1. My memories of Nanny and Grandad

Purpose of this blog

Welcome to the blog of the Maguire/Quinn Family Tree!  This family tree aims to document the history of the familes of married couple Patrick Maguire (1911-1982) and Elizabeth Quinn (1911-1991).  The purpose is to have a freely accessible resource for those of us who are descended from Paddy and Lil.  I've been researching the family tree for almost 20 years now.  I started documenting the tree in an online form in about 2005. This journey has led to many new discoveries that no living members of our family had ever known.  Despite this, it's come to my attention that very few of my relatives have accessed the family tree I've created on Ancestry.com.  This is partly because the latter requires users to pay a monthly membership fee to access their content and can also be confusing to navigate.  So, the purpose of this blog is to provide a free, easy-to-access resource for all those interested in this story.

About me 

My name is Eamonn Gunning, and I was born in June 1979 to Noel and Eilis Gunning.  I am the third of 4 children to Noel and Eilis, the others being Terence, born in January 1974, Catherine, born in 1976, and Liam, born in 1981.  We are all from Dublin, Ireland, but migrated to Melbourne, Australia in May 1989 when I was almost ten years old. It is my mother's side of the family who this blog will be tracing the famiy history of.  Personally, I have always had a deep fascination with my family heritage.  I think this is partly because I have always been a naturally curious person, but I think this interest was intensified because my family migrated away from Ireland.  Growing up in Australia in the pre-internet world we were somewhat cut off from our extended family.

Clockwise from top left: Noel, Catherine, Eilis, Liam, Terence, Eamonn, taken in 1988 or 1989.

Family heritage curiosity

As a child my mam, Eilis, born November 1950, was very much the go-to source for family history knowledge. In fact, she was the source for not only her family, but also my dad, Noel's, born December 1947, family.  From a young age though, I was aware that I was from a large, typical Irish Catholic family.  My dad is the youngest of 8 siblings (9 if you include a half brother), and my mam is the youngest of 6 (7 if you include Patrick and Elizabeth Maguire's first born son Eamon who died at only 3 months old).  

My namesake

Ah yes, Eamon. He was my mam's older brother who died when he was a just a baby, and I was named after him.  I knew of this story when I was only 3 or 4 years old.  "But, how did he die?" 4 year-old me asked.  "He had an infection in his stomach", I was told.  "The poor baby", I thought.  Years later, I found Eamon's death certificate.  He had died ultimately of cardiac failure, brought on after 24 days of "Pyloric Stenosis".  A Google search gives the following explanation:

"A condition in which the opening between the stomach and small intestine thickens.  Pyloric stenosis occurs most often in babies under six months old. In this condition, the pylorus muscles block food from entering the small intestine. It occurs more often in males. Pyloric stenosis can lead to forceful vomiting, dehydration and weight loss. Babies with this condition may seem to be always hungry. Pyloric stenosis can be fixed with surgery."

I imagine it must have been a painful experience for little baby Eamon who I was named after.  It must have been very difficult to for his loving mam and dad to lose their baby this way.  "Why was he always so hungry", I'm sure they wondered.  "Pyloric stenosis can be fixed with surgery".  Perhaps now it can, but in 1938 it killed their baby.  Elizabeth Quinn - "Nanny" was what we called her, and Patrick Maguire, or "Grandad".

Eamon Maguire death certificate.

Memories of Grandad

I was only 3 years old when Grandad died.  I still have bright memories of him though.  I remember he was a supremely generous man and being around him made me Terence, Catherine and baby Liam very happy.  I remember thinking he and my dad were the tallest men in the world (not true).  He was a smiling bald man who drove a navy blue volkswagen.  Nothing made us happier than when he took us for drives in that car.  He'd always stop by at a sweetshop and buy us each a Chuppa Chups lollipop.  I would get the Strawberry Cream flavour, and to this day when I taste this flavour it reminds me of him.  I was probably still 2 or just turned three when this memory happened.  (My mam told me recently that we all stayed over at Nanny and Grandad's house for a weekend when my dad's football team went on a trip to the UK and that this memory is probably from then, probably June 1982).  

My next memory of Grandad is from when he died.  We were at Nanny and Grandad's house in 45 Oxmantown Road.  I was aware that there was something wrong with Grandad.  The memory I have is of looking out the parlour window at the front of the house.  An ambulance's lights were flashing.  The ambulance took Grandad away and I never saw him again.  He died 10 July 1982.  I don't remember this but, my mam always remembers that the World Cup was on at the time (West Germany knocked France out of the World Cup in Spain on 9 July, a penalty shootout victory after a dramatic 3-3 draw.  This was an infamous game that featured the famous Schumacher collision with Battiston). Family members must have been watching this game on the television when Grandad took ill.

45 Oxmantown Road, Stoneybatter, Dublin.  Where the Maguires lived from 1953 until 1991.

Memories of Nanny

So, between 1982 and 1989, the ages of 3 to 9 for me, we had only Nanny before we migrated to Australia.  And she was a great Nanny.  She was always laughing and loved having lots of people around at 45 Oxmantown Road, Stoneybatter - all the relatives and friends too.  She was a great cook, I remember her specialty: corn beef and cabbage.  

I distinctly remember staying by myself at Nanny's house one time, it would have been May 1985.  It was the FA Cup final and my team Everton were playing against Manchester United.  Nanny was cheering for Man Utd though because Irishman Kevin Moran (who went to my school Drimnagh Castle by the way) was playing for them.  Kevin Moran was sent off, but Man Utd still won 1-0.  I remember crying, and Nanny trying to cheer me up.  

In May 1989 our family migrated to Australia.  For the three days before we left we stayed at Nanny's house because we'd sold our own house in Drimnagh.  Then we all went to Dublin Airport.  Most of my aunties, uncles and cousins were there to see us off.  It was a bittersweet time as it would be the last time any of us would see Nanny alive again.  

Nanny died of a heart attack on 16 December 1991, 5 days before her 80th birthday.  When she took ill, my mam had rushed home to see her, but sadly Nanny died before she made it to be by her side.  

But, who was this friendly, extroverted old lady who was such a large part of the first ten years of my life?  I hope to answer that in my next blog on the Maguire/Quinn Family History.