Leslie Crotty - Opera Singer

The village of Monivea in East Galway is probably best known for association with the ffrench family from Monivea Demesne.  However, it has also had, in the past, connections to the world of Grand Opera.  While researching the death of my wife’s great-great grandfather, Thomas Crowe in 1893, I found an article in the Tuam Herald (Feb 25, 1893, page 2) that referred to a “celebrated singer born in this county, and reared and educated in Monivea”. This inspired a detailed review of the background of this person.  

Frederick Leslie Crotty was born in Galway City in January 1849.  His father died in 1856, so the family possibly moved to Monivea soon afterwards. The newspaper article noted that Leslie Crotty attended National School in Monivea when Thomas Crowe was headmaster.  When his mother died in 1887, she was living with unmarried children in Dublin.  In the early 1870s, Leslie was working in Dublin and performing as an amateur baritone singer at various venues in the city.  One of his earliest mentions is in the Freeman’s Journal newspaper in 1876 (Oct. 24, page 1), where he assisted in a musical evening in the Round Room, Rutundo, Dublin (now part of the Rotunda Hospital Building).  He came to the attention of Carl Rosa who had an English Opera Company.  Leslie moved to Italy to further his musical studies in Florence.  He soon joined Carl Rosa’s company and sang alongside the soprano, Georgina Burns for the first time in Benedict’s “Lily of Killarney” (an opera in three acts) at the Theatre Royal, Bristol in 1878.  Leslie and Georgina married in 1882 and had one child, a daughter Norah.  They remained with the company for ten years and enjoyed much success and acclaim, earning about £100 per week jointly, a significant sum at the time. In 1892, they formed their own Burns-Crotty Opera Company and had a few successful years of performance.  One of their conductors was a young Henry Wood who would go on to conduct the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall for over fifty years.  However, by 1895, their Opera Company incurred significant debt and closed.  This was partly due to Georgina’s poor health and their limited sense of business.  The couple separated in 1896.  Leslie succumbed to heavy drinking while Georgina’s health remained poor.  They became impoverished and separate benefit concerts were organised on their behalf.  Leslie died in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1903 and is buried there.  His headstone reads:

ERECTED BY BROTHERS & SISTERS

IN LOVING MEMORY OF

FREDERICK LESLIE CROTTY, OF DUBLIN,

OPERATIC ARTIST,

WHO DIED 18TH APRIL,1903 AGED 54 YEARS.

Georgina lived until 1932.  James Joyce who was himself a talented tenor (and reputedly a runner-up to John McCormack at the 1903 Feis Ceoil in Dublin) was aware of Georgina Burns’ plight.  In his last story from Dubliners (published 1914), entitled “The Dead”, the character Mary Jane Morkan mentions that she had been given a pass for Mignon, (an 1866 opéra comique by Ambroise Thomas, performed in Dublin in 1904 and 1905) and “it made her think of poor Georgina Burns”.  Georgina died in the “British Home for Incurables” in Streatham, London.

So, while we appear to have reached a sorrowful end to our story, in fact we have just focussed on the “theatrical” side of the family.  The escapades of Leslie’s father, William Crotty, are in my view much more exciting.

William Crotty (d. 1856) was born in Broadford, Co. Clare in the early 1800s.  He studied at the Irish College in Paris and was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1832.  He was appointed as a curate in Killaloe, Co. Clare to his uncle, Fr. Daniel Vaughan (who would later become bishop of the diocese of Killaloe).  William’s cousin, Michael Crotty, from nearby Kilmore, was ordained a priest in 1820 and was appointed as a curate in Birr, Co. Offaly in 1821.  In 1826, Fr. Michael became unhappy with the management of funds being collected for a new church in Birr, clashed publicly with the Fundraising Committee and was transferred to Killaloe.  Many parishioners in Birr were unhappy with Fr. Michael’s treatment over the funding issue and demanded an enquiry be held.  The then Bishop of Killaloe, Dr. Michael McMahon, examined the books and sided with the committee.  When parishioners continued to express dissatisfaction, Birr was placed under interdict for three weeks. Fr. Michael returned to Birr at the request of a group of parishioners and they took possession of the old church.  As a result, he was suspended, excommunicated, removed from the church by Lord Ross’ Regiment and imprisoned for three months.  When released, he returned to Birr, had over 2,000 followers and was joined by his cousin, Fr. William Crotty who had resigned his post in Killaloe.  While Michael had no doctrinal issues with the church, William held a more Calvinist view.  Public worship was conducted in English in place of Latin and the only sacraments  celebrated were Baptism and Eucharist.  A new church was built by the Crotty cousins in 1836 in Castle St., and the building still exists.  The results of their actions have been regarded as the only successful schism in the Catholic Church in Ireland.  However, interest in the new independent church waned in the following years.  Michael moved to England, married and became an Anglican priest.  He died in Belgium in 1862. 

