Profiles in Progress: Paddy & JJ Muggivan

I. Background & Locale

• Lived in Derrycon, above Mountshannon, with views over Lough Derg and the River Shannon.
• Came from a rural farming family with limited formal schooling.
• Was likely semi-literate or illiterate, which deeply shaped:
  • His reluctance to speak in public.
  • His avoidance of paperwork and official processes.
  • His silence with his children and limited narrative explanations.
  • Why so much of his story survived only as fragments.

II. IRA Activity (c. 1918–1921)

Based on inherited stories and known patterns of the East Clare struggle, Paddy was likely a member of the East Clare IRA, Mountshannon Company.

Probable activities included:

• Acting as a lookout for riverboats carrying British soldiers along the Shannon.
• Participating in raids on local estates.

In one raid, he was friendly with the woman of the targeted estate and tried to warn her. The warning failed and one IRA man was killed. This incident carries guilt, ambiguity, and danger all at once.

His role appears to have been that of a rank-and-file Volunteer, oriented toward physical action rather than administration or paperwork.

III. Betrayal, Arrest & Killaloe Jail

While cutting turf with a local man with intellectual disabilities (referred to as “the simpleton”), Paddy was betrayed and arrested by the RIC.

• Both he and the disabled man were taken to Killaloe jail.
• They were kept in a yard locked at night.
• Guards threw chickens into a communal stew pot.

In a moment of dark humor, Paddy told his companion: “If they run out of chickens, they might throw you in next.”

The setting, timing, and style of arrest match known patterns from East Clare at the time.

IV. Treaty Week Release (December 1921)

Shortly after the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed on 6 December 1921, prisoners were abruptly released.

• Paddy and the disabled man were ordered out at night.
• They had to walk away in the dark, fearing they might be shot.
• They likely crossed the Portumna bridge, near where the Scariff Martyrs had been shot weeks earlier in a staged “escape”.
• They walked back toward Mountshannon, learning along the way that the Treaty had been signed.

The timing, geography, and emotional atmosphere match historical reality across East Clare at the end of the War of Independence.

V. Anti-Treaty Position & Retaliatory Shot

After the Treaty, Paddy aligned with the Anti-Treaty side, following de Valera and other opponents of the settlement.

IRA leadership discouraged independent retaliation during this volatile transition. But once Paddy identified the local man who had betrayed him (likely an RIC figure), he took action:

• Walked to the family farm in Derrycon and retrieved his shotgun.
• Returned to Mountshannon village.
• Fired at the betrayer’s door from across the street — a symbolic, non-lethal act.

Realizing he had acted outside IRA orders and risked further violence or arrest, he buried the shotgun in a field. Decades later, your uncle found the rusted barrel, giving the story physical confirmation.

VI. Exile to New York

To prevent further conflict, retaliation, or civil war entanglement, IRA leadership arranged for Paddy to go to New York in the early 1920s (c. 1922–1924/5).

This kind of “cooling-off exile” was common and served to:

• Protect Volunteers at risk.
• Defuse local feuds and potential revenge cycles.
• Avoid internecine violence as the Civil War loomed.

While in New York, he bought a white second-hand suit. On his return to Mountshannon, when he walked into the pub, locals joked: “Jesus, look at the baker!”

The image fits: a quiet man, uncomfortable with attention, drawn into a transatlantic arc he never fully narrated.

VII. Land Redistribution at Keenes Pub

During the 1930s–40s, land reclaimed from estates was redistributed by the Land Commission. In Mountshannon, the process took place at Keenes Pub, a long-standing family pub.

• Paddy attended the meeting but stayed silent.
• He did not nominate himself for land.
• Someone finally called him out publicly: “Jesus Paddy! You fought the bleeding Brits, will you take some land for yourself?”
• He eventually accepted land, helping shape the farm that remained part of the family landscape.

The scene captures a man who had fought, suffered, and yet still hesitated to claim what he had earned.

VIII. Illiteracy as a Central Thread

Paddy’s probable semi-literacy or illiteracy is not a side detail — it is a central structuring force in his life story.

It helps explain:

• His discomfort with public speaking.
• Why he never applied for an IRA pension.
• Why he left no written record of his experiences.
• The heavy silence around his life and emotions.
• The fragmentary way stories survived into the next generation.

This is entirely consistent with the lives of many rural men of his generation in East Clare and across Ireland.

I. Birth & Early Context

• Born 31 May 1942, with the birth officially registered (incorrectly) as 30 May.
• Born in Galway, moved into County Clare due to a later boundary shift.
• Registered six months late, which complicates the record trail.

II. Siblings & Infant Loss

The siblings are split across Galway and Clare registrations, with at least two infant deaths. The most probable reconstruction is:

Galway-era Children

• Delia (possibly the eldest).
• Jerry (older brother; frequent fights with JJ).
• Infant #1 — likely died at or shortly after birth, possibly JJ’s twin.
• JJ (your father).

Clare-era Children

• Tony
• Tom
• Marie
• Francis
• Unknown Clare sibling — appears in civil records but is not remembered in family oral history.

