Motto

The Cassidy Family belong to Co.Fermanagh, and for a thousand years were very prominent in the field of Literature, Medicine, and Religion. The Family lived at Ballycassidy, near Enniskillen.

They were physicians to the Chiefains of Fermanagh the Maguires. However, even before the Maguires assumed control of Fermanagh, Giolla Mochuda More O'Caiside was famed throughout Ireland as a Prince of learning (d.1143) his Gaelic poetry is still preserved.

The Cassidys were hereditary managers of the parish of Devenish and they had privileged educational facilities, especially at Devenish Island Monastery, where a number of Cassidy graves can be seen today. There is a long history of Cassidys who were prominent clerics,especially in penal times in the Diocese of Clogher.

After The plantation of Ulster which began in 1611, the Cassidys, like nearly all the leading Gaelic families of the province, sank into obscurity.

We find them only in such records as the presentments relating to priests under the Penal Code, chiefly in counties Fermanagh and Monaghan. Many, of course, were forced to emigrate to the U.S.A and Britain.

James Cassidy married Mary Maguire in County Fermanagh before 1800.

Children: James Cassidy

James Cassidy born around 1810 married Ann Mooney Enniskillen 1834.

They had a total of 12 Children:

James, Patrick, Mary, John, Ann, William, Thomas, Joseph, Elizabeth, Andrew, Andrew, Francis.

James Cassidy born around 1835 married Ellen Rice in St Marys Church, Glasgow 1856.

Children: Ann, James, Helen, Catherine, Frances Jane, John Thomas, Kate, Joseph

Joseph Cassidy born 1882 married Bessie Finnigan in St Anne's Church Glasgow 1906.

Children: Julia, Ellen, James, Joseph, Rose, John, Josie, Euphemia and the youngest my dad

Henry.

The Glasgow connection

My grandfather Joseph was born on the 6th of March 1882 in a district of Glasgow called Bridgeton. He was the youngest son of James Cassidy and Ellen Rice. Both his parents were from Ireland.  His mother Ellen was the daughter of Patrick Rice and Catherine McMullan from Loughinisland, County Down and his father James was from Windmill Hill just outside the town of Enniskillen in County Fermanagh.

Enniskillen Castle 1830 by R. O'C. Newenham (Front cover of The Ordance srvey memoirs of Ireland. Parishes of County Fermanagh 1 Vol 4.)

Fermanagh is a beautiful county situated in the North West of Ireland. Joseph's grandparents James Cassidy and Ann Mooney were from the parish of Rossory just outside Enniskillen.

Fermanagh was the stronghold of the Maguire Clan "Lords of Fermanagh". The Maguires built the original castle. The last Lord Maguire was tried for treason and beheaded in the Tower of London in 1644.

The Coles became the next prominent family. William Cole re-built the original Maguire castle. In 1834 Enniskillen was a garrison town and the Fermanagh Milita resided there.

The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1834 stated that the people of Enniskillen were "generally speaking rather an intelligent people of sober habits".

James Cassidy was born in the early 1800's son of James Cassidy and Mary Maguire. According to the tithe applotment book for 1826 the Mooneys, Cassidys, Maguires and Davis families were living in close proximity to one another in the townland of Windmill Hill.  There are records of Cassidy and Davis families living in Rossory dating back to 1749.

They would have been tenant farmers and would have lived with in cottages made of rough stone and thatched roofs. There would have been two apartments used as kitchen and bedroom affording very little in the way of home comforts. Their food was chiefly potatoes, fish, pottage, milk, butter and eggs. As a farm labourer James was earning no more than 10d per day.

James Cassidy and Ann Mooney were married on the 11th of June 1834 in the parish of Enniskillen which is situated on the north east side of Lough Erne in the diocese of Clogher. Ann was the daughter of Thomas Mooney and Mary Davis.   

Their first two children (including Joseph's father James junior) were born there.

The standard of living at this particular time in Ireland was so low that it had long been the case that a great many Irish people (mainly from Ulster) would come to Scotland to work at the harvest. Usually they would go to Scotland for the season and when the season finished they would return to Ireland with their earnings.

It is probable that my ancestors did that on a regular basis but at some point around 1838/40 James and Ann made the decision to remain in Scotland.

They came with their two young children. Their eldest child James was 5 years old and his younger brother Patrick . Ann was pregnant with her third child. The family would never see their home land again.

The first cross-channel steamboat sailed from Glasgow to Belfast in 1818. James and his family would have no doubt travelled to Scotland in one of these vessels. In the 1850's James actually worked as a steamboat stoker for a short while.

When the the new steamboats were introduced the traffic to and from Ireland greatly increased. The boats provided a cheap passage across the Irish Sea and by 1833 even the poorest of individuals could afford the fare.

