Hanna – My Great Grandmother

In Cork you have the McCarthys and O’Driscolls, in Waterford the Powers while in Tipperary you won’t travel too far without passing a Ryan or an O’Dwyer household.

To distinguish the different families, particularly in small rural parishes, most families were given a “nickname” which you could say was a second surname. Examples of these are: “Fal”, “Rody”, “Brocagh”, “Cooper” and so on. These “nicknames” were derived from a townland or someone in the family back the generations or maybe even a person’s trade or profession.

So, in 1871 James Ryan (my great grandfather) from Cappawhite in West Tipperary married Hanna Gould from Clonoulty and they settled on their farm in Cloneyharp, a small townland in the parish of Clonoulty.

As there were three other Jim Ryan’s within a mile of each other, my great grandfather became known as Jim Ryan Hanna!

Since then the name “Hanna” has been passed down through four generations. My grandfather was known as Con Hanna and my father Jim Hanna. I am known at home in Clonoulty as David Hanna but when I moved to Fermoy in 1990 I was re-christened Dave Ryan.

Hence the reason we called our Café, Bistro & Delicatessen “Hanna’s”

I am very proud to call the business “Hanna’s” in memory of my great grandmother and all the generations before me.