Kilbrittain Historical Journal 2018/19

This is the fourth volume of the Journal of the Kilbrittain Historical and images that appeal to many tastes. The topics span many different eras of history in our own region and beyond. This volume includes the history of Coolmain Castle, an article on Brehon Law, local evictions

IRA commander Charlie Hurley, the killing of RIC man Constable Bolger, several other fascinating articles on the War of Independence written by direct participants, ecclesiastical history, educational history in the area, the concluding part of the story of ‘Rebel Doctor’ Dorothy StopfordPrice, and a very special and poignant tribute to the local people who perished in the Tuskar Rock air disaster in their 50th anniversary year. Other items include personal histories, poetry, society trips, and superb images from local photographers.

Once again our contributors have displayed skill, passion and determination in their wonderful articles. Their commitment to unearthing and articulating the rich cultural heritage of the Kilbrittain region is a truly admirable pursuit that is to be highly commended. We salute them and thank them for preserving this unique record for future generations to enjoy and be inspired by. We trust that you, the contemporary reader,

Pictured

Coastguard Station at Howe’s Strand from the air by Michael Prior

cover photo: Coolmain Castle and Old Head by Brian Madden

KILBRITTAIN

ARTICLES & RECORDS FROM THE PAST

Produced by

The Kilbrittain Historical Society

Anybody that would like to contribute to future journals, please submit materials to the address below;

Email: info@kilbrittainhistoricalsociety.com www.kilbrittainhistoricalsociety.com

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KILBRITTAIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY COMMITTEE

Sean O'Connor (P.R.O.), Niall O'Brien (Treasurer), Triona O'Sullivan-Enright (Secretary), Denis O'Brien (Chairperson), Micheal Larkin (Deputy Editor), Diarmaid O'Donovan (Editor), Con McCarthy (Vice Chairperson).

The Kilbrittain Historical Society would like to thank all who supported us during the year, including those who gave presentations and contributedmaterial for our journal.

Copyright Southern Star Ltd. Volume 4

Kilbrittain Historical Society

First Published December 2018 Published by Southern Star Creative Skibbereen, Co. Cork

The views expressed in each article are the author’s own, and do notrepresent those of the Kilbrittain Historical Society as a group.

MEMBERSHIP LISTING 2018

Kilbrittain Historical Society

Annual Membership Fee €20 per person/€25 per family.

Barry, Hugh & Family

Begley, Diarmuid

Brennan, Mary

Browne, Fergal

Cahalane, Denis

Calnan, Marie & Family

Cashman, Dominic

Cashman, Sheila

Chapman, Christine

Coghlan, Noel (Nollaig) RIP

Collins, Denis & Family

Coffey, John W., Nova Scotia, Canada

Condon, Liam

Cremin, Fr. Jerry 15. Crombé, Véronique 16. Cronin, Dan 17. Crowley, Eileen 18. Crowley, Ger 19. Crowley, Helen 20. Crowley, Kieran 21. Desmond, Ann Marie & Family 22. Dollard, John, Michelle & Family 23. Fallon, Eugene 24. Fitzgerald, Maureen 25. Frost, Rosemary 26. Hawkes, Alan 27. Hickey, Annette & John 28. Hickey, Fr. Pat 29. Hickey, Vincent & Family 30. Larkin, Michael & Peggy 31. Lordan, Jerome 32. Lynch, Mary 33. Mac Lellan, Anne 34. McCarthy, Con & Family 35. McCarthy Eamonn 36. McCarthy, Nan 37. McCarthy, Tim & Majella 38. Moloney, Marian 39. Moloney, Noreen 40. Murphy, Vincent 41. Northridge, Patsy 42. O’Brien, Frank, Denis & Family

43. O’Brien, Ian & Family 44. O’Brien, Jerry & Catherine 45. O’Brien, Niall & Noreen 46. O’Brien, Ollie 47. O’Brien, TimJoe & Kay 48. O’Connor, Eugene 49. O’Connor, Seán, Liz & Family 50. O’Donnell, Shane 51. O’Donoghue, Dermot 52. O’Donovan, Diarmaid 53. O’Donovan, John, Jan & Family 54. O’Driscoll, Willie & Family 55. O’Mahony, Barry 56. O’Mahony Family, Maryborough 57. O’Mahony, Mary & Family 58. O’Mahony, Neil 59. O’Mahony, Patrick 60. O’Neill, Kathleen & Family 61. O’Neill, Helen & Family 62. O’Sullivan, Barry 63. O’Sullivan, Cormac 64. O’Sullivan, Joanne 65. O’Sullivan, Mary 66. O’Sullivan Enright, Trióna & Family 67. O’Sullivan Couse, Yvonne & Family 68. Quinlan, Pat, Margaret & Family 69. Quinlan Family, Bawnleigh, Ballinhassig 70. Richardson, Sr. Cora 71. Ryan Helen & Family 72. Ryan, Noel & Chris 73. Ryves, Martin & Yvonne 74. Sexton, Brian, Mary & Family 75. Sexton, Lawrence & Joan 76. Shanahan, Róisín & Grania 77. Sheehan, Anne 78. Thorne, Joan & Jonathan 79. Twohig, Michael 80. Twomey, James (Jimmy) 81. Walsh, Annette, Aidan & Family 82. Whelton, Michael, Catherine & Family 83. Whooley, Donal

Kilbrittain Historical Society would like to extend our deepest sympathy to the family of former member and article contributor Noel (Nollaig)Coghlan who passed to his eternal reward during November 2018. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.

CHAIRPERSON’S ADDRESS

Dear all,

Welcome to the fourth volume of the historical journal from Kilbrittain this publication makes for informative and enjoyable reading.

To date the previous volumes of historical journals have produced a wonderful variety of personal recollections, some tragic and some joyful, of the people of Kilbrittain and its surrounding West Cork hinterland. As a small rural place, Kilbrittain punches above its weight where heritage is concerned. For those reading this volume in different parts of the world, I hope you enjoy Kilbrittain's history and especially the history of its diaspora. If you have never been to Kilbrittain, perhaps the lush scenery and historical sites of this tranquil place will entice you to visit sometime.

We aim to publish as much information as we can but where this is not possible in this volume, information submitted will be used in future journal volumes. A bank of information is vital in keeping this series of journals alive so we welcome your continuing contributions. One society goal in us in archiving local history so that future generations have a wide scope of local heritage and community knowledge to treasure. Young or old, whatever the topic, all material is of great interest to the society.