William Crotty remained in Birr.  He, and over one hundred followers, joined the Presbyterian church (Synod of Ulster) in 1839 and used their chapel for meetings.  He was accepted as a Presbyterian minister and along with the Rev. James Carlisle, established a Presbyterian Mission in Birr.  William married Catherine Dempsey, daughter of Richard Dempsey of Mountmellick, in Athlone in 1841.  He was moved to Roundstone, Co.Galway and it is suggested that he fell out with Carlisle.  Certainly, his fluency in Irish would have been regarded as a bonus for missionary work in Connemara.  His two eldest children, Richard and George were baptised in Roundstone in the Church of Ireland in 1842 and 1844, respectively.  William had moved to Galway City by 1848 when the third child, Robert was baptised in the “Presbyterian Denomination”.  Leslie Crotty was next to be born and was baptised in Galway City, in 1849.  A further three sons and four daughters were born to William and Catherine.  In Griffiths valuation for the “Town of Galway” (published in 1855), the Rev. William Crotty was recorded as living at No. 8 St. Helena Street (North-east end).  Next door, at No. 7 was the holding of the “Presbyterian Mission Committee” which comprised of a House, office and yard.  William Crotty died on July 25, 1856 of typhus fever at his residence in Galway.  He was buried in St. Nicholas Collegiate churchyard Church (Church of Ireland) in Galway.  His death notice in the Cork Examiner newspaper (July 30, 1856, page 3), noted that he was a “Missionary of the Irish Presbyterian Church”.

So where did the connection with Monivea come from?  There are no listings for a Crotty resident in the “Town of Galway” in later Cancellation/Valuation Books.  This implies that the Catherine Crotty and family had left Galway some time after William’s death.  Perhaps they all moved to Monivea.  However Catherine is not listed in any Cancelation/Valuation Book in that locality either.  We began our piece by noting that her son Leslie Crotty remembered attending Monivea, Church of Ireland, National School where Thomas Crowe was headmaster.  Leslie was seven years old when his father died, and presumably his time at Monivea School ended by age 14.  It seems reasonable to conclude therefore that a family in Monivea took in all or part of the Crotty family in the years following William’s death.   Perhaps they lived on the ffrench Estate. They may have been recommended to the area by Thomas Crowe, since Leslie recalled him at the time of his death in the Tuam Herald article of 1893.  Crowe family tradition has it that Thomas came from east Clare.  (His death notice appeared in the Nenagh Guardian, Feb. 2, 1893, page 3.)  While Thomas was Church of Ireland, he may have known the Catholic Crottys, whom we noted above, also came from east Clare. Indeed, the ffrench family itself had east Clare connections, as the mother of Robert ffrench, head of the family in the 1850s, was Nichola-Maria O’Brien of Dromoland Castle.  So, it is reasonable to assume that the Crottys sought and received support in Monivea after William’s death.  We noted above, that at some point, many of the family including the mother, Catherine, later relocated to the Drumcondra area of Dublin.

Despite the Crotty family patriarch, William, having a somewhat “fiery” track record, his offspring lead more conservative and successful lives – except perhaps for Leslie, the singer.  The eldest child, Richard, became a barrister and was subsequently appointed as a Resident Magistrate.  One of his early assignments was as a “Temporary RM” for the county of Clare.  Another son, Albert, who was next born after Leslie was ordained a Church of Ireland minister and served as Rector in several parishes in the Meath Diocese.  He officiated at the marriage of Leslie to Georgina Burns.  In later life, Albert retired to Llandudno, Wales and made many trips by sea to Marseilles.  He died in 1937 in Llandudno.  In his will, he left an estate of £19,247.  The next son, William drowned in the river Liffey in 1894.  His death record listed his occupation as bank clerk, as indeed was Leslie in his early years.  The youngest son, Samuel, was listed as a surgeon in the 1911 census of Ireland.  He did not marry and lived with two spinster sisters.  Their occupations were recorded as “Income from Dividends” in the census return.  The sisters both died in Dublin.  Samuel also retired to Wales and lived in the same hotel in Llandudno as his brother Albert.  He died there in 1935 and left a net estate of £6,259.  So all-in-all, the Crotty family transitioned from initiators of religious schism to successful, middle-class conservatives.  The good-natured folk of Monivea and its environs undoubtably had long-lasting positive influences on their personalities.

Several sources were used in the compilation of this account.  Some of the details on Leslie Crotty and wife, Georgina were published by the Carl Rosa Trust at “carlrosatrust.co.uk” and is gratefully acknowledged.  Information on William and Michael Crotty came from sources that include: online “Dictionary of Irish Biography” and also several newspaper articles, including The Clare Champion (Feb 2, 1999, page 480); and The Nenagh Guardian (Sept. 4, 1982, page 4, and Feb. 20, 1982, page 13).