The Murphy Giants!

Dad often told us, when we were growing up, that his Great Uncle Patrick was officially recorded as "the tallest man in the world". This story was never more than an interesting family anecdote until ...

... Talei looked like she was going to hit six feet and the age of 12 at the same time. Suddenly, what had previously been "just a story" turned into this huge and frightening genetic timebomb!

"How tall do you think she's going to get?" Baby Jane asked me, very worried.

What possibility did we have in our genes? Obviously we needed to find out how tall Great Great Uncle Patrick was, so I set myself to the task of finding out.

It wasn't easy: do you know there were three men called Patrick Murphy who were, at different times during the 19th century, officially classified as the tallest man in the world? They're known to history as:

1) Patrick Murphy
2) Patrick O'Brien Murphy
3) Patrick Cullen Murphy.

I have no certain idea which of these is OURS, although I've researched them all and suspect, from his County Down birthplace and middle name, common in our branch of Murphys, that it's the third.

There's a very poignant story attached to one of these Patrick Murphys, although I don't know which, and just hope it isn't ours: that when he was dying he refused to donate his body, as requested, to an Irish scientific museum saying he refused to be seen as a freak for the rest of time and wanted his bones to Rest in Peace. "Let me finally have my dignity!" he cried out in anguish. However, the pestering continued so Patrick demanded to be buried in an upright lead coffin deep underground to prevent Science getting his remains. His request was carried out, yet today his skeleton is indeed in an Irish scientific museum. Wrong, huh! Wrong, wrong, wrong!

But it was in this story that I first came across the height of a Patrick Murphy: 9 foot and 3 inches tall!

Poor, poor Talei! And then there was the whole "Marfan's Drama" which blighted Talei's life for several years, but that is another story entirely so I won't tell it here!

What I will tell you here is that, in the course of my research, I came across so many, many Murphy Giants. In fact, the single most common surname for Giants appears to indeed be MURPHY!

Let me tell you what I discovered:

1) Barnum Circus used to tour a giant called Sergeant Murphy (no known first name!), who was billed as "The Strongest Man in the World". They claimed he was 8 foot 2 inches tall, but, since we're talking "Circus" - which immediately implies "hype - who knows if this is true.

2) Mad King Ludwig of Bavaria collected giants as his troop of personal body guards? They all had to be at least 8 feet tall, and he didn't care how he got them! It seems that, for nearly 20 years, all over Europe, the extremely tall lived in constant fear of the bop on the head!

During his reign, from 1864 to 1880, King Lugwig II managed to collect 42 giants, who he dressed up in fancy clothes and treated like his private collection of dolls. And never did he appear in public without being surrounded by a cluster of them. Since this is, to this day, it's the largest collection of giants ever, I researched this troop in great depth, wanting to find out if they too had Murphys in their number!

The news wasn't good: did you know that Ludwig regularly sent his agents over to Ireland to cosh and kidnap the exceptionally tall? Men around 8 feet tall would regularly wake up with an extremely bad headache only to discover they were in a yacht well out in the Irish Sea. They would then be handed a document claiming they were willing to be ensured a lifetime of ease and comfort in King Ludwig's personal care, and were told to sign or they'd be thrown overboard! They all signed!

And of the 42 Ludwig Giants, do you realise how many of them had the surname Murphy? Seventeen! 17 out of 42 giants in the 19th century were OURS!

3) There was a family called Murphy who were murdered over a century back in Southern Queensland, in Australia, at a place called "Murphy Creek", named after them obviously, in one of that countries Great Unsolved Mysteries, who had previously been studied by Australian scientists because the entire family hovered around 7 foot tall. In fact, if you google "Murphy Giants", this family is what's most likely to come up.

4) There was the book in a rare antiquarian collection I was privileged to read, written in 1775, called - in Latin obviously - "Human Anomalies"! I'd have loved to have spent days with it, because the bits I saw while flicking through were fascinating, but it was given to me only to look up "Giants" as I'd requested, so ...

In this classic scientific text, there was indeed a chapter called "Giants" which talked about the five different types of giant. Four of these types had Latin names only I forget what they were, although I remember being very impressed at the scientific tone of the descriptions and that, even back then, they knew there was usually an underlying medical reason for this extreme height.

And the types of giants listed:

1) the giants with the ridges on the side of the head
2) the ganglingly tall giants with the very long arms and extremely fine hands and fingers
3) the giants who grew at a normal rate until puberty when they suddenly shot up to enormous heights.
4) another type, only I've forgotten.

And then there was a section of the chapter simply called

5) Blood Giants:

I'll paraphrase what that section said: that in some cases, there was no underlying medical cause for the giant-ism. There were simply families who produced individuals of extreme height because it was "in their blood" ... and the example given for these families:

MURPHY

What the book said was that the Murphy family in Ireland was famous for producing giants, and that was because they were descended from Brian Boru who was himself reputed to be 9 feet tall.

Mind you, Irish legends, like Circuses, are famous for "hype", but the fact his height was remarked on in all the legends does mean that Brian Boru was extremely and exceptionally tall.

So giant-ism in the Murphy Family is indeed a ticking genetic timebomb ... although dad always told us there are five different clans called Murphy; that we were the REAL AND ORIGINAL MURPHYS and the other four are either folks who were disowned and sent away in shame by the Real Murphy-Sept or else simply Murphy-Wannabes! Contemptible Nobody Surname-Stealers!

The real Murphys, he told us, were the ones from Wexford and those who straddled the border between Country Antrim and County Down, and we were to dismiss anyone who WASN'T from either of these places as Faux-Septs!

The first external verification I found for this was in that magnificent book "Ancestors" which I've talked about before in here and, yes, I know I promised to give you details, but haven't done yet. But I will!

However, proof is now immediately to hand: only yesterday, Keith called me into the computer room to show me something on-line he thought I'd find most interesting! A map of Ireland that showed the four different clusters of Clan Murphy, and, yes, actually specified that each of these clans had totally different DNA, and all originally came in different waves of immigration from different parts of the world! And you can go here to see the map for yourself ...

... although, wait, that isn't actually the map I'm talking about. That's simply a map of the different Counties of Ireland. You have to actually have to go into the Murphy Project to see the actual genetic distribution.

And when you do, note that we are the Clan in red, and are to be found in Wexford, around the borders of Country Antrim and County Down and lots of other places like Limerick ... so apologises to Audrey Murphy of Limerick for how dismissive I was of her claim to our surname! Although she's undoubtedly from the "Be Forever Shamed" branch of our family!

The other Murphy Clans? Boo! Hiss! Go find your own Surname, you silly Faux-Sept Nobody NON-MURPHYS!

However, this means that only WE REAL MURPHYS, the descendants of Morrough, son of Brian Boru, whether from Shamed-Septs or Otherwise, carry "in our blood" this ticking genetic timebomb of Giant-ism!

But all this is really about Talei! Thankfully, now she's 18, her superhero "Bamboo-Girl" status - with the power to double her height every year - appears to be almost a thing of the past: slowing down, although not yet quite over, and the best news is that it's bottoming out before it's hit "freakishly tall". She's now simply "model tall" and that's never ever EVER a bad thing!

Just remember that, Talei!

And if the worst comes to the worst, sweetie, have you checked out this guy?!

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/glance/864344/looking-for-love-worlds-tallest-man

He is soooo your boyfriend!