I want to take this opportunity to thank everybody involved in the making of this journal, from article contributors who freely gave of their time, family stories and photos, to our members, and especially the Kilbrittain Historical Society Committee.

I would also like to thank all our guest speakers this year. I wish to thank all our members who attended our historical lectures and tour outings throughout the year. We welcome you to contact us with outing/lecture suggestions and give us feedback to make each historical society year better and better.

Finally, new members to our society are always welcome, both within and outside the Kilbrittain area. Perhaps this journal will persuade you, the reader, to make that choice. Yours Sincerely, Denis O’Brien

PROGRAMME OF EVENTS

10th April 2018 Society Annual General Meeting

24th April 2018

Place Names Along The Kilbrittain Coast –Speaker: Jerome Lordan

8th May 2018

15th June 2018

Castles of West Cork including Kilbrittain Speaker: Tony McCarthy.

Courtmacsherry Bay Boat Tour/RNLI Life Boat Station Talk Speakers: Diarmuid O’Mahony, Jim Crowley & Pat Lawton

12th July 2018

Guided Tour of Beal na Blath / Kilmurry Museum Speakers: Tim Crowley / Deirdre Burke.

15th August 2018

Parish Tour from Argideen to Harbour View Speaker: Michael Larkin

14th September 2018

Tour of Castle Salem, Rosscarbery Speaker: Tony McCarthy

23rd October 2018 Cork and the Great War Speaker: Gerry White

1st December 2018 2018/2019 Journal Launch Speaker: David Cowhig

ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY IN KILBRITTAIN 9 Michael Prior

KILBRITTAIN POEM 10 Kathleen Coughlan

COOLMAIN CASTLE 15 Trióna O’Sullivan Enright

PHOTOGRAPHS 38

Annette Hickey

EVICTIONS AND AGRARIAN DISTURBANCES IN THE LOCAL AREA DURING THE 1880S 40 Jerome Lordan

PHOTOGRAPHS 46 Mike Brown

KILBRITTAIN’S BELOVED BRIGADIER: CHARLIE HURLEY (1893-1921) PART 1 OF 3 47 Denis O’Brien

ACTION AT RATHCLAREN (REPRINT) Liam Deasy 72

THE KILLING OF CONSTABLE BOLGER, KILBRITTAIN, DECEMBER 1919 81 Fergal Browne

LOCAL LINKS WITH THE TUSKAR ROCK AIR TRAGEDY (1968) 96 Ann Marie Desmond

INTERVIEW WITH NORA COWHIG 109 Denis O’Brien

MARGARET COLLINS O’DRISCOLL ALONE AMONGST MEN 118 Con Mc Carthy

BALLYMORE BECKONS 45 YEARS OF THE O'CONNORS IN KILBRITTAIN 122

MICHAEL MCCARTHY, CREAMERY MANAGER 127 Edward McCarthy

THE RARE STAINED GLASS OF ST. PATRICK’S CHURCH, KILBRITTAIN 132

By Fr. Jerry Cremin

THE WRITING OF THE ANCIENT IRISH LEGAL TRACTS 137 Ciarán O’Donovan

INTRODUCTION TO DOROTHY STOPFORD PRICE 150 Anne Mac Lellan

OF SEA PINKS, BLACK AND TANS, AND MEDICAL MATTERS: THE KILBRITTAIN YEARS (1921 1925) (PART 3 OF 3) 152 Anne Mac Lellan

SCHOOLS IN KILBRITTAIN, TEMPLETRINE AND KILMALODA IN 1824 Tony McCarthy 164

KILBRITTAIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY TRIPS 173

AMENDMENT 177

GIRLS FROM KILBRITTAIN NATIONAL SCHOOL 1926/1927 178

ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY IN KILBRITTAIN

A beautiful image of the coastguard station at Howe's Strand captured at night by Michael Prior.

KILBRITTAIN POEM

By Kathleen Coughlan, late of Clonbogue (originally Ballingeary)

I

We're here to entertain tonight, Correct me please, but I think I'm right. Kilbrittain's beauty we would extoll,

II

This old, old village within the Glen, The Castle poised upon the hill. The rustic bridge, the lazy stream, Where little brown trout from the bank is seen.

Fig.1: Kilbrittain Castle with cargo ship sailing in the background (photo Brian Madden).

Fig. 2: Coolmain Estuary (photo Niall Hegarty, Pink Elephant)

III

Horse chestnuts guard our ancient church, The wood behind has larch and birch. The village hall is a place for fun, Here we foregather when day is done.

IV

Our shops have stocks of everything, From the football to the proverbial pin. The Garda Barrack is painted green, And Danny's roses are a dream.

V

The traveller here can shake his thirst, At Des's Bar or the 'Rovers Rest'. Industrious women will supply, Souvenirs to take the strangers eye.

VI

Famous people here reside, Statesmen, artists and more besides.

To equal one of radio fame.

Fig.3: Coastguard Station at Howe’s Strand (photo Brian Madden)

VII

Now come with me to Coolmaine, Perchance you may remain. Do play upon the sandy beach, Or swim, Howe's Strand is on the east.

Fig.4: Sunset at Harbour View (photo Niall Hegarty, Pink Elephant)

VIII

At Rochestown, below the rocks, Carrigeen with minerals precious, IX

Kinsale's Old Head, that friendly light, Winks out a warning in darkest night. To ships that would approach too near, Majestic rocks of beauty sheer.

Fig.5: ‘Kinsale’s Old Head, that friendly light, Winks out a warning in darkest night’ (photo courtesy of Mike Brown)

X At Granfeen Bridge, you must pause a while, Here there’s much that would beguile. The eye, as far as one can see, Wild birds upon the estuary.

XI

The strand at Grán is long and wide, Here cars are driven at ebb of tide. For picnics, or to romp the dog, Until the tide steals back again.

XII

Of ships that called in days of sail. Stocks of salt were stored within, The walls of this now ruined kiln.

XIII

Now Harbour View, what can one say, There's a wooded peninsula beyond the bay. Children play on spits of sand, And sheltered rocks keep guard beyond.

Fig.6: On the beach at Harbour View (photo Niall Hegarty, Pink Elephant)

XIV

Gayding ply the waterway,

To and fro across the bay.

If too put out to sea,

XV

Then on to Burren around the coast, Ah! Here is beauty one fain would boast.

Many scenes of splendour grand, Woodland, lake, and miles of sand.

XVI

One looks across at Courtmac Bay, And see men on boats put out to sea. Black divers undisturbed on Burren Rock, Shrouded and still like a covered clock.

