Shivaun's Family Tree Website

Keating family

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 Part 2: Honoria Keating (c1846 - ?)

Early life and marriage to Patrick Lonergan

It is most likely Honoria (Norah) Keating was the daughter of John Keating (c1799 - 1891) and Honora 'Norry' Leahy (c1809 - 1869) although no baptism record has been found so far to confirm Honoria's mother. She was often known as 'Norah' and grew up in Blackcastle Townland, Two-Mile-Borris. According to the 1901 Irish Census, Norah was able to read and write. It is known that there had been a National School in Two-Mile-Borris since 1846 and 'hedge schools' had existed in the area, providing a literal and figurative 'rough' education (hedge schools were usually located outdoors and the poorly qualified teachers tended to focused on reading English). The education Honoria received from the local National School was somewhat better: rote-learning of the 'Three Rs' of reading, writing and arithmetic (although sometimes the girls were not taught much of the latter), some geography, and agriculture for the boys and needlework for the girls. Education was not compulsory (that occurred in 1892 for all children aged six to fourteen) and children usually remained at school until they had learned to read which was considered more important than being able to write. Their texts were heavily British-centric and there was no place for Irish history and culture to be taught. [1]

Norah was a Roman Catholic and worked as a dressmaker before she married labourer Patrick Lonergan (c1851 - 1901) in Moycarkey Parish, 13 January 1870. They were known to be living in the Two-Mile-Borris area after their marriage and by 1875, they were living in Blackcastle with Norah's widowed father. Family lore says they had thirteen children, though Norah stated on the 1911 census that she had had eight children: John, Patrick, James, Mary, Honora, William, Catherine (Kate) and Thomas (more information about them appears in the Lonergan section). After her father's death, Norah and her family continued living in the same house which was still being rented from neighbour Daniel Maher - an arrangement that had endured over fifty years!

Norah described herself in the 1901 Irish Census as a 'farmer's wife'. Sadly Patrick died later that year. Norah went to live in nearby Rathmanna, possibly with her widowed eldest daughter Mary. When Mary died in 1908, Norah looked after her two grandsons Tom and Pat/Paddy Gleeson and another grandson, Pat/Paddy Lonergan. 

On the 1911 Irish Census, Honoria claimed to be 70, although she was probably 65 at the time. Her age might have been altered so that she could be eligible to receive a pension. The Old Age Pensions Act 1908 stipulated people could receive a pension from the state if they were 70, had an annual income less than £31 10s (about £1,800), and had a good character. Honoria would not have had a birth certifcate to prove her age but officials could search the census records of 1841 and 1851 for evidence of people's age. [2] It is not known when Honoria died. [3]

Footnotes

[1] Two-Mile-Borris National School website (www.scoilmochaomhog.com); Queen's University Belfast Irish education website (www.qub.ac.uk/sites/irishhistorylive/IrishHistoryResources/Shortarticlesandencyclopaediaentries/Encyclopaedia/LengthyEntries/Education/#d.en.419768); www.encyclopedia.com/international/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/education-primary-public-education-national-schools-1831

[2] Pension information from www.census.nationalarchives.ie

[3] Cashel diocese baptismal and marriage records courtesy of Tipperary Family History Research centre (http://www.tfhr.org); Irish civil birth, marriage, death records, Irish baptism records (www.rootsireland.ie); Ireland Census records, civil birth, marriage, death records, Irish baptism records, Griffith’s Valuation 1847-1864 (Ancestry.co.uk); Census of Ireland 1901 and 1911 (www.census.nationalarchives.ie)