I'M INDEBTED TO TOM STACK FROM ENNIS, A GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GRANDSON OF 'UNKNOWN' ABOVE, WHO HAS PROVIDED MOST OF THE INFORMATION BELOW ON THE CUNNINGHAM FAMILY. TOM HAS BEEN RESEARCHING HIS FAMILY HISTORY SINCE THE MID-1980s.
It's thought that our Cunningham family may have come to Kilbaha in the parish of Newtownsandes (now called Moyvane) in Co. Kerry from the Abbeydorney area of Co. Kerry, although it's not known when they might have made the move.
Notes:
1. The Cunningham surname is common in all areas of Ireland, especially Ulster and Connaught. In east Ulster the name is mainly of Scottish origin, and in other areas it's mainly the anglicised form of native Irish names, such as MacCuinneagáin.
2. According to family lore, our Cunningham family is connected to Philip Cunningham, the Moyvane-born rebel who was transported to Australia following the 1798 Rising and became the leader of the failed Castle Hill convict rebellion of March 1804. However I haven't been able to prove there's a definite connection between Philip and our Cunninghams or a link between him and the townland of Kilbaha. While Philip Cunningham's birthplace is shown as "Moyvane, Co. Kerry" on transportation documents, I've been told that from 1690 until 1939 the parish now called Moyvane was known as Newtownsandes, so it's a possibility that the Moyvane that's documented might actually relate to one of the TOWNLANDS of Moyvane North or Moyvane South located in the PARISH now named Moyvane. I've read that Philip Cunningaham was born in a place named Gleann Liath (or Gleanlea or Glownlee) in today's parish of Moyvane, but I've been unable to establish the townland in which it's located, although it doesn't seem to be Kilbaha.
Whether or not there's a connection, Philip Cunningham's story is nevertheless worth telling: born in the 1760s, it's known he was related in some way to a Cunningham family in Co. Tipperary, and he moved to that county, probably in the 1790s. He settled in Clonmel where he ran a public house and worked as a stonemason. In February 1798 he married a local woman whose surname was Black. He subsequently became the leader in Clonmel of the 1798 Rising which led to his deportation to Australia in June 1800 on the "Anne I" which docked in Port Jackson in NSW in February 1801. The Castle Hill Rising was the first rebellion in Australian history. Involving Irish convicts (mostly political offenders arrested in the aftermath of the 1798 Rising), the revolt began with the rebels' seizure of their convict station and culminated in a clash between the rebels and government troops. After the troops opened fire, the convicts fled and the rebellion was broken. Philip Cunningham, who had been wounded in the melée, was captured and immediately hanged.
The following relates, not to Philip Cunningham, but to 'unknown' Cunningham above:
