Genealogy research by Mark Humphrys.
Genealogy research by Mark Humphrys.
|
The Bird's grave, Glasnevin
|
The Bird Flanagan's practical jokes |
Willie Flanagan, "The Bird Flanagan",
The Bird Flanagan was
a famous practical joker,
with the leisure to set up elaborate jokes
and the money to cover the consequences.
Many stories are told about his practical jokes.
See
List of the Bird Flanagan's practical jokes.
He was living Portmahon House at mar 1910.
|
He mar 20 Sept 1910 [him age 43, her age 25]
to Esther Stafford [Esther Mary, born 1885, Co.Waterford, dau of John Stafford], no issue.
She might be the Esther Stafford, age 19 (born 1882, Waterford, Catholic) who is listed in 1901 census as drapery worker, boarder at a house in Hardwicke St, Dublin. She was a nurse. It is thought she may have nursed his mother (died Apr 1910) in her final illness, and that is how he met her. She was living Waterford at mar. He proposed to her in verse. They mar at Pro-Cathedral, Dublin. See mar cert in [GROI]. |
They settled in the old family property of
Walkinstown House,
Walkinstown, Co.Dublin.
They are
listed
in 1911 census
at Walkinstown House.
He is listed as "farmer".
They live with 2 servants.
The main house has 7 rooms,
and 9 windows in the front of the house alone.
There are a total of 32 out-offices and farm buildings
(consisting of 20 stables, 1 coach house, 1 cow house, 1 dairy, 1 piggery, 1 barn,
2 workshops, 3 sheds, 1 store and 1 forge).
The land is owned by his father
Michael Flanagan.
[Watchorn, 1985]
says:
"He was hardly ever seen off his horse, and would ride through the village of Crumlin
carrying a riding stick and wearing "half" a hard hat.
He was a small little man of just over 4 feet, and had to use a ladder to mount his horse."
Joe Sullivan - "The Scholar" - the gentleman tramp -
at one time stayed at the Bird Flanagan's place on the Walkinstown Road,
where he
"used feed the
rats and mice and actually had them follow him around for the scraps of food.
"Feed them", he would say, "and they won't harm you"."
[Watchorn, 1985, p.140].
The Bird was a farmer and sportsman (hunting and greyhounds).
He was NOT a councillor or Alderman
(this would be confusion with his uncle
William Flanagan).
He is listed as "market gardener" at Walkinstown House, Crumlin, in
[Thom's, 1919].
After his niece May Flanagan's husband Billy Smith died 1922,
May's daughter Anne was sent to Ireland to live with The Bird.
Her daughter Joanne says:
"Mom said she loved Uncle Willie who bought her a horse... And anything she wanted".
He must be "W.J. Flanagan" at
George Dempsey's
funeral 1924.
The Bird dies, 1925:
He was
living Walkinstown House at death, occupation listed as "gentleman".
He
died Mon 14th Dec 1925 (within a week of Larry), Walkinstown House, age 58 yrs
[GROI].
See
item
in
Irish Times,
16 Dec 1925
(says died 15 Dec of
pneumonia).
He was bur Glasnevin Cemetery.
See
The Duffin eviction story
after The Bird died.
Esther lived Carrickmines, Co.Dublin.
There is a photo of
George Bernard Shaw
c.1930,
"taken by Mrs Willie Flannagan at Rosslaire".
She attended Sr.Padua's funeral 1936.
"Mrs. Flanagan" is first listed at Carrickmines in
[Thom's, 1939].
She is listed at
"Stafford Lodge" (her maiden name), Carrickmines, in
[Thom's, 1940].
She is listed in
[Thom's]
1941 on
as living at
Stafford Lodge, Station Rd, Carrickmines
(see
modern map).
Shay Duffin (born 1931)
recalls visiting her in Carrickmines:
"As a wee child I remember being taken out there to visit, and how joyful it was to be taken by her for a jaunt around the narrow country roads in the pony .. and trap.
We kids were not allowed laugh when the pony farted, but we were allowed hold our nose."
Esther dies, 1969:
She
died at her residence, Stafford Lodge,
23 Aug 1969 [death notice], [grave record], age 84 yrs.
See
death notice
in
Irish Times,
August 25, 1969.
Funeral 25 Aug,
bur Glasnevin Cemetery.
Right:
The Bird Flanagan (died 1925).
Centre:
Liam Cosgrave (front, born 1920)
and
Míceál Cosgrave (back, born 1922).
