Clare Past Forum

Can anyone provide any details of the Clare origins of this priest?

His obituary entitled "Mgr. P.J. McNamara Dead" is in the issue of the New York Times that reported the sinking of the Titanic (Published: April 16, 1912; he d. Sunday night 14 Apr 1912, at St. Catherine's Infirmary, Amityville, L.I.). Described as "one of the oldest and best known priests in the metropolitan district. Mgr. McNamara was born in County Clare, Ireland, sixty-eight years ago. Early in life he came to this country." Survived by two brothers and a sister. Lots more information about his priestly career in the article.

I've found these other references:

Brooklyn Daily Eagle 17 Jun 1895:
Rev. P. J. McNamara, V.G., trustee of the new St. John's Priests' Relief society of the Diocese of Brooklyn.

The Sun, June 20, 1897, Page 5:
Right Rev. Mgr. P. J. McNamara was to be assistant priest to Archbishop Martinelli at the Golden Jubilee celebrations of his alma mater, the Jesuit College of St. Francis Xavier on 16th Street.

http://www.stlukewhitestone.org/index.p ... 3-08-59-19
Father O'Hara was for eleven years an assistant to Rt. Rev. Msgr. P.J. McNamara of Our Lady of Mercy Church, Brooklyn before his installation as rector of St. Luke's some time before 1898.

NY Times 20 Aug 1900
The Right Rev. P. J. McNamara, Vicar
General of the Catholic Diocese of Long
Island and rector of St. Joseph's Church,
Vanderbilt Avenue and Pacific Street,
Brooklyn, has been elevated to the dignity
of Domestic Prelate by Pope Leo.

The Sacred Heart Review, Volume 29, Number 20, 16 May 1903
The golden jubilee of St. Joseph's Church, Brooklyn, of which the Right Rev. Monsignor P. J. McNamara, S. T. L., vicar-general of the Brooklyn diocese, is pastor, was celebrated May 10, 1903.

http://www.hnom.org/history1950d.htm
On Sunday, August 2, 1903, the laying of the cornerstone of Holy Name of Mary Parish Church in Valley Stream, N.Y., took place. The Right
Reverend Patrick J. McNamara, Vicar General of the Diocese of Brooklyn, officiated.
[Other records list Sunday, August 22, 1903 but August 22 in 1903 was a Saturday; also to quote from a capsule history handwritten on August 2, 1903, by Father McGovern, “The cornerstone was laid by Right Reverend Monsignor P. J. McNamara, V.G. on Sunday, August 2 at 4 P.M.”]

Rt. Rev. Msgr. P. J. McNamara, Vicar-General of the Diocese of Brooklyn is in a photograph of the blessing of the cornerstone of St. Isidore's Roman Catholic Church of Riverhead, New York, on Sunday, November 4, 1906.
'The blessing was executed by the Right Reverend P. J. McNamara, who at that time was Vicar General of the Diocese of Brooklyn.'
See
http://www.johnkneski.com/isidore/home.htm

Ground was broken on November 5, 1911, by Monsignor P. J. McNamara, for a new Blessed Sacrament church in Brooklyn, N.Y.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/mcnamarasb ... -1891.html
His namesake Pat McNamara who published that information on his blog teaches Church History at St. Joseph's Seminary, Dunwoodie and has authored three books and several articles on Catholic America, so may know more.

Persons Born in Co. Clare mentioned in New York State Newspapers include the Monsignor's nephew:
Matthew S. McNamara
b. Co. Clare
d. Apr. 20 1944 Long Island
children: Mrs. Ralph R. Estey, Mary T. McNamara, Michael F.
Uncle: Msgr. PJ McNamara; Cousin of Rev. Ambrose Altken
Brooklyn Eagle Brooklyn Apr. 21 1944 p.11

Very fortunate that you posted about this person, as I had saved his Brooklyn Daily Eagle obituary with the wrong death year. That is attached, for the benefit of anyone not able to click through to the New York Times one, which has more detail.

I checked the online probate files for Kings County NY, which is Brooklyn, and there for April, 1912, is undoubtedly the right one. Msgr. McNamara's nephew was Matthew S. McNamara, no address provided although he likely was local. He provided the names and addresses for surviving family members, as shown in the screenshot.

Sharon Carberry

By chance and not on purpose, I came across a third obituary for this august clergyman, one confirming not only the names of his siblings but also mentioning a trip back to Eire a couple of years before his death. The ship manifest of 29 Sep 1911 shows his Irish relative as Mrs. Coffey of Newmarket on Fergus (first manifest screenshot), his address as "The Rectory" on Pacific St. and his birthplace of Bodyke (lower line, second manifest screenshot). Note that he used only John as his first name and gave an age that would have his birth year as 1847, not 1844.

It would be lovely to have an acknowledgement of this contribution to the posted inquiry. Sooner rather than later would be grand for that.

SMC

Many thanks for all that wonderful material, Sharon.

Not all of us have time to look at this forum every day - I have been busy entertaining a house guest visiting from the U.S. so this is my first time here since I posted the original query last week.

It was easy to find the two siblings back in Clare in the censuses:

Anne in 1901:
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/p ... e/1072097/

Anne in 1911:
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/p ... wn/356037/

Fr. John in 1901:
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/p ... y/1084885/

Fr. John in 1911:
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/p ... dy/368084/

I suspect that the McNamara visitors in these households may be children of another brother who remained in Ireland.

Coming back with a correction and a comment. First, it now appears that John in the ship arrival record was actually the monsignor's younger brother, the one noted in the will file as John Canon McNamara. Although Cannon is a Clare surname, in this instance the word is actually "canon" referring to the brother's also being a priest. I checked the Catholic Directory for both the U.S. and Ireland for the year 1888, which John reported for a prior trip. There was no RC priest in the U.S. that year named John McNamara (other than an older one who had just died in Boston), but the Irish directories steadily show just one such priest in Clare with his latter years entirely at East Clare locations. Shown below is the 1920 directory listing for him, which is online at: http://archive.org/stream/irishcatholic ... 7/mode/2up

I strongly suggest that anyone posting for information on the Forum do so when able to respond fairly promptly to a follow-up posted by someone with something to contribute on the topic or needing clarification on the query. The Internet has provided us with the means of having global conversations and exchanges of data, a huge addition to our quality of life (in contrast to annoying aspects of new technology). So why not keep the Forum as a place that is a model for other message boards to emulate ?

SMC

Anne can be found in the 1901 census at Urlan, Newmarket-on-Fergus. Matt McNamara is visiting.

1. Coffey James 67 Male Head of Family Roman Catholic Clare Farmer Read and write - Married

2. Coffey Anne 45 Female Wife Roman Catholic Clare Housekeeper Read and write - Married

3. McNamara Matthew 23 Male Visitor Roman Catholic