Members of the Gowran clan outside the Gowran home place at Knockaville.

Gowran family gather to remember their history

Two reunions – in Mullingar and the UK – involving the whole clan

Photo gallery here.

According to MacLysaght in his monumental study of Irish Genealogy, The Surnames of Ireland, the Gowrans (Mac an Gabhann) were a sept that dwelt long ago in present day Cavan. A little to the south, a Westmeath branch, the Gowrans of Knockaville held a reunion for family and friends on October 18 last. An 1866 Indenture points to family forebears settling in there round that time.

Beginning as an impromptu effort to get as many family, relations and friends as possible together in one place to welcome home from Canada Susan Purcell (Bridie Gowran’s daughter) and Mary Rose (Mike Gowran’s daughter), the event expanded to more than fill the Lynnbury Suite at Bloomfield House Hotel. A further reunion was held at the house of Anne Hogarth (née Gowran) in Surrey on October 25 for Gowran family and relations living in England.

Looking in also were the O’Hanlons in New York, with Mary O’Hanlon (née Gowran) and David O’Hanlon of Riverdance fame. Bernard Gowran was home from Singapore for the occasion. Keeping abreast of the celebrations too was Mamie Gowran (née Lowry) at St Camillus, Killucan. Jack’s son, John, kept in touch all the time from Thailand.

Music at Bloomfield for the occasion was provided by Knockaville School classmate Paddy Reid with his partner Margaret Coleman, John Phelan of Huts on Stilts, accordionist and storyteller Dick Stokes with singer and multi-instrumentalist Pat Conroy, while Kitty McCarthy, in her 90s, sang in great voice.

Above all, it was an occasion for those assembled to remember with affection the Gowran parents and grandparents: Mary Ann Gorman and Michael Gowran and their family as assembled in a photo from the 1920s: Elizabeth, Bridie and Juliann (Maggie and Mary had already departed as nuns to Australia), Peter, Jack and Mike.

So, for each of the eight, a few words, however inadequate.

Lizzie (Elizabeth) Ennis (née Gowran) was the eldest of the girls. She became mother to Mamie, Dick, Michael, Jimmy, Finian, Tony, Tommy, Larry and John Ennis. With her husband, James, whose land mearined that of the Gowrans, she farmed the land at Hightown: her specialities were poultry – hens, turkeys, geese – making butter for sale and cookery. Her apple tarts with apples from an ample orchard (there still) were famous. A tireless letter writer, she kept her scattered brothers and sisters up to date with the local news. Her relaxation was reading, tuning in to Petronella O’Flanagan and going by pony and trap to Cusack Park with himself and the kids. Her house was a welcoming place for relations, nieces, nephews, neighbours and strangers in want walking the roads.

Maggie (Mother Finian) and Mary (Mother Patrick) spent their lives in Australia as Sisters of Mercy. Both were able administrators in their day, Maggie as bursar, Mary as teacher (she was a celebrated Maths teacher). She also became Mother General. Their letters would come in the door regular from then far off exotic places like Bundaberg, Brisbane and Rockhampton. Mary had a particular talent as an artist, learning and arguing the craft with her novice mistress at Callan in Kilkenny. On retirement, and until she died, she was painting away engaged on a series for her nieces and nephews. Both sisters were accomplished singers; when they came home first in the 1950s they’d visit Nanny Geraughty in Kinnegad to raise the roof with the songs she taught them in Knockaville School.

Juliana (Judy) Newman (née Gowran) was a bright girl from a bright class at Knockaville. Teacher Katie Burke, with the consent of the parents, kept them an extra year to read all of Shakespeare. At the Technical School in Mullingar, Judy’s average mark was 87.4%, top of her class. She worked as secretary to Nooney and Dowdall solicitors. A noted camogie player, she married Ned Newman, a stalwart in The Downs defence, described in The Examiner as doing “Trojan work”. A super singer, she was mother to Patsy, Tommy, Oliver, Alacoque, Nuala and Colm. Her best friend was Cosy Mac. Once asked in her homeplace at Wooddown on a Sunday by one of her daughters why she was putting on such a big roast, Judy replied: “Sure you’d never know who might call.”

Brigid (Bridie) Purcell (née Gowran) entered Kings College Hospital in London, where she trained as nurse specialising in Diseases of the Eye, Ear and Throat, The Nursing of Sick Children and Gynaecology. During World War II, she enlisted in the Queen Alexandria Army Nursing Corps, where she nursed victims of the Blitz. She served in the North African Campaign. She married Mack Purcell, POW who survived Dieppe, and settled with him in Hamilton, Ontario, where she had three children: Susan, John and Michael. In Canada, Bridie also nursed at Queensway General Hospital for 25 years, where she was head of the Intensive Care Unit. On retirement, she became matron of a nursing home until Mack, whose people came from Tipperary, died. A visitor to Ireland whenever she could, Bridie died on February 1986 leaving her three children and one grandson, Ryan Marshall Campbell, son of Susan.

Jack Gowran was the eldest of the lads. An artisan who never used a power tool, he did everything by hand across many trades. Once, while out of work after falling from a scaffolding in Birr with Alfred’s of Tyrrellspass, Jack, his back in a brace, learned how to bake bread and taught Mamie Gowran (née Lowry) the craft! In time, he was tutor to Alfred’s son, who followed the trade and remembered him as a rigorous and meticulous teacher, never letting a 1/16 of an inch pass uncorrected. He married Doris McNulty in April 1946 and moved to Drumcondra, where their three children Winifred (Wyn), John and Gerry were born. As Wyn recalls, Jack loved to go down to Lizzie’s for some “home air” every year which he said set him up for the winter.

In turn, he looked forward to Jim Ennis coming on summer Sundays (with the sack of early Queens) when the family got the Austin A40 and they’d all walk to Croke Park. His son John remembers his tears for Maggie, Peter and Ned Newman, but could only imagine those shed for his first child. On the night of his son’s departure for Australia, he gave John his most treasured embrace.

Mike Gowran, like his brother Jack, trained in carpentry and Joinery. Their finishing school in those pre-tech days was The Downs School, where the master specialised in maths. Mike went to London in 1939: three times he re-built his house destroyed in the Blitz. He served in the Home Guard, rescuing many in the Blitz and helped them re-build their homes. Mike became general foreman for huge projects including the M1. He married Teresa (Tessie) Farrelly from Oldcastle in 1944; they had two girls, Mary and Ann. Mary remembers him as generous to a fault, with an addiction to The Pools, horse racing and Manchester United.

Peter Gowran was the youngest of the Gowran brothers and farmed the lands his mother, Mary Ann, left him. An artisan too, he was a skilled thatcher far and wide. A keen Gaelic footballer, he played for Westmeath. He married Mamie Lowry from Mahanagh, who came to work as nanny to the kids of Katie Burke.

The night of their homecoming do in the workshop at Knockaville in 1942 was long remembered: an all night lark played for by Pat Faulkner, Johnny Costello, Mick Fox and Agnes McKeown. A noted trickster, Peter once bound a number of sexy, gun-slinging westerns in the covers of The Messenger for a pious neighbour!

His ‘Holy Hour’ was spent in Mary Lynch’s with Tom Newman, Jim Kearney and Jim Reid. In the 50s, Peter supplemented farm income with work at Bord na Mona. Elizabeth remembers his words, and himself, never coming in the door from Mullingar without a little something for each one of them, herself, Mary, Bridie, Anne, Michael and Mamie. Never enough for the kids, “Is that all?” He’d say, “Didn’t I bring ye home myself?”

People like these at our backs, there was more than enough to recall and celebrate at the Gowran re-unions.