Recollections of Noel Tobin of early Tobin Family Life

This account of Noel’s was found in a file labelled Tobin Family History. It was not dated, but was in Noel’s own handwriting and is transcribed as such. It has been provided by Libby Tobin via Noel’s son Peter Tobin [1941-2000] (Footnote corrections / comments are by Denise Shine).

Dad was the youngest of 8¹ children. As far as I know, 2 brothers went to Dublin², 1 sister to New York, Julia, who married a Clavin. Another sister followed Thomas (Dad) to Australia, where after a short interval she left dad and went to Queensland³. He received a letter from her asking for money. After he replied (whether he sent the money or not, I do not know) he never heard from her again. [Told to Noel by his father]

Their home was outside Birr – a Parsons Town⁴ – as it was known then. One interesting item is that Lord Gort’s grandfather was the landlord⁵ – and I believe dad went down on his knees to thank God for the British disaster at Dunkirk.

Julia died in the late 30s⁶. I don’t know when ___ died but John the other who went to Dublin, never married⁷, became an insurance agent and died the – leaving his entire estate to the church, some 3,000.00 pounds. I’m not sure whether he left it to a priest personally, but I can remember Dad reading over to Mum (Alice O’Dowd) what he thought of the priest for taking it away from kinsmen. I remember Mum saying it was Dad’s own fault for as far as she could recollect dad had never written a line to his brother. The name of the priest was Daly. Dad never inherited anything.

My first recollection of my father was in Ferrars St. I used to run across the road to meet him from work. That would place his employment at Sharps, a big timber yard for I can remember walking home with him from there, pausing for a few moments at a hotel in a street on the north side of the market. How I remember so I was knocked down by a motorbike and it was dad who picked me up and at the same time reassuring the driver it was nobody’s fault.

Everything ended happily, even to the extra half cup of milk I got for a few weeks and dad saying to drink it all up. It would make me strong and better. The rest of you would remember also the same advice about eating pumpkin.

It would seem that to us who recollect Dad in his forties to fifties and thence on, namely a very taciturn nature but odd things that come to me over the years show he must have had quite a personality. I remember when (about 18) visiting Fr. Hannan when he was curate at South Melbourne, he introduced me to Fr. Dick Collins the PP. Of course I remember “Dick” but our conversation ran like this

‘Do you live here?’
‘No, but we did until a few years back’
‘Will you be Tom Tobin’s boy?’
‘Yes’
‘Ah he was a great and good man’.

– and almost the same tribute from “Slatia Mulluly” who kept the “Shamrock” and Miss Lonergan, the secular teacher and Old Mother Bonaventure who remembered Dad so well in the Saturday afternoon jobs that Dad and one or two others would do for the sisters.

So in all, there must have been something we missed, but recognised too late. A soul full of goodness. I used to see him on his knees in prayer for up to an hour, but he was almost Jansenistic in his approach to Holy Communion. Once a month was enough – it was irreverent to go oftener.

Libby Tobin via Noel’s son Peter Tobin (1941 – 2000)

 

¹ There were 7 children

² Brother went to Kerry

³ Thomas’s older sister Margaret came before him – before 1881. As she was living in far north Queensland, it’s most unlikely that she visited him, so probably didn’t write to him for money. She died in 1898 and probably had no knowledge of her younger brother’s whereabouts, after he immigrated to Australia.There is no record of ‘when’ he received such letters. The only time his family in Ireland heard from him was in 1896 from Canning River in W.A. Widowed young, Julia Tobin Clavin was dependant on her family to support her. She would be the obvious sister to ask him for money as he was god-father to her daughter. The letters that Mary Ellen McCarthy wrote to Winnie in 1920 hint of some form of correspondence. If Mary worked as a house keeper in Scotland and remained single, she probably had no need to ask for money, either.

⁴ Parsonstown was the older name for Birr. ‘Parsons’ was the family name for the Earls of Rosse www.birrcastle.com.

⁵ Lord Gort’s grandfather was not the Birr landlord. Lord Gort was connected with the town of Gort, Co. Galway where Ellen Halloran was born, Noel’s grandmother. For Noel, an easy error to make.

⁶ Julia died in New York in 1923.

⁷ Noel’s knowledge here is not correct. John went to Kerry, probably not Dublin in Thomas’s time in Ireland, and married Mary Chapman before 1884. For the John R.’s ‘Will information,’ read ‘Old Letters from Ireland‘ No.4 Dated 1926 and an account from Jarlath and Ann Tobin, July 2011.

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