The Corran Herald Annual publication of Ballymote Heritage Group

Compiled and Published by Ballymote Heritage Group

Editor: James Flanagan

Design, Typesetting and Printing: Orbicon Print, Collooney.

Cover Design and Artwork: Brenda Friel

Issue No 41 2008/2009 –––––––––––––––

The Corran Herald wishes to sincerely thank all those who have written articles or contributed photographs or other material for this Issue  THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009

Contents

Page Ballymote Heritage Weekend Programme ...... 2 A Lively Markey Day in Town (PJ Duffy) ...... 4 A Glimpse from the Past (Dan Healy) ...... 5 Coleman’s Shop, Ardnaglass (Brendan & Philomena Coleman) … … … … … ...... 7 Poetry from Scoil Muire gan Smál (S Healy, A Devlin, C Booth) ...... 8 Buildings, Owners and Occupiers of O’Connell St, Ballymote (Eileen Tighe & Mary B Timoney) ...... 9 Cornwall – A Connection (Lynda Hart) ...... 15 The Story of Michael Davitt (Nancy Smyth) … … … ...... 17 Funeral of Michael Davitt (Nancy Smyth) … … … … … … … ...... 20 How our Ancestors Got Around and About (PJ Duffy) … … ...... … … … 21 The Sligo Tradition (Gregory Daly) … … … … ...... … … … … . . 23 A Page of Utah (Stephen Flanagan) … … … ...... … … … … … … . . 26 The Barony of Costello 1585-1900 (Máire McDonnell Garvey) … ...... 29 Walfrid, The First Celt (Don O’Connor) … … ...... … … … … … … 31 Oliver O’Gara’s Regiment and the Jacobite Cause (Maura O’Gara-O’Riordan) … ...... 33 Sligo’s Past Uncovered (Brian Donnelly) … … … ...... 37 Meldrum’s Account Books, Record of the Social Life of 20th Century Sligo (Mary B Timoney) ...... 38 Griffiths Valuation 1844 Shancarrigeen or Oldrock (Padraig Doddy) ...... 39 Irish Language Books in the Collections of the Library of Institute Of Technology, Sligo (James Foran) ...... 40 Notes on Breeoge Creamery, Kilmacowen, Co Sligo (Martin A Timoney) … ...... 45 The Shadow of a Dark Mastiff (PJ Duffy) … … … … … ...... 46 Quotes From the Past (PJ Duffy) … … … … … … … … ...... … … 48 Where To Go Next (Molly Howard) … … … ...... … … … … … … 50 “Making History” at Parke’s Castle, July 20th 2007 (Bernie Gilbride) … ...... … 51 The Pebble (Bernie Gilbride) … … … … ...... 52 From Kathleen Fairbanks’ Autograph Book 1950 … … … … ...... … … 52 RZC 101 (Bernie Gilbride) … … … … … ...... … 53 The Garavogue (Poem) (Bernie Gilbride) … … … … ...... … … … … 53 An Atlantic Storm (Poem) (Bernie Gilbride) … … … … ...... … … … 53 Lonely The House Now (Mary Kelly White) … … … … ...... … … 54 Poet: Get Out For a While, at Least (Terry McDonagh) … … … ...... 55 Elegy to the Memory of Tommy Keenan (Denis Killoran) … … … ...... 56 The Will of Archdeacon Terence O’Rorke, 1819-1907 (Martin A Timoney) ...... 57 Castledargan Golf Course Fairway Names (Martin A Timoney) … ...... … … . 59 A Find of Rock Crystal at Ballincar, Co Sligo (Martin A Timoney) … ...... … … 60 John Ormsby Cooke of Kilturra House, Co Sligo (Dr Kieran Cooke) … … ...... 62 Coola Castle Correction (Martin A Timoney) … … … … … ...... … … … … … . . 64 William Gregory Wood-Martin, Sligo Antiquarian, in 1897 (Martin A Timoney) ...... 64 Luttrell’s Map of Sligo, 1689: A thoroughly modern view! (Eoin Halpin) ...... 65 Poetry from Scoil Muire gan Smál (L Muldoon, C Maguire, M Finn) … ...... 67 Maisie McGovern (John Coleman) … . . … … . . . … … … … ...... 68 The Claremorris-Collooney Railway (Bridget Timoney) … … ...... 70 Fóidín Mearbhaill: Carrowcauley/Earlsfield – A Field in Transition (John Langan) … ...... … … . . 72 Mullanashee Mystery – Intriguing Stone Structures (Diana Ross) … ...... … … … 74 Printing (Niamh Conlon) … … ...... … 76 Killaraght Early Christian Cross Slab (Mary B Timoney) … … … ...... 77 Ballymote Heritage Group 23rd AGM ; … … … ...... … … 80 Sponsors … … … … … ...... … … … … … … … … . . 80

 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 A Lively Market Day in Town P.J. Duffy

Down through the years Ballymote at creating hilarious lines of comedy the cart, untackled it and left it to rest had established for itself a reputation out of the simplest event and one near the sidewalk. for holding one of the best and most of these gentlemen lost no time in Meanwhile, people attending at the successful markets held anywhere in putting in place a stroke of humour market got on with their business and the west of Ireland. People attending that was to survive for decades. The the donkey was soon forgotten. The usually travelled long distances from writer described a chain of farcical owner met up with a customer who over a wide area to either sell or barter sayings and remedies offered by those purchased his bundles of rods and their live poultry, agricultural goods people standing around and involved both men then retired to an adjacent and various other products displayed shopkeepers and people of high social pub for a nice refreshing drink. on the market square. It was in many standing who weren’t next or near the The real drama of the day began aspects a way of life that was totally place that day. when both men later emerged from imperative for the survival of the rural the pub to find that the donkey had community. Ever since the period of Tom Carroll came shouting gone missing and all efforts to find the mid eighteen hundreds markets “Take the ass from the cart him failed in the short term. He was, were held without fail on Thursdays And get him some brandy however, later located wandering on of each week, and except in very To pep up his heart”. the roadway out in the Carrownanty inclement weather large crowds area. It seems that what happened of people always turned up for a Up from the corner was, when the market was over people successful day’s trading. Came Salt Man O’Brien gradually began to disperse, the place There was the story of a simple Saying “Give the wee donkey quietened down, and the wee donkey event that took place during a market A glass of red wine”. got up and headed for home. After day in town in the early years of the finding him its owner returned him to last century. It happened during the Jamesy Frazer came along the spot where the cart was parked, month of May when a middle aged In his clawhammer frock harnessed him, put him under the cart man from the Clooncoose area arrived Saying “Give the poor animal and headed off for home, quite satisfied at the market place with his donkey Some dillisk and rock”. that everything had eventually turned and cart that contained a few bundles out fine. of rods which he intended offering for Bernie Kelly came by But some other people found the sale at the market. Sally rods (also With a curve in his back whole episode quite amusing, and called osier rods) were always in good Saying “Get out to the country when the rhyme emerged it soon demand at the time and were mostly And find a good quack”. became a favourite party piece at used for making scallops for holding functions and gatherings held around thatch together on the roofs of rural Luke Hayden spoke up the countryside, for decades dwelling houses. Just before he came Saying he’d much prefer afterwards. within a short distance of the market- If they got a safe dose house his donkey flopped down on From that good chemist Kerr. Note: Jamesy Frazer was a dignified the surface of the street and all efforts old gentleman who resided at to get him to stand up again proved Miss Hawksby dropped in Lower Wolfe Tone St. He usually fruitless. With a boater flat hat dressed in the garb of the nobility. The whole matter was a totally Saying “The poor animal is starved A clawhammer frock was a three insignificant occurrence and was He’s as thin as a lath”. quarter coat fashionable among old something that was perhaps frequently gentlemen in the eighteen and early happening out in the country and Across from his store nineteen hundreds. away from the public gaze. But the Came a cool William Kane Miss Hawksby was a lady of good fact of the matter was there were Saying “His limbs they are twitching standing who resided in Teeling St. a lot of curious people about on the That beast is in pain”. near the courthouse. In her day she day and most of them came along to and her family had a genuine interest have a look and find out what was In from Keash, cycling, in animal welfare. happening. Even some shopkeepers Came the bould Joe Devine Above story and rhyme were related whose premises were situated close He said “Give him some potion to the writer during the period of the by came along to find out why people And he will be fine”. late nineteen forties by a person who were drawn so closely together. was actually at the market when the Many people standing by had offered Up spoke Stephen Brett incident took place. suggestions as to what remedy might From Carrowcushacly, be successful in helping the animal to Saying “Go to John R’s for ginger Note: Dillisk and rock were, on the get up on its feet again. And give it a try”. day, being sold on a stall right beside Of course the whole episode where the donkey collapsed. would be quickly forgotten but for the fact that numbered among these All efforts to get the donkey to stand standing around were a couple of up failed for the time being. The J.V. Kerr was a renowned chemist who good rhymers who were quite adept owner had already removed it from did business at Lord Edward St.

 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 A Glimpse from the Past Dan Healy

This is about Jimmy and Mary Coleman Coleman were frequently there. You gallons. There was nothing as nice as and their unusual little thatched shop could find any of them there at any hour a drop of tea in the ponnie (small tin situated close to Ardnaglass, Ballymote, of the day. They were a happy bunch. cup). Country house dances were all Co. Sligo. It was 1939 and World War II But to quote Synge’s words as spoken the go at that time. My sister Margaret had just begun. Our family had moved to by Siobhan Mc Kenna in “Riders to who is ninety-one this year, and was a Cloonamonagh three years before. The the Sea” : “They are all gone now”. nurse, always visited the neighbours nearest shop at that time was Finnegan’s, If there were plenty of musicians when she came home on holidays. She across Johnny Battle’s field, beside there were also plenty of dancers. In went to Butler’s one night. We had a John Clarke’s. Nobody complained of the evenings there was a continuous few terriers at the time. My late brother, crossing land in those days. Years later I dancing of sets. I got my first chance John Band Tommy Davy, had a ferret assisted P Finnegan (the local postman) to play with Joe Fallon and his cousins, and would hunt rabbits as there was to Ballinacarrow to collect the post for who were also great dancers and came good money to be made for them that delivery in the area. What a journey from Collooney and Sligo. I was time. One of the dogs was called Hitler he had to do and he partially blind. playing with a group of musicians one and he followed my sister up to Butler’s, When telling the story of the Coleman Sunday evening. I only had a Clarke’s (now Jinks’). And when she was talking home I must take in the broader area “C” whistle. The rest of them were about the war in England, because she and I realize now that the shop was the playing in the key of “D”. There were worked through it, she said “Hitler is centre of that area. We would be up no flageolets at that time so to keep in outside”, and everyone was frightened. there saving hay in the summertime, and tune you had to skip the bottom hole on This was the time of rationing and drawing water to the cattle in winter. the whistle. But lo and behold, one day you’d never be short of ounce of tea There was always something to be got I was on the street at home, when a big in Coleman’s. There was always a in Coleman’s. The house was lovely car came in. A well dressed gentleman line of donkey carts, usually with and clean inside and outside. It was like got out and handed me a flageolet and two forty gallon barrels on each cart, a doll’s house and Mary was always said “you’ll always be able to play with from Carrigans to Carrickbannagher. on the move. People came with their the rest of them now”. This man’s name They had a long way to come for baskets of eggs to sell and more came was Thomas Ó’Duibhir (R.I.P.). What a water to Tobar Searradh, still one to collect paraffin oil. It was fourteen wonderful gesture. These were the kind of the finest wells in the country, or fifteen years before the Electricity of people you met in Coleman’s shop. and they would call at Coleman’s. Supply Board was introduced. The hustle Sunday afternoon was a nice time I haven’t mentioned much about and bustle continued every day. Even to go to the shop. Even though I had Jimmy. If there was a bit of a lull he though the whole area is deserted today, got lessons from Tommy Davey and could play nearly every instrument. I and the shop is gone, my memories of Jimmy, Tommy taught me the Coolin don’t think I saw him play the fiddle. those times are very clear in my mind. on the fiddle. It was very difficult to His two brothers were fine fiddlers and The social life in those days brings get strings, or web for a bow. The flute flute players. Another friend of mine back wonderful memories. People were was much handier and I liked it. The also played there, Fonso Alcock, who always friendly. And Coleman’s was Hunt brothers from Rathmullen were resides in Dublin and we often have the hub of activity. To further explain tailors. Mary used to have them down great laughs about those days. Tom what I am talking about, it was a place measuring for curtains and other odds Gilmartin, who played the fiddle, would full of music. Just above the room and ends. But when Tom would take take baskets of eggs twice a week to door was a glass case with shelves. out the flute and play a slow air I used the shop. Now the shop would be full Inside were flutes, Piccolos, Banjos, to be enchanted with his lovely sweet and he’d ask Mary who was playing Clarke’s tin whistles and fiddles on playing. No sooner had they left when and she would say “Dan and Fonso” display. You had only to ask and the crowds would start gathering for and he would say “that’s enough”. they would let you play them if you the sets on Sunday night. God help I could go on and on but people came wanted to or you were able. There was Mary, she kept everyone going. I don’t from miles around and Coleman’s was always someone there who could play. know how she did it. When Philomena always talked about. When I was in The first name that comes to my mind is and Brendan were born there was no America back in the eighties, I met a Stephen Brett (Bab) and I recall the mid change. Ellen Quigley was sitting in couple of people from Gurteen, who afternoon when Bab’s father (who was the corner knitting and looking as pale remembered me and the wonderful also Stephen) was dancing a hornpipe as death with her packet of woodbines nights they spent in Coleman’s. They (Toohey style) while his son played the and was always in good humour. said they were the happiest days of flute. They were on their way home At that time the tinkers used to be their lives. What merriment and joy from the fair at Farnaharpy. All the time camped all along Owney’s Road, the music brought to people. On the Mary got on with her work. Dolly Brett lying on straw and the water flowing 21st June, on John’s eve, bonfire night, would call. She could also play a flute down the hill only inches from them. musicians came from everywhere and lilt a couple of reels. Tot Kilcoyne, They were a great asset to the farmers, to the crossroads beside the shop. Jimmy Davey, Willie and John Joe making buckets and tin cans and Thanks to Mary and Jimmy for all

 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 they did for Irish music. We will be competitions held there by Conradh To own the hearth and stool and all, ever grateful to them. Going home na Gaeilge. I remember being there The heaped up sods upon the fire, from the bonfire some of the older men one day with my sisters and the A pile of turf against the wall. took a half burnt sod with them. It was Prestons. Phil McConnell and many to start a fire in their own homes. This musicians competed there and they was a very old custom. There were all visited Coleman’s. Bab Brett got To have a clock with weights and corn crakes in every meadow field, first place for his flute playing. Ican chains, singing their hearts out, and everyone still see Jimmy Davey on a Saturday And pendulum swinging up and down, was so happy. There was no TV, no evening playing the flute while Mary A dresser filled with shining delph , tape recorders or mobile phones. We and Jimmy got on with their work. Speckled and white and blue and had an old battery radio. I learnt a good A reminder of that house is contained brown”. bit of my music from 2 RN Athlone. in Padraic Colum’s little poem “An Old Maybe Padraic Colum passed Quigley’s field was not far from Woman of the Roads”: that way at some time. Coleman’s. There were feiseanna and “O, to have a little house, Long life, Mary.

Ballymote Convent National School, mid 1920s Courtesy Maureen (Carr) Shiels Back Row (L/R): Maureen Brady, ….. Fox, Nancy Rogers, Muriel Kelly, Mai Sheridan, Martha Johnston, Mai Butler, Mai Kielty, Lily King, Myde Clynes, Maureen Regan, Mai McGettrick Second Row from back (L/R): Harry King, Colm Brady, Michael Joe Price, Thomas Conlon, Vinnie McDonagh, Jim O’Reilly, Jim Kielty, Vincent Regan, Andy Rogers, Clement Jones, Anthony Finan, Johnny Benson, Harry Reilly, Jackie Clynes Third Row (L/R): Michael Joe Carr, Paddy Langan, Brian Wimsey, Rosie Hughes, Mollie Tansey, ….. Fox, Josie Hannon, Imelda Rogers, Annie Benson, ….. Fox, Maureen Carr, Mary Cryan, Maisie Benson, Lucy Finan, Eileen McDonagh Front Row (L/R): Una Price, Mai Price, Terry Regan, Mai Fin, Mary Langan, Sadie King, Mona Cryan, ….. Farry, John Joe Davey, ….. Finan, ….. Finan, ….. Davey, Mary Donoghue, Eilish Mattimoe, Kathleen Benson, ….. …… Ballymote Convent National School, mid 1920s Courtesy Maureen (Carr) Shiels Back Row (L/R): Maureen Brady, ….. Fox, Nancy Rogers, Muriel Kelly, Mai Sheridan, Martha Johnston, Mai Butler, Mai Kielty, Lily King, Myde Clynes, Maureen Regan, Mai McGettrick Second Row from back (L/R): Harry King, Colm Brady, Michael Joe Price, Thomas Conlon, Vinnie McDonagh, Jim O’Reilly, Jim Kielty, Vincent Regan, Andy Rogers, Clement Jones, Anthony Finan, Johnny Benson, Harry Reilly, Jackie Clynes Third Row (L/R): Michael Joe Carr, Paddy Langan, Brian Wimsey, Rosie Hughes, Mollie Tansey, ….. Fox, Josie Hannon, Imelda Rogers, Annie Benson, ….. Fox, Maureen Carr, Mary Cryan, Maisie Benson, Lucy Finan, Eileen McDonagh Front Row (L/R): Una Price, Mai Price, Terry Regan, Mai Fin, Mary Langan, Sadie King, Mona Cryan, ….. Farry, John Joe Davey, ….. Finan, ….. Finan, ….. Davey, Mary Donoghue, Eilish Mattimoe, Kathleen Benson, ….. ……

 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 Coleman’s Shop, Ardnaglass, Ballymote Brendan and Philomena Coleman (Currid)

Coleman’s Country Shop was Deroon, Carrigans, Carrowcushacly remember dances at least three opened in Ardnaglass by Jimmy and from Clark’s Bridge onwards. times a week and being carried as a and Mary Coleman on the 1st The shop opened when Mary had child in the dancers’ arms in waltzes March 1939, the year World War it washed and cleaned each morning and sets around the kitchen floor. In Two started. They married on 31st of the year from 7am onward and the long summer evenings open air of January 1939 and opened their shop a month later. Mary had just left Rodgers’ shop in Ballymote having worked there since the age of fourteen years. She was then known as Mary Sherlock from Cuilmore, Gurteen, Co Sligo. She was a woman of great faith and a member of the Children of Mary all her life. They had two children - Brendan and Philomena, six grand-children, Deborah, Tara, and Ross Coleman, David, Shane and Yvonne Currid, one great grandson Jamie Coleman and three great grand-daughters Niamh, Clodagh and Roisin Currid.

Jimmy Coleman with his grandson Ross Coleman

closed when they went to bed. It dances took place in the street and was not unusual for people to call there was a Ceilidh at the Crossroads during the night and indeed having on Bonfire Night, while Mary come home from local dances in the carried on with her work in the shop. Marquee, there could be a knock on Jimmy played with the renowned the window from someone who saw Derron (screws) Junior and Senior a light on, looking for cigarettes and championship winning teams of the minerals, and Jimmy would hand 1930s and 1940s. The footballers them out the window. They would would meet at the shop as the Red always come back and pay on the and White Jerseys were washed and following day. Everything people kept there as well as some boxing needed was sold there, anything gear. The local playing field was Jimmy and Mary Coleman 1939/1940 from a needle to an anchor. At that down the road in Quigley’s field. The time the majority of customers were locals would gather on Sundays to Rationing came in shortly after small farmers. They all had accounts listen to the matches being broadcast the shop opened and Rationing and paid same when the creamery from Croke Park, commentary by the Books were issued to all families. cheques arrived or after the fair day. great Michael O’Hehir, as it was the The shop catered for all the local All the local musicians including only wireless in the area at that time. town-lands: Ardnag1ass, Carnaree, Jimmy with his brothers Willie and Cards were very popular and Carrickbanagher, Knockadalteen, John Joe played there and I well the card table was taken out in the  THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 winter time for games of Twenty The business thrived until the five; many a heated argument took mid-seventies but declined with the place but all was forgotten soon arrival of supermarkets and as cars after. I don’t ever remember a night became more abundant. This changed when it was just our family at home, the way of life for country shops as it was a great rambling house as they became un-competitive. and match-making place. I’m sure The shop closed after Jimmy died lots of people in the area may have and after a lifetime of service to met a future wife or husband there. Coleman’s shop, Ardnaglass, Ballymote the local community. It moved Mary was well known for her baking delivered the flour and animal feed. next door to Philomena’s in 1983 especially her soda bread; the kettle All the cigarette companies called and closed permanently in 1990. was always boiling on the range, and there were deliveries with Mary is now residing in the customers got a cup of tea and a slice Jack Martin on the Railway Lorry Community Nursing Unit in of soda bread if they had walked a (CIE). The Sligo Champion was Ballymote and is in her 99th year. few miles to the shop and so rested delivered to Kate Ann Quigley’s She is in good health and getting themselves for the return journey. house by CIE bus and collected excellent care. Dockery’s delivered the bread by Jimmy for sale in the shop. with Mick Hever driving, Hannon’s It was the place to hear all the local A very special thank you to Dan bakery and Paddy Verdon from news at first hand. The television Healy for his time taken in writing McArthur’s also delivered bread. arrived shortly after RTE came on his recollections of growing up Johnny Chadda came every air and it created further interest in the area and his wonderful Saturday with his travelling clothes with people wanting to watch sport comments on Mary and Jimmy shop. Mr. Gaynor from Sligo called etc. The first public telephone Coleman. (A Glimpse From the frequently with a variety of fancy in the area was in Coleman’s Past, Dan Healy, this issue) goods. The Mill in Ballisodare shop and was used extensively. My Dream Dog Friendship Shauna Healy, Scoil Mhuire gan Smál, Ballymote April Devlin, Scoil Mhuire gan Smál, Ballymote

My dream dog – Friendship is blue Sometimes at night It tastes like sweet strawberries When I go to bed And smells like freshly baked bread And I lay down Friendship looks like a beautiful day And rest my weary head And sounds like a gentle wave on the shore I close my eyes Friendship is stars twinkling in the night sky. And fall asleep And dream once more Of the dog I wish to keep. Play In my dreams This dog is all mine Conor Booth, Scoil Mhuire gan Smál, Ballymote He is cute and cuddly And that is just fine I gave my friend a call He’s black and white To see would he like to play ball With a furry tail We played all day He’s always in my dreams Until the sun went away Every night without fail. Then rested all night Til the bright morning light.

 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 Buildings, Owners and Occupiers of O’Connell Street, Ballymote, Co. Sligo Eileen Tighe and Mary B. Timoney

This worked started in the Street. The south side of the street included a hardware section. Andrew, 1990s when Eileen Tighe recorded had houses and businesses built in it their son, married Mary Ann Farry, Dermot Henry’s local knowledge of before the north side. Many of the they had three sons, Paddy, Andy Ballymote which he had heard from houses on the north side were not and Val (Monsignor Val) and five his mother, Mary Ann Henry nee built until after 1857. In 1857 there daughters, Molly, Bridie, Nancy, McGann, who died in 1998. Most were no buildings in the street on the Imelda (Sr. Killian) and Collette. In buildings were sourced back to the upper side of Agnes Rogers, what was 1911 Andrew and Mary Anne with Griffith Valuation of the 1850s which then Michael Rogers’ (See No. 21). their two children, Patrick and Mary was printed in 1857. Work on the Many of the houses on the south were Attracta, lived over the shop. Thomas pre-1920 rate payers was done for fully rebuilt since 1857. In 1857 there Quigly, shop assistant (See No. 29) some of the buildings in the Valuation was a triangular open street space and Thomas Cawley, shop apprentice Office, Dublin. The Valuation Office between O’Connell St. and Emmet (See No. 2 c) also lived here. Andrew recorded the rate-payers; these could St. This space was later squared enlarged the shop and house acquiring be either the owner, owner of the off to include The Corner House, the lower three properties in 1919, lease or the tenant, depending on each John McGettrick’s and Optimum which was originally the one property contract or agreement. Both the 1901 Auctioneers on O’Connell Street and held by Robert Ferins in 1857. These and the 1911 Census, which listed The Corner House, Enda Healy’s and three properties were held by (a) Ann the occupiers of the buildings, were Ita Meehan’s on Emmett Street. Davey, (b) Margaret Redican, and (c) used. Some information was given 1. (54) John-Joe and Patsy Thomas Cawley. from local people. The number in the Kielty’s. Michael O’Brien is listed (a) Anne Davey. Patrick bracket after the initial number is from as leasing a house, garden and office Gilbride was here before Anne Davey the Griffith Valuation. Every effort with a total valuation of £2-10-0 from had it in 1899. In 1911 Ann Davey was has been made for accuracy. Any Sir Robert Gore Booth in the Griffith 86 years old, a widow, living here with further information or corrections will Valuation. Peter McDonagh had it in her grand-daughter, Ufeamey McTaw, be gratefully received. 1891, then Annie McDonagh, then a lacemaker, born in Co. Roscommon. Edward McManus followed by Patrick They lived above a gateway. McDonagh. Johnny McDonagh had a (b) Margaret Redican. At house and pub here which closed in some stage Michael Cawley held the 1920s, his mother was Margaret it, followed in succession by John and his father probably Patrick. He Gilbride 1889, John Gilmartin 1892 had three brothers Thomas, Patrick Joe and John Dennedy 1899. In 1911 and Alphonsis who with their uncle, Margaret Redican, a dressmaker, was John McDonagh, lived here in 1911. here. Paddy Rogers bought it from Johnny (c) Thomas Cawley. John McDonagh, and John Kilcoyne, a Carroll was here in 1889, followed Post Office clerk in Ballymote, from by John Coleman or Conlon 1892, the Tubbercurry area, bought it in the Samuel Rooney 1899 and then Thomas 1960s from Paddy’s son Michael. He Cawley. In 1901 Thomas Cawley reconstructed it as a dwelling house. is listed here with his wife, Bridget, John and Eileen Martin lived in it and daughter Mary and sons Patrick and today it is owned and lived in by John Thomas, the younger Thomas could Joe and Patsy Kielty. be the Thomas that was an apprentice 2. (53 & 52) Michael and and living with Rogers in 1911. In Carmel Rogers and Patrick Rogers 1911 Catherine Callaghan 96 year old Ltd. Five generations of Rogers widow probably lived here with her have lived and worked here over the daughter, Winifred. last one hundred and fifty years. In Andrew Rogers died suddenly the Griffith Valuation 1857, Rogers’ in 1926 aged 54 years. Mary Ann is listed as two properties, the upper continued the business with her son, one (52) leased by Anne Rogers of Paddy, and later her other son, Andrew, a house and garden with a valuation joined them. Paddy married Constance of £1-10-0 and the lower one (53) (Concie) Connolly, Dromore West, in leased by Robert Ferins of a house 1941. Paddy expanded the business to and garden with a valuation of £2, include farm machinery and building both from Sir Robert Gore Booth. materials. Andrew (Andy) married In 1865 the lease changed from Ann Bridie Connolly, Concie’s sister; Rogers to Patrick Rogers. Patrick they lived opposite Ballymote Abbey In 1857 this street was known married Mary Toolan, Gurteen, and graveyard and he continued to work as Market Street. In both 1901 and they had a small tea room here later here. They later moved to Dromore 1911 it was Newtown Street. The expanding it to a grocery and general West running the Connolly family name was later changed to O’Connell provisions shop which subsequently business, opposite the old Dromore

 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009

West Workhouse. Later Paddy’s son eggs to Scotland and also turkeys at in Dublin. John Andrew died in 1953. Michael ran the Ballymote business Christmas. The returning crates were Mary trained and ran the bakery until with his wife Carmel Davey, Drinane. filled with delph which they sold in it closed in 1970. Madge Donoghue, They have four children Fiona, the shop. They had two sons Paddy Jim Donoghue’s aunt (See No. 3), Gearóid, Padraig and Micheál. Today and Joey. In 1911, Kate’s mother, worked in the shop. Padraig and Micheál run the business Kate Kilcoyne with Elizabeth Daly, a c. (46) Catherine Bryan leased with the help of Michael and Carmel. nurse born Co. Westmeath, lived here the land from Sir Robert Gore Booth with Patrick and Kate. Michael and and two houses which she subleased. Patricia Hurley bought it in1995. Patrick Berreen had it, then his wife, 5. (44, 45, 46, 47 and 48) Mrs. Patrick Berreen 1903 and Mary Site for the new Garda Barracks, Berreen 1904. originally four houses (44, 45, 47 and d. (45) In 1857 Catherine 48) with land to the rear (46). Bryan subleased the house and yard a. (48) In 1857 John Dockery with a valuation of 15/- to Joseph (47) subleased the house, office and Garvey. It was vacant in 1889, then yard with a valuation of £1 to Patrick Cawley was here in 1890 followed Dockery. Then John and Mary by Michael Callaghan 1892, then Dockery’s son, Patrick Joseph Dockery Mary Berreen had it in 1904. It was had it (See No. 47). This Patrick J described as a ruin in 1907. Dockery and his brother, Thomas e. (44) In 1857 Catherine Dockery, next door, married two Bryan subleased the house and yard Breheny sisters, Catherine and Mary with a valuation of £1-5-0 to Andrew respectively. Patrick and Catherine Muller. Mary Frazer was here at had three sons, John Joe, Michael and some stage followed by Patrick Casey James, and a daughter Mary. Patrick 1889, Martin Gallagher 1891, John worked in the bakery next door until Farrell 1892 and Patrick McDonagh his death in 1926. Catherine had a 1893. Mary Berreen had it in 1902 3. (50) Noel and Marie delft shop here. Their son, John Joe, and it was in ruins in 1907. McDonagh’s, Jim and Sarah also worked in the bakery. He later These two houses, d and e Donoghue. In 1857 Michael Morrison had land in Woodfield where he built (45 & 44), were probably demolished had a house, office and garden valued a new bungalow to live in. The next and a single house built. After John £2 here. Michael Keaveney later son, Michael, went to America. The Andrew Dockery married, Miss had it followed by Charles Ferguson youngest son, James, was bakery Kate, who ran the shop for him, and 1886, Thomas Carroll 1889 and then manager next door. James married her niece, Kathleen O’Donnell, both Andrew Carroll. In 1901 Andrew is Catherine (Tottie) Quigley and they lived here. Kate died in 1948. Later listed here as a tailor, living here with lived in the Quigley house in Teeling the girls working in the bakery lived his mother Mary and cousin, Thomas St. Patrick and Catherine’s daughter here. Clarke. In 1911 Bridget Henry, a Mary, (May), married Pat Brady, The buildings and land were widow and seamstress, could have Cloonlurg. sold to Louis Doherty who sold it on lived here, with her young daughters, b. (47) John Dockery leased to the Office of Public Works who Kathleen, Annie and Beatrice and a house, office and garden with a are currently building a new Garda a lodger Nicholas Billings, a coach valuation of £2 in 1857 from Sir Barracks. smith. Frank McDonagh rebuilt this Robert Gore Booth. John married house in 1923 (See No. 6). Frank’s Mary Lavin from across the road. son, Tommy McDonagh lived here. Mary started a bakery with the help It is now two private dwellings: in of a journeyman baker. They had two one Tommy’s son Noel and his wife, sons, Thomas and Patrick J, and four Marie Daly, live and in the other his daughters, three of whom married and daughter Sarah and her husband, Jim left Ballymote and the fourth, Kate, Donoghue, live. To the back of the never married and lived in Ballymote house was a small house (51) leased all her life. John died in 1901, aged by Catherine Davey in 1857 from 81 years, and Mary in 1906, aged Michael Morrison, with a valuation 84. Their son Thomas married Mary of 8/-. Then Hugh Candon was here Breheny from up the street (See No. 6. (43 & 42) John and followed by Thomas Carroll 1891, 15b), and her sister, Catherine, married Josephine Doddy’s. This was and Thomas Cawley 1899. It was his brother, Patrick Dockery. Thomas originally two houses. in ruins in 1907. It was rebuilt and and Mary had one son John Andrew. a. (43) In 1857 the house was Frank McDonagh had a garage here Both brothers, Thomas and Patrick, being built. Catherine Berreen had it in and he showed the first cinema picture worked in the bakery business. Mary 1859. It stayed in the Berreen family. in Ballymote in the garage loft. and Thomas both died young and In 1911 Mary Berreen, a widow, 4. (49) Michael and Patricia Thomas’ sister, Kate Dockery, reared publican and farmer, was here. Her Hurley’s. In 1857 Patrick Dockery John Andrew. Later both here and mother, Mary Keenan aged 86 years had a house which was originally set John Joe’s next door were demolished and her daughter Kate Doherty lived back from the street; the house and to build a new house, bakery and shop here as well. Vinnie McDonagh, garden had a valuation of £1-5-0. to be owned by John Andrew. This Frank’s son, had it in the 1940s and Patrick Dockery married Kate Fox. At was built between 1951 and 1952. His his wife Lil Kavanagh had a cake some stage a new house in line with the cousin, James, was bakery manager. shop here (see b). The house is now other houses was built. In 1901 their John Andrew married Babs Carley the meeting room of John Doddy’s. son, John P. Dockery (called Patrick), in 1936; her sister married Thomas b. (42) The second house was an egg exporter, and his wife Kate Quigley. John Andrew and Babs had Markey’s. Patrick Bryan leased it in Susan Kilcoyne, Killavil, had a shop two daughters, Mary, now living in 1857 followed by Catherine Berreen and lived here. He exported crates of Carrownanty, and Peggy, now living 1859, then Patrick Berreen, and then

10 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009

Thomas McGettrick in 1886. Hugh who had the pub across the road, now street. They had two children Mary Markey had it in 1891 acquiring a Fawlty Towers, had it and his daughter and Winnie. When Tom died the vintner’s license in 1895 for it. In 1901 Betty ran it. Jim Porter and his wife, butcher’s closed and Madge and the Hugh Markey, born Co. Monaghan, Margaret Lavin bought it in 1969 and two girls moved to Dublin. Tom and and his wife Agnes, born Co. Sligo, sold it in 1987 to Michael and Patricia Ursula Walsh bought the premises and lived here. Hurley. In 2004 they in turn sold it to continued to run the pub. Then David Frank McDonagh had a pub Aidan and Gerri Tighe who run it as a Cunningham had it. He ran it as a pub and bicycle repair shop and also newsagency and shop. for a few years then sold it. Today it lived here (See No. 3). His wife was 10. (39 & 40) Paddy and is a betting office. Elizabeth Keenan, Ballaghderreen. Eileen Conboy’s. This was two Frank had a garage to the back of houses in 1857. Patrick Morrison Noel McDonaghs where in the loft had one and James Flanagan the he showed the first cinema pictures other. James Tymon had both houses. in Ballymote. They had five children In 1901 James was described as a Batty, Francie, Vinnie, Tommy, Jack shopkeeper and widower living here and Maura. Batty continued the with his daughter Celia aged 28 years business; he married Olive Mullaney. and son Michael aged 18 years. Pat Batty sold the business to John and Davey then had it. In 1911 Anne Maeve Rogers (John is Michael Davey, a widow and farmer, lived Roger’s brother). Rogers sold it to here with her daughter, Margaret. John Doddy in 1986. After Vinnie Joe Cryan, Keash, married Margaret. 11. (34) Vacant. John married Lil Kavanagh she had a They had two daughters Patsy and Morrison leased it in 1857. Then a cake shop here. When Vinnie died Nance. Joe had been an RIC officer Lynch had it followed by Andrew she moved to Sligo where she had and he ran a grocer shop here. Today Sheridan, then Thomas Scully 1883 a drapery shop, Marieware, Grattan it is no longer a shop and Paddy and and Thady Scully 1886. Thady had a Street, Sligo. Francie moved to Keash Eileen Conboy live here pub here. John Hannon is listed here in where he had a shop and undertaking 8. (38) Esther Fox’s. James 1911, as a publican with his wife, Ellen business; he married Maura Lang, Cawley had it in 1857, later Laurence and three boarders, Charles Burns, Carrigans. Regan had it, then Thomas Gaffney born Co. Limerick, a coachbuilder, had it in 1886. In 1901 Thomas and Michael Finn and Denis Feeney, Gaffney, a widower and a craner, aged both born Co. Sligo and tailors. John sixty four years, lived here with his Hannon’s daughter Eileen inherited son Barthlomew aged fifteen. Martin it. She married Tommy Duffy. Since Sharkey was here in 1904. In 1911 Eileen died it has been vacant. Martin lived here with his wife, Annie. 12. (32 & 33) Paddy Martin had worked as a coachbuilder and Eileen Egan’s. Pre 1901 Pat in Murrays and later he worked in Flanagan owned it. In 1901 and Rogers. Later Maggie Jane Flanagan 1911 Mary Flanagan and her son, had it and then her niece, Esther Fox Joseph, a butcher, lived here. Later nee Mullen. James A Flanagan, an auctioneer and 9. (37) Greg Tansey’s. At County Councillor had it. He had a some stage James Frazer had this son, James and a daughter Mary who house, followed by Thomas Hever, married Denis Conroy. Rod Egan, a then James Dennedy and then John builder, and his wife nee Gallagher Dennedy. In 1901 John Dennedy lived had it. Rod demolished the building here with his mother, Mary, and his to build a shop and house. Light sister, Maria. Later Mick Duffy and hardware was sold in the shop. Today 7. (41) Aidan and Gerri his sister had a shop selling sweets, Rod’s son, Paddy, and his wife Eileen Tighe’s. Patrick Flanagan had it in apples and herrings here. Then John live there. 1857, Mrs. Eileen Deasey 1867, James Newman and his wife May Price had 13. (31) Aidan and Gerri Brophy at some stage, Pat Flanagan it and then May’s nephew, Michael Tighe’s. James O’ Brien is listed as 1881 and then Michael Cryan 1882. In Connolly, Carrownanty, had it. Today leasing a house, office and garden 1901 Michael Cryan, a harness maker, Greg Tansey has his accountancy with a total valuation of £14 from Sir lived here with his wife, Maria, and offices there. Robert Gore Booth in 1857. James’ their six sons, Patrick, James, Joseph, 10. (35 &36) The Betting father was Andrew who died in 1838 Bartly, Thomas and John and three Office. In 1857 this was two houses. aged 79. In 1901 Thomas Edward daughters, Margaret, Mary and Ann. (36) the lower one was Hugh O’Brien, a farmer, had a grocery and After Michael died it was in Maria’s Anderson’s, then Patrick Reilly’s, then pub here. It is said that Thomas had name in 1904. In 1911 Maria lived a Wimbsey had it in 1891. The upper the first gramophone in Ballymote. here with their four sons, Patrick, one (35) was Peter Donohoe’s, later John Cawley and his wife Teresa a harness maker, Bartholomew, a Bryan Hannon’s, then Thomas Hannon Quinn bought the business some time harness maker, Thomas and Matthew, 1891. Thomas Michael Killoran had after 1911. John previously had a students, and daughters Mary, a both houses in 1892. In 1911 Thomas shop where Christine Lennon had lacemaker, and Anne, student. Mrs. was described as shopkeeper, publican her pharmacy, formerly Kerr’s. Their Cryan had a sweet and paper shop. and farmer. He lived here with his son, Batty, inherited it and he and She made the first ice cream in town. wife Winifred, their children Tom, his wife, Eileen Crowley, ran it as a Then her son Johnny had the shop, he Michael, Annie, May, a dressmaker, grocery and pub. Local associations was married to Mary (Babs) Heuston, Teasie, Jennie and Katie. His son, held meeting in the large reception they had four children, Daisy, Ethel, Tom, inherited the house, ran the pub room upstairs. Batty and Eileen Isabel and John. Later Teresa Lavin in the back with a butcher shop to the sold the licence first and later they had it and her niece, Margaret Lavin, front. His wife was Madge Kielty, a sold the premises to Aidan and Gerri worked there. Then Martin Tom Tighe sister of Jim Kielty from across the Tighe in 2006. Batty was a long-time

