It’s been quite a while since I have made any entries in this family ancestry blog. I cannot state any one particular reason why except life carries you in different directions.
I had restarted my genealogy research a year or so ago and have made some interesting discoveries, at least to me. I have delved a bit deeper into the DNA aspect of the hobby and discovered several connections to distant relatives within my family tree. This has given me affirmation to much of the research.
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| Peter Simon Fanning III |
However, this blog post goes back to my great great grandfather, Peter Simon Fanning III, and his family’s life in northern Dublin in the mid 19th century. While going over some records I found that Peter’s parents, Peter Fanning and Teresa Courtney, lived on Mecklinburgh St when he was born in 1864. I couldn’t find it on modern era maps and searched out its history online.
I first found a New York Times article that described Mecklinburgh Street as it ran through the center of a square mile of brothels, speakeasies, and slums known as Monto. The next street over was then called Montgomery Street, where this slum area obtained its nickname Monto. It was an infamous red-light district, perhaps one of the most well known in Europe in its day. James Joyce wrote of the area in Ulysses, which he dubbed Nighttown.
By all accounts, Monto was truly abysmal. The streets were lined with brothels and lowly taverns. Its proximity to the railway made it an easy entrance and escape for those looking to get their fill of society’s evils undetected. It became a dumping place for unwed pregnant women. Their children often landed in the hands of nuns who operated orphanages that surrounded the district.
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| A map of Dublin's red-light district known as Monto. |
In 1864, the
Fannings lived at 58 Mecklinburgh Street. I am not certain if this
was considered the upper or lower end of the street. This apparently
made a difference as the working class residents of the upper end
lobbied to have their portion of the street renamed in 1886 to Lower
Tyrone Street to disassociate itself with the seedier end of the
road. In the 17th century, the road was called Great
Martin’s Lane and in 1911 it was renamed again Waterford St on one
end and Railway Street at the other. The whole area was torn down
during the 20th century and was reconstructed in an effort to distance itself with the horrors of its past.
From the genealogical value of this post, the document where this info was gleaned came from the baptismal records of St Mary's Pro-Cathedral on Marlborough Street. Young Peter was given the sacrament of Baptism on November 4, 1864. All writing was done in Latin and their last name was actually listed as Fannin. One small mystery has emerged though. The record (a section that is not pictured here) has Magarita O'Brien as the child's sponsor (I assume this is a Godmother) and there is no male sponsor listed.
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| Peter Simon Fanning baptism record. |
Coincidentally, when I was a young father, I had a long trek across Long Island to pick up my son for our weekends together. I often played Irish music on cassettes in my car. On one such tape there was a song by the Dubliners called Monto. My son did not enjoy much of the music on these trips but he did fancy this particular song and its catchy refrain. “Going down to Monto, Monto, Monto. Going down to Monto, lan-ge-roo… to you!” Here is a YouTube of Ronnie Drew's version of the song… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSXwttg88Zo
To read a bit more on Monto and Mecklinburgh Streets visit:
https://wideandconvenientstreets.wordpress.com/2015/08/24/nighttown-dublins-monto/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/15/world/europe/magdalene-laundries-ireland.html
