Denis Lynch and Alice Wyatt wedding, July 8, 1914
by Freddie O'Dwyer
First published: September 2015 & revised: November 2019
Additional biographical details by Con Hogan, Tom Humphreys, Finbarr Connolly & Ruairí Lynch
Work in progress with additional research ongoing. Last updated: 18 February 2024.
Additional biographical details by Con Hogan, Tom Humphreys, Finbarr Connolly & Ruairí Lynch
Work in progress with additional research ongoing. Last updated: 18 February 2024.
Among the collection of early twentieth-century wedding photographs at the Lynch ancestral home at Granig today, is that of Denis James Lynch (1886-1973) and Alice Wyatt (1888-1968), which took place on 8th July 1914 at the Church of the Holy Cross, Dundrum, Co Dublin.
According to a notice published two weeks later in the Cork Examiner (25 July), The Advocate & The Tribune, Melbourne (5 September) the celebrants were the Rev T.A. Fitzgerald OFM, assisted by the Rev J.J. Kennedy, Blackrock.
Denis was described as the son of the late Timothy Lynch and Mrs Lynch, Granig House, Kinsale, Co Cork and Alice as the only daughter of the late Herbert Wyatt, Bourke, New South Wales, Australia and Mrs Mary Louisa Wyatt, Rathfarnham, Co Dublin.
Denis was the fourth eldest of the Lynch brothers, step-brother of Diarmuid (b.1878) and full brother of Timothy (b.1883), Daniel (b.1884) and Michael (b.1890), who was his best man. The bridesmaids were his only sister Mary (b.1881), seated to the bride’s left, and Eliza Anne (Lizzie) D’Alton (b.1891), Alice’s first cousin, seated to the best man’s right.
Freddie Dwyer, researched and wrote the original article first published in the September 2015 edition of the 2016 Centenary Newsletter. During the intervening years, further research by a number of contributors including descendants of attendees at this wedding have contributed information which is now incorporated here.
The photograph was taken in the garden of John J. & Alice Kennedy’s home at Monte Vista, Dundrum, Co. Dublin on Wednesday, 8th July, 1914. The Kennedys, who had no children of their own, were recalled as being most hospitable to their D’Alton and Wyatt relatives; three of those in the photograph were listed as living with the Kennedys at Monte Vista in the 1911 census: Mrs Kennedy’s mother, Hanora (née Dillon (c.1819-1917); the bridesmaid Eliza D’Alton (daughter of Mrs Kennedy’s brother Michael O’Brien D’Alton and his wife Ailey, née Fitzgerald); and the bride’s brother Arthur Edgar Wyatt (c.1889-1965), known as Edgar, who is described as an ‘assistant of customs and excise’. He had joined the service that year and probably worked initially in Dublin before later moving to Liverpool.
The Kennedys were originally from North Tipperary and the D’Altons from Tipperary Town, where they were among the leading merchants.
This family group, captured just as Europe was about to erupt in war and Ireland to change utterly show a strictly formal arrangement. Unfortunately, at time of framing of the photograph, no details were made of the attendees. Over a century later, through detailed detective work by Freddie O'Dwyer and contributions by descendants, most of those captured in time have now been identified. This is their story:
According to a notice published two weeks later in the Cork Examiner (25 July), The Advocate & The Tribune, Melbourne (5 September) the celebrants were the Rev T.A. Fitzgerald OFM, assisted by the Rev J.J. Kennedy, Blackrock.
Denis was described as the son of the late Timothy Lynch and Mrs Lynch, Granig House, Kinsale, Co Cork and Alice as the only daughter of the late Herbert Wyatt, Bourke, New South Wales, Australia and Mrs Mary Louisa Wyatt, Rathfarnham, Co Dublin.
Denis was the fourth eldest of the Lynch brothers, step-brother of Diarmuid (b.1878) and full brother of Timothy (b.1883), Daniel (b.1884) and Michael (b.1890), who was his best man. The bridesmaids were his only sister Mary (b.1881), seated to the bride’s left, and Eliza Anne (Lizzie) D’Alton (b.1891), Alice’s first cousin, seated to the best man’s right.
Freddie Dwyer, researched and wrote the original article first published in the September 2015 edition of the 2016 Centenary Newsletter. During the intervening years, further research by a number of contributors including descendants of attendees at this wedding have contributed information which is now incorporated here.
The photograph was taken in the garden of John J. & Alice Kennedy’s home at Monte Vista, Dundrum, Co. Dublin on Wednesday, 8th July, 1914. The Kennedys, who had no children of their own, were recalled as being most hospitable to their D’Alton and Wyatt relatives; three of those in the photograph were listed as living with the Kennedys at Monte Vista in the 1911 census: Mrs Kennedy’s mother, Hanora (née Dillon (c.1819-1917); the bridesmaid Eliza D’Alton (daughter of Mrs Kennedy’s brother Michael O’Brien D’Alton and his wife Ailey, née Fitzgerald); and the bride’s brother Arthur Edgar Wyatt (c.1889-1965), known as Edgar, who is described as an ‘assistant of customs and excise’. He had joined the service that year and probably worked initially in Dublin before later moving to Liverpool.
The Kennedys were originally from North Tipperary and the D’Altons from Tipperary Town, where they were among the leading merchants.
