For generations, the Brennan family were associated with the tailoring trade in the Ballyoughter area. Surviving family records, civil and church registers and three successive census returns reveal a remarkable story of a craft passed from father to son and of a small rural business that remained part of village life well into the twentieth century.
At least three generations of the family, all named Richard Brennan, worked as tailors. By the early twentieth century, the Brennan household was also home to other tailors, dress cutters and apprentices, making the premises an important centre for the trade in the locality.
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Source: Brennan Family Photographic Collection.
On This Page
A Family Tradition of Tailoring
The Brennan family’s association with tailoring can be traced across at least three generations.
The earliest of these was Richard Brennan, baptised in 1822. Family records identify him as a tailor.
His son, another Richard Brennan (1860–1937), followed him into the same trade and became the driving force behind the Brennan tailoring business. Under Richard, the business developed to its height in the early years of the twentieth century, eventually supporting a number of tailors, cutters and apprentices. Richard and his wife Ellen Brennan raised eight children and placed considerable importance on their education. While their eldest son continued the family tailoring tradition, several of their other children went on to careers in teaching, public service and the priesthood.
The tradition continued into a third generation with Richard’s son, also named Richard Brennan, who was born in Ballyoughter on 29 June 1884. His birth registration records his father Richard’s occupation simply as “Tailor”, providing further documentary evidence of the family trade.
The repeated appearance of the tailoring occupation in later records shows that this was not a short-lived enterprise, but a craft handed down through successive generations of the Brennan family.
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Sources: Ballyoughter Parish Registers, National Library of Ireland; and IrishGenealogy.ie.
The Brennan Household in 1901
At this time, the family home and tailoring business were still located in Clonmore, in the small cottage and garden directly across the road from the house that Richard Brennan would later build in Ballyoughter.
Richard Brennan, aged 40, was head of the household and gave his occupation as tailor. His son Richard, then aged 16, was already following in his father’s footsteps and was recorded as an apprentice tailor.
The census therefore captures an important moment in the history of the business: Richard senior was an established tailor, while the next generation was actively learning the trade.
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Source: Census of Ireland, 1901.
From Clonmore to Ballyoughter
Before the present Brennan house was built, the family home and tailoring business operated from a small property in the neighbouring townland of Clonmore, directly across the road from the later house in Ballyoughter.
The holding consisted of a cottage and garden measuring 16 perches, or approximately 0.1 acre. The property was sub-leased from Denis Grannell, who in turn held it from the Rev. Charles Hamilton, recorded as the immediate lessor.
Despite being only a short distance from the later Brennan home, the earlier premises lay in a different townland. This distinction is important when tracing the family through surviving land, census and civil records, where Clonmore and Ballyoughter may appear as separate addresses even though the two properties stood directly opposite one another.
In 1911, Richard Brennan built a new family house across the road in Ballyoughter. The tailoring business was subsequently transferred to these premises, which became the home most closely associated with the Brennan tailoring business in the twentieth century.
Source: Griffith’s Valuation, County Wexford, 1853.
A Thriving Business in 1911
Ten years later, the 1911 Census reveals a much larger tailoring operation associated with the Brennan household. At the time of the census, the family was still recorded in Clonmore. Later that year, Richard Brennan built the new family home directly across the road in Ballyoughter, marking an important change in the physical history of the business.
Richard Brennan, now aged 50, described his occupation more specifically as “Tailor, Cutter”. His 27-year-old son Richard was recorded as a tailor, showing that he had progressed from the apprenticeship recorded in 1901 to practising the trade in his own right.
Other members of the household were also involved in clothing and dressmaking. Richard’s daughter Dora Brennan, aged 25, was a dress cutter. The household also included Denis Lawlor, aged 24, who was recorded as a tailor; John Kehoe, aged 16, an apprentice tailor; and Julia Pender, aged 18, an apprentice dressmaker.
Taken together, these entries give a striking picture of the Brennan premises at this time. Tailoring was clearly more than the occupation of one individual: the household supported a small network of skilled workers and apprentices involved in making and cutting clothing.
The 1911 census return captures the Brennan tailoring business close to its height and reflects the enterprise that Richard Brennan had built up over several decades. Yet tailoring was only one part of the family’s story. The different paths subsequently taken by Richard and Ellen’s children also demonstrate the importance they placed on education.
