At the time of their marriage in the late 18th century, Denis McAuliffe and Mary Haly were living in a country ravaged by  political squabbles and hunger. The crop failures were so severe, attempts  were made to block the ports to prevent food from being exported.  The population of the City of Cork was steadily growing as workers were forced from their farms, many having been evicted because of protestant landowners taking advantage of the Penal Laws which prevented catholic ownership of land.

 

As far as records are available, the McAuliffe - Taylor family connection starts with the birth of Cornelius McAuliffe in Newmarket, Co Cork in the early 1760s. Cornelius then lived in Drawbridge  [Street],  Cork,  one  mile from  St  Finbarr's Roman Catholic Church in the  Cork and  Ross South Parish,  where  he and  Ellen Flynn  were  married,  they  had  five  children.  Their eldest  son  Cornelius  married  Mary Cartan, Daniel married  Ellen Allen, whilst Michael married  Judith Conway (1805-1884) who themselves   had    five  children:   Johanna    (1823-1881),   Mary (b1825),  Patrick,  Ellen,  and John.

 

Cornelius McAuliffe married  Ellen Flynn (c1760).

 

Children: Cornelius (1780-1877), Julian (b1785), Denis (1787), Daniel (1791-1887) and Michael (1799-1864).

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Daniel McAuliffe married  Ellen Allen (1800-1870) in 1835.

 

Children:  Bess (b1823), Jeremiah (1826-1882), James  (1828-1888), Richard (b1830), Denis (b1831), Jude  (1832-1832), John J(1834-1913), Edward (b1837), Ellen Reilly (1839-1896), Daniel (1843-1905) and Catherine (b1844).

 

Denis McAuliffe married  Mary Haly (b1781) in 1807.

 

Children: Walter (b1808), Edward (b1811), John (b1812-1872), Denis (b1817) and Stephen (b1820).

 

Both Denis and Mary were christened at St Finbarr's. They were listed as residents of Friar's Walk, Ballyphehane, a quiet hamlet to the south-west of the city around ½ mile south of the  church. Today,  Friar's Walk is a bustling  road well within boundaries of the city of Cork. Mary Haly  was the daughter of Daniel Haly and Elizabeth Slattery. The same  church used  some twenty years later for the baptisms of their children, Walter in 1808, John (Joseph) in around 1812, Denis in 1817 and Stephen in 1820. Further records cannot be traced for Denis and Stephen.

 

The  same church was used some twenty years later for the baptisms of their children, Walter in 1808, John  (Joseph) in around 1812, Denis in1817 and Stephen in 1820.  Further records cannot be traced  for Denis and Stephen.

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Walter McAuliffe married Ellen Haly in 1826, they  had two children: William (b1826) and Walter (b1832). The eldest brother, William married Mary Walsh, they had eight children. A bible kept by the family shows that James died in 853, Francis Joseph died in 1861 and Willam James in 1868 in Winchester City, New York. Other children included Mary, Kate, Ellen,  Robert and Margaret.

 

A record  shows that one William James John McAuliffe of White Hart Street, Lambeth, London, died  in 1853.  It is known that members of the McAuliffe family had settled in the area prior to Denis and Hannah arriving around 1880.

 

Edward   McAuliffe  married   Margaret   Hyde   (1832-1892);  their story continues later in the chapter.

 

John  McAuliffe married Honora Fitzgerald (b1813) in c1830. We can only  find two sons for John and Honora, there may have been more children than: Edward (1831-1906) and David (1838 -1925).

 

John was a young man when he met Honorah Fitzgerald, whose family were also from Newmarket. Their first child Edward was born in 1831, his parents only around eighteen years of age at the time. The Roman Catholic Relief Act of 1829 gave Catholics new rights to enter the parliament  of the United Kingdom  and Ireland, but this had little positive effect on the rural economy, where landowners  still held sway in most of Ireland. It is likely the family moved from Cork sometime then. Their second child David was baptised in Castleisland, Co Kerry in 1838.