This family group, captured just as Europe was about to erupt in war and Ireland to change utterly show a strictly formal arrangement. Unfortunately, at time of framing of the photograph, no details were made of the attendees. Over a century later, through detailed detective work by Freddie O'Dwyer and contributions by descendants, most of those captured in time have now been identified. This is their story:
Denis Joseph Lynch (1886-1973)
Born in Granig, Tracton, Co. Cork in 1886 and educated locally, Denis, at the time of his marriage to Alice in 1914 lived in Dublin, where he was listed in the 1911 census as resident distiller to the Dublin Whiskey Distillery (D.W.D) on Jones Road, Drumcondra. By his own account (Southern Star, 2 September 1924), Denis had learned his trade with the company, which he joined about twenty years earlier (in March 1905). Denis was not involved in in the 1916 Rising unlike his brothers Diarmuid & Michael but during the War of Independence, their residence and DWD buildings became a 'safe house' for Michael Collins and other members of the underground Irish Government. One of the Dáil meetings of first session of the fledgling government was held in the Lynch residence in the Dublin Whiskey Distillery in 1920. American Prohibition from 1920 had a largely negative effect on Irish distilleries. Denis & Alice moved to Bandon in 1924 to take up managership as chief distiller of the Bandon Distillery and later lived locally at Upton House. Further details on Denis Lynch & his Irish whiskey distillery legacy, click here. |
Alice Wyatt (1888-1968)
Born in the remote Outback town of Bourke, New South Wales, Australia, Alice is described on her wedding certificate as a teacher, resident in Dundrum, Co. Dublin. At that time it was customary that one of the couple had to be resident in the parish, but Alice & Denis's daughter, Brid Duggan recalls that Alice was in fact teaching in England, so the Dundrum domicile was presumably a borrowed one, at the Kennedy residence. The 1911 English census lists Alice and her widowed mother Mary Louisa (c.1849-1937) as residents of a house in Chorlton-cum-Hardy in South Manchester, where Alice was employed as an assistant teacher in government service. It would appear that she remained there after her mother moved back to Dublin c.1913 to a newly built house, 4 St Mary’s Terrace, Rathfarnham, which she occupied for over a decade, up until 1924. Denis is believed to have met Alice through the Kennedys. Alice Kennedy’s nephew Richard F. 'Dick' Dalton being both a friend and a political associate of Diarmuid Lynch in New York. Indeed the Kennedys are also credited with introducing Diarmuid to his future wife Kit Quinn after his return to Ireland from a Gaelic League/IRB mission to America in late 1914. Alice Wyatt’s birthplace, Bourke in north-western New South Wales, on the Darling River, was a particularly arid and somewhat inhospitable sheep-farming area, four hundred miles from Sydney at the very edge of the Outback, only connected by rail in 1885. Her father, Herbert Harvey Wyatt (1855-1901), a Homestead Leasee on a sixteen square mile sheep station named Acton Hill near Tinapagee on the Paroo river, a hundred miles from Bourke, was a member of a long established and distinguished Staffordshire family of yeomen, which can be traced back to Humphrey Wyatt of Weeford, born in 1540. In the mid-eighteenth century the Wyatts branched out into building and architecture, at first locally, but soon they were on the national stage, the most distinguished, if somewhat controversial being James Wyatt, the King’s architect (1746-1813). According to Alice’s second cousin, the journalist and parliamentarian Woodrow Wyatt, Baron Wyatt of Weeford (1918-97), there were twenty-eight architects in all, right down to the late nineteenth century. They were certainly England’s preeminent architectural family. Another second cousin of Alice’s, Robert Elliott Storey Wyatt (1901-95), was captain of the England cricket team in 1933-35. Alice was a direct descendant of James Wyatt’s oldest brother William (1734-80), also an architect, who practised in Staffordshire and the English midlands. William’s great-grandson and Alice’s paternal grandfather was a lawyer turned Anglican clergyman the Rev Arthur Harvey Wyatt (1827-1906), rector of Corse in Gloucestershire, who had a large family and married twice. His two eldest sons, Alice’s father Herbert Harvey and his brother Edgar Arthur (1853-79) appear to have been brought up by their grandparents, Harvey (c.1799-1876) and Jemima Wyatt on their 500 acre farm at Acton Hill, near Barton-under-Needwood, in Staffordshire. Harvey had also succeeded his father, the land surveyor Robert Harvey Wyatt (d. 1836), as local agent to the Anson family, Earls of Lichfield. In due course this position passed to Harvey’s second son, Robert (1835-86), who like Arthur had been trained as a barrister. Edgar, a talented cricketer, died young, in Sussex, while Herbert decided to seek his fortune in Australia. |
Mary Louisa Wyatt (c.1849-1937)
