Tubridy Clan

18/01/2025

Seán South Memorial Card

A memorial card for Seán South (Seán Sabhat) who died on 1 January 1957, aged twenty-eight. South was killed during an IRA raid on a Royal Ulster Constabulary barracks at Brookeborough in County Fermanagh. Another republican (Fergal O’Hanlon) was also killed in the incident. Born in Limerick in 1928, South was a well-known journalist and Irish language activist. He worked as a clerk for some time in Limerick and was later active in several Irish language and nationalist organisations. South was known to be devout in his religious practice, and was prominent in ‘An Réalt’, the Irish-speaking chapter of the Legion of Mary. In 1949 he founded a Limerick branch of Maria Duce, an ultra conservative Catholic organisation. He also received some military training in Fórsa Cosanta Áitiúil (FCA), a reserve component of the Irish Defence Forces. He resigned from the FCA in 1955 and later joined the IRA.

South was probably the highest profile casualty suffered by the IRA during their largely futile ‘Border Campaign’. His and O’Hanlon’s funerals were marked by a significant outpouring of republican sentiment, with an estimated twenty thousand mourners in attendance. The text of South’s memorial card is solely in Irish, indicative of his staunch language activism. Today, South’s notoriety rests almost solely in his commemoration in the well-known martial ballad, ‘Seán South of Garryowen’. His memorial card forms part of an ephemera collection held in the Irish Capuchin Archives. (Identifier: https://catholicarchives.ie/index.php/sean-south-memorial-card)

10/11/2024

Relevant to Remembrance Sunday for branches of the clan in diaspora in England, men from two families deriving from the Cahir, Tipperary line of the Tubridys, who used the spelling “Tubberdy”, served in the World Wars.

One of these lines derives from Constantine “Conn” Tubberdy (born 1833) who settled in Islington, London as early as the 1850s around the times of the Great Hunger and the other from Daniel “Donal” Tubberdy (born 1847) who settled in Sutton, St. Helen’s, Lancashire by the 1870s, where there was a large Irish Catholic diaspora community. It is unclear if they were brothers or cousins, but both were born in Cahir, Tipperary.

From the London branch of the Tubberdys, Edward John Tubberdy (1891-1956) served in the Royal Navy with the service number K5182. He had joined in 1910 and was sent to HMS Vivid II at Devonport, Plymouth where the Stokers and Engine Room Artificers School was located. He was present during the Battle of Jutland, which was the largest naval battle of the First World War, serving onboard the HMS Temeraire. He was entitled to a Star, Victory Medal, British War Medal and RN Long Service and Good Conduct Medal.

John Edward Tubberdy (1876-1945) from the Lancashire branch served in the South Lancashire Regiment and the South Wales Borders Regiment during World War I, with the service number 5146. He was a Private and in his civilian life was a blacksmith’s striker.

John Edward Tubberdy’s nephew, William Tubberdy would go on to serve in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. The son of a coal miner, he joined 30 Squadron with the service number 538072. He was a wireless operator and air gunner, operating out of the military base of Elevsis, Greece in the Mediterranean Theatre. His plane, a Bristol 142 Blenheim I was shot down by an Italian fighter plane 11km into the Adriatic Sea west of Sarande, Albania. All three crew members died. William, who had reached the rank of Sergeant, was only 21 years old. He is buried in Tirana Park Memorial Cemetery, Albania in a grave maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

31/10/2024

We've previously discussed the connection between Captain Michael Gerard Tubridy, his wife Dot Tubridy, and the Kennedy family in the United States, which is well known. However, an earlier and lesser-known link between the Tubridy Clan and an American presidential family involves the Roosevelts.

Two members of the Drumellihy Tubridys, sisters Bridget and Kitty Tubridy, lived and worked at Sagamore Hill, New York, for Edith Kermit Roosevelt, former First Lady and widow of President Theodore Roosevelt (who passed away in 1919). According to the 1925 New York Census, Bridget worked as a cook and Kitty as a kitchen maid. During this time, Kermit Roosevelt, Edith’s son, and his family were also residing at Sagamore Hill.

Bridget Tubridy became especially close to Edith Roosevelt during her widowhood, forming a friendship and serving as a confidant alongside other staff members, including Clara Lee and Mary Sweeney. Kitty, by the time of the 1930 Census, had moved to Glen Cove, Nassau, New York, where she worked as a maid for John Kean Roosevelt, the son of banker Emlen Roosevelt and cousin to President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt.

