Crocknagross
Crocknagross
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The breakthrough in connecting the krocknagross Rooneys to the 'Cooper' Rooneys of Derrygannon came in July 2011. While reading the Memoirs of Master Hugh Rooney In His Memoirs Hugh is discussing his family and mentions the following: The most outstanding musician in this district was Micky Rooney who died in the sixties of the last century, about 1865. He was born in the townland of Knocknagross and when a child of seven or eight lost his sight in that dreadful scourge of the time –smallpox. I have seen quite a number of people in this parish who bore the marks left by this disease on their faces and were said to be "brocked" or "brock-ed", their faces being covered with little holes and terribly disfigured. Anyone seeing such disfigurement must surely give credit to vaccination, which in this country wiped out the scourge completely.
Micky's parents decided that he should learn the fiddle, so that he should have some source of livelihood when he grew up. He was sent to the famous McCaffrey of Monaghan, the best traditional fiddler of the time. Mickey was an apt pupil and made rapid strides under McCaffrey's tuition. Monaghan was ten or eleven miles from Micky's home, too much of a journey for him to walk, considering his handicap, so he rode an ass to and from his lessons.
If you have read Carlston's description of Micky MacRory you will have little trouble in imagining what the main outlines of Micky Rooney's character were; for it always seemed to me that the two fiddlers resembled each other in quite a good many ways. Rooney had that calmness of spirit peculiar to the blind, he was a man of few words, of temperate habits, fond of a little joke now and then, and, as if in compensation for the loss of his sight, his other senses were remarkably sharp. If a string of his instrument happened to break he would sometimes call on the woman of the house to bring him a candle while he put in a replacement for the broken string, and usually the poor woman fussed around and came along with the candle, to find that Micky had the broken string replaced.
Micky had a great many relations in the locality and he visited most of those from time to time on his rounds. There was always a dance in the house where he was a guest: but if he stayed for more than one night there were sure to be more than one dance. There were pauses for songs during the night and Micky sometimes obliged. He was a rather good baritone. Of course he accompanied himself on the fiddle.
He was a late riser, some time between ten and twelve o'clock. He spent a long time at his prayers, for he was a deeply religious man, like numerous others of his time. He would then proceed to brush his clothes and this took quite a time also, but somehow he managed to appear spotless in the kitchen where the woman of the house was impatiently awaiting his arrival.
Micky reminds me in some ways of the bards and minstrels of ancient Ireland, but ' Micky went round the homes of his relatives, while the former visited the houses of the great. He took little interest in money; if he got it, well and good, if he didn't, he never complained. My father and he were cousins. Our people came to this part of Fermanagh as refugees from Drogheda, Co. Louth, after or during the sack of that city by Cromwell.
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Descendants of John Rooney
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We can see above a summary of Alish's family tree. There is a Micky Rooney there, he died in 1867 as Hugh mentioned in his memoirs. This Micky was a cousin of Master Hugh Rooneys father. I had already done a great deal of research on Master Hughs family. His father was Hugh' Cooper' Rooney, he got this nickname from his father, Thomas Rooney who was a cooper by trade. This meant that Mickys father John Rooney would have been the brother of Thomas Rooney. I had also concluded that the father of Thomas was a Hugh Rooney. This enabled me to go back two generations in Alish's family tree.
After intergrating Alish's great grandfather John Rooney into the Cooper Rooney tree, I came up with the following.
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