Nee D’Alton. Alice’s mother was the second daughter and one of five surviving children of Richard D’Alton (1814-75), a merchant, political activist and pioneering Gaelic scholar in Tipperary Town and his wife Hanora, née Dillon, from Clonpet, Co Tipperary. Mary Louisa emigrated to Australia in the 1880s, when in her thirties, travelling out to her aunt Bridget (née Dillon), who had emigrated, aged eighteen, in 1849/50, marrying in 1853 a hotelier Richard Feehan of the City Arms in Melbourne, son of Tipperary emigrees. Most of Bridget’s fourteen siblings subsequently followed her to Australia. Richard Feehan had invested in land, including the Tinapagee station, beside the holding being worked by Herbert Wyatt and it was through this connection that Mary Louisa met her future husband around 1885, though her aunt did not initially approve of the engagement (source: www.fanningfamilyhistory.com). Alice was born in 1888 and Edgar in 1889; a third child appears to have died at an early age (1911 English Census). Research established that Walter Herbert was born in 1891 but died in 1892. In 1901 tragedy struck again when Herbert was seriously injured in a farm accident, dying some weeks later at Bourke on 17 August. The family remained in Australia for some time before finally returning to Ireland, presumably to Dublin where Alice completed her education at Loreto Abbey, Rathfarnham and Edgar at Belvedere College. Alice was subsequently enrolled in St Mary’s Teacher Training College in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, probably in 1907, the year of its foundation by the Sacred Heart Order. Mary Louisa died in Glandore, Co Cork on 20 June 1937, at the age of eighty-seven, and was buried in Kilfeacle Cemetery Co Tipperary where her name was added to the D’Alton tomb, a prominent feature in the graveyard erected by her grandfather (Alice’s great-grandfather) Richard Dalton of Tipperary (Town) as ‘a tribute to the memory of his beloved daughter Mary who departed this life March the 12th 1819 aged 18 yrs [and] also his beloved wife Margaret alias Walsh who departed this life 19th January 1821 aged 41 years’. Richard was buried with them when he died a year later in 1822 at the age of forty-seven. These names are inscribed in the limestone top of the rectangular classical tomb. Into the south, west and east faces are inset marble plaques, while the north face, split like the south into two panels was left plain, with a combed limestone cladding. While Mary Louisa was the last D’Alton (the family preferring to use the French or Norman spelling from the mid-nineteenth century) to be buried here, there is another name added beneath hers, that of Walter, the infant child of her brother Michael O’Brien D’Alton and his wife Ailey who had died years earlier in Tipperary Town, in 1899, at the age of two years and ten months. Young Walter had been born at the end of a difficult decade which had seen Michael and Ailey evicted from their home and business in Tipperary. The plaque on the west end of the tomb records the names of Richard and Margaret’s ’s son and Alice’s maternal grandfather, Richard (c.1814-75), the Tipperary flour and coal merchant, who is described as ‘An Fíor Éirionach’ after his Irish language newsletter, and his wife Hanora ‘who died on 23rd February 1917 in her ninety ninth year’. Hanora died at John Kennedy’s home Monte Vista, Dundrum. The two panels on the south side of the tomb are intriguingly inscribed in Latin, presumably composed by Richard himself, and are difficult to read. I am grateful to a local historian, P.J. Merrick, who with some friends and the aid of a torch managed to decipher the wording, which they have also usefully translated. The names are revealed as those of two of Richard and Hanora’s children who died young; Martin, who died at the age of ten months in 1856 and Helen who died at the age of three in 1862. Intriguingly Mary Louisa is described as their second daughter, which suggests that there may have been another young death, perhaps a stillbirth. Another surprise is that the second plaque on the south face commemorates an otherwise unknown priest, Fr John D’Alton, who died in 1868, having ‘discharged his priestly duties both in Ireland and abroad for almost forty years’. He was presumably a close relative, most likely a son of the first Richard who erected the tomb in 1819. |
Hanora (Dillon) D’Alton (c.1819-23 February 1917)
Born in Clonpet, Co. Tipperary, Hanora was one of fourteen siblings, the majority of whom emigrated to Australia in the 1840s. Married Richard D'Alton (1814-75) a merchant in Tipperary c.1853. Mother of Mary Louisa Wyatt, Alice Kennedy, Michael O'Brien D'Alton, Walter F D'Alton & Louis J. D'Alton. Two children died in childhood: Martin aged 10 months in 1856 and Helen aged 3 in 1862. Grandmother to attendees Alice Wyatt, Eliza D'Alton, Edgar Wyatt & Mary Madden. Hanora was resident with her daughter and son-in-law at Monte Vista, Dundrum when she died aged ninety-nine in February, 1917 and buried in Kilfeackle Cemetery, Tipperary. |
Edgar Arthur Wyatt (c.1889-1965)
Alice’s brother. Born in Australia 1889. Described in the 1911 census as an ‘Assistant of Customs and Excise’. He had joined the service that year and probably initially worked in Dublin before moving to Liverpool. The earliest print reference to Edgar Wyatt in Dublin is in 1908, when he attended the funeral in the Pro-Cathedral of another of the Kennedy brothers, Thomas Patrick Kennedy (1864- 1908) who had been in business in London. Kennedy’s obituary described him as an ardent Nationalist and a member of the National Liberal Club (Freeman’s Journal, 9 January 1908). |
John James Kennedy (c.1857- 5 January 1931)
