The Herald Annual publication of Heritage Group

Compiled and Published by Ballymote Heritage Group

Editor: James Flanagan

Design, Typesetting and Printing: Orbicon Print, .

Cover Design and Artwork: Brenda Friel

Issue No 42 2009/2010 –––––––––––––––

The Corran Herald wishes to sincerely thank all those who have written articles or contributed photographs or other material for this Issue  THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010

Contents

Page Ballymote Heritage Weekend Programme ...... 2 The Corran Herald ...... 4 Thank You, James ...... 4 Ballymote Heritage Group ...... 5 The Age Of the Pedlar (PJ Duffy) ...... 6 Lady Arabella Denny,an Obelisk on a hill near the town, the Fitmaurice family and the Linen Industry in Ballymote (John Coleman) ...... 7 Hazlewood - An uncertain future for a building of National Importance (Donough Cahill) ...... 13 Collooney Fair (Aidan Mannion) ...... 15 On St.Kevin’s R.C. Church, Keash, Co. (Martin A Timoney) ...... 17 A Turbulent Sligo Genius (Stephen Flanagan) ...... 20 Capt. Mc Manus and his two wills (John McTernan) ...... 21 Balliecottle and (Martin Wilson) ...... 23 Births, Baptisms and Deaths in the Exiled O’Gara Family after the Jacobite Defeat (Maura O’Gara - O’Riordan)...... 25 The Year of the Feathered Piper (PJ Duffy) ...... 32 James Cox, a Co. Born Stained Glass Window Artist (Noel O’Neil) ...... 33 Cornish Mining - A History (Lynda Hart) ...... 35 The Humble Thimble (Kathleen Fairbanks) ...... 40 The Clock of Life (Ann Conlon) ...... 41 The Irish Shebeen (PJ Duffy) ...... 43 Maureen Egan (1921 - 2008) ...... 45 Holy Trinity Church, Westport (Bernie Gilbride) ...... 48 Magh Tuiredh (Leo Mattimoe) ...... 49 Those Visiting Stuntmen and their Amazing Performances (PJ Duffy) ...... 51 Childhood Memories (Kathleen Fitzmaurice) ...... 54 North Roscommon Gaelicisms (Frank Tivan) ...... 55 The Gift (Poem) (Bernie Gilbride) ...... 56 December Light in Pearse Street (Poem) (Mary Guckian) ...... 56 Fair Day In Sligo 1930 - 40 (Bernie Gilbride) ...... 57 The Other Side of Side (Jack Gilligan) ...... 58 The Carrigeenmore and Street, Sligo, Bone Scoops (Martin A. Timoney) ...... 59 Killaraght Early Christian Cross Slab (Mary B. Timoney) ...... 62 The Duirling Boats (Eugene Gillan) ...... 63 Old Familiar Irish Sayings - Now more or less forgotten (PJ Duffy) ...... 63 St. Brigid’s Church, Highwood, Golden Jubilee (Kathleen Fitzmaurice) ...... 64 Modern day Reverse Diaspora - Us Blow Backs (J. Anthony Cuming) ...... 65 A Stab in the Dark (Molly Howard) ...... 66 The Hermit of Drinane : Taidy Marron (Padraig Doddy) ...... 68 Saturday Night (Poem) (Bernie Gilbride) ...... 69 A Flash in Time (Poem) (Bernie Gilbride) ...... 69 University of Limerick Library are Recipients of Valuable Irish Archive (David Casey) ...... 72 Nursing Home Story (Des Gilhawley) ...... 73 Hidden Jewel (Mary Kelly-White) ...... 74 Visit By Major General Vicent E. Boles to Ballymote (John Perry T.D.) ...... 75 The Mask (Bernie Gilbride) ...... 76 A Policeman’s Lot... RIC Code of Regulations (Eileen Tighe) ...... 77 Emptiness (Bernie Gilbride) ...... 77 Death and Funeral of Mr. Michael Cryan 1902 (Eileen Tighe) ...... 78 Ballymote Heritage Group 24th AGM ...... 83 Sponsors ...... 84

 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 25 Years on... The Corran Herald Thank you, James

The end of the first quarter-century of its existence This year marks the 25th year of existence of The is an apt time for The Corran Herald to take stock Corran Herald, the annual publication of Ballymote of itself and in looking at its achievements one can Heritage Group. The editor for all of that time was, do no better than repeat what was written in its 10th and still is, James Flanagan. Working quietly and anniversary edition in 1995: efficiently in the background, not alone was he editor, In its writings and photographs the Corran Herald he was collector, compiler, copy-reader and everything has jogged our memories, tugged at our heartstrings, else that goes with publishing a journal. James did it educated and informed us. It has focussed our attention all. on subjects we may have long forgotten and it has Over the years his workload increased due to the helped us look with a more informed and appreciative success of . When it first appeared in approach at the things that surround us. October 1985 there were fifteen articles and twelve Because it reflects the aims and ideals of the Heritage pages. In 2008 there were forty six articles and eighty Group, it is naturally most concerned with matters of pages, and this year in celebration there will be another local history, archaeology, culture, folklore and all bumper edition. the many things that together make up the unique Voluntary organisations all over are crying character of any given area. And so it has become a out for new volunteers. What better role-model could conduit through which has flowed a vast amount of any young, or indeed not so young, person have than information on all these topics into the ever-increasing James who has given years of voluntary work in the reservoir of the pages of its issues, and hopefully will true spirit of volunteerism – freely, quietly and without continue to flow. fuss? That hope has certainly been realised. The James is one of the longest-serving members “reservoir” has expanded to the point where there are over one thousand three hundred pages. Contributions of Ballymote Heritage Group. Apart from editing of articles and photos have continued unceasingly. The Corran Herald he is active within the Group, Early authors have remained extraordinarily faithful especially during the Heritage Weekends when he and generous, and many more recent writers have acts as master of ceremonies. His summing up of each provided outstanding material for its pages. The night’s lecture is always discerning and to the point Corran Herald expresses its immense gratitude to and occasionally laced with gentle witticisms. all of them; without them it simply would not exist, Ballymote Heritage Group would like to thank while with them it has amassed a treasure to be passed James most sincerely for his work over the years and to future generations. wish him and his wife Anne many years of health and Gratitude is expressed too to the newsagents and happiness. others in Ballymote and throughout Co Sligo who Go raibh mile maith agat, a Shéamuis, as ucht do have faithfully sold the Issues over the years, and shan-oibre thar na mblianta. Beir bua agus beannacht to those who at various times have been involved in agus gach dea-ghuí ort féin agus ar Áine. its layout and design, its typesetting and its printing: Members and Committee of Ballymote Heritage Fastprint, Ballymote, Drumlin Publications Ltd, Group. Manorhamilton, , and Orbicon Print Ltd, Collooney. Thanks also to all those business people who supported it by advertising in its pages in the early years. It is available in the Libraries in Ballymote and Sligo and in the National Library of Ireland in . The Corran Herald looks forward with confidence to continuing its work into the years ahead.

 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010

Ballymote Heritage Group

On the evening of May 30th, 1984, at 8.30 pm a group of 20 people assembled in the then Castle Hotel, Ballymote, with the express purpose of setting up a society devoted to promoting knowledge of and interest in all aspects of Heritage in the local area. Out of that meeting there emerged the organisation that at first called itself “Our Heritage” but later became “Ballymote Heritage Group”. Its first President was Tom Tighe, Chair Tom McGettrick, Secretary Eileen Tighe, Treasurer Michael McDonnell, PRO Una Preston. The Group at once set about organising lectures and outings dealing with topics and places of Heritage interest, but its first bigger project at that time was the launch in 1985 of The Corran Herald. This was originally intended to be a local newspaper and had been first proposed to the Community Council by Una Preston. Some news items were indeed carried in the first few Issues, but it rapidly became focussed on Heritage matters. The next major undertaking was the establishment in 1990 of a Heritage Weekend at the August Bank Holiday. While it was undertaken with some trepidation, this turned out to be a very successful venture and has been repeated every year since then. That first Weekend was officially opened by Eamon Barnes, then Director of Public Prosecutions, and the opening illustrated lecture “The Road to Compostela” was given by Frank Tivnan. Since then, the Weekend has been attended by people from all over Ireland, from Britain, from the USA, Australia, South Africa, and they have heard some of Ireland’s top experts in many fields share their experience and knowledge with their audiences. Shown here are the signatures of all those who This year sees the 20th Heritage Weekend and the Group attended the inaugural meeting of Ballymote looks forward to many more. Heritage Group on May 30th, 1984. Sadly, over the course of the 25 years many of the original Apologies were received from Dr and Mrs Stan members have passed on. Their names are listed here: Casey and from Mr Tom McGettrick. Una Preston Rosaleen Duffy Gerry O’Donnell Tom McGettrick Nellie Tansey Stan Casey Paddy Brady Yvonne Perceval Paddy Duffy Maisie McGovern Vincent Jordan Maureen Egan Padraig Dockry

May they all rest in eternal peace. New members are welcome – the work goes on!

 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 The Age of the Pedlar PJ Duffy

In his day the pedlar was a unique type to be well worn and a long time under of salesman who travelled the country the weather. on foot, selling his small-sized wares When my mother asked for some small to customers who usually lived in rural item, he went to his pack and failing to areas. The goods he had on offer were find it he proceeded to empty the entire usually contained inside a sizeable pack contents out onto the kitchen floor. My he carried about on his back. goodness, what a collection of items this On his arrival into an area he would gentleman had got! They were contained meticulously seek out every boreen and in what seemed to be an old jute bag that pathway in order to make contact with was glazed and treated with some kind every householder resident within that of substance to make it waterproof. He area. In order to get on comfortably now began to rummage through this with his job, a pedlar usually wore a large heap of useful household essentials good durable pair of boots. He also had in search of the item he was asked for. an eloquent “gift of the gab” and would In the heap there were penknives, spare no rhetoric when praising the scissors, cards of safety pins, studs for goods he was offering for sale. footwear, hair pins, hat pins, knitting Although peddling had largely died needles, sewing needles, gramophone out by the end of the 1800s, there were needles, collar studs, cuff links, hair still a couple of tough hardened foot combs, pencils, writing pens, notepaper, salesmen around during the period of envelopes, jotters, brooches, medals, the 1930s. At least one of those was rosary beads, hemp, wax, squares of sole an ex-British soldier who at war’s end leather for repairing shoes, brads, blue received a gratuity to get himself started tacks, tins of polish, a pair of gleaming on a small business of his own choosing, Ingersoll pocket watches, and, since it and he chose to become a pedlar. was nearing the end of the year, a pile of The majority of country people were Old Moore’s Almanacs. firmly of the opinion that peddling When asked about the price of the was the occupation of down-and-outs, almanacs, he said they sold at seven but those people with a knowledge of pence each. When offered sixpence, he dealing in small goods would say that stated that no way could he sell them at the job could be very remunerative and that price. “To do so”, he said, “would rewarding. At the end of a good day’s mean I’d be walking through the country trading the pedlar might be likely to for nothing”. earn more from his day than a gentleman Pedlar on the move He was loud in his praise of a pair of employed labouring on the public scissors he was offering for sale, stating works. that people around the country had One pedlar who was still doing his Up there on that loft were placed never seen the like of them before. He rounds during the 1930s seemed to be a different kinds of farm tools, as well as went on to state that what people were secretive old gent who would now and donkey harness and a couple of spare accustomed to seeing were scissors then arrive into an area. If you enquired buckets and tin cans. The pedlar who made of stainless steel. His were of where he came from you were likely to get by now was worn out tired had some surgical steel, the type used in hospitals an answer something like this “Oh, from difficulty bunking down in the midst of and dispensaries. No doubt he was a past the direction”, and on parting if this assortment but he soon went off to master of his art! you enquired where he was heading for sleep while the man of the house retired As he packed the items back inside the he would reply “Oh, down south, down to his bed which was situated directly old sack, I noted what a neat tidy pair of south”. Most people believed he was of underneath the loft. hands he had, as washed and manicured no fixed abode although he was not seen Despite being worn out it seems the as those of any businessman. to be sleeping rough. He was fond of a pedlar grew restless form lying down After purchasing some goods which jar and after a day’s trading might be in one position, so he proceeded to turn included a copy of Old Moore’s seen heading for the local town where at around and as he did so his metallic Almanac, my mother made him a cup that time he could receive lodgings for a surroundings created a good deal of of tea and he set off once more on his shilling a night. noise. Your man sleeping down below rounds. Later that evening he sold one There was a story told about the same was wakened by this din and roared at of the watches to a neighbouring man pedlar and an incident that took place the pedlar to be quiet or else get to hell who had it for years afterwards and in these parts. After a day’s trading out of the house. who always reckoned that it was a very the evening turned out to be very wet Come next morning, all was forgiven reliable timepiece. with heavy downpours of rain, and and the householder gave him a breakfast The pedlar was certainly a man of his the pedlar sought shelter in a country and set him off on the road again. time. We were often told the story that dwellinghouse. As the deluge continued As a very young boy back in the late Charles Bianconi, the great transport he asked the owner if he might be able 1930s I clearly remember arriving home tycoon of the 1800s, had started out as to put him up for the night. The man from Killavil school one evening to find a pedlar. of the house agreed and when bedtime a pedlar standing on our kitchen floor With the coming of motorised came he obtained a short ladder and and he doing his best to persuade my transport the days of the foot salesman ushered the pedlar and his pack up onto late parents to buy some of his goods. were numbered. Those goods that he a tiny loft that was located at the end of Looking back now, he seems to have was accustomed to selling were now the kitchen. This was a facility that was been a well-seasoned gentleman, just a being offered for sale on stalls at fairs usually found off every old-fashioned bit past middle age. He was dressed in and markets around the countryside. kitchen at the time. a faded shower-proof mac that seemed

 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 Lady Arabella Denny, an obelisk on a hill near the town, the Fitzmaurice family and the linen industry in Ballymote (1743-1833) John Coleman

This article was inspired by two the second daughter of the 21st Baron Lady Arabella Denny things. I had been aware for some time and 1st Earl of Kerry (1688-1741). Lady Arabella grew up at Lixnaw of a reference in Lewis’ Topographical Further research revealed that she was in Kerry, the vast and splendid late Dictionary of Ireland of 1837 to “an the sister of John Petty Fitzmaurice, seventeenth century seat of the obelisk on a small hill near the town 1st Earl of Shelburne (1706-61) and Fitzmaurice family, alas now merely erected by Lady Arabella Denny”.i I consequently aunt of the William 1st a ruin.viii She married Sir Arthur had been curious as to who Arabella Marquis of Lansdowne (1737-1805). Denny MP of Tralee Castle (1704- Denny was and why she erected an iv I went on to discover that it was her 42) in 1727. He had 6,000 acres in obelisk in Ballymote. However, other brother, the 1st Earl of Shelburne who Kerry and after his death she had an commitments meant that I had never purchased the Ballymote Estate for the income from the estate of £1,000 per pursued the matter further. Then I family.v This Anglo-Norman family year for life. In 1748, she rented a visited an exhibition at the National had settled in Ireland in the late 12th house called Peacliff Hill Blackrock, Gallery in Dublin of the work of or early 13th century and been granted County Dublin, which is still standing the portrait painter Hugh Douglas vast estates in Kerry, comprising today, and it was there she resided for Hamilton (1740-1808) and there to some 100,000 acres.vi While her the rest of her life.ix She was a woman my delight was a portrait of the lady grandfather had been a Jacobite, he of substance and numbered among herself. The small oval portrait (24 had submitted to William III after the her friends Dean Swift and the leading x 19.5 cm) in pastels and graphite end of the wars and her father had literary and intellectual circle in Dublin depicts a Lady in profile and was married Anne (d.1737) daughter and of the day. She was friendly with Mrs painted in 1762 when she was aged heir of Sir William Petty (1623-87), Delany of Delville in Glasnevin and 55.ii This new information proved too Physician General of the Army. Petty would have seen her “shell house” much of a temptation and I felt that I had been an extraordinary man by there which was built as a “folly” had to find time to pursue the subject any standards. He was a significant or ornamental building in the same further. economist, founder of the discipline vein as the obelisk she commissioned of statistics, Professor of Anatomy in Ballymote. It is thus fitting that at Oxford and undertook the famous Hamilton chose to portray her with a Down Survey of confiscated land pen in hand, perhaps writing a letter to in Ireland.vii He had been granted one of her distinguished friends. Lady 50,000 acres in Kerry. The marriage Arabella had no children and she was was a significant union between the not one to sit about merely enjoying Fitzmaurices, an ancient family in the luxury that her high position in Ireland for 600 years and the newly society and extensive wealth would arrived Pettys. allow her. Dublin at the time was a city where great wealth sat side by side with great poverty and distress. Bartholemew Moss had founded the Rotunda Hospital to provide safe conditions in which poor mothers could safely give birth to their children. A Lady Arabella Denny. Hugh Douglas similar concern for the welfare of the Hamilton. (Reproduced by kind poor had lead to the establishment of the Foundling Hospital to take in and permission of the Representative care for children whose mothers were Church Body) unable to do so. Lady Arabella became active in the work of the Foundling I had been aware of the fact that Hospital and was a member of its Ballymote in the eighteenth century board and of the Ladies Committee was owned by members of the of the Rotunda. She took a keen and Fitzmaurice family and had suspected William Petty, 1st Marquis of active interest in the details of the that they might be related to the Lansdowne, 1st Lord of the Treasury work of the Foundling Hospital and family whose titles included Earl of (PrimeMinister) 1782-3, eldest son donated £4,000 towards its extension.x Kerry & Shelburne and Marquis of of the 1st Earl of Shelburne and While doing this work she became Lansdowne.iii The short biography brother of Hon. Thomas Fitzmaurice. concerned about the fate of the in the exhibition catalogue revealed (engraving by Bertilozzi after an oil by mothers who deposited their children that Lady Arabella (1707- 92) was Thomas Gainsborough) in the Foundling Hospital and in 1766

 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 she was instrumental in establishing by people for their own use. From an institution in Leeson Street to care 1735 the Linen Board gave people flax for these women. The women were seed, spinning wheels and reels which permitted to remain there for eighteen were used to manufacture yarn mainly months and were trained in lace sold to northern buyers. Women making, a useful commercial skill worked on spinning the yarn, bringing then, to enable them to earn a living wealth to the family and paying the when they left. The building was sold rent, while the men worked the fields in 1958 and demolished in 1979. The to feed the family. Unlike wool, linen Arabella Denny Trust continues to was not subject to duty on entering dispense funding to projects assisting Britain. By 1760 the linen industry mothers and children.k She is buried was booming and in 1776 export of Thomas Fitzmaurice (1742-93) with her husband in Tralee in his yarn from Sligo port to Liverpool and painted in 1772 by Sir Joshua family vault. In her life time she had Manchester was worth £80,000. xvi Reynolds (1723-93) (reproduced by been commended for her work by the The first Linen Hall was established kind permission of the Trustees of Irish House of Commons (the so called in Sligo in about 1760 in Old Market the Bowood Collections) ‘Grattan’s Parliament’) and was made Street, on a site provided by Owen figure in British politics and became a Freeman of the City of Dublin.xii Wynne of Hazelwood.xvii The Borough 1st Lord of Trade in 1763 and later Council declared linen cloth and yarn 1st Lord of the Treasury (Prime John Petty Fitzmaurice, 1st Earl of could only be traded in the hall and a Minister) briefly in 1782-3. He was Shelburne, acquires the Ballymote levy on all sales was collected. When created 1st Marquis of Lansdowne in Estate and begins to develop its Arthur Young, the great agricultural 1784. He engaged Robert Adam to linen industry economist, visited Ballymote in 1776 design Lansdowne House in London Lady Arabella must have come to he was told by Thomas Fitzmaurice and Lancelot “Capability” Brown to Ballymote during the time it was that his father Lord Shelburne lay out his estate at Bowood. It was owned by her brother or her nephew had found Ballymote wild and his younger brother the Honourable Hon. Thomas Fitzmaurice. Her uncultivated and “without an atom of Thomas Fitzmaurice (1742-93) who brother John, 1st Earl of Shelburne manufacturing, not even spinning”. inherited the Ballymote estate when he (1706-1761) bought the Ballymote Wishing to improve conditions in came of age. There is a very fine portrait estate on the dissolution of the Taaffe the area, in 1756 he had brought in of Thomas painted by Sir Joshua estate, which was sold on foot of an 17 weavers and their families from Reynolds in 1772, about two years Act of Parliament (15 George II) in the north to help establish the linen before his first recorded involvement 1743.xiii When the estate was later sold industry in the town.xviii They had the with the Ballymote estate.xx in August 1833 to Sir Robert Gore- necessary skills since the industry was Thomas set about developing the Booth, for £130,000, it comprised already well established in the north linen industry in Ballymote with 16,000 acres, 64 , including by this time. However, Young noted renewed vigour and he told Young parts of the town of Ballymote.xiv Her that Lord Shelburne been unfortunate that he decided to supervise the brother had adopted the name Petty in his choice of business associates project directly, rather than employ a in 1751 when he inherited the Petty and, having spent £5,000 he had only manager. Thus he committed himself estates from his mother’s family succeeded in establishing seventeen to Ballymote, despite the fact that his – frequently it was a requirement of Protestant families and twenty seven main residence was Llewenny Hall in inheriting estates in the female line looms. Liam Swords (1997) notes Denbigh County, Wales. He set about that the name of the family should that by 1760 he had advanced £3,000 learning every aspect of the linen be taken on and thus preserved in towards establishing a large factory. business from spinning to bleaching connection with the estate. The title xix After his death his widow Lady to selling. He told Young that he even of Earl of Shelburne, which had Shelburne, employed Wakefield, learned the art of spinning himself. belonged to the Petty family, was described by Young as “the great Irish Thomas’ aunt Arabella was interested recreated in his favour in 1753. The factor [merchant] in London”, and he in the linen industry and in 1766 Petty estate comprised 50,000 acres in succeeded in increasing the industry she had advised the Dublin Society Kerry. He also purchased an English to sixty looms and constructed new (later Royal Dublin Society (RDS)) estate, Bowood in Wiltshire which is buildings, including cottages for the concerning patterns for damask still the home of his descendants. weavers. Wakefield died and the manufactured by Irish linen makers. It was John Petty Fitzmaurice, Earl business was neglected for a year xxi Developing attractive patterns for of Shelburne, who introduced linen after which Lady Shelburne employed damask was crucial to the marketing manufacture in Ballymote.xv The linen another manager who did not enjoy of linen products in the high fashion industry had enormous importance, a much success. sphere where it had to compete with fact we could now forget as linen has the craze for imported decorative largely been supplanted by cotton and Hon Thomas Fitzmaurice inherits cotton chintz.xxii She took a huge more recent synthetic alternatives. the estate and devotes himself to the personal interest in the decorative arts A Linen Board had been established project and also used her personal influence by act of Parliament in 1711 and When John Petty Fitzmaurice died in high society to promote the silk operated until 1823 to promote the most of his vast estates in Ireland industry, even experimenting with linen industry in Ireland. From 1717, and England passed to his eldest keeping silk worms in Blackrock. xxiii the Linen Board had given grants to son William who became 2nd Earl of She was the first woman elected an assist the production of coarse linen Shelburne. He was to be a significant honorary life member of the Dublin

 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010

Society, a clear recognition of her attention; No fortune is able without it, growing, there was an income to be significant achievement by the leading nor can any man be Charitable, Generous made for those employed as flax- promoters of improvement in art and or Just who neglects it, it will make a dresser, spinner, weaver and bleacher. industry in the Ireland of the time man happy under Slender circumstances, Smyth saw that the source of wealth (still today such a distinction is only and make him shine if his Income be was shifting from the land to industry. sparingly conferred by the RDS). affluent.” Thomas, as a land owner had the potential to be involved in the Thomas Fitzmaurice and the great He goes on further to recommend growing of flax but he was anxious economist Adam Smith that his son be taught to to be involved in the entire process In the tradition of his great grandfather value honesty, benevolence, of production, manufacture and even Sir William Petty, Thomas was an generosity and the importance of marketing. Smith had argued that enlightened figure with innovative application to business affairs. profit was to be made at each part of ideas on economic development. This In a letter of 29 Oct. 1759 Smith the process and Thomas determined to was the age of Enlightenment and one gives an assessment of the character tap into this – generating much income could say that Thomas brought the and development of Thomas: for all involved. These arguments are enlightenment spirit to Ballymote. familiar to us all today. After being to Eton and before going “Your Lordship expressed in a to Oxford, his father arranged for letter I received from you some time ago, a Thomas Fitzmaurice constructs in Thomas to go to Glasgow where very laudible anxiety that your son should Ballymote the finest bleach mill in he studied under the supervision of be held to Oeconomy [sic.] not that he the country Adam Smith, living in his house there might hoard, but that he might be able to Arthur Young described visiting from 1759 to 1761.xxiv Smith, author give. I did not at that time take any notice Thomas Fitzmaurice at his residence in of The Wealth of Nations, published in of that part of your Lordship’s letter. I Ballymote in 1776 and his anticipation 1776 in London, is arguably the most can now venture to assure your Lordship of visiting the manufactory of which influential economist of all time.xxv He that, tho’ you might think this account he had heard a great deal since arriving was an advocate of free trade and held a bad specimen of his management, he in Ireland. Thomas told Young that that the operation of the enterprise of is punctual, regular and orderly beyond two years earlier he had constructed the individual in the free market would almost anybody of his age and condition I a mill in the town, having taken over carry the standard of material well- have ever known, that he is careful of every the management of the enterprise after being to new heights.xxvi However, thing upon which he sets any value, of his Wakefield’s death. Young described it Smith’s theories have been used as books, of his cloaths [sic.], and will I am as the finest bleach mill in the country. justification for unregulated free persuaded be so of his money, whenever Thomas told Young that he had toured market which has lead to the current he has any money to manage that is worth the mills of the north to learn from economic crisis. What has not been caring of. His regularity is tempered by their design and in 1774 he engaged remembered is that Smith started life as a great desire of distinguishing himself an engineer named Stansfield, well a moral philosopher and his first work by doing actions of éclat that will draw known for designing saw mills, to was The Theory of Moral Sentiments upon him the Attention of the world. construct the bleach mill. The mill published in 1759. He intended each He is even animated by this passion to must have been on the river at the end work to be read in the context of the a degree that is a little hazardous and is of what was formerly known as Mill other. Even in The Wealth of Nations capable of venturing to expose his talents, Street (it is officially Grattan Street he warned of the danger inherent which are naturally excellent, before they since the street renaming that took in human nature that the excess of are perfectly matured. If he lives to be a place on the hundredth anniversary the free unregulated market could man, he will, I imagine be firm, steady of 1798 – though even to people of ultimately damage the fabric of society. and resolute in an uncommon degree, and my mother’s generation it was still There is an extensive surviving by the time he comes to the meridian of Mill Street.) The river at that point correspondence between Thomas’ Life, will be a man of severe and even was still known as the mill race father, the Earl of Shelburne and rigid morals.” when I was a child – its path has Adam Smith on the subject of the been diverted since, presumably to education of the young man.xxvii The In a letter of 15 July 1760 Smith prevent flooding in the area or some correspondence is very revealing of noted that Thomas was showing an such practical consideration. He the nature of the education he received aptitude towards “mathematical and created a dam and flooded an area and on the characters of both father and mechanical” learning – a quality which of 34 acres of land to provide a lake son. The correspondence reveals that had already been noticed by his father and a flow of water from which the he attended lectures in Greek, Latin, and an indication of a predisposition mill might be driven. The flooded Law, Mathematics, Moral Philosophy towards his future interest in industry. area survives as Ballinascarrow Lake and Logic.xxviii Lord Shelburne reveals He noted in the same letter that his and Des Black has pointed out to something of his own values, and his character was grave and serious. me that the observant can still detect priorities for his son’s education, in a The influence of Smith must have the dam walking along the Lavala letter he wrote from Dublin to Smith inspired Thomas’ later initiatives road leading to the lake.xxix It would on 26 April 1759: to develop industry. Smith taught make an interesting archaeological of the value of industry adding adventure to discover the location “Obedience; a power of adopting value to agricultural production and remains of this structure. the will of another, will make one Master and thus increasing wealth. Smith According to Wood-Martin’s of one’s own. Oeconomy [sic.] seems had written about the growing of History of Sligo (1842), not having likewise to have a just place in your Flax, illustrating that as well as the a bleach green the first year, Thomas

 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 employed only 65 looms and exported very venial, as it ornaments a building his d. a considerable manufactory the linen “green”. In 1776 there were of Dutch extraction. But this is without at Ballimote [sic.], County of Sligo, the same number and 120 in 1777. parallel, whether the magnitude, the Ireland and was possessed of large Each weaver from the north received ingenuity of the machinery, or the size of personal estate in Ireland consisting of a house which cost £50 and paid a the bleaching ground is to be considered. large debts due to him on Mortgages rent of £40 per year. The rent was The greatest part of the linen [sic.] etc. and for arrears from his tenants to lowered in proportion to the number bleached here is sent from the tenantry the amount of (including old arrears of webs woven and premiums given of his great estates in Ireland, in payment of rent) of £20000 [sic.] and other to the best weaver and spinner in the of rent. Much also is sent by private personal property in his dwelling at St manufactory. Until recently there persons from the neighbouring counties Stephens Green, Dublin and elsewhere were cottages along both sides of for the mere purpose of whitening. and also before his d. was possessed Mill Street and others in Newtown, The vast extent to which Mr. Fitzmaurice of diverse leasehold premises of at the end of present day O’Connell carries this business, is most sensibly felt Liverpool, County of Lancs. and in Street, which must have been part in this neighbourhood. May the utility of Chester and in Parkgate in Cheshire [a of this development. This enterprise his life effectually awaken in our gentry departure point for ferries to Dublin] had an enormous effect on the town a sense of his merit, and the benefits and for some yrs. before his death of Ballymote. In 1775 there were 80 resulting from his labours, and induce was concerned in trade as a linen men and 525 women employed in the them to promote every design of his, merchant which he carried out at his industry. calculated for the public good.” bleach works at Lleweny Hall and at According to Christopher Liverpool and London. And also for MacDonagh, Thomas had increased From the engraving by Thomas some yrs. before his d. traded in claret the number of looms to ninety and Malton, (see illustration), it will be as a wine merchant and had at the during 1775 contributed the bulk of seen that the Welsh building did time of his d. a large stock on his farm the £80,000 worth of linen exported indeed more truly resemble a palace at Llewenny [spelling different to from the port of Sligo. Economically than a mill. One cannot suppose that above] of value of £2000 and upwards this made a vast change to the area, the Ballymote mill was so grand but it and also a large stock of linen to the which had been previously confined can be seen that Thomas Fitzmaurice amount of £20000 [sic.] and upwards to the subsistence growing of food. had high standard. and his stock of claret and debts owing xxx The women were employed in on that account amounted to £30000 the spinning of yarn for which they [sic.] and also possessed at his d. of received an average of a shilling a day. plate [at this period plate referred to Most tenants planted from a half rood sterling silver tableware which would to half acre to the growing of flax. be used or displayed for entertaining According to Young, he had grand on grand occasions], jewels etc at plans for the town, including a large Leweny Hall and house in Liverpool market house, a mansion house for and other personal property to a very himself “in the style of a castle” and great value.” to pull down all the old cabins in the town and rebuild them as regular Lleweney bleach mills, Wales, The document also reveals that streets of good houses for weavers much of his property, including some and mechanics.xxxi designed in 1785 by Thomas Sandby in Kerry, Tipperary, Sligo and Denbigh A decade after the commencement for Thomas Fitzmaurice (engraving and Flint in Wales was to be sold to of the Ballymote enterprise, Thomas by Thomas Malton) pay his debts and set up an annuity also developed the linen industry on Despite his commitments in for his wife. However, the document his estate in Wales. He built bleach Ballymote and Wales he also found continues: works there in 1785 for treating linen time to sit as an MP at Westminster. produced in Ireland. Lleweney bleach He had a town house in London “He considered the manufactory at mill was designed by the celebrated between 1781 and 1787 at 105 Pall Ballymote, Ireland as beneficial to his Architect Thomas Sandby (1721-98) Mall, one of the grandest addresses in estate and left it to thie discression who was a relative. These remarkable the city. He was a friend of Dr Johnson of his executors whether to carry on buildings have been described and of the great actor David Garrick. that manufactory at the expense of the as among the grandest industrial Thomas died on 28 October 1793.xxxiii estate or not.” buildings of the 18th century.xxxii They A legal document of 1796, relating to a are extensively described in 1783 by dispute between his relatives over his The document is evidence of the Thomas Pennant: will, gives an account of his interests continued success of the Ballymote at the time he made his will on 21 June enterprise at the time he made his will “The building, in which the 1793, including Ballymote, and this is in the year he died (1793) and of his operations are carried on, is in form of a worth quoting: deep personal commitment to it. crescent: a beautiful arcade four hundred feet in extent, with a loggio in the centre, “Thomas Fitzmaurice was seized The decline of the linen industry graces the front; each end finishes with a of the estates agreed by him to be and the sale of the Ballymote estate pavillion. The drying loft is an hundred settled subject to the trusts of the said Wood-Martin notes that after and eighty feet long; the brown warehouse Article and also of diverse other real Thomas’ death, since his son was a and lapping room each ninety feet; and estates in Gt. Britain and Ireland and minor, the houses in Ballymote were before it are five fountains, a prettiness he carried on for some years before let to an agent who employed about

