Name: Edward Alfred Mooney
Born: MoorePark, Sydney 1883- 1979.
Parents: Father Richard Mooney (1824-1915) of Tuam, Mother Margret Camplbell from Portadown (1840-1910).
Married To: Josephine Maud Connolly, Drumcondra, Ireland, 1898-1947
Family Tradition:Eds Grandafter, Laurence Mooney, fought in the battle of Vinger hill, Enniscorthy Co.Wexford, June 21st 1798 . Click here for more details.>
Siblings: Edward had two older sisters, Beatrice and Madge who lived in Sydney, and a brother who died before Edward was born.
Diarys:CLick for Edwards & Josphines Diaries
Prodigy:
Click here for a abstract from Edwards Diary
This abstract documents Edwards demarkation leave tracing his Mothers Family, Nov 1917.
Next day Smith & I took train for Portadown 88 miles to north.
We got there at 11.15am hired a jaunting car and drove to Mahon.
Could not trace our people but stumbled on to William Lisk a full cousin.
In his house I saw my photo together with Madge & Beat. He put me on the track.
Mothers old home is Ballworkan half a mile away.
I called on Miss Elizabeth Campbell who was slightly disconcerted at one of the Wild Australians dropping in from the clouds.
I took a photo of the old house where mother was born. Also saw the old school & visited the widow of William Campbell.
I could only stay an hour. After receiving an invitation to stay a week I kissed dear Aunty good bye & made a soldierly disappearance.
Returned to Portadown & called on David Campbell (butcher).
Green's stayed with him when they were here & from what I could gather showed themselves very mean & stingy.
Campbell seemed very disgusted with them. Next I visited Sam Fergus another full cousin - a good fellow but a bit of a wowser.
He saw me to the train which got us back to Dublin at 6.00.
Birth Certificate: Left click and hold to enlarge or clik here to open in new page.
Edward was 31 years of age when he decided to join the army in 1916. At first he was teaching soliders the rifle-drill, and quickly became bored of this and decided to get himself discharged with a sudden eye ailment, and one hour later had joined as a private in the army corps.
Many of Edwards friends at the time had joined the army and gone to the western front, that and a very persuasive military propaganda at the time, probably convinced him to join.
Edward left Sydney in 1917 to Panama, then onto Novia Scotia, accross the altantic to east England for training, before eventually landing on the the Western Front. He survived many battles of the Somme where over 50,000 soliders were killed on the first day, Ypres, and other major battles throughout the final two years of the Great War.
During this time he regularly visted Ireland on leave, travelled the country, at one point met Michael Collins on a bus on O'Connell st, and in the long standing Mooney tradition meet and romanced a local girl from Drumcondra by the Name of Josephine Maud Connolly.
Click Hat for SlideShow
After the war Edward and Josephine secertly got married in a registry office in London, then offically married in a Caholic church in Drumcondra, and lived in Clontarf whilst waiting for a Boat back to Australia. They honeymooned in and around Co.Cork. They eventually departed Cobh, Co.Cork onto St Vincents islands off modern day Sengal, then Capetown, Durban, and finally landed in Fremantle for a post war homecoming in 1920
They settled for a time Hey (NSW), had kids, and the rest is history...
I have added all Edwards handwritten captions on the pictures he took below, taken form 1917 to 1920 telling the story of his travels and his experiences of the war. Any additional info I have added is in parenthesis.
Hover mouse over picture to see a description and title
Click and hold the mouse button to see a enlarged image and title.
Or just watch the slideshow:)
![](="images/Granddad/Photo032.jpg")
Hope you enjoyed them!
