Traditions of Omey Island
Duffy's Hibernian Magazine - December 1860
Many of the early settlers of Minooka were from Omey Island, including Mulkerin, Powell, Flaherty, Flynn, and Toole. Later emigrants included Faherty, Lacy, and King. Omey Island (Irish: Iomaidh) is a tidal island situated near Claddaghduff on the western edge of Connemara in County Galway. From the mainland, the island is inconspicuous and almost hidden. At low tide, it is possible to drive or walk across a large sandy strand to the island. At high tide, the water is deep enough to cover a car. It's a stunning landscape with sand-dunes and rolling hills, a lake, boulders, grass, flowers, cows, rabbits, and cemeteries. Little has changed on Omey from the time the article below appeared in Duffy's Hibernian Magazine. When the article was published in December 1860, Mary Mulkerin had already emigrated to Minooka (Lackawanna Township) and had married Patrick Powell. Mary's sister, Ann, who would marry Patrick Ryan, was living with the Ruanes on Birney Avenue. Their brother, John Mulkerin, would emigrate in 1862. When John was killed in a mine accident in 1867, his widow, Bridgit Flaherty, married Anthony Cusick.
"If the tourist, who contemplates a journey through the
majestic scenery which intervenes between the towns of Clifden and Westport,
consent to leave the high-road after crossing the bridge of Streamstown, about
a mile and a half from the former place, and turn with us in a due westerly
direction, we will undertake to conduct him along one of not the least interesting bye-ways of the wild region of West Connaught. The road lies for about two
miles by the northern shore of the narrow channel or inlet known as
Streasmstown bay, which indeed in some places is scarcely a hundred yards
across, and is frequently enclosed among rugged and blackened rocks of huge dimensions. We pass the old church-yard of Tempul Athdearg, or the church of the
Red-ford; and a little further on, the ruins of the old house or castle at
Doon, which stands on our side of the inlet, while on the other side of the
water are the ruins of the ancient church of Kill, covered with ivy. This inlet
was once a famous resort of smugglers, and a good story is told of a
contrivance by which they succeeded, on a certain occasion, in escaping from
the crew of a revenue cruiser who pursued them in boats; a number of
spade-handles having been so placed as to resemble a formidable array of
muskets projecting from a steep bank, and the king’s people being induced by
these “threatening” preparations to make a rapid retreat to their vessel.
