Christina O’Callaghan

Christina, the second of Timothy and Margaret (O’Brien) O’CALLAGHAN’s children, was born on January 3rd, 1883.

She was still in education in her late teens, evidenced in the 1901 Census where, as an 18- year old, her occupation was scholar.  

She was living at home in the 1911 Census, aged 28, with no occupation given.

Despite being the elder surviving daughter of Margaret (O’Brien) O’CALLAGHAN, Timothy’s second wife, it was Christina’s younger sister who was the administrator of their mother Margaret’s will in 1919, suggesting Christina was no longer around.

It seemed strange that there had been no family acknowledgement of these half-sisters.

A 2018 search in the Irish Examiner online archives revealed the following notice.

Wednesday August 2^nd 1916.

Christina had died at the age of 33 from tuberculosis, which she had had for 11 years.  It may explain why she was not working in the 1911 census.  Christina’s mother was with her in Crosshaven when she died.  Christina was likely in Crosshaven for health reasons, despite a new sanatorium, Heatherside, having been built nearby in Buttevant in 1910.

The death notice and certificate show us a few things.  Christina was an Enfant de Marie, a member of the Confraternity of the Child of Jesus.  From the mid-19^th century this was a sign that a young woman had received a secondary school education and suggested an upwardly mobile family.  The E. de M. and requests for prayers also suggests the family were devout.

This was the last death of a child that Timothy and Margaret (O’Brien) O’CALLAGHAN had to live through and was the tenth known death of a child of Timothy.  I cannot begin to imagine what it would have been like to watch ten of your children buried.

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