An advertisement in the Glasgow Herald in July of 1841.

The British census of 1841 listed 125,.000 Irish born individuals living in Scotland as a whole. Most, like my family came to Scotland for economic reasons.

At a time when the the British Empire was at its peak making great advances in agriculture and industry, Ireland was desperately poor. It had been left behind and simply used as a source of cheap labour for British industry.

There were as many as 8000 Irish people per week arriving at Scottish ports and again most of those who came hailed from the province of Ulster.

There was a panic that the city of Glasgow would be flooded with hoardes of starving wretches riddled with disease. In fact the cholera epidemic of 1848 was directly attributed to the Irish.

My family had arrived before the famine and luckily escaped much of the misery suffered by so many of their fellow countrymen.

The Cassidys settled in a district of Glasgow called Bridgeton, situated in the east end of the city.

The Main Street in Bridgeton between the Swan Tavern and Ann Street had been divided, by its Irish residents, into two seperate communities known as "Dublin's Land" and "Wee Belfast". The southern Irish, mostly catholic, settling in the former and the Ulster Irish for the most part protestant settling in the latter.

Throughout the nineteenth and for a good part of the twentieth century there were deep feelings of resentment and widespread discrimination against those of Irish origin from their neighbours the native Scots.

Ethnic, linguistic and religious barriers made intergration into Scottish society almost impossible and so, for a very long time, the Irish remained isolated in their own little communities.

Bridgeton at that time had a thriving cotton industry which was a good source of employment for the newly arrived Irish.

Like most of the people living in Bridgeton my family worked in th cotton mills. James Cassidy senior before his death in 1873 had been working as a fireman in one such mill. Some of my other male ancestors and almost all all of my female ancestors worked as yarn harpers, power loom weavers, cotton spinners, piecers and hand loom weavers.

A Bobbin-shifter in the Cotton Mill, painted by Sylvia Pankhurst, c.1910.

The cotton mills were dark dangerous places. Although men were employed in them, the chief workforce were women and children. The work was hard, dirty, monotonous and health damaging. There was little light or ventillation, They were hot and humid buildings where people worked for long hours for poor pay.

For the children of that time working life began early, compulsary education did not arrive in Scotland until 1872 with the introduction of the "Education Act". Before this act was put into operation as little as one quarter of Scotlands children attended school.

Most of them went to work with their parents and older siblings for childrens wages could be a vital component to the family income. Some mills set up school rooms on their premises but often they were over crowded with little or no learning taking place.

The mills depended very heavily on the deft fingers of immigrant children who they exploited shamelessly.

An example from "The Poor Relief Applications" in Glasgow City Parish shows just how badly they were treated by the mill owners.

Many of my female ancestors worked as cotton spinners piecers, most likely the same job that had left poor Bridget O'Rourke in a state of destitution. This was a dangerous occupation usually done by very young girls.

It was the piecers job to pick up the loose pieces of thread from the loom. In order to do this she would have to crawl under these large and powerful machines.

Cases such as Bridget's were very common even towards the end of the nineteenth century. Indeed my own grandmother Bessie Finnegan, also a mill worker lost two of the fingers from her left hand while working as a piecer. She was sent to hospital stitched up and sent back to work all in the same day!

Despite the bleak picture I have depicted in Glasgow there were people around who wanted to change the lot of the cotton factory worker, people like David Dale and Robert Owen.

In 1785 David Dale founded a village called New Lanark 25 miles outside of Glasgow. It was an industrial settlement with cotton mills powered by water from the River Clyde.

Robert Owen, Dale's son-in-law, set about improving the life of his workers. Young children did not work but instead went to school. Free medical care was provided for the villagers and their working hours were reduced.

Unfortunately Dale and Owens enlightened attitudes took a very long time to filter down into the rest of Britain. Only with the birth of the labour movement did real change begin to take place for the working classes.

In Bridgeton, the cotton mills were eventually replaced by Templetons Carpet Factory which became one of the biggest employers in Glasgow's east end towards the end of the 19th century. My grandmother's sister worked there for many years.

Housing conditions for the working classes in Glasgow were appalling. According to the 1861 census at least 64% of families lived in one or two bedroomed accomodation 1% with no windows. The "Butt 'n' Ben" was the normal enviroment for most families.

In 1854 Ann Cassidy gave birth to her eighth son Francis and by August of 1856 the second child to be named Andrew was born. Like his brother Andrew did not see his first birthday, he lived his short life at 78 Main St Bridgeton. One in five children of that time died in infancy or childhood. Ann and James lost at least five children in infancy including three daughters.