Originally from Clogheraily, in the parish of Loughmore, near Templemore, Co Tipperary, the son of a farmer. Kennedy was employed in Dublin by Arnotts before leaving in 1889 with his colleague Michael McSharry (from Co Leitrim) to establish the gentlemen’s outfitters Kennedy and McSharry, originally located in D’Olier Street. According to Michael McSharry’s grandson, Tony, who advises that there are no McSharrys in the photograph, Kennedy’s forte was on the accountancy side of the business and he also acted as the treasurer to the Faughs, one of Dublin’s oldest GAA clubs, founded in the Phoenix Park in 1885. Kennedy does not seem to have been overtly political; however the fact that the inscription on his grave in Glasnevin is in Irish would suggest that, like his wife Alice, he had a keen interest in the revival of the language. In 2024, a group photo of a Gaelic League meeting in 1900 was discovered and Kennedy is noted as attending. John married Alice D’Alton in her home town of Tipperary in 1893. While he never lived in Tipperary Town, one of his uncles, Michael Kennedy (1819-1907) had previously been resident there, probably employed in the hardware business. Michael married Mary Ryan there in 1859; all five of their children, four boys (including the future Fr J.J. Kennedy (1865-1955), concelebrant of the Lynch-Wyatt wedding) and a girl were born in Tipperary between 1860 and 1868* Michael later moved his family to Templemore** before settling in Dublin in 1887 where he established a brush importing and manufacturing company (which continues in business as M. Kennedy & Sons, suppliers of art materials). John Kennedy remained close to these cousins, three of whom are in the Lynch-Wyatt wedding photograph. Sources: * Tipperary Family History Research ** Conor Kennedy 2015 (Great-Grandson of Michael Kennedy) |
Michael O’Brien D’Alton (c.1855-1929)
A political radical like his father, was then farming in Co Limerick. On the death of his father in 1875, Michael had taken over the business on the Main Street as a miller, chandler, coal and flour merchant. On 13 November 1882, he married in the University Church Dublin, Ailey Mary, youngest daughter of the late Maurice Fitzgerald of Mortalstown, Co Limerick (then living in Larnel Vale, Tuam, Co. Galway). From about 1880, D’Alton spearheaded agitation against Smith-Barry of Fota, Co Cork the landlord of much of Tipperary Town, establishing a Tenants Defence Association as part of the Plan of Campaign. When rents were withheld in 1889, D’Alton was the first of many residents to be evicted, losing his home and £4,000 worth of property for the non-payment of £5.10s as well as being jailed following trial in 1890/91 for agitation. His house was requisitioned as an auxiliary police barracks.
A building scheme to house displaced tenants was commenced with monies raised from sympathisers and the Irish diaspora and two new streets (97 houses in all) and a market house were built on the western outskirts of the town, dubbed New Tipperary, designed by Robert Gill of Nenagh and built by Alderman Meade of Dublin
However, though inaugurated in 1890, the Parnell Split at the end of that year divided D’Alton and his former ally, the local curate Fr David Humphreys (1843-1930), into separate camps, the priest taking control of the project and attempting to evict non-supportive tenants. D’Alton, though remaining on the town commissioners as a Parnellite, ceased his business activities to return to farming. His properties were eventually recovered by his brother Walter, a shrewd businessman, in 1897. He may have spent some time in America during these years.
More details on the Smith-Barry campaign, New Tipperary and the 1890 trials - see here. In 1892, when Eliza was born, their address was recorded as Castlerea (probably Castlecreagh, near Galbally) where they may have been leasing farmland from his associate William Hurley. In both the 1901 & 1911 census (below) they were farming at Garranekeagh, Ballymacshaneboy in Co. Limerick. In 1921, perhaps with the aid of family and supporters, Michael acquired Caherline House on 179 acres in the same county where he died in 1929. His grave in Glasnevin, where Ailey was buried alongside him in 1948, is part of a double plot, the other half being the resting place of John and Alice Kennedy. |
Ailey Mary (Fitzgerald) D'Alton (c.1855-1948)
Youngest daughter of Maurice Fitzgerald (1804-78) and Maria Teresa Gubbins (1810-73) of Mortalstown, Co Limerick (then living in Tuam) At the age of 27, Ailey married Michael O'Brien D'Alton on 13 November 1882. Seven children followed between 1883-1897: Mary 1883 - Richard Francis 1886-1965 Michael 17 Aug 1888 - William 1890- Married Ethel D'Alton Elizabeth 'Eliza' 1892- Maurice 1893-1932 Walter 1897-1899. Tragically, died of measles pneumonia as an infant. Ailey died aged 93 on 17th May 1948 at The Bungalow, Ballygurteen, Bansha, Co. Tipperary. |
Louis D'Alton (1866-1945)
Louis is pictured with his fiancee Bridget Hannon, daughter of another Tipperary merchant, William Hannon of Church Street. Louis was a corn and coal merchant in the town. Louis and Bridget were married in the Church of the Sacred Heart, Donnybrook, with Edgar Wyatt as best man. The Wedding Breakfast followed at Monte Vista hosted by the Kennedys. Their wedding photograph is below and accompanying story is available here. When P.J. Moloney retired from politics in 1923, Louis succeeded him in the 4th Dail for the local constituency as a Cummann na nGaedheal TD from 1923-27 (details below). Far from being a silent member of the Dail, Louis was reasonably active in the Oireachtas debates as can be noted in the records of the Oireachtas. For a listing of his speeches while a TD - click here Louis did not contest the June 1927 election. Louis died 13 January 1945 aged 82. |
Bridget 'Birdie' Hannon
