Cashel of Co.Kerry
The "Blennerhassett problem"
The "Holy Grail" of my family tree research has always been the
Blennerhassett problem.
This is the mystery of how we connect through
George Cashel (born 1807)
to the landed gentry Blennerhassett family of Kerry.
The family story is that a Mr. Cashel ran away with a Miss Blennerhassett
and were the parents of
George Cashel.
In 2020, I finally proved that George Cashel descends from the
Blennerhassett Baronets branch.
See
Proof of our descent from Blennerhassett.
We are fairly certain the family story of a Miss Blennerhassett is false.
There are no possible females in that branch to be George's mother.
So it seems there was no runaway marriage.
Almost certainly, George Cashel is the natural son of one of six named Blennerhassett men
in that branch.
In 2025, I started to construct the
Theory of O'Connell descent.
This constructs evidence (but not quite yet proof)
that George Cashel's parents were in fact
"Black Arthur" Blennerhassett, of Blennerville
and
Kitty Tuohy,
a cousin of
Mary O'Connell
(wife of Daniel O'Connell).
George Cashel may be adopted
One major issue with the family story has always been that
George Cashel
has no Cashel relations.
He has no siblings, no parents, no cousins
appearing at any event in his life.
No other Cashel appears in his life.
If Mr. Cashel ran away with a Miss Blennerhassett, would they not have had other children?
Would a parent not somehow appear in George's life?
Even if it was Miss Cashel having an affair with a Mr. Blennerhassett,
should George not still have Cashel relations?
Even more strange,
George's descendants do not DNA match anyone with a Cashel ancestor.
We have done a huge amount of DNA testing of his descendants.
Surely, if either his father or mother was Cashel,
there would be some DNA match found by now who had a Cashel ancestor.
The answer, we suspect, is that George is not a Cashel by blood.
The
theory of O'Connell descent
suggests George Cashel is son of a Blennerhassett father and a Tuohy mother,
and his mother died (maybe by suicide) soon after his birth.
The suspicion is that then George Cashel was adopted.
And we have in fact a strong suspect for the adoptive family,
the
Stephen Cashel family of Tralee.
George being adopted by that family would explain a lot of things. (See that page.)
The Pat Lavelle story
For what it is worth, here is the family story as written in the
Papers of Patricia Lavelle.
Pat says that the mother of
George Cashel
was a "Letitia Blennerhassett".
She ran away, married a Mr. Cashel,
and they were parents of
George Cashel.
-
Edward Cashel,
or Edward George Cashel
[PAT/13, no.2-3],
or George Edward Cashel
[PAT/13, no.6],
or George Philip Cashel
[PAT/10, p.3].
He was Catholic.
He married Letitia Blennerhassett.
She was Protestant.
It was a runaway marriage.
The family story is she ran away with a Catholic and was disinherited.
She became a Catholic herself.
They
had issue:
-
George Cashel.
The notes of
Pat Lavelle
show the mother of
George Cashel
as a Letitia Blennerhassett.
As discussed above, the evidence suggests a different origin for George Cashel.
We have
proof
that he descends from
Robert Blennerhassett and Frances Yielding.
Hence he
is descendant of
Edward III
and
Aoife MacMurrough
and
Brian Boru.
We also have some
evidence
that his parents were
"Black Arthur" Blennerhassett
and
Kitty Tuohy,
and Kitty died soon after his birth.
We suspect then that he was adopted by
the
Stephen Cashel family of Tralee.
- George Cashel,
born 1807, Co.Kerry [according to RIC records].
Since he retired 1 Feb 1867, maybe this was at age 60 and maybe he was born around 1 Feb 1807.
We suspect he is the "George Cashell" baptised 24 July 1808 in Tralee, Catholic,
son (we think adoptive son) of
Stephen Cashel and Agnes Noonan.
RIC records list him as Catholic.
Also written "George Blennerhassett Cashel".
We suspect he was a Blennerhassett by blood and knew that.
Also written
"George S. Cashel".
We suspect this is "Stephen" and is from his adoptive father
Stephen Cashel.
See George Cashel's middle name.
He was a policeman.
