Annie Tuite was introduced to John Minihan, a friend of the Hayes family, in Limerick. It was believed that he was born outside of Limerick County (perhaps in Sixmilebridge, County Clare or Patrickswell) and was transferred to Limerick City as a conductor for the railroad. However, on the 1901 and 1911 censuses, he lists his birthplace as Limerick County. Sixmilebridge is near the Limerick-Clare border. As of 1901, John Minihan was living with Annie and her uncle, Thomas Tuite, at 31 Roxboro Road and listed his profession as “railway clerk.” On the children’s’ birth records, John lists his occupation as railway ticket collector. At any rate, John definitely worked for the railroad and may have moved among types of positions. It is likely that he met Annie’s uncle through his work and became a boarder at his house.
Little is known about John’s family. The search for his roots is complicated by the fact that the spelling of his surname is not consistent. In the 1901 census, he is listed as Minahan, but on his marriage certificate in 1901 and on the 1911 census he is listed as Moynahan. One theory was that when Annie and John’s first child was born, the midwife made a mistake and put down Minihan. In those days it wasn’t possible to correct the error, so John decided to give all the children the same last name. This theory, however, doesn’t explain why he would have spelled the name as Minahan on the 1901 census. The prayer cards for John and Annie that were prepared after their deaths also use the Minahan spelling.
On their wedding record, John stated that his father, also named John, was a soldier and deceased. There was a John Minihan who served in the 9th Regiment of Foot who died in Limerick City in April 1885 at the age of 50. His death record states that he was married and receiving a pension at the time of his death from cardiac disease. Documentation linking this John Minihan to the family has yet to be found. If he is John’s father, he would have been 43 at the time of his birth. Perhaps he married late due to his service in the military or perhaps John was the youngest of many siblings. There is a John Minihan listed in the Mount St. Lawrence Cemetery for March 1885 whose age was recorded as 45. This may be the same John Minihan. A request has been made to the National Archives in Great Britain for his military records. Because he was receiving a pension for his military service, the records might include information about his wife and children.
The 9th Regiment of Foot was an infantry line regiment of the British Army from 1751 to 1881. It became the Norfolk Regiment following the Army reforms of 1881. The regiment saw action at Kabul in the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839 to 1842), and in the First Anglo-Sikh War (1845 and 1846) they fought with exceptional valour at the Battle of Mudki, Battle of Ferozeshah and the Battle of Sobraon. In the Crimean War (1853-1856), the regiment fought at the Siege of Sevastopol. In 1857 the regiment landed at Yokohama as part of the British intervention there in the 1860s. The battalion saw action on the North-West Frontier in 1877, and then in the Second Anglo-Afghan War fought at Kabul in 1879.
There is also a John Moynahan from Cohb, County Cork who served in the Navy. This John, however, died in 1918, and is therefore not likely related.
There is also a connection between John Minihan and McDermot’s Shop in Patrickswell, Limerick. According the 1901 census, a shopkeeper named John McDermot was living with his wife, Margaret, and two female servants. John was 34 and his wife’s age was listed as 55. Margaret died in 1904, and that same year, John remarried. His wife, named Mary, may have been one of the female servants. By 1911, they had 3 living children. There was some kind of family feud over the shop. One theory is that Margaret was John Minihan’s mother, and that she married this much younger man after her first husband passed. Perhaps the shop was from her family, and John McDermot inherited it upon her death. To date, no marriage certificate has been found that would definitely link John and Margaret McDermot to the Minihan family.
Annie and John had at least eight children – John (“the Dink”), Edward (Ned, also known as “the Tailor”), Mary (died as an infant), Thomas (Toddy), Margaret (Madge, also known as “Bucket Arse”), Harriet (“the Nagger”), Zeta (“the Black One”), and Gerard Charles (Charlie, also known as “the Conductor”). There is a sizeable gap in time between Harriet’s birth and those of Zeta and Charlie, so it is possible that the couple had other children who died in infancy. Unfortunately, birth records are only available for the period prior to 1911.
John married Kathleen Digby in Essex in 1931. Kathleen was born and raised in England, but her mother, Nora Condon, was originally from Cork. John worked at the train station in Bray, County Wicklow. Their first two children - Nora (1934) and Brian (1932) – were born there. He was later offered a job working and living at the railway house in Thurles. They had two more children there – Margaret (1943) and Peter (1948). All of their children, except Brian, moved to Santry in North Dublin in the 1960s and 1970s for jobs. Brian had already settled in Thurles, and continues to live there. They then moved onto South Dublin and lived at 43 Abbey Road. John, Kathleen, and Nora passed away in the house.
Ned was deaf and worked as a tailor, hence his nickname. He married a woman named Alice in Limerick in 1938. Thomas married Eileen Nelligan. They may have wed in 1949 in Limerick. Madge married Brian O’Flaherty in 1950 in Limerick. After Brian’s death in 1957, Madge moved to New York. She died in Dublin in 1981. Harriet married Anthony Timlin in 1935. They had three children in Limerick and moved to New York in the mid-1950s. Zeta married Jim Flanagan and had three children.
Charlie married Joan Noonan in Limerick in 1940. They moved to New York in the late 1950s with their six children. Charlie, who had worked as Tony Timlin’s conductor (fare handler) on the buses in Limerick, obtained a job working at one of the New York airports after arriving to New York. The noise of the airport eventually resulted in his severe hearing loss. He later became a superintendent for a building at 4 Park Avenue in Manhattan. After Joan passed away, Madge moved in with Charlie to help raise the children. He later married Bridie Dooley from County Claire, and had three more children.
During the 1940s and early 1950s, Harriet, Zeta and Charlie’s families all lived near each other in the Janesboro neighborhood of Limerick. It was a new housing scheme built by the government a couple miles south of the family home at 31 Roxboro Road. Zeta and James moved to the neighborhood first, and lived at 13 O’Donoghue Avenue. Harriet and Anthony moved to 41 Pearse Avenue and Charlie and Joan moved to 43 Clarke Avenue. From at least 1940 to 1950, Edward and Alice lived at 34 Roxboro Road. Madge lived with her parents until at least 1950.
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