Dusty's grandfather and mom

[st louis blues]

As some of you may know I've been doing some research on Dusty's ancestry. I mentioned before that her first cousin on her maternal side is historian T. Ryle Dwyer and her maternal grandpa was a prominent newsman by the name of Maurice Patrick Ryle. One of Dwyer’s books has brief mention of her. I looked Maurice up on Amazon to see if his name came up in any books and found this little mention. According to the 1911 census her mom, Kathleen, was born in Dublin City. This is the story of the Irish revolution against British rule in County Kerry. I wonder if Maurice was connected in anyway connected to the 1916 Easter uprising. I’m fascinated with Irish history and I’m curious about that side of her family. I know someone posted several months ago asking questions about her Irish roots for either a print article or documentary about musicians with Irish ancestry. Here is the little paragraph I’m speaking of:

Maurice Ryle provided enthusiastic press reports for the Irish Parliamentary Party and the National Volunteers in the Kerry Sentinel along with two other papers he started: the Kerry Advocate and the Kerry People. One of his granddaughters was the international singing star Dusty Springfield.
“Tans, Terror, and Troubles: Kerry’s Real Fighting Story 1913-23” by T. Ryle Dwyer

Also, in one of the books about Dusty it was said her mother was “a lover of the crack” and I had no idea what that meant. I found out that it is usually spelled as “craic” and is Irish for ‘fun, ‘having a good time,’ usually a mixture of music, drink, and talk. I wish there was more info about her parents. I get the impression they may have been quite interesting.

[daydreamer]

Interesting, thank you. It was probably the Irish TV company who was looking for the information, I had a few emails with a lady called Aoife Scott when she was researching. I've not heard anything for a while now, hopefully the show didn't fall apart. She would probably have been interested in your findings. I may contact her again, see what happened.

[Corinna]

Interesting info, thanks SLB!