Askintinny

Nestled on the scenic, windswept coastline of County Wicklow just south of Arklow town, the rural townland of Askintinny (derived from the Irish Easca an Tine, meaning "the marsh or hollow of the fire") is the ancestral home of this Kavanagh line.

Spanning a compact area of approximately 155 acres, this coastal townland borders Rock Big to the north, Clogga to the east, and Ballinabanoge to the south.

For over sixty years, Askintinny was more than just a place of residence; it was the physical and social anchor for the descendants of John Kavanagh and Elizabeth Death, witnessing their daily struggles, family tragedies and lighthearted sprees.

The Mid-19th Century

The physical foundation of the family's presence in Askintinny is vividly captured in the mid-19th-century land records of the Griffiths Valuation. At this time, the entire 204-acre townland layout of Askintinny was owned by the Earl of Carysfort, who leased the land out to a small group of primary tenants.

Among these tenants was Thomas Death, who held Lot 5 - a smallholding consisting of a house, outbuildings (offices), and just over 7 acres of agricultural land. 

On 17 November 1851, John Kavanagh and Elizabeth Death were married in Arklow. The Griffiths Valuation for County Wicklow was recorded and published in 1852. It is highly likely that the couple lived in Elizabeth’s family home at that time.  They remained on or adjacent to Elizabeth’s family home and established their own home in Askintinny to raise their children.

The Evolution of the Kavanagh Cottage

The physical structure of the Kavanagh family home in Askintinny tells a vivid story of the shifting economic realities of working-class families in rural Ireland across the turn of the century:

• The 1901 Mud-Walled Cabin: The 1901 Census reveals that John and Elizabeth’s cottage was registered as a third-class dwelling. It featured walls constructed of mud or clay (cob) and a traditional thatched roof made of straw or reeds harvested from the Arklow countryside. The cottage consisted of just two rooms and a single front window, meaning the interior was dimly lit by the hearth fire and daylight. Despite its humble size, it was a highly functional smallholding; John was the landholder, and the property featured a stable, a piggery, and a fowl house, allowing the family to raise livestock and harvest eggs to supplement John's wages.

• The 1911 Stone Slate Cottage: Following John's death in 1907, the family home underwent a major structural modernization. By the 1911 Census, when the widowed Elizabeth was head of the household, the dwelling had been rebuilt with sturdy stone or brick walls and a slate, iron, or tiled roof. Though the family's outbuildings had been reduced to a single fowl house, Elizabeth and her daughter Mary Connors kept a flock of poultry right outside the door, maintaining their self-sufficiency.

Seafaring and Survival on the Coastal Fringe

Life in Askintinny required a dual reliance on both land and sea. During his prime working years between 1865 and 1895, John Kavanagh’s calling was the sea; civil registry entries consistently record him as an Arklow fisherman. Living right on the coastal fringe, John braved the yields and dangers of the Irish Sea alongside a tight-knit community of seasonal mariners.

As John aged into his sixties and seventies, he left the grueling life of the fishing fleets behind to work ashore as an agricultural labourer, managing his Askintinny smallholding. This transition from maritime to land-based labour was a common lifecycle pattern for Arklow's coastal families, passing the seafaring trade down to successive generations.

A Landscape of Heartbreak and Resilience

While Askintinny was a place of deep community connection, the soil of the townland also bore witness to the immense hardships of the era. John and Elizabeth raised a large, resilient family, but they also suffered devastating losses to childhood epidemics:

• The 1873 Tragedies: On 4 January 1873, their fifteen-year-old daughter, Mary, passed away at home from dropsy. Just two months later, on 2 March 1873, their two-year-old son, William, succumbed to whooping cough. In an incredible testament to the family's resilience, Elizabeth gave birth to another daughter, Teresa, the very next day.

• The 1879 Smallpox Outbreak: In May 1879, a deadly outbreak of smallpox struck the Askintinny home. In the span of just three days, John and Elizabeth lost six-year-old Teresa and four-year-old James.

• Infant Mortality in the Next Generation: The tragedy of infant loss returned to Askintinny in the next generation. Mary Kavanagh (who married sailor James Connors and remained in the family homestead) tragically lost two infant sons, both named James, to congenital debility in 1908 and 1912.

The Askintinny Shebeen Raids

Askintinny was also the stage for some of the family's most colourful and infamous historical episodes. Operating an unlicensed drinking establishment, or "shebeen," out of the family home provided a vital, if illegal, source of secondary income.

John and Elizabeth established a legacy of hard work, deep maritime tradition and family bonds that would carry their descendants forward into the modern era.