140 attend a mighty Quinn family reunion in Cork

Around 140 members of the Quinn family, most of whom live in Cork, enjoyed a gathering last Saturday that included relatives who travelled from the U.S.

The event, a dinner followed by a DJ playing hits and lots of dancing, took place at The Address (formerly the Ambassador Hotel) on Military Hill.

Charlotte Pearson (neé Quinn), who lives in Parklands, was among the organisers of the reunion.

“Myself and my cousin Marion Sheehan (also a Quinn) were saying we’d organise a gathering of all the family,” she said.

“But then Covid happened. In January this year, we said we’re talking about it long enough; we need to start doing something.

“We always meet at funerals, not the happiest of occasions, and not everybody gets to meet everyone.

We put the word out to see if there was an interest in getting together. So there was.

And some - as the turn-out last weekend showed. The Quinns are super for keeping in touch!

Charlotte’s grandparents, Harry Quinn and Mary Lowry, were from Dublin and had nine children, seven of whom are alive, with the eldest being Charlotte’s father, Brendan, aged 86.

The grandparents had 39 grandchildren, 92 great grandchildren and 25 great great grandchildren. Some of the younger members of the family live abroad, including in Australia, so they were unable to attend the party.

“Work was what brought our grandparents to Cork,” explained Charlotte.

My grandfather was a sewing machine mechanic and he got a job with Singers in Cork.

“They first lived on College Road having moved to Cork around 1939. They then moved to Killeens, near Blarney. There’s a bar there called Maura’s. Maura owned the house they rented. She was extending the pub into the house so she moved them to Brideview on Commons Road.

“Both grandparents lived to be 82. My grandmother got Alzheimer’s and spent the last few years of her life in St Luke’s Nursing Home.

My grandfather died 11 months after my grandmother, of a broken heart.

Charlotte, who has three grown-up daughters and three grandchildren, said family is important. “It’s where you get your morals and your foundations. It’s important to keep in contact with everyone.”

As a child, she used to travel to Malahide in Dublin to stay with her grandparents and enjoyed trips to the zoo.

Both Charlotte and Marion work for Diabetes Ireland in office administrative roles. Diabetes is a condition that runs in the Quinn family. “My grandparents had diabetes; my dad has it and my daughter Karen has it. Marion has a brother who also has diabetes. So it’s part of our family history.”

It’s purely accidental that both cousins ended up working for Diabetes Ireland. Charlotte volunteered for the organisation for years before getting a job there.

“I was on the parents’ support group for people with kids who have Type 1 diabetes,” she said.

Charlotte says that the Quinn family has voluntary work in its DNA. Her father was a volunteer for a long time with the Credit Union. There was also a brush with politics. A cousin, Colette O’Sullivan, ran for the county council elections in Dun Laoghaire earlier this year.

Marion says it’s unusual that “we know all our cousins,” adding: “That’s down to our grandparents and our parents.”

Recalling Christmases of old, Marion says that after Christmas dinner, “we would all meet in our grandparents’ house for the mandatory evening turkey sandwiches and the giblet soup that my nana made. The house would be bursting at the seams. 

"Everyone looked forward to that day. It is one of my fondest memories.

My granda would call to our house every Sunday morning and he would have a bar of chocolate for each one of us. 

"He would hold the bars in his hand and we would each have to choose a bar. One bar was always missing a square as he used to give a square of chocolate to Tara, the dog next door. It was a lucky dip to see which one of us got the bar with the missing piece.

“We always knew when he was coming as the dog used to bark like crazy until he got his piece of chocolate.”

At last Saturday’s reunion, there was a PowerPoint presentation of the Quinn family tree and its various offshoots, as well as a slideshow of photographs.

“We did family trees, starting with the ancestors,” said Charlotte. “There’s a tree for each family. It took a lot of effort and I hope it will keep us all in touch.

“Marion is brilliant at graphics so she did the family trees.”

Marion added that their Uncle Des Quinn “did Trojan work on the family history over the last year. I put it into a format but it was Des that found the information. It’s a real passion for him.”

The Cork Quinns are scattered around both sides of the river. “It’s great that we always knew each other growing up and we got to know who got married to whom,” said Charlotte.

“There’s so many of us that we needed to catch up, to do something fun rather than meet at a funeral.

“My own father was sick some time ago. He nearly didn’t make it. There were warning signs like that. (Our older relatives) are not going to be with us forever. We want to have happy memories.”

Between walks on the beach in Malahide when Charlotte was very young, and Marion’s fond memories of her granda’s routine with the chocolate bars, the Quinns have a treasure-trove of wonderful memories that will live on through the younger generation.

Family is everything for the mighty Quinns.