11 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009

Ballymote correspondent for The Sligo listed as leasing a house, offices and sons, Mark and Dermot (Dermot was Champion, and had a large collection garden with a total valuation of £8 the inspiration for this article which is of Ballymote memorabilia. He died from George McElroy in 1857. Later founded on his vast local knowledge; in 2007. Aidan and Gerri opened a it could have been Hunts and in 1901 we acknowledge his continuing help home and gift ware shop here. Thady Scully, farmer, and his wife in bringing the article to completion) 14. (30) Bernie Dyer. Catherine Cawley had a shop and pub and four daughters, Violet, Maude, Bartholomew O’ Brien jun. is listed here (See No. 11). He also operated Clodagh and Judy. Mark and his as leasing a house, office and garden a side car business: “To Scully for a wife, Maureen McGettrick, ran it for with a total valuation of £15 from car”. They had four children, Tom, several years and they sold it to John Sir Robert Gore Booth in 1857. Beatrice, Kathleen and Mary. Thady McGettrick. The yard to the back of Bartholomew was a brother of James, died in 1924 aged 84 years. His son, the pub was used as the pound. next door (14). Bartholomew died in Tom, and his wife, nee Begley, had 19. Sharon Higgins’. This 1859. Mary O’Brien had it in 1879 petrol pumps, cars for hire and an was built by Andy McGann and he followed by James B. O’Brien 1886 undertaking business here. Tom’s son had a bakery here. Andy’s daughter, and then by James D. O’Brien 1889. Berchman sold the premises to Des Maggie, had a grocery shop here, she In 1901 James D. O’Brien, Thomas Kielty who continues to run it as a married Barnie McDermott. Mick Edward’s brother (See No. 13), who pub today. Mullen, Keash, a contractor, a brother was a stock farmer and money lender, 17. The Corner House, Gerry of Pat Mullen, Teeling St., lived here lived here with his wife Jane and his and Martina Gormley’s. There were with his wife nee Davey, Lisananny. niece Margaret Coghlan, a seamstress. no buildings in this area at the time Jimmy Flynn, who had been a teacher, Bernard and Margaret Dyer bought it. of the Griffith Valuation in the 1850s sold light hardware here. Jim Hogge Then their son, Paddy and his wife, and the land was owned by Sir Robert then had a grocery shop here. Jack Mary O’Gara, had a butcher’s shop Gore Booth. Andy McGann built here. Egan used it later as a store for his here. Their son, Bernie, inherited the James A. Flanagan, who married a shop. Richard Mulloy had a chemist place; the shop closed in the 1970s McKeown, was here, they reared her shop here for about twenty years; he and he still lives there today. two Cogan nieces. One of these girls, married Martha Johnson. A McManus 15. (28 & 29) Hairdresser’s. Angela, married Dr. Paddy O’Hart, girl, Cloonloo, sold fruit here. Bernie This was two houses. Ballymote. The building was burnt O’Brien had a cake shop here, then a. (29) In 1857 Patrick Judge and Johnny Coleman, Rathmullen, Clare Kavanagh had a playschool, then leased it from Henry McElroy, at bought and rebuilt it. In 1911 Johnny, Paddy Kenny a barber shop and then a valuation of £ 7. In 1901 John a grocer and spirit merchant, was here Pauline Booth a hairdressing saloon. Hogge, farmer, was here with his wife with his niece, Nellie Killoran. Later It was vacant for a time before John Bridget and daughter Margaret. In his son, John, who married Delia McGettrick bought it and the house 1911 Francis King, carpenter, aged Kelly, Doonaveeragh, Castlebaldwin, next door and rebuilt them as two 30 years, was here. Pat Madden, an had it. Their daughter, May married premises. Sharon Higgins, Culfadda, RIC man was here with his wife, three Donsie Brady and they continued to runs a beauty saloon here. daughters, Reenie, Flo and Mollie and run it as a pub. Then Clancy, Grange, 20. (100) Optimum his grand-daughter, Irene Halligan, bought it, then Morris McDonagh, Auctioneers. Thomas Scanlan was was reared here. Ballindoon, brother of Des of The here some time after 1857 and he was b. (28) Michael Breheny is Bow and Arrow pub at Lough Arrow, followed by Joseph Mahon. In 1901 listed as leasing a house, office and bought it, then it passed to Murphys, Joseph Mahon, a farmer, Church of garden with a total valuation of £7 then to John White, Drumcormack, Ireland, his wife, Matilda, and three from George McElroy in the Griffith then to Padraig and Eileen Scanlon, sons, James, Joseph and John, lived Valuation. Michael Breheny had a then to Sean and Noreen Ross, and here. His son, James, an auctioneer shop here but he also subleased 23 now it is Gerry Gormley’s. and shopkeeper, then had it, (see and 24 (97a and 97b). His grandfather Corran Herald 2004/2005, Issue was Bryan Breheny (1748-1856). His No 37, for bill head). The Munster father was Pat who had a shop on and Leinster Bank was here in 1924, The Rock. Michael married Miss Adams was the manager. It was Kelly, Ballyrush, and they had three bought by Michael James Henry daughters, Mary, Catherine and around 1926. At some stage it was Belinda; these respectively married used by the IRA for holding courts. Thomas Dockery (See No. 5b), For a short time it was O’Brien’s Patrick Dockery (See No. 5a), and and then a Miss Coleman, a niece of James Kielty (See Nos. 23 & 24). Bernie Kelly’s had it (See No. 22). Stewart Woodland later owned it. In Paddy Wims had a drapery shop here 1901 Fanny Woodland, a shopkeeper, 18. John McGettrick’s. and Eileen Sheridan, a sister of Fonso widow and a Methodist, born in 1820 Andy McGann built the house the Sheridan, worked there. Then the in Co. Leitrim, lived here with her same year the Catholic church began upstairs was rented to Dick Reynolds, son, Stewart, and daughter, Fanny. In to be built, 1856/1857. His wife was who also had a forge in the yard, at 1911 Lettia Woodland, possibly nee Ann Hargadon, Marlow. They had a the same time Bill Murray had a Murray, a widow and shopkeeper, and pub and sold delph and some people hardware shop downstairs. Then Pat her two sons, John and George, lived stayed here. They had one son, Mark, Golden lived upstairs and Jack Egan here. and eight daughters. In 1901 Mark was rented the shop only from Michael Then George Harrison, a here with his sister, Lizzie, and a lodger, James Henry. Jack Egan bought the builder, bought the two houses. Mrs. Michael Brennan, blacksmith. Mark building and Pat Golden continued to Hodgins nee Taylor had it. Today it married a McCarrick lady, Rathbarran; live upstairs. Jack married Maureen is a barber’s shop run by Deborah they had no family. She died and he Doddy and then they lived upstairs. Kielty. married secondly Mary McGettrick, When Jack retired he sold it to Tim 16. (27) Des and Margaret Aughris; they had one child, Mary Kelly and his wife Frances nee Duffy Kielty’s. Andrew McGann (Andy), Ann. She married Michael James (See No. 9). Then Kiernan Meehan Dermot Henry’s great grandfather, is Henry, Greenan, Keash; they had two and his wife, Bernie, had it, followed

12 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 by Margaret Higgins, Emlaghfad, and Feehily, Dublin, had it; one of them Gilmartin was married twice; with his Loraine Corcoran. Then Kathleen and called it The Oval Bar, because it had first wife he had one son who was a Brendan Doddy had it; they called it an oval window. Paddy and Maisie surgeon in Dublin. His second wife “Eight to Eight”. David Mitchell had a McGovern, Roscrib, bought it, as a was Annie Conroy, Ballyhaunis; they small café and shop here. Today Sean dwelling house. Maisie McGovern had two sons, Thomas and John, and and Noreen Ross run it as Optimum died in 2008. a daughter Mary. James’ niece, Irene Auctioneers. 23. (97b) Molly Cawley’s. Gilmartin, married Martin Tom Tighe; In the 1850s this and next door, Jim they ran it as a pub and grocery. They Kielty’s ,were one property and it was sold it to Pat Egan, returned from unoccupied. Then Michael Breheny England, originally from Bearla. Pat had it in 1872, followed by Patrick married Lilly Dohill, Mill Street. Ferguson 1892, then Rev. Dominick Then John Joe and Patsy Kielty, (See O’Grady 1893 and James Kielty 1899. No. 1) had it and they called it Fawlty In 1901 William Dyer had a shop here, Towers. They sold it to Leo Temple living here with his wife, Mary, and who ran it as a pub and restaurant. It their two daughters, Mary and Annie. is still a pub now run by Paul and Ita In 1910 John Cosgrove was here. In Stevenson. 1911 Martin Henaghan, a civil servant 26. (95) HSE house and 21. (99) Agnes Rogers’. It was (Ordnance Survey), born in Scotland, entrance to Courtyard houses. In the built c. 1857 and was the first house on with his wife Ellen, Co. Limerick, and 1850s Ellen Kelly is listed for house the top of the street on the north side in two daughters lived here. Jim Kielty and land, valued £1-15-0, and store, the Griffith Valuation 1857. In, 1857 sold the house to Mary Ann Rogers valued 15/-; she leased the store to Michael Rogers leased the house here in 1940. Paddy Carey had a barber John Dockery, then to John Dunleavy. with a valuation of £4. James Rogers shop here and lived here with his wife In 1901 Andrew Carroll, who worked had it in 1867 followed by Ann and two children, Phylis and Tony. in the mill, lived here with his wife, Rogers, then Mary Rogers 1902, and Mary Ann sold it to Paddy Cawley, Mary Boyle, Ardconnell, two sons William Rogers 1907. In 1901 Mary Principal teacher Lisaneena National Michael and Thomas, daughter Rogers, unmarried, aged 27 years, School and later Collooney National Maggie and nephew Michael Healy. shopkeeper and publican lived here. School, and his wife, Molly Egan, a Rod Egan bought the house and Her cousin, Mary J. Heaver, a milliner sister of Paddy Egan’s (See No. 12). rebuilt it. When Molly Egan, Rod’s aged 16 years, lived with her. Thomas 24. (97a) Jim and Kathleen daughter, married Paddy Cawley, Dowell, Church of Ireland, born in Kielty’s. It was unoccupied at the they lived here and Molly had a small Co. Cork, a blacksmith, and Robert time of the Griffith Valuation and drapery shop here. Later Rod’s son, Tonperk, Church of Ireland, born in was part of No. 25. John Flynn was Paddy, and his wife, Eileen Gilmartin, England, a painter, both boarded here. here followed by Patrick Ferguson lived here. Then Jim Cawley bought In 1911 William Rogers with his wife, 1891, then Patrick Ferguson’s wife it and today the HSE has it. Delia Pidgeon, Cloonloo, their three 1894 and James Kielty 1895. James, 27. Space which is now daughters, Mary Ann (Molly), Delia Rooskey, Culfadda, married into the the entrance to Courtyard houses. and Nora, and four boarders, Mathew house, to Belinda Brehony who ran a Ellen Kelly had a lodger here in Clynch, painter, born Co. Dublin, pub here; her two sisters married two 1884, then Annie Ward had it and in John Fishboone, painter, born Co. Dockerys, Patrick married Catherine 1901 James Walsh, bootmaker, was Dublin, Michael Maloney, slater and and Thomas married Mary. Belinda living here, with his wife, Kate, and plasterer born Co. Mayo, and John P. died in 1912, later Jim married a sister two sons Michael, a bootmaker, and Roland, slater and plasterer, born Co. of Paddy Benson, Keash, and they had Thomas, and daughter, Mary Anne. Mayo, lived here. They had two other one son, Jim, four daughters; one of In 1911 James, Kate, Michael and a daughters, Teresa and Agnes. Agnes them, Madge, married Tom Killoran relative, John Andrew Cryan, lived died recently died. (See No. 10). Jim’s wife, Kathleen, here. Then James’ son, Michael, had 22. (98) Maise McGovern’s. Wicklow, came to work in a draper’s it. He lived here with his wife, Ellen In the 1850s Patrick Hannin leased shop in town. The pub closed c. 1950. McDonagh, Cloonloo, and three a house from Michael Clerican here. Thomas Regan started his business in daughters, Maureen, Kathleen and In 1865 Stephen Hannin had it. A James Kielty’s yard. Eileen. Jimmy Kelly worked with Miss Clerican had it in 1867, then 25. (96) Fawlty Towers, Paul Michael Walsh. Michael Fahy in 1871. Then Thomas and Ita Stevenson. Bartholomew 28. (94 b) Apartments. M. Killoran followed by Thomas Fox Coghlan is listed as leasing a house, Originally one plot with No. 29, in 1893, Patrick Connolly 1894, and office and garden with a total the 1850s held by Peter Keenan. Bernard Kelly 1895. In 1901 Bernard valuation of £18, the highest valuation Later John O’Hara was here, in 1886 Kelly is described as a shopkeeper and in the street, from Sir Robert Gore William Noble had it followed by his mother Bridget lived with him. Booth in 1857. “To Coughlan’s for Bryan Hannon 1889 and then Michael In 1911 his niece, Honoria Coleman Brandy”. It was a pub and grocery, McGlynn, Culfadda, in 1894. In (Nora), a shop assistant, also lived also selling meal and grinding corn. 1901 Michael McGlynn, draper, with here. Bernard, (Bernie), had a pub In 1893 Patrick W. Coghlan had his wife, Lilly Devaney, born in Co. here from 1910 to 1918. The license it and then James D. O’Brien. In Roscommon, worked and lived here. lapsed and it was a private house. Then 1901 John Gallagher, aged 24 years, A nephew, James Nerney, a draper’s Brian Dyer, butcher, his wife, Bridgie and Thomas Gallagher, aged twenty assistant, a niece, Bridget Cryan, a Gallagher, Swinford, and their three years, both farm labourers, worked milliner, and a sister-in-law Sarah daughters lived there. Brian worked and lived here, but did not own it. In Jane Devaney, a milliner, also lived with his brother, Paddy, across the the 1906 Kilgannon’s Almanac and here in 1901. Michael and Lily had street (See No. 14). Then Brian and Directory for North Connaught Mrs. three sons, Michael Joe, Paddy and family moved down to a house that P. Coghlan, General Merchant and Larry, and a daughter, Baby (Lizzie). is now part of Perry’s supermarket. Spirit License, is listed though James Michael Joe married Dilly McManus Fury, Riverstown, reopened the D. O’Brien then owned it. James from McManus’ bakery in Mill Street, pub. Thomas Feehily bought it and sold it to James Gilmartin, Carrowrile now the Coach House Hotel. Larry revived the license and then Kevin (alias Carrowreilly), in 1907. James and Paddy, both unmarried, lived 13 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 here until they died. The shop closed John McHugh and Patrick Gallagher stage it was leased in two sections around the late 1970s. Paddy Egan had it, then Mrs. Mary Ferguson and as a shop (a) and living quarters (b). bought it and reconstructed it. The then Stephen Hannon in 1903. The Patrick Bohan had the shop in 1891, AIB bank bought it in the late 1980s. next two houses, the lower two (91 then Thomas Gamble 1893, then They sold it in 1998 and it is today in & 92), Stephen Hannin held himself, Mary Bohan 1907, Michael Farry flats. followed by Stephen Hannon, Jn. 1910, Martin McGettrick in 1916 29. (94 a) The Hide Out, Joe In 1901 Stephen Hannan, a with his wife Bea Farry. Martin and and Angela Donegan. In the 1850s bootmaker, lived in the upper ones Bea had four children Eddie, Freddie, it was part of the plot Peter Keenan (92 & 93) with his wife, Mary Anne May and Eileen. Later Eddie ran the leased (See No. 28). Later a house Pilkington, and their three sons, drapery shop. William Elliot had the was built on it. John Gorman had it Francis Joseph, John and James living quarters in 1891 and Constable at some stage, then Philip Lillie 1891, Stephen, and seven daughters, Belinda, O’Connor in 1907. Constable William Patrick Dockery 1894. In 1901, it had Mary Frances, Elizabeth, Susan, Taylor was here in 1901, with his a license; Patrick Dockery owned it Annie, Hannah and Honoria. In 1911 wife Ellen and three daughters and and Patrick Murphy, aged 24, a shop Stephen, his wife, Mary, their sons Constable Anthony O’Malley in 1911 assistant and Frank Davey, aged 25, a Francis (Josie), an assurance agent, with his wife and daughter. general servant, lived here. In 1907 John and James Stephen, scholars, 32. (88) Martin McGettrick’s Michael Henry had it, then James and daughters, Lizzie, milliner, Insurance Office and house. Richard O’Brien in 1911. In 1911 Joseph Susan, dressmaker, and Hannah, Brennan is listed as leasing a house, Mattley, civil servant (Ordnance scholar, were still living here. John office, forge and garden with a total Survey), born in Scotland, lived here P. Hannon married Annie McBrian, valuation of £3 from Sir Robert Gore with his wife Elizabeth, born Co. Clare, Templehouse, they lived here with Booth in the Griffith Valuation in and their three sons. The Ordnance their two daughters Mary Frances and 1850s. In 1885 Thomas Farry had Survey were completing the survey Assumpta. the house and a forge here and then for the 1910 revised edition and three In 1901 John Scanlan, a Michael Farry in 1886 had them. houses in Ballymote were occupied by postman, lived in the lower house In 1901 Michael Farry, carpenter, members of its staff. The counties they (91) with his wife, Mary, and two described in 1911 as a shopkeeper, and had revised can be seen from where daughters, Bridget and Winifred. In his wife, Bridget, lived here. They had their wives came from and where the 1909 Stephen Hannon had it. In 1911 a son, Patrick, and daughters, Bridget children were born. Orr had it and Patrick O’Brien, a Civil Assistant (Bea), Mary Anne, Winney, Margaret, then in 1912 John Carley, Kilfree, with the Ordnance Survey, born Lizzie and Theresa. Mary Anne where he was station master, had the Co. Limerick, lived here with his married Andrew Rogers (See No. pub and lived here. Then it was in wife, Ellen, born Co. Kerry, and five 2), Bea married Martin McGettrick Patrick Carly’s name. John Carley had children, one born in Co. Kerry, one who worked in Gilmartin’s (See three daughters: Beatie never married in Co. Limerick, two in Co. Tipperary No.25). Maggie married John Joe living here all her life, Dottie married and the last in Co. Fermanagh. Miss Begley, he had a bicycle shop which Thomas Quigley, Corhober, (See No. Burke was here, a cousin of Susan is now part of Johnson’s furniture 2) and they continued to run the pub, Hannon. Susan had a dressmaking store today. Ter never married and and Margaret married John Andrew business here. Susan’s sister, Belinda, she had a grocery shop here, then it Dockery (See No. 5). Thomas and lived here with her when Belinda passed to Eddie McGettrick. The Dottie had three daughters, Patricia, returned from America. Then Mary forge was on the corner; in 1901 John Marie and Terry. Thomas ran the pub Frances Hannon had it. Today Mary Connell, blacksmith, had it. The forge until his death in 1961. Then Sylvester Smale lives here; she and her husband, was demolished when Sligo County Kerins, Cloonahinshin, and his wife Denis, came back from England. Mary Council widened the road in the 1960s. Ella had it, and later Michael Finn is from Bunninadden. John, his wife, Ellen, sons, Thomas, rented it. Sylvester sold the license 31. (89 & 90) McGettrick’s also blacksmith, James, Francis, and today Joe and Angela Donegan Drapery, Martin and Carmel Patrick and Michael, seven daughters, live here. McGettrick. This was two houses up Mary Annie, Beesy, Kate, Margaret, to 1945. In the 1850s James Murray Letitia, Agnes and Marcella, lived in leased the upper house from Stephen what is now Wolf Tone St. in 1901. In Hannin, valuation £1-5-0. Thomas 1911 Michael and his older brother, Carroll had it in 1864, then later John, are described as blacksmiths. Thomas Keelagher and then John Michael (Mick) moved to Marren Park Burke in 1893. In 1901 John Burke, when it was built. Owen Sweeney shopkeeper, was here with his wife, worked with Pat Connell in the forge Catherine, two sons, Michael and in the 1950s. Thomas, and daughter, Gertrude. In 1911 Michael Burke, a shopkeeper, We thank Dermot Henry was here with his wife Mary, his father, for sharing his vast knowledge of 30. (91, 92 & 93) The next John, described as an RIC Police Ballymote. We thank Olive Beirne, two houses of Assumpta Hannon and Pensioner, and a lodger John P. Callan Kathleen Cryan, Mary Dockery, Mary Smale were three properties in who worked in the Post Office. Eddie Neal Farry, Assumpta Hannon, Jim the 1850s. Stephen Hannin leased McGettrick bought this from B. Burke Kielty, James McDonagh, Martin four properties altogether, these three in 1945 and she remained here until McGettrick and Michael Rogers for and also part of No. 31. The first she died. Today Eddie and Bridie’s further information, the staff of Sligo house and garden, the upper one, (93), son Martin and his wife Carmel live Library, the staff of the Valuation Stephen leased to Michael Gaffney. here and run the drapery shop. Office, Dublin, for access to archives, Then Thomas Rodgers had it in Denis Elly leased the lower Martin A. Timoney for reading drafts 1874 followed by Stephen 1883 and house in 1857; it had a valuation of of the text, James Flanagan for editing Michael Kelly 1887. In 1893 Miss E. £1. Later John McHugh had it, leasing the final version. Tighe had it then John McHugh and it first from Gore Booth and in 1886 All billheads displayed in this Mrs. Mary Ferguson in 1894. In 1899 from Michael Farry. At some later Article are courtesy of Jim Kielty.

14 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 Cornwall – A Connection Lynda Hart

Cornwall comes from the words and threw him off a cliff in a stormy and another rebel Thomas Flamank Cornovii meaning hill-dwellers sea. The minute Piran hit the sea, it led the Cornish rebellion of 1497. and Waelas meaning strangers. calmed. The millstone floated and This was over the tax levied by King It has a long and ancient history, Piran was washed up on the shore Henry VII to fund his Scottish war. As and connections with Ireland. at Perran beach, Perranporth, in Scotland was so far away the rebels It is the most south-westerly county Cornwall. He built an oratory in the believed this war had nothing to do of England, but not really a county sandy dunes at Penhale and preached with them, and so thousands marched at all, but a Duchy. The Duchy of Christianity. It is said that his first to London to protest. They camped at Cornwall was created out of the former converts were animals. He wasn’t Blackheath, but the ‘army’ were ill- Earldom of Cornwall by Edward III adverse to a drink, which did him no armed with only pitchforks and staves. in 1337 in order to provide an income harm as he died at the age of 206! When they awoke on June 17th, 1497 for his heir, seven year old Edward St. Piran is also credited with the they were surrounded by the King’s of Woodstock (later known as the design of the Cornish flag. Legend: army of ten thousand men. The battle Black Prince). From that day to this, he lit a fire on his black hearthstone, was brief. 200 Cornishmen died. its purpose has remained the same. which was evidently a slab of tin- An Gof initially escaped, but was It is unique in that it not only has its bearing ore; the heat caused smelting then captured and sent to the Tower of own flag, but also its own language. to take place and tin rose to the top London. Both he and Flamank were The Cornish language is an ancient in the form of a white cross (thus the executed. They were hung, drawn and Celtic tongue of the Brythonic or P image on the flag). quartered. An Gof day is 27th June. Celtic language group which also On the 500th anniversary of the contains Welsh and Breton. P Celtic uprising a statue of Michael An Gof is similar to but not the same as and Thomas Flamank was unveiled in the Q Celtic group to which Irish, An Gof’s home town of St. Keverne. Manx and Scots Gaelic belong. The Cornish emigrate. Like the Irish It is believed that many of the they didn’t have much of a choice, early settlers to Cornwall came though it wasn’t fai1ing crops that from the Mediterranean and were St Piran is the patron saint of caused an exodus, but a failing market. traders. One of Cornwall’s traditional miners or tinners as they are known Tin has been ‘worked’ in Cornwall for fares is the saffron cake. Saffron here. St Piran’s day is March 5th . the best part of three thousand years. was brought to Cornwall by the One of the oldest crosses in Cornwall The first people were called tinners Phoenicians who bartered it for tin. is the St. Piran cross which stands as they worked on ground level, open The trading between Cornwall and near the St. Piran’s oratory. The cross cast mining. This process carried on the Spanish and French also meant is mentioned in the charter of King until approximately the 1600s when that marriages took place. Many Edgar in AD 960 and was considered mining underground began. The Cornish people carry the traits of the to be an old landmark at that time. name tinner wasn’t lost and many Mediterranean races, being small with There are other saints miners have been given the nickname. dark skin and hair and with brown eyes. with an Irish connection: The mines of the early 1600s Cornwall also suffered like the St. Fingar arrived from Ireland with his were extremely dangerous places county of Cork from raiding Barbary brothers St. Breaca, St Euny and St. Erc. to work. Some were more than 300 pirates who liked the raven haired St. Ia, sister of St Fingar, is said to feet deep and the men were lowered women that lived in both these areas. have sailed from Ireland floating on a into the shaft by a rope stirrup. Cornwall has a patron saint by the leaf. The leaf was probably a coracle. By the late 1700s engineers had name of St. Piran. There is said to be a St Mawes, revered in Brittany as built sophisticated steam pumping connection with the Irish Saint Kieran well as Cornwall, was thought to engines. Many mines were opened of Saigher, but the link is tenuous. be the tenth son of an Irish king. and huge profits were made (for Legend tells us that St. Piran was a Cornwall has never taken to English the mine owners, not the miners). saint in Ireland who was captured by rule. One of the most famous of By the middle of the 19th century the an Irish pagan king who was jealous Cornish rebels was Michael Joseph mines of Cornwall were producing of his miraculous healing powers. (also known as Michael An Gof. An three-quarters of all the copper used The king tied St Piran to a millstone Gof is the Cornish for blacksmith). He in the world and half the tin, but by

15 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 the late 1800s the industry had begun Cornwall has the longest and some held in Galway which highlights the its decline. The New World countries of the most beautiful coastline in Great language of all the Celtic countries. could produce both commodities at Britain. But for five miles of land At the beginning of the article, a fraction of their Cornwall price, so where the river Tamer doesn’t flow, I wrote that Cornwall is not a to carry on mining the miners had to it would be an island. It is a proud county but a Duchy, both titles follow. They went to the United States Celtic land. During the census of 2001 bestowed upon it by the English. of America, Australia, Africa and South over 34,000 people (4%) put their It is much more than that. America, taking their skills with them. nationality as Cornish, even though it Today where there is a mine you wasn’t given as an option on the form! References: will find a Cornishman. Many Some Cornish would like to see a form Hamilton Jenkin A.K. The Story of came to Ireland and there is a of devolution, as Wales and Scotland Cornwall. small community in Kilkenny. have; others would like to see Cornwall Emma Mansfield. The little book of Camborne School of Mines is still the represented in its own right in sport. Cornwall most prestigious mining engineering The Gorseth Kernow, a non-political www.cornwall-calling.co.uk establishment in the world. organisation, exists to maintain and The last tin mine, South Crofty, closed promote the national Celtic spirit www.st-piran.com in March 1998. There is still plenty of tin of Cornwall and its members travel www.an-daras.com in Cornwall. The price of tin has gone to such events as the Celtic Media www.wikipedia.org sky-high. Re-open the mine? Maybe. Festival (Feile na Mean Ceiteach) www.gorsethkernow.org.uk

From the 1940s, supplied by Jim Kielty

Shopping in the Early 1900s Supplied by Gerry Keaney

16 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 The Story of Michael Davitt Nancy Smyth

He was known as ‘Father of the his father, the tears of his mother, the lasting impression on him, throughout Land League,’ he was a social wail, and the groan with which they his life he never showed any trace reformer, Member of Parliament, greeted the sight of their little cabin of sectarian bigotry, and accepted author, GAA patron, Labour leader, being battered down by the landlord’s religious differences. On finishing international humanitarian, a man deputies”. school he found work with the town’s regarded by some as the Irish Haslindgen: The family arrived in postmaster, Henry Cockroft, who ran Lincoln. So who is this Michael Haslingden in Noyember 1850. After a printing and stationery business. He Davitt and what is his significance? securing temporary accommodation initially was employed to do odd jobs By the start of the 19th century, two with an acquaintance, the Davitt and run errands, but gradually got distinct social groups had emerged in family were asked to leave on the involved in all aspects of the business. Ireland: English-speaking Protestant second night when it was discovered While he worked at Cockroft business, landlords (some Catholics changed that Michael had the measles. They Davitt attended evening classes at the religion during the Penal laws to hold stayed in a makeshift tent to shelter the Mechanics’ Institute, became involved on to their lands), and Catholics who child from the snow until taken in by in Irish politics, and became a member were as a whole tenant farmers, many James Bonner from County Armagh, of the Irish Republican Brotherhood of them Gaelic speaking, together with who had a family of four children. or the Fenian movement in 1865 with the landless cottiers and agricultural After Michael recovered the Davitt the support of his parents. He quickly labourers. The landlords were seen as family stayed as lodgers with another moved through the ranks of this secret the successors of those who received Irish family, that of Owen Egan in organisation. He continued to work in the confiscated lands from the British Wilkinson Street, until they were able Cockcroft’s for two years while still and the tenant farmers were seen as to rent a place of their own at Rock Hall. active in the Fenians and took part the descendants of those who were Davitt’s first schooling ended at the in the abortive attempt to seize arms defeated and lost their lands. Example: age of nine when he found work in a stored in Chester Castle on 11th Feb, In the 1841 census, the land holding cotton textile factory at Ewood Bridge 1867. In 1868 he became organising of 44.9% of the tenant farmers was 1- mill. He left this mill after a month Secretary and arms agent for the IRB 5 acres of rented land. (Straide parish because he was not paid the agreed in England and Scotland. In May 1870, had a population of 4,251 in 1841 and wage. He worked sixty hours for as organising secretary for Northern in 1851 after the famine a population 2s. 6d. a week. The second mill was England and Scotland, he was arrested of 2,381 - a reduction of 43.8%). owned by Lawrence Whitaker, but at Paddington railway station London Born into this land scenario was when Michael’s friend John Ginty was and charged with treason-felony Michael Davitt in Straide, on the John killed in an accident Davitt’s parents and imprisoned for fifteen years. Knox Estate, Co. Mayo, on 25th March insisted he leave. His next and last Wilson the Englishman, the gun 1846, at the height of the Great Famine. mill was Stellfox’s mill at Baxenden, smith agent was sentenced to 7 years He was the second of five children and On 8 May 1857, his right arm was imprisonment even though he was not one of his first memories was, at the age badly injured due to the negligence involved in the IRB. On December­19th of four, being evicted with his family of a supervisor, and as a result it was 1877, Davitt was released on a ticket- for non- payment of rent in 1850 that amputated. This ended his industrial of-leave (parole - not yet a free man) had accumulated during the Famine. career. At that time there was no law in response to an amnesty campaign. The landlords controlled huge estates that required the employer to pay With three others, he had spent seven and rented their land to tenant-farmers compensation. Industrial accidents and a half years in prison in Dartmoor. and charged them an exorbitant rent. were very common during this period. There was a great welcoming party to The tenants-farmers and their families When he was well enough he got meet the prisoners when they arrived at could be evicted at the landlord’s a second chance at education: an Dun Laoire, on 13 January 1878, with whim and there was no control on unknown benefactor paid the fees to Parnell, John Ferguson, John Dillon rent charged. Any improvement made enable Davitt to attend the Wesleyan heading up the party. Parnell invited by the tenant on the holding was seen School, which was connected to the them to breakfast two days later; at the by the landlord as an opportunity to Methodist Church, for four years meeting one of the prisoners Charles raise the rent. Many Landlords were under the tutelage of George Poskett. Heapy McCarthy died and Davitt was absentee and this resulted in the rent Years later it became known that it was involved in the funeral arrangements. leaving the country. A few weeks after the generosity of a local industrialist On this day he also met James Daly, the eviction Michael Davitt and his John Dean, a Methodist, that paid for Editor of the Connaught Telegraph, family emigrated to Haslingden, 17 Davitt’s education. He was the only who invited Davitt to Mayo as his miles from Manchester, in England, in Catholic in the school at the time but guest. He visited Mayo on Saturday 1850. Years later Michael recalled that never heard a word that would hurt 26 January 1878 and was Daly’s guest scene by the roadside, “the anguish of his feelings as a Catholic. It made a for three days. Daly was very involved

17 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 in the Tenant’s Defence Association had died 1873. Walter’s son Captain employees during a wage dispute. whose aim was Land Reform. In Balla Joseph Bourke was serving in India, He insisted on full payment and he met his cousin John W Walshe and his uncle Canon Geoffrey was parish the tenants refused to pay. Fr John his brother in law, John W. Nally and priest of Kilvine and managed the O’Malley PP, Kilmolara, the Neale, found that conditions for the tenant estate. When he found his tenants were organised an ostracisation campaign farmers had not improved since his in arrears in their rent, he threatened against Boycott in Sept. 1880. On Sept family’s eviction. He also visited them with eviction. The result of the 28th a crowd approached Lough Mask Matthew Harris of Ballinasloe, a meeting was a 25% reduction on rent. House forcing all the staff to leave. It Fenian whom he had known prior From this meeting grew the Land was decided that no one would work to his imprisonment. Davitt became League whose policy was peaceful or provide services to the Boycott involved in a campaign for the release protest and whose demand was “Land house and farm. The campaign of the remaining prisoners. He appeared for the People”. “Keep a firm hold on received wide coverage in English, before the Kimberly Commission your homesteads” was first uttered by and USA papers as well as in Ireland. to give evidence on the examination Parnell at the Westport meeting on 8th Men were brought in by Boycott of the Penal Servitude Acts. June. The Archbishop of Tuam, Dr from the Orange Lodges of Cavan He visited his mother in the USA in John McHale, denounced the meeting and Monaghan to save the harvest, 1878. There he met John Devoy and and advised the laity against attending guarded by a big force of troops. Crops formulated what became known as the as it was “convened in a mysterious and worth £350 were harvested at a cost of ‘new departure’ : Fenians to cooperate disorderly manner” and arranged by a £3,500. James Redpath an American on specified conditions with the few designing men” The Archbishop’s journalist, who covered the campaign, radical wing of the Home Rule Party attack also states that “acts and works gave a new word to the English led by Parnell with a unified effort for of menace, ... all the result of lawless language: ‘boycott’, when he reported national independence and addressing and occult association, eminently on Lough Mask House and estate. the land question. merit the solemn condemnation of On Sunday September 28th , a meeting Irishtown Meeting the ministers of religion, as directly organised by Clare Farmer’s Club Davitt visited his cousin J.W. Walshe, tending to impiety and disorder in held in Ennis demanded a reduction Balla, in Feb 1879, and again toured church and society, seeking only to in their rent from the landlord. The Mayo, where there had been bad promote their personal interests”. picture which emerges in Clare is harvests, economic depression and This Westport meeting like Irishtown that the landlords in the county were fear of famine and evictions. James was most important for the land generally in favour of reductions. Mrs Daly, Editor Connaught Telegraph, movement and was a great success. Vandeleur allowed a reduction of 20%, while attending the Court session in Some 12,000 people attended and The Carroll Estate, Miltown Malbay, Claremorris in January 1879, was it was covered widely in the press. allowed 15% and many more followed. asked by the tenants to publish their On 16th August the Tenant’s Defence In January 1881 the government grievances against their landlord in Association held a convention in introduced the first of two coercion bills, his paper. Daly rejected their request Daly’s Hotel, Castlebar, and the the Protection of Person and Property for fear of libel but advised them policies and new title Land League Bill, to suppress the Land League. to hold a public meeting to air their came into being. Then in November Michael Davitt’s ticket of leave was grievances as well as demanding a the National Land League was formed revoked (parole) and he was arrested reduction of rent and promised he in Dublin. in Dublin on 3rd Feb. 1881. On that day would assist them by publishing the Co. Clare became involved early Patrick Egan moved all Land League meeting and in arranging speakers. in the Land League. When Parnell records to Paris. Parnell was arrested The meeting arranged for February attended a meeting in Ennis on again on 13 October and interned in was postponed as John O’Connor September 19th 1880 he outlined Kilmainham jail, with other Land Power was unavailable. A further the policy of moral coventry and Leaguers. The Ladies’ Land League meeting was arranged for 20th April; ostracisation, and recommended that continued to fill the gap created by the making new arrangements were Daly, “land Grabbers” were to be outcasts male Land Leaguers’ imprisonment. John O’Kane, J.W.Walshe, P.J. Quinn and isolated from all human and They continued to work towards the and P.W. Davitt and Nally were present economic contacts with the community. fulfilment of aims and objectives and when making the arrangements. The most publicised example of helping to organise the tenants and James Daly chaired the April ostracisation took place within a week the various demonstrations in the meeting in Irishtown. The speakers on of the Ennis speech at Lough Mask absence of their male counterparts. the platform were Thomas Brennan, House, near Ballinrobe, Co. Mayo. Then followed the Kilmainham Dublin; John O’Connor Power, Mayo Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott Treaty talks conducted by an MP; John Ferguson, Glasgow; John (1832-1897), a former British army intermediary, William O Shea. As a James Louden, Westport; Matt Hams officer, was appointed agent for the result of the discussions coercion was and Michael Malachy O’Sullivan Lough Mask House estate in 1873 abandoned, the No Rent manifesto was from Tenant’s Defence Association, by Lord Erne, an absentee landlord. withdrawn, promises were made to Ballinasloe. The Landlord was Canon Boycott kept increasing his tenants’ allow leaseholders use the land court, Geoffrey Bourke whose brother Walter rents, as well as dismissing some help was provided for the tenants

