Katony

She died in West Milford, NJ on 3 June 1992 aged 97 years. She spent the first twenty years of her life in Dublin, Ireland and seventy-seven in the United States.

Her story is one for her American family to tell but there is an Irish story, too, and we will relate some of it here from Kathleen’s perspective.

Aunt May emigrated to the United States some six years before Kathleen was born. Kathleen’s knowledge of May was from her father, Frank, from his correspondence with his sister, a correspondence that Kathleen continued after her father died in 1935. Kathleen understood that May went to the Unites States as part of a dancing troupe, but when the time came to return home, she decided to stay. Kathleen met May twice. Once, in 1948, when May returned to Ireland for a visit and again in 1992, days before May passed. Kathleen’s children knew of ‘Aunt May’ and ‘Aunt Eileen’, who was actually Kathleen’s cousin Eileen and daughter of May. There was regular correspondence, Christmas cards, birthday cards and gifts. I have a particular memory of bringing a roll of newspapers to Boland’s Post Office in Ballyfermot to post to America in 1960s and visits to the China Showrooms to mark important anniversaries in America with gifts of Waterford Glass.

May’s Irish Family

Two years after May’s birth she was joined by a brother. Frank Cleary, (Henry Francis), was born 16 January 1897 while living at 164 Great Britain Street (Parnell St). Her father, Harry, died on 12 March 1911 leaving her mother, Ellen, a widow with two children. A few weeks later, when the Census was taken on 2 April 1911, Ellen is listed as the head of household with two children, Mary (May) and Henry (Frank). The family were living at 25 Clonliffe Avenue, Dublin with a lodger, Patrick Dunne. Two years later on 11 Apr 1913, Ellen married Patrick Dunne in St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral. They were living at 16 Upper Gloucester Street (Sean McDermott Street). Two stepbrothers Patrick and Brendan Dunne were born in the early 1920s.

On several occasions over the years, I looked for records of May’s emigration, without success. At first, I thought it unlikely that she would have crossed the Atlantic during the First World War but then found that was commonplace. I tried variations of her name without success. I have mentioned elsewhere in posts about the addition of the ‘O’ to some Irish names as a result of the Gaelic Revival. In particular, I mentioned the surprising use of “O’Dunne” for Paddy Dunne, May’s stepfather. Subsequently I discovered that her father, Harry Cleary sometimes used the form H.F. O’Cleary. A search for May O’Cleary produced interesting results.

Emigration

On 7 January 1915 the ship Ausonia, of the Anchor Line departed from Glasgow for New York. The passenger list included three women from Ireland whose professions are given as ‘actress’. Their names were Mrs L. McConnell, May O’Cleary, and Evelyn Bradshaw. May and Evelyn have addresses in Hendrick Street, Dublin, and both ages are given as 18. The Bradshaws are recorded living in Hendrick Street (or Lane) in 1911 Census. It seems likely that Evelyn was just 16 and May was 20 when they boarded the Ausonia.

Mrs L. McConnell’s next of kin is listed as husband Michael McConnell of 36 My Lady’s Road, Belfast. In 1911 Census, Lucie McConnell is living with her husband and five children in Ballymena. His occupation is wine merchant and the premises at My Lady’s Road is to this day, a public house, My Lady’s Inn. Her occupation is given as actress-vocalist. Before marriage to Michael, in 1901, Lucie was Lucie Agnes Gallagher but had the stage name Louise Agnese. She performed extensively across Ireland and in London over many years billed as soprano or mezzo.

From around 1913 Louise Agnese had taken a troupe of Irish girls known as Five (or 6) Real Irish Colleens on a vaudeville tour in the USA. Following the American tour, similar tours took place in Ireland and Britain. It appears that several tours occurred over years. A review of the 1913 tour in Variety indicated that their Irish-ness was their main appeal. An account in the New York Herald in 1917 was more positive.

It seems likely that the group of three – Mrs L. McConnell, May O’Cleary, and Evelyn Bradshaw – on the Ausonia in 1915 were part of such a troupe travelling to the USA to perform as a vaudeville act.

In 1948, May visited Ireland for the first time since her departure in 1915. Shipping records show her departure from New York for Cobh, Co Cork on 22 September 1948 and departure from Cobh on 17 December, arriving in New York on 23 December. The record shows her intention to be abroad for two months. At this time, May’s mother, Ellen, was 78 years old. Her brother, Frank, and stepfather, Paddy Dunne, had died 13 years previously. The photograph shows May Snyder with an unknown male, perhaps Brendan Dunne, her stepbrother, in front of a monument to the executed 1916 Rising leader, Sean Heuston, in the People’s Garden, Phoenix Park, Dublin. This is about a 30-minute walk from her mother’s home on Monck Place.

In 1992 Kathleen, aged 71 and following the loss of her beloved Tony, decided it was time to cross the Atlantic. With her daughter, in late May 1992, Kathleen travelled to the United States to meet her Aunt May and May’s American family. A few days after meeting May for the first time in 44 years and just the second time in her life, May passed away on 4 June 1992 in Milford Manor, West Milford.