Shanley ancestry quest

I am seeking information on my great-grandfather, John Shanley, who was born in 1852 in  the townland of Cloontagh in the civil parish of Clongesh in County Longford.

His parents, Patrick and Ellen (n?e Flynn) were married in March, 1839, at (the old) St Mary's Church (Clonguish RC parish), Newtownforbes, Co. Longford. They lived in Cloontagh in a cottage on a smallholding rented from the Earl of Granard's estate.

They had at least six children: Margaret (1839), Catherine (1841), James (1844), Patrick (1849), John (1852) and Francis (1857), the last two of whom became stonemasons like their father, Patrick.

John went to England and in 1877 at Preston in Lancashire he married Mary Mullins. They had eight children, the eldest of whom, John Francis, also a stonemason, was my grandfather. The family later lived in Blackburn, Lancashire.

Some time after 1901, John went back to Co. Longford, leaving behind his wife and children, never to return. According to family lore, back in Ireland, he took up with his first sweetheart who was named Ann. His wife, Mary Mullins, died in 1920.

Some time in the 1920s, by when, it seems, John Shanley had died, Ann was enticed from Longford to Blackburn by John's children in the hope that she might aid their claim to a fortune left in America by a Shanley who had died there intestate - a matter that was included in a British Sunday newspaper's 'Unclaimed Money' feature. All this came to nought, and Ann had to find a living as a housekeeper to a family called Newman in Blackburn and later in Salford, Lancashire.

According to electoral records and to a member of the Newman family that I traced, Ann was using the surname Shanley and told the family she came from Longford. I have been unable to find any record of her and John getting married in Ireland and of her death in England, though the Newman source believed she had died in the Manchester area in the 1940s.

Nor can I find where she and John lived in Longford or when or where he died.

Irish Valuation Office records suggest that the Shanley family remained at Cloontagh until at least 1931 so it is possible that there are still people in that vicinity who have knowledge of the family.

From a posting of 2005 on a Genes Reunited on-line message board, I am aware of  Patrick Joseph Shanley, a stonemason, born in 1916 in Co. Longford, who lived for many years in Glasgow, Scotland, before dying in 1968. He was the son of James and Elizabeth (n?e Walsh) Shanley, according to his daughter, Ann Connolly who posted the message and is now unavailable.

I surmise that Patrick's father was stonemason James Shanley, born in 1890 and the fourth of the eight children of Francis Shanley, born in 1857 at Cloontagh and shown in the 1901 census as being a railway mason.  Francis's family were living at Cloontagh at the timeof the 1911 census and the eldest son Patrick was also a mason.

It is the profession of stonemason that is such a strong clue to the ancestry of the Shanleys from Cloontagh and, apparently, my great-grandfather, the elusive John born in 1852, was marked by it for life. For, according to family lore, he wore an eye patch ,having been blinded in one eye by a flying stone chip.

Any information or advice will be most appreciated.

William Eric Leaver, Prayssas, Lot et Garonne, France. January 5, 2013