100th Anniversary of the Easter Rising

~ Lark Dalin Robart ~ Leave a comment

IRELAND (EIRE) - CIRCA 1966: A stamp printed in Ireland shows Patrick Henry Pearse (1879-1916), 50th anniversary of the Easter Week Rebellion, and to honor the signers of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic, circa 1966.

Monday of this week marked the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising1. So I’ve been wondering what my Irish-born great grandfather Joseph Kieron might have been thinking as the events unfolded that week in 1916.

Joseph J. Kieron (1874-1939)
Joseph J. Kieron born 1874 in Drumgoosat Townland, County Monaghan, Ireland

Joseph had immigrated to the United States from Ireland in about 1895 and made his way immediately to Butte, Montana. With its large Irish population, stories of the rebellion must have been big news in Butte.

So of course I got right on the computer to see what more I could learn.

According to this recent article from the Montana Standard, the impact on Butte was “huge”. Both the Anaconda Standard and the Butte Miner ran nearly identical stories but the headlines of each paper were quite different – the Standard being the more “restrained” of the two. And among the group of activists eventually tried and shot for treason was James Connolly who had visited Butte in 1910.

On April 30th, the day most of the Irish nationalists surrendered in Dublin, at least 1,000 Butte Irish met at the Hibernia Hall to establish the Butte chapter of The Friends of Irish Freedom – a group founded to support the goal of national independence of Ireland.

Quite accidentally, I also learned that the Butte-Silver Bow Public Archives has a CD which contains “scans of documents pertaining to the Friends of Irish Freedom from 1910 to 1936”, including membership rosters. I’ve ordered a copy of the CD – it should arrive any day.

Do you suppose Joseph attended that meeting in a show of support for his countrymen? I’m hoping to find out.

Copyright (c) 2016, Lark M. Dalin Robart
  1. The Easter Rising was an armed rebellion by a group of Irish nationalists determined to end British rule in Ireland and establish an independent Irish Republic. ↩

Thatcher vs. Blacker et al; United States Supreme Court Case No. 851

~ Lark Dalin Robart ~ Leave a comment

On this date in 1966, my Aunt Kate passed away. And the opportunity for any of us to ask her how she ended up being the Respondent in a U.S. Supreme Court Case died that day, too. (Although my mother lovingly says that she probably would never have told us anyway.)

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1956 photo_Katherine Helen Blacker_photo taken by Cid Dalin JrThis is a photo of my grandfather’s sister, Katherine Rebecca Blacker – known in our family as “Aunt Kate”.

She was about 74 years old when my father took this photo. And this is exactly how I remember her.

Very small – about 5′ nothing. Formal. And always neatly dressed, with a few pieces of carefully selected jewelry.

All my cousins of a certain age remember going to visit Aunt Kate and her older sister Aunt Zetta. Were were given very specific instructions by our parents before arriving at the front door. “Only speak when you are spoken to. Be polite and sit quietly. And no fidgeting!” Or something like that. You get the idea.

They were both very sweet and polite – but seemed a little “stuffy” to all of us kids.

But as they say, be careful not to judge a book by its cover. Continue reading →

Fearless Females Day 16: Who shall I invite to lunch?

~ Lark Dalin Robart ~ Leave a comment

Lisa Alzo’s “Fearless Females” blog prompt for March 16th is: If you could have lunch with any female family member (living or dead) or any famous female who would it be and why? Where would you go? What would you eat?

This is a hard one. I would definitely choose a female family member over someone famous – but which one?

Nora Marie (Kieron) BlackerAfter making a long list of possible lunch companions, I finally settled on my grandmother Nora Marie Kieron Blacker.

Nora was 100% Irish, having been born in Butte, Montana to immigrant parents – her father from County Monaghan and her mother from County Galway. Nora’s mother Kate died when she was only 36 years old – Nora was just a toddler. Sadly, history repeated itself when Nora also died at age 36 leaving my grandfather to raise five children. The youngest was 8 and the oldest was 14. Continue reading →

Fearless Females Day 15: Six-word memoir tribute

~ Lark Dalin Robart ~ Leave a comment

I just came across this wonderful post by Lisa Alzo of The Accidental Genealogist, in which she suggests the following:

Fearless Females: 31 Blogging Prompts to Celebrate Women’s History Month

Wish I had seen this earlier in the month! But better late than never, as they say.

And so I’ll begin with Lisa’s prompt for March 15th, which is to “write a six-word memoir tribute to one of your female ancestors.”

In honor of my great grandmother, Catherine “Kate” (Myers) Kieron of County Galway, Ireland . . .

Álainn, cróga, dóchasach. Imithe ró-luath.

English translation: Beautiful, brave, hopeful. Gone too soon.