DIRTY OLD TOWNS - GLASGOW AND DUBLIN 1900-1925

MISSING IN FATHER'S ACTION:

My mother KATHLEEN was sure her red roots were Scottish - from an Edinburgh heritage where her mother came from...er well that was what she was misled to believe...

STIGMA was the it word for working-class girls and women. 

It was understandable my grandmother Kathleen had thought lying about her origins was reasonable considering the shame and judgements of class and misogyny society would offer her.

 Born in a Glasgow slum or the more reputable Edinburgh? Grandmother shed her accent, she had her daughter shipped and her son adopted.

My mother line begins with Orphans, but not the definition of having no parents. Mum and the brother nobody knew about were born to an unwed mother during the Birmingham Blitz.
 The secret went with Nan to her grave who their father was.She was so blessed to have her prayers answered with a good husband. 

Grandmother Kathleen marries A good Polish Catholic man with economic prospects.
Ladywood, Birmingham 1949.

FROM UNCERTAIN BEGINNINGS THE CLARKE FEMALES

SETTLE DOWN IN BIRMINGHAM.

Mum marries a Church of England brick-layer, an English lad with prospects at the
 Birmingham Registry Office 1963. Her mother shows support.

We lived in a street of post WW2 Irish migrant families.The Neighbours treated her as one of their own; the local priest would stop her in the street and ask her why he hadn't seen her at Mass!

Even the Avon Lady gave her a little bottle of Holy Water from Lourdes. Mum played down she was christened a Roman Catholic.

She was a bastard brought up by Nuns. Atheism came easy. 

She was a Cultural Catholic. She loved a drink of whiskey and singing Irish songs, drinking an Irish coffee.

MITOCHONDRIAL DNA PROVES our CELTIC roots: The Clarke ladies, led to my great grandmother Christina born in Dublin 1894, daughter of a long line of soldiers in the Irish regiments of the British Army.

Celtic soul sisters. 

I was hoping for Republican connections. THOMAS CLARKE the REPUBLICAN not the servant of an English Monarch.

Serving Monarch and Parliament, my Great Grandfather, the London born Private Thomas Clarke was billeted at the Richmond Barracks, Dublin - aged 21 years.

GUNS/GIRLS/GUINESS - at least Tom married Christina before their baby was born into stigma of a "bastard". 
(I wonder if he had red hair.)

 

 SS Michael&John R.C. Church, Lwr Exchange St. Dublin, now
back to its origins as "Smock Alley Theatre", Temple Bar, est 1668.
Christina's brother James Ross was married here in 1919. He had returned from France with a medal and with injuries so set him to work in Dublin Castle - the centre of British Administration.

 In 1918 Great Grandparents took their young family before the civil war erupted, swapping Dublin for Glasgow.

Thomas's parents had retired to Scotland from London to be with his sister Margaret and family. 

She had married an Italian hairdresser and they had set up barber shops on each end of the town.

Longford St(Great)nr Aungier St, Dublin circa 1950.
Ross family docs. say they resided at No's 1 and 6, 1918-1940.

A British soldier after the 1916 Rebellion

Our Thomas was a regular soldier, one of 5000 British troops in the city, which would rise to 50,000 after the 1916 Easter Rebellion. 

A General election was held in Dublin on December 14th 1918,
the same week as Christina and Thomas's son Herbert was born. 

The overwhelming vote was for Sinn Fein of 73/105 seats in Parliament, calling for an Irish Free State.
Thomas had his discharge papers and was getting him and his Mrs. out of there before everything got crazier!

                                            SCOTLAND or Little Dublin.

10 GEORGE ST, GLASGOW, FEB 1920

My Grandmother Kathleen Margaret Alice is born.

THREE YEARS LATER - CHRISTINA CLARKE succumbed to a most awful common disease of Syphilis with little sympathy from her husband who was described as needing alcohol education at the Temperance Union hall. Domestic Violence showed up on his wife's body. 

Penicillin hadn't been invented so the misery and mortality of Syphillus, rife in the British Army was spread to their wives and children.

She was only 28

Great Grandmother on her death bed at
Gartloch Asylum Glasgow, 1923.

CERTIFICATE OF EMERGENCY: I the undersigned.................being...................hereby certify, on soul and conscience, that I have this day, at Eastern District Hospital Glasgow in the County of Lanark, seen and personally examined Christina Ross or Clark, and that the said person is of unsound mind, is a proper Patient to be placed in an Asylum, and is in a sufficiently good state of bodily health to be removed to the Asylum at Gartloch.

