Mary Yore, 1861- 1934, wife of Michael Davitt
(Davitt Museum, Strade, County Mayo)
The great Irish patriot Michael Davitt (1846-1906) married an Irish-American, Mary Jane Yore,  in Oakland, California, on  December 30, 1886. In 1880, while on a lecture tour in the United States, Michael Davitt reached Oakland, where he was lavishly entertained at the home of a wealthy Irish-American, Mary Canning.  Mary’s sister, Ellen, had married a man from County Meath, John Yore, before they both emigrated to the United States and settled at St. Joseph, Michigan.  In 1867, Ellen was tragically killed in a accident, when the horse-drawn vehicle in which she was travelling left the road after the horse took fright.  After John Yore married again in 1874, his young daughter, Mary, went to Oakland, where she was reared by her aunt, Mary Canning, in effect as an adopted daughter.  Mary Yore and Michael Davitt first met during his earlier visit in September 1880 and they became great friends.  On the day of his marriage, Michael was then forty years of age and Mary  twenty-six.
After their honeymoon in the United States, Michael and Mary returned to Ireland in February 1887 and were warmly welcomed every place they went. A few friends, chief among them James Rourke, a great friend Michael, presented Mary with a pretty residence at Ballybrack, Dalkey, Co. Dublin, which was called the ‘Land League Cottage’. It was the only public award Michael Davitt ever accepted, but only because James Rourke insisted that it was given to his wife.  The marriage was a very happy one,  and Michael had a place he could call “home”.  Mary and Michael had five children: Kathleen (1888-’95), who died after a short illness, Michael, Eileen, Cahir and Robert. The happiest days of Michael’s life were those spent in Ballybrack with his wife and children.  When Michael died on May 30, 1906, from septicaemia following a dental operation in the Elpis Nursing Home, Lower Mount Street in Dublin, Mary was a patient in the same hospital after suffering a miscarriage.
When Michael Davitt died, he left four young children, aged sixteen, fourteen, twelve and seven that year.  Rearing and educating a young family on her own became a big responsibility for his widow, Mary, but she rose to the challenge: all four were later to distinguish themselves in their chosen careers.  Michael Martin (1890–1928) and Robert (1899–1981) became doctors, Eileen (1892–1974) a teacher, and Cahir (1894–1986) a lawyer and judge, serving as President of the Irish High Court from 1951 to 1966.  When Mary died on November2, 1934, she was buried in South Prospect Cemetery, Glasnevin, Dublin, with two members of her family who had predeceased her, Kathleen and Michael.
Exploring Mayo by Bernard O’Hara is now available Worldwide as an eBook for the amazon Kindle application.
The print version of Bernard O’Hara’s book Exploring Mayo can be obtained by contacting www.mayobooks.ie.
Bernard O'Hara's book entitled Killasser: Heritage of a Mayo Parish is now on sale in the USA and UK as a paperback book at amazon.com, amazon.co.uk or Barnes and Noble
It is also available as an eBook from the Apple iBookstore (for reading on iPad and iPhone), from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk (Kindle & Kindle Fire) and from Barnesandnoble.com (Nook tablet and eReader).
An earlier publication, a concise biography of Michael Davitt, entitled Davitt by Bernard O’Hara published in 2006 by Mayo County Council , is now available as Davitt: Irish Patriot and Father of the Land League by Bernard O’Hara, which was published in the USA by Tudor Gate Press (www.tudorgatepress.com) and is available from amazon.com and amazon.co.uk. It can be obtained as an eBook from the Apple iBookstore (for reading on iPad and iPhone), from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk (Kindle & Kindle Fire) and from Barnesandnoble.com (Nook tablet and eReader).