In a message dated 4/30/2004 1:51:38 AM Eastern Standard Time, jerrykelly@att.net writes: They may still be there Aye, Jerry, me boyo (as fake as ever it gets), we have actually seen what our guide said was 'Fallon Castle.' His name was John Donohoe and he volunteered to show it to us when we stopped in at the home/shop/pub of Shamus O'Fallon at Thomas Street, northwest of Athlone. Mr Fallon was in Dublin, but John heard us asking if anyone knew of the whereabouts of the castle, mentioned in MacLysaght's (sp?) book. He came with us and led us down a loooooooong single lane between (what else?) stone walls to the remnants of a tower castle by a stream (the Suck?)and a field with grazing cattle. The tallest remaining wall was possibly eight feet, but the shape was still evident. On a lovely day, it seemed idyllic. I lay no claim to it. It appears that an Edmund O'Fallon was granted it back by Elizabth I for certain pledges of alleigience. The name pervades the area, so I have little hope of finding a parent for the Michael Fallon who came to America (from Roscommon, according to his obituary) in 1839 at the age of 21, accompanied by some brothers, so tradition says. My genealogy teachers tended to belittle that aspect, as too common to credit, but a Malachi Fallon lived next door in 1860 when I finally traced him to Remson in Oneida Co., NY. The rest of the family story is that the 'boys' were in trouble with the British, so their father shipped them out to save their lives. There are many Fallons in the Tithe Applotment records in Roscommon. Any Michael (my grgrandfather Michael named his first son Michael) may be my gggrandfather, but how to choose? Thank you for your concise reponse. I should have warned you that I have spent nearly thirty years on our joint families, with some interesting developments (my husband and I are eighth cousins, once removed, from the families who founded Middletown, CT, in the 1650's, through our mothers.) The Irish have been difficult, but I may eventually find more about the Dwyers and the Walshes, who may have come from Tipperary or Clare, though I'm running out of time. Thanks again. Mary

Hi Mary, Very neat you've seen the castle. Also, I noted your family story that the boys were in trouble with the British and needed to get out. I'm also surprised by your genealogy teachers saying that the story is too common to be believed. As you know, at that point in time (1839) Ireland was ready to boil over. Things were, as always, really bad and the Irish had been fighting back as tithe withholders during the day and as "Ribbonmen" guerrillas at night. I don't remember the exact statistic but something like 5% of the population owned 90% of the land. Most of about 80% of the population (except for a very small and newly-emerging merchant class) owned nothing or practically nothing and were on the brink of starvation half the time, living in huts when they were lucky, but also in ditches and in holes they dug out of bogs. The memory of British troops executing any Irish-speakers they came across in 1798 was as vivid for Michael's father as the My Lai massacre is for someone of my generation. And if we talk about sheer population, we go from 8 million in 1841 to an estimated total of about 9-10 million on the eve of the Famine (1846) to 6.6 million in 1851 to 4.4 million in 1911, 5 years before the Eas! ter Rising. That population drop didn't come about because the British turned Ireland into some kind of island paradise. So I don't get it when your genealogy teachers say that the story of the brothers being in trouble with the British is too common a story to be believed. That's like telling a Ukranian or a Russian family that they didn't have any trouble with the Nazis during WWII and didn't have to flee their village because the story is too common to be believed. From the British point of view in 1839, 80% of Ireland was the equivalent of Viet Cong territory, controlled or dominated by an enemy attacking at night. Can you imagine a Vietnamese family from a Viet Cong area being able to say today or in 1975 that they never had any trouble with Americans? Now that would be truly unbelievable. In other words, if that's the family story, it is no doubt true and anybody who says it's not needs to learn a lot more about Irish history. Best, - Jerry