My Story: Pamela Flood
{Series 1}
When we approached Pamela to be in the series, her biggest concern was that her family were too ordinary, and there would be nothing of interest to uncover... She needn't have worried!
Corballis House
The only inkling Pamela had of something unusual in her family tree was a story her Granny used to tell, about being sent to stay with her grandmother at Corballis House: a grand country home that, until this year, stood at the entrance to Dublin Airport. How could such an ordinary, working class family be connected to such a posh house, and why did they leave?
The initial genealogical research did little to clear the confusion! Pamela's Granny (Mary Josephine Donoghue) was born at the turn of the century in the heart of the Monto: Dublin's notorious Red Light district and an area of run-down working class tenements. 26 years earlier in 1880, her father David was born less than a mile away on the North Strand. David's mother, a farmer's wife, is listed as Mary Donoghue (nee Wall)... There's no mention of her, or any family member, living in the grand estate 8 miles away at Corballis.
But, in the 1901 Census, the situation becomes more confusing: David (the father of Pamela's granny) is living in a two-room tenement in The Monto, but his mother Mary (the farmer's wife) is now a widow, and listed as “The Head of Household” at Corballis, a home with fourteen rooms! How could her circumstances have changed so much in just 20 years?
http://www.nationalarchives.ie/genealogy/censusrtns.html
Pamela arranged to meet historian David Nolan, who has written a history of Corballis House. His records show that a man named Donoghue was listed as the owner of Corballis for a period of time, and before that, the house was owned by a very wealthy Dublin solicitor, Joseph Wall. Then Pamela remembered that on David Donoghue's 1880 birth certificate, his mother's maiden name was 'Wall'. There must be some connection between Pamela's Great Great Grandmother Mary Wall, and this wealthy solicitor Joseph Wall... but what connection?
A short death notice for Joseph Wall, found online on the Irish Times Archive, makes no mention of any wife, or children, or even friends... But since he was a wealthy man, he probably left a will. Pamela & David head to the National Archives on Bishop Street to find out more.
http://www.irishtimes.com/search/
The fire in the Four Courts in 1922 destroyed many priceless Irish records, including census information and copies of wills. But Summaries of 19th Century Wills do survive. Pamela finds such a summary for Joseph Wall, showing that the will was only settled after a court-case ('Wall Vs Wall'), which suggests there was some family battle over the contents of the will. Returning to the Irish Times Online Archive, Pamela discovers an article from 1879 about the court case: it shows that Mary Wall was the illegitimate daughter of Joseph Wall. She had tended to him in his later years, and he had left Corballis to her for life in his will. But Joseph's brother Luke contested the will, arguing that Mary had held 'undue influence' over her father, and had kept him drugged and not in a fit state to write a will. But the judge found in Mary's favour, and Corballis was rightfully hers!
http://www.nationalarchives.ie
Now Pamela knew why her Great Great Grandmother ended up in Corballis – it was her birthright, illegitimate or not. The next question was, why did she leave? But first, Pamela wanted to do some detective work of her own to clear up another mystery... Mary Wall was the illegitimate daughter of Joseph Wall, but who was her mother? No birth certificate could be found for Mary, and the only official document Pamela found was Mary's marriage to John Donoghue the farmer. Official state wedding certificates only have a space for the fathers of the bride and groom, not the mothers. But perhaps the original church register would hold more information?
In Malahide, Pamela gets to view the original marriage register from February 1880, and finds exactly what she is looking for: the only mention of illegitimate Mary Wall's mother – Margaret McDonagh.
A cousin of Pamela's may have found the reason why Mary Wall eventually left Corballis House, even though she had fought for the right to live there. A letter was found, written to the Land Commission by one of Mary's sons. He was looking for compensation, arguing that his mother had been forced from her home in 1917/18 because of the house's proximity to the Airport, which at that time was a British Army Airfield. The letter suggested that because Mary and her sons had republican leanings, an enormous amount of pressure was put on her to sell, and she eventually gave in and sold the house to the head of the British Steam Packet Company. But there was a final sting in the tail for Mary... Her father's will had left Corballis to her for life, and when she sold it, Joseph Wall's brother Luke, who had originally contested the will, stepped in and claimed three-fifths of the value of the sale. Mary lived out the rest of her days in a tiny two room cottage in Saggart.
The Wall Family
Now that Pamela had learnt that her Great Great Great Grandfather Joseph Wall was a wealthy solicitor, she was keen to investigate more, and perhaps uncover where that wealth came from (and what became of it!)
Historian Max Kelly was able to unearth a History of the Wall surname in Ireland, which showed that Joseph's father Luke Senior was born poor, but died with a vast wealth having become a Pawnbroker in Dublin in the early 1800s. The estate he left to his wife and children was worth at least four million Euro in present-day terms!
With Max, Pamela searched the records at Kings Inns, to see if there was any mention of Joseph Wall or his brothers studying there. They found the original admission records, which revealed a very interesting twist. Joseph was signed into Kings Inns by his mother, Ellen Wall. However, her signature reads Ellen Byrne, which suggests she re-married after the death of her wealthy husband Luke.
http://www.kingsinns.ie/website/index.htm
Max had tried in vain to search for any record of Ellen Wall, but when he searched again for Ellen Byrne he uncovered an article from the Times of London in 1842. The article referred to a 'Mysterious Occurrence' and mentioned not only Ellen, but her sons Joseph & Luke Wall – this was definitely the right woman. As Pamela read through the article, she realised that it was about the mysterious death of Ellen's new husband, Augustine. It seems that Ellen, or her sons, were under suspicion of his murder!
Knowing names & dates, Pamela headed to the newspaper collections at the Dublin City Library & Archives on Pearse Street. There, she unearthed reams of articles about the three week inquest and eventual charging of Ellen Byrne with murder... At Green Street Courthouse, Pamela was able to stand in the very dock her own Great Great Great Great Grandmother had stood in...
Because none of the medical experts could agree on the exact cause of death of Augustine Byrne, his wife Ellen was eventually acquitted. The money she and her sons had inherited from her first husband was certainly the source of income which allowed Joseph Wall to buy Corballis House, which gave rise to Pamela's grandmother's memories of visiting there as a child... The story had come full circle.
