{"id":3439,"date":"2016-12-29T16:17:29","date_gmt":"2016-12-29T16:17:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.writingsinrhyme.com\/?p=3439"},"modified":"2016-12-29T16:17:29","modified_gmt":"2016-12-29T16:17:29","slug":"smyth-sisters-of-grousehall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writingsinrhyme.com\/index.php\/smyth-sisters-of-grousehall\/","title":{"rendered":"Smyth Sisters of Grousehall"},"content":{"rendered":"

This poem is a telling of our family history in verse, and how the differing fates of the descendants of two sisters from Grousehall in Cavan affected the history of the area, and the arts world from England to South Africa. It is being updated, and is based on the family tree as put together by Phillip Hourican<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Outline<\/a>
Outline of the HOURICAN \/ CARTY family tree<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

i<\/p>\n

Sisters Smyth Mary and Catherine were
\nDaughters of Phillip in their prime
\nThey were as the traditions of the age
\nMarried as girls be in their time.
\nTheir issue of note in their fields
\nThough often on different sides
\nFor such is the sea of life and its storms
\nSubject to chances ebbing tides.<\/p>\n

ii<\/p>\n

Catherine married Ralph Dopping of Granard battle field
\nSo her issues politics was set
\nMary married a Phillip Corcoran
\nOur line is her issue yet:
\nOn all sides and shades of green
\nMarys kin have held the flag
\nAnd fought over it, as Catherine’s kine
\nOf the Union Jack had to brag.<\/p>\n

iii<\/p>\n

Catherine’s son John, though British he
\nJohn Bull to the core
\nA Gaelic scholar and rector was
\nUnlike his stock before
\nHis writings are the reasons why
\nWe know of old Longford today
\nLife is odd how it works
\nIn its own eccentric way!<\/p>\n

iv<\/p>\n

Johns son Ralph in famine times
\nBy the standards of the day was kind
\nHis brother James Henry, a cruel sort
\nBrings evictions horrors to mind.
\nJohn had died on Gowna
\nRalph some say by his own hand
\nJames Henry put the poor to the road
\nConcept of charity did not understand.<\/p>\n

v<\/p>\n

Mary had a daughter Margaret
\nWho married Phillip Hourican
\nOf Dunbeggan he was as all them are
\nA native Irishman.
\nTheir childrens kine were to take the gun
\nUnder leadership of Sean Mac Eoin
\nPut their lives, homes and freedom on the line
\nSo that our land, our folk should own.<\/p>\n

vi<\/p>\n

James Henrys daughter, wife of Boyd of Ballymaccool
\nWith her lot was quite content
\nWished for Empire to continue to rule the world
\nSigned the Ulster Covenant
\nMarshalled working classes and agricultural poor
\nCarson’s declaration to sign
\nHe cousin Maxwell Edward fought in Afghanistan
\nBoth sides of the Durand line.<\/p>\n

vii<\/p>\n

Charlotte’s daughter to South Africa went
\nHer writing wide read won fame
\nFar from Donegal today in Port Elizabeth
\nA street there bears her name…
\nPhillips Houricans daughter Margaret to the Cartys married
\nWhere this humble bard is of the blood
\nBut in Portmouth too another holds the pen
\nOf this quite bardic brood!<\/p>\n

viii<\/p>\n

I mused one day in Merlin wood
\nFlying my new bought drone
\nThat in England that very day
\nFar from their Derrycassin home
\nA distant cousin, of one blood
\nWas making legal framework for the sky
\nSo that drones could be flown safely
\nBy big business, and you and I.<\/p>\n

ix<\/p>\n

Two small girls in Grousehall played
\nA few centuries ago
\nTheir future looked so similar
\nTheir childrens future they would not know.
\nThat is life in all its strangeness
\nWe can just accept and enjoy it
\nFor whose to say what part in life will play
\nOur issue, like the sisters Smyth?<\/p>\n

