Malin Head Ancestry and Family Research

27/07/2025

Our thanks to Carol Pottinger for letting us publish these two photos.

First Photo: Thomas Glackin nearest the camera; next to him, Denis Doherty (Tam )confirmed by his grandson, James McGonagle and Barney McGonagle.

Second Photo: the man in the shirt sleeves looks like Jack Quigley and not sure of the others. Perhaps some of our viewers may know who the other men are.
What was happening at the pier that day, were they waiting for a boat to come in from fishing or did someone buy a new boat?

Photos are copyright to Carol Pottinger 27th July 2025.
All Rights Reserved.
Ellen Glackin.

22/06/2025

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20/03/2025

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Delia Murphy was known as the 'Queen of Connemara,' although she was not born in the area at all.

Delia's fame was due to her incredible catalogue of Irish ballads which she sang, collected and preserved, at a time when the singing of ballads seemed to be going out of fashion.

Delia was born in 1902 near the village of Roundfort in County Mayo.

Her father had been a gold miner in America where he had made his fortune, before returning to his native home and buying a large house and estate.

Despite being brought up in relative privilege, Delia attended her local primary school where she showed huge musical ability.

Notwithstanding the Murphys' wealth, the family also allowed travellers to camp on their land and Delia became very familiar with the travelling people.

She later stated that it was from them around the campfire that she learned her first ballads, particularly from a young boy named Tom Maughan, who was versed in traditional Irish songs going back centuries.

Maughan taught her to sing 'If I were a Blackbird,' a song which would go on to bring Delia great fame.

Delia married Dr Thomas J. Kiernan, a high-flying Irish diplomat, in 1924. He would go on to become Irish ambassador to Rome during World War II.

Delia was said to have aided Hugh O'Flaherty in smuggling Jews and escaped prisoners of war from the Vatican City and to safety.

She also gave nightly music performanes for free, despite the terrible war ongoing around her.

At this time, many members of the upper classes snubbed traditional Irish music and ballads and opera was considered more genteel.

Delia did not care, once remarking 'I sing music for the real people.'

She became a regular feature on Radio Éireann and grew to be a household name among people starved of Irish music.

Delia wrote, recorded and preserved hundreds of Irish ballads in her lifetime, including 'The Spinning Wheel,' 'I'm a Rambler' and 'Three Lovely Lassies.'

Her only LP was recorded in 1962 in America and was named 'The Queen of Connemara,' a name with which Delia had become synonymous.

What other connections with Connemara Delia had are hard to ascertain - she certainly visited Clifden in April 1953 and sang at the parochial hall in a concert in aid of the Clifden Boys' Secondary School.

She was said to have brought the house down, as she did at every concert.

Delia, who had four children, died in 1971, predeceased by her husband. She was buried in Dublin.

Her huge contribution to Irish music, and the real people of Ireland, ensures that the name of the Queen of Connemara lives on.

For more stories of the west of Ireland, see my book 'The Little History of Galway.' In all good bookshops or pick up a signed copy at:
https://www.etsy.com/ie/listing/1867494645/little-history-galway-ireland-colm

18/03/2025

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"In the nineteen forties, when I was the eldest child of an ever-growing family in rural Co. Derry, we crowded together in the three rooms of a traditional thatched farmstead and lived a kind of den-life which was more or less emotionally and intellectually proofed against the outside world. It was an intimate, physical, creaturely existence in which the night sounds of the horse in the stable beyond one bedroom wall mingled with the sounds of adult conversation from the kitchen beyond the other. We took in everything that was going on, of course – rain in the trees, mice on the ceiling, a steam train rumbling along the railway line one field back from the house – but we took it in as if we were in the doze of hibernation."

- Literature laureate Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney’s rural childhood informed his later writings. For him, poetry was like the earth—something that must be ploughed and turned. Often, he paints the grey and damp Irish landscape; peat moss has a special place in his poetry. He was awarded the 1995 Nobel Prize for Literature “for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past.”

Read Seamus Heaney’s characteristically poetic Nobel Prize lecture in which he discusses his childhood and darker chapters in Northern Ireland’s history: https://bit.ly/3XKAkel

17/03/2025

Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona Daoibh

Wishing all our Friends and Followers a Happy St. Patrick's Day 2025 wherever you may be.

14/03/2025

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**The Cunningham Acre in Ulster: A Historical Land Measurement**

The Cunningham Acre (also spelt Conyingham ) was a regional unit of land measurement used in Ulster, particularly in County Donegal and parts of County Tyrone. Originating in the Cunningham district, it measured approximately 54,450 square feet (5,062 square meters), making it about 25% larger than the standard acre of 43,560 square feet.

