Peter Quinn And Henry McCullagh: Friends Or Relatives?

It’s impossible to say for certain whether the above-named men were just friends or if they were close relatives. Quinn is one of the most common names in Ireland and especially in Tyrone, where these men came from. For speculation alone, I will make the following observations ..

My great grandfather Francis McCullagh (b. 27 June 1830) married Alice Small in 1876. Alice, born 29 April 1837 was the daughter of Michael Small and Maria Quinn. At the age of forty Alice gave birth to her only child, my grandfather Patrick. So old, perhaps she had given birth before? This possibility has come to light just recently - from an entry in the 1911 Census for Gortin, Tyrone. See elsewhere herein! Meanwhile I find it amazing to note how close we all came to non-existence, yet this couple Francis and Alice – my great grandparents – now have literally hundreds of descendants even to the great, great, great, great grandchild level!

Patrick, son of Francis and Alice is the man who came to Newry about the turn of the century. The exact year is not known but he wasn’t living at home in Annaghmore, Ardboe at the time of the 1901 Census. Then his parents were aged 70 and 65 and were the only named occupants at what was numbered 29 in the Census district of Annaghmore. At number 30 were Francis McCullagh and his wife Mary (Quinn) who married in 1885 and whose children were John (1886), Francis (1887), Thomas (1890) and James (1892). The two Francis’s (next door to one another, one aged 49 years, the other 70) were cousins. The father of the older man had been Patrick McCullagh (married to Maria Isabella Devlin). The father of the younger was John, brother of the Patrick just alluded to. This John was married to Ann Mallon. I refer to their father Francis as the patriarch of the McCullagh clan, the most distant relative I have been able definitely to trace in the McCullagh line.

The Peter Quinn who summoned my grandfather Patrick to Newry may have been related to either of the Quinns mentioned above. Given his age (declared 55 at the 1911 Census) he is possibly the son born on 7 January 1855 to James Quinn and Sarah McIver in Ardboe. If the Quinn connection was through the woman of the house next door (No 30) Francis’ wife Mary, then it would be possible that Peter could be that lady’s elder brother, thirty years old at the time of her marriage - Peter may have been Patrick McCullagh’s cousin’s wife’s brother !

Alternatively, if the first named Quinn above was the connection .. then my grandfather’s maternal grandmother was Quinn to her maiden name (of Michael Small and Maria Quinn). The age difference here is sixty years. The age difference between Peter Quinn and my grandfather Patrick was twenty years. Peter might then have been a grandnephew of Maria’s - Patrick’s grandmother’s brother’s grandson. I think the possible family connection is so tenuous and so remote as not to be worthy of further investigation!

In summary, no definite family connection between the two men has been established. What we know is that Peter Quinn came to Newry towards the end of the nineteenth century. He married a local girl named Catherine and set up home at 1 Upper Edward Street. His wife died in her forties and he moved in as a boarder with Granny Bridget at 43 Monaghan Street. He probably encouraged Patrick McCullagh, my grandfather to come to Newry from their common home place of Ardboe with the promise of a place to stay and a job as a baker in Willis’s.

The possibilities in regard to Henry McCullagh are interesting. I suspect that the Henry McCullagh who stood for Maisie (Mary E Catherine) Garvey in 1903 came from Ardboe. I have earlier speculated that since he jointly sponsored Maisie’s baptism with Bridget O’Brien - the new young mother’s aunt who kept a boarding house at 22 Upper North Street Newry - he was possibly familiar with and perhaps boarded with Bridget O’Brien. If he was a cousin of the youthful Patrick McCullagh (my grandfather, not yet in Newry) it may have been him who invited that lad to our town (in addition to or [perhaps] rather than Peter Quinn).

A Catholic named Henry McCullagh was born in Annavore, Ardboe on 6 January 1852. There were just 38 households in this townland (according to the 1901 Census). In the Griffiths Valuation (1860’s) only John and Patrick McCullagh held land in this parish. I am not aware of any Henry in the latter’s household. Certainly there is no record of birth of any such (nor indeed is there of the Henry McCullagh whom we know was the son of John next-door, and who emigrated to Australia in 1858!). THAT Henry was the first Aussie (so to speak) in the line that culminated with my friend Des Dineen. I retain his family history elsewhere!).

Is it possible there was another Henry McCullagh living in this small parish in a household not headed by a McCullagh? Possible but unlikely.

There remains then the intriguing possibility (I can put it no higher than that) that this Henry - born 6.1.1852 - the first McCullagh to arrive in Newry in the twentieth century - was the (illegitimate) son of Henry McCullagh who emigrated to Australia in 1858. Des Dineen gives his great grandfather’s year of birth as approximately 1838. This is impossible as his mother in that year gave birth to her son John (b. 8.7.1838). It is unlikely that Henry came between John and Eliza (b. 1.2.1840) as less than eighteen months separated these births. His researcher (Dr Brian Treanor of Ulster Historical Foundation) puts Henry’s parents’ marriage as sometime in that decade 1830-1839. He cannot be more precise because there is a gap in the marriage register for that period. We do not have Henry’s exact year of birth or age at death (d. 28.3.1902 in Parwan, Victoria, Australia [see photo of his grave’s headstone herein]). If Henry was the first-born of his parents’ marriage he may have been born earlier and been up to twenty years old in 1852. At such an age he would certainly have been capable of fathering a son.

The record of birth gives the mother’s name just as Betty W(?) of Annavore. All other entries gave two sponsors names and complete surnames for mothers. Why no surname for the mother? Why are no sponsors named? It is these circumstances which lead me to speculate as I do. Had Henry senior (son of John and Ann McCullagh) decided to start afresh overseas, he may have left the boy with his mother or other relatives and gone to Australia in 1858. Did this boy - who came and perhaps settled in Newry in the new century - marry or have children later - children who would be close relatives of Des Dineen and his relatives in Australia? I do not think so. I have searched assiduously and found no further record of the man or his descendants in Newry after he stood for Maisie Garvey. He was Roman Catholic. The twentieth century Roman Catholic Church records in Newry do not record the baptism of any McCullaghs outside of my immediate family - i.e. my siblings, myself and our children.

[I feel duty bound to counter my idle speculation too with the observation that there was at least one other adult Henry McCullagh in Tyrone (but not Annaghmore, Ardboe) at about this time]. On 16.10.1845 for example, the marriage took place in Lissan R.C. Church between Thomas Mallon and Mary McKenna. The witness was one Henry McCullagh. He couldn’t be the son of John and Ann (he would then have been too young to witness a marriage) therefore the name was used in another McCullagh family of Tyrone. There were also some Henry McCullaghs in Belfast at the time}.

In any case, had this Henry McCullagh (the one who co-sponsored – with Bridget O’Brien in 1903 - Maisie, only child of Granny Bridget’s marriage to P J Garvey) at her baptism, he was not cohabiting with that lady at the time of her death in 1922, nor had any (possible) child by him been registered or baptised in the parish in the meantime. In short, there is no further line to pursue here.

I am thankful that my son Steven included the name Henry in his first-born – Reuben Henry McCullagh. I will close this episode with that observation except for a curious observation. Very lately (October 2024) I happened to meet and befriend one Philip Quinn of Shandon Park Newry. Philip was a native of Ardboe and came to Newry (highly qualified in pharmaceuticals) some 30 years ago to work in Norbrook Laboratories. On enquiring I learned that he has been for over a generation friends and acquaintences with the Hagans, McCullaghs and Grimes of that place. I shall enjoy tracing with him our common ancestors there and here.