DESCENDANTS OF Bridget NOLAN (to contribute information, please email Helen@HelensFamilyTrees.com)

Third Generation


6. Thomas (Tom) P. RYAN (Malachy RYAN , Bridget ) was born about 22 Jul 1894 in Garryhill, Co. Carlow and was christened 22 Jul 1894 in Bagenalstown, Co. Carlow. He died early 1940s in Dublin.

Sponsors at Tom's baptism were James Nolan and Pauline Kearney.

Thomas married Eileen COLLINS on 28 Sep 1927 in Church of the Most Holy Redeemer, Bray, Co. Wicklow. Eileen died in probably Dublin.

Eileen was from Lucan, Co. Dublin.

They had the following children:

  9 M i Malachy RYAN
        Malachy married 'UNKNOWN'
  10 F ii Mary RYAN
  11 F iii Philomena RYAN
  12 M iv Sean RYAN

7. Mary RYAN (Malachy RYAN , Bridget ) was born 24 Mar 1898 in Garryhill, Co. Carlow and was christened 27 Mar 1898 in Bagenalstown, Co. Carlow. She died 18 Nov 1950 in Dublin and was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin.

Sponsors at Mary's christening were Gerald Kearney and Clare O'Reilly.

Mary was educated at the Loreto Secondary School on Dublin's St. Stephen's Green. After leaving school, Mary went to England and joined the Post Office Section of the British Civil Service in the Brook Green / Kensington area of London.

Mary and her London-born future husband, Stephen Hussey, met at a local dance in west London. In comparision to his six-foot frame, five-foot-tall Mary was tiny. In 1921, about a year before their marriage, Stephen visited Ireland for the first time when Mary brought him to meet her family in Co. Carlow. After they married, Mary and Stephen lived in East Acton, and later at 12 Ullswater Road (which Stephen designed and built) in Barnes in London.

Around 1948, after her eldest three daughters had moved to Ireland, Mary brought Brigie, the youngest, to Dublin to join her sisters. Mary's plan was to help her daughters settle in to their new home in Clonskeagh after which she would return to London. However while in Ireland her health began to deteriorate and it was discovered she had cancer. She never made it back to London, and died in Dublin aged only 52.

Mary married Stephen HUSSEY, son of James HUSSEY and Jane Frances BUTLER, on 22 Aug 1922 in Bagenalstown, Co. Carlow. Stephen was born 25 Jul 1895 in Hammersmith, London. He died 7 Sep 1978 in Dublin and was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin.

Stephen grew up in Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. Money was short, and he had to leave school at the age of 11 or 12 to help financially in the upbringing of his younger brothers and sisters. He's listed, aged 15, in the 1911 census as a builder's clerk.

In 1914, at the beginning of World War I, Stephen joined the Royal Engineers Regiment of the British Army - the 'sappers', as they were known - and was sent to France. Sappers endured the most atrocious conditions and were always the last to leave an area when a retreat was taking place, blowing up roads and bridges behind them so as to slow up pursuit by enemy forces. During one such British evacuation, Stephen carried a wounded man to safety on his back, under gunfire, and was awarded the Military Medal.

After the war, Stephen was trained as a builder by his grandfather, Thomas Hussey, and his uncle, Will Hussey. Stephen later formed a partnership with a Mr. Worman (Worman and Hussey), eventually setting up his own building company, Hussey Bros. (Builders) Ltd., on Queensway, Bayswater, London, with his brothers, Martin and Austin. The company was mostly involved in the building of churches, schools and convents, and for many years, Hussey Bros. had a maintenance contract with Westminster Cathedral. During World War II, once the German air assault on London started, the brothers worked mostly under official government contract on emergency repair and safety building work. After the war, the company built several modern churches.

In 1947, Stephen and his wife, Mary, decided that their daughters would be better off living in Ireland, and so the girls moved to Dublin, the plan being that Stephen and Mary would initially remain in London and eventually retire to Dublin. Stephen and Mary sold their home in Barnes, moved into a flat over the premises of Hussey Bros. in Bayswater, and  purchased a house in Roebuck Road in Clonskeagh for their daughters. However on an extended visit to the girls' new home, Mary became ill and died in Dublin.