18 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 with arrears of rent, Parnell and Land labour Rally in Hyde Park, London. for the fledgling GAA. In 1888 the Leaguers as well as Davitt were to be He highlighted the conditions of GAA organised a promotional tour released from jails. By 2 May 1882 the Russian Jews and reported on of America for a team of hurlers and the result of the negotiations that took the pogrom initiated against the Jews athletes. The trip wasn’t a success and place between Parnell and Gladstone, on 19 April 1903 at Kishinev. Davitt the GAA lost £450 on the venture but British Prime Minister, was what became a strong supporter of Zionism, Davitt advanced the sum and cleared became known as the ‘Kilmainham a movement for the reestablishment of the debt. He was in favour of inter­ Treaty’ which ended the Land War a Jewish nation. He also took a stand denominational education and took and conceded the famous Three F’s: against the Redemptorist Priest in up this debate with the bishops. On 15 Fixity of Tenure, Free sale, and Fair Limerick who caused a boycott of Jews Jan 1906 Dr Edward O’Dwyer, bishop Rent. Parnell took the opportunity in 1903. Davitt caused a sensation in of Limerick, published a letter seeking to steer the political forces towards 17 October 1899 when he resigned his support for the denominational Bill of the next goal - Home Rule. This seat in Parliament in protest against the Conservative Party. Davitt replyied effectively ended the land war. the Boer War Britain was waging in in support of non denominational The Phoenix Park murders that South Africa. education, and also pointed out that followed shocked the people of On his visit to Austrialia he was the Episcopal boycott of Trinity Ireland and Britain. Prior to this Davitt very critical of the treatment of the College and the Queen’s Colleges only had been removed from the supreme Australian Aborigines by white affected the poor, as the wealthy just council of the IRB earlier in May 1880 settlers. He was critical of the money ignored them. A number of bishops because of his land league activities, made by mine owners in contrast to had denominational education as the and had little involvement afterwards. the wages paid to miners and well as topic in their Lenten Pastorals. Dr After the Phoenix Park Murders the poor safety in operation. Walsh Bishop of Dublin wrote: “A Davitt unambiguously stated he was Personal Life. great and growing evil of the day is no longer a member of the IRB and Michael Davitt went on a lecture tour the facility afforded by the newspaper became a constitutional supporter of of the United States in 1886 organised press, in Ireland as in other countries, Home Rule despite abuse from some by the AOH, and once again met Mary to persons lamentably uninformed of his friends (his policy of peaceful Yore in Oakland, California. She was in such matters to give wide-spread protest paid off and he believed in it). staying with her aunt Mary Canning, publicity to discreditable attacks upon The Land War had far reaching an Irish American, where Davitt was the rights of the Church to matters consequences which could not be entertained on his arrival in Oakland. such as education”. This debate was foreseen in 1882. A series of Land Mary Yore was born in Michigan the ongoing just before his sudden death Purchase Acts up to 1903 provided daughter of Irish parents, both famine on 30 May which resulted after having the finance which enabled the tenants emigrants from County Meath. She two teeth extracted, the cause of death to buy out their holdings and repay was seven when her mother was being acute septic poisoning of his the loans with interest over a large killed in a road accident; her father jaw. number of years. The Land League remarried and she went to live with campaign 1879-82, of which Davitt her aunt Mary Canning. Mary Yore was the guiding light, was decisive and Michael Davitt were married for the future of Ireland. When the in Oakland on 30 December 1886 tenants had security of tenure and and returned to Ireland in February the right to purchase they were 1887. They had five children. Mary then able to plan a future Ireland. was given a cottage in Ballybrack Davitt was a prolific writer, who called the Land League Cottage. made contributions to the Freeman’s Davitt was elected as M.P. for South Journal, The Irishman, and Nation, Mayo and was appointed to the House and also various American and of Commons committee on Prison Canadian, Australian and English reform and brought forward the Prison newspapers. He wrote six books and reform bill. Now Davitt ex-convict these were the main source of his returned to Dartmoor Prison to inspect livelihood until near the end of his life the system of discipline and treatment when his wife received a legacy from of prisoners in all sections. The wheel her aunt Mary Canning of California. had turned full circle. In 1891 he Michael Davitt mediated in a first mooted the idea of forming an The Michael Davitt Museum is open number of labour disputes over the all-Ireland trade union federation to seven days a week from 10 am to 6 years, in particular a bitter strike some union leaders in Dublin and by pm at Straide, Foxford, Co Mayo. of Liverpool dockers in 1889 and a 1894 the Congress of Trade Unions dispute between the Dublin United was set up. By the end of his life he Builders’ Labourers’ Trade Union and was recognised as a prime-mover Visit www.museumsofmayo.com/ their employers in 1890. On May Day of the Labour movement in Ireland. davitt 1890 he was a guest speaker at the He also provided tangible support Email [email protected]

19 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 Funeral of Michael Davitt Nancy Smyth

Michael Davitt “Father of the Land the Carmelite Friary was brought To avoid a clash between Fenians League” died in Elphin Hospital, about by a situation 28 years and Church he offered to receive Mount St, Dublin, on the 30th May earlier. When Davitt was released the excommunicated remains 1906, three days after having a from Dartmoor prison in England of McCarthy not in the church tooth extracted and acute septic with three others, they arrived in itself but in the Confraternity poisoning of the jaw having set in. DunLaoire to a hero’s welcome room that adjoined the church It was expected that his funeral and stayed for a few days in the and opened on to the church. would be from the ProCathedral, European Hotel, Bolton Street. This division or distinction since he was both a national and Two days later all four were invited saved the friars from a clash with international figure. He had given guests of Charles Stuart Parnell at the Archbishop and Holy See. instructions and left details in his a formal breakfast in Morrison’s On a bleak January night at 9pm will for a private funeral with the Hotel, Dawson St. It was Davitt’s after McCarthy’s body was released following details: his coffin with his first meeting with Parnell. At the after the inquest and autopsy at the remains were to be brought to the breakfast Charles McCarthy of 44 City Morgue, Davitt accompanied Carmelite Friary at Clarenden St, years, called out to Davitt and died his friend’s body to St Teresa’s, in Dublin, just like the funeral of any suddenly in his arms having been a single horse drawn hearse where ordinary common man in a single suffering from a heart condition. the friars received the remains in horse hearse without horse plumes The police and Coroner were sent the Confraternity Room. The Friars and without advance public notice for. McCarthy had been a Colour- welcomed the widow and family at 9pm at night. At 9pm on 31st May Sergeant in the British Army before from Cornmarket in Cork when they (Thursday), Davitt’s coffin was taking up the Nationalist cause and arrived off the 10.15pm train and brought quietly to the Friary Church had originally been sentenced to allowed them to wait with the body at Clarendon St. Crowds appeared death for treason. Even though until midnight. During the next from nowhere and all the streets suffering with a serious heart couple of days Masses were said around the church were filled with condition he was denied medical in the church and thousands paid people. The Friars placed the coffin attention and had to work every their respects in the Confraternity in front of the High Altar and from day with Davitt breaking stones. Room. When the cortege left the then on thousands of people filed Davitt and friends now found church for Glasnevin Cemetery past the coffin over the two days; themselves in a dilemma: just a week after he had arrived on the Friday alone over 20,000 McCarthy was both a Catholic from Dartmoor, this time it was filed past. The Friary had to store and Fenian. The Catholic Church in a beautiful glass hearse with the thousands of wreaths that were had condemned the Fenian four black horses with plumes arriving from all over the world. movement and excommunicated and approximately 200,000 at the Requiem Mass was celebrated on its members. Some years earlier funeral. At his friend’s graveside, both Friday and Saturday morning in 1860 at the death of another Davitt made a resolution to have his and at 10am on Saturday 2nd June the Fenian Terence Bellew McManus, body, too, brought to Clarendon St., funeral left the Carmelite Friary for the Archbishop of Dublin not only at the same hour in the evening in a Broadstone Station on its journey refused permission to use the Pro single horse hearse with no plumes. across the country to Foxford for Cathedral but forbade any priest Davitt’s funeral was one of the burial in his native Straide, and was of the archdiocese to allow his finest funerals seen in Dublin as it followed by a large silent crowd. church to be used. Davitt, Parnell crossed the city to the Broadstone At the various stations along the and friends called to St. Teresa’s Station on its way to Foxford way crowds stood and prayed as Church in Clarendon St and and was the biggest funeral ever the train made its way to Foxford. discussed the matter with the Vicar recorded in Mayo. His decision to be buried from provincial Fr. Edward Holland.

20 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 How Our Ancestors Got Around and About P.J. Duffy

Long before ancient man discovered were designed to set a standard in quite prepared to undertake huge he could tame the horse and subdue wheel building that was to last for journeys on foot. It may well be the wild oxen and donkeys and make hundreds of years. The wheel’s cost of transport that prevented them them into beasts of burden, he centrepiece consisted of a wood from travelling and the fact that they was already familiar with making oak stock. Oak spokes were driven didn’t have money. maximum use of his own two feet. tightly into a circle of mortise holes From a previous generation we have Primitive tribes and their huntsmen neatly spaced to receive the tenon heard tall stories told of journeys would, I can imagine, have ends of the spokes. Felloes (curved undertaken on foot by ordinary undertaken anfractuous journeys pieces of wood) usually ash, were country people that in the world of through rugged landscapes in search then arranged in a circle and auger today sound unbelievable. In our of food to sustain their spouses and holes bored in each piece. These own area we have heard stories of offspring. would then be driven onto the people walking to markets held in Anthropologists tell us that these dowelled ends of the spokes to form Sligo town and returning on foot at tribes would have to move on every a complete circle. The wheel would sundown in the evening. There was so often in order to find fresh ground then be taken to the forge where an the story of the two brothers who and establish new habitats for iron band called “the tyre” would walked to Claremorris the day before themselves. To do this there was no be fitted. To complete the wheel a a fair and returned next evening other way of getting around except round hole would be chiselled right leading with a halter a partly trained on foot, maybe well laden down through the centre of the stock and young colt and which they had got with the weight of their primitive an iron cylinder fitted to receive for years afterwards. There are weapons and tools. the axle. This piece of equipment numerous stories around of people After the appearance of modern used to be referred to as “the box of who undertook journeys on foot to inventive humans around twenty five the wheel”. When the wheel was Ballina in pursuit of various bits and thousand years ago, we see evidence eventually added to the intended pieces. of what were then wild animals vehicle an iron pin would be fitted One day in the early nineteen being tamed and domesticated, and into a hole in the end of the axle to hundreds Mrs. Mary Kilcoyne of we see this development coinciding hold the wheel in place. This was Killavil, a mother of four children, with the inventions of the sleigh and called a linchpin. These types of rose from her bed at sunrise on crude tow-box, vehicles that would wheels when first invented would a harvest morning. After doing have been used to transport goods have been fitted to old-type transport her household chores she milked from place to place. wagons, chariots, stage coaches, gigs her three cows and set off on foot With the coming of the Romans and horse-drawn sidecars. for a pilgrimage to Knock shrine. we find evidence of roads being This whole exercise was to lead on The story goes that after fulfilling built and wheels being used to move to what was to become known as “a her pilgrimage she returned home vehicles from place to place. The world of wheels”. in the evening in time to milk them first wheels we have been told were Later on the coming of the pneumatic again. She was it would seem made from solid, broad slices of tyre and steel rim brought about a an exceptionally religious person wood cut from tree trunks. Rollers revolution in wheel development well known for her devotion to her were also probably used to move and led to an upheaval in mobility religious duties and ceremonies like these old-fashioned vehicles from and transport that was to change the parish missions, stations of the cross, place to place. whole face of the earth for all time. novenas etc. Her attentiveness in Old historians reckon that the Yet despite massive strides forward this area of religious worship was first wooden wheels to contain in this area, as we move on into the later to earn her the nickname “Mary spokes were developed in central eighteen and early nineteen hundreds the Lord”. America. These durable structures we find large numbers of people In the Killavil area the story of 21 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009

Phaleesh man Michael Brennan still some kind of old nag slung on the in and the last prayers were said a lingers on here in folk memory. He it end of a halter. group of mourners moved back a was who back in the eighteen sixties In olden times pall-bearers and short distance from the graveside walked to Castlerea to take delivery mourners often undertook long and began to engage in conversation. of a bell for the recently erected journeys on foot to reach cemeteries Just then there was a rumble heard church at Killavil. Having taken so that they could bury their dead. and a section of the abbey wall came possession of the bell he hoisted it In 1821 John Gaffney of Ardminane, tumbling down on top of the grave up on his back and walked all the Killavil, was sentenced to death forming a heap of several tons of way home to Killavil. Incidentally, for being a member of an illegal rubble masonry. It was fortunate that this same old bell is still in existence organization allegedly involved the people who a short time before had been standing there had already dispersed, otherwise a terrible tragedy would have taken place. Nowadays as we stop to look around us, what we are likely to see is a “world of wheels gone mad”. Vehicles have got so plentiful we have almost run out of road-space. The speed taking place on our country’s thoroughfares is shocking in the extreme. Nobody seems to want to slow down anymore. The death toll keeps rising and the broken remains of crashed vehicles keep piling up in the breakers’ yards. We have arrived at a juncture where it has become increasingly unsafe to venture out Royal Transport: Britain’s Queen Victoria parades through the streets of on the highways anymore. Dublin with her entourage in 1900. Picture from Irish Daily Mail Nobody, not even the people in authority, have the foggiest idea and stands hinged to a pair of in robbery with violence. He was where it is all going to end. Our metal girders outside the church of subsequently publicly executed world on wheels seems to have Killavil. outside the main entrance to Sligo jail turned into a ghastly nightmare. In times past most country folk were in April 1821. The day was market Because of existing dangers, cyclists not afraid to undertake long journeys day in Sligo and markets in the town are now afraid to venture out on our on foot to attend fairs in search of were held on Saturday. Early on roads. The practice of walking fairly animals such as milch-cows, in-calf the following day his three brothers long distances has virtually become heifers, yearling calves or maybe a and a neighbouring man named a thing of the past. good working horse. Anderson undertook the sad ordeal As we look around us, another The first day of February was the of carrying his remains from the jail’s thing we are likely to see is a date on which Carricknagat horse dead room to Mountirwin cemetery. young population who on reaching fair was held each year. The venue According to accounts handed down adulthood, have become grossly was that stretch of roadway situated from previous generations the pall- overweight. Due to lack of exercise halfway between Collooney and bearers arrived back from Sligo and easy-going living a large Ballisodare. The event drew dealers, via Killavil in the early afternoon proportion of our people now seem traders and hagglers from all over on that Sunday evening. They to have succumbed to excess flab the countryside. One old gentleman then proceeded to Mountirwin and obesity. who fancied himself as a horse (Knockmore graveyard) where a Looking back, from this point in dealer used to walk there and back grave had been prepared beneath time we might do well to ponder on almost annually covering a distance the ruined walls of the old Carmelite the words of an old philosopher who of around twenty four miles. He abbey. A priest was already there to many years ago stated that “man’s was so obsessed with horse trading bless the grave and impart the final ingenuity would one day become his that he seldom arrived back without obsequies. After the grave was filled downfall”.

22 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 The Sligo Tradition Gregory Daly

In looking at the influence of regional them could play, good and bad you flute playing in general. styles on the general body of Irish know, and there was a fiddle in every The emergence of the Sligo traditional music in the 20th century, house”.(1) tradition as the dominant regional it is clear that the most significant and Although flute playing was style for much of the 20th century far reaching was that of Co. Sligo. widespread in other areas of south was facilitated by the advances made The collective impact of the three Sligo, it was only with the decline of in recording technology in the early great Sligo fiddle players, Coleman, fiddle playing in recent decades that 1920s. It was indeed fortunate that a Morrison, and Killoran, in terms of this instrument has come to occupy number of uniquely talented emigrant style, technique and repertoire, has far a more prominent position. The Sligo fiddle players were in New York surpassed that of musicians from any increasing popularity of the flute has at a time when the recording industry was becoming increasingly interested in the commercial potential of ethnic music. The huge Irish emigrant population in America yearned for anything which reminded them of home, and there was a considerable market for traditional music. Undoubtedly, the most important of this group of musicians was the Killavil fiddle player, Michael Coleman (1891-1945). Emigrating to New York in 1914, his recording career from 1921 to 1936 transformed Irish music, captivating his audience and setting a new standard in musicianship to which to aspire. A virtuoso performer, Coleman’s approach was highly creative, and his Taken in James “Lad” O’Beirne’s house. First from left James Lad O’Beirne, second Louis superb technique, with its emotional Quinn, third Paddy Sweeney, fifth John Brennan? Picture courtesy PJ Duffy intensity, transfixed his listeners. Apart from a small number of duet other region. Along with other lesser tipped the balance in its favour to a recordings, Coleman was exclusively known fiddle players from the same large degree, and, when one thinks of a solo performer, declining the more era and locality, they remain a source a musician such as Seamus Tansey, it lucrative but somewhat compromised of inspiration to many contemporary is clear what impact the flute playing position of band musician, the more traditional musicians. However, with of this region has had on contemporary widespread and popular practice the increasing homogenisation of of the day. Coleman was the most regional styles, including that of Sligo, imitated musician ever to record Irish the relevance and importance of these music, and his records were eagerly styles has been greatly diminished and awaited by those at home. According is now of historic interest rather than to Johnny Giblin, Coleman’s godson a dynamic within the music itself. It is and a lover of music: in this context that this article attempts “Coleman’s records used to come to to briefly summarise the contribution Mulligan’s shop in Ballaghaderreen of a group of extraordinary as they came out. It was like a concert musicians from a relatively small there of a Friday evening.” (2) geographical area of south Sligo. Some argue that Coleman’s influence The music tradition of certain areas had a negative effect on local fiddle of south Sligo was almost exclusively style, and the following comments a fiddle tradition. This applies in were made by Sean 0’ Riada: particular to the Killavil district, “Undoubtedly, the strongest influence described by Tommy Flynn, a fiddle on fiddle players so far was that player from near Lough Arrow, as brilliant virtuoso of traditional fiddle- “the home of the fiddle players”. He music, the late Michael Coleman. goes on to say: Coleman was from Sligo, but while “Fred Finn’s father told me that his style stems from the Sligo style, it when he was young you could hand developed into something all his own. a fiddle to everyone coming out of Sheila O’Dowd Picture Courtesy The tragedy is that so many fiddle Killavil chapel, and that every one of Coleman Heritage Centre. players nowadays are imitating that

23 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 highly personal style of his instead Carney (Co.Mayo), and Tom Ennis records (Coleman’s) and found out of developing the styles of their own (Chicago). He is among the most that the tunes, the repertoire, we were areas to suit themselves. An imitation innovative and versatile of traditional actually playing - most of the tunes he is only an imitation, no matter how musicians, and while somewhat was playing in the same order.” (4) good it is, a sign that the player lacks overshadowed by his contemporary, Although he made no commercial imagination, a confession of failure. Michael Coleman, in the early years, I have heard Michael Coleman’s there has been a great upsurge of version of the reel ‘Bonnie Kate’ interest in his music in recent times. played from North to South.”(3) A later arrival to the New York Although it is true to say that Irish music scene was Paddy Killoran Coleman’s style dominated fiddle (1903-1965), from the townland of music for many years, it is also a fact Emlaghgisson, near Ballymote. He that he was the inspiration behind emigrated in 1925, and made his first successive generations of fiddle recording, a fiddle duet with Paddy players, and his legacy to traditional Sweeney (1894-1974), another great music as a whole has been incalculable. Sligo fiddle player from Powelsboro, The career of James Morrison (1893- near Tubbercurry, in 1931. Killoran 1947) from Drumfin, near Riverstown, was one of the most successful and From left: Jimmie Murphy, Pake parallels that of Coleman in many popular musicians of his time, and ways. Emigrating to America in 1915, formed what was to become one of Meehan Photo by Gregory Daly he also began recording in 1921, and the best known dance bands of the his brilliance as a fiddle player had a era, The Pride Of Erin Orchestra. He recordings, and is consequently less similar influence and appeal. Again a also made many solo recordings, and well known, James “Lad” O’ Beirne virtuoso performer, his extraordinary his fame was equal to that of Coleman (1911-1980), was again a fiddle player bowing combined with the overall and Morrison. More restrained with from the same tradition, and of equal flamboyance and exuberance of ornamentation and variation, Killoran’s stature to that of the musicians referred his music was a revelation. Unlike infectious, bouncy rhythm is a perfect to above. A neighbour of Coleman, Coleman, Morrison led and played representation of this regional fiddle from the townland of Ballinalack, in several band groupings, and was a style. On a personal level he was he was the son of Philip O’ Beirne skilled and successful music teacher. regarded with great affection, and, (1871-1929), a major figure in the history of Sligo fiddle music, and an acknowledged teacher of such people as Coleman, Killoran, Martin Wynne and others. James O’ Beirne, who emigrated to New York in 1928, made a number of private recordings, widely circulated among musicians in recent years, which testify to his outstanding ability as a fiddle player. O’Beirne had all the qualities that define Coleman as such a unique player, and hopefully at some future date it may be possible to publish to publish a C D compilation of his archive recordings. Because of their technical brilliance, it is sometimes argued that these musicians made use of classical training while in New York. What is more likely however, is that there existed a sophisticated, highly developed school of fiddle playing in the Killavill/ Ballymote area which From left: Seán Dwyer, Peter Horan, Gregory Daly, Fred Finn, reached its peak towards the end of the th Mary Kate Finn Photo by Áine Daly 19 century. The earliest recordings of traditional fiddle playing were Some of his recordings have a jazzy, unlike most emigrant musicians of those made in the late 1890s, and swing type quality, suggesting another his time, made several return visits to these show a remarkable degree of source of influence, or perhaps just a Ireland. It is a tribute to the enduring technical expertise, particularly with reflection of the pace and excitement legacy of these three great musicians, regard to bowing. Although none of of his New York environment. that the tune selections they put on these early recordings come from Co Apart from his solo recordings, record, almost eighty years ago, are Sligo, there is no reason to believe Morrison made quite a number of still played in the same order and that a similarly advanced fiddle style duet recordings with musicians such arrangement, often by people unaware did not exist here at this period. As as the great Leitrim flute player of their origins in the repertoire: Harry Bradshaw has pointed out: John Mc Kenna, the pipers Michael “1 began to listen to the rest of the “Michael Coleman did not create

24 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 the Sligo style of fiddle playing. It an extremely rare occurrence in a promote the music of Sligo, and as had existed long before his birth, and recording of this date. As such, it is such deserves public support. This many players in the region had added the finest example of duet playing centre houses an extensive archive their individual contributions to the of this date from the region. Another collection, currently in the process maturing form. “(5) is that of Bart Henry’s Ballymote of documentation, which, when There are numerous oral references quartet, and among the musicians complete, will provide an invaluable to remarkable fiddle players, both of this group was fiddle player John research source for the Sligo tradition. from musicians themselves and Flanagan, father of the present editor The standard set by the musicians discriminating listeners in the of this journal. A number of records of the Coleman era was indeed a Killavill/Ballymote district. Also, if featuring John Joe Gardiner, both difficult challenge to those who one listens to the 1930s recordings as a solo fiddle performance, and succeeded them. It was a challenge of Ballymote fiddle player John Joe on flute with his sister, Kathleen, and a responsibility they accepted and Gardiner (1894-1979), or Joe Dowd were also made at this time. honoured, their contribution being no from Gurteen (1913-1987), it is Perhaps the best known of the Sligo less of an achievement. In an article clear that these musicians, who did musicians of recent times has been such as this, it would not be possible not go to America, but were steeped the fiddle and flute duet of Fred Finn to include the astonishing number of in the local tradition, display all the (1919-1986) and Peter Horan (1926- gifted musicians of this generation: technical complexities of this unique ). It is hard to think of a finer example enough to say that few localities regional style. The question of how of this form of duet playing than can claim such a profusion, such a such a concentration of music of these two Killavil musicians. Their flowering of the musical heritage. partnership over a period of 25 years was indeed a fruitful culmination of the great fiddle and flute tradition of Co Sligo. The generosity of spirit which marked their musical career, from house dance to pub session, from Fleadh Cheoil to concert hall, was part of a way of life now fading under an onslaught of commercialism. They shared their music in a natural, spontaneous way, entirely lacking in self consciousness or self importance. John Joe Gardiner and sister Kathleen In the words of Yeats: “they weighed Picture Courtesy Coleman Heritage Centre so lightly what they gave”. We are fortunate that Peter is still with us, his music as spirited and as fresh as ever. this standard was largely confined In the past twenty years or so, the to such a small area of south Sligo, number of musicians forming what is one which merits further research. could be called “the old guard” of Sligo It is interesting to note that no music has been greatly diminished, recordings of any kind exist of and musicians playing what could Michael Coleman’s older brother, be defined as a typical Sligo style Jim (1881-1936), who was celebrated and repertoire are limited. A group of John Flanagan, around 1920 as a fiddle player of exceptional musicians who play locally, and are still skill. A man who figured large in the part of what could be called a purely Photo courtesy James Flanagan folklore of an older generation, many oral tradition, are the main exponents claimed he surpassed his brother, of the older regional style today. References Michael. Musicians such as Martin These include such people as Sheila O (1) Transcript of interview by Wynne, however, who heard him Dowd, Verona Ryan, Jimmy Murphy, the author with Tommy Flynn of play, disagree with this assessment, Harry McGowan, James Murray, Ballindoon, Co.Sligo, 12th Oct. 1994. while acknowledging his importance Mick Loftus, Thomas Bemard Ryan, (2) Transcript of interview by the as a fiddle player. The fact that such Dessie Collis, Fr.James McDonagh author with Johnny Giblin of Doon musicians went unrecorded underlines and Gregory Daly among others. West, Gurteen, Co. Sligo, 10th Jan. the importance and value of the huge In contemporary Ireland, the younger 1994. archive of emigrant musicians recorded generation tend to look beyond local (3) S. O’Riada, Our Musical Heritage in America from c. 1915 to 1940. boundaries to source their music, and Dolmen Press 1982, 5 A small number of 78 RPM recordings their technical ability and extended (4) Transcript of interview by the of traditional music were made in repertoire is remarkable. Young author with John Carty Ballinameen, Dublin in the 1930s,and these include musicians who come from families Boyle, Co Roscommon, 6th March several from the Ballymote area. In with an established musical tradition, 2000. 1932, Dick Brennan of Killavil on however, tend to retain more of the (5) H. Bradshaw, Michael Coleman, fiddle, and Tommy Hunt of Lissananny local style and repertoire; hopefully 1891-1945, Dublin: Viva Voce, 1991, on flute, recorded a selection of reels they will pass it on in turn. The Coleman 27 and jigs on the Parlophone label. It is Heritage Centre was established in unusual in that it is unaccompanied, Gurteen in 1999 to encourage and

25 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 A Page of Utah Stephen Flanagan

It’s hard to get a sense of the size a great mountain, and you can get the got off the same page of the map we of something huge, to mentally same feeling again. had started on. We had seen only a picture its full extent. The hundred- For me, the moment that made me fraction of the state, and the state is story buildings of a major city get begin to understand a little just how only a fraction of the country. It’s a bigger and bigger the closer you get endlessly vast the United States is vast place indeed. until you find yourself at the bottom came after I spent a few days driving One of the first indications that Salt looking up with no real conception of with friends around the state of Utah. I Late City is not like the great cities the magnitude of the achievement of had initially been somewhat surprised of the coastal United States is that creating them. A great mountain range when they described a state park which anyone can walk in off the street as far starts as a distant smudge of grey low was eight hours’ drive away as being as the baggage carousel in the airport. on the horizon and grows steadily ‘close’, but nothing really clicked There’s no security in between, until the mountains are towering into place at that point. We were to meaning in theory anyone could over you and the road seems to lead visit that park and a few more like it wander in, steal a bag, and wander upwards forever, towards a summit as well as some little towns here and out, with only CCTV to worry about. you can’t see during the journey to there, and they showed me on a map It’s impossible to imagine a system the top. You can understand that what where everything was. It was one of like that working in New York or San you’re seeing is vast, but it’s difficult those book-style maps where you turn Francisco or indeed Dublin, but when to internalise the whole. to a different page to see what is off I asked my friends about this, their answer was ‘that just doesn’t happen here’. They seemed a little surprised I would even ask the question. Salt Late City was founded in 1848 by Brigham Young, a disciple of Joseph Smith who was the original founder of the Church of the Latter Day Saints, and a man who partook in more than a few two-way conversations with God according to his own testimony. Smith died in 1844, and the members of the LDS church found themselves unwelcome in the east for a variety of reasons – not least for being perceived as being a cult – so they struck out west. SLC lies in a valley that they thought of as their promised land, a direct analogy to that of the Israelites. Standing on a hill overlooking the Landscape Arch Photo by Stephen Flanagan town today, hemmed in on every side by jagged mountain ranges, it’s not Sometimes, though, something the edge of the page you are looking hard to picture how it must have been small can be the trigger that helps at, and it was quite big, A3 in size. a century and a half ago, and to feel your mind fully comprehend at least a We spent three days driving around, something of the awe the early settlers portion of what you’re seeing. If you covering seven hundred miles on must have. stand far enough back from a huge broad American highways, hours of Young’s vision and the faith of the building that you can just make out driving drifting by pleasantly in a Latter Day Saints are still written large the people around its feet, it can give big-sky landscape. After, when we on the city itself. The streets, mostly you a sudden jolt of understanding. were back in their house in Salt Lake running north-south or east-west, are Take that same building and calculate City, I looked through the map to see numbered on a grid system so that a how many you would need to stack on where we had been. In all that time, in given address has a pair of coordinates top of each other to reach the height of all the hours of driving, we had never that define its position, like a city-scale

26 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 version of longitude and latitude. The member, because a lot of the time you it was almost gone completely and origin of the grid, where everything just need to pay a few dollars or sign a the deep natural red of the sandstone else is measured from, is the Salt form. The waitress explained that you rock made it feel like we were driving Lake Temple of The Church of Jesus need to get someone to sponsor you. through the set of a western movie. Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is So my friend, being an enterprising And indeed lots of westerns were shot not exactly a name that trips off the fellow, wandered over to the bar and in the general area – Clint Eastwood’s tongue, but is the spiritual centre of asked one of the people who happened For a Few Dollars More was shot in SLC. The city owes its wide, multi- to be there would he sponsor him. The one of the neighbouring states. As lane central streets to Young also – he guy said sure. My friend asked for we drove, we began to see crumbling wanted them to be wide enough for the wine again, the waitress asked sandstone cliffs and then towering, carriages drawn by a train of horses who sponsored him, he pointed to sheer-faced ‘buttes’ (rhymes with to be able to turn easily. And alcohol, the gentleman at the bar, and got his “mutes”) which look like roughly- in accordance with the teachings of wine. Not a single piece of paper or a rectangular giant blocks of stone. the church, is restricted, though not signature required. Some of them are hundreds of feet banned. Beer can be a maximum The bulk of my trip was surrounding high, and they dominate the landscape. strength of 3.2%, and regular shops Salt Lake City, though, rather than in The sides of some of them are almost cannot sell anything else, so no wine it, and the first major stop was Arches smooth and vertical, and look like they or champagne. If you want to procure National Park, home of naturally- were designed to be that way by an either of those items of exotica, or forming sandstone arches which are intelligence with an unclear motive. want a beer stronger than 3.2%, you quite astonishing. One of them, called It’s quite something to see them. need to go to a State Liquor Store, Delicate Arch, is the state symbol of We stopped first at Dead Horse which are only open 9 to 5 Monday to Utah. The state bird, incidentally, is a Point, where the views are wide and Seagull, which is odd given the state’s red and you could be looking out over distance from the sea. The story goes Mars. There is a narrow spit of land that when the original Mormons with cliffs on either side leading out arrived with Brigham Young, locusts to a natural viewing platform, and ate their crops for the first few years. in frontier times they would chase This made things very difficult indeed wild horses up there as it formed a until the seagulls arrived and ate the natural corral. Some of the horses locusts. The gulls have been around who preferred death to capture would ever since, and the salt lake from jump over the edge, falling 2,000 feet which the city takes its name provides to the Colorado River. We spent a a natural habitat for them. while there, and when it started to get Anyway, SLC is in a valley, and dark we drove as far as the town of there’s another valley to the south, Moab to find rooms for the night and with a few mountain passes between dinner. Moab is famous for mountain them. We drove through the one biking – those of an adventurous or called Point of the Mountain, and then possibly suicidal nature thunder down out the west side of that. They’re not the mountains at ridiculous speeds. valleys in the sense of two mountains Moab is well-known enough in certain Big country, big sky in close proximity with a saddle of circles that it can poke fun at its own Photo by Stephen Flanagan land between them, as we would general obscurity – in a little shop think of in the Boyne for example. there I saw a t-shirt with ‘Where the Friday and are not located in the most Rather, they’re big flat areas ringed hell is Moab?’ on the front. convenient of places. with forbidding-looking mountains, We made our way to Arches the next Some bars will sell ‘heavy’ beer, as sharp and jagged in the distance. In morning, which was only another they call it, but only to people who winter, snow and rock battle to define two miles or so. It’s huge, naturally, are members. My friend has a great the dominant colour. When we were covering 120 square miles, and there story where he and his wife were making our way through the passes, is a road which runs all the way around out in one of the little towns in the climbing higher and higher, it was it. A good number of people therefore state and stopped for some food and easy to picture pilgrims on horseback never make it out of their cars, doing a glass of wine. The waitress asked keeping an anxious eye out for Indians what they call a ‘windshield tour’. him if he was a member, and he said and wondering if they would ever We had planned to do one hike and he wasn’t. She apologised and said make it to the other side. possibly two. The first was to Delicate she could only sell wine to members. The further south we went, the more Arch, which is the one they use in John inquired as to how to become a the snow disappeared, until finally all the tourism photos. They usually 27 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009

Buttes Photo by Stephen Flanagan show it shimmering in summer heat, snow. It was bitterly cold, but we appear to agree. but on the day we were there snow stayed for a while taking in the magic On our final day we stopped by Goblin was falling gently. The wind was quite of the place. Valley. It’s quite the bizarre spot: strong and whipped it around, and We were glad to get back to the there are loads of stone formations, there was hardly anyone else in the warmth of the truck. When we got to somewhere around 10 to 20 feet high, park, so we felt like we were setting where the next hike started we had and if you look at them sideways in off on a grand adventure. a short debate about how much we the right light (and possibly with a It was about a mile and a half to wanted to get back out into the cold. significant amount of 3.2% booze on the arch. The first part was through a ‘Not very much’ was the consensus, board) they look sort of like goblins. winding trail cutting through the rocks but we went for it anyway. This one You can wander around among them and little rises, and then we reached was shorter and easier, to Landscape and touch them and clomp through the ‘slick rock’ part, which was like Arch. You used to be able to stand the red mud and the snow, so we had a walking over a giant boulder. It was under this one and look up at it until very happy hour or so. quite steep, and the snow and ice 1991, when a few tourists were having The drive back to SLC was long and made it slippy. When you’re standing summer picnics and enjoying the involved more than a few period of on what feels like a plane of rock, it’s scene. They heard what they initially trawling through blizzard conditions not evident in which direction you thought was thunder, but it was in that require four-wheel drive and a should be going, so the trail is marked fact fracturing rock. The first falling steady nerve. The final days I spent in with little piles of stones of decreasing stones alerted them in time, and they and around the city, getting to know sizes. We made it past that with no made it out of the way before 150 tons its streets at least a little. It strikes you ill effects, and then started the final of sandstone fell from above on where as a prosperous place full of happy section along a cliff-face. The trail they had been sitting as a chunk of people, though there is poverty and was a few feet wide, with a cliff to our the arch disintegrated. They haven’t inequality there just as anywhere else. right and a large fall to our left. That let anyone under it since. I personally But it’s somewhere I would dearly was my favourite part. think that you should be able to sign love to go back to, and one day will. When we got to the end, Delicate a disclaimer and stand there if you I’ll just remember to bring a few beers Arch was stark and beautiful in the want, but the US Parks Service doesn’t from home.

