By Marc Aubin, based on notes by Allan O’Farrell
Allan O’Farrell’s grandfather, Michael Joseph O’Farrell, was born in Goresbridge, (Lower Grange) County Kilkenny in 1816. He left Ireland in 1842 to settle in Montreal, where he worked as custodian at the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC), under Sir William Edmond Logan. In 1880, together with his family, he moved to Ottawa, where he became caretaker of the GSC Museum situated on the corner of George and Sussex streets. The Museum allotted him a house, which was situated in the yard at the rear of the Museum on George Street.
In 1890, when Michael O’Farrell Sr. retired, he purchased a home for his now extended family at 167 Murray Street, near St. Brigid’s Rectory. This family included Michael O’Farrell Jr., his wife Mary Jane (nee Kelly), and eventually their five children: Allan, Bill, Michael, Rose and Edna. Michael Jr. was employed as an accountant for Barney Slattery Ltd., known as “purveyor in meats, fowl and venison to the Governor-General.” This business had two stores on York Street in the ByWard Market, as well as around eight more in the city.
The home at 167 Murray was large, and a grand place for dances on its highly polished hardwood floors with Lowertown’s well known Graziadei orchestra. Some Sundays, when there was a church procession such as Corpus Christi, Holy Name or St. John the Baptist, the house was decorated with flags, bunting and strings of electric lights. Allan had the distinction of being the first Irish lad to play the young John the Baptist (with a lamb), due to his curly hair.
There were multiple other memories of life on Murray Street. Allan remembered running the gauntlet from home to St. Brigid’s and back again, battling the French kids going to Guigues School. He could pick mushrooms with his father between the massive oak trees bordering the street. He could drop into the lovely little chapel connected with the Basilica and situated next to Guigues School near the corner of Dalhousie. He and friends were adept at climbing over the roofs, from King Edward to Cumberland streets. When they got their first telephone in the house–Rideau 1598–service came from the Rideau exchange at the corner of King Edward and Besserer streets.
In 1924, Michael Jr. sold the house to the school board next door, and Allan moved with his parents to a newly built home at 497 Clarence Street, at the corner of Charlotte. Despite its being brand new, it never became the home that 167 Murray had been!