Catherine Timlin O’Boyle Holmes
1825-1911, active in Gatineau Valley, Québec
William and Catherine (Ketty) Holmes, 1848. Courtesty of Mary Holmes.
Catherine (Ketty) Timlin O’Boyle Holmes was born around 1826 in Dumha Liag, County Mayo, Ireland. Along with other Irish-speaking tenant farmers, she lived on the perpetual edge of destitution. During the Great Famine, she lost her husband Francis and two children to starvation and disease. Ketty and her remaining family boarded a coffin ship to escape to Canada. During the long and devastating journey, Ketty witnessed the deaths of all her remaining family. Arriving alone in a strange land, with no money for boat passage, Catherine walked 200 km to Bytown (Ottawa) looking for work.(1)
Catherine (Ketty) Holmes, 1891. Courtesy of Mary Holmes.
Ketty settled on a farm in the Gatineau Valley and started a new life, having nine children with her new husband William. Ketty never forgot her loss, and continued using her first husband’s surname.
Facing the profound and tragic consequences of marginalization, with Irish speakers bearing the weight of Famine deaths and emigrations, it would have been understandable for Ketty to abandon her language for survival. Yet despite the deep trauma of her experiences, Ketty continued to celebrate her language and culture. In the 1901 Canadian census, Holmes proudly identified herself as an Irish speaker. Ketty also took the initiative to conduct an Irish-speaking group for the women of the Gatineau Valley, fostering a supportive community where they could come together to preserve and cherish their language.(2) She also ensured her children first learned to pray in her language.
Catherine (Ketty) Holmes is highlighted here as her life illuminates the struggles and resilience of the unrecorded majority of illiterate Irish speakers in Canada. There are no recorded compositions penned in Irish by Ketty. Her story underscores the profound impact of the Irish language on her identity and the creative, dedicated spirits like her, who were unable to record their stories in their native language, and but for oral tradition were forgotten to history.
For citation, please use: Ó Dubhghaill, Dónall. 2024. “Catherine Timlin O’Boyle Holmes.” Na Gaeil san Áit Ró-Fhuar. Gaeltacht an Oileáin Úir: www.gaeilge.ca
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Image citation:
2021. “Catherine (Timlin) O’Boyle Holmes (1825-1911).” Notable Women of the Gatineau Valley. Online Exhibit. Fairbairn House Heritage Centre.
Doyle, Danny. 2019. “Gaels of the Gatineau Valley.” Up the Gatineau! 45. Gatineau Valley Historical Society.
