COWAN FAMILY (DRUMCONDRA, DUBLIN)

Reference code:

IE UCDAD P34

7 boxes

Biographical history

The Cowans were a Protestant family from the Drumcondra area of North Dublin. Andrew Cowan spent over twenty years in India, c.1856ñ76, as a Superintendent and Assistant Secretary in the Political Department, Bombay. He retired on the grounds of ill-health and returned to Dublin where he died in 1902. His younger son William, ‘Willie’ or ‘Sonny’, served as a private in the 27^th Royal Iniskillen Fusiliers and soldiered in India, 1901, and South Africa, 1902. He returned to Dublin after his father’s death where he was an active member of the Salvation Army.

Frederick, ‘Fred’, Cowan (1929ñ75) was born in Glasgow but moved to Dublin in the 1940s where he was an active member of the Labour Party, serving in various capacities including secretary of the Dublin Constituencies Council and of the Dublin Labour Election Committee.

Seumas McGowan (1875ñ1955) was Fred Cowan’s uncle. He worked as a labourer and later as the manager of a fuel depot in Dublin. A member of the Irish Citizen Army, he was Assistant Quartermaster General in the GPO during the Easter Rising and was subsequently imprisoned in Frongoch and Reading. He is thought to have been used by Seán O’Casey as the model for the main role in ‘The Shadow of a Gunman’.

Scope and content

Material relating to members of the Cowan family, Andrew, William and Frederick, and to Frederick’s uncle, Seumas McGowan.

Andrew Cowan, Assistant Secretary, Political Department, Bombay: letters written in India mainly with reference to leave of absence and his retirement from the India Office (1866ñ79).

William Cowan: letters from friends in Ireland while on service with the Royal Enniskillen Fusiliers in Ireland and South Africa (1896ñ1903). Correspondence concerning the Army Temperance Association and the Salvation Army (1896ñ1903). Scrap book and photographs.

Seumas McGowan, Captain, Irish Citizen Army: orders and correspondence concerning his imprisonment in Frongoch Prison, Wales, Reading Gaol, Kilmainham Gaol and Gormanstown Internment Camp (1916ñ23). Correspondence relating to the James Connolly Workers’ Club (1926ñ30); to the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union including three letters from James Connolly (1914ñ44); and to the labour movement in Drumcondra. Correspondence relating to his position as the chairman of the Dublin Constituencies Council of the Labour Party (1942ñ44). Minute book of Botanic Football Club.

Frederick Cowan, Secretary of the Dublin Constituencies Council of the Labour Party and of the Dublin Labour Party Election Committee: minutes of the Drumcondra Branch (1939ñ50), North-East Constituency Council (1946ñ8) and Dublin Constituencies Council (1940ñ43). Correspondence relating to the finances of the Dublin Constituencies Council (1939ñ43), and party organisation, policy issues and elections (1941ñ56) including the nomination of James Larkin as Labour candidate in Dublin North-East in 1942 and the suspension of the Torch. Drafts of articles on labour affairs and related correspondence (1946ñ75).

Access:

Available by appointment to holders of a UCDAD reader’s ticket