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A Joly Journal of a King’s County Parish

The collections of M&ARL hold many records of personal experience in the form of diaries. Some contain outpourings of the author’s innermost thoughts, others are a formal record of business activity. TCD MS 2299/2, the diary of the Reverend John Plunket Joly (1826-1858) from Bracknagh, County Offaly, lies somewhere in between. This diary was written between 1852 and 1858 at a significant time in Ireland’s socio-economic history, and it is an account of Joly’s movements through his parish of Clonsast and the surrounding area towards the end of the Great Famine and the years that followed. A significant portion is also dedicated to his horticultural endeavours. The entries are brief, but indicate that the family lived a comfortable life. No direct reference is made to the effects of the potato blight on his parishioners, although there are entries regarding the planting of a variety of potato seeds and turnips in his garden and on larger plots of land, with frequent notes on their progress. It is not clear for whom the bulk of the bigger crop was intended. The back of the diary contains records of financial transactions of rents collected. Eye-catching sketches accompany certain entries, and it is these charming additions that bring the diary to life. It also records the early stages of his relationship with his wife Julia (née Countess de Lusi), whom he married on 4 June 1853, and the birth of their three sons. John Plunket Joly and another brother Jaspar, attended Trinity College Dublin, both students beginning their undergraduate careers at the young age of twelve years.

Excerpt from the diary of John Plunket Joly
Excerpt from the diary of John Plunket Joly
Excerpt from the diary of John Plunket Joly
Excerpt from the diary of John Plunket Joly

Joly’s son was the scientist and polymath John Joly (1857-1933), graduate of Trinity College Dublin, who went on to become Professor of Geology and Mineralogy. His birth is recorded in an entry dated 1 November 1857 as ‘Julia was safely delivered of a very strong son at five in the morning’. Around this time John senior was unwell, and wrote that he felt ‘heavy and sick’. In later entries he complained of a bad cough. He did not live to celebrate his son’s success, but died when his son was just four months old, not long before his 32nd birthday. The last entry in the diary is on the 22 January 1858 ‘Mike came up to see us. ‘…Smart frost – not very well…’ He died less than two months later. A note in the hand of John Joly, dated 29 May 1927, recorded his father’s death as 3 March 1858 and an insertion by John Joly included with this manuscript, testifies to the good character of his father, ‘…is not the love of his people the best monument to his memory… can any human be greater than to be the son of such a father?…’

TCD MS 2299/2 is available for consultation in the Manuscripts & Archives Research Library, along with TCD MS 2299/1, an earlier diary of John Plunket Joly.

Aisling Lockhart