Ellen (née McDermott) Barrett : Short Biography

Ellen McDermott, in her youth, was an active member of Cumann na mBan (Drumlion) delivering messages on horseback.  There is no record as she never claimed her medals.

Following the death of her mother from the Spanish Flu in 1919, she emigrated to America, joining her siblings Packie Joe and Eliza McDermott, in NYC. They joined a succession of cousins who also emigrated to New York around this time. 

Paternal first cousins (McDermott) in the Elphin area included: Donaghy of Cloonybrennan, Kennedy of Tanseyfield, McCormack of Carrowkeel, and Hanly of Clooncullane.

Maternal first cousins  (Brennan & Higgins) in the Drumlion / Croghan area included: Brennan of Canbo.

For 5 years, Ellen worked as a Nanny for a Jewish family (her sister Eliza working there as a cook). Packie Joe, bartending in the Bronx, got into bootlegging and later ran a Speakeasy. Eliza went on to work for the Bouvier Family (parents of Jackie Kennedy). Ellen loved America and planned to stay. However, her father, Edward McDermott (1865–1936) begged her to come home to care for him. (In return, he promised her the home farm in Scregg). 

Back in Co. Roscommon, Ellen fell in love with Joe Barrett of Ballinvilla, gave up on America, and married in 1932. The couple first resided at Scregg where their first 3 children were born. When Joe inherited his family farm in Ballinvilla, the couple moved (just 2 townlands away). Feeling he needed it more, Ellen gave the home farm at Scregg to her youngest brother, Fergus McDermott. In the long thatch house at Ballinvilla, their two youngest children were born. The older ones have fond memories of the old house at Scregg (now an outbuilding at Feely's) as being "bright and clean, whitewashed inside and out".