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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