The Irish Uprising: The Quinn Home

Two references to the burning of the Quinn home were found while researching old newspapers. The first is below.

Burning of Widow’s House

“I am having full inquiry made into it,” said the Attorney-General in the House of Commons yesterday, who asked whether the Chief Secretary would make inquires into the circumstances under which the house of a widow living at Caheroneen, Kinvara, was recently burnt to the ground by men alleged to be members of the forces of the Crown; whether seven men who were in the house at the time were stripped of their clothes, which were burned, and whether it was a fact that no attack had been made in that district on the forces of the Crown.

                          From the Freeman’s Journal - Thursday, March 3, 1921

On August 7, 1922, the Freeman’s Journal reported a brief list of those who applied for reconstruction loans “in respect of injury to property in pursuante of the Irish Provisional Government’s Public Notice No. 10. dated 14th May 1922” Bridget Quinn’s loan # 123 for £450 was for property described as “Dwelling-house and out-houses, Caheroroneen, Kinvara, County Galway.”

I don’t know if Bridget Quinn received this loan or by what other means she obtained the funds to build a new home. Michael Fahey stated that the most of her children were in the United States. I am sure that some of them sent money. 

Michael Fahey said that when the house was burned, the women stayed with Andy Quinn’s family. Andy was Bridget Quinn’s brother-in-law; brother of her dead husband, William Joseph Quinn I.  He also stated that the Quinns lived in a barn for a few years and when their new home was built, it was the first two story home in Caheravoneen.

Below is a photograph of the Quinn home taken in 1981.  At the time, it appeared that the house was empty.  In 1989, the house was still standing, but was filled with hay as it was being used for storage.

The below photograph was taken in the 1950s by anthropologist, Robert Cresswell, and found in the Robert Cresswell Kinvara Archive at KinvaraOnline.com. Look at the house behind the hayfield. It looks like it might be the Quinn home.  Spend some time looking at these interesting pictures of Kinvara and the surrounding area. 

According to information at Kinvara Online, Robert Cresswell waived his copyright to persons who wish to use the photographs for educational or heritage purposes.

Next - The Irish Uprising: Michael Fahey

Diana

© 2011, copyright Diana Quinn