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James Kearns 1851-1921 |
Sarah Reilly 1867-1953 |
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James Kearns 1851-1921 |
Sarah Reilly 1867-1953 |
| James had lived with an uncle, who was also named James Kearns. He ran a shop in the quiet, one street village, Creggs. He inherited the property from his uncle, who was a bachelor. The shop sold hardware, groceries, and had a post office, and bar which sold alcohol to people at age 17. Two other nephews (one named Fleming) also lived with the uncle. Agent Lowe was going to evict them when the Land Commission took over the property and gave it to the tenants and gave Lowe the axe. People in the small town used to say: They were Low by name and low by nature. |
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 Creggs Rugby Club founded 1974 Parnell Monument on the left |
"You must show the landlords that you intend to keep a firm grip on your homesteads and lands. You must not allow yourselves to be dispossessed as you were dispossessed in 1847". Charles Stewart Parnell Parnell (27 Jun 1846 - 6 Oct 1891) died at age 45, less than 4 months after his marriage to Kitty O'Shea. |
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Parnell got up out of his sickbed to deliver his last speech at James' home in Creggs. James was one of eight men on the platform with Parnell. Parnell had been invited to a political gathering in Creggs about the division of land. His telegram to Kitty O'Shea was cheerful, though he said he was not feeling very well. From Creggs, he telegraphed Kitty that he was about to speak, and it was "terrible weather". "In Parnell's time, they got representation. Creggs was the last place Parnell (Irish leader in Parliament) made a public speech (September 27, 1891). He had his last public dinner in our house because my father was on the committee that entertained him and made arrangements. Creggs is only a village of one street. My brother, Tommy, had a bust of Parnell erected at the village green. It's the village of Cregg's only claim to fame: Parnell's last stop on earth. He died the following week. Some say he died of a broken heart." Nora Kearns |
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Their phone number was "one". They had a small farm, and raised cattle, sheep, work horses, a donkey (Neddy), turkeys, and chickens. They had a garden and grew apples, plums, rhubarb, potatoes, strawberries, and gooseberries. The garden was protected by a hedge of thorned holly around it, but had a hole that kids could get through to steal strawberries. Many daffodils. James & Sarah were married at St. Patrick's, Ballyhaunis in 1895 and had seven children in Creggs, Galway: Tommy, Sis, Jimmy, Bridie, Nora, May, John (May's twin). |
| James favored Nora
and May, his two youngest daughters. He walked with two canes and wore
bandages on his legs because of his rhumatism/arthritis. He died of
heart failure and two months of cirrhosis of liver certified on his
death certificate. Sarah was the disciplinarian in the family. She was fair, gentle, nice looking, and a good cook of plain food. She was great with flowers. If people had a plant that showed signs of delicacy, they'd take it to her. She'd take a nip of plants in a hotel lobby, then root it, she had a lot of luck with it-She was an honest woman in other ways. Both James & Sarah valued truthfulness. They weren't too strict but if the children got out of line, they got a reminder on the rear end with the palm of the hand. |
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 Thomas J. abt 1896-1947 |
Tommy was a county soccer player and won a gold medal. He introduced Éamon deValera at the unveiling of the Parnell statue (29 Dec 1946), and died not long after (27 Jan 1947). |  Tom Kearns & Éamon deValera |
| He had inherited the Creggs property, which went to his wife, Bridget's, brother, Nicholas Kelly. Tinkers stole the floor out of it. It had a beautiful fireplace. After Nicolas died, the property was sold by Nicolas' brother to the Creggs Rugby Club. | ||
 Cecelia 1897-1971 |
Cis married John (Jack) William Corcoran (1893-1960) at Kilbegnet & Ballinakill parish in 1921. They had two sons: James (Seamus) & Joseph. They lived at Ballycastle, Co. Mayo. |  Joseph 1926-1999 |
 James Vincent 1922-2006 |
 James abt 1900-? |
Jimmy married May Kane and had the following children: James, Maretce, and Francis. | ||
 Bridgid abt 1902-1980 |
Bridie was the tomboy in the family and liked to ride the workhorses bareback as a girl. She never married and needed the postmaster job to support her widowed mother, so Sonny Hughes bid for it and gave it to Bridie. It wasn't traditionally a female job. The IRC barracks and the post office became their home. In the 1970's she had no refrigerator or internal plumbing. She kept butter, and bottles of Guinness beer cold in the cool hallway. She had a cosmopolitan, masculine, very funny sense of humor. | ||
 Honoria 1903-1991 |
Nora married Martin Gilligan and had the following children in New York: Tom, Marty, John, Desi, and James (died as an infant). | ||
 Mary 1905-1981 |
May played the angles (imagination, a little bit of a schemer). She was married to Sonny Hughes on 27 Apr 1927 in Athleague Church by Cannon John Neary and Rev. James Neary. They had the following children: Ann Cunningham Hughes, Matthew, Tommy, and Jimmy. They owned the pub/general store at Ballinamore Bridge by the River Suck in Ballinasloe. They lived above the pub/general store. Father James Neary lived with them. | ||
John 1905-1905 |
May's Infant Twin | ||
| Sarah Reilly's father, Lawrence (1834-1873), died at a young age. Her mother, Cecelia (1846-1916), remarried Thomas Neary and had more children. Sarah was very close to her half brothers: Canon John Martin and Rev. James Austin Neary. |
| John played the banjo and he wrote a book on the history of Cong Abbey. "Notes on Cong and The Neale" by Rev. J. Neary.1938. He is buried at Cong Abbey. |  Cannon John Neary 1875-1951 |
| James' assignment as chaplin at Athlone prison, where Irish were to be executed, was stressful. On January 20, 1923, five Anti-Treaty IRA men were executed in Athlone by the Free State Government during the Civil War: Thomas Hughes (Athlone), Michael Walsh, Herbert Collins, Stephen Joyce, Martin Bourke (four from Caherlistrane, Tuam, Co. Galway). |  Fr. James Neary 1880-1969 |
 Jimmy, Sarah Reilly Kearns (1867), Tommy, Bridie, Fr. John Neary, Nora Kearns Gilligan Fr. James Neary, James Kearns (1851-1921) May Kearns Hughes, Cis Kearns Corcoran, Mary Shanahan Dolan |
In 1901, James Kearns (1851) was living with 73 year old aunt/widow, Hanoria Brooks in Creggs. |
1920s Creggs village: "The house is behind the mark and set back, so it does not show.
Creggs Townland, and Keelogues West Townland are both in Glinsk & Kilbegnet Roman Catholic Parish. Glinsk & Kilbegnet baptism and marriage records start in