Vincent J. Quealy Jr.'s Blog
March 15, 2024
A United Ireland
I’m actually fascinated to think that the struggle for a united Irish Republic remains, still today, unrealized. It’s fascinating to me because my own Irish family ancestors were deeply and courageously engaged in that struggle some 125 years ago. Think of it—125 years ago. And it is yet unfulfilled.
My paternal grandmother, Bridget (Meade) Quealy, was one of fourteen children born to a poor tenant farmer in the small town of Miltown Malbay in the West of County Clare. Three of Bridgets’ brothers—Joe, Peter and Jim—undertook many dangerous and difficult efforts in the cause of securing Irish freedom.
Joe Meade was active in the pivotal By-Election of 1918 in which Sinn Fein succeeded in winning 73 of the total 105 seats allotted for Irish representation in Parliament. “It is in this, my house, that all the Republicans meet every night to plan out everything…Joe worked hard at the elections, bringing voters to the booths…” recalled Ellen Meade some years later. The newly-elected Sinn Fein representatives, in a resounding act of defiance, unanimously refused to be seated in Parliament and declared Irish independence in January 1919. The flame was lit and the fire now burned across all of Ireland.
The brothers would later serve valiantly in the IRA’s Mid Clare Brigade. Young Peter Meade would die as a result of his role acting as scout for a series of ambushes against British troops in the Spring of 1921. He was eighteen years old.
But still, now in 2024, we do not yet have a united Irish Republic.
I feel sure—sure as the tides of the Irish Sea—that a united Ireland will be won. Just as Joe, Peter and Jim Meade believed.
My paternal grandmother, Bridget (Meade) Quealy, was one of fourteen children born to a poor tenant farmer in the small town of Miltown Malbay in the West of County Clare. Three of Bridgets’ brothers—Joe, Peter and Jim—undertook many dangerous and difficult efforts in the cause of securing Irish freedom.
Joe Meade was active in the pivotal By-Election of 1918 in which Sinn Fein succeeded in winning 73 of the total 105 seats allotted for Irish representation in Parliament. “It is in this, my house, that all the Republicans meet every night to plan out everything…Joe worked hard at the elections, bringing voters to the booths…” recalled Ellen Meade some years later. The newly-elected Sinn Fein representatives, in a resounding act of defiance, unanimously refused to be seated in Parliament and declared Irish independence in January 1919. The flame was lit and the fire now burned across all of Ireland.
The brothers would later serve valiantly in the IRA’s Mid Clare Brigade. Young Peter Meade would die as a result of his role acting as scout for a series of ambushes against British troops in the Spring of 1921. He was eighteen years old.
But still, now in 2024, we do not yet have a united Irish Republic.
I feel sure—sure as the tides of the Irish Sea—that a united Ireland will be won. Just as Joe, Peter and Jim Meade believed.
September 5, 2023
Serendipity
Serendipity. It’s a word we use to describe a circumstance or an event that otherwise evades an easy explanation. And it’s a word I’d use to describe the story I’ll tell today.
My new book, “Reflections of an Irish Grandson…a story of Grandmother Bridget (Meade) Quealy and the Meade family of Miltown Malbay, County Clare, Ireland” recounts the hardships and the struggles of the Meade family in Ireland during a time when the British still ruled that country very harshly. It focuses especially on three young Meade brothers—Joe, Jim and Peter—and their valiant and courageous service in the IRA’s Mid Clare Brigade during the Irish War of Independence. Tragically, Peter Meade met his death on May 12, 1921 as a result. He was eighteen years old.
Peter Meade’s Commanding Officer in the 4th Battalion of the Mid Clare Brigade provided direct and compelling testimony to Irelands’ Military Service Pension Board attesting that Peter’s death, indeed, occurred due to his service in the Irish War Independence. Peter was posthumously awarded a Medal for that service and his mother, as beneficiary, was paid a Military pension. The Commanding Officer was a local Miltown Malbay man named Anthony Kerin.
I often post on this page excerpts from my book or stories about my Meade family still living in Ireland. A few days ago, I noticed a “reply” to one such post. It was from a direct relative of Anthony Kerin. I’ll hold the name in privacy, but the person knew the Meade family, is still living in Ireland and was familiar with the service of the Meade’s and the Kerin’s in the Mid Clare Brigade more than 100 years ago. Serendipity.