The two sisters, Katherine “Kitty” Tubridy (born 1895) and Bridget “Bridgie” Tubridy (1892–1973), were born in Drumellihy, Clare, to Patrick Tubridy and Bridget Greene, who are buried in Killanick Graveyard, Clare. Both sisters appear in the 1901 Census of Ireland as children. Bridget emigrated to the United States at age 17 in 1915, while Kitty arrived in 1924. By 1925, both were living in the Roosevelt household in New York.

26/10/2024

Dr. John Andrew "Seán" Tubridy remains the only member of the Tubridy Clan to have served in Dáil Éireann as a Teachta Dála (TD) so far. Representing Fianna Fáil, he first served the Galway constituency (1927–1932) and later Galway West (1937–1939). Seán was working under Éamon de Valera's FF leadership from the party’s beginnings as it emerged from Anti-Treaty Sinn Féin.

Seán was the son of Patrick Tubridy and Jane Waldron, Irish language teachers in Carraroe in the Conamara Gaeltacht, who were originally from Clare and politically active alongside Roger Casement. We have previously posted about them here. Professionally, Seán was a Medical Officer, educated at Blackrock College, Dublin, when trained he served the people of the Conamara Gaeltacht, where he treated residents during outbreaks of cholera, typhus, and the Spanish flu.

Politically influenced from a young age by his parents, Seán became active in the Irish republican movement in Galway. During the Irish Civil War in County Galway, he aligned with the Anti-Treaty side, and after their defeat, the Department of Health attempted to remove him from his medical post by advertising his position. However, strong local support, with people vouching for his character and integrity, helped him retain his role.

Afterward, Seán transitioned into mainstream politics with Fianna Fáil Galway West representing Galway in the 5th, 6th, 9th, and 10th Dáil from 1927 to 1938. He championed the welfare of the Conamara Gaeltacht, but he also pursued more radical activism on the side. In the early 1930s, Seán co-founded Muintir na Gaeltachta, an organisation aimed at promoting the interests of Gaeltacht communities and reviving the Irish language nationwide. Other founders included Peadar Duignan, who would become a Fianna Fáil TD, and Máirtín Ó Cadhain, a novelist, active in the Irish Republican Army, and advocate for James Connolly-style politics focused on Gaeltacht culture and people.

Seán Tubridy passed away at an early age in his late 40s. His grandson is RTÉ’s Ryan Tubridy of The Ryan Tubridy Show.

Below is a video of Mártín Ó Cadhain describing his own involvement with the organisation which Seán Tubridy co-founded.

https://electionsireland.org/candidate.cfm?ID=1556
https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/member/Dr-Se%C3%A1n-Tubridy.D.1927-06-23/
https://goldenbridgeinmate39.wordpress.com/2013/02/26/who-do-you-think-you-are-ryan-tubridy/
https://www.galwaydecadeofcommemoration.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/TTH_1998_03_21_3NOGpart6.pdf

Léargas ar Mháirtín Ó Cadhain, ar Éirinn sna tríochaidí, agus ar Mhuintir na Gaeltachta (Muinntear na Gaedhealtachta).(Scéalaí: Peadar Lamb. Ón chlár "Is Mis...

25/10/2024

When researching the Tubridy Clan, it is essential to recognise that our core homeland was part of the West Clare Gaeltacht until the 1950s, a designation established by the Irish government based on the Coimisiún na Gaeltachta report from the 1920s.

This Gaeltacht region included places where members of the Tubridy Clan resided, such as Doonbeg, Mullagh, Cooraclare, Kilmihil, and Miltown Malbay. However, in 1956, the government reclassified the area, citing a decline in the number of Irish speakers, although native speakers continued to live in Doolin until the 1990s.

In Ireland, the Gaeltacht refers to regions where Irish remains the primary spoken language and a core part of local Gaelic culture. Today, the largest Gaeltacht areas are found in Galway (Conamara) and Donegal, with smaller ones in Kerry, Mayo, and Cork. Gaeltacht designation can bring economic benefits to communities, including funding, tourism, and cultural support to preserve and promote the Irish language and Gaelic heritage.

