TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016 1916 COMMEMORATION THE MAYO NEWS 1

M THE MAYO NEWS 1916 COMMEMORATION TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016 TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016 1916 COMMEMORATION THE MAYO NEWS 2 3 INDEX The dramatic The legacy of a The story life of Jim Mayo republican of the 100 years on MacBride’s Ruane and feminist Westport 31 Find out about the Áine Ryan refl ects on the In three compelling articles James dramatic, and ultimately remarkable career of Dr Kathleen Kelly refl ects on the fascinating story tragic, life of Jim Ruane, the Lynn, the Killala native whose of the 31 men arrested in Westport only man to get a 1916 legacy is being lauded at last after the 1916 Rising medal for action in Mayo Pages 10-11 Pages 12-14 Pages 21-27 legacy is fl owering

FOREWORDORD when facing the fi ring squad gives you President to lead 1916 commemorations some indication of the character of the EDWIN man. McGREALL What the celebrations of this cente- [email protected] nary year have helped to do is tell the EDWIN MCGREAL story of all of the 16 rebels who were executed for their role in the Rising. For aster of 1916 was set many years the historical narrative to be an auspicious focused just on the seven signatories, resident Michael D Higgins time for the MacBride Pádraig Pearse and James Connolly will lead the Westport 1916 family from Westport especially. Centenary Commemorations Quay. Some fi gures will always stand taller this Sunday. Anthony, the middle than others in the telling of history but Westport Historical Society of fi ve sons, was due it does seem odd that MacBride’s place Pwill unveil a plaque to honour the 31 to get married on the in Irish history is not stronger than it men who were arrested in Westport EWednesday after Easter and his young- is. The writings of WB Yeats certainly and interned after Easter 1916. est brother, the famed Major John, was did MacBride no favours. MacBride’s Major John MacBride, one of the exe- to be at his side as Best Man. wife Maud Gonne was the muse of Yeats cuted leaders of the Easter Rising, is a That was one role Major John Mac- and the relationship between the three native of the town and the commemo- Bride would never get to perform. By was far from straightforward. rations will be at the MacBride 1916 the time Wednesday came around, he Historian Anthony Jordan deals with monument on the South Mall. was cooped up in Jacob’s Biscuit Factory that dynamic as part of three insightful Sunday will also see the James Street on Dublin’s southside, second in com- pieces on MacBride. bridge in the town named after broth- mand to Proclamation signatory Thomas One could only imagine how today’s ers William and Patrick J Doris, found- MacDonagh as they repelled enemy celebrity and tabloid culture would lap ers of The Mayo News in 1892. William approaches. up MacBride’s marriage to Maud Gonne was imprisoned for his Land League It may have been by accident that and subsequent diffi culties. activities and Patrick J was one of those MacBride joined the Rising in Dublin It was the celebrity marriage of its time interned in 1916. on Easter Monday but this lifelong, pas- but is just another layer to the fascinat- The Defence Forces, the Westport sionate republican was never going to ing life of a man from Westport Quay. Town Band and the Clew Bay Pipe Band refuse an opportunity to take on the We think, 100 years on, Major John will be in attendance and schoolchil- British when it came his way. MacBride has started to reclaim a right- dren from the four Westport nationals As far back as 1896 he had said of lead- ful place in the pantheon of Irish patri- schools will participate in welcoming ing an Irish brigade in the Boer War in ots and Westport and Mayo ought to be the President to Westport. South Africa that he wanted to be in a proud of his legacy. They will march with the President position ‘to strike a blow at England’s We hope you enjoy reading about from the Courthouse to the South Mall power abroad when we could not, unfor- MacBride, the remarkable Dr Kathleen at 1pm. tunately, do so at home’. Lynn, the story of the Westport 31, the During the ceremonies three students port 1916 Centenary Commemorations 12 noon in St Mary’s Church. way at 6pm. The exhibition includes Doing so on home ground would cost triumph and disaster which befell Jim from the two secondary schools will y COMMITTEE Committee said. “There were still seven Afterwards there will be a reception many rarely seen artifacts and him his life. At home in Westport instead Ruane and so much more as much as read out the names of the 31 Westport Pictured is the of the Westport internees alive at the in Hotel Westport and an exhibition of images. of the celebration of Anthony’s wedding, we’ve enjoyed pulling this commemora- Westport 1916 1916 internees and 31 children from Centenary Golden Jubilee in 1966, but we now have local 1916 material. All are welcome. On Saturday evening historian Anthony Honoria MacBride was confronted with tive supplement together. Gaelscoil na Cruaiche will hold aloft Commemoration an opportunity to truly honour these Sunday will be the conclusion to a J Jordan, a renowned MacBride biog- the tragic news that her youngest son large signs with each internee’s name. Committee, with men during the centenary commemo- busy weekend of 1916 events in the rapher, will give a lecture entitled: ‘Major had been executed. The three students reading the names members of The Mayo rations with the unveiling of a dedicated town. John MacBride - A National Hero’. The “Mrs MacBride was deeply shocked are: Liam Canning, great-grandnephew News. Front, from left: plaque next Sunday. On Thursday, the one hundrenth anni- lecture commences at 8pm in Westport and just bowed her head,” Tommy Hevey, of Major John and Joseph MacBride; Harry Hughes, Sal “Outside of Loughrea and Athenry, versary of the execution of Major John Quay Community Centre. the man dispatched to tell the news, was O’Connor, Mary M Dylan Ralph, great-grandson of Tho- MacBride-Walsh, John Westport had the third biggest number MacBride will be marked with a wreath- Meanwhile in Achill this Friday night, reported as saying. mas Ralph; and Zoe Cunniffe, great- Mayock, James Kelly. arrested in Connacht. We can refl ect laying ceremony at the MacBride memo- Professor Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh will The grieving Mrs MacBride would grandniece of Thomas Derrig. Back, from left: Edwin back with pride at the contribution of rial on Westport’s South Mall at speak on the subject - ‘Commemorat- then have to deal with the arrest and Many relations of the MacBrides, Doris McGreal, Aiden Clarke, our ancestors in the cause of Irish free- 10.30am. ing 1916: The What and the Why of internment of another son, Joseph, and brothers and of the 31 men interned are Vincent Keane, Paddy dom and particularity the involvement Later that evening the fi rst major exhi- Commemoration’. a nephew, Joseph Gill, in Westport as y DETERMINED Major John MacBride was determined reading. We are also deeply indebted travelling from many parts of the world Joe Foy and Neill of men and women from the Westport bition on his life will open. The exhibi- Professor Ó Tuathaigh is Professor the British moved to lock up whom they to be involved in a war involving Ireland taking on England to Harry Hughes, Chairman of the West- O’Neill. Pic: Ronan Hughes at some stage in his life. This portrait of him takes pride of for the commemorations. district. Next Sunday is a community tion, ‘MacBride: Snatch up the torch Emeritus at NUI Galway and a widely felt were ‘dangerous Sinn Féiners’ around place in the house of his grand-niece, Mary MacBride- port 1916 Centenary Commemoration “The commemorations will be a tre- celebration and is non political,” added from the Slumbering Fire’, will be held respected authority on modern Irish the country. Walsh. Pic: Michael McLaughlin Committee, and all the committee for mendous occasion for all the families Mr Hughes. in the Customs House Studios at West- history. The talk will be delivered at The two men would be among the last their considerable assistance with the associated with the patriots of 1916,” The commemorations get underway port Quay, right next door to the house Ted Lavelle’s in Cashel, Achill, com- of the 31 men arrested in Westport to production of this supplement. Harry Hughes, Chairman of the West- at 1pm, after a 1916 Centenary Mass at where he was born in 1868. It gets under- mencing at 8.30pm. be released from Frongoch Internment There’s so many others who have been Camp in north Wales on Christmas week a great help in bringing this supplement of 1916, even though they were never together but particular credit must go MAYO NEWS 1916 2016 COMMEMORATIVE SUPPLEMENT charged with any crime. to Kevin Loftus, Head of Design at The The Rising action may have centred Mayo News for what I’m sure you will Editor: Edwin McGreal Pics: The Brehony Family, Westport; Austin Matt Loughrey, Michael McLaughlin, FRONT PAGE IMAGE Our front page in Dublin but try to tell Honoria Mac- Westport Historical Society have done agree is the outstanding design and lay- ONLINE Designer: Kevin Loftus Vaughan, Mayo County Library; Corinne The Murphy family, Westport; National picture is the only 1916 medal awarded for Bride, in particular, or the family of any invaluable research to uncover the sto- out of this supplement. Writers: Áine Ryan, Anne O’Dowd, Beattie, Bronagh Joyce, Clew Bay Heritage Library of Ireland, Pat Ruane, Seamus action in Mayo. Its recipient was Jim Ruane of those interned, that its impact wasn’t ries of the 31 and tell their story, so viv- DOWNLOAD Anthony Jordan, Anton McNulty, Centre; Conor McKeown, Edel Golden, Gavin, Westport Historical Society. from Kiltimagh and it is part of a display nationwide. idly, 100 years on. LEGACY Daniel Carey, Edwin McGreal, Ger Delany, Jackie Clarke Museum; Geraldine O’Reilly, for the centenary year in the Jackie Clarke In Mayo, the story of the 31 arrested James’ writings in this supplement on NEXT Thursday marks the 100th anni- This supplement will be available in Harry Hughes, James Kelly, Liam Canning, Harry Hughes, James Kelly, Liam Friel, Museum in Ballina. The photograph was taken in Westport is a fascinating one and the arrests, his profi les of the 31 and versary of the execution of Major John PDF format to download from www. by Corinne Beattie. Our interview with Jim Liam Friel, Rory Gavin, Vincent Keane. Mary Kelly, Mary MacBride-Walsh, helps to illustrate the political, and social, analysis of the situation in Westport MacBride, at dawn, in Kilmainham Gaol. mayonews.ie from Friday afternoon Ruane’s son Pat is on pages 10 and 11. climate of the time. James Kelly and the before, during and after 1916 are required That he asked not to be blindfolded THE MAYO NEWS 1916 COMMEMORATION TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016 TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016 1916 COMMEMORATION THE MAYO NEWS 4 5 Weaving the web of a family legacy

ÁINE RYAN League in Westport in 1898. Named to mark O’Brien’s County Cork roots, Mal- low Cottage and its farmlands subse- quently became a home to members of HEN Canon Owen Han- another political family. It was here that nay staged a farcical play, Mary MacBride-Walsh’s father, Erc, was entitled ‘General John raised with his sisters, Clíodhna, Clohra, Regan’, caricaturing a Úna and Sheila, the mother of poet, Paul Catholic priest in the Durcan. Indeed Major John was Sheila’s WTown Hall, Westport, on February 4, godfather. 1914, all hell broke loose with a rush When Erc (Senior) later married Ber- towards the stage and furniture being nadine Coen, who owned a drapery shop broken, despite the protestations of the on Bridge Street, like the many other Catholic priest. retailers on the street, they lived over After the local Royal Irish Constabulary the shop with their only offspring, Mary. was called in to quell the melee, the sub- Back in the late 1950s and 60s this was a sequent arrests and court case for pro- bustling street where MacBride-Walsh < RUSTIC IDYLL Mary MacBride- vided dramatic headlines for both the played in the evenings with the other Walsh and her husband Seamus national and international press. children. Walsh, pictured outside their home, Given the unfolding political tensions Names such as Foleys (the chemist) The Old Rectory, on Newport Road, and growing nationalist ferment in 1914 and Gibbons, Stacks and McHales, Westport. Pic: Michael McLaughlin – there was a schism later that year caused Shanleys and Carters, may not be part by Redmond’s call to the National Vol- of the signage these days but for locals unteers to join Irish regiments of the they still resonate with much lore about British Army – there were protests too their central signifi cance in the town, at the gates of Hannay’s house, situated says Mary. on the edge of the town on the Newport But when did MacBride-Walsh really Road. become aware of her grand-uncle’s fame She continues: “He was a very kind and band, Séamus),” she laughs. “That is what MacBride and her late parents. Then, in A century later that house, The Old as a hero of 1916? spiritual man, one of deep faith. The I still call him after nearly 40 years of 1983, President Patrick Hillery unveiled Rectory, has been the longtime home of “I never ‘not’ remember him. I’d say it Capuchin priest, Fr Augustine, who marriage.” a bust of John MacBride, located on the Mary MacBride-Walsh, her husband was Seán really. He used to always come anointed him afterwards, said during his Indeed, they chose their wedding date town’s tree-lined Mall, near St Mary’s Séamus, and their fi ve adult children, and stay with us and used to always say last moments he emptied his pockets – September 15, 1976 – to ensure Seán Catholic Church. Bernardine, Úna, Erc, Síabhra and Mary that his wife Kid (Catalina) would say I and – this really moved me – asked him MacBride’s attendance. Among his many On this occasion, while the legacy of Catherine, all of whom now have fl own reminded her of Maud,” MacBride-Walsh to give his coins to the poor and to con- public service roles, he was High Com- her granduncle is central to the celebra- the coop. is laughing and imitating Seán’s renowned vey his rosary beads to his mother in missioner for Namibia at the time and tions, there is a renewed focus on the Built in 1798, this rambling house, a French accent. Westport.” spent a lot of time abroad. Mary is very story of the 31 brave Westport men, rustic idyll, once had a coach-house and “I was spirited, I suppose, and ‘a tonic’, Her granduncle was executed before proud of Seán’s contribution to Irish and including her grandfather, who were stables, a granary and cottage garden, as they used to say, like my colourful grand- dawn on May 5, 1916, two days after the international society, which culminated interned in Frongoch, and other British well as accommodation for a chauffeur aunt.” executions of Pearse and McDonagh. in his receipt of both the Nobel Peace prisons, for their nationalist activism and gardener. While the sylvan grounds From early childhood, MacBride-Walsh Prize and the Lenin Prize. around the time of the Rising. are still kept impeccably, the atmospheric was a regular visitor to Roebuck House ROEBUCK HOUSE “Seán was just aged 15 when he joined On May 8, 1916, just three days after interior, with its warren of rooms, is like (in Clonskeagh, south county Dublin) MARY enjoyed a lifelong closeness to the Irish Volunteers and took part in the receiving the shocking news of his young- a gallery honouring some of Westport’s, where Maud lived her later life until her her uncle Seán and spent many great War of Independence. Unsurprisingly, est brother’s execution in the Stonecut- and this country’s, most famous sons death in 1953 and Seán, when not on his evenings being entertained at Roebuck with his family heritage, he opposed the ter’s Yard at Kilmainahm, Joseph Mac- and daughters. And, appropriately, as many diplomatic missions, in turn, lived House, where, among the many culinary 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty and was impris- Bride was arrested at Mallow Cottage the tapestry of history weaves a fascinat- with his family until his death in 1988. delights served to guests was Maud oned by the Irish Free State during the and conveyed under an armed RIC escort ing web, these paintings and photographs “I don’t remember being brought to Gonne’s special recipe for burgers and Civil War,” says Mary. “I think it is impor- to Castlebar barracks. and sculptures and records do not tell see Maud Gonne when I was a toddler. Tarragon chicken. The guest list was tant to remember that it was through his Next Sunday, May 8, 2016, one hundred the story of Canon Hannay, or George But I was always told that even in the usually illustrious, and on occasions father’s reputation as a brave soldier, who years to the day after her grandfather A Birmingham, as was his literary pseu- gauntness of her old age, she was still when Mary was there, included Arch- led the Irish Transvaal Brigade – they was arrested under the grief-stricken donym. such an imposing and striking person, bishop Tutu, Charles Haughey, Bono, were known as MacBride’s Brigade for shadow of his youngest brother’s execu- sitting by the fi reside with a cigarette Mary McAleese and Mary Robinson, and the Boers against the British Army – that tion, the intimate import of history will PROUD LEGACY and a dog at her heel.” raconteur and author, Ulick O’Connor. gave my uncle easy access to South Afri- be shared by an extended family and a MARY MacBride-Walsh is the proud y PROUD DESCENDANT Mary MacBride-Walsh, a grandniece of Major John MacBride, pictured at her From early childhood Mary had often “Seán was always very private about ca’s apartheid government.” broad community: the benefi ciaries of grand-niece of the 1916 Easter Rebellion home in front of a portrait of the Major’s son, Seán MacBride, who was a close family friend. Pic: Michael McLaughlin heard stories from her family about how family matters but I know he was aged their brave, pragmatic and idealistic fore- hero, Major John MacBride and grand- John ‘had given his life for Ireland’ and, 12 and at boarding school in Mount St REREADING THE bears. daughter of his older brother, Joseph of course, shared their hurt at ‘the biased’ Benedict in Gorey when he heard his PROCLAMATION MacBride, a leading activist and Sinn much dismay to the poet William Butler always funny stories to tell them about coverage and some historical commen- father had been shot. You know, he never AS Mary MacBride-Walsh prepares to Féin TD in the fi rst Dáil of 1919 and his Yeats, for whom the beautiful Madame the Boer War and his adventures on the tary on his character and contribution took sides about the marriage break-up,” read the Proclamation at next weekend’s wife, Eileen, the half-sister of Maud Gonne was a muse and close-confi dante sea. He used to stay with them at Mallow to the history. she observes. centenary celebration in Westport, the DID YOU KNOW? Gonne. throughout his life. Cottage and always brought bags of “They were very proud of his bravery After Mary joined the bank in Dublin fascinating tapestry of her family-tree Her daughter, Úna, is the goddaughter With the spotlight on the historic events sweets.” and his legacy, as I am,” she says. “I believe in the early 1970s she lived at Roebuck will be confi rmed by the numbers of of the late Seán MacBride, the famous of Easter 1916 and her grand-uncle’s Situated along the undulating Clew Bay he knew no fear and was heroic until the House for a while but, being an only relatives who will descend on the herit- Major John MacBride was Best son of John and Maud, and a lifetime legacy, Mary MacBride-Walsh recalls for coastal road near Westport, Mallow Cot- end. You know, he asked not to be blind- child, she was lonely for home and her age town to mark this special occasion. Man at the wedding of 1916 friend of MacBride-Walsh’s. Seán was The Mayo News how: “My granny, Eileen, tage was the one-time home of William folded before they executed him in Kil- parents. y RENOWNED FIGURE A bust of Seán MacBride has A plaque was unveiled at John MacBride’s signatory Tom Clarke to Kathleen born in Paris in 1904, a year after his my Dad Erc and aunt Úna, used to say O’Brien: MP, Parnellite, advocate of Home mainham, saying, ‘I often looked down “It was soon after my return to West- pride of place in the home of Mary MacBride-Walsh and birthplace at the Quay in 1963, attended Daly in New York in 1901. high-profi le parents’ marriage caused they loved John’s visits because he had Rule and founder of the United Irish the barrel of their guns before’. port that I met ‘Mr Wonderful’ (her hus- Seamus Walsh in Westport. Pic: Michael McLaughlin by President Éamon de Valera, Seán THE MAYO NEWS 1916 COMMEMORATION TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016 TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016 1916 COMMEMORATION THE MAYO NEWS 6 7 From Westport to South Africa

The Boer War was a vital part of the development of an Irish patriot from Westport Quay

