The Callanan Family ... a Trove Tuesday post.

A recent theme regarding Government officials on the Gippsland History Facebook group prompted me to post about one Michael Callanan (1832-1920) who was a Government Surveyor here in Victoria from the 1860's until his retirement in 1895.  In turn, writing about Michael prompted me to write here about the ties between the Callanan family and our Pilkington family.

Here is my Facebook post about Michael:

Michael Callanan 1832-1920 District Surveyor based at Cranbourne in the 1870's. Involved in surveying land throughout South Gippsland. He was appointed Surveyor-General in 1894, a position he held until he retired the following year.

The Callanan family were great friends of my Pilkington family, the two families having known each other well back in county Clare, Ireland. They took my great uncles under their wing, so to speak, when they arrived in Australia in 1890 & 1895 respectively.

Michael Callanan, Victorian Government surveyor

photo from Pilkington Family Collection

MR. MICHAEL CALLANAN. (1920, August 12). Advocate (Melbourne, Vic. : 1868 - 1954), p. 13.
Retrieved December 2, 2021, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article171049903

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Michael Callanan was the son of Edmund (Ned) Callanan and Bridget nee Connelly.  They were a prosperous Roman Catholic family with a farm in Kilmacduane Parish between Kilrush and Ennis in county Clare, Ireland.

The first indication of the friendship between the Callanan's and Pilkington's is in 1838, recorded in Charlotte Keane's diary.  My 2x great grandfather Thomas Pilkington, who lived at Waterpark in Ennis, had been out to his property at Kiltrellig in the west of Clare.  On the ride home he felt unwell and stopped at Ned Callanan's house at Dangananelly to rest.  Recognising his friend was not well, Ned sent a messenger on to Ennis to ask for a cart to be sent to collect Thomas.  When the message arrived, my great grandfather, then 16 year old Thomas junior, saddled his horse and went on ahead to meet his father.  Unfortunately, the message was too late and by the time young Tom arrived his father had died.

Here is a short piece of narrative fiction I wrote about the event for UTAS Family History course.

A Man’s World

Ned Callanan clapped his hand on the boy’s shoulder.  “I’m sorry, lad.  He’s gone, God rest his soul.”

Tommy looked at the still form of his beloved father.  How could this be? Papa had always been so full of life, so indestructible.  Only three days ago, he had said goodbye to his family before riding out West to check on some property.  He hadn’t been expected home for some days yet.  No-one imagined they would not see his laughing face again. 

Late as it was when the messenger had arrived, 16-year-old Tommy had set off from Ennis with the covered car* immediately.  Ned told him his father had decided to come home early because he was feeling unwell.  He had stopped at the Callanan’s for a break, intending to wait only long enough to give his horse a rest.  Obviously ill, and with 24 miles still ahead of him so late in the day, Ned had persuaded him to stay and sent the messenger on.

And now Tommy had arrived too late.   He thought of Mama, and his four younger sisters, anxiously waiting at home for news.  Baby Charles, not even a year old, would never know his father.  What would happen to them all now?

With a quivering lip, young Tom took a ragged breath.  “Thank you, sir” he said to the older man beside him.  Squaring his shoulders he thought, I’ll have to be the man of the family now. Mama is going to need me.

*covered car – a jaunting car with oiled canvas sides to protect the passengers from the weather.

           References:  

 Charlotte Keane’s diary – private family collection 

 Obituary from Clare Journal 26 March 1838, Clare Local Studies Centre.

Fifty-two years later, in 1890 young Tom's own son, my great uncle Fred Pilkington, left Ireland for Australia. Michael Callanan was by then well-established as a Government Surveyor, and would have been a good contact for a young lad newly arrived in the colony.  Fred spent his first few years in Australia working with survey parties throughout Gippsland.  

In 1895, Fred's brothers Dan and Alfred also arrived in Australia.  Dan joined Fred surveying, but Alfred had become ill on the voyage over and stayed in Melbourne for treatment, being looked after by Michael Callanan's family.