22/10/2024

Since the 19th century, most members of the Tubridy Clan who emigrated from Ireland settled in English-speaking countries. However, Maria Tubridy (1865–1903) was an exception. Born into the Tubridy Clan from Miltown Malbay Parish, Kilmurry Ibrickane, County Clare, she crossed the Atlantic Sea as a teenager in 1883 and settled in Québec, the French-speaking part of Canada.

While Tubridys had been present in Canada as early as the 1842 Census, these instances were rare, less than a handful, as most Irish emigrants from the clan favoured the United States by far. On 8 March 1886, Maria married fellow Irish emigrant Andrew Gallagher (1863–1911) at St. Patrick's Church in Montréal (L'Église Saint-Patrick de Montréal), a beautiful Gothic Revival-style Catholic church that served the Irish Catholic community in the French-speaking city. Together, they raised a family of eleven children.

20/10/2024

WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF THE TUBRIDY (Ó TIOBRAIDE) CLAN?

Unlike some of the more well-known Irish clans, such as the O'Donnells, O'Neills, O'Briens, and O'Conors, whose lineages can be traced back clearly to the Middle Ages and beyond, the earliest currently available documented evidence of the Tubridy clan, found in Clare, Tipperary, and Limerick, dates only to the 18th century.

One popular family legend, even recounted as far away as Australia, claims that the Tubridy clan originated from a Spaniard who was part of the Spanish Armada. According to this story, after a shipwreck in 1588 near Spanish Point, Miltown Malbay Parish, this Spaniard was sheltered by a local Irishwoman from The O'Brien Clan. He allegedly hid in a well—fittingly, as the Irish word "tiobraid" means "spring" or "well"—to evade English authorities and eventually assimilated into Gaelic Irish society. This legend is part of the broader "Black Irish" myth, which links dark-haired Irish people to Spanish ancestry. Similar tales exist for other clans, like the Guideras and Costellos. However, this is considered more folklore than fact.

Recent Y-DNA testing has provided a more accurate understanding of the Tubridy clan's origins. The paternal line of the Tubridys is most closely associated with two Gaelic clans from County Tipperary: firstly in genetic distance, the Dwyer - O'Dwyer Clan of Kilnamanagh and then second in distance the Ryan Clan of Tipperary & Limerick (Mulryans of Owney). Given the similarity between the Tubridy name and "Tipperary" in Irish, it is likely that the name signifies "of Tipperary" or "Tipperary man."

Historically, the O'Dwyer clan (Ó Duibhidhir) played a significant role in the Irish Catholic Rebellion of 1641, with members such as Pilib and Uaithne O'Dwyer leading the capture of the Rock of Cashel. Colonel Éamon O'Dwyer commanded the Irish Confederate forces in Munster during the Cromwellian War but was forced to surrender at Cahir Castle in 1652. After Cromwell's conquest, many O'Dwyers fled abroad, while those who stayed behind faced persecution and despoilation at the hand of the invader. The well-known lament "Sean O'Dwyer of the Glen" commemorates these hardships.

Following the Act of Settlement in 1652, which in Tipperary meant large scale theft of Irish land and redistribution of them to the invaders, the O'Dwyer clan, identified as ring-leaders had many members uprooted and relocated to Connacht and Thomond, the latter being today's County Clare, which was O'Brien territory. The Tipperary Transplantation Index (1654-1658) lists nine O'Dwyers relocated to Clare, including John O'Dwyer of Clonoulty at Tulla. By the 1760s, one branch of the Tubridys had returned to Cahir, Tipperary. Given the genetic and historical evidence, these O'Dwyer roots are the most likely origin of the Tubridy clan.

18/10/2024

Rare footage from 1950 of Captain Michael Tubridy riding Lough Neagh at the Dublin Horse Show in Ballsbridge, Dublin for the Aga Khan Trophy. President Seán T. O'Kelly can be seen looking on.

Full title reads: "Dublin. The Aga Khan Trophy".Ballsbridge, Dublin, Eire, Southern Ireland, Republic of Ireland.GV Contestants riding past grandstand. SV To...

18/10/2024

Captain Murty "Mortimer" Tubridy (1897–1988), known as "The Ballykett Rebel," was a prominent Irish republican activist in County Clare from the Drumellihy Tubridys. He played a role in both the Easter Rising of 1916 and the Irish War of Independence, becoming the most notable member of the Tubridy Clan in the fight for Irish sovereignty. Raised on a farm in Ballykett, near Kilrush, which his father Patrick Tubridy bought after returning from Australia, Murty grew up surrounded by a strong sense of Irish identity.

