James Gervé Conroy

James Gervé Conroy (April 12, 1836 – January 28, 1915) was an Irish-born lawyer, judge and political figure in Newfoundland. He represented Ferryland on the Irish Shore in the Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly from 1874 to 1880 for the Anti-Confederation Party, leading the opposition to William Vallance Whiteway’s administration.

The second son of Lucas Malachi Conry and Sarah Garvey of Aughrim in County Roscommon, he was born near Elphin, County Roscommon at Raheen farm 4 miles from town towards Belanagare, the home of the O'Connor Don of his day. He had an older brother John. His father, Luke, was the son of Francis Conry and Brigid Dympsey ; the O'Dempsey family farm was on the townland of Baslick at Castleplunkett immediately to the north of Raheen.

James "Garvey" Conroy was a first cousin of Theresa O'Beirne, whose mother was Anne Garvey, sister of Sarah, and who was herself the mother of Stiofán Bairéad ; Stiofán "An Bairédeacht" was the treasurer of the Gaelic League and guarantor of Patrick Pearse's schools. His children included Ciarán Bairéad and Sighla, whose godfather was Patrick Pearse.

Letters between James Gervé's grandson James O'Neill Conroy, eldest son of Charles O'Neill Conroy and President of the St. John's Benevolent Irish Society and Matthew Barrett, a manager with the Bank of Ireland and An Bairéadeacht's brother, now in the possession of Rian O'Maolchonaire, show a correspondence was kept up between the two families until 1930, and happily recall the smiling face of a young James Gervé Conroy on a painting at the Barrett family home of Meelick House near Drumsna. Luke Conry and Sarah Garvey were married in Aughrim, likely the site of the home of James Garvey and his three daughters ; the third married a Dr. Greene from Wesport in Sligo. Interestingly, his wife Elizabeth O'Neill's parents' home at 33/34 Blessington Street in Dublin where she grew up was coincidentally on the same block as those at 54/55 put up by Stiofán Bairéad as a guarantee for Patrick Pearse's schools ; which he nearly lost after the Easter Rising but for an American benefactor.

...
Wikipedia