Unfortunately, Alfred succumbed to his illness and passed away only a couple of months after arriving. With his brothers both away in the bush, the Callanan's took care of all the arrangements, and that's how my Protestant great-uncle Alfred came to be resting in peace in the Roman Catholic section of the St. Kilda Cemetery.

Over the years, for Fred and Dan, and later my grandfather Charlie, a visit down to Melbourne would often include a trip out to Essendon to visit the Callanans.  

Michael's son Ernest was a dentist in Leongatha for some years, and served as an Honorary Lieutenant in the Australian Army Medical Corps during World War 1.  Sons Frank and Jack settled in the Cranbourne area, where Frank represented the community as a shire councillor for many years. 

Here is another picture from the family collection, of Ernie Callanan, axe in hand and looking very much a "chip off the old block".

Ernest Septimus Callanan

(1878-1958)

Pilkington Family Collection

Note: Ernest Septimus was sometimes recorded as Ernest Sebastian

Doondahlin …

Amongst the treasure trove of memorabilia belonging to our extended family is the following picture, painted on a thin sheet of masonite.  It is labelled “Doondahlin” and bears the artists initials of ‘A.E.’.  An identical picture hangs on the wall at a cousin’s beach house.  These pictures would have been a reminder of home to my Irish relatives.

Doondahlin, date unknown, by 'A.E.'

 from Pilkington Family Collection

Doondahlin was one of the homes associated with my family back in Ireland, and which in present times is a ruin.  I had no idea who ‘A.E.’ might be, as the initials did not relate to any known family. 

The painting  was brought to mind again a few months ago when I received an email from a man in Ireland, seeking information about Doondahlin for a local history group.  So back to the family archives I went, to see what I could find out.

Doondahlin was the summer home of the Keane family of Beechpark, in Ennis, county Clare, Ireland.  It was built for my 3x great-uncle, the infamous Marcus Keane, probably in 1854.  An entry in his sister Charlotte’s diary in October of that year reads:  “Marcus is building a fine lodge on the cliffs at Kilbaha”.  Kilbaha is a small village by the shore of the Shannon Estuary on the Loop Head Peninsula in Clare.  These West Clare lands were the ancestral home of the Keanes (formerly O’Cahane, or Ó Catháin in Irish), and previous generations of the family had been well-respected in the area.

Doondahlin, sketched by Sarah Haughton in 1859

from Pilkington Family Collection

Marcus inherited his father’s land agency business, raising himself up the social and financial ladder by marrying the daughter of a wealthy absentee landlord, and taking on the management of his father-in-law’s extensive estates.  He became notorious during an Gorta Mór (The Great Famine) for his ruthless evictions of poor tenant farmers and the destruction of their homes. 

Doondahlin took its name from an ancient Irish hill fort, the remains of which were located on the same cliff top.  Dun Dahlin was one of four hill forts along this stretch of Loop Head Peninsula, the origins of which are based in legend.

From:
Ring-Forts in the Barony of Moyarta, Co. Clare, and Their Legends
by Thomas Johnson Westropp
Part I.—From Loop Head to Carrigaholt
(Clare Library)

Marcus Keane considered himself something of a scholar on the subject of Irish antiquities, and wrote a book published in 1867 titled “The Towers and Temples of Ancient Ireland: their origin and history discussed from a new point of view”.  Perhaps it was this interest which led him to choose this site for his ‘fine lodge’.

In his book “The Houses of Clare”, Hugh Weir describes Doondahlin as a plain L-shaped, 2 storey house, with 3-bay front, and 4-bay wing along the east side, and a single-storey 3-bay wing on the west side.  According to this newspaper advertisement, there were 3 sitting rooms, 7 bedrooms and dressingrooms, 3 servants rooms, plus kitchen, pantries, and closets. I’ve also been told that the construction of the building included a layer of turf stacked between the double brick walls to act as insulation – probably necessary protection from the Atlantic gales blowing across that exposed cliff top.

