Reading Peter Behrens’ The O’Briens, I was reminded (because of the novel’s character of Mick Heaney, a drunkard and a degenerate, and an Ottawa Valley fiddler) of a film I watched many years ago: The Best Damn Fiddler from Calabogie…
Stories
Bishop Guigues on John Lahey’s Donation
by M.C. Moran • • 1 Comment
As a followup to my post on John Lahey the Elder, here is Bishop Guigue’s account of John Lahey’s donation of two acres to the mission of March (later the parish of St. Isidore, Kanata). The following (which I discovered…
The Queen vs Kelly: Part IV
by M.C. Moran • • Comments Off
Continued from The Queen vs. Kelly: Part III. Hard Times, Hard Labour As reported in Part III, John Kelly entered the Dominion Penitentiary at Kingston on 15 May 1841, to serve a one-year sentence for the manslaughter of his brother-in-law…
Emmett and Donny: A Remembrance
by M.C. Moran • • 2 Comments
Emmett and his brother Donny served with the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II. Donny’s plane was shot down; and he spent time as a POW in a camp in Germany. [When my dad was a kid, he…
The Queen vs. Kelly: Part II
by M.C. Moran • • Comments Off
Continued from The Queen vs. Kelly: Part I. The Queen vs. Kelly “We are informed it was committed whilst in a state of intoxication,” wrote the Bathurst Courier (16 April 1841) of John Kelly’s fatal stabbing of his brother-in-law Michael…
“My Maternal Ancestors,” by Alec Lunney
by M.C. Moran • • Comments Off
I am extremely grateful to Al Lunney for sending me a copy of Alec Lunney’s “A Collection of Family and Ottawa Area Information,” which includes his account of his maternal (and my paternal) ancestors James Moran and Margaret Jamieson. Peter…
Cause of Death: Conflicting Accounts
by M.C. Moran • • Comments Off
James Moran (1858-1899) James Moran was born about 1858 in Huntley township, Carleton Co., Ontario, the third of twelve children born to Alexander (“Sandy”) Michael Moran and Mary Ann Leavy. On 27 November 1883 (St. Patrick’s, Fallowfield) James Moran married…
Hannie McCarthy (1924-2010)
by M.C. Moran • • Comments Off
Hannie McCarthy died in hospital last weekend, after a decline in health of several months’ duration. I took this photograph of Hannie in June 2008, in her cottage at Farramanagh, Kilcrohane, on the Sheep’s Head peninsula in southwest Cork. Safe…
To Hear the Wolves Howl (Scrapbook-y Version)
by M.C. Moran • • Comments Off
The Queen vs Kelly (Part I)
by M.C. Moran • • Comments Off
‘Barbarously Murdered’ On Sunday last, a man named John Kelly, was lodged in gaol on a charge of murder, in having in the township of March, on the Friday previous, stabbed one Michael Horrogan, his brother-in-law, in an affray, from…