10 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010

130 looms. By the time of his arrival Orkney on his mother’s death in Sir Edward Lovatt Pierce. The well in Ballymote in 1837, Samuel Lewis 1831, two years before the sale of known Conolly folly at Castletown, remarked that the industry was nearly the estate in 1833. He may never Co. Kildare is topped with an obelisk extinct. This is supported by Wood- have visited Ballymote. It must thus and was erected in 1737. Could the Martin, who notes that after 1815 the date from the only other period when monument in Ballymote have been linen trade in Sligo town had declined it was the property of an Earl – his the “tower” which existed on a hill rapidly.xxxiv Up to the collapse of the grandfather the 1st Earl of Shelburne in Carronanty until its removal in trade linen fairs were held regularly who possessed the estate from 1743 to the first half of the 20th century? This in Ballymote. There was no linen mill 1761 and was an earl from 1751. The location would certainly have been listed in Ballymote in an ordinance name Earlsfield was applied by Lewis visible to the Fitzmaurices and their survey list of 1835-6.xxxv This reflected in 1837 to the “property” of Sir Robert guests standing on the front steps of the national situation of the linen Gore-Booth in Ballymote.xli The park Earlsfield. It seems too much ofa industry which only survived in the at Earlsfield still retains some of its coincidence that there should have hinterland of Belfast after 1830. xxxvi His magnificence in the form of old trees existed separately two such similar Welsh mill was probably demolished, judiciously placed in the grounds and edifices visible from Earlsfield. The together with his house Lleweney the house is still well cared for by the recently disappeared monument was Hall, in 1816-18 by the owners who Mercy order. known locally as a round tower and, had purchased the estate there.xxxvii while memory may suggest that it was On 21 December 1777 Thomas had round in appearance, it had nothing in married Mary O’Brien (1755-1831), common with the ancient round towers daughter of Murrough O’Brien, of Ireland which were buildings and 1st Marquis of Thomond.xxxviii She not solid monuments. I have not succeeded her mother on 10 May 1791 been able to locate photographs or as Countess of Orkney – a rare case fragments from the monument. of a peerage which could be inherited in the female line. Their son and heir Acknowledgments: Mary Kelleher, John Hamilton Fitzmaurice (1778- Librarian Emeritus, Royal Dublin 1820) had an unhappy marriage and Society (RDS); Dr. Susan Hood, died young. He is recorded living Earlsfield Assistant Librarian & Archivist, at Lleweeny Hall in Wales in 1808. Representative Church Body; Louise Following his death, his mother Morgan, Rights & Reproductions administered the estates until her Lady Arabella and the obelisk Assistant, National Gallery of death in 1831. Her grandson Thomas Finally, to return to Lady Arabella Ireland; David Griffin, Director, John Hamilton Fitzmaurice (1803- and the obelisk. An obelisk is a Irish Architectural Archive; Bridie 77) succeeded as 5th Earl of Orkney tall four sided stone pillar tapering Nicholson, Local History and on her death. He had been known to a pyramidal top. Erecting such Reference Section, Sligo County by the honorary title of Viscount monuments in the 18th century was Library; the Marquis of Lansdowne; Kirkwall during her life time. The title to provide decorative or ornamental Dr. Kate Fielden, Curator, Bowood. of Viscount Kirkwall also appears feature or “eye-catchers” in the Jacob Simon, Chief Curator and in administrative documentation landscape of a grand estate. Obelisks Alexandra Ault (Assistant Curator, in relation to the Ballymote estate, originated in ancient Egypt and became Archive and Library), National including leases. In 1725 and in 1832 fashionable in Rome.xlii They became Portrait Gallery, London. I would he is recorded living at Taplow Court popular in Baroque Italy and the first like especially to thank Sr. Loretto in Buckinghamshire, which his mother one was erected in England in 1714 & Sr. Gertrude for welcoming me had inherited from her father the 1st designed by Sir John Vanborough. on my visit to the Mercy Convent Marquis of Thomond.xxxix With the sale The first in Ireland at Stillorgan at Earlsfield. The photograph of of the Ballymote Estate to Sir Robert Park was designed by his nephew the portrait of Lady Arabella is Gore Booth in 1833 the almost century reproduced with kind permission of long connection of the Fitzmaurice the Representative Church Body and family and Ballymote came to an end. the National Gallery of Ireland and Archdeacon O’Rorke in his History of that of Hon. Thomas Fitzmaurice is Sligo claims the sale was agreed over reproduced by kind permission of the dinner at the table of Mr O’Hara at Trustees of the Bowood Collections. Annaghmore.xl It appears that the sale of the estate may have been forced due to obligations to make settlements Notes under the terms of his mother’s will. i Samuel Lewis, A Topographical The present Earl of Orkney lives in Dictionary of Ireland, London, 1837. Canada. His brother’s descendants Extracts published as in remain at Bowood in Wiltshire. 1837 A Topographical History, Samuel It is unlikely that the name of Lewis, Sligo 2003, p.33. Earlsfield dates from the very brief period of its ownership by Thomas The Conolly Folly, Castletown, Co. ii Lios an Uisce The History of a John Hamilton Fitzmaurice since Kildare, ( 1730) – topped off with House and its occupants from 1753 to the he only inherited the title of Earl of an obelisk Present Day, Mary Pat O’Malley, Dublin, no date (privately published –copies in 11 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 the RDS Library and Irish Architectural xiv Gerard Moran, Sir Robert Gore (1939). Archive). Mary Pat O’Malley read copies Booth and his landed estate in Sligo, xxxi Arthur Young, ob. cit. of her letters in the collection of the Earl 1814-1876, Dublin, 2006, p. 18. xxxii Hubbard, 1986, p. 80.The mills of Shelburne and Sir Arthur Denny. See xv Liam Swords, The Diocese of were engraved by W.Watts after T.Sandby; also account of Lady Arabella in Richard 1689-1818, A Hidden Church, also by Thomas Malton. Moses Griffiths Ryan, A biographical Dictionary of the Dublin, 1997, pp. 92-96, gives a good depicted it in watercolour. Engraving by Worthies of Ireland, London, 1821, pp. account of the linen industry in the area, Paul Sandby illustrated in, Buildings and 74-6. including Ballymote. Power, Thomas A. Markus, 1993, p. 256 iii Their Dublin town house was xvi Arthur Young, A Tour in Ireland xxiii Bradwell Grove Estate Papers, Kerry House on St Stephen’s Green, 1776-1779,Vol. I London, 1882, pp. 223- Oxfordshire Record Office. Copy/ Decree later known as Shelburne House after the 33. in Chancery. Hey/IV/ii/6 14th July, 1796. family earldom and now forms part of the xvii W.G. Wood-Martin, History of This relates to a cause before the Lord hotel which retained the name. Sligo, Dublin, 1842, p. 245. Chancellor relating to the estate of the iv Hugh Douglas Hamilton A Life xviii Arthur Young, 1882. late Thomas Fitzmaurice and involving in Pictures 1740-1808, ed. Anne Hodge, xix Swords, 1997, pp. 93-4. his widow the Countess of Orkney and Dublin, 2008, p. 61.G. C. Cockagne, The xx The portrait is recorded in A. her son (The Bradwell Grove Estate Complete Peerage, London, 1920-30. Graves and W. V.Cronin, A History of had been owned by the family of Mary v There is a good description of the works of Sir Joshua Reynolds as a ½ O’Brien, Countess of Orkney and it is the history of the Ballymote estate in the length 29 x 24 ins. Reynolds’ sitter book thus that papers relating to the family are Public Record Office of records sittings in 1772 and a payment in these records – it was sold by Morough as part of an introduction to the contents of £36 15s by “Mr Fitzmorrice” on the O’Brien, Marquis of Thomond in 1804). of the Lissadell papers held there. 3rd of November that year. Reynolds xxxiv Wood-Martin, 1842, pp. 242-5. vi The Complete Peerage, 1920- painted many members of the Anglo-Irish xxxv John C. McTiernan, In Sligo 30. Ascendancy and this was the subject of my Long Ago,1998, p. 361. The corn mill was vii “Petty on Policy, Theory and 1994 M. Litt. thesis at Dublin University, listed. Method” in Before Adam Smith: the together with articles in Irish Arts Review xxxvi Dunleavy, 1989,p.116. The Emergence of Political Economy 1662- 1995 & 1999 and The Bulletin of the Irish linen industry in the north thrived in the 1776, Terence Hutchinson, Oxford, 1988. Georgian Society. nineteenth century, see Cormac O’Grada, ix There is a pair of photographs xxi O’Malley, no date, p. 45, 57. “Industry and Communications 1801-45” of drawings of the ruins in the Irish xxii Maighread Dunleavy, Dress in in A New , vol. V, Ireland Architectural Archive. See also Valerie Ireland, London, 1989, p. 127. under the Union 1801-1870, pp.139-142. Barry, Houses of Kerry, Whitegate, Co. xxiii There is an extensive account xxxvii Markus, 1993, p. 256. Clare, 1994, p. 174. of Lady Arabella’s correspondence on al Branwell Grove Papers, Copy/ ix O’Malley, n/d, ob. cit. matters of interior decoration with her Decree in Chancery. Hey/IV/ii/6 14th July, x J.A. Robins, The lost children :a friend Lady Caldwell of Castle Caldwell 1796. study of charity children in Ireland 1700- in “The artistic and cultural activities xxxix D-GR/1/26 & 1/32, Grenfell Pps 1900, 1980. of the Caldwells of Castle Caldwell, .- Estate Pps. of Taplow Court, Centre for xi Including joint initiatives with 1750-1783” by Toby Bernard in Irish Buckinghamshire Studies. He also owned the Department of Social & Family Architectural and Decorative Studies, vol. the adjacent Cliveden Estate, now owned Affairs. X, 2007, pp. 91-111. by the National Trust, and once the home xii Christine Casey, Dublin, New xxiv John Raw , Life of Adam Smith. of the Astors and later the setting of key Haven & London, 2005. xxv The Wealth of Nations Books l- episodes in the Profumo Affair in the xiii Nicholas Taaffe, 6th Viscount loll Adam Smith, Penguin edition, London, 1960’s. Corran and Baron of Ballymote as a 1999. With an Analytical introduction by xl T. O’Rorke, HISTORY OF catholic was in dispute with his protestant Andrew Skinner. Sligo,Vol. II, Facimile, Sligo 1986, cousin Robert Sutton (his mother was a xxvi Smith, 1999, (Skinner) p.8. p.169. Taaffe) on the ownership of the estate and xxvii E. C. Mossner and I. S. Ross, xli Lewis (1837) 2000, p. 33. by act of parliament it was sold to Petty ed., Glasgow Edition of the Works and xlii James Howley, The Follies and Fitzmaurice with 2/3 of the proceeds to Correspondence of Adam Smith, vol. 6 Garden Buildings of Ireland, New Haven Sutton and 1/3 to Taaffe. According to Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1987. and London, 1993, pp, 8-24. T. O’Rorke, History of Sligo,vol II, p xxviii Mossner & Ross, 1987. Letter 167, the Taaffes entertained a hope of of 4 April 1759 from Adam Smith to Lord getting the property back if the position Shelburne. on catholics holding land changed. They xxix Christopher McDonagh, understood that there was a commitment History of Ballymote, Dublin (1939) says by the Earl of Shelburne to sell back to that the mill was 81 ft. long x 28 broad them at the same price, of £25,000 which and 17 high. This seems small if it was had been paid to Viscount Corran to considered the finest in Ireland. As usual satisfy his claim. However, after his death Mr McDonagh does not give a source for in 1761 his widow did not feel herself so this information. bound. xxx Christopher MacDonagh 12 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 Hazlewood - An uncertain future for a building of national importance

Donough Cahill

Hazlewood, Richard Castle’s earliest surviving country house commission, is currently the subject of a planning application proposing the demolition of a highly invasive factory to the rear of the house, the reinstatement of a once great parkland vista and the possible future transfer of Hazlewood house to the Irish Heritage Trust However, this heritage gain may only occur if permission is granted for the construction of a substantial residential development within the historic parklands comprising 158 detached houses, 54 apartments in 4 blocks, 13 berths and other associated facilities. These works are proposed Historic photograph of Hazlewood within lands that are of significant historic interest, that remain unzoned career which saw him serve with the the army in Ireland in 1727. in the County Development Plan and Williamite forces at the Battle of the Guthrie Jones details Wynne’s which border an area of ecological Boyne in 1690, as commander of the purchase in 1722 of substantial th interest. 5 Royal Irish Dragoons at Blenheim landholdings in Sligo including The Irish Georgian Society in 1704 and ultimately promoted to lands beside and parts has issued comments to Sligo County the position of Lieutenant-General and of the town of Sligo, together with Council noting our concern at the appointed as Commander-in-Chief of the town’s fairs, markets, tolls and scale of the proposed new development customs. Through these holdings and and highlighting the need to prioritise through astute political manoeuvring, urgent works to the house. Yet for the Wynne is said to have taken control first time in over half a century, it is of the Corporation of Sligo and also possible to think that the future of successfully secured county seats for Hazlewood may be secured through members of his family. this development process. Wynne’s appointment of the Situated on a scenic wooded prestigious architect Richard Castle peninsula jutting out into Lough Gill to design a great country house in to the east of Sligo town, Hazlewood Sligo must have reflected ambitions was built to the designs of Richard to create a monumental legacy for a Castle c. 1731 for Owen Wynne, lifetime’s achievements. military campaigner, politician and In building the house, Castle substantial landowner. adopted a fashionable Palladian style Owen Wynne was born in and designed a square, three-bay, the 1660s in Lurganaboy, Co. Leitrim three-storey over basement central and studied in Trinity College, Dublin block linked by arcaded quadrants and subsequently for the Bar. In The to three-bay, two-storey kitchen and Wynnes of Sligo and Leitrim, Winston Hazlewood now – interior looking stable blocks. Guthrie Jones charts Wynne’s military through tri-partite door way The entrance front is clad 13 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 in limestone ashlar and features a pedimented tripartite doorcase that is approached by limestone steps flanked by two stone urns. Above the doorcase on first floor level is an Ionic Venetian window with round headed niches replacing side windows and, surmounting this, on second floor level, is a central window with circular niches to either side. At ground floor level the windows have rusticated surrounds whilst a modillion cornice encircles the house. The south facing garden front is faced in uncoursed rubble Hazelwood now – exterior with a rusticated tripartite doorcase surmounted by a Venetian window shows a formal Dutch style garden a stipulation that the purchaser over which is a square window. with two octagonal walled gardens “demolish the building and remove all Regrettably, in the 1870s a three-bay and a great vista extending down the materials, clear and level the site”. two-storey wing was constructed peninsula with radiating allees. An Fortunately for Ireland’s on the western elevation of the 1842 Ordnance Survey map shows a architectural and cultural inheritance, main block significantly marring significantly altered landscape which Hazlewood survived but ever since Castle’s symmetrical composition. A retains the great vista but illustrates a the 1940s has experienced a fraught twentieth century fire escape further wooded landscape in place of the rigid existence. The house was purchased compromises his scheme. formality of the previous baroque by the Department of Health c. 1947 The interior of the house is garden. who adapted it for use as a psychiatric laid out with six rooms per floor plus In The History of Sligo Town hospital. In the late 1960s it was a main and service staircases. The and County (1889) Terence O’Rorke acquired by an Italian firm called Snia entrance hall is floored with white and describes the gardens at Hazlewood which built a giant factory for the grey marble whilst the drawing room as having “an open lawn and shady manufacture of nylon yarn on the site has a fine coved ceiling. In his thesis groves, in which are provided of the once great vista. Snia withdrew on The Irish Palladians, the Knight of charming retreats for saunterers, from Sligo in 1982 and shortly Glin singles out the saloon as being including a cane house, a rock house, afterwards the house and factory of particular interest with its ceiling a shell house (which had the inside were acquired by a Korean videotape treated as a coffered star vault. This walls covered with sea shells), and manufacturing firm which closed its room overlooks the garden terrace to a curious chair of state constructed operations in 2006. the rear of the house and is placed on of materials rarely found in these Today the house stands axis with the entrance hall. latitudes, the bones of the whale”. empty with shuttered windows The main staircase, similar in The remainder of the peninsula he and considerable damage to its character to that in the Richard Castle describes as being covered with shrubs interior from water ingress brought designed Bellinter, Co. Meath, was and trees, arbutus. about through years of low level replaced with a functional concrete Shortly after independence, maintenance. For some years the Irish flight of stairs in the 1950s or 60s the last descendants of Owen Wynne to Georgian Society has been lobbying which significantly compromises the live at Hazlewood left it for good and for action to be taken to secure the character of the stairhall. Sadly the in 1937 the house and surviving lands future of the building and, subject to interior was further compromised were sold to the Land Commission appropriate planning approval and the when many of the chimney pieces were and the State Forestry Department. whims of the global economy, it is stolen though these were subsequently In January 1946 the Irish now possible that this may occur. replaced with replicas. Times carried a report announcing The cartographic record that “Hazlewood House is to be illustrates the dramatic changes demolished, and the people of Sligo, Donough Cahill is Executive Hazlewood’s landscape has with few exceptions, do not care”. Director of the Irish Georgian experienced since the eighteenth At that time, the Land Commission Society century. An estate map dated 1762 advertised its sale by auction with

14 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 Collooney Fair Aidan Mannion

My first memory of Kerins, Paddy Noone, Jimmy the fair in Collooney was Smith, Pat McLoughlin, a bright spring morning, Jimmy Bonner, Paddy Joe with the sun following Mannion and Brendan the Ballygawley road up Mannion. Nobles Hill. The sound When the deals were of the small farmers of completed the dealer would Tirerrill driving their get a drover to collect all his cattle into Collooney animals and bring them to woke me and I sat for the lorries, railway stations hours watching the stream or sheds. Jimmy Meredith of animals. This flow was worked with my father and only broken by the odd Brendan as a drover. He horse or ass cart full of would round up the cattle bonaves (young pigs). and walk them to the sheds Kevin Mannion, my uncle, A view down Main Street, Collooney, showing Heire’s in the old Camphill School passed and waved up to pub on the right and Mrs Meehan’s “eating house” on the road. The me in my grandmother’s two doors down. This is a postcard published by Tadhg lorry-men would have their (Jessie O’Grady) top Kilgannon, Thomas Street, Sligo, in 1910. Aidan Mannion vehicles on the approach roads window. In the early sixties Collection and the “doubles” (a lorry as a little boy I knew that and trailer) would be booked all these animals were grandmother great respect by tipping by the bigger dealers. The bound for my father’s place of work, their hats as she passed. Dealmakers big A.E.C.s, Leylands and Commers he earned his living buying cattle all would shout at both parties not to were driven by great characters- Joe over Ireland and exporting them to “break my word”. When a deal was Carthy (Caiton and Carew), Tommy Scotland. completed the dealer would mark Harte, Mathius McLoughlin, Peter The Mannions of Dunally were the animals with raddle or with his Davis, John Tahaney, Sean McQuaid all cattle men, my father Gerry, special scissors. My father’s marks and Paddy Mofitt. The drover would his brothers Kevin, Paddy-Joe and were one cut to the pin and one cut also collect the blue cards (I.D. cards Brendan, their father Bready and of the plate, these marks were very with a tag number for each animal) as his grandfather Patrick. Store and important because they would identify they had to accompany the cattle for breeding heifers were my father’s his animals at the ports of Dublin, export. main exports to the lush grazing farms or Glasgow by his shipping The square in Collooney was the of east Scotland. He was known as a agents (George Mullen at the North center of all activity with canteens very good “judge” of cattle and in Wall, Dublin, Willie Duffy in Derry selling tea and ham sandwiches, stalls fact the Irish Export Board asked him and George Slavin in Mertlands, selling pots and pans, toys, sweets to show Blue Springers at the Royal Glasgow). The dealer would also give and clothes. Eating-houses like Mrs. Highland Show in Edinburgh. Blue the farmer a ticket from his ticket book Meehan’s opened to serve dinner Springers were blue in-calf heifers and would write the deal details on the and Heire’s and O’Connor’s public from the west of Ireland that were in stub. An arrangement would be made houses were full to the door. The great demand by Scottish farmers for to meet after the bank had opened and street front houses had timber barriers breeding. payment to be made in cash. The size, in front to protect their windows and The fairs of county Sligo and colour and rolls of notes amazed me. doors. The carts where backed on to in particular , , It was the custom for the seller to give footpath at Heire’s to show off their Ballymote, Collooney, Culleens, a “Luck Penny” to the buyer when bonaves(young pigs). The calf dealers Farniharpy and Grange were his paid, who would spit on it and put in with their converted bread vans also favourites. his pocket. vied for position along the footpath. On one special day my grandmother Some of the dealers I remember from McKim’s, Flynn’s and Quigley’s and I followed the cattle across the fair in Collooney were Michael shops were very busy and the bills of the Markree Hills to the fair. The Towey, Denny Cosgrove, Matt Clark, a year would be cleared with those animals were lined up on both sides Joe Gorman, Hughie Walsh, Eamon hard-earned notes. of the Barrack road, the whole way Foley, Vincie Mullan, Michael Very few of the cattle that crossed from the crossroads to McKims. The Taheney, John McGarry, Tom Joe the Markree Hills in the early morning excitement hit you immediately with Walsh, Felix Burke, Eddie Brennan, went home in the evening, reflecting “deals” being struck, the meeting of Hugh Mullen, Roy Buchanan, Mikey the amount of business done at the friends and the sound and smells of Noone, Albert McKenna, Roger Lang, fair. These animals were hand reared the animals. All the men showed my Jack Noone, Brendan Lang, Mickey on smallholdings and were now

15 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 bound for fattening or breeding on the lush grass lands of the midlands, England or Scotland. At the three railway stations and cattle sheds around the town the cattle crushes are full and tag numbers are being checked and matched with their blue cards. The dealers are “drawing” their purchases into lorry or wagonloads for their different customers. This is where the real skill of cattle dealing showed as each customer had different requirements. I was amazed to see my father “draw” twenty heifers purchased all over the country from two hundred cattle and match each other perfectly. He could remember whre every animal was bought and from whom. If an animal was bought all with others he would match the “comrades” easily. For a short period the Franz Buitler shipping company shipped cattle direct from Sligo port to Glasgow. Cattle from Collooney would be brought to the Larage on Sligo quay where the shipping agent, Packie Kerins, took them in his charge and they were loaded onto the Livestock Express, the Frisian Express or the Hereford Express, each ship carrying around three hundred animals. Paddy Mofitt’s old cattle lorry on Mail Coach Road, Cattle were the currency of pre-history and in the sixties Sligo, on the day it was taken from his yard to be they were providing the major commercial activity in the scrapped. The last cattle lorry in Sligo town. Aidan west of Ireland. The end of the fairs reflected the fall of Mannion Collection cattle as the major economic currency in the west and the pushing of them to the edge of economic activity. My late and the 11th of November. Arthur Cooper was granted a father’s trade has now almost gone, but it’s interesting to patent for fairs at Tubberscanavan in 1686, just outside see two of my brothers back in the cattle business today. of Collooney. As a result of Cromwell’s confiscations the Collooney rights passed out of local ownership to Richard HISTORICAL NOTE Coote in the late 17th century. Joshua Cooper bought the Collooney is located at a natural break between the rights to fairs in Collooney in 1727 and combined the mountains and in a good fording place on the Owenmore Tubberscanavan fairs into Collooney. It should be noted River. The old fair of Tubberbride on the southern end of that there was a fair green in Collooney, off the Barrack the village is, according to tradition, the oldest gathering road and behind the main street, but it was not used in my place. This gathering moved to Carricknagat on the other memory of the early 1960s. side of the town, as a result of landowner objections. The following is a list of the number fairs per annum in In 1616 local chief Bryan McDonagh was granted a patent Collooney town: to hold a Wednesday market and one fair on the 25th/26th of July. This moved the fairs into the town and allowed the YEAR NUMBER OF FAIRS grantee to collect tolls on all animals in the fair. Another 1800 6 (plus Tubbersanavan 4) two fairs were granted to him in 1622 on the 24th of April 1840 6 (plus Tubbersanavan 4 and Carricknagat l) 1900 7 (plus Carricknagat 1) 1950 13 (plus Carricknagat 1)

Old Moores Almanack, which was first published in 1699, was always my father’s bible to fair dates. The North-West Cattle Exporters Association was the dealers’ representative organization and it met every Saturday night in the Imperial Hotel, Sligo in the 1970s.

Dedication To the memory of my late father Gerry Mannion and all the other cattlemen who made Collooney the cattle capital of the west of Ireland.

Bibliography McTernan John C., In Sligo Long Ago, (1998, ISBN 0952059460) The Market House on the Square, Collooney, as it was in 1913 on a postcard published by T Hargadon, Old About the Author Street, Collooney. McKims shop and office on the Aidan Mannion is Vice Chairman of the County Sligo Heritage right now occupies the full of this site. From the Aidan Forum, a past President of the Sligo Field Club and holds a Mannion Collection Diploma in Archaeology from U.C.G.

16 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 On St. Kevin’s R.C. Church, Keash, Co. Sligo

Martin A. Timoney

INTRODUCTION as being the norm. A band of Scottish Wandering through the Irish mercenaries, camped near Fenagh countryside one is struck by the Lake, destroyed several buildings, number of churches and old graveyards including churches, in 1581. that are off the modern roads. Even Keash AD 1809 Stone However when we look more surprising then that so many of at the evidence mass was being the churches in the parish of Keash had links to the Cistercian abbey in said in buildings, often called mass and Culfadda, formerly Drumrat . The church in Battlefield, a houses. Some churches from earlier and Toomour, that are close to the long way off the medieval road, is times still had roofs; the drawing of old medieval road from Ballymote filled with stones collected from the Court Abbey suggests that the south to Boyle, a road named on the 20th surroundings; a bullaun from there is transept was not long out of use in century Ordnance Survey maps as at Ballymote R.C. church. Just south 1779. Prof. Stalley argues for a late Bóthar an Chorainn, historically of Ballymote is Emlaghfad, Imblech- use of Ballindoon on , believed to have been laid out by foda; St. Colmcille placed St. Eanna and Creevalea at Dromahaire; the Richard de Burgh, The Red Earl who there. Dominican order has had an almost built Ballymote Castle around 1300. It would be wonderful to know continual presence in Sligo from 1252 This may have been the route taken which of these sites was the earliest with a church behind Burton St. from by O’Donnell, another Red Earl, on but Toomour was the important site 1763. So churches were being used the way to the Battle of the Curlews. chosen to give its saint’s name, St. and being built during the eighteenth Kevin, to the Keash church. century. EARLY CHURCHES IN KEASH Knockbrack, formerly LATE USE OF MEDIEVAL CONFIRMING THE 1809 DATE Drumrat, was founded by St. Fechin CHURCHES Turning to Keash church in of Billa, west of Collooney; he who The difficulty with finding Fallougher confirming the date of its died c. 665-668 is more famous foundation dates for church sites is erection by independent lines of proof as the founder of Ballisodare and surpassed by the difficulties of finding has been a challenging exercise. Fore. Some Early Christian slabs in when sites ceased as places of worship. “A:D 1809” is cut in a window sill. Knockbrack graveyard indicate an The Reformation and the Suppression The inscription in glass in the west early foundation but there are only of Monasteries are cited as the death porch window reads “Pray for those scant remains of a medieval building. knell and that thereafter mass rocks in who built this church in 1809 and The church at Toomour is medieval, out of the way places were regarded those who restored it in 1979”. What it probably had a tower for residence at the west end, but the Altar and its slabs suggest an Early Christian date for its foundation. St. Luidhigh of Cill Easpaig Luidhigh seems to be the Bishop Lugid who ordained St. Kevin of Glendalough in the mid or late 6th century and the same Lughaidh, Bishop of Tuaim-fobhair or Toomour. From this association with a very important ecclesiastical site the church has been named St. Kevin’s Church. Teampull Ultan in Greenan still stands but is architecturally uninformative; an early pillar again suggests an early date for the site. Templevanny too was a circular Early Christian foundation; quern fragments and metal slag have been found there, but there is no trace of the medieval building; it may have St Kevin’s Church, Keash

17 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 more would one want? Combined The words ‘Grave Yard’ are 16F17, does not show a church and these may have given a complacency written beside Keash church on the the additional handwritten pencilled that the date was in fact 1809. In 2001 1837 OS map. These words have been words have not been deciphered. The the date of 1809 was not researched taken by some to imply that there was map does show a long building. Cross in depth for the parish history and a pre-1809 church here around which was still Palmerston land in 1862 and documents were not discovered. This a graveyard had developed. This may the estate map, 16F21, shows James author, an arrival to the parish in 1985, refer to burials within the church but Keaveney as having 11A 2R 30P Irish, on the other hand, is looking for better if so it is most unusual on the maps for including a house. The building at the proof, proof independently derived Co. Sligo that such words be written boundary equates with that from different sources. Also the fact at a church on the map. At the time on the 1813-1814 map. On neither that the date is cut on a window sill, of the Griffith Valuation published map is the building named as having as opposed to over a doorway or on a in 1856 ‘R.C. Chapel and yard’ and been a church. On both maps lines of plaque giving more information in a ‘National school-house’ are listed but trees surround the house, reflecting gable wall, is strange. It is positioned there is no mention of a graveyard; the name Keaveney’s Garden. opposite what was until recently the the immediate lessor for the lands only gate to the church for all entering surrounding the church was William 18th and 19th CENTURY CHURCHES to see. Phibbs, presumably of Corraddoo Bishop Patrick McNicholas, If there are no contemporary between Carrowcrory and . Bishop March 1818 to February 1852, sources, i.e., none from 1809, where The words ‘Grave Yard’ on the map reported to Rome in 1822 that there does one turn to? We have frequently must refer to burials at or within the were twenty-three parish chapels in advised the young inexperienced, church, not in the adjacent field. Bones the diocese, five of which had been and often over enthusiastic student, have never been found in the field. built since he had become bishop in that they are not the first to go down Most satisfying is the 1818; unfortunately he does not list any particular research road, and handwritten note by Michael Francis the churches. Keash, then, would what they write will not be the last. Regan of Carrownacreevy which be one of the seventeen pre-1818 Following up on the first point it took clearly reads “Keash chapels in the diocese and was twenty some weeks and a flash of inspiration was built in Martin Keaveney’s garden years before Catholic Emancipation. in The National Library of Ireland until 1808. …… Lord Palmerstown.” This record by Bishop McNicholas, to bring me to realise that someone (= Palmerston). The other items on that there were twenty-three parish subsequent to 1809 might have written the pages relate to emigration and chapels in the diocese, would suggest down something of use. All normal deaths, dating to 1930 and 1934. that there was at least one church sources seem to have nothing so This pushed confirmation of the date in each parish in 1822; one would what of newspapers but that gave two back to 1934 at least. The wording expect the larger parishes to have hundred years of potential sources and of the note is good confirmation that had a second church. Corhownagh an awful lot of searching. But then as far back as the early 1930s the church to the west of Ballisodare is there is never enough time! It has been date for Keash church was held to an early church in the diocese that said that all problems can be reduced be 1809. It also establishes that the is still in use. Barratogher church, to mathematical equations. In this pre-Fallougher church was in Cross to the west of Toorlestraun, dates to case the relevant equation seems to be townland. A piece dated 1802 relates 1753 and it is reputed to have held Year to Search = 1809 + 50N where to this church. 700 people; it was replaced in 1814 0≤N<4, or perhaps Year to Search = James Taheny, whose family and that was replaced in 1844 by the 1829 or 1979, though the latter has owned this land, confirmed a tradition present Toorlestraun church. A chapel proved fruitless; simply the multiples of a church in Keaveney’s Garden in was built in Ballymote in 1725. The of 50 years, The Year of Emancipation Cross. This was the last field on the was built in the 1810s; by or the Year of Renovation. north side of the road that leads into 1816 Emlaghfad Vestry had given £90 Fr. Richard FitzMaurice was Padraig Drury’s in Knocknacroy. His and £50 towards its construction. P.P. here from 1796 to 1831; he was recollection is of a four-part building, The one detailed pre-Ordnance a native of Cloonagh and this agrees a three roomed house with a barn to Survey map of Sligo is that done for with the ownership of the lands as the mountain end. One wonders if the Grand Jury by William Larkin. marked on the Palmerston NLI Ms that building incorporated parts of There is mention of survey work 16F17 map of 1813-1814. He is the church. There was a Pound on being done in 1802 but the map was credited with building the church. the south side of the road in 1837 and not engraved until 1819, so what is the there may have been a horizontal mill date of its contents?, was it updated? It THE PRE-1809 CHURCH on the stream in Knocknacroy. shows, by a standard symbol, a cross, There have been arguments as opposed to a detailed survey, that for two different locations for the ESTATE MAPS there was a church at Fallougher in pre-1809 church, one in Fallougher At 1808 the chances of a church Keash. This is independent evidence and the other in Cross. A few pieces being mapped would be very slim as that there was a church at Keash by of information have come to light in local maps are rare. Cross was part of 1819, if not for a decade before that. mid-2009 that help with the late 18th / the Palmerston Estate. The National The Established Church in the early 19th century churches in Keash. Library of Ireland map of 1813-1814, Parish of Emlaghfad gave £40 before