 

The mid-1840s bore witness to some of Ireland's darkest  years. The effects of the  Poor Relief Act ensured  that the workhouses, put in place for the destitute, were oversubscribed. They were in no way prepared  for the substantial  numbers  who were to suffer five consecutive potato crop failures. An estimated 1million people died of starvation and  other famine-related diseases, whilst another 2million were forced into the already overcrowded cities and emigration. John and Hanora's eldest son Edward remained in Ireland where he married Margaret  Hyde. He died in 1906, his story follows that of his brother,  David.

 

David McAuliffe married  Mary O'Donahue (1835-1914) in 1862.

 

Children: Denis (1858-1936), Eleanor (b1865), Johanna (b1867), John (1868-1932), Josephine (1868-1950) and Alice Kate (b1876).

 

David married  Kerry born Mary O'Donahue in 1862, but David's eldest child Denis was born before he emigrated between 1858 - 60. David, a blacksmith  at the time, and Mary had four children once settled in America. Whilst Denis remained in Ireland before settling in London, all the remaining siblings were born in Columbia, USA. David died in Columbia in 1925 and was buried at Mount Olivet, Washinton, District of Columbia, aged  eighty - eight.

 

David and Mary's son John married Alice K Gannon in or around 1897, their son Anthony Clement McAuliffe (1898-1975) was one of seven  children. Anthony saw distinguished service in World War Two, eventually rising to the rank of four-star General. In 1944, at what has become known as The Battle of the Bulge, when he was asked  to surrender to the German

troops encircling the town of Bastogne in the south-east corner of Belgium, he responded to the ultimatum in just  one word,  'nuts,'. It earned him the legendry nickname 'General Nuts' McAuliffe.

 

Eleanor (Ellen or Nellie) married  Frederick John Vaux in  1891. After the birth of a son in 1892,  Marie was born in 1895, Catherine 1897, Charlotte 1898, and Helen in 1899. No birth date records can be found for Alice Kate.

 

Josephine McAuliffe married Richard Howard Jones in Washington in 1888. Their sons William (1889-1937) and Richard (1894-1930) were all born in the District of Columbia. Josephine herself died in Baltimore, Maryland in 1950.

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Denis McAuliffe married  Hannah  Callaghan (b1859) in c1880.

 

Children: Daniel (b1881-1929), Hannah  (1885-1975), Ellen (1888-1978), Catherine  (1891-1968), Denis (1893-1960), Thomas  John (1895-1968), Nora(h) (1897-1943) and Bessie (1901-1971).

 

Denis is then recorded as living and working in Ireland as a foreman in a flourmill, it was there he met Mallow born  Hannah Callaghan and they both moved to London.  Denis was a kind man and was often to be heard singing in Gaelic to his children.  On arrival in London, they lived at 14 Wild Court, (or possibly Milo Court) near Lincoln Inn Fields when they married at St Giles Church, Middlesex in or around 1880. His parents had by now emigrated to America to start their lives in relative prosperity compared to the hardships of 19th  century Ireland and London. In 1854, over a thousand people were found living in thirteen ten-room houses with virtually no sanitation, Wild Court was also renowned for overcrowding, and improvements to the area were negated by unscrupulous landlords.  By the time the McAuliffe's arrived, conditions had improved, but by how much?

 

Denis and Hannah then set out their stall in Lambeth, just  south of the river Thames, and ½ mile upriver from Westminster Abbey and  the Houses  of Parliament. It was in Lambeth that all eight children were  born: Daniel in 1881, Hannah 1885, Ellen 1888,Kate 1891, Denis 1893, Thomas 1895, Norah 1897, and  Bess in 1901.

 

Hannah  McAuliffe married  William Brislane  from  Liscarroll,  Co. Cork in  1911.  Their  daughter Kathleen  Norah  Brislane was born in Southwark,  London in 1912.  She married  Edmund  A Martell in

1935.  Their  son David  married  Hazel  Swatton  in Bath,  Somerset

in 1963.  David died in Pembrokeshire, Wales in 1996.

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