Perhaps every family has its own particular period of tragedy, when in a definable and relatively short time numerous traumatic events occur. The years 1932 to 1934 were certainly such a period for John Doyle and his wife Mary Diffley.
John was Edward's eldest child, and the only one of Edward's sons to remain in Ireland. Inevitably, he took over the running of the farm in Clooncarne. Mary Diffley was the daughter of James Diffley and Catherine Kilrane. A later volume of this study will explore the Kilrane and Diffley lines. For now suffice to say that Mary was born in June 1891. She spent a number of years working in The Hotel Bristol in New York before returning to Ireland to marry John Doyle in June 1924.
By the time John and Mary married, the Irish Free State had been established and the Irish Civil War had ended. The country was to a large extent bankrupt and there can be little doubt that survival alone was a challenge, even if there had been just the two of them. But they had children: Elizabeth (Lizzie) in 1925, Bridget (Bridgie) in 1927, Edward (Eddie) in 1928, Johnny in 1929, and Michael (Mikey) in 1931. John, the father, is said to have taken on casual labour shovelling coal on between the Narrow Gauge and Main Line railways at Dromod in order to supplement the income from the farm.
Any of John's children with whom I have spoken have talked only about a happy childhood, even though things were tough. Bridgie frequently mentioned walking the half-mile to school in her bare feet, for example. That John and Mary would have worked hard to provide for their growing family is beyond doubt. But the stresses of the years 1932 to 1934 must have proven very difficult for them to overcome.
The first event was the death of Mary's mother, Kate Kilrane, on St Stephen's Day, 1932. Kate died, aged 75, at her home in Street, Clooncarne, from old age.
In January 1933, Eliza Reynolds, John's mother, went to fetch a bucket of water from the well, which was located down the lane and out on the road approaching the Diffley's house. The ground was covered in snow and ice and Eliza slipped, breaking her femur. To get her back to the house, Owen Mahon (who lived where the Costelloe house now is in 2014) had to be asked to fetch his wheelbarrow and transport her in it. Eliza never recovered and died from pneumonia on 16th February. Her exact age is not known as her birth details cannot be established, but her stated age at death was 68.
What must at first have seemed a welcome break from all the tragedy came on 24th March 1933, when Mary gave birth to twin sons, Joseph and Bernard. The twins were, however, premature, and it is to be wondered if the strains imposed by the two deaths brought about the early births.
Whatever joy the births brought was short-lived. Young Bernard died on April 7th, just 2 weeks old.
Two days later, Mary's father, James Diffley died on 9th April 1933, again in Street. He was aged about 79.
The second twin, Joseph, only lived until 13th May, when at just over 7 weeks of age, he too died.
There can be little doubt that the family was in deep shock after all of these tragedies, and at least the next few months seem to have passed uneventfully, but the final blow came in March 1934, when Edward Doyle, John's father, died aged 76 of Asthma and Cardiac Failure.
Thus between late December 1932 and March 1934, John and Mary each lost their parents and parents-in-law, and two children.
One of the twins who failed to survive was Joseph Doyle. Joseph was not a first name hitherto found among the Doyle family, and it was probably chosen due to John's belonging to a Catholic group known as St Joseph's Union. The name was later kept within the family when John's youngest daughter Mary was born in 1935 and was christened Mary Josephine. The other twin was named Bernard, and when the youngest of John's children was born in 1937 he too was named Bernard. This gave rise many years later to some problems for this latter Bernard who was told, when he applied for his old age pension, that he had died in 1933!
One final note, while on the subject of names. Edward Doyle and John Doyle each used the same set of names for his surviving children, though they did not use them in the same order.
|
Edward's Children (1886-1896) |
Order |
John's Children (1925-1937) |
Order |
|
John |
1 |
John |
4 |
|
Edward |
2 |
Edward |
3 |
|
Mary Ann |
3 |
Mary Josephine |
6 |
|
Michael Joseph |
4 |
Michael |
5 |
|
Elizabeth Anne |
5 |
Elizabeth Catherine |
1 |
|
Bridget |
6 |
Bridget |
2 |
|
Bernard |
7 |
Bernard |
7 |
Table 2: Repetition of First Names