18 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010

1816 towards Keash chapel. This is 1985. Renovations began in 1977 but found in Keash and Culfadda, A Local confirmed by a discussion which took it was discovered that the church was in History edited by John Higgins, Mary place among the Vestry in 1821 asking much worse condition than expected. B. Timoney, Br. Thomas Connolly why the pre-1816 payment had not Des Rushe, “ Country”, and John Kielty, and published in been publicised. This is independent , 23 March 1979, 2001. The article for the August 2009 evidence that there was a church detailed the scale of the problem. The bi-centenary celebrations in Keash at Keash by 1816 and pushes the renovation project was expected to church has been derived from this evidence back even closer to 1809. cost less than £25,000 but escalated article. to more than £60,000 because of the NATURE OF THE CHURCH dry rot: roof, floor, seats, altar, and Acknowledgements Tradition has it that Keash was confessionals of the 170-year old I thank Rev. James Canon originally a single part church, The building were affected and practically Finan, Dr. Arnold Horner, Aideen Men’s House along the road facing everything in and around the church Ireland, Mary B. Timoney, Patrick directly to the altar. The Women’s had to be renewed or repaired. The E. O’Brien, May Carty, John House was a later addition but built church was almost reduced to a shell. McTernan, Imeda and Jim Killoran, before 1838 as the First Ordnance He says it was built in 1809 by Fr. Padraig Drury, James and Elizabeth Survey map clearly shows both wings. FitzMaurice who hid up the chimney Taheny and James McGill for help in The depiction of the church is small in the Irish College in Paris during the compiling this article. The published but detailed; one wonders if the Men’s Revolution. The final cost was about works of Fr. Liam Swords have been House has since been lengthened. £86,000. These details are taken from helpful. Many archaeological and Local tradition emphasises Rushe’s article. historian colleagues advised me as that the church originally had a sod The church was officially to possible sources but none proved roof and that later it was thatched. reopened in April 1980; during the fruitful. Fr. Tomás Surlis, Pontificio This sounds more than the normal use works mass was said in the adjacent Collegio Irlandese, and Martin Fagan, of rolls of scraw sod being laid grass White Hall. The total removal of all Archivist, Irish College Rome, side down before thatch was pegged possible sources of dry rot has meant provided copy of the McNicholas to it. I can find no record of when the that early wooden fittings which might letter. church was slated. help date the structure were removed There is mention that Patrick and destroyed; a few mementos have Rogers was teaching in the church in survived. 1826. There was considerable fund- Parish Priests The roof, with a ceiling raising both at home and among parish . carved by Pat Horan of Derrygola, was emigrants abroad including Gaelic 1683 Miler McDonogh supported by a timber pole. Again, Park in New York in September 1704 John McDonogh - Drumrat tradition records that Bartley Mór 1980. 1704 James Mulrunifin - Toomour Langton, a blacksmith by trade, told New furniture for the 1731 James Tymon the Horan brothers how to support the sanctuary was presented in 1985 in 1738 James McDonogh roof using this pole. The sacristy was memory of Fr. Kevin Brehony and the 1776 John Duffy added sometime between 1838 and Drury family. 1780s ? O’Connor 1888. The two porches were added to A car park was made around 1786-1796 Owen Banaghan the church during the ministry here of 1950 opposite the then National 1796-1831 Richard FitzMaurice Fr. P.J. O’Grady, 1912-1920; he also School. That was improved in late 1831-1851 James O’Hara had the road from the church to the 1970 and extended in 1991. A car 1851-1870 Constantine Cosgrove parochial house repaired. The belfry park by the side of the church was laid 1870-1881 Mark Cook, Adm. was erected in 1908. in 1991 with a new side access to the 1881-1901 Patrick Scully The Parochial House was church grounds. 1901-1912 Dominick O’Grady built by Fr. Patrick Scully in 1885 1912-1920 P.J. O’Grady with a grant of £400 from the Board CONCLUSION 1920-1925 William Flynn of Works. It was extended to the None of the independent 1925-1928 Edward Henry back in 1915 by Fr. P.J. O’Grady lines of information absolutely 1928-1931 James Hyland, Adm. for £600; a porch was added at that confirm 1809 as the date of the 1931-1944 Michael Connolly time. The Curate’s House, opposite church but collectively they lead to 1944-1955 Anthony Durcan McDonagh’s Shop, now Ward’s, was one conclusion, the church in Keash 1955-1958 Peter Harte built in the time of Fr. Patrick Conlon, was built in 1809. The bi-centenary 1958-1973 Edward Gallagher here 1888-1891, with a grant of £200. celebration is set for August 3rd., 1973-1985 John Alexander A new Curate’s House was built near 2009, when Bishop Brendan Kelly McGarry Culfada by 1981. is the principal celebrant with Rev. 1985-1990 Christopher James Canon Finan as Master of McLoughlin REPAIRS IN 1977 Ceremonies. 1990- James Finan Canon John Alexander McGarry was P.P. here from 1973 to Further details on the parish are to be

19 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 A Turbulent Sligo Genius Stephen Flanagan

If you’ve ever stood at a bridge and daughters died in early childhood, and found yourself gazing at the hypnotic his second son died of an accidental flow of water passing underneath, morphine overdose while training to you’re following in the footsteps be a doctor. His youngest daughter of one of the greatest minds ever to and eldest son survived to adulthood. come from Sligo. And you may even Possibly Stokes’ best-known legacy be in with a shot at a million dollars. are the Navier-Stokes equations, George Gabriel Stokes was born which deal with one of the most in , Co. Sligo, on 12 August difficult problems in fluid dynamics: 1819. Over the course of his life, turbulence. Stokes worked them Stokes’ mathematical reasearch laid out independently as a consequence the foundations for the study of the of Newton’s laws of motion. It way fluids and gases move, applying later turned out that Claude-Louis to everything from the way water Navier had also completed the flows through a pipe to how air flows George Stokes work around the same time, and the over an airplane wing to how stars of his life: Cambridge University. equations were named after both men. move in a galaxy. Generations of While there, he met William Hopkins, You can see what they were thinking engineering and mathematics students a well-known figure of the time who, about at your kitchen sink. If you ever since have struggled to come to in Stokes’ own words, ‘was celebrated turn on a tap just a little so that you grips with his ideas in the form of the for the very large number of his pupils get a narrow, smooth flow of water, Navier-Stokes equations, Stokes’ law, gaining high places in the University what you’re looking at is called a Stokes’ theorem, the Stokes shift and examinations for mathematical laminar flow. But then, if you open his other works across mathemtics, honours.’ He encouraged Stokes to the tap all of the way so that you get engineering, optics and even medicine. think not only of pure mathematics, a gush of water, what you’re looking His father was John Stokes, Rector of but to look also at fields like astronomy at is a turbulent flow. The equations Skreen, and his mother Elizabeth was and optics. Given that Stokes later went that Stokes developed can model that the daughter of John Haughton, Rector on to be influential in several fields, he turbulent flow. To this day, however, of Kilrea. Their first child died in must have taken the advice to heart. mathematicians cannot prove that the infancy, but seven followed, of which Throughout his career, Stokes earned equations are absolutely correct, even George Gabriel was the last. Four of almost all of the highest honours that though they seem to match up with his brothers became clergymen; his a man of science of his era could hope what we can observe and test in real life. eldest brother went on to become to attain. He graduated top of his class In the year 2000, the non-profit Clay Archdeacon of Armagh, and it’s no as an undergraduate at Cambridge and Mathematics Institute in the United surprise that Stokes himself was very was offered a fellowship at Pembroke States named seven Millenium Prize religious throughout his life. It was by College. On completing that, he Problems, unsolved problems in all accounts a very happy childhood; was awarded the Lucasian Chair of mathematics that it deemed particularly J Larmor, in his two-volume Memoir Mathematics at Cambridge in 1849, a important. One of the problems is to and scientific correspondence of the post previously held by Isaac Newton, mathematically prove that the Navier- late Sir George Gabriel Stokes, noted and much later by Stephen Hawking. Stokes equations are correct. The that ‘The home-life in the Rectory at In 1851 he was elected a fellow of the prize for each is one million dollars. Skreen was very happy, and the children Royal Society, and later he became So far, none have been claimed. grew up in the fresh sea-air with that organisation’s president. Later in Stokes was a giant of science. He well-knit frames and active minds.’ life, in 1899, he was made a Baronet by died in 1903, and was commemorated Stokes returned regularly to the west Queen Victoria, and he was awarded at his birthplace in Skreen in 1995. of Ireland for summer holidays in the the Copley Medal of the Royal His obituary in The Times reflected years that followed. And in one of his Society in 1893, an award given for his stature both as a man and a mathematical papers, when describing ‘outstanding achievements in research’. mathematician. ‘By his death the a wave, he writes of it being like ‘the He was even a Member of Parliament country has lost its most eminent surf which breaks upon the western for Cambridge University, elected living mathematician and one coasts as the result of storms out in for one term in 1887. Parliamentary of its most distinguished men of the Atlantic.’ So the region certainly records show he spoke a grand total of science,’ it said. ‘ In private life had a hold on his imagination. three times. He didn’t like the hours, his simplicity and modesty were as His earliest education was from the and didn’t run for re-election. He was conspicuous as his great attainments.’ clerk of the parish in Skreen. When he a vigorous letter-writer, and kept up a was 13, he went to the Rev R H Wall’s long correspondence with the famous -- school in Hume Street, Dublin, where Lord Kelvin, among many other people. The following essays were very helpful in his mathematical abilities began to He was married in 1859 to Mary the creation of this article: make themselves apparent. When he Susanna Robinson, daughter of Dr http://www.gap-system.org/~history/ was 16, he moved to England to attend Thomas Romney Robinson, the chief Biographies/Stokes.html Bristol College, where he stayed for astronomer at the observatory in two years, before finding what would http://www.cmde.dcu.ie/Stokes/ Armagh. His family life was marked GGStokes.html turn out to be his home for the rest by tragedy, alas. Their first two 20 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 Capt. McManus and his Two Wills John C. McTernan

The McManuses of Corray and Defendant was John Mathews, the Tourlestrane and the Mullarkeys representative of the Protestant of Drummartin were two of the branch of the McManus family most prominent families in the who claimed that both Wills parish of in the early were impeached, the first on the to mid 19th century. They were grounds that it was a forgery and related through marriage, were the second because of undue of the well-to-do farming class execution and undue influence. and were in a position to have As time moved on and their sons well educated. Roger McManus’s health deteriorated McManus qualified as a medical further, he appears to have doctor and lived at Tourlestrane abandoned his cordial regards while his brother,Thomas for Dr. Mullarkey while at the embarked on a military career same time expressing offensive in England, attained the rank Dr. Joe Mullarkey Archdeacon O’ Rorke feelings to the Mathew family, of Captain and in 1840 was style that the landlords of Streamstown his Protestant relations. residing in Baker St., London, with and Abbey town passed their days Notwithstanding this change in David McManus, possibly a brother. and nights, evading their fellow man attitude Dr. Mullarkey pressed him Back at home their cousin and close and being avoided by them, and were into making a second Will to replace neighbour, Dr. Joseph Mullarkey, strangers to the normal comforts and the one that the testator had destroyed. more commonly known as Dr. Joe, decencies of life”. On Easter Sunday in April 1865, a was the first Medical Officer at Aclare, Dr McManus died in the mid 1850s few days before the Captain’s death, an enthusiastic follower of the ‘sport leaving his brother, the Captain, the Dr. Mullarkey induced the Parish of kings’ and the owner of successful sole proprietor of the extensive landed Priest, Terence O’Rorke, to join his race horses that netted him a small estate. In 1859 he made a Will which solicitations for another Will but the fortune. His most famous racer was was later destroyed and was replaced deceased steadfastly and repeatedly named “The Pride of Ballyara”, whose by a second, substantially the same, refused to make it. On the following prowess on the racetrack is recorded which he allegedly made on his night he changed his mind and, propped on a headstone over the family grave deathbed in April 1865. Shortly after up in bed, he dictated a second Will in the old cemetery at Ballyara. his death rival claimants to the estate to Michael Mullarkey, the plaintiff, In 1846 the McManus brothers, Dr had recourse to the law to determine and then sent for Joseph Clarence of Roger and Captain Thomas, purchased which, if any, of the Wills would be Ballisodare to witness it. Half an hour a large holding, in the region of a upheld. The case came before the later Clarence reached the McManus few hundred acres, at Ballisodare, Court of Probate in 1867. No fewer abode only to find that the Will had part of the lands of Streamstown and than thirty witnesses were examined already been witnessed by Tom Abbeytown, in the Landed Estates and their evidence, for the most part, McLoughlin, the Captain’s steward Court for £12,800 and towards the was of a conflicting character. In the and also by Michael Mullarkey. When cost of which they borrowed £3,500. course of the hearing it was revealed the document was duly witnessed and Thomas returned from London shortly that the Captain was a person of signed, the testator charged those afterwards and the brothers took up “eccentric and penurious habits” who present to the matter a secret residence at Streamstown in a rather had been in delicate health for many for twelve days after his death and primitive two-roomed cottage. Once years and whose sole physician, since instructed Mullarkey to then bring it in possession they increased the rents the death of his brother, had been to John Brett of Tubbercurry, a well of the sitting tenants, as a result of his cousin, Dr. Joe Mullarkey. The known land agent, who was to pass which most of them moved elsewhere estate in dispute amounted to £2000 it on to Dr. Mullarkey. It was stated allowing the new owners to turn the in personal property and the lands in the court that these directions broad acres into a large stock farm. The were followed. The Captain yielded an annual income of £650 st local Parish Priest, Terence O’Rorke, a year. While the greater number died on April 21 four days after D.D., when writing his parish history, of his relations were Catholics, making his Will for a second time. was less than flattering in his remarks one branch were Protestant and The case was before the Probate Court on the conditions under which the this difference of creed infused for a week and on Saturday Judge newly arrived landlords lived: a religious element into the case. Keating charged the jury, who after an “The McManuses resided in a The Plaintiff was Michael Mullarkey, hour’s absence stated that there was converted cow house, a squalid den the sole next of kin of Dr. Joe no possibility of their being able to which they shared freely with pigs Mullarkey, his brother-in-law, who agree and with the consent of Counsel and fowl. Their bedroom, which also had died the previous February and in on both sides, were discharged. served as a parlour, living room and whose favour both Wills were drawn. There, for the time being, the doubts rent office, had an earthen floor and He was also the guardian of the heir- raised as to the legality or otherwise of for furniture contained two or three at-law to the Captain’s nephew, Austin the Captain’s last Will and testament old chairs, a coarse deal table and a McManus who lived in Australia but remained unresolved! rustic bedstead. It was in this wretched returned home to give evidence. The 21 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010

Details of the Estate of Capt Thomas McManus of Streamstown and Abbeytown in mid 1850s

Names Townlands and Description of Occupiers Immediate Lessors Tenement Area

Streamstown (Ord. S. 20) Thomas McManus In fee . . . Land 288 1 17 9 1 0 Michael Davy Thomas McManus Land and house 6 0 15 Patrick Curreen Same Land, house, office 10 2 20 8 2 1 Martin Rooneen Same Garden and house 0 0 20 Garden, house, Michael McLoughlin Same office 0 0 30 Land, Patrick Johnston Same house,offices 17 0 31 Martin Rooneen Same Land 3 2 0 Martin Rooneen Land Same 6 3 30 Michael Savage Land and house Michael McLoughlin Same Land 7 0 0 Abraham Allen Same Land 11 3 0

369 2 Total 4

Abbeytown (Ord. S. 20) 350 1 Thomas McManus In fee . . . Land and offices 15 Unoccupied Thomas McManus Herd's House ------Charles Connolly Same Herd's House ------

350 1 Total 15

22 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 Balliecottle and Castletown House Martin Wilson

Baile Ui Coitil was occupied by the 9.8m in width, with one end being in, and some may have been replaced O’Coitil family, under the O’Dowda slightly narrower at 9.25m. The by windows. Most of the windows are lordship, until they were dispossessed thickness of the walls varies between just over 2m high. A number of the by the Anglo-Normans in the early 1.65m and 2.13m, with the end walls windows had wooden shutters added, thirteenth century. By the end of the being considerably narrower than some of which still exist. fourteenth century, the joint forces of the sidewalls. Internally, the castle After the eviction of the O’Dowdas the O’Dowdas and O’Connors had in measures c15.4m in length and 6m in during the Cromwellian Plantation turn dispossessed the Anglo-Normans. width at one end, 6.5m at the other, of the 1650s, the castle and lands of The chief of the O’Dowdas, Donnell giving an overall interior area of Balliecottle were given to Robert (Domhnall O’Dubda), built the castle approximately 96 square metres. Morgan, an officer in the Cromwellian at Balliecottle somewhere around The castle is of three stories, none of army, attached to Col. Richard Coote’s 1447. Donnell died of the plague at which shows any trace of a previously regiment of horse, who received Inniscrone castle in 1498. existing stone division, although it is the property in 1653. The grant was In 1642, the castle was occupied by possible that wooden divisions may confirmed in the Act of Settlement Captain Charles O’Dowda, and then by have existed. c1662/6, part of the restoration land his son Patrick. O’Dowda occupation Two of the main features of the settlement brought about by the lasted until the Cromwellian era. castle are the subsidiary turrets that restoration of Charles II to the English The castle itself can best be described are situated on diagonally opposed Crown. Robert Morgan died in 1684. as a fortified house exhibiting particular corners. Cottlestown became a useful military features of some tower houses such as The castle has been extensively site for the Williamite army during the subsidiary turrets; the dimensions of renovated over the years, including war between the Catholic King James the house are 2:1 length to width ratio. the addition of two chimneys in either and the Protestant William of Orange. The current outside measurements are the sixteenth or seventeenth century. Captain Hugh Morgan, Captain of approximately 19.6m in length and Several archer slits have been filled Dragoons, of Cottlestown, Co. Sligo, is named in a list of Lord Kingston’s officers in 1688. Captain Morgan commanded Cottlestown garrison and escorted refugees and troops from Mayo to Sligo via the garrisons at Lecan and Ardnaglass for the army of William of Orange. These three garrisons protected the road skirting the seashore which, at the period, was the only highway to Mayo through the of Tireragh. The Cottlestown post was useful for the Williamite army in many ways, especially as a rallying point for the scattered Protestants of the Foxford area of Co. Mayo. These Protestants had fled from Mayo after the Catholic leader of Tyrconnell had issued orders for disarming all of the Reformed faith. One of the main duties of Morgan’s detachment was to escort distressed and plundered Protestant settlers to Sligo, where they could recover their health and strength before being Balliecottle Castle Photo by Martin Wilson enrolled into military service.

23 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010

The Morgans probably built Castletown House, but it was extensively rebuilt during the eighteenth century. The O’Dowda castle at Balliecottle was probably vacated when the Morgans originally built Castletown House. The next family to acquire Castletown House were the Kirkwoods. The exact date of their acquisition is unknown. What is known is that Samuel Kirkwood (1701-1778) held the house and he was succeeded by his son Andrew (1730- 1797) who married Hester Mulloy of . His sons, James and Samuel, both of whom died childless, succeeded Andrew in turn. The property then passed to the eldest surviving son. Colonel Tobias Kirkwood (1779-1859). Tobias lived in Bath in England, and somewhere around 1860 he sold the house to the Jones family. It was around this time that the name Castletown House Photo by Martin Wilson Castletown came into existence; (the Down Survey Map c1654/7 shows the Land Improvement Act introduced had access to water. There were 16 the area and building as being called in 1846. The chance of it being a complete farms created, each one 21 Carrowreagh, meaning flattish stone famine wall is given strength by figures acres along with 209 additions to farms free quarter or striped quarter). taken from the census of both 1841 in the surrounding locality. There was Thomas Jones died in 1858 and in and 1851. Whereas the whole of the 52 acres left with the big house which 1860 the estate, comprising the house parish experienced a dramatic decline was first occupied by Alderman Boyle and 600 acres, came up for sale and in population of 41% between these of Manchester but changed hands was bought by Charles Boyd. Charles years, Castletown had an increase many times over the years. died in 1862 and his son, John Boyd, of 59%, from 30 persons in 1841 to The ordnance survey map of today became the new owner. John’s son 89 persons in 1851. In the following displays an intricate patchwork of Charles succeeded him. The census decade, most of this extra population fields and homesteads, a topography of 1901 showed that Charles Boyd appears to have disappeared, with far removed from the first Ordnance was still in possession of the property the population for Castletown being Survey of Castleconnor published at the turn of the century, living there recorded as 38 in 1861. in 1837, which shows a landscape with his wife Agnes and their five The Castletown estate was sold to dominated almost entirely by the children. the Congested District Board in 1909. great landed estates which had been One of the main historic features of the The distribution of the 609 acres was established in previous centuries. This parish is the stone wall that surrounds to have a significant influence on life is the story of just one of these estates, the old demesne of Castletown. in the parish as many families gave part of the history and heritage of Measuring up to 8 feet high in places up small holdings and received a full Castleconnor Parish, in west Sligo. the wall is approximately 3 ½ miles farm and dwelling house. Such was long. Although nobody is quite sure the size of the estate that families from Sources: when the wall was built, local myth surrounding areas were also allocated ‘Castleconnor Parish – A Historical suggests that it was a famine wall, built lands. Prespective pre 1900’. Published somewhere between the mid 1840s and The authorities at the time ensured 2000 1850s. These types of improvement that all land was distributed in an equal schemes were enacted throughout the fashion, which in turn guaranteed that ‘A Century of Change – Castleconnor country, as a result of government both good and marginal land was post 1900’. Published 2007 grants being made available through distributed equally and that all farms

24 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 Births, baptisms and deaths in the exiled O’Gara family after the Jacobite defeat Maura O’Gara-O’Riordan Introduction welcomed by the locals. Following defeat in 1692. He was fortunate to The principal source for the the defeat by English and Dutch fleets obtain the rank of lieutenant-colonel information in this article is C .E. of King James II’s attempt in 1692 to in King James’s regiment of Irish Lart’s The Parochial Registers of invade England with the assistance of Foot Guards in the French army, a Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Jacobite the French fleet, the army of James was fact that is recorded in the register at Extracts, published in London in disbanded. The Irish were assigned the baptism of one of his children in two volumes in 1910 and 1912. The to the French army but were grouped 1694.vi His service must have been original registers are conserved at the together in their own regiments. The satisfactory, as by 1697, his former Archives Municipales de la Ville de Irish regiments, accompanied by their rank of colonel had been restored. Saint-Germain-en-Laye. However, officers, many with reduced ranks, His regiment had also changed: he the entries in Lart’s work have to were sent to different areas of conflict was noted in that year as ‘colonel of be examined with caution. There on the eastern borders of France, in the Queen’s Regiment of Dragoons appear to be a number of errors in particular Flanders.iv The French were in France’, a position he held for the transcription and many variations now the paymasters, and the Irish a number of years.vii The queen in in the spelling of the surnames. It had no choice but to settle into their question was Mary of Modena, wife was common practice for the record new impoverished conditions and of the exiled James II. keeper to write down the maiden surroundings. name of a married female sponsor, Irish military men whose The Parish Registers of St followed by her husband’s name, family members had accompanied occupation and title if applicable, but them to France were compelled to Germain-en-Laye the lady in question almost always seek living quarters for their wives, For the majority of Catholics used her married name only when children and relatives. Many officers connected with the Jacobite cause signing the register. However, when and their families opted to settle in the who settled close to St Germain-en- the registers are combined with the St Germain-en-Laye region, situated Laye, ceremonies on the occasion modern research of Edward Corp,i about ten miles to the west of Paris. of baptisms, marriages and deaths professor of British history at the It was at St Germain that King Louis were held at the Royal chapel of St University of Toulouse, there is further XIV had made the Chateau-Vieux Germain. Records of events that enlightenment regarding many of the available for the exiled King James II, occurred between 1690 and 1720 were personnel in the registers. his wife, Mary of Modena, and their transcribed, edited and published in Following the signing of family, and members of their court in two volumes by the genealogist, C. E. the Treaty of Limerick, more than January 1689, following their arrival Lart, in 1912 under the title Jacobite nineteen thousand Irish officers and in France. Some members of the Extracts, Registers of St Germain-en- soldiers sailed to France between royal household were Irish, a number Laye. Some Gaelic names appeared November 1691 and January 1692.ii of whom were accommodated at the among the numerous entries, together Their wives and children accompanied Chateau. with many Anglo-Irish, British, some of the men, especially relatives Colonel Oliver O’Gara and Scottish and other foreign names. of the officers. The ports in France, his wife Lady Maria (Mary) Fleming Apart from the name of the baby being where the travellers were permitted to were allegedly among the last group baptised, the names and occupations disembark under article 9 of the Civil of Irish Jacobites to travel to France. or titles of the parents and sponsors Articles of Limerick, were ‘at Brest Mary’s half-brother, Christopher were also written down. or Nantes, upon the coast of Brittany, Fleming, Lord Slane and colonel Eleven baptisms and four or any other port of France they can of his own regiment, also opted for deaths were recorded for children born make’.iii France. He was included in the list to Oliver and Mary (Fleming) O’Gara Conditions were very severe in of the Jacobite aristocracy who were between 1692 and 1709. Mary did the winter months for the new arrivals taken prisoner at the battle of Aughrim not attend the baptisms of her children as shelter and supplies in Brittany were in July 1691.v Oliver, like many other and, if the transcriptions from the insufficient. A temporary decision to officers, was demoted following the registers in the Jacobite Extracts are billet the Irish on villagers was not disbanding of James’s army after their accurate, it would appear that Oliver

25 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 was present for three christenings were Francis Plowden, under- Jeanne Agnes, was baptised on 21 only: in 1700, 1701 and 1704. His governor to the Prince of Wales, and January 1703, with John Bagot rank or status was recorded at each Bridget Barnewall, daughter of Count and Jeane MacDevinckt signing as xi event. For each baptism, the register Barnewall and Margaret Dongan. sponsors.xvi Fourteen months later, on lists Oliver O’Gara and Mary Fleming 1 March 1704, another son, Eugene as the parents. As Oliver and Mary King James II as sponsor Terence, was baptised, with Marie attended as sponsors or witnesses Their fourth child was named Charles, Hamilton, wife of Gerard Dillon, and at a number of other baptisms and baptised on 6 July 1699. There was ceremonies associated with relatives only one sponsor at his christening, Terence MacDermott as sponsors. xvii and friends, their names appeared in described as ‘the very noble and On this occasion also, the baby’s the registers in addition to their own powerful Prince, James II, King’, second name was that of one of the family recordings. As will be seen, who signed himself, ‘Jacques Roi’. godparents. many of the sponsors had family Two other names appeared after the connections to both Oliver O’Gara king’s signature ‘P. Ronchi’ and ‘S. Youngest children and his wife, Mary Fleming. Bulkeley’.xii Ronchi was Fr Peregrine Marie Louise O’Gara was baptised Ronchi, junior almoner to the queen. on 4 June 1705.xviii ‘Louise Marie, Baptism records of the He resided at the Chateau-Vieux.xiiii Princess of England’ and Lord Talbot One may suggest that Fr Ronchi was acted as godparents. The princess’s O’Gara children a witness to the signatures of the king. names were given to the baby but in Two sons and a daughter The other signatory, ‘S. Bulkeley’, reverse order. Less than two years In the Jacobite Extracts, Patrick was was Lady Sophie Bulkeley, widow of later, on 7 April 1707, the baptism of the only name recorded for Oliver and Lord Henry Bulkeley, former master the couple’s youngest daughter, Anne Mary’s first-born son who was baptised of the household of the king. viii Marie Eléonore, was celebrated, with on 25 October 1692. However, the Anne Nugent, ‘lady of the house of baby is named John Patrick O’Gara More royal sponsors the Princess of England, daughter of on a baptismal certificate which was Assuming that the detail in Jacobite Marie Nagle wife of My Lord Brittas’ produced on the occasion of an award ix Extracts has been accurately and ‘Walter Bourke, Irish colonel’ as he received in 1722. The exclusion transcribed from the registers, it sponsors.xix Joseph Arthur, sixth son of the first name, John, appears to would appear that Oliver attended of Oliver and Mary, was baptised on be the only difference between the the baptism of one of his children 5 July 1708. ‘Gerard Dillon, Colonel’ transcription in the Jacobite Extracts for the first time on 12 June 1700, and ‘Marie Butler, wife of James and the copy of the official certificate when his fourth son, Francis Edward, Tobyn’, Irish, acted as sponsors on of 1722, apart from an occasional was named. The sponsors were ‘the this occasion.xx typing error. In all later documents, noble and powerful Prince of Wales’ The christian name, Arthur, was a this first-born O’Gara son was and ‘Madame de Liez, lady of honour Dillon name. referred to as John only. The baby was of her royal highness, Madame the probably named John after his paternal Princess of Wales’. The register was Deaths of the children grandfather, Captain John O’Gara, as signed by Jacques P., Rose Macgenis was the custom. The second name, Lee and Oliver O’Gara. Oliver, on The registers transcribed in Patrick, was likely to have been this occasion, is listed as colonel of Jacobite Extracts list the deaths of in honour of one of his sponsors, the Queen’s dragoons.xiv four of Oliver and Mary O’Gara’s the Jacobite military commander Another daughter, Marie eleven children. The first death was in Ireland, Patrick Sarsfield, a very Magdelaine, was baptised on 22 July recorded in July 1697 when baby close personal friend to Oliver, and 1701. Once again, only one sponsor Marie, first-born daughter, aged eight described as ‘Count of Lucan’. The attended, ‘Her Highness, the excellent months, died.xxi Seven years later, on second sponsor was Madame Victoria and virtuous Princess Marie d’Este, 6 April 1704, Eugene died, aged five de Montecuculli d’Avia, the Countess Princess of Modena, Queen’, wife of weeks.xxii The following year, on 17 Darmont [Almond]. James II. She signed the document May 1705, Oliver and Mary’s second ‘Maria R.’ and the signatures of ‘P. Oliver and Mary lost their fourth- child, James Oliver, was baptised on Ronchi’ and ‘Ogara’ followed.o As born son, Francis Edward, who had 15 December 1694. The sponsors were was the case when King James was almost reached his fifth birthday. recorded as ‘the noble and powerful the sponsor in 1699, only one sponsor w A few years later on 14 January Prince, the Duke of Berwick and was present. However, the signature 1709, the couple lost their youngest Madame the Duchess of Tyrconnell’. daughter, Anne Marie, who was under x of P. Ronchi is written after that of In later documents this son is named the queen. The baby’s father was also two years of age.xxiv Oliver only. Oliver senior is listed as present on this occasion. ‘Lieutenant-colonel of the Guards of the King of England’ and his wife is Choice of names Third daughter and fourth son given as Marie Flemyng. The baptism Several of the children of Oliver and of their first daughter, Marie, appears baptised Mary O’Gara had members of the on 24 October 1696. The sponsors Oliver and Mary’s third daughter, English Stuart royal family, or their 26 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 close associates, as sponsors at their earlier, in 1641, Oliver’s grandfather, baptisms. As has been shown, James Other male sponsors at the Fearghal O’Gara, had been involved II and his wife, Mary of Modena, each O’Gara baptisms in a land deal with another Walter sponsored a child. James Fitzjames, All the other seven male sponsors at Bourke with an address at Ardagh, Duke of Berwick, natural son of King the baptisms of the O’Gara children Co. Mayo.xxxii The two Walters were James II, acted as sponsor in 1694, were members of James II’s Irish likely to have been related. signing the register as ‘Berwick’. parliament, established in Dublin When John Bagot sponsored The baby was named James Oliver but in May 1689. Some detail of their Jeanne Agnes O’Gara in 1703 he was was later referred to as Oliver only; connection to the O’Gara family and employed as a senior servant in the the first name, James, may have been of their lives in exile is given here. royal household, where he remained given out of respect for the duke. to 1716.xxxiii In the 1689 Dublin The choice of the name Patrick Sarsfield, sponsor of first- parliament of James II there had been Charles for the O’Gara son born in born O’Gara two members of the Bagot family 1699 may have been influenced by Three of the officers, including Patrick of Bagotstown Co. Limerick. John a number of factors. James II was Sarsfield, also served as members of Bagot senior and John Bagot junior sponsor, so it is possible to suggest that the 1689 Irish parliament. Oliver represented two adjoining areas on the baby was named in honour either chose his long-time friend and fellow the Limerick–Cork border, close to xxxiv of the king’s father, Charles I, who officer, Patrick Sarsfield as godfather Bagotstown castle ruin. One may was beheaded in 1649, or the king’s for his first-born child, John Patrick. suggest that John, the sponsor, was brother, Charles II. However, records Sarsfield was to die a few months the junior Bagot. show that Charles was a traditional later in Flanders from wounds he had received in battle. Patrick’s widow, Identifying Terence MacDermot name in the O’Gara family from as Honora Bourke, daughter of the Earl Terence MacDermot (sometimes early as the fifteenth century. A Fr of Clanrickard, married secondly, written McDermott), described as Charles O’Gara appears in records in 1695, James Fitzjames, duke of an ‘Irish gentleman’, the sponsor of as canon of Elphin in 1423xxv and in xxvi Berwick, who had been a sponsor at Eugene Terence O’Gara, is somewhat 1428. The child’s father, Oliver, the baptism of the second O’Gara son, difficult to identify with certainty had an uncle or cousin named Charles James Oliver, the previous year. as there were two men of that name O’Gara, father of two archbishops of listed in the parliament of 1689. Tuam in the late seventeenth century. Plowden and Talbot as sponsors One Alderman Terence McDermot One O’Gara family of Co. Sligo have Francis Plowden, an Englishman and represented the city of Dublin and records of eight boys being named Jacobite civilian, one of the three lord the other represented the borough of Charles, or the Irish version, Cathal, justices appointed by James II to the Boyle, Co. Roscommon.ai Arguing in from the 1820s to the present day. in 1691,xxviii favour of the sponsor being Terence Alternatively, Oliver may have decided was a sponsor for Oliver and Mary’s of Dublin, it is known that he went to on the name Charles in memory of third child, Marie. At the time, Francis live in St Germain, and as a former his maternal grandfather, Cathal óg was employed at the royal court in St. lord mayor of Dublin, received (Charles) O’Conor, of Belanagare, Germain, and from 1695 he was listed correspondence at his French address. Co. Roscommon. among the senior servants at the palace He also owned land in Ballintober Francis Edward, the couple’s holding the position of comptroller Co. Roscommon.xxxv Apart from the third son, was almost certainly named of the household from 1700 until his baptismal record, there is one other xxix after his godfather, James Francis death in 1712. entry in the register: the burial record Edward Stuart, Prince of Wales, who for a Terence MacDermot, Irish signed the record ‘James P.’ in June Lord Talbot, who acted gentleman, aged 60 years in 1705. 1700. When the prince attended the as sponsor for Marie Louise, was This was very probably the Terence baptism he was close to his twelfth identified in a number of St Germain that sponsored the O’Gara child. church entries as ‘Lord Richard There are no further entries in the birthday. ‘L. Mes’ is given as the Talbot, son of William Talbot count register after this date for a Terence name of the person who witnessed Tyrconnell’.xxx MacDermott. Alternatively, it could the young prince’s signature in be argued that Terence McDermot Jacobite Extracts. This is likely to Walter Bourke and John Bagot of Boyle was the sponsor as Oliver be a misreading of ‘L. Innes’ who Colonel Walter Bourke, Anne Marie O’Gara as he had a known relationship can be identified as Fr Lewis Innes, Eléonore’s sponsor, was a native of with the MacDermots, formerly of xxvii junior almoner to the queen. Marie Turlough, Co. Mayo and was very Moylurg in Roscommon. Louise O’Gara was baptised on 4 June active in the Jacobite war in Ireland. 1705 and given the names, in reverse He continued his military career Gerard Dillon and the O’Gara order of her sponsor, Princess Louise in France, forming the regiment of connection Marie, aged thirteen, only daughter of Bourke. Walter issued a certificate in Gerard Dillon, sponsor of the youngest James II and Mary of Modena. favour of Oliver and Mary’s eldest O’Gara baby in 1708, was recorded son, John in 1710.xxxi Many years in various documents as Gerald and