Total: 9 births, with 7 surviving children and 2 infant deaths (one almost certainly at or around JJ’s birth).

III. Tuberculosis & Childhood Disruption

JJ’s mother was hospitalized with tuberculosis (TB). The children were distributed among neighbors and extended family — a documented public health practice at the time.

For JJ, this meant early experiences of separation, instability, and fear.

IV. Trauma & Early Hardship

Key traumatic experiences in JJ’s early life included:

• Harsh physical punishment by a local teacher — hiding under a table while the cane struck the furniture above.
• Frequent violent fights with his brother Jerry.
• Serious leg problems requiring drainage.
• Hepatitis C and major health issues.
• Deep feelings of abandonment and fear as a small child.

These experiences set a psychological backdrop of instability, anger, and mistrust of authority.

V. Minor Seminary at Mungret (Limerick)

JJ was sent to the minor seminary at Mungret, near Limerick. This move was arranged by:

• His mother (“Mammy”).
• The wife of a doctor she met in the TB hospital.
• The doctor himself, who had connections to Scariff and paid the fees.

There may have been an unspoken link between this support and a card-game death that weighed on the doctor.

Mungret was known for being brutal, punitive, and academically demanding, especially for rural boys like JJ.

• He arrived academically behind and had to be “caught up”.
• He was mocked for his accent.
• He experienced physical punishment with leather straps on the palms.
• He cycled to see his mother in hospital.
• He endured a religious ritual lying on the floor with arms outstretched.

VI. The Rejection of Hell

At some point in seminary formation, JJ rejected the Catholic concept of Hell as a place of eternal punishment.

This was a major psychological break: it stripped away a central tool of fear-based control and opened the possibility of a faith grounded in justice and conscience rather than terror.

VII. “Because Your Mammy Wants It”

JJ once asked Bill Tierney why he was becoming a priest. Bill’s answer was blunt:

“Because your Mammy wants it.”

That sentence shattered the illusion that priesthood was purely a divine calling. It exposed the mix of family expectation, guilt, and social pressure behind his vocation.

VIII. Carlow, America & Leaving the Priesthood

JJ continued on to Carlow seminary and eventually emigrated to the United States as a priest, landing in San Antonio.

In America he:

• Clashed with church leadership.
• Took radical positions on civil rights.
• Challenged authority structures inside and outside the Church.
• Eventually left the priesthood.
• Met your mother.
• Became a social worker, rebuilding his identity around justice, care, and advocacy for the vulnerable.

This arc — from traumatized rural boy, to reluctant seminarian, to radical priest, to social worker — fits the psychological profile shaped by his childhood and his father’s silence.

I. The Cillín Outside Mountshannon

Your uncle once showed you a piece of forest outside Mountshannon that served as a cillín — an unofficial burial ground for unbaptized infants.

A cillín typically:

• Was used when infants died before baptism.
• Had makeshift grave markers rather than formal headstones.
• Rarely appeared in official records.
• Survived mainly in oral memory.

It is highly plausible that the missing infant, possibly JJ’s twin, is buried there. This would explain:

• The absence of formal records.
• The family’s silence on the subject.
• JJ’s felt sense of a missing twin.
• The “gap” in the birth order.

II. Where the Records Are (and Aren’t)

Online (IrishGenealogy.ie):

• Birth images up to 1924.
• Death indexes up to 1973.
• Marriage images up to 1948.

Not available online:

• JJ’s 1942 birth record.
• The missing twin’s record.
• The “unknown Clare sibling” post-1924.
• Most parish registers from the 1920s–40s.
• Cillín burials (almost never formally recorded).

Places you must visit or write to:

• Roscommon — for Galway civil registers.
• Ennis — for Clare civil registers.
• Mountshannon / Scariff parish offices — for any informal notes or local registers.

III. Most Probable Sibling Reconstruction

Putting all of this together, the most probable sibling set looks like this:

Galway Births

• Delia
• Jerry
• Infant who died at or shortly after birth (likely JJ’s twin)
• JJ (your father)

Clare Births

• Tony
• Tom
• Marie
• Francis
• Unknown Clare sibling (present in civil records only)

This yields 9 children total, with 7 surviving and 2 dying in infancy.

I. Paddy

• Fought in the IRA.
• Was betrayed, arrested, and exiled.
• Acted independently in a retaliatory shooting.
• Returned quietly, accepted land under pressure.
• Lived humbly and spoke little.
• Left no written record, partly due to illiteracy.

II. JJ

• Grew up amid violence, illness, and abandonment.
• Lived with the ghost of a missing twin.
• Was pushed into priesthood through family and social pressure.
• Rejected Hell and fear-based religion.
• Challenged authority in America and left the priesthood.
• Became a social worker, orienting his life toward justice and care.

III. You

• Are reconstructing what your family could never safely say.
• Are turning silence into clarity.
• Are turning trauma into history.
• Are completing an arc that spans three generations — from armed struggle, to institutional rebellion, to careful, evidence-based storytelling.