Michael William O'Brien

Michael William O’Brien was born the end of March or early in April 1852. The baptism was recorded in Ardagh Parish, April 4, 1852. His parents, William O’Brien and Ellen Riedy, were married March 30, 1846 at Monagay Church, but they were living and farming in Ballynabearna, Newcastle West.  The family was farming in Ballynabearna from the early 1800’s though they may have originally come from near Monagay. Patrick O’Brien, Michael William’s grandfather, was farming in Ballnabearna during the 1826 survey for the Tithe Applotments.  Michael left Ballynabearna in the wake of the 1867 Fenian Rising in Ardagh. According to a local account of the history, the leaders of the Old Mill Fenians included close neighbors Frawley and Enright of Ballynabearna and the Kennedy’s of neighboring Ballyine. The day following the attack on the RIC barracks, the O’Brien house was searched by police looking for the Fenian men. He left Ireland for collieries of the Rhondda Valley, Wales. By 1871 he was employed in an iron works, and in 1872 he married Catherine Ryan at St. Dubritius Roman Catholic Chapel, Treforest.  She was originally from Castlegrace, Tipperary. Living among the harsh mining villages in the Rhondda Valley they raised a large family of fourteen children, but sadly only 9 survived to adulthood. Michael worked in the coal collieries starting as a coker and hewer, foreman, and at the end of his life a Lampman, following an accident underground where he lost a leg. Michael died in 1904 at age 52 and is buried at Trealaw Cemetery. His widow and children began immigrating to Canada and settled in the Pacific Northwest (British Columbia, Canada and Seattle, Washington).