27 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010

Garrett.xxxvii Gerald’s parent’s home returned to England.xliii Some time Many of the Nugent families were was in Feamore, near Ballyhaunis after her departure from France, Lady related to Mary O’Gara through the Co. Mayo, where his grandfather had Tyrconnell succeeded in having part Barnewall and Fleming connections. settled after the Dillons of Westmeath of her late husband’s Irish estates Jeanne Mac Devinckt (indexed Mac had acquired a considerable estate in restored to her, and at some unknown Dermott), sponsor for Jeanne Agnes Co. Mayo. Gerard studied law and date took up residence in Ireland. O’Gara in 1703, was probably Jeanne was noted as ‘Garret, Prime-Sergeant- She was a generous benefactress of a Mac Dermott, daughter of Chevalier at-Law for the Borough and Manor of Benedictine convent in Channel Row, MacDermott. She also sponsored a Mullingar’ in the 1689 Parliament. Dublin after it was destroyed by the Gorman baby in the same year. Is xxxviii From papers in the Westport Williamite forces. It had been built it a coincidence or a matter of family House archives it is almost certain ‘by the direction of James II who was connections that the male sponsor of that a Captain Gerald Dillon in Lord present at the dedication of the chapel this Gorman baby was Gerard Dillon, Abercorn’s regiment was the same in 1689’.xliv sponsor of one of the O’Gara babies? person as Gerald of Feamore.xxxix When the first O’Gara child, A strong argument could be offered Oliver’s grandfather Fearghal O’Gara, John Patrick, was baptised in 1692, suggesting that Jeanne’s father, a minor when he became an heir to his sponsor was Madame Victoria Chevalier MacDermott and Terence the O’Gara title and lands in Co. Sligo de Montecuculli d’Avia, countess of Mac Dermott, ‘Irish gentleman’ the in 1614, was a ward of court of Sir Almonde, a personal friend of the sponsor of Eugene Terence O’Gara Theobald Dillon, great-granduncle to queen. She had assisted the royal in 1704, and the Terence McDermott Gerard. family in their flight from England to who died in 1705, were one and Paris in December 1688. the same person. Gerard Dillon’s Female sponsors at the wife, Mary Hamilton, was the other O’Gara baptisms Barnewall and Macgennis sponsors sponsor of Eugene Terence in 1704. All but one of the female sponsors Bridget Nugent (née Barnewall) Mary, a sister of Claude Hamilton, at the O’Gara baptisms had a spouse daughter of Robert Barnewall, ninth fourth Earl of Abercorn, was Gerard’s or close family member who had baron of Trimlestown, who sponsored second wife. Claude was colonel of been involved in the Dublin Jacobite baby Marie, married her first cousin, Lord Abercorn’s regiment in which parliament of 1689, or who had served Colonel Christopher Nugent of her husband Gerard served. Mary in James II’s army in Ireland. Five Dardinstown, Co. Westmeath. was also sponsor together with Oliver of the sponsors were named among Bridget, who was related to the baby’s O’Gara at the Butler–Fitzpatrick the most senior household servants mother, was employed at the Chateau. baptism in 1701. at the royal residence. Two of the xlv She was also co-sponsor in 1699 four named ladies were attached to when Oliver and Mary’s eldest son Last of the sponsors the bedchamber of the queen and John, who had not reached his seventh No firm information has been had accommodation in the Chateau. birthday, was sponsor at a baptism. discovered on the sponsor of the last xl Both were wives or widows of Madame de Liez signed the of the eleven O’Gara children, Joseph peers: the duchess of Tyrconnell (née register as Rose Macgennis Lee when Arthur O’Gara, in 1708: Marie Butler, Frances Jennings) and the countess she sponsored the third O’Gara son, wife of James Tobyne. There are a of Almond (née Montecuculli)xli The Francis Edward, in 1700. She can number of other entries around the remaining three, Rose, Lady Lee (née be identified as Rose, Lady Lee. She same years for a James Tobin whose Mcgennis), Mrs. Bridget Nugent (née was the wife of Sir Andrew Lee, an wife was named as Anabelle Butler but Barnewall) and Mrs. Anne Nugent Irish officer.xlvi Her maiden name it is impossible to know whether there (née Nagle) were bedchamber women suggests that she was very likely a was an error in writing down the first to the young English princess, Louise member of the Magennis of Iveagh name of the O’Gara sponsor. There Marie Stuart.xlii family. When Roger (Magennis) were two men named James Tobyn in Lord Iveagh married in Saint Germain the Irish Jacobite army and one James Duchess and Countess in 1701 his parents were named as Tobyn in the Jacobite parliament. Madame, the duchess of Tyrconnell, Hugh Magennis and Rose O’Neill. Marie Butler’s co-sponsor was Gerald sponsor of the second O’Gara child, Lord Iveagh’s regiment fought in the Dillon. James Oliver in 1694, was the widow Jacobite war in Ireland and members of Richard Talbot, duke of Tyrconnell. of the family were involved in the Later years Talbot was commander of the forces Dublin government of 1689. Four of Oliver and Mary O’Gara’s in Ireland from 1685 and lord deputy sons survived to adulthood, three of from 1687 to 1688. He died in August Family connections as sponsors whom served in the Irish Brigades 1691, towards the end of the war. Anne Marie Eléonore, youngest in France and Spain and one in the While Talbot led the troops in Ireland, daughter of Oliver and Mary O’Gara, service of the household of the duke his wife, the duchess, was living in was sponsored in 1707 by Anne of Lorraine. Three of their daughters Saint Germain. Her name appears Nugent (née Nagle). She was wife of may also have survived but there in the chateau’s list of senior servants Sir Richard Nugent, lieutenant colonel are no other records apart from their from 1690 to 1702, after which she in the regiment of D’Albemarle. baptisms. Both Oliver and Mary

28 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 obtained pensions from the Stuart viii Ibid. vol. i, p. 74. xxxiv C. F. Blake-Forster, The Irish establishment. Oliver received a ix Micros 112 NP/377 exp. 5854, MM Chieftains or A Struggle for the Crown pension for his military duty as colonel Santiago, Archivo Historico Nacional, (Dublin, 1872), p. 687. in the Queen’s Regiment of Dragoons Madrid, 82v. xxxv Ibid, pp 688, 690. in France. Mary was awarded a x Lart, Jacobite Extracts, vol. i, p. 112. xxxvi D. Mac Dermot, MacDermot of pension of 25 livres per month from xi Ibid, vol. i, p. 74. Moylurg, (Nure, Manorhamilton, 1996), the queen, Mary of Modena.xlvii xii Ibid. p. 243, pp 311-3. In the early 1720s while her xiii Corp, Court in Exile, pp 87 (no. xxxvii Also referred to as Gerald husband, Oliver, was still alive, Mary 80), 121 fn 54, 319 fn 29. and Garrett, in Lart, Jacobite Extracts; O’Gara commenced a legal battle that xiv Lart, Jacobite Extracts, vol. i, p. 74. Westport Estate Papers, Collection List was to last for a number of years. She xv Ibid. No. 78 compiled by Brigid Clesham and sought permission to have an Act of xvi Ibid. vol. ii, p. 110. Wesley Geddis, Assistant Keepers NLI Parliament passed in England that xvii Ibid. (Dublin, 2002-2005), p. 81. would allow her to start proceedings xviii Ibid. xxxviii C. F. Blake-Forster, The Irish to have lands restored to her in xix Ibid. Chieftains or A Struggle for the Crown Ireland. To obtain this permission she xx Ibid. (Dublin, 1872), p. 691. would have to have a pardon for the xxi Ibid, vol. i, p. 112. xxxix Westport Estate Papers, act of treason of which she was found xxii Ibid, vol. ii, p. 110. Collection, MS 40,899/2 (10-13 ) p. 154. guilty from 1689 because of the war xxiii Ibid. xl Corp, Court in Exile, fig. 8, p. in Ireland.xlviii xxiv Ibid. 86. xxv Calendar of entries in the papal xli Corp, Court in Exile, pp 112 registers relating to Great Britain and and 363. Notes Ireland, vol 7, 1417-1431, prepared by xlii Corp, Court in Exile, p. 366 J.A. Twemlow (London: 1906), p. 270. and index pp 379, 382. i E. Corp, A Court in Exile (Cambridge, xxvi Ibid, vol 8, 1427-1447, (London: xliii Corp, Court in Exile, pp 237 2004). 1909), pp 5, 52, 54, 88, 117. and 363. ii Corp, Court in Exile, p. 32. xxvii Corp, Court in Exile, p. 87. xliv Mrs Bellew’s Family in iii C. F. Blake-Forster, The Irish xxviii P. Wauchope, Patrick Sarsfield Channel Row, Dublin Historical Record, Chieftains or A Struggle for the Crown and the Williamite War (Dublin, 1992), (1967), p. 232. (Dublin, 1872), p. 596. p. 246. xlv Corp, Court in Exile, p. 366. iv P. Wauchope, Patrick Sarsfield and xxix Corp, Court in Exile, pp 281, 360-5. xlvi Corp, Court in Exile, p. 195. the Williamite War (Dublin, 1992), pp xxx Lart, Jacobite Extracts, vol. i, p. 26. xlvii Personal communication with 291-3. xxxi Micheline Walsh (ed.) Spanish Edward Corp author of A Court in Exile. v J.G. Simms, Jacobite Ireland 1685- Knights of Irish Origin, (Dublin, 1965), xlviii ‘Petition of Mary O’Gara for a 91(Norfolk, 1969) p. 227. vol. ii, p. 6. clause in a Bill to recover a jointure’ vi C. E. Lart, Jacobite Extracts, xxxii J. O’Donovan, The genealogies, Manuscript Ch(H) Political Papers, 80, Registers of Saint Germain-en-laye, 2 tribes, and customs of Hy-Fiachrach 363, Cambridge University Library. vols (London, 1910-12),vol. i, p. 112. (Dublin, 1844), p. 362. vii Ibid, vol. i, pp 42, 74. xxxiii Corp, Court in Exile, p. 362.

O’Gara Castle. Aidan Mannion Collection

29 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010

Hollybrook House, about 1940, taken from the shore of Lough Arrow. Picture courtesy John Coleman, from the collection of Maisie McGovern.

Ballymote, looking up the hill along Lord Edward Street (MarketStreet). Note the gas-lamp, the cobbled water-channel, and the hen. Date? – probably pre-1900. Picture courtesy John Coleman, from the collection of Maisie McGovern.

30 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010

Ballymote, looking down along Lord Edward Street. Another gas-lamp and another water-channel can be seen. Picture courtesy John Coleman, from the collection of Maisie McGovern.

Ballymote, looking up from Newtown along O’Connell St. Note, at the top of the hill, the large cart-load of hay (probably) waiting to be weighed on the weighbridge (recently displaced) at the then Market House. Picture courtesy John Coleman, from the collection of Maisie McGovern.

31 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 The Year of the Feathered Piper PJ Duffy

Back in 1957 the lower end of identity was finally established. He Just in passing, we might do the Killavil district was suddenly described the bird as being black well to remember that back in alerted to the sensation of some and white in colour with a red bill those days our country did not strange high-pitched sounds and a red pair of feet. have anything like the standard of coming from the Knockahurk Some time later an ornithologist industrialisation and mechanisation Ardkeerin direction. With the was consulted and he immediately that we see all around us today. Our passing of a couple of days it was identified the bird as belonging rural areas were reasonably quiet established that the sounds were to a breed of sea waders called and unpolluted. those of some strange bird that had oystercatchers. He added that the I clearly remember, one night arrived into the area. presence of that particular bird in particular while returning from It was during those days leading in this part of the country was a visit to a neighbouring house, up to the middle of May that the somewhat unique. They usually the persistent sound of corncrakes sounds were first heard and nobody were associated with the coastline coming from every direction along from around the place could say but sometimes were known to the wayside. It was a bright moonlit for certain what breed of bird was move inland during the hatching night and wisps of white fog were making them. One gentleman who and breeding season. It was forming and curling around in had spent some years abroad in probably by some accident of fate the valleys. At every juncture you foreign lands seemed to identify that the bird and its mate happened were met with the fragrant, sweet the pitch-piping sounds as those to arrive here. scent of whitethorn blossoms, lilac, of a sandpiper, a bird that seldom honeysuckle and wild woodbine if ever was seen in this part of the coming from the direction of country. hedges planted nearby. 1957 was a year and a period when Away in the distance I distinctly corncrakes were quite numerous remember hearing the voice of a in our country and at night-time local ballad singer singing “The especially you were likely to find Valley of Knockanure” as he a couple of them emitting their made his way home after a night’s craking sounds from the direction outing. But over and above all of almost every meadow in the these sounds in the night there countryside. They were so plentiful was the persistent piping of this that they were actually taken for strange visitor to our area. Coming granted. But people returning back up towards mid-July the tempo of to that part of Killavil, whether by that now familiar sound seemed to day or by night, were completely wane and by the end of the month baffled by the intermittent piping it had finally disappeared. sounds that had come into their Oyster Catcher We were later informed that this area. The expert also explained that breed of bird was native to the Come the month of June, the the persistent sounds created by Scottish coastline and groups might strange bird stayed put, flying the bird were a warning to rivals be seen flocking together there at a off during the daytime for short and intruders to stay clear of that certain time of year. Its appearance interludes in the immediate particular area. Its mate apparently here was undoubtedly linked to the surrounding area but by evening was hatching nearby and many of breeding season and to carry out coming back to roost in a clump the sounds made by the male bird this undertaking it had certainly of mature willows that once were coded messages relayed to its picked out a nice secluded spot. surrounded an old bakery, now in female partner. Should the female Its coming to this part of the ruins. and her eggs, or later her brood, country was however a once-off It was only when a local lad be in immediate danger she would occurrence and no sound of either returning home to the area in the communicate with her partner and it or its progeny has ever been early morning got a close-up he might arrive and feign a broken seen or heard in the area since that view of the strange bird that its wing to lure away an intruder. memorable year.

32 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 James Cox, a Co. Roscommon Born Stained Glass Window Artist. Noel O’Neil

I first heard of James Cox, the check lists of Irish artists, again all to about three miles from Rooskey, Co. stained glass window artist, through no avail. I was puzzled, and together Roscommon. He attended classes at the a chance meeting with broadcaster with my good friend Micheal Murphy, local national school in Druminardly, and columnist, Fr. Brendan Hoban, I revisited Lahardane for a more and from his earliest days he had a flair in the library. Fr. Hoban thorough examination of the window, for art, a fact that did not go unnoticed told me of a Harry Clarke Studio to see if we could find any extra piece by his teacher, who had encouraged window in Lahardane church, at the of information, but found nothing of him in every way possible. foot of Nephin Mountain, Co. Mayo, use. In his teens, James served as an and some days later I went there Disappointed, we were about to leave altar-boy at Rooskey church, and it to see it. As I entered the church, I the church, but then a large Crucifixion was there that the local priest, Fr. could see, to the right of the altar, a window behind the altar in the Michael Tarpey, first became aware window, with a representation of the sanctuary attracted our attention; this of his artistic talents. During that Blessed Virgin and the Child Jesus in lovely window, executed in a modern period, when restoration works were striking colour, typical of the Clarke style, depicts the crucified Jesus, being carried out on the windows Studios. Then, to the left of the altar, I with the Virgin Mary and St. John at at Rooskey church by the Kearney noticed a beautiful window depicting the foot of the cross. It is a simple studio, Fr. Tarpey took the opportunity St. Patrick in the traditional style, but powerfully vivid creation which to recommend James Cox as a possible which I took to be a product of the captures all the pathos of the passion apprentice to Stanley Tomlin, who at same studio; the colour was rich, the of Christ. We stopped to look at the that time was partner in the stained design mirroring some of the work on window and noticed a small incised glass business with Patrick Kearney the Clarke window. However, I was section at the bottom right-hand of Dublin. Mr. Tomlin, who was wrong in that assumption, because a corner which gave us the information the resident artist with the company, small inscription on the bottom right- we were looking for; it showed was so impressed when shown some hand corner, told me that it was the that this window also was designed examples of James’s work that he work of a James Cox, 1981, but there and painted by James Cox, but at promptly employed the young man on was no further information. the earlier date of 1966, and it was a trial basis. And so it was that in 1955, produced at the, now defunct, stained James Cox moved to Dublin and, at glass studios of Myles Kearney and fifteen year of age, commenced his Sons, of Ranelagh, Dublin. I learned later that this was the company, then managed by Mr. Patrick Kearney, that James Cox had joined many years ago to serve his art apprenticeship. But where was James Cox from, and how did he come to be working in a Dublin art studio? After making some phone calls, I finally traced Pearse Kearney, the son of Patrick Kearney the man who, for many years, had employed James Cox at his studio; Pearse informed me that James Cox is now retired and living in Dublin, and When I returned home I went on the that he still does some painting as a internet and started a search for Cox, pastime. but to no avail, there was no mention Mr. Kearney put me in contact with of him. I made several enquiries in the artist, and it was while talking to James Cox window, . artistic circles, made phone calls, James Cox that I learned he was born Photo by Noel O’Neill sent e-mails, and visited the library to in 1940 in the town-land of Cronkell,

33 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 career as a stained glass artist. Pope Pius X, which James Cox James served his apprenticeship at created when he was just nineteen the studio and attended an art college years of age. In Dublin, the beautiful to improve his skills. Three years later, St. Ann’s , Dawson Mr. Tomlin and Mr. Kearney amicably Street, has more stained glass dissolved their partnership, each windows than any other church in going his own separate way. At that the city. A picture window depicting point, James Cox opted to stay with St. Mark and incidents in his life, as the Kearney side of the business; he well as Sts. Ann and Joachim was became the resident artist and designer designed and painted by James. It with the firm until its closure in 1991. replaced a window fitted c.1882 and For some years previously, the spate broken beyond repair in April, 1978. of church building which had been It is a great tribute to the artistry of happening at the time slowed down, James Cox that his work was selected and the demand for stained glass had to be placed alongside the windows of tapered off, thus accounting for the the great English stained glass artist closure of several stained glass firms William Warrington, (1796-1869) and in Dublin and elsewhere. the celebrated Irish artist Wilhelmina Today, James Cox’s work is still to be Geddes (1887-1955); this latter artist seen in churches all over Ireland, and was associated with An Tur Gloine, a much further afield; his first window, stained glass studio set up in Dublin which he designed at about the age of by Sarah Purser, in 1903. James Cox window Lahardane. seventeen, is in Cahirciveen, Co. Kerry, In the southern United States of Photo by Noel O’Neill making him, arguably, the youngest America, an Assumption window Tomlin, Patrick Kearney, and Tommy artist to have his work installed in an measuring 10.5 ft x 10ft (3.2m x Kearney, the artist and master Uileann Irish church. In Co. Roscommon, 3.04m) was commissioned for St. pipe player, with imparting to him and the surrounding counties of Margaret’s Church at Bayou La Batre, much of the knowledge he needed to Mayo and Sligo, there are some fine Alabama, on the Gulf of Mexico. This succeed as a stained glass designer. He examples of his artwork, ranging from little fishing port gained notoriety as speaks glowingly of their artistic skills, the modern to the more traditional the set for the 1994 Tom Hanks’ film their “eye” for colour, their masterful style. At Lahardane, for instance, “Forest Gump” and less welcome techniques, and their camaraderie. the main window, commissioned in notoriety when it was devastated by I have been following the career 1966, shows a Crucifixion scene in a the Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The of James Cox for just a short period beautifully subtle modernistic style, window, which happily survived and I am sure that in time, many more while the St. Patrick window (1981), the tempest, was produced at Myles interesting facts will emerge about which first attracted our attention, is Kearney’s Dublin Studio, and again, him, but as I have already mentioned, in the more traditional mode; it was it was designed and painted by James he is a very retiring man, and not given commissioned to complement the Cox. Another of his works is displayed to talking about his achievements. Harry Clarke studio window already in a church at West Palm Beach, Several people I have spoken to in the church. The Cox window is Florida, and yet another, depicting an within the stained glass business have made up of an amalgam of Old English American Indian saint in full tribal great respect for “Jimmy,” both as an Streaky Glass and Old English Pot costume, is in the state of Oklahoma. artist and as a gentleman, and they Metal glass. told me of his hard work, and of their In Enniscrone, Co. Sligo, a very In July of last year, I had the great admiration for him and for his art. large and beautiful memorial window, pleasure of meeting with James when Some of the cartoons (drawings) of depicting the Assumption of the he came to visit Lahardane to see James Cox’s windows have survived Blessed Virgin Mary, is fitted in the his St. Patrick window in situ, and and are kept at the Irish Architectural organ loft, over the main door of the from there we went on to Enniscrone Archive at Merrion Square, Dublin, church. In Co. Roscommon, his works church to see his Assumption window; these include drawings of windows may be seen at churches in Boyle, and apart from the time he worked on from Mount Mellory, Enniscrone, , while in Co. them, he had not seen either window Drumcliffe, Baileborough, examples of his art are to be seen in before. While chatting with James, I Mountbellew, and several other the churches at Caherlistrane and was very taken by his humility; he is churches, fifteen examples in total. Mountbellew. a most unassuming man and a very It gives me great pleasure to introduce The Valleymount church, Co. accomplished artist. He generously the work of James Cox to the readers Wicklow, has a window representing credits his former colleagues, Stanley of The Corran Herald.

34 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 Cornish Mining – A History Lynda Hart

Although I was not born in the separate the heavier ores from the Duchy of Cornwall, my family gravel and sand. moved there when I was young. The first organized trade came Almost at once I was mesmerised by from the Phoenicians at around the large derelict buildings known 1100 BC. They traded spices and as tin mines. These buildings were today a saffron bun is a staple of the actually the engine houses, but to Cornish diet. Later came the Greeks. me they were and still are beautiful Trade was also established with pieces of architecture. They the bronze-smiths of Ireland and dominate the landscape; in various many metals including gold passed stages of decay they are a reminder through Cornwall. Smelted tin of the days when Cornwall was at was collected at Ictis (St. Michael’s the fore of industrial Britain. So Mount, near Penzance). From rich a county it was that a law was there it was transported throughout passed for Cornwall to have its own Europe. parliament and laws. The Stannary Fig 1 By 500 BC Cornwall was a major (from the Latin stannum meaning During the later stages of the tin producer. The people of Cornwall tin) made laws and collected taxes. cooling of the mass of granite that realized the importance of the The workmanship that went into makes up the majority of Cornwall, commodity they had, and started to building these structures was superb. fissures opened which allowed build fortified settlements to protect Even with today’s technology it molten rocks to bubble up through. both themselves and the tin. One would be hard to replicate. These new rocks contained minerals of the largest of the fortifications is Thus began my love of architecture, and as they crystallized they formed Chun Castle. history, geology and archaeology. mineral lodes, tin, copper, zinc lead Whenever I re-visit Cornwall I and iron, as well as small deposits still love to see these wonderful of silver. Because of the way they buildings. were formed the lodes were vertical, (unlike coal which forms horizontally in sedimentary rocks) so they had to be mined vertically. Each lode had to have its own shaft straight down Fig 2 into the earth. Most shafts were well below the water table and therefore needed to be pumped out so engine Chun Castle (Fig 2) is an pumping houses needed to be built Iron Age hill fort situated in an (Fig 1). area of Cornwall called Penwith. The first mining of tin and copper A large fortified structure of 90 was a very different scene. Visited by metre circumference, it had two metal traders from the Mediterranean lines of defensive ditches and walls between 2300 and 2000 BC, Britain up to two metres high. Sadly it has was known as Cassiterides, “Tin been plundered for its stone down Islands”, and the tin was found as through the centuries and is in quite a destroyed condition. The entrance Photo By Lynda Hart alluvial deposits in the gravel of the stream beds. Panning was used to is still clear, marked by two upright standing stones. Excavated in 1895 35 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 and again in the mid-1920s the very wealthy people. Most of the happened. Many times exploding earliest recorded dates come from National Trust-owned houses were gas would kill the miners (in both pottery dated to the 4th Century BC. built on the profits of mining. tin and coal mines). In 1815 the Close by is Chun Quoit. (Quoit The Cornish miner, however, was Cornish scientist Sir Humphrey is the Cornish term for dolmen or a skilled but poor man. His day Davy invented the miner’s safety cromlech). This structure is dated might begin with a walk of 10km or lamp, which saved countless lives. to around 2400 BC. It is speculated more, then descending anything up Most members of the family worked that Chun Castle was used for the within the mine. Boys would start collection and smelting of the tin, as work at the age of about ten on evidence of smelting pits was found the surface with the women and there. then progress underground when By the 17th century mining had they were able to climb down the gone underground. In his Survey of ladders. The women or Bal Maidens Cornwall, Richard Carew says that as they were known had the job of some of the mines had reached a preparing the ore on the surface. depth of 300ft. (91.5metres) In these This was done in the open so they small cramped shafts the miners were exposed to the elements each would descend on rope stirrups for day. shifts that would last five hours. It would have been dark, hot, wet and The staple food of the miner was the cramped. pasty, made traditionally with meat, In the beginning of the 18th Century, Photos By Lynda Hart potato, swede and onion wrapped it was discovered that not only was Cornwall abundant in tin, but also copper. Mining began to boom and many thousands of miners were employed. The biggest problem for the mine owners was trying to keep the ever deepening shafts free from water. In 1777 James Watt, the great Cornish Pasty Scottish born engineer, came to Cornwall and started building a new in pastry and secured by crimping type of steam-powered pumping the edges of the pastry. The reason engine. These were so efficient for this was that with nowhere to they easily overcame the problems clean up or wash his hands they of the flooded shafts. A few years were very dirty and covered with later a Cornish engineer Richard arsenic which is a by-product of the Trevithick made improvements to tin extraction. The miners would Watt’s pumping engines and along to 350 metres (1000+ft) to reach the hold the pasty by the crimp and eat with another engineer, Hornblower, deep levels. He would then work in around it. The crimp would be left produced pumps that were used temperatures rising to 46oC (115o F) throughout the world. Due to these for eight hours. At the end of the improvements many more mines shift there would be the climb back were opened. By the middle of up the shaft and a walk home. For the 19th Century over 200 separate this he was paid a “tribute” which mines operated in Cornwall, allowed the miner so many shillings producing three quarters of all out of every pound’s worth of ore the copper used in the world and he sent to the surface. It was very half the tin. Mine owners became dangerous work and many accidents

36 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 for the knockers. The decline in both copper and tin 2009. When Crofty closed in 1998 The Knockers were small goblin- mining began at the turn of the 20th the price of tin was £2,400 per tonne. like creatures who were believed to Century. In 1900 there were 100 In 2009 it is approximately £9000 per live in the mines. They were dressed working mines. By 1918 there were tonne. At the present time the plans like the miners and created mischief 30 and by 1938 there were just 4 to reopen are still going ahead and by stealing food or tools. The name working mines left. some exploratory mining has taken probably came about as just before Conditions in the later half of the place, and miners are being recruited. a cave-in the miners would hear 20th century were much improved, a knocking. This was actually the although the dirt and the heat were Many of the miners that timbers that supported the mine unavoidable. Safety came to the fore were left when the mines closed walls creaking and groaning before and machinery took over. moved throughout the world taking they gave way. The miners believed With the decline in the price of tin their many skills with them. Many, that the knockers were warning due to deposits being found in other when South Crofty closed moved them of an impending disaster, so countries nearer the surface, and here to Ireland and they live and to thank them they would leave therefore cheaper to extract, mining work in Kilkenny and Cork, their them the crimp from their pasties! in Cornwall collapsed. The Wheal engineering skills an asset to any Cornwall’s deepest mine was Jane mine at Baldu, Truro closed in company. Others travel the world Dolcoath. Situated north west of 1990, followed by Geevor mine also helping to build everything from Brea village between Camborne in 1990. bridges to dams. Some hope to once and Reduth, the mine was first The last Cornish tin mine, South again go underground in Cornwall. recorded in 1720 when copper was Crofty, closed in March 1998, it There is a saying in Cornwall mined there. The mineral rights was also the last working tin mine “Wherever in the world you find a were owned by the Basset family. in Europe. The mine did retain a hole in the ground you will also find The deepest shaft was known as handful of skilled men to keep the a Cornishman”. “New sump shaft” and it reached machinery in working order and so depths of 910metres (3,000ft) prevent the mine flooding. REFERENCES: Redruth and Camborne were In 2001, Baseresult Holdings bought Hamilton Jenkin A.K., The story of the heart of industrial Cornwall. the mine. As the price of tin again Cornwall Between 1792 and 1798 James Watt began to soar, perhaps re-opening Emma Mansfield,The Little Book of (1736-1819), William Murdoch the mine was a viable project. 350 Cornwall (1754-1839) and Richard Trevithick miles of tunnels around Crofty www.wikipedia.org (1771-1833) were all living in needed to be surveyed and assessed, www.threvithick-society.org.uk Redruth, and it was at this time that new equipment had to be bought www.heartofcornwall.com William Murdoch was the first person and mineral planning permissions www.guardian.co.uk to light his home with gas lamps. renewed. The site had, however, The mining brought huge prosperity been ear-marked for a regeneration to the area, and in 1801 Holmans of project by the South West Regional Camborne started. This company Development Agency (SWRDA) and produced industrial equipment for in 2006 they issued a notice of intent the mining and road industry and to compulsorily purchase part of they were the main employers in the land. Baseresult Holdings were Camborne for many years until their granted mineral planning permission closure in 2001. Camborne School at the same time, so it became a of Mines was established in 1882 stand-off. Then in November 2007, and has been known ever since for Baseresult formed a new company, its excellence in training mining Western United Mines (WUM) and engineers. People have travelled they committed to a £50 million from all corners of the world to be investment which they hoped would educated here. lead to the creation of 200+ jobs by

37 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010

This piece of timber, shown to The Corran Herald by JohnMartin, was found during renovations at Johnson’s furniture shop, Ballymote. Written on it in pencil are the words “Michael Reynolds 2nd June 1906 Very bad weather”. Does anybody know who Michael Reynolds was?

This photo was taken about 1950 at Roscrib House, Ballymote. The lady nearest the cartload of turf is John’s great-aunt Rose Walsh (California). Seated behind the wall are his grandmother Jane Benson (née Walsh), on left, and his mother Cathleen Coleman (née Benson). The identity of the man is not known. Photo courtesy of John Coleman, from the collection of Maisie McGovern.

38 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010

The Loftus Memorial Hall, Ballymote, newly enlarged. Picture courtesy John Coleman, from the collection of Maisie McGovern.