Primarily used for agriculture, the Cunningham Acre reflected Ulster's local farming needs before land measurements were standardised. Its larger size catered to the region's agricultural requirements.

Although no longer in use, the Cunningham Acre serves as an important historical measure for understanding Ulster's agricultural past and land management practices. For researchers, genealogists, and history enthusiasts, it provides valuable insight into the region's history.

12/01/2025

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A TALE OF TWO BROTHERS
In unmarked graves in the cemetery of the now roofless St Columba’s Church, Straid, Clonmany lie the remains of two McLaughlin brothers, one a Church of Ireland rector, the other a Roman Catholic priest.
In the mid 1600’s Domhnall and his brother Peadar, natives of Redcastle, were destined for the Roman Catholic priesthood and dispatched to the Continent to enter an Irish college, as there were no seminaries in Ireland at that time.
The boat in which they sailed was shipwrecked on the English coast and the two young men were taken to the house of a nobleman who interested himself in their fate. He offered to have them educated in an English University, if they conformed to the religion of the Established Church.
Peadar (Peter) refused and continued his journey to mainland Europe where he was eventually ordained a priest of the Franciscan Order, probably in Louvain.
Domhnall changed his religion and his name to Daniel, went to an English University and in due time was ordained a clergyman of the Established Church. In 1672 he was appointed Rector of Clonmany parish where his brother Peadar had already been serving as a priest for two years.
The two brothers found themselves in very different circumstances. The Rev Daniel (Domhnall Gorm as he was called because of his blue clerical clothing) had a well-built church, but few parishioners, and lived in a magnificent mansion with his wife and six children.
Father Peadar had a large congregation but their only places of worship were in hiding at Mass rocks by the seashore or in the mountains. His house was a miserable little thatched cabin by the shore in the townland of Crossconnell.
There is a story told that, on passing each other one day, Daniel remarked about “one going east the other going west” to which Peadar responded by saying that “one is going up and the other going down”.
Their mother’s grief is palpable in the lines she composed in her native tongue, translated here:
“Can it e’er be spoken,
How my heart is broken,
For thy fall, O Domhnall, from the ancient faith.
With less of sorrow,
Could I view to-morrow,
My lost one herding on the mountain brown,
Than strange doctrines teaching,
And new tenets preaching,
At yon lordly window in his silken gown.”

The bodies of Domhnall Gorm and his brother Peadar lie in unmarked graves in the graveyard of the Old Church at Straid. Both are recorded as having died in 1711.

24/12/2024

Wishing all our Friends and Followers a Happy a Blessed Christmas 2024.

15/12/2024

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This is a well-known photograph from the time of the Klondike Gold Rush, which began in late 1896. It shows Chilkoot Pass, a central route for thousands of prospectors known as "Stampeders" who traveled from Dyea in Alaska towards the Klondike.

Canadian authorities required everyone entering the region to carry at least a ton of supplies to ensure survival in the extreme Arctic conditions. These supplies included food, clothing, tools, and camping equipment. Many had to make dozens of trips up and down the pass to transport all their equipment – an extremely strenuous and often dangerous task.

Today, the Chilkoot Pass stands as a symbol of the incredible commitment and sacrifice of the people who took on these challenges in the hope of a better life. It is considered a historical monument that commemorates this extraordinary time.

13/12/2024

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Amazing Grace: Born from a Storm in Donegal

The famous hymn “Amazing Grace” is one of the world’s most popular and widely recognisable songs, with a beautiful message about forgiveness and redemption: that regardless of the sins committed, the soul can be saved from despair through God’s mercy and love. Written by John Newton in 1779, the song's origins can actually date back to 1748, to Donegal waters and a moment that changed the trajectory of Newton’s life. In 1748, while aboard a ship involved in the American slave trade, a dangerous and violent storm appeared before the crew. Terrified for his and the crew's lives, Newton began to pray. He prayed and pleaded for God’s mercy and for everyone’s safety. Miraculously, Newton and the ship's crew made it to the Inishowen Peninsula safely. While taking refuge near Buncrana, Newton began to reflect on his life and the harrowing experience he just faced. Up until that point, Newton was an advocate for the slave trade, but he began to study Christian theology, and later, he became a clergyman and an abolitionist. Newton says this experience inspired him to write “Amazing Grace” and Buncrana is now the home of the Amazing Grace viewing point, welcoming fans and visitors from all over the world.

28/11/2024

Wishing all our Friends and Followers wherever ever you may be a Happy Thanksgiving 2024.