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Source: Census of Ireland, 1911.
The Third Generation
The tailoring tradition continued through Richard Brennan, born in Ballyoughter in 1884. He was the son of Richard and Ellen Brennan and the brother of Julia Brennan.
Richard first appears as an apprentice tailor in the 1901 Census, aged 16. By 1911 he was recorded simply as a tailor, indicating that he had completed his training and was continuing the family craft.
Further evidence comes from the birth registration of his own son Richard in 1920. On that record, Richard Brennan’s occupation was given as “Tailor and Cutter”, demonstrating that the third generation of the family was still actively practising the trade almost twenty years after his apprenticeship had first been recorded.
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Source: Brennan Family Photographic Collection.
Source: Civil birth registration, Camolin Registration District, 1920.
Beyond the Tailor's Shop
Although one son continued the family tailoring tradition, the other children of Richard and Ellen Brennan followed a remarkably varied range of paths. Education was particularly important within the family, with three of their sons and daughters becoming teachers, while others entered public service and the priesthood.
Together, the eight Brennan children illustrate how the influence of the family extended far beyond the tailor’s shop in Ballyoughter.
Richard Brennan, born on 29 June 1884, followed his father into the tailoring trade. He appears as an apprentice tailor in the 1901 Census, as a tailor in 1911 and as a tailor and cutter in 1920.
Dora (Dorothy) Brennan, born on 28 January 1886, married local man James Daly. Tragically, she died in childbirth following the birth of their second son, James.
Julia Brennan was born on 3 December 1888, became a teacher and spent 47 years at Ballyoughter National School. She later married tailor Denis Lawlor, whose connection with the Brennan family and tailoring business is explored below.
James Brennan, born on 15 April 1891, also entered the teaching profession and taught at Courtnacuddy National School, near Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford.
Matthew Brennan, born on 30 July 1893, became a teacher and later served as Principal of Monageer National School. His career was cut tragically short when he died at just 31 years of age.
Mary (Moll) Brennan, born on 10 July 1895, married a member of An Garda Síochána serving in Ferns/Camolin and moved to Portlaw and later Rathfarnham, Dublin. Following the death of her brother Patrick’s wife in childbirth after the birth of their third child, Mary took responsibility for raising Patrick’s three children.
Patrick Brennan, born on 24 December 1899, pursued a career in Customs and Excise, eventually becoming a senior officer. He was also closely associated with Waterford Golf Club, where he later served as Captain.
Aidan Brennan, born on 5 November 1902, entered the priesthood after studying at St Patrick’s College and was ordained a priest on 23 June 1929. He died from tuberculosis in 1940 and is buried in Ferns.
The paths followed by the Brennan children provide a striking indication of the importance Richard and Ellen placed on education and opportunity. From the family home and tailor’s shop in Ballyoughter emerged teachers, a priest, a senior public servant and another generation of skilled tailors.
Still Tailoring in 1926
The newly available 1926 Census provides further evidence that tailoring remained part of life at the Brennan home well into the twentieth century.
Richard Brennan was then 66 years old and was still recorded as a tailor. His wife Ellen, aged 65, was also living in the household, while their daughter Julia was recorded as a teacher, reflecting the strong educational tradition within the Brennan family.
The return is particularly valuable because it demonstrates that Richard continued to identify his occupation as tailoring more than four decades after the birth record of his son had first described him as a tailor. The documentary record therefore follows the Brennan trade from the nineteenth century through to at least 1926.
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Source: Census of Ireland, 1926.
Denis Lawlor and the Brennan Family
Denis Lawlor was born in 1886. His childhood was marked by tragedy when both of his parents died in 1895, leaving him orphaned at around nine years of age.
By the time of the 1901 Census, Denis was living at Artane Industrial School in Dublin. Industrial schools provided training in practical trades, and it is likely that Denis learned, or at least began learning, the tailoring trade during his years at Artane. However, no surviving record has yet been identified confirming specifically that Denis was assigned to tailoring there.
Denis subsequently came to the Ballyoughter area and worked in the tailoring trade at Richard Brennan’s premises. By the 1911 Census, aged 24, he was living in the Brennan household and was recorded as a tailor. His connection with the family later became a permanent one when he married Richard Brennan’s daughter Julia Brennan.