XVII

Somehow her valleys and hills are more fair.

Fig.7: ‘Somehow the elds of Kilbrittain are greener’ (photo Brian Madden)

COOLMAIN CASTLE

By Trióna O’Sullivan Enright

Fig. 1: Present day Coolmain Castle, 2018.

Thepresent day mansion known as Coolmain Castle, set overlooking the breathtaking Courtmacsherry Bay, is a famous Kilbrittain landmark for the many locals and visitors who drive the coast road along Harbour View or walk along the Strand Road at Coolmain.

What might not be as well known is that building seen today is not the original Coolmain Castle. This ancient castle was in fact situated about half a kilometre to the south of the present day mansion. 1

This original Coolmain Castle is thought to have been built as a small “look out” castle by the Lord of Kilbrittain Castle, either a McCarthy or a De Courcey.2 The date it was built is not recorded but would have been sometime after the 13th century when the de Courceys and McCarthys occupied Kilbrittain.

1. Journal of the Cork Historical & Archaeological Society, Kinsale in 1641 and 1642, Vol XIII; 1907.

2. Castles of County Cork, James N.Healy; 1988.

The site of this original Coolmain Castle is situated on farmland currently belonged to a local McCarthy family, who it is thought are descendents of the McCarthy Reaghs who occupied it.3 Unfortunately, very little of this ancient Coolmain castle can be seen on its original site today. All that remains are the ivy covered stone walls that surrounded the site of the ancient castle.

Fig. 2: Coolmain, with tower of modern day mansion visible among the trees, overlooking Coolmain beach (Scott’s Strand). e site of the original castle lies half a kilometre to the south (right) of the current day mansion.

3: Site of the original ancient Coolmain Castle, which was situated directly to the north (le ) of the blue farmhouse on the McCarthy farm at Coolmain.

3. Conversation in 2018 with McCarthy sisters of Coolmain, Brigid and Maudie (Holland), who were told as children that they were descended from the McCarthy Reaghs by their school teacher, Ms.O’Sullivan, Ballymore.

The location in which it was built was ideal to watch out to sea as a “look out point” for the main headquarters at Kilbrittain Castle. It would also have been a useful base to store any goods brought by sea for Kilbrittain by landing at Coolmain strand.4

4. Castles of County Cork, James N. Healy; 1988.

Fig. 4: Remains of the ivy covered stone wall surrounding the site of the original Coolmain Castle.

Fig. 5: Remains of pillars across from the steps at Coolmain beach made from Castle stone. is was likely to have been an entrance connected to the site of the ancient Coolmain Castle.

original castle still existed. The Cork Historical and Archaeological Society recorded in 1907 that “a portion of its old square tower measuring 32 feet x 28 feet x 20 feet in height” was still standing. These dimensions were taken for the Society by a local farmer, Mr. Martin5, whose descendents, the O’Brien family, now reside in the Martin homestead which overlooks Coolmain Castle from the eastern side.

McCarthy sisters Brigid and Maudie (Holland) can still recall playing “shop”, as little children in the 1930s, in the remnants of these tower walls which then stood on their family farm.6

The stones of the original castle were thought to have been incorporated into a dwelling house occupied by the Scott family who lived in Coolmain until about 1870.7 Local farmers in the Coolmain/ Granasig area can also claim to have outbuildings made from this “recycled” ancient Coolmain Castle stone.

5. Irish Tourist Association Files, Kilbrittain, 1942.

6. Conversation with McCarthy sisters of Coolmain, Brigid and Maudie (Holland); 2018.

7. JCHAS, Vol XIII; 1907.

“A short distance inland from the strand is situated in an old garden near strongly built wall which was once portion a proud castle.” Kilbrittain Irish Tourist Association Files, 1942.

Fig. 6: Remains of wall around site of original Coolmain Castle on McCarthy’s farm at Coolmain.

SECRET TUNNEL

A favourite local legend says that Coolmain Castle is connected to Kilbrittain Castle by a secret underground tunnel9 unlikely as they are almost three miles apart.

A variation of this legend was passed down to the current Coolmain McCarthy family who can recall as children searching for a secret tunnel between the original castle site on their farm and the newer mansion.10

1642 CASTLE LOST TO CROWN

At the end of May 1642, Coolmain was taken from the McCarthys by Crown

Gable end of “ e Old Stall” built in 1928 by the O’Sullivans, Granasig, with stone from the ancient Coolmain Castle.8

forces during the Confederate War. The force was led by Lord Kinealmeaky, a son of Richard Boyle. Coolmain was taken easily and without a struggle by a Captain Hooper who left eighteen men at Coolmain and proceeded on to take Kilbrittain Castle. 11

“ Captain Hooper went directly to Colemaine,and approaching something neer, espied aboundance of people upon the top of it; but presently vanished away left the Castle and betook themselves to Boats which lay neer them for the purpose, they rowed up the River of Tymeleague, and it is supposed they sheltered themselves, for the present in Tymeleague Castle.”

Letter from Tristram Whetcombe, Mayor of Kinsale to his brother, Benjamine, 1st June 1642.12

The McCarthy Reaghs who were only gone as far as Killavarrig Woods beyond Timoleague were unaware of the drama unfolding at home and been lost.

“A ward of 32 musketeers was left until the booty of both castles (Coolmain and Kilbrittain) valued at £1,000 could be brought away.” 13

Once Coolmain was seized, it was granted by Cromwell to Colonel John Jephson. After the Restoration, it was the Duke of York (afterwards James II) who returned it to the Earl of Clancarthy who later forfeited it. After remaining the property of the Crown for some years, it was sold at the great auctions of forfeited estates to the Hollow Sword Blade Company, a sword making company who used the corporate identity of the company to operate as a bank.14

STAWELLS (de STOWELLS)

The Hollow Sword Blade Company soon sold Coolmain Castle on in 1703 to the Stawell family, who had come to Cork from Devonshire in the previous century. 15

Jonas Stawell was the purchaser, but as he died that same year, it was unlikely that it was used as a residence.16 Jonas passed Coolmain to his son

11. JCHAS, Vol XIII; 1907

12. Ibid.

13. Irish Tourist Association Files, Kilbrittain; 1942.

14. The First Stock Market Crash: The South Sea Company; 2013.

15. The Harbour View Hotels and Coolmain Castle, Noel Coghlan, Christmas Bandon Opinion, 2003.

16. Castles of County Cork, James N. Healy; 1988.

Painting of Coolmain Castle by Patrick Henessy (d.1980)

SCOTT FAMILY

20 and then by the Scott family at the end of the 18th century, when Benjamin Scott leased it from Eustace Stawell around 1784.