Freemans Journal 2 June 1873

from Irish newspapers at findmypast.com

The house was used as a summer residence for Marcus, his wife Louisa and their children.  After Marcus’s death in 1883, Doondahlin passed to his son Marcus junior, who owned it until it was destroyed by fire in September 1921.  Marcus the younger’s daughter Helen has written some memories of her family’s life in Clare, and she writes of vividly remembering being at Beechpark one morning when a message was brought to say Doondahlin had been burnt the previous night.  This was during the War of Independence, during which the countryside was engulfed in trouble between the Republicans and the British troops including the dreaded Black and Tans. Doondahlin was targeted presumably in retribution for the actions of Marcus Keane during the previous century.
  
Marcus Keane filed a claim for compensation to the Irish Grants Committee in 1929.  I haven’t seen his claim myself, but I am told that it outlines a previous attempt at firing Doondahlin a few months earlier, which was thwarted by the attention of the caretaker.


So, back to the picture.  While searching for information to pass on to my Irish correspondent, I did a google search for “Doondahlin” and was surprised to find the following in an on-line art catalogue – a third copy of the very same picture, together with another of the view from Doondahlin across the Shannon to Mt. Brandon in Kerry.  Both pictures were surrounded by ‘folk art frames of oystershell’.  The pair of pictures had sold for $100 just a few months previously in October 2017.

The Australian Art Sales Digest, published by John Furphy Pty. Ltd., Melbourne, Australia.

According to the catalogue, the mystery ‘A.E.’ was an Irish/Australian artist by name of Annie Eldridge. Written on the rear of this picture was ‘Mrs. Eldridge, Rosehill, Buffalo Creek, South Gippsland’.   Buffalo is in the same district in South Gippsland where my family members from Ireland settled.

After some more investigation, I came up with two possibilities.  The first was Annie Eldridge nee Farrell, an Irish woman from county Galway, who was married to a William Eldridge. The couple ran a hotel in Wodonga for many years.  This one was promising, because a Farrell family were long-standing friends of my extended family in Gippsland, and the Eldridge family of Rosehill had a son named William.  It all seemed to fit perfectly – except that the Rosehill William Eldridge was married to someone else, and this Annie didn’t fit into the Farrell family we knew.  Additionally, I could not find anything linking this couple to South Gippsland.

The second possibility was Annie Eldridge the sister of William of Rosehill.  Although this Eldridge family were of English origins, not Irish, Annie married into a family with Irish connections.  She was born in 1866, making her a contemporary of my grandfather and his brothers, and she was definitely in the right location to be acquainted with my family.  I’m still unable to connect her to Doondahlin though, so not sure what opportunity she would have had to do the painting.  

All three pictures shown here - painting, sketch and photograph - are taken from a similar vantage point on the shore of Kilbaha Bay in front of what was Kiltrellig Lodge, home of my Pilkington family.  The Pilkington sisters who lived there took in paying guests to help make ends meet.  It is not unreasonable to imagine that IF Annie Eldridge had travelled to Ireland she may have sought accommodation with the family of her friends in Australia.

The ruins of Doondahlin, 2007

© K. Vincent 2007

Voyage of Discovery - Ireland May 2014

One Sunday morning back in early October last year (2013), I awoke to find an email from Paddy Waldron in county Clare, Ireland, asking me if I would be interested in a project commissioned by the Ennis Town Council in Clare, in the writing of a history of Waterpark House.
And so the Waterpark project was born, and this voyage of discovery began!

Waterpark House was then the offices of the Ennis Town Council, but in a previous life it was the home of my Pilkington family for much of the 19th century.

The Clare Roots Society in Ennis have produced a great collection of local history books, and the Waterpark booklet, written by Larry Brennan, was to be another in the series. 


Many months of activity followed, with drafts, corrections and additions flowing backwards & forwards by email, a process I thoroughly enjoyed and learnt a lot from.  The Town Councils in Ireland were set to be disbanded in June of 2014, so the release of the Waterpark book was targeted to coincide with the Ennis Councils last official meeting in May.

Then came the dilemma - could I go to Ireland for the launch? should I go? could I negotiate leave from work?  could I leave the family? And then, when exactly was the launch to be?  After much deliberation, and encouragement from family and friends, and despite several changes of heart, I booked my flights and proceeded to plan for a month in Ireland.
And what an adventure it turned out to be!