Towey Clan
Chlann Tuathaigh

2007 Clan Gathering

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The 2007 Towey Clan Gathering was held in Durkin's, Ballaghaderreen, Co. Roscommon, Ireland over the weekend of 11th and 12th August. It was a tremendous success, attended by upwards of 250 Clan members. Many travelled from USA, Britain, Australia, France and Spain.  The success of the event was due to the selfless dedication of our Clan committee members. The program ran very smoothly under  the  direction  of our Chairperson, Dan Towey, of Minnesota, USA.

2007 Program Part 1

2007 Program Part 2

2007 Clan Gathering Photos

On Friday the festive weekend began with an informal get-together in Durkin's. Here arriving guests relaxed after their journeys and settled down in convivial company to talk, renew friendships and exchange experiences.

On  Saturday at 11.00 a.m. a special Mass was celebrated for deceased members of the Towey Clan in Derrinacartha Church. The music of a lone piper as he played haunting traditional Irish airs welcomed the assembly at the Church gate. Tony Towey, a deacon of the Church from Chicago, USA, assisted at the Mass. He arranged and delivered the readings and petitions to a full congregation. Irish airs played on the flute by Barry O'Grady of Ballaghaderreen echoed throughout the Church as Mass was celebrated.

At 7 p.m. guests began to arrive at Durkin's for an evening of celebration which carried on into the early hours with Irish traditional music, song and dance. A steady stream of guests arrived  for registration and they were ably welcomed  by Janet Towey Mann from Connecticut, USA, our Clan Secretary.

Dan Towey, our Chairperson, addressed the gathering with a lively speech outlining our plans, and praised Mike Towey the Clan Chieftain for his efforts in bringing the idea of Clan gatherings to fruition. Mike was born locally and now lives in Dublin. Dan then handed the  microphone over to Mike, who was master of ceremonies for the evening.

Our featured speaker was Maire McDonnell-Garvey, a respected historian, author and musician. She delivered a learned and well researched presentation about the source of the Towey Clan and the O'Neills.  Click here to read a copy of Maire's presentation, with a bit of Irish history and our ancestors, in PDF format.

The night was filled with rousing traditional Irish music with Old Time Waltzes and Seiges of Ennis aplenty. Talent of the young was displayed with step dancing by our cousins from the USA. We were honoured by the presence of eight Clan members over 80 years young. Grateful appreciation goes to Mr. Jim Towey (Miller-Celia), aged 93, who travelled from Manchester to be with us. Jim was born locally in Derrinabrook and emigrated to England as a boy.

The celebrations were recorded on DVD by Mr Tom Coppinger
(TomCoppinger@eircom.net).

A raffle with many prizes continued through the festivities and was generously supported. We thank Brian Towey (who died early 2009), Dan Towey, Helen Towey and Mary Towey Ratto all from USA for organising and handling the raffle throughout the night.  We are most grateful to Towey Clan members in the USA who donated many prizes for the raffle, particularly those who could not attend but posted on prizes nevertheless.

The musicians were Dan Healy, Ciaran O'Reilly, Mick Shannon, Martin Toher and Sean Lavin. They were joined by Maire McDonnell-Garvey and Malachy Towey from Chicago.

On Sunday the Annual General Meeting was held at 1430 and a new committee elected.

The 2007 Committee is:
Chieftain......................Mike Towey, Ireland: toweymike@hotmail.com
Vice Chieftain..............Mary Towey Ratto, USA: mmratto@comcast.net
Chairperson.................Mike Towey, Ireland: toweymike@hotmail.com
Vice chairperson..........Tony Towey, USA: ajtowey@juno.com
Past Chairperson..........Dan Towey, USA toweydan@juno.com
Secretary......................Janet Towey Mann, USA: jtafmn@snet.net
Treasurer......................Helen Towey, USA: stowlight@aol.com
Vice Treasurer..............Pat Burns, USA: 1pmb@comcast.net
Historian/Genealogist...Dick Towey, USA: toweylr@comcast.net
Assistant Historian.......Malachy Towey, USA: estherjmuhr@msn.com
Assistant Genealogist.......Peter Towey, England

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The AGM was followed by an open forum discussion on matters of interest to the Clan. 