Scott household in Coolmain at that time, paying his tithe (tax) on over 90 acres of agricultural land to the Church of Ireland.21 Valuation also records Hibernicus Scott as leasing the original Coolmain Castle site and lands (99 acres) however this time from a different owner, a Thomas Wyse, with the Stawells having moved on to the newer Coolmain mansion.22

The Scotts are the family after whom Coolmain Beach was called23 and it was only ever referred to by its original title of “Scott’s Strand” by Coolmain stalwarts such as Michael O’Donovan (RIP 2013).

BUILDING OF NEW MANSION: TWO COOLMAIN CASTLES

Fig. 10: 1848 map from Gri th’s Valuation showing the site of the ancient Coolmain Castle to the south of the current day Coolmain mansion. Note how the present day mansion was only then called “Coolmain”.

20. Castles of County Cork, James N. Healy; 1988. 21. 22. 23.

During the late 1700s/early 1800s, it was probably the Stawells who built the mansion which is the building we see standing today.

This new dwelling was occupied by the Stawells until the mid 1800s while the Scott family occupied the original ancient Coolmain Castle and lands.24

Records are complicated during this period due to the fact that there were two Coolmain “castles” in existence for a time, the original older Coolmain Castle slowly going into decline after the newer mansion, known simply as Coolmain House, was built. It was only after the new mansion had been renovated into a castellated house and the ancient Castle no longer existed, that the newer building adopted the title of “Coolmain Castle”.25

Eustace Stawell, whose seat was at the new mansion at Coolmain was a First Lieutenant in the Kilbrittain troop of Cavalry and was said to have lived a very extravagant lifestyle. He was often present at the Court of France where he was known as the “The Handsome Irishman”. He died at Coolmain sometime daughters at the time of his death.26

The last generation of Stawells to occupy Coolmain was a grandson of Eustace Stawell, son of his daughter Esther Stawell who had married Alexander William Heard in 1832. 27

Fig. 11: Eustace Stawell “ e Handsome Irishman.”

BOYLE BERNARD

Soon after the death of Eustace Stawell, Colonel Henry Boyle Bernard arrived in Coolmain leasing the mansion along with forty eight acres from the Stawell family. 28

The Bernard family were responsible for adding the tower to the mansion and renovating the mansion into a castellated house, which was the fashion of the time.29

Stawell Family Tree – www.wainwrightfamily.org

Stawell St. Ledger Heard Vol I and II, Irish life and Lore Oral History Recordings, 2013.

Stawell St. Ledger Heard Vol I and II, Irish Life and Lore Oral History Recordings, 2013

Fig. 12: Print of Colonel Henry Boyle Bernard 1867 reviewing the 87th South Cork Light Infantry. He is depicted on his Arab charger while the lines of soldiers march past. eir German bugle band play near the trees beneath the castle tower and on the right in the distance is Coolmain strand (Scott’s Strand).30

Colonel Henry was prominent in both political and social circles in Cork and London. Educated at Eton, he commanded the 87th South Cork Light Infantry for a number of years and was a magistrate for the county.31 After each summer drill in Bandon, Colonel Bernard created quite a lively scene in Coolmain when he would bring the regiment out for a day before it was disbanded for the harvest.

“

scarlet white and blue would march past him while the German bugle band played the quickstep. Casks of beer and porter were enjoyed by the soldiers and their friends until the early hours.”

“Fair Strands of South Cork”, J.M Semple, Southern Star November 10, 1934.

from Coolmain across the bay to Courtmacsherry village.

30. Fair Strands of South Cork, J.M Semple, Cork Examiner, Nov 1934. 31. Death of the Hon. Col. Bernard, Coolmain, Southern Star, March 1895.

Bernard, reclined on an imposing lounge in the stern , the “castle boat” created lively interest in Courtmacsherry visitors as it swept across the water ."

“Gossip from Mayfair,” Belfast Newsletter, June 22, 1928.

Colonel Bernard represented Bandon as an MP in the British Parliament winning a seat in 1863. Hot on his tails for his parliamentary seat was Mr. William Shaw, a man ironically soon also to have a Coolmain address. Bernard retained his seat after two hotly contested elections against Mr. Shaw, eventually losing out to him by only three votes in 1868.32 Not only was Mr Shaw successful in winning the seat, it was also around this period that he built a large house high above Coolmain beach.33

Fig. 13: Colonel Henry Boyle Bernard son of James the second Earl of Bandon.

Fig. 14: Spectacular views of Coolmain (Scott’s Strand) and Courtmacsherry . e manicured lawns were once the site of “ e Great Field” where Colonel Bernard paraded soldiers from the 87th South Cork Light Infantry every summer. Note also the pathway which leads down to what was once the Castle’s “private beach”.

32. Death of the Hon. Col. Bernard, Coolmain, Southern Star, March 1895. 33. Vectis Brand Concrete, Shaw’s Cottage, Cork Examiner, Sep. 1873.

Would this election rivalry perhaps explain the local theory that this building, also known locally as the “Spite house,” was built as an eyesore to interrupt the panoramic views from Coolmain Castle?

and he was declared bankrupt before he passed away in 1895 at Coolmain, aged 83 years.34

McCarthy sisters, Brigid and Maudie (Holland), can recall Shaw’s cottage when it was used as a holiday home in the 1930s as having very modern the rooms.35

It was later referred to as “the Nun’s House”, when it was used by the Presentation Sisters who spent glorious summers overlooking Coolmain and the “Nun’s Cove”.

In the 1990s Shaw’s cottage was purchased and demolished by the Disneys, who had recently acquired Coolmain Castle.

Fig. 15: Photograph of a painting of Courtyard at Coolmain Castle in later half of the 19th century. It is thought to feature Coolmain local Denis Cronin, dancing a jig with his neighbour to the music of the band of the 87th Cork South Light Infantry rehearsing, while a group of neighbours look on.36 e original painting is today in the possession of the family of Stawell St.Ledger Heard (died 2015) in May eld, UK.37 Denis Cronin (born 1832), is a great grandfather to Dan, Mary, Humphrey, Redmond and Carmel Cronin, Coolmain.