The Scottish infant mortality rate between the years 1855 to 1859 stood at 118 in every 1000 live births and the infant death rate was four to five times higher in working class areas than in more affluent areas such as Kelvinside.

In 1856 James and Ann's eldest son my great grandfather James married Ellen Rice a mill worker and like her husband Ellen was Irish. Her father Patrick Rice was a hawker selling hardware in local markets such as "The Barras" and "Paddys market". Patrick and his wife Catherine (nee McMullen) came to Scotland around 1850 with their two daughters Ellen and her older sister Roseann.

Ellen and James were married in The Church of St Mary of the Assumption Abercromby St. The church first opened its doors in August of 1842. Most of my ancestors were either baptized or married in this church. It was built to serve the growing catholic population in the east end of Glasgow. It was only the second Catholic church to be built in the area since the reformation. The couple were married by Father Forbes a very well respected priest who served in the parish for thirty years.

St Marys was the centre for many good works in relation to the catholic poor in Glasgow. It is particularly remembered as the birthplace of Celtic F.C. This football club, which has become internationally famous, was originally the brain child of Brother Walfrid who belonged to the Marist Order. He founded the club in 1888 with the intention of using it as a means of raising funds to feed poor children under the "Penny Dinner Scheme".

James and Ellen had nine children including my grandfather Joseph, their youngest child. James escaped the local mills and managed to acquire a plastering apprenticeship.

Between the years 1863 till 1876 the Cassidys moved around quite a bit. They lived in Selkirk for a while then North Shields and finally Ferryhill, County Durham in England, before moving back home to Bridgeton.

On their return they must have seen great changes in Glasgow, for during their thirteen year absence the City Improvement Trust had been set up to acquire the worst properties in Glasgow demolish them and provide their former inhabitants with replacement housing.

However, the trust persistantly ran out of money and many of the new tenements had to be built by private builders such as Duncan Fraser so notable he had a street named after him. My grandfather was born in a two roomed tenement house on that very street 14 Fraser St.

My grandfather had two brothers and six sisters. His eldest brother James left Scotland around 1886. He went to England and became an actor.  He incorporated his mother's maiden name and became James Rice Cassidy.  He had some considerable success so much so that I have not only dedicated a page to him on this website but he now has a website all of his own J Rice Cassidy & Co. Presents    He died in London in 1927.

The Cassidy family of Glasgow and Chicago

John Thomas Cassidy or Johhny, as he was more commonly known, was born in County Durham, England in 1875 but spent most of his early life in Glasgow. He married a local girl Catherine Maguire and they went on to have eleven children. Like his father Johnny was also a plasterer and in 1911 he and his family emigrated to Chicago, Illinois.

He and my grandfather corresponded for many years and my grandfather would send him the Scottish newspapers so he could keep in touch with local events. He died in 1937 and I do not think he ever made it back to Scotland although his wife Catherine did make one visit back home to Glasgow in 1929.

Click on the Passenger manifest to see the full size entry

Two of my grandfathers sisters died in infancy. The other four sisters married and remained in Glasgow.

Annie Kelly nee Cassidy was my grandfather Joseph's eldest sister. At the time of her marriage to John Kelly she was working as a power loom weaver in a cotton factory. He was an Iron forge labourer. They had five children together. Annie's is a very tragic tale. 

Her son Patrick died as a result of extensive burns sustained in an explosion in a paint factory.  He had been attending to prepartions of varnish containing napthea when the wind blew the shed door open causing a nearby lamp to come into contact with the napthea resulting in an explosion which caused his clothes to catch fire. He died in Glasgow Royal Infirmary as a result of extensive burns to his face, legs body and arms. He was only twenty years old.  Annie died just a year after her son.

His sister Frances Jane married John Monaghan.  They remained in the east end of Glasgow and four of their children, James, John, Edward and Frances Jane junior emigrated to the U.S.A and Canada with their respective families. Frances died in 1948.

The Cassidys who emigrated to North America and Jamaica

John Thomas, his nephews and niece were not the only Cassidys to emigrate to North America or even further afield!

In 1866 my great grandfather's brother (also John) emigrated to the USA with his wife Mary nee McGinty. They settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where John worked as a plasterer. They had five children together, James, John (1), John (2) Elizabeth and Mary. John tragically died at the age of 34. His daughter Elizabeth married Harry Rigby in 1899. Harry owned a bakery and they moved at some point to Delaware. I have been unable so far to find out what happened to the other three children who made it to adulthood, although I do know that the eldest, James was an actor in the early 1900's.

My great grandfather's youngest brother Francis Cassidy became a very successful Pawnbroker and outfitter in Glasgow. Francis was married to Maggie Thornton and they had four children together.

