A Letterkenny family has found comfort and closure in tracing the missing link in their ancestry.
Noel Sweeney, a well-known Letterkenny businessman, never knew what tragedy befell his grandparents over 100 years ago.
He knew that his father Willie was born in Scotland and brought to Donegal as a young orphan.
But the untimely deaths of his grandfather and grandmother were a mystery, until recently.
It was when Noel was researching his own memoir in 2018 that he began in earnest to trace his family’s links to Scotland. He found death and birth certs, which led to the discovery of an article in the Linlithgowshire Gazette, dated Friday 16th May 1902. The report told of the tragic death of John Sweeney as a result of gas inhalation at an oil works. He was just 36 years of age.
Further research found that John’s wife Mary, the mother of their three children, died five years later from seemingly natural causes, aged 32. Mary, née Gallagher was from Kilmacrennan. The couple’s children spent some time in an orphanage in Scotland before a Donegal-based Uncle George arrived to take them to Cashelshanaghan.
Noel then set out to find John and Mary’s final resting place in the village of Uphall in West Lothian. When he did, he organised for a small headstone to be erected at the grave as a fitting tribute.
To complete the story, Noel and his sisters Margaret and Kathleen travelled to Uphall on Monday last to visit the grave and gravestone. Also accompanying was Noel’s wife Mary Sweeney and son Karl. They held a small service led by Fr John Deighan to mark the passing of John (now 121 years deceased) and Mary (now 116 years deceased).
Karl Sweeney, Mary Sweeney, Noel Sweeney, Father John Deighan,
Margaret Toner, Kathleen Ponsonby at Uphall Cemetery
The siblings were moved by the emotional visit.
“There would be none of us here if only for John,” said Noel. “And he was buried in an unmarked grave. That touched a nerve with me. I want to give people somewhere to go to remember them.”
The headstone serves as a lasting tribute to John and Mary, ensuring that their memory will be honoured for generations to come.
“Now we have a site there forevermore amen for people to visit,” says Noel.
Noel’s book ‘Don’t Say You Weren’t Taul’, published in 2018, tells of the early days of
Noel wrote this poem in honour of the story:
My grandparents
The day I learned about my grandparents
How they lived, and how they died
When they immigrated to Scotland
To make a living, how they tried
John worked down in the shale mines
And his young wife, gave birth 3 times
And they both died before, they were 36
And left their 3 children behind
I’m sure the day that they got married
Everything that day went well
They were starting on a journey
They couldn’t really tell
Just what lay in front of them?
As all young couples do
And hoping for new break
They never ever knew
Now John couldn’t read or write
But strong man and a hard worker
And working down underground
To him it didn’t matter
Danger wasn’t on the cards
Just get there was his goal
And try to feed his family
And Mary his life and soul
John met up with his death
In a oil shale mine accident
And Mary died 5 years later
Them days, there was no treatment
Their 3 children were left, without parents
And really on their own
And no one, to look after them
They were placed in a home
When John’s brothers here in Ireland
Heard about this awful tragedy
They went over there to Scotland
And brought them back, as a family
And they were brought up here in Donegal
And settled down, and called it home
And they lived their life in Ireland
They reared families of their own
Now this missing link in our family
Has finally come (together)
And the reason why our grandparents died
Will live with us for ever
So this link in our broken chain Is gone but we won’t forget
But at least we know what happened to them
And the tragedy and regret
