Hi, Joan --
Thanks so much for looking into this. I had seen on the churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie site listing birthplaces for the children as Cnocaprichain, Cnocoguail, and Lavalla, also. I recently got a copy of my great-grandfather Daniel Murphy's birth certificate, which lists him born in "Lahvalla" of Daniel Murphy and Mary Conners.
And yes, I've seen the 1901 Census entry for the widower Daniel Murphy living in Brosna East with his children Nora, Daniel, and Hannah. I have been in touch with descendants of Hannah, one of whom says there was some rumor, information, or belief that Daniel and Mary eloped to Marylebone in London, but that she has never actually been able to find any evidence of this. She has also said that there were close ties between the Murphys in Brosna and Murphys just over the Cork border and that one of the Murphy cousins in Cork once told her that there was a war memorial in Charleville that supposedly listed some sons of the senior Daniel Murphy in Brosna among those commemorated for their efforts in the Irish War of Independence. My grandfather Edward told me once that he supposedly had an uncle Sean Murphy that was supposedly hanged by the British that was commemorated by a statue somewhere. His own older brother Jack died young in motorcycle crash during WWII, and so he cited these two cases to me of why no Murphy in our family should be named John or Sean because it was a "bad luck name" for us. I always thought that perhaps the story of the uncle Sean having a statue commemorating him might be some sort of exaggeration, as my grandfather was at times given to telling tall tales, and he claimed the statue was in Shannon Airport, if I remember correctly, so I didn't give it much credence. Though it seems there may be at least some seed of truth in it as Johanna Murphy's descendant mentioned the bit about Murphys who would have been uncles to my grandfather being named on the memorial in Charleville, Co. Cork.
A lady on Ancestry.com recently responded to a similar message I had left in multiple Irish message boards there: "Hi just to possibly help you my Grandpa was John Murphy born 1894 and his father also called John my great grandfather.They were from a place called Ahane Cross which is in Brosna. Grandpa John wed Mary Sexton on 7.1.1922 at Brosna R.C.Church they lived in Brosna all their married life and had 10 kids my late father John 1928 and two other boys being Tom who lived in Charleville with wife Hannah and Denis who left Ireland and wed Wendy. My Great Great Grandparents were Nora Collins born around 1830 and again John Murphy they wed around 1860 Nora appears on the 1911 census still in Ahane Brosna husband John presumably died after their last child in about 1878.Their farm was in Ahane virtually by the Riordan Farm as my family were firm fixtures throughout it may be of use to you good luck Bridget Murphy born 1951 in London."
~Kimberly
