Bridget Daly (Loy)

My First Cousin Once Removed

Now in her seventy-ninth year Bridget is a very able, sharp, intelligent and alert lady and it is easy to imagine what she might have achieved with the opportunity of access to higher education open to us today. However in the 1930's there were none such, nor even opportunity for suitable employment at home. It was generally the destiny of daughters of small farmers to seek employment in service.

At the age of just fifteen years and three months Bridget was brought to the hiring fair in Newry (on the corner of Market and Castle Streets), and hired out to a farm in Hamiltownsbawn, near Markethill, for a period of two years. Being over twenty miles distant from her own home, Bridget was to see her family just a few times over this period.

Her working day started at seven in the morning and did not end until midnight. In addition to her normal duties about the house of cleaning, cooking, washing, ironing and all the other chores associated with attending a family of six (plus herself) she was expected to help on the farm with milking, feeding, harvesting etc. For her Herculean efforts she received - along with her board - the princely sum of six pounds for the first six months. This was increased by one pound for each of the following three periods of six months to make a grand total of thirty pounds for two years of hard labour. Nor was she well treated by the family.

At the age of seventeen Bridget returned home. She could not long remain without work and some income. In 1935 she went into service in the home on Dublin Road Newry of a senior bank official named Devlin. After ten years of marriage without children his wife had a son. The parents had spoiled the boy and he made it difficult on Bridget. There was little sympathy forthcoming from the adoring parents for the long-suffering servant girl. Rewarded at the rate of one pound ten shillings per month, she stuck it out for six long months.

Alternative employment was not easy to find. For a year she worked for one pound a month as a cleaner in Rathfriland Hill Hospital in Newry. For a similar period and for similar remuneration she was cook in the Imperial Hotel. After this she went into service in the private home in Windsor Hill of the Warnocks. For two pounds a month she was cooking and cleaning for three old ladies. This was the best position she had held. She stayed for five years.

At the age of twenty-five Bridget returned home where for the next ten years she looked after her mother Rose and father Terence and her brother Terry. She had known Jimmy Daly for twelve years. In 1953 they were married. In November 1954 she gave birth to Rosaleen and then in November 1956 to Michael. In March 1957 she lost the child she was carrying.

Today Bridget owns her own home in O'Rahilly Park Mullaghbawn, where her son and daughter-in-law Maureen and grand-daughter Angeline live with her. In 1987 she suffered the loss of her husband Jimmy. Now she is in ill health, having lost the sight of her right eye and with faded vision only in her left eye. In spite of this she is full of vitality and is a most interesting and generous hostess. I was amazed to be immediately recognized and welcomed when I arrived unannounced at her door after an absence of almost two decades! She recognizes that we are her family. I am proud of that relationship. I hope to visit her again shortly and to keep in contact.

Her aunt Susan, married to Edward Cooney, lived on Bridge Street. They married in Newry Cathedral on 30 June 1909. By then Susan had been in Newry almost a decade and she was twenty-five. Her groom was the same age. Edward lived at 18 Kilmorey Street. Edward's family originally came from Tyrone. Edward's father was Philip and his father Edward (Susan's groom's grandfather) had a farm of land there. At the age of fifty-six, Edward's father Philip had come to Newry. In Newry Edward and his father were both described as mechanics/fitters. Amongst the labouring occupations this was (and to some extent still is) a prestigious and well-paid job. Philip had arrived in Newry some thirty years previously when he met and married Catherine McNally of Boat Street (That wedding was consecrated on 27 November 1881. -Catherine's father was a currier).

Susan's bridesmaid was her younger unmarried sister Maggie. Remember that she then still lived at home in Ummerinvore, looking after her mum and her brother Terence. Best man was John Bell. Over the course of the next few years, Susan and Edward had three children all a few years older than Bridget Loy, the occasional house visitor. They were Frank, Kathleen and Philip. In later life Philip married an aunt of my brother-in-law Kieran Devine. Her name was Nancy. She was a sister of Charlie Devine, whom most of my siblings remember as a pleasant and friendly character, now sadly deceased. Philip and Nancy settled in England and had children of their own. We do not know them.

Kathleen Cooney would act as godmother at my christening in June 1947. Throughout her life she was friendly not just with Bridget Loy, but also with my mother and our extended family. She married George Flanagan. They are both now deceased, without issue.

Frank remained a bachelor and lived his life out in Newry on Bridge Street. Physically he bore a resemblance to my father. In addition he had a similar temperament and personality. Consequently he was a particular favourite of ours. For many years Frank worked as chauffeur to the Bishop of Dromore. In his latter years he tended the petrol pumps at Hollywood's garage at the top of Monaghan Street. Frank never married. I regret I did not start this research while he was alive. I would have learned much from him, but more than that, I would have enjoyed talking to him about his reminiscences.

Bridget also visited the home of her other aunt, Margaret (who had come to Newry in the year of Bridget's birth, 1918). Shortly after her arrival in Newry Margaret had married Peter Troy and settled here. Maggie's husband's family had lived at 36 Mill Street. His father Francis, caretaker (and billiard marker) of the Catholic Club there, lived with his wife Lucy and their children Peter and Frederick. At the 1901 census their ages were respectively Francis (55), Lucy (46), Peter (20) and Frederick (9). They must also have had a daughter older than Peter for they were rearing in Mill Street a grand-daughter (3) of the name Margaret Jane Magennis. (See reminiscences of local lady Eileen Malone in Source Files).