The daughter of John Hannon and Ellen O'Brien from Limerick. (When John Hannon died, Ellen married a second time to PJ Moloney a chemist from Tipperary Town and Bridget or "Birdie" as she was known was raised in the town as part of PJ and Ellen's second family. PJ was a Sinn Fein TD in the first Dail Eireann. He retired from politics in 1923 and his stepson in law Louis D'Alton succeeded him in the Dail. Louis and Bridget were married in September 1916. Bridget attended Denis and Alice’s fiftieth wedding anniversary celebrations at Upton in 1964 (Cork Examiner, 19 July 1964 & see home movie excerpt at end of article) (For more information on the Hannon & Moloney families - click here) |
Mary (Hurley) D'Alton (1869- 17 September 1964)
Daughter of William Hurley, a Tipperary butter merchant and political supporter of Michael. Finbarr Connolly, a great-great Grandnephew of Ailey O'Brien recalled in November 2019 that "Mary's mother was Eliza Ann Fitzgerald... a sister of Ailey (Fitzgerald) O'Brien D'Alton. So the wives of Michael and Walter D'Alton were aunt and niece. Their brother was Maurice Fitzgerald (1840-1895) of Mortalstown, Co Limerick; my great-great grandfather. Another brother was Dr. James G Fitzgerald, the first Member of Parliament to call to the home of Charles S Parnell following his death in 1891. Dr. James G Fitzgerald was quite a colourful character; after failing to be re-elected in 1895 he proceeded to gazump the local estate from under the noses of his niece and her in-laws.... previously he had been presented with a gold watch by Parnell which subsequently passed on to more favoured relatives." Details on Dr. James Fitzgerald here. |
Louis O'Reilly (1886-1963)
Louis was one of thirteen children of John O’Reilly, a successful cardboard box manufacturer, of Kenilworth Square, Rathmines. The connection is currently unknown but perhaps the fact that John O’Reilly filled out the family's 1911 census form in Irish may point to a connection with the Kennedys. |
Annie 'Nan' (Ryan) Nunan. (1895-1983)
Five years after the photograph, Nan Ryan, her future husband Sean Nunan, and Kathleen O’Connell were part of Eamon de Valera’s support team during his American fund-raising tour in 1919-20. A major split occurred between de Valera’s group and the Friends of Irish Freedom (of which Diarmuid Lynch had been elected secretary) in 1920. While Nunan (1890- 1981) had fought alongside Diarmuid in the GPO in 1916, they became political adversaries, though ironically Nunan, who had adopted the pro-Treaty side, was to fall out of political favour himself. Dismissed from the Irish civil service, he returned to New York in 1923 where he and Nan were married. He was reinstated under the Fianna Fáil government and served as Ireland's ambassador to Washington in 1947-50. |
Fr Tom Aloysius Fitzgerald (1862-1921)
The chief celebrant. A native of Callan, Co Kilkenny, then attached to the Franciscan community at Merchant’s Quay, Dublin. He was a well-known public figure who can best be described as a polymath. While Fr Kennedy was undoubtedly chosen to officiate at the wedding ceremony because he was a cousin of John Kennedy’s, Fr Tom Fitzgerald was almost certainly picked because he had spent almost twenty years in Australia, being probably known to the bride’s mother and extended family when he had been the Franciscan provincial, based in Waverley in the eastern suburbs of Sydney. "Fr Fitzgerald first came to Sydney in 1886 as part of the second group of Franciscans to arrive from Ireland. Known as an exceptionally gifted man, he was remembered as a brilliant public speaker, a linguist, a writer of stories and books, and for his talent for friendships, which included Cardinal Moran and a number of up-and-coming artists." He was recalled to Ireland and left Australia in 1903 to travel to Rome and on-wards to the Franciscans in Dublin. A master of several European languages, he was also a Gaelic revivalist and an ardent Nationalist of what the Irish Independent termed the "progressive variety"; from that perspective he would have no doubt met with the approval of both the bride and groom’s families. In the years after his return to Ireland, Fr Fitzgerald developed a parallel career as an author, writing "Stepping Stones to Gaeldom" in 1910, as well as short stories and popular novels on Irish country life. His political connections are not well chronicled but he translated into English Padraic Pearse’s book of Gaelic short stories "An Mháthair agus Scéaglta Eile", which had been published in January 1916, just before the Easter Rising. He was a supporter of Countess Markievicz in the 1918 elections. After his return to Australia in 1920 his health declined and he died in Sydney in May 1921 aged 59. |
Fr. J.J. Kennedy (1865-1955)
The Lynch-Wyatt wedding co-concelebrant. A nephew of John James Kennedy, he was ordained in Clonliffe in 1891 and at the time of this wedding photograph was secretary to the Society for the Propagation of the Faith (which supported the Roman Catholic Missions overseas). His Blackrock residency was as chaplain to the Carmelite convent there.* Fr Kennedy was appointed parish priest of Enniskerry, Co Wicklow in 1926 and was made a canon in 1941. He died at the age of 90 in 1955. Source: * Noelle Dowling, Dublin Diocesan Archivist 2015 |
Richard F. ‘Dick’ D’Alton (30 May 1886-1965)