ii \/ Line 1: Ralph Dopping led the local Crown forces at the Battle of Granard. After the prisoners were led by Cornwallis to Ballinalee where they were summarily hung at Bullys Acre until the hangman refused to hang any more.
\nii \/ Line 5: The Houricans in particular have been active in politics, Phil being a Fianna F\u00e1il councillor in Longford, and another Hourican PJ being a Fine Gael mayor of Cork. We ourselves were morally on the side of the Republicans in the Civil War of 1922, though in actuality were neutral.
\niii \/ Line 1: Rev John Dopping was a Gaelic scholar, and recorded much of the folkore and dialect of the area, which is referenced by researchers to this day.
\niv \/ Line 2: Ralph Anthony was known for kindness and folly: he lost a lot of money through gambling, drinking and helping the poor. Was the recipient of the Naked Protest at Derrycassin. He married firstly Hanging Jacks grandniece, and then a Fox of Foxhall. For the former marriage to be acceptable, he had to append her surname to his as he was broke and she wealthy.
\niv \/ Line 3: James Henry, Ralphs brother, took over running Derrycassin on Ralph Anthony’s death.. He was cruel and evicted many, as he had done in Donegal where he was agent for landlords like Lord Leitrim and others.
\nv \/ Line 5: Hugh Hourican of Clonbroney was in the North Longford Flying Column.
\nvi \/ Line 1: Charlotte Dopping Boyd was a prominent Unionist, working with the poor of Donegal to sign the Ulster Solemn League and Covenant
\nvi \/ Line 7: In the 1920’s during the War of Independence, ME Dopping Hepenstall was fighting in the Waziristan Wars, winning medals in the British Army fighting the Pashtun.
\nvii \/ ine 5: Mary Rosalie Boyd, author of “The Veld” among other works, born in UK, grew up in Donegal, married in South Africa where she was famed for her poetry.
\nvii \/ Line 7: Maggie Sawkins, descended from James Hourican, whose daighter married Keohane, from whome the Prices descend. She won the Ted Hughes prize in 2013. Lives in Portmouth.
\nviii \/ Line 5: Lambert Dopping Hepenstal is working on the avaition regulations for drone usage for businesses like Amazon in the UK.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This poem is a telling of our family history in verse, and how the differing fates of the descendants of two sisters from Grousehall in Cavan affected the history of the area, and the arts world from England to South Africa. It is being updated, and is based on the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","column","twocol"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7EI4f-Tt","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3505,"url":"https:\/\/writingsinrhyme.com\/index.php\/shin-rin-yoku\/","url_meta":{"origin":3439,"position":0},"title":"Shin Rin Yoku","author":"Tom\u00e1s \u00d3 C\u00e1rthaigh","date":"22nd January 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The only \"Bards in the Woods\" I managed to attend was a few years back, in Mullinaleaghta in Longford, where John Wilmott and myself toured the grounds of the Dopping-Hepenstal estate. Being the fountain of knowledge I am I was telling him all about them as then knew it, not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Nature"","block_context":{"text":"Nature","link":"https:\/\/writingsinrhyme.com\/index.php\/category\/nature-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fairy Fort in the grounds of Derrycassin Wood","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writingsinrhyme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/The-Fairy-Fort-in-Derrycassin-Wood-in-Longford.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writingsinrhyme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/The-Fairy-Fort-in-Derrycassin-Wood-in-Longford.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writingsinrhyme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/The-Fairy-Fort-in-Derrycassin-Wood-in-Longford.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writingsinrhyme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/The-Fairy-Fort-in-Derrycassin-Wood-in-Longford.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3087,"url":"https:\/\/writingsinrhyme.com\/index.php\/66-days-a-poor-tribute-to-bobby-sands\/","url_meta":{"origin":3439,"position":1},"title":"66 Days – A Poor Tribute to Bobby Sands","author":"Tom\u00e1s \u00d3 C\u00e1rthaigh","date":"7th August 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Just in from watching \"66 Days\", the Bobby Sands film, which is a poor tribute to the man, a twisting of history, made to bolster the current regime in the North of Ireland. 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