By 1918 Peter Troy was thirty-seven when he married. He was a bricklayer. His bride was thirty-two. Their only daughter Winifred (Winnie) contracted scarlet fever and died in her infancy. The couple adopted a girl named Maureen. Maureen Troy remained single and today lives in Monaghan Row. Maureen and Bridget, being of an age, became friends. Maureen Troy became one of the ever-present characters about 43 Monaghan Street in the formative years of my four elder sisters and me. She was an incessant talker. She was also excellent at completing crossword puzzles in newspapers, at one time being barred by the Irish News from entering their competition on account of her winning it too often! There were others too, friends of Dolly and I'm afraid we thought of them as old cronies gathering together constantly just to gossip. There was, for example, Eileen McGuigan who was then from Monaghan Street but at one time lived in Dromalane with the Whitfield family. I believe later she lived for years on a caravan site in England. Eventually she did marry and became Mrs. Hearty. This lady, widowed and almost blind, lives now on the Crossmaglen-Dundalk road. I have tried several times to visit her but got no answer to my knock. (Since I first wrote these words, she has passed away. My mum attended her funeral). There was also Josie Rafferty, a pleasant woman from Chinatown. Mary, my sister, remembers the occasion that our Dolly asked her to pass on to my mother Eileen the message that Josie was going to have a baby. Mary retorted that that was impossible, as she knew that Josie wasn't married. All these older people would have become familiar figures to Bridget Loy as she visited Newry.

The third aunt, my granny Bridget (after whom the younger Bridget Loy was named) was her favourite and her home the most interesting to visit. My aunt Dolly, just four years her elder would have been a role model and great company for the teenage girl. My father Sonny was a very friendly and handsome companion and they became close. Some years later when Sonny met Eileen, Bridget became friends with the pretty little country girl who was a constant visitor to 43 Monaghan Street - before she eventually married and settled in her mother-in-law's home. The first five of our family, my four elder sisters and I, were born there. Bridget was back and forth frequently and was of assistance to my mother and my granny in those early years. She tended me as a babe in arms!!

43 Monaghan Street was of special interest too because as an eating house catering mainly for farmers from South Armagh, there was always someone calling who knew you, or of you, and could bring news of home to the young Bridget Loy. My sisters remember several of the regulars. Mary talks of one Peter Collins, a farmer, and I wonder was he related to the Collins' already referred to. In the early sixties I remember one of the few remaining regular customers was John Donaldson from Newtownhamilton. It appears he had an ulterior motive for his regularity for he proposed to and married the then lady of the house, my aunt Dolly. I remember Dolly bringing the news of his proposal to my mother in the Meadow. She was greatly taken aback because Dolly was by then in her fiftieth year. They married quietly in Saval. I am delighted to say that they made a terrific match and were devoted to each other. John was devastated when Dolly died on 12 August 1983 in Daisy Hill Hospital after gangrene from a recently amputated leg spread. He tends her grave today with devotion.

So ends my account of Bridget Loy, my cousin. Few of the rest of my accounts, I fear, will match this for detail. Where possible I will try to maintain the story method the reader has become used to. If it tends to make some family members appear more important than others I regret this. It reflects merely these individuals' willingness to share their personal tales.

Now to the story of my granny Bridget.

Bridget Loy

My Grandmother

At the time of her father's murder (c. 1883) the young Bridget was just a schoolgirl. She had already experienced the death of her two infant sisters, Mary Ann and Alice. Thereafter the family was reduced to her brother Terence, her elder by just one year, her two younger sisters Susan and Margaret and her mother, who was thirty-five when she was widowed. They were poor. Their home in Ummerinvore was damp. The tuberculosis bacillus, which took the two young girls, thrived in such conditions. The accompanying photograph (kindly donated by my cousin Bridget Loy) showing a large kettle boiling over the fire in the hearth was taken about this time and it may help to give an idea of home life there.

Hearth at Francis and Catherine's home in Ummerinvore

Catherine had to find some way to support her young family so she opened a shop - a general store - in Ummerinvore, in the townland of Silverbridge. Her younger sister Bridget O'Brien ran it for her for seven years while Catherine devoted herself to raising her four children. Remember Bridget O'Brien: with good reason that you will soon learn, I consider this lady one of the heroines of our story.

The farm was so small that there was no prospect of the girls continuing to live there beyond their school years. When she was just sixteen the middle girl Susan, who was skillful as a seamstress went to Newry to lodge with her aunt Bridget (yes, my heroine!) in North Street, there to practise as a dressmaker. This was the aunt who for seven years had managed her mother's shop at home. Now while their mother was so engaged it fell to Bridget and Maggie to take charge of the affairs of the house. This however was just one person's work. Bridget would have to go out on her own.

Since she didn't have her young sister's needlework skill there was little option for Bridget but to “go into service”. This meant that she wouldn't even have the comfort of staying in town with her sister and aunt for positions of service were live-in. This was of necessity considering the long hours servant girls were expected to work. Even as a young girl Bridget Loy was resourceful, independent and able.

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It ought to be possible to tell exactly where everyone in Ireland was on 31 March 1901 because a census was taken on that day. This census return was the starting point in my research. For example, in Ummerinvore it records that Catherine (46) farmer's widow, lived with her son Terence (21) and daughter Maggie (sic) (15). Susan is recorded as living in North Street with her aunt Bridget. Where was Bridget Loy?

Quite simply, I don't know. The first official record I have of her is four months after this when she was married in Newry Cathedral. Her marriage certificate then described her as a servant girl of St Mary's Street. In March she is not recorded as resident at any address on this street. Out of curiosity I attempted to check every address in Newry at that time but the task was too daunting. I presume she was omitted – as a mere servant girl – from the census return of the house in St Mary's Street or perhaps she held a position as servant in some other town house before she moved to St Mary's Street just prior to her wedding.

It may be helpful to describe how the town of Newry might then have appeared to the two young sisters (later to be three when Maggie came to town in 1918).