Son of Michael O'Brien D'Alton and Ailey Fitzgerald, Dick was not present at the wedding. He had emigrated c.1907 to the United States where he started work with the giant New York Architectural Terracotta Works on Long Island City's Vernon Boulevard adjacent the Queensboro Bridge. Employed initially as an assistant to the President, Dick studied law at NYU, graduating with LL.B in 1911 and then admitted to the New York Bar. Remaining with the company for the next forty years, he represented the firm in legal matters in addition to the position of Treasurer and from 1919 as President. From c. 1930, he owned and operated the company. The New York Architectural Terracotta Works company was founded in 1892 and became the sole supplier of terracotta products to such buildings as Carnegie Hall and the Ansonia Hotel, specialising in both functional and highly ornate art-deco works. In old photos, the little building stands in front of a large factory and next to a yard for storing terra-cotta sculpture. (In the background, the cantilever Queensboro Bridge is half built. see below) In his 1891 book Terra-Cotta in Architecture, Walter Geer described the factory in detail. "The first story contains the engine, boilers, machinery for preparing clay, and the clay, coal and grit pits." This machinery included washer and slip tanks, crushers and mill stones, as well as some items known as pug mills. There were 12 kilns. The clay came from New Jersey where it was mined, seasoned, and delivered to the factory, where it was then crushed, ground, washed, and mixed with grit before being moulded and sculpted. From there, the terra cotta was shipped off to adorn some of the most beautiful buildings in the city. At peak in 1900-1930, the company was a large employer in the area and operated fully until the early 1930's when the Great Depression and demand (and fashion) for terracotta waned as architectural work became predominantly concrete & steel. Production gradually reduced from the late 1930's but continued manufacture of terra cotta ornaments for use in New York City Parks as the Eastern Terra Cotta Company, in 1950 it began to serve as a sorting centre for plastic waste and the bailing of waste paper, and finally- in something curiously named “electronics operations”. Dalton used the building for his personal offices until he died in 1965, and his heirs sold the property to Citibank. Spared demolition in 1976, Terra-Cotta House was retained when the rest of the site was obliterated by a wrecking crew. Citibank planned to redevelop the area, but with an architectural protection order attached (details here), did little other than simply board it up and forget about it. In 1987, Christopher Gray described it in the NY Times as "a burnt brown riot of pressed and shaped brick, chimneys with spiral designs, stepped gables and round-bottomed roof tiles... The entire building is a rich symphony of hard-burnt brown, cream and umber." However, it remained boarded up and derelict until c. 2015 when it was renovated by new owners, Silvercup Studios who planned to build a studio on the lot behind the building and restore the Vernon Boulevard landmark. Plans stalled after the 2008 economic downturn. The building remains vacant today. Dick married Mary Joseph Ryan (1885-1969) and lived for a time at 722 Coster Street, The Bronx. Their children: Richard J 1912-1961 (married Irene Cecilia Smith 1912-1992) James Ryan 1918-1969 (married Mary E.K.Dalton 1916-1993) Margaret D 1919-1985 (married Richard J. Morris 1919-1985) Politically, Dick was heavily involved with Irish affairs through the Gaelic League, Clann na Gael and The Friends of Irish Freedom from 1900 to the 1950s. Through these organisations, Dick was a close friend and political associate of Diarmuid Lynch and Judge Daniel F. Cohalan. Dick passed away in 1965 and Mary in 1969. Both are interred in Holy Mount Cemetery, Westchester County, New York. |
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Below are just three wedding guests that remain unidentified over a century on.
Perhaps you recognise them as a distant relative?
If so, do get in contact and let me know and perhaps their life story can be added to this page or maybe you have additional information, photos etc for the identified guests above, then do share it. The email contact tab is on the upper right-hand-side of all of the site pages.
Perhaps you recognise them as a distant relative?
If so, do get in contact and let me know and perhaps their life story can be added to this page or maybe you have additional information, photos etc for the identified guests above, then do share it. The email contact tab is on the upper right-hand-side of all of the site pages.
#1 - Unknown. Perhaps the Parish Priest of Dundrum RC Parish?
#2 - Unknown. Believed to be either Michael or William D'Alton but unconfirmed to date.
#3 - Unknown. Believed to be either Michael or William D'Alton but unconfirmed to date.
July 2020: Thanks to Tom Humphrey's contribution of a 1916 photograph of a further wedding at Monte Vista, Dundrum, (that of Louis D'Alton and Bridget 'Birdie' Hannon who also appear here), Michael O'Brien D'Alton, Mary (Mackey) D'Alton & Elizabeth Kenny were positively identified from this list of unidentified attendees. Their story is here.
#2 - Unknown. Believed to be either Michael or William D'Alton but unconfirmed to date.
#3 - Unknown. Believed to be either Michael or William D'Alton but unconfirmed to date.
July 2020: Thanks to Tom Humphrey's contribution of a 1916 photograph of a further wedding at Monte Vista, Dundrum, (that of Louis D'Alton and Bridget 'Birdie' Hannon who also appear here), Michael O'Brien D'Alton, Mary (Mackey) D'Alton & Elizabeth Kenny were positively identified from this list of unidentified attendees. Their story is here.
Below: Monte Vista, Dundrum courtesy of Google Maps, 2019 & Tom Humpreys
The Wyatt & Dillon family experiences in Australia over thirty years between 1877 and 1907 is being currently researched by Ruairí Lynch and will be uploaded when completed later in 2020.
