A Trip to Kilmore and Drumsna (part 1)

Here is an updated trip report from 2011 about our search for the origins of our O'Carroll line.

Drumsna is in Co. Leitrim,
Kilmore & Dangan, Co. Roscommon
(click for  Google map)

On 20 June 2011, Dad, his cousin Adrienne, and I paid a visit to the ancestral home of the Dockery’s and the O’Carroll’s.

Family lore has it that Joseph O'Carroll was born (about 1840) in Drumsna,  Co. Leitrim - a picturesque village on the banks of the Shannon, and the inspiration for Anthony Trollope's novel "The McDermotts of Ballycloran". Trollope worked there in the Post office in 1843.

Just across the border in Co. Roscommon is the small village of Kilmore, where Maria Joan Dockery was living prior to her marriage to Joseph O'Carroll in 1867. They were married in the Roman Catholic Chapel at Dangan, about half a mile from Kilmore.  The two villages are separated by the slow moving Shannon river as it meanders along the upper portions of its course. Kilmore is just a 2 hour jaunt from Dublin on the N4 and we arrived at about 3.30 in the afternoon.

Rev Edward Keough

Our first stop was St Brigid’s RC Chapel at Dangan. The church was built in 1842 by the Reverend Edward Keough, parish priest of Kilmore, who was the officiating priest at the marriage of Joseph O’Carroll and Maria Joan Dockery (according to their 1867 marriage cert).

Drumsna (blue marker),
Dangan (pink) & Kilmore (green)
(click here for Google map)

It also houses the stained glass window that James J Kerrigan describes in his reminiscences, written in 1943 and addressed to his children. In the extract below, GMK & GFK are GrandMother Kerrigan & GrandFather Kerrigan - the latter being James Patrick Kerrigan 1858-1936), the former Margaret Mary ("Doatie") O'Carroll (1870-1928):

“There is a beautiful stained glass window in the church donated by G.M.K & G.F.K in memory of your paternal great grandmother Maria O’Carroll, nee Dockery. I am unable to be sure of my spelling but it sounds like Daugnion where the church is located just before you come into Kilmore approaching from Drumsna.”

In fact, according to the inscription, the window was erected by GMK, not GFK. The window was designed and executed by Joshua Clarke (d1921), father of Harry Clarke (a leading figure in the Irish Arts and Crafts Movement). His address is at the bottom of the cartoon (33 Nth Frederick St, Dublin).

We think the window shows the celebration of a mass by Saint Nicholas of Tolentino, an Augustinian Friar who ministered to the people of Tolentino (near the east coast of central Italy) during a time of prolonged civil strife. He quietly performed miracles and had a great devotion to the recently deceased, frequently having visions of Purgatory. This earned him the designation, the Patron of Holy Souls. 

The window shows a priest at mass (with the typical tonsure of a monk) holding the Blessed Eucharist (as distinct from Saint Nicholas Bread). An Augustinian Friar (presumably) kneels at the foot of the altar and prays with rosary beads. In the background, souls in Purgatory are being rescued by angels who then carry them into heaven. Apparently, people who commissioned works such as these would occasionally be incorporated into the picture. So one of the faces in the background might be that of Margaret Mary O'Carroll.

Cartoon of the design

The window in Dangan RC Chapel

Detail including inscription

Interestingly the inscription at the base of the window differs slightly from that in the cartoon of the window, presumably the template from which the later window was executed. Another unusual feature of the inscription is the absence of any mention of Margaret Mary's father, Joseph O'Carroll. It only mentions her mother. This is rather odd and could suggest that there was a falling out between the children and their father. Did he abandon the family? Why is the mother mentioned but not the father? This is the subject of much ongoing speculation.

St Brigid's RC Chapel, Dangan

Across the road from the church, we popped into Flynn’s grocery store and as luck would have it, we bumped into a lady called Ann James [1] (nee Murray McDermott), and we chatted to her and Mr Flynn about our quest for O’Carroll’s, Dockery’s and Simpson’s. We gleaned several pieces of useful information from this encounter. Apparently, most of the Catholic residents of Kilmore would have been buried in the Church of Ireland graveyard as it had been consecrated for Catholics. Furthermore, we were told that the Dockery family might be more concentrated toward Aughrim way.

Church of Ireland church, Kilmore

We next drove down the road to Kilmore and visited the C of I church and graveyard on the far side of the village, in search of clues to the burial of Joseph O'Carroll and Maria Joan Dockery. The graveyard is quite well kept and there are some very old headstones, including one from 1760. There were some Carroll’s (which apparently is quite a common name in these parts) and some Dougherty’s, but no sign of any Dockery’s, Simpson’s or O’Carroll’s. Did our branch of the family change their name from Carroll to O’Carroll? In which case, are we related to the Carroll’s of Kilmore? A good example of how DNA-testing might help.

We asked some people at the graveyard if there was a register, and were told there was and that Billy Notley was in charge of it. We drove down the road, found his house, unfortunately disturbed him at his tea, but he was kind enough to pull out the book. The register only started in 1946 so this was a dead end. There is some suggestion that the C of I minister/rector might have some further information about who was buried in the graveyard so this remains an avenue of future research. The registries of births and marriages would also be worth looking at. But where are these? In addition, Billy mentioned that the Carroll’s and the Shanley’s were related (James Patrick Kerrigan's mother was a Bridget Shanley, and her brothers became successful restauranteurs in New York).

So we still don’t know where Joseph O’Carroll and Maria Joan/Jane are buried. Presumably, Maria Joan was buried with her husband.[2] Or alternatively in the Dockery family plot, wherever that might be. Five of their children died relatively young (aged 1-28 years old) and are buried in the same grave in Glasnevin cemetery in Dublin (St Bridget’s section, plot VH 237). From the stained-glass window, and a newspaper notice, we know that Maria Joan died on Dec 27^th, 1897 but we have no knowledge of her burial. We suspect that Joseph died some time in the mid-1880’s but have never found his death certificate or any newspaper reports of his demise.[2] And there is still the mystery around why he was apparently visiting San Francisco in 1883. But neither Joseph nor Maria Joan are buried with their children. And as yet we have found no evidence that they were buried in Kilmore.

Burial registry entries for the 5 O'Carroll children buried in Glasnevin cemetery, Dublin

Maurice John Gleeson

June 2011

---

[1] Ann originally came from Kilmore and has recently returned there. She was a nurse in Leicester for many years. Her husband Ken James played rugby for Seapoint (there is an annual game played in his name). She is a member of the Roscommon Historical Society.

[2] Feb 2021: we found out a few years ago that Joseph died in San Francisco in 1895, a year after his brother James died there. Thet also had a sister Bedelia. I created a YouTube video about their story entitled "The Strange Case of the Wealthy Bachelor Capitalist" - see the video here.