Ballymote Creamery, probably early 1900s (it opened in 1897). Note the barefoot boys with rolled-up trousers. Picture courtesy John Coleman, from the collection of Maisie McGovern

39 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 The Humble Thimble Kathleen Fairbanks

People who collect thimbles are Charles Horner (UK) and Wicks thimbles to commemorate important known as digitabulists. This is a (USA). events. Now worldwide one finds hobby I took up in recent years and I thimbles as souvenir gifts in almost have found it to be a very fascinating, Thimbles came to be used for every city, and they are very popular interesting and fulfilling pastime. I am measuring spirits – hence the with tourists. I am very fortunate to proud of my thimble racks and they expression “just a thimbleful”. have relatives in different continents are now much admired. and to have many friends who think A miniature thimble is one of the of me when on their annual holidays A thimble is a protective shield worn tokens in the game of Monopoly, visiting the many islands and seaside on a finger when hand sewing, using and there is a game called “hunt the resorts, all with their souvenir shops. needles and pushing them through thimble”. A thimble is an easy gift to carry. fabric or leather as it is being sewn. Leaving a sandalwood thimble in a Some rare thimbles may be seen Thimbles date back to the first fabric store was a common practice in in museums and it is recorded that century. The earliest found was a keeping moths away. Christies and Sothebys auctioneers bronze thimble. Later, steel, metal, have sold some such to collectors. I wood, leather, glass, china and silver We know that thimbles were given must confess I do not possess rare ones, were used. All had indentations in as gifts to commemorate important but I have some interesting places and their surfaces to keep the needle from events and every housewife had one names among my souvenirs: slipping. in her sewing box until the electric Titanic, Wall of China, Holy Land, sewing machine was invented. Olive Tree (wood), Harrods, a royal Known thimble makers date back wedding, Connemara marble, World to the 15th century and include such Collecting thimbles became popular Trade Centre, Chopin, Shakespeare. famous names as Meissen (German), when many companies made special

Kathleen Fairbanks’ Thimble Racks

40 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 The Clock of Life Ann Conlon

The infant years, the formation which we didn’t know could exist. The years pass and we enter the years are the years that shape the We were shielded from this alien adult world. The struggle begins for body and the mind. The mind absorbs life, was it all a dream, who was that us to be recognized as grown-ups, information and is eager to learn and small person, did I really wear those to leave those comparative remarks life becomes a series of questions, so clothes, who are our parents, why to our siblings behind, to be seen many questions. And so begins our do they insist that everything is for as individuals, to create our niches use of language to aid and abet us our own good and how come they in this fast moving world and to in life. Words are the smallest single suddenly know everything? Ditties establish ourselves as being mature. meaningful unit of speech or writing. and proverbs are now paramount in Some of us are lucky enough to A sequence of words make a sentence our parent’s conversations, who are know what career we would like and a succession of sentences form quick to give their unique outlook to follow and many others fall into rhymes, ditties, poems and stories. on .... careers that also bring contentment, Rhymes are our first connection while some of us struggle to find with this world of words. They are Love - the profession that will fulfil us an encouragement to this learning “There never was an Old Slipper as individuals. Many hard earned process and remain right through to But there was an OLD STOCKING savings have been spent on ‘finding maturity. They help us remember the to match it” oneself’ in distant lands. Perhaps the number of days in the month - meaning of life is much nearer and Life - in a language we can understand. “Thirty days has September, “Life is made up of getting and Words gather momentum to form April, June and November; giving, and forgetting and forgiving’ poems and stories that portray All the rest have thirty-one, meaning which is too often ignored Happiness - and forgotten - “Happiness is not a horse, it does But for February twenty-eight alone, not run along a straight road” Except in leap year once in four Wear a smile on your face, “Happiness is a condition of mind, When February has one day more” Keep a laugh in your heart, not a result of circumstances” Let your lips bubble over with song; and the names of the planets- ‘Twill lighten your load Laziness - “Laziness travels so slowly that As you travel life’s road “ My Very Educated Mother Just And help some other sinner along. Served Us Nine Pizzas”. poverty soon overtakes him” “Footprints on the sands of time ………………………………….. are not made by sitting down” In colour and race, you had no They present us with advice, even choice, at a young age, on that ever popular Sleep - In selecting your parents, you had conversation ...... the weather - no voice, “Six hours of sleep for a man, seven for a woman, eight for a fool” But the road you take as you go “If March comes in like a lion it along, goes out like a lamb, Sorrow - The choices you make between right If it comes in like a lamb it goes out “If you are patient in one moment and wrong like a lion. “ of anger, you will escape a hundred The words you speak, the deeds you

days of sorrow” do, “Red sky at night, shepherd’s delight; Are decided by nobody else, but Red sky in the morning, shepherd’s Drink - you. warning.” “Drink is the curse of the land. It makes you fight with your We are now truly prepared for the neighbour, it makes you shoot at Don’t Quit teenage years where words convey your landlord - and it makes you When things go wrong, as they such depth and sometimes pain miss him” sometimes will, 41 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010

When the road you’re trudging termination of what probably would that had been hung on the window. seems all up hill, have been a mutually beneficial “I love it” she stated with the When the funds are low and the conversation. Don’t be deterred, enthusiasm of an eight-year-old debts are high, youth and age may never agree but having just been presented with a new And you want to smile, but you have subconsciously youth will hold on puppy. “Mrs. Jones, you haven’t seen to sigh, to those words of wisdom to use at the room. Just wait”. “That doesn’t When care is pressing you down a the appropriate time, for which of have anything to do with it” she replied “Happiness is something you decide bit, course you will never be given the Rest, if you must - but don’t you on ahead of time. Whether 1 like honour of the credit. my room or not doesn’t depend on quit. Life is queer with its twists and how the furniture is arranged .... it Regrets, what if, love lost, if only, turns, ‘s how I arrange my mind. 1 already would I do it all differently or As everyone of us sometimes learns, decided to love it. It’s a decision I exactly the same if I could live my And many a failure turns about make every morning when I wake up. 1 have a choice: I can spend the When he might have won had he life over again .... these can become day in bed recounting the difficulties stuck it out, the reflections of one’s life. The I have with the parts of my body that Don’t give up, though the pace freedom of time and the passing of no longer work, or get out of bed seems slow ­ time lends to the creation of many and be thankful for the ones that do. You might succeed with another a wonderful array of words that really should be noted especially Each day is a gift, and as long as blow. my eyes open I’ll focus on the new by the younger generation- Often the goal is nearer than day and all the happy memories I’ve It seems to a faint and faltering stored away ... Just for this time in my man, If you’ve left your dreams behind, if life. Old age is like a bank account: Often the struggler has given up hope is cold, you withdraw from what you’ve put When he might have captured the If you no longer look ahead, in. So, my advice to you would be to victor’s cup, If you ambitious fires are dead, deposit a lot of happiness in the Bank And he learned too late, when the Then you are old. account of memories. Thank you for night slipped down, But if from life you take the best, your part in filling my Memory bank. I How close he was to the golden If for life you keep a zest, am still depositing”. crown. If love you hold, Success is failure turned inside out­ No matter how the years go by, Remember the five simple rules to be The silver tint of the clouds of No matter how the birthdays fly, happy: doubt, You are not old. And you never can tell how close ……………………………………… 1. Free your heart from hatred you are, 2. Free you mind from worries. It may be near when it seems so far, Happiness 3 Live simply. So stick to the fight when you’re 4 Give more. hardest hit ­ The 92-year-old, petite, well poised 5 Expect less. It’s when things seem worst that you and proud lady, who is fully dressed ………………………….. mustn’t quit. each morning by eight 0 ‘clock, ………………………………………. with her hair fashionably coifed and makeup perfectly applied, Clock of Life As we advance, into the category even though she is legally blind, is The clock of life is wound but once of ‘the mature person’ we have moving nursing home today. Her husband of 70 years recently passed and no man has the power the benefit of experiences that life to tell just when away, making the move necessary. has given us. But does anyone the hands will stop After many hours of waiting patiently want to listen to the ramblings of a at late or early hour. in the lobby of the nursing home, she ‘bewildered’ mind? It is therefore Now is the only time you own, perhaps advisable for us never smiled sweetly when told her room So live and toil with will. to start a story with that timeless was ready. As she manoeuvred her Place no faith in your tomorrow walker to the elevator, I provided expression ‘in my day ……. for the clock may then be still. a visual description of her tiny ‘ as this invariable leads to the room, including the eyelet sheets

42 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 The Irish Shebeen PJ Duffy

Right up until the period of the early a damn where the next shilling came be handed round in cups or other 1900s shebeens were quite numerous from. small-sized measures. Glasses were throughout our countryside. This was There were others who would not go very seldom seen on the premises of despite the fact that British legislators next or near these places, or allow their a shebeen keeper. like Robert Peel, during his term children to go there. Many of them It wasn’t on fixed nights alone that as Home Secretary, had made stern believed that shebeens were places liquor was for sale at a shebeen. Local efforts to prevent the illicit sale of of iniquity and a bad influence on clients could call at any time of day alcohol. the youth of the country. Disgruntled for a jar of beer or a hot half one. Stringent licensing laws were put housewives whose husbands were There was usually someone at hand in place but enforcing these laws drinking too much were sometimes to serve a customer. Yet the whole in places as remote as rural Ireland found making complaints to operation was hush-hush and deadly was another day’s work. Cherishing policemen with a view to getting the secretive. The owner had devised the the booze was very much part of an places closed down. most ingenious of hideouts to conceal Irishman’s culture and somehow he Towards the end of the nineteenth his booze. would be very reluctant to part with century the licensing laws were further When the United States banned the that part of his upbringing. tightened by Gladstone’s Licensing sale of alcoholic drink from 1919 to In remote rural areas the shebeen Act of 1872. Intelligence gathering 1933, illicit beer houses sprang up was the great meeting place for and surveillance operations were put all over the country. These places lonely working class people. They in place by a newly revamped police subsequently became known as would come together here for what force in an effort to catch offenders. speakeasies. Some people say that they would regard as a great social During this period a number of their operators adopted this name from occasion. For the vast majority of shebeen owners applied for and were Irish immigrants who often referred them it broke the humdrum monotony granted licences at the local courts. to the shebeens of their homeland of everyday country life. Toiling Many more were turned down for as “spakeaisies”. One of the most nonstop from morning till night was various reasons and a good number notorious bootleggers of that time one thing but human beings needed went out of business altogether. was Al Capone and he had a number a break and many of them just found Despite all this confusion there was of contacts among Irish immigrant that at the old shebeen. True, there still a sizeable number of Irishmen adventurers who gave him lots of were those people who overindulged hell bent on holding on to what they ideas and advice. in the consumption of alcohol but they still believed was an important part were just a tiny minority. of their heritage. Large amounts of Most shebeens in those days would alcohol would be smuggled into an be found to have a diverse variety of area overnight and the most bizarre entertainment. You’d have had the of hiding places would be sought out local characters, spinning yarns and in order to keep it out of reach of the indulging in witty exchanges with police. their neighbours. You had the liars, The shebeen owner also had his own the story-tellers, the tricksters and the small intelligence network which at jokers. Songs would be sung, music times when raids were imminent would played, and dancers would take to the warn him of impending danger. floor for the usual set-dances. There were nights selected when In actual fact the shebeen was just trouble would be flaring up in other another version of the rambling house parts a good bit away, and people with intoxicating liquor laid on. For would know that the local police force persons living on their own in isolated would be on duty there. This gave an areas, places like these were the great ideal opportunity for a good hooley antidote for depression and gloom. and an extended night of revelry. Even those people who were after The shebeen owner would tackle his witnessing bereavement would go donkey, hitch him to the cart and set there for refuge in what they believed off to a secret location to collect the Al Capone to be a sort of lonely hearts’ club. booze. Quantities of stout, whiskey Alcohol was the only drug available and poteen would be loaded onto Back in the 1940s and 1950s at that time, so a reasonable amount the cart and a small quantity of hay there were a number of people around consumed acted as a very good soother or turf placed on top. On his arrival who had vivid memories of the old during periods of depression. back at his home the liquor would be shebeen and its subsequent demise. Of course there were the other types unloaded and set up to be served at a One woman had lived her life when too frequenting the shebeens and convenient hidden spot. gatherings of workers called meitheals these were the topers who were out Pint-sized delph mugs would be used were available to give a helping hand for a jolly good time and didn’t give for serving the porter. Spirits would at turf cutting or the gathering of 43 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 hay. She recalled seeing the gathered small cloud of ashes to flare up. A The arrival of Irish independence hay being built into ricks as a very man standing by shouted “Oh, the and the establishment of new state young girl. She also remembered Plucker is down and he’ll be burned institutions were barely in place being given two small tin cans called in the fire”. Another exclaimed “Give to witness the demise of the Irish ceantíns and being dispatched to the the old man a lift”. Both men took him shebeen. local shebeen for two gallons of porter by the arms, lifted him up and put him for the workmen. This was the usual sitting down on a chair. Just then he Note: procedure followed at almost all those turned real nasty and attacked each A ceaintín was a handy-sized tin vessel old gatherings. in turn, one for calling him “Plucker” with a capacity to hold just one gallon There was one gentleman in his and the other for referring to him as an of liquid. It was fitted with a dome- seventies who had several stories to old man. “You need glasses”, he said shaped lid and a rim that allowed air tell of funny incidents that often took to one, “for addressing me as an old to penetrate to its inner chamber. In place inside the confines of those old man”. Turning to the other he snarled days gone by these old vessels were beer houses. There was one night in “I’m no plucker but you’re a sucker”. frequently in use around farmsteads particular when this seasoned looking Towards the second decade of the and were often used by dairymen to gentleman who appeared to be well twentieth century most of these old deliver milk to people residing in towns into his seventies entered the shebeen watering-holes had closed down. and villages. Its ventilated lid helped and ordered a pint of stout. This man Police harassment coupled with the to keep milk fresh and prevent rancid was generally known by the nickname fact that the people who operated odours. Usually made by travelling “The Plucker”, which he bitterly them were getting on in years had tinsmiths they were the ideal vessel resented. He said he was returning hastened their demise. Most of them to be used for collecting liquor from from a wake and by all appearances were tough hardened individuals who the local shebeen in the days of the he was already well intoxicated. He had come through difficult times and meitheals. stood in the middle of the floor and had little regard for British law. Stories relating to the Irish shebeen proceeded to drink his pint. After a As we moved into the 1920s there were told to the writer during the short while he leaned over and placed seemed to be a decisive change in late 1940s by persons of a previous his drink on the mantelpiece. He then social trends. The vast majority of generation who were actually present turned round and began to sing the people who usually frequented these on some of these premises when the praises of the man down the road who places had now died away and a rising events took place. had just died. With that he flopped generation was now destined to seek down on the hearth and caused a pleasure elsewhere.

Ballindoon Abbey. Original Print 1792. Aidan Mannion Collection 44 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 Maureen Egan (1921-2008) Maureen Egan, Keash Road and the retort “right I’m leaving, if you cannot her missionary zeal on the part of the late of 0’Connell Street, Ballymote say something nice about the person, Legion of Mary brought her to such passed away on the 23rd July 2008. say nothing’. That was Maureen to a tee. diverse geographical regions as , In trying to compose some words Her caring extended to her looking Donegal Town and inner city London, about Maureen, what comes to mind after her own aunt Bea, her uncle among others. Through such missionary is her unwavering faith, her quietness, Martin, and her sister Beatty who passed work, the Legion brought the Catholic her love of sport, her independence, away in her care in 1977 in O’Connell religion to the doorsteps of those that her love of life and the love she had Street. She then took to looking after might have never heard of it before or for her children and grandchildren. her sister Sadie, initially driving twice who had fallen away from their religion. It is very hard to sum up the life of an a week out to Cartron but eventually, With Mrs Harrison, Mrs O’Donnell and extraordinary woman and the wonderful Mrs Perry on such trips, not for them inspirational person she was. Her life comfortable hotels. Rather, in most cases has been dedicated to caring for others, and in particular on one such mission, in a quiet, unobtrusive way. Born in her bed for the week was a mattress Cartron, Ballymote, Maureen trained on a national school floor - she was as a nurse in Jervis Street Hospital, only seventy years of age at the time. Dublin, and was extremely proud of the Her son Paul recalls that one Saturday profession of Nursing. She constantly afternoon, some short weeks before strove for the highest standards as a Christmas 2005 he asked Maureen if nurse and eventually in her role in she wanted to come to his own house for Nursing Management in Jervis Street. Sunday dinner. She declined the offer She could not tolerate things done by stating that she was going to the Senior only half; her constant mantra was Citizens Christmas Lunch that Sunday. that if it was worth doing, it was worth On hearing this her son agreed that she doing properly. She had enormous pride was right to go and have a great meal in being a Jervis Street trained Nurse and evening with her peers, and perhaps and held this passion right up to the day have a sherry for herself because she she was being wheelchaired into St. deserved it. With great indignation, she John’s Hospital, Sligo, after becoming stated that she was “not going to eat, she ill in early July 2008, when she stated was going to the Senior citizens party to to the attendant wheeling her in, “ serve the food”. She was 78 at the time. You know, I used to be a Nurse too!” Her love of all things Irish was a She always maintained the ideal of passion for her and one of her greatest providing the highest quality of care for the last twelve years of Sadie’ s life, loves was to go on heritage days round to her patients and expected others on going five days a week: first she would the county of Sligo and other counties the unit to do likewise. Her son, Paul, attend Mass in the local Catholic church and being told of the history of our remembers bringing Maureen to a in Ballymote and then she would drive to country, its language and its heritage. Jervis Street reunion some years ago, Cartron from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each and She had an unquenchable thirst for all and being introduced to her former every day, until Sadie’s eventual passing. things sporting, regardless of code. nursing colleagues. One took him Maureen was constantly looking When the Sligo senior football team aside, told him of her delight of seeing after the needs of others in her own won the Connaught Championship in Maureen after so many years and said way, quietly and with dignity and 2007, hers was the Sligo flag flying the one memory all at the reunion had absolute confidentiality. One example proudly from her house on the Keash of her was that when Maureen was is that of a young woman who was Road. She had a passion for golf for on duty, three things were certain: the unsuccessful after a number of attempts many many years sand her happiest patients would be extremely well cared to get into Jervis Street as a student moment was when she was elected for, the work would be completed on Nurse. On hearing of the third failed Lady President of Ballymote Golf Club each shift properly and the patients’ attempt Maureen took matters into her a number of years ago. After a hard beds had to be made properly! own hands and travelled to Dublin, day’s work in the shop, her greatest joy She left Jervis Street and worked demanding a meeting with the then was to collect Ms. Sheila Johnson or for some time in Leopardstown Park Hospital Matron and persuading the Mrs. Ann Harrison and to head for the Hospital before returning home to look Matron of the caring qualities of the hills of Carrigans and more recently to after her own mother in Cartron. In young lady who as a result of the the new golf course of Ballinascarrow. 1957 she met and married Jack Egan intervention, secured her nursing studies. Membership of Ballymote Bridge and opened a shop in O’Connell Street, Religion was extremely important Club was something else that gave Ballymote. Two sons, Paul and Joe part of Maureen’s life. Her devotion her much pleasure over many years. joined the family home some years later. to the Blessed Virgin was unique. Her Her life was a life of giving to others Maureen was of the view that three joy of being part of the local Legion unselfishly. Maureen passed away on the values were important: the values of of Mary in Ballymote could not be 23rd July 2008 after a short illness. She respect for self, respect for family and surpassed. Every Monday, she looked will be sadly missed by all who knew her. respect for others. These values she forward to the weekly meeting and to constantly maintained throughout her her visitations to people living alone, Maureen was a long-standing and hard life. She had no wish to listen to gossip, the sick and dying of the community working member of Ballymote Heritage generally cutting the offender short with as part of the Legion’s work Indeed Group. May she rest in eternal peace.

45 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010

A group of young Ballymote footballers in Corran Park, Ballymote, in 1954. Back (L-R): Fintan Ruddy, Brian Killoran, Anthony Mullen, Josie Mattimoe, Jimmy Finn, Richard Molloy. Front (L-R): Fintan Molloy, Gerry Mattimoe, Gerry Keaney, Pauric Brehony, Michael Scully, Sean Healy, Francis Donoghue. Photo courtesy Richard Molloy, per Neal Farry.

Ballymote Boys’ School Band, St Patrick’s Day 1962. Back Row (L-R): Ivan Pettipiece, John Donegan, Tommy Duffy, Joe Donegan, Michael Duffy, Brian Meehan, Vincent Finn. Centre Row (L-R): Sean Hunt, Vincent Brehony, John McDonagh, Sean Duffy, Patrick Chambers, Damien Tansey, Raymond McAndrew, Jim Hannon. Front Row (L-R): Derek Davey, Austin Prior, David Corr, Jim Donohue, Paddy Hannon, Peter Golden. Percussion Group (L-R): Francis Donohue, Michael Healy, Derek Droughton. The conductor was Mr Chris Reid NT (on left of photo) and the instructor was Sr Gertrude Gallagher of the Mercy Convent (not in photo). Photo courtesy Brian Meehan, per Neal Farry.

46 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010

Ballymote fire-brigade at a fire at the Snia factory in Sligo in the 1970s. It was the biggest industrial fire in Ireland up to that time. The fireman on the ground in the helmet is Johnny Price and facing him is Anthony Pettipiece. The fireman on the roof is Gerry Cassidy. Picture courtesy Esther Cassidy.

The house of Tom Commins the thatcher in Carrowcushacly. Picture courtesy Esther Cassidy.

47 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 Holy Trinity Church, Westport Bernie Gilbride

On a cold, overcast February insurrections down the years. Because the Sienna Cathedral, in Italy, the best afternoon, we arrived at our hotel it was designed by an architect the known being “The Last Supper” by in Westport. Having booked in and town is very well laid out, making Leonardo da Vinci. I was fascinated. deposited our cases we made our full use of its beautiful river which is Next the guide was telling us that way down stairs to the glowing turf central to its development. We visited the pulpit was surely one the most fire we had noticed on our way in. the historical buildings and streets; beautiful in Ireland, carved from Drawing our chairs up to its warmth saw the memorial statues erected to alabaster which had been washed we proceeded to make ourselves those who fought in its many battles up on the shores of the Marquess of comfortable and relax after our long during the insurrections and had given Sligo’s estate, from a cargo vessel journey, only to hear one of the their lives in those long gone days. wrecked in Clew Bay. Surely the receptionists call out: “The guide By now we were feeling the cold Lord arranged this, that it might grace is here for those who are taking the and the sky was beginning to darken, this lovely Church in His honour. It guided tour of the town.” We had not when our guide announced: “We will is so ornately carved, so gorgeous, known of the tour and were amazed now go to the Holy Trinity Church, as it gleamed like satin even in that as guided tours at that time of year our last call before the end of the tour.” dusky light. Surely any message were not usual. Back to the reception By then, history and architecture imparted in a sermon from its lofty area I went. My friend decided to were losing their appeal for me and height must be lost, as the attention stay put by the fire and read her book. I was thinking of the warm turf fire I of those who hear it would be on I met up with the group who had had left almost two hours ago. I was the pulpit itself, not on the sermon. requested the guided tour, and beginning to feel that my education Our guide then drew our attention was invited to join them. Though for one day was sufficient, and had to the stained glass windows; for I had spent many happy holidays more or less decided to miss out on me the most beautiful one was the in Westport, I had never been on visiting this church. Another church, rose window at the west end of such a tour and so decided to join one way or another, what difference the building. How it must glow in them, whatever about the weather. would that make to me or the tour? the dying rays of a golden sun on a The guide advised that we all wrap Just then across the bridge from summer’s evening. The two small up warmly, as a cold east wind was us I saw its high steeple, with its windows near the organ depict St. blowing and a walking tour, with its cross on top caught in the glint of George and St. Patrick, and most of many stops, could be very chilling. light from the town lights which the others with their glowing colours, This we did and having gathered again had been switched on. That steeple honour many of the Marquess’ family at reception, we started on our way. and cross drew me towards it as down the years, and are well worth a Our guide was a young lady who if by a magnet and all thoughts of visit on a sunny evening to see them worked in the Tourist Office, but returning to turf fires died the death. in all their glowing colour, with the which had not opened yet for the We entered the church by a side sun casting its rays through them over season. She was well versed in the door, and the cold air as we entered the whole church. This I will do in the history and lore of the place and took chilled us to the bone. We could feel coming months. great pleasure in showing off its many the enthusiasm and awe in our guide’s As I made my way back to the hotel, good points. She was indeed very voice as she began to outline the I was so glad I had decided to avail of knowledgeable about every nook and history and workmanship of this gem the tour and to be lucky enough to have cranny, and their association with the of a building. Immediately I knew had such a guide, whose enthusiasm many episodes and the characters we were in an exceptional place. The for the town, its history, and its lovely of the town down the centuries. beautiful altar and rails, pulpit, lectern buildings, especially the Holy Trinity From its foundation she told of its and windows flashed across my view Church, gave us such pleasure, and history, of the people who, down the as I glanced about me. I moved into the an interest in coming back to see years, had helped create its formation body of the church and sat transfixed, it again, under summer conditions. as it is today, even to having the river unable to concentrate on the guide’s I regaled my friend as I joined her diverted into its present course. It now voice, just looking in wonder at the before the fire with all the details of runs straight in front of the entrance altar in front of me. The magnificent the tour, giving her the brochures to to the estate of the Marquess of Sligo walls of the sanctuary, I later read in read. Such was my enthusiasm that, and his descendants, who had such a the brochure, were of Carrara marble. then and there, we decided to return big influence on the life of the town. The murals, depicting familiar scenes the following June, when the sun Westport is a truly unique small west from the gospel ( which I afterwards would be at its height, that she might of Ireland town, with many historical read) are said by some, to be copies see for herself this lovely church, and associations - with its involvement in of those in St. Peter’s in Rome, and that I might see the colourful glow of the uprisings and more or less constant by others to be copies of the floor in the windows fill it with their light. 48 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 Magh Tuiredh Leo Mattimoe

The walking group in Highwood with Lough Arrow in the background. The author is first from left, standing. Photo by Peter O’Rourke

Sunday 10th May was an sign of good weather. Then Peter from the front of the Community exceptionally good day. I had O’Rourke looking very much the Centre. known in advance that a walk part of a competent expedition The area is a treasure trove of had been arranged by a group of leader got the party moving very archaeological remains, megalithic people in the -Highwood quickly towards the Magh Tuiredh (big stone) monuments, which area. It was to be a trial walk, with plateau. reflects how important this location the intention of forming a club The main purpose of the exercise was to our pre-Celtic ancestors sometime in the future. Two things was a trek but seeing that this trek who choose it as their final resting prompted me to take part: firstly, embraced an area of no ordinary place. These people lived during being reasonably fit I saw it as a significance, it would have been the Neolithic, (New Stone Age) bit of a challenge and secondly the a great pity not to have stopped period, (c4,000 – 2,500 B.C.). The area itself has an appeal for me like occasionally to view some of the number of megaliths must have no place else in Ireland or Europe amazing natural features in the been much greater at one time, and of course I have ancestral ties landscape, principally the ‘erratics’, judging by the great number of in the Lough Arrow district. large boulders which were dropped boulders which now form field Sixteen of us assembled that in their present positions by the boundaries, having been moved morning at Highwood Community retreating ice over 10,000 years during land reclamation. Progress Centre. We lined up for a ago. The place is littered with them has been made in one sense but photograph against the background but one of the most outstanding at a terrible loss to our heritage of a beautiful, tranquil Lough is a high limestone block called and this is one of the reasons why Arrow. Someone said that was a the ‘Eglone’, which can be seen local people everywhere should

49 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 be conscious of the irreplaceable think there should be a plaque they lift it?’ Well they either had treasures in their own fields and erected at Highwood to Lugh engineering techniques which the significance of these ‘heaps of because it was he who arrived in have been forgotten or else they stones’, as a local politician once Ireland in the nick of time to rid ate more porridge. described them. us of that pest, Balor of the Evil Diarmuid and Gráinne, the eloping It is an amazing place from Eye, his own grandfather, who couple, slept here for a few nights many aspects. The landscape is was leading a group of Fomorian when fleeing from Fionn Mac practically unspoilt, with little rowdies from Tory Island against Cumhaill to whom Gráinne was evidence of the having the more sophisticated ‘Tuatha promised in marriage. It couldn’t left his scent. It is both remote but De Danaan’, the followers of the have been the most comfortable of accessible at the same time and goddess, Danu. Lugh, with his beds, being exposed to the elements offers a fantastic panoramic view slingshot got a hole in one and and inclined at a considerable of the surrounding countryside the rest is history, or should I say, angle, but I suppose when you are from where it is possible to see at mythology? Balor’s eye fell out young and in love, inconveniences least five counties. and burned a hole in the ground, of this nature are only a minor There is an atmosphere of pure forming Loch Na Suil (the lake consideration. enhancement which is reinforced of the eye). Lugh wasn’t finished It is also supposed to be the burial by the presence of the ancient yet. He dallied long enough to see place of Nuadha of the Silver Arm, megaliths. They bear silent the birth of a son, none other than King of the Tuatha De Danann, testimony to an era long since gone. Cuchulain, who is revered in Ireland who lost an arm in the first battle In fact they tantalise us by their and the Scottish Highlands. of Magh Tuiredh where the Fir very presence, reminding us that we In the legendary secondary Bholg were defeated. Dian Cecht, were not the first to tread this soil, battle of Magh Tuiredh, Lugh has the leech made him a silver arm that once in the distant past there the advantage of having a very which he put to good use against existed a people whom we shall long arm. Hence his title, Lugh the Fomorians. It’s a good job never know but whose presence Lámhfhada (of the long arm). It there wasn’t a waiting list then. seems to haunt the quiet air of the signifies the idea of stretching out The walk ended in the pleasant plateau. All of this combined with an arm to protect or rule his people grounds of Cromlech Lodge where the incredible mythology relating – the long arm of the law, you the group rested and had some to the area makes this place a might say. more photographs taken. What sacred sanctuary for the collective The Roman emperor, Augustus, better or more healthy exercise memory of our race. chose Lyon to be the capital of could there be then walking but When I looked at Lugh’s Seat, Gaul (now roughly France) and what makes it even more enjoyable (pronounced Loo), I could not help he instituted an annual festival to is an awareness of the countryside but remember the silly clap-trap honour himself on August 1st. This around us, the flora and fauna that was popular when we became coincides with the Irish festival and the myriad of associations full members of the E.U. It was of . Why not revive with a particular area. We are not implied that we had emerged from this festival and focus activities just creatures of the present and insular isolation for the first time at or near Magh Tuiredh which is what enhances our experience is and that we should feel privileged associated so much with Lugh? an awareness of the impact that at last to call ourselves Europeans. We were blessed with sunshine former generations have made. Lugh would have had the last laugh and apart from having to negotiate They have left their imprint on because Lugh, (the bright one), was a few banks and electric fences our beloved land in many ways a well travelled fellow. He was the party moved rapidly on till we and to ignore this dimension is known to the real British, (i.e. the arrived at the ‘Labby Rock’, which to deny ourselves something of Welsh), as Llew and the cult of the is the best known of the megaliths incomparable richness. god Lugos was widespread on the in the area. It is a portal tomb, Thanks again to Peter for a most continent. The Romans know him dating from the Neolithic age, enjoyable outing. as Mercury and the French city of (2,500 BC). The massive capstone Lyon is named after him. So much is possibly the second heaviest in for us becoming Europeans. Ireland, weighing 60 to 70 tons. Well, back to Magh Tuiredh. I I can hear you saying, ‘how did

50 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 Those Visiting Stuntmen and their Amazing Performances

PJ Duffy

Back during the early and middle years There was the man who would arrive gatherings around the countryside. of the last century our local towns and carrying a glass bottle. After smashing There was the trick-of-the-loop man villages were to become accustomed to it to bits he would place the glass in a who carried around with him a narrow visits by a unique strain of performers neat pile near the town’s sidewalk. After limber strap measuring about two feet known as stuntmen. Usually at fairs and removing his shirt he would sort of long by one inch in width. Like some of markets or other such gatherings, one flatten the pieces with his foot, and then the other performers he too would use or two of these gentlemen might arrive lie on his back on top of the glass and a small table on which to carry out his unannounced into their midst to enact invite the heaviest man in the crowd to act. He would invite those people who feats of skill and strength that often left jump on his chest. wanted to make a quick pound to gather bystanders feeling spellbound and glued Not many onlookers were willing to around. He then introduced them to this to the ground on which they stood. do so but there was always a stalwart narrow belt of very versatile material Nobody around at that time seemed to or two ready to take on the venture. that looked very much like the felt used know who they were or where they had The majority of people standing around in hat making. He would double this come from. To the ordinary man in the would look on murmuring low gasps of band and while doing so he would show street they seemed to be foreign-looking bewilderment. the looped end to the people standing and not much akin to our own particular After subjecting himself to this ghastly around. He would advise them to watch race. ordeal, the performer would raise carefully as he rolled the doubled bands From informed sources we were later himself up quite undisturbed and expose into one circle and put it down on the to learn that many of these people were an unblemished back to the surrounding table. Then, picking up a pin, he would formerly employed by circuses on the bystanders. One man standing there was invite anybody standing by, for a decent Continent, but during the war years quick to explain that the stuntman, while wager, to place the pin in the looped nightly blackouts were in operation appearing to lie flat out on the broken end. The operator, it would seem, was right across Europe, and under these glass, could in fact curve his backbone a right conjurer for although many tried conditions circuses could not operate. in such a way that the part of his body none succeeded in holding the loop on We were told that during this time many directly over the glass did not in actual the pin. performers had gone freelance and fact touch the pieces. Another slick operator of the day was took to the countryside giving daylight Numbered among all these gentlemen the fellow with the three-card-trick. He performances wherever they were likely was perhaps the most bizarre performer was, it would seem, the most devious and to find crowds of people assembled of them all, the fire eating man. He cunning of them all. This fellow would together. Looking back now from this usually arrived in town carrying a small produce a full pack of playing cards and point in time there seems little doubt but table under his arm. He would lay this pass them around for the public to view that these people were highly skilled, wee table down in the centre of a crowd and make sure they were genuine. He well trained and totally adept in their and, while doing so, would in a sort would after a couple of moments take performances. of rigmarole dialect of broken English back the pack, shuffle them between There was one burly-looking, well- explain to those standing by what he his hands and invite somebody standing muscled gentleman who used to be intended doing. by to cut them. After this procedure he present at almost every fair and market He would then place a dinner plate would remove three cards from the pack, held around the countryside. He usually on the table and after procuring a wafer one being the queen of hearts. He would arrived during the evening time, just biscuit he would break it into pieces pass the three cards from one hand to before the crowds started to disperse. and lay them down on the plate. After the other and then after holding up the His source of transport was a small pony pouring some kind of clear liquid on the queen of hearts for the people standing hitched to a light spring cart on which pieces he would set the plate’s contents around to see, he would place the three was placed a seventeen-rung ladder, a alight with the flames leaping into the air. cards face downwards on a table and, heavy horse cart wheel fully shod, and Then he would come up with a dinner for a wager, invite some speculator to an iron cart axle. fork and proceed to pick up the burning find the lady card. Many tried but few After addressing the crowd and letting pieces one by one and place them in his succeeded. hem know what he intended doing, he mouth, while the surrounding crowd On one occasion a fellow standing would get hold of the ladder and after watched on in disbelief. in the crowd began to give out to some hoisting it upright he would then balance One evening a young boy on his of the people standing near him. “That it on his chin and move around in a circle way home from school accompanied guy”, said he, “is a right conman. He’s with the ladder still upright on his chin. by his father pushed his way into the using sleight of hand to wrangle gullible After completing this action, he would crowd to see what was going on. “Oh! people out of their money by placing take hold of the cartwheel, hold it upright Daddy, Daddy” he cried out, “the man them in a no-win situation”. The fellow with one hand and then placing it on his is eating fire. He’ll burn himself inside”. had no doubt been stung before. chin would put his two hands down by Before his father got time to answer, an Some of the showpeople would on his sides and again walk around in a old codger standing on the edge of the occasion take along a monkey as a sort of circle. crowd spoke out: “There is no danger decoy to draw the crowds around. They After this he would turn to the cart that that buck will do himself any harm. would erect a small platform on which axle for a repeat balancing act while a He’s been doing that stunt for years. the monkey would sit and alongside stunned crowd looked on in wide-eyed He’ll quell them flames with his tongue this a bamboo pole about eight feet high amazement. long before they reach his gullet”. “And would be placed. A group of onlookers During the 1940s this same gentleman what about the cinders?” enquired would move in close to see the monkey was frequently observed performing at the boy’s father. “Oh, he’ll pass them run up and down the pole. local venues around the countryside, tomorrow or the day after”, replied the A well-known catchphrase used by the including after-Mass gatherings at old gentleman. people at the time was “Come on, come church gates. There were other strange characters on, if you don’t speculate you won’t Different stuntmen had different tricks. who could show up at meetings and accumulate”.