After Mary's death, Stephen visited Dublin more and more frequently. In 1957, with Maureen married, and Una and Brigie about to be married, he decided to sell the house on Roebuck Road, and a smaller house on Cedarmount Road in Mount Merrion was purchased. In the 1960s Stephen retired to Dublin, and for the remainder of his life he lived with Sheila at 14 Cedarmount Road.

They had the following children:

+ 13 F i Maureen HUSSEY was born 5 Jul 1924 and died 19 Mar 1995.
  14 F ii
Sheila HUSSEY was born 2 Jan 1927 in East Acton, London. She died 27 Jun 2003 in Mount Merrion, Dublin and was buried 30 Jun 2003 in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin.

Sheila grew up in Barnes in London where she was educated at a small French convent about a mile from her home. Barnes was heavily bombed during World War II and Sheila and her family spent much time in the air-raid shelter built by her father under the garage of their home.

One day during the war, Sheila, dressed in her school uniform, was waiting in Barnes for a bus to take her to Hammersmith Broadway to do some shopping for her mother. As usual there were many army vehicles passing by and one of them, a large U.S. Army car with flags, stopped and a large, middle-aged officer with an impressive array of medals on his uniform offered Sheila a lift. Sheila hopped in beside his driver and on the short trip to Hammersmith she and the officer in the back of the car chatted about school and her favourite subjects. It was only the next day, when she looked at the front page of the newspaper and saw a photograph of the officer, that Sheila realised she had met General Dwight D. Eisenhower.

After leaving school, Sheila started work in the Irish Passport Office at the Irish Embassy in London. Some time later, Sheila acted, unknowingly, as a matchmaker for two of her sisters: a group of young Irish civil servants had been sent from Dublin to augment the staff at the Irish Passport Office, and among them were Cormac Gordon and Michael Roantree. Sheila's mother, remembering how lonely she had felt when she had first arrived in London from Ireland, told Sheila to invite the newcomers to tea on Sundays. And that was how Sheila's sister Maureen met her future husband, Cormac. Another sister, Una, would later marry Michael's brother Tom. Sheila herself never married.

After Sheila moved to Dublin in 1947 with her sisters, she worked briefly in advertising and then moved on to publishing and some freelance journalism. She then spent a number of years in the now-defunct Irish News Agency, after which she joined Coras Trachtála (the Irish Export Board) and worked for many years in public relations and press work. She lived on Cedarmount Road, Mount Merrion, Co. Dublin and in her retirement became an active member of the Green party.
+ 15 F iii Una HUSSEY was born 1 Oct 1928 and died 29 Sep 1995.
+ 16 F iv Brigid (Brigie) HUSSEY

8. Patrick (Paddy) RYAN (Malachy RYAN , Bridget ) was born about 21 Oct 1900 in Garryhill, Co. Carlow and was christened 21 Oct 1900 in Bagenalstown, Co. Carlow. He died 16 Apr 1973.

Sponsors at Paddy's christening were Patrick Joyce and Margaret Joyce.

Paddy was headmaster of Garryhill School, like his father and grandfather before him. However he taught at the new school which was built a short distance away from the old National and Agricultural School where his elder brother John, his father and grandfather had taught.

Patrick married Cecilia (Stanzie) KEALY, daughter of Martin KEALY and Christina 'UNKNOWN', on 12 Aug 1931 in Church of Ss Peter and Paul, Killinierin, Co. Wexford. Cecilia was born 1903 in Co. Kilkenny. She died 17 Nov 1990 in Ballon, Co. Carlow and was buried in Drumphea Church Cemetery, Co. Carlow.

'Stanzie' was a childhood name which stuck. Her father was a teacher and she followed in his footsteps. She was offered a job at Garryhill School and that was how she met Paddy, who was headmaster of the school. In 1937 she and Paddy built a house in Garryhill (designed by Paddy's brother-in-law Stephen Hussey) on the site of the old National and Agricultural School. And in 1943, Stanzie, who came from a very musical family, formed a highy regarded flageolet band composed of 16 children from the school.

They had the following children:

+ 17 M i Malachy John RYAN
+ 18 F ii Moira RYAN
+ 19 M iii Patrick (Pat) RYAN

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