Patrick Joseph Cagney : Short Biography

My gg grandfather Patrick Joseph Cagney was born in Rathkeale, Limerick abt. 1835   He married Mary Lenehan in Brooklyn, NY in 1866 and moved to Chicago in 1872 (after the Great Chicago Fire) and died there in 1909.

I now believe that he emigrated earlier than previously thought - possibly during or shortly after the Great Famine.  He appears to have been in the US Federal Army in the 1850's and early 1860's, but possibly under an O'Neill alias.   I found records and newspaper articles of Patrick Cagney being arrested in Rathkeale in 1866 on suspicion of being a Fenian, but he was released after 3 weeks and then shortly thereafter returned to America.  The newspaper articles of the trial mentioned that he was late of the Federal Army and did not want people to know that he was back from America.   

While Patrick was a Catholic, his mother may have been Frances Corneille, a Palatine (see her bio for more information on the reasoning). But that is simply a "maybe", 

From DNA research, other surnames of interest with specific ties to Rathkeale include O'Neill, Fennell, and maybe Scanlan. 

Also, I have recently found DNA matches that tie to Thomas Cagney, the "Convict" who was sent to Australia in 1827 on the ship "Eliza".  There are conflicting stories on whether Thomas was from Limerick or Cork.

And going further back, our Cagney ancestors at some point in time lived in County Cork and way, way back were part of the Corca Laidhe.