ANTHONY JORDAN

JOHN MacBride was born on May 8, 1868, the youngest of fi ve sons born to Honoria Gill and Patrick MacBride of The Helm, Westport Quay, a prosperous grocery, pub and hardware business. His brother Joseph would later become a Sinn Féin TD and Anthony the Mayo County Surgeon. John attended the local Christian Brothers School and St Malachy’s College, Belfast. His father had been a ship’s captain y FAMILY PORTRAIT Maud Gonne MacBride, baby Seán MacBride and Major John MacBride pictured in 1904. from the Glens of Antrim. His mother’s Pic courtesy of Westport Historical Society family had a long tradition in Irish nation- alism. John worked in Castlerea before going to work at a wholesale chemists Hugh Moore and Co, Yarnhall St, Dub- lin. He was a member of the Celtic Literary Society and the IRB. His police fi le, dated The MacBride-Gonne-Yeats triangle August 2, 1895 says ‘he was 5’ 6’’ with red hair, fair eyebrows, long nose, regular mouth, fair complexion, thin visage, no whiskers, reddish moustache, no beard y BOER WAR CANNON John MacBride posing with the captured sight of a and a native of Westport Quay. His address y MOTHER AND SON Major John MacBride pictured with his mother British cannon, seized at Colenso. It became a prized memento of the Boer In London she consulted her family solicitor. delivered on August 8, 1906. Maud wrote to WB Yeats: “no, I don’t like your poem, it isn’t worthy was 13 O’Connell Ave Dublin’. It added Honoria Gill. Image courtesy of the National Library of Ireland War. Pic courtesy of Westport Historical Society Major John MacBride She then met Dr Anthony MacBride, John’s brother, Yeats with the verdict: of you and above all it isn’t worthy of the subject ‘he was said to be an active Secret Soci- in London. She informed Anthony that a docu- … As for my husband he has entered Eternity by ety man and intimate with Fred Allen’, a married Maud Gonne ment was being drawn up for John’s signature My dear Willie, the great door of sacrifi ce which Christ opened leading member of the IRB. He would in day last, and we are to be made full burgh- defeated. Davitt then visited South Africa. twenty pitched battles and forty skir- in 1903 but their wherein he would admit to an indecent offence Hear is the verdict as far as I can remember it not and has therefore atoned for all so that in praying 1905 become one of the founders of the ers. President Kruger insisted that the He and MacBride had a very amicable mishes. Its loss in killed, wounded, and against Maud’s daughter Iseult Millevoye, assign as yet having received the written copy. MacBride for him I can also ask for his prayers and ‘A ter- Mayo Men’s Association in Dublin and Irishmen who have come to the assist- meeting in Pretoria. missing was about eighty men. relationship was custody of baby Seán to her and promise to live has succeeded in proving Irish nationality and rible beauty is born’”. in 1907 he was one of the subscribers to ance of the Republic in its hour of danger In Ireland a Transvaal Ambulance Fund John MacBride wrote: ‘in this hastily in America. If he refused, criminal proceedings domicile so that only a separation and not a divorce After John MacBride’s execution WB Yeats pro- the Mayo Industrial Association. must be made burghers at once’. was set up by Maud Gonne, Griffi th and written sketch I have omitted many things, often fraught would commence in Paris. can be granted. The Court now suits Mr MacBride posed marriage to Maud and was again refused. In 1896 MacBride attended the National The Boer War began in October 1899 John O’Leary to send reinforcements and but some time I have leisure I may write in his petition of separation against me - the Court He then proposed unsuccessfully to her daughter Alliance Convention in Chicago. He and MacBride’s Brigade, consisting of a fl ag out to MacBride. Among those who a detailed account of the doings of the DENIALS thinks the charges of immorality are insuffi ciently Iseult. Maud later returned to live in Dublin and wrote, ‘shortly after the Jameson Raid, I about 300 men, was in the vanguard as contributed were: J Cunnane, Knock, Brigade. We fought to uphold the honour ANTHONY JORDAN JOHN travelled to London, met Maud, denied the proved, but the charges of drunkenness are mani- wore black as she became one of the widows of resolved to go to the South African Repub- Natal was invaded. The Boers were very Ballyhaunis. of Ireland and the cause of a kindly, cour- allegations and refused to sign. WB Yeats was festly proved … the Court grants Mrs MacBride 1916. lic as I knew then England had her mind successful early on and captured many As the British feared losing the war We fought to teous, gallant little nation. We received overjoyed to hear the news, advised Maud to sue judicial separation in her favour and gives her the made up to take the country, and I wanted British soldiers. they brought in large number of troops no pay, nor would we have accepted any. for divorce and became her confi dant. He excori- right of guardianship of the child. It allows the father MAUD GONNE’S PRAISE to organise my countrymen there, so as After the Battle of Dundee MacBride and began to push the Boers northward uphold the We were soldiers of freedom – the mer- aud Gonne, the daughter of an Eng- ated MacBride in various writings, which are the right of visiting the child at his wife’s house every IN her ‘A Servant of the Queen’ published in 1938 to be in a position to strike a blow at wrote that some of his men were embar- defeating them at the crucial battle at “ cenaries were all on the other side. That lish Army offi cer, was introduced fervently believed by Yeats’ followers to this day. Monday and when the child shall be over six years Maud wrote movingly in praise about the kind of England’s power abroad when we could rassed to discover that among the Dub- Brandford. As the Boers retreated towards honour of the cause of the Boers will triumph ulti- to Ireland while her father was sta- Maud returned to Paris with the baby and peti- old allows the father to have him for one month in man John was. She recalled the frequent occasions not, unfortunately, do so at home’. lin and Irish Fusiliers captured were Johannesburg and Pretoria the Irish Bri- mately I am certain, else there were no tioned there. She became a convert tioned the Court on February 3, 1905. John had the year … I am very disappointed and I shall prob- she took tea with him in his tiny attic fl at discuss- He was soon joined by his close friend fellow classmates from Dublin. gade brought up the rear defending the Ireland and God. I trust that my countrymen will no to advanced Irish nationalism, two weeks to respond to the Court rebutting the ably appeal against his verdict and change my ing plans to free Ireland. from Dublin, Arthur Griffi th. They organ- The Irish Transvaal Brigade was involved heavy artillery, eventually crossing the longer be deceived by the idea that Eng- Mfavouring physical force against the English. allegations. lawyer for Cruppi neglected my affairs shock- She wrote: ‘most of these plans did not bear ised an ‘Irish Society’ in Johannesburg in battles at Spion Kop, Pepworth Hill, border with Lourenco Marques in Por- the cause of land is invincible. Her army is simply She was captivated on meeting John MacBride The immorality accusations made by Maud were ingly. fruit, though indeed he got his chance of another which led the celebration of the cente- Colenso, and the siege of Ladysmith. The tuguese East Africa. The British began rotten; her navy, I am convinced, is little in Paris in 1900, an Irishman who had actually ones that had been reported to her by her friends fi ght against the English for Irish freedom, when nary of the Rising of 1798 in that city. Brigade then moved with the Boer Army to lay waste to the land and set up con- a kindly, better. She has lived on bluff for half a fought the British, in the Boer War. She was a and servants in late 1904, after John had left the John exercised his visiting rights on a few occa- he took his place among the sixteen men of imper- Griffi th then returned home to edit Wil- to Orange Free State. In one battle Mac- centration camps. century. We, who saw her soldiers run- famous celebrity fi gure and the muse of WB Yeats, marriage. One was that John had committed adul- sions before returning to live permanently in ishable glory who were executed in 1916’. lie Rooney’s newspaper The United Irish- Bride had his horse shot from beneath On September 25 the Brigade partici- courteous, ning on a score of fi elds, know how much who had proposed marriage to her on several tery with Maud’s own half-sister Eileen Wilson. Dublin, never to see his son again. Maud raised My own view on the separation is that Maud man. John worked as an assayer in the him and only for the bravery of one of pated in its last engagement as a Brigade. her boast of power is worth. That we occasions. Maud explained to Yeats on John, ‘his claim on Seán in the French language to distance him from was psychologically incapable of contemplating recently discovered gold mines. the Brigadiers would have been killed. The war now entered a new guerrilla gallant little may live to upraise the fl ag of the Brigade When the impending marriage of Maud and my son makes it unavoidable. I have complete his father, should John ever try to regain custody losing her baby boy, Seán. Her fi rst born boy, MacBride reports how General Botha phase and all the foreign commandoes in Ireland is our prayer’. John was announced in 1903, their families and proof. The evidence against MacBride is over- of him. Some have designated this as an early George Millevoye, had died in infancy. She believed IRISH BRIGADE praised the courage of the Connaught were disbanded. State Secretary FW Reitz nation If the Brigadiers returned to Ireland friends cautioned against it, deeming them incom- whelmingly terrible and complete’. Eileen travelled example of parent alienation syndrome. Maud in reincarnation and saw Seán as the reincarna- WHEN it became obvious that a war Rangers and Dublin Fusiliers in battle. and Generals Botha and Viljoen having they faced arrest. Most of them went to patible. WB Yeats was distraught at the marriage from Westport to Paris, where she was happily later appealed the verdict and the proposed tion of Georges. In those circumstances she set with England was inevitable John fl oated MacBride himself witnessed the courage thanked the Brigade in the name of the - Major John America. John MacBride travelled to and her conversion to Catholicism. His hatred of married to Joseph MacBride [John’s brother], and monthly visitation by John MacBride was out to destroy her husband. Her introduction of the idea of organising an Irish Brigade of Lord Roberts son Frederick, as he died Republic. Among the letters handed to Paris, where he was met by members of MacBride knew few bounds. rebutted this allegation in court. Strangely Maud rescinded. the immorality allegations followed and were to fi ght with the Boers. Griffi th’s paper in battle at Chieveley, Natal. Major MacBride was the following from MacBride on his family, Arthur Griffi th and Maud When their baby Seán MacBride was born in did not include her earlier allegation concerning In 1910 John MacBride was a candidate for a thrown out by the Parisian Court. While Maud’s carried a piece from John on September State Secretary Reitz: ‘In the name of the Gonne. 1904 the marriage was in dire trouble and John Iseult to the court. position with Dublin Corporation. Among the actions can be understood, I feel those of WB 17, 1899 reading: ‘we are doing well with DAVITT CONNECTION Government of the South African Repub- participation John MacBride subsequently wrote an went to America for several months. On arrival John MacBride’s counsel raised it, in order to people who canvassed for him was Maud Gonne Yeats and his devoted followers are dishonour- our Irish Brigade. In a couple of weeks MICHAEL Davitt resigned his seat at lic, I hereby express my hearty thanks to extensive account of the Irish Brigade. back to Paris he told Maud that he was leaving have it dealt with by the court, thereby risking a but he rejected her overture. She continued to able in insisting on the condemnation of an appar- we hope to be assisting our friends, the Westminster in protest against the Boer Major McBride and the Irish Brigade for in the Boer It is contained in “Boer War to Easter the marriage and he left for Westport. John wanted 20-year jail sentence on John, should he be found live in Paris. ently innocent man. Boers, to drive the English robbers into War. MacBride was put up as a candidate the valuable services rendered to our Rising - the Writings of John MacBride” the baby brought up by his own mother in West- guilty of such an offence. When WB Yeats continued his vitriol towards the Indian Ocean. Our deputation waited in the by-election in South Mayo by country during the war’. War by Anthony J Jordan.[Available on Kin- port. Maud agreed to meet him in Dublin with The case was heard initially in November 1905, John in his famous poem ‘Easter 1916’, Maud Anthony J Jordan’s 2000 book ‘The Yeats/Gonne/ on the President and Executive on Wednes- Arthur Griffith and others but was In all, the Brigade participated in about dle] the baby. resumed in February 1906, with a verdict being rejected the poem on several grounds, writing to MacBride Triangle’ deals with this story in depth. THE MAYO NEWS 1916 COMMEMORATION TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016 TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016 1916 COMMEMORATION THE MAYO NEWS 8 9 President’s tribute An accidental 1916 Rebel to Major MacBride Though one of the of fi ghting it out the majority counselled obedi- ence to the order. EDWIN MCGREAL capable, forceful women ‘dangerous nationalist’ and better known executed MacDonagh listened carefully and then summed which the West pro- was constantly shadowed up. His voice shook as he spoke and fi nally with duces,” he said. by detectives wherever leaders, John tears in his eyes broke down, crying: ‘boys, we Joseph Mac- he went in Ireland,” must give in. We must leave some to carry on he offi cial unveiling of a com- Bride was said the President. MacBride’s involvement the struggle’. memorative plaque to Major John elected the fi rst President de MacBride at his birthplace at Sinn Féin TD Valera went on to in the 1916 Rising came ‘LIBERTY IS A PRICELESS THING’ Westport Quay took place in for West speak about John PEADAR Kearney recorded that he discussed 1963. Mayo in 1918; MacBride’s role in about by chance leaving with Major MacBride, who told him: TIn attendance at the ceremony at The Patrick inher- the Boer War and ‘Liberty is a priceless thing and any of you that Helm Bar was President Éamon de Valera, ited the fam- in the republican sees a chance, take it. I’d do so myself, but my himself one of the leaders of the 1916 Ris- ily business; struggle, before liberty days are over. Good luck boys. Many of ing, who was said to have survived execu- Anthony, who talking about 1916. ANTHONY JORDAN you may live to fi ght some other day. Take my tion by virtue of his American birth. was County “Of all the leaders advice and never allow yourself to be cooped up President de Valera gave a lengthy speech Surgeon until of the 1916 Rising, he inside the walls of a building again’. The advice at the ceremony, which took place on the mid 1930s and probably better than was taken. August 4. He vividly told those gathered Francis, who emi- any of the other leaders JOHN MacBride had come into Dublin that Easter The Cumann na mBan women did not wish to of the formative years of John MacBride’s grated to Australia, knew what faced him. As Monday, 1916 morning from Glenageary to meet leave. MacBride spoke to Maire Ní Shiubhlaigh life. were John’s older a military man, he knew his brother Dr Anthony who was travelling from saying: ‘it would be better for you to go’. He asked “It is said that there is an island in Clew brothers. y PORTRAIT A colour portrait of there was no hope of Mayo, to be married in Crumlin on the Wednes- her to pass on a message to her neighbour, Clara Bay for every day of the year. That may be Westport Quay was Major John Mac Bride. success; as an implac- day. John was to be the Best Man. Allan of Glenageary, a woman he loved: ‘tell them so but for John MacBride there was one a ‘thriving port’ in Pic courtesy of Matt Loughrey able foe of British rule He was early and strolled up Grafton St to walk that we had a good week of it and ask her to mind island in particular: Island More. His those days’ and there in Ireland, he knew there in St Stephen’s Green where, to his surprise, he the fl ag’. Nic Shiubhlaigh wrote of MacBride: ‘he mother’s people came from Island More. was ‘a strong Fenian would be no mercy saw Thomas MacDonagh assembling his Volun- fulfi lled all the expectations as a soldier of cour- She was Honoria Gill: a truly remarkable tradition’ in the Gill family President de shown to him. With Thomas MacDonagh teers. MacBride was a famous soldier as a founder age and resource, a gentleman, quiet, witty, always woman, forceful, kind, but always master- Valera said. he was in charge of the Republican forces and co-leader of the Irish Transvaal Brigade in unruffl ed. Without exception, the Volunteers in ful. She married a ship’s Captain from the “Sailing in and out of the islands was the in Jacob’s Factory. Captured and sentenced the Boer War. He was too well-known by the the building admired and respected him. It is sad Glens of Antrim, Patrick MacBride. Storms summer pastime of the young Mac- to death, he was executed on May 5, 1916. police to have been part of the Military Coun- to look back; every man in the place went to seldom delayed his ship. Brides. He asked not to be blindfolded, adding, ‘I cil. confession. I think John MacBride went. He told “Captain MacBride died shortly after “It is against this background of sails and am used to looking down the barrels of MacDonagh invited him to march with him to Bob Price he had been away from confession for John’s birth in 1868, and Honoria had the of the Fenian tradition in the West that British guns.’” take over the nearby Jacob’s Biscuit Factory. some time. God rest him’. task of rearing John and his four elder John MacBride grew up. He became a MacBride did not hesitate and was appointed John MacBride was court-martialed before brothers and of running the family busi- friend of John O’Leary. From 1893 he was President de Valera’s speech was printed second in command. His appointment on the Brigadier CJ Blackadder on May 4. He called one ness at the Quay. But she was one of those regarded by the British Authorities as a in Cathair na Mart Number 10 (1990). back of a Jacob’s Invoice was found on MacBride witness, Clara Allen, to see her for the last time. after the surrender and used in evidence at his Fr Augustine reached the prison at 2am on Fri- Field Court Martial. His military experience was day, May 5 and was immediately shown to a cell. to prove important to the garrison during the He gripped the hand of Major MacBride who week as he effectively became the military com- was quiet and natural as ever. mander. Fr Augustine continues: “His very fi rst words Remembering my noble ancestor After they repulsed an early attempted incur- expressed sorrow for the surrender. He emptied sion by the British, the Jacob’s garrison was his pockets of whatever silver and copper he had mainly active in supplying nearby garrisons such and asked me to give it to the poor. Finally, after as the Irish Citizen Army in the Royal College placing his Rosary tenderly in my hand, he uttered When the Rising began on Easter Mon- y LIAM CANNING of Surgeons with provisions, forming parties to 1916 LEADERS The famous painting of the a sentence that thrilled me; ‘and give that to my day on April 24, 1916, MacBride offered 1916 executed rebel leaders shows Major John gather information on what was happening in MacBride sitting, second from left, between mother’. Then he began his confession with the his services to Thomas MacDonagh and the city (the last communication from the GPO Padraig Pearse and Thomas Clarke. A copy of this simplicity and humility of a child; after a few served as his second in command at Jacob’s was on the Wednesday) and supporting other painting is on display at the Jackie Clarke Museum minutes I gave him Holy Communion and we WHEN Major John MacBride faced the factory. He deeply regretted Pearse’s deci- garrisons by sending men to join the fi ghting. in Ballina. Pic: Corinne Beattie spent some time in prayer. I told him I would be fi ring squad in Kilmainham jail on May 5, sion to surrender on the following Satur- In particular, a group of 20 men was sent to de with him to the last and that I would assist him 1916, he was arguably the most high-profi le day. MacBride was taken to Richmond Valera’s Boland’s Mills and Westland Row Rail- British Army would shell Jacob’s unless they when he fell … When the time was up, a soldier rebel who’d been sentenced to death for Barracks where he was tried by Court way Station, which was under heavy fi re from surrendered. knocked on the door and we went down together his part in the rising. He was a great friend Martial and was sentenced to death. He the British Army. When they reached the Mount Thomas B Gay records that on hearing that to the passage where fi nal preparations were of Arthur Griffi th, founder of Sinn Féin is reported to have said that ‘nothing will Street area they were fi red on and were forced MacDonagh had gone to discuss surrender, Con made … The prisoner stiffens and expands his and had been married to Maud Gonne, the save me, this is the end, remember that to retreat, with Volunteer John O’Grady mortally Colbert in Marrowbone Lane requested him to chest. Then quickly, a silent signal, a loud volley, woman who inspired much of WB Yeats’s this is the second time I have sinned against wounded – the only member of the garrison to seek any message of surrender in writing from and the body collapses in a heap. I moved for- most romantic poetry. They had a son them’. die that week. Major MacBride. ward quickly and anoint him’. together named Seán MacBride, who went On the morning of his execution, Mac- Gay went to Jacob’s, found Major MacBride on to have a long and distinguished career Bride was visited by Father Augustine in CONFUSION and gave him the message. MacBride’s reply was: in politics. his cell. Fr Augustine reported that Mac- ALL during the week rumours were fast and ‘I have never in my life written an order for Irish- Born at Westport Quay in 1868, John Bride emptied his pockets of silver and furious - that the Germans had landed in the men to surrender and I do not propose to do it HOW JOHN MACBRIDE’S MacBride was the son of Patrick MacBride, copper and asked him to give it to the South and were marching on Dublin and so on. now. Will you return at once and inform whoever a native of Co Antrim and Honoria Gill, poor. He asked that his Rosary beads be The days were all mixed up because they got is in charge that when they see the fl ag coming MOTHER HEARD THE NEWS whose family had strong links to the Fenian given to his mother. very little sleep and did not know one day from down from the top of our building they will know tradition in Mayo and beyond. He became When he faced the fi ring squad, he bravely another. the surrender is taking place; beyond that I will Tommy Hevey relates how he saw Major a member of the Irish Republican Brother- asked not to be blindfolded adding ‘I am As Low Sunday approached the sound of heavy not go’. John MacBride’s photograph on the front hood while apprenticed as a draper’s assist- used to looking down the barrel of British guns, machine gun staccato and the crack of the On his return MacDonagh summoned all offi c- page of a newspaper, telling of his execution. ant in Co Roscommon and when he later guns’. For many the name Major John rifl e gradually died down the previous day and ers to the staff room. A silent Company awaited Mrs Joyce, the newsagent, then dispatched went to work in Dublin he became an active MacBride means Westport, he was a great- y REFLECTING Liam Canning, a descendant Saturday night had been unnaturally quiet. It was his report. Major MacBride sat calmly beside him immediately to the MacBride home at member of the Young Ireland League and of Major John MacBride, speaking about him great-granduncle to me and I’m proud to obvious that the struggle in Dublin was fi nished. him at a table. Thomas announced that Pearse Westport Quay with the bad news. Hevey the Celtic Literary Society during the early at Rice College’s Proclamation Day. be a descendant of this great and noble Elizabeth O’Farrell and two Capuchin priests, Fr had surrendered and had issued an order to all said that ‘Mrs MacBride was deeply shocked 1890s. Pic: Michael McLaughlin man. Augustine and Fr Aloysius arrived with news of units to do likewise. and just bowed her head’. In 1895, MacBride emigrated to South Pearse’s surrender order. He read the order pointing out that they were From Vincent Keane’s ‘Westport and the Irish Africa and it was while fi ghting against When MacBride eventually returned to - Liam Canning, a Fifth Year student at Thomas MacDonagh left with them under a not bound to obey orders from a prisoner. He Volunteers’ Parts 1 and 2, Cathair na Mart 22 British troops in the Boer War that he dis- Dublin he was very active in the Irish Rice College, Westport and descendant of under a fl ag of Truce to meet Pearse and to con- y MEMORIAL Pictured at the unveiling of the memorial to Major John MacBride at The Mall, Westport solicited the views of those present as to the and 23 (2002 and 2003) tinguished himself as a soldier and leader Republican movement and worked along- Major MacBride, gave this account of the sult with Eamon Kent. MacDonagh was later on July 3, 1983 were, from left: Peter Grant (sculptor), President Patrick Hillary, Owen Hughes, Chairman most desirable course to be pursued. Each offi cer of men. He was awarded the title of Major side Pádraig Pearse and James Connolly Major at the school’s Proclamation Day in given an ultimatum by General Lowe that the of the MacBride Memorial Committee and Major MacBride’s son, Seán MacBride. spoke up in turn and though some were in favour in the Boer Army. and the other leading rebels. March THE MAYO NEWS 1916 COMMEMORATION TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016 TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016 1916 COMMEMORATION THE MAYO NEWS 10 11

“There was no fi re brigade in Kiltimagh at the time, and the Castlebar engine was at a school fi re in Turlough. When they got to Kiltimagh, the water supply was inadequate. None of that mattered, the house was gone in half an hour. It was an old house.” Pat Ruane grew up without his mother Daring, and father and with no sisters and broth- ers. He was reared on Linenhall Street in Castlebar by his mother’s uncle, Michael Lally – the only man he knew as ‘Dad’. “The fi rst big word I knew was ‘trag- edy’,” says Pat.