These three decades were a dramatic & heady period, not only for the Wyatt family on a large, remote sheep station in Outback north-western New South Wales, but also for an emerging Australian nation. The 1880's and early 90's saw an economic boom in trade between Britain & the Australian states but much was lost in the financial crash of the mid 1890s. The resulting economic depression and extended drought decimated agriculture and affected much of colonial Australian society. This economic downturn combined with the loss of husband & father in 1901 eventually was to force the Wyatts to leave their sixteen square mile sheep station and return to just as an uncertain future in Ireland. |
Ongoing research with the Australian National and New South Wales State Archives has produced a wealth of new information on the Wyatts & Dillons. This information provides some insight and adds to what little we knew so far of life in the remote NSW outback during the late Victorian and Edwardian era. From boom to bust and tragedy in a harsh, unforgiving climate, this is the brief story of two generations of Irish emigrants in the 1880's.
A link to the article will appear here when uploaded. (research still underway - August 2020)
As ever, any additional family details are welcome so get in touch... the email tab is on the upper right-hand-side of each page.
A link to the article will appear here when uploaded. (research still underway - August 2020)
As ever, any additional family details are welcome so get in touch... the email tab is on the upper right-hand-side of each page.
Denis and Alice celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary in July 1964.
Then resident at Upton House, Garryhankard (near Crossbarry) Co. Cork, two friends are noted as having been guests at both the Lynch-Wyatt wedding in 1914 and the fiftieth anniversary celebrations. The 19 July 1964 Cork Examiner article listed them as Mrs Molly O’Reilly and Mrs Sean Nunan (Annie Ryan).
Fortunately, there is some archive cine-film to hand of the event made by Denis's nephew (and this site's producer's father), Diarmuid. It's just over 2 minutes long, no sound and a little grainy due to age (below - click to view)
Then resident at Upton House, Garryhankard (near Crossbarry) Co. Cork, two friends are noted as having been guests at both the Lynch-Wyatt wedding in 1914 and the fiftieth anniversary celebrations. The 19 July 1964 Cork Examiner article listed them as Mrs Molly O’Reilly and Mrs Sean Nunan (Annie Ryan).
Fortunately, there is some archive cine-film to hand of the event made by Denis's nephew (and this site's producer's father), Diarmuid. It's just over 2 minutes long, no sound and a little grainy due to age (below - click to view)
Alice passed away in 1968, Denis in 1971.
The original 2015 article was researched and written by Freddie O'Dwyer:
Thanks too to the following contributors who have added information since Freddie's article originally ran in September 2015:
Can you add to the story so far? Then get in contact! Email tab on upper right hand side. Just click the logo, complete and send.
Click image below to view the original article in the September 2015 Newsletter.
Archive Editions of the Newsletter are available here.
- Tom Humphreys and Con Hogan, P.J. Moloney's great grandsons for biographical details in 2019 & 2020 on Bridget Hannon and P.J.Moloney. Details of Moloney's 1916 prison journal here and 1916 wedding of Bridget & Louis (to be uploaded shortly)
- Finbarr Connolly - a great-great Grandnephew of Ailey Fitzgerald O'Brien who contributed biographical and documentary detail.
- Additional detail for the revised article, November 2019 with special thanks to the following: Nick Carr of Scouting New York for unique photographs of the NY Architectural Terracotta building & Vanishing New York for background & updates on the building.
Can you add to the story so far? Then get in contact! Email tab on upper right hand side. Just click the logo, complete and send.
Click image below to view the original article in the September 2015 Newsletter.
Archive Editions of the Newsletter are available here.
Just over two years later, in September 1916, another wedding reception was held in Monte Vista, Dundrum.
This was of Louis D'Alton and Bridget 'Birdie' D'Alton and also features many of the guests who attended the Lynch-Wyatt wedding in 1914. This was to be an interesting cross section of Irish nationalist personalities both past, present and soon to be future in a political landscape changed dramatically by the World War and Easter Rising of 1916. Attendees included P.J.Moloney (the Bride's step-father) who had just been released from prison following involvement in the Rising and was later to feature prominently in Irish political circles. His sons and daughter were all to be actively involved in the Irish Independence movement, one losing his life in action against British forces in 1921. The surviving three were later to play major roles with Anti-Treaty forces. In contrast, another family member served in the British army and Royal Air Force before returning to become part of the fledgling Irish Free State Air Force.
Link to the article page will be uploaded when complete.
Thanks to Tom Humphreys, great-grandson of P.J.Moloney for this photograph and additional biographical information which has helped identify a number of guests at the Lynch-Wyatt reception.
Details of the Moloney-Hannon contribution to Irish Independence is available here.
This was of Louis D'Alton and Bridget 'Birdie' D'Alton and also features many of the guests who attended the Lynch-Wyatt wedding in 1914. This was to be an interesting cross section of Irish nationalist personalities both past, present and soon to be future in a political landscape changed dramatically by the World War and Easter Rising of 1916. Attendees included P.J.Moloney (the Bride's step-father) who had just been released from prison following involvement in the Rising and was later to feature prominently in Irish political circles. His sons and daughter were all to be actively involved in the Irish Independence movement, one losing his life in action against British forces in 1921. The surviving three were later to play major roles with Anti-Treaty forces. In contrast, another family member served in the British army and Royal Air Force before returning to become part of the fledgling Irish Free State Air Force.
Link to the article page will be uploaded when complete.
Thanks to Tom Humphreys, great-grandson of P.J.Moloney for this photograph and additional biographical information which has helped identify a number of guests at the Lynch-Wyatt reception.
