OToole - Looking Under Stones

There have been Moriartys in Kerry for as long as history records, but the first one of whom I heard stories was Daddy Tom, my great-great-grandfather. And by all accounts he was not the kind of behavioural role model we would be inclined to hold up to our children. He had a reputation as a bit of a rake; the kind of man a father would be reluctant to leave alone with his daughter.

Daddy Tom married another Moriarty, a distant cousin, thereby reuniting two sides of the family. His wife, Sle g, was from below the hill in Mullach Mhial, a beautiful and remote place tucked in under the Conor Pass, on the Cloghane side. The Mullach Mhial people had a centuries-old track worn into Dingle, across the hill, through Camaois and down by the Glens. Daddy Tom called into Mullach Mhial regularly enough. It was always expected that he would marry Mary, the eldest girl; they were promised to each other. But Toms eyes wandered. He was distracted by the younger Sle, and soon it was himself and Sle g who were becoming great with each other.

It wasnt a situation approved of by Sles father, who did not trust Tom for either of his daughters: By God but werent we privileged to have had his company again today! He is too fond of the drink and mad for the other thing, that fella. Im telling you, youd be better off keeping far away from him. Young ODonnell is far steadier. Tom Moriarty might be clan but he has a dangerous, wild streak in him.

Sle was well aware that James ODonnell was steadier. Wasnt he a neighbour and didnt she know him all her life. When he called to the house you wouldnt notice the difference; he was just like the rest of her family. And he would marry her in the morning. Everyone expected it. James was safe, secure and dull.

Tom Moriarty was a rogue. He plmsed her mother, drank with her brothers, challenged her father, laughed at the world and worried little. He was exciting. Never a ptrn day or fair did he miss and he would never leave a ball before morning. And she had heard about him and the women. But she wanted him around and wanted to be with him.

One fine summers day, when it was time for Tom to leave, Sle walked with him up the path to the top of the hill where, no doubt, the stunning views of the north and south sides of the Peninsula were the last things on the minds of two healthy, handsome youngsters. As Breandy Begley put it, They went at it so hard that Tom left the print of Sles arse on the side of the track!

Nature took its course, and with a baby on the way the couple did what they were expected to do and got married. And as for a honeymoon, a learned local historian told me once, What honeymoon are you talking about? In those days the honeymoon after the wedding was a day in town and a night in bed. While the young lovers settled in to the married state, it is said that Daddy Tom did not let marriage completely change his rakish ways. Seven or eight at home and a few more around the parish, was his answer to an enquiry as to the size of his family. Tom took to heart the great biblical imperative Go forth and multiply and made it a personal mission.

The story of Daddy Tom and Sle was an entertainment, and the generational distance in time made it safe to tell. But these two people represent the beginnings of the family tree and, as such, they evoked a great curiosity. As it happens, the old track from Glens through Camaois into Mullach Mhial is extant. Little or nothing has changed and, apart from the presence of a power line with its string of poles, the view today is the same as it would have been for Tom and Sle.