Dick Towey then presented his findings on Y-DNA. The use of DNA in genealogical research is gathering momentum swiftly. DNA testing allows the male and female lines to be traced back over long periods. Dick is undertaking the Towey Clan DNA Project as part of an attempt to bridge some of the major gaps in the documented genealogies. DNA testing traces the X chromosome from daughter (or son in the same generation) to mother to grandmother, etc., to establish common ancestry in the female line accumulated over many thousands of years. The male line is traced from son to father to grandfather using the male or Y chromosome (no females have the Y) for 2 types of tests: (1) most male tests analyze Short Tandem Repeat (STR) markers to establish common ancestry within recent centuries, and (2) the less-used Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) test enables the analysis of male ancestry back over hundreds of generations.The Towey Clan y-DNA project represents an effort to bridge some of the major gaps in our documented genealogies. The STR tests of our yDNA show that most Toweys tested thus far are genetically close to the O’Neills – i.e. along with about 20 percent of all other Irish males, we probably descend from Niall of the Nine Hostages.

Janet Towey Mann followed with details of her USA immigration research. Janet has extracted Toweys and similar variants from USA census of 1870/80/1900/10/20/30, and passenger ship records for Boston 1820-1943, New York 1820-1957, Philadelphia 1800-1945, and New Orleans 1820-1945.

Janet's presentation was followed by Mike McCown of Texas, USA, and Tony Towey of  Chicago, USA. Each gave an entertaining presentation of the trials, successes and survival of their families through generations in the USA.

On Saturday and Sunday, Dick Towey from Oregon, USA, our Clan Historian/Genealogist, hosted a family history workshop. Here he provided much appreciated guidance answering family history questions and giving direction to researchers.

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Tours of local places of interest and townlands of visiting Clan members were organised for each day.  These tours were conducted by Mike Towey  and they  visited  historic and archaelogical sites in parishes of Castlemore, Kilcolman and Kilbeagh. Over 100 people braved the drizzly weather conditions and enjoyed these sites and the beautiful scenery.  To view or print a copy of the tour route, click Bus Route Map 2007.pdf. The layout is for paper 11" wide and 8.5" high; therefore, its view on screen is off 90 degrees from normal.

The tour started at Ballaghaderreen Town Square, and amongst the most important sites viewed were Castlemore’s flax mill ruins, Barnaboy, Brusna Church and School, Tonregee school, Bockagh Hill from which Lough Gara and five counties can be seen, Derrinacartha Church where there are three Stations of the Cross dedicated to Toweys, Derrinabrock and ruins of the Towey Mill, Cloontia school, Carrantemple graveyard with its Celtic grave slabs, the Bishop’s palace built originally for use by a Costello landlord in 1865 who later sold it to the Church, the Four Altars where Mass was celebrated in open air when it was forbidden to be held within a church during Penal Law Days, and Kilcolman graveyard where Toweys of many generations are buried.

We extend appreciation to Barry O'Grady for music at Mass and who together with Paul Keegan of Ballaghaderreen, entertained us with Irish traditional music at the closing ceremony on Sunday.

Grateful thanks are  extended to all members who worked so hard up front and behind the scenes to make the event a memorable occasion.

All too soon the celebrations were concluded and members went to explore the town of Ballaghaderreen and the surrounding area.

We look forward to the next Towey Clan gathering in Ballaghaderreen in 2010 that will be on the evening of Friday, May 14th, and all day Saturday, May 15th, and until 5:00 pm on Sunday May 16th, 2010.

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Inquiries may be emailed to one or more of these contact points:
Mike Towey, Taoiseach, toweymike@hotmail.com, Dublin
Edward Towey, Chairperson, etowey001@yahoo.com, Deephaven, MN
Dan Towey, Assistant Chairperson, toweydan@juno.com, Blaine, Minnesota
Janet Towey Mann, Secretary, jtafmn@snet.net Southbury, Connecticut
Dick Towey, Assistant Genealogist, toweylr@comcast.net Corvallis, Oregon
Bill Towey, Webmaster, wtowey5953@aol.com Stockton, California

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DISCLAIMER: Towey Clan believes the information and references herein are
accurate, but users should check with genealogical sources for accuracy.