COMPILED AND PUBLISHED BY BALLYMOTE HERITAGE GROUP CELEBRATING 50 EDITIONS 1985 - 2017 ISSUE NO. 50 2017/2018 PRICE €8.00 The Corran Herald Annual Publication of Ballymote Heritage Group Compiled and Published by Ballymote Heritage Group Editor: Stephen Flanagan Design, Typesetting and Printing: Orbicon Print, Collooney Cover Design and Artwork: Brenda Friel Issue No 50 2017/2018 ––––––––––––––– Sligo County Council has provided funding for the 50th issue of The Corran Herald through the 2017 Community and Voluntary Grant Scheme - Community Heritage. 2 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2017/2018 Contents Page Cathaoirleach Awards 2016 4 A job well done 4 50 years a Priest (By Fr Pat Rogers) 5 Philip Rooney 1907 - 1962 (By Anne Flanagan) 7 Beloved Brethren Bishop Morrisroe’s Lenten Pastoral 1917 (By Michael Farry) 8 A Burst Blister (By Martin Healy) 12 Francis Taaffe’s Sun Dial (By John Coleman) 15 The great Hunger, The Carricks and the Kaveneys of Keash (By Joe Mc Gowan) 16 The history of the world in the book of Ballymote (By Elizabeth Boyle) 23 Natural Champions of pollution Solution 26 Lanzarote (By John Hannon) 26 Corporal John Fallon - The only ranger ina family of soldiers (By Padraig Deignan) 27 Heritage Committee, 1992 30 The O Dugenan Crucifixion plaque of 1671 at Fenagh, Co. Leitrim (By Martin A Timoney) 31 The Funeral of the late Bishop of Elphin (Submitted by Padraig Doddy) 34 The Ballymote Electric lighting and Town improvement Co (By Edward Blake) 35 The ‘Big Snow’ of 1947 (By Jim Higgins) 37 An All - Ireland final in New York city (By Tommy Kilcoyne) 40 The Sligoman of South America (By Eoin Butler) 42 Journey to Belmullet (By Eugene Gillian) 43 The o’Dowd inauguration site (By Sam Moore) 44 Distress in County Sligo, 1895 (Submitted by Padraig Doddy) 46 Francis Tregian: Benefactor of Irish Refugees (By Frank Tivnan) 47 Family history at Colaiste Muire, Ballymote (By Michael Tarmey) 49 My family history (By Helen Loughlin) 49 Uncovering a family history (By Martin Curley) 50 Raise A glass for a ‘student’ (By Neal Friel) 52 A casino hidden in plain sight (By Jack Gilligan) 54 Blizzard of Forty-Seven (By Joan Gleeson) 55 A fixture of Ballymote life, An Interview with Alfie Banks (Submitted by Kathleen Martyn) 56 Keash Football Team, Sligo Junior Champions 1961 (By David Casey) 59 Slater’s Directory of 1870 (Submitted by David Casey) 60 A crazy dream (By Joan Gleeson) 63 William Bourke Cockran (By John C Mc Tiernan) 64 A sad and violent confrontation (Submitted by Padraig Mc Dermott) 66 Saint, Sinners and Saffron Buns (By Lynda Hart) 67 The dragonflies and Damselflies of Cloonacleigha (By Michael Bell) 70 St John’s Cathedral, Sligo (By Bernie Doyle) 74 Loys and Ridges, Scythes and Flails (By Micheál Murphy) 75 The power of language (By Emer Ryan) 78 Creevelea Abbey (By Theresa Kelly) 79 The sligo Field club Journal, Volume 2, 2016 (By Neal Farry) 81 Time and Tide (By Bernie Gilbride) 85 Kilross civil parish in 1749: A microcosm of 18th - Century Sligo? (By Pat o’Brien) 86 St Ita’s, Portrane (By John Hannon) 90 Landmark (By John McDonagh) 90 First Holy Communion 2017 Ballymote / Knockminna 91 Ballymote Heritage Group 92 3 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2017/2018 Cathaoirleach Awards 2016 We’re delighted to note that Eileen Tighe, President of Ballymote Heritage Group, won a Cathaoirleach award in 2016 for her years of dedication in making the Ballymote Heritage Group a success. Eileen has been a driving force from the very beginning in establishing the annual Heritage Weekend and The Corran Herald as important cultural events in the region. The Cathaoirleach awards acknowledge the contribution of volunteers across a wide range of local activity in County Sligo. Eileen was nominated on the basis of her long association with the Heritage Group, being one of its founders in 1984 and serving as chairperson and later president for a long number of years. The growth and success of the The award ceremony. Front row, left to right: Nuala Rogers, Eileen Heritage Group is due in large part to Tighe, Noreen Friel. Back row, left to right: Ursula Gilhawley, Eileen’s knowledge and interest in all Councillor Dara Mulvey, Councillor Margaret Gormley, Aidan Tighe, Neal Farry matters of history and heritage, and to her drive, commitment, dedication to attract high-quality writers and 14 December 2016 to honour the and determination to grow the Group curious readers from year to year. winners of the Cathaoirleach Awards and its activities. Eileen was cited for the award on the 2016. The award was presented to Under her guidance, the Ballymote basis of her involvement in a number Eileen by Councillor Gino