Paternal grandparents, John, 1869-1849, and Margaret (née Skerritt) Cunningham, farmers of Bunatubber, Corandulla, Co. Galway, at their front door. The photo (which is the only one I've ever seen of himself) was taken in the mid-1930s by Seán Mac Giollarnáth (1880-1970), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_Mac_Giollarnath a folklorist and district justice, who visited the house to record John’s stories whenever court business took him to Headford. John Cunningham was of the fourth generation of his family to occupy the house and land in Bunatubber (which was rented from the Kirwans of Castlehacket). His great-grandfather, Padraic, was the first, and he took over the tenancy from Frank Kirwan, a leader of the United Irishmen, after the latter was executed in Galway in 1799. The holding was originally 157 acres, but through sub-division and sub-letting had been reduced to less than 40 acres when John took over from his father, Maidhc, in the early 20th century. Griffith's Valuation (copy and paste link belew) shows that there were five joint tenants of the farm in the mid-1850s, one of them Liam (William), John's grandfather:
http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml?action=doNameSearch&familyname=Cunningham&firstname=First+Name&baronyname=CLARE&countyname=GALWAY&unionname&parishname=ANNAGHDOWN&Submit.x=43&Submit.y=13
http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml?action=doNameSearch&familyname=Cunningham&firstname=First+Name&baronyname=CLARE&countyname=GALWAY&unionname&parishname=ANNAGHDOWN&Submit.x=43&Submit.y=13
Another picture taken by Sean Mac Giollarnáth, but evidently not on the same day as the one above (the door is different). Back row, l to r: Mrs Cunningham, Martin, Michael, Willie. Front, May, Sarah, with Burke and Greaney boys. Sarah recalled the circumstances:
'I remember the collectors – Mac Giollarnáth wrote everything down by hand. He was the district justice in Galway, and sometimes he’d call in on his way back from the court in Headford. More usually, he’d come on a Sunday. I have a snap back there that he took of my mother and father. We had a sitting room in Bunatubber, and they’d go in there to talk. He’d tell the stories and they’d have tea afterwards. He took snaps one day – I have more of them here as well. There’s one outside the house of a group of us. Delia wasn’t in it because it was a Sunday evening and she was gone to the rosary in Corandulla. There was nothing else to go out for.'
'I remember the collectors – Mac Giollarnáth wrote everything down by hand. He was the district justice in Galway, and sometimes he’d call in on his way back from the court in Headford. More usually, he’d come on a Sunday. I have a snap back there that he took of my mother and father. We had a sitting room in Bunatubber, and they’d go in there to talk. He’d tell the stories and they’d have tea afterwards. He took snaps one day – I have more of them here as well. There’s one outside the house of a group of us. Delia wasn’t in it because it was a Sunday evening and she was gone to the rosary in Corandulla. There was nothing else to go out for.'