PRIDE, IN PAST AND FUTURE HIS uncle Seán T, who was a Fine Gael strife senator and county councillor, was his main source of information on his father and their family. “I didn’t appreciate until Seán T was dead that there was no other source of information left. I used to meet Seán T at council meetings in Castlebar. I worked with the council as a staff offi cer and Seán T used to tell me bits and pieces,” tragedy recalls Pat. How does he refl ect on 1944 now? “It meant my parents were strangers & to me. I often wonder what life would be like if it hadn’t happened. But I wouldn’t have my wife and my family (two sons The fascinating and, ultimately, tragic life of Kiltimagh man Jim Ruane and two daughters that I’m so proud of) if I had stayed in Kiltimagh and not [been reared in] Castlebar. “I was very happy in Linenhall Street. I had a great relationship with Michael EDWIN MCGREAL Lally and I was on very good terms with his children, Joe and Angela. “There was a lot of tragedy. It must have been devastating. We still have my im Ruane and his friend Dan father’s Sam Browne belt and his cane. Sheehy were walking up Main His revolver was in a safe when the fi re Street in Kiltimagh when they happened. He was keeping that for saw an intriguing sight. An unat- Lavan! tended car. “I am very proud of my father. I got his JIt was Sunday, April 30, 1916, and the 1916 medal when I was 21, and it means Easter Rising in Dublin was over. Down a lot to me.” the country it never got going, partly While we chat, Pat’s wife Mary gets a due to confusion over Eoin MacNeill’s call with some good news. Their elev- countermand but also because Volun- enth grandchild has just been delivered teers around the country were very in Mayo University Hospital. The child, poorly equipped for launching any insur- born one hundred years after the Rising, gency. is a baby boy, called Pearse. The two Mayo teenagers were acutely aware of the weapons shortage, and it was known that there was a consignment of rifl es in the area. Seven days earlier, There, they told leading local Volun- and were never suspected of involve- active part in the struggle for independ- y MY FATHER AND leagues stormed into Ruanes’ Bar. Pat’s aunt Margaret was persuaded to an attempt to relieve rifl es from an Irish teer Dick Walsh of the possible arrival. ment. The guns did not remain long in ence. His father, Simon was a member 1916 Pat Ruane (far right) Jim Ruane and his brother Tommy drop Pat from a fi rst-fl oor window to MY FATHER’S GUN Party (Redmondite) representative failed Walsh, Ruane, Sheehy and another man the hands of the Volunteers though. Seán of the secret Irish Republican Brother- pictured holding a were shot, while Willie Moran, one of safety on the street, where he was caught when a latch on a window had not been decided they would act if the car T Ruane recalled that as a relative of hood, and Jim joined the Volunteers in photograph of his father Jim Lavan’s group, was shot dead in the ensu- unharmed. Margaret herself then jumped. Pat Ruane had possession of his in his National Army uniform, left open. stopped. one of those men arrested was in a posi- 1914. when interviewed by The ing chaos. Both Ruane brothers were She got caught in telephone wires, but father’s Army Wembley 45 revolver As the duo scanned the street and There was another problem, however tion where he could be ‘victimised’ by He served as Battalion and later Bri- Mayo News at his home in critically wounded. Jim would live, but Pat reckons these ‘broke her fall’ and in 1969 when the start of the watched the empty car, they put two and – the weapons shortage meant they had the authorities, the Balla prisoners gade Chief Signaller with the Irish Vol- Castlebar last week. Pictured Tommy died in hospital one week meant her injuries were serious rather Troubles led to a Government order two together. The car contained arms. no gun to hold up Moclair and Quinn. decided to give up the location of the unteers and the IRA. During the War of above, from left, are: a later. than fatal. declaring all such weapons illegal. In fact, the car was carrying 14 rifl es that Though only 19 at the time, Jim Ruane rifl es and they were released from cus- Independence, he took part in various replica of the brass beer tap Lavan fl ed to the US, but when he By the time that wretched night had He went into Castlebar Garda were being brought to the authorities in was prepared for this particular even- tody. activities, including IRA attacks on RIC which Jim Ruane provided recovered, Jim Ruane and another brother, passed, Jim Ruane, his wife Mary, three Station where they were clearly for use as a gun to seize a Castlebar by two Redmondites, TS tuality. He had a brass beer tap from the Seán T Ruane went on say that this patrols and barracks at Bohola and Bal- consignment of rifl es in Balla Paddy, went after him. of their children (Thomas, aged seven; oblivious to the Government edict. Moclair and T Quinn, who had adjourned family pub in Kiltimagh. Held the right story helps to show that the Volunteers lyvary, as well as arms raids and the in April, 1916; a picture of “They never found him though,” Pat Maura, six and Seamus, fi ve) and three “I walked in and told the guard to a local hostelry. The two young men way, it did not look unlike a gun. Neces- down the country were willing but not manufacture of munitions. Jim Ruane on display in the Ruane told The Mayo News this week. of their staff (Kathleen King, Kathleen there ‘I’ve something for you’ and saw a glorious opportunity to help to sity was the mother of invention in 1916, able that Easter, due to weapons short- In April, 1922, he joined the National Jackie Clarke Museum in “It’s probably fortunate they didn’t, Murtagh and Michael Stritch) were all showed him the gun. He let an arm the local Irish Volunteers. and so the four men waited patiently. ages. Army, and it was after this that an infa- Ballina; and the 1916 medal because they would have got the electric dead. awful jump out of him! They didn’t There was one snag. Neither Ruane Their instincts were right. The car “I give these details as to what help mous incident took place in Kiltimagh, presented to Jim Ruane on chair or would have been hanged if they The death of eight people that night know about the order at all, so one the 25th anniversary of the nor Sheehy could drive. The pair met a stopped at McEllin’s Hotel in Balla, and would have been available to the men an incident that would cast a long Rising in 1941. Pics: did get him.” in Kiltimagh was one of the greatest of them hot-footed it over to local woman, Miss Gavin, and pleaded the four men, armed with a beer tap, of Easter Week up and down the coun- shadow. Corinne Beattie Lavan eventually returned to Kiltim- tragedies of the century to befall Hanley’s on the Mall and checked for her help, but she had never driven a relieved Moclair and Quinn of their 14 try if only they were partly armed,” he The Ruane brothers took the pro-Treaty agh, but only after Jim Ruane’s death. Mayo. the paper. I told him, ‘Sure I’ll take motor car either – few people could drive rifl es. It was the only organised insur- said. side that year. One man on the other Pat Ruane is far from certain the fi re it back’.” in 1916. gency in Mayo that Easter. Jim Ruane was awarded an Easter Week side was another Kiltimagh man, Martin TRAGIC BLAZE was an accident. “There’s a big question “No, no, I can’t let it out of my The opportunity to speed away with medal for his role in this incident – the Lavan. In his book ‘The Road to 51, The FOR the Ruanes, the shooting of 1922 mark over that. My aunt said she heard sight,” he says back to me. rifl es looked like it could pass, but the READY, WILLING, NOT ABLE only person to receive a medal for action Making of Mayo Football’, James Laffey would be followed by even greater trag- a commotion outside. Politics was very Pat was told he could have it back resourceful duo were not giving up that THE guns were stored in a nearby grave- in Mayo that Easter. describes Lavan as a ‘combustible indi- edy a little over two decades later. hot at the time, meetings were being if he would allow them to disarm it. easily. yard, according to Seán T Ruane, Jim’s His medal and other mementos are vidual’. The Ruanes would fi nd out just Pat was just 18 months old when, in broken up. The offi cial line was that “I told the cop ‘If I want a pop gun, oldest brother, who recounted the story part of a display in the Jackie Clarke how combustible on Thursday, June 28, the early hours of May 18, 1944, a fi re something electrical was left on. I have I’ll go to a toy shop!’. I hope to get ARMS ON TAP in his Bureau of Military History state- Museum in Ballina, gifted to the Museum 1922. took hold of Ruanes’ pub and store in my doubts,” he says. it back and am applying to get it. I ANTICIPATING that the car might stop ment in 1957. Dick Walsh would be one for this year by Jim’s son, Pat. Lavan had previously attempted to Kiltimagh. “Michael Stritch worked in the yard, think it is stored in the Phoenix at Balla on the way to Castlebar, they of those arrested, but, being from Kilti- target the Ruanes after Sunday Mass, As locals rushed to help, the building and he had actually got out onto a fl at Park (Garda HQ). It is of big hot-tailed it on their bikes to the village, magh, Jim Ruane and Dan Sheehy were BARROOM SHOOTOUT but he had been foiled. On that Thursday was engulfed in fl ames with ten people roof [of the burning building], but he sentimental value.” fi ve miles away. able to sneak back to Raftery country JIM Ruane would go on to play a very evening in June, Lavan and some col- trapped inside. went back in to try to help. THE MAYO NEWS 1916 COMMEMORATION TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016 TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016 1916 COMMEMORATION THE MAYO NEWS 12 13

< MULTI-FACETED One of the art works on show Like many others, McCoole has urged that the in the recent ‘Insider on the Outside’ exhibition on proposed new national children’s hospital should Mayo-born Dr Kathleen Lynn is this photographic installation by artist Mary Kelly, called ‘Matriline’. be named after Dr Kathleen Lynn. One wonders what the Mayo-born medic and revolutionary would say about the contemporary Ireland? Thus, during the 50th anniversary celebrations Dr O’Mahony surmises that Lynn ‘would have in 1966, notes O’Mahony, ‘women were not admit- applauded our stable democracy and the fact ted into offi cial narratives’. that we have fulfi lled Robert Emmet’s wish that Ireland take its place among the nations of the SUFFRAGETTE AND world’. However, the republic she aspired to SOCIALIST REPUBLICAN would never have capitulated to the profl igacy Lynn’s legacy A staunch suffragette and socialist republican, of Celtic Tiger capitalism. Kathleen Lynn was an upper-middle-class medic “Rather, values of participation, citizens’ rights, who lived openly with her lesbian lover and fel- equality of access to life chances and a social low activist, Madeleine ffrench-Mullen in Bel- justice agenda would have prevailed in Dr Lynn’s grave Road, Rathmines, Dublin. Ireland. The pragmatic, creative, skillful, human- Born in Mullaghfarry, near Killala, in 1874, she itarian woman that Dr Lynn was would surely was the second child of Church of Ireland cler- have found methodologies to cherish all of our gyman Robert Lynn and his wife, Catherine nation equally,” argues Dr O’Mahony. Wynne, a descendant of the Earl of Hazle- lauded at last wood. Educated by a governess and later at Alexan- dria School, Dublin, she was one of the fi rst EXTRACTS FROM female medicine graduates from the Catholic University School. After undertaking postgrad- LYNN’S DIARIES uate research in the US, she returned to Ireland in 1904 where some of her male colleagues at the Adelaide Hospital refused to work with her MONDAY, APRIL 24, ÁINE RYAN Sean Connolly on the Citizen Army’s arrival. laborative, entitled ‘Insider on the Outside’, cel- because of her gender. EASTER MONDAY. Poignantly, soon afterwards, Connolly was him- ebrating her rich multi-layered legacy has just Lynn’s disillusionment with John Redmond’s self shot on the roof of City Hall, in front of Lynn closed after being on show since Easter Saturday Home Rule party because of its failure to sup- Revolution. Emer (Helena Molony) and I in City and his girlfriend Helena Molony. last, March 26. port the franchise for women undoubtedly helped Hall, (Sean) Connolly shot quite early in day. Place FIVE days before the Easter Rising of 1916, James “We suddenly saw him fall mortally wounded This multimedia investigation into the life, work to compound her activism in the suffragette taken in evening. All women taken to Ship St Connolly gave Dr Kathleen Lynn a gold brooch by a sniper’s bullet from the castle,” she wrote. and the contemporary context of the Killala-born movement and radical republicanism. Her vol- about 8.30. in recognition of her work as a Captain and Chief “First aid was useless. He died almost immedi- feminist was created through newly-commissioned unteerism during the 1913 Lock Out helped push Medical Officer of the Irish Citizen Army ately.” works by 12 of the 13 participating artists. her further along the path towards revolution, (ICA). By evening, City Hall was occupied by British As the Director of the Linenhall Arts Centre, according to her biographer, Margaret O’ hOga- TUESDAY, APRIL 25 It might have been expected that her distant soldiers and Kathleen Lynn was among those Marie Farrell, observed at the time of the open- rtaigh. Ship Street Barracks. We objected to lavatory cousin, Countess Constance Markievicz, a more arrested and taken to Ship Street Barracks. She ing: “Kathleen Lynn was an amazing Mayo woman. An opponent of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, she accommodation and heard it was good enough high-profi le member of the socialist army, would was later transferred to Richmond Barracks, The early years of the last century were a time became an abstentionist Sinn Féin TD in 1923, for us, that lice, fl eas and typhoid should content have been the recipient. However, as Connolly’s Mountjoy and Kilmainham jails. of great idealism, creativity and energy, and later refusing to join Fianna Fáil, and instead us. Another offi cer had the WC cleaned and was daughter, Nora, wrote in the 1950s: “The mem- Unsurprisingly, Lynn’s family, privileged Prot- Kathleen was right at the heart of it. I regret that dedicated her life to the development of St Ultan’s quite civil. Had good dinner, same as soldiers. bers of the Citizen Army, who were perhaps estants, did not approve of her actions and for- it is only in recent years I learned of her role in Infant Hospital, which she ran with ffrench- renowned for the toughness of their qualities bade her from returning home. They did help the founding of our State and her incredible work Mullen. At the time, Dublin’s infant mortality rather than the delicacy of their perceptions, her avoid imprisonment though by securing her with sick infants. rate was very high due to widespread malnutri- MONDAY, MAY 8 were swift to recognise this calm serenity of Dr a position as an assistant doctor in Bath, living “She should have formed part of the rich tap- tion and an alarming number of children born Heard three shots this morning, told later on Lynn, and won comfort and assurances from it effectively under ‘open arrest’. Indeed, her activ- estry of my life and my children’s lives as they with venereal disease. Mallin, Ceannt and Colbert had been shot. That many times … Those who were there with her ism during the subsequent War of Independence were growing into adulthood. It is fi tting that The patriarchy and rigid Catholic nationalism makes seven. What other country shoots its remember and often tell of her calmness and would land her in jail, but again her expertise as Kathleen will be remembered in her home county of the new State, however, meant that the femi- prisoners in cold blood! God bless them, they did serenity while on the roof of City Hall with bul- a medic led to her release so she could provide in the early years of this century with work pro- nist and Protestant ethos of this hospital was not fear to die for Ireland. lets smacking all round her.” expert assistance during a fl u epidemic that was duced by a creatively-engaged and committed treated with suspicion by Archbishop John Charles Indeed, when that battalion’s leader, Sean Con- ravaging the capital city. group of visual artists.” McQuaid, who charged the Knights of Colum- nolly, became the fi rst rebel fatality as he raised But as Dr Ann O’Mahony suggested at the banus to spy on Lynn’s pioneering activities, TUESDAY, MAY 9 the fl ag over City Hall on Easter Monday after- DODGING BULLETS launch of ‘Insider on the Outside’: “History as a which included the use of the BCG vaccine. Heard very pitiful crying, it was Miss (Nellie) noon, it was Lynn who took over as offi cer-in- ONE hundred years after Kathleen Lynn dodged discipline is highly selective in its narratives and Undaunted, however, Lynn ran the hospital Gifford, her brother told her that two brothers in charge. bullets on the roof of Dublin’s City Hall her pro- positionings. Until challenged by mass move- until her death, aged 80, in 1955. Her quiet prag- law were shot, MacDonagh and Plunkett. Kind During the heady and tense days leading up to gressive legacy has been marked – at last – here ments, such as second-wave feminism, in the last matism had ensured the hospital’s funding, and matron let me go to her for a little. the Rising, Lynn had used her car to run guns in her native county and also, fi ttingly, at a national third of the 20th century, the canon of history, on her death De Valera established the Kathleen into Dublin, storing some at her own house in level. by which I mean the version enshrined in uni- Lynn Memorial Fund to raise monies for a new Rathmines. Like the many other overlooked militant suf- versities, academies and textbooks, contained operating theatre. FRIDAY, MAY 12 At City Hall she was soon witness to the blood fragist sisters – Helena Molony, Molly Childers, deeply embedded bias, seemingly unconscious In the words of historian Sinéad McCoole, Lynn A very black Friday. Fardie and Nan [Lynn’s father shed of the fi rst casualties on both sides of the Anne O’Farrell, Margaret Skinnider – the misog- and unacknowledging of seminal issues such as was ‘a pioneer, an innovator and a leader’. and sister] were here, oh, so reproachful, they Rising. On her arrival she was faced with the yny of our historical narrative, which long pre- social class, political privilege, socio-economic “She followed her own beliefs in everything, wouldn’t listen to me and looked as if they would dead body of ‘a big policeman laying on the ceded the signifi cant contribution by women to status, gender, race and geographical determi- including her relationship with Madeleine, the cast me off for ever. How sorry I am for their ground’; James O’Brien was a member of the the Easter Rising, the Mayo medic was written nants. It validated and recorded the stories of details of which are preserved in her diaries from sorrow! Erin needs very big sacrifi ces. I am glad Royal Irish Constabulary who was on guard at out of our national story. male white European actors for an elite audience 1916, now in the Royal College of Physicians,” they go home to-morrow. Why do they always the adjacent Dublin Castle. He had been shot by A multi-venue exhibition by Mayo Arts Col- of the privileged classes of Church and State.” says McCoole. misunderstand me?

The BCG vaccine was used in St Ultan’s Lynn was descended ‘circuitously’ from the DID YOU KNOW? Hospital for ten years before it was notorious Mary Queen of Scots, according TIMELINE DR KATHLEEN LYNN available throughout the country. to one biographer, Maeb Ruane.

