John Arnold and me... delving into my family’s tangled roots
Well it’s a story - no... a mystery really - that I’ve tried to solve over the years without success, and still the wonder grows.
Back in the year 1910, he was hoping to start a new life ‘far away in Australia’ and was eagerly anticipating the adventure to come - ‘if God spares my health and strength and luck for my future days to come, I think I ought to get on well in Australia, for without health and luck in this world one cannot get on’.
Hopes and aspirations to better himself must have been foremost in the mind of the 24-year old when he penned those lines at Ballinaglanna, Glanmire.
That John Arnold was the son of another John Arnold, from Carrigtwohill in East Cork.
My father had no brother and just one sister. She was Johanna, born in 1911, we always simply called her Auntie Jo. She never married and lived here with us until her death in the 1970s.
It was Auntie Jo told me about the Arnold cousins in East Cork. I think she never actually knew or met them herself -not certain about that - but her knowledge came down from her father, my grandfather, Batt Arnold.
He was born in 1877 and used recall as a young man going to visit ‘the Arnold cousins in Longstown in Carrigtwohill’. Auntie Jo remembered him telling her that those cousins who were farmers would always have ‘the early spuds’ in June or July and he’d always bring ‘a codgel of new spuds’ home after a visit there.
John seemed to be a prominent name in the Carrigtwohill Arnolds and there were also John Arnolds in the Rathcormac and Conna families. Our own family featured Daniel and Bartholomew more frequently - my own name comes from my maternal grandfather on the Twomey side.
Maybe 30 years ago, or more, I started doing bits of research from time to time and established without doubt that the Arnolds were indeed farming in the townland of Longstown in the parish of Carrigtwohill.
One Sunday, I got in the car and drove to this place - only about six miles from here, where my grandfather got the early potatoes each year. A south-facing farm, yes indeed, they’d have more sun and less frost there and have a crop of ‘earlies’ long before the folk in Bartlemy.
I found out the general story of the Arnolds there - with a lot of gaps and unanswered questions, some of which I may never get answers for.
Then came letters from faraway in Australia and, lo and behold, around the year 2003 John Arnold from Australia met yours truly.
John’s sister Chris had been to Ireland in 1995 and started the ball rolling on making the connections. John died a few years back but his wife Joy and sisters Chris and Annette are still in contact with me.
Annette is a Sister in the Josephite Order founded by Saint Mary McKillop, who was born in Melbourne of Scottish ancestry. By a beautiful coincidence, two girls, Geraldine and Mary Leahy, who were in National School with me in the 1960s, both joined the Josephites and are working in Australia with many years.
In that country ‘Down Under’ aeroplanes seem like cars to us because of the vastness of the landmass, so ‘flying doctors’ and ‘flying teachers’ are the norm.
She called here for a brief visit on Sunday morning and we went to Bartlemy Mass together. We had only about two hours talking but we covered a fair bit of Arnold history ‘Home and Away’!
On February 12, 1876, John Arnold, then farming at Woodstock in Carrigtwohill, married Anne Murphy at her home in Ballinvriskig in Whites Cross. Two years later, their first son Patrick was born at Woodstock. Shortly after this, John Arnold took the tenancy of a farm in Longstown. A son John Arnold was born there in 1886. The other children in the family were Anne, George and Mary.
Whilst John and Anne and family farmed their land, at least one brother of John’s, James, had left Ireland. He may have gone to England first then onto Australia. He married Bridget Ryan and eventually the family settled in Rockhampton in Queensland.
Back in Carrigtwohill, John Arnold died at a young age, leaving his wife Anne to rear the family and carry on the farm. This proved impossible and the Arnolds lost tenancy of the farm.
They went to live in a house at Ballinaglanna, near Glanmire. Though efforts to get back the tenancy of he land at Longstown continued, the family accepted a ‘gratuity’ of £600 from the new owners.
The relations in Australia presumably kept in contact with ‘home’ and James Arnold made the decision to offer his nephew John the opportunity to come over and make a new start for himself. He wrote to John, offering to pay for his ticket to Australia.
Then aged 24, this was a chance in life that offered hope and a bright future. John was delighted and wrote a 14 page reply to his uncle James.
The poignant letter began: “My Dear Uncle, I received your fond and welcomed letter, was very pleased with it, was glad to see it that I am going to Australia this year. So you say in your letter to me that I will have my ticket in a few months as I am anxiously waiting for that same, which I expect very soon and I am thinking of making preparations for to go.
“My Mother, Brothers and Sisters are all anxious for the time to come for me to go and I know myself and everyone else as well. Me, I need no one to tell me what is in Ireland for anyone, for there is not much to be got here, so I bless the day I will sail from here. I will never forget it for you and your family as I know it is the best offer I ever expect to get in my life.
“I am now in the prime of life and indeed I am very studious and sensible and that is the reason they all like to have me go so.”
John goes on to outline the efforts his mother is making to ‘get the farm back’ and praises Captain Donelan (Cork MP at the time) and Mr Engledow (member of Cork County Council) who were both supportive.
He mentions the League (United Irish League) in Carrigtwohill “all fighting for our rights”, and condemns “two renegades… they are only like dirt”.
The letter is sad and happy, sad at what has happened, but happy with his prospects in Australia.
John finishes with “so I will think of Australia from this day forward… from your affectionate nephew, John Arnold.”
Unfortunately, the ticket for Australia never came as John’s uncle James died in an accident at work in January, 1910. Maybe John went to England or America - we just don’t know.
His mother Anne died in 1926, his brothers Patrick and George died in 1959 and 1961 respectively - all are buried in Caherlag cemetery.
Yes indeed, Annette and myself had much to ponder on as we chatted last Sunday.
App?
