brunswick, Australia.

[9] Julia was described as ‘dairy.’ The marriage, conducted by Fr John O’Leary, was witnessed by Mary Anne Brosnan and J Prendiville.

[10] Mary Murphy (1909-1987) married Michael Walter Costello of Shanavullen, Currow and Dublin, who died in Dublin in February 1979; Denis J Murphy (1911-1966) priest, Columban Fathers, died in Oraquetta, Mindanao, Philippine Islands, in April 1966; Timothy Murphy, died in infancy; Timothy Lawrence Murphy (1914-1960) married Catherine Hickey (1910-2001) of Boherbee in Dublin on 18 October 1945; John Murphy (1917-1989) of Main Street, Castleisland, married Geraldine McCarthy (1932-2006) of Crag; Lil Murphy (1918-2003) nun, Order Holy Infant Jesus, died in Drishane Convent, Millstreet, on 25 February 2003.

[11] Kerryman, 29 May 1920.

[12] Irish Examiner, 25 November 1953. New Kilbannivane Cemetery, Castleisland, is the burial place of T H and Julia Murphy, and his mother, Mary Murphy, who died 22 December 1916 . The headstone is set in a slab of the locally sourced Lisheenbawn marble.