1874 1886 1890 1903 1909 1913 1916 1919 1923 1955 Born in Mullaghfarry, near Killala, on January 28, the The family moved to Cong, Aged 16, Kathleen was sent to Became a member of the Irish Made a Fellow of the Royal Active in the relief efforts during As Chief Medical Offi cer, took Established St Ultan’s Elected as a Sinn Féin TD for the Died aged 81 at St Mary’s second child of Katherine Wynne, descended from where her father’s parish was board at Alexandria School, Women’s Suffrage and Local College of Surgeons the Dublin Lock Out and over the battallion of rebels on Hospital for infants with her Dublin County constituency but Anglican Home, Ballsbridge, the Earl of Hazlewood, and Canon Richard Lynn, a under the patronage of the Dublin, where she excelled in Government Association became a member of the Irish the roof of Dublin City Hall after life-partner, Madeleine adhered to its abstentionist policy Dublin Church of Ireland clergyman Ardilauns of Ashford Castle her studies Citizen Army Sean Connolly was shot dead ffrench Mullen THE MAYO NEWS 1916 COMMEMORATION TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016 TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016 1916 COMMEMORATION THE MAYO NEWS 14 15 Cultural context of Lynn’s activism Band of Brothers played key role

ÁINE RYAN riencing the ravages of famine, because of laissez-faire econom- in Four Courts defence ics and a reliance on the potato, clearly had a lasting effect as IKE all those involved her legacy confi rms. in the 1916 Easter Ris- People were still dying of fam- ing, Dr Kathleen Lynn’s ine as late as 1898 in County activism must be Mayo. Westport man’s father examined in the Writing to The Freeman’s and uncles were in the broaderL context of a multi-fac- Journal after travelling to Mayo eted cultural revival, often that year, Maud Gonne wrote: thick of 1916 action referred to as the Celtic “In Belderrig, a village in the Dawn. Killala Union, composed of some As the spectre of the Great 20 houses, eighteen people have Famine faded, this revival was died from measles; they are ter- ANTON MCNULTY spawned by the pan-European rible, these famine measles; kill- breakdown of the medieval ing people in less than three landlord system and a wave of days and leaving the corpses nationalist sentiment, strength- black and dreadful.” In the let- ome of the heaviest and most intense ened by the ethnocentrism of a ter, Gonne also criticised the fi ghting during Easter week of 1916 people defi ned by their island- British Government’s relief took place in the area around the Four ness. methods, noting that the Poor Courts which was under the leader- Commentators and critics Law Guardians were charging ship of Edward Daly, Commandant of often use the disparaging term people three-times the market S1st Battalion Dublin Brigade. The area around ‘Poet’s Rising’, arguing that those price for inferior seed pota- the Four Courts included North King Street, the involved were from the privi- toes. Linenhall Barracks and the North Dublin Union leged and ascendancy classes, “I saw mothers with nothing and its location gave it strategic importance. moving in circles far from the to give their dying children but Among the Volunteers in the Four Courts that impoverished masses, who were Indian corn, stirabout and no week was Hubert Murphy, whose son is Hugh victims of laissez-faire econom- milk.” Murphy from King’s Hill in Westport. A native ics, the serfdom of landlordism Over her long life of public of Glasnevin in Dublin, Hugh has lived in West- and metropolitan ghettoism. service, Dr Kathleen Lynn – suf- port for over 50 years. The harsh realities of everyday fragette, socialist, Irish Citizen Frederick, Hubert and Robert Murphy were life – witnessed fi rst-hand by Army Captain and Chief Medi- three brothers of nine children born to Frederick such literary pioneers as John y HOME ‘Mullaghfarry’, distinctive idioms and folk ways cal Offi cer during the Easter and Annie Murphy at the end of the 1800s in Millington Synge, WB Yeats and by Geraldine O’Reilly, a – ignited a cultural revolution that DID YOU Rising – ensured that the infants Dublin. Hubert’s granddaughter, Ally Murphy Lady Augusta Gregory – may drawing of the home of Dr engendered a new confi dence in of the hospital she founded, St explained that the role played by her grandfather Kathleen Lynn, part of the have ended up conceptualised ‘Insider on the Outside’ people, long downtrodden by KNOW? Ultan’s, were cared for with and his family brought immense pride to all the and idealised on the starched exhibition. imperialist colonialism and impov- compassion and progressive family, especially to her father Hugh. stage of the recently-founded erishment. medical care. This was despite “The part played by the brothers in not just the national theatre, the Abbey, but Kathleen Lynn was a typical Lynn was afforded full military honours the repression of many lofty 1916 rebellion but also in the subsequent contin- from a socialist perspective, this example of an upper-class Protes- at her funeral but Éamon de Valera sat ideals of liberation espoused by ued fi ght for independence for Ireland has always is, fundamentally, how change tant whose fi rst-hand experiences in his car outside, in compliance with a the 1916 Proclamation but aban- been very important to the whole Murphy fam- is effected. radicalised her. The fact that she Catholic edict which forbade entrance doned in a post-civil war era ily. The discovery and embracing was born near Killala, in a poor to a Protestant Church. where state and church con- “Hubert died in his early fi fties and the full y PRISON BAND Pictured is the Ballykinlar DANCE SHOES of the Irish language – with its and congested county still expe- servatism reigned. account of his contribution during the Rising Band in 1921. Hubert Murphy, father of THE three brothers were more committed to was not known to his family until the military Hugh Murphy from Westport, is extreme the cause than ever, and were in the Irish right of the three men standing at the back. archives were released online,” she said. Just in front of him, with a beard, is Peadar Republican Army during the War of Independ- Hubert died when Hugh was very young and Kearney, the man who wrote the Irish ence. very little is known how the three brothers were national anthem, Amhrán na bhFiann. “Towards the end of 1920 the British intro- infl uenced to join with the Irish Volunteers. Ballykinlar Interment Camp in Co Down was duced curfews in the Dublin area and the risk Frederick was 25 and Hubert was aged 19 when where many Republicans were interned. of capture was high. Hugh remembers his father Recalling two radical women of Ranelagh Pic courtesy of the Murphy family, Westport they joined the Volunteers in Dublin prior to telling him that he went to IRA meetings with 1916 and their younger brother Robert joined dance shoes in a bag just in case he was stopped Fianna Éireann as he was just 15 and too young - he would claim to be on his way to dance les- to join the Volunteers but was still active in the sons,” Ally recalled. ANNE O’DOWD dren and just a year’s pension, she walked them covered her business acumen and talent if her Rising. Hubert is also believed to have taken part in down the road to the village, took a year’s lease husband had lived and continued to be the main the infamous attack on British secret service on a small building known as The Barn. She provider for her and her children. CONFUSION IN DUBLIN agents. One week before the planned assassi- ended up owning two houses and two grocery Kathleen never married, and she lived her life BOTH Hubert and Frederick were in 1st Battal- nations the Dublin battalions were alerted to fi rst came across Dr Kathleen Lynn’s name shops by the time of her death, 21 years later. with her friend and companion, Madeleine ion Dublin City Brigade, and their battalion was an important operation the following week on in the late 1950s in Dublin when my mother Neither Kathleen nor Anne was born in Dub- ffrench-Mullen. She and the others involved in thought to have numbered close to 300 but due the day that would become known as Bloody would point out St Ultan’s Hospital on Char- lin; Kathleen is, of course, a Mayo woman and the hospital kept it operational and open with to the confusion around the cancellation of the Sunday. lemont Street in Ranelagh, Dublin, on a fam- Anne was born in Tipperary. fundraising and donations. The female co-oper- Rising, only 150 showed up on the day. Richmond Barracks with the other Volunteers. Hubert is listed as having taken part in a dan- ily trip into town. She would tell us about the They both arrived to Dublin at the impression- ative group successfully fought the male estab- Hubert detailed his movements during the Ris- From there the Volunteers were transferred to gerous IRA operation on Marlborough Street Igreat work that the women doctors were doing able age of 16 years and both brought with them lishment for decades, and the hospital gave the ing in his Military pension application. He was Stafford jail and on to the POW camp in Frongoch on Bloody Sunday but the full operation detail there for the less well-off mothers of the area an ethos of hard work and a ‘get on with it’ professional women working there certain free- in the Four Courts from Monday to Thursday in Wales. He was released on Christmas Eve and is not on fi le. Hundreds of volunteers were and their children. approach. I suspect that the word ‘cope’ was not dom to run it as they saw fi t and to maintain the and on Friday he was sent to North King returned with the other Volunteers to Dublin. arrested in the weeks that followed including Lynn and a group of female doctors had estab- even in their vocabularies; they saw a job that emphasis on the health and welfare of the chil- Street. Frederick was also in the Four Courts and North Robert and Hubert, and both were interned in lished the hospital in 1919 as a way of tackling needed to be done, whether that was saving dren attending. “From eyewitness accounts written subsequently King Street. He received a gunshot wound to the Ballykinlar Internment camp in Co Down. the dire infant mortality of the time and as a infants and educating mothers about sanitation I look forward to seeing Kathleen Lynn’s name by veterans, Hubert took part in a search of the foot during the fi ghting and he was removed to After the Treaty, all three brothers went on y PRIDE Hugh Murphy and his family are means of gaining experience and fi nding employ- and cleanliness, or providing for a small family over the door of the new National Children’s Bridewell police station behind the Four Courts. extremely proud of the role his father and uncles the Red Cross Hospital in Dublin Castle where to join the newly formed Irish Army in 1922. ment in the otherwise male medical world. Lynn and ordering supplies for a grocer’s shop and Hospital when all the talking, meeting and shape- They blew open the locks of the entrance and played in 1916 and the independence struggle. he stayed until the end of June that year. He was Sadly, both Robert and Frederick subsequently received her medical degree in 1899 just as the post offi ce. throwing is done. There is no one else who found horses saddles, bridles and rifl es indicat- subsequently imprisoned in Kilmainham jail. emigrated and over time lost contact with their medical profession was ‘allowing’ women to be They both did their work energetically and deserves the distinction more. ing that British troops were located in the station. Robert was in the GPO and spent Monday and extended family. trained as doctors. well, they both died in the 1950s and they are Hubert reported to his commanding offi cer that Tuesday on guard duty on the roof, and was sent Hubert remained in the army and rose to the My mother’s own mother, Anne Brennan, had both buried in Deansgrange Cemetery in Dublin. Dr Anne O’Dowd’s book ‘Straw, Hay & Rushes in they had captured two lancers and had locked to the Metropole Hotel where he kept guard until rank of Commandant. In later years he served set up home at the other end of Ranelagh near They were two women of their time. Irish Folk Tradition’ recently won the 2015 them in a cell in one of the blocks,” Ally Friday when he evacuated with the rest of the as Aide-de-Camp to the then Minister of Milltown village in the early years of the 20th I never met my grandmother, Anne Brennan, Michael J Durkan Prize for Books on Language explained. garrison to Moore Street. He was deemed too Defence, Desmond FitzGerald, also a Volunteer century. When her civil servant husband died and I am sorry about that. She was obviously an and Culture, awarded by the American Hubert returned to the Four Courts on Satur- young to be deported and was released after a and father of Garrett FitzGerald. Hubert died suddenly in 1931 leaving her with four small chil- innate businesswoman who would not have dis- y Dr Kathleen Lynn Conference for Irish Studies. day to surrender, and was arrested and taken to week. in 1949 and is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery. THE MAYO NEWS 1916 COMMEMORATION TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016 TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016 1916 COMMEMORATION THE MAYO NEWS 16 17

< MEMENTO Vincent Keane holding his souvenir cap badge of the Mayo Brigade, 1914. Talking history in The Helm Pic: Conor McKeown

DANIEL CAREY

HEN John MacBride’s grandnephew Patrick recently travelled from the United States to Ire- land for the recent com- memorationW of the 1916 Rising in Dublin, he brought with him a fi le full of let- ters. Harry Hughes of the Westport His- torical Society said that the fi le included letters written by Major John MacBride to his brother, Dr Anthony McBride (some from his time fi ghting against the British in the Boer War), along with correspond- ence from men like O’Donovan Rossa, Eoin MacNeill and WT Cosgrave. “The MacBrides were moving in big circles, national and international repub- Westport determined lican circles, a full ten years before 1916,” Harry Hughes told a small gathering last Tuesday in The Helm Bar and Restaurant, the building at Westport Quay in which not to ‘miss the boat’ Major John MacBride was born in 1868. “What’s very interesting is one of the letters written by a man called John Rey- nolds, [who] wrote to Dr Anthony Mac- Bride one year after the Rising. He said DANIEL CAREY BROAD CHURCH he’d heard a speaker state that Major John THREE of Hughes’s relatives were among [MacBride] came upon the Rising by those arrested in Westport – his uncle Patrick, accident, and he said nothing could be grandfather Owen and granduncle Charles. further from the truth. THERE’S a poster in Westport Library of a Scanning down through a list of the 31 names, “This man Reynolds said he sent a tel- concert held on Easter Monday night of 1916, places of origin, ages and occupations, he’s egram on Easter Monday morning to which was held to raise money for the Irish struck by what a mixed group they were. MacBride, asking him to come to 41, Par- Volunteers. In recent weeks, Vincent Keane “This wasn’t just one club of men who were nell Square. of the Westport Historical Society read a snip- They were getting arrested,” he comments. “These were totally “MacBride arrived at 11am and Reynolds pet of information about that concert. It came spread [out]. For example, there’s a Gavin and and his party had taken possession of the from Agnes Gallagher, the local Cumann na more and more a Gannon who were teachers in the Christian building by then. mBan commander, who says that in the mid- “ Brothers’ School … There’s a cross-section, “They saw no action – there was noth- dle of the show, it was revealed that there was aggrieved and the whole town would have been involved ing happening [yet] in the GPO – so something happening in Dublin. in this, with relations. MacBride said ‘We’ll go up and see if That ‘something’ was, of course, the begin- “The following year, 1917, after they were out Thomas McDonagh is up in Stephen’s ning of the Easter Rising, and adds another of prison, four of these boys were picked on Green’, because that’s where he was to layer to a week which was often shrouded in about the Rising’, according to Vincent the senior team for Westport GAA. Ned Sam- mobilise. So they walked up Grafton confusion in the provinces. Other Westport Keane. mon was big in the soccer club, and Michael Street, according to the letter, and [McDon- people said they only found out about events “Another man wrote his memoirs, and he Derrig was big in the rugby club. There was agh] welcomed both of them with open in the capital when the newspapers came in. said Joe Ring went down to [Michael] Kilroy a huge spread of people involved.” arms.” In 1966, interviewed in The Mayo News, Ned on the eve of the Rising, and he said: ‘We’re Vincent Keane took a look at a picture of a Conventional wisdom suggests that Sammon recalled that a group was ready to rising tomorrow’,” Keane adds. “I only found local Fianna (scouts) group one night, and MacBride was an ‘accidental’ rebel, in y EXPERTS Vincent Keane, Harry private archives that has the potential Gesturing to the picture of MacBride use them. He called England the vilest rise in Westport. that out lately, and I’ve been going through counted nine of their number among the 3 Dublin to attend his brother Dr Anthony’s Hughes, Áine Ryan and Noel to cast new light on historic events. It that hangs on the wall at The Helm, nation in the world. He was absolutely “They were going to take the RIC barracks, Kilroy’s papers or writings, but I can’t fi nd depicted in the ‘Men of the West’ photograph. wedding, when he met MacDonagh by Campbell discussed Mayo and the sparks interest at the table, where Hughes Campbell says that though he ‘reluc- determined that there would be a war and the military post, but they didn’t get it.” Jack Leonard’s famous photo – taken in June 1916 Rising at The Helm, the Quay, chance and offered his services. But the Westport. Pic: Conor McKeown and Campbell are joined by Vincent tantly’ ran for Davitt’s seat, the Major at some stage. orders,” Harry Hughes of the Westport His- Westport was the birthplace of the United 1921 – depicts the members of the West Mayo Reynolds letter suggests that MacBride Keane of the Westport Historical Society ‘thought parliament was a waste of time’. “Even though the Military Council was torical Society told a small gathering in The Irish League, established in 1898, whose main Flying Column three weeks after the Car- ‘did know a Rising was coming’, accord- and Mayo News journalist Áine Ryan. A known Fenian who was ‘being watched’ very small, they kept adding people into Helm Bar and Restaurant last Tuesday. “So concern was the redistribution of large estates. rowkennedy Ambush in the War of Independ- ing to Harry Hughes, who adds that The Vincent Keane shakes his head in won- by the British authorities for decades, it, but they couldn’t have MacBride, two or three days after the Rising had started Harry Hughes has a theory about why there ence. It’s described in Dominic Price’s book O’Rahilly had told a group in Westport der as he recalls that Boer War hero his reputation in the physical-force tra- because he was too well-known … If they in Dublin, they realised they had missed the was more ‘trouble’ in Westport in 1916 than ‘The Flame and the Candle’ as ‘unquestion- as much on St Patrick’s Day 1916. PARTICIPANTS MacBride got less than 500 votes when MacBride dition was such that he ended up directly [the British] saw [Tom] Clarke, the likes boat. But they weren’t going to miss the whole in other towns. ably the best contemporary photograph of an “I think it’s a bit far-fetched to think he contested the South Mayo by-election behind Patrick Pearse as the funeral ora- of MacBride, or other more obviously boat!” “This was one of the last estates to be sold,” IRA column ever taken’. that John MacBride didn’t know, when of 1900 created by the retirement of was tion for O’Donovan Rossa was delivered militaristic guys leading volunteers, The following Sunday, April 30, 98 men he explains. “They were still discussing it in When we fi nally call a halt to the formal you consider the circles that he was mov- NOEL CAMPBELL Michael Davitt, losing heavily to John in 1915. leading drills, leading training, it would marched around Westport, 21 carrying guns, 1914. So there was still a group of people who chat, the conversations continue. About Major ing in,” says Hughes. National Museum of Ireland O’Donnell. He also tells us there was a “ “Remember, this was an IRB Rising, have [set off] alarm bells. But he must according to a contemporary report. The fol- could see all the other towns had sorted out John MacBride’s mother Honoria (nee Gill), determined “I always used to laugh when I heard – Country Life soccer club in Ballinrobe named after essentially,” Campbell explains. “They have been in the know. It’s inconceivable, lowing day, the constabulary were sent from their land issues, and they were getting more who raised fi ve sons after the death of her that he just happened to be waltzing up him subsequently. there would used the Volunteers. The senior Fenians I think, that he wasn’t.” Castlebar, and there were ten arrests. Eventu- and more aggrieved. So once they had got husband. About Joe Gill, who resisted arrest, the street,” agrees Noel Campbell, Docu- HARRY HUGHES Áine Ryan wonders if the ambivalent wanted to merge their tradition with the ally, 31 people from the Westport area were across the line by 1914, there was a hardcore barricading himself in his home, before later mentation Offi cer and Assistant Keeper Westport Historical Society eulogy given to MacBride (described as be a war Volunteers ... So they’re using MacBride interned in Britain, and those deportations group there that naturally fell in with the Vol- turning himself in. And about Harry Hughes’s at the National Museum of Ireland – ‘a drunken, vain-glorious lout’ in the to take his credentials and lend it to – coupled with the executions of 16 leading unteers movement.” uncle Patrick, another of the 31, who drowned Country Life. VINCENT KEANE poem ‘Easter 1916’) by WB Yeats – who Pearse and the Volunteers. And he’s very rebels – helped turn the tide of local public Speeches made in Westport on St Patrick’s in August 1917. As not all of the Westport peo- Westport Historical Society considered MacBride’s ex-wife Maud much in favour of [that]. MORE opinion. Day 1916 ‘made it very clear that the battle ple were interned or released together, Harry NEW LIGHT Gonne his muse and later proposed to “MacBride talks from the early 1900s What people knew in Westport, and when was coming’, Hughes adds. “The Volunteers Hughes believes Patrick’s funeral was ‘prob- THE existence of the Reynolds letter ÁINE RYAN her – means ‘we have been listening to about the day when the guys who were For more from this discussion, they knew it, is still a matter of debate. Local were well organised, particularly in Augh- ably the fi rst meeting’ of the 30 others since serves as a reminder that even now, 100 Mayo News reporter the establishment version of who John fi ghting with him in the Boer War can see page 30 of this supplement. organiser Joseph MacBride (brother of the agower, Cushlough and Westport. And they their imprisonment. “The youngest [of the 31] years on, information is popping up from MacBride was for the last 100 years’. pick up those weapons in Ireland and executed Major John) ‘said he knew nothing were having regular route marches.” was the fi rst to die,” he observes. THE MAYO NEWS 1916 COMMEMORATION TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016 TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016 1916 COMMEMORATION THE MAYO NEWS 18 19 Success for Doris brothers but at a price