51 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010

First Year Class in Colaiste Muire, Ballymote. (Spring 1958) Row 4 (back, L-R): Martin McDonagh, Val Davey, John Dennedy, John McAndrew, Francis Kielty, Brendan Benton, Jim Sreenan, John McDonagh, Shane Gilhawley, John Scanlon. Row 3 (L-R): John O’Dowd, Richard Molloy, Bernard Tansey, Patricia Mattimoe, Kathleen Scanlon, Imelda Egan, Eileen Quigley, Kitty McGettrick, Kathleen Ballantyne, Mary Hogge, Michael Gilmartin. Row 2 (L-R): Gerard O’Hagen, Margaret Killoran, Chris Hannon, Kathleen Cawley, Ann O’Hagen, Rita Davey, Mary Morrison, Eileen Keenan, Sadie Cunnane, Lydia McDonagh, Gerry Henry. Row 1 (front, L-R): Owen Duffy, Paschal Fahy, Desmond Friel, ------. Photo courtesy Kathleen Ballantyne-Martin, per Neal Farry

A group of boys in the Mill field, Keenaghan, Ballymote, in the spring of 1955. They played , and rugby during their Sunday afternoon sessions. Back Row (L-R): Michael Hannon, Andrew Rogers, Jim Sreenan, John Cassidy, Jim Hannon, Vincent Brehony. Front Row (L-R): Val Rogers, Neal Farry, Martin Meehan, Owen Duffy, Michael Hoey, Joey Hannon, Brian Meehan. Photo courtesy Peggy Hannon-Walsh, per Neal Farry

52 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010

Two postcards of Ballymote from the Ward series, circa 1900 – 1905. The photo prints were made from original pencil drawings and they show Emlafad Churchyard, Ballymote, and the old Franciscan Abbey, Ballymote. Photos courtesy Donal Gallagher, Falcarragh, Co Donegal, per Neal Farry.

53 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 Childhood Memories

Kathleen Fitzmaurice

When I looked out in the early one leg, because we knew that the next who first made them. morning I saw the belch of smoke that stage was death. Sadly, turkeys had an Every family experiences pain and rose from the tall chimney-stack of the uncanny tendency to pass infection loss. My earliest brush with death Creamery, heard the clatter of creamery from one to another - one death was was as a four-year old when I saw my ­cans as they splashed their contents the harbinger of many. fourteen month old only sister taken into the measuring tank and savoured It was a good day when prices were from her cot, placed in a little white the mouth-watering smell when the high at the local fair, when the cattle box which I afterwards learnt was a engine-man fried his morning bacon sold readily and when “himself’ did coffin, and taken away from the house. on a shovel, balanced in the embers of not over-indulge by way of celebration. I had no idea of the grief of my parents the huge furnace. But it was doom and gloom when - I was just bewildered! On my way to school I heard the prices were bad; cattle were taken There were things that scared the rhythmic clang of the blacksmith’s from fair to fair and eventually sold daylights out of me. We had a ferret sledge on the anvil in the local forge at rock-bottom prices. That was the at one time and it’s hard to understand and saw the shower of sparks from day, too, when the man himself felt he how such a small animal could pose his fire when he blew the bellows and needed the consolation of a few drinks. such a threat! I always hid behind the I hurried past to avoid to the acrid At home, the woman of the house bore closed door of my bedroom if the ferret singeing smell when the red-hot horse all these worries for the sake of the was released from its cage. Growling shoe touched the hoof. family. She firmly believed that “Is dogs and hissing, wing-flapping Since then I have seen the demise giorra cabhair Dé ná an doras”. How ganders, which were certainly more of the forge and the closure of the right she was! plentiful in those days than now, were Creamery and, on the other hand, the Then there were red-letter days. For sure to set alarm bells ringing and were advent of the Full Irish Breakfast in our all children First Holy Communion a high priority on my hate list. filling stations and convenience stores. Day belonged to this category. Spiritual I was fortunate enough to be taken In between, there are many memories. preparation was rigorous and a special to the Eucharistic Congress in Dublin I recall great days, good days and bad effort was made to dress the child in a in 1932. I have a vague recollection of days, births and marriages, deaths and way worthy of this great event. Large the pageantry, the crowds, the music funerals. sums of money were not bestowed on and the hush when the great John In many houses it was a good day the communicant so there was no need McCormack sang some wonderful when the American parcel arrived, full to open a bank account next day. hymn. Until that day I thought all of exotic clothes, unwanted garments of But my very own red-letter day came human beings were white, but as the family that Aunt Annie or Aunt Bea when I was about six or seven. It was the procession approached I spotted worked for in Boston or Philadelphia. the day I got my first Wellingtons. I had Prelates in magnificent vestments but It was a good day too when the letter always been a puny youngster. Like the with black faces. I quickly took refuge with the English stamp was received, turkeys I never missed an infection. I behind my mother’s coat tails. I was with a fiver from a son or daughter in was constantly being reprimanded for delighted to leave it all behind me and London or Birmingham. getting wet feet. This magical footwear to get back to the familiar surroundings It was a bad day when the sick calf enabled me to splash in puddles, walk of my own village. Even then I realised did not respond to the dose concocted in wet grass, step into cowpats and that I was lucky to have the peace and for it by the local knowledgeable man restore the gloss by paddling in the quiet of a good Irish home and I thank or when a turkey, destined for the stream. I still remember the freedom God for the happy days I spent there. Christmas market, stood listlessly on the wellies gave and I bless the one

Ballymote Castle. Original Print 1791. Aidan Mannion Collection

54 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 North Roscommon Gaelicisms

Frank Tivnan

This work is a glossary of Irish Amshagh (aimseach, unfortunate, blaw is gone off the house since my words which feature frequently in the accidental (adjective)). In Hibernian mother died”. everyday conversation in English of English “amsagh” is used as a noun Bodhran / bawnrawn (bodhar, a mainly rural community of North meaning damage, injury or accident: deaf). A deaf person; also a goat skin Roscommon. “He’s gone through so many drum played with a special stick call This area of North Roscommon amshaghes recently” . a keepeen. was Irish speaking until the 1880s. Anam also onom (anam, soul). Bogóg also bugóg (bogóg, a shell- The noted Irish Scholar Fr. Tomas “M’anam ón Diabhal”: my soul from less egg). Also bags under Ó Ceallaigh who was born in 1897 the devil. ones eyes. Breaking of wind learned his first Irish words from Anam chara (anam chara, soul emitted noiselessly and by his maternal grandmother Catherine friend or spiritual counsellor). instalments. Tivnan (Tivnan 1999). Anoose (anuas, from above). Braon Bolgadawn (bolgadán, a small fat As a young man Dr. Doughlas Hyde anuas: rain down or a leak especially person usually with a paunch). learned Irish from James Hart, a from a thatched roof. Bunagh bwescka (bolg uisce, water gamekeeper on Lord De Freynes’s Ardeesh (árd fheis, national bag). A water bag of cow before estate in nearby . convention of a political party). calving. (Dunleavy 1991). Arnawhn / arnaun (airneán, Bronack (brónach, sorrowful or The Irish words which I have rambling or visiting at night or miserable). ‘You look very bronack, compiled are still used up to the having a hooley and a bit of craic). what’s up with you?’ year 2009 by people who are over “There was a great arnawn in Bruitin or brewsey (bruitín, mashed fifty years of age. The community Tivnan’s last night”. potatoes specially prepared for on which I based my research has Avick (a mhic, oh son, my son). young children) been engaged in small farming and “That’s the way it is, avick” Buachalan bui (buachalán buí, has lived in a tightly knit and rather A voorneen (a mhuirnín, my love). ragwort) isolated manner. Consequently the Term of endearment. “Come back Booshta (búiste, a sluggard). A big vocabulary reflects many agricultural to Erin mavoorneen mavoorneen” lazy and ignorant man. terms, the cultivation of crops, the (famous Irish song). Bundoon (bundún, intestine, rear diseases of man and beast, terms of Bockock (bacach, lame, defective). end). One who makes a desperate endearment, pejorative terms and A beggar; a lame person; a chair or effort is said ‘to be out of his/ of course many references to the stool that stands unevenly on the her bundoon’. ‘John put out his Christian religion. floor. “That chair is a bit bockety”. bundoon to rear his family’. The role of the Seanachie, the Bockawn (bacán, a forge-made traditional story teller, and house hinge in the shape of the letter L). Cac (cac, excrement). Cac iarainn rambling has done much to preserve “He needs two bockawns to hang the =iron ore or rust which oozes from the native Irish vocabulary which is door on’. damp land. an essential and valuable ingredient to Badging (bádh, a hay swath). Cailleach (cailleach, a hag or a nourish and sustain the Irish psyche. Cutting grass around the edge of the witch). A cailleach bed or prishtee meadow. bed was a recessed bed beside the Achree (a chroí, oh heart) Term of Ballower (baileabhair, difficulty). kitchen fire of old thatched houses endearment. “I’ll do my best for you “John made a ballower of himself” along the west of Ireland. achree” – a fool of himself. Cally (ceallaí). Dish of pounded Acushla (a chuisle, oh pulse) Term Bawneen (báinín, a white woollen potatoes (especially new potatoes) of endearment. “Acushla geal ma pullover at present known as the with hot milk, salt, butter and chree won’t you marry, marry me”. Aran sweater). scallions. “Nothing like a plate Agni also agraw (a ghrá, my love) Ballawhaun (balbhán, a mute, a of cally to please a hungry man”. Term of endearment . “Would you stammerer). ‘Cally arse’ one who has a big rear make me a cup of tea agraw?” Bawnee (banai lady killer, found of end. Airgead Síos (airgead síos, money women). Camogue (camóg, a big stick) down). Deposit, ready money. “It Banshee (bean sídhe, a female Ceap madagh (ceap magaidh must be airgead síos or forget it”. fairy whose crying forecasts a death a laughing stock). ‘Maire is the Alannagh (a leanbh, oh child) in particular families. “Colm was greatest ceap madagh in the parish. “How are you doing alannagh?” wailing like a banshee”. Ceolan (ceolán) a small giddy Alp lukcragh (alp luachra, lizard of Bosstoon (bastún, an ignorant person. the rushes). A person who has licked person). Ceis a rough temporary bridge an alp luachra will have the cure of Baddy (beadaí, a pet name or made of mud, branches and stones the burn. childish name for a goose). Used to usually in a bog. Amadawn (amadán, male fool or call geese to their food. Ciarrogue (ciaróg) a beetle or idiot) Blaw (bláth, shine or bloom) “The cockroach. ‘Aithnionn ciar6g, ciar6g 55 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010

eile’. ‘Greek meets Greek’. ‘Birds of Dudeen’, clay pipe made in person). Fussing; rushing around, a feather flock together’. , Co. Roscommon. bustle. ‘Will you stop foostering for Ceiste (ciste, a chest or treasure, Very much used at wakes. God’s sake’. savings) ‘Sara has a good ould Fraughan (fraochán). Bilberry, ceiste in the mattress’. Famaire (fámaire a big well built small blueberries growing wild in Cipin (cipín, stick or twig.) man, a big animal) ‘A famaire of a boggy places. Kindling wood. hare’. ‘The cat killed a famaire of a Fuaran, foreawn (forán), herb fed to Cuit amach, out cat, to leave rat’ . pigs. hurriedly. ‘Such a cuit amach, out of Fear gortach (féar gortach, quaking the kitchen’. grass, hunger grass). ‘Mick has the Currigrifeen (codhladh gríbhthín) fear gortach’, a ferocious hunger. This Article will be continued in pins and needles There was a belief that anyone who our next Issue. walks on a famine victim’s grave Dardaol or dordin (dardin, a will suffer extreme hunger. contrary or waspish person. ‘Don’t Feilleastrum (feileastram, iris). ‘The mind that ould dordin’ field is covered with feilleastrums’. Dauny or donny (donaidhe) Feochadan (feochadán) a thistle. Delicate; a person in bad health Foidin mearai (fóidín mearaidhe, Deoch on dorais (deoch an dorais) sod of confusion). If you tread on ‘One for the road’. this ground you’ll be led astray. Drass (dreas, a turn, short spell) Foiseach n., headland near the wall ‘John is taking the last drass out of of a meadow where tractor mowing his pipe’. machines cannot cut. The fosieach Duidin (dúidín, a short clay has to be cut by a scythe. tobacco-pipe). ‘The Knockcroghery Fooster (fústaire, a fussy busy The Gift December Light in Pearse Street

Bernie Gilbride Mary Guckian

Greet the morning, rain or shine, Damp air hangs Check the diary one more time, over Pearse Street Get this done before nine on a cold December day Thank God the memory is fine. Along the footpath oily steel blue bulbs Breakfast with my four legged friend with a frosty sheen His intake of food knows no end. blink from windows.

The beach, it calls us to walk, Traffic lights turn Meet with friends, talk, talk, talk. red, for seconds the temperature rises. Ever changing sea enchants, Green lights return Breakers foaming over rocks, punch the foggy air Gentle waves cleansing sand bring colour back Leaving strand looking grand. to a leafless street.

This beautiful world At South Dock Square All mine to enjoy red matchstick poles Given us free reflect on icy water, By the Almighty. where weaving waves of the Grand Canal forge movement, a reminder of logs blazing on hearth stones at Christmas time.

56 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 Fair Day in Sligo 1930-40

Bernie Gilbride

“Oh dear God! What on earth was her on her big day and it was. Thank that changed hands was huge. Rolls of that?!!” I find myself sitting straight you.” Having given me the cheque, notes were taken from deep pockets up in bed in the dark, about eight years he stood looking at me. I held out and counted into the seller’s hand, old in the house where I was born. my hand to say goodbye, but he just luck money was handed over, then a “Hup, hup” shouts a man down below stood there with a question in his eye. spit on the palm and a firm hand clasp on the street and I hear the sound of I had no idea what was wrong, was at and the deal was done. I never heard cattle charging around the side of a complete loss what to do, when he of any robberies though everyone our house, in a stampede, one would said “what about the luck money?” I knew huge amounts of cash were think, with all the bellowing, shouting was completely dumbfounded. I had being carried and noise on the street. Down in our not heard of that since I was a child. All doors were firmly closed on Fair kitchen “Punch” our terrier is going Hastily I found an envelope and gladly days as a young bullock or calf was not mad, barking and scratching the door gave him an equally generous luck unknown to break loose from a herd as to get into the hall. money back which I later saw him they were being moved and make his The noise I heard could only have hand unopened to his lovely daughter way into a narrow hallway. Then the been a bullock hitting the hall door. with a big hug. I often wondered what fun began trying to reverse him out The bang reverberated through the such a modern young lady made of without doing too much damage, and whole house, waking us all including that gesture and if she queried where in his fright he might leave a calling my new baby brother now joining in it came from, and why. Anyway, I card - not nice!!! the din with his lusty cries. I realise it sincerely hope it brought her all the Fairs were a magnet for ‘hawkers’ is Fair Day and the Fair Green opens good luck in the world, in the old Irish with their trays of knick-knacks. onto Temple Street, almost directly tradition in which it was intended, by Musicians came too, especially fiddle opposite our front door both her adoring father and me. players, many of whom were really Striking a match to light the candle, On thinking of it I imagine it was expert and a delight to listen to, but had I check the time. It is only 6.30am the origin of my parents’ habit of fallen on hard times and their fiddles and still dark, but the farmers are here always looking for discount when were their only source of income. with their cattle, all ready for the fair. they purchased clothes and shoes or By four o’clock the fair green would The fairs brought a hustle and a bustle household wares when we were young. be almost empty, except for the pig to Temple Street: it became alive with Something never done now, what with pens in the far corner where pigs were people, animals and noise, neighing of Supermarkets and indifferent cashiers sometimes kept awaiting their export horses, bellowing of cattle, shouting of taking the cash. from the quays within a day or two. farmers and helpers, even the barking Farmers were very shrewd when Their squeals could be heard for hours of dogs. buying and selling cattle, with much as they were frightened being left in a Fair days were very big in Sligo, with walking around animals, examining strange place. lots of cattle for sale, as Sligo port was them from every angle, their eyes, As the fair ended the big clean-up so convenient for immediate export, if teeth, haunches, with much walking began. The streets were swept, the that was the dealer’s intention; many away and much following, before Corporation’s sprinkler brought into a herd was bought and straight away the deal was struck. The seller never action and every footpath and roadway driven to the quays for export. allowed a good customer to walk washed clean, much to the relief of the The eating houses, as they were then very far, but was always willing to residents, glad that that day was over called, opened at the crack of dawn negotiate. A firm hand shake sealed for another month. for business. Many a farmer having the deal. We youngsters watched with With the coming of Marts, fair days walked miles with his cattle was glad interest, whenever we managed to in towns are no more. That way of life to avail of a chance to have something escape outside as we were confined was over, not regretted by the residents to eat, and the smell of rashers and to home whenever a fair was on. The of Temple Street, St. Patrick’s Terrace, sausages frying was everywhere. older lads offered to help herd the Pound Street, and Hanley’s Terrace. Likewise the pubs, with much to-ing cattle, spreading out their arms to The fair green itself is no longer in and fro-ing did a roaring business as keep the cattle together and blocking use. There is talk of turning it into sales were made. “Luck money” was them from running into gardens or a park for the area, with play areas given back to the trader. down the side street towards the for children and tree-shaded walks Over fifty years later, as part of the market yard, where they could spread and seating for adults. This would, management of a hotel, it fell to me to out either side of the covered stages at I believe, be a fitting use for a place hand the bride’s father a rather hefty the centre, in all directions in seconds, that once played such an active part bill for the wedding. This he perused down Harmony Hill to O’Connell in the lives of the people surrounding carefully as I expected he would. We Street, out the other gate and down it. A green oasis on their front door. A had been asked to spare no expense and by the Friary towards Market Cross, quiet place to sit and chat. The new we had done as requested. On asking if causing panic everywhere. They got dual-carriageway has taken most of everything had been to his satisfaction many a shilling or two for their help the traffic away from the town, and he assured us it had. Taking out his and to the farmer or dealer were well Temple Street in particular; a park cheque book he made out the amount worth every penny. would be the crowning glory after all to the last penny. Handing it to me he The dealers were clearly evident in the hassle of the fair day years . smiled “Mary is my only daughter their high leather boots, great coats and I wanted everything perfect for and small hand whips. The money

57 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 The Other Side Of Side Jack Gilligan

and third centuries A.D. from the site of Apollo’s Temple. It Now, seventeen hundred years was then that my friend, Ahmet, broke later, like every city in the world, Side the news that the sale of alcohol is not is feeling the effects of the recession permitted in Turkey during polling! and elections are looming. In the days The prohibition is in the interest of prior to polling the parties are out in public order and safety, as the people force looking for the public vote. Cars tend to be as passionate about politics and vans emblazoned with the faces of as they are about football. As I resigned candidates seem to be everywhere and myself to the idea of the ‘pub with vehicles with loudspeakers traverse no beer,’ Ahmet spoke quietly to the the area exhorting the people to vote waiter and afterwards suggested that Gate to old city, Side for their particular candidate. Some all would be well. A few minutes later Photo By Jack Gilligan commercial premises are nailing the waiter came out with the required Although never actively their colours by displaying pictures drinks and a supply of large grey mugs involved in politics, I have always had of candidates in their windows – a instead of glasses! A Turkish solution a keen interest in the process which risky gamble I would have thought! to a Turkish problem I thought as determines the people who govern us at Television indicates that the same I poured my cool beer into the mug local, national and European level. As scene is played out all over this vast and placed the bottle discreetly on the election results come in I can be found country of more than 70 million floor! glued to the T.V. or radio for as long inhabitants. In Side a robust campaign Next day I stroll through as they stay on air, even into the small is taking place for the five-year post the ruins of the old city. I pass the hours. It was with more than a little of Mayor. The straight vote system monumental fountain, currently sadness that I recently encountered a in operation in Turkey would make under restoration, and look forward to Dublin taxi driver who had no idea as life easy for my Dublin taxi man! seeing water flow from it soon again. to how our proportional representation The ruling Justice and Development I marvel at the remains of the city’s system works, even though he has Party, led by Prime Minister Recep extensive commercial and cultural been voting for several years. He was Erdogan, is seeking the endorsement centre, the agora. Then past Side of the opinion that candidates, when of the people for its governance of the Museum, housed in the excavated and elected, “gave away” surplus votes to country. Around 48 million voters are restored bathhouse, which dates from whomever they liked! due to cast their votes at more than the fifth century B.C. Passing through On a visit to Side 177,000 polling stations. Voting will the impressive arch, which forms the (pronounced “see-deh”) in the south begin at 8 a.m. and end at 5 p.m. and city gate, I come to the Amphitheatre of Turkey, earlier this year, I was the counting of votes will commence with its capacity of over 16,000. With pleased to discover that local elections immediately after the close of polls. election happenings fresh in my mind I were imminent and would take place On polling Sunday, in pause and wonder about the legislators during my stay. How would the people late March this year, I spent the day of old who would have used this theatre of this historic region engage with the with Turkish friends, enjoying a late to deliver edicts and proclamations. electoral process, I wondered. breakfast, outdoors, in the pleasant I have no doubt that some of them Through my many visits to Mediterranean sunshine! Later in the occupied the best seats at infamous the ancient city I have learned that the afternoon we drove to the old city of combat displays between gladiator history of Side can be traced back to Side to relax at one of the many bars. and wild animal. They would also the seventh century B.C. It became a We settled into a nice pub overlooking have presided, there, over unthinkable wealthy commercial, intellectual and the harbour and just a stone’s throw displays involving criminals, slaves entertainment centre in the second and other unfortunates. Maybe, then, century B.C. but a century later it had I muse to myself, it was a ghost from fallen to pirates and been turned into a these troubled times who made the naval base and slave market. History electricity fail as I witnessed a latter- suggests that the people seemed to day legislator attempt a speech in the tolerate the pirates and their slave theatre some years ago! Just then I trade because of the profitable nature am jolted back to the present by an of their activities and the benefits to approaching cavalcade of jubilant the city! Under Roman rule, however, supporters with flags, banners and the pirates were ousted and the city blaring music. The newly elected began to reclaim its good name and Apollo Temple, Side Mayor of Side is on his way to take prosper, especially during the second Photo By Jack Gilligan up office.

58 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 The Carrigeenmore and Castle St., Sligo, Bone Scoops Martin A. Timoney

In The Corran Herald of July remainder. verticals. This piece is golden brown 2007 I published a bone scoop in the Hurley (2004, 463) describes in colour. possession of Ballymote Heritage it in other words: “they were easily Group members, the sisters Eileen made from the metapodials (metacarpi REDATING Tighe and Nuala Rogers. That or metatarsi) of sheep or pig. The The Castle St. examples were publication already requires a follow distal end formed the handle, with found in contexts that were producing up article. the articular condyles left intact. The late 16th to early 19th century material. proximal end was cut off, and half of This strained the assigning (Timoney CASTLE St., SLIGO the wall of the shaft was cut away. The 2007-2008) of the Carrigeenmore Between March and July 2008, edges were then pared and polished to bone to the Early Christian period to the former W.A. and A.F. Woods give a sharp cutting edge.” say the least. However, I showed the hardware, tools, glass, bicycle, Carrigeenmore bone to Prof. Emeritus delft, nursery, paint, toy, shoe, seed, DESCRIPTIONS Etienne Rynne. He immediately manures, gardening and farming stores Before proceeding to referred to examples from Staple which developed at 5, 6, 7-8 Castle discussion the Carrigeenmore and the Howe Iron Age hillfort in Yorkshire St., Abbeyquarter South, Sligo, from three Castle St. pieces are described. and to ones on display in Neolithic the mid-19th century until closing in The Carrigeenmore example cases in the British Museum. Later 2005, was archaeologically resolved (Figs. 1d, 2d) measures 13.4 cm in Siobhán de hÓir, that bibliographer under license 07E0096. The site was length, 7.4 cm of the bone was cut extraordinaire of RSAI provided developed for the Quinn family to the away to form the 7.5 cm long working copy of North Country Folk which design by HKR Architects; Rhatigan part. There is a tiny bit of the edge has illustrations of several examples. was the main contractor and Norris of both sides of the scoop left uncut; And then Vol. XVI of The Journal was the groundworks contractor. these look to be minor touches of of Irish Archaeology arrived. The Following clearance of the decoration rather than functional. The article by Mullins (2008) concerned demolished buildings initial earth piece is decorated with several poorly somewhat similar bone objects, the removal got underway. By one of laid-out scored lines and the letter R is sort of ones that I was comparing those strokes of luck that make life faintly scratched on the back. the Carrigeenmore example with, exciting an unfinished bone scoop The complete un-worked Castle which caused me to arrive at an (Figs 1b, 2b) of the type of the St. bone (Fig. 1a, 2a) measures 11.8 Early Christian date. On receipt of Carrigeenmore scoop was found late cm. Both ends are intact. This piece copy of my article Mullins kindly one evening under the foundations is a dull caramel in colour replied pointing out the differences of the buildings to the rear of No 5. The unfinished Castle St. bone between the Carrigeenmore example Several copies of the 2007 article on (Fig. 1b, 2b) measures 14.5 cm long. and the socketed bone points of Early the Carrigeenmore bone (Timoney There are two transverse cuts, one for Christian date where both ends of 2007-2008) were distributed to the end and the other 6.6 cm further socketed longbone points are open. workers across the site the next day as up for the end to terminate the split. The date for these objects is not in the unfinished bone was taken around The upper part has been cut away to the Early Christian period but in the for all to see. A complete un-worked make a 6.6 cm long working part and last few centuries; clearly I was very bone of the type used for making the 2 cm of the right side of it has been wide of the mark as regards date and two known examples was found in broken off. Fashioning of the object function. Mullins included copy of a roughly the same area (Figs 1a, 2a). was abandoned at this stage. This page from Pinto (1969). Days later one of the shuttering team piece is dark brown in colour. saw the finished decorated bone scoop The finished decorated Castle St. COMPARABLE in the soil at the river end of No. 8 example (Fig. 1c, 2c) measures 11.8 A re-examination of the (Fig. 1c, 2c). cm. The working part is 7 cm long literature, the Internet and personal and the working end is rounded and contacts was undertaken. Examples MANUFACTURE the back has been worn down. The are of bone ivory, wood and metal. To paraphrase and expand on decoration on the front consists of Wood-Martin (1888, Pl. VI:10) Mullins (2007, 35) on the production two panels with an X cuts while the illustrates an example that is similar, of socketed longbone points, these lower has an extra transverse cut that despite Wakeman’s somewhat odd objects were produced by transversely continues around the back. On the depiction of the articular condyles end cutting off one end of the bone, and back of the upper part are what appear of the bone. He (1888, 59) considered then detaching a longitudinal segment to be two letters; four grooves form an it to be a scoop, serviceable for of the longbone wall for a portion M or a W, three grooves form an N extracting marrow. Regrettably he of its length while retaining the full but with the link line beginning and does not say which crannog the piece circumference of the shaft for the ending away from the ends of the is from. 59 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010

(a) (a)

(b) (b)

(c) (c)

(d) (d) Fig. 1: Front views of Co. Sligo bone scoops Fig. 2: Back views of Co. Sligo bone scoops (a) Complete un-worked Castle St. bone (b) Unfinished Castle St. bone scoop (c) Finished decorated Castle St. bone scoop (d) Carrigeenmore bone scoop

