Women at a market in Galway, L’Univers Illustre 1880 Cumann Staire agus Seandálaíochta Oirdheisceart na Gaillimhe Newsletter No. 29 Spring 2018 SEGAHS Lecture, 7.30pm in Contents The Irish Workhouse Centre, Portumna. What it says in the Papers 2 Tuesday, February 27th (Lecture) Derryhiveney Estate by John Joe Conwell 3 Recommended Sources (Education) by Clare Doyle 4 Donal Boland is a writer, historian, and marine archae- Images of the Past: ‘Children carrying turf ’ 6 ologist. While Donal’s last book ‘The Mid-Shannon Galwaymen at War by Marie Bennett 7 Waterway – A pictorial book of designated and tranquil GAA Heroes of Old - Turloughmore 8 moorings’ focused on the Waterways, his next project Clans of Ireland 8 focuses on the Great Hunger. In this lecture, Donal Poems of Old 9 looks at the personal journey of people during the Great Postcards: Kilkerrin 9 Hunger through the illustrations of the period. Tales from the Workhouse 10 Ration Books by Pat Madden 10 Thursday, March 29th (Lecture) Loughrea Freemason Lodge Members 11 Long time friend of the society and regular contributor The Lawrences before Lisreaghan by Aron Donnelly 12 James Scully will present a special lecture on the his- The Workhouse Calendar 2018 13 tory of the Grand Canal. The Grand Canal was designed Conference 13 to connect Dublin, Ireland's capital city westwards Meelick Medieval Church by Christy Cunniffe 14 through the midlands with the River Shannon, and al- Portumna Priory Inscriptions by Aileen O’Dowd 17 though construction work began in 1757, the waterway Larkin Matters: Ballinasloe 20 was not completed as far as the Shannon until 1804. It ______________________________________________ closed in 1951 but leaves a rich legacy. Annual Update April The AGM of 31 January returned the existing committee and In April, due to popular demand, we will likely have we look forward to delivering another comprehensive pro- two lectures, with details to follow once dates have gramme of events in 2018. For more, why not follow us on been finalised. facebook at www/facebook.com/SEGAHS or on twitter @SEGAHSIreland. The Irish Workhouse Centre and SEGAHS The seasonal SEGAHS newsletters are published in part- nership with the Irish Workhouse Centre - Portumna, home of the society. The workhouse is open from 31st March 2018, with guided tours 7 days a week from 09.30 to 17.00. For more information, follow us on face- book or visit http://irishworkhousecentre.ie/. The Irish Workhouse Centre, Saint Brigid’s Road, Portumna, Co Galway. 0909-759200. A centre for the Arts, Community, Education, History, and Tourism. What it says in the Papers—The ‘Tricolore’ at Loughrea A century ago, Loughrea made the national headlines for a ‘near riot’ in the town. Tensions between those who were uneasy at the growing popu- larity of Sinn Féin, especially those who had family members fighting in the Great War, and those swept up in the growing nationalism was a fea- ture of life around the county. In this case, the Republican Jack O’Sheehan and his P’s & C’s troupe were embroiled in a nasty altercation at the Tem- perance Hall. There was no escaping the fact that the mood in the country had changed and, within weeks, the last of the Republi- can prisoners had arrived home (14 months after the Rising,). Pictured is the Connacht Trib- une, 26 May 1917 (far right) and 2 June 1917 (right). Also pictured (below) is the Temper- ance Hall at this time. _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Upcoming Publications Class and Community in Provincial Ireland, 1851-1914 by Dr Brian Casey. This book explores the experience of small farmers, labourers and graziers in provincial Ireland from the immediacy of the Famine until the eve of World War One. By focusing upon east Galway, it argues that they were not an inarticulate mass, but rather, they were sophisticated and politically aware in their own right. War & Revolution in Rural Ireland: Galway 1912-22 by Dr Conor McNamara. Conor’s latest book has been shortlisted by the likes of the Irish Independent as one of their books to read in 2018. The book is an examination of how the country’s western regions dealt with the fallout from the violent struggle for independence on the ground. 