In 2021, I received a photo from Cynthia Carraher Minervini.  This photo had been passed along to her after her parents, John and Helen Carraher had passed away.   Cynthia did not know the identity of the young man was in the photo.  Along with the photo she had sent the stylized cover and information that was written on the back of the photo.  Well, his name is Thomas Eric McAuley, and he was born to Thomas and Elsie McAuley in England in 1918. That is where Thomas McAuley (1888- 1961).

At the time I had shared this photo with a small group of McCauley descendants who were meeting via zoom calls to put together family information during the Covid pandemic.  The group was not sure who this person was as the name was spelled differently from the rest of the “Fermanagh Ten” (the ten McCauley children born to Bernard (1^st) and Anne Kerrin). I thought that this may be another McAuley family from Newtate Road.   There are a few families of McCauley’s there represented in the 1902 Irish Census.

Recently I was able to find definitive information on Thomas McAuley and re-read my father’s notes that said that Thomas had a son named Eric.  The way the letter “C” appears to me on the back of the photograph, it looked more like a lower case “e “and so I thought the name was Ernie McAuley.  With new facts and context, it does make sense the name is Eric. A copy of the notes from Bernard McCauley (IV) is below.

In the photo above Eric McAuley, aged 18 years, April 1936.  The cover (below) is from W. Hudson on Darling Street in Enniskillen, the location of the portrait studio.   Frankie Roofe, local historian had a photograph of a relative of his that utilized the same background and pose, and book used as a prop. The handwriting on the back of the photo (below) could very well be Agnes McCauley Kelly’s.  Signing and then sending to Susan McCauley Carraher.  Both were Thomas Eric McAuley’s Aunts.  

Was this photo to commemorate Thomas’s graduation?  If so, was that from the St. Micheal college in Enniskillen?  Was he living with Agnes at that time?  and did he meet Thomas J McCauley his American cousin, son of Bernard McCauley the 2nd? I will be contacting St. Micheal’s college in Enniskillen to see if they have records of his attendance. Thomas Eric McAuley’s occupation is listed as teacher on several documents. St Micheal’s did have a curriculum for teacher education so it’s a good possibility to follow up on. Some other clues to follow up on relate to his death notice which Identified Eric’s wife, Loise Irene and their three children: Mary, Margaret, and Micheal.

The two Thomas’s potentially meeting is supported by documentation as Thomas J. had travel to Ireland from America in 1934 and had stayed with Aunt Agnes for a while.  This is supported by a ship manifest of the time.  Could they have met and played cards together as implied in my father’s notes? 

Thanks to Cindy Carraher Minervini for sharing the photo. I wish I could have been able to identify Thomas Eric McAuley, before her passing in 2023. But here on these digital pages, She, Susan, Agnes, and now, Thomas Eric, are remembered.

In later life Thomas Eric McAuley took to writing poetry and I will share a composition he contributed to a Third age learning site.

Memories Of Loch Erne 

Lime-white, straw- thatched, the cot sits by tree lined lane; 

In lazy spiral peaty smoke ascends, languid in soft summer air, 

Where, at darkling eventide swoop flittering bats. 

Gentle, from the byre, straw-bed rustle, 

Creamy scented kine, new milked, chew their cud. 

Returned from their foragings, in the lean-to hens roost, 

Cluck, as the dog fox barks at the rising moon, 

And the night owl swoops low along the ditch, 

Where spawning frogs croak. 

By the loch shore a fish jumps, circles concentric 

Spread across the placid face of Erne, 

Distorting reflections of moon and aeon distant stars: 

Far off hills, wooded isles, dark shapes that crowd the eye, 

And fill the mind; as in a great cathedral.