As a young man, Murty attended Skerries College in Fingal, Dublin, where he became close with Irish republican figures Con Colbert and Peadar Clancy. Immersed in the republican movement, he joined the Irish Volunteers and later served as Captain of F Company (Kilrush), 2nd Battalion, West Clare Brigade of the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence. Later in life, he emigrated to South Africa.

Murty participated in the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin, fighting at Boland's Mills alongside Éamon de Valera. He sustained an ear injury and, after receiving treatment at Richmond Hospital, narrowly avoided capture. A folk song titled "The Ballykett Rebel, Alive, Alive O" was written about him and his involvement in the Rising. As he fled Dublin, he took a historic Proclamation of the Irish Republic poster from North King Street, near the Four Courts, which later sold for €55,000 in 2011.

In 2016, his nieces Jenny Murphy and Dodo Tubridy unveiled a 1916 centenary sculpture at Millennium Park, Kilrush, titled "Óró, sé do bheatha abhaile." The names "Murty" and "Mortimer," though old-fashioned today, were once anglicised placeholders for the Irish name Muircheartach, meaning "mariner," now typically anglicised as Murtagh.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-16141452
http://pwaldron.info/Colbert/

18/10/2024

Henry Toberty (1888–1918) was a Durham-born soldier of Irish parentage, who died during World War I in France fighting as part of the British Army. Perhaps the only member of the Tubridy Clan to do so in the conflict.

Serving as a Trooper in the 1st Life Guards, he was killed in an air raid at Etaples at the age of 30. His service number was 4150, and his grave is maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission at the Etaples Military Cemetery in France. In his honor, a street in Gateshead, Toberty Gardens, was named after him. Before the war, Henry worked as a porter for the North Eastern Railway (NER).

Henry and the Durham Tobertys were direct descendants of the Drumellihy Tubridys from Clare, with an unusual family history. During the Great Hunger, Conor "Cornelius" Tubridy (1807–1884) left Clare for Magherafelt, Derry, to work and send money home, as the so-called "famine" devastated West Clare. Although he had a wife and seven children in Drumellihy, Conor entered into a second bigamous marriage with Ann Lynch in Derry and had four illegtimate children between 1843 and 1847, three daughters and a son. This branch of the family adopted the spelling "Toberty."

Conor "Cornelius" Toberty Jr., the son from this second marriage, later married Eliza Dimond. In the 1870s, the couple moved to England at Gateshead, then to Felling, Durham, as part of the Irish Catholic diaspora in the area, which typically engaged in industrial work. They had 12 children, including Henry.

https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/4320084.the-celtic-roots-that-helped-shape-durham/
https://www.ww1cemeteries.com/etaples-roh-s-z.html

18/10/2024

Patrick Tubridy (1869–1920) and his wife Jane (née Waldron; 1868–1942) were Irish language national schoolteachers at Scoil Mhic Dara in Carraroe (An Cheathrú Rua), located in the Connemara Gaeltacht. Patrick was born in Treanmanagh, Mullagh, Clare, and came from the Tubridy branch of Clohanbeg and Moyasta. At the time, Irish was still widely spoken in West Clare, so it wasn’t unusual for him to teach the language in Connemara.

Connemara was an economically deprived area, and the Tubridys wrote to nationalist politician Roger Casement for help alleviating the poverty. In 1913, Casement described the region as "the most miserably situated rural communities that any civilised country holds today." Thanks to the Tubridys' efforts, Casement agreed to establish a fund to provide a daily meal for the pupils of Scoil Mhic Dara.

Casement was later executed by British authorities in 1916 after attempting to land arms supplied by the Germans for the Irish Volunteers. In a letter to Emmeline Cadbury, he remarked: “Emmeline, if only they had landed me at Carraroe, things might have gone differently! They were waiting for me at Carraroe—armed men who would have protected me and hidden me. But the Germans chose instead to land me on an open beach at Tralee.”

Patrick and Jane Tubridy are the great-grandparents of RTÉ's Ryan Tubridy. Notably, Patrick's grave in Bohermore Cemetery, Galway, is one of the few Tubridy Clan graves inscribed in Irish.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/ryan-tubridy-discovers-ancestor-s-letter-to-roger-casement-1.2454605