banned, for a fi ve week period between March 30 and The two brothers who May 11, 1918, by the British Censor, under the emergency founded The Mayo News censorship laws which were introduced during the War. in 1892 became estranged PJ’s reaction was typically defi ant: “In the deepest trag- edy it is always possible to fi nd an element of comedy, a over differences in politics leaven of the humorous and the grave. When the history of the greatest war the world has ever known comes to be written, the story of the Press Censorship should pro- vide all that is needful to relieve the tale of blood of some RORY GAVIN of its horrors. We do not, now, refer particularly to the Irish Censorship, but rather to the whole system, now almost world wide, which aims at restricting the liberty of the Press, presumably in the interest of the respective n December 3, 1892, William and PJ belligerents. Doris, the two sons of Robert and “The system of controlling the press in time of war is Margaret Doris, Altamont Terrace, justifi ed on the plea that it is necessary to prevent the Westport, published and printed the publication of matter which might be of use to ‘the enemy’ very fi rst issue of The Mayo News, but in England and Ireland as well as in France and the y in their printing works at James USA and probably also in Germany and Austria, the CO-FOUNDER AND EDITOR PJ Doris co-founded The Mayo News in 1892 and was its Editor in 1916 when he was arrested and jailed in the wake of the Easter Rising. Street, Westport. It was the start of methods employed by the different Censors would indi- a partnership which was to bring cate that considerations totally divorced from the needs successO but which ultimately tore the two brothers of the military situation enter into the infl uences which apart. grade the offi cial blue pencil. The two brothers started the paper on the premise of “For fi ve weeks we have been denied the right of pub- it being a nationalist paper. William was the senior of the lication. Today we are permitted to resume. We have not Death of Mr PJ Doris the two brothers and had a wide range of journalistic been informed why we were suppressed. We are not con- experience, including positions in The Connaught Tel- scious of having at any time published matter which could egraph, The Nationalist, Carlow and The Free Press, have been any stretch of the imagination of use to the Wexford, so it was only natural that he should be appointed enemy, and the only war which we were interested was Editor of the paper. the political strife by which Ireland was divided, and in During the height of the Black and Tan terror The two brothers were heavily involved in the Irish which we supported and advocated the policy of Sinn The following is an of 1921, and in the height of his denounciation of cause. William, amongst other positions, was the fi rst Féin.” (May 11, 1918). them, the late Mr Doris very nearly met with secretary of the United Irish League and served as legal abridged version of the what has since been referred to as a probable administrator to the Land League (where he was credited ‘EXPLODED SHIBBOLETHS’ obituary for PJ Doris violent death. An employee of his own, who was with the drafting and distribution of the famous ‘No Rent LATER that year a general election was called. William a member of an active IRA column, learned that Manifesto’). returned to fi ght for his seat against the Sinn Féin candi- which appeared in the Tans were on their way ‘to silence Doris and The brothers used their paper to constantly attack the date, Joseph MacBride (the brother of Major John Mac- The Mayo News’ for all time. government of Westminster and their policies, particu- Bride). The Mayo News rarely even mentioned their The Mayo News Warned in the nick of time, Mr Doris escaped larly in relation to the land question but also on the broader former Editor, perhaps this was the most polite thing it just as the Tans entered his home. Not fi nding issue of Irish Independence. This extract from an 1898 could do since the policy of the paper was distinctly in edition of March 6, 1937 him, they occupied themselves with wrecking article is typical of the kind of material being published favour of the Sinn Féin candidate. It did however attack The Mayo News plant, and appropriating all the by the paper at the time: William’s Irish Party and its leader, John Dillon. moveable parts of his car. The Tans then occu- “Of all the grievances that help to render this unhappy “As the historic general election advances to the deci- pied his home, and Mr Doris, who was even then country wretched, the land question is the one which shoulders a heavy responsibility. It will be my endeavor y COMMEMORATION sive stages it becomes more and more evident that the MR PJ Doris, whose funeral took place on Friday, a comparatively old man, was forced to endure may be said to involve all others. The establishment of a to show that I was worthy of that honour, and that I am This Sunday, May 8 will see people of Ireland can no longer be cajoled by exploded was born at Westport, on Tuesday, February 23, the hardships of a rebel ‘on the run’. the naming of the James native parliament in College Green may be most desir- able for the responsibility. Street bridge in Westport shibboleths, nor turned from their own way of securing 1866. With the acceptance of the Treaty, which fol- able to all Irishmen, and certainly, we believe there is not “I have been elected as a pledge bound member of the ‘BLACK AND their National rights by the blind faith policy by which With the assistance of his brother, the late Wil- lowed the Truce in 1921, PJ Doris severed his as the Doris Brothers’ one who calls himself an Irishman, unless he belongs to Irish Party. In my humble opinion, for the past 30 years, Bridge in honour of William they have been fooled for years. liam Doris, MP, Mr Doris founded The Mayo political association with those leaders who were the imported stock – those dupes of landlordism – but the Irish Party has been able to accomplish a good deal, and Patrick J Doris. After “Mr Dillon continues to talk by the column the usual News in 1892. The success and fame which have responsible for its imposition. would hail with joy the day which brought the news to specially for the agricultural population of the country. TANISM FAILED being proposed by the time worn rubbish about the achievements of the Party, attended this journal since its inception, have In 1932, he hauled President deValera’s acces- him of the establishment of a native parliament; and until Very little has been done, I am sorry to say, for the town Westport Historical Society, but the people smile and await the opportunity which the gone to achieve ambitions which PJ Doris and sion to offi ce with joyful anticipation, but, although it was recently approved such is established we fear the land question will remain labourers, and for the poorer classes generally in our by Mayo County Council. ballot box will give them for marking their appreciation his brother never hoped for. It was founded with he died a fi rm believer in the honesty of Presi- unsettled – (the land of the people, January 7, 1898). towns. I must and will act as a faithful member of the TO SUBDUE MAYO of Mr Dillon’s peculiar pleadings. Strictly speaking the meagre capital by men who were idealists, and dent deValera himself, he had for years past lost Irish Party. people are more concerned with what the Party failed to whose sole ambition was the vindication of their confi dence in his government. WILLIAM DORIS MP “Please God I will never forget that I am the son of a do than with any of the grand results which Mr Dillon country’s wrongs. In its pages, the Irish tenant His private life served as a model of virtuous IN 1910 the political interests of the two took a huge step poor man, elected mainly by the poor people of the con- NEWS EDITOR’ would have us credit them with.” (December 7, 1918). farmer saw the injustices of his lot so vividly piety and labour. For close on forty years, until forward when William stood for election as the Irish Party stituency. While I will not support injustice to anybody Following a long, painful campaign William lost his seat portrayed as to rouse him to action. the few days previous to his demise, and during candidate for the West Mayo seat in the House of Com- I am a poor man’s representative, and I will live and die as the people of West Mayo put their support resound- A fi rm adherent to the Land League movement periods of internment in concentration camps, mons. The Mayo News proved invaluable to William in the poor man’s representative.” ingly behind the Sinn Féin candidate. This signaled the and to the United Irish League which, with Wil- he never missed morning Mass and Communion. the campaign. At the time the newspaper was in a pow- William immediately moved to London to take up his end of the two brothers’ relationship – they remained liam O’Brien, he helped to found, PJ Doris devoted Of lifelong temperate habits, he was President erful position of infl uence, with no television or radio to new seat, and with him went Sarah Cannon of Westport, estranged for the rest of their lives. William moved to his life to the cause of land reform. There was of the Westport Branch of the Total Abstinence ‘inform’ the public and limited means of communication his new bride. PJ took over the running of The Mayo atrick Tunney from Cuslough, Westport was one of the 31 men Dublin, and settled there until his death a few years hardly an eviction within the borders of Mayo Association. His wife, who was formerly Ms between areas. News. While his brother faced the task of furthering Ire- arrested in Westport in 1916 and he went on to write prolifi - later. during the Land War, at which Mr Doris was not Sabina McGing, predeceased him by about eight William’s speeches were extensively covered by the land’s cause, PJ had to fi ght the censors, during World cally about events of the time and subsequent years in the PJ Doris continued to run the paper and to support the present with his notebook and pencil. The har- years. paper and PJ, who had by this time taken over as Editor, War I, in his attempts to support that cause. independence struggle. fi ght for Irish Freedom until the 1921 Treaty, which he rowing scenes as portrayed by his descriptive All through life he contributed generously to used his own editorials and his control over editorial When writing an appreciation to mark the passing of one of joyously welcomed with the headline ‘We have won lib- genius, shocked and enraged Irishmen at home National funds and charitable institutions. His policy to aid his brother. Despite support for another PARTING OF WAYS Pthe 31, Mr Thaddeus Walsh, in 1931, Mr Tunney spoke very glowingly of erty’. On his death PJ left the paper to his nephew Eddy. and abroad. Like the born journalist, he was also intimate friends, other than relations, were staunch candidate from The Western People, William won a land- THE physical parting which took place when William PJ Doris and his work in The Mayo News. So ended the fascinating story of the two brothers. They a born orator; and many a silent audience smoul- and few. Amongst them were Messrs. Charles slide victory in this pro-nationalistic area. moved to London was the beginning of a more funda- “Yet, whilst we have some of the 1916 heroes like ... Patrick J Doris and were united in their desire for Irish freedom, a goal which dered under his impassioned denounciations of Hughes and JJ O’Malley of Westport; Mr John In his victory speech (as reported in The Mayo News, mental parting between the two. While William concen- others to guide our destinies, there is hope for the future. ironically led to their estrangement. Their infl uence on tyranny and appeals for united action. Burke, Postmaster, Castlebar; and Mr Patrick on January 10, 1910), William stated “About a month or trated on the land question in Parliament (it is reported “Each week the editorials of The Mayo News ring like thunderbolts and Mayo and indeed Irish life can arguably still be felt today. Immediately after the Rebellion of 1916, he, in Walsh, Newport, who set the machinery in motion fi ve weeks ago some friends of mine in Westport and that 95 percent of his questions were on this issue), PJ, instill animation to the very heart of the wayward reader. Our slogan In any case The Mayo News remains a living monument company with his life-long friend and associate, for the fi rst issue of The Mayo News in 1892. Newport said the time had come when West Mayo should like many in Ireland, had become involved in the push should be: ‘Read The Mayo News, study it, practice its doctrines’. No to William and PJ Doris and hopefully will remain to do Mr Charles Hughes, of Westport, was arrested Mr Doris died following a short illness at the be represented by a West Mayo man. I can assure you for outright independence from the union. other organ in Ireland has worked with more energy than the The Mayo so for another 100 years. and interned in various English prisons, winding age of 71, on Wednesday, February 24. His pass- that up to that moment, although I agreed thoroughly Despite gaining re-election in 1915, William, like most News. Black and Tanism failed to subdue its Editor when its machinery up in Frongoch. ing removes from Irish life one of the most out- with that sentiment, it never entered my head that I would in the Irish Party, was losing support to the increasingly was dismantled, the offi ces sacked, raided and PJ sent into exile,” wrote Rory Gavin is a native of Westport and a relative of the During the Christmas of 1916 he was released standing characters of this age. It would be have the honour of being that man. In addition to confer- popular Sinn Féin party. PJ began actively supporting Mr Tunney. Doris brothers. This piece fi rst appeared in The Mayo and immediately conveyed his campaign against impossible to place values upon the good he has ring on me a great honour, you have thrown upon my them through the paper. This resulted in the paper being News Centenary Supplement in 1994. England in The Mayo News. done during his lifetime. THE MAYO NEWS 1916 COMMEMORATION TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016 TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016 1916 COMMEMORATION THE MAYO NEWS 20 21 The career of William Doris Against The Realm:

GERARD M DELANEY 1898. The UIL was chiefl y concerned with the The Arrests in Westport in 1916 redistribution of large estates and, by 1900, had 100,000 members.

illiam Doris MP, was born on April MINISTER OF PARLIAMENT 13, 1860 and baptised on April 15, HE was elected Nationalist MP for the Mayo West Mayo News proprietor Patrick Joseph Doris 1860 in St Mary’s Church, West- Constituency in the election of 1910 when he James Kelly details the (50), who was arrested on May 12, was listed port. defeated his friend, the outgoing Independent arrests and detention as being ‘guilty of behaviour prejudicial to He was the eldest of eight chil- Nationalist MP William O’Brien (who took a seat the state and the Defence of the Realm by Wdren born to Robert Doris, a postman, and Mar- in Cork) by a majority of 2,849 votes (the total of 31 men in Westport aiding, abetting and encouraging in the prep- garet Madden. William received his education at electorate was 8,037). arations for the rebellion’. Westport Christian Brothers’ School and com- On February 2, the same year, he married Sarah in the aftermath of menced his career as a solicitor’s clerk in Westport Cannon, daughter of Luke Cannon of Westport. DEFENCE OF THE REALM at the age of 16. The couple had one child, Mary. the 1916 Rising THE prisoners were not told the nature of Two years later he took a post as a reporter with Doris sat at Westminster until 1918 and devoted their alleged offences, only that they had been the Castlebar-based Connaught Telegraph, edited his energy chiefl y to his key objectives of imple- arrested under the Defence of the Realm Act. by James Daly (1836-1910). Daly used his columns menting land reform and Home Rule. He was n May 1916, thirty one men were arrested in (Arrests under DORA were not uncommon to campaign for the rights of tenant farmers. present at all of the 233 divisions of HH Asquith’s the Westport district under the Defence of in the years either side of 1916, particularly of As part of his reporting duties, Doris was present Third Home Rule Bill of 1912-1914. the Realm Act (1914). Some were interned for people thought to be obstructing recruiting at many of the mass meetings of tenant farmers During his period at Westminster, he resided at a matter of weeks, others for almost eight for the British army, then in the midst of the arranged by Daly and Davitt. He was particularly 37, North Side, Clapham Commons, London SW months. Great War.) No formal charges were ever stirred by Davitt’s passionate speeches and was and occasionally at Altamont Terrace, Westport IThese 31 men were arrested as part of the gov- brought against any of the 31 Westport men receptive to the ideas contained in Daly’s articles. and at Upper O’Connell Street, Dublin, where he ernment’s response to the Easter Rising, which arrested.a He promptly adopted the twin aspirations of the died. took place between April 24 and April 30 1916. In Under the heading ‘Degree of Education’, land reform crusade – the establishment of tenant Throughout his political career, Doris was a making these arrests, the authorities wanted (i) wew fi nd, for 30 of the men, the entry ‘RW’, proprietorship and Home Rule for Ireland. These great friend of the poor and he consistently did to round-up those who were likely to participate meaningm they are able to read and write, but were to remain his chief political ambitions for everything in his power to assist the less advan- in any renewed outbreak of rebel violence and againsta Doris’s name we fi nd the entry ‘Supe- the duration of his public life. taged. At the time of the passing of the Old Age (ii) to publically punish Sinn Féin by arresting its rior’.r Pensions Act there were many who would never local leaders and supporters. Thirty of the men were removed on May 10 ‘NO RENT MANIFESTIO’ AND PRISON have got a pension but for his activity and infl u- The Mayo News of May 6, 1916 reports that ten fromf Castlebar to Richmond Barracks in Dub- IN 1880 Doris left The Connaught Telegraph and ence. young Irish Volunteers were arrested in Westport linl (PJ Doris was not arrested until May 12). in March of 1881 he moved to Dublin. There he In the election of 1918, Doris was defeated by at 4am on the morning of Tuesday, May 2 and the On May 12-13, 25 of them were removed to served as acting legal secretary of the Land League Captain Joseph MacBride of Sinn Féin by a mar- arrests ‘were witnessed by a number of the towns- WandsworthW prison, London, by cattle boat. and, in that capacity, in conjunction with William gin of 2,627 votes. His defeat was inevitable, people, who were roused by the commotion in Of the others, Joseph MacBride, Charles O’Brien, Editor of the Parnellite newspaper ‘United because of the enormous rise in the popularity of the streets’. Hughes,H Joseph Gill and PJ Doris were still in Ireland’, he drafted the ‘No Rent Manifesto’ that the Sinn Féin movement and the corresponding The report goes on: ‘Mr Joseph Gill, the Quay, Dublin.D John Berry and Patrick Hughes were was issued from Kilmainham Jail on October 18, decline in support for constitutional nationalism was also to be arrested, but when the police went amongstam a group of prisoners deported from 1881. that followed the Easter Rising. But much of the to his house he refused to give himself up. After RichmondR barracks to Barlinnie Detention Bar- Following the issuing of the manifesto, Doris margin by which he lost can be attributed to the some persuasion on the part of his friends, and racks,ra Glasgow on May 19. returned to Westport where he was soon arrested fact that The Mayo News, edited by his brother acting on their advice, he surrendered subse- and charged with ‘… compelling persons to abstain Patrick J, vigorously supported the Sinn Féin can- quently and on Thursday [May 4] morning he RELEASEDR WITHOUT CHARGE from paying rents lawfully’. Subsequent to his trial didate. was conveyed to Castlebar Jail’. THETH Westport prisoners were released in three he was imprisoned in Dundalk jail for six months. William Doris died on Monday, September 13, The police making the arrests ‘carried loaded waves:wa one batch at the end of May, another in The shops of Westport closed for half a day in 1926. After Requiem Mass in the Church of St rifl es … At each house where Volunteers were mid-to-latem July, and the remainder in December. protest at his arrest. His trial and imprisonment Francis Xavier, Gardiner Street, Dublin on Wednes- taken two policemen had the upper windows DuringDu their detention, none was charged or brought him widespread public sympathy and day, September 15, which was attended by a con- ‘covered’, while a third policeman knocked at the affordedaff legal representation. elevated him to the status of a popular hero. gregation representative of both the old and new door with one hand and had a loaded revolver in OnO May 25, the following Westport prisoners In 1892 in conjunction with his brother, Patrick political systems, his remains were removed for the other. But the Volunteers offered no resist- werewe released: Martin Geraghty, Thomas O’Brien, J, he co-founded The Mayo News. Editorially, the under the Local Government Act, Mr Doris suc- man of that body from 1899 to 1910. He was chair- internment in Glasnevin Cemetery. ance and they went quietly to the barrack’. PatrickPat S Kenny, John Lohan, John Berry, Hubert new paper strongly propagated his political aspi- cessfully stood for election. During his time on man of Westport UDC from 1899 to 1910. The men were conveyed to Castlebar Jail by Heraty,He Patrick Hughes, John Gavin and Thomas rations for Home Rule and the reform of land the Council, he distinguished himself by his abil- William Doris was a founding member and fi rst The above is an abridged version of a piece which train and ‘were seen off at the station by a large Ralph.Ra They were in Westport the next day. law. ity, eloquence and great grasp of business. He secretary of the United Irish League, set up by fi rst appeared in The Mayo News Centenary crowd, and there was much cheering as the train OnO June 16-17, all but three of the remaining When Mayo County Council was set up in 1898 served variously as vice-chairman and as chair- William O’Brien MP in Westport on January 23, Supplement in 1994. steamed out. The Volunteers were in the best of WestportWe prisoners were moved to Frongoch spirits’. internmentint camp in north Wales: Thaddeus Nineteen further arrests were made on May 8 WalshWa and Tom Derrig followed at the end of and 9. The Mayo News of May 13 states that news June and Charles Hughes was deported to of John MacBride’s death had reached Westport Frongoch on July 24, from a prison hospital in on Saturday evening (May 6). Dublin. Doris letters demonstrate political climate after the Rising In mid-to-late July, the following Westport men REFUSED TO SURRENDER ARMS y ‘MOST DANGEROUS SINN FÉINERS’ behaviour prejudicial to the safety of the state were released: THE Connaught Telegraph (May 13) reported the A letter from Colonel BP Portal in Castlebar to and the Defence of the Realm by assembling with Bartley Cryan, Thomas Derrig, Michael Derrig, arrests as follows: ‘On Tuesday last [May 9] a headquarters in Dublin, dated May 14, 1916 others with arms as Sinn Féin Volunteers at Far- Michael Duffy, Edward Gannon, Charles Gavan, rebel leaders on July 19, 1916 William Doris General Maxwell on July 20 warning about the political Rebels”’. large number of arrests were made in Westport detailing whom the authorities in Mayo felt were naght near Westport on Sunday, April 30, 1916’. Edward Haran, Charles Hickey, James Malone, EDWIN MCGREALCGREAL the ‘most dangerous’ leaders in the Westport The letters are from the UK also warns against heavy which states that Luke Sheridan climate. He was initially sentenced of Sinn Féin Volunteers, some of whom took part Joseph M MacBride (55), a brother of Major John McDonagh, Michael Reilly, Joseph Ruddy, district. Pic courtesy Harry Hughes National Archive War Offi ce handed action by the British was tried by court martial at “Castlebar, to which the pris- to 84 days imprisonment with in a parade on Sunday week [April 30]. They also John MacBride, was listed as being ‘guilty of Edward Sammon and Thaddeus Walsh. and were found by James Kelly having consequences in Mayo Athlone and ‘the sentence oners belong, had no connec- hard labour. This was remit- disobeyed the order of General Sir John Maxwell behaviour prejudicial to the Public safety and the Having been interned for almost seven-and-a- etters between Wil- of the Westport Historical - it would prove quite a pro- awarded him was reduced to tion whatever with the rebel- ted to 28 days, seemingly on by refusing to give up their arms … On Saturday Defence of the Realm - being a dangerous Sinn half months, the following Westport prisoners liam Doris, MP for Society, who kindly passed phetic observation. one of 28 days’. lion and a little leniency in account of William Doris’ last [6 May] Castlebar Sinn Féin Volunteers handed Féin leader in organising and preparing for the were released from Frongoch on December 22, West Mayo at the them on to us. “May I express the earnest The letter went on to say these petty cases will do much appeal, but the hard labour up their rifl es. In the evening 23 new rifl es were rebellion’. arriving home the next day: Joseph A Gill, Charles time of the Rising, Doris - a member of the Irish hope that these unfortunate that Edward Callaghan ‘will good in the district.” sentence was maintained. conveyed in a cart to the police barrack. On that Charles Hughes (41), Edward Haran 34), Charles Hughes, Owen Hughes, Manus Keane, Michael and General Sir John Party and vehement opponent young men, who are constitu- be tried tomorrow’. A subsequent letter from Two years later William day a general surrender of arms took place all Hickey (20), Bartholomew Cryan (26), Martin Joseph Ring and Patrick Tunney. LMaxwell give a fascinating of militant nationalism, and ents of mine, may be treated Doris acknowledges receipt Maxwell to Doris reveals just Doris would lose his seat to over Ireland, but it was rumoured that the West- Geraghty (19) and Thomas O’Brien (35) were The last of the Westport prisoners to be released, insight into concerns Doris the Rising - pleads for leni- as leniently as possible? I am of this letter on July 22 and how petty the charges were Sinn Féin’s Joseph MacBride, port Volunteers did not comply with the order of listed as being ‘guilty of behaviour prejudicial to on Christmas Eve, were PJ Doris and Joseph had for how the British ency in the cases of two con- quite convinced that severe pleads with General Maxwell against Luke Sheridan. a brother of executed Rising Sir John Maxwell’. by marching with arms as Sinn Féin Volunteers the Public safety and the Defence of the Realm’. MacBride, who had been held at Reading jail. response to the Rising could stituents of his. They are Luke sentences would do consider- to ‘eliminate hard labour from He was charged under the leader Major John MacBride The prisoners’ register for Castlebar Jail for the at Westport on Sunday, April 30, 1916’: Edward James Malone (34), Patrick Kenny (20), Edward They arrived in Ireland on Christmas Day 1916. change the political land- Sheridan (21), a shop assistant able harm instead of good in the sentence passed upon Defence of the Realm act with as Sinn Féin swept aside the period of the 31 mens’ detention there details what Gannon (20), Charles Gavan (19), Thomas Ralph Sammon (24), Hubert Heraty (22), Michael Reilly scape. from Linenhall Street, Castle- my constituency which had Sheridan and not to impose it attempting to cause disaffec- Irish Party. A Rising which they were arrested for. Their ages at the time are (24), Joseph Ruddy (22), Owen Hughes (44), (33), Manus Keane (47), John Lohan (20), John Copyright ©James Kelly 2016 Maxwell was the head of the bar and Edward Callaghan little or no connection with in any sentence that may be tion at Ballyvary on July 9 ‘by had little popular support at in brackets below: Michael Duffy (21), Michael Derrig (23), Michael Berry (18), Thaddeus Walsh (52), Patrick Hughes This is an abridged excerpt from the author’s British command in Ireland (21), also a shop assistant, from the recent troubles,” writes passed upon Callaghan, if he shouting, in the presence of the time went on to become The following men were listed as being ‘Guilty J Ring (22), John McDonagh (50), Thomas Derrig (17) John Gavin (20), Patrick Tunney (30) were forthcoming book, at the time and the man who Sion Hill, Castlebar. Doris. be found guilty’. several persons “Up with the a turning point in Irish his- of behaviour of such a nature as to be prejudicial (18). listed as being ‘guilty of conduct prejudicial to An Illustrated History of Westport, to be ordered the executions of the Writing to General Maxwell A typed reply comes from Doris goes on to issue another Rebels”, “Cheers for the tory. to the Public safety and the Defence of the Realm Joseph Gill (44) was listed as being ‘guilty of the Public safety and the Defence of the Realm’. published by Westport Historical Society THE MAYO NEWS 1916 COMMEMORATION TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016 TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016 1916 COMMEMORATION THE MAYO NEWS 22 23

