Tá long nua taighde le h-ainmniú in ómós don laoch Antartach, Tom Crean. The vessel will also be utilised in servicing the Irish weather buoy network and will provide very important training for third-level students of marine science and other disciplines. RTE,ie
Tom Crean, famous Antarctic explorer, was born at home on the family farm at Gortacurrane, Annascaul on 25th February 1877 as per the Civil Registration of his birth. His birth was not registered until 11th March at Superintendent Register’s Office in Dingle. Although it was compulsory to register all births from 1864 onwards, not all births were recorded, particularly in the early years and some were recorded a number of months later. In the case of Annascaul births, it would have been a day’s trek to Dingle over bad unmade roads to get to the registration office, but all of the Crean children have been registered.
While the 25th February is recorded on the Civil Registration, he was baptised in Annascaul on 16th February 1877! It is obvious that he could not have been baptised before he was born, so we would have to assume that the late recording of his birth to the Civil authorities was in order to be inside the compulsory time limit to register a birth. Added to that, in the re-worked baptismal register in Annascaul, Tom is recorded as ‘Joanna’ in error.
Tom Crean was the seventh child of Patrick Crean and Catherine (Kate) Courtney.
Is it likely any of the old Doon church in Ballybunion records will ever be located? There are none to be found at the later St Johns church in Ballybunion.
Thank You.
Loraine –
I too am looking for records from Ballybunion as my maternal grandmother (Ellen Walsh) was raised there. (Fortunately she was born in Listowel so did find her birth records). There are a few books written about Ballybunion written by the local historian, Danny Houlihan (dannypiper761@gmail.com). A few years back during a visit I was fortunate to have him spend a couple of days touring a number of family sites. You may want to reach out to him to see if he has any insights. Good luck and if you have any leads I’d appreciate your advise as well.