Series 2 - Henry O'Mahoney and Mary O'Mahoney Lupton memoirs

3 sub-series

Kerby A. Miller created revised versions of the Henry O'Mahoney memoir from Mary O'Mahoney Lupton's original transcript created in 1933. The Lupton version was provided to Miller by Bridget Lynch, University of California, Berkeley, in 1976. Mary O'Mahoney Lupton's memoirs come from a published source: Lupton, Mary O'Mahoney (2006). Rolling Echoes: The Collected Writings of Mary O'Mahoney Lupton, Irish Immigrant and West Texas Pioneer. Vox Pop, Inc.

[This series contains outdated attitudes or language that does not reflect the current views or positions of the University of Galway Library. Reader discretion is advised.] Materials pertaining to the Henry O'Mahoney and Mary O'Mahoney Lupton memoirs. Mary O'Mahoney both wrote her own memoirs, and recorded and transcribed the orally presented autobiography of her father, Henry O'Mahoney, and these materials are included in this series. Henry O'Mahony (1842-1937) was well known in West Cork for his Land League activities from 1880 to 1882 in the Ballydehob and Schull areas and was imprisoned under the Coercion Act of 1881. O'Mahony fought in the American Civil War before returning to Ireland, and would return again to the United States upon his release from prison to become a successful cattle rancher in Texas, much of which is covered in his memoir. Mary O'Mahoney Lupton, a native of Ballydehob, County Cork emigrated with her family to Marshall, Texas in 1889 join her father at age 10. Per Professor Kerby A. Miller: 'Mary produced a number of life-writings, which her descendants collected, typed, formatted for publication, and circulated to family members in the early 2000s [...] Mary's Preface gives a compelling, poignant, deeply personal description of the religious and other motives that persuaded her to write her memoir.' Mary's life-writings span the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and many pages, and discuss: her family in Cork and her father's Land League activities; her early childhood in Ireland; her family's emigration and Atlantic voyage; growing up in Marshall, Texas toward the end of the 19th century; her strong religious beliefs and relationship to Catholicism; anti-Catholic sentiment in West Texas at the time; becoming a teacher in a Catholic school for indigenous children; childbirth and motherhood; her marriage to Walter Lupton, who was part of an old Virginia family, and his conversion to Catholicism prior to marrying; the challenges she and Walter faced as a result of poor business decisions during the 1920's and 1930's, and during the Great Depression; her poems and other pieces of creative writing. Of the memoir Mary O'Mahoney recorded and transcribed for her father, Kerby A. Miller says that it 'contains almost as much information on his life in Ireland, after he returned there in 1873, than on his American experiences. In fact, over 40% of the memoir is devoted to his leadership of the local Land League branch in 1880-88 and to his imprisonment by the British government,' and that it 'is very good on his American experiences during his first sojourn in the US, between 1862 and 1873: this section includes a second-hand anecdote (from his sister) about the Know-Nothing movement; and his accounts of his awful Civil War experiences and his post-war employment (mostly as a skilled machinist) in the South and in Michigan.' The series includes: photocopies and typed transcripts of the memoirs; research on the McCormack family in Ireland and Texas; copies of secondary sources on the Land Wars in Cork, the Land League and Henry O'Mahoney's involvement in it, and on various aspects of life in West Texas; Kerby A. Miller's research notes and correspondence; census research; copies of photographs; and newspaper clippings.