Denis and Julia were married in the Roman Catholic Church at Ballyoughter on 8 October 1929. Their marriage registration gives Denis’s occupation as tailor and Julia’s as teacher. It also records Julia’s father, Richard Brennan, as a tailor, providing yet another independent record of the family trade.
The wedding formed part of a notable family occasion: on the same day, Julia’s sister Mary Brennan married William Burke in Ballyoughter.
Denis continued working as a tailor in Ballyoughter after his marriage to Julia. In later years, however, his health deteriorated as he suffered from chronic nephritis, a progressive kidney condition.
As Denis was the last remaining tailor associated with the family business, his declining health eventually brought the tailoring operation to an end.
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Sources:
Photographs: Brennan Family Photographic Collection.
Marriage registration: IrishGenealogy.ie.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission — Private Martin Lawlor, 10307, 1st Battalion, Royal Dublin Fusiliers.
The Shop in Ballyoughter
Following the move in 1911, the new premises combined the Brennan family home with the tailoring business. Family recollection holds that accommodation above the shop was used by apprentice and other young tailors who stayed while working in the trade.
The new premises combined the Brennan family home with the tailoring business. Family recollection holds that accommodation above the shop was used by apprentice and other young tailors who stayed while working in the trade.
This combination of family home, workplace and accommodation helps explain why several people connected with tailoring appear within the Brennan household in surviving records. The shop was not simply a place where clothing was made and altered; it was also part of a wider tradition through which tailoring skills were practised and passed from one generation to another.
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Source: Brennan Family Photographic Collection.
The End of the Business
Richard Brennan (1860–1937) died on 6 January 1937, but the tailoring business continued for a number of years afterwards under Denis Lawlor, who by then was the last remaining tailor associated with the family enterprise.
During the 1940s, Denis’s health declined. As his illness progressed, he became increasingly unable to continue the work, and the tailoring business closed in the years before his death.
Its closure brought to an end a tailoring tradition that had extended across three generations of the Brennan family and had also provided work and training for other tailors, cutters and apprentices.
Today, the surviving photographs, family records, census returns and property records preserve an unusually detailed picture of this small rural business and the people whose lives were connected with it.
A Family Connection
The history and photographs preserved on this page have a direct family connection. The author is a grandson of Denis Lawlor and a great-grandson of Richard Brennan (1860–1937), who developed the Ballyoughter tailoring business to its height in the early twentieth century.
Much of the photographic and family-history material used in compiling this account has been passed down through the Brennan family.
Sources and Further Reading
- Baptism record of Richard Brennan, Ballyteige, 10 July 1822, Ballyoughter Parish Registers, National Library of Ireland.
- Baptism record of Richard Brennan, 1 November 1860, Ballyoughter Parish Registers, National Library of Ireland.
- Civil birth registration of Richard Brennan, Ballyoughter, 29 June 1884, IrishGenealogy.ie.
- Census of Ireland, 1901 — Brennan household, Clonmore, Balloughter DED, NationalArchives.ie.
- Census of Ireland, 1911 — Brennan household, Clonmore, Balloughter DED, NationalArchives.ie.
- Civil birth registration of Richard Brennan, 15 April 1920, recording his father Richard Brennan as a tailor and cutter, IrishGenealogy.ie.
- Census of Ireland, 1926 — Brennan household, Ballyoughter, NationalArchives.ie.
- Marriage registrations of Denis Lawlor and Julia Brennan, and William Burke and Mary Brennan, Ballyoughter, 8 October 1929.
- Martin Lawlor’s War Grave Record — Commonwealth War Graves Commission — Private Martin Lawlor, 10307, 1st Battalion, Royal Dublin Fusiliers.
- Census of Ireland, 1901 — Artane Industrial School, Dublin — Denis Lawlor, aged 15, NationalArchives.ie.
- Griffith’s Valuation, 1853 — Clonmore, Co. Wexford — Richard Brennan holding comprising a cottage and garden.
- Brennan Family Photographic Collection — family photographs and historical information passed down through the Brennan family.
- Brennan Family Historical Collection — family dates, relationships, biographical information and recollections passed down through the Brennan family.