Spelling of surname
The surname is also found written as "Cashell",
but "Cashel" is what was standardised on by our family.
George Cashel
is normally written with no middle name.
He is "George Cashel" or sometimes "George Cashell".
But he does appear during his life as
"George Blennerhassett Cashel"
and "George S. Cashel".
[PAT/13, no.6]
also
lists him as "George Edward Cashel",
but this is long after his death
and may be inaccurate.
What could "S" stand for?
Sometimes he is "George S. Cashel".
What male names begin with S?
- Stephen.
This is our top suspect.
We suspect that
Stephen Cashel
is the adoptive father of George Cashel.
Hence his middle name.
- Samuel.
A name in one branch of Blennerhassett.
The 1st Baronet's uncle.
A little distant from where we think we fit in.
- Simon.
A name in the Yielding family.
Why did George not always use "Blennerhassett" in his name?
George named his son "Blennerhassett" Cashel.
It would be useful to your career to carry the name of a great family, and claim you were a cousin.
But it is interesting that
George almost never uses "Blennerhassett" in his own name.
Why not? Would it not be useful for his career too?
Maybe for him, his origin as an irregular child was too close and too
embarrassing.
He might be called a "bastard"
if he was a natural child.
Whereas for his son it would be far less embarrassing.
"George Blennerhassett Cashel"
on marriage cert of his son
Blennerhassett Cashel in 1869.
See
full size.
"George S. Cashel"
sponsors the baptism of (his grandson)
Willie Cashel in 1875.
Death notice of "George S. Cashel"
in Irish Times,
Fri 23 June 1882.
Death notice of "George S. Cashel"
in Freeman's Journal,
23 June 1882.
[PAT/13, no.6]
lists him as "George Edward Cashel",
but this is written long after his death and may be wrong.
Real Gaelic descents v. Imaginary Gaelic descents
Some fictional Gaelic genealogy about Cashel from
Pat Lavelle
in
[PAT/4].
She refers to her grandfather
Blennerhassett Cashel.
Pat was fascinated by old Gaelic Ireland, but ironically, she could not see that
Blennerhassett,
not Cashel, or O'Mara, or any other family,
was
the only line that would
give her a
real descent from medieval and Gaelic Ireland.
- The claimed descent of Blennerhassett Cashel from the
Kings of Cashel
is imaginary.
- However, Blennerhassett Cashel descends for real from the Blennerhassett family of Co.Kerry.
- In 2020, after 35 years of research, I proved that he descends
from Henry Blennerhassett
of Annaghgarry, Co.Kerry (died before 1728).
- Henry Blennerhassett's
mother
and grandmother
and great-grandmother
all have proven descents from
Aoife MacMurrough
(who married Strongbow in 1171)
and
Brian Boru, High King of Ireland (died 1014).
Every step in the descents is proven.
- It took me 35 years to prove our descent from Brian Boru.
But if Pat's grandfather
had only ignored that old man and
written down who his own grandparents were,
I could have had a descent from Brian Boru my whole life.
There is another link to Irish nationalism:
Rowland Ponsonby Blennerhassett, MP,
the famous Home Rule MP elected in 1872.
According to my
theory
of our descent,
Blennerhassett Cashel was probably his 2nd cousin.
Pat Lavelle was aware of Rowland Ponsonby Blennerhassett, MP,
and talks about his famous victory for Home Rule in
[PAT/12, p.14-15].
But she does not write down our link to him.
References
- Connection to Stack:
- My grandmother
Eithne O'Mara
thought our Cashels were somehow related to
Stack of Listowel, Co.Kerry.
No evidence for this has been found.
- However note that
Tuohy
is connected to the Listowel area.
Could this be a faint memory of that?
- Connection to Ledwidge:
- There was a story that the poet
Francis Ledwidge
is somehow related to our Cashels.
No evidence for this has been found.
- See Francis Ledwidge: A Life of the Poet,
by
Alice Curtayne, 1972.
- Francis Ledwidge was born 1887, Slane, Co.Meath,
the son of Patrick Ledwidge [born 1840],
a migrant labourer,
and his wife Anne Lynch [born 1850, dau of Nicholas Lynch, of Slane].
