The elusive Con Murrin, Rathlin O'Birne

All photos, except one, myhome.ie

Five years ago, give or take, I wrote a piece about the history of Rathlin O'Birne (O'Beirne) and the keepers that served on that illustrious isle off the southwest coast of Donegal. While listing the keepers I had come across, I wrote that

'Con Murrin,' AK, could not attend his father's funeral due to heavy seas in 1940. Another newspaper report names him as Cornelius Meenan. The minor incident above also references 'Con Meenan.'

Obviously, putting Con Murrin in italics indicated that I thought that it was a newspaper typo for Con Meenan, a keeper that I knew to be on the island at that time. Connell Meenan (282) had been born on the 20th or 21st September 1892 at Malinmore, co Donegal, the son of farmer Frank and Anne Meenan. He joined Irish Lights in 1917, became an AK in 1920 and principal keeper at Inishowen on 1st August 1941. During that time, he had served on Tory Island (1919-23); Rathlin O'Birne (1923-29); Blackrock Mayo (from 10/7/29); Tuskar (26/4/32); Rathlin O'Birne, again, (18/2/36); Inishowen East (15/7/41); Haulbowline (1946).. Fanad (1946-49); and Wicklow Head (1949-52)
It would obviously have puzzled his family as to how he could not get off the island in 1940 to attend his father's funeral, when Frank had died in 1932 and Con had actually been the informant on the death cert. It was my fault - I should have checked. My wife will tell you it is the only time I have ever got anything wrong in my life.

So who was Con Murrin?

There was certainly no 'Murrin' in the Irish Lights records of the 1930s and 1940s and the lists for Rathlin O'Birne for that period listed nobody, save for Con Meenan, with whom the name could have been confused.

I trawled through my own records and eventually came up trumps. In 2022, I had paid a two hour trip to the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) in the Titanic quarter of Belfast. As my time was limited, I ordered everything lighthouse-related I could find and quickly copied everything, meaning, naturally, to sort them out later. Of course, some I did, some I didn't. There are 2 letters I found that throw light on the elusive Con Murrin.

The first is from a guy called James Craig (a famous name at the time!) of Malinbeg and was dated 6th December 1926. James was a peace commissioner. It was written to Sir James Craig (the famous name at the time), Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, and reads

Sir,

I beg to ask if you could possibly do a favour to a young man (Cornelius Murrin) of Malinbeg in obtaining a nomination from the Commissioners of Irish Lights, Dublin, for examination as Lightkeeper?

Being the same name as you, he appealed to me to intercede for him.

He is for years employed by the Irish Lights Board as temporary Lightkeeper at Rathlin O'Birne Lighthouse when keepers are sick, or on leave, so that he thoroughly knows the business and wishes to be permanently appointed at any lighthouse,

I am, etc...

To which, the Prime Minister's private secretary responded on 10th December - 

Dear Sir,

Sir James Craig has asked me to acknowledge your letter of 6th instant in regard to the desire of Mr Cornelius Murrin for an appointment as Lightkeeper under the Irish Lights Board.

I am to explain that Sir James has found it necessary to make a rigid rule not to give recommendations except in cases where the applicant is personally known to him. He is sure you will appreciate the difficulty there would be in making any exception, and in the circumstances, therefore, hopes you will excuse his acceding to your request.

Yours faithfully etc 

Firstly, it should be pointed out that people called Con were widely assumed to have been baptised as Cornelius. It just so happened that in both the Murrin and Meenan families, they had been baptised Connell.

Secondly, it is difficult to fathom why a peace commissioner thought that an appeal of this nature should have any chance of success simply because the two men shared the same name!

Anyway, having found the elusive Con Murrin, hiding in plain sight at Malinbeg, the nearest point on the mainland to Rathlin O'Birne, it was easy to find that he had been born in 1902 to Patrick, a farmer, and Bridget. 

Rathlin O'Beirne from Malinbeg

The letter suggests that in 1926 he had been called upon regularly down through the years to stand in as a temporary keeper and he doubtless knew the job inside out. Yet for some reason, he never got the call for an examination. There must have been some reason why this was - perhaps he had annoyed one of the keepers who informed Irish Lights that the man was not suitable; perhaps he had some kind of infirmity that automatically precluded him (only one eye?); or maybe he was simply too short? 

Obviously he carried on doing the temporary lightkeeper thang for many years, as he was stranded on the island for his father's funeral in 1940. (And yes, I checked - Patrick Murrin died in October 1940). Con married and stayed in the farming world all his life. His death cert in 1963, aged 60, lists him as a farm worker.

Possibly he was the one who got away.