And I further certify that the case of the said person is one of emergency. 2nd January 1923

Entrance to Gartloch Lunatic Asylum, Glasgow
with kind permission of Mark Murphy(c)at flickr

CHRISTINA ROSS OR CLARK  28 YEARS   MARRIED    ROMAN CATHOLIC  HOUSEWIFE 

 43 LANARK STREET GLASGOW

LENGTH OF TIME INSANE : A few days    Number of attacks   First

SUPPOSED CAUSE : Organic Brain Disease

SUICIDAL ; Might be     or DANGEROUS  Yes

PARISH TO WHICH CHARGEABLE = GLASGOW PARISH

HUSBAND THOMAS CLARK C/O GEAR 43 LANARK ST, GLASGOW

She is dull, depressed and resistive in her manner and conduct. Confused in her ideas and lacking in a sane appreciation of  her surroundings. She shows the signs of organic Brain Disease. (initialled)

She is dull and depressed in her manner and conduct, inchoerent in her speech, and resisistive to attention. She shows no sane appreciation of her position. She is unable to look after herself.  (initials)

HISTORY : Aunt: Mrs Ross 182 Kilmarnock Rd. Glasgow.

Patient is supposed to be three months pregnant.

Three weeks ago she developed violent headaches. Had to be in bed. Later became stupid and finally confused.

Transferred to E.D.H. Has 3 children Last 14 months ago. No previous nervous breakdown.

One miscarriage two years ago.

Mother in Asylum

Father Alcoholic?

2 JAN 1923    CONDITION ON ADMISSION:         

Hair dirty.                                No deformities.                     Haematoma           - left eye

Large haematoma on Gut. aspect of left leg. Multiple small bruises on shoulders and legs. Lungs normal.

Heart action weak              cardiac .              slightly enlarged.

2 finger breadths               (patient hasn't been catherised)  No sign of milk in breasts.

No other signs of          visceral disease. Pupils semi dilated - no reaction.

                                   Patient no temperature but is weak and unable to stand.

(Nurse Notes)

Patient appears to be in a   b               condition

She can be roused but is unable to answer questions properly. She apparently has no idea of her surroundings

and is resistive                                           . She appears  to be  rather exhausted and toxic looking.

Supposed to be three months pregnant.

Patient has improved mentally.Appears brighter and is taking more interest in her surroundings.

            improving but really slow mentally.

Improving mentally but still               unstable.

FEB   Patient very much improved.

MARCH  Patient is clear mentally but simple.

              Appears to have a                of soft palate.

APRIL    Patient suffering from G.P.I. and is presently very helpless, demented and dirty.

MAY      Three days ago patient developed Broncho Pneumonia and died today. G.P.I. Broncho pneumonia   

MY RESEARCH (or why my Grandmother became a Ward of the State and Church)

General Paralysis of the Insane (G.P.I) The syndrome of the mental disorder was identified in Paris mental hospitals long before it was identified as a result of syphilis. Antoine Laurent Jessé Bayle (1799-1858) described it in 1822. Louis Florentin Calmeil (1798-1895), in 1826, called it paralysie générale des aliénés (paralysis general of the insane).  Although this name stuck, many alternatives have also been used. These include general paresis (favoured in the United States) and dementia paralytica. 

General Paralysis of the Insane is now counted as one of the forms of neurosyphilis (syphilitic infection of the central nervous system). It is the main one leading to psychiatric disturbance. 

DEATH CERTIFICATE OF CHRISTINA CLARKE Nee ROSS died May 14th 1923, 4.55am Gartloch Asylum

Glasgow, Scotland

General Paralysis of Insane,  Broncho Pneumonia,  3 days. Cardiac Failure 1 day 

SYPHILIS

A sexually transmitted disease caused by a bacterium called Treponema pallidum. Can also be transmitted to the fetus of infected pregnant women. Early symptoms are often mild and may go unnoticed; other symptoms may include ulcers either on the skin or internally, and skin rashes. More serious symptoms may occur if syphilis remains untreated. Usual treatment is penicillin by injection; however other antibiotics can be used if necessary. Treatment is usually effective against further transmission by the patient after 24 hours.

Neurological complications at this stage include generalized paresis of the insane which results in personality changes, changes in emotional affect, hyperactive reflexes, and Argyll-Robertson pupils, a diagnostic sign in which the small and irregular pupils constrict in response to focusing the eyes, but not to light; Tabes dorsalis, also known as locomotor ataxia, a disorder of the spinal cord, often results in a characteristic shuffling gait.

MEANWHILE BACK IN DUBLIN 

Great Great Grandmother, Katie Ross nee Fegan/Fagan had also gone insane...

It's probable she was a patient in Dublin's Institution of Grangegorman/St Brendan's.

                             

Dirty Old Town - The Pogues

(c)copyright JMcNeill 

reunion in Australia

all rights reserved 30th April 2013