34. Bankruptcy of Colonel, the Hon B Boyle Bernard, Kerry Sentinel, Jan 1885.

35. Conversation with McCarthy sisters of Coolmain, Brigid and Maudie (Holland), 2018.

36. Information from Mary Hall (Cronin), Coolmain, August 2018.

37. Stawell St. Ledger Heard Vol I and II, Irish Life and Lore Oral History Recordings; 2013.

NO “TROUBLES” FOR COOLMAIN – THE STAWELL HEARD FAMILY, EARLY 1900s:

By the turn of the 20th century the original Coolmain Castle was fully abandoned and the site no longer inhabited. After the death of Colonel Bernard, the Stawell family returned to Coolmain when Alexander E. Stawell Heard, a grandson of Eustace Stawell, took up residence in the Castle with his wife Dorothia.38

Coolmain was one of the only great houses in the area that escaped burning during the years of the Troubles around 1920. Mr. Heard was a judge or magistrate in Clonakilty and deemed to be very fair and popular with the locals, which is probably why it was spared.39 The Castle was in fact searched for arms in 1918 and Mr Heard subsequently claimed £150 compensation for damage to his property.40

Alexander Stawell Heard died in May 1925 and the Castle was sold the same year to Mr Lionel Baldwin, bringing to an end the long reign of the Stawells at Coolmain.41

Fig. 16: e famous head of Brian Ború situated in courtyard of Coolmain Castle. A daughter of King Brian, Sive, married Cian, a son of the chief of Uí Eachach clan who controlled Kilbrittain. e e gy of King Brian was removed from Kilbrittain to Coolmain sometime during the 1920s/1930s a er Kilbrittain Castle was burnt by local Volunteers during the Troubles of 1920.42

National Archives – Census of Ireland 1901/1911 accessed at

Correspondence from Bob Willoughby to Sinclair family, 1976/1977.

Rural Councils, Kinsale; Cork Examiner, May 1918.

Sale of Historic Castle, Cork Examiner, July 1925.

“How Are the Mighty Fallen”, Richard Henchion, Bandon Historical Society, Vol.No.20; 2004.

Fig. 17: Steps and archway leading to the magni cent gardens o the courtyard in Coolmain, Castle. ese steps are said to have come from Kilbrittain Castle a er it was burnt during e Troubles of 1920.43

DONN BYRNE

Although he only lived there for a very brief period, one of Coolmain’s most famous residents was the world renowned novelist Donn Byrne who purchased the castle in the late 1920s. to Irish parents. The family returned home soon after and Donn spent his and literature at universities in Ireland and abroad. He became a world renowned author writing eleven novels, three collections of short stories and one Irish travel book.44

Donn Byrne came to Coolmain in 1926 after he caught sight of Coolmain Castle while travelling to Queenstown (Cobh) on a liner. He leased Coolmain for six months in 1926 and 1927, all the while enjoying racing and gambling on the French Riviera.

One lucky night at the Casino in Cannes gave him the £2,000 funds he

43. “How Are the Mighty Fallen”, Richard Henchion, Bandon Historical Society, Vol.No.20; 2004. 44. Recalling Donn Byrne on Visiting Coolmain, D.J. Murphy; Cork Holly Bough; Dec 1976.

needed to buy the castle outright in 1928. 45

Unfortunately Donn’s lucky streak was not to last. In June of the same year, while driving home along the coast road from the Esplanade hotel in Courtmacsherry, his car went into the sea at Burren pier during high tide where he drowned. 46

His secretary, Miss Kathleen Britter who had been travelling with him, witnessed the accident and tragically minutes before had pleaded with him not to drive any further as the car’s steering was faulty and she was too afraid to travel any further. 47

Another theory is that Don might have been trying to turn the car around on the narrow road to go back for Miss Britter and toppled over the low roadside edge. 48

Don Byrne is buried at Rathclaren Graveyard with the famous inscription on his tombstone: “Tá me mo chodladh Is ná duisigh mé.

In 1930 Don Byrne’s widow, Dorothea, remarried an agent of her late 1933, when they left for England.

Fig. 18: Gravestone of Donn Byrne at Rathclaren cemetery, Kilbrittain: “Tá mé mo chodladh Is ná duisigh mé. DONN BYRNE Born 29th May 1889 Died 28th June 1928 I am in my sleeping And don’t waken me”

A Don Byrne Conspectus, J.J. O’Keeffe, Bandon Historical Journal No.13, 1997.

The Donn Byrne Story, Journal of the Armagh Diocesan Historical Society, Vol 24, 2012.

Inquest of Death of Donn Byrne, Southern Star, June 1928.

The Donn Byrne Story, Journal of the Armagh Diocesan Historical Society, Vol 24, 2012.

Fig. 19: Mary “Molly” Murphy, Coolmain with Donn Byrne’s widow, Dorothea at Coolmain. Mary spent her lifetime looking a er Coolmain Castle from the time of the Stawell Heards (early 1900s). Two more generations of the Murphy family have looked a er the Castle to the present day. Reproduced with kind permission of the Murphy family, Coolmain.

AN ICA CONNECTION

In 1936 the Irish Country Women’s Association saw the potential of using Gahan from Dublin.50

Thirty two girls from all over the country camped in the grounds of Coolmain Castle for a fortnight, with numbers increasing up to one hundred as girls from local guilds attended daily.

Although the Castle was unfurnished, the innovative association borrowed utensils and arranged an impressive programme of classes and activities that would easily outshine any summer camps available today.

The ladies skills in “making do” were really put to the test when an

49. The Donn Byrne Story, Journal of the Armagh Diocesan Historical Society, Vol 24, 2012. 50. Irish Countrywomen’s Summer School, Irish Press, August 1936.

Fig. 20: Tower at Coolmain Castle which was added on to the mansion by the Bernard family when they renovated Coolmain into a castellated house during the mid 19th century.

intruding foxhound helped himself to the cooked ham intended for the never knew their loss!51

Mornings were spent by girls attending lectures on a wide range embroidery stitches, gloves, using beach stones to make jewellery, interior design, wallpapering and painting rooms.

Daily cookery demonstrations were followed by physical exercise and drama in the afternoons. Evenings were spent Irish dancing and singing.

Swimming in Coolmain and a boat trip around the Bay was organised by a Mr Ruddock. On the 29th July, the group were also hosted by Mrs Healy who invited the girls to tea at Harbour View.52

At night, stretcher beds were pulled outside and the girls enjoyed sleeping under the stars overlooking the moonlit waters of Coolmain.

The summer school climaxed with a festival of three plays, ballet and mimes.