Details of the Moloney-Hannon contribution to Irish Independence is available here.
Source Material
1: Groom - Denis Lynch
2: Bride - Alice Wyatt
3: Mary Lynch - Bridesmaid. Sister to Denis Lynch, Michael Lynch (12)
4: Mary Louisa Wyatt - bride's mother
5: Hanora D'Alton - mother to Mary Louisa (4) & Alice Kennedy (6) and Grandmother of the Bride.
6: Alice Kennedy (nee D'Alton). Wife of John Kennedy (26), sister to Mary Louisa (4) and Aunt of the Bride
7: Bridget Hannon - Fiancee to Louis D'Alton (8)
8: Louis D'Alton
9: Molly O'Reilly
10: Unknown. Believed to be a member of the Roman Catholic Clergy of the Dundrum Parish.
11: Annie Nan Ryan - future wife of Sean Nunan (associate of de Valera in the United States 1920 & later Ambassador to the US.
12: Michael Lynch - Best Man
13: Eliza D'Alton - Bridesmaid.
14: Mary Madden - daughter of Ailey D'Alton & married to Dr. Matthew John Madden (30)
15: Ailey (Fitzgerald/O'Brien) D'Alton. Mother of Mary (14) & Eliza (13)
16: Mary (Mackey) D'Alton, wife of Maurice D'Alton.
17: James Kenneth Kennedy
18: Edgar Wyatt, youngest child of Mary Louisa Wyatt & brother of the Bride.
19: Louis O'Reilly
20: Mary (Hurley) D'Alton. Married to Walter (21). Her mother was Eliza Ann Fitzgerald, a sister of Ailey (15)
21: Walter D'Alton. Married to Mary (20)
22: Unknown but believed to be a son of Michael O'Brien D'Alton and Ailey Fitzgerald - either Michael or William D'Alton
23: Fr. J.J.Kennedy - Con-celebrant
24: Michael O'Brien D'Alton (identified July 2020 from a 1916 wedding photograph contributed by Tom Humphreys)
25: Thomas Kennedy
26: John J. Kennedy - married to Alice Kennedy (6)
27: Unknown but believed to be either Michael or William D'Alton.
28: Margaret Lynch, mother of the Groom, Best Man and Bridesmaid.
29: Fr. T.A. Fitzgerald - Chief Celebrant
30: Dr. Matthew John Madden - married to Mary Madden (14)
31: Maurice (Dalton) - son of Ailey & Michael o'Brien D'Alton.
32: Elizabeth Kenny (identified July 2020 from a 1916 wedding photograph contributed by Tom Humphreys)
If you are able to identify any of the unknown's above or can add additional biographical detail, please get in touch! (email link top right hand of every page)
2: Bride - Alice Wyatt
3: Mary Lynch - Bridesmaid. Sister to Denis Lynch, Michael Lynch (12)
4: Mary Louisa Wyatt - bride's mother
5: Hanora D'Alton - mother to Mary Louisa (4) & Alice Kennedy (6) and Grandmother of the Bride.
6: Alice Kennedy (nee D'Alton). Wife of John Kennedy (26), sister to Mary Louisa (4) and Aunt of the Bride
7: Bridget Hannon - Fiancee to Louis D'Alton (8)
8: Louis D'Alton
9: Molly O'Reilly
10: Unknown. Believed to be a member of the Roman Catholic Clergy of the Dundrum Parish.
11: Annie Nan Ryan - future wife of Sean Nunan (associate of de Valera in the United States 1920 & later Ambassador to the US.
12: Michael Lynch - Best Man
13: Eliza D'Alton - Bridesmaid.
14: Mary Madden - daughter of Ailey D'Alton & married to Dr. Matthew John Madden (30)
15: Ailey (Fitzgerald/O'Brien) D'Alton. Mother of Mary (14) & Eliza (13)
16: Mary (Mackey) D'Alton, wife of Maurice D'Alton.
17: James Kenneth Kennedy
18: Edgar Wyatt, youngest child of Mary Louisa Wyatt & brother of the Bride.
19: Louis O'Reilly
20: Mary (Hurley) D'Alton. Married to Walter (21). Her mother was Eliza Ann Fitzgerald, a sister of Ailey (15)
21: Walter D'Alton. Married to Mary (20)
22: Unknown but believed to be a son of Michael O'Brien D'Alton and Ailey Fitzgerald - either Michael or William D'Alton
23: Fr. J.J.Kennedy - Con-celebrant
24: Michael O'Brien D'Alton (identified July 2020 from a 1916 wedding photograph contributed by Tom Humphreys)
25: Thomas Kennedy
26: John J. Kennedy - married to Alice Kennedy (6)
27: Unknown but believed to be either Michael or William D'Alton.
28: Margaret Lynch, mother of the Groom, Best Man and Bridesmaid.
29: Fr. T.A. Fitzgerald - Chief Celebrant
30: Dr. Matthew John Madden - married to Mary Madden (14)
31: Maurice (Dalton) - son of Ailey & Michael o'Brien D'Alton.
32: Elizabeth Kenny (identified July 2020 from a 1916 wedding photograph contributed by Tom Humphreys)
If you are able to identify any of the unknown's above or can add additional biographical detail, please get in touch! (email link top right hand of every page)