Sheridan

My maternal grandmother was Mary Sheridan to her own name. She had one sister and one brother. Her sister Bridget (affectionately known as Cissy) married Patrick McKeown. This Pat was the brother of Jack McKeown, Mary's husband. (This means that two sisters married two brothers, as with the Vickers' girls and the McEvoys, a story already related). Cissy and Patrick had no children. They are both deceased and this line has come to an end.

My granny's brother Michael (Mick) died on 2.2.1972 (aged 84) at 7 Hawthorne Hill Newry, the home of his son Michael. I don't remember him though my elder sisters do. Michael married a local lady from South Armagh and it was there that they raised a family of three boys and a girl. My sister Patricia remembers when we first lived in the Meadow and before Iveagh Crescent, Derrybeg Drive or Killeavey Road were built, a schoolgirl used to cross this way from Our Lady's School and visit her aunt Eileen. She was this Mary Catherine Sheridan. She was about eight years older than our Patricia (who at that time was about 6-7 years of age). My mother tells us that Mary Sheridan is now married with children and lives in Canada. She married a man called Bill from Belfast. They had two girls. The first, severely handicapped, died at age twenty. The surviving girl works (at time of writing) as a network newscaster on Canadian TV.

Michael's wife Mary McKenna was a sister of Kate (Catherine) McKenna who was married to Peader Mór - and was thus the mother of the “Ghost”, the story just related. The three boys of Michael and Mary were Eugene (Gene), Michael and Anthony. These men are my first cousins, once removed. Anthony Sheridan immigrated to England where he met and married a girl named Elizabeth, who was originally from Nenagh, County Tipperary. Both Elizabeth and Anthony (c. 1987) are sadly deceased but they are survived by their three children and one grandchild. Tony, Caroline and Mark (m. 1993) are all married. Only the first named has issue. This infant is my second cousin once removed: the three men are my second cousins.

Michael Sheridan's (and Mary's) first son was named Eugene. Gene now lives at 25 Hospital Road Newry. Eugene and Ann McCullagh were next-door neighbours before they moved to Ballinalack Road Camlough. Gene remembers them as good neighbours. I am indebted to Gene for these details of the Sheridans.

Gene's younger brother Michael married Eileen Garvey of Annamar. (I will mention in passing that I have been informed that this lady's sister May is married to a Mr Conlon and they live near Sheetrim. Seven or eight years ago this couple lost two of their daughters tragically in a car accident close to their home). For a time Michael and Eileen lived in the home place (which is about 1-2 miles from “Grannys” at Sheetrim, along the Castleblaney Road) before they moved to Newry. Here in Newry they lived for a time at Hawthorn Hill before moving first to Gortmore Villas (on Hospital Road, close to Gene) and then to Woodside Park Bessbrook - where they still reside.

They have two children, Patricia and Gerald. They all help in the family business, Sheridans Coaches, which has several vehicles transporting people in the school/tourist/public service business. Patricia is still single at over forty years of age. Gene tells me that she is interested in family history, as I am, and he intends to contact her on my behalf in case she can enlighten me further (but I am already relating details of the only Sheridans I feel are related to me! Gerald recently married Ann Marie Rooney (daughter of Paddy Rooney of Derrybeg Estate, a greyhound man), and they have a baby, my second cousin once removed!

Gene lives alone. He still repairs television sets part-time but he is essentially retired. Some years ago he owned a shop in Mary Street where he sold televisions and electrical goods, as well as repairing faulty machines. Gene regrets ever having set up that business for he lost a few thousand pounds in the venture. He blames hire purchase laws that he claims permit the purchaser to own the set when just one third of the payments have been paid. Often he didn't receive any more than one third of the payments and pursuing defaulters through the courts was not his style.

Gene had taken up television repairs part-time when he was employed by Ulster Transport Authority as an engineer. He had trained as a mechanic and worked for that company for fifteen years. Prior to that he had worked at a variety of jobs and in many different places.

Gene remembers being taken to town as a youngster by his father Michael. They would always stop at “Garveys” for a meal. As this was probably in the early forties, Michael would be served his meal - as likely as not - by his niece, his sister Mary's child Mary Ellen (more familiarly known as Eileen) who of course was then soon to be my mother!

Gene always then had an ambition to join the Royal Air Force and become a fighter pilot. His parents wouldn't entertain this at all. Of course, parents of a South Armagh youth wouldn't want him to join the British armed forces and indeed no parent then would have been pleased at such a choice of profession. In the Battle of Britain (1940) very many young pilots died on both sides (180 German planes were shot down on 15 August of that year alone!) Gene's ambition however was no passing fancy. He is still obsessed with the notion and reads Second World War chronicles passionately. As he points out, the free world owes an enormous debt to those young men who saved us all from fascism.

Gene plays a lot of golf and pitch and putt. He is a member of Cloughogue Pitch and Putt Club and frequently plays at Newry Golf Club where he was formerly a member.

These are my living relatives on the Sheridan branch of the family. I will now turn my attention to the principal of that line (from our point of view), my grandmother Mary Sheridan and her chosen groom Jack McKeown.

TODO: Insert Img, Living Sheridan Relatives

TODO: Insert Img, Mum, Kassy, Flo (with baby Jonny) and Mary, with her girls