I suppose we all have a skeleton in our closet, if not our own personal specimen at least one in our family history which rattles from time to time as it tries to get out.
My father was a great one for maintaining the family records (for which I will be forever grateful) and these records go back quite a few generations.
There are a few good men and women in the same tree but there is also one definite skeleton.
William Martin Murphy.
Quite a lot of people will have a notion that his name sounds familiar.
His chief claim to infamy was his part in the Lockout in Dublin in 1913.
I had better get his relationship to my self out of the way quickly.
It isn’t THAT close.
His father would have been my Great Great Great Grandfather.
Or ( put it another way) he was a first cousin of my Great Grandmother Claire Dwyer, (nee Dowling.)
She would have been the first wife of my Great Grandfather Walter who features in my piece Another Wedding.
His technical relationship to me (and I apologise for this in advance) would have been a first cousin three times removed.
It’s a relief to get that out of the way.
William Martin Murphy, (and there is a portrait of him by William Orpen in the Dublin Chamber of Commerce which I will trace) seems to have spent his life losing friends and being a bad influence on people.
On the plus side he founded the Irish Independent, and seems to have organised most of the railways in Ireland.
It was however with his ownership of the Dublin tramway system that he came head to head with Larkin, and thus entered the history books as the man who turned the key of the great Lockout.
There is an excellent essay on the man written by Dr Andy Bielenberg here and he mentions a biography which I am trying to trace.
Mind you William Martin Murphy had other claims to infamy as well as the lockout.
Being a devout Catholic he was instrumental in blackening Parnell’s name when the affair with Kitty O’ Shea was exposed.
He opposed Yates vigorously and indeed probably successfully in Yates efforts to find a suitible place to house the Lane Bequest.
(As a result that legecy is still floundering in the middle of the Irish Sea)
In the 1950s, Strauss described him as `perhaps the most sinister Irish figure of his generation’
The piece on him by Dr Bielenberg is fascinating.
There is no doubt that he exploited and underpaid many of his workers and was, in terms of art, a phillistine but, as well as organising Ireland’s train network system he founded many industries which still stand today.
He was,by his own lights, a nationalist and refused a peerage from Queen Victoria at one stage in his career.
The final piece of information I have about him was gathered only last year.
It appears that Samuel Beckett, carried a candle for a beautiful young girl for many years.as Yates did for Maud Gonne.
This girl, Eva Murphy, was also in love with Samuel while he was a student.
She was Catholic, Beckett was Protestant .
Her father would not hear of the alliance, and separated the young lovers.
Knowles in his recent biography of Beckett claims that the young Samuel was heart broken.
Who knows how this may have affected his future writings.
The girls father was, of course, William Martin Murphy.
Comments
marie nangle
on November 14, 2007I had never heard of William Martin Murphy until last night, and was fascinated with the story, then this morning as I navigate your website as I do each Wed, for cookery tips etc. I again came across him. There was a Irish History programme on RTE 1 last night 10 30, which included all about William Martin Murphy and his contribution to Irish History, how he is written out of the history books, despite the fact that he did wonderful work, as well as making some bad calls in certain situations. I hope there will be a repeat of the programme, as I was only home for half of it.
Linda
on May 4, 2009Hi. I have just found this. My late husband was a great grandson of William Martin Murphy. I have a copy of the family tree created by William Lombard Murphy – one of WMM’s sons – in the early 1940s. It shows the Dwyer connection and some of their descendants. Indeed the tree goes back to William Murphy 1785-1826 and his wife Mary Downey 1781-1854. Unfortunately it gives no references so nothing can be double checkd! The preamble relates how Mary Murphy née Downey told her grandson, a very young WMM, how she remembered seeing, when young herself, the French fleet in Bantry Bay.
The Eva Murphy you mention was know to my husband as “Great Aunt Eva” – and she had a place down near Bantry as well as Dartry.
The book you mention about WWM is :-
MORRISSEY, Thomas (1997) William Martin Murphy. Dublin, Historical Association of Ireland & Dundalgan Press Ltd. ISBN 0-85221-132-5. I bought it from Amazon.co.uk recently.
Yes, I agree the Bielenberg article is very good. he has also written an excellent history of Locke’s Distillery.
Patricia
on November 24, 2010Linda, I too am a great grandaughter of WMM. My father, Edward Murphy remained on in the family business until the mid 1970’s when Tony O’Reilly took over. The Orpen painting of WMM used to hang in our hallway for as long as I can remember and the familiar face and story of WMM has been both an inspiration and a source of curiosity to me. Great Aunt Eva was indeed ‘great’. Baroness no less. We still have some scraps of our family history and it is great to see there is also some public interest in the great man.
Martin
on November 25, 2010Great to be contacted by so many (more from Australia by email) distant relations. He was indeed a mover if not always someone who I agreed with.
Hiya cousins !
David
on July 30, 2011Came across this when searching for info on WMM as his grandson (also called WMM) briefly lived in Earlscliffe house (where I currently live) in 1945. I have been in touch with the grandson’s family (or should I say they contacted me after reading about him on my webpages). If any other relative of WMM wants to contact them please let me know. David
Linda Eccles
on October 17, 2011I have commented here previously. I see various descendents of WMM have also commented here. I am now trying to fit citations to the WLM family tree. So I would be very pleased to hear from anyone who has more detailed information.
Linda Eccles
on October 17, 2011I have commented here previously. I see various descendents of WMM have also commented here. I am now trying to fit citations to the WLM family tree. So I would be very pleased to hear from anyone who has more detailed information.
Gillie
on August 31, 2013I am a great great grand daughter of William Martin Mirphy. Love him or hate him, he was a great man who did I
To for Ireland. I myself am proud to be one of his descendants.
Gillie
on August 31, 2013Sorry, note should have said he was a great man who did a lot for Ireland.
The comments are closed.