David O'Mahony: Tracing family history requires a stubborn streak

I had forgotten, or perhaps not really thought, that emerging onto Pope’s Quay would put me facing Cornmarket St, where some unfinished business of family history remains.

The end of Widderlings Lane which leads to Pope's Quay, one of many historic laneways in the area.

A brief foray into Cork City reminded me I have unfinished business.

Not the brooding, mafia vendetta sort of business — would that I were so interesting — but more like a detective who hasn’t closed a case. When you’re a historian by training, everything in the past can be unfinished business; when it involves family history, there’s always a high chance it will never be quite resolved.