Genealogy research by Mark Humphrys.
Genealogy research by Mark Humphrys.
Nancy Brown,
She met
Michael Joseph Rahilly
at a party near Tarbert, Co.Kerry, summer of 1893
[O'Rahilly, 1991].
She was only 17,
on vacation from school in Paris.
He was 18, between school and university.
In his first term at UCD, end-1893, Michael won £20 on horses.
He secretly went on a trip to Paris to see her.
He left post-dated letters with his room-mate,
Arthur Conway,
to post in a certain order to his family to cover his tracks.
As
[O'Rahilly, 1991]
says:
"Conway, who later became Professor of Mathematical Physics at UCD,
failed to post the letters in the correct order".
Michael got in trouble when he came back.
Nancy's
mother died 1895.
She was now orphaned.
Michael's father died 1896.
She is listed as "Nanette M. Brown" in 1898
[Brown family tree],
living with her sisters in Brown summer home,
in the fashionable
Long Branch,
New Jersey.
Nancy was back in America, no communication with Michael except by letter.
She was proposed to by a man named Marx.
Then Michael made his dramatic trip over in 1898
and changed her mind.
She
mar 15 Apr 1899
to Michael Joseph Rahilly (later "The O'Rahilly")
[born 22 Apr 1875]
and had issue.
They mar at
Church of St. Ignatius Loyola,
Upper East Side,
New York
(see street view).
Wedding invite in
[P106/75],
she is "Nannie H. Brown".
See
mar cert,
copy
in
[P102/65],
she is "Nannie H. Brown".
Nancy
Brown, think holding a picture of The O'Rahilly, post-1916.
See full size.
Nancy Brown, Madame O'Rahilly (think 5th from LHS) on stage at meeting of
Cumann na mBan, 1919.
This is
[P106/1465].
See larger
and full size.
Names written on
back.
Executive of Cumann na mBan, Mansion House,
5 Feb 1922, at the meeting at which they voted to reject the Treaty.
Nancy Brown, Madame O'Rahilly, is front row, 4th from RHS.
Sighle Humphreys
is back row, 3rd from LHS.
This is
[P106/1466(3)].
See larger
and full size.
See
list of names in
[P106/1466(4)].
See other copy in
[P106/1466(2)].
See
back.
Nancy Brown, Madame O'Rahilly, in old age.
This is
[P106/1474].
See larger
and full size.
Nancy Brown
as portrayed by actress
Linda Teehan
in the TV drama-documentary
"Cumann na mBan" (2015).
Here Nancy is
at a planning meeting shortly before
the public founding of Cumann na mBan
in April 1914.
The plaque at Wynn's Hotel.
Photo 2022.
See full size.
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