Jamaica Daly

·51 min·3 clips

The charter’s conditions show Peter Daly’s plantation depended on enslaved labour.

1. Documentary on One Podcast follows Meg Daly’s search for her ancestor Peter Daly in Jamaica and Ireland. 2. Meg Daly and Dymphna Fahy travel together, while Dr. Kieran O’Neill of Trinity College Dublin and Professor Afua Cooper provide historical context. 3. The episode asks what Peter Daly’s Jamaican plantation meant for the Daly family, their wealth, and the people enslaved there. 4. Peter Daly came from Galway in 1799 and bought a coffee plantation in Jamaica, which was unusual for an Irish Catholic landowner. 5. Meg says the family connection felt like “something of great shame,” and she wanted to “apologize” for what her ancestor did. 6. Dymphna studied the Dalys for a history qualification, and Kieran first encountered them through elite Catholic education research. 7. The family archive in Sligo includes boxes of papers, plantation deeds, diaries, and family correspondence. 8. A Jamaica National Archives ledger lists “Daly Peter Esquire,” and the royal charter records land entered on 26 April 1799 for 10 shillings. 9. The charter required Peter Daly and his heirs to keep four negroes for every hundred acres for five years. 10. Afua Cooper explains that the plantation economy depended on enslaved Africans shipped across the Atlantic and traded for sugar, rum, cocoa, and coffee. 11. Peter Daly’s diary from 1809 refers to “my poor slaves,” and Cooper says the phrase hides the wealth extracted from their labour. 12. Kieran estimates that Peter Daly and Bridget McAvoy’s plantations in Jamaica and St. Croix produced around 30,000 pounds, which sustained the family. 13. Meg and Dymphna later find Daly’s Grove and Ledwick’s Run on maps in the Jamaica National Library and connect them to Manchester, Jamaica. 14. Dymphna says seeing the land records made her realise that “every inch of land was taken over and turned into an estate.” 15. Paula Daly says Jamaica was never mentioned in the family home, and Mia describes feeling “terrible” after learning about the slave-owning connection. 16. The episode includes sales records where livestock and enslaved people are listed with prices, including “£35 now for a negro.” 17. The tone is research-driven and reflective, with archive scenes, road trips, and extended conversations in reading rooms and car rides. 18. Meg’s directness contrasts with Dymphna’s discomfort, and the episode mixes family memory with documentary evidence. 19. Listeners interested in Irish history, slavery, and family archives. 20. Skip if plantation archives and colonial property records hold little appeal.

As heard by us

An archival journey through Jamaica that traces one family's connection to slavery.

Meg Daly and her friend Dimthna Fahy travel through Jamaica to piece together the story of Peter Daly, Meg's great-great-great grandfather, whose name carries a family shame that hangs over the whole journey.

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Follow Meg Daly from busy Spanish Town into an archive trail about one family name.

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