Their eldest son James Buchanan Cassidy took over the family business after the death of his father which he ran with his brother Francis. In 1916 Francis junior contracted T.B and died in a sanitorium 2 years later. He was 33.

James gave up the family business and emigrated in 1923 to Philadelphia. I have no further information on him other than the details he gave upon arriving in America which was that he was going to stay with his cousin James T Cassidy who lived in Front Street, Philadelphia. This I believe was the eldest son of John Cassidy and Mary McGinty.

Francis and Maggie's second child, Matthew Ignatius Thornton Cassidy studied at Glasgow University and became a doctor. He moved to Jamaica with his wife Marie who he met at university. She too was a doctor. He became District Medical Officer in Vere. He served as a Captain in the RAMC (Medical Officer). A medical officer was attached to each British Infantry Battalion. The medical officer was responsible for running the regimental aid post on active service.

After many years of living in Jamica, where he and Marie were very well respected for their work as well as their charitable commitments, he moved to the Gold Coast in Africa and worked there for a time before moving back to Britain. He had one son Charles Desmond Cassidy, who studied at Cambridge university and became a barrister in London. Matthew died in Maidenhead, Berks in 1947 at the age of 63.

Francis and Maggie also had a daughter Ruth but I have little or no information about her other than her birth and that she at one point travelled to Jamaica with her mother presumably to visit her brother and his family.

My grandfather's sister Helen married John Brannen but died shortly after giving birth to her second child who was later adopted by the Devlin family.

Kate the youngest of the sisters married James Morton and lived in Rutherglen.  She and James had seven children together.

My grandfather Joseph was the youngest child of James and Ellen. He suffered from epilepsy as young man and was prone to regular siezures. This became quite debilitating for him and he often found it difficult to find work not only because of the illness but also because of the ignorance and stigma that surrounded it at that time.

Despite this he managed to survive and even ran a small coal haulage business. He married my grandmother Bessie Finnigan, a cotton mill worker,in 1906. Bessie was the daughter of John Finnigan from County Armagh. John was an army pensioner who served in India for over twenty years. Her mother was Julia Hickey from Dublin. John and Julia met in India where Julia's father was also a soldier with the 5th Irish Lancers. Their first two children were born in India. Bessie was born in Glasgow. She and my grandfather had nine children together including my dad Harry who was their youngest child.

A very politically minded man, he was an ardent supporter of and campaigner for Campbell Stephens of the Independent Labour Party in Glasgow.   Campbell Stephen's first campaign was to contest the seat for Ayr Burghs in 1918, on that occasion he was unsuccessful and for two and half years he taught maths and science. In 1922 he won the Camlachie seat. Camlachie is in the east end of Glasgow and covers Dennistoun where my father was born. He was MP for Camlachie from 1922 till 1931 and from 1935 onwards. Stephens was still an MP in 1944. My grandfather died in 1942.

The Long Walk

They started on their long walk so many years ago from Enniskillen to Belfast through wind and rain and snow.
Far behind they left their loved ones, their neighbours and their friends, they knew their native homeland they would never see again.

There was Anne and there was James and with them their two weans my great granddad was the eldest and he bore his fathers name.

James would find work where he could just to pay his family’s keep but the nights were far too frequent when they could find no where to sleep.

Hospitality would be offered by a stranger now and then, they would stay there for a night or two and be on the road again. 

It would take them several weeks this long trek across Ireland and they must have looked so weary quite a sorry little band.  From the port of old Belfast on a steamboat called the Rover they would journey on to Scotland the long walk would soon be over. 

And so they came to Caledonia owning nothing but their names and they settled down in Glasgow "The Dear Green Place" now was hame.

They were Irish, they were Catholic, not a welcome combination in the land where Calvin ruled with self righteous indignation.

But had they remained in Ireland a far worse fate would they have met in the form of the Great Famine which had still to happen yet.

So the faced discrimination and they took it on the chin as they manned the cotton factories in a wee place called Bridgeton.

Yes their long walk now was over and the years went by so fast and the children of their children soon forgot their migrant past. It would still remain forgotten had I not traced my family tree and took the footsteps back again that set their memory free.

This poem is a tribute to my ancestors James and Ann from the green fields of Fermanagh on their long walk to Scotland.

Bibliography

A History of Bridgeton & Dalmarnock by George Adams.

The Hidden History of Glasgow's Women (The Thenew Factor) by Elspeth King.

Who Belongs to Glasgow? 200 years of Migration by Mary Edward.

Ordance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Volume 4, Parishes of County Fermanagh 1 1834-35 Enniskillen and Upper Lough Erne

Aknowledgements

Grateful aknowledgemet is made to Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams editiors of "The Ordanance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Parishes of County Fermanagh 1 Volume 4" for permission to use images and text from the afore mentioned book.

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