Remember in Reply 73 that the Shruane boys were shoemakers that their father may be as well. Well when I looked at Form A in the 1901 Irish census for Ellen Nevin, it says Ellen is a farmer’s daughter.
That was a strange thing for her to put for occupation on a census as her father was dead. It would be like me writing it for my occupation on this year's census although my farmer dad has been deceased for decades. Occupation on the death certificate of the last of my great-aunts was farmer's daughter. Her father had been dead for 42 years. She was over 80, never married and had remained on the family farm with a brother and sister after their parents died. The brother and sister predeceased her so she owned the farm. Informant was a cousin.
Link to the census and to Michael Flynn's marriage is in reply #8. Both fathers were dead and occupation box is blank.
Some farmers had another occupation. A small farm may not have produced enough income for a family. There were agricultural disasters, potato blight, fowl & cattle diseases. One of my great-uncles in Mayo was a farmer & shopkeeper.