28 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 The Barony of Costello 1585 – 1900 Maire McDonnell Garvey

From the time of Henry VIII the right The Commissioners claimed they of Costello. Within a short time of the Crown to Connacht was legally could not conveniently assess this Clann Costello had been virtually beyond a doubt. Henry entered into area, ‘because of the hard passage and dispossessed of the lands for which indentures with most of the Connacht travel thither by means of the great they had fought so long and so hard Lords, both Irish and Anglo Irish. In bogs, moors, woods and mountains over the previous three and a half this he received them as subjects and and other evil ways into the said centuries. Before the end of 1580 they recognised their claim to land. In 1585, barony’. The Survey was postponed had begun to realise the implications in the reign of Queen Elizabeth and to the 10th September 1587 and was of Dillon’s arrival but it was too late. under Sir John Perrot the Lord Deputy, held at Athleague Co. Roscommon. In 1587 Sir John Perrot’s report on the the Commission made a settlement Viscount Theobald Dillon insisted in barony of Costello (alias Ballyhaunis) known as the ‘Composition of the assessment going ahead. He had in connection with the ‘Composition Connacht’. This involved ‘Surrender his own hidden agenda for doing this. of Connacht’ said ‘Theobald Dillon and Regrant’. It was due to the This was his barony. If the quality of inhabiteth the said barony, and had neglect of the clerks of the Court of land was not suitable for a rent charge by his industry brought the people Chancery that these surrenders were then this was to his benefit. So the there to obedience’. There is no clear not finalised. So later Strafford enters committee came to the conclusion indication of how Dillon took over the scene, with a strict programme for that only 83 quarters could be charged the Costello estate. All I know is that taking over the land. This is called with rent. The quantity of land in when I was studying in the Registry Strafford’s Survey and it was seen Costello comprised 255 Quarters of Deeds Office, in Henrietta Street, to include all divisions. Strafford’s and each quarter was 120 acres. Who some years ago, I came across “Folio barony map of Athlone confirms this. knows what trickery went on. The no 2099 : A memorial of a deed of From the Strafford Survey 1636-1637 survey describes the area as “barren Conveyance of George A. Costello there are nine baronies of Mayo, and amongst the most barren, and a verie 20th August 1885”. This stated that the collection of the Books of Survey resceptacle of Scotts and a harbour Costello paid a fixed rent to Viscount and Distribution’s descriptions of other lowse and evil people, through Dillon for nearly three hundred years lands and proprietors’ names are the strength and fastnesse thereof’ of £31/6/10, which was Composition notable features. (W FT Butler ‘The Confiscation of rent. To add insult to injury Dillon I will try to give a short account of Connacht’) was created the first Viscount Dillon the history of this particular area from Theobald Dillon commanded an after 1660. Let it be noted that Arthur 1585, the year of the “composition independent troop during the reign of Georges Costello kept the Home Farm of Connacht” to the present day. But Queen Elizabeth and was appointed which contained 315 acres 3 roods and for a Ms. loaned by Mrs. Packenham collector and receiver of composition 13 perches.(statute measure). Mahon of Strokestown Park, Co. money for the province of Connacht. Throughout this time there is no Roscommon, at the beginning of this (Composician Booke of Connacht individual mention of tenant’s names. century, our knowledge would be scant. transcribed by A Martin Freeman, History was written as if tenants did Her Ms. showed general agreement Index to Composicion Booke of not count. Even in the Survey and with the Roscommon text of the book Connacht (Hayes Mc Coy G.A). His Distribution books, there were only of Survey and Distribution, In the family owned extensive estates in the names of the proprietors, the Specification of this we are indebted Meath and Westmeath. He appears to number of acres profitable, and the to the Ordinance Survey Department, have put his legal education to good number of acres unprofitable .and for lands, acreages and other details. use, acting as a mediator between the names of the areas. No rent was (Mayo book of Survey and Distribution the Connacht rebels and the Crown. charged on unprofitable lands or introduction P. XXXVI) In doing so he antagonised the uninhabited lands. So the landlord’s The barony of Clancostilleo controversial President of Connacht, wealth apparently lay in the tenants (Costello) was at this time omitted Sir Richard Bingham who referred who lived on his property and the from the Composition Book in to Dillon as ‘a great extortioner, a herds they attended. As time went on assessing the ‘cess’ to be paid to favourer of rebels and malefactors’ . a list of names appears on the Dillon Queen Elizabeth. A note to that effect What I can gather is that Dillon’s estate deeds from 1805 and on the by the commissioners is added to the main objective was his own self Costello estate deeds from 1885. statement of proceedings: ‘The Barony advancement and he lost no time in Arthur Georges Costello was of Clancostilleo is not yet presented’. extending his holdings in the barony Justice of the Peace for the counties

29 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009

Mayo, Roscommon and Sligo and as married Mary the third daughter of was now Lord Lieutenant and it late Captain in the Seventh Dragoon Francis Birmingham the 21st Baron appears Dillon had fallen out of favour Guards was living at Edmondstown, of Athenry. Margaret Louise married in Government circles. He believed he Ballaghaderreen . His acreage in Arthur French son and heir of Arthur had been promised that he would be Mayo was 7,513 acres, and 1038 in French of Frenchpark. It has been recommended to be made Knight of Roscommon. (Records are in the said that a son of Viscount Dillon the Garter but he was passed over for National Archives in Bishop Street.) married a daughter of Costello. We some other person. Finally Viscount Down through the years many of also note that the families of the Irish Dillon decided to become an absentee the Costellos resented the manner in Clans have survived to the present landlord. In 1818 he appointed Jarrard which they had become tenants on day: - the MacDermots of Coolavin Edward Strickland to be agent to his what had been for so long their own and The O’Conors of Connacht estates in Mayo and Roscommon. lands. When Captain Dudley Costello whose last home is in Cloonalis just Charles Strickland, son of Jarrard, returned from exile with King Charles outside Castlerea. Mrs Pakenham continued as agent after his father’s II at the time of the Restoration he had Mahon of Strokestown House lived death. In 1844 his mother Ann, died high hopes of regaining the property in dire poverty in her last few years at Loughglynn in 1829 and is buried which his ancestors almost a century there and sold to a local garage owner in a vault in the cemetery of the previously had allowed to slip from before leaving to live with her son in old church at Ballaghaderreen. He their grasp into the hands of Theobald England. The De Freynes sold their managed the estate for forty years and Dillon. His hopes were to be cruelly lands to the Land Commission who was regarded as being a very fair man. dashed. The Cromwellian Settlement divided it among the local tenants. It During the famine of 1847- 48 he and previous confiscations were not was mainly due to misfortune that the saved many tenants from starvation. to be overturned. Dudley gathered a landlord class in Connacht lost their The population of Ballaghaderreen party of followers calling themselves property. increased in the second half of the 19th ‘Rapparees’ and they carried on Arthur Georges Costello’s home century. Schools were needed. Mr. raids and burnings against Dillon in farm was mortgaged as he was unable Strickland succeeded in getting the the baronies of Costello and Gallen. to keep his finances in order. His site at Cnocan n mBrathar, Friars Hill, Proclaimed a Tory and a rebel in 1666 house which still stands is a beautiful near Castlemore, for the Schools of Dudley was shot dead on the slopes of building surrounded by large graceful the Sisters of Charity, opened in 1877. Barnalyra, beside the new Connacht trees and amazing gardens. It was Strictland remained agent for Dillon airport. bought by the Ballaghaderreen and in 1899 when the estate was sold, Tomas Laidir Costello according Church authorities with help from 93,321 acres were bought for $29,000. to tradition was a brother of Dudley the Congested Districts Board. Sectarian troubles did not begin the Rapparee. Tullaghan Rock had Down through the centuries the head in the North of Ireland at the end of been their home. The borders of the of the Dillon household in Loughglynn the 18th century. By 1780 tnere was a Costello lands ran along Magheraboy was a Viscount. Thomas the fourth new pitch of ferocity never equalled and Tobracken beside the present Viscount who was born in 1615 was before. By the easing of the Penal graveyard at Kilcolman. Dr. Douglas Governor of Mayo in 1641. Following Laws in 1780 competition for land Hyde claimed that Tomas Laidir Cromwell’s victory he was deprived between Catholic and Protestant had fought bravely against the of his estates by the Commonwealth. was apparent. There was an influx Cromwellians in a fierce battle on At the Restoration, however, having of weavers from North Connacht, the Curlew Mountains There are returned from continental exile in 1663, calling themselves Defenders, and many versions of his love affair with he was regranted these lands: 64,185 Peep 0’ Day Boys, Protestants raided Una Mac Dermot, which would take plantation acres in Counties Mayo, Catholic homes every chance they got. too long to relate here. According to Roscommon . No wonder Costello, his On 21 st September 1795 the ‘Battle records in the Genealogical Office in next door neighbour, was aggrieved of the Diamond ‘was fought at the Dublin, Dudley Costello was the son of and angry because he was not given Crossroads near Loughgall. The result Jordan Boy Costello of Tullaghanrock. any of the land that had been his. was - the Catholics were routed and It can be noted that the landlord class Towards the end of the eighteenth left several dead. Strange enough this made every use of marrying into century Viscount Dillon implored marked the birth of the Orange Order. other wealthy landowning families. the government to send Cavalry to It also marked the beginning of many Jordan Boy’s sister married William Loughglynn. He complained so often Catholics into the United Irishmen. Costello of Castlernore. Their son about threats to his life that in February A dispute was settled under the Charles married Giles, daughter of 1797 the reinforcements arrived. He Government of Ireland Act 1898 when James Farrell of Clooneyquinn, Co. said the spirit of Republicanism and nineteen thousand acres were taken Roscommon. Their son Edmond revolution was on the increase. Groups from the Mayo Barony of Costello Costello of Edmondstown was called ‘Ribbonmen ‘were threatening and given to Roscommon. a Dublin Counsellor at Law. He on all sides. William, Earl of Camden

30 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 Walfrid, The First Celt Don O’Connor

Br. Walfrid was born Andrew Kerins and appointed to St. Mary’s Parochial Walfrid was now transferred on the 18th May, 1840, in Cartron School, Glasgow, in 1868. He was to London as Headmaster of St. Phibbs, Ballymote, Co. Sligo, to a made Headmaster of the new Sacred Anne’s School in Whitechapel. He family of small farmers. He survived Heart School in 1874. It was here in left his mark here also, founding a the Famine and like a lot of his fellow association with four confreres of the Boy’s Guild and a Young Men’s Club. countrymen he emigrated. In the St. Vincent de Paul Society that he In 1903 religious congregations were company of a friend called McGettrick organised the “Penny Dinners”. To expelled from France and Walfrid was they found passage on a coal boat to pay for these he organised football given the job of purchasing a property Glasgow. He was fifteen at the time. matches. and transferring the principal French It is hard for us today to When Edinburgh Hibernians Marist house and boarding school to appreciate the society he would have won the Scottish Cup in 1887, with England. His superiors insisted he found in Glasgow. While it was a the help of some businessmen he help with the establishment of this principal city of the British Empire it invited them to play Renton. A crowd school on English soil. It was while also had the worst slums. These had of 15,000 turned up and a profit of he was here that the Celtic team the highest rates of infant mortality, £400 was realised. He now decided returning from a continental tour in death in child birth, T.B. and many it was possible to raise a team from 1911 of Dresden, Prague, Vienna, other infectious diseases. Some among their own people. On the 6th Budapest, Basle and Paris met with 100,000, predominately Catholic, are November, 1888, in St. Mary’s Parish Walfrid again. He remarked that while supposed to have gone to Glasgow Hall Celtic Football and Athletic Club the faces had changed everything else in the post-Famine years. They was founded. The first board included remained the same. faced a society which was virulently the businessmen who had originally His health started to decline anti-Catholic. In Scotland in the helped him; they were Glass, Murphy, and he was sent to a retirement home, 1790s there were only 39 Catholics McQuillan, McKay and O’Hara. Mount St. Michael’s in Dunfries in Glasgow but there were 60 anti- These men were all involved in where the brothers had a boarding Catholic societies. At the opening of Ireland’s struggle for Independence, school, St. Joseph’s. He died here on the Irish National Famine Movement so the ethos of the club was set from the 17th April, 1915, aged 75. in Carfin, Lanarkshire, in 2001, Dr. the start. It is still the only Club in What of the Club he founded? Andrew McLellan, former Moderator Britain where the Tricolour flies Glasgow Celtic has become one of of the General Assembly of the Church permanently. A piece of land was the biggest clubs in the world, a focal of Scotland, publicly apologised to leased and prepared by an army of point for Irish people all over the the offspring of the Irish in Scotland volunteers and six months later a game world. The first “British” club to win for the way his forebears had treated was played there between Hibernians the European Cup, that was in 1967. their forebears. The emigrants in and Cowlairs. Three weeks later the Having won that trophy the great Jock turn brought all the enmities from the first Celtic team took the field against Stein brought his team to Br. Walfrid’s “Old Country” and were by and large a Rangers side and beat them 5-2. One grave in Dumfries to pay their respects Republican in outlook. In the midst of year later they won the Scottish Cup, to the man who started it all. this maelstrom Andrew found a job as beating Queens Park in front of 40,000 Br. Walfrid did not start a labourer on the railways. people. A new ground was purchased the club to enrich any one group As time went on he became in 1892 and the new “Celtic Park” or individual and at times the more and more impressed with the was christened “Paradise”. This was supporters like to remind the board work of the Marist Order with the because the old ground was beside and shareholders of this fact. He poor of the East End. At the age of the cemetery in Janefield St. and they also wanted his club to have a social, 24 he decided to join the Order. In had to go through the cemetery to get political and moral conscience. To 1864 he went to France to begin his to the pitch. They reckoned that they that end in 2004 Ballymote and noviciate. Because of his age he were now leaving the cemetery and Sligo Celtic Supporters erected a was more focused than his younger entering “Paradise”. Michael Davitt monument to him in Ballymote. This fellow students. On completion of his turned a symbolic first sod at the was unveiled by Celtic chairman studies he was given the name Walfrid opening of this new ground. Brian Quinn and Sligo native Sean 31 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009

Fallon, a former Celtic player and at the Gates of Paradise” was played by Cup Final. What is little known is manager, in the company of Walfrid’s the St. Patrick’s branch of Comhaltas the charitable work undertaken by relatives Mary Healy and Andrew Ceoltoiri Eireann from Coatbridge. those supporters in the tradition of Kerins. On the 5th November, 2005, Some 5,000 supporters turned up for Walfrid. At an away game against a monument was unveiled at Celtic this event, testimony to the enduring Celta Vigo in Galicia, on hearing of Park. It was fitting this was done by appeal of Walfrid. the plight of local fishermen due to an a group of immigrant children. As the Those selfsame supporters oil spill, £25,000 was raised overnight honour party were led out they were have won plaudits from U.E.F.A. for to help them. Through the Celtic accompanied by a piper playing “The good behaviour in their travels around Trust and Celtic Charity Fund funds West Awake”. Then a piece composed Europe and particularly the 80,000 are dispersed for all sorts of medical by James McMillan entitled “Walfrid they brought to Seville for the U.E.F.A. and charitable causes. Recently in conjunction with the Salesian Missionaries to Africa the “Walfrid Wells” project was undertaken. For £250 you finance the digging of a well in Africa cutting out any middleman. The Ballymote Commemorative Committee financed two wells and Br. Walfrid Celtic Supporters Club Sligo one. Every supporters club has its own favourite charity. They also welcome everyone; when you belong you never walk alone. So the spirit of Walfrid has endured for over 150 years and Ballymote can be proud of its native son.

Brother Walfrid’s Obituary in The Glasgow Observer 24th April, 1915. Brother Walfrid has died. Glasgow Catholics and particularly those of Bridgeton and Calton, will learn with profound regret of the death of their old and well-beloved friend, whose name was, and is, a household name in the East End, where for many years he did splendid work as a Marist. Some twenty seven years ago, he founded the Celtic Football Club, and to the end of his days, he never lost interest in the doings of the Celts. Brother Walfrid, after being transferred from Glasgow, did excellent educational work in the South of England. In London his health broke down, and he came to the Marist house at Dumfries, where, after a prolonged illness, he passed away in his 76th year. The funeral took place on Monday. - R.I.P. Bro Walfrid in latter days

32 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 Oliver O’Gara’s Regiment and the Jacobite Cause Maura O’Gara–O’Riordan

In the O’Gara family records, Oliver increase the Catholic power base by negotiate. However, Hamilton gave is the only named offspring of Captain getting rid of Protestants from the his support to Tyrconnell, who in turn John O’Gara and Mary O’Conor. army, the government, the corporations put him in charge of the Irish army. He was the grandson of Fearghal and the judiciary. Oliver O’Gara While awaiting the arrival O’Gara and Elizabeth (Isobel) Taaffe benefited from the new policy. He of James, Tyrconnell dispatched and Charles O’Conor and Anne was appointed one of 24 members of Hamilton with 3,000 men to the O’Mulloy of Belanagare. Oliver’s the new corporation of Sligo in March north, where on 12 March 1689 first appearance in historical records 1687, as was his cousin, John Taaffe.iv the first battle of the conflict was is as an army officer. He received In 1688 James’ son was fought. James arrived at Kinsale a commission as lieutenant on 9 baptised a Catholic. His enemies, from northern France accompanied February 1678 in Colonel Thomas fearing the accession to the throne by French soldiers and many of his Dongan’s Regiment of Foot, raised in of another Catholic king, invited loyal troops who had followed him to Ireland for the service of Louis XIV.i Mary, his protestant daughter, and France, including Patrick Sarsfield. Catholic members of the Irish officer her husband, William of Orange, the The king and his army arrived ranks of the army were drawn from ruler of the Netherlands, to take the in Dublin on 24 March. ‘The next day the old Gaelic and Anglo-Irish land- throne of England. William arrived in he issued a proclamation promising that owning families from about 1672 England with an army of 15,000 men. there would be freedom of religion for onwards. Among other west of Ireland He met little resistance and he and his all’ and announced an Irish parliament names listed in Colonel Dongan’s 1678 wife took over the throne. Fearing to sit on 7 May.v Some who had come regiment were, Lieutenants Conor for his life, James fled to France. He from France were sent to the north to MacDermot and Charles O’Kelly, and was welcomed there by his cousin, aid Hamilton at Derry. James went to Ensigns William O’Molloy and Ulick king Louis XIV, who offered him the Derry later and tried unsuccessfully to Burke. A number of the other officers palace of St Germain outside Paris as persuade the Protestants to negotiate a listed in the regiment with surnames a residence for himself, his family and settlement. such as Burke and O’Connor were the members of the royal court. The new Irish parliament probably of Connacht origin. One Louis supported the cause of opened in May. Members of the of the most noteworthy names in James because France was embroiled house of lords were selected from the regiment was Captain Patrick in a war on mainland Europe with among the earls, viscounts and Sarsfield who had already served in William of Orange who had built barons of titled Catholic families of France. The regiment does not appear an alliance against the French Norman or Old English descent and to have been called into service.ii Eight monarch. With encouragement from from representatives of the church. years later Oliver O’Gara is noted in Tyrconnell, James persuaded Louis to All thirty-two counties of Ireland one source as ‘a lieutenant in Viscount agree to send arms, money and men were permitted to each elect two Mountjoy’s regiment of Foot in 1686’.iii to Ireland in order to help him regain constituents. Oliver O’Gara was one Following the accession of his kingdoms. Louis, on his part, was of the two representatives for Co. James II in 1685, Catholics in Ireland anxious to distract William’s attention Sligo.vi hoped for a restoration of their lands and from the war on the continent, thus Checking through the Jacobite power. In England, James, a convert relieving Louis’ own army. army list for 1689, it is not surprising to Roman Catholicism, favoured As the predominant motive to find that numerous members of the Catholics in his appointments. James of the Irish was to regain their new parliament formed and led their bestowed Richard Talbot with the title confiscated lands, Tyrconnell had own regiments, including the Duke earl of Tyrconnell and appointed him encouraged them to prepare for war. of Tyrconnell, Richard Talbot; Lord lieutenant-general of the Irish army James had the support of the majority Lucan, Colonel Patrick Sarsfield; to improve conditions for Catholics. of the people of Ireland, including Oliver O’Gara and others.vii O’Gara’s Tyrconnell undertook his duty with many Protestant royalists. With regiment is listed in two publications, enthusiasm. By January 1687, James Tyrconnell’s popularity growing, King James’s Irish Army List by John was so pleased that he appointed him William was anxious for a settlement D’Alton, Dublin, 1855 and The Irish lord deputy of Ireland. With his new and sent Irish Catholic, major-general Chieftains or A Struggle for the Crown promotion, Tyrconnell continued to Richard Hamilton to Ireland to by Charles Ffrench Blake-Forster, 33 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009

through his maternal grandparents, Table 1. Regiment under Colonel Oliver O’Gara, 1689–1691 Anne O’Mulloy and Cahill Óge (a) Irish Surnames Name Family Origins (Charles) O’Conor of Belanagare. Conry: Bryan, Lieutenant Ó Maolchonaire: a learned family of Co. Roscommon. Conry: John, Captain Green Mulloy’s mother was Mary, Duigenane: Paul, Ensign Ó Duibhgeannáin: a learned family of Co. Roscommon. daughter of Calvach or Charles Gallagher: Farrell, Lieutenant Ó Gallchobhair sept of Donegal; some members of the Gallagher: Owen, Captain Donegal Gallagher sept settled in Counties Sligo and O’Conor Don and niece of Cahill Óge, Gallagher: Owen, Ensign Mayo. Lally: Edward, Lieutenant Ó Maolalaidh, Co. Galway sept with their principal seat and his aunt was Anne O’Mulloy. Lally: Henry, Lieutenant at Tullinadaly, Tuam, Co. Galway. Mahon: Thady, Ensign Ó Mócháin, anglicised Mahon; septs in Cos. Sligo and Calvach and Cahill Óge were sons of Galway Sir Hugh O’Conor. It is likely that McDermott Roe: Henry, Captain MacDiarmada sept of Co. Roscommon. McDermott: Bryan Duff, Captain As above. William O’Molloy listed as an Ensign McDermott: Connor, Lieutenant As above. McDermott: Roger, Lieutenant As above. in ‘Colonel Thomas Dongan’s Regt. of McDonough: Morgan, Ensign Mac Donnchadha, Co. Sligo sept. Foot’ of 1678 was the William Mulloy McGowran: Bryan, Captain Mag Shamhráin, a sept of Breffny, borders of Cos. McGowran: Daniel, Lieutenant Leitrim and Cavan. who became captain in O’Gara’s McManus: Arthur, Ensign Mac Maghnuis Co. Roscommon. Molloy: Theobald, Lieutenant Ó Maolmhuaidh, Co. Offaly sept; the three officers are regiment. Mulloy: Green, Captain said to belong to a branch which moved to Co. Mulloy: William, Captain Roscommon in the mid to late sixteenth century. Naughton: Edmund, Lieutenant Ó Neachtáin, Co. Galway sept. The three Naughton Phillips–O’Gara Naughton: Laughlin, Captain officers may have belonged to the branch who moved Naughton: Thomas, Ensign to County Roscommon. According to John D’Alton, Captain O'Brien: Daniel, Ensign Possibly O’Beirn, Co. Roscommon and Mayo sept. O'Connor: John, Ensign Ó Conchobhair: Co. Roscommon sept with a branch in Charles Phillips and Ensign Gilduff O'Conor: Thady, Lieut-Colonel Co. Sligo i.e. O’Conor Sligo. Phillips are of the family of Phillips of O'Farrell: Fergus, Ensign Ó Fearghail: Co. Longford sept. O'Gara: Fergal, Major Ó Gadhra: Co. Sligo sept. Clonmore, Co. Mayo. D’Alton himself O'Gara: Oliver, Colonel As above. O’Gara William, Ensign As above. was married to one of the Phillips of O'Kelly: Daniel, Captain Ó Ceallaigh: Perhaps from a branch of the O’Kellys xi O'Kelly: Daniel, Ensign who settled in the half barony of Coolavin, Co. Sligo. Clonmore. Philip Phillips, born in O'Kelly: John, Captain 1557, eldest son of Gilbert Phillips of O'Neill: Randal, Ensign Not known. Reynolds: Terence, Ensign Mac Raghnaill: Co. Leitrim. Clonmore and Mary Jordan, daughter Shanly: Michael, Captain Mac Seanloich: Co. Leitrim sept. Shanly: Michael, Lieutenant As above. of Walter, chief of Barony of Gallenm Shanly: William, Captain As above. married a daughter of O’Gara, chief of (b) Non-Irish Surnames Name Family Origins the Barony of Coolavin, in Co. Sligo. Bellew: Christopher, Captain Anglo-Norman, possibly transplanted from Co. Meath. Berminghan: Nicholas, Lieutenant Anglo-Norman, Co. Galway. If, as has been suggested, Charles Butler: Pierce, Lieutenant Anglo-Norman, possibly transplanted. and Gilduff were direct descendants Dillon: Charles, Ensign Anglo-Norman, Co. Roscommon. Doyle: Edmund, Lieutenant Norse origin. of Gilbert Phillips and his O’Gara Phillips: Charles, Captain Co. Mayo, may be Anglo-Norman, Welsh or Philbin of Phillips: Gilduffe, Ensign Scottish origin. wife, then they were distant cousins to Walgrave: Thomas, Ensign English or Welsh origin. Colonel Oliver O’Gara.

Dublin, 1872. D’Alton named thirty- army. This date is very likely an Lally–O’Gara viii five officers and the Blake-Forster indication that he was the Lieutenant In a Lally pedigree authenticated list below includes the same thirty- Conor MacDermot named in ‘Colonel in October 1817 there is a marriage ix five plus a further six. Thomas Dongan’s Regt. of Foot’ recorded between the third daughter formed in 1678, where he would have of Colonel James Lally, sixth and last- John D’Alton attempted to identify been in communication with Oliver styled Baron of Tolendally, and N. the background and family locality O’Gara. There was a double family O’Gara, Esq.xii James of Tullinadaly of many of the officers. Nepotism connection between Conor and Oliver represented the borough of Tuam in appears to have been rife when it O’Gara. Conor’s first cousin, Anne the 1689 Dublin parliament of James came to selecting the officers of all MacDermot, daughter of Cathal Roe II.xiii He served in Dillon’s regiment the regiments of James II. O’Gara’s MacDermot and Elinor O’ Mulloy, with the rank of captain.xiv His brother regiment was no exception if the was married to another member of Gerard served in the same regiment as relationships, marriage connections O’Gara’s brigade, Lieutenant Roger lieutenant. Neither of the two Lally and friendships as suggested below MacDermott. Anne’s mother, Elinor names in O’Gara’s regiment appears are true. O’Mulloy was a sister of Oliver’s in the list of James’s siblings but grandmother, therefore Anne was Lieutenants Edward and Henry Lally MacDermot–O’Gara connection a first cousin to Oliver O’Gara’s were very likely members of another Lieutenant Conor MacDermott father. Anne and Roger’s son Martin branch of this family. was probably Conor, son of Tadhg MacDermot was married to Honora and nephew of the MacDermot O’Gara, of Lissaseeny, Co. Sligo, a Captain John Conry x chief, Cathal Roe MacDermot, who probable relative of Colonel Oliver. John D’Alton claims that Captain John appears on the MacDermot family Conry and his brother, Lieutenant tree published in 1993. On the chart Mulloy–O’Gara connection Bryan Conry, from Co. Roscommon, Conor is shown as being alive in 1678 Captains Green and William Mulloy were ‘engaged in the service of James and also as a member of the Jacobite were doubly related to Oliver O’Gara the Second’, and ‘were of this house’, 34 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 that is, belonging to the same sept as In March 1690 the Irish attacked and took the eastern side of that of Maurice and Fearfeasa Conry.xv army was boosted by the arrival in the river. On the western side, the Maurice and Fearfeasa were compilers Cork of 6,000 soldiers under French Jacobite army waited. St. Ruth gave of the Annals of the Four Masters command. By the end of May, James lieutenant general d’Usson charge sponsored by Fearghal O’Gara was ready to go to battle. In June, of the defence of the town, while between 1632 and 1636. Volumes one William, with 15,000 fresh troops, Sarsfield took command of the army and two of the supposed ‘O’Gara’ set arrived at Carrickfergus.xxiii Louth camp. At a crucial point, Tyrconnell of the manuscripts were recorded in was taken by the English and the arrived, but Sarsfield organised a the library of one John Conry, Dublin Irish took a defensive position near petition requesting him to leave. in 1724.xvi Is it possible that John Slane. The battle took place early in The unease, which resulted, had a Conry, the antiquarian, was Captain July 1690 at the river Boyne and the detrimental effect on the morale of John, recorded in O’Gara’s regiment? Williamites were victorious. the home camp. Within a few days James returned to France, leaving Athlone had fallen. Struggle continues Tyrconnell in charge. However, his Officers on the Irish side After the opening of the new leadership was questioned, particularly shifted the responsibility for their parliament in 1689, a short battle took by Sarsfield, who commanded much defeat in varying directions, with place near Derry, where many Irish support among the Irish officers, one accusing the other. In a report died, among them Captain Richard being related to many of their sent to the French minister for war Fleming of Stahalmock Co. Meath. families. Oliver O’Gara was named at Versailles in July 1691, one of the His wife was the Honorable Mary as one of Sarsfield’s closest friends,xxiv three regiments blamed as having been Fleming, daughter of Randal, Lord an attachment which remained until on guard when the enemy invaded Baron of Slane. Randal and Richard Sarsfield’s death. In an attempt to gain Athlone, was that of Oliver O’Gara.xxix were second cousins. At the time control and satisfy the Gaelic internal The next battle was fiercely of Richard’s death Mary was under army unrest, Tyrconnell promoted fought at Aughrim on 12 July 1691, twenty-one years of age.xvii The two Sarsfield to major general.xxv during which St. Ruth was killed. County Meath Fleming homes at Meanwhile, William and his His death paralysed the Irish army Stahalmock and Slane, were not a army advanced towards Limerick because he had not conveyed his plans great distance from the County Louth but failed to break the siege. Early to anyone. Most headed for Limerick, headquarters of the Irish army at in January 1691, General Ginckel, including Sarsfield. Oliver O’Gara Drogheda. One of the Irish infantry now in charge of the Williamite was wrongly listed among the dead in regiments based at Drogheda was army in Ireland, moved towards a number of reports – the death may that of Colonel Oliver O’Gara.xviii Sligo. Sarsfield was responsible for have been that of Fearghal, who was a Perhaps it was during that summer the defence of the Shannon. Colonel major in Oliver’s regiment.xxx or early autumn that Oliver became O’Gara, with 1,500 troops, was in With his success at Aughrim, acquainted with the young widow, command at Jamestown, Co. Leitrim, Ginckel considered attacking Galway Mary Fleming, who was declared an on the Dublin–Sligo route, east of but following a few skirmishes, an outlaw in the early months of the war. Boyle. Sarsfield, in a letter to Lord agreement was drawn up on 21 July. Oliver married Mary a short time later. Mountcashel, described how O’Gara’s Ginckel signed for William and Mary xix Oliver’s choice of marriage partner regiment dealt with an attack: ‘the and there were three signatories on was similar to that of his grandfather, enemy were soon repulsed with behalf of the Jacobites. One of the Fearghal: both of their spouses the loss of more than one hundred Irish witnesses was Oliver O’Gara. were from Anglo-Norman catholic soldiers, a lieutenant-colonel, a major xxxi The terms of settlement were families. and some other officers’.xxvi considered to be quite good, so much As the war continued in Sarsfield defended the so that Ginckel was concerned ‘that 1689, the tide was turning against Shannon from January to June. In King William might be critical of his the army of James II. Sarsfield took 1691 he was summoned to Limerick, generosity’. The Jacobite garrison two battalions to Sligo from the royal where he was awarded the earldom of in Galway, was given the choice of camp in Drogheda, including that of Lucan on the orders of James II. He remaining there, returning home or Colonel Oliver O’Gara.xx They had was requested to improve the Irish marching to Limerick with arms. reached Athlone by 15 October where army and to prepare for conflict. The Nine regiments, including O’Gara’s, O’Gara’s regiment was registered as arrival of the French fleet at Limerick chose Limerick and arrived there having thirteen companies with a total in May, with troops and supply vessels, on 11 August 1691. His regiment of 720 men.xxi Sarsfield’s mission was was welcomed.xxvii A Frenchman, comprised of a colonel, a lieutenant successful and apart from a few further Saint Ruth, was given the temporary and a major, three officers next to skirmishes the two opposing armies rank of Irish army general.xxviii major, five captains, ten ensigns, 270 settled down for the winter. O’Gara’s The Irish adopted the policy soldiers and 137 arms.xxxii regiment was based with eight other of defence rather than attack at At Limerick, Ginckel tried regiments at Sligo.xxii Athlone. On 19 June the Williamites once again to get the Irish to sign a truce, 35 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 but the Jacobites were determined Endnotes and the Williamite War (Dublin, to try and repeat their success of the i C. Dalton (ed), Irish Army Lists of 1992), p. 79. previous year. Tyrconnell suffered a King Charles II 1661–1685 (1st ed xxi S. Mulloy, (ed.), Franco Irish stroke and on his deathbed produced London 1907, 2nd ed Dublin, 2000), Correspondence 1688-92 (Dublin, a letter from James II, giving control pp 118-19. 1984), vol. 3, p. 95. of the army to d’Usson and another ii P. Wauchope, Patrick Sarsfield and xxii S. Mulloy, (ed.), Franco Irish French officer. The English attacked the Williamite War (Dublin, 1992), p. Correspondence 1688-92 (Dublin, the city on 30 August and the second 14. 1983), vol. 1, pp 238-9. siege lasted for more than three weeks. iii P. Walsh, The Four Masters and xxiii Wauchope, Patrick Sarsfield and The Treaty of Limerick was signed their work (Dublin, 1944), p. 26. the Williamite War (Dublin, 1992), p. on 3 October. The terms offered at iv W.G. Woodmartin, History of Sligo, 98. Limerick were similar to Galway: all 3 vols (Dublin 1882-92), ii p. 95. xxiv Wauchope, Patrick Sarsfield and officers and soldiers had the choice of v P. Wauchope, Patrick Sarsfield and the Williamite War (Dublin, 1992), p. going to France or of submitting to the Williamite War (Dublin, 1992), p. 119. William and staying in Ireland.xxxiii 49. xxv Wauchope, Patrick Sarsfield and Sarsfield and many others, vi C. F. Blake-Forster, The Irish the Williamite War (Dublin, 1992), p. including Oliver O’Gara, opted Chieftains or, A Struggle for the Crown 120. for France. According to D’Alton (Dublin, 1872), p. 690. xxvi H. Mangan, Sarsfield’s Defence ‘Colonel Hugh MacMahon, Colonel vii C. F. Blake-Forster, The Irish of the Shannon 1690-91, Irish Sword, Robert Arthur and Colonel O’Gara Chieftains or, A Struggle for the Crown vol. 1, No. 1, (1949-50) pp 25-26. were left as hostages for the due (Dublin, 1872), pp 649-50. xxvii S. Mulloy, Galway in the performance of the agreements on the viii J. D’Alton, King James’s Irish Jacobite War, Journal of the Galway part of the emigrants…’xxxiv Oliver army list (Dublin, 1855), pp 774. Archaeological & Historical Soc. vol. and Mary O’Gara are understood to ix Blake-Forster, The Irish Chieftains XL, 1985-6, p.16. have travelled with Sarsfield from or, A Struggle for the Crown (Dublin, xxviii S. Mulloy, Galway in the Cork, docking with 2,804 Irish troops 1872), pp 649-50. Jacobite War, Journal of the Galway in France in January 1692.xxxv By x D. Mac Dermot, MacDermot of Archaeological & Historical Soc. vol. making this choice they were aware Moylurg (Nure, Manorhamilton, XL, 1985-6, p.16. that they were listed as outlaws in 1996), p. 413. xxix S. Mulloy, (ed.), Franco Irish Ireland and would be charged with xi J. D’Alton, King James’s Irish Correspondence 1688-92 (Dublin, treason should they return to home. army list (Dublin, 1855), p. 322; D. 1983), vol. 2, p. 379. On arrival in France they joined many Mac Dermot, MacDermot of Moylurg xxx J. Jordan, ‘The Battle of Aughrim: other Irish Jacobites in St. Germain. (Nure, Manorhamilton, 1996), p. 429. Two Danish Sources’, Journal of the The first-born of Oliver and Mary’s xii J. O’Donovan, The Tribes and Galway Archaeological & Historical eleven children was baptised John Customs of HyMany (Dublin, 1843) Soc. vol. XXVI, 1954-5, p. 11; Robert Patrick on the 25 October 1692; one p. 182. Thornton, A particular and full of the sponsors at the baptism was xiii Blake-Forster, The Irish Chieftains Account of the routing the whole Irish Patrick Sarsfield.xxxvi or, A Struggle for the Crown (Dublin, Army at Aghrim upon Sunday the 12th In conclusion one could say 1872), p. 688. of July, 1691, (Dublin 1691) p. 4. that the optimists made the choice of xiv Blake-Forster, The Irish Chieftains xxxi Blake-Forster, The Irish going to France, because they believed or, A Struggle for the Crown (Dublin, Chieftains or, A Struggle for the Crown that the Catholic cause could and 1872), p. 636. (Dublin, 1872), p. 587. would be followed through with help xv J. D’Alton, King James’s Irish xxxii S. Mulloy, (ed.) Franco Irish from Louis XIV, the Catholic French army list (Dublin, 1855), pp 779–83. Correspondence 1688-92 (Dublin, king, cousin of James II. Oliver would, xvi W. Nicolson, The Irish Historical 1983), vol. 2, p. 407. without doubt, have had ambitions for Library (Dublin, 1724), pp 243–4. xxxiii J.G. Simms, ‘Irish Jacobites’, many of his companions. Perhaps his xvii Petition of Mary O’Gara for a Analecta Hibernica No. 22 (Dublin, personal hope would have been that clause in a Bill to recover a Jointure, 1960) p. 14. the O’Gara name would once again be Cambridge University Library, Ms, xxxiv J. D’Alton, King James’s Irish restored to the title of his grandfather, Ch(H) Political Papers, 80, 363. army list (Dublin, 1855), pp 966-7. Lord of Moygara and Coolavin, but xviii P. Wauchope, Patrick Sarsfield xxxv S. Mulloy, (ed.)Franco Irish history tells a different story. This and the Williamite War (Dublin, Correspondence 1688-92 (Dublin, exodus from Ireland has truly been 1992), p. 79. 1983), vol. 1, p. xliii. called the flight of the Wild Geese. xix Petition of Mary O’Gara for a xxxvi M. Walsh (ed.) Spanish Knights clause in a Bill to recover a Jointure, of Irish Origin, 4 vols (Dublin, 1960- Cambridge University Library, Ch(H) 78), ii, p. 6. Political Papers, 80, 363. xx P. Wauchope, Patrick Sarsfield 36 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 Sligo’s Past Uncovered Brian Donnelly

National Archives of Ireland five years ago, Martin had alerted of material from the late 1940s to the The Business Records Survey was the Survey about his own family early 1960s and gives a fascinating established in 1970 to locate and report business records in Cliffoney and insight into the range of operations on collections of business records and these were subsequently transferred engaged in by the firm, not only in to try to ensure the preservation of to the National Archives of Ireland. Sligo but throughout the west, north- material of historical interest. The Surveyor, i.e., the author, visited west and midlands. It is evident from A Surveyor of Business Records the premises in Castle Street and, the records how complicated a process was appointed to examine business with Martin’s assistance and that of it was, dealing with thousands of records in various parts of the his wife Mary B., which is gratefully customers and suppliers, particularly country. The Survey was initially acknowledged, and permission from during and after the Emergency when under the aegis of the Department of the owners, Mr. Rossa McCosker, there were so many restrictions on the Education but in 1993 was taken over Castle Interiors, Ballast Quay, Sligo, importation of goods and materials. by the National Archives of Ireland, and Mr. Martin Gilroy, Gilroy Tiling, Some records, like a contracts book Dublin. Thanks to the co-operation Ballast Quay, Sligo, and help from covering the period 1930 - 1937, give of well-disposed members of the details of repairs and adjustments to public and the business community houses, halls and businesses in the many hundreds of collections of town and its vicinity. records have now been accessioned by the Survey, ranging from a day Family Assistance book or two from the smallest country Martin had alerted Felicity McNabb, grocery shop to tons of records from formerly Felicity Meldrum, of the big concerns like the Dublin Gas discovery of the records and she, Company, the Irish Sugar Company with her daughter Claire, visited the in Carlow and Mallow or Irish Steel old premises during the third phase in Haulbowline. Each collection, no of the recovery operation. That matter how small, has its own unique provided an opportunity for a useful story to tell as each particular business Brian Donnelly at Meldrum’s exchange of information, drawing played its particular part in the local on the family recollections and the community. The Survey is interested Brendan O’Brien and Brendan evidence of the accumulated records. in anything that reflects the operation McDonagh, employees of John Sisk Felicity had vivid memories of the of a particular business – cash books, Contractors, we searched the entire firm it its heyday and was personally ledgers, journals, wages books, premises, which had been closed up for acquainted with many of the leading invoices, correspondence, publicity some time. At a point when we thought customers and associated businesses, material, photographs and other the search was completed Martin, by as well as the staff from her youth. material. Records turn up in the most chance, noticed some papers sticking To see her peruse an old ledger from unlikely places, many collections are down between the floorboards of a the 1930s, catch sight of a familiar found in old attics and basements, and loft of a four-level outhouse that was name and recollect something of the the Surveyor is always glad to examine accessible only by ladder, an item that person concerned, brought home how the material wherever it is situated. he duly produced. On the loft floor, valuable such records are. Felicity’s Most of the collections accessioned masses of records were found covered mother had very successfully run by the Survey are preserved in the with several layers of corrugated iron the business following her father’s National Archives, Bishop Street, and accumulated debris, the previous premature death. Felicity later donated Dublin, or in local archives like Cork corrugated roof of the building having some additional papers relating to the Archives Institute in Cork City. The been simply dropped down onto the firm which she had to the National Survey makes all the arrangements papers. Over many days, this debris Archives of Ireland. for transferring records to the archives was removed and about two foot deep and bears all the costs. of material of great historical interest Preserve old records for the future to Sligo and to the North-West was This story has had a happy ending, Meldrum’s of Sligo exposed to view for the first time in but had it not been for Martin The discovery of an important decades. A. Timoney’s initial interest and collection of records at Meldrum’s, assistance the records would almost Castle Street, Sligo, and the subsequent Content of the records certainly have perished anonymously. transfer of the material to the National The earliest items uncovered were It is vitally important, in this period of Archives of Ireland, illustrates how the workmen’s account books dating back unprecedented change, to save such Survey operates in practice. Martin over 100 years but what was most material for the future. If you have A. Timoney, a research archaeologist remarkable was the range of material any old records and are thinking of living in Keash, Co. Sligo, who - cash books, journals, stock books, disposing of them please contact me was preparing an archaeological ledgers, advertising material, even at the National Archives of Ireland, assessment for a major development correspondence files. Something in Bishop Street, Dublin 8, (tel. 01 of the complex, discovered some the region of one hundred large sacks 4072323) and I would be delighted records and contacted Sligo Library of papers were bagged, dropped down to make arrangements to have them Local Studies Archive. At that stage to ground floor level and taken by preserved. he was aware of about two metres car or van to Dublin. These would of shelf length of materials. As fill about 500 archival boxes in the In a separate article Mary B. Timoney Sligo did not have space to take the National Archives. The material looks at the informational content of material they contacted the Survey in seems to run from 1906 to the early the records from a tiny sample of the Dublin. Incidentally, some twenty- 1970s, with a particularly rich vein material.

