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Michael O'Reilly Owned a Pub circa 1903

CavanShercock (Cavan)

My great-grandfather, Michael O'Reilly, owned a pub in Shercock in the early 1900s. I am hoping that someone might know of a way to get photographs of Shercock from around that time so I can see if any exist of the pub or so I can know what is currently occupying the land the pub was on. My wife and I are planning a trip to Ireland in a few years and I would like to visit as many places I know my family would have been as possible. I have included the death registration for Michael's wife where his occupation is noted.

pjm.oreilly@gm…

7 replies

Thank you very much for finding this.  I had the wrong Michael on the 1901 census for over a year.  This has filled in some gaps for me.  Is there any way to derive the location of the pub on a map of the town as it was in 1901 that I can use to find on a current map?

pjm.oreilly@gm…

House numbers weren’t introduced in rural Ireland till well through the 1900s, so it’s going to be tricky locating this pub. I don’t know of a local map that marked where it was but perhaps there might be one. There is a photo of the main street in Shercock on this site:

http://www.myhometown.ie/41/view_of_main_street/110.html

You could try the Breifne Historical Society to see if they can assist:

http://www.breifnehistory.com

Also try Cavan Library in case they have any historical material on Shercock:

http://www.cavanlibrary.ie/Default.aspx?StructureID_str=33

Here’s what looks to be the same family in 1911, with Michael having remarried to Mary O’Reilly:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Cavan/Shercock/Shercock_Town/336297/

1906 marriage certificate:

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_returns/marriages_1906/10114/5680487.pdf

In both 1901 & 1911 there was a shop assistant living there. That suggests to me that it was the typical old fashioned Irish pub that combined a bar with a grocers shop. So half of it would be a bar and the other half would sell potatoes and other things you would get in a grocers.

In that 1911 census, there’s another pub on one side and a shop on the other. But there were 5 pubs and a hotel in the town, so sorting one from another may be hard.

The Valuation Revision records in the Valuation Office in Dublin should show who the neighbours were, right up to 1929 (assuming the family still owned it then). You might be able to use that information to narrow the search.

If you don’t get any help from the sites I have suggested. Asking locally might be the answer. Most towns and villages have a local historian etc.

Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘IrelandXO Volunteer

Thank you, Elwyn.  I will look into all of those sources and ask around the area when we make to trip to Ireland in a few years.

The story my father told me is that his father drove a chain-drive milk truck to make deliveries for his father, so the grocery store makes perfect sense.  From what he told me his father decided to move to the US after the bar was lost after a fight between two soldiers drinking there resulted in one of them being seriously injured or killed.  My father said they wre British soldiers and the bar and truck were taken to pay restitution to the family of the injured or killed soldier.  I don't have any way to verify that story, but my grandfather came to the US in March of 1928 on the SS Baltic.  If the story is accurate it would have had to have happened either early in 1928 or not long before that year.  

pjm.oreilly@gm…

Re the story about the British soldiers in the pub, partition of Ireland happened in 1922.  So after that there were no British soldiers stationed in Shercock or anywhere in the Republic of Ireland, save for 3 very specific locations where the British maintained military bases up to the start of WW2 (1 in Cork, 1 in Kerry and 1 in Co Donegal). None anywhere near Shercock.  I suppose these might have been off duty soldiers - based in what is now Northern Ireland  perhaps - who had come across the border to Shercock for some reason, but otherwise I’d be inclined to think that if it did involve British soldiers, it was more likely to be pre 1922. But I could be wrong there.

The incident would surely have been extensively reported in the local newspapers though. That would have attracted a lot of interest. Ancestry and findmypast have a good selection of Irish newspapers that you can search on-line (if you subscribe of course). And the British Newspaper Library has an on-line search facility. It contains a lot of Irish newspapers too.  You could try that.

Perhaps someone at the Cavan museum might have heard of the incident too. Might be worth e-mailing them.

http://www.cavanmuseum.ie/Default.aspx?StructureID_str=1

 

Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘IrelandXO Volunteer

That is definitely my great-grandfather Michael and his son, my grandfather, referenced in that paper.  Which source did you get that from?  I would like to subscribe so I can look through any other archives from that era.

Thank you for sending this.  My dad was surprised by the details as his dad never spoke of this incident.

pjm.oreilly@gm…

Michael,

The Cassidy information is, to my knowledge, accurate.  I believe Michael was born between 1874 and 1876.  This is based on the census information I've seen.  Unfortunately, my dad doesn't know anything about Michael's side of the family.  I don't think Michael and my grandfather, Peter, were on the best of terms by the time Peter came to the U.S.  There is a Meath Chronicle article from 2/11/28 about Peter suing Michael over what I believe is the farm Peter Cassidy had left him in the "Shercock Deed" article.  The 2/18/28 Article references a Truck that Michael sued Peter over.  My dad has spoken about a letter that Michael sent to Peter during the 1930s when he was very sick and he eventually passed away in a public hospital.  I don't know what year that specifically was.  His death was likely related to his heavy alcohol use.  

I will check with my dad again to see if he is aware of any siblings Michael may have had.  However, he didn't even know his father had a baby brother who died.  The John Reilly could very well be the right person.  I've been looking for him for a while and the year of his death fits in the timeline.  

Thank you for all of your hard work on this.  It's greatly expanded a whole branch in my family tree.  

Pete O'Reilly

pjm.oreilly@gm…

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