21: Church Cottage was built during the 1800s and served as a private chapel for the residents of Coolmain Castle.53 It also served food to the poor, and school classes were held here54

Irish Country Women Association Archives, Summer School, Coolmaine Castle, Cerise M.Parker.

Irish Countrywomen’s Association, Southern Star, August 1936.

Unchanged by Hands of Time, Philomena (Mary) Hall, Cork Holly Bough; Dec 2006.

Fig. Fig. 22: e Courtyard on the Northern side of Coolmain Castle.

COOLMAIN 1940s TO 1970s

Although Coolmain had fallen into a state of disrepair, it was purchased by the Shaw Steele family who took over the castle in the late 1940s and established a country house hotel attracting visitors who enjoyed beach

The O’Sullivans, Granasig can recall attending a Christmas Eve children’s tea party in 1949 with games and festivities for all.

Fig. 23: Innovative Coolmain Castle advert from 1948.55

It was about this time that Coolmain Castle was advertised as an innovative “holiday and Rest Camp for greyhounds”. The advert published in 1948 caused a London newspaper columnist familiar with the beautiful environs at Coolmain to quip:

“A London owner I know whose dogs have been in the class recently says. ‘They are staying in their kennels; I am going to the holiday camp myself.’”

Farmer Victor Ruskell bought Coolmain in the 1950s and farmed the lands surrounding the castle growing crops of oats and barley. Mr Ruskell decided to leave Ireland in 1957 and emigrate down under, auctioning off much of the castle contents before he left.

“COOLMAINE” WITH A RUSSIAN CONNECTION

Millionaire, William Patrick Barbour, synonymous with the reels of linen thread produced in Belfast, bought Coolmain in 1957. Mr. Barbour is remembered for travelling around the local area in style, in a large chauffeur driven car and it was he who was responsible for temporarily adding the “e” to the name Coolmain. He spent a lot of money renovating Coolmain which had fallen into disrepair while it had been empty over the previous decades.56

In the 1970s, it emerged that Soviet spy Anthony Blunt, part of a Russian spy ring that had penetrated Britain’s secret service, was a regular visitor to Coolmain Castle as a guest of Mr. Barbour during these years. 57

Barbour left Ireland for Spain and by 1963 Coolmain was back on the market, along with forty acres.

Fig. 24: Gates to present day Coolmain Castle. Note how the “E” was removed during the ownership of Bob Willoughby, reverting to the original spelling of Coolmain. e avenue into this mansion in the mid 1800s was on the eastern side of this entrance above Croisín na Faillimhe.58 Up until the 1930s, there was also a gated entrance on the corner down below Cronins, above Poll na Deora (Hole of Tears).59

56. Irish Country Women Association Archives, Summer School, Coolmaine Castle, Cerise M.Parker. 57. Cork Examiner, Nov 1979. 58. Coolmain Ordnance Survey Map, Ref 124; 1847. 59. Information from Mary Hall (Cronin), Coolmain.

GERMAN INDUSTRY 1966

In the current age of environmental awareness and “going green” it is hard to believe that the idyllic location of Coolmain Castle nearly became a German factory in 1966, with plans to manufacture chromium sand paper, sand bills and equipment.

A Frankfurt industrialist, Klingspur, bought Coolmain and had even gone so far as to move expensive equipment into the Castle. Several local men, including David Madden, Paddy Burke and Denny Murphy (son of Mary “Molly” Murphy), had been brought to Germany for a number of weeks for training.60 which led to the project being scrapped.61

Fig. 25: Magni cent gardens at Coolmain today.

Donn Byrne has certainly not been the only world famous owner of Coolmain Castle in this past century. 1973 saw international Hollywood photographer Bob Willoughby moving to Coolmain Castle with his wife

Bob had photographed many of Hollywood’s biggest stars including Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, John Wayne and Audrey Hepburn.

The Willoughbys did a superb job in renovating Coolmain as a family home and immersed themselves into the local community even taking their turn to host the Catholic “station” mass for all the neighbours. After 16 years and with their young family reared, the property became too large for Bob

Fig. 26: Present Day Coolmain Castle.

DISNEYS

Roy E. Disney, nephew of Walt Disney and vice chairman of the Walt Disney Company, purchased Coolmain Castle in 1989. A keen sailor, Roy was a regular visitor to the Cork Race week for the next 20 years before he passed away in December 2009. His wife Patricia died in Feb 2012.

refurbishments on the house and surrounding gardens, under the careful supervision of their loyal staff, Coolmain local, Adrian Murphy and USA native Tim Herron and his Irish wife, Margaret, who sadly passed away in recent years. Today Coolmain remains the private residence of the Disney family.

With special thanks to Noel Coghlan (RIP Nov 2018), Brigid McCarthy and Maudie Holland (née McCarthy), Tim and Jim McCarthy, Barry O’Sullivan, Tim Herron, Mary Hall (Cronin), Dan and Helen Cronin, the Murphy family, Anne Madden and John Madden for their help and information in writing this article.

Fig. 27: View of the Castle from the Strand Road- a familiar sight for those who frequent Coolmain beach.

ANNETTE HICKEY PHOTOGRAPHS

e entrance to Kilbrittain Village during the heavy Spring snowfall, taken on the 1st March 2018 (Annette Hickey)

In the centenary year of the armistice that ended WW1, we remember local man Michael Burke of the Royal Garrison Artillery, son of John and Catherine Burke, Ballycatten. Michael died in action aged 38 on June 9th 1918 (courtesy of Annette Hickey, grand-niece).

EVICTIONS AND AGRARIAN DISTURBANCES IN THE LOCAL AREA DURING THE 1880S.

By Jerome Lordan

BACKGROUND:

Atthe end of the 1870s the relationship between landlords and tenants was stable. Good harvests and good markets contributed to the calm that existed. Within a couple of years poor harvests, adverse weather conditions and deteriorating markets changed things radically. In 1877 the oat and barley crops as well as the potato were particularly poor due to a cold and wet summer. This was followed by three successive years of similar weather conditions. In 1879 the winter was the coldest in living memory,

cattle fell dramatically with stock down 25% at Kinsale Fair compared to six months previously. Pasture and livestock deteriorated due to the excessive rainfall and very cold weather. Demands for reductions in rent in 1879 were not received too kindly by landlords and land agents. By enforcing the payment of the customary rents in spite of the depressed state of agriculture, they unwittingly assisted the start of agrarian upheaval in 1879. This led to the foundation of the Irish National Land League in October of

Fig.1: An eviction scene from 19th century Ireland. Battering rams such as the one shown were o en used to evict tenants.