37 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 Meldrum’s Account Books, Record of the Social Life of 20th century Sligo

Mary B. Timoney

In the preceding article Brian Donnelly A list of retailers in Co. Sligo who were Riverstown: Riverstown Co. Op. Soc., of the National Archives of Ireland tells trading with Meldrum’s as wholesalers the story of the discovery by Martin A. between 1941 and 1946 was recorded Lyney Timoney of the Meldrum’s papers and in Books 1 and 2 of three iron-bound Ballisodare: Kilcawley & Co. Ltd., their recovery by them and myself in books with ‘Bizada’ overlapping cards. M.F. O’Rorke, J.J. O’Gara, Mrs. D. 2007. I had the opportunity to rapidly Again the listing is not exhaustive Johnston, P. McLoughlin, extract information under a number of and those beyond Co. Sligo were not Collooney: W.A.G. Middleton, J.C. headings and these give a taste of what noted. It would be a simple exercise to Brennan, P. Quigley, Carbide Ltd., J.R. there is in the collection. My notes, compare these with a listing of retailers McKim & Son. which are not exhaustive in any way, throughout Co. Sligo today. are presented without comment; some Coolavin were taken because of my personal Carbury Gurteen: Mr. Thos. Hunt, interest in graveyards and memorials. Ballinful: Ballinful Co. Op. Society There is sufficient material here for Ballintrillick: Ballintrillick Co. Op. Corran perhaps a Doctoral thesis on the social Society Cliffoney Ballymote: Thos. Regan, P. Rogers, life of 20th century Sligo and beyond. Carney: Mrs. Barber Mrs. McCluskey c/o B. Cryan, R. Carrigans, Ballinful: P.J. Jordan Regan, M. Gildea plumber, Mhl. Contracting work from 6th December Cliffoney: Mrs. McGowan, Mrs. Cryan, Mrs. Cryan, D. Johnston, F. 1929 to 30th September, 1937 Cummins Hotel Cliffoney. McDonagh, P.F. Begley, Murray’s Works mentioned include painting Cloghboley: Mrs. Ferguson Stores, Owen Brehony, C. Kane, Mrs. interiors and exteriors (distempering, Drumcliff: Drumcliff Co. Op. Society J.J. Coleman. oil), window painting and fixing Ltd. Keash: F. McDonagh weights and replacing sash cords, Dunfore: D. Heraghty wallpapering, glazing, signboards, Gortnaleck, Grange: D. Gilmartin cleaning and repairing kitchen ranges, Grange: W.J. Kilgannon, Frank Some References to Graveyards and notice boards, erecting flag staffs and Sweeney, J. Costello, J. Leonard, John Memorials wireless aerials, plumbing, staining Lang, June 1930 and gilding mirror frames, cleaning Riverside: Mr. M.J. Taheny, Mr. J.P. D. McSharry, Abbey St., to lettering and staining floors, repairing and Flanagan, Tom Flanagan, J.J. Conway, coffin plate 1/6 pointing slates, hanging doors, pointing Sligo: Maloney & Taylor Ltd., Church Emlaghfad church, interior and chimneys, cleaning gutters and eave Adelaide St., Mr. Maloney, Knappagh, exterior work, £200 June 1933. runs, lettering on travel trunks and J.J. Higgins Knoxs St., September 1933 cases for Lyons’ customers, key Diamond Monumental Sculptors, cutting, enamelling inside of baths. Tirereagh O’Connell St., Sligo Work was done for houses, shops, Beltra: P. McMunn To cleaning and oil painting railing banks, Big Houses including Culleens: Thos. Tuffy Sligo Cemetery £1-10-0 Hazelwood House, Surgical Hospital, Dromard: John Greer August 1934 Fever Hospital, Girl’s High School, Dromore West: John Howley, Mr. P. Diamond Monumental Sculptors, convents, insurance companies, Connolly, Mr. E. Sweeney O’Connell St., Sligo greenhouses, Sligo Garda Station, Dunbeakin: P. McGowan To sizeing and gilding letters (88) and Sligo Greyhound Committee. In May Easkey: F. McNama, Hugh Scott, lines on Head Stone 14/9 1930 £11-8-11 was spent on glazing Grangebeg, Skreen: John Carney May 1935, A.W. Lyons, Rathellen for Hazelwood House, Mrs. Muriel Larkhill, Beltra: P. McMunn, Mrs. To cleaning headstone, raking out Perceval, a total of 102 sheets of glass. Collery foundation and plastering same 2 coats. Skreen: T. McGarry, Miss O’Connor Resetting and pointing kerbing and Towns Templeboy: R. Brett & Son, Mr. Joe joints pointed. Resetting metal post. Oil Work was done in Sligo, Ballina, Cavanagh painting 2 coats railing. Undercoating Bundoran, Tubbercurry, Ballymote, and gilding letters on headstone £2- Crossmolina, Carrick-on-Shannon, Tirerrill 17-6 (Late Alexander Lyons Plot) Manorhamilton, Curry, Riverstown, Ballindoon: Joe Gray Cleaning out front of foundation and Boyle, Kiltimagh, Dromahaire, Ballintogher: M. Moran, P. Treston, plastering same and pointing all loose Dunkineely, Enniskillen, Cavan, Castlebaldwin: M. Ryan, Mrs. Kerr joints of kerbing (Late Henry Lyons Ballaghaderreen, Castlebar, Taylor, Plot) 18/6 Ballyshannon, Ballyfarnon, Dungeela, Geevagh: Hugh Cawley, Undercoating and gilding letters on Mrs. Conlon Loughbo panel of monument (Late H. Lyons Retailers in Co. Sligo trading with Kilmactranny: Kilmactranny Co. Op. Plot) £2-3-0 Meldrum’s, 1941 and 1946 Society

38 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 Griffiths Valuation 1844 Shancarrigeen or Oldrock Supplied by Padraig Doddy

Map No Tenant Acres Roods Sq. Perches £ s d Notes

1 James Feely 39 1 39 22 14 7 3 rds 3 perch river 2 Bartly Hever (jnr) 7 0 33 5 4 7.5 1r 3p river 3 Patt Healy 11 3 21 7 4 2.5 3r river 4 John Coffey 14 3 27 9 18 11 3r 4p river 5 Bartly Hever (snr) 8 3 5 4 19 7.5 1r 25p river 6 Mick Hever 8 3 5 4 19 7.5 1r25p river 7 Jack Hever 8 0 13 4 14 4.5 1r 10p river 8 Mick Alcock 11 1 30 7 7 9.5 3r 10p river John Trumble Esq (includes 9 House and Office £6) 32 3 36 33 9 3 30p waste 10 Francis Gray 10 1 32 8 7 0.5 11 Patt McGuinn 13 0 32 8 12 7.5 4p waste 12 Thos Allcock 14 2 0 10 8 0.5 4p free 13 Thos Davey 10 2 32 6 5 7.5 8p free 14 George Allcock 2 0 20 1 13 5.5 15 Thos Gray 0 3 8 0 7 7.5 16 Patt Davey 9 1 14 6 10 6 8p free 17 John Davey 4 2 26 3 5 2.5 4p free Total 205 1 26 146 3 1.5

1855 Situation

1 Mary Feely 37 0 29 Land, House and Offices 2 John Trumble 35 2 26 Land, House and Offices 2A Patrick Davey House only 3 John McDonagh 14 1 0 Land, Herd's House 3A Thomas Brady House 4 Michael Coughlan 22 0 37 Land, Herd's House 5A,6 Patrick Healy 2 2 22 Land and House 5B Michael Coffey 0 0 8 Garden 7 John Doddy 7 2 20 Land 8 Michael McDonagh 1 3 39 Land 9A Michael McDonagh 14 3 0 Land, House, Offices 10A Thos Gaffney Land, House, Office 10B Francis Gray 31 3 20 Land, Herd's House, Office 10C Thos McGettrick 10D Richard Geraghty 0 0 0 House 10E Margt Gray 0 0 0 House and small Garden 10F Brigid Hart 0 0 35 Garden and House 11A Michael Coffey 21 0 20 Land, House and Office 11B Nancy Coffey 10 2 10 Land, House and Office 12 Catherine O'Brien House Lessers: Michael and Nancy Bridget Hever House Coffey Honoria Wims House

Owenmore River, Part of 5 1 0

Total 205 1 26

Immediate Leaser: John Trumble Johnston Parkes Leaser to John Trumble

39 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 Irish Language Books in the Collections of the Library of Institute of Technology, Sligo

James Foran

The library at the Institute of line is counted. However, it is for Technology, Sligo, supports the their fresh imagery and the way they Int én bec academic work of staff and students. deal with personal themes that these Ro léic feit Resources include 50000 books poems are mainly appreciated. Do rinn guip and a range of journal and database Some of the poems in the collection Glanbuidi: subscriptions. The library’s collections are well known. The very first is Fo-ceird faíd are focused mainly on subjects taught dated to the 9th century and concerns Ós Loch laíg, at the Institute. There are sections Pangur Bán, the pet white cat of a Lon do chraíb on civil, mechanical and electronic scholar. The poem is found with Latin Charnbuidi engineering, environmental science, and Greek material in a manuscript social studies, business, management belonging to the monastery of St. The little bird which has whistled and computing. More recent additions Paul, Unterdrauberg, Carinthia in from the end of a bright-yellow bill: have included forensic science, Southern Austria. This shows the it utters a note above Belfast Loch performing arts and archaeology. distances early Irish monks and – a blackbird from a yellow-heaped Although the main emphasis in scholars travelled in Europe. branch. the library has been on supporting The poem starts: courses in the three Institute schools Many of the poems have a religious of Business and Humanities, Science Messe ocus Pangur bán, theme. One which will be familiar to and Engineering, there has also been Cechtar nathar fria saindán: members of parish choirs is: a policy of acquiring items of more Bíth a menmasam fri seilgg, general interest. Under the RTC and Mu menma céin im saincheirdd Rop tú mo baile, IT Acts and more recently under the A Choimdiu cride: Official Languages Act, the Institute Ní ní nech aile has a responsibility to promote the Acht Rí secht nime Irish language and there are now I and white Pangur practise each of us examples in the library of interesting his special art Be thou my vision, beloved Lord: and important works representing Irish His mind is set on hunting, my mind none other is aught but the King of the literature and history from the earliest on my special craft seven heavens. period onwards. A few examples are highlighted here. It compares the joy of the scholar as he gains an understanding of difficult After the twelfth century, the more problems with the joy of the cat when traditional Celtic monasticism Early Irish lyrics: eight to twelfth he succeeds in catching a mouse: was being replaced by European centuries / edited with translation, orders such as the Cistercians, the notes and glossary by Gerard Murphy, Faelidsem cu ndene dul Dominicans and the Franciscans. The with a new foreword by Tomás Ó Hi nglen luch inna gerchrub; role of fostering Irish literature now Cathasaigh. Hi tucu cheist ndoraid ndil fell to the bardic schools. These were 1st pbk ed. Os me chene am faelid. institutions set up to train professional Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1998, poets who were an important part 2007 printing He is joyful with swift movement of Gaelic aristocratic society. Poets ISBN 9781851821983 when a mouse sticks in his sharp paw. were patronised by Gaelic chiefs and I too am joyful when I understand a expected to celebrate in verse major The original edition of this collection dearly loved difficult problem. occasions such as births, deaths, appeared in 1956. It contains 58 marriages and victories in battle. poems from the old and middle Irish Several of the poems concern nature. The poets of this period developed periods. In his introduction, Gerard One is a short poem, dated by its a standardised form of the Irish Murphy argues that the writers of language to the 9th century and found language which changed little for these poems had come under the in the 14th century Book of Ballymote four hundred years and could be influence of the Latin verse which (mentioned below). It is cited in understood by the learned classes came to Ireland with Christianity the manuscript as an example of a from the south of Ireland to the north from the 5th century onwards. Many particular kind of metre. However it is of Scotland. Although the dialects of the poems in the collection have a the clarity of the centuries old image of ordinary people tended to diverge monastic flavour. They use a type of of a blackbird on a furze (whin) bush, more and more, the bardic schools metre borrowed from Latin poetry in with his bright-yellow bill, which and poets retained strict control of which the number of syllables in each sticks in the mind: the classical form of the language,

40 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 policing vocabulary and grammar so reason for the addition of “Albanach” it is because of a falling out between that its purity was not diluted. They to his name. His descendants in himself and Domhnall Ó Conchobhair also developed a series of complicated Scotland were known as the Mac Shligigh that he wrote the poem to metres and individual poets ensured Vuirichs and it is in the Scottish Book Mór, the wife of the chief asking her their work followed these metrical of the Dean of Lismore, compiled in to intercede on his behalf. rules. the early 16th century by Dean James The result is poetry which in the Macgregor and his brother Duncan original Irish has a great dignity and that his elegy on the death of his wife Ná tógaibh ris an rosg mall linguistic flair but which is often is preserved: Go beith réidh dúinn ‘s do criticised for lacking the originality Dhomhnall; and freshness of the earlier lyrics. Ná caith, ná cagail a chrodh, However, scholars such as Osbern M’anam do sgar riomsa a-raoir, Ná habair maith do mhóradh. Bergin placed great value on the poetry Calann ghlan dob ionnsa I n-uaigh; of the bardic period as a linguistic and Rugadh bruinne maordha mín Do not raise to him the gentle eye historical source. Is aonbhla lín uime uainn until Examples of Bergin’s editions Donnell and I be reconciled, neither and translations of bardic poems are spend gathered together in: My soul parted from me last night; nor husband his wealth, do not say a pure body that was dear is in the that Irish bardic poetry: texts and grave; a gentle stately bosom has been good is to be increased. translations, together with an taken from me with one linen shroud introductory lecture/ by Osborn about it. At the time he was writing, the Bergin, with a foreword by D. A. beginning of the end was in sight for Binchy, compiled and edited by David the whole system which supported Greene and Fergus Kelly Muireadhach Albanach is reputed poets like Tadhg Dall but you would Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, to have taken part in one of the not think it from his poetry. Because c1970, 1974 printing crusades to the Holy Land. The of their continuous feuding and sketchy information on his eventful plundering of each other the Gaelic Many of the poems in this collection life has been used as the basis of a chiefs were a ready market for eulogies illustrate that on occasion these poets modern Irish novel, not currently in and this was Tadhg Dall’s stock in could express emotion in a very the library collection. (Titley, Alan. trade. As Eleanor Knot says in her personal way despite their reputation An fear dána. Baile Átha Cliath: An introduction to the collection above: for dry formulism. Clóchomhar, 1993). “He shows in most of his poems a A number of the poems are by Two of the volumes in the Irish Texts calm acceptance of the contemporary Muireadhach Albanach Ó Dálaigh. Society series contain a collection of strife, as though it were the natural Muireadhach lived during the 12th the poems of another Sligo poet: order. Poetry flourished on it, and and 13th centuries. We have a little for him, like most bardic poets, the information on his life from the O hUiginn, Tadhg Dall. profession was the thing.” Annala Rioghachta Eireann (Annals A bhfuil aguinn dar chum Tadhg Dall Much of Irish literature was originally of the Kingdom of Ireland or Annals of O hUiginn (1550-1591): idir mholadh preserved in manuscript form. the Four Masters, referred to below). agus marbhnadh, aoir agus ábhacht, Collections of prose and verse were It is clear that he was a man with a iomarbháigh agus iomchasaoid / created and copied in monasteries and quick temper. For a time, he lived at Eleanor Knott do chuir i n-eagar agus by learned bardic families and held Lisadell, Co. Sligo. He was visited d’aistrigh go Béarla Saxan. in the houses of Gaelic lords. With there by Fiond Ua Brolcháin steward Irish Texts Society; v. 22-23 the breakup of the Gaelic order in the of Ó Domhnaill Mór demanding Lúndain: Simpkin, Marshall, 17th century these manuscripts were tribute who treated him in an insulting Hamilton, Kent, ar son Chumainn na in danger of being lost and many did manner. Muireadhach promptly Sgríbheann Gaedhilge, 1922. disappear. By a combination of luck, grabbed an axe and killed the man. the diligence and foresight of some He had little regret afterwards as he While the old institutions and of the last members of the Gaelic himself makes clear: political system remained intact, poets professional learned classes and the were held in high esteem and their interest of early antiquarian collectors, Beag ar bhfala risin bhfear, work was in demand by Gaelic chiefs, a number of them found their way Bachlach do bheith dom cháineadh, especially the long praise poems into the collections of institutions Mé do mharbhadh an mhoghadh – which increased the fame of the such as The British Library, the Royal A Dhé, an adhbhar anfholadh? person to whom they were dedicated. Irish Academy and Trinity College The poets inspired fear also because Library. Trifling is our difference with the of their ability to compose stinging During the 19th century early man: that a churl was abusing me and satires. Their stock and property reprographics techniques were that I killed the serf – O God! Is this a tended to be left unharmed during the developed and facsimile editions of ground for enmity? many plundering expeditions which some of the more well known of these Gaelic chiefs undertook against each manuscripts were produced. These in O’Donnell took a different view of other. turn have become collectors’ items and the matter and eventually Muireadhach Despite all this, Tadhg Dall did the library of IT, Sligo was fortunate was forced to flee to Scotland, the manage to offend occasionally and to have been able to acquire some of

41 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 them a number of years ago. by Thomas Kinsella, illustrated by the Amra Cholmcille and a number Louis Le Brocquy and published in of tragic tales such as Tógáil Bruidne The book of Ballymote: a collection 1970 has now been followed by a new Da Derga (Destruction of Da Derga’s of pieces (prose and verse) in the translation: Hostel), Loinges Mac n-Uislend Irish language, compiled about the (Exile of the Sons of Uisliu) and Fled beginning of the fifteenth century: The Tain: a new translation of Bricrend (Bricriús Feast) now for the first time published from the Táin Bó Cúailnge / by Ciaran The Mac Fhirbhisigh had a long the original manuscript in the library Carson history as Gaelic scholars. In the of the Royal Irish Academy…/ with London: Penguin, 2007 17th century, as the Gaelic order was introduction, analysis of contents and ISBN 9780713999662 coming to an end, Dubhaltach Mac index by Robert Atkinson Fhirbhisigh produced his great work Dublin: Royal Irish Academy House, Another manuscript of which which has been recently edited and 1887 IT, Sligo, has a facsimile copy, published: was compiled in the monastery of This manuscript was compiled Terryglass and is known as The Book Leabhar Mór na nGeinealach = around 1400 near Ballymote by of Leinster or Leabhar Laighneach: The great book of Irish genealogies Maghnas Ó Duibhgeannáin, Solamh / compiled (1645-66) by Dubhaltach Ó Droma and Robertus Mac Síthigh The Book of Leinster, sometime called Mac Fhirbhisigh; edited with under the direction of Domhnaill Mac the Book of Glendalough: a collection translation and indexes by Nollaig Ó Aodhagáin and under the patronage of pieces (prose and verse) in the Irish Muraíle of Tomaltach Mac Donnchadha Thír language; compiled, in part, about 5v. Ailealla. In 1522, it was bought by the middle of the twelfth century. Now Dublin: De Búrca, 2003 Aodh Óg Ó Domhnaill for 140 milch for the first time published from the cows. By 1700 it was in the library original manuscript in the library of In his introduction Nollaig Ó of Trinity College Dublin but was lent Trinity College, Dublin, by the Royal Muraíle outlines what is known of about 1720. After passing through a Irish Academy; with introduction, Dubhaltach and the history of the number of hands it was presented to analysis of contents, and index, / by manuscript. Dubhaltach received the Royal Irish Academy in 1785. Robert Atkinson a traditional Gaelic education and The manuscript has a varied contents Dublin: Royal Irish Academy House, training probably at Baile Mhic including historical material on the 1880. Aogán in Co. Tipperary where there creation of the world, the invasions was a famous school. However, he and kingdoms of Ireland, the Jewish This again contains a version of may also have received an education people, Britons and Picts. There is the Táin Bó Cuailgne as well as in English and Latin in Galway city. also genealogical material, a list of topographical material, a classification He is responsible for several works, names of mothers of Irish saints and of Irish tales and the story of the including the transcription of annals, names of other famous women. There invasions of Ireland or Lebor Gabala. legal tracts and a translation of the Rule are descriptions of the various kinds of St. Clare for a community of nuns of metre used in Irish verse with many The yellow book of Lecan: a collection in Galway city. He also spent time in examples, including the short poem of pieces (prose and verse) in the Irish Dublin working for Sir James Ware, on the blackbird mentioned above. language in part compiled at the end Auditor-General of Ireland, for whom There is a description of the ceremony of the fourteenth century… published he provided English translations of for satirizing a king, material on the from the original manuscript in the Irish texts. Dubhaltach met a sad end, early training of poets, topographical Library of Trinity College, Dublin…. being killed following an incident in material and Irish versions of the With introduction, analysis of contents a tavern near Skreen in County Sligo Aeneid and Destruction of Troy. and index / Robert Atkinson, ed. in 1671. Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 1896 Leabhar Mór na nGeinealach is a Leabhar na h-Uidhre: a collection of collection of genealogical information pieces in prose and verse, in the Irish on Gaelic and Anglo-Norman families. language: compiled and transcribed This is a collection of pieces Nothing is currently known on what about A.D. 1100 / by Moelmuiri Mac written by different scribes and happened to the manuscript after Ceileachair: now for the first time bound together at a later period. A Dubhaltach’s death until 1702, when published from the original in the large portion was written by Giolla it was in the possession of Henry Mac library of the Royal Irish Academy, Íosa Mac Fhirbhisigh, a member of Carrick, whose family were based with an account of the manuscript, a famous learned family in Leacán i in High St. in Sligo. It is next heard a description of its contents and an dTír Fhiachrach (Leckan, Tireragh) in of in the area where counties Cavan, index West Sligo. Giolla Íosa was working Fermanagh and Leitrim meet. By Dublin: Royal Irish Academy House, in the 14th century under the patronage 1723 it was in Dublin. It changed 1870 of Ó Dubhda Ua bhFiachrach. hands several times and spent almost Among the works in the hand of 140 years in the possession of the This manuscript was originally Giolla Íosa are versions of several Earls of Roden. From the early 19th compiled at Clonmacnoise around ancient Irish tales. The Táin Bó century it was at the family seat of the 1100. It contains a range of early Cuailgne already mentioned is Rodens at Tollymore Park, Co. Down. Irish tales and poetry including the probably the best known. There are In 1911 it was purchased at an auction earliest known version of the Táin Bó other Táin Bó or cattle raid stories as by Michael F. Cox, a Dublin physician Cuailgne. A translation of the Táin well as material on Biblical history, who bequeathed it to the Library of

42 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009

UCD. decline of the language. Their theory translation: and a grammatical Ó Muraíle provides information was that once an interest in reading praxis on the Gospel according to on the many scholars who came in had been cultivated, the scarcity of St. Matthew, in Irish, accompanied contact with the manuscript down the books in Irish would force people to with a short introduction to Irish years, including Charles O’Conor of learn to read in English to expand pronunciation; and an appendix Belanagare and John O’Donovan and their knowledge. Tadhg on the other consisting of familiar conversations Eugene O’Curry of Ordnance Survey hand valued Irish apart from its use for the use of students / by Owen fame. for religious instruction. With the Connellan, transcriber of ancient In his introduction Ó Muraíle help of his friends, he published a manuscripts to his Majesty mentions that “At some time in the number of books with both religious Dublin: Richard Moore, 1830 early 19th century… a minor but and non-religious material including intriguing figure in the field of Irish collections of poetry. He wanted Another native of Sligo, the Rev. scholarship came into contact with people to be bilingual and speak and Dr. Andrew Donlevy wrote one of Leabhar Mór na nGeinealach. This read both Irish and English. the few books published in Irish in was Thaddaeus (or Thady) Connellan The Institute library holds two of the 18th Century. He was born around – like Mac Fhirbhisign, a native of his works along with another by his 1694 and received his early education Tireragh”. brother Owen: near Ballymote. He went secretly to Tadhg Ó Coinnialláin was born in France around 1710 and studied in the Skreen around 1780 and died in 1854. An English-Irish dictionary: in Irish college in Paris and also at the In his early life, he travelled with a the English and Irish characters, Sorbonne. He was appointed Head of group of young men from Connaught intended for the use of schools: the Irish College in Paris and remained to Munster to improve his education. containing upwards of eight there apparently until 1761. There is a story that they kidnapped thousand English words, with their In 1742 he published an Irish a teacher in County Clare, carried corresponding explanation in Irish / language catechism in an attempt to him across the Shannon and set him by T. Connellan provide religious education to the up in a school there. When Tadhg Dublin: W.B. Kelly, 1863 native Irish in their own language. returned to Sligo, he started his own A second edition was brought out in school. Among the subjects he taught The first two books of The 1822, edited by Dr. John McEncroe. were Latin, Greek and mathematics Pentateuch or Books of Moses in The Library at IT, Sligo holds a copy but apparently his school was not the Irish character: intended as an of the third edition of 1848: successful financially. introduction to the reading of the In 1806, the London Hibernian holy scriptures / the types copied from An Teagusg Críosduidhe, do Society for the diffusion of religious original manuscripts under the care réir ceasda agus freagurtha, air knowledge in Ireland sent a deputation and direction of T. Connellan, 6th ed. na tharruing go bunudhasach to Ireland to enquire into the state of London: R. Watts, 1822 as bréithir shoilléir Dé agus as belief. Their aim was to attempt to toibreachaibh fíor-ghlana oile = The convert the native Catholic population catechism, or, Christian doctrine, by to Protestantism. They met a man way of question and answer, drawn called Albert Blest from Sligo and chiefly from the express word of God, appointed him to take charge of the and other pure sources / by the Rev. work in Ireland. It is thought that it Andrew Donlevy. was under the influence of Blest that 3rd ed. Tadhg became a protestant and Blest Dublin: Published for the Royal in his turn was advised by Tadhg that Catholic College of St. Patrick, attempts by the Society to provide Maynooth, by James Duffy, 1848 religious instruction to the people of Ireland should be carried out in the The Rev. Donlevy added a short Irish language. Tadhg had a theory section on Irish spelling at the end of that if twenty four people could be the catechism. This includes a list of taught to read the Bible in Irish, each the letters of the Irish alphabet, each of them could go on to teach 24 more of which corresponds to a native tree. so that the knowledge of reading The scheme of letters and trees forms would spread quickly. the basis for a landscaped walkway on Tadhg was also involved at a later the campus of IT, Sligo. Individual stage with another organisation, The seats carved from stone represent each Irish Society for the Education of the letter and near each seat is an example Native Irish Through the Medium of of the corresponding tree. A series of Their Own Language which was set up leaflets with a map and description of in 1818. He differed with them him in the project were published in the native his views on the language. Members language of each of the nationalities of the society did not believe that represented among the student Irish books on non-religious subjects population in the late nineties at the should be provided to people and The Gospel according to St. John, Institute. The project was initiated and hoped a side effect of teaching people in Irish, with an interlined English championed by the former Director to read the Bible in Irish would be the of the Institute, Dr. Breandán Mac

43 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009

Conamhna. As it matures it will be an 1987 interesting feature on the campus. A copy was presented to the library by The Rev Donlevy was continuing the This is an examination of Irish Mr. Jack Flynn of Sligo Field Club. tradition of publishing religious works literature 1600-1650 in its European A facsimile of O’Donovan’s edition, in Irish begun by the Franciscans in the context of the baroque and counter- produced by AMS Press, New York in early 17th century. Throughout the 16th reformation and includes a study 1966 is also held in the library. century, the Franciscans were steadily of Aodh Mac Aingil. The events driven out of Ireland. In 1606, Flaithrí of the period which forced many The Annals of the Four Masters is Ó Maolchonaire persuaded King Irish scholars abroad into exile also a very important work as it preserves Philip III of Spain to fund a college for brought Irish writing and learning much material for which the original training Franciscans at Lovain in what into contact with the various political, sources have been lost. In his is now Belgium. A number of books intellectual and religious movements dedication of the Annals to Fearghal in Irish were written by Franciscans of continental Europe. Although in Ó Gadhra, Micheál Ó Cléirigh says: associated with Lovain. Several of many ways a catastrophe for native these have been published in a series learning, the breakup of the Gaelic “…da leaiccti ar cáirde gan a called Scríbhinní Gaeilge na mBráthar order led to a modernising and opening sccriobhadh do lathair nach ffuighti Mionúr. These include a catechism: up of Irish writing to the influences of iad doridhisi le a fforaithmeat, agus le the outside world. a ccuimhniucchadh go crich, agus go An Teagasc Críosdoidhe / There was still important work being foirceann an beatha” Bonabhentura Ó hEodhasa a chum; carried out in Ireland. In 1626, one Fearghal Mac Raghnaill a chuir in of the Lovain brothers, Aodh Mac “…and that, should the writing of eagar a’Bhaird was writing on the lives them be neglected at present, they Scríbhinní Gaeilge na mBráthar of the Irish saints. It was decided would not again be found to be put on Mionúr; uimh 11 to send another brother, Micheál record or commemorated to the end Baile Átha Cliath: Institiúid Ard-Léinn Ó Cléirigh back to Ireland to help and termination of the world”. Bhaile Átha Cliath, 1976 gather material. Micheál Ó Cléirigh spent until 1637 in Ireland. During The mission of Institute of O hEodhasa had been a bardic poet the summer months he travelled the Technology, Sligo is: and member of a Gaelic literary family. country examining manuscript sources When Gaelic society disintegrated, at various locations. In the winter To create an open, supportive and he went to Europe, studied at Douai, he spent his time at the Franciscan flexible environment in which all became a Franciscan in 1607 and died convent at Donegal, arranging and learners can in Lovain in 1614. Another work in transcribing his material. Ó Cléirigh reach their highest potential as active the series is a book on the Sacrament did not confine himself to religious citizens of a global society. of Penance: material. He also gathered together information on the history of Ireland As the Institute faces the challenges of Scáthán shacramuinte na hAithridhe from the earliest times. the future, the works of Irish literature / Aodh Mac Aingil a chum; Cainneach In 1632, he began compiling the and history in its library collections Ó Maonaigh a chuir in eagar work which became known as Annala play an important role of reminding Scríbhinní Gaeilge na mBráthar Rioghachta Éireann or The Annals of staff, students and the general public in Mionúr; uimh. 1 the Four Masters under the patronage our region of the literary and scholarly Baile Átha Cliath: Institiúid Ard-Léinn of Fearghal Ó Gadhra, Lord of Moy work of value and beauty carried out Bhaile Átha Cliath, 1952 O’Gara and Coolavin in County by our ancestors. Sligo. He was assisted by Fearfeasa Aodh Mac Aingil wrote mainly in Ó Maolchonaire, Cúchoighriche 1 Ó hAilín, Tomás, “The Irish Society Latin and was a theologian of note Ó Cléirigh, Cúchoighriche Ó agus Tadhg Ó Coinnialláin”, Studia in his day. He helped Luke Wadding Duibhgeannáin and a number of other Hibernica, 8 (1968), 60-78. found St. Isodore’s College in Rome scholars. 2 Caerwyn William, J. E. agus in 1625. He was made Archbishop of The work was not published in the Ní Mhuiríosa, Máirín, Traidisiún Armagh in 1625 but was never able to lifetime of Ó Cléirigh and his assistants liteartha na nGael (Baile Átha Cliath: return to Ireland.  or for a long time afterwards. In An Clóchomhar, 1985), p. 236 As well as several other works in the 1854, John O’Donovan brought out a 3 Caerwyn Williams agus Ní series Scríbhinní Gaeilge na mBráthar full edition. This was followed by a Mhuiríosa, 1985, p.237 Mionúr, the library at the Institute has second edition: 4 Caerwyn Williams agus Ní a copy of: Mhuiríosa, 1985, p.238-9 Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland 5 Caerwyn Williams agus Ní An Eoraip agus Litríocht na Gaeilge by the Four Masters from the Earliest Mhuiríosa, 1985, p.240 1600-1650: gnéithe den Bharócachas period to the year 1616 / edited from 6 Institute of Technology, Sligo. Eorpach I litríocht na Gaeilge / Tadhg MSS. in the Library of the Royal Irish Strategic plan 2007-2012: Mapping Ó Dúshláine Academy and of Trinity College, the future, p. 5 Baile Átha Cliath: An Clóchomhar, Dublin, with a translation, and copious notes by John O’Donovan 2nd ed. Dublin: Hodges, Smith and Co., 1856