O’Boyle, Heritage Weekend continues to attract of community activities, and for being and on behalf of those of us in the audiences from near and far, and a true leader in her community. Heritage Group and everyone who has has been widely praised for the high Eileen was presented with her award benefitted from Eileen’s tireless work quality of its lectures and outings. in the Arts and Culture category at over the years, we send our heartiest The Corran Herald also continues a ceremony in the County Hall on congratulations! A job well done Mrs Eileen Tighe, President of Ballymote Heritage Group, making a presentation to John Coleman on the completion of his term as chairman of the group. Also included are (left to right) Ursula Gilhawley, Carmel McGettrick, Michael Rogers, Derek Davey, Tom Lavin, Neal Farry, Carmel Rogers, Michael Tarmey, Mary Black and Des Black. 4 THE CORRAN HERALD • 2017/2018 50 years a Priest By Fr Pat Rogers even have attracted me back then. 1966, one of the great blessings of But after the Vatican Council of the my life was being selected to go for early 1960s, when some of the order’s further studies in Rome. My task strictness was relaxed, we came to was to gain the qualifications to live in a way that more reflected the teach theology and biblical studies rest of the people around us. in the newly-established Milltown With the few others who joined Institute of Theology and Philosophy with me in 1960, we went through in Dublin. I suppose it was because a fairly strict year of novitiate, in of my keen interest in languages that the Graan monastery, about three my provincial superior at the time, miles from Enniskillen. There we Fr Valentine McMurray cp, a fellow got an introduction to praying the Sligoman, sent me to study in Rome. Divine Office in common, to sharing At any rate, in spite of some initial household chores and dining on very difficulties in adapting to Italian simple fare. We learned about the cooking, that posting suited me very history of the order and of the church well. Living in a mainly Italian- as a whole, and were often regaled speaking community near the very Fr Pat Rogers by great stories from some of our heart of Rome, I quickly learned active preachers, back home for a rest the language and grew to love and When after my Leaving Certificate after conducting their dramatic-style appreciate the Eternal City, its vitality, I left Ballymote in 1960 to join the missions. I still have warm memories history – and sunny weather! Passionist order, as I recall, it was of stirring tales told with gusto by When I had completed the with the best of intentions. But I had gifted priests like Luke Delaney, with degrees of Licentiate in Theology only the most sketchy outline in mind, his rich Kerry accent, or Dubliner and Scripture, I said goodbye to how my life with the Passionists Malachy Geoghegan, or in sonorous Rome and was assigned to teach might turn out, or whether it would tones by Hilary Barry from Tipperary. New Testament in Milltown, in a suit me at all. Back then, almost 60 After novitiate we took temporary ‘consortium’ or collective project of years ago, the order was known to religious vows (for a duration of three some twelve religious orders, which be rather austere in lifestyle. The years) with the expectation that, if all taught a similar curriculum to that in ‘monks’, whether priests or brothers, went well, we would take the vows the national seminary at Maynooth. I all wore a distinctive black habit, with for life before being ordained to the continued on the staff at Milltown for a leather belt round the waist, and over priesthood. We proceeded to some the next 41 years, with the exception the heart a small heart-shaped sign of years of studying philosophy and of a few absences that I spent abroad, the Passion of Christ. They were best theology, to get us properly prepared in America, Africa and Australia. known for preaching rousing parish for the sort of ministries that we could Perhaps I should mention here that, missions across the length and breadth expect to be doing after ordination. urged by Fr Jim Healy sj, president of of Ireland. Then, right in the middle of my Milltown Institute, I returned to Rome What was it that drew me to join studies, came the Second Vatican for two years in the second half of the a strict religious order, rather than Council (1962-65), which pointed the 1970s to complete my doctorate in follow my uncle Val into the diocesan way to a different set of priorities for theology, at the Gregorian University. priesthood, possibly in Dublin diocese? the Church than those I had grown Those were great years to be in Rome, I think I felt a strong preference for up with.