O'Reilly's of Banawn Kenmare Co. Kerry

My Grandmother is Kate Reilly from Garrymore, Banawn, Kenmare,Co. Kerry and this is my attempt to trace the family origins in the Kenmare area.

Ua Ragallagh -- is the tribe of the O'Reilly's and they occupied most of the South of what is now Co. Cavan and bits of adjacent counties.
I have attached a clan map which shows that they were a formidable tribe in Pre Norman Ireland and that's nearly a thousand years ago. Brian Boru is said to have issued an edict that everyone should have a Surname but a hundred years after his death people were still associated with the Clan they lived with. The Ua Ragillaig eventually became O'Reilly. The O appears to have been dropped in the 20th century but seems to be making a revival. It was more common in the nineteenth Century.
Banawn is now Bonane. I have used the old spelling as that's how it appears in the old documents.

The story from the family is that 3 O'Reilly brothers came to the Kenmare area and settled there. As Jack Reilly was the dominant figure in most of the tales I had assumed that he was one of them and that the famine had forced the move. I thought that they may have been on the road to Cobh (Queenstown) in an attempt to escape the hunger and came to a place where they could survive.

However: After a bit of research I find that the O'Reilly's were in Kenmare around 1800 and possibly earlier. What I haven't established is what put them on the road in the first place. I will attach a few maps which outline certain events any one of which could have been responsible.
The Clan map shows what the country was like in the Reign of Henry V111. (1509-1547).
The plantation of Ulster took place between 1609 and 1690 when the lands of the O'Neills, the O'Donnells and any of their friends were taken and granted to Scottish and English settlers.
The Ulster plantation was one cause of the 1641 Irish Rebellion, during which thousands of settlers were killed, expelled or fled. After the Irish Catholics were defeated in the Cromwellian conquest of 1652, most remaining Catholic-owned land was confiscated and thousands of English soldiers settled in Ireland. In 1690 The Battle of the Boyne took place followed by the Battle of Aughrim and the Treaty of Limerick in 1691.
This would have put the O'Reilly Clan in a precarious situation and more than likely added to the exodus from their ancestral lands.
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The Penal Laws came into effect in 1695. Under the Penal Laws, the Catholics could not hold commission in the army, enter a profession, or own a horse worth more than five pounds. Catholics could not possess weaponry and arms, could not study law or medicine, and could not speak or read Gaelic or play Irish music. These laws were in effect until 1829. During the latter part of the 1700's there was The American revolution, The French Revolution, 1798 Rising and the 1803 Emmets Rising.
The Act of Union took place in 1801 and that would have changed the political situation again.
I believe that the 3 brothers were in Kenmare at that point..

Reiley Daniel West Releigh Kilcaskan Kerry 1827

Reily John Knuckeens Kilgarvan Kerry 1826

Reily James Droumlane Kilcaskan Kerry 1827

The above 3 families appear in the Tithe Applotment Books. There is a remote possibility that these were the 3 brothers.

Daniel Reilly 1770. West Releigh.

I believe that Daniel is my Great Great Great Grandfather. At this stage I don't know if he was born in Kerry or migrated from Cavan. His date of birth would be around 1770. How he got to West Raleigh is a mystery at the moment. The journey from Cavan would take almost 5 hours today in a car. In the late 1700's the best you could hope for is a pony and trap and that would take weeks assuming you knew where you were heading. If the 3 brothers were travelling together ---did they have wives and children with them? was it some kind of wagon train? How do you survive such a ordeal. They must have been hardy people.
When they arrived in Kenmare ---where do you go? ---Do you approach the local landlord looking for land to rent, get in touch with an agent? . Maybe someone knows how the system worked in those days but for me Daniel was one tough bit of stuff.

Thomas O'Reilly 1809 Releagh

Thomas appears in Griffiths Valuation which took place from 1847 - 1864 I believe that Thomas is my Great Great Grandfather and he was married to Margaret Sullivan.. I am putting his marriage at around 1830. At this point I have no idea how many children they had. The one's I am aware of is Daniel 1833, John (Jack) 1853 & Thomas 1857. There is a 20 year gap between Daniel and John which is difficult to explain. I have a document for all 3 brothers so I assume there were more births. Thomas would be in his early twenties and Margaret a teenager when they married.
I came across a document for the death of a Thomas Reilly from Kenmare in 1870. He's listed as 61 years old which would make his birth around 1809.
This is very close to what I was guessing about him.
Margaret died in 1905 and her Death Certificate states that she was 95. In the 1901 Census Margaret is 87 which would make her 91 when she died in 1905. That would make her date of birth at 1814. It is reasonable to assume that Thomas was born sometime around 1809

John Reilly 1853.

February 10th 1880 John (Jack)O'Reilly (27) married Bridget Gallivan (24) and set up home in Garrymore, Bonane, Kerry. Jack Reilly is my Great Grandfather.

On the marriage certificate: Thomas O'Reilly is a farmer from Releagh. He and Margaret must have lived there until his death.

In 1901 she is living in Garrymore with her son Jack so Thomas must have died sometime before 1901. On the marriage Certificate both Thomas and John are "O'Reilly". I have enclosed a document of the 1901 census which shows who was living in Garrymore on that date.

Catherine (Katie) Reilly was born on 25/03/1895 and married Patrick O'Sullivan (Green).

Katy is my Grandmother and Patrick is my Grandfather. I'm named after him. This for me begins another journey of the O'Sullivan & O'Reilly Clan.

Jack and Bridget had 9 children born of which 8 survived. Daniel 1881, Ellen 1883, Tom 1889, Dennis 1892, Kate 1895, Mary 1897, John 1899 & Mick 1901. Bridget died 11/07/1949 and was listed as 95. This would make her birth at 1854. She was in the 1901 census as 45 which would make her birth at 1856 so it's in that region. Bridget was noted for sending for the priest in her last years. My mother tells me that when she went to visit her as a child Bridget would tell her that she was the best of her family. Whenever any of her siblings went, they were told the same thing. As they grew into their teenage years and started going to dances there was an old boy in the village who'd say "There was none of that in Jack Reillys time"

The Gallivans: .
Bridgets father is James Gallivan, a farmer from Raleagh. The witnesses at her marriage were Jeremiah Gallivan and Timothy Sullivan. I'm inclined to think that Jeremiah is Bridgets brother because 21 years later in the 1901 census the Residents of House 5 Raleagh were Jeremiah Gallivan, his wife Johanna Shea, his mother in law Margaret Shea, 5 daughters and 4 sons. Kate 1884, Timothy1887, Margaret 1888, Patrick 1899, Norah1891, Michael 1892, Mary 1893, Johanna 1898, Jeremiah 1899.

In the 1901 census there is no Reilly Family in Releagh.

By 1911 the residents of House 5 in Releagh (Banawn, Kerry) Daniel Reilly (1881) his wife Julia O'Sullivan (Mike Dan),1877,

As this is where the Census record stops the rest of the Reilly History can be found on the Geni Family Tree.

So the timeline looks like this:1770 Daniel O'Reilly , 1809 Thomas O'Reilly , 1853 John O'Reilly , 1881 Daniel O'Reilly 1908 John O'Reilly

The Kilgarvan Reillys follow a similar timeline and I'm sure they are related as my Grandmother Katy used to go to any of the funerals which took place there. I would suggest that one of the direct O'Reilly descendants take on that story. There is still a 100 years to be filled in from John 1908 and his siblings.