44 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 Notes on Breeoge Creamery, Kilmacowen, Co. Sligo Martin A. Timoney

Recently I monitored the refurbishment was added by the time of the 1886 map people are getting fewer by the year, and for Brendan & Aideen Ryan of the house revision. By the 1910 1:2,500 survey all with them goes part of our history! John near a double T-junction in Breeoge, of these houses were gone and the line McTernan and Margaret Marren, nee Kilmacowen, Co. Sligo, that Maggie of the present road was emerging though Keaney, clarified some points for me. and Larry Tiernan lived in. Breeoge is without boundary walls. Breeoge in my native Cúil Iorra, alias Coolerra, Creamery is shown as a building in open REFERENCES which is the old name for the peninsula space but the road is not clearly defined. McTernan, John, 1990: At The Foot of between Sligo Bay and Ballisodare The passage behind the present dwelling Knocknarea, A Chronicle of Bay. The research brought together house, a dedicated cattle trackway, is Coolera in Bygone Days, Sligo, some pieces of information of interest indicated on the 1910 survey. Avena. gathered over the years. The single story three-roomed Rynne, Etienne, and Timoney, Martin house was built for Power by voluntary A., 1974-1975: “Excavation Breeoge Creamery labour on the site of Kitty Monaghan’s of a Destroyed Wedge-tomb at Breeoge Creamery, a corrugated Sheebeen, probably in or soon after Breeoge, Co. Sligo”, J. Galway building beside the Breeoge River, was 1897. Archae. Hist. Soc. 34, 88-92. founded in 1897 to serve the Cúil Iorra Timoney, Martin A., 1966-1971: peninsula. McTernan (1990, 123-124) Finds of Sea Shells “A Long Stone Cist at gives the history of this short lived co- Directly under the northwest Carrowmore, Co. Sligo”, J. operative auxiliary creamery. corner of the existing building there Galway Archaeological and The land was leased from The was a recent small dump of sea shells, Historical Society, 32 (1966- Earl of Erne for thirty one years at an mainly oyster but with some cockle; the 1971), 90-91. annual rent of five shillings. Sand and greater part of the deposit would seem gravel were quarried a mile away on the to be still in situ under the house. These I acknowledge the help of land adjacent to the Land League House may have been a foundation deposit Brendan & Aideen Ryan, new owners at the north end of Breeoge townland from 1897 or they may have been from of the house, and Liam Lenihan, that Patrick Nugent White inherited the workers building the creamery and Contractor. The wedding photograph through marriage from Mathew Walsh this accompanying house. has been lodged in Sligo Library Local of Breeoge House. It closed in the early Studies Archive. 1930s when Collooney Co-operative Local Historian Stephen O’Connor Society on the old Collooney-Galway I have good memories of many road went bankrupt. It was not reopened long conversations while compiling when Drumcliff Creamery took over the an undergraduate geography thesis in Collooney concern. Its situation in the 1968 with the remarkable local historian far south of Kilmacowen parish may Stephen O’Connor who lived just south have as much to do with local politics of Tiernan’s. His local knowledge about as with the supply of fresh cold water. the geography, folklore and antiquities There is no other constant supply of of the area was handed down from his fresh cold water anywhere else on the grandfather. He brought the nearby peninsula and Mr. Patrick Nugent White, Breeoge wedge-tomb, Sl.20:37, to Mathew Walsh’s successor at Breeoge my attention in 1968 and Rynne and I House just yards away, was the major excavated its site (Rynne and Timoney shareholder! 1974-1975) in 1972. The authentic Its first manager, James Power record (Timoney 1966-1971) of a find of from Co. Tipperary, married Bridget a cist grave in Carrowmore about 1946 Clarke of adjacent Knocknahur; Maggie is essentially O’Connor’s collected and Molly were the two daughters. recollection. About 1969 he told me of James made a gramophone, a clock finding severely crushed cockle, some and a camera. Maggie married Larry mussel and periwinkle shells at great Tiernan on Easter Monday, April depth in the field behind his own 1953; both are now deceased. Molly house and these were listed in the Record lived in England. Larry worked in the of Monuments and Places as Sl.20:247 Abbeytown Ballisodare mines and later and Sl.20:248, i.e., Sligo Sheet 20, Sites with D.M. Hanley in Sligo. 247 and 248. Seashells are a common find all over Cúil Iorra with dates from Houses and Roads near Breeoge 4,000 BC to the present. Larry Tiernan and Maggie Power on their Creamery This rather disjointed article There were three houses at would be far more informative if only wedding day, Easter Monday April 1953. about this location at the time of the I had asked far more questions, or even Original photo: James Eccles. 1836 OS mapping. A fourth building listened to his wonderful stories. Such Scan: Martin A Timoney 45 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 The Shadow of a Dark Mastiff PJ Duffy

Down through the years ghosts, several reports of sightings in and passageways was for years haunted by ghouls, fairies and poltergeists were around the turrets, towers and curtain the spectre of a frenzied shop assistant very much an important part of our walls of the old building. who killed his employers and their Irish folklore. Wherever people came The Market House was said to have housekeeper, so as he might get hold to assemble especially at night time, it housed the ghost of an old cobbler of their money in order to enable him would be a dull gathering that wouldn’t located on its loft. Back in the early to keep up with his high-flying cronies have included in its repertoire a good nineteen hundreds a town committee who resided in another part of the hair-raising story that was likely to decided to install a generator at the country. scare the wits out of a young listener. loft on the very spot where the cobbler The courthouse was said to contain There were always good story-tellers used to sit working at his bench. the ghost of an old police constable to be found here and there scattered Immediately they were faced with which used to emerge from the right across the countryside, some of minor disturbances and the generator building late at night time, march up them past masters of the art. which was fixed there for the purpose what used to be called the Captain’s There were people who were totally of supplying light to the town began Brae, and vanish through a gateway dismissive of the whole idea of ghosts, to give trouble resulting in the lights at Rathnakeliga. This ghost used to and others who treated the idea with frequently going out. The workmen be referred to as Barney. We were skepticism. Some people might say who put it there decided to switch it informed that after the courthouse that the supposed visions were the to a new location, and after doing this was built back in 1813 a group of old inventions of overly imaginative minds there was no further disturbance, and police were based there and they used usually fuelled by alcohol, and mostly the lights seldom failed to shine. to be referred to as the Barneys. A witnessed by persons returning from The old abbey was said to be haunted short time later in 1842 the force was pubs late at night time. In the midst by the ghost of a black friar frequently revamped and reformed under Robert of this line of thinking you might find seen entering its doorway. There was Peel and after that time they were to a number of sincere people whose a story of a gentleman who decided to become known as the Peelers. strange experiences had left them walk into town on a windy Saturday During the time the Barneys were baffled and confused throughout their night for the purpose of having a nice based there the courthouse contained lifetime. Many of these individuals quiet drink. When passing the old cells for holding offenders placed in were often reluctant to talk about their graveyard he stood close to the wall custody. During that time if somebody experiences. to light his pipe. As he cracked a went to town and didn’t return home There seems little doubt that in rural match he observed another gentleman at a reasonable time, questions might Ireland down through the centuries standing beside him with a pipe in his be asked and you might get a reply there was a firm belief in the existence mouth. That gentleman leaned over that sounded something like this, “the of fairies. Proof of this fact can be and put his pipe right under the lighted Barneys must have put him in the found by looking around our local match. The bewildered gentleman black hole”(a cell). Tradition in rural countryside and discovering how many who cracked the match found himself Ireland does not die easily and this places have been named after the fairy glued to the spot unable to move, or probably accounted for the fact that folk ….. Knocknashee, Lissnasheena, make any attempt to light his own the ghost of the old policeman was Sheeáun and many more. pipe. Suddenly the match blew out; he called Barney. According to accounts handed put his pipe in his pocket and moved Those of us who have been around down from previous generations, it on into town. Later when telling his long enough to remember might do wasn’t country areas alone that were story he described how the fumes that well to take a look back to the middle supposed to be haunted by these emerged from the other man’s pipe years of the last century when there strange spectres. Many Irish towns had given him pleasant feelings he was a number of old storytellers around have had stories relating to strange had never experienced before. The who had a thorough knowledge of the happenings occurring inside their man who all during his lifetime had old stories associated with the town boundary walls and Ballymote is no suffered from asthma felt so good after and its environs. exception. his experience that he never again was Emmet St. was at one time supposed Down through the years the old castle troubled by this affliction. to be haunted by the ghost of the was said to be haunted by the ghost of Old storytellers used to describe Mill Street weaver, a supervisor the Red Earl De Burgo. There were how Earlsfield and its adjoining who worked at the linen mills and

46 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 whose name was linked to a girl who that some shopkeepers in town usually mysteriously vanished from the area kept a large dog which they let loose of the town and was never seen or at night time to guard their premises heard tell of again. and restrain intruders from entering Perhaps the town’s most famous their yards. Maybe he thought one ghost was the spectre of a huge black had escaped and was heading out into dog that was reported to accompany the country. He propelled his bicycle people travelling alone out of town at more swiftly, although there was a full night time. According to stories told moon in place, the skies were over his beaten track was that stretch of cast and cloudy. He also had an old roadway situated just outside the town flashlight with a well worn battery, as one moves in the Gurteen direction. yet he could see the clear outline of Some of the people who reported a huge black wolf hound silently seeing this freak animal described it The Shadow of a Dark Mastiff striding alongside his bicycle as he as being of huge size, quite silent in in the nineteen forties a Killavil man approached the Bottle Bridge. Then its movements as it started its pursuit gave his account of what he had all of a sudden as he crossed over the which began at the narrow road encountered on the same stretch of old culvert the spectre vanished. He leading to the old corn mill, moving at roadway while returning home from described how after passing the spot a short distance behind at first and then town late at night time. This man that a cold chill went up his spine and coming alongside as they approached who had at the time been involved in a strange feeling of fear came over an old culvert under the roadway the building trade was as reliable a him. The odd thing about his account known as “The Bottle Bridge” and witness as you might find in a day’s of his experience was the fact that he then at that spot vanishing into thin walk. After concluding his business never in his lifetime heard anything of air. There were in times past several he left town as sober as a judge. He the bizarre stories that were associated reports of this mysterious animal being went on to describe that after he passed with that same stretch of roadway. seen after dark by various persons the Glebe gateway entrance to the old As well as this he was a gentleman travelling along the route. rectory he suddenly became aware that who never believed in ghosts but his A good number of these people he was being pursued by a large black experience on the night had left him were often described as not the most dog. He didn’t pay much attention to completely baffled. reliable of witnesses. However, back this as was already aware of the fact

Military Payment Certificates were issued by the US military to its personnel overseas between 1946 and 1973. This was in an attempt to curb the inflation of local currencies by the large numbers of dollars in circulation. Pictures courtesy Gerry Keaney

The Banque Centrale du Congo-Belge et du Ruanda-Urundi, a regional central bank, was dissolved after Congo’s independence in 1960 Pictures courtesy Gerry Keaney

47 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 Quotes From the Past P.J. Duffy

During the early and middle years THE WOMAN HECKLER under the collar. of the last century the late James During James Dillon’s tenure as a There was one particular incident that M. Dillon operated a successful politician fair-day meetings were took place on top of the Rock during grocery provisions and light hardware the order of the day. Huge crowds the time when a county council election store overlooking the square at would gather into his native town was about to take place. A politician Ballaghaderreen. James, who was of Ballaghaderreen on certain dates of high standing had come into town a member of Dáil Éireann, was an during the year notably on May 1st from outside the area to speak on outstanding policitican. In addition (“May Day”) and also on November to his business activities he was also 1st (“November Day”). Usually if a first class orator and maker of the elections were taking place around comic phrase. these dates politicians and their It was during the bleak war years supporters would erect a makeshift of the 1940s when food stuffs were platform near the centre of the town’s severely rationed that a well-known square and towards evening time they cleric who was then resident at and their henchmen would mount Ballaghaderreen had visited his store the platform and explain respective to do some shopping. The owner policies to the assembled public. had laid down certain guidelines for These public meetings could at that his staff to follow when dealing with time often turn out to be lively affairs. customers. These included treating There was one memorable event that everybody equally when it came to took place during a May Day meeting James Matthew Dillon addressing dishing out rations. The message back in the nineteen fifties. A general an election rally in the 1940s. He was simple and straight forward “you election was coming up and politicians was Minister for Agriculture 1948 can’t make fish of one and flesh of the of every shade and colour descended – 1951 and again 1954 – 1957. other”. on the town for the purpose of getting Picture from Viewimages website A counter assistant informed the their respective policies across to the clergyman that butter was restricted people. behalf of a candidate belonging to to a half-pound per customer, and At around four o’clock in the his party. The speaker who seemed he obtained a pound of butter and evening James Dillon walked the highly articulate and adept in his proceeded to cut it in two halves. The short distance from his home onto profession opened his address with a priest objected to this procedure stating the town square where his workers quotation from Abraham Lincoln. He that the pound was small enough and supporters had already erected a then moved on to deal with matters without making it smaller. He refused small platform from which he would relating to developments at local and point blank to take what he had been speak. He mounted the platform and national level. It was at this stage in offered. The assistant informed his after a brief introduction by one of his address that a heckler who seemed customer that he was acting under strict his seconds, he began to address the to be well intoxicated started to hurl orders from his boss. The clergyman waiting crowd. About midway into senseless questions in the direction reacted by making a bee-line for the his speech a burly middle-aged woman of the speaker. At first the politician boss who was none other than James began to heckle and interrupt. James chose to ignore the man’s foolish Dillon. He informed Mr. Dillon that ignored her completely. Incensed at behavior, but the gentleman grew he had been shortcut by one of his being snubbed, she then grew more more noisy and boisterous. Turning assistants who had offered him a mere aggressive and noisy. “Well, if I had to the main body of the crowd the half pound of butter. The shopkeeper poison I’d give it to you” she snarled. politician cried out “Will somebody told him he could do no better as that “Well, if I were your husband, Ma’am, for God’s sake put a wisp of hay in was what he was allowing to all his I’d take it” retorted the indomitable that ass’s mouth”? customers. The disgruntled clergyman James. then moved away in a huff stating he wouldn’t touch his miserable half pound of butter, “I’d eat cart grease THE BALLYMOTE HECKLER THE NUN’S HOLIDAY now before I’d take your miserable Way back in those days In days gone by certain orders of ration” he fumed. “Well, every man Ballaghaderreen wasn’t the only nuns were greatly restricted in their to his taste” quipped the bold James as town to witness memorable election movements by vows taken at the time the sullen customer made a hasty exit rallies. During the 1940s Ballymote they entered their respective convents. out the doorway. also witnessed some hectic fair-day Then along came Pope John XXIII who election rallies, with candidates and summoned an Ecumenical Council their supporters often getting quite hot to review fundamental doctrines and

48 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 teachings and give the entire Catholic available to people living in rural house while the man’s wife went about Church a new sense of direction. One areas for the provision of running doing her household chores. of the judgments made was a design to water, bathroom and toilet facilities During this time a young pup do away with many of those rigorous to be added to their dwelling houses. was bouncing about on the kitchen restrictions heretofore imposed on A neighbour of Gaffney’s decided to floor grabbing at small objects and a number of religious orders. As far avail of these allowances, so he set chewing at untied shoelaces. The as nuns were concerned this was an about extending his residence and pup eventually made his way to the innovative ruling that gave them the installing these facilities. bathroom door, and then crossing the freedom to travel more freely and A short time after the work was threshold he entered the bathroom indulge themselves in short periods of completed, Mr. Gaffney, who, by this where he began making his wee wee on good wholesome recreation. time was getting on in years, paid the floor. The woman quickly spotted A short time after these rigid rules him a visit to see for himself what the pup committing his misdemeanour were relaxed, two young Sisters was now set to become a new way and reaching for a mop she quickly accompanied by their Reverend of life for people residing in country pushed the wee animal out through Mother got a novel idea that they areas. During the course of his visit the bathroom door, guided it through would like a short holiday down he inspected work done on the new the Kitchen and then attempted to around the Lakes of Killarney. The extension, and expressed amazement usher it out onto the street. “Oh for long awaited day came and the three at the changes that had taken place heaven’s sake Ma’am leave the wee nuns found themselves mingling with in his lifetime. He then retired to animal alone, what’s the poor pupeen hundreds of other tourists down at one the Kitchen where he engaged in doing only what he sees the people of of Ireland’s foremost beauty spots. conversation with the man of the the house doing”. The jarveys were out in force with their jaunting cars, taking goggle eyed tourists on breath-taking trips around the area’s vales, lakes and beauty spots. For the young Sisters especially, this experience was certainly a new lease of like. Like the rest of the holidaymakers the nuns also decided they would take a trip around the lakes. One by one they stepped onto the jaunting car taking their place seated right behind the jarvey. The young jarvey cracked his whip, signaling his horse to move on. As the party approached the second lake the poor old horse who was earlier taken fresh off the grass began to incur problems with gas in his tummy. The young jarvey who was quite well versed in his profession was kept busy homing out the beauty spots and naming the different lakes. However the horse’s bouts of wind breaking began to get louder and more frequent. The jarvey’s face reddened and he began to get terribly embarrassed. Turing around to the Rev. Mother he interjected “Oh, excuse me excuse me”. That’s ok said the Rev. Mother, “in fact we thought it was the horse”.

THE NAUGHTY WEE PUPPY The late Patrick Gaffney who resided at Bearvaish, Rathmullen, Ballymote was a man who over a wide area was well known for his sharp wit and amazing sense of humour. Back in the late nineteen fifties Local Government grants were made Supplied by John and Colette McDonagh

49 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 Where To Go Next Molly Howard

I’ve always wanted to travel. concerned, being at the tip of Lake never see my children again, that caused Sometimes I’ve wondered if that was Michigan), as far east as St. John, New me to move on after four years there. because I had crossed the Atlantic twice Brunswick, north to Ottawa and south My last posting was to the Caribbean, by the time I was three months old. to Lake Memphremagog, which is part to the islands of Antigua-Barbuda. I How come? The explanation follows. in Canada and part in the USA. These taught in a school on Barbuda, which My father, one of the first electrical trips covered about one and a half basically had only the town where I engineers to graduate from London thousand miles, roughly speaking, all of taught. There was another small resort University, was employed by the English which I enjoyed. It fascinated me to see where, I was told, Britain’s royalty came Marconi Company. He was sent by so many different kinds of countryside. for holidays as it kept the paparazzi at them to establish the first cross-Atlantic Then I married an Englishman, which a distance. radio receiver station on the shores took me back to England, a country I I was only there a year. Prior to this of the St Lawrence River near Bic in didn’t know, except by hearsay. While posting, while I was in England, I had Quebec, Canada. After the birth of their I lived there, we (my family and I) bought a house in Ireland, having sold first baby in England, my mother joined travelled from the south coast of England the one where I had lived in Pontefract, him. The job took about three years and to the north coast of Scotland and Yorkshire, four years previously, before during that time their second child, equally from eastern England to western I went to the Pacific. I chose Ireland, my sister Jane, was born. Then he was Wales, from a point in mid-England. partly because I had liked what I had offered a job by the Canadian Marconi My children still live in this area. seen when I’d last visited Ireland as a Company. To be able to take it, my father This took about thirty odd years. motor racing medical attendant, and had to be an established immigrant, During this time, my children grew up, partly because I didn’t want to live so which he wasn’t. He was only a visitor. my husband and I parted company and close to my children that I interfered Back they went to England in order I taught for nine years in Yorkshire. with their lives. Ireland is close enough to obtain this qualification. During their During these years as a teacher I used that I can visit them every year, stay there, I was born. At about the time my summer holidays to explore Europe. which I enjoy. Hopefully, so do they. I was three months old, (so I have been I visited France, went to Italy to see my The reason I was only in the told), we all went back to Canada, this sister who lived in Rome (that’s another Caribbean for a year rather than the time permanently. While we were still story), went on a cruise around the standard two years, which could be on our way across the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean which took me to Crete, extended to five years, was that the the Canadian Government passed a Egypt and Gibraltar. I think we visited school didn’t really need me, and I was law forbidding new immigrants. This other islands but my memory these dying to get back to my new house. was understandable as the year was days is a mite faulty. I also thoroughly Since I have been here, I have continued 1930, at the depths of the depression. enjoyed a visit to Norway and Sweden. travelling, visiting people I met in the On our arrival at Montreal, the only Two of my offspring met me in tropics who now live in Australia, and person the officials would allow on Stockholm on my way back to England. New Zealand. This took two trips, both shore, at first, was my sister Jane as At this point my youngest entered delightful. Sometimes I think I would she was a born Canadian. It took some university and I decided that as my like to live in New Zealand, it is such skilled arguing on my father’s part to children no longer really needed me a fascinating place, both geologically convince the officials that he and his I could do some real travelling again. and weather-wise. While in the South family had (1) Official Immigration In a way which didn’t cost me a great Pacific, I visited Fiji and Tonga both Status and (2) a job to go to with deal of money (which I didn’t have), I of which I would like to see again. the Canadian Marconi Company. volunteered to teach overseas through On one of the islands of Fiji, I I learned as I grew up, that during a group known as VSO (Voluntary experienced the most unusual plane the first year they spent in Canada Service Overseas). This was in 1983. landing. The island’s airport was at the they’d kept their fingers crossed that The next eight years for me was one edge of a cliff. This meant that the plane the company wouldn’t decide that long holiday. I became known as the did not have to descend a great deal but they didn’t need my father after all. Island Volunteer because my first levelled out as it approached the island Canada, although one of the largest posting was to the Maldives, a string and just rolled to a stop after it touched countries in the world, does not have of islands down the lower west coast the edge of the cliff. Very disconcerting. that great a population. This meant, of India, where I worked for two Understandably, it was only a small and still means, that distances between years. During this time I visited Sri plane, big enough for five passengers villages, towns and cities, are quite Lanka, another fascinating country. but at this time carrying only one – me. large. Where, in Ireland, the distance The next posting was to i-Kiribati, three Since my visits to the south, most from one town to another is five to ten strings of islands in the central Pacific. of my time has been spent in Ireland. miles, in Canada it would be twenty to My time was spent on the western-most As I have said, every summer I go thirty miles, sometimes longer. From string, which used to be known as the to England and recently, every two Montreal to Toronto is like going from Gilbert Islands, until they achieved years or so, I visit Canada to see my London to Edinburgh, if not further. independence from the British Empire. brother and sisters who still live there. While I grew up, I travelled somewhat I nearly decided to spend the rest of my If ever I move from Ireland, it will around the country. By the time I life on these islands - the weather was be to live with one of my children in became an adult, I’d gone as far west perfect, the people were generous and England and only because I will have as Chicago (admittedly not in Canada welcoming and the work suited me to a found I can no longer look after myself. but only just outside it as far as I was T. It was the knowledge that, if I did, I’d And that will probably be my last trip.

50 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 “Making History” at Parke’s Castle, July 20th 2007. Bernie Gilbride

Beautifully restored to its former glory, As schoolgirls we wondered at the this were not to his liking, omitting as it to-day Parke’s Castle stands guard foolishness of such a great leader signing did to even mention his beloved Mabel, overlooking Lough Gill, with the away his lands and fleeing to Europe, however much he tried to persuade the O’Rourke Table Mountain to its North. even having been defeated at Kinsale. Archbishop of her importance in his Its peaceful, tranquil setting, as it Friel, in his play, gives us an insight life. Only the loyal Harry understood entertains visiting tourists from home into the trauma and dilemmas faced the depth of O’Neill’s despair and his and abroad, belies its historically by O’Neill in making his decision. We abhorrence of himself and the man he turbulent past. Its very active are shown a little of the background to had become. involvement not only in the history his life not mentioned in history books. Our long held hero, to whom we of Sligo but of the Island of Ireland We see his human side, his elopement offered our hearts as school girls in goes back over the centuries, back and love marriage in 1591, at near those long gone school days, as one of to the ancient chieftains of Breifni, middle age, to Mabel Bagenal, his third our few successful leaders who once perhaps even to Fionn MacCull wife, daughter of Sir Henry Bagenal, commanded the fealty and loyalty himself. Fionn, according to the story, one of the English landed gentry. of a united Ireland, is now reduced overtook Diarmuid and Gráinne on the He, O’Neill, had been fostered as a child to dependence on others. He little slopes of nearby Benbulbin mountain. in England and educated in the ways, thought his lands and those of all the How appropriate then, that Brian customs, literature and language of other chieftains in Ulster would be Friel’s play, ‘Making History’, should Queen Elizabeth’s court. This evidently confiscated and planted, almost as soon have been performed on the Castle made a great impression on him. as the ship he sailed on had left Lough bawn in July 2007 celebrating the On his return to Ireland he acceded Swilly. With him on that ship were 400th anniversary of the ‘Flight of the to the English titles - second Earl of the brothers of his trusted friend Red Earls’ and the life and wars of the Great Tyrone, Third Baron of Dungannon, Hugh O’Donnell - Rory and Cathbarr, Hugh O’Neill of Ulster. One of the last under which he served the Queen his close friends and of course his Gaelic Chieftains, he had fought to diligently, gaining in stature, both private secretary Harry Hoveden. sustain and integrate the old Brehon wealth and power. At the same time he The actors bring us with them, laws and the new laws of the English was trying to unite the Irish Chieftains in depicting his sorrow, as he Renaissance, then being introduced and found himself preparing for war, feels the end draw near, so far with the invasion of the Elizabethan looking to Phillip 11 of Spain for away from his beloved Ulster. English forces into this country. assistance. When it came this help was A standing ovation was the only With the floodlit Castle as back to be his downfall, landing as it did in way we the audience could show our drop, we took our places under the the southernmost part of Ireland. To join appreciation of this mammoth play, its huge awning, on that July evening, them he had to march his army, in winter, production and its wonderful cast, on to await the beginning of the play. the length of Ireland. A tremendous and the floodlit bawn of Parke’s Castle. Seeing a member of the cast come hazardous undertaking, this resulted As we were about to leave, the leading towards us in 16th century costume, in a weakened and depleted force, actor, who had just left the stage with my mind flitted back to 1152 AD quickly defeated at Kinsale in 1601. tears in his eyes, returned to tell us that when the unfaithful Dearvorgill fled During this time his wife, Mabel, that day, July 20th, was the anniversary her home and husband, O’Rourke of tried to influence him, pointing out that of the death of Hugh O’Neill, who had Breffni, from this very place, with Phillip 11 of Spain had no real interest died in Rome in 1616 . What he did McMurrough, King of Leinster. in Ireland, only having the good of not tell us was that the grave of Hugh The other Irish Chieftains rallied to Spain in mind. Unfortunately, Mabel O’Neill, his son, and the two O’Donnell O’Rourke, to punish McMurrough. died in childbiirth in 1595, and after his chieftains, had been vandalised during He was deposed, fled to England and defeat at Kinsale and with O’Donnell’s an insurrection in Rome in the 19th invited its Normans to Ireland to fight departure for Spain, he spent his last century and though the marble tomb his onetime friends and kinsmen in an years in Ulster under severe pressure had subsequently been restored by effort to recover his kingdom. They from England to submit to the Queen. Garibaldi, the bodies of the Chieftains came in 1169 and their descendants, This he eventually did, only to learn, a had been misplaced, so an empty becoming more Irish than the Irish month latter, that she was already dead tomb is all that remains there today. themselves, have lived here ever since. when he handed in this submission. It A memorable evening for all who Over 400 years later the Flight of is reported he shed bitter tears of rage, attended. As we left the Castle we the Earls in 1607 was a turning point but did not rescind his submission. recalled that he too would have left in Irish history. The lands of Ulster His final years were spent not in Spain this castle, would have walked its Chieftains Hugh O’Neill and Red Hugh but under the protection of the Pope bawn, perhaps, as we did, taking O’Donnell were then planted by Scots in Rome, where we see him almost one last look at its beautiful setting and English loyal to the British Crown. destitute and maudlin. His secretary, overlooking Lough Gill, but knowing These, down the years, have remained the ever faithful Harry Hoveden, was he might never pass this way again. as the British Monarchy’s most loyal his only companion, except for the A tragic period in our so tragic history, subjects, causing much hardship to the Priest, Archbishop Peter Lombard, then brought alive in this moving drama deposed original Irish land owners. writing his biography. The contents of ‘Making History’ by Brian Friel.

51 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 The Pebble Bernie Gilbride

As the tide receded, by the water’s Had it witnessed the triumphal millennia ago that was its beginning. edge the milky gleam of a pebble reception of Caesar or Mark Antony in As I turn for home, I wonder if its caught the flash of a sunbeam. On all their glory, or perhaps stood silently origins are much more recent, if it was picking it up I realised it was an oval as plans were made for the invasion part of the marble stairways on board shaped piece of marble. Turning it of some poor country about to be the ill-fated Lusitania or the Titanic. over in my palm I wondered at its annexed to extend the Roman Empire? Perhaps the last human hand to touch it perfect proportions. As it was, all it Or was it even older than Rome? was one of tension as its owner waited needed was a filigree gold setting and Had it perhaps seen the glories of while fleeing the sinking ship. Had it it would be a lovely pendant or brooch Constantinople or the Egyptian then lain on the ocean floor for almost a equal in beauty to the finest pearl. Pharaohs as they had their monuments century before being lifted and turned Hard to credit that it had once erected to worship their Gods? It by many waves, smoothed against been part of a large chunk of marble may even have been once part of jagged rocks to its present beauty quarried in some distant land, a huge column in the Acropolis and cast upon this western beach? perhaps from Carrara, Italy or even in Greece and had witnessed the Where it came from I will never further afield. Perhaps it once was ancient Olympic Games, forerunners know, but it will be cherished by me part of a marble column in Ephesus, to the modem Olympics of today. and converted into a pendant set in Constantinople or Rome. Had it borne Now it lies shimmering on the palm filigree gold, to be admired for many the imprint of Caesar, Hadrian, Mark of my hand, having been washed years to come, and handed down to Antony or Nero or had it watched as up on a bright Summer morning, on posterity as a beautiful gift from the part of a marble faced column in the one of the most western beaches in sea. Colosseum the gladiatorial combats Europe, far from the quarry thrown during a Roman festival at that arena? up by geophysical eruptions many From Kathleen Fairbanks’ Autograph Book 1950 The Nurse Nurse’s Prayer The world grows better year by year I pray that I will ever be a good and faithful nurse And help each patient to get well or keep from growing worse. because some nurse in her little sphere To aid the doctor and obey the orders I receive puts on her apron and grins and sings, And always be available and willing to relieve and keeps on doing the same old things, And should my country call me in the hour of war taking the temperatures, giving the pills, Pray that I will be prepared to serve on sea or shore To heal the sick and wounded, to remedy mankind’s numerous ills. Attend the blind and lame, Feeding the baby, answering the bells, And comfort those whose nerves are frayed being polite with a heart that rebels. Or who are ill of mind Longing for home and all the while I ask for strength and courage That I will never fail wearing the same old professional smile. To honour God, my uniform and Florence Nightingale . Blessing the newborn baby’s first breath. A Nurse’s Life Taking the blame for the doctor’s mistakes. Tell me not in pretty numbers Oh dear what a lot of patience it takes, Nursing is a lovely dream. going off duty at eight o’clock, I’m half dead for want of slumbers, Things are harder than they seem. Tired discouraged and ready to drop. Doctors, Nurses, Sisters, Patients, When we lay down on caps and cross the bar, Though my heart be stout and brave, Oh lord will you give us just one little star Soon their trying way will send me slowly swiftly to the grave. Scolded too for faults of others, to wear in our gowns with our uniforms new, Rows and ructions day by day, In that city above where the Head Nurse is You. Getting into lots of trouble, Tons of work and better pay. And at the end of all this trouble What at last shall be my fate? Like a worn down old camp horse Rest will come but all too late!!

52 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 RZC 101 Bernie Gilbride

“You really mean it?” on the driveway at home, with no each gateway we had turned at and sure “Of course I do. You passengers, learning to reverse and enough at the very last one, there it was, need a car of your own.” go forward slowly in that confined shining in the sun. In those days even I perked up straightaway. A car of space and got a little confidence. back bumpers on Minis were chrome my very own. My eyes glazed over just Months later on a Sunday afternoon, plated. It slid back into place quite easily thinking of it. I knew that first I needed a friend drove a white Mini, RZC and was never known to fall off again. to practise driving, In the early ‘60s no 101, to our door, followed by his wife That little car was my pride and joy one had dreamed up Driving Tests or driving their own car. Jumping out, as for many years. The back passengers all for that matter many Rules of the Road. I opened the door to welcome him, he learned to drive on it as they grew up. I had had my first driving lesson handed me the keys: “Safe motoring, With hindsight I realise that our teacher on the back road at Mullaghmore. it’s all yours!” By then my teacher had had method in his goodness, knowing When I think of it now, my blood runs come to the door behind me with a wry the gang would all want to drive and cold. Four children on the back seat grin on his face, and a chuckle in his not at all willing to have his good and on that road, one false move and voice, as he welcomed our friends. car messed about by learner drivers we could all have been swimming. To me it may as well have been a - crashed gears, maybe even a few Father was not renowned for his Rolls Royce instead of a Mini; it was scratches here and there, and for a bonus patience and a teacher he definitely was mine and I instantly fell in love with it. I could do the teaching, all the practice not. As I carefully put the car in gear The following evening my eldest son, runs etc. which he would have hated. and gingerly moved out onto the road, who was used to driving the tractor on So it was a boon for him and a blessing he quietly observed “It would be a good the farm, and myself took it for a spin for me, giving me great freedom. idea to take the brake off”. The brake up Newtownholmes, then a narrow Eventually it was bought for was immediately removed and we shot country road, and both of us practised rally driving as it had a special forward along the road to be delight driving to our heart’s content. We turned engine suitable for that sport. of the back seat passengers, who lost at each gateway, reversing and turning, In the family it was known as the their seats and thought it all great fun. driving from one gate to the next. “Old Dub” and its replacement never As soon as possible the brake was Eventually we happily drove home. commanded the same affection. In slammed back on and I just had to have An hour later I looked out to check it truth I cannot even remember the fresh air and still my pounding heart. was still there and thought something replacement’s number, make or colour. My teacher gladly took the wheel, and didn’t look quite right. On examination But RZC 101 has never been forgotten, the only lesson he ever gave was over. we found there was no back bumper and and today, I see it in my mind’s eye as Never one to be defeated, I the number plate looked a bit naked. clearly as on the Sunday it first arrived. cautiously moved the big car around Back up Newtownholmes road again, to My much appreciated first car.

The Garavogue An Atlantic Storm Bernie Gilbride Bernie Gilbride Calm flowing river surface mirror flat An Atlantic storm Reflecting blue sky meets the still lake. Rages this Sunday morn. The roar of motor power disturbs the peace, Trees bend in the wind, Rain on glass a tattoo send. In its wake ripple after ripple comes Drops chase down pane Rushing in circles to the water’s edge In race insane, Slapping against the rocky ledge. Collecting others on their way, Birds sing high in the trees, This bleak March day. Unconcerned, safe in lofty nests. Swell to large bubbles Our swans, our water birds Creating furrows, Where will they build their nests? Disintegrate against frame Swamped by curling ripples, Splash to the ground as rain. Nests no longer secure, Daffodils standing tall bend To the earth with the wind, Will they go away, leave our bay, This way and that they sway, Build their nests faraway? Unopened heads in disarray. Our graceful swans, will lead their cygnets Will they survive, stand tall, Near faraway shores, where no engine roars. Yellow blooms open, To grace garden, home, When storm itself has flown? 53 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 Lonely The House Now Mary Kelly White

I finally visited the old house The back door of the old house was futile. This is one for you, Lord, I in Glenkillamey. Never again! not locked because the lock and chain prayed trying to sound sincere and I I travelled on my own after dinner on it were too heavy and they had began to recite the Rosary - in silence one Sunday and although the weather fallen on the ground. I lifted them and of course in case any voices answered was dry and bright in Cúl Mhaoile, by put them into my bag. When I touched the Hail Marys. I was inspired to light the time I reached the valley after two the rusty latch it came off in my hand a fire and I was thankful to have the hours driving it was dusk and of course and I died a little. The place was in flat pack of red matches in my bag the mist was rolling down the mountain total darkness and I had no torch. The that I had been carrying around for into the valley as usual. No wonder they one tiny window in the kitchen was so long. The whole house was ready call it Gleann Ceo - the foggy valley. completely obscured with cobwebs to go up in flames so finding kindling The gate when I found it was sewn and a potato stalk had grown out firewood was easy. When I touched the into the ground with weeds and I had through the broken glass. A twig had decaying towels on the wire clothes to park at the Church, but at least it grown from a pile of firewood beside line over the fire they just broke off was on the road side. Was I sorry for the gaping open hearth, blocking the and fell down on the floor. I tore a myself half way down the heathery upper room door so I did not get up few pieces from the oilcloth table slope when I could neither see the there at all, and any way the thatched cover and it burned like a firelighter. car nor the old house, and the path roof had fallen into that room so bye I piled on pieces of the chairs and was completely obliterated for want bye antiques, why didn’t I take them stools. The sparks went everywhere. of use. Standing on the little one when I could have? The kitchen table I was hoping that the thatch was slab bridge at the lower gate I was was there and to my surprise the large too wet and sodden to catch fire. glad that, unlike the woman with the butcher’s knife that my father had Luckily a neighbour Paddy had four green fields, there were only purchased as a bread knife, because noticed my car parked at the Church two green fields between me and the he liked smooth slices of bread. All and later he smelled what he thought house. But eerie feelings assailed me of us got small cuts with that knife was a rag fire so he came to my as I remembered all the stories about when we went there on holidays. rescue. He advised me to clear away ghosts rattling flags as they crossed the When my eyes adjusted to the darkness what ever stuff was behind the front styles, and the Black and Tans, and the it wasn’t too bad. I could see the old door of the house. I moved two old silent motorbikes passing in the night. dresser, rotten and sinking, with the wooden churns and a bag of meal The house was a complete tumble slanting rows of plates and bowls still which burst open when I touched it. down shack. The gable was leaning there as were all the crooks and irons on I moved a lot of metal pots and a away at an angle. The lone bush the hobs. As I stood in the tiny kitchen few galvanised buckets, shovels was still there in front of the house, I could see the horses’ harness, ropes and spades. That door opened easily looking like a skeleton umbrella after and chains hanging on the wooden enough and Paddy joined me. In the all the years of clipping and shaping. partition which divided the lower interests of safety Paddy advised The flag path around the house was room from the kitchen. The chairs and we must stay here until this fire is buried under moss and grass. I was stools had fallen to pieces altogether. completely burned out. We sat on the actually afraid in the silent yard that The entire partition shook when I up turned buckets. We smoked a few looked so small compared to how I had opened the lower room door and the cigarettes and we laughed and cried remembered it. The forty gallon water horse’s collar fell with its wooden while we trotted down memory lane. barrel was collapsed in a pitiful rotten peg and burst into a large rotten heap “Imagine all the years that we left heap. The shed doors were “locked” closing the back door with a thud. I Daddy living alone in this house.” I with their hook and chain security, was like a dog digging in the soft earth said, my voice breaking. “There’s no and I even thought that I could hear as I tore away at the stinking mess need to be lonesome,” Paddy consoled, cows rattling chains inside. I was with both hands. If it had fallen on top “Your father was happy here.” “As petrified in case that the horse leaned of me it would have knocked me out. far as I’m concerned anyone who his big head out across the stable half I couldn’t get the back door opened. likes can own the green fields so long door and neighed at me with grinning I pushed and shoved it with both as it isn’t me.” I told Paddy when he teeth. I know what you are thinking hands, but I might as well have been had escorted me safely back through and you are right, I should not have singing Danny Boy for all the use it the dark foggy fields to my car at the gone there alone after so many years. was. I was trapped. Screaming was Church.