EVICTIONS AND AGRARIAN DISTURBANCES IN THE LOCAL AREA DURING THE 1880S.

defence of those threatened with eviction for refusing to pay unjust rent, and the ownership of the land by the occupiers. In the initial period of evictions as a consequence of the aforementioned problems, landlords were sure that the lands would not be left unoccupied. This, however, was counteracted by boycotting the new tenants who moved in, the ‘land grabbers’ as they were known, were ostracised by members of the community and were often subjected to various forms of intimidation. Gangs of ‘moonlighters’ regularly dished out violent treatment to the land grabbers.

The markets stabilised and conditions improved in the early 1880s. However, by 1884 conditions, both climatic and economic, again took a turn for the worse. A drought in the early summer of 1884 resulted in high feeding costs and decline in milk and butter production. This was repeated in 1887, the driest year of that century. Market prices fell sharply, and butter the mainstay of agricultural produce in Cork reached a new price low. New competition from continental Europe was one of the main reasons for this price decline. All this time the tenant and landlord were at odds over rental prices. Some tenants had judicial

Fig.2: e Land League issued a ‘No Rent Manifesto’ in 1881 while Parnell and the leadership were incarcerated in Kilmainham Gaol on false charges. Such actions emboldened tenants to resist evictions all over the country.

League was quick to see the possible danger in this distinction, as it created the possibility of dividing their organisation and jeopardising their stand. They fought strenuously to ensure this distinction did not gain currency. The Kinsale branch of the Land League (800 branches nationwide) passed a resolution in 1886 prohibiting those members who owned threshing machines from hiring them to farmers who had not joined the league.

These sanctions took their toll on the Landlord Class, the Earl of Bandon had no takers for the homes that the previously evicted tenant farmers

the harvest could not be gathered in by the continual wet weather of that year. Practically all landlords in County Cork offered to make at least some reduction in their rents in 1886 and early 1887. These reductions amounted to about 25%; although some, like the Earl of Bandon, refused to alter rents

agricultural production and markets. Things looked better than they had for suffered greatly during 1890.

Overall economic improvement, the decline in agrarian warfare, the 1887 Land Act all contributed to a return of normal conditions between both parties. Judicial leases became more commonplace and overall there was a reduction in rents by an average of 22% in Cork County. The landlord class had lost much of their former power, with representatives of the people taking up roles in all walks of life. The Local Government Act of 1898 further consolidated the role of the working class nationalist population with their appointments to local government, boards and urban district councils.

KNONCKNACURRA 1885.

An eviction took place in Knocknacurra in early August 1885. The person

was stated had nothing to do with the events that followed at his homestead. He occupied about 140 acres of land under the Court of Chancery on the usual lease of seven years, with his brother Denis being the nominal tenant. The yearly rent was £91.10s. The lease expired the previous September

Michael was left as caretaker as it was expected he would become tenant for a further term under the court. The land was valued by Mr. E.A. Appelbe, S.N. Hutchins of Ardnagashel, near Bantry. He was the Receiver under the

named Downey killed in an agrarian dispute. He valued the land at £75. Michael Flynn tendered at Appelbe’s valuation and his offer was refused by the court and a decree to possession was obtained against him at Innishannon petty sessions, which Hutchins proceeded on the following

42

AND AGRARIAN DISTURBANCES IN THE LOCAL AREA DURING THE 1880S.

Monday to carry out. On his arrival in Bandon he sought to hire a car. There were plenty of available cars, however, none of them could be induced to drive him to Knocknacurra to carry out the eviction. Hutchins along with the sheriff’s bailiff, John Hosford and another man walked to the eviction scene. Meanwhile, the church bell rang in Ballinadee, horns were sounded and three or four hundred men proceeded to Knocknacurra before Hutchin’s

rest of the furniture having been removed days before. Michael Flynn, had no thought of resistance, passive or otherwise. This, however, did not suit the gathering crowd and after a discussion as to the best means of obstruction, a large Scotch cart was put in one of the rooms upstairs. This was easily done as the stairs was large (once the house of a country gentleman). The wheels were placed on after it was put in the upstairs room. The linchpins were riveted and battered down, the wheels secured by chains

taken upstairs and secured to the cart. The windows were closed, doors barricaded and several of the men remained inside. The crowd got bigger and bigger and were joined by twenty men on horses from Newcestown, who had been drawing coal from Colliers’ Quay (a short distance upriver from Kilmacsimon) and hearing about what was taking place they left their carts at the roadside. Eventually Hutchins and his party arrived and soon

arrived from Innishannon. While waiting for the RIC to arrive, a stone was thrown at Hutchins, but it failed to hit him. Whilst waiting, Hutchins was threatened by waving sticks. He then proceeded to the house surrounded by the RIC men and with a large stone started battering the door, no other appliance being at hand. Great excitement prevailed while this was being done. A man stuck his head out one of the top windows over Hutchins head, brandishing an iron bar and it was fully expected he was about to strike him with it. Shouts of encouragement to hit him were raised. One of the constables pointed up his gun at the man and cautioned him against doing so. A whisper went around from the back of the crowd to throw stones from

door was eventually broken in and the hall found to have a group of men ready to resist the entering party. They were, however, cautioned by the

trap had been set on the stairs by tearing up some of the boards and laying them across again. So that anyone stepping on them would fall through and risk injury. After two hours the only thing that had been removed was the donkey. It was found necessary to send to Bandon for reinforcements.

Mr. Hutchins sat outside under a tree while waiting, and another stone was thrown at him which missed the target. The crowd continued to jeer and goad him, with the chant “who shot Downey?” being repeatedly cried out. The wildest rumours prevailed in Bandon and all available policemen, with District Inspector Hayes and Head Constable Coughlan were dispatched to the scene. Cars were refused to the police and it took quite a while for them to arrive. When they got to the scene the greater part of the crowd had scattered. Those who remained were again cautioned by Mr. Hayes, and late in the evening the cart, after a most tremendous hammering was

property and land was taken soon after.

FURTHER EVICTIONS FROM THIS PERIOD:

Old Head 1884: The Hannon family of Dooneen were evicted from their land and neighbours helped fund the family on the voyage to America. The family worked hard and saved with the intention of returning home. They did so in 1904 and repurchased the land they were evicted from twenty years previously.

Ballinscarthy 1887: Tim Hurley was evicted from his home, known as

including the county inspector named Curling of Bandon.