2 In the first in a new series on Landed Estates in the locality, we look at some of the estates in south-east Galway. The following is an abstract from John Joe Conwell’s recent book Portumna: A Galway parish by the Shannon. Derryhiveney (Derryhiney) Estate John Joe Conwell While Clanricarde regained much of his Portumna estate which he had lost during the Cromwellian invasion, the O’Mad- den clan was not so lucky. Henry Cromwell got possession of 4,864 acres around that family’s stronghold of Derryhiney which he later sold to the Earl of Cork and Arran. In 1717 these lands were purchased by Benjamin Gascoyne, a London merchant and in 1724 he leased some of the land to Jonathan Harding who renamed the place ‘Harding Grove’. Harding also owned property in Co. Tipperary. In 1732 Gascoyne leased 663 acres in Gurtray (Fairfield) and Kilmalinoge to Walter Lambert of Cregclare Castle at an annual rent of £40. In 1746 he leased a further 624 acres in Fairyhill to John Loftus for £41 and in 1749 Gascoyne sold 2,434 acres of his lands to a barrister-at-law, Theobald Wolfe, for £6,250. In 1765 Wolfe leased 570 acres of land at Derryhiveney South to William Harding of Harding Grove for a rent of £45. Wil- liam’s grandson, also named William, left the property to his second son, Jonathan who died in 1815. He was succeeded by his second son, also named Jonathan. The Fetherstonhaugh family had origins in Durham but had settled in Phillipstown (formerly Daingean), Co. Offaly in 1651. They also owned land in Mosstown Co. Westmeath where they had a seat. Theobald Wolfe’s eldest daughter, Mary, married Cuthbert Fetherstonhaugh in 1770 and this marriage brought the lands of Fairyhill, Corr and Derryhiveney North into Fetherstonhaugh possession. In 1797 their son, Theobald Fetherstonhaugh, married Mary, the daughter of Jonathan Harding of Harding Grove in the parish of Kilmalinoge. The new owners leased some of the estate but for many years were themselves seated on the former O’Madden lands at Derryhiveney. By a lease dated 13 March 1818 Cuthbert Fetherstonhaugh held 634 acres at Gortaha.1 He is again listed in Griffith’s Valuation in 1856 as owning 1,800 acres in the townlands of Derryhivney North, Gortawullaun, Newtown and Sheeaun, all in the parish of Kilmalinoge; Cappagh in the parish of Tieranascragh, and Gortaha in the parish of Lickmolassy. Of this amount just over 130 acres was leased to tenants.2 In that same publication Jonathan Harding is listed as leasing all of his 612 acres in Newtown and Derryhivney South to a number of tenants.3 In 1872 Colonel Fetherstonhaugh put 500 cattle, 150 sheep, as well as horses and farm implements up for sale as he planned to let the lands at ‘Derrahiney’. The Nenagh Guardian reported in 1853 that over 324 acres of Derryhiveney Farm (Castle Farm) was put up for sale in the Court of Chancery with George Harding, a minor, as defendant. It was bought in trust by a Mr Thorpe. In 1876 Jonathan Harding, living at Bessborough, Nenagh, owned just over 633 acres of land in Co. Galway and 163 acres in Co. Tipperary. The Galway and Tipperary properties were later acquired by the Young family with an address at Ballygibbon, Nenagh. Frederick Young died in 1906 and his son, David, who lived for some time at Harding Grove, died in 1928, after which the estate was acquired by the Estates Commissioners. In 1874 Edward Fetherstonhaugh advertised the letting of the 300-acre Gortaha farm and in 1876 he advertised twenty five acres of hay for sale there. Also that year, Mrs Isobella Cooper offered six acres of hay for sale and the farm contents at Gortaha. Nothing remains today of the house in Gortaha. William Fetherstonhaugh’s daughter married Frank Thompson and their daughter, Florrie, married Tom Seymour from Ballymore Castle in Lawerencetown. The property then became known as the Seymour-Thompson estate. It was taken over by the Land Commission in 1930 and distributed. References 1. Patrick Melvin, Estates and Landed Society in Galway (Dublin, 2012), p. 47. 2. Return of owners of land of one acre and upwards in the counties, cities and towns in Ireland 1876. 2. Richard Griffith, General valuation of rateable property in Ireland (Dublin, 1856). Also refer to volume 7, Spring 2011, of our newsletter for more details on the towerhouse [part of our ‘Know Your Monuments’ series). The monuments in Derryhiveny South are the castle- towerhouse (GA118-035) and quarry (GA118-038); and in Derryhiveny North are a windmill (GA118-025), quarry (GA118-026), standing stone (GA118-028), ecclesiastical enclosure (GA118-029001) with bullaun stone (GA118-029002), another quarry (GA118-030), a desig- nated landscape feature (GA118-031), the house (GA118-032), and an earthwork (GA118-034). 3 Recommended Sources in Local History: Pre-famine Education (with a focus on Loughrea) The Second Report of the Commissioners of Irish Education Clare Doyle This report, published in 1826, provides an insight into the various educational establishments and their manage- ment throughout the different parishes of Ireland. It came about as a result of an inquiry or census of every school in operation in Ireland in 1824. It is divided into two parts, the first containing the report itself (about 20 pages) and the second, the appendices, providing the bulk of interesting genealogical and local information.