54 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 Poet: Get Out For A While, At Least Terry McDonagh

It would be terrible if a poet didn’t not equal money. He suggested he can only be considered in the context leave home. There’d just be the might have done better at College if of restless souls and restless horizons. mother and bard frying in family the demon drink hadn’t entered his When the horizon is plastered with fat. Not a happy scenario. No craic! poetic soul and driven him half daft banknotes, the child is less wild. Get out! I say. The great Joyce left with literary talk, poetic suffering We had a neighbour who’d to forge in the smithy of my soul the and the supremacy of faraway poets travelled the world, was half-blind uncreated conscience of my race. in a post-Joyce Dublin. This was and loved to re-enact the Sunday Others amongst us left for less noble usually highly entertaining late-night sermon to the merriment and reasons, but leave we did carrying a material. He left. jubilation of those privileged to have whole bagful of dreams, ideas and Once in a while word would filter been present. The man just adored the ambitions, hoping to realise some of through that Billy was doing fine in sound of his own voice and he was them in the course of the next forty this or that language school, but the anything but a bore. He never missed years or so. The dream of travel was word novel remained an unknown Mass. He was a talker; a storyteller, a the bug to be cherished - to get away. quantity. The last I heard of him was poor man with time on his hands - Wit and wisdom were elsewhere and that he’d got a young Roman woman time to talk. The man that made time lips didn’t smile much on an island pregnant and he’d been dragged - made plenty of it, rings in my ears. of need. surrounded and at gunpoint - to the I’m convinced of the fact that time Ireland is a different country, today. altar. For all I know, he might still and talk is the imaginative father Thankfully, its shoreline is no longer be there chatting away, telling yarns, and mother of our literary success in dotted with deserted villages and changing nappies and dreaming of the past and today. ‘Divarsion’ was people looking hopefully out to sea. the great novel. ‘Havin’ the craic’, as another word for standing on corners Will the ‘new’ Ireland of hi-tech and he used to say. telling yarns and stories. There was software find common ground with People like Billy are an endangered often little to do, but talk and dream the young writer? Can they merge? species in a ‘new’ Ireland of two cars of faraway places. Poverty was cruel Should they merge? The earth, the in the drive, a second house in Spain and, unfortunately, young people clouds and the stars above are still and a dangerous superiority complex. were forced to travel into exile, but good. This new generation doesn’t even they often did take their ‘divarsion’ To quote Patrick Kavanagh: Poetry go to the pub without a copy of with them to as far away as the tales made me a sort of outcast and 1 the property page sticking out of a they had listened to as children. became abnormally normal. briefcase! In recent years, Irish pubs have felt I met a fairly normal Donegal man Billy is not the only potential writer the need to adopt great Irish literary in Hamburg about twenty years ago to have worn the costume of the poet figures as patrons. Poor Oscar Wilde - let’s call him Billy for argument’s in an alien land. In fact, the Irish is much maligned with a beer in his sake. ‘Couldn’t have got a job even if market their writers very well. Take a hand on the wall of a pub in Berlin. I’d looked,’ he moaned. ‘So I didn’t closer look and you’ll see there aren’t The list goes on. We know how to bother.’ Anyway, to make a long all that many out there, at all. The talk and will stop at nothing to sell story short, Billy arrived straight Irish do a good selling job on Swift, our wares. ‘Samuel Beckett was a from the Literary and Debating Shaw, Wilde, Yeats, Synge, Joyce, great man, who wrote Waiting for Society of University College Dublin down to John McGahern, Dermot Godot and lived in France. Sure in a longish off-white, arty coat; a Bolger, Colm Tobin, Philip Casey, or everyone knows that!’ substantial off-red, untidy beard, and Roddy Doyle who is not at all sure This ‘new’ Irishman takes himself with a portable typewriter dangling we are still a great literary nation. so, so seriously. I know it’s easy to over his right shoulder to complete Perhaps Roddy is right! If attendance generalise, to sound like our fathers, the package of new Joyce on the at readings in Dublin is anything to but really! He’s seems to expend European Circuit. go by, writers are a dying race. his energy on trying to be part of it We worked at the same language But it’s not quite so simple. all- to fit in, in the worst possible school, albeit in separate rooms, Nothing can come of nothing, I way. I’ll stick my neck out: this until one day about six months later, know, but there are many writers individual seems to have no respect Billy announced he was heading for alive and well, even as I sit. The for tomfoolery or compulsive lying Italy, for the sun, for inspiration to experience of writing, reading - that’s the great sin! write the definitive European novel. and telling stories is a strange and Our great poet-prophet and A night out with Billy was a blessing beautiful practice. They defy the principal celebrant, Joyce, took us in a world where knowledge does rules of lines and lawnmowers and on a pilgrimage across Europe with

55 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009

Dublin as the subject matter of all his Gone are the days of scruples and Elegy to the memory of my school pal New Religion: ‘to forge in the smithy impure thoughts. Only a ‘good’ Tommy Keenan, Ardminane, Killavil, of my soul the uncreated conscience Catholic can fully appreciate the who died on November 2nd 1931. of my race.’ ‘I will not serve.’ powerful, dramatic response your By Denis Killoran, Harristown, Ballymote. On the other hand, John McGahern, body was capable of when sitting who was sacked, from his job as on a bench waiting for Confession. Our homes are sad and drear to-day, primary teacher by the Bishop, Twitching legs and eyelashes took on Our hearts with grief are sore, For one we loved has passed away, felt privileged to have been part of a life of their own. Nerves, it must Alas, to see no more. the ritual, candles and incense of a have been, or something like that. childhood in Ireland. ‘I never left the It was cruel when you were the last It was when dull November came, Church. It left me’ in the long line of penitents, afraid November chill and bare, He did leave for a time, but the priest might recognise you as he Beside his bedside we knelt down, returned with a foreign wife. A left the box. There was, however, To offer up a prayer. foreign wife was the last straw. The one consolation in having to wait In peaceful sleep in silent grave, Bishop had to sack him to set an so long: you could almost always Dear Tom you lie to-day, example. guess what people had been up to by With mother meek, and father dear, By the way, I have just read his the length of time they spent doing You’re clasped beneath the clay. Memoir, again and couldn’t leave it penance, afterwards. This was useful down, again. He can repeat his story information. I’m sure the girls felt The Lord have mercy on his soul, as often as he likes, as far as I’m the same. Therapists were unheard The prayer I always hear, When speaking to your once sad pals, concerned. of.…………………………………. And neighbours kind and dear. After Last Mass a few Sundays ago, ‘A man, I am thinking of myself, Mary McHale dropped into James innocently dabbles in words and In sorrow deep I pen these lines, Burke, the butcher, to buy a chicken. rhymes and finds they have become a Sad thoughts do come to me, They greeted each other cordially in way of life’ - Patrick Kavanagh. Our schooldays, oh! Those happy times, the empty shop and agreed the new I left Ireland to ‘dabble in words When we from care were free. curate was a bit strange, but he could and rhymes’ among Germans at No more as comrades we shall meet, be worse. a time when coming home was No more your laugh shall ring, ‘I’ll have a chicken, James.’ ‘Right, expensive. It was a good decision. I No more as pals to mass will go, Mary,’ said James going into the learned to become a friend of people Or in the choir sing. cold-room and appearing again with and some of them became friends of a chicken. He noted it was his last mine. I became less sure of my next Ardminane no more you’ll climb, one. move and that’s healthy. I take my Nor roam Killavil’s dales, ‘There you are, Mary ... a nice stories with me and the poet in me No more you’ll see Keash Corran’s hills, Nor Harristown’s green vales. bird.’ has a special place. ‘You haven’t anything bigger, I Recently I found a pair of hobnail For God ordained that you should go, suppose?’ boots under the stairs of our old To his bright throne above, Without further comment, James house in Cill Aodáin, and a turf To leave this land of sin and woe, took the chicken back into the barrow in the shed. The finding, in For his great land of love. cold-room, roughed it up a bit and itself, was not all that special. The You led a good and holy life, returned. ‘How about this one, fact that I became all happy and While in this vale of tears, Mary?’ excited gave me something to think A model in this earthly strife, There was silence for a moment as about. For twenty one short years. Mary seemed to consider. ‘I’ll tell Terry McDonagh, poet and dramatist, you what, James. I’ll take the two.’ has published four collections of God’s will be done for he knows when, There was nobody under thirty in poetry; a play; a book of letters and To call us to his throne, the pub when that yarn was being a novel and poetry for children. To that bright throne where angels sing, Beyond the starry dome. told. They would have been too busy His work has been translated into discussing property at dinner parties. Indonesian and German, funded I kneel and pray each day, Irish artists don’t really leave home, by Ireland Literature Exchange. I hope we meet once more, anymore. But can the ‘native strain’, With piper Diarmaid Moynihan, When here my life has passed away, that grew out of Anglo Ireland and he completes the poet/piper duo, And all my troubles o’er. the Irish language and which fed into Raithneach. Twelve of his poems the pens of so many, continue in a have been put to music by German Adieu, Adieu, a long farewell, I pray that God on high, country of alarming levels of obesity composer, Eberhard Reichel. Cill May have you with his angels dwell, and grovelling up and down to the Aodáin and Nowhere Else, illustrated For evermore---GOOD BYE. fortunes of the Euro? by artist Sally McKenna, is due in Sin is gone! I can’t believe it. It 2008. Published in Old Moore’s Almanac, 1932. used to such an interesting topic. Copied by P.J. Duffy, August, 2003

56 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 The Will of Archdeacon Terence O’Rorke, 1819-1907 Supplied by Martin A Timoney

The life of Archdeacon and I give each of them the sum of distribution to the Rectors at the time Terence O’Rorke, 1819-1907, Twenty Pounds in token of my regard of my decease of the said Parishes, a was summarised by the author and to remember me in their Prayers. provision which is added in order, to (Timoney 2005-2006, with I give to my executors the carry out the principles of even handed references)1. His will is interesting sum of Forty Pounds to be applied dealings with the denominations a in that it records, among many by them for the benefit of the poor principle too often violated in the family and religious connections, Protestant and Catholic of the said County of Sligo. the existence of his now-dispersed Parishes of Ballisodare and Kilvarnet, I give to my executors the extensive library, his non-religious the proportion falling according to their sum of Seventeen Pounds ten shillings investments and his investment numbers to Protestants to be handed for which I direct them to pay over in for a greater life hereafter. One wonders why he should have felt it necessary to secure so many masses considering his almost sixty-one years of dedicated ministry and the production of four volumes, one of them of religious sermons. We do not know if there was an earlier will. The typewritten copy of the will, made four years before O’Rorke’s death, was provided to me by the late James P. McGarry, Ll.B., of Collooney who lived for many years opposite the house that Archdeacon O’Rorke lived in from 1854 to 1907.

The last Will and Testament of Terence O’Rorke of Collooney in the County of Sligo The 4th day of May 1903

In the name of God Amen – This is the last Will and Testament of me, Terence O’Rorke of Collooney in the County of Sligo, Parish Priest of Ballisodare and Kilvarnet and Archdeacon of the Diocese of Achonry. I hereby revoke all former wills and testamentary dispositions made by me. I bequeath my soul to God begging Him in his infinite Mercy and through the Saving Merits of Jesus Christ to have it in his holy keeping. I desire my body to be buried in front of Our Lady’s Chapel in the Church of the Assumption, Collooney and as close to the Altar rails on the outside as the Bishop of the said Diocese of Achonry at the time of my decease may deem fitting. Fr. Liam Swords, Historian of the Diocese of Achonry, at the memorial to I appoint my beloved nephew Archdeacon Terence O’Rorke erected in 1911 in Collooney church over Michael O’Rorke of Ballisodare and my good friend and Curate the Rev. his burial place. The occasion was Fr. Swords’ lecture on O’Rorke to Sligo Henry Dillon executors of this my will Field Club in November 2007. Photo: Martin A. Timoney

57 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 equal portions to the seven eldest of two or three months before the taking and assortment of objects de piete my Confreres on the Mission in the in of the compositions. including Catechisms, Prayer Books, said Diocese of Achonry namely: Rev. Commending myself to the Beads, Scapulars, Medals, etc. I take P. McDonald, Canon Loftus, Dean prayers of the good Nuns I give the occasion to record my opinion that Staunton, Canon O’Hara, Cannon sum of Ten Pounds to the Superioress the business in question conduces not Lowry, Rev. P Mulligan, (P.P. of for the time being of each of the a little to the benefit of religion in the Curry) and Rev. D. O’Grady with the Achonry Diocesan Convents situated neighbourhood. obligation on each of them of saying respectively at Ballaghaderreen, The foregoing pecuniary five masses for my intention within one Banada, Foxford, Swinford, Ballymote bequests are to be paid out of the month after my decease and I request and Tubbercurry And I give a like sum proceeds of the sales of the shares I that these masses may be offered up of Ten Pounds each to the Superioress hold in the Great Northern Railway of publicly in such Church or Churches for the time being of the Convent of Ireland. in Ireland as my said Confreres may Mercy Sligo, The Convent of Mercy I give all my interest in the select. I give to the Bishop for the time Ballina and the Convent of Mercy house I occupy including my furniture being of the said Diocese of Achonry Summerhill, Athlone. and effects inside and outside my said the sum of Forty Pounds for Masses In token of my special house and the piece of land I hold to for my intention; the Masses for two- affection for Collooney I give to the my nephew James O’Rorke. thirds of this sum to be said by my Bishop for the time being of the said Referring to the residue of my brother Priests of the said Diocese of Diocese of Achonry and the Parish assets including the proceeds of the Achonry (the honorarium to be five Priest for the time being of the said Policy of Assurance on my life with the shillings for each Mass) and to be Parishes of Ballisodare and Kilvarnet “Life Association of Scotland” I direct offered up publicly in such Church or the sum of Thirty Pounds upon trust it to be divided into two equal parts Churches in Ireland as the said Bishop to be invested by them in their joint one moiety to be handed to the Bishop may direct And as to the remaining names in the Post Office Savings of the said Diocese of Achonry to be one-third of the said sum of Forty Bank or other Government Security, employed by him at his discretion in Pounds for Masses for my intention to the interest to be annually drawn and the interests of religion in the Parishes be offered up by the Priests of the Irish employed in providing prizes for the of Ballisodare and Kilvarnet and College Paris, or such other priests as pupils of the Camphill Schools under of the other moiety I desire Twenty the Superior of that College may select the management for the time being of Pounds to be given to the Parish for the duty (the honorarium in this the Parish Priest of the said Parishes. Priest for the time being of the said case also to be five shillings for each I give my Library containing Parishes of Ballisodare and Kilvarnet mass) And I request my good Bishop about Five thousand Volumes to for a Benediction Service including a to arrange this matter with the Superior the Most Rev. John Lyster or other Harmonium for Corhownagh Church, of the said Irish College. Besides the the Bishop for the time being of the Twenty Pounds to be given to my Masses above mentioned I request said Diocese of Achonry and his nephew John O’Rorke of Australia, the following: Ten by the Bishop (the successors upon trust to make such Twenty Pounds to my nephew honorarium to be Two Pounds for arrangements regarding the Volumes John Joseph O’Hara of Coolaney, each Mass) and five by each of my as shall conduce to their safe keeping Twenty Pounds to my niece Mary Curates at the time of my decease (the and greater usefulness. A carefully Ann Williams of America, Twenty honorarium to be One Pound for each prepared Alphabetical Catalogue would Pounds to my niece Teresa Williams of Mass) And I request that these Masses contribute much towards the attainment America and the balance to be given to shall be offered up publicly in such of this object and should I be unable the Bishop of the Diocese of Achonry Church or Churches in Ireland as the to draw it up as is most likely an for Masses to be said for my intention said Bishop may direct. experienced hand from Dublin or the masses to be offered up in public I give to my Executors the elsewhere should be employed to do and the honorarium to be five shillings sum of Twenty Pounds to defray the the work. I wish these volumes to for each Mass. expenses of my funeral. be shelved apart from all others and In Witness whereof I have I give to my Executors the to be called either “The Collooney hereunto set my hand to this my last sum of Twenty Pounds to be applied by Collection” or “Archdeacon O’Rorke’s will the 4th day of May 1903. them in erecting some memorial of me Collection” and so designated on an – T. O’Rorke – in the said Church of the Assumption adjoining fixed and letter slab of some Signed by the said Testator as his last Collooney such as the Bishop of the kind. Will in the presence of us both being said Diocese of Achonry at the time of I give to my said nephew present at the same time who in his my decease may approve. Michael O’Rorke the sum of Two presence and in the presence of each I give to the Bishop for the hundred Pounds as he received other have hereunto subscribed our time being of the said Diocese of comparatively little under his father’s names as witnesses. Achonry the Sum of Forty Pounds to Will. be invested according to his discretion I give to James Gallagher Michael Rooney, National and to apply the annual interest or the sum of Twenty Pounds for special Teacher, Collooney dividend arising therefrom in providing service during my illness. Henry Rooney, National Teacher, for the pupils in the Diocesan College I give to Catherine Martin Collooney. of the said Diocese of Achonry an of Collooney the sum of Twenty annual prize for the best English Essay Pounds to aid her in her present 1Timoney, Martin A., “Terence on a subject to be announced by the business of bringing within reach O’Rorke, 1819-1907”, The Corran Head of the College for the time being of the Parishioners of proper supply Herald, No 38, 38-39.

58 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 Castledargan Golf Course Fairway Names Martin A. Timoney

Dermot and Bríd Fallon developed The final eighteen are given paths through flowers and herbs and the former McDonagh, Ormsby and here in their chronological order, the other was once filled with fruit latterly Hosie lands at Castledargan as opposed to playing order. The bushes. into a golf course from 1999 onwards. fairways have been named in relation Drumnascoille Megalith (6th Fairway): As Patrick Merrigan designed, to where players are going towards, The Ormsbys built the folly megalithic adjusted and reshaped the eighteen generally speaking. tomb here on Drumnascoille Hill. fairways that were to become the Queen Maeve (14th Fairway): Yeats’ Retreat (10th Fairway): The 21st century landscape that is now Misgaún Maedhbha cairn, a Neolithic poet William Butler Yeats visited his maturing as Castledargan Golf Course passage tomb on Knocknarea, is Ormsby cousins at Castledargan. he heard many mini-lectures on visible through the gap in the Ox Mts. Brawling Squireens (17th Fairway): the archaeology and history of this from many parts of the course but Yeats once described his Ormsby landscape steeped in past settlement particularly as you come up the 14th. cousins here as Brawling Squireens. from this author. One day, half in jest Southern Henge (12th Fairway): This Middleton’s Mortgage (7th Fairway): I think, he suggested that I name the rare circular earthen henge earthwork William Middleton mortgaged eighteen fairways having regard to may be 6,000 years old. Castledargan for a short period, 1875 what I was saying. Dermot Fallon Inky, Pod and Gin (Practice holes in to 1882. agreed and what seemed a simple the Bell Field): Special stones marked Northern Line (13th Fairway): The process began. It was easy to name the burial places in the Western Sligo, Leitrim and Northern Counties a dozen or so of the fairways but one Walled Garden of pets, Inky, Pod and Railway linked Collooney to or two always proved difficult to find Gin. One, possibly two, of these were Enniskillen from 1879 to 1957. a justifiable name for. Following re-used prehistoric saddle querns that Hosie’s View (1st Fairway): The Hosie several drafts eighteen names were may have come from some of the family, here from 1883 to 1998, were finally approved. waterside fireplaces, burnt spreads the last family before the golf course Hopefully all of the names to the archaeologists, that were and hotel. applied to the fairways of Castledargan discovered during the construction of Merrigan’s Purgatory (11th Fairway): will be seen as reflecting the the course. This punishing hole is dedicated archaeology and history of this part Souterrain (9th Fairway): A souterrain, to Patrick Merrigan, golf course of Co. Sligo, a part gaining rapidly in for storage and safe hiding during the architect. publicity due to its newly developed Early Christian Period, was discovered Clarke’s Marathon (15th Fairway): golf course, even if some of the names in the hill here. This hole is dedicated to Ryder Cup are gentle attempts at poking fun at McDonagh’s Castle (2nd Fairway): hero Darren Clarke. those most recently involved. Castledargan Castle was built in Fallon’s Punishment (18th Fairway): Some names and features 1422 by Conor MacDonagh, Lord of Castledargan Golf Course was which failed to make the final cut Collooney. developed between 1998 and 2005 by were Two Ringforts, Eastern Avenue, Castle Field (16th Fairway): This large Dermot & Bríd Fallon. Fallen Stones, Lake Harbour and Lake field takes its longtime name from that Bell Field: There was a bell near here Quay; Squireen’s Purgatory, Yeats’ castle. for calling the workers from the land. Valley and Valley’s End all failed on Kileenduff Road (5th Fairway): The being not quite right. The overall old road through Killeenduff crossed name of the townland is Castledargan the course just west of the Castle Further Reading but the hotel and golf course are Field. Ó Corráin, Donnchadh, 1992: “A now called Castle Dargan, a subtle Avenue Gates (4th Fairway): The tall Future for Irish Placenames”, distinction. We toyed with using two gate pillars at the start of the Eastern in Ó Maolfabhail 1992, 33- quotes, Golf is a good walk, spoiled Avenue are possibly 17th century 45. from Mark Twain and Golf is a day in date. It seems that settlement Ó Maolfabhail, Art, ed., 1992: The spent in a round of strenuous idleness continued in the area around the castle Placenames of Ireland in the from William Wordsworth. into the mid-19th century. Third Millennium, Dublin, In The Corran Herald No. Ormsby’s Ha Ha (8th Fairway): The Ordnance Survey of Ireland 38, Pat E. O’Brien discussed the Ormsbys, here from 1666 to 1883, for Placenames Commission. old placenames of Castledargan, a beautified the demesne and established O’Brien, Patrick E., 2005-2006: “Some townland east of Ballygawley, Co. a ha ha outside the front lawn. Recorded Old Placenames of Sligo. These placenames have long Walled Gardens (3rd Fairway): They Castledargan”, The Corran historical standing having developed developed walled gardens south of Herald, 38, 13-16. over generations. the Castle. One had geometrical © Martin A. Timoney, 27/5/2008

59 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 A Find of Rock Crystal at Ballincar, Co. Sligo Martin A. Timoney

During the second phase of pre- ditches are interrupted by causeways, 4,000-3,700 BC. There are three related development testing, License 04E0538, hence their archaeological name, or timber enclosures known from Ireland, for a proposed housing development gaps where the soil was not dug out Lyles Hill in Antrim, Thornhill in Derry in Ballincar, Grid 1686.3377, on the and which provided easy access to and Knowth in Meath, but these are not North side of the inner East end of the interior through these gaps. The causewayed enclosures. Sligo Bay, two objects, a flint blade soil from the ditches was usually piled Sixty-nine examples of causewayed and a piece of rock crystal, were found inside the ditches to form a bank. enclosures are known from Britain, in disturbed topsoil about 5 m apart. Over the passage of centuries natural mainly in south and central England, These were both spotted glistening in erosion and farming practices leveled with examples on Anglesey, Isle of Man the sunlight. During a third phase of monuments of this type and they are and Cumbria. All these are later than testing two possible gneiss pounding only discovered through excavation, the recently discovered causewayed stones, one much less convincing that aerial photography or geophysical enclosure at Maugheraboy1. They are the other, were found in the general examination of the ground. known on the Continent where they area of the other two finds. These two Interpretation of these causewayed begin as early as 5,000 BC. See Mercer stones stood out from the generality of enclosures is that they are communal (1990) and Bradley (2007, 69-77) for stones in this soil. Despite intensive searching no context for the four finds was established and there were no other archaeological discoveries in these three fields.

The Ballincar Finds The rock crystal measures 42 mm long and 19.5 mm by 11.5 mm in width. The butt-end is light brown while the rest of the piece is multifaceted and transparent. The flint flake is 33.5 mm long, 15.5 mm wide and 5.5 mm thick. Its surface is now white. The pounding stone is 112 mm long and 67 mm by 48 mm in girth; one butt end has been damaged through use while the other end has been broken off in antiquity. The ‘unconvincing possible pounding stone’ measures 94 mm by 69 mm by 60 mm; I doubt if it would have been picked up if it had been found first, its geological similarity to the first was all that drew my attention to it. The 42 mm long multifaceted and transparent rock crystal, and the 33.5 The general assessment from many mm long flint flake from Ballincar, Co Sligo. Scan: Martin A Timoney colleagues is that the flint flake is either Early Neolithic or Early Mesolithic, the ritual or ceremonial sites or settlement further details on these monuments. latter being the preferred dating. sites. They date to the Early Neolithic, beginning about 6,000 years ago, and Magheraboy Causewayed Enclosure Causewayed Enclosures until 2003 only one definitive one, Excavations on the County Extension A causewayed enclosure is a large Donegore Hill in Antrim, was known in of the Sligo Inner Relief Road in enclosed area, sub-circular or ovalish, Ireland. Donegore has been estimated 2003 revealed a great wealth of thirty formed by one or more roughly as functioning for between 300 and 900 rich archaeological sites. One was concentric rings of ditches. These years of occupation beginning about the newly discovered Early Neolithic

60 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 causewayed enclosure (Danaher 2007, gravels of Co. Sligo. Timoney discussed ways of capturing 89-127) at Magheraboy on the South Quartz crystals are distinctively like a proper image of the Ballincar finds side of Sligo city. This 2.02 ha (5 the working end of a lead pencil while with me. To these I tender my thanks. acres) archaeological site was on the the Ballincar and Maugheraboy rock To those and other archaeologists and last ridge before passing northwards by crystals do not have distinct geometric geologists I simply say that this article, Summerhill College. This location is shapes. To me the feel of the Ballincar while providing some information, is four km to the south of Ballincar. rock crystal is distinctly different intended to provoke further research The Magheraboy causewayed to that of quartz crystals. To Early into rock crystal in north Connacht. enclosure probably dates to 4,150- Neolithic peoples there may have been 3,935 BC (Danaher 2007, passim). It is at the extremity of the European distribution. Most surprisingly, this earliest causewayed enclosure in these islands is at the western extremity of the distribution. Bradley (2007, 69- 77) was written before the Magheraboy causewayed camp had been publicized. The Maugheraboy causewayed enclosure overlooks the intense spread of great megalithic tombs sweeping from Barnabrack at Beltra along the Ox Mts. and from Knocknarea through Carrowmore to Cairns Hill to Abbeyquarter North, all south of the Garvoge and Sligo Bay. The nearest tomb would have been the so-called Sligo Stones, a probable Carrowmore- type passage tomb, that was near the Four pieces of quartz from Magheraboy, Co Sligo. Photo by Jonathan back entrance to St. John’s graveyard. Hession, courtesy of Michael McDonagh of the National Roads Authority Its position on the high ridge looks west, south and east across the landscape no difference! Research is needed into Further Reading of these tombs. Significantly it also the geological source of both types in Bradley, Richard, 2007: The Prehistory of Britain looks northwards across the inner end Sligo, though importation is always a and Ireland, Cambridge, Cambridge University of Sligo Bay towards Lisnalurg where possibility. Press. there is a henge monument and a linear Non-Context of Ballincar Finds Danaher, Ed, 2007: Monumental Beginning, The earthwork, both thought to be Neolithic There were several finds of modern Archaeology of the N4 Inner Relief Road, Dublin, in date. Yet, it is generally accepted that glass, crockery, etc., in the soil of the National Roads Authority. it pre-dates the tomb building phase of Ballincar field which was an orchard, McDermott, C.V., Long, C.B., and Harney, S.J., the Neolithic. at least in the 1950s, though today the 1996: A Geological Description of Sligo, Leitrim, trees are all gone. The possibility arises and Adjoining Parts of Cavan, Fermanagh, Mayo Magheraboy Rock Crystal that these finds came with the discarded and Roscommon, to Accompany the Bedrock Geology Within the Magheraboy causewayed modern material from the adjacent ?17th 1:100,000 Scale Map Series, Sheet 7, Sligo-Leitrim, enclosure a deposit of 31 similar pieces or 18th century house in the adjacent with Contributions by K. Claringbold, D. Daly, R. of collected rock crystal were found 32-acre Rosmullen part of this townland Meehan and G. Stanley, Dublin, Geological Survey partially encircling a mudstone axe as depicted on the 1771 George Hillas of Ireland. (Danaher 2007, 93, 103, 104, 113-114, map for Owen Wynne, NLI Ms 750,14, Mercer, Roger, 1990: Causewayed Enclosures, Pl. 6.17; CD: Area 2C, Plate 29). area 6. This suggestion is prompted by Princes Risborough, Shire. These are called prismatic quartz the absence, after thorough site testing, Timoney, Martin A., 2005: “Ballincar, Co. Sligo”, crystals in the report on Magheraboy. of any context to attribute the finds to. Excavations Bulletin 2004, 385, No. 1492. Yet I am calling the same type of Timoney, Martin A., 2008: “Ballincar, Co. Sligo”, piece from Ballincar rock crystal. To Acknowledgements: Seamus and Excavations Bulletin 2006, forthcoming. me they are the same material. Rock Patricia O’Dowd financed the test Timoney, Martin A., 2009: “Ballincar, Co. Sligo”, crystal, a substance with a slightly excavations Prof. Peter Woodman, Excavations Bulletin 2007, forthcoming. warmer greasy feel, is geologically rare Michael McDonagh, Richard Crumlish in Co. Sligo; quartz crystal, either in and many others have discussed the pure, near pure or milky form is easily rock crystal with me. Ed Danaher 1 Magheraboy, often as if Maugheraboy, is a 327 acre come by. This find of rock crystal was was provided with details of the townland that stretches from Market St. almost as far my first, as opposed to finds of quartz, Ballincar finds. Phil Foley provided as Knocknarea Villas and down to Ballyfree. Most in almost forty years of fieldwalking me with the Bradley (2007) reference people think of it as the road from Church Hill out as and examining the quarries, soils and to causewayed enclosures. Catherine far as Knocknarea Villas.

61 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 John Ormsby Cooke of Kilturra House, Co. Sligo Dr. Kieran Cooke

Sir Robert Meredyth M.P. for Boyle Reference must be made at this 1613 point to the time when “The Church Temporalities Commissioners” put A son Robert Meredyth, died 1675, their land for sale adjoining the married Francis French of Sessue Kilturra estate. Fears amongst the Common locals were that others with known interest in the property might acquire A son Francis Meredyth, died 1719, it. However, on the day of the sale in In his book ‘The Irish and Anglo- married Miss Ormsby of Willow March 1873 in Dublin, John Ormsby Irish Landed Gentry’, John O Harte Brooke Cooke did indeed purchase the estate, much to the delight of the locals.4 On gives us a detailed account 1 of John Ormsby Cooke’s ancestry, A son Henry Meredyth married his return from Dublin, he was met at stating that he descends from one Celia Napier, daughter of James Bunnanadden by blazing bonfires and John Cooke of Painstown (Oak Park), Napier and Miss Cooper of Markree a welcoming party; the little town Co. Carlow. This John Cooke, who was brilliantly illuminated. When was an Officer in a Regiment of Mr. Cooke was nearing his home, the Horse in the Army of King James II, A daughter Bridget Meredyth married horses were unyoked and stalwart firstly to Mr. Duggan, and secondly, arms drew the carriage to the avenue with his brothers, took up arms “for 2 faith and sovereign”, and so warmly in 1798, to Charles Cooke , son of where happy and loving tenants espoused the cause of King James, Thomas Cooke and Anne Irwin of hoisted him on their shoulders, and that, in grateful recognition of their Muckleta, who themselves married in carried him in triumph to the very devotion to him, His Majesty granted 1770. centre of the homestead hall. Here an to them the style and title forever old tenant of 75 years of age, sat on a “The Cookes of the Cavaliers”. It is not uncommon to find in chair and sang a song of welcome. records, a maternal surname carried The following are a few stanzas The family estates in Carlow and 5 elsewhere were confiscated because on as a christian name of a child or from “The Song of Kilturra” , of their adherence to the cause of grandchild, as is the case of John portraying a description that would King James. John Cooke, after the Ormsby Cooke. John Ormsby Cooke not be usual of landlords of the times. Battle of Aughrim (12 July 1691), was born in 1844, the eldest of settled in Connacht, where he and eleven children, to Thomas Cooke of Three cheers for our landlord and his descendents married into some of Tubbercurry, son of Charles Cooke long may he reign the most respectable families of that and Catherine Mc Gettrick, daughter Mr. John Ormsby, it’s his honour, I province. John Cooke’s brothers went of Bartholomew Mc Gettrick and mean to France with the “Wild Geese” after Mary King of Moylough House. He is well liked in the country, in the Siege of Limerick (December Little is written or known of his early every degree 1691), where one, Matthew Cooke, life, except that he was well travelled For nursing his tenants, no better can an officer in the Royal Regiment and educated abroad, including Paris be. of Footguards, is detailed by University. O’Callaghan in his ‘History of the The earliest reference to John His honour he springs from a noble Irish Brigades in the Service of Ormsby Cooke is when his aunt, race France’, died in 1740. John Cooke Mary Mc Gettrick, inherited Kilturra His actions all show that this is the settled in Co. Sligo and a look at his House in 1857, on the death of her case genealogy shows that indeed he and father Bartholomew, invites him back To the poor he’s a friend, so good and his descendents married well in Co. from London to take over Kilturra. so kind Sligo i.e. The Lynch’s, O’Dowd’s, At this time, the estate was known His equal in Ireland I’m sure you’ll Irwin’s, Meredyth’s, Bret’s, Henry’s to have 348 acres. According to De not find. and Mc Gettrick’s. In order to Berg’s ‘The Landowners of Ireland’, explain the appearance of “Ormsby” John Ormsby Cooke was recorded to He sprang from the Coopers of riches in the name John Ormsby Cooke, be in ownership of Kilturra House, and fame I include here, a portion of the consisting of a total of 424 Acres, the And the Ormsbys too, of good race Meredyth family tree. This excerpt Annual Rateable value of which was and name also explains later in this article, £86. He was also in ownership of 12 The Phibbes, the Irwins, and the acres of land in Co. Carlow, with an Meredyths of old lines from the song “The Ballad of 3 Kilturra”. Annual Rateable value of £20. It Who were royally sprung and had would appear that he was well liked silver and gold. by his staff, tenants and neighbours. 62 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009

Cooke’s tombstone (died in 1722) in mistreated by them per Pat Coen Oak Park, Co. Carlow. whose father actually worked for In his lifetime, John Ormsby John Ormsby Cooke and later, after Cooke, who was a Grand Juror, a No photographs of John Ormsby John Ormsby’s death, he acquired a County Magistrate for Sligo, and a holding of land from the Irish Land benevolent landlord, erected a stone Commission, including the very site to his grandfather, Bartholomew where Kilturra House once stood. McGettrick, at Kilturra Well, named John Ormsby Cooke returned to “Toberaraght”, which was opposite Kilturra House and lived out his life his house (See map) there; again, little is written of this time. He died unmarried, aged 80 years, on the 21st of July 1924, at 4 Richmond Terrace, Meath Road, Bray, Co. Wicklow. His place of burial has not yet been located. Cooke have survived, but there is one of his brother, Edward Ormsby “A kindly and benevolent Landlord” Cooke, and of his premises in Tubbercurry, shown below. Also, at the well is an early Christian Edward Walford, in his publication slab which John Ormsby Cooke exhibited at the Dublin Exhibition of 1907. He was obviously interested in antiquities, and was a member of the Association for the Preservation of the Memorials of the Dead in Ireland, publishers of JAPMOI. He Acknowledgements was well disposed to the Catholic For the content of the above article, the source material Church, the beautiful Rose Window was drawn on from several authors and interviews, and acknowledgements are made to them in the subsequent over the alter in Bunninadden church, list. Sincere apologies are made should there be any in memory of the Cookes of Kiturra, omissions. can be attributed to John Ormsby Mary B. Timoney – Had Me Made. Cooke, as can the equally beautiful Mary B. and Martin A. Timoney – Verbal information and references private chapel in the Marist Convent J.C. Mc Donagh – MSS. Vol 10 and others in Tubbercurry, be attributed to his J.F. Quinn – Western People Newspaper Article brother, Edmund Ormsby Cooke (See John O’Harte – The Irish and Anglo-Irish Landed Plaque). Gentry. John Ormsby Cooke’s first cousin, John O’Callaghan – History of the Irish Brigades in the Service of France Edward Walford – The Country Families of the United Kingdom Terence O’Rorke – History of Sligo, Town and County De Berg – The Landowners of Ireland, 1878 Wood-Martin – History of Sligo Crawford – JAMPDI, 1908 Pat Coen – Interview 2007 Oliver Flannery, MSPI – information and photographs Sr. Alveras – Marist Convent Centenary Celebration Fr. Mark Cooke, was administrator Journal Sligo Independent Article of 29 March 1873 in Keash Parish from 1870 to 1887, The General Valuation of Rateable Property in Ireland dying there at the age of 44 years; 1848-1864 he is buried in the parish church in Keash. It is worth noting that the ancestors of the Cookes had 1 Henry Meredyth’s great-great-grandfather was Sir their lands in Ullard, Co. Carlow, Robert Meredyth MP.P for Boyle. This information is confiscated for the cause of their faith from the writings of J.C. Mc Donagh MSS. by the Williamites. 2 Charles Cooke was John Ormsby Cooke’s grandfather. 3 De Berg ‘The Landowners of Ireland’ 1878 The Cooke Crest illustrates an ‘The Country Families of the United 4 J.F. Quinn, article from the Western People 7 ostrich with a horseshoe in its mouth, Kingdom’ , lists John Ormsby Cooke newspaper examples of which are to be found and his father, Thomas Cooke of 5 Report in the Sligo Independent 29 March 1873. on the grave monument of John Kilturra, and formerly of Wells Co. 6 Photograph of Cooke Crest, found on the grave monument of Edward Ormsby Cooke, Tubbercurry Ormsby Cooke’s father in Kitlurra, Carlow, where some property was 7 Edward Walford MA, ‘The Country Families of the and on the grave monument of his retained and where John Ormsby United Kingdom’, 1860 brother, Edward Ormsby Cooke, in lived in 18838, and possibly during 8 John O’Harte, ‘The Irish and Anglo-Irish Landed Tubbercurry6, shown below. This the unrest of the Land League. Gentry same crest is also found on William There is verbal evidence that he was

63 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 Coola castle William Gregory correction Wood-Martin, Sligo Martin A Timoney

The incomplete illustration of the Antiquarian, in 1897 plan of Coola castle was included in the article “Some Notes on Martin A Timoney Coola, Drumcondra, Dunfore and Tanrego Castles, Co. Sligo”, The Col. William Gregory Corran Herald, 40 (2007-2008), Wood-Martin, 1847-1917, Sligo 41-43. The isolated pieces are historian, Irish antiquarian and vertical sections down through author, proudly dressed in the the gun loops and their positions uniform of Aide-de-Camp and are indicated on the plan. There wearing a Queen Victoria’s are four of Type A, which have a Diamond Jubilee Medal of 1897. stepped roof, while there are three This photo was discovered of Type B, which have a slanted by Linda Mary Wood-Martin at roof, in the three surviving walls. Woodville in late November 2007 Z is where wall footing only is to on the day that the most recent be seen and X is the curvature in illustrated and well referenced the inner face of the wall for the account of him, “William Gregory stairs. Wood-Martin, Sligo Antiquarian, Some Notes and Images”, J. Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 136 (2006), 157-170, went to press; a much shortened version of that article was published as “Many Strings to Wood-Martin’s Bow” some weeks later in The Sligo Champion, November 21, 2007. See also John C. McTernan’s At The Foot of Knocknarea, A Chronicle of Coolera in Bygone Days (1990) and his Worthies of Sligo, Profiles of Eminent Sligonians of Other Days (1994), Aideen M., Ireland, “Colonel William Gregory Wood-Martin, Sligo Antiquary, 1847-1917”, J. Irish Archaeol., 10(2001), 1-11 and John Waddell’s Foundation Myths, The Beginnings of Irish Archaeology (2005).