JOHN BERRY BARTHOLOMEW CRYAN MICHAEL DERRIG John was born in Lanmore in c.1897. In Bartley Cryan was born in Ougham, Michael was born on Castlebar Street in 1916, he was a grocer’s assistant in Bunninadden, Co Sligo in c.1892. In 1893, but the family moved to the John McGing’s, High Street. Following 1916, he was a draper’s assistant in Octagon, and later to James Street. the murder of resident magistrate John Charles Hughes’s, Bridge Street. During Mikey worked for a few years as a Charles Milling, in 1919, police the War of Independence, Bartley was a carpenter’s apprentice, but then became The suspected Berry of a minor role in the member of the Westport ASU. He later a mechanic in Chappie Bourke‘s garage. crime. He was vice-commandant of the became a commercial traveller for He loved greyhounds and coursing, was 3rd battalion IRA during the War of Charles Hughes. When his fellow one of Westport’s fi nest handball players, Independence, and a member of the 1916-arrestee and workmate, Patrick a renowned billiards player and a Active Service Unit (ASU); he took the Hughes, drowned at the Quay in 1917, member of many local GAA and rugby republican side in the Civil War. He went Bartley made a brave attempt to save teams of the 1910s-1930s. He served in Westport 31 to Philadelphia in 1925. Forty years later, him. He was interned during the Civil Westport (A) Company, 3rd Batt. IRA he was still making efforts on Ireland‘s War but escaped from the Curragh during the War of Independence. The behalf, raising funds for a proposed camp in 1923. He moved to Co Leitrim, Derrig family was subjected to a great monument in Westport to Major John where he ran a drapery and fancy goods many cruelties by the Black and Tans. MacBride. He passed away in 1982. business. He died in 1957. Mikey passed away in 1952. James Kelly profi les each of the 31 men arrested in Westport immediately after the 1916 Rising

THOMAS DERRIG PATRICK JOSEPH DORIS MICHAEL DUFFY EDWARD GANNON CHARLES GAVAN JOHN GAVIN MARTIN GERAGHTY JOSEPH A GILL Tom was born on High Street in 1898. Patrick J Doris was born in Westport Michael was born in Lanmore Edward (Eamonn) Gannon Charles was born on High Street in John was born at Martin was born on James Street Joseph was born at the Quay in He studied in UCG, and became in 1866, the son of a postman. He in c.1896. In 1916, he was a was born in Carrowkennedy 1896. In 1916, he was training to be Murrisknaboll in 1894. He in 1896. Like his father and 1874, a fi rst-cousin of John and headmaster of Ballina Technical School was a member of the Fenian draper’s assistant in Charles in 1896, soon after which the a teacher in Westport CBS. When worked as a grocer’s assistant brothers, he became a butcher. Joseph MacBride. His father 1918-23, but in 1918 was jailed for Brotherhood and was active in the Hughes’s, Bridge Street. family moved to High Street. Ned Moane was tried in 1918 for in Mrs PJ Kelly’s, the Octagon. He was a member of Westport Anthony, was one of the Fenians attempting to steal a soldier’s rifl e. He Land League, and later in the United Unfortunately, we know very In 1916, he was a teacher in Volunteer activity, riots broke out and He came there in 1911, Fianna Éireann and later the jailed in 1867. Joe fought in the was commandant of the West Mayo Irish League (UIL). As assistant clerk little about his life. He may Westport CBS. During the a number of local Volunteers were replacing his brother Pat, and Volunteers. In 1918, he joined his Greco-Turkish war (1897), went to brigade, and was interned in 1921. While to the Westport Board of Guardians, have been a cousin of John War of Independence, he held arrested. Charles was given six was working there at the time brother in Liverpool, and in April America, but returned and in jail, he was elected a Sinn Féin TD. He he helped nationalists gain some Berry, another 1916 internee rank in the IRA North Mayo months hard labour in Dundalk jail of his arrest in 1916, 1921 went to the USA, becoming opened a coal business at the voted against the Treaty, and lost his control over local affairs. In 1892, he and native of Lanmore. A brigade, and arbitrated at the for his part. In 1921, he was interned continuing to do so until a citizen in 1927. He lived in New Quay. He was involved in the seat in 1923. During the Civil War he co-founded The Mayo News with his 1949 newspaper article states early Dáil Courts. He was vice for a second time, for IRA activity February 1917. With his York, working as a grocery store General John Regan riots in 1914. was adjutant-general in the Four Courts. brother William (later an MP), through that Duffy ‘died a premature chairman of Mayo County and involvement with the Sinn Féin brother Pat, who was also an manager. During the War of When arrested in 1916, he Attempting an escape from National which he fought landlordism and death as a result of solitary Council, and principal of courts. A member of the 3rd Batt. active nationalist, John Independence, his family were barricaded himself in his home, troops, in 1923, he was shot and lost his imperialism. Personally and confi nement and penal MacFirbis Irish college in ASU in the War of Independence, he emigrated to Liverpool. He subjected to considerable daring police to come and get left eye. He was interned until 1924. professionally, he was subject to persecution’, but we have no Enniscrone. In the early was one of only four survivors settled in Birkenhead, where maltreatment by the Black and him. Police suspected him of Re-elected to the Dáil in 1927, he was a numerous harassments during the further details. Given that his 1920s, he suffered further present at the 1916 commemoration he met his wife Clara, and Tans. Throughout his life he involvement in the Milling murder founder member of Fianna Fáil, and War of Independence. He died in name does not appear in any internment in the UK and in Westport in 1966. He was worked for many years in the retained a deep love for his native (1919), in the wake of which he became Minister for Education and 1937. of the lists of the local IRA Ireland, having taken the Westport UDC rate collector shipyard there. He died there Westport. He passed away in left for America, via Liverpool. He Minister for Lands. He died in 1956. companies, it might be that he anti-Treaty side. In 1923 he 1930-1963. Charles passed away in in 1985, aged 91. 1990, the last surviving member died in the Bronx in 1928. died at some point prior to launched an Irish newspaper, 1970. of this group of 31 internees. 1921. An Cearnóg. He later moved to a teaching job in Dublin.

EDWARD HARAN HUBERT HERATY CHARLES HICKEY CHARLES HUGHES Edward was born at Drummindoo in 1881. Like Hubert was born on High Street in 1894, Charles was born in Dublin in Charles was born in Lankill in 1876. He set up his father, Ned was a baker, fi rst on James Street, and followed his father as a butcher and 1896, the son of a clerk in a shop on Bridge Street in 1904, going on to build later on Bridge Street. He played a leading role in cattle dealer. The family shop was fi rst carrier’s offi ce. Charles came one of the biggest businesses in the west of Westport GAA and was a member of Westport on Mill Street, later on Altamont Street, to Westport to work as a Ireland. A member of all the nationalist UDC. During the War of Independence, he was a near the Red Bridge. During the War of coach painter in John P organisations in Westport, he was involved in the member of A Company (Westport) IRA. Ned and Independence, Hubert was a member of Breheny’s coach factory on Westport cattle-drive (1911) and the General John his family suffered terribly at the hands of the A Company ( Westport) IRA. In later Castlebar Street. He was in Regan riot (1914). He was arrested in 1916 Black and Tans. Once, they harnessed him and years he became overseer of the town Westport by at least 1915, as together with practically all of his staff. During the another man to a cart, forcing them to pull it dump, beyond the railway station. He he appears in the Westport War of Independence, his home and premises around town, the Tans whipping them as they died in 1958, and is buried in Fianna Éireann photograph. were badly damaged, and he was a target for went. Ned and family emigrated to America in Aughagower. Unfortunately, it has not been assassination by agents of the Crown. He became 1926, where he worked for a railroad company. possible to trace any further a prominent member of Fianna Fáil, and was He died in New York in 1943. details of Charles’s life. involved in all the local affairs of the town in the 1920s and 30s. He passed away in 1949. THE MAYO NEWS 1916 COMMEMORATION TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016 TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016 1916 COMMEMORATION THE MAYO NEWS 24 25

OWEN HUGHES PATRICK HUGHES MANUS KEANE PATRICK S KENNY Older brother of Charles, Owen was Son of Owen Hughes, Patrick was born Manus was born in 1865 at Cloonskill. Patrick was born into a large family, at born in Lankill in 1873. He was father of at Lankill in 1898. He went to work for By trade he was a blacksmith. He joined Keash in Co Sligo, where his father, James (NT), Owen (NT, county his uncle, Charles Hughes, in Westport. the Fenian Brotherhood at a young age, Michael, was a farmer. At the time of his councillor), Richard (BE), Quay Road and He joined the local Sinn Féin club and and during the War of Independence arrest in 1916, he was an assistant in Padraig Hughes (Charles Hughes Ltd.). the Irish Volunteers, and was an was a member of H Company Michael Browne’s drapery on Shop Street, Owen was prominent in the Aughagower enthusiastic Gaelic footballer. During his (Aughagower) IRA. His nationalism was, probably coming there as an apprentice a UIL, Sinn Féin and the Gaelic League, internment in 1916, Patrick, along with by all accounts, his hallmark, and was few years previously. He moved to Dublin and was arrested in the wake of the John Berry, Lanmore, was held at referred to often in later accounts of his at some point, and later to Bodenstown, 1911 cattle drive. He was under regular Barlinnie jail, in Scotland. In August life. He died in 1954 and is buried in Co Kildare. Patrick passed away in 1952 surveillance by the RIC. When Owen 1917, while swimming off the Point of Aughagower. Owen Hughes NT and was buried in Knockbrack, near his was arrested in 1916, it was alongside the Quay, he was drowned, despite delivered an oration at his graveside, birthplace, Keash. He was an uncle of his son Patrick. During the War of brave efforts to save him. His coffi n was paying tribute to his personal qualities Kathleen Reynolds, widow of the late Independence, Owen was a member of draped in the Sinn Féin fl ag. and ‘his deep and sincere patriotism’. Taoiseach Albert Reynolds. H (Aughagower) Company IRA. He died at Lankill in 1944.

JOHN LOHAN JOSEPH M MACBRIDE JOHN MCDONAGH JAMES MALONE THOMAS O‘BRIEN THOMAS RALPH John was born near the village of Creggs, in Co. Joseph was born at the Quay in 1860, elder brother John was born on High Street in 1865, James was born on High Street in 1881, into a Thomas was born at Raigh, Aughagower in Thomas was born in Westport in 1892. His father Galway in c.1898. In 1916, he was a draper’s of Major John MacBride. In 1890, he became following his father as a plasterer and stone well-known family of Westport tailors – he was 1879, but the family moved to Moyhastin, where was a postman in Westport, and Tom became a assistant in Hugh Coen‘s on Bridge Street. In secretary to Westport Harbour Commissioners. He mason. A veteran nationalist, John was charged uncle of Pake and Brod Malone, James Street. he spent the rest of his life running the family railway porter. He was a member of the Westport 1929, he married Mary Breheny, Castlebar Street, was involved in the Land War, held senior positions in with riotous behaviour for his part in a pro-Boer James joined the Westport IRB and was the fi rst farm. A veteran nationalist, Tom was a member UIL and in 1914 was a ‘ringleader’ in the General and the couple lived on John’s Row. During the the Gaelic League and the GAA, and was a guiding celebration in Westport in 1900. During his sergeant in the Westport Volunteers. After 1916, of A Company (Westport) IRA during the War of John Regan riot. Soon after his release from War of Independence he was a member of A light of militant nationalism in West Mayo. He formed internment in 1916, he was held for a time in he played leading roles in the Volunteers and Independence, and of the ASU, participating in internment in 1916, Tom was transferred by the Company (Westport) IRA and took the anti-Treaty the Irish Volunteers in Westport in 1914 and was solitary confi nement. He received rough IRA in Ballinrobe and Ballinasloe, forming fl ying all the local ambushes and engagements. He railway company to Mullingar, possibly because side in the Civil War. In 1966, at the 50th engaged in organising and drilling all over Mayo up to treatment during the War of Independence: the columns, raiding for arms and instructing took the anti-Treaty side in the Civil War. When of his political activities. He had four brothers in anniversary commemoration of 1916 in Westport, 1922. The British interned him three times: 1916, Black and Tans searched his home and recruits. During the Civil War he and his family Tom passed away, in 1955, he was described the British Army during the First World War. Tom he was presented with a special medal to mark 1917 and 1918-1919. In 1918, while in Gloucester assaulted him quite badly, and on one occasion came under fi re, and were lucky to escape. He as ‘a gentleman of outstanding character … one married Agnes Ollington, and they lived in his service. He passed away in 1969 and is buried jail, he was elected Sinn Féin MP for West Mayo. He completely burned out the family home. John set up shop in Clifden in the early 1920s, his of the last remaining links with the Fenians’. His Castlebar. He passed away in 1960, and is in Aughaval. was a member of the fi rst Dáil (1919) and held his died in 1934 at his home on Mill Street, and is client list including a king and a maharaja. funeral to Aughagower cemetery included an buried in Castlebar Old Cemetery. seat until 1927. He passed away in 1938. buried Aughaval. James passed away in 1958. Old IRA guard of honour.

MICHAEL REILLY MICHAEL JOSEPH RING JOSEPH RUDDY EDWARD SAMMON PATRICK TUNNEY THADDEUS WALSH Michael (Broddie) Reilly was born on Peter Street in Joe Ring was born in Ballinasloe in 1891, and brought up at Joe was born in Westport in 1892, the family Edward (Ned) was born in Kilsallagh in 1888, the family Patrick was born in 1886 at Derrykillew, and worked as a Thaddeus was born in 1864 at Knockfi n. He opened a 1881, all of his extended family being victuallers and Drummindoo. He was one of the leading nationalist fi gures in West living on Church Lane. He worked as a carpenter soon thereafter moving to Peter Street. Later, Ned and his tailor. He was one of the few to write down his memories of bar and grocery on Mill Street in c.1890, a business which livestock exporters, as was Broddie himself. The Mayo. He became offi cer commanding 3rd Batt. West Mayo IRA and builder. He held senior positions in the local wife and family lived on John’s Row. Ned was a stalwart of the revolutionary period, many of which he published in the continued for over a century. Thaddeus was involved in all family later moved to the Fairgreen. He was a and was a founder of the ASU. He was directly or indirectly involved IRB, Volunteers and Sinn Féin. He was suspected Westport United, being involved in the club for about 70 form of poems, letters and articles. Pat joined the IRB at a the local nationalist movements, including the Irish member of the IRB and the Volunteers, and gave in all of the IRA actions in the Westport area during the War of by police of involvement in the Milling murder years. He was a member of the Volunteers from their young age and was a founder of the Cuslough Fife & Drum National Federation, the UIL and Sinn Féin. He was evidence for the defence during the 1917-18 trials Independence, often leading the fi ght, including the ambushes at (1919), and went on the run in its aftermath. formation; during the War of Independence he was band. During the War of Independence, he was a member of chairman of Westport Rural District Council, a member of of Tom Derrig and Tommie Kitterick, who were Islandeady, Kilmeena and Carrowkennedy. After the Truce, he During the Civil War, he was a captain in the quartermaster of the 3rd Batt. IRA, and a member of the D Company (Cuslough) IRA, and his home was a hive of Mayo County Council and a founder of Westport Cumann charged with attempting to steal a soldier’s rifl e. played an important role in the formation of An Garda Síochána. National Army, and adjutant of its West Mayo ASU, participating in many of their famous engagements. nationalist activity. He was interned again in 1920-21, but na nGaedheal. Thaddeus, his family and his business During the War of Independence, he was a member With the Civil War, he was made a brigadier-general in the National Brigade. When Westport was retaken from the In 1971, he was one of the few surviving members of the escaped from the Curragh camp. For many years a member suffered greatly at the hands of the Black and Tans. In of A Company (Westport) IRA. Michael was one of Army, and in 1922 led the successful recapture of Westport from Irregulars, Joe became offi cer in charge of the Flying Column present at the 50th anniversary of Westport Rural District Council, he later moved to Dublin, 1922, his son, Vice-Brigadier Joseph Walsh, was killed the four survivors present at the 50th anniversary anti-Treaty forces. Brigadier-General Ring was killed in a battle with district. He was killed at the Battle of Newport, in commemoration in Carrowkennedy. He passed away in and passed away in 1951. fi ghting for the National Army at the Battle of Newport. commemoration of 1916 in Westport in 1966; he Irregulars in the Ox Mountains in September 1922. He is buried in November 1922, and is buried in Aughaval. 1975. Thaddeus himself passed away in 1931. passed away later that year. Aughaval. COPYRIGHT ©JAMES KELLY 2016 This is an abridged excerpt from the author’s forthcoming book, An Illustrated History © of Westport, to be published by Westport Historical Society THE MAYO NEWS 1916 COMMEMORATION TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016 TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016 1916 COMMEMORATION THE MAYO NEWS 26 27 From Westport to Frongoch and beyond

