The Kavanagh Family

Kavanagh , sometimes spelt Cavanagh, is an anglication of Caomhanach, an adjective denoting association with St. Caomhan. There were several St. Caomhans, and one of them, who was also known as St.Kevin, was foster father of Donal who became the first Kavanagh.

Elizabeth Kavanagh (1880 - 1958) married our grandfather, John Sheehan (1873-1965) in 1905. She was born and grew up in Sleduff (Slieveduff) which is the townland beside Barnacleith where John Sheehan grew up. Slieveduff for which the English is 'black Mountain' is an outlaying spur of the Croghan Mountain. Living in adjoining townlands, the Kavanagh and Sheehan families would have known each other very well.

Elizabeth's parents were Patrick Kavanagh (1855-1882) and Maria Byrne ( - 1885), who was his first wife. They are both buried in Ballyfad Cemetry, in County Wexford on its border with County Wicklow.

Patrick's parents were Patrick Kavanagh (1806-1892) and Jane Neill (1813-1876) who are also buried in Ballyfad Cemetry. We know that Patrick's father was Owen Kavanagh (1772-1848) but, unfortunately, we do not know, as yet, his mother's maiden or surname. Owen Kavanagh is our great great-great-great grandfather and we are unlikely to be able to trace our Kavanagh forebears back any further than this.

The children of Patrick's first marriage to Maria Byrne were: Mary ( - 1964) who married John Kearns and went to live in Bonnybrook House, in Coolock, north County Dublin; John ( - 1924) who eventually emigrated to America, married Jenny English and died in Salt Lake City, Utah; Sarah (1897 - 1902) who died as a child and Elizabeth (1880 - 1958), our grandmother, who married John Sheehan (1874 - 1965).

John Kavanagh, had emigrated to America and prior to leaving Ireland was engaged to Jenny English's sister. She drowned on her way to join John in America when her ship, the Mauritania, sunk. John then married her sister, Jenny and they had three children, one of whom Marion (1916 - 1977), our father's first cousin, married Donald Waldron (1917 - 1975) and were lifelong friends of our parents. When John Kavanagh died, Jenny returned to Ireland and married Donal Dennehy and had three further children.

After Maria Byrne, our great-grand mother, died in 1885, Patrick Kavanagh married Sarah McGrath (1855 - 1929) and had six furher children who were all my grandmother's step-brothers and step-sisters. Katie Kavanagh (1879 - 1970) married Patrick Sheehan (1880 – 1971), a brother of John Sheehan, our grandfather; Margaret (Maggie) Kavanagh married Tom Sheehan, another brother of our grandfather, and Peter Kavanagh married Elizabeth (Lizzie) Sheehan (1869 - ), a sister of our grandfather. Thus, a sister of our grandmother, Elizabeth, and her two step-brothers and her step-sister married Sheehans who were all brothers and sisters. A similar occurence had taken place in the previous generation on Elizabeth's mother's side of the family. This is not at all surprising as families living in the same localitiy knew each other very well and, unlike now, travel was not very easy so that people tended to marry within their own communities.

Because of the interrelationships and large families, we have a very large extended family and many Sheehan and Kavanagh cousins. For example, our grandmother's step-brother Patrick (Pat) Kavanagh (1897 - 1973), married Lorretta Maguire ( - 1979) and they owned the Claremont Hotel (subsequently, the St. Laurence Hotel) in Howth, in north County Dublin. They had eleven children, all of whom were first cousins of our fathers and the eldest of whom Gerald, is my godfather.

Townland Map