In 1969 during a visit to the United States, Ronan Maguire began to collect information about the American relatives of his wife, Breda.
Subsequently, in March 1970 he produced a book, ‘The Morans of Lavallyroe’, which listed the descendants of Patrick Moran and Ellen (Murphy) Moran in various parts of the world and their families. This book has affectionally become known as ‘The Book’ which has since been updated, several times. Copies of each edition are available below.
In this original book, Ronan includes the O’ Moran coat of arms and motto ‘lucent in tenebris’ meaning they shine in the darkness or as Bernard Berney once put it, after watching a late night party and card game in Lavallyroe “they come out at night”.
Ronan points out that the O’ Morans were predominantly a Connaught clan, that the name is among the 60 most common names Ireland and lists some of the more well-known in Irish history. He describes the house in which Patrick Moran was born in Lavallyroe near Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo, the small family farm, where Patrick’s family was reared and refers to the present or ‘new’ house built in 1939, where his grandson Johnny and his family now live. Johnny was the first child of James and Katie (Finnegan) Moran to be born in this house, followed by Tony, Helen and Mary and Ann.