Bridget Donohue : Short Biography

Bridget Donohue O'Dea was the wife of John O'Dea and the mother of Nora, John, Michael, Owen, Patrick, Mary, Catherine.  See her profile on my Mulkerin-Bowen public tree on ancestry.com. Two of her children married members of the Mulkerin family:  Mary O'Dea married Michael Mulkerin, and Michael O'Dea married Delia Mulkerin.  

Bridget Donohue was probably born between 1830 and 1833, according to her ages as reported on the 1911 Irish census record and her civil death record.  No birth or baptism record has yet been located.  In the 1901 census, she is reported to be only 60 years old, which would put her birth year around 1841.  But at the time of her death in 1912, her grandson John (the informant on the Irish civil death record) reported her age as 82, which would make her birth year around 1830.  

The 1901 Irish census shows her living as head of household, widowed, house number 1 in Killiny East, Killiny; religion Roman Catholic; language spoken - Irish and English; literacy reported as "cannot read".  Also in the household were her son Owen O'Dea, age 35, bootmaker, and her grandchildren, Jane Mulkerin, age 8 and John Joe Mulkerin, age 4.  Jane and John were the American-born children of Bridget's daughter Mary.  They were brought to live with their grandmother around the time their father died.  Their mother returned to the US to work, and she traveled over to Ireland to visit them periodically.  Bridget had quite an influence on her grandson John's musical development, according to his recollections later in life.  He said that he used to listen to her "lilting" the old tunes, and then he would try to play them on the accordion he won at a country fair. As an adult in the US, he had a band called "Jack Mulkerin and the Emerald Boys".  He told the story about his grandmother's lilting in an interview for a Stamford Advocate article (printed in March 1955).  

The 1911 census shows Bridget living as head of household, widowed, house number 7, Killiny West.  Her granddaughter Jane had returned to the US, but her grandson John, age 14, was still in the household, as was her son Owen, age 49.  The Irish civil death record (accessed through rootsireland.ie) shows her death on 10 Feb 1912 in Killina, Kinvara, Galway. Soon after her death, Owen and John went to the US.