| Description | The collection contains over 800 items, mainly relating to the Galway estate of Henry Flanegan. The papers include copies of documents naming a James Flanagan of Eyrecourt from the 1790s, but most of the collection relates to his descendant Henry Flanegan, who was a surgeon. The estate house was Woburn Lodge, near Eyrecourt. There is a great deal of legal material, including wills and other testamentary documents, leases, and correspondence with solicitors. The testamentary documents include genealogies and notes of family births, marriages and deaths which would appear to have been written by family members to assist in legal cases and inheritance. Much of the legal correspondence is from C. H. Denroche, a Dublin solicitor who looked after the administration of the Galway estate for Henry Flanegan. The later correspondence is with Henry's daughter, who lived in Essex, after his death in 1933. The estate management material, which mostly dates from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, includes leases, rentals, and correspondence. |
| Administrative History | In most of the later documents in this collection the family name is spelled 'Flanegan'. Included in the collection, however, is a description of the genealogy of the 'Flannagan' family, which states that 'The present hereditary Chief of this Family is is Colonel John O'Flannagan, now an officer of particular note and merit in the Imperial service'. The document is not dated or attributed. A document which makes an early connection between this branch of the family and the Eyrecourt area is a copy of a lease from 1794 between Giles Eyre and James Flanagan, both of Eyrecourt. By the time that Henry Flanegan becomes owner of the Galway estate the family's main residence would appear to be in England, and letters to Dr. Flanegan from his Dublin solicitors from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century are addressed to him in London, Northampton and Essex. One exception to this is the correspondence written during the First World War, when Dr. Flanegan was serving with the Medical Corps. After his death in 1933 his daughter, Irene, sold the Galway property. There is some corespondence to her relating to property in Essex. The family's connection with Eyrecourt re-emerges in the late 1970s, however, when Irene is contacted by solicitors acting for the parish priest of Fahy, Eyrecourt, regarding the lease for the school at Fahy. |