James Kelly analyses the build up to the arrests of 31 men in Westport and the political aftermath of the Easter Rising in the town

he arrests made in Westport in May 1916 were based upon years of observation by the author- ities of the local Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), Irish Volunteers, Sinn Féin and Cumann na mBan. TIn making the arrests the British administration saw themselves as punishing those they regarded as being in sympathy with the Dublin rebels, while also taking potentially effective insurgents out of circulation, thus limiting the IRB/Volunteers’ ability to mount a renewed offensive in the weeks following the Rising. In that sense, the Easter Rising must be seen as the event which precipitated these 31 arrests. A signifi cant voice in the decision-making process which led to the arrests was undoubtedly that of John Charles Milling, the local resident magistrate and vir- ulent opponent of Sinn Féin, who tried a number of the 31 men in Volunteer-related cases in the years either side of 1916. He was murdered at his home on Newport Road in 1919, some of the 1916 internees being suspected of involvement. y WESTPORT NA FIANNA ÉIREANN This superb picture shows the Westport group of Na Fianna Éireann in 1915. The next year three of its members (Tom Derrig, Charles Hickey and Éamonn (Edward) Gannon) would be among the 31 arrested in Westport. The photograph was taken by Mrs P Walsh, McLoughlin’s Studios, Westport. Back, from left: Willie Malone, High BACKGROUND St; John Tom Walsh (drill instructor), High St; Tom Derrig (scout master), High St; Joe Gillivan, James St; John Malone, High St; James ‘Broddie’ Malone, The Fairgreen; James ‘Broddie’ Carney, Mill St; James McKenna, ‘The Pound’, Carrabawn; Joe Walsh, Mill St; John Hastings, High St; Tommie Ketterick (recruiting sergeant), High St; Charles Hickey, Castlebar St; THE arrests occurred against the backdrop of a politi- y William Lyons, Quay Rd; Dan Gavin, High St; Michael O’Malley, Carrabawn; Eamonn Gannon, High St. Second row, from left: Austin Hoban, Mill St; Peter Mutch, Castlebar St; Wille Duffy, y SPEECH The O’Rahilly, one of the leaders of the 1916 LUCKY COIN A coin Major John MacBride wore around his neck. It was cally divided Westport. Besides the loyalists and the The Fairgreen; Martin Duffy, The Fairgreen; Francis Quinn, Lower Peter St; Peter Kelly (troop bugler), Tubber Hill; Jack McDonagh, High St; Wille Joe Ainsworth, Castlebar St; Tom Rising, who was killed in the Rising, spoke to the crowd in taken from him before he was executed for his role in the Rising. He became an neutrals, the nationalists of the district were split, and Sheirdan, Mill St; David Walsh, High St; Paddy Haran, Bridge St; Jack Breheny, Castlebar St. Front, from left: Matt Heraty, Altamont St; Paddy Blaney, Altamont St; Teddy Walsh, Bridge St; Westport after the St Patrick’s Day parade of 1916. instant martyr in Westport. This coin is on display at the Clew Bay Heritage bitterly so. The split, which took place in 1914, was Centre. Pic: Michael McLaughlin Paddy McGreal, Bridge St; Mick Breheny, Castlebar St; ‘Champ’ McGreal. Pic courtesy of Westport Historical Society and the Breheny family between those nationalists who supported the militant ideology of Sinn Féin and the IRB, and those who advo- cated the pursuit of Home Rule. The Irish Volunteers were formed in response to the to local young mens’ patriotism in an effort to overcome as the processionists saw who were going to address The majority of Westport nationalists regarded the felt amongst the Irish people, the majority of whom The most important event in Westport in 1916 was the Ulster Volunteers’ threats to block, by force, the imple- what seems to have been fairly widespread cynicism them, three-fourths of them wheeled off and marched rebellion as a betrayal of the stated aim of the Volun- had not, theretofore, been in sympathy with the rebels. shift in the public’s attitude towards militant national- mentation of Home Rule. The IRB, however, secretly and apathy. Numerous references are made to local away, followed by the majority of the people … they teer movement, which was to help secure Home Rule, The veteran MP for East Mayo, John Dillon, made a ism. That was mainly due to the executions in Dublin, wanted to develop the Irish Volunteers into an army naysayers and mockers, suggesting that this was an saw it was to be used as a Sinn Féin meeting, and they not to engage in confl ict with British forces. All of the powerful and infl uential speech in the House of Com- but the Westport arrests, and the duration of the mens’ with which they could launch a bid for Irish independ- organisation battling on a number of fronts. It was kept wisely resolved to have no part in it. The whole trick local newspapers condemned it in those terms, as did mons, warning that people ‘who ten days ago were bit- internment undoubtedly added to the sense of griev- ence. The Westport corps was established in March afl oat by a small, core group, in spite of derision from was a transparent fraud and was treated as such’. the county and urban councils and boards of guardi- terly opposed to the Sinn Féin movement and the rebel- ance people felt towards Britain. 1914, with about 120 men, most of whom joined in order local constitutionalist nationalists, a lack of local cler- The Mayo News, on the other hand, reported that: ‘St ans. lion, are now becoming infuriated against the Many Westport people who had, up to that point, been to help secure Home Rule. ical support, opposition from local unionists and the Patrick’s Day in Westport was celebrated in a truly PJ Doris wrote in a Mayo News editorial that none of Government on account of these executions … In Mayo, moderate, constitutionalist nationalists, with their focus For about six months, the Westport Volunteers enjoyed continual attention of the police. national spirit … The procession was of immense pro- the local Volunteers ‘had the least idea that the organ- which I have the honour to represent as senior Mem- on Home Rule, now turned, in sympathy and practical the support of (most of) the members of both nation- When the Rising happened, the Westport corps of portions and … the meeting afterwards was most enthu- isation to which they belonged was, in the remotest ber, it is absolutely quiet. Not a soul stirred in Mayo support, towards the more radical goal of full Irish alist camps, militants and constitutionalists. Even Lord Volunteers was by no means a happy and thriving band, siastic’. Other sources tell us that St Patrick’s Day 1916 possibility, ever to be used for any such purpose’. It is [but] there is not a more troublesome county in Ireland independence, and the idea of achieving that through Sligo said that he was willing to join the Volunteers in enjoying universal local support - far from it. The corps was not quite the harmonious affair depicted in The ironic that Doris should have been arrested for ‘aiding, if disturbed … There was not a man moved in Mayo … direct confl ict with the British. This change in public defence of the country - meaning the United Kingdom was reorganised in 1916, only a month before the Ris- Mayo News report, nor was it the ‘miserable failure’ abetting and encouraging in the preparations for the And now the reward we get is to send down troops … mood opened the way for the emergence in Westport of Great Britain and Ireland. ing, and the fact that this reorganisation was deemed depicted by the Connaught. rebellion’, having spent the preceding days writing a to make arrests all over the county, and turn our own in 1917-1918 of an explicitly IRB-focused Volunteer However, in late 1914 the Volunteers divided over John necessary tells us that the corps had been, in various public condemnation of that rebellion. friends into enemies of the Government … You are let- movement, which was to play an important part in Redmond’s appeal for members to enlist in the British senses, struggling. Had it not been for the Rising and ‘INNER CIRCLE’ In the short term, the Rising almost killed armed- ting loose a river of blood … between two races who, Mayo’s War of Independence. army, his idea being that if the Volunteers helped Brit- the subsequent internments and executions, all of which NEWS of the Rising reached Westport on Monday nationalism in Westport; in the long term, it was its after three hundred years of hatred and of strife, we In recalling what happened in Westport in 1916, the ain in her war with Germany, this would ensure the gave impetus to the resurgence of 1917-18, the move- night/Tuesday morning April 24/25, and the Westport saving grace. In its immediate aftermath, the Rising had nearly succeeded in bringing together’. important event, historically, was the swing in public enactment of Home Rule legislation once the war ment would more than likely have fizzled out. IRB held an ‘inner circle’ meeting on the Wednesday dealt two almost-fatal blows to militant nationalism in In Westport, John MacBride became a martyr over- opinion. But we should not forget the hardships endured ended. The committed members of the Westport Volunteers, night (April 26). According to Edward Moane, a prom- Westport. night. It was this turn in public opinion which facilitated by the 31 interned men and their families at home, who In Westport, the division over this issue led to a fall- together with the local Fianna Éireann boy scouts, inent IRB and Volunteer fi gure in town, they discussed First, as a military fi asco, it made physical-force nation- the re-emergence of militant nationalism in Westport. worried that the men were going to be either shot or off in constitutionalist-nationalist support for the Vol- drilled and marched fairly regularly. Drill practice was what they might do, whether some sort of show-of-force alism distinctly unattractive, and this approach looked Had the British not carried out the executions, West- sent to the Western Front. unteers: about 40 members left the ranks, and the corps usually on Fridays in Reilly’s Meadow, now Cluain Ard. was possible, but concluded that, because they had no set to be either killed-off or relegated to the fringes. port nationalism would almost certainly have taken on Many of them suffered further periods of internment lost the active support of a host of infl uential local fi g- Route marches assembled at the meadow or at the fi rearms to speak of, nothing could be done. Second, the round-up of local Volunteer and IRB lead- an overwhelmingly constitutionalist character. As it and targeted harassment by the Black and Tans. Two ures. It was kept going by a core group of offi cers, mostly Octagon after last Mass on Sundays; the Westport Fianna Seán Gibbons (IRB) recalled that there was some talk ers in the wake of the Rising meant that there was no- was, the executions did take place, and the political of the 31 internees gave their lives for their country: IRB/Sinn Féin activists, although the majority of ordi- would often march together, in uniform, to Mass. Drill of attacking the RIC barracks on Shop St, but the plan one left to steer the ship of militant nationalism in scene that emerged in Westport had the physical-force Joe Ring and Joe Ruddy were killed fi ghting for the nary Volunteers were still motivated by a desire to help and boxing classes for the local Volunteers were led by was abandoned because ‘there was very little to attack Westport. By the time the Rising occurred, the IRB in nationalists in the ascendant, and the constitutionalists National Army in 1922, as was Joe Walsh, son of 1916- secure Home Rule. Tom Tarmey. with’. One of their few weapons was a revolver Major Westport had been struggling to counteract local apa- on a downward trajectory. internee Thaddeus Walsh. In many ways, 1916 was a On St Patrick’s Day 1916, a parade and meeting were John MacBride had used in the Boer War. The Kilmeena thy and cynicism for at least a year. The reputational Most of the 31 men arrested in 1916 were part of the condensed adolescence, a year in which Westport moved CYNICISM AND APATHY held in Westport. Refl ecting their opposing nationalist Volunteers marched to join in the attack on the bar- damage done by the Rising, coupled with the intern- IRB-leaning hardcore, which kept the Volunteer move- from relative innocence towards a much darker period FROM late 1914 on, the Westport Volunteers had a rocky positions, The Mayo News and the Connaught Telegraph racks, only to be told it was called off. In the end, the ment of almost its entire leadership, looked set to kill ment alive in Westport following the acrimony of 1914. of its history. road. Time and again in 1915 and early 1916 we fi nd reported the event quite differently. At the conclusion Volunteers marched around the town, with the RIC it stone dead. They played no part in the rebellion, nor could they appeals in The Mayo News, written by an unnamed of the parade, the crowd was addressed at the Octagon following taking names. The best estimate is that have done, even if they had received an unequivocal COPYRIGHT ©JAMES KELLY 2016 Westport Volunteer, seeking not only recruits, but for by a number of Sinn Féin fi gures, including The O’Rahilly, between 10 and 20 men carried arms during that march. EXECUTIONS order to rise up: they were desperately short of arms, This is an abridged excerpt from the author’s existing members to attend drill practise, and for those who was, just over a month later, killed in action dur- This was the last appearance of the Volunteers in West- THE turning point was the public outrage at the execu- the authorities kept them under close observation and forthcoming book, An Illustrated History of Westport, who do, to attend on time. The author constantly appeals ing the Rising. The Connaught reports that: ‘As soon port in 1916. The arrests began two days later. tion of the Rising’s leaders. Widespread revulsion was they lacked widespread local support. to be published by Westport Historical Society THE MAYO NEWS 1916 COMMEMORATION TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016 TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016 1916 COMMEMORATION THE MAYO NEWS 28 29 The hidden heroes of Frongoch internees leave a the Independent struggle substantial political legacy

and found Patrick Tunney there, whom HARRY HUGHES Hughes, a nephew of Patrick Hughes and a Liam Friel writes they believed was under lock and key grandson of Owen Hughes is elected from in Galway jail. 1992 until 1997. about the role They didn’t know that he had a ten day Two years later Michael Ring was Patrick Tunney’s parole from Galway jail because of spe- here is a disproportional elected in a by-election in 1994. He cial family circumstances. Margaret saw political legacy from the is a grandnephew of Joseph Ring. mother and wife the Black and Tans pin her son at gun- thirty-one Westport He is currently acting Minister of point against the gable wall of his home. internees. A total of State for Tourism and Sport and played in the Their sole intent was to execute him on seven MPs or TDs is the longest serving of all the spot. And they would have carried Tfrom the Westport district were Westport TDs, having been rebellion years it out had it not been for the cries of a elected in Westport over the elected fi ve times since his by- tiny new-born baby from within and the last one hundred years. election victory. pleading of the family. Two were internees and four A number of other TDs argaret (nee Mulroe) and The compassion did not last long. They were relations or descendants related to the Westport intern- Nora (nee Dunne) Tunney broke into the home despite the pleas of the internees. The only ees were elected outside of both suffered greatly as a of the family that the mother had just exception was Edward Moane, Westport. result of the direct involve- given birth. Nora had just given birth to although not a Frongoch internee, Seán MacBride, a son of the ment of Patrick and her third baby – Margaret Mary (Mairéad) he was active in the fi ght for free- excused leader Major John Mac- MichaelM Tunney in the fi ght for free- – late on the day before. dom - in fact he was one of the Bride and a nephew of internee dom. The Black and Tans went up to Nora’s leading Westport volunteers not Joseph MacBride, was elected in MARGARET Mulroe from Greenáun, bed-room and pulled the bedclothes off arrested in 1916 and led the organisa- Dublin in 1947 for the Clann na Tourmakeady married Thomas Tunney her bed, in case she was hiding a fugi- tion in the absence of many of its lead- Poblachta, the republican socialist party of Derrykillew, Cushlough, Westport. tive. ers who were detained in Frongoch. he formed. He was on the cabinet of the These were the days of matchmaking. Margaret boldly refused to converse Edward Moane was a TD from 1932 to fi rst inter-party government from 1948 to 1951 The ‘deal’ was done at The Pattern in with the Black and Tans in a language 1938. as Minister for External Affairs. Leenane. That was the fi rst time that that they could understand. So they hit The fi rst direct connection with the detainees An opponent of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1921, either set eyes on the other. Thomas her with the butt of their rifl es and is William Doris, a brother of PJ Doris. William y POLITICAL LEGACY Michael Ring TD (top, left) and former TD Seamus Hughes (top, MacBride would become a Chief of Staff of the Tunney died in 1915. At that point their knocked her against the dresser, injuring was an MP from 1910 to 1918 but the sea change right) and their forebears, Joe Ring (bottom, left) and Owen Hughes (bottom, right). IRA in the 1930s. Issues with Fine Gael leader Pics: Michael McLaughlin, Harry Hughes and Westport Historical Society two sons Patrick and Michael were heav- her and breaking much of the delft. in the nationalist movement led to him losing Richard Mulcahy during the Civil War meant ily involved in the Irish Republican Patrick Tunney was advised for his his seat. the likes of MacBride’s Clann na Poblachta Brotherhood and independence for own security to return to the ‘safety’ of Two internees, Joseph MacBride and Tom would not support him as Taoiseach so Mulc- Eire. Galway jail. It would be another nine Derrig were elected to Dáil Éireann during the ahy stepped aside and allowed John A Costello In 1916 her home was a hive of repub- months before Nora and her baby would foundation of the Free State. to head the inter-party government. lican activity. Liam Mellows, the Galway lay eyes on him again. Joseph Mac Bride, a brother of Major John MacBride went on to become a well-known leader, found a warm welcome when he y BEHIND THE being on the run don’t put a dinner on the members of the Active Services Units These were the women behind the Mac Bride, was elected an MP in 1918 - actually international politician and was one of the stayed at the Tunney home in SCENES The roles of the table. of the Irish Republican Army from 1917 men, the often forgotten people and the unseating William Doris - and later a TD in founding members of Amnesty International. Cushlough. women like Nora Tunney Nora was to raise ten children on the to 1922. These men on the run found a unsung heroes. Those two ladies faced the fi rst Dail from 1922 to 1927. Tom Derrig He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in (left) and Margaret In 1917, just six months after his release Tunney were a huge part small farm in the barren rural area of warm welcome under their hospitable down the rifl es of the RIC and the Black was elected to the fi rst Dáil in 1922 for Mayo 1974 and was present in Westport in 1983 for from Frongoch jail, Nora Dunne, Car- of the independence Derrykillew, while he spent many years roof, but it also attracted ‘visits’ by the and Tans for the cause of Ireland’s free- North and West. He was later elected for the unveiling of the memorial to his father rowkennedy, Westport married Patrick struggle. Pics courtesy of of his life in jails through-out Ireland Crown forces who sought information dom. Carlow/Kilkenny from 1927 until 1954. on The Mall in Westport. Tunney. Her husband was a ‘man on the Liam Friel and England. about the movement of the ‘boys’. A Fianna Fáil TD, he was Minister for Jim Tunney a nephew of Patrick Tunney run’, tailor, a poet, a songwriter and a The valley in which they lived being One brutal episode occurred on March Liam Friel is a grandson of Patrick and Education in Eamon de Valera’s fi rst govern- was elected in Dublin in 1969 and was a small farmer. Unfortunately poems and isolated was continually frequented by 22, 1921 when the Black and Tans arrived Nora Tunney ment in 1932. member of Dáil Éireann until he was unseated There is a gap of nearly fi fty years until the in 1992. next Westport person is elected to the Dáil. From the mixed group of local politicians, Myles Staunton served as a TD from 1973 to Sinn Feiners, Irish Volunteers and Fianna Éire- 1977 and is a fi rst cousin – twice removed to ann, who were arrested in 1916, over seven TDs 1916 internee Joseph Gill and is also related to within or related to the internees were elected Westport’s Cumann na mBan was very active before Easter Rising the MacBride family. and have served the country. The 31 internees Another twenty years elapsed before Seamus would be proud of this political legacy.

