That was a fairly long introduction to give you an insight into where this real story is going.  As mentioned in the previous post, my great great grandfather William Connolly was a small tenant farmer from 1840 until his death in 1867 when the lease passed to his son Martin.  When the Land League came to the Celbridge area in 1883 to canvass for financial support to bring about change by constitutional means.  Martin and his widowed mother attended the proceedings and at the end of the meeting they contributed a small amount to the league with unfortunate results for the family. Their landlord, Major Barton  had his land steward watching the proceedings and reporting back to the 'big house' on the actions of Barton's tenants.  This resulted in a decision to evicted the Connolly family from their smallholding. What is interesting that  in 1880
an act by the Gladstone government banned evictions.  For the record, Major Hugh Lyndock Barton was a lieutenant in the 6th Inniskillen Dragoons, a major in the Kildare Rifles, a Justice of the Peace and a High Sheriff in 1861 and yet he didn't seem to be too concerned with British legislation which he was supposed to owe his allegiance..

Shortly before the eviction, another of William's son, my great, grandfather Richard Connolly, had moved with his family from the smallholding and taken a position as a farm labourer on the estate of a wealthy landowner Lord Massy at  Killakea in the Dublin Mountains. It was while the family was working for Massy in 1867, that another stirring of national rebellion took place resulting in my grandfather, Michael, then a mere child of eleven guiding some Fenian pike men over the Dublin Mountains to the battle of Tallaght Hill,  Eventually  Richard was able to move with his family to Sandymount in County Dublin, where he opened.a small dairy.

My grandfather Michael, left the family home and went to sea, where he made some deep sea voyages on a four masted sailing ship and sailed around the Horn on two occasions. After a time, as they say in nautical circles he eventually 'swallowed the anchor' and got a shore job.  Working for the Dublin Port and Docks Board, he became the custodian of a swing bridge on Dublin's river Liffey.  Married, he and his wife Mary over the years had a total of sixteen children, some would did in infancy or early childhood.  Many of the surviving family members would become rebels and be involved  with the Citizen Army and take part in the Easter Rising of 1916 and subsequent actions. They would be persecuted. arrested, imprisoned and would suffer for their principles and beliefs. .

It is now April 2014 and I am the one of the last of the grandchildren of Michael Connolly, at this stage there are only three cousins left and I am the youngest of them  It's probably worth mentioning here that many of my family who were involved in these Irish events were reluctant to talk about their experiences.. I was blessed in as much as I was close to my uncle Matt Connolly who left me with his diaries, note books and photos and oral memories.  Much of the additional personal material, was garnered from conversations which I had overheard and subsequently teased out to put 'meat on the bones' of events. Over a number of years I have added to my own knowledge with extensive research into general Irish history of the period.

The result is hopefully the birth of a book "Easter 1916   As the Liffey gently flows."






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Easter 1916 as the Liffey gently flows.

Easter 1916 as the Liffey gently flows.

This is the story of my family, the Connollys living in Ireland in the latter half of the 19th Century and the events that overtook them in the early fateful years of the twentieth century. It outlines some Irish history relating to the way large tracts of land in Ireland and Kildare in particular were seized from the natives and occupied by the English ruling classes who imposed impossible restrictions on the local population.

From the time of the Norman invasion in 1169, when a party of Norman knights landed in Bannow in County Wexford at the request of Dermot Mac Murrow the ousted King of Leinster. Later these knights would be followed by the Plantagenet King, Henry the Second, who would reinforce Norman rule in Ireland. He would make it part of his Angevin Empire which would eventually encompass most of medieval France, England and Ireland.  As a result of this occupation the land of Ireland would never be the same again.  Over the years, as one British monarch or another fought for supremacy, Ireland would be their bounty to alot large tracts of lands to their cronies, favourites or followers. Over time this would lead to the plantation of Ireland by followers of the various English powerbrokers of the day. 

Our tale begins in the townland of Ovidstown near Celbridge in County Kildare in 1840 with William Connolly the tenant of a smallholding belonging to the local landlord Nathaniel Barton.  The Barton family had originally been part of such an Ulster plantation and had land in Fermanagh before coming to Kildare in about 1828. They had extensive lands centred on their main residence at that time Barberstown Castle, in Celbridge.

This is a brief introduction to the story of how the Connolly family were living as tenant farmers on a small holding at a time when Ireland was undergoing a period of agitation over land. The Irish Land League was formed in 1879  in the west of Ireland by Parnell and Michael Davitt with the intention of introducing land reform, which would assist tenant farmers. Their motto was 3Fs...

Fixity of Tenure.
Fair Rent
Free Sale.

It was the intended policy of the Land League to bring about change and equity between landlord and tenants by constitutional means, rather than by force.

At this time Europe was experiencing a slump in agricultural prices and Ireland was still suffering the after effects of the terrible potato famine, which made conditions in Ireland extremely tense.

The ideals of the Land League were highly unpopular with many large estate owners who increased rents, which the tenants were in many cases unable to pay. This resulted in a great deal of confrontation between the landlord and tenant.  With many tenants unable to meet the increased rents landlords resorted to evicting tenants who were in arrears. This was where the land league took actions with a form of passive resistance. 

 A classic case  which is well documented involved Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott who was employed as a land steward by Lord Erne  (John Crichton) owner of a number of large estates one on the shores of Lough Mask of 1550 acres which fell under the stewardship of Boycott. He was extremely unpopular and the Land League withdrew labour  from the estate resulting in Boycott having to appeal to the British authorities to aid him in saving Lord Erne's harvest. With the assistance of fifty Orangemen and a regiment of troops to guard them, the harvest was eventually saved. It cost the British government ₤10,000 to save a crop valued only ₤500. Hopefully the forgoing will give the reader some idea of the conditions that prevailed in Ireland during the latter part of the 19th century where the Connolly story begins.

By 1883 the Land League was gaining momentum and popular support around Ireland and had embarked on a series of fundraising meetings countrywide to enable them to fight their cause by constitutional means. It was also the year that the association chose to canvass some areas in county Kildare.  This in turn would impact on the Connolly family and act as a catalyst for the actions of future generations of the family.