Pinto (1969, fig. 80) illustrates a to 650 BC to it. Rynne considers them suggested that that the Clonmel scoop variety of ‘apple and cheese scoops’ to be more like 19th century apple may have been a ‘Trier’, a personal of the 18th and earlier centuries; Fig. corers (pers. comm. 2008). device used by grain merchants for 80, A, M and N are similar examples Brears (1989, 28, fig. 13:f) sampling sacks of seed or grain. in bone to ours. illustrates an ‘apple-corer’ from Pool- Sheehan, Hurley and Ní Marshall (1976, 55) illustrates in-Warfdale. Loingsigh (2004, 32-34, fig. 12) two examples. She suggests (1976, Cleary, Hurley and Shee describe and illustrate one from 54) that these apple-corers and scoops Twohig, eds., (1997, 259, fig 106:11) a seventeenth-eighteenth century were for assisting people without teeth illustrate an apple corer/scoop from context at Red Abbey Yards, Cork; see to eat apples but later were used as Skiddy’s Castle, North Main St., Cork, also Hurley (2004, 463). This one is apple corers and when used for cheese and explain (1997, 269) the coring unusual in that it has five perforations were called cheese-splitters. She says aspect as being relevant to the making to the lower end of the handle. that they are known in a variety of of cider, the removal of the acidic pips There are 42 of these in the materials and some dated ones are before the apples were pressed. Museum of London and also some from the 18th and 19th centuries. Some In 2001 a fine example was found from archaeological excavations. In with initials, hearts and other amatory in the rubble infill of a wall dating general, these have been assigned a motifs were love tokens. from the late 19th century in a property date of the 17th to 18th century. MoL. MacGregor (1985, fig. adjacent to Main Guard, Sarsfield St., No. L33/3 has a date of 1789 carved on 97) illustrates an unprovenanced Clonmel, Co. Tipperary (Buckley the ‘front’. The majority are decorated ‘apple-corer or cheese-scoop’ in the 2001). It has parallel incised lines – a very plain simple ‘X’ to a few very Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and he superimposed on a criss-cross pattern. elaborately decorated. Mol Acc. No. allows ‘that different scoops served Following from that Stone (2001, 48) 4804 has decorative notches on the different purposes’. He argues that wrote that several examples, including working front edges of the scoop there is no evidence to support Pinto’s evidence for manufacture, were shaft. Some are also completely plain. (1969) suggestion that implements found during the 1993 excavations There is no record of where MoL. No. of this type were common before the at Hereford Cathedral Close. The 4807, image No. 000444 on website, post-medieval period. decoration was of the same style as was found. Two from Norwich are Brewster (1963, 127, fig. 72:3) the Clonmel example. See Stone and published in Margeson (1993, 120 found examples at upper levels in the Appleton-Fox (1996) for illustrations. and fig. 85), one from a first half of the soil at the Iron Age hillfort at Staple Stone (2001, 48) was not happy 17th century context and the other in a Howe in Yorkshire; he considered with the apple corer / apple scoop broadly dated context of 17th to early them to be ‘Probably of fairly recent idea, and, even though he knew of 19th century. (Jackie Keily, Curator, origin’. His illustrated example has older generations who remembered Museum of London, pers. comms.) a criss-cross pattern. The British seeing them used for that purpose, Hurley with McCarthy and Museum label, at least when noted in he preferred to see them as marrow Price (2004, 463, Fig. 6.9:1 a and Sept. 2007 by Etienne Rynne (pers. scoops. In a further response to b) illustrate two broken examples comm. 2008), assigned a date of 800 Buckley’s initial note Morton (2002) described as decorated bone apple- 60 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 corers from excavations in Merchants’ their use is uncertain. If these were Cleary, Rose M., Hurley, M. Florence, Road and Barrack Lane, Galway. They apple corers then their function would and Shee Twohig, E., eds., say they are found in post-medieval be to extract a cylindrical piece from 1997: Skiddy’s Castle and Christ contexts in Ireland and Britain. an apple but in such a way as that the Church, Cork, Excavations Teehan (1976, 12, top left) hole would hold sugar, honey or spices, 1974-79 by D.C. Twohig, Cork, illustrates two metal marrow spoons, though removing the pips before the Cork Corporation. dated c. 1720 and c. 1765, and he apples were pressed in making cider. FitzPatrick, Elizabeth, O’Brien, Madeline, comments that the marrow spoon Their use for marrow extraction also and Walsh, Paul, 2004: Archaeological Investigations in came into use about 1710. He points was found acceptable. Morton (2002) Galway City, 1987-1998, Bray, out that it was the long slender scoop- suggested that the Clonmel scoop may Wordwell. shaped handle that was used for have been a ‘Trier’, a personal device Hurley, Maurice, with McCarthy, extracting the marrow. This part of used by grain merchants for sampling Margaret, and Price, Vincent, the spoon is very similar to the bone sacks of seed or grain. 2004: “Bone Artefacts”, in scoops being discussed here. Being one who uses tools and FitzPatrick, O’Brien and Walsh There are two plain metal gadgets for whatever they seem 2004, 463-476. apple corers in the Folk and suitable for, as opposed to what they Margeson, S., 1993: Norwich Households: Transport Museum’s collection and a were designed for, I think that these Medieval and post-medieval few combined factory mass produced scoops could be used for measuring finds from Norwich Survey tinned metal potato peelers [Lancashire out salt, sugar, jam, in cooking, etc., Excavations 1971-8, East peeler pattern] and corers all of which as well as functioning as scoops or Anglian Archaeology. date to the first half of the 20th century. gouges. To me these suggestions MacGregor, Arthur, 1985: Bone, Antler, Apple corers were sometimes made seem more plausible than apple Ivory and Horn, The Technology from hardwood or even silver ... coring. The term ‘apple-corer’ does of Skeletal Materials since the although 18th century silver ‘marrow’ not fit comfortably for me though I am Roman Period, London, Croom scoops rather than apple corers are not excluding apple coring. Helm Marshall, Jo, 1976: Collecting for well known collectibles. (Carragher Dr Geoff Egan, who works for Tomorrow Kitchenware, London, pers. comms.). Museum of London Archaeology, BBC. There are four unlocalised suggests that instead of being used Morton, Linn, 2002: “Clonmel Scoop”, examples in The National Museum for apple-coring, the bone scoops may Archaeology Ireland, 15:3 (57), of Ireland Folklife Collection; they have been used for scooping out bone 5. are described as apple corers. They marrow. Mullins, Claire, 2008: “Socketed are similar and similarly decorated to Longbone Points: A Study of the those under discussion here. One is DATE Irish Material with Reference to particularly interesting in that it has These scoops, whatever their uses, British and Continental Types”, “1762 L:1” incised on the front; it is date from the 17th century onwards, J. Irish Archaeology, XVI, 35- from the collection of Harry P. Swan, though nobody in publication seems 99. a Donegal collector (pers. comms. to have made mention of their Pinto, E.H., 1969: Treen and Other Clodagh Doyle, NMI). manufacture into the 20th century. Wooden Bygones, London One in The National Museum of Sheehan, Cathy, Hurley, M. Florence, ORNAMENT Ireland Folklife Collection has “1762 and Ní Loingsigh, 2004: Several of the known or L:1” incised on the front and one in “Excavations at Red Abbey, illustrated examples are ornamented; the Museum of London has a date of Cork, 1992 and 2000”, J. Cork Historical and Archaeological see figs. 1 and 2 for the ornament on 1789 carved on it. Society, 109, 1-38. the Co. Sligo examples. Scored or Stone, Richard, 2001: “Clonmel Scoop”, incised lines forming a criss-cross CREDITS Archaeology Ireland, 15:4 (58), pattern or rectangle(s), with diagonals I acknowledge the help of Eileen 48. and diameters are the norm; see Tighe and Nuala Rogers, the Quinn Stone, Richard, and Appleton-Fox, Nic, references for illustrations. family, the staff of J.J. Rhatigan, 1996: A View from Hereford’s Siobhán de hÓir, Peter Bowen Walsh, Past, Almely, Legaston Press. LETTERING Clare Mullins, Mary B. Timoney, Orla Teehan, John, 1976: Irish Silver, Irish Four grooves form an M or a FitzPatrick, Clodagh Doyle, Curator, Environmental Library Series, W and three grooves form an N on the Irish Folklife Division, NMI Turlough Vol. 6, Dublin, Folens. complete Castle St. example. If it is Park, Clare McCutcheon, Susan Timoney, Martin A., 2007-2008: “An Early W rather than M perhaps it belonged Flavin in Bristol, Fionnuala Carragher, Medieval Bone Scoop found at to one of the Woods family. The R Curator, Domestic Life, Ulster Folk Carrigeenmore, Ballymote, Co. finely scratched on the back of the and Transport Museum, NMNI, and Sligo” The Corran Herald, 40, Carrigeenmore example could be Jackie Keily and Dr. Geoff Egan, 32-33. original from the Rogers family. Museum of London, for help with one Timoney, Martin A., 2008-2009: or both publications. “Unearthing Post-Medieval USE Sligo: 5, 6, 7-8 Castle St., Sligo: An Initial Report (07E0096)”, Most authors and people that I FURTHER READING IPMAG Newsletter, VII, 19-20 have talked to are quite happy to say Brears, Peter, 1989: North Country Folk Wood-Martin, William Gregory, 1888: that these bone scoops were used Art, Edinburgh, John Donald. The Rude Stone Monuments of as apple-scoops or apple-corers, Buckley, Victor, 2001: “Clonmel Scoop”, Ireland (Co. Sligo and the Island reluctantly admitting to them being Archaeology Ireland, 16:2 (60), of Achill), Dublin, Hodges cheese-samplers, but accepting that 44. Figgis.

61 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 Killaraght Early Christian Cross Slab Mary B. Timoney

The most southerly parish lying on the ground in front of the Sixth Century to the Third Millenium, in Co. Sligo is what was Killaraght Goldrick family grave plot in the old Éditions du Signe, Strasbourg Parish, now Gurteen Parish. The road section of the graveyard. France. from Boyle to Frenchpark passes The slab measures 99 cm Timoney, Martin A., through the parish. To the west of this long, the upper two thirds is about 1997: “Where Are They Now, The road is the isolated ecclesiastical site 40 cm in width with a maximum Knockmore Early Christian Slabs?”, of Killaraght. Until recent decades thickness of 8.5 cm. The left side of The Corran Herald, 30, 3-4. the graveyard here was set well the slab is complete but parts of the Timoney, Martin A., 2004- back from the road surrounded by a right side have been cut or broken 2005: “A Rediscovered Slab from complex of earthen banks and roads off. The inscribed cross with T- Knockmore, Co. Sligo”, The Corran with some more ancient monuments shaped terminals measures 14.5 cm Herald, 37, 41. in the surrounding landscape. The long and 21 cm wide. The cross extension of the graveyard brings is cut in a V-section groove with a the graveyard closer to the road maximum of 1.5 cm in width and a and makes it feel less isolated. St. depth of 0.5 cm. The terminals are Attracta is said to have received the U-shaped in section. veil from St. Patrick although she The inscribed cross is lived well after St. Patrick’s time comparable to that on the Early (Gwynn and Hadcock 1988, 320; Christian slabs at Knockmore Swords 2008, 8). She founded a (Timoney 1997; 2004-2005). hospital here, which continued Knockmore is also in the modern until after the suppression of the parish of Gurteen and is only 10 monasteries. It was not until 1591 miles away as the crow flies. that the convent lands were seized. The slab was reused as a No evidence of an Early grave memorial, probably in the Christian church survives. A piece of 19th century. It was inscribed with shaped Old Red Sandstone, probably the name Martin Rodgers in sloped of Early Christian date, can be seen lettering. The letters are a mixture in the old section of the graveyard. of upper and lower case and are cut It has four D-shaped projections, to an uneven depth. The lettering the top of each is decorated with a was done locally and is not the work swastika. Dressed stones from the of an experienced stone mason. medieval church can be seen used as The discovery of the grave markers. A Protestant church Killaraght slab adds another location was built here in 1742, the date stone to those where Early Christian cross can be seen in the old section of the slabs have been found in recent graveyard. years. In April 2007, on a visit to Killaraght graveyard, Co. Sligo, to Gwynn, A., and Hadcock, check an 18th century headstone the R.N., 1988: Medieval Religious author discovered an Early Christian Houses Ireland, Irish Academic cross slab which had been reused as Press, Blackrock, Co. Dublin. a grave memorial in recent times. Swords, Liam, 2008: Killaraght Slab Photo By Mary B. Timoney The Old Red Sandstone slab was Achonry and its Churches, from the

62 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 The Duirling Boats Eugene Gillan

A Frenchman, touring Connaught twigs. These baskets were known as speaking the . It may in 1791, came across some boats of purdógs. have been this bias that also led him unusual construction in Co. Sligo. One can see that some sort of flat, or to conclude that the people of the As Coquebert de Montbert travelled round bottomed boat with a keel either Enninscrone/Easkey area were too along the coast road out of Enniscrone side, would be useful for landing such lazy to fish and restricted themselves to Easkey, he noted that the boats cargoes in a location and time in which to a diet of potatoes. The fact is, that along that part of the Sligo coast had quays were few and far between. Such while there was obviously a number two keels. All traces of these boats a boat would take the ground easily of boats in the area, most people, have long disappeared, but according and remain upright when beached having little or no monetary income, to the folklore of the area, they were with a cargo. They were less likely to did not have the means to buy a boat propelled by four oarsmen each be damaged on a stoney beach than a and fishing gear. People did however, pulling a single oar. A sail may also boat with a conventional hull. barter agricultural produce with have been used. These boats were The importance of seaweed to fishermen for fish. known as duirling boats. the local community, as a fertiliser, One interesting side-note concerns The Irish word duirling means a is evidenced in de Montbert’s the cylindrical tin lanterns which stoney or shingly beach, suggesting conversation with a twelve-year-old were used as lighting on the piers and that these boats were used for landing boy at Easkeybridge. The boy listed slipways. Almost a foot tall and filled on such beaches. De Montbert noted four different types of seaweed used with goose grease, these so called that the locals were not fishermen, but for that purpose: famnagh, rach, ‘gooselamps’ burnt with a bright did land large quantities of kelp. We cliondach and slat mara. yellow flame, providing guidance to also know that shells were burned in De Montbert’s surprise at this boy’s the returning fishing boats at night several small kilns along the shore, to ability to name various species of and in poor visibility. Houses close produce lime. Two of these kilns still flora and seaweed in Irish reflects to shoreline would also display lamps survive on Oyster Island. Sand, both perhaps, an upper class bias towards in their front windows. These simple for agricultural and building purposes, the Irish peasantry; a bias that would lamps consisted of scallop shells filled was also landed. Periwinkles, cockles have been common among the Irish with fish oil with wicks of dried rushes and mussels were loaded on to ships aristocracy whom he visited and with and were known as ‘slige’, from the trading in and out of Sligo and Ballina, whom he frequently lodged. On a visit Irish for shell. mostly for export to Liverpool. Many to Kinsale in Co. Cork, de Montbert of these cargoes were transported even goes so far as to suggest that the With thanks to Cormac Levis and in baskets made of sally rods and peasantry had thick lips as a result of Gerry Donagher. Old Familiar Irish Sayings – Now More or Less Forgotten

PJ Duffy On Horses On months of the year. You can bring a horse to water but you Cats are very playful when they are March comes in like a lion and goes won’t make it drink. young but they grow grave as they out like a lamb. Never look a gift horse in the mouth. grow old. The old warhorse, he smells the smoke Cats we are aware repose on a chair On Time of battle. while kittens cling to the legs. (Advice to a youth) Take it easy, dear, Horse sense is common sense. He’s gone off and a smile on him like you’ve a long life ahead of you. It’s late closing the stable door when a cat going rambling. Time and the tide waits for nobody. the horse has bolted. He’s as straight-laced as the cat that Time is a healer and a destroyer; it ate the candle. gradually wears our lives away. On Dogs What’s bred in the cat comes out in Take it easy, boy – the Man who made The old dog for the hard road and the the puishín (kitten). time made plenty of it. puppy for the byway. (Expressing wonder) Oh, that’s cat Once upon a time strange happenings A dog’s bark is sometimes more altogether. took place hereabouts. shocking than his bite. Time takes the loved ones from our If you lie with the dogs you’ll rise On the Weather homes but not from our memories. with the fleas. A red sky at night is the shepherd’s One hour of crowded glory is better Did you hear the latest scandal – don’t delight; a red sky in the morning is the than a lifetime of misery. the dogs in the street know it? shepherd’s warning. You can’t teach an old dog new There’s many a change in a Spring’s On Contentment tricks. day. As happy as the day is long. Every dog gets his day. A wet and windy May fills the haggard As content as the flowers in May with corn and hay. As settled as a stone in a bog hole. A fair February scorns the remaining 63 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 St Brigid’s Church, Highwood, Golden Jubilee Kathleen Fitzmaurice

On Sunday October 7th 2007 we celebrated the our own carnival too, not in the marquee in Drumlish, Golden Jubilee of St. Brigid’s Church, Highwoood. It but in the marquee in Kilmactranny. Organising was a wonderful night for the parishioners especially and running a carnival was a risky business, for those of us who had been present some fifty involving much planning and hard work, but we had years earlier when the building had been originally enthusiastic committees who ran these events safely consecrated. For weeks we had been preparing, and successfully,. Ar dheis Dé go raibh siad. tidying, decorating and giving the place a new look and we were blessed with a clear, crisp night, with a Of course those of us who were young looked touch of winter in the air. forward to the annual carnival. It was an opportunity to enjoy some of the leading Show bands of the day The original church in Highwood dated back to the on our own doorstep. early years of the nineteenth century and it had been enlarged in the 1880s. In the early 1950s the Church At last the big day dawned and the new Church was needed total refurbishment and renovation plans were ready. The late Bishop Hanly blessed the building and put in place. However, when architects examined dedicated it to St. Brigid. He celebrated the Pontifical the walls, they were pronounced dangerous and the High Mass assisted by a large gathering of Diocesan decision was made to build an entirely new Church. clergy. The homilist on the day was one of own, the Many people regretted the demolition of the old late Rev. Dr. Séamus McLoughlin of Ardline, who in building. It was there they had been baptised, received spite of very obvious ill-health, spoke eloquently of their First Holy Communion, and been confirmed. No the loyalty of the people of Highwood to the Church doubt they hoped to spend their last night within its and to the Catholic faith. hallowed precincts, too. But the decision was made and the fund-raising began. Some alterations have been made since that day in 1957, most notably the changing of the Sanctuary in At this point I must pay tribute to the two curates, accordance with the decrees of Vatican II. We now the late Fathers Flynn and Dunning, who had the also have a carpeted floor, central heating and a public daunting task of guiding the project, aided by their address system. As cars became more plentiful, it was energetic committees. No doubt they are enjoying necessary to demolish the perimeter wall to provide their reward in Heaven. a parking area. What a far cry from the opening day when the late Canon Dodd remarked on having seen It was well known that where a Church was needed an elderly parishioner arrive on “his beast of peace”- a Church would be built, regardless of the sacrifice his donkey. Landscaping too has contributed to the entailed. It is an everlasting tribute to the people of embellishment of the location. this area who rallied to the call and although times were tough and families’ needs were pressing, they Sadly, we no longer have a resident curate, but with denied themselves and gave generously. God’s help we will overcome this challenge and keep For a few years, a levy was imposed on every our Church vibrant for our own spiritual benefit and household at Station times. It was a heavy burden, but as a lasting monument to our ancestors who preserved generally was well supported. Our relatives in far flung the precious legacy of the Faith for us. places were also involved. Items like seats and other Go gcoimeádaí Bríd Naofa faoi’n a brat sinn, furnishings were donated, and thankfully, donated agus i dtólamh. anonymously. Our Church of Ireland neighbours helped as well

The 1950s were the era of the carnival and we had

64 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 Modern Day Reverse Diaspora – us Blow Backs

J Anthony Cuming

To me as an Irishman who was Arabia, the plains of Africa, mines in all the food and drink with them, brought up in the Ireland of the late the Dominican Republic, South Africa and racing round the lakes and the 1950s, Ireland now in retrospect and even Tara Mines in Navan, Co Shannon in fast flashy boats. Even our appears to have then been a poor Meath! as well as offshore in the South local hero, John McGahern in his That country on the edge of Europe, still China Sea, North Sea and Norway. They May Face the Rising Sun has the bound up with the recent “emergency” Diaspóra na nGael meaning the Rutledges returning to Leitrim from and the events of only a generation ‘’, appeared in a 1954 London and finding a changed Ireland. before. My parents left Dublin in book ‘The Vanishing Irish’, but it Our great joy has not just been the 1955 with their four young sons when was not until the 1990s - mainly idyllic Drumharlow side peace and my father left Aer Lingus 1 and took due to President Mary Robinson quiet but the pace of life when we up a similar post with BEA, London; - that the phrase came to be used to are here and the welcome we have thus we joined the Irish Diaspora2. describe Irish emigrants and their had even though we are blow-backs Although we had lived in Portrush, descendants around the world. In our or maybe worse - Dublin Gobs. Antrim (with grandparents) we moved travels we have met members of the By a strange twist of fate, the 1635- to Dollymount, Dublin, in 1947. This Diaspora in most of the 50 countries 1641 Survey and Distribution of was where my formative years were we have passed through, and not Land in Co Roscommon includes in spent. I believed that Dublin was the all behind mock Irish bars either. the 20,000 acres under Mac Dermot centre of the world, with Belfast and Ireland Roots3 states that 75% of Irish- ownership in Tumna Parish (V III 5), the North somewhere one went to see born people living abroad are in Britain. Annaghmagurthan, the townland my relatives in a region which was clearly There are also approx 1.7 million in wife Bridget and I purchased in 1998. Irish, but a bit different. My Dublin was Britain who were born to Irish parents, Bill Cullen’s town, as his account of the third generation Irish community Dr James Cuming5, my great incredible poverty and deprivation are in Britain could be in the region of 6 grandfather, married Miss Harriet graphically related in It’s a Long Way million, 10% of the UK population. McLoughlin, daughter of Catherine from Penny Apples. Who can forget My wife Bridget’s (nee Leahy) McLoughlin, nee MacDermot, who the barefoot kids just off O’Connell grandfather was from Cork, so she was from , Roscommon. Street and the ubiquitous “shawlies”? felt an affinity for my country too and So we have, inadvertently, Even though Dad worked for an we resolved to return in some way. By returned Annaghmagurthan airline, we never went abroad, we never the 1990s property prices in Dublin to the MacDermot line. even went West or South, apart from and the Pale had reached ludicrous The tale of how the Catholic families Punchestown, but we had it all, living levels so we looked to the west. We in Ireland managed to retain any major as we did on the seafront with bus, or knew close friends from Boyle and land holdings after Cromwell and the trams in the early days, to the Pillar in had relatives with property in the area. , the laws passed in the O’Connell Street in twenty minutes. It So it came to pass that, after a period after 1691 and not reversed was a carefree time when kids were few false starts, 11 years ago we until the passing of the Catholic let roam at will, so unlike these days. found ourselves buying a property Emancipation Act in 1828, is for Then at the age of 12 to be transported in Roscommon, a few acres/hectares another time. to the outskirts of London, away from on the shores of the dually named Granny in Rathgar and all my relatives, Lake Drumharlow/Loch Edin near to a land where people did not know . We were joining at that Notes: what twopence or threepence were, so time a major flow of what I think of 1 James Cuming (1904-1976) was that one had to learn to say tuppence as Blow-Backs, who are related to Chief Supplies Controller for Aer and thruppence, was a culture shock. Blow-Ins, but subtly different, or Lingus and Aerlínte Éireann, who To be desperately trying to tune into so we liked to think. The renowned procured the Constellation aircraft for Radio for RTE, hearing Dad Celtic Tiger was roaring and many the first transatlantic service. interviewed on RTE as ‘being an who had left these shores for jobs or 2 “Diaspora”, from the Greek word exile in England’, all very strange. education saw Ireland as a changed “to scatter”, is defined as any group Over the next 55 years I had been and changing land of milk and honey. migration or flight from a country. back to Ireland on visits to relatives What is the reaction to these 3 www.irelandroots.com/index.html and on business innumerable times, returnees? Is it as depicted by Frank 4 Director: John Ford 1952. but all the time growing away from McCourt in Angela’s Ashes that there Starring John Wayne, Maureen those early experiences. Bridget and I is an element of ‘why on earth did O’Hara (born Maureen Fitzsimons, have lived in America, Australia and you come back here?’ or as depicted Ranelagh,Dublin). 5 three years in Malaysia, but one knows in John Ford’s The Quiet Man4 where Dr Cuming (1833-1899) was the one is not going to set down roots in Wayne’s blow-back boxer with too first Catholic Professor of Medicine these countries. Fortunately work many bucks is resented by the Mayo at the Royal Hospital in Belfast. and has taken me to many places. What folk. There is another aspect as well; was Charles Gavin Duffy’s Brother- places? The jungles of south East Asia that of resentment of the Dubs coming in- Law and South America, the deserts of up the N4 for the weekend bringing 65 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 A Stab in the Dark Molly Howard

The Celts! What marvellous people almost every day, she lingered over this building whose walls started as stone they were! brooch, yearning to have it for her very but finished as wood and had a heavy New to the country and fascinated by own. thatch for a roof, totally unlike anything their myths, their legends, their history, On the last day, she was almost the Anne had ever seen. (‘Wattle and daub?’ Anne had bought every book she could only visitor. This time she headed she wondered.) find that concerned these intriguing straight for the blue stone pin. Staring Once through the gate, the pot-carrier people. Two weeks after spending every hard, she tried to print every aspect of moved as fast as possible to another evening reading up on them, her interest it on her memory, wanting to be able to building, a three-walled structure narrowed. see it in her mind when she could no standing to one side of the main house. Finn mac Cumhal and the Fianna longer see it in actuality. Obviously the kitchen, it was a hive of began to obsess her. As she studied it, her hand moved to activity around a huge central fire. A What heroic people they had been, she the brooch and picked it up. Horrified, number of men, women and small boys thought, living close to nature, standing she looked around to see if anyone had were peeling, mixing, beating, chopping, up for what was right, defending those noticed what she had done. None had. minding spits or checking large pots who couldn’t defend themselves, And as she looked, her hand with the over the fire, all being directed by a fat beating off foreign invaders, and all the brooch thrust itself into her coat pocket, woman and an even fatter man. time thoroughly enjoying themselves. her body turned towards the door and Out of the corner of her other self’s She thought of those working with her feet took her past the attendant, eye, Anne caught glimpses of other her in the ordering office of a large down the steps and out onto the street. buildings - huts? stables? dwellings? supermarket. How shallow they were, She was appalled with herself. How She couldn’t tell as the eyes she was how far removed from the basics. could she steal such a piece, something using were directed at the fat woman. All they could talk about was the which had existed for hundreds of This one had turned and grabbed the programme last night on the telly years? She must put it back, she must! pot Anne was clutching, snarling “What or the film they were going to see Even to eat her supper that night, took you so long, you idle tramp? If you that weekend. Everything they were she was unable to let go of the brooch. were mine, I’d sell you!” (‘Sell me?’ interested in seemed to be one remove She fell asleep with it still clutched in thought Anne. ‘I’m a slave?’) from real life. Even the food they ate her hand. But with sleep came a vivid, As the fat woman seized the pot, she - packaged, frozen, simply heat and eat lifelike dream unlike anything she’d aimed a clout at Anne’s head. This must - appeared totally artificial. ever dreamed before. have been a regular occurrence, for her But her life, she had to admit, didn’t She found herself kneeling by a head tipped to one side as the pot left come into contact with nature very stream, struggling to clean a heavy stew her hands. often. She lived in a flat in a city. She pot with handfuls of sand. She could Her eyes flicked to the even fatter man. travelled everywhere by car. Trees and feel the individual pebbles pressing Catching her glance, he roared, “Send grasses could only be seen when she into her knees and the continued pain of her for some firewood, this basket’s went to the park to eat her lunch. And sore fingers once again being scrubbed almost empty.” they were not wild and carefree, but against the sand. Sprays of rain through An enormous basket was thrust at her. tidy and orderly, neatly organised by the trees around her caused her to flinch “Here. Get some decent stuff, not those gardeners. automatically. thin twiggy bits you brought me last ‘Oh,’ she would think, ‘if only I could Her new self was shorter and skinnier time!” have lived in the days of the Celts! with lank, dirty blonde hair which kept She was out of the gate and into the Lived a real life!’ falling into her eyes as she worked. woods beyond before the fat woman Then one day she saw an announcement She had a desperate desire to scratch, could change her mind. of a travelling exhibition that featured scratch, scratch her head, it itched so. ‘I’m in luck,’ ran through the mind artifacts dating from the third century (‘Head lice?’ she thought, horrified.) Anne was occupying. (Anne gathered A.D. But she couldn’t scratch as both hands that collecting firewood was like having The day it opened, she called in sick were involved in an obviously urgent a rest break.) ‘I must have pleased him to work that she might spend the day at job. last night.’ Anne didn’t need to wonder the exhibition, she was that eager to see At last, her dream-self ran her hands how she had pleased him, as a close- these things used and handled by her once more around the inside of the pot. up view of the fat man, looming naked heroes. Convinced that no more could be done, over her where she lay on some straw, Almost breathless with awe, she she rose. Clutching the heavy pot with filled the mind she was in. wandered around the displays. There both hands, she set off at a half-run up The girl paused in the woods, once were pots to see, there were shields the path away from the stream. She was they were out of sight of the gate, and spears, there were horse trappings, barefoot! thinking, ‘If I go down that way I might but most of all there was jewellery, Anne was surprised to discover that be able to see them arrive. Maybe he’ll beautiful, ornate, solid creations. Here, running over pebbles or through mud even let me see them in the hall. ‘ she lingered, fascinated. There were and various bits of litter didn’t hurt her She shivered, this time in anticipated necklaces, tiaras, rings, bracelets, but it bare feet, although nettles still stung. delight, before setting off, collecting was the brooches that held her. Time and But she was cold, colder than she’d ever and stacking firewood as she went. time again she found herself returning been. It was a damp cold and it made She was in luck once more. Less than to the brooches. her ache. Her feet were cold, her hands a minute had passed after arriving at The one she found herself drawn to the were cold, she shivered constantly but her concealed observation post before most was quite ordinary, really. A dark, apparently that was the way things horses, men and dogs began to stream deep blue stone, no larger than a florin, were. past her. it was mounted in a simple silver filigree A solid wooden fence built of stakes First came a few on foot. (Scouts?) with a long stabbing pin on the back for taller than Anne soon came into view. Then a mounted man passed them. attaching it to one’s cloak. Every time Her other self headed for the open gate Blonde with the fair skin of a redhead, she visited the exhibition, and that was through which could be seen a large he was solidly built, sitting astride an 66 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 equally solid horse. On each side of the few that were silver. It was needed Surely she would be allowed to sleep him ran two large, beautiful, red setters. to take the last item in. now. (The leader?) Having already got to her feet to start The young man at the last table had After him came two more mounted back, the slave girl told him she would other ideas. As the slave girl picked men. Anne guessed they must be the carry it. Inside she was hoping that the up his dirty plate, he stood up, took seconds-in-command. Not that they fat man would let her collect the dirty those she had and beckoned to a page, were dressed differently from any of the platters for a change. That way she watching from the doorway. others but their weapons seemed to her could get into the main hall. “Here,” he bellowed, “take these to untutored eye to be of better quality. Anne wondered if there was any bone the kitchen.” As he did so, he caught As they watched the first mounted man in her body that didn’t ache (‘Why on her by the arm and drew her to him. go by, the name ‘Finn mac Cumhal’ earth doesn’t she run away? I would!’) “You’re too pretty to spend all your life drifted through the mind she inhabited. At the kitchen, the fat man was in the kitchen” he said, planting a great Gratitude, admiration, a bit of fan beaming with his arm across the wet kiss on her. worship filled her. Anne was not given fat woman’s shoulders, having just As he fumbled with her clothes they any time to dwell on the fact that she been congratulated on the feast he’d overbalanced onto the straw between had been granted her wish to live in the produced. So when the slave girl asked the tables. His mates laughed and egged time of the Fianna. Nor was she allowed timidly if she might collect some of the him on. to study the rest of the company. dirty trenchers, his answer was a jovial, The slave girl was not too upset. It As soon as the first three mounted men “Yes!”, sweeping her on her way with a was warmer here than where she would went by, the slave girl she was linked mighty swipe at her bottom. have to sleep, and, who knew, he might to headed back to the kitchen as fast Her spirits soared. At last! Would she take her with him. as possible, hurriedly filling the basket see that handsome young man with the But Anne had had enough, more than with her collected piles of firewood odd mark on his forehead? She’d seen enough. The last straw came when she in an attempt to get back before the him when the troop had been there caught sight of the brooch he wore to visitors arrived. before on their way out to some fight hold his cloak on his shoulders. It was She made it, just. As she nipped or other. the self-same one she’d had clutched in through the gate and headed for the Anne was definitely unenthusiastic. her hand as she’d fallen asleep. kitchen, a couple of strange dogs came All she wanted to do was collapse and The sight of it enraged her, driving her around the bend, followed by the first get some sleep. Anywhere would do so to take over the body she was ‘visiting’. two men she’d seen. long as it was warm. Tearing the brooch from his cloak, At the kitchen, her basket of firewood But once inside the main hall, she Anne threw it from her, violently and was replaced by a couple of large pots perked up a bit. It wasn’t as cold for with disgust. As it arced over the tables with instructions to get them clean, a start. There were two fires roaring to land on the floor beyond, she blacked “not just rinsed out, mind!” plus the at each end of the hall and there were out. usual clout to the head. decorated blankets(?) hanging on the Her alarm clock ringing was the next The rest of the day was spent walls. Under foot as well, it was warmer thing Anne was aware of. Startled, scrubbing. Big pots, little pots, ladles, with a thick layer of straw on the floor, she bolted upright in bed, with every platters. Sometimes she wouldn’t have although at this stage of the feast there muscle aching and her mind protesting finished one before another was sent wasn’t just straw there. at having to go through yet another day down with instructions that she was not And there were dogs everywhere, of such cold, grinding labour. to be so slow. Other times she would chewing bones thrown to them or Gradually, the softness of the bed get almost to the gate before she was snapping at each other over a choice beneath her, the warmth of the duvet given more to clean out. piece. around her and the sight of the familiar But eventually, as the light faded, As the slave girl scurried around pictures on the walls of her bedroom the need for ever more cooking pots collecting dirty plates, Anne did her best convinced her that she was indeed back ceased. The feast was ready. She got to get a good look at a genuine Fianna- in her own time and place. all the way to the kitchen with the last type homestead but it was difficult. The Whether what she’d just lived through pot in time to watch the procession of girl she was linked to was indifferent had been a dream or a genuine return servants bearing all manner of food set to her surroundings, having seen them to the past she never knew, but that off for the hall. The girl watched them many times before. It was the men she morning she vowed that never again wistfully. She had so hoped to be one of was interested in. would she look at the past through such the food-bearers and get to see all the By now, most of the visitors and their rose-tinted spectacles. visitors. hosts were well into being drunk. The ------Anne’s thoughts were different. Fianna, on their way back to Tara after As the two keepers packed the exhibits (‘At last. Maybe there’ll be some food defeating the invaders, had justifiably that day for the move to the next city, for us.’) felt that a little celebration was in one of them exclaimed, “Have you There was, of a sort. With another order. packed that blue brooch? I can’t find it ducked clout came an earthenware As Anne moved towards the door, anywhere.” container, this time with some stuck-on carrying the trenchers, she found herself The other went to help look. Eventually, remains which could be eaten. It would treading in things that made her feel it was found under the cloth-covered then need cleaning. Of course. nauseated to think about. Food thrown table where it had originally lain, As emptied pots began to return from to the dogs, uneaten bread, pools of entangled in a pile of threads and dust the feast, back they went, as did Anne, ale, even, she suspected, places where curls, with its pin snagged in a chicken to the stream - to cold water, sore fingers someone or something had been sick, bone, of all things. and bruised knees, this time with a all this lay ready for her to step in. (‘At As they cleaned and then packed it, young lad, also on scrubbing duty. With least the kitchen is kept swept,’ she the second keeper said, “You know, the lad periodically returning with clean thought in disgust.) that’s not the first time that brooch has things and coming back with more dirty Her desire to live ‘a real life’ had gone missing. The last time, do you ones, it must have been close on an disappeared totally. remember, we found it stabbed into the hour before the two had completed their From where she was, the twentieth curtains with blonde hair snagged in work. century way of life resembled paradise. the setting. Maybe next time we should The last time he returned, his hands The door from the hall grew ever exhibit it under glass.” were empty. He’d simply come to collect closer. Anne wished her carrier would the large platter she was cleaning, one of hurry up, she’d had enough of this.

67 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 The Hermit of Drinane: Taidy Marron The following is an excerpt from an interview (Feb 6, 1915, Sligo Champion) by J. F. Cunningham F.R.G.S F.Z.S Barrister at Law and born in Moyrush, Bunninadden, in 1859. His brother Patrick lived in Ballymote in the 1930s and was known as Pat Jack. J.F. was a correspondent for the Sligo Champion.

