A new history of Roscommon told through the lives of its people

Photo: 'A Dictionary of Roscommon Biography' author Mike Lennon.

A magnum opus is usually defined as the greatest or most important work produced by a writer, artist, musician, or academic. Over 20 years in the making - 'A Dictionary of Roscommon Biography' by Michael T. Lennon is certainly worthy of such a lofty description.

With over 5,000 individual entries, over 1,000 from South Roscommon alone, this impressive hardback book is a reference of “notables” from the county from the 1600s right up to the end of 2019 via their obituaries.

There are plenty of names in there you'd recognise from this area from Archbishop Curley, famed tenor John McCormack, writer John Broderick, the Lenihan family, Kieran Kelly of the Kieran Kelly Ceilí Band fame, and then there are others less well known but certainly worthy of inclusion in an almost definitive who's who of Roscommon's past. Take, for instance, nursery maid Elizabeth Killian (1881-1971) a native of Loughlackagh, Moore who emigrated to Boston. There she found work as a nursery maid in the home of Mayor ‘Honey’ Fitzgerald, the grandfather of President John F. Kennedy. Some sixty years later, she remembered Rose Fitzgerald, the President’s mother, as a “lovely and vivacious high school girl.”

Elizabeth returned to Ireland and after her marriage to James Killian in 1908, she resided at Buggane, Clonown, Athlone. She died in January 1971 and is buried in Clonown cemetery.

So how did Michael, or Mike as he is known, begin such a mammoth undertaking? Well, the Strokestown native, now based in Dublin, explains he always had an interest in local history but the idea for the book came from a family research project which revealed his links to Newtown, Ardkeenan in Drum.

“It germinated out of an interest in genealogy. I was tracing my family history, looking through microfilms (of old newspapers) and as I did I'd see an obituary of someone I knew of so I started taking notes of each. When I retired in 2002 I decided to make a book out of it. The question was where to stop,” he jokes on Monday.

“My roots are in Drum. I can go back to the late 1700s. My great-grandfather Michael Lennon was born in Drum and his uncle was a priest, Rev Michael Lennon who became parish priest in Tulsk in 1830. He died in 1871, and my great-grandfather came to Tulsk to mind him when he got old and later married so that's how we ended up here,” he explains of his family origins and where the genesis for this impressive new volume began. The late Edward Egan was a great help to him on that journey and he later assisted him to edit 'Drum and its Hinterland' and is a regular editor and contributor to Roscommon Historical and Archaeological Society Journal and other publications.

For years he was working on the dictionary project in his spare time but it was only with his retirement from work in the financial services in 2002, that it really intensified, and Mike really got drawn into it more and more via old newspapers and published histories.

“I kept my entries factual, I didn't give a subjective view. I stuck to where they were born, occupation, accomplishments and when they died and where,” says Mike, who didn't stick rigidly to county lines either, including many born near or close to Roscommon or in neighbouring towns or parishes with links to the county as he rightly notes Roscommon has as many important towns on the boundary or outside as internally.

Asked if his book is unique in Ireland, Mike agrees that there are very few in the country of this type on other counties and his is the most comprehensive he's found to date. And weighing in at 3kg or 7lbs and 930 pages, who can argue with that description?

“It's a history of Roscommon through the lives of its people. You get all about the landed gentry, the sacrifices of WWI, the War of Independence and the Civil War, and even back to the Fenians. It covers politics, law, nationalism, sport, painting, music, medicine, business etc. It's a wide canvas of endeavour,” he tells the Westmeath Independent, adding that it is very much a reference book which can be picked up to check a name and you can go from there.

The digitisation of many newspapers greatly aided his cause, Mike, who spent ten years in America from 1962 to 1972, including a stint in the US army in Germany and Vietnam, enthuses. He says several copies of the new book have been donated to the libraries in Athlone and Roscommon, and he is extremely thankful for their role in his publication, particularly retired Roscommon County Librarian Richie Farrell, and of course, the support of the family.

“Happy it's done and dusted,” and with no formal launch due to Covid-19, he is now concentrating on getting the word out about his self-published book and hopes it proves of interest to anyone with a grá for local history or Roscommon.

'A Dictionary of Roscommon Biography' is €30, and is stocked locally in Athlone at Cormican’s Office Supplies, Sean Costello Street. Further details of the book and other stockists can be found on the www.roscommonbiography.com website.