My new book, “Reflections of an Irish Grandson…a story of Grandmother Bridget (Meade) Quealy and the Meade family of Miltown Malbay, County Clare, Ireland” recounts the hardships and the struggles of the Meade family in Ireland during a time when the British still ruled that country very harshly. It focuses especially on three young Meade brothers—Joe, Jim and Peter—and their valiant and courageous service in the IRA’s Mid Clare Brigade during the Irish War of Independence. Tragically, Peter Meade met his death on May 12, 1921 as a result. He was eighteen years old.
Peter Meade’s Commanding Officer in the 4th Battalion of the Mid Clare Brigade provided direct and compelling testimony to Irelands’ Military Service Pension Board attesting that Peter’s death, indeed, occurred due to his service in the Irish War Independence. Peter was posthumously awarded a Medal for that service and his mother, as beneficiary, was paid a Military pension. The Commanding Officer was a local Miltown Malbay man named Anthony Kerin.
I often post on this page excerpts from my book or stories about my Meade family still living in Ireland. A few days ago, I noticed a “reply” to one such post. It was from a direct relative of Anthony Kerin. I’ll hold the name in privacy, but the person knew the Meade family, is still living in Ireland and was familiar with the service of the Meade’s and the Kerin’s in the Mid Clare Brigade more than 100 years ago. Serendipity.
Reflections of an Irish Grandson
I've visited the small town of Miltown Malbay in the West of County Clare many times over the years. It's the town in which my paternal grandmother, Bridget (Meade) Quealy, was born and lived before emigrating to Boston in her early adulthood. My paternal grandfather, John Quealy, is from another small Clare town quite nearby. Many cousins --Quealy's and Meades--still live in Miltown Malbay and I always truly feel as if I have, indeed, come home when visiting.
I recounted one such visit, in June 2022, in my new book. I think you'll understand why it feels like home. William Butler Yeats once wrote "My children may find here deep-rooted things." I know he was right.
EXCERPT FROM MY BOOK: "We walked along a short distance, the older gentleman telling me that he was born in this town “…in that blue house”, pointing ahead. I introduced myself and told him that I was here this morning to meet with my cousin, Pat Meade. Astonished, he stopped walking, looking at me directly now with an air of excited discovery. “Well, I’m your cousin too, I’m Chrissy Curtin.” Pat Meade’s mother is Mary (Curtin) Meade. I remembered then Peter Meade’s instruction to me of a few months earlier as he’d insisted that it’s only necessary to “…get to town and ask for Pat.” So it is in Miltown Malbay.
It is both remarkable and of some curious comfort to me that a Quealy or a Meade can travel from Boston to this little town on the West Coast of Ireland in the year 2022 and still encounter residents who are immediately able to identify you as a cousin. Deep-rooted things, indeed. "
I hope that the story told in my book will recall for readers a bit of their own family history, whether it's an Irish story or a story from anywhere else that people have fled oppression, hunger, bigotry and conflict.
I recounted one such visit, in June 2022, in my new book. I think you'll understand why it feels like home. William Butler Yeats once wrote "My children may find here deep-rooted things." I know he was right.
EXCERPT FROM MY BOOK: "We walked along a short distance, the older gentleman telling me that he was born in this town “…in that blue house”, pointing ahead. I introduced myself and told him that I was here this morning to meet with my cousin, Pat Meade. Astonished, he stopped walking, looking at me directly now with an air of excited discovery. “Well, I’m your cousin too, I’m Chrissy Curtin.” Pat Meade’s mother is Mary (Curtin) Meade. I remembered then Peter Meade’s instruction to me of a few months earlier as he’d insisted that it’s only necessary to “…get to town and ask for Pat.” So it is in Miltown Malbay.
It is both remarkable and of some curious comfort to me that a Quealy or a Meade can travel from Boston to this little town on the West Coast of Ireland in the year 2022 and still encounter residents who are immediately able to identify you as a cousin. Deep-rooted things, indeed. "
I hope that the story told in my book will recall for readers a bit of their own family history, whether it's an Irish story or a story from anywhere else that people have fled oppression, hunger, bigotry and conflict.
