Biddy the Chiver’s Khazi

[Gary Barnett]

I’ve often wondered whether the Enright family’s displacement from Ballylongford was, indirectly, a contributing factor to Biddy’s ‘chiverishness’.

Did she ever feel truly at home in Wales or London? And to what extent was she aware of the historic events taking place in Ireland during her lifetime?

The Ballylongford Company of the IRA was part of the 6th Battalion, Kerry No.1 Brigade. By 1919, there were over one hundred and forty members, under the leadership of John Enright (Captain, 1921), Roger Mulvihill (Captain, 1917) …


From:

https://marymcauliffe.blog/2021/02/23/the-burning-of-ballylongford-feb-23rd-1921/

[Gary Barnett]

If Biddy did go dahn to Margate, I bet she made the most of it.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_kzpHzUJCd4

[Gary Barnett]

From a report in the East End News of 5th June, 1897:


POPLAR BOARD OF GUARDIANS

They also reported that they had authorised the master to pay the travelling expenses of Bridget Enright in visiting her child at Lawn House, Margate.


Lawn House, in Grosvenor Place, Margate, was the location of the RC Convent of the Daughters of the Cross, and in 1897 it contained a convalescent home for children.

Biddy the C would have been 22 in June, 1897, so it’s unlikely that she was the invalid daughter at Lawn House. She was old enough to have been the mother, though.

[Phillip Walton]

It’s quite an attractive little house. The O’Rourkes occupied 2 rooms and were the only occupants when the 1921 Census was taken.

Up until the 60's another house owned by my family in Brownlow Road was occupied by members of my extended family. By then it had been compulsorily purchased by the council for slum clearance. The branch of my family occupying the house had done so for four generations. It was badly damaged in the Blitz thats why it was condemned.

[Gary Barnett]

Tomorrow is Biddy the Chiver’s 148th birthday.

[Gary Barnett]

Catherine’s birth certificate came through this morning.

[Gary Barnett]

GRO ISSUE

I ordered an Enright birth certificate recently, in pdf format, and it was supposedly despatched yesterday, but there’s no ‘View PDF’ button showing. Has anyone had that problem before? It’s a first for me.

I’ve been trying to contact the GRO, but they seem to be overwhelmed with enquiries and are not answering their phones.

[Gary Barnett]

Thats not dissimilar to the house my mother was born in and not that far away. My mother was born in Brownlow Road, Dalston and likewise it still exists and is valued a similar amount. A few businesses and properties in the area were owned by my grandfathers family.

It’s quite an attractive little house. The O’Rourkes occupied 2 rooms and were the only occupants when the 1921 Census was taken.

[Phillip Walton]

Thats not dissimilar to the house my mother was born in and not that far away. My mother was born in Brownlow Road, Dalston and likewise it still exists and is valued a similar amount. A few businesses and properties in the area were owned by my grandfathers family.

[Gary Barnett]

The 1921 census reveals that Biddy and Tommy O’Rourke were living at 51, Cropley Street, Hoxton. And, amazingly, it still exists - worth over £1 Million today.

[Gary Barnett]

Comparing the Lloyds’ account of Kate Webb’s 1895 OB trial to the OB Online transcript shows that the OB transcript is incomplete in that it excludes Webb’s cross-examination questions/comments and only records the answers to them.

[Gary Barnett]

Crooked Billet Yard last week:

[Gary Barnett]

This incident, as reported in the Evening Standard of 9th June, 1892, may be the origin of the ‘Chiver’ moniker. Aged 18, Bridget Enright slashed the face of a woman named Bridget Pigott whom she claimed had ‘accused me for nothing’. She received one month’s hard at the Thames police court.

[Gary Barnett]

It seems that Biddy’s story has attracted the attention of academia.

The more the merrier!

[Gary Barnett]

Wikipedia actually has a short page on "Shiv" and a longer page on Wiktionary. That is how it is pronounced in American gangster films.

The word may come from a Romani word for knife, chivvomengro which supplies various verbs. It can also mean the woody remains from processing flax or hemp, or to stab someone with something that is not necessarily a knife.

We learn Z = zee in grade school and to be clear, Z as in zebra. Internationally zed is correct. Zee like zebra leads to corrections and ridicule.

Thanks, Anna. Of course I wasn’t denigrating US pronunciations, just the fact that they are adopted by my grandkids.

It’s odd that Biddy arrives on the scene with her nickname already established and we can’t find any previous incidents to justify it.* Perhaps she earned it without falling foul of the authorities.

*see post 195