Post Scriptum September 13th 2005
This picture gets curiouser and curiouser!
Thanks in part to some notes which my brother David sent to me a long time ago which originally came from our cousin Neill Fleischman I have been able to identify some more people and even provide some anecdotes about the same.
Great Aunt Min Barry was the mater familias as William's mother had died some time ago. She was a woman who has a reputation for performing great charitable works including sending packed lunches each day to the women in Cork Jail. She and her husband George Barry were childless so they adopted the Dwyer children as their own. My father still spoke fondly of Auntie Min.
This must be the brides mother, Mary Harding nee Maguire. A formidible looking lady as becomes the daughter of an apostle of temperance. She is in full Victorian mourning so we can take it that Edward Harding, the father of the bride is dead.
This lady is the most interesting of all.
Mabel Dwyer, in the family tree she gets a brief (Unm) after her name.
But what a wealth of family legend and heresay that hides.
Before I get to her story I must point out the most glaring omission of the day.
Where is the Grooms Father?
Walter Dwyer of Arbutus Lodge was alive and well.
Of this I am certain because in 1914, (which is the year this photograph was taken) he married for the third time.
His third wife was a May Goldie, a French Governess to the Pollack family.
(Family legend has it that she was previously courted by my grandfather, his son, George/Dubs)
Is that the reason why he was not present?
Was there a family row about his choice of bride?
We do know that Mabel, being the only one at home,had sought permission to marry only to be refused by her father on the grounds ;
"Who would look after me then!"
Mabel remained unmarried but the bold Walter went for the third wife as a safety clause.
That he had already built his own "fire escape" is evidenced that when the other daughter of the house, Mary, insisted, against his wishes in entering the Poor Clares, he promptly built a Poor Clare convent in Cork so she would be nearer him. This convent still stands and we as a family had special permission to attend Midnight Mass there on Christmas Day right up to my adolescence.
Furthermore as proof that Walter was not dead or indeed ailing he afterwards fathered four children with his third wife May. One of these, Rosemary, as Holy Child nun, Sister Colette, went on to become a marvellous champion of the Travellers in Ireland.
We know that after Walter's death May Goldie went to London where she married an emigre white Russian Count, many years her junior.
Boys Oh! Boys!
Did these people lead colourful lives!
The researches continue.