A History in Peril?

Memorial at Bombay Street, Belfast

No where was I more aware of history being a blink away than in Belfast. Our black cab tour took us to many of the spots that were scenes of violence only a matter of decades ago. The hardest thing on our tour was to get close to the murals and memorials which see clusters of cabs and buses trying to get their passengers close to the scenes of past action.

It was difficult to relate the busy peaceful scene to the newspaper and TV news coverage of the troubles. Squinting hard it might have been possible to equate the current scene with the war torn streets where people had to take their lives in their hands to carry out their daily activities. No one was covered in glory over that conflict.

Things were peaceful in May when we were there. It probably seemed that strife was in the past until 2016. Now it remains to be seen what will happen when Ireland’s current borders become further divided in the long drawn out lead up to Brexit. 

 Never again!

 

Absorbing History

 

Street in Rouen

  

To many their surroundings were everyday things that they probably took for granted but walking down the street in Rouen to see the cathedral was like walking back in history. Not that it was easy to follow our tour guide through the crowded cobblestone streets. It probably didn’t help that we kept stopping to take photos and ended up far behind our group.

There was more space for the crowds in Rouen than had been available when we went to visit Monet’s house and gardens. There were so many people there that we didn’t have enough time to go into the house. The gardens were magnificent and almost made up for the people blocking some of the view. Another day might have been different, but it was a sunny Sunday, the first nice day in a while, a very good day for a walk to take in history. 

Notre-Dame de l'Assomption de Rouen

 

That one day was a teaser and the first time I had stepped foot in France. It showed me that finding out about history on a tour is a limited overview at best and can turn out to be hard to access because of weather, crowds and other distractions. The tour only covered a limited number of places and my friend who wanted to see Rouen was unable to visit the church significant to her family history as it was too far away. Mass market tours might not be the best thing for family historians on the hunt. The moral of the story is that historical tours are fun and informative for the average tourist but if you want to know more it would be better to spend time tailoring a visit that fits in the history you want to absorb.

Monet's Japanese Garden

Links to Ireland

The Potato Famine of the 1840’s caused an unfathomably enormous loss of life in Ireland. The famine was also the cause of a huge wave of Irish immigration to many countries but most particularly to the new world. The statues of famine victims on the shores of the river Liffy as shown in the image above are a commemoration of this chapter of Irish history.

While the famine is the most famous episode in Irish history, it didn’t include my direct Irish ancestors who left Ireland before the 1840s. But the Irish have been leaving the country for generations. The exhibits in the Epic Irish Immigration Museum covered many more times in Irish history when people left in droves due to famines, wars or other momentous events. Perhaps some other historical event caused my ancestors to leave their native land.

I hoped that advice from the Family History Centre in the Epic building would get me further ahead in my search. Unfortunately not, although I was advised to book a consultation with an expert on London ancestry at the Society of Genealogist in London. I will have to see if I can get an appointment for the time that I am in London. I am determined to find out more about my Cavanagh line. We’ll see how that works out.

Tenement Tours

Hallway at 14 Henrietta Street, Dublin

Want to know more about how your family lived? Why not visit a museum that tells you more about dwellings like those they may have lived in? While in Dublin I went on a tour of their tenement museum. The tour and exhibits there focused on 14 Henrietta Street’s history. Like many other buildings in inner cities, it started its life as the home of the well-to-do with well appointed rooms for the public eye and more basic accommodation for the necessary offices, such as kitchens and servants’ quarters.

But times and neighbourhoods change and what was a fashionable address in earlier years may fall out of favour. What happens to those once great houses? They get repurposed and go down in the world. A lot of them end up to be tenements in slums like those on Henrietta Street in Dublin. After the fashionable set moved on, 14 Henrietta Street was taken over by businesses, then housed soldiers for a while. It wasn’t until an enterprising man thought to partition the rooms and rent out every part of the building that Henrietta Street became a true tenement. As many people as possible were squeezed into the place.

There was even a family of thirteen occupying the area of what is now the reception area of the museum. It was smaller but less dank that the basement they had occupied and offered more light. Lack of light was a problem in the buildings. There was no lighting on the stairs which made coming home after dark tricky. Hallways must have been gloomy places but maybe it was better not to see the walls painted in their distinctive red and blue and notice the true state of the place or the vermin which shared the accommodations.

I still haven’t been able to find out where my Cavanaghs came from in Ireland. I am not sure if they lived in Dublin but looking at the changes that were wrought in the building on Henrietta Street gave me a better idea of the surroundings my ancestors in East End London found themselves in.