Born a year and a half later than James Carr and in the same neighborhood of Ballydonoghue, Lisselton, was writer
Maurice Walsh. I was sitting in the parlor of the Presentation Convent in Castleisland in 1960 when auntie Mona (Sister Clement Carr) somehow got on the topic of local literary figures. She mentioned Walsh as the author of
The Quiet Man. Before I had a chance to pipe up with how much we all enjoyed the John Wayne/Maureen O'Hara movie, auntie Mona added, And it was made into a scandalous film. I was old enough to know when to shut up. I never asked her if she saw the movie, but she wasn't alone in her disapproval of its depiction of such rowdy shenanigans.
The movie came out on
Blu-Ray DVD this past week and it's a revelation. The added brightness, detail, and color heighten enjoyment of the film's familiar antics. Maureen is breathtaking.
The story
changed somewhat as it moved from original short story in the
Saturday Evening Post (which can be read in entirety
here) to the version collected in
an anthology to
John Ford's film.
"Published in The Saturday Evening Post in February 1933, 'The Quiet Man' had as its central character Shawn Kelvin, but when it appeared in Green Rushes two years later, he had been renamed Paddy Bawn Enright. The real person of that name was a man who had worked for John Walsh, Maurice's father. Walsh's inspiration for the story came from two incidents: the first one, 'where a bully refused to pay his sister's fortune at Listowel fair' and the other, a fight between John McElligott (known as 'Quiet Jack') and a cattle dealer who had tried to cheat him, at a fair also in Listowel, in 1914."
Convent Parlor 1960: Patrick, Tom, auntie Mona, Dan; front: Kathy, Patricia
(Click to enlarge)
Have you done genealogical DNA testing?
ReplyDeleteWe are descended from the Walshes of Tullamore, Kerry, Ireland. Our great great great grandparents were Michael Walsh and Johanna McCarthy. Johanna and at least five sons moved to the US in the early 1850's.
y-DNA and atDNA testing suggest that our Michael's brothers include Maurice Walsh (whose children were born in Ballydonoghue) and Edmund Walsh (whose children were born in Tullabeg and Tullamore). And we believe that Maurice's grandchildren include Quiet Man author Maurice Walsh. And Edmund's grandchildren include your Mary (Walsh) Carr. (I'm assuming that Mary's father is Edmund Jr b 1832 in Tullabeg, though 1901 and 1911 censuses would put his year of birth at 1841 or 1839.)
Follow-up to my earlier comment: Various of our family members have DNA tested on www.23andme.com, dna.ancestry.com/, and www.familytreedna.com/products.aspx. And we have an extensive tree on ancestry.com
ReplyDeleteI'm just calculating that if your surmises are correct, I'd be 2nd cousin, twice removed from the Quiet Man author. Would love to hear from you off-line. My email: dtimcarr@gmail.com.
DeleteI emailed you with some info on the descendancies and the DNA tests.
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