Holloran Family Educational Fund
Continuing the Family Legacy at Saint Patrick School
Summer 2024
The Holloran Family legacy at Saint Patrick is one that runs deep. Our family was one of the many Irish immigrant families that worked to build the railroad system across Tennessee. They settled in McEwen, where St. Patrick’s Catholic Church was built for the Irish immigrants in the area in 1849. The school followed in 1856.
Our great-grandfather Patsy Holloran married Ellen Connelly in 1867 and they had 11 children. The Holloran family has many cousins going back to Patsy and Ellen. Some of these include well known Irish Catholic families in Humphreys County: Lehmans, Tarpys, Lagans, Burns, Mays, Mitchells and Bakers.
One of Patsy and Ellen’s sons was our grandfather, James Patrick (Pat) Holloran (b 1881) who married Mayme Lagan and they had 6 children: Rene Holloran Thompson, Jim Holloran, Tommy Holloran, our dad, Joe Holloran, Ann Holloran Ridings Hooper, and Margaret Eileen “Babe” Holloran Settlers. All these Irish Catholic Holloran children attended St. Patrick’s Church and school, being baptized, confirmed, and in some cases married in the Church. All but one are buried in the St Patrick Cemetery, along with many other Holloran ancestors.
Our dad, Joe Holloran married Mary Lee Moody and they had 5 children: Steve, Mark, Paula, Tim and Amy. All of us, and our children, have been to every Irish Picnic since we were born! Our roots run deep in Humphreys County!
One of these roots is Saint Patrick School. It is a school that several Holloran generations attended and as adults supported. The mission of Catholic education, so important to those early Irish families, must continue to thrive in our county. Dad started a golf tournament in 1981, The Jaybird, which continues to this day on the Friday before the Irish Picnic at Willow Ridge Golf Course. Since his death, this tournament is being held to benefit St. Patrick’s School, and now through the Holloran Family Educational Fund we continue to support the mission of the school with money donated and collected at the tournament and throughout the year! Please assist the Holloran Family in supporting the mission of their parish school that even today is educating Irish children and other immigrant descendants in the Catholic spiritual and academic tradition!
Sincerely,
The Holloran Family