Left:
Colonel Joe O'Reilly
(aide-de-camp to W.T. Cosgrave
and formerly right hand man of
Michael Collins).
Photo must be 1924 or 1925.
Taken at the Cosgrave house,
Beechpark, Templeogue.
The pony is "Nibby", a pony
that Frank Flanagan
bought for the Cosgraves from the Gogartys.
See larger
and full size.
Shay Duffin was born in 1931 in Dublin, the son of George Duffin, the
head groom and land steward for The Bird at Walkinstown House
from about 1915 to The Bird's death in 1925.
Shay said the Duffins lived
"in the gate house that is now The Halfway House".
But it must be a different estate house they lived in.
The Halfway House appears on the
1887 to 1913 map
as already a public house,
and think it was not Flanagan land anyway.
Shay said The Bird and his wife
"who were childless, treated the Duffin children as
their own, and wanted to adopt my oldest sister Betty and send her to France with their niece to be educated
...
but my mother would not agree. The Bird always assured my father that he and the family were well taken care of in the Will, but when he died, there was no Will."
Shay
said that when The Bird died in 1925, the Alderman
threw his widow and the Duffins out:
"The story passed down through Duffin generations is, that his father had given The Bird the property, but never officially signed it over. Factually we know that he hated Esther (a nurse). believing his son had married below his station, so he padlocked the entire estate, and threw Esther, my parents and 6-children out in the ditch."
Deirdre Flanagan
did hear that the Alderman disapproved of Esther
(though she got on with some other family members).
The Bird was age 43 when married, and was a life-long bachelor, interested in horses, drink and practical jokes,
not women.
Some of the family said The Bird was drunk when he married.
Shay said there were rumours about Esther and his father George Duffin:
"Some say she was very much in love with him, but I never heard of any proof. He was quite a looker in his day."
If the Alderman believed she was cheating on his son
it would explain his hostility.
Shay said the Alderman "hated Esther, a nurse, believing she was a gold-digger and that his son had married below his station. According to my mother, with Esther's nursing TLC, she kept the high-living Bird alive ten years longer than he would have lived without her."
The Duffins got a council house on St.Enda's Road, Terenure
(see map)
and
(confirming the story that she got nothing)
Esther moved in with them:
"she slept on a mattress on the floor in our parlor (the fourth room) for almost a year before she found a few pounds to buy the small cottage in Carrickmines.
...
Whatever few chattels that Mrs Flanagan could lay her hands on before the padlocks went on the doors of the big Estate house, she took with her to Terenure".
"Within weeks of the Bird's death, Esther was ordered off the property, as was my family, and everything was padlocked to prevent any re-entry.
...
Before Mrs Flanagan left Walkinstown House, for a whole week, in the dark of night, through a rear unpadlocked gate, with my father's help, she loaded her pony and trap with any valuable artifacts that would fit through a window that had no latch on it".
One problem with the story of Esther getting nothing is that her house in Carrickmines was quite nice.
There was a story in the Flanagan family
that The Bird's widow owned part of the Leicester House
estate, and the Children's Hospital was built on her land.
Maybe when Leicester House estate was sold 1931 she got money.
Shay also said there was a story that The Bird did have a will.
The story is that his father, shortly before his death around age 70:
"was called into an old law firm's office in Crumlin, and was shown a written Will of William Flanagan who had bequeath him 25 acres, the house he lived in, and any horses that my father wished to retain. But by then,
like Tara,
it was all GWTW.
My father died within the following year.
...
The Flanagan/Duffin association was a double-edged sword to my family; wonderful I am told in the
Estate years, but with The Bird's death, and the subsequent eviction debacle, it turned my
once tee-total father into a very bitter man".
(Although he also describes his father having quite an impressive career after 1925.)
Shay said:
"when the Bird died, no will could be found; all because of instructions from the Bird's father
...
On his father's instructions, the family lawyers ... suppressed the will, leaving Esther with nothing.".
George Duffin.
See full size.
From
Shay Duffin tribute album
by Lorraine Chambers.
Shay said:
"when I played Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons
in the film
Seabiscuit, I
was actually playing my father".
The poker scene in the bar
at the start of the movie
Titanic
(1997).
Shay Duffin played the barman, and has a single line at the end of the scene,
where he says Titanic is leaving in 5 minutes.
Search for more.
Please donate to support this site.
I have spent a great deal of time and money on this research.
Research involves travel and many expenses.
Some research "things to do"
are not done for years, because I do not have the money to do them.
Please Donate Here
to support the ongoing research and
to keep this website free.
