Inhabitants of Scattery Island, Shannon Estuary, Co. Clare by Senan Scanlan

http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/genealogy/don_tran/fam_his/scattery/introduction.htm



Inhabitants of Scattery Island, Shannon Estuary, Co. Clare by Senan Scanlan

This excellent book by my friend Senan Scanlan is on the Clarelibrary.ie website and
can be read there.

1 Introduction and Acknowledgements
Scattery Round Tower
Scattery Round Tower


Introduction

This book intends to provide a detailed account of the inhabitants of Scattery Island from the earliest recorded times to the 1940s. Its primary objective is to provide genealogical information on the main inhabitants from the 1840s to the 1940s and this includes all the available memorial inscriptions from the graveyard on the island.

Section two gives an outline account of those inhabitants that settled on the island up to the 1840s, taken from the best available source which includes extracts from a number of the Annals[1].

Section three summarises the information relating to the main inhabitants from the 1840s to the 1940s it outlines the reasons why the island was repopulated in the early 1840s and why its population increased during the famine when the rest of West Clare was in severe decline. The detailed genealogical information on the inhabitants in Appendix 8 is primarily the result of extensive research in Kilrush Parish Registers and the General Register Office, Dublin, including obtaining more than thirty copy certificates for Births, Marriages and Deaths. In addition some dates prior to official registration in 1864 have been estimated from information on Marriage and Death certificates and from the Census for 1901 and 1911 together with data from the memorial inscriptions. The research, which also included examination of some War Office records in The National Archives in London, concentrated on providing where possible all the details for the nineteenth century and only outline details are given for the early years of the twentieth century. Section three also outlines details of land division on the island together with the names of pilots and source details for these are included in Appendix 10. A brief description of Appendix 11 which has pedigree sheets for the main island families is also included.

Section four details the memorial inscriptions extracted from the island graveyard and gives details of the deceased inhabitants that lived on the island and those that lived elsewhere but are buried in this graveyard.

Section five describes aspects of life on the island including details of the main occupations of the islanders; the roles played by the Island School the Coastal Battery and the Lighthouse.

Section six gives details, principally from newspaper extracts of the Western Pilots and section seven gives an outline of Kilrush and Estuary News from c 1840 to c 1900. Section eight contains the main Appendix 8 which details the dates for Births, Marriages and Deaths of the main inhabitants that occupied the island from c 840 to c 940. In addition details of families that temporarily resided on the island for shorter periods during these years are included these being mainly associated with the Coastal Battery and the Lighthouse.

Section nine is Appendix 9 which is a plan of Scattery Graveyard.

Section ten is Appendix 10 and it provides details of pilot names and land division for Scattery Island.

Section eleven is Appendix 11 and contains seven outline Pedigree Sheets for the Main Families of Scattery c 1840 to c 1940.

Section twelve provides a detailed sources list divided into primary and secondary sources.

Acknowledgements
The Database (Appendix I) outlining the details of the main inhabitants after c1840 AD could not have been completed without the assistance and research done by Mick McGrath of Kilrush. In addition Mike Guiney, Glanmire, Cork, David Scanlan, Swords and Warren Buckley, Dundrum, assisted with the memorial inscriptions. Warren also arranged the layout and provided the photographs and cover for this book. Ron Battye, Dublin also provided some photographs and enhanced the map showing the fishing weirs. John Scanlan, Ennis provided valuable guidance. The Staff of the National Library of Ireland, National Archives, Limerick Archives, Dublin City Library and Archive also provided valuable assistance. Thanks to Andrew Scanlan for organising the printing of this book.

This book is dedicated to my late father Sinon, born on the Island in 1911 who encouraged and gave me the initial information and it is hoped that it will be of assistance to others who wish to pursue further research relating to the Island. Finally I would like to thank Mick McGrath and Patrick Scanlan Kilrush and Rachel Scanlan, Dublin who read and corrected the first draft of this book and therefore prevented me from making even more mistakes. Any remaining errors are my responsibility.

Senan Scanlan.
2007

© Copyright 2007, Senan Scanlan

Contact: book@scattery.com