Above Center Panel: The center panel features Hugh O'Neil 2nd Earl of Tyrone and Irish Freedom Fighter.  He lead an unsuccessful rebellion against English rule and Irish domination by Elizabeth 1 and her successor James 1.  The O'Neil and the O'Donnell clan fled Ireland after their defeat at Kisale in what is known as the Flight of the Earls.

Above Right Panel: The Ardagh Chalice is part of the Ardagh Hoard found near Ardagh Limerick by two young boys Jim Quinn and Paddy Flanagan while digging potatoes in the field.  It is a marvelous example of medieval Irish craftsmanship consisting of gold, silver and polished glass and may be found in the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin. Along with the Book of Kells it is considered among Ireland's most cherished treasures

 The Duffy Family Dungannon, Tyrone

The Latter Day Wild Geese

            Our American story is much the same as so many other families in that we can trace our roots to a different  place and time where the promise of economic and spiritual fulfillment was becoming increasingly difficult.  My mother came to America from Drumnafern County Tyrone Ireland  in 1929 when she was seventeen years old to find work and help to support her family.  I’m not at all sure if she thought of the move as permanent, because I felt initially that she had every intention of returning and making a life for herself back home. It is not as though she did not have any family here, her brother John had come just six months earlier, and her uncles Mick and Terence had been here for a dozen years.  She was not alone. Over the years I came to realize that there was a much broader network that held them together, gave them strength and solace through the difficult times, a community that made the transition less difficult.  They were her family, friends and neighbors, what I refer to as Ireland’s Latter Day Wild Geese. 

            In my early childhood years I off  course knew my mother’s brother, my Uncle John, and I have many pleasant memories of our visits to his home in Brooklyn, NY.  When I began to put together my genealogical tree almost thirty years ago and pull together all those early memories, the source for all those names became clear.  Places such as Drumnafern and Reaskmore, Killeeshil, Tullyallan.  Names like Mallon, McCann, Lucas, Duggan, McCool, and Comac appear in the census records of 1901 and 1911 and those names and are part of my earliest memories.  When Terence Duffy passed away suddenly in 1939, Pat McCool became a guardian for Luke, Terence and James.  Evelyn, their sister was taken in by Terence's brother Mick Duffy and his wife Bridget.  Pat McCool left his job as a construction sandhog and purchased a farm in Poukeepsie, NY, a place I had visited in 1960 with my mother and my Uncle John.  The McCanns were related through marriage to the Mallon family in Reaskmore and they came to Brooklyn in the 1920’ and were instrumental in sponsoring several of the Mallon and Duffy family members soon to follow.  John Lucas and Lizzy Duggan who became husband and wife were both expatriates.  John Lucas became a very successful contractor and helped build much the town of Long Beach NY in the 1940’s.  Rose Comac was arguably my mother’s closest friend and confidant through the years.  When difficulties arose they would come to the aid of one another, just as their families had done back home in Ireland. 

            Practicing genealogy is like building a house. We study and put together the structure, but there is more that makes it a home.  The stories passed down from generation to generation are the furniture, and decorative artifacts that bring warmth and comfort to our lives.  As I pursue our story further, I am sure that more of those people that touched our lives will be added and maybe bring back another name or face from the distant recesses of my mind.  After all this is an ongoing discovery.