Hi Timothy
I visited the parish priest yesterday and spent some time going through the parish records. According to the baptismal records there was only one John Murnane living in Lough Gur between 1800 and 1899 but he was married to Bridget Ryan and had only one child Mary who was born in 1837.
On the other hand, James Murnane was married to Bridget Cleary and had 5 children - Patrick, Margaret, Daniel, James and Michael. In the baptismal records Ellen is baptised on 4/10/56 adn her parents are listed as John and Bridget Cleary and the witnesses are Daniel Cleary and Bridget Dooly.
I also checked all marriage records in the parish for Bridget Cleary and between 1822 and 1854 4 Bridget Cleary's were married in the parish - one to John Dunne, one to Michael McGrath, one to Daniel Leo and one to James Murnane (but none to John Murnane). It may well be that John Murnane married another Bridget Cleary in a different parish but given that Bridget was baptised in the parish and therefore we can assume that she was still living there it is unlikely.
The parish priest, local historian and I all believe that the name John was transcribed in error instead of James as in the church records we can find no evidence of a John Murnane living in Lough Gur at that time. Given the date of Ellen's brith in 1856, one year after Patrick's in 1855 it seems logical to assume that they were siblings.
If this is indeed the case then you are directly related to Pat Murnane that I mentioned in another post and he is very keen to meet you. I don't know if you have seen the site of the original homestead but when you visit this summer Pat will take you and show it to you. Pat's brother Daniel still farms the land just as your ggggrandfather did all those years ago,.
Bridget Cleary & James Murnane had 6 children as I told you - Patrick stayed at home and married Nora from Fedamore and farmed the land, Ellen emigrated to America with Daniel who established a glass and mirror factory in St. Louis Missouri. I'm not sure what happened to Margaret, James and Michael as there is no record of their marriages in the parish.
You will see that Rosalie started this thread - she is a direct descendant of Daniel Murnane's - Ellen's brother and is also living in the States - do you know her? If not, you can make contact through this thread. She has a photograph of Daniel Murnane taken in America with his wife - I wonder is there a a family resemblance between yourself and Daniel!!
In terms of Bridget Cleary - she was batpised on 21/2/1822 and her parents were Daniel Cleary and Ellen Fitzgerald (another reason to assume that the Bridget Cleary who married James Murnane is your Bridget as she named two of her children after her parents!). She had four siblings - Michael baptised 24/10/1819, John baptised 7/7/1824, Mary baptised 6/8/1828 and Hanora baptised 24/10/1831.
You probably have a lot of this information already but if not I hope it has been helpful for you.
Kind regards
Aine Barry