VINCENT KEANE inent people that joined. Markievicz na mBan. tus and all the outlying branches came families of the 31 men from Westport eventually became an offi cer in the She secured a teaching post in New- under the Westport District Council. that were interned in Britain. Concerts Citizen Army. townards, County Down, and was Later, Newport, Brockagh, Glenhest, and ceilidhe were organised at West- Elizabeth Bloxam was a founding working there in 1916 when news of Tiernaur and Shramore were included port, Cushlough and Aughagower as CUMANN na mBan was founded in member of Cumann na mBan. Eliza- the Rising in Dublin reached her. She in the Battalion area. fundraisers. All this activity smoothed Wynnes Hotel, Abbey Street, Dublin beth was born in Westport. Her father was distressed to learn of the death Overseeing the organisation’s West- the way for the great re-organisation TRAGEDY AFTER UNITY on April 5, 1914. It was an independent was a retired RIC member who had and imprisonment of so many of her port Battalion structure was Tessie of the Republican Movement in 1917. womens’ republican organisation and gained employment at Westport House friends. After 1916 she went to work in Moane, Carrabawn, Westport, sister The Cuman na mBan organisation drew its membership from all classes Demesne. She was born in 1878 and Wicklow and Meath. of Edward (Ned) Moane, who was was at it’s strongest point in the years of society. The vast majority of its the family lived at the Demesne in No.1, In 1915 there were 78 members in already prominent in the local Volun- 1919-1924, and it stood solidly with the members supported the Irish Volun- the farmyard. Westport Cumann na mBan. They teers. She was assisted by Lily Knight IRA. The organisation’s convention VINCENT KEANE the country stood united against its oppressor. near Bonniconlon, and was shot dead. when his son, Captain Joe Walsh, was also killed teers when Redmond’s National Vol- The family were members of the trained in all the usual subjects as laid of Triangle, Ayle. The Westport town held in January 1922 rejected the 1921 The divisive Treaty of 1921 split that unity and Joe Ruddy was the O/C of the Westport FSA with Captain Ruddy at Kilbride. unteers broke away later in 1914. Church of Ireland congregation and down in their constitution and were branch was commanded by Agnes Gal- Treaty. In 1922 Agnes Gallagher and old comrades now became enemies. Tragedy Garrison, located at the Town Hall. On Novem- Another ex-Frongoch internee, Tom Derrig, Cumann na mBan was involved in a Elizabeth was educated in the local there in support of the Irish Volunteers lagher, Bridge Street. Agnes was from Emma McManamon from Newport came to some of the ex-internees in the Civil ber 1 he was involved in a controversial shoot- had become Adjutant General of the IRA in non-combative role in the 1916 Rising Church of Ireland national school. She and Na Fianna Éireann. They attended an old Fenian family and was a cousin were imprisoned at Kilmainham Prison. THE 31 internees from Westport had all returned War of 1922/23. ing when a young IRA man, Pat Mulchrone, Dublin. In March 1923 Derrig was arrested by and took part in dispatch delivery, fi rst left Westport in 1908 and became a demonstrations, public meetings and of the MacBrides from Westport The prisoners were brutally treated home by Christmas 1916. A great national unity Joe Ring had become an Assistant Commis- was shot dead in Gallaghers of Brockagh. On the CID from Oriel House. He tried to escape, aid and intelligence gathering. Domestic Science teacher. In Dublin organised fundraising concerts. The Quay. by their jailers when they were forced had been achieved whilst they were at the sioner of the newly formed Garda Siochana, November 24, Captain Ruddy died in action at and the bullet that struck him damaged his eye Many well known women were asso- she became involved in nationalist organisation spread outwards from the None of the Cumann na mBan mem- to move to a new prison at the North ‘Frongoch University’. but left that position to become a Brigadier in Kilbride, Newport, during a large-scale advance to the extent that it had to be removed. He sur- ciated with Cumann na mBan. Countess politics and according to her testimony town to areas such as Lecanvey, Mur- bers appeared to have been arrested Dublin Union (Grangegorman). Agnes The great electoral victory of 1918 was fol- the Free State Army when the Civil War erupted against Republican forces. vived the Civil War and in later years became Markievicz, Helena Moloney and the to the Bureau of Military History, she risk, Aughagower, Killavalla and after the 1916 Rising and this gave them was released in 1924 and returned to lowed by the opening of the First Dail Eireann in July. On September 14 he was caught in an Thaddeus Walsh had a grocery and licenced a minister in the fi rst Fianna Fáil govern- Gifford sisters were some of the prom- was a founding member of Cumann Kilmeena. Westport got Battalion sta- scope to get involved in assisting the live in Westport. in 1919. Then came the ‘Terror’ of 1920/21 and ambush laid by the IRA in the Ox Mountains, premises at Mill Street. Tragedy came to him ment. THE MAYO NEWS 1916 COMMEMORATION TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016 TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016 1916 COMMEMORATION THE MAYO NEWS 30 31 Written back into history The Newport man who raised tricolor over GPO in 1916 DANIEL CAREYY

THE centenary of the 1916 Ris- ANTON MCNULTY As one of the key offi cers in the GPO, ing has helped bring to life the Staines was by the side of the leaders as stories of some forgotten fi gures they gave the order to evacuate the build- from the Easter Rising. People ing. like Kathleen Lynn, Michael It was a WHEN Pádraig Pearse stepped out in “Myself, Pádraig Pearse, William Pearse Staines, Colonel Maurice Moore, front of the GPO on Easter Monday, 1916 and Judge Law’s chauffeur brought Con- Darrell Figgis and Dick Walsh very to read the Irish Proclamation, high on nolly out on a stretcher. We went into a have come back into the public the roof raising the tri-colour was New- house at Number 10 Moore Street. We consciousness. “ port-born Michael Staines. placed Connolly in a bed and made his exciting, Lynn is a particularly fascinat- Holding the rank of Quartermaster room the headquarters.” ing case. Born in Mullaghfarry, heady General of the Dublin volunteers, Staines Staines was one of six men who car- near Killala, the daughter of a was one of the senior offi cers in the GPO ried Connolly on a stretcher from their Protestant clergyman, she was time that historic Easter Monday and one of retreat on Moore Street and following a Captain and Chief Medical Pearse’s trusted lieutenants. surrender he was imprisoned in Kil- Offi cer of the Irish Citizen Army, Michael Staines was born in Newport mainham Jail. From his cell on May 3 excelling in medicine and endur- in 1885, the son of Edward Staines, a and 4, he could hear the shots of the ing ‘huge prejudice’ as a woman native of Carlow and a constable in the executions of the fi rst seven leaders of in a man’s world. RIC and Margaret McCann, a native of the Rising. Mayo News reporter Áine Ryan Moore insisted that members Kiltarnet, close to Burrishoole Abbey When Edward Daly, the Limerick born wonders if Lynn was ‘radicalised of Conradh na Gaeilge (the outside Newport. leader was about to be executed, he told by seeing the famine as a young Gaelic League) were crucial in He was the eldest of six boys and two the priest who gave him the last rites to, girl in Mayo’, noting that she the establishment of the Volun- girls and they left Newport in 1890 when ‘say hello to Michael Staines and all the was in Dublin at a ‘very excit- teers in Mayo. Edward was transferred to Bellanagare, boys in Blackhall Street’. ing, heady time’, with cultural “When he was coming into an Co Roscommon. In 1904, the family Staines was interned in Frongoch revolution encompassing femi- area – be it Westport, Achill with moved to Dublin where they lived at internment camp in Wales where he was nism, the Irish language and Darrell Figgis – they’d go to the Murtagh Road, Stoneybatter and Michael elected Commandant in the camp. WJ Gaelic sport. She got to know Gaelic League fi rst,” explains worked in Henshaw Ironmongers on Brennan Whitmore in his book ‘The James Connolly during the 1913 Noel Campbell, the Documen- Parliament Street. Irish in Frongoch’ stated: ‘Commandant Lockout, and described herself tation Offi cer and Assistant He was a member of the Gaelic League Michael Staines was a highly effi cient as ‘a Red Cross doctor and a Keeper at the National Museum and attended the fi rst meeting of the offi cer who earned the respect of every belligerent’ when arrested dur- call the National Children’s utor to the Royal Irish Academy’s “They were going to all these y LANDMARK Vincent of Ireland – Country Life. “And Irish Volunteers in the Rotunda on individual prisoner’. ing the Rising. Hospital, if it’s ever built, the Clare Island Survey, recording places and discovering them,” Keane, Vincent Keogh of course, that’s shown in the November 23, 1913 where he was elected Following his release, he was elected Lynn later founded Saint Dr Kathleen Lynn Hospital, the Irish place names of the The Mayo News journalist notes. (proprietor) and Harry Hughes arrests afterwards. From Cong onto the Volunteers’ National Execu- MP for St Michael’s, Dublin and was Ultan’s Hospital for Infants. She which I think would be wonder- island between 1909 and 1911. “They were coming into com- at The Helm, the Quay, to Ballyhaunis, Gaelic Leaguers tive. present in the Mansion House for the Westport - the birthplace of lived openly with her partner, ful,” added Áine Ryan, who also Playwright John Millington munities and energising people Major John MacBride. were picked up everywhere. In September 1915, he was appointed fi rst meeting of the Dáil on January 21, Madeline ffench-Mullen, and draws our attention to interest- Synge and artist Jack B Yeats about the sense of value of their A plaque to commemorate the This is obviously where their a Lieutenant to Pearse’s staff and was 1919. was a ‘radical’ in an era of ‘repres- ing local strands to the cultural travelled around Mayo and Con- culture. [It] was … the velvet fact is located at the top of the intelligence is – it’s not auto- appointed the fi rst representative of the He was arrested in December 1920 and sion’ and ‘rigid Catholic nation- revival that preceded the fi ght nemara in 1905, reporting on the part of the revolution, if you picture. Pic: Conor McKeown matically Sinn Féiners, it’s ‘Let’s Dublin brigade on the General Council imprisoned until June 1921 in Mountjoy alism’. for independence. poverty still rampant in the want to call it that.” get the Gaelic Leaguers’ straight of the Volunteers and attended meetings Jail by the British authorities without “There is a movement now to Eoin Mac Neill was a contrib- ‘congested districts’. And indeed, Colonel Maurice away.” of the Council which were held once a trial, charge or internment order and month. was released along with Arthur Griffi th “At these meetings the question of the to take part in the Truce negotiations. Rising was frequently discussed. The Following the Truce, he was part of the y general feeling was that we would be tion of arms from Liberty Hall to the LEADING FIGURE Newport-born Michael Staines committee formed to disband the RIC was a close ally of Pádraig Pearse. beaten militarily. The feeling of those GPO. and formed An Garda Síochána, becom- present at these meetings was that we He led the move to the top fl oor of the ing its fi rst Commissioner on March 10, should not let the war end without our building and along with other Volunteers 1922. Hidden rifl es and bags of swords generation making a gesture or a protest hoisted the tricolour over the GPO while “The Garda Síochána will succeed not against British rule and the occupation Pádraig Pearse read out the Proclama- by force of arms or numbers but on their of the country,” he stated to the Bureau tion. moral authority as servants of the peo- of Military history. At the heavy bombardment of the GPO ple,” he stated. DANIEL CAREY teers [over Irish participation in the First In Castlebar, bags of swords were found Staines was appointed to the role of began later in the week, Staines later Michael Staines married Julia Cullen World War], when [John] Redmond’s in the river by the RIC, and 1,000 troops Quartermaster General for the GPO gar- recalled the building was ‘alight in every in 1922. He died in 1955 and is buried National Volunteers and the Irish Vol- fl ooded into the county town. There rison during the 1916 Rising which meant quarter and the front portion was a roar- alongside his wife Julia in Clontarf Cem- unteers split, there was a scramble for were plans to use the deep harbour in he was responsible for the transporta- ing furnace’. etery. CONSIGNMENT of rifl es arms,” he told a gathering in The Helm Kilcummin to bring in weapons, remi- were taken in what Noel Bar and Restaurant, Westport last Tues- niscent of the Howth gun-running epi- Campbell calls ‘the only rec- day. “In Castlebar, Rooney Hall on Tucker sode. ognised offi cial bit of action’ Street, which is gone now, was the head- “[From] the witness statements that which took place in Mayo quarters of the Volunteers. A month after People are available, you can tell people were duringA Easter week, 1916. It involved the split, the National Volunteers broke ready to roll,” says Campbell. “If one, Ballina man shot in cheek in Rising crossfi re companies from Balla and Kiltimagh in and took 25 rifl es from the hall. Twen- were single, clear, unambiguous order came mobilised on the orders of Mayo Brigade ty-fi ve rifl es then were captured back down, you certainly would have seen Adjutant Dick Walsh, and led to the [in 1916], and I’ve a suspicion we’re talk- “ action in Westport (the most active area ready awarding of a medal to James Ruane ing about the same rifl es.” in the county) and Castlebar as well, I (which you can see on the cover of this The guns were hidden behind wooden to roll think.” EDWIN MCGREAL ing an ambulance for two days and three nights, and hit him in the cheek, the author continues, Hunter of Crofton Park who noted the scarcity supplement). walled panels in McEllin’s Hotel in Balla. The focus in Castlebar was on the RIC picking up casualties and bringing them to ‘as he was assisting in removing maimed and of food and provisions and was very relieved Campbell, the Documentation Offi cer Vincent Keane of the Westport Histori- barracks (“There was no chance of tak- hospitals throughout the city, at times driving mutilated men from streets and buildings, and ‘when he got his heels out of the city’. and Assistant Keeper at the National cal Society says that the men involved ing the military barracks”). But Campbell through ‘a hail of bullets’. he spoke of heart-rending scenes involving The Western People referred to a man named Museum of Ireland – Country Life, thinks were brought to Richmond Barracks in < HISTORY Noel feels ‘prestigious buildings’ like the ONE Ballina man who went to Dublin on busi- Terry Reilly recounts his story in his book women and children who had to be rescued McAndrew from the Moygownagh area who he knows where the weapons – seized Dublin, and were ‘squeezed’ for infor- Campbell discussing courthouse were overlooked by those ness during Easter 1916 got more than he bar- Ballina: One Town, Three Wars and More. from buildings which had come under fi re’. got out of the city on May 1 and cycled all the when they were being transferred by the mation, to reveal where the weapons the 1916 Rising at The planning rebellion. He’s seen no plans gained for. Johnny would not avoid the ‘hail of bullets’ The book mentions others from Ballina who way back to Ballina having experienced ‘fi res Royal Irish Constabulary – came from. were being hidden. They were released Helm, Westport. Pic: to take over such unprotected buildings, Garage proprietor Johnny White of King Street indefi nitely. were in Dublin during the Rising, including a and crashing houses and people being shot “At the time of the split in the Volun- when the rifl es were handed in. Conor McKeown as happened in Dublin. (now O’Rahilly Street), Ballina ended up driv- A bullet glanced off the horn of the ambulance Mr Waters of the Provincial Bank and Robert down’. THE MAYO NEWS 1916 COMMEMORATION TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016 32

1916

he was sure that they would and let the men of Ireland arm with the peasantry of our land, gained by going back on the St Patrick’s Day be given a warm welcome themselves and show that they should, for some reason we causes which produced such Death of Mr (cheers). did not want to skulk behind the cannot understand, and for a unexpected and appalling in Westport army and navy. In the dark days grievance of we do not know results, but few people in the John McBride The O’Rahilly, who was received of ‘47 the English tore the food of, throw their misguided dupes country will regret that Mr with cheers, then addressed the Procession and public meeting from the mouths of starving into the verter of civil war Birrell, who shone out as a meeting. He spoke fi rst in Irish Irishmen and hawthorn bushes as fodder for the weapons of maker of jokes and dispenser The news of the execution of and afterwards in English. He on the roadside marked their their own brothers and soldiers of jobs, has ceased to rule said his fi rst duty was to speak Mr John McBride following St Patrick’s Day in Westport was graves, he said. under arms, who have for nearly over Ireland. His funiosities a sentence of courtmartial to them in the language which two years been fi ghting bravely were never Government and celebrated in a truly national should properly be used at The proceedings came to a for complicity in the spirit. Under the auspices of the against a powerful foreign those under whose infl uence every assembly of Irishmen and close with the singing of ‘A enemy for the protection of us he acted have good reason to revolutionary disturbances Irish Volunteers a procession Irishwomen, and it was their Nation Once Again’. and public meeting were all. The trade of our country is be ashamed of themselves. Are in Dublin, reached Westport purpose to see that in the future upset and in imminent danger they ashamed of themselves? on Saturday evening and was held. The procession was of that language would be used immense proportions, and was of complete destruction. We Not at all! With an audacity received with deep regret in every dignifi ed assemblage Excerpt, Saturday, March 25, have been brought up against a and heartlessness surpassing by all who knew him. Mr especially remarkable for good of Irishmen and Irishwomen, order and discipline, while the 1916 clear view of the ruin that can great, they are quite capable, McBride was the youngest because the Irish language and may be brought about by if they are not closely watched meeting afterwards was most was the hall-mark of Irish son of the late Captain enthusiastic. their action.” by the Government, of trying Nationality and inseparably to turn all the machinery for McBride of Westport Quay, Joseph McBride, the Chairman, bound up with National ideals. Unavoidably The resolution was put and suppressing rebellion into an and of Mrs McBride, and the said there had been a good many passed unanimously. instrument for ruining every sympathy of the people of Mr Charles Hughes, Westport, Westport district went forth meetings held in Westport, proposed a vote of thanks to held over man who dared to criticise amongst them being one at the Chairman for presiding. Excerpt, Saturday, May 6, 1916 them in the past. Mr Birrell, to his affl icted mother and which Daniel O’Connell was In doing so he appealed to as Chief Secretary, had every family in their great sorrow. present. They had present at Irishmen to join in a bond of The active and enthusiastic source of information at hand, We knew Mr McBride very this meeting men whose names love for their country, and he manner in which the great Irish or ought to have it, for knowing intimately in his school were familiar to Irish people the appealed too to the farmers to National Festival of St Patrick’s what was going on in this world over – The O’Rahilly and Mayo Irish country. He never treated the days at Westport Christian till the land that was theirs. Let Day was celebrated in our Brothers’ School, and his Darrell Figgis (cheers). They native county, so fi lls our space Irish Volunteers as an illegal Ireland depend on herself, he many school companions would address the meeting, and said, and on no foreign country, this week that we regret being Volunteers and and revolutionary body. How obliged to hold over many then can he make it a crime scattered the world over will reports and other contributions the Rising in that those with much less read with sorrow of his tragic for which we would be very opportunities for knowing, had end - R.I.P. glad to fi nd space if we possibly Dublin not done so? Up to the moment could do so. We hope to be when the proclamation able to give all: Crossard Gaelic suppressing it was issued, Editorial comment by PJ Doris, League Classes, Kiltimagh and We believe that nobody in the Irish Volunteers were, so Saturday, May 13 Ballyhaunis Notes, and reports Ireland did the news of a Rising far as the public could see, a of Ballyhaunis Petty Sessions, in Dublin come with greater perfectly legal organisation. also some obituary and other surprise and consternation The Rising at Dublin was the notices, in next issue. than to the Irish Volunteers fi rst intimation the great body Extra daylight in Mayo. None of them, we of the members, or the outside believe, had the least idea that public, had that there were the organisation to which they sections within it with other hour belonged was, in the remotest motives than those for which Castlebar possibility, ever to be used for the Irish Volunteers were House of Lords sanction to any such purpose. formed. We are glad to say that the terrible excitement altering the clock District The Volunteers were founded produced by the unexpected by Colonel Moore and others and extraordinary occurrences Council in this county to counteract in Dublin, and some scattered The Daylight Savings Bill passed the forces armed in the outbreaks in other parts of the its second reading in the House The Dublin disturbance Northern provinces to prevent country, is gradually passing of Commons at peep of dawn one the putting into operation of away, and men are coming to morning last week and secured the Home Rule Act. This was be able to view those events third reading at two o’clock on The Chairman, Mr Patrick certainly very far removed with calm and intelligence. Tuesday morning. Late hours Higgins, said the Clerk had from any revolutionary The military authorities have were probably accountable a resolution to submit to the purpose, and the very best certainly a diffi cult task thrown for its late arrival yesterday council and he resolved the proof that they had no such upon them to unravel the afternoon in the House of Lords occasion had arisen for such purpose in their minds is to tangled skein left them by Mr where Lord Lansdowne sat a resolution. They were all be found in the fact that not Birrell, we have no doubt many waiting to welcome it with a aware of how the business of the least outbreak of any kind individuals will suffer unjustly noble eulogia. the country had been upset by occurred in this county. and the seeds of discontent an upheaval in Dublin. They may be widely sown if the Lord Lansdowne said the were not in possession of full We think it is only fair to greatest care is not exercised object of the Bill was to information but they knew that members of the organisation in dealing with it. So far as introduce a small measure of something very serious had now suppressed and no longer Mayo is concerned at any rate common sense into the present occurred to upset the business in existence that this view of it had no part in the rebellion, mismanagement of the hours of the country. their position should be made and as we have already stated, of light and darkness. Many clear. We believe the same to none we believe did those people seem to think that there The Clerk then read the statement could be made was something impious and following – “That we, the extraordinary outbreaks come about Irish Volunteers all over with greater surprise than to sacrilegious in laying hands on council of the Rural District of Ireland. If the organisation as an institution so venerable as Castlebar, hereby register our the Irish Volunteers and their originally founded had been supporters in the county. Greenwich mean time, which deep regret for, and resentment allowed to proceed, we don’t they regarded as standing on against the deplorable and believe that any such outbreak the same jewel as the British insane action of a section of as that which occurred in An editorial written by PJ Doris Constitution. Volunteers of this country, Dublin and in a few scattered in the edition of Saturday, May who at this time of terrible places in other parts of the Lord Salisbury said he could not crisis in her history, seized the country would ever have been 13. He was arrested the day take the Bill very seriously. But opportunity, to precipitate civil possible. before, listed as being ‘guilty of there was no opposition and the war, to discredit the Irish Party, behaviour prejudicial to the Bill was read a second time. The root and foundation of and the Irish leader and to bring state and the Defence of the irreparable damage and disaster all the trouble was permitting Daylight saving means putting to our prospects of prosperity armed forces to be formed Realm by aiding, abetting and the clock forward one hour and progress. in the north of Ireland encouraging in the on Saturday night and doing for the open and avowed preparations for the rebellion’. everything henceforth as usual “We deplore that a body of purpose of resisting Ireland’s by the clock. irresponsible men in this constitutional demands. He was interned until country, who have no interest Very little can now be December, 1916. Saturday, May 20, 1916