25/11/2024

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An emigrant's letter from Albany, USA to Wexford, 1834

Here is the most incredible document for you from 190 years ago. It was sent to me yesterday by William Bailey, a neighbour of mine from Ballygarrett in Co. Wexford and is a letter written by a man called John Bailey who William tells me was “a great great great uncle of ours”.

William tells me it appears he travelled from “Wexford to Liverpool, stayed with Murphy’s there, then went with someone called Bartle to New York, and they parted company there, Bartle went to Philadelphia, whilst John Bailey went to upstate Albany to stay with Sinnott’s whilst waiting for word by letter from his uncle in Canada (likely Ontario I’d say) on what route to take to get to him”.

You could stop anywhere in this letter and have side chats. The description of the boat over to New York is incredible where he describes fish that looked like “pigs” and how he recalls the numbers on board and how there were no deaths, in fact one birth. I love how he describes the cursing of the crew and how there were a lot Germans of board and very few Irish. I also love that fact that he brought over a letter from a neighbour James Bulger to his relation (possible daughter/sister) Francis. The detail here is incredible and to be able to read an account like this from 1834 is special. I also love how he describes how America was very ‘dear’ and ‘dearer’ than home - the same words and expressions we’d use ourselves today.

Have a read and if any of you have anything to add to this, the William would be grateful. I am sure the right kind of person could locate and name the ship that he travelled on and if anyone had time in finding John, Francis etc in births and marriage records - it’d be fantastic

In the meantime just sit back and read this.

Thanks a million William and Naomi Millen for sharing this with me and all of us. This is pure gold.

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Albany September the 22nd 1834

Dear Parents and Aunt, Brothers and Sisters,

The Lord gave us a most favourable passage across the atlantic. The 15 (th) we went on board and went out in the bay the 18 (th) we sailed and landed the 19 (th) morning of September.

We were a little seasick for the first four days and after that we were as well as we would be at home. We had 584 passengers on board and they were from all parts of the world.

There was a great number of Germans and you could not know one word they would say, they would call spirits drink Snaps and good good. There was one of them had a young one on board, they are a dirty kind of people. There was only a few Irish. There was not one death on the passage and they were from 80 years of age to the child born on board.

We had a strong breeze the first three days, the sea would be as big as mountains some times and as level as a board more times. We have seen large fishes like pigs several times birds like swallows we have seen flying about the vessel. There were sea birds picking up anything that would be slung overboard.

We stopped one night in New York and there had to part which was a hard thing to đo. I came on the boat to Albany and Bartle for Philadelphia. You may tell the neighbours that Mary was as stout as when she left home and better on her breathing. New York is a fine city very large houses and fine buildings, some brick walls and flat roof covered with tin and more wooden walls and roofed like our country and boards like slates.

The streets are paved just as in Ireland and trees growing in a row at each side of the street, some places thick and places thin and more places not one. It is a great place for houses burning. There is not a day or night but there is several wooden houses burned to the ground.

Our captain was a nice man but our mate was a dour man and the second mate very cross man, third mate a nice man, the ‘burbar’(?) was a kind man.

We had 25 vary strong good seamen, but they could not speak one word without cursing the greatest oaths I ever heard. I often thought the vessel would sink to the bottom with grant blaspheming. Our water pretty good, they gave a small allowance of rations but we did not care for that, we had plenty of our own.

The potatoes was very good with us, we bad then up to the last week. We had plenty of every thing on board the ship. I am now with Francis Sinnott, they are well and doing well, they were glad to see to and I have wrote to my uncle to know the shortest route and I will stay here until I get his letter and then I will start for him.

You my tall James Bulger that I brought the letter safe to Francis. You may tell Anty King that I posted the letter she gave me.The day is warmer here now than at home and the night colder, but it is nice weather. There is as good horses here as in Ireland. There was a great deal of people died here with the cholera but it is all over now coming the cold weather. Everything is very dear in this country, dearer than at home. I can tell any person that is coming here to bring as little lumber with them as they can, if they have far to go they will be charged dear for it.

I had to pay a dollar and a half. The dollar is 4/2 from New York to Albany, the distance 150 atlas. I left New York at 6 in the evening and was in Albany at 5 the next morning. I am told it will cost me 8 dollars to go to Canada, the money goes like chaff before the wind.

I cannot give any intelligence about this country yet, so there is no use in saying any more about it. Write to my uncle as soon as you get this, delay no time.

Let Mr. Scott of the Bog know that I did not see Anne, there is a river to cross to go to their place from New York.

And I hope those few lines will find you all well as it leaves me at present, thank God for It. Remember me to all the neighbours to Uncle Soott and family, to uncle Thos and family, Francis and sisters sends their love to yous all.

I remain yours truly，

John Bailey

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