Uploaded March 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
Evictions, the Workhouse and joining the Connaught Rangers
Here is a short clip from a much longer interview that I conducted last week with Nan Cardiff from Monmore, near Ballygarrett in Co. Wexford. Nan is 99 years old and was born in 1927.
In this short clip, she recounts how her father, John Cardiff , along with his mother and sisters, were evicted from their home in Monmore in the 1880s/90s. Their father Matthew emigrated to New York in an effort to earn money, and while he was away, the family was evicted. The houses were completely levelled and the stones from their houses sold off.
As a result, John’s mother ended up in the workhouse in Gorey, where she later died. John himself joined the Connaught Rangers and spent ten years away from Ballygarrett. When he eventually returned home, his mother had already passed away and a cousin bumped into him in Gorey and thought he it was his ghost as he’d disappeared for so long. It appears John was in Africa for a spell while in the British Army and Nan tells us that he was mugged on his way back from Wexford and anything he had saved, was taken from him.
What makes the story even more striking is that the landlord who evicted them was an Irish landlord, a Catholic landlord. It’s remarkable to think that we can still hear stories from the late 1800s so clearly through people like Nan, told almost as if they happened only yesterday. I’ll share the full recording soon. In the meantime, have a listen to this short clip.
Text: Michael Fortune
Evictions, the Workhouse and joining the Connaught Rangers
Here is a short clip from a much longer interview that I conducted last week with Nan Cardiff from Monmore, near Ballygarrett in Co. Wexford. Nan is 99 years old and was born in 1927.
In this short clip, she recounts how her father, John Cardiff , along with his mother and sisters, were evicted from their home in Monmore in the 1880s/90s. Their father Matthew emigrated to New York in an effort to earn money, and while he was away, the family was evicted. The houses were completely levelled and the stones from their houses sold off.
As a result, John’s mother ended up in the workhouse in Gorey, where she later died. John himself joined the Connaught Rangers and spent ten years away from Ballygarrett. When he eventually returned home, his mother had already passed away and a cousin bumped into him in Gorey and thought he it was his ghost as he’d disappeared for so long. It appears John was in Africa for a spell while in the British Army and Nan tells us that he was mugged on his way back from Wexford and anything he had saved, was taken from him.
What makes the story even more striking is that the landlord who evicted them was an Irish landlord, a Catholic landlord. It’s remarkable to think that we can still hear stories from the late 1800s so clearly through people like Nan, told almost as if they happened only yesterday. I’ll share the full recording soon. In the meantime, have a listen to this short clip.
Text: Michael Fortune