As a boy I went to see this liberally supplied. about cock-crowing.” extraordinary man. He lived a Well, directly I entered his hut and I “That’s another curse that p??uses me, hermit’s life in a small hut on the crest sneezed. but I’ll be rid of it. She always leaves of Drinane Hill. His hut consisted “Was that to the right or to the left” me when my neighbour’s cock crows, of one small room. There was a fire asked Taidy and I won’t stand it much longer. They place and a jagged hole in the roof “Was what?” I replied, taken by are very kind to me, and I am reluctant to let out some of the smoke. There surprise to do anything to vex them, but I must were no windows. There was a door, “That sneeze?” Taidy asked again put an end to that cock next door.” but it did not fit the doorway, and it is “I don’t understand” I stated “Why not poison him, Taidy?” quite possible that the boards touched “Don’t you know that to sneeze to the “I have none” each other in its early days, but, when left is unlucky, and to sneeze to the “Then knock his brains out with the I saw it, there was no pretence that right is lucky?” blow of a stone.” the door was intended to keep out the “I have never heard that before” He considered the suggestion for a blasts that whirled around the crest “Oh, how little young people know in moment, and I saw his eye resting on of the hill – a slit three inches wide these days. But don’t forget it. And if a pile of small stones in front of the separated board from board, and there you sneeze near a graveyard – nothing hut that had been collected from the were no fastenings – simply because could be worse”. lea field on the hill top: “that would there was not object in shutting such Just then I sneezed twice in succession, mean a loss to them, and I cannot a door. Tradition said that the door not the ordinary sneeze, but two real inflict a loss on good neighbours. For had once been closed, but tradition is splitting howler. the moment I am uncertain how to do often so vague and incredible! There “God bless you” said the hermit. it without giving offence, but get rid was a nook near the fire where the I apologised. of him I must the next time he causes hermit slept, but by no stretch of the “Now, you should know that two or her to disappear.” imagination could it be called a bed. three sneezes are always an omen of “Does he crow too loud, Taidy?” The furniture consisted of a skillet, an good luck; one is bad unless it is to “No, but too soon. I have timed him, old creel, and a fishing rod. the right?” and the villain, instead of waiting till Taidy was a keen fisherman. I have Then Taidy’s turn came and he sneezed dead of night, crows fifteen minutes often seen him on the wildest March an awful howler. before that time, and fifteen minutes mornings fishing for pike along the “Is that to the right or to the left, lost with her is a century – an era – Clooncleigha-Templehouse river, Taidy?” I asked. epoch to me.” walking swiftly along the bank, his He made no reply, but waited, “But who is she?” eyes screwed to the surface of the expecting another, and the other nearly “I thought you knew.” water, every moment expecting a came off. He drew in his breath, half “Is there a girl in the case, then? I bite, always with a slain pike or two closed his eyes and failed, utterly never heard a hint of such a thing.” dangling from his waist. His favourite failed. Then he looked at me: “Sure?” bait was a strangled frog. There was “Why did you not say ‘God bless “Honour bright, Taidy.” no plot of land attached to the hermit’s you’?” he asked “I was beginning to fear it had leaked hut. I wondered how he lived. Fish “God bless you, Taidy, I hope it is not but...” certainly formed part of his food, and too late” “Not a word, you are supposed to be he was successful in finding wild birds’ “Yes it is, it is most unmannerly” a woman hater.” nests, but these were, at best, uncertain “Shall I say it again?” Taidy was then about 70 and a whisper supplies of food. The truth was that “No use now, too late. But I expected of calumny was never breathed in the hermit lived among a group of it. This morning whilst lacing my regard to him. His conduct had gentlemen farmers – Mr Gormley on boots I did the same” always been saintly, but recently he one side, Mr Healy on another, Mr “Then you don’t attribute the was gloomy and made no secret of his O’Brien close by and Mr Roddy but a misfortune to me” grievance against the crowing of his short distance away. These gentlemen “This never happened me before. neighbour’s cock. and the children of their households, Now, there is no help for it but to go “I a woman hater – if only they knew always made the hermit welcome at back to bed” and he pointed to his the truth. But I’ll tell you if you mealtimes, and when he happened nook. promise not to give it away.” to be ill they saw to it that he was “Please wait a minute. I came to ask “Certainly I promise.”

68 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010

“Well, you see that creel? She comes “Living! Certainly not.” the cock’s head was severed from his in here at dusk and remains sitting “Then I know her Taidy, you body the hermit took his departure. there until that infernal cock crows.” have described the Madonna in “Won’t you take the body with you, “Good Lord, who? What’s her Bunninadden Chapel. So it is she Taidy?” name?” who visits your humble hut and sits “No, thank you. Now that he is dead “I don’t know.” on your creel til the cock crows”. he can crow no more.” “Is she tall?” Just then we heard the step of someone Here was a man who believed in the “Yes, divinely tall.” approaching the hut, Taidy looked at superstitions connected with cock “Her Hair?” me and touched his lips in token of crowing. This is not fiction but actual “Black as a raven’s wing” silence. fact. It happened some thirty years “Her lips?” “Your promise” he reminded me. ago. There is probably not a trace “Like a sunset in a coral sea.” “Never a word” I replied, and I was of the hut remaining today, but I can “Her eyes?” gone. distinctly see on the tablet of my mind “Blue and deep as the realms of Some little time afterwards I heard the weird structure that served as his space.” that the hermit paid a visit to his house, and the old boothtree bush “Her arms.” neighbour, Mrs.______and with the clusters of black berries that (Thus far the description tallied with a professed great admiration for the sheltered it. goddess of my own on a neighbouring cock. It was a bird of no special breed hill.) and was not worth more than a shilling “Her arms, Taidy, her arms?” I asked. or two. Taidy offered five shillings for (Taken from the Sligo Champion of “Arms, wings you mean. She has it, and when the cock was caught and February 6th, 1915) wings fleecy white.” paid for he requested Mrs.______to kill it for him. As soon as Supplied by Padraig Doddy Saturday Night

Bernie Gilbride

A night for fun When we were young. Meet at seven A Flash in Time Home by eleven.

The ‘Gaiety’ our destination, Bernie Gilbride Balcony our expectation. Talent and style on view A plane so large Caught our eye, well they knew! On the runway stands Awaiting its place in the queue On dance night grand To take off out of view. At the ‘Ritz’ we’d land Best band in the land, Grows tiny in a vast blue sky Joe Burns in command. Vanishes from the eye Leaving an ever widening streak, Years on, little ones to care, Dispersing as we speak. Baths, stories, fun Clean clothes Our lives are such: For every one. A flash in time A vanishing streak Polished shoes A speck so fine Lined the wall In the universe of time. Mass next morning No time at all.

Now vigil Mass for one Paper by the fire Little ones gone Peace and quiet, palls

Not appreciated in its day, Sadly missed when gone away. 69 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010

Countess Markievicz. Aidan Mannion Collection

Ballymote Franciscan Friary. Original Print 1794. Aidan Mannion Collection

70 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010

A group of men at a house party in the home of Michael Hannon, Keenaghan, Ballymote in 1959. Back Row (L-R): Mr Gallagher (the bodhrán player), Josie Mattimoe, Mick Reynolds, Mick Cunnane, Mick Meehan, Jimmy Healy, John Hannon (Grattan Street). Centre Row (L-R): Pauric Connell, Hudie Gallagher, Liam Fahy, Jimmy Finn, Noel Gardiner. Front Row (L-R): Francie Healy, Michael hannon, Leo Hannon, Bertie McDonagh. Photo courtesy Peggy Hannon-Walsh, per Neal Farry

71 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 University of Limerick Library are Recipients of Valuable Irish Archive UL News : Week Beginning 24 Jan 2005

The University of Limerick Library were legal and metrical subjects. It also manuscript passed into the possession recent beneficiaries of a very valuable includes much of value concerning the of Hugh Óg O’Donnell,who was known collection of books, prints, videos, maintenance of the Brehon laws, the then by the title Prince of Tir Conaill. and other materials relating to Irish Dinnseanachas (Place-name) tradition The manuscript disappeared from view historical, linguistic and ecclesiastical and the intricacies of the system then for over a century although a casual culture. The collection is the private of writing. note by the famous scribe D. MacFirbis collection of Dr. Máirtin Amongst the scribes who worked on mentions its presence in Dublin. Ó’Droma, Senior Lecturer in the the book through many years Department of Electronic and Computer were Maghnus Ó Duibhgennan, Tomás In 1720 the manuscript resurfaced in Engineering at the University of O Duirnighin, Donall MacEgan, Robert the library of Trinity College Dublin, Limerick. In addition to valuable first- MacSheehy and Sólamh (Solomon) O but it disappeared again after being editions of Irish language material the Droma, an early antecedent of UL’s Dr. given out on loan. In 1769 it turned Collection also includes important Máirtin Ó’Droma. up in Drogheda in the possession of a monographs relating to Irish folklore, Dónall MacEgan, who directed the work scribe and collector named Tomás Ó Anglo-, translations from on the manuscript sold the first draft of Duirnin. He passed it to an Anglo-Irish the Irish and Irish and European church it to chieftains named McDonogh who book collector named the Chevalier history. were based in Ballymote in Sligo. O’Gorman who presented it to the Royal One of the latter manuscripts which It remained in the possession of this Irish Academy, Dublin, in 1785. Dr. Ó’Droma presented to the library is family for over a century until their The acquisition of this manuscript a copy of the Book of Ballymote, one of and lands were besieged by and the contents of this valuable the few copies of this book in circulation Hugh Óg (son of Hugh Roe O’Donnell) collection can only serve to enhance the in Ireland. The history of this book is in the early 1500s. University of Limerick’s growing status itself a chronicle of some of the most Interestingly despite the fact that the as a repository for Irish culture in the turbulent times in Irish history and it was O’Donnells who were book-collectors mid-west. originally published in the year 1400. forcibly took possession of the Courtesy of Moira O’Gorman The manuscript gives a fascinating McDonogh lands they still felt obligated Flanagan, University of Limerick insight into how the monks and scribes to pay for this valuable Library. of the fifteenth century moulded the manuscript which the McDonoghs Supplied by David Casey. Irish classical tradition in the form of sold to them for the then huge sum historical, legendary, genealogical, of 140 milch cows. Thus, in 1522 the

At a dance in the Loftus Hall, 1950s. Picture courtesy Esther Cassidy

72 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 Nursing Home Story Des Gilhawley

Pauline lived alone for most of her lightning move, Pauline opened a There was talk of the price of sheep, life in a small cottage overlooking drawer and lifted out a small glass how the neighbours were doing, how Ballisodare Bay. Late in life, when full of water and containing her false the country was doing. I could see no her capacity to look after herself teeth. She then emptied the glass: the escape. I looked at the window but diminished, she agreed to move into water and false teeth poured into the it was locked shut. I thought about Nazareth House. drawer on top of all the clothes. letting the glass slip out of my hand As she was a distant relative, my It was like we had entered a parallel by accident, but that would probably wife and I would include her in our universe where things seemed to only lead to refill, so no way out there. Christmas time visit to the nursing happen so quickly that I was unable I thought about feigning being sick, home. She shared a small two bed to do anything to halt events, and but on reflecting on the knot in my room in the home, her bed being the yet at the same time in some sort of stomach, I concluded that there was one farthest away from the door into mesmerizing trance it all happened in no need to feign feeling queasy. the room. Pauline spent most of her ultra slow motion where everything Suddenly Pauline stopped talking. time in or on her bed looking out the was moving so slowly and deliberately She looked me straight in the eye and window. She could see Benbulben and to its inevitable outcome. said “are you not going to take the Sligo Bay and she enjoyed looking at She filled the glass full of 7Up and 7Up?” There was a deadly silence. I the scenic view. handed it to me. I was completely was frozen in mind and body. I looked When we visited her this particular transfixed with the speed with this had over to my wife for some hope of day I entered the room first and was been done and with the situation I was evasion, and she gave me another motioned to the chair beside the now in. angelic smile, lifted her cup and said window. My wife followed behind Panic stricken, I looked over at my “cheers” once more. and sat on the chair at the end of the wife. With as sweet a smile as I had After we said our good byes to bed. ever seen, she lifted her glass to me Pauline and we walked down the After some time the old lady offered and said “cheers”. It was too late to stairs to the exit, my wife and I had us a soft drink from her 7Up bottle. make a break for the corridor to find an highly animated conversation She took the only cup in sight from the the local kitchen and a clean cup, about future teamwork in a situation top of a small chest of drawers beside and neither could I make any sort of such as that; about how she should the bed, filled it and handed it to me. I diplomatic exit to empty the cup as cause a distraction to get me off the passed the cup on to my wife. I would my escape route was cut off. hook; about how we should check for later argue, with little conviction and The conversation drifted on. I cups when we enter a nursing home a complete lack of success, that I was just sat there and pretended I was bedroom; maybe we should bring just being the gentleman by offering interested while all the time hoping our own cups, maybe we should the first drink to the lady in the room. that someone would enter the room. bring a bottle of mouth wash so that I sat back into my chair feeling Perhaps the other resident in the room there will be something to drink after somewhat relieved that I had dodged would return or some staff would come being trapped into drinking from a the bullet. I looked over at my wife in and cause enough of a distraction so glass that had just held a set of false and the frozen look I got back told me that I could do something. Every so teeth; perhaps she should bring a large clearly that there was no need to go often Pauline would stop talking and water proof handbag that could act as find some ice to chill the drink. ask me was I not going to drink the temporary sink; perhaps we should Pauline then offered me a drink and 7Up and I would mumble something arrange our seating so as to make sure I declined graciously, but she insisted. and hope she would forget about it. that there is an escape route; perhaps I said she had no cup and offered to Every so often I looked over at my we should not visit any more … out to the kitchen to get one. However, wife. With an angelic smile, she would perhaps we should just not talk about my wife was sitting at the end of the lift her glass to me and say “cheers”. I it any more. bed in the small room and there was would then look into my glass and see no quick way for me to get past her. the set of false teeth. I kept thinking Not thinking too much about it, I said at least she could say “sláinte”; that it was ok, and that I did not need a would be much more relevant to my drink. predicament. However, in what seemed like a The conversation drifted on and on.

73 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 Hidden Jewel Mary Kelly-White

I was on my holidays in Glenkillamey, jobs and got married and Dad was book shop down the road. They , when I discovered a little stack often alone on the farm for long was priced at 3s 6d. The translation of books in a press in an old thatched periods. We all visited him regularly of the cover notes is as follows: cottage. The cottage and the farm and often when my children were The great Arigna Mining Area where belonged to my uncle Mick Dolan, young the fog on the mountain was the three Counties meet, Sligo, Leitrim my mother’s bachelor brother, and it so dense that I couldn’t see them in and Roscommon, is where the author belonged to us after his death in 1950. front of me in the fields around the Tadhg 0 Rabhartaigh had in mind One wet foggy day we set about house. The narrow one-lane road when he wrote Thiar i nGleann Ceo. searching the presses and boxes. I was even worse; I had to switch the As well as giving a graphic insight took over an old press. Because my car lights on and off again and again into the mining of coal in Ireland, and uncle was not married and had lived in order to stay between the ditches. the dangers associated with it, it gives alone all his life he had little or no The children were terrified. They a social history of the people from the interest in the presses. They were crouched behind the front seats time of the Landlords to the foundation full of antiques which we regarded as and we prayed “Please God get of co-operatives. Tadhg 0 Rabhartaigh junk at the time: an old gramophone, us out of this awful place, please” was born in The Rossa, Tir Connell in His Master’s Voice, vinyl records and Twenty years had passed from 1909. He began his teacher training books, but the records and the books the time I read the old book, Thiar when he was sixteen years old. He were destroyed with dampness. The i nGleann Ceo, before I connected spent short spells slaving in Scotland; English hardbacks were soft and thick, the title “West in the Foggy Valley” one such spell was spent on the farm with the covers faded. There was just with Glenkillamey which is in fact where his father had died. Most of one book written in Irish, but the the foggy valley. I was angry with his education was done from books, cover and a few pages front and back myself for not realizing it sooner but it was from a series of lectures were melted away altogether with and I promised myself that I would on by the renowned dampness, so it was lucky that the get the book and read it again but author Seosamh Mac Grianna that title of the book Thiar i nGleann Ceo, where was it now? The house his interest in writing was awakened. was printed on the top of every page. was gone as well as the books. He spent thirty years teaching in a

We were living and attending school A further twenty years went by. Vocational School in Breffni Ui Ruairc in Sligo. It was Leaving Cert year for It was 1995, and I was still on on the Leitrim /Cavan border. He me and although we were not native the lookout for the book. Tadhg returned to his native parish in 1953 Irish speakers we were pretty good O Rabhartaigh from Tir Connell when he wrote Thiar i nGleann Ceo. at Irish, oral as well as written. We was the author. He was a teacher Also woven into the story is the Fight took it in our stride. Even though in Breffni Ui Ruairc at the time for Freedom and a harrowing love much of the book was missing I (1926/30). He married Ellen Thady story[Tadhg died on July 6th 1982. He read the chapters that remained, Gaffney from Glenkillamey. I knew was predeceased by his wife in 1976. each chapter a good story in itself. her family. I got the opportunity in They had seven sons and one daughter.] “I noticed you reading that old 1995 to spend Seachtain na Gaeilge Well, I took the book home and I Irish book”, my father said when I at the Irish language School in the read it, but I could not take it in, so had finished, “what was it about?” Downings, Donegal, and I grasped I decided to translate it into English, I gave him a general synopsis as it with both hands. I was still fairly and have it published in its own right best I could and he said “Isn’t fluent with Irish even though I hadn’t which is what I have just done with education a great thing? That book been using it for many years. During the publication of “West in the Foggy is there for the past forty years and the course we visited The Crannach, Valley”, available on line at www. no one ever knew what was in it.” a library, in Bunbeg. Imagine my originalwriting.ie It is a great read My father remained on the farm in delight when on a wall behind a and in my opinion has the potential Glenkillamy while my mother and glass panel the covers and front to follow through the we seven siblings returned to Sligo pages of books written by Donegal Educational System. and to school. We always spent the writers were displayed, and among holidays with my father and he visited them Thiar i nGleann Ceo by Tadhg us in Sligo as often as he could. Of 0 Rabhartaigh. There were only course the years passed and we got three copies at Siopa Thomas, the

74 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 Visit by Major General Vincent E Boles to Ballymote John Perry TD

On Friday 24th April a colourful His father James K Boles came from to the building of my own than your ceremony took place at the Monument Geevagh and his mother Rita Taaffe sons and daughters who left behind to the Fighting 69th Regiment and came from . They raised hearts, fields, and a national yearning Brigadier General Michael Corcoran four boys in New York. The eldest to be free...’ ” in Ballymote, Co Sligo. The son Vincent, or Vinny as he is known Deputy Perry then presented the ceremony was held to mark the visit to his friends, is our guest of honour picture to Major General Boles. He of Major General Vincent E Boles, today. then continued:- and his mother Rita to Sligo. “At this point in our ceremony “On behalf of the people of Sligo I The ceremony opened with the I would also like to again extend would also like to make a presentation singing of the US and Irish National a special welcome to the family to Rita Boles. For our presentation Anthems by Michael Lang. Those in relations of the Major General. piece we have selected a piece of bog attendance included Lt-Col Shawn We have in our audience Mrs Rita oak inscribed in the Ogham script C Purvis, US Airforce and Defence Boles, mother of the Major General, with the Boles and Taaffe names. Attaché US Embassy in Dublin; accompanied by members of the “ Bog oak dates back 5000-7000 Master Sergeant Jimmy McDowell Boles family from New York, the UK years. The bogwood used in the of the US Army; Brigadier General and Geevagh, and the Taaffe family making of this piece is sourced in the Gerry Hegarty, GOC 4 Western from Ballintogher. Sligo and Leitrim region of Ireland. Brigade, representing the Chief “Major General Boles was It is carefully dried, and beautifully of Staff of the Irish Army; Lt-Col commissioned as a second lieutenant handcrafted, then inscribed with Mick Rock, OC Reserve Defence in the US Army Ordnance in 1976. the Boles and Taaffe surnames in Force; local officers of the RDF; Thereafter he rose rapidly through the ancient Irish Ogham language. Superintendent Kevin Ginty the officer ranks, becoming Brigadier Ogham writing is the earliest known representing the Garda Siochana; Fire General in 2000 and Major General form of written Irish. The alphabet Officers Paul Coyle and John Martin in 2004. predates the 5th century. It consists representing the Sligo Fire Service; Major General Boles has also of twenty letters used for stone and Deputy Eamon Scanlon and local received many decorations for his wood inscriptions in Celtic Ireland. political representatives; Fr Gregory distinguished military service to his Ogham was carved and read from Hannan and Fr James McDonagh of country. bottom to top.” Ballymote Parish; members of the “On behalf of the people of Sligo I Deputy Perry then presented the Boles and Taaffe families. would now like to make a presentation bog oak piece to Rita Boles. Deputy John Perry welcomed all to Major General Boles. For our Major General Boles laid a these and all US citizens living in presentation piece we have selected a wreath in memory of deceased Irish or visiting the area and everybody copy of a picture hanging in the official members of the 69th Regiment. present. He went on to say reception room of House. ………………………………… “As many of you already know, It shows President John Fitzgerald Brigadier General Michael Corcoran Kennedy making a presentation of Major General Boles’ awards and was born in 1827 a few miles outside a flag of the 69th Regiment, Irish decorations include the Distinguished Ballymote. He emigrated to the US Brigade, to the people of Ireland in Service Medal, Legion of Merit with in 1849 and became a leading Irish 1963. The flag hangs today, in a place Oak Leaf Cluster, the Bronze Star American General in the US Army of national honour in Leinster House. Medal with Two Oak Leaf Clusters, during the Civil War period. “In a memorable speech to what the Meritorious Service Medal with “Today we welcome back another he described as ‘the free parliament Four Oak Leaf Clusters, the Army son of Sligo who has achieved of a free Ireland’, President Kennedy Commendation Medal, the Army eminence in the military service of reminded his audience that ‘our Achievement Medal, the Parachutist his country. Major General Boles’ two nations divided by distance Badge and the Army Staff Badge. father and mother emigrated from have been united by history’. ‘No Sligo to New York in the early 1950s. country’ he said ‘contributed more

75 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 The Mask Bernie Gilbride

On a writing weekend we were with wonder, never having met a “As mathematicians, we are given a choice of masks as part Martian before. Its voice enthrals light years ahead of you, but our of the course, to stimulate our me and its command of English. atmosphere condemns us to live imagination, I imagine. I chose a “Where did you learn English?”, I underground. When we solve that white one and having sat staring ask. problem we will be lords of the at it, evidently with a blank mind, “We speak all languages, they are outer spaces and control the whole the tutor, from the kindness of her simple to us” Universe. heart, suggested that I try putting it “They are” I say. “Do you know on before a mirror. you are in Ireland”, I ask, “and can “We visit you now and then As I approached the mirror, I saw in you speak Irish?” to see how you have advanced, my mind’s eye the beautiful masks “Of course. Didn’t I tell you I with the hope of meeting you in the shops in Venice, every colour speak all your languages?” By now properly when your civilisation under the sun: gold embellished I began to feel rather foolish, so I has advanced to meet ours, and we with tiny multicoloured stones, changed course. have solved the problem of having blue, green, yellow, red. I thought “Why do you wish association to live underground or else perish. of the Carnival Nights, the glitter, with us, rather than other beings the glamour, the complimentary on other planets, if there are other “Our cities are magnificent, costumes, the balls, the ladies beings on other planets?” our culture first class. We have ‘incognito’, the romance, the conquered war and have no need excitement. “There are many interplanetary of arms. Our greatest secrets are beings, but you earthlings we prefer. our survival. Perhaps in the future Hearing my name called out We love the freedom you enjoy to we may help save you. Now you rather impatiently, I came back to range the Earth at will, especially are in the process of destroying reality with a bang, to the plain now that you have learned to fly, your environment and if you are white mask in my hand. With though that took you lot long not carefulyou may soon become an apologetic sheepish smile, I enough. We would like to sample like us a subterranean race. The proceeded towards the mirror at your foods, games, pastimes, feel poisons you have helped create may the back of the lecture room, glad your fresh air on our bodies, and make earthly global living as you to be out of sight of my so busy smell the scent of your oceans, experience today, impossible.” writing companions. the trees, the crops, as you do. We know most things about you. With that grim warning it As I look in the mirror wearing my vanished and I am back, holding a mask, I see an unearthly creature “It was our ancestors built your white mask before my face in front staring back. In a deep sepulchral Pyramids, intending to live in of the mirror, wondering, what in voice, it assures me it comes from them and enjoy the earth as their the name of heaven I will write for outer space. “I am a Martian, part new Kingdom. Unfortunately a the tutor. of the community on the planet Universal Implosion made that Mars”, it said. impossible and centuries later “Why are you so pallid looking?” they were usurped by the Egyptian . I ask. Pharaohs as burial chambers. “We must live underground”, it When first built, the top layers of said, “that’s why we are white and them were covered in gold and we ghostly. We in our Community wish could see them clearly from Mars, association with you Earthlings, as our spacecraft travelled regularly you are the Interplanetary beings to earth at that time but alas can no most like ourselves”. longer do so. “We are?” I am speechless

76 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 A Policeman’s Lot ………. RIC Code of Regulations

Supplied by Eileen Tighe

The R.I.C. code of regulations, which recreation his walk was restricted to a he left on or returned off duty he remained in force up to the disbandment radius of two miles from the barracks. was inspected by the senior officer, of the force on 31 August 1922, was When cycling for recreation his unless the senior officer happened to stringent. In fact, the policeman who absence could not exceed three hours be absent, in which case the next in was forced to comply fully with the and the time of departure and return seniority would do the inspection, and code had less freedom than a ticket- to barracks had to be recorded in the each inspection was entered by the of-leave suspect. Fortunately most diary. After ten o’clock at night he barracks orderly in the diary. An active officers and officials had sufficient could not leave the barracks without policeman who took walks and cycle- common sense to turn a blind eye on special leave, which was given only spins and did his two patrols each the more degrading sections of the on rare occasions. If he wished to day would be inspected up to a dozen regulations, and, without impairing attend a dance or other function after times a day, whereas a ticket-of-leave the efficiency of the force, made it midnight a full day’s leave would have suspect generally had to report only possible for to be taken for ‘private purposes’. once a week to the police. a policeman to live as an ordinary, (And by GAA rules, not RIC rules, he self-respecting citizen. was forbidden to play Gaelic games). The code was most comprehensive. When taking up duty as barracks- Source: J Anthony Gaughan, Memoirs A policeman’s every move, whether orderly at 8 a.m. he had to be properly of Constable Jeremiah Mee, Anvil on or off duty, had to be recorded in dressed and inspected by the senior Books Ltd., 1975 the barracks-diary. When walking for officer in charge. Each time that Emptiness

Bernie Gilbride

An empty beach mile on mile, No one has walked here for quite a while No footprint to be seen anywhere Sea-weed, rock pools, stones just here.

The tide far out, a murmuring sound, Has cleaned the beach as it turned around Obliterating signs of man, Leaving the beach as time began.

Ballindoon Abbey Interior. Original Print 1791. Aidan Mannion Collection

77 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010 Death and Funeral of Mr Michael Cryan, Ballymote (October 18 1902 Obituary) Supplied by Eileen Tighe.

It is with regret that we record the gentlemen in the neighbourhood and most respectable ever witnessed in rather sudden death of Mr Michael his sad end occasioned the keenest the locality. Cryan which took place at his regret amongst all his acquaintances. residence, Ballymote, on the 3rd inst. He had reached the age of 54 years The chief mourners were – Mrs The deceased was in failing health for and leaves a wife and family of ten M Cryan (wife), P, J, MJ, Bt and some months past, but it was only on to mourn his loss, and, though their J Cryan (sons), M, ME and AE Thursday night,2nd inst., he showed sorrow must be bitter, still it makes Cryan (daughters), Mr P Cryan, any signs of collapse, and he quietly it somewhat easier borne to know Newtownforbes, and Mr B Cryan, passed away on Friday morning at that they have the cordial sympathy Ballinamore, (brothers), Mr P Kerins, 2 o’clock, during which period he of every person who in life had Ballymote (uncle), Mr J Dennedy received all the consolations of the the pleasure and privilege of the (nephew), M Dennedy, Dublin Holy Catholic Church, of which he acquaintance of the deceased. (niece), J Herins, J Davey, A Flynn, was a devout member, as well as the J Benson, J Flanagan, P Davey, kind attentions of a loving wife and On Saturday the remains were A Walsh, P Cosgrove, B Flynn affectionate children. interred in the family burial ground (cousins). in the old Abbey, Ballymote, and the Deceased was one of the best cortege that followed the bier was, Rev Canon Loftus officiated at the known and most highly respected without exception, the largest and grave. – RIP.

Pam Benson, Ballymote Heritage Group joint treasurer, is a carer to Dr Stephen Hawking, Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University, England. The picture shows Pam and Dr Hawking with His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI in Rome on the occasion of a plenary meeting of the Vatican Academy of Sciences on October 31st, 2008. Photo courtesy Pam Benson

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Coláiste Muire gan Smál, Ballymote, First Holy Communion Class 2009. Back Row of Children (L-R): Roisín Dury, Saoirse Cunningham, Mikey McMorrow, Terri Kelly, Laura Kerins, Dylan Martin, Ciara Perry, Edel Rafferty, Jonathan Murtagh, Bryan Willing. Second Row from Back (L-R): Jake Flannery, Lauren Kilcoyne, Mark Mulligan, Roan Mooney, Ada McDonagh, Joseph Donohoe, Eimer Conlon, Adam Murtagh, Mark Devlin. Second Row from Front (L-R): Cian Quinn, Aaron Scanlon, Kathlyn Kyle, James Gardiner-Egan, Brendan Whitehead, Niamh Currid, Dylan McLoughlin, Jack McGrath. Front Row (seated): Max Kolak, Chloe Egan, Marc Willing, Katie Anderson, Patrick Murtagh. Also included are (at back at left) Fr James McDonagh, CC Ballymote, and Ms Aoife McWeeney, teacher, and (at back at right) Ms Dolores Taheny, Principal teacher, and Fr Gregory Hannan, PP Ballymote.

Knockminna NS First Holy Communion Class 2009 Back Row (L-R): Shane Langton, Alec Richardson Middle Row (L-R): Sarah Curran, Nicole Scanlon Front Row (L-R): Senan McNulty, Adam King Also included are Fr James McDonagh, CC Ballymote, Mrs Louise King, Principal teacher, Mr Brian Henry, teacher, and Karen Tansey, Mass-server. 79 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010

An entertainment troupe passes in front of the old cinema (also the Hibernian Hall) in Ballymote (on right). The film being shown was the 1938 musical comedy “That Certain Age”, starring Deanna Durbin, Jackie Cooper and Melvyn Douglas. The protruding section of the building above the door was the projection room (now gone). The rest of the building, with the cinema balcony still surviving, is now occupied by Lee Mundy. Most of the building to the left has been demolished. Picture courtesy Cathleen Cryan.

Michael Cawley, from Greyfort, Ballymote, at 6ft 5ins in height allegedly the tallest Gárda in Ireland at the time of his passing-out ceremony in Templemore. He is seen here with the then minister for Justice, Mr Collins.

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How times have changed, both in work and in cost, since 1918! Supplied by Cathleen Cryan.

Back Row L/R: Mydre Clynes, Mary Donoghue, Jackie Clynes Middle Row: Mrs Gilmartin’s grand-niece, Mona Cryan, Mickey Cryan Front Row: Jackie Mullen, another grand-niece of Mrs Gilmartin, Bartley Cryan, unknown. Picture courtesy Mona Cryan.

81 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010

At a Ballymote/Ballinamore tennis encounter, 1959. Front Row, from left: First three were Ballinamore; then Peggy Dockry, Rosie Cassidy, Paddy Mullen, Carmel Mullen, Berchmans Scully, Ballinamore player, Rainy Cassidy Back, from left: First five were Ballinamore; then Paddy McEvoy, Mary Dockry,, Ballinamore player. Picture courtesy Carmel Mullen.

At the retirement function for Tom McGettrick NT. Mid 1980s. Front Row L/R: Joe O’Hara, John Kivlehan, Tom McGettrick, Paddy Mullen, Dick Molloy Back Row L/R: Pat Tansey, Fred Simson, Bill McGovern, Paddy Healy, John Cunningham, Tommy Lavin, Francie McDonagh Picture courtesy Carmel Mullen 82 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2009/2010

Heritage Group 24th AGM An encouraging and successful year was reported at the 24th Annual General Meeting of Ballymote Heritage Group which was held in Fawlty Towers, Ballymote, on Wednesday September 24th, 2008. The Heritage Weekend, held for the first time in the Coach House Hotel, Ballymote, had lived up to all expectations and its lectures and outings were much appreciated by the large audiences. The Corran Herald, with its usual broad range of topics, had sold very well.

After the meeting and its elections, the Officers and membership of the Group are as follows: President: Eileen Tighe Chairperson: Des Black Vice-Chairperson: Carmel Rogers Secretary: Betty Conlon Treasurers: Pam Benson and Mary Martin PRO and Editor of The Corran Herald: James Flanagan

Olive Beirne, Mary Black, David Casey, Matilda Casey, Gerry Cassidy, John Coleman, John Conlon, Anne Flanagan, Brenda Friel, Noreen Friel, Paddy Horan, Molly Howard, Gerry Keaney, Jack Martin, John Perry TD, Marie Perry, Nuala Rogers, Carmel Rogers, Michael Rogers.

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Sponsors

Ballymote Heritage Group gratefully acknowledges the generous sponsorship of the Heritage Weekend provided by the following:

Sligo Co Council Community Heritage Grant Scheme 2009 Tente Ltd AVA Systems Ltd FBD Eamon Scanlon TD John Perry TD and Marie Tighe’s Newsagents Matilda Casey Michael and Carmel Rogers Elizabeth Gilhawley Jack Martin

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