Blogtrotter

John & Jack Finan's Farmhouse

My grandfather, his brother Jack J., and their father John J. were born here. Rare in the area as it's two stories and in an era when the British taxed the glass allotted a window, at least it has a bit of room allowing a stray sunbeam or two. Behind it, on the Ordnance Survey map, is marked a ringfort. You can see the trees to the left. so I wonder about the sídhe, or the Tuatha, who may lurk amidst the sacred whitethorn, beyond water or the iron blade's defiance. Curious as I am, I would not venture into that líos, that guarded circle against mere mortals.

This handsome house was built around 1851, according to the Land Valuation Records I examined in Dublin. My cousin, who was one of the last of the clan to be born here, tells me that it replaced an earlier house blown down in the Big Wind, which would have been in 1839. However, I could not find in 1797 records or pre-Famine tithe lists any trace of Finans living there. Granted, such documents remain scanty unless you happened to be one of the landed gentry or their agents. Flanagans, who worked with my family, on the other hand, seem to have preceded and succeeded them in the vicinity, as did Maddens.

Year by year, I followed in the ledgers until the 1980s the colored pencils of the inspectors who recorded what they saw, or what was reported. The house and the family grew, both flourished, but, a century after this structure was hoisted, the house declined. "Ruin," one note told me. "Bad condition." Another: "bog." By the 1950s, the land reform for which both father and son campaigned had been finally secured; but, the farmers continued to leave the land they now owned behind. Like millions of Irish, their farm could not sustain itself against the power of the city. North Roscommon was left for South Dublin, Loughglynn village for Rathgar parish, suburban three-story walk-up replaced perches of bog and hectares of silage.

I spent most of the past three hours working on a short e-mail reply in Irish to my friend Deaglán about his new daughter and related thoughts. I excerpt parts of it here, since a question I asked him-- as an expert in late-Victorian Fenianism-- may be of interest to those outside my family tree. I summarize it in English. The other part of the note not translated but kept below briefly recounts my herculean experiences with others better suited than "mo béal bocht" from Ireland and abroad learning Gaeilge last July at Oideas Gael, Foras Chultúir Uladh, in the Glen.

John J. Finan, raised beneath this roof, died in the summer of 1898. He worked as a Land League agitator seeking reforms for Irish farmers. This, naturally, aroused the Crown's suspicions. He, according to my cousin, was found drowned "in mysterious circumstances" in the Thames after he and other League leaders had gone to London.

Later that year, his son, and my cousin's father, Jack, arrived. He never knew his father. Yet, inheriting his paternal instincts, Jack combined schoolteaching with representing a "conservative-radical" party for farmers, Clann na Talmhan. This North Connacht-centered movement gained a short-lived, and mostly post-war, ascent when it joined a coalition government that unseated-- finally-- Dev's Fianna Fáil in 1948. He entered the sixth Seanad. The fourteenth Dáil found Jack a Teachta Dála, or parliament delegate; he served from 1951-54. Losing (as the party soon declined, finding itself unable to sustain momentum from a small constituency and a limited platform), he later worked, living in Rathgar, for the "Pigs & Bacon Commission."

But, Jack never stopped fixing up this haven in Ballyglass East townland. Thriftily, he would take the pensioner's discount rate, get there Thursday, and come back to Rathgar Road on Monday. Even in his eighties, he was installing running water and a toilet. He loved to garden, his daughter recounted. He escaped here the duties that had brought him, as a younger politician, away from his birthplace into the red-brick terraces of Dublin 6. Tragically, he died in a house fire in Rathgar 24 May 1984 that destroyed also his photos and papers. So, for two generations spanning nearly a century of Irish land reform, we have lost the records of what John and Jack contributed to make their nation what to the Fenians would have been only a dream: the prosperous multilingual land it's become today.

[...]Bhí mé ar feadh coicis é ar an Oideas Gael, Ionad Chúltuir Uladh, Ghleann Cholm Cille i Dún na nGall. Bhí sé go an-hálainn! Ach, bhí cúrsa fásta an-deacair liom; thosaigh mé ar an mean-rang. Ní raibh ag labhairt as Gaeilge freisin. Ar ndóigh, d'fhoglaim beágan agamsa féin. Léigh mé cleachtannaí agus fuair mé cuidíu ar an ghréasan. Ní bhíonn in ann rá liofa, ar an drochuair. Níl mé in inmhne ag dul cúrsa na trathnona ina gCathair na Aingeal. Tá amhain féin. Caitheann mé ag teagaisc ar an ám céann. Tá mé ag múineadh ar an ollscoil. Tá mé ag teagasc seacht rang; Tá mé ag obair as dhá campas ar an ráithe seo.

Mar sin féin, chuir an stiúrthóir mé ann mean-rang le Éireannachtái (leath a chuid lucht) agus dhá Meiriceánach tuilleadh agus mhíc leinn eile uathu. Tháinig siad go An Iorua, An Danmhairg, An Bhreatain Bheag, agus Sasana. Chaill mé seans go raibh ag lean an craíc! Ní raibh maith liom ag stopadh, ach cheapaigh mé go raibh mé ar an leibhéal is íslím ná grupa. Áfach, foghlaimíonn mé ar lag. Ní téann ar leathanta saoire go minic. Caitheann mé ag obair an blian ar fad.
[...]

D'fhoglaim mé faoi rúndiamhair. An samhraidh caite, d'inis col-ceathair agam faoi sinseanathair. Bhí sé ar an lucht "Conradh na Talún." Fuair sé bás "in mysterious circumstances" i Londain ina samhraidh le 1898. Bádh John J. Finan faoi na abhainn Thames. Tá sin ag dul ó scil ar fad orainn. An fhios agat faoi cás? (Bhí mac rugadh sé an bhlian ina dhiadh sin, Jack J. Finan. Bhí sé an TD go Lough Ghlinn ina gContae Ros Comain Thiar-thuiadh ar feadh  ina Dála déag idir 1951-4; bhí Seanadóir riamh ina Seanad séú idir 1948-51 é. Nuair togadh sé i Rath Gairbh in aice leis Bhaile Átha Cliath idir sin agus tráthas, bhí sé "Pigs & Bacon Commissioner"! Bhí Jack go raibh an teachta ar an páirtí "conservative-radical" Clann na Talamh. Bhí sé múinteoir, gaeilgoir, agus feirmeoir lag. Fuair sé bás go tobann 24ú Bealtaine 1984 chomh maith leis an t-athair aige; dódh beo bhatach é. Tineadh sé fein a adhaint ina seomra staidéar. Dhóigh a chuid páipéar féin agus grianghrafaí Ua Fhionnáin. Is cúis leis ní raibh fhios againn faoi John Finan, is dócha. Bhí sé sean-uncail agam; creideamh mé aige mar bhíonn agam féin i gcónai ar thaobh an mhionlaigh idé-eolaíoch!)

Feic faoi "Manchán Magan: Global Nomad 'as gaeilge'" le 28 Deireadh Fómhair 2007. Tá tú ábalta fáil altanna eile faoi Gaeilge ansin fosta. Líon mé focal beag (agus go dona) as Gaeilge agus focal mórán eile as Béarla fá dtaobh de "céist na teanga". Tá dúil agam ag léamh fúithi le déanai. Measíonn mé go mbeidh lascannaí go casadh idir an phoblachtachtas ag sleabhac, an domhan ag crith, agus an náisuín ag creach.

[...]Bhuel, scriobh mé an nota seo. Is maith liom ag déanamh dúshlan as an teanga beo! Críochnaigh mé litirín seo faoi trí h-uair go fóill!