Denis McCarthy: From Co. Cork to the South Wales Coalfields
Our latest research focused on a McCarthy family in Co. Cork. One family member, Denis McCarthy, remained a mystery. His family did not know what had become of him. The commonality of the name in Cork compounded the challenge. When we searched the 1901 Irish census, we found 89 men named Denis McCarthy of similar age. Each one had to be meticulously ruled out. Eventually, we found him and uncovered his story.
Denis McCarthy was born on the 10th of January 1886 in Curraclogh, near Kilmurry in Co. Cork, Ireland. His parents were John McCarthy and Margaret Hickey. When they married in Kilmurry in 1877 John was an Agricultural Labourer and Margaret a Dairymaid.
Denis was the fourth of eight children. His elder siblings were Michael, Daniel and James. His younger siblings were Hanora, Johanna, John, and Cornelius.
In 1901 when Denis was fourteen years of age his family can be found living in Farranavarra, 15 kilometres from his birthplace. Despite his age Denis is not recorded on the census of that year as living with his parents. Instead, he can be found on a neighbouring farm, the sole occupant of a single room cabin, where he is working as a farm servant.
Ten years later his parents and siblings are living in the same area but there is no sign of Denis McCarthy in the census. Rather than pursuing a life as farm labourer, Denis travelled to the Welsh valleys like many Irish immigrants to work in the then industrial capital of the world. Denis found work at Nixon’s Navigation Colliery working underground as a colliery labourer. In 1911 he is living as boarder with the family of Timothy Lehane. Presumably the two men travelled from Ireland together and knew each other as Timothy Lehane was born in the rural village of Kilmurry where Denis’ parents had married.
The high-quality smokeless steam coal that Denis was risking his life to pull from beneath the earth was the most lucrative and sought after in the world. The coal was selected to power the British Navy’s warships as well as the world’s most luxurious ocean liners like RMS Lusitania which was competing for the legendary Blue Riband prize for the fastest Atlantic Ocean crossing.
The Nixon Navigation Pit where Denis was working was hazardous and was becoming the focal point of worker disputes, while the pits directors and major shareholders enjoyed the financial rewards of the worker’s hard labour. Denis’ time working at the pit coincided with several strikes against the pit owners. He and his fellow workers would have at times depended on the solidarity of others to feed themselves and their families.
A labour strike across the Coal field between 1910 and 1911 resulted in the workers clashing with the police and military. Through these strikes in Mountain Ash, Denis was participating in a movement that would eventually force the British government to permanently regulate mining wages and safety.
(Financial News – 1st November 1910)
In 1914 Denis McCarthy married Kate Ann Sullivan who was also from Co. Cork in Ireland. A year later they had the first of children, Margaret, followed by a further five children, John, Kathleen, Cornelius, Nora and Denis.
Around this time back in Ireland, Denis’ youngest brother Cornelius had joined the Royal Munster Fusiliers and travelled to France and Belgium. On the 10th of July 1917 Cornelius, aged 24, was stationed at Oost-Dunkerque near to the Belgian coastal town of Nieuwpoort, where the Western Front met the North Sea coast. The men had been preparing for a support role in Operation Hush, a planned amphibious landing to capture German U-boat bases. Before launching this assault German forces unleashed a surprise artillery barrage on British positions, including the Royal Munster Fusiliers camp. During this assault Cornelius was one of 57 wounded, and he died from his wounds in a field hospital in the days that followed. He is buried at Coxyde Military Cemetery in Belgium.
(Image of Cornelius McCarthy and his grave)
In 1921 Denis McCarthy can be found living at 62 Tyrfelin Street, Penrhiwceiber with his wife and children. He was now a Colliery repairer, no longer cutting the coal from the face, he was now a vital underground worker responsible for maintaining the structural safety, height, and accessibility of a coal mine's tunnels. Despite his elevation in status, life didn’t get any easier for Denis. In this same year the British government returned coal mines to private owners who demanded lower wages for workers. The result was an unemployment crisis as thousands of miners across the South Wales Coal fields being locked out of work. Further decline continued with the loss of coal export markets as oil replaced coal resulting in mass unemployment and destitution. For Denis McCarthy and his family, the 1930’s must have been particularly difficult as he spent a period of nine years where he was unable to find work. With the decline in work available in Wales, there were no work opportunities for anyone who found themselves out of work.
Eventually Denis did find work in 1937 at the Abergorki Colliery in Mountain Ash where he spent the next two years as a packer. His role was still a safety role where he was responsible for building thick, solid stone walls extending from the floor to the roof to prevent the roof of the mine from collapsing behind the advancing coal face.
On the 16th of September 1939 Denis was involved in an accident within the mine where he was fatally injured when he was run over by a journey of trams and dragged almost 50 yards. Denis was 53 years of age, the mine that had given him work also took his life.
After the devastation of Denis’ death, the family left Wales for Devon, where they lived the remainder of their own lives and are now buried.
Denis McCarthy’s journey from a single room cabin in Co. Cork to the coal mines of South Wales mirrors the lives of thousands of Irish immigrants who left home seeking work and built new lives. The family’s story is one of endurance, loss, and quiet survival.
Irish Welsh Ancestry publications
(Aberdare Leader – 30th September 1939)
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