64 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 Luttrell’s Map of Sligo, 1689: a thoroughly modern view! Eoin Halpin

The years of the 17th century were the face of an approaching Jacobite instead for building an unconventional turbulent with the English Civil War force under the command of Patrick and somewhat archaic sow, a form and the later campaign for the English Sarsfield, abandoned Sligo without a of siege tower. The assault failed Crown spilling across Ireland. Many fight and fled for Derry, which they miserably with the defenders towns were inevitably marked by these believed was more defensible. destroying the tower with cannon. events and Sligo was no exception. Major military building projects were undertaken in and around the town: a new encircling earthen defensive work, the building of a Stone Fort on the site of the old derelict medieval castle and the construction of a star-shaped fort, the Green Fort, overlooking the town. The money for the construction of the Stone Fort on the site of the old de Burgo castle was allotted by Parliament in 1646. The role of this fort, like the medieval castle before it, was defensive and it was positioned to command the river crossing immediately to the east, i.e., just downriver of the present th Fig 1. Luttrell’s map of Sligo, 1689 (From Wood-Martin, History of Sligo, Hyde Bridge. By the 17 century James II to 1688). this location had a major strategic weakness; it was very exposed to artillery placed on the nearby hill of Following this exodus, James II Lacking firepower and ideas, Sarsfield Rathvritoge as can be seen by those appointed Col. Henry Luttrell as settled down to starve the defenders driving down Connaughton Rd. To Governor of Sligo and he carried out out. Fortunately for the Jacobites, address this weakness a state of the art, a survey of the town’s improved and the town had not been properly re- star shaped fort was built on the hill. re-trenched defenses. From March supplied and the defenders capitulated The star shaped fort became known as to August 1689 Sligo was used after three days and were granted safe the Green Fort and was probably also as a base for the Jacobite siege of passage to Ballyshannon. built in 1646. This strategic site with Enniskillen. Following their defeat Before Sarsfield left Sligo, he panoramic views may well have been at Enniskillen, and with rumours of a ordered the repair of the two forts, and the location of a ring fort, as the old superior Williamite force advancing, the enclosing of the town with earthen townland name suggests, built almost the Jacobites abandoned Sligo. defences including the locating of a a millennium earlier in the early In late October, a much larger redoubt on the northern approaches. medieval period. Jacobite force under the command of In May 1690 Sir Teague O’Regan, Sligo was heavily involved in the late- Patrick Sarsfield laid siege to Sligo a hunchbacked veteran of Charles 17th century Irish war for the English town. The Green Fort was evacuated II’s campaigns on the Continent, was Crown between William of Orange by its garrison without a fight, under appointed Governor of Sligo. He and James II. The town was initially the command of Col. Thomas Lloyd, made the Green Fort his headquarters, held by pro-Williamites in early 1689, but Sarsfield considered his artillery as he felt that the Stone Fort occupied who formed into troops of infantry insufficient to beach the walls of the a more vulnerable defensive position, and cavalry. In March 1689 they, in Stone Fort and supposedly opted and oversaw the strengthening of the

65 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 fortifications. whose army he commanded a troop discovered. The Battle of Aughrim, fought on of horse, are said to have been whole The Luttrell Map the 21st July 1691 in County Galway, hearted, but with that monarch’s The Luttrell map of 1689 (Fig 1) is a was the beginning of the end for the failing fortunes his skill in intrigue remarkable document, both for the fact Jacobites in Sligo. Williamite forces began to assert itself. At Aughrim his that it records the layout of the town in th started closing in from all sides and by defection is said to have contributed the late 17 century, but also the level the middle of September the town was to the defeat of James’ army, and of detail which it contains. It shows the street layout with considerable surrounded by superior forces and during the Siege of Limerick he was accuracy much of which survives under daily bombardment by a battery discovered in correspondence with today. It also however gives hints of of field guns, which had been hauled the besiegers, and is said to have other historical details, the remains of over the Curlews. been condemned to be shot. On the which, while not apparent in today’s O’Regan, realising that his position surrender of Limerick he went over modern streetscape, may still at least was hopeless, agreed terms with the openly to King William, and was partly survive below present ground Williamites and the Jacobite garrison active in inducing Irish soldiers to level. Three details in particular are was allowed to march out with “…the join the winning side or to enlist in worth noting. full honours of war, with their arms foreign service. Besides his ancestral The first is the location of the and baggage, drums beating, colours estates, including Luttrellstown, Co. redoubt located in the area between flying, match lighted and bullets in Dublin, a pension is said to have been Holborn St. and Barrack Street. A their mouths”. Col. Henry Luttrell The appointment by James of Henry Luttrell to the governorship of Sligo, led to the production of the now famous Luttrell map of Sligo dated 1689. But who was Henry Luttrell? He was born in Luttrellstown Castle in Clonsilla, Dublin. His father Thomas, had the estate restored to him in 1663, and when Thomas died in 1673, it was left to his eldest son Simon. Both Simon and Henry sided with James II, Simon appointed MP and Governor of Dublin and Henry joined James’ army first in France and then in Ireland. Although little is known about Henry’s early life he appears to have spent it in France, where in 1684 he is recorded as taking part in a quarrel, resulting in no less than three duels, in one of which he was wounded, and another Fig 2. Aerial photograph of Sligo (courtesy of Google) with Luttrell’s of the combatants, Lord Purbecke, 1689 map ‘superimposed’ was killed. He returned to Ireland in redoubt is a fort or fort system usually the service of James II, bringing back given him, and he was made a major- consisting of an enclosed defensive to his native country, in the words of general in the Dutch service. He was emplacement outside a larger fort, Lord Macaulay, a sharpened intellect assassinated one night in October usually relying on earthworks though and polished manners, a flattering 1717 near his own town house in others are constructed of stone or brick. tongue, some skill in war, and much Stafford Street, Dublin, while he was It is meant to protect soldiers outside more skill in intrigue. Following the sitting in a hackney chair in which he the main line of defense and can be exodus to Derry of the Protestants of had returned from a coffee house on a permanent structure or a hastily- Sligo in 1689 James II appointed him Cork Hill, and although enormous constructed temporary fortification. It Governor of Sligo. rewards were offered and two persons is interesting to note that the military At first his efforts for James II, in were arrested the assassin was never barracks were constructed in this area

66 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 later in the 18th century. has been made that the remains Thanks to Google there is a wonderful The second noteworthy aspect of the represent those of Jones’ Castle which opportunity to do just this (Fig 2). It is Luttrell map is the recording of a street was built around 1590. The ‘castle’ immediately obvious just how small enclosing the Abbey on the river side was more than just a single building the 17th century town was, extending to – mirroring the line of Abbey Street, for when it was sold in 1714 the deed the Green Fort to the north, Adelaide although partly running along the line of sale records ‘barns, stables, dove- Street to the west, the junction of of the present John F Kennedy Parade houses, malt-houses, a haggard [fodder High Street and Old Market Street to it did not start from Bridge Street, store], gardens, orchards’. The reason the south and the Abbey to the east. but rather from just west of the abbey for this particular house being chosen What is however truly remarkable grounds on Abbey Street. by Luttrell for special recording may is the fact that for relatively long Thirdly and perhaps most intriguingly be because the site was notorious, for stretches, the line of the old defenses is the recording by Luttrell of what here, during the 1641 rebellion, Jones’ are still reflected in the layout of the appears to be a large house, the only second wife, Lady Mary Jones, was town. Excavations have proved that one recorded on the entire map, at besieged in the house along with other bastions and defensive ditches survive the junction of Teeling Street and English Protestants to whom she had in the field boundaries west of the Abbey Street. It appears to be a long given refuge. The native Irish soldiers Green Fort, and that the defenses also rectangular structure set back from the eventually plundered the house and survive at the corner of Emmet Place street front, with projections creating atrocities were committed during the and Union Street, reflected in the two bays or possible court yards, rebellion itself and during the resulting lines of plot and garden walls. These fronting out onto Teeling Street. Cromwellian reprisals. small scale investigations suggest Excavations on Teeling Street have Modern Sligo that evidence for the town’s defenses recorded substantial foundations of So how do the details on Luttrell’s probably survive elsewhere, albeit a building pre-dating those presently 17th century map compare to a now covered by 21st century Sligo. standing on the street. The suggestion modern 21st century image of Sligo? Untitled The King of my Castle Lee Muldoon, Scoil Mhuire gan Smál, Ballymote Conor Maguire, Scoil Mhuire gan Smál, Ballymote

Tumbling I’m the king of my country Drifting I’m the king of my castle Cracking I’m the king of my land Crunching And only my rules will stand I love the weather in autumn I’m the king of my country I’m the king of my people I’m the king of the nation And I own every location

I’m the king of the country I’m the king of the ocean Happiness I’m the king of the town Molly Finn And only I can wear the crown.

Happiness is yellow It tastes like a juicy apple dipped in honey And smells like a field of buttercups. Happiness looks like the birds singing in the morning. Happiness is a peaceful kitten sitting on your lap.

67 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 Maisie McGovern 18 February 1918 – 23 January 2008 President of Ballymote Heritage Group John Coleman

My aunt Maisie, President of in the same house in Ballymote as Army (old IRA) in the war of Ballymote Heritage Group, passed Maisie. His family had a butchering independence. He then emigrated to away peacefully at the North West business there before it was bought the US and developed a successful Hospice in Sligo in January. by Maisie’s parents. As children we retail butchering business in Chicago. Maisie was a life long resident of were shown the window shutter on After Paddy’s death the US became Ballymote and a witness to the great which Paddy had carved his initials as changes that took place in the country a child. Canon Roughneen officiated over a life time of just short of 90 at their wedding in Ballymote Church years. She was born before the end of and a reception was held in the Abbey World War I and before the Sinn Fein Hotel in Dromahair – also known as victory in the 1918 election which Geters hotel, as it was then owned transformed Irish politics and lead to by a German family of that name. independence. There followed very happy years in Roscrib in which Maisie loved to garden and especially to bake. She continued to do both until very shortly before her death. Her coffee cakes and butterfly buns were legendary. She loved to supply large quantities for parish events – most recently at the Heritage Weekends. She was fond of pet sheep, kept chickens and they kept greyhounds. I was told many Photo by Annie Harrison per John Coleman times of a memorable occasion when Maisie was the third child of John a greyhound was running in a race Maisie (left) with friend Moyra Joseph Benson (1872-1949) (son in Mullingar. Maisie was looking on McTiernan while at the Ursuline of Patrick and Anne Benson of and cheered for the hound shouting its Convent. 1935. Carrickbanagher) and his wife Jane pet name, rather than the professional Photo courtesy John Coleman (1880-1951) (daughter of John and one. The hound abandoned the race Mary Walsh of Deroon). Her parents and ran instead to Maisie! Maisie had an important part of Maisie’s life. Her had a drapery business in Lord Edward a simple box camera and there are father had worked in the US on the Street. The business was successful many photos of family life from the building of the railways and had taken enough to allow Maisie to attend the 1930s onwards. She retained a love out US citizenship in New Hampshire. Ursuline Convent in Sligo as a boarder for taking photographs all her life. When he returned to Ireland he left – an experience she always treasured, All this was cut short when Paddy behind there two brothers Patrick returning frequently for past pupil developed Parkinson’s disease and and Francis. Francis paid for his own reunions. There she took up tennis they were forced to sell Roscrib and education and became a priest there. and golf. She always said that in golf move into the town to the house in Patrick settled in Roslindale, Mass. He she was quite good until she received O’Connell Street where she lived out had two daughters Helen and Mary. lessons, after which her natural ability her life. She cared for Paddy until he From 1971 for about 20 years Maisie never returned! died at the age of 71 in 1971. Paddy went to visit them every second year. In 1947 Maisie married Paddy had had an interesting life. He served On these trips she travelled all over McGovern who had recently returned in the British army in the Irish Guards the US – California, Florida, New from Chicago and purchased Roscrib regiment in World War I enlisting in York, New Mexico, Philadelphia, House and farm (now owned by Neil 1916 and being discharged in 1919. Washington…. the list could go on. Henry). Curiously Paddy was born He then fought in the Irish Republican I remember photos she took flying

68 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 over the Grand Canyon and she saw her illness with her constant flow of Niagara Falls. They spent some of visitors in hospital or nursing home in each summer in Cape Cod, where Dublin, Sligo or Ballymote. the Kennedys also lived. When they Her interests over the years also retired to Florida she went there to Fort included St Joseph’s Young Priests Myers. She discovered myriads of Society and the Mental Health relatives all over the states and visited Association. She had silver and gold them and kept up correspondence after. pins for blood donations. She was She wrote a letter of congratulations devoted to Lough Derg and sometimes to Ronald Regan on his election as US went there on pilgrimage twice in the President and his reply was published one year for special intentions. Until in The Corran Herald in 2004 (No 37, shortly before her illness I brought her p 68). She returned from one US trip Maisie and her sister Kathleen, 1920s. the Irish Times every day and she read with a badge for George McGovern Photo courtesy John Coleman it cover to cover, drawing attention to a candidate for the US Presidency. I many years and recently as President stories she thought would interest any found a memorial card for J F Kennedy and was very proud of being asked to of her friends. among her papers. fulfill this role. She especially enjoyed She was a brave person who loved Maisie had many interests in the the annual Heritage Weekends, outings life and will be remembered for her community, including the Heritage and lectures. regular shopping trips and daily visits Group. She attended all of the Her neighbours and friends and to my mother aided by two walking heritage meetings until shortly before all generations of their children and sticks, until a month before her her illness late last year. She acted as grandchildren were important to her. illness. joint Treasurer with Mary Martin for I became very aware of this during

At the Ballymote Heritage Group 2007 annual dinner in the Coach House Hotel, Ballymote. Seated (L/R): Pam Benson (Joint Hon Treasurer, Ballymote Heritage Group), Mary Martin (Joint Hon Treasurer, BHG), Matilda Casey Middle Row: Carmel Rogers (Vice-Chairperson, BHG), Mary B Timoney (Hon Secretary, BHG), Nuala Rogers, EileenTighe, Anne Flanagan, Anne Harrison (Vice-President, BHG), Mary O’Gorman, Mary Black, Michael Rogers Back Row: Martin A Timoney, John Conlon, Des Black (Chairperson, BHG), James Flanagan (PRO and Editor of The Corran Herald), Gerry Cassidy, Paddy Horan, Bernie Dwyer, Jack Martin. Picture courtesy Mary B Timoney

69 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 The Claremorris – Collooney Railway Bridget Timoney All photos by Bridget Timoney

The Great Southern and Western Railway (Limerick and Sligo Branch) line from Claremorris to Collooney was officially opened on st1 October, 1895, and was closed on 30th October, 1975, having served for a period of eighty years. The Sligo stations were Collooney, Coolaney, Leyney, Carrowmore, Tubbercurry, Curry and Bellaghy Charlestown, from where it continued through Swinford and Kiltimagh to Claremorris. These photos were taken as part of a LCVP Cleared Track West of Charlestown project in 2007 and 2008. They show the track and buildings before and after the clearing of vegetation as part of the Western Rail Corridor Project, designed to re-establish the rail link from Sligo to Claremorris, Limerick and Waterford. Some of the buildings are in very bad condition. Slow Down Sign There is wonderful scenery from the track, much of which can now be walked fairly easily. Gerry Cassidy’s photo of Leyney station with Mr. Farry walking along the track was published in The Corran Herald, 39 (2006-2007), 80.

One Type of Railway Gate

Signal

Overgrown Track West of Collooney Cleared Track Between Collooney and Coolaney Distance Marker: 44¼ miles from Claremorris

70 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009

Distance Marker: 44 miles from Claremorris

Banks’ Shop between Collooney and Coolaney

Distance Marker: 41½ miles from Claremorris

Plate of Great Southern and Western Railway

Bridge No 272, east of Coolaney

Platform of Coolaney Level-crossing Gate House Distance Marker: 39¾ miles from Claremorris

71 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 Fóidín Mearbhaill: Carrowcauly/ Earlsfield - A field in transition. A Contemporary Public Art Project taking place in the vicinity of Ballymote.

John Langan

“Europe’s rural areas are special. We the fairies sometimes put a spell on a for a brief period of time. value them for their contribution to our piece of earth, usually a sod of grass, food, our landscape, our environment, and whoever inadvertently steps upon This is particularly apt because our heritage and our recreation. We it loses his way at once and cannot in a country where territory and value them for their diversity and for find an exit from whatever place he is land is so intrinsically intertwined the communities they sustain.”1 in, whether field or wood or open bog, with the psyche, the term field has an abundance of political, social, economic, historical, cultural and personal associations. Fields and their boundaries are common features of the countryside. The current patchwork is the consequence of evolving social norms, political interventions, improvements in farming techniques and a variety of initiatives by generations of individual landowners. In the past all fields were named, nowadays many of the names have been forgotten or changed. From the perspective of place and context the naming of the landscape is a continuum with new names being formed all the time and some older names falling out of use. Thus Fóidín Mearbhaill is a project that provides a metaphor until the fairies tire of their game and and a microcosm, for a conceptual In 2004 Sligo Local Authorities Public at last throw open the unseen doors. engagement with people and place Art Plan, Art Best Placed 2004-2006 It is also widely believed that one can which examines the transformation was published and a new programme counter the spell by turning one’s coat and diversity of rural areas. of per cent for art commissions inside out and so wearing it.”3 entitled Unravelling Developments The intention of Fóidín Mearbhaill is commenced. John Langan is one With regards to this project it is the to create an experimental time based of several artists commissioned by artist who becomes the enchanted collaborative process which involves Sligo County Council to create work one in the sense that as part of the the creation of a series of artistic for the Unravelling Developments overall concept he will over a period interventions in the selected field that programme. His forthcoming project, of time conduct an extensive study are derived from research gathered in Fóidín Mearbhaill: Carrowcauly/ about a specific field in Co. Sligo. the early phase of the project. As a Earlsfield - A field in transition, The process will involve an on- result actions and events will occur in explores the evolving history of a site artists’ residency which will the field from time to time as part of a random field in County Sligo. The require collaboration between rural public art process which intends to set concept is based around the notion of development organisations and a benchmark for standards through the Fóidín Mearbhaill or fóidín meara2 non arts specialists, for example an effective presentation and mediation which according to Mac Manus “is a archaeologist, horticulturalist, website of contemporary arts practice in a very well-known and long-established designer and others. Consequently the local rural community. Accordingly affair in Ireland. The most generally field will be plucked from isolation the objectives of Fóidín Mearbhaill held view of it round my home is that and transferred into the public domain are as follows;

72 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009

the field which engages this unusual centred approach to residencies in · Engage rural audiences in artistic concept whilst also lending the schools. His work has been exhibited contemporary art practices. project its full title: Fóidín Mearbhaill: both nationally and internationally. · Present art works in rural locations. Carrowcauly/Earlsfield - A field in Since 2002 he has lived close to a · Develop a website as a documentation, transition. Since finding the field small village in East Galway where he presentation and information hub. the artistic process has begun and an is Chairman of the local Community · Stage a series of public events to archaeological assessment involving Council. He lectures on the Art and mark production stages of the project. both a desk-based and on-site survey Design Programme at the Galway- · Disseminate the outcomes of has been ongoing since early 2008 Mayo Institute of Technology. the project to a wider national and in collaboration with archaeologist international audience. Martin Fitzpatrick M.A.IIA. In early June the Space Shuttle arrived on site 1 Fischler. Franz, Salzburg, 14th In autumn 2007 a random site for the and the artist will be developing Fóidín November 2002. project was identified by the artist Mearbhaill at Earlsfield throughout 2 Irish fóidín, clod of earth thrown by way of dialogue with Mary Mc the summer. Indeed, if anybody is up by flying feet; mearaí, craziness, Donagh, Sligo Arts Services’ Public interested in this project or has a story distraction, wandering. Arts Officer. The selection was based to tell about the Fóidín Mearbhaill or 3 Mac Manus. Dermot,The Middle on an investigation by Mc Donagh information on the field adjacent to Kingdom: the Faerie World of of the Council’s current land bank4 the convent why not drop by the site Ireland. with particular reference to the south for a chat sometime and contribute to 4 In this instance Land Banking can of the county. As a result a site of this unique artwork. be defined as the process of buying approximately 1.2 acres was chosen and holding land for future sale or close to the town of Ballymote in Artist’s Bio development by local authorities. the town land of Carrowcauley or John Langan was born in Ennis, Often parcels of land desirable for Earlsfield in the parish of Emlaghfad. Co. Clare and studied at Limerick land banking are those that lie directly This site is situated in a 2.7 hectare School of Art and Design. He recently in the growth path of development field which is designated for a completed a research based MA in and are used by the Government and housing project at Ballymote. It is Art and Design Education, titled local authorities to provide affordable this, the eventual transformation of Transcending the Territory, An artist homes, burial grounds, roads etc.

Presentation by the Members of Ballymote Golf Club to Dick Molloy on the Occasion of his Retirement as a Pharmacist (1982) (L/R): Owen Duffy, Joe Masterson, Tom Currid, Paddy Mullen, Eamon McGinley, Rev Fr D Filan CC, Dick Molloy, Roy Hewitt, Monsignor O’Hara PP, Tom McGettrick, Peter Mullen, Dr Kieran O’Connor, Harry Horan. Picture courtesy Carmel Mullen per Eileen Tighe. 73 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 Mullanashee Mystery – Intriguing Stone Structures Diana Ross

Can you help shed some light on the mystery at Mullanashee? The townland’s name means Mill of the Fairies but the workmanship of the entire site is complex and the manpower necessary to create such a site would be great. Situated c. 450m above sea level, the area would have enjoyed the benefit of a strategic positioning, adding to the potential purpose of the site. At the heart of the site is an old farmhouse, possibly dating from the early 1800s, and still relatively well preserved. It contains the usual elements of a farmstead: potential outhouses, potential pigsty, small stream, and walled paddocks et cetera. What is most unusual is the intricate web of remarkable stone structures within the walls of these nearby Cluster of stone structures showing the variety and intrigue of the complex paddocks. Pictures or words cannot adequately describe the site, structures, setting and atmosphere. Perhaps you can help, by identifying practices, techniques, or owners from the pictures that follow? Or perhaps you may know of such practices and customs in another area? Each of the stone structures differs in size, shape and positioning. The walls that surround Some of the bigger stone structures located in the complex which are situated the structures also differ, widening in in different areas of the site. Some are next to smaller, simpler structures, places, increasing in height, changing in technique. Yet all walls leading to and others are set apart. the site, and in the vicinity remain unchanged. Interestingly, triangular formations emanate from the walls in two or three locations. There also exists a slightly raised platform that seems to combine both natural and man-made formation. The existence of trees planted by Coillte adds to the mysterious atmosphere and possibly ensured the preservation of the site. An unusual feature of the site is this An interesting stone structure with the Yet it makes it more difficult to make a circular hollow which is only one of two semi-circular topping on a singular better overview of the entire complex. circular features in the area. The other large rock, which also contains a The following are examples of the is a ring of stones similar to that used to number of smaller stones underneath. numerous stone structures: contain a fire.

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One of the more common formations, which consists of The top of this stone is akin to the practice at cairns of a number of medium sized stones piled on top of each placing small stones on the cairn. This is not the most other, balanced using small stones in the gaps. Some typical find at Mullanashee. are also filled with these small stones.

These pictures show the feature built across the stream close to the farmstead. Its purpose is possibly for water filtration, or a means of drainage.

Another semi-circular formation. These semi-circular features are scattered throughout the site.

A particularly clear picture of the use of smaller stones used to balance the larger rocks used in the formation of The front of the farmhouse showing just one of the two rooms and the the structures. The practice required a lot of skill as it appears to be dry stone lobby entrance. Doomore peak is visible in the background where there walling, and it has survived for such a exists an unusual cairn. To the left of the house are the ruins of two possible long period of time. 75 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 Printing Niamh Conlon

Humans have always sought to press meant that books could be mass 500 days and then strangled and burned communicate with each other. Ideas, produced for the first time. Luther at the stake for spreading sedition. instructions and gossip have been himself published more than 400 Another well known English printer verbalised since the early days of items and Protestant literature flooded John Daye was imprisoned by Queen humanity. As societies and lives the European market. Mary for ‘the pryntyng of noythy became more complicated it was In Britain patents were given to bokes’ (the printing of naughty books) necessary to make permanent records printers, giving them a monopoly and writing was invented. Where on Bibles and religious printing. and when, is still a matter of debate. Christopher Barker became one of Mesopotamia is normally seen as the England’s most famous sixteenth home of writing but as archaeologists century printers through the use of his continue to make new discoveries, new patent. He began his career in 1576 theories are emerging that China may as a Bible printer, having obtained a be the home of man’s first writings. In privilege to print the Geneva version the early days of human history only of the Bible in England. In 1577 he a small percentage of people would purchased a patent granting him, have been literate. As printing spread so too did literacy and this made is “the office of royal printer of all statutes, one of the most important inventions books, bills, Acts of Parliament, of the last millennium. proclamations, injunctions, Bibles, Printing was first invented by and New Testaments, in the English the Chinese who used a type of tongue of any translation, all service blockprinting as early as 888AD books to be used in churches, and all and later moveable clay characters other volumes ordered to be printed (1041AD) to print. The Koreans by the Queen or Parliament”. were also printing at this time and the oldest moveable metal print book This made him a very rich man and in existence was printed in Korea he retired after 1588 and died in 1599. in 1377. Europeans knew of this He was succeeded in the post of royal technology and used printing blocks printer by his son Robert who retained from the early 15th century. the patent. However, due to differences in the While the printing of religious tracts Shakespeare Second Folio Edition way European languages were read made many men rich it was not all easy Courtesy of Dunfermline Carnegie Library and written, the Chinese invention money, as Robert Barker and Martin could not be easily imported. By the Lucas, Kings printers, discovered. but was later released and increased mid fifteenth century a number of They omitted the word ‘not ‘ from his printing output. Daye is famed for people were working on inventing the seventh commandment in their being the first English printer that we a moveable type printing press for 1631 version of the Bible. The line can be sure cast his own letters. He cut European use. The first man to ‘Thou shalt commit adultery‘ cost the first Anglo-Saxon font in 1566. perfect one was Johannes Gutenberg the printers £300 in court (a lifetime’s It was almost 70 years after who unveiled his in 1439/40 in Mainz wages) and the Bibles were recalled. Gutenberg’s invention that Walter in Germany. In 1452 he printed 200, Only 11 are known to exist today Chepman, an Edinburgh merchant, two volume Bibles, his most famous and they are called the Sinners Bible and Androw Myllar were granted a work. Even in their day they sold for or Wicked Bible. It is not clear if the royal licence to print in Scotland from the equivalent of three years pay for £300 was ever paid, but most scholars James IV. an average clerk. believe it wasn’t. It was traditionally believed that Gutenberg tried to keep his invention As the Reformation began to spread printing in Scotland came from secret but this was impossible. By across Christendom printers could England but it now seems more likely 1500 well over 200 European cities easily fall foul of the ruling power. that it was the French influence that had printing presses. Printing, and with Protestant reformers sought to have began the process. Androw Myllar it books, spread across the continent. the bible printed in the vernacular was a book seller when he moved to The printing revolution had begun. language and needed printers to help Rouen in France, to learn how to print. Printing very rapidly became a tool them. One scholar, William Tyndale, Armed with the knowledge he gained of the Reformation and the market in translated the Bible into English and there, Myllar returned to Scotland to religious tracts and bibles was a very had it printed in Worms, Germany. set up a printing press in what is now lucrative one for the printer. Bibles This was the first printed English the Canongate in Edinburgh. It is not had been produced in manuscript translation of the Bible at a time clear when the first book was printed form for many years on vellum or when it was forbidden to do so by the but the first dated one to come from parchment but it was slow process Church. As this version has a Lutheran the new Scottish press was printed on and this in turn reduced the number bias it got Tyndale into trouble with the 4th April 1508. It was a vernacular of Bibles in circulation. The printing the authorities. He was imprisoned for poem by John Lydgate The Complaint 76 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009 of the Black Knight. Printing in the the sale of broadsides. Broadsides to view on their website (http://www. vernacular was not normal for early were sold by hawkers who would nls.uk/broadsides/ ). These offer a printing presses and this makes buy the sheets from the printers in fascinating insight into a world now Chepman and Myllar unusual. the large towns such as Edinburgh or past. However, it has been suggested that Stirling and then sell them throughout ______early vernacular printing may have Scotland. been a test of the new printer and not Single sheets of paper, they were This article has arisen out of a joint a conscious decision. designed to be read unfolded or posted library and museum exhibition on From these humble beginnings on walls. The illustrations were usually printing. Below is a brief note of printing slowly spread in Scotland. crude and often the same image was websites and books that offer further Scotsman William Ged invented the used for a number of different stories information. stereotyping process and some of even if the image was unrelated. In a the world famous printer/ publishers population of high illiteracy pictures were Scots –Bartholomews, Blackie, sold papers. Clair, C. A History of Printing in Collins and Nelsons and the Foulis The content was similar to today’s Britain London, 1965. Press of Glasgow. tabloids dealing in sensational news While books are usually associated and gossip. The most popular were with printing there were of course stories of murders and executions. other types of printing taking place. Many of these followed specific www.bl.uk (British Library) Broadsides were the tabloids of their storylines following from crime to www.nls.uk (National Library of day and were popular for almost 300 execution and usually with a scaffold Scotland) years until the late 19th century. Until speech and confession printed, even if www.booksfromscotland.com 1855 newspapers in the UK were taxed one never existed. Today the National www.500yearsofprinting.org and could only be purchased by richer Library of Scotland have a large www.scottishprintarchive.org members of society which helped selection of their broadsides available www.aboutbookbinding.com Killaraght Early Christian Cross Slab Mary B. Timoney

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

77 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009

Coláiste Muire gan Smál Ballymote First Holy Communion – Sunday 1st June 2008 Back Row (L/R): Fr James McDonagh CC Ballymote, Katie Kilcoyne, Max Cryan, Lisa McGrath, John Benson, Very Rev Fr. Gregory Hannon PP Ballymote, Ms. Eimear Killelea (teacher), Ms. Delores Taheny (Principal Teacher), Aaron Reynolds. Second Row from back (L/R): Noel Muldoon, Ania Gwizolz, Katie Walsh, Patrick Finan, Laura Finn, Oisín Conlon, Niamh McGee Second Row from front (L/R): Ciarán Gardiner-O’Dowd, Caolan Mooney, Carrie-Anne Downes, Patryk Kaman, Emma Rawl, Odhran Johnson, Shannon Scanlon, Mark Keenan. Front Row (L/R): Ella O’Dowd-O’Doherty, Callum Tonry-Quigley, Eva Devaney, Cameron Lumsden, Nicole McGowan, Feargal Kilgarriff, Rachel McGlone, Darragh Keenan, Sarah McGlone.

Coláiste Muire gan Smál Ballymote 5th Class Confirmation – Sunday 6th April 2008 Back Row (L/R): Dylan Johnson, Daniel Murtagh, Seána Durey, Alisha Glavin, Aoibhinn Finn, Clementine Drew, Stephen McMorrow Middle Row (L/R): James Mulligan, Padraig O’Dowd, Garreth Healy, Joe Cobbe, Aoife Conlon, Paul McKenna, Daniel Ford, Stefan Beirne-Hill, Ms. Sinéad Gilhooly (teacher) Front Row (L/R): Seán Golden, Ciarán Anderson, Jennifer Judge, Gemma Gurrie, Denise McGrath, Nicole Martin, Alejandro Rierra, Conor Healy 78 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009

Coláiste Muire gan Smál Ballymote 6th Class Confirmation – Sunday 6th April 2008 Back Row (L/R): Andrew Nally, Brendan Mullen, Ciara Scanlon, Ciaran Forkin, Vincent Whitehead, Callum Muldoon, Cian Dunleavy. Middle Row (L/R): Ms. Patricia Hunt (teacher), Ryan Kilcoyne, Kieran Tighe, Gerry Finn, Gemma Golden, Rebecca Martin, Eamon Doyle, Eugene McGuinness, Sean Hurley. Front Row (L/R): Sarah Healy, Michelle McGuinn, Katie McMorrow, Emma Gardiner, Abagail Ford, Maura Daly.

Knockminna NS First Holy Communion Sunday 1st June 2008 Front Row (L/R): Jessica Breslin, Megan Summerfield Middle Row (L/R): Adam Cunnane, Séamus Hailstones, Daniel Carmody, Aaron Laing, Cian Brennan. Servers: Cathal McNulty, Keara Summerfield Back Row (L/R): Louise King (Principal Teacher), Rev Fr James McDonagh CC, Brian Henry (Class Teacher)

79 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2008/2009

Heritage Group 23rd Sponsors FOR THEIR generosity in kindly sponsoring the Heritage Weekend, AGM Ballymote Heritage Group wishes ALL Officers’ reports were positive and encouraging at the to express its gratitude to 23nd Annual General Meeting of Ballymote Heritage Group Tente, Ltd which was held in Fawlty Towers, Ballymote, on Wednesday September 28th, 2007. The Heritage Weekend had been Bank of Ireland, Ballymote extremely well-attended and its lectures and outings Ulster Bank, Ballymote appreciated by the diverse audiences. The Conan Herald, with FBD Insurance plc its articles and photos of local, national and international Allied Irish Bank, Tubbercurry interest, had sold very well. After the meeting and its Jack Martin elections, the Officers and membership of the Group are as Matilda Casey follows: John and Marie Perry President: Maisie McGovern Elizabeth Gilhawley Vice-President: Ann Harrison Ava Systems, Sligo Chairperson: Des Black Vice-Chairperson: Carmel Rogers Secretary: Mary B. Timoney Treasurers: Pam Benson and Mary Martin PRO and Editor of Corran Herald: James Flanagan Jack Martin, Eileen Tighe, Gerry Cassidy, Esther Cassidy, Anne Flanagan, Paddy Horan, Nuala Rogers, Noreen Friel, John Conlon, John and Marie Perry, Mary Black, Brenda Friel, Cathleen Coleman, John Coleman, David Casey, Michael Rogers, Molly Howard, Matilda Casey.

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