Kilbeg 1887: Maurice Hickey was evicted from his farm. His landlord was Denis Wade and the rent on the land was £2 per acre, double the government valuation. The eviction was carried out under John Savage of Kinsale and eight policemen. There were approximately two hundred people present, including the Rev. Canon McSweeney and C. Crowley. Wade was a middleman and his agent was G.T. Appleby, Deputy County Surveyor of North Main Street, Bandon.

In 1888 up to sixty tenants had been served with eviction notices on the Bandon Estate.

Lauragh 1888: Denis Sullivan had always paid his rent and ‘noticed’ under the eviction made easy clause. The eviction was unexpected and ruthless. Ardcrow 1880s: John O’Neill refused to pay rent to Baldwin Sealy his

44

EVICTIONS AND AGRARIAN DISTURBANCES IN THE LOCAL AREA DURING THE 1880S.

stones for throwing at the eviction party who came to evict O’Neill. They put a bull in the back kitchen and on opening the door the bull charged on the attacking party. Outside the front door they put a goat with a notice on her horns “Sealy keep clear”. Eventually the troops took over the house and the tenant paid the rent rather than be evicted.

Cloundreen 1880s: A man named Cullinane was also evicted by Sealy, because he could not pay the rent. He was afterwards allowed to live in the house as a labourer, and through the Land League, got back the land again.

Farranagark 1880s: Patrick Keohane was evicted by the father of Percy Scott and given a smaller holding in Ardcrow, from which he was later evicted for the second time.

Borleigh 1890: The following people were evicted from their holdings, Ellen Ring, Thomas Cotter, Daniel Crowley and a Driscoll man. The land they were evicted from was poor

good times. The Bandon Union refused them outdoor relief after the events.

Bibliography

Fig.3: e Royal Irish Constabulary were utilised by the agents to e ect evictions. is did not bode well for their popularity in subsequent decades.

The Cork Examiner, October 1904. Cork Constitution, 5th August 1885. Bandon Genealogies

Burren N S, Folklore School’s Collection 1939.

MIKE BROWN PHOTOGRAPHS

Two wonderful images of the wave breakers at Harbour View, by renowned local nature photographer, Mike Brown

CHARLIE HURLEY

KILBRITTAIN’S BELOVED BRIGADIER: CHARLIE HURLEY

1

By Denis O’Brien

3

but none of you will be with me”.

These prophetic words of Brigadier Commandant Charles Hurley, Brigade, came true on the 19th March 1921. Outside of Cork his name today is virtually unknown. Yet there are few soldiers of the War of Independence who have a stronger claim to remembrance or

Fig. 1 – Portrait of Charles Hurley, Baurleigh (Photo courtesy of Michael Coleman, grand-nephew).

Volunteer Organiser of the Cork Third (West Cork) Brigade, was born in 1893 in Baurleigh, Kilbrittain. Parish birth records from the time show that he was born on the 21st March 1893 and baptised by then Curate of Kilbrittain, Timothy McCarthy C.C., on the 22nd March 1893. Son of John Hurley, a farmer and Mary Hurley nee Fleming from Barryroe, his godparents were John McCarthy and Ellen Buckley.1 The tradition of the time was to have the child christened the day following the birth as infant mortality was usually high. However the birth record from the Birth Registrar in the District of Kilbrittain, Co. Cork showed Charlie’s date of birth as the 29th March 1893. The birth record was registered on the 4th May 1893.2 The question could be asked: did Timothy McCarthy C.C., enter the incorrect date on the baptism record or

brothers, James and William, and four sisters, Catherine ‘Katie’ (eldest), Mary, Ellie ‘Nellie’ and Margaret ‘Maggie’ (youngest).3 He came from that farming stock which has given Ireland so many of its great men.

By coincidence, also raised in Baurleigh at the time, was Charlie Hurley’s neighbour, friend and second cousin, Diarmuid 'Gaffer' O'Hurley (often called ‘Hurley’), who would become Midleton Company Commander and O.C. Cork No. 1 Brigade I.R.A. during the War of Independence.

EARLY YEARS

Charlie Hurley was educated at Baurleigh National School. In his early teenage years, Charlie had an interest in local Gaelic games and was a noted hurler for his local club, Kilbrittain. In 1910, Charlie lined out at right

Shanballymore at the Cork Athletic Grounds.4

After leaving national school he worked in a store in Bandon. While employed there he studied for, sat and passed the Boy Clerks’ Civil Service Examination and was appointed to a post at Haulbowline Dockyard, Queenstown (now Cobh), Co. Cork. He served at Haulbowline from 1911 to 1915, when he was ordered to transfer to a Liverpool depot for promotion.5 He refused to accept the transfer as it entailed conscription in the British

KILBRITTAIN’S BELOVED BRIGADIER: CHARLIE HURLEY

years old, that he joined the Irish Volunteers. He was already in the national tradition, for he was a hurler and a lover of Irish customs and the Irish language.6 He resigned from his job in Haulbowline and returned to his native West Cork to organise the Irish Volunteers.7

Fig. 2 – An American warship moored in Haulbowline in 1918.8

The following letter was sent by Charlie Hurley to Seamus Fitzgerald, fellow volunteer and later Fianna Fail T.D. and industrialist, then residing at 3 East Beach, Cobh on 1st August 1916:

1. Kilbrittain Parish Birth Records.

278 (Registered by Superintendent James Shorten, Registrar, District of Bandon, 4th May 1893) source, John Desmond.

1901 Census, Hurley family, Baurleigh, accessed from www.census.nationalarchives.ie

Southern Star 17 August 1963, p.7 – accessed from www.irishnewsarchive.com

Southern Star 24 March 1951, p.4 – accessed from www.irishnewsarchive.com

Southern Star 25 March 1961, p.12 – accessed from www.irishnewsarchive.com

Photo sourced from Ireland’s Naval Base & Navy booklet.

Dear Jim,

Having learned from various sources that you are once again approachable and breathing the free air which many a patriot is denied, I write you that you may share your joy with an old friend with whom you once shared the labour which the good old cause demanded of you.

There is no need to dwell, I’m sure, on how proud I feel when my old chums in Cove [Cobh] were pronounced “disloyal”, a good old word which means loyal to Ireland – and also there is no need to congratulate you on being crowned with the “Felon’s Cap” because I know as regards this you feel as only having done your duty, for which no congratulations are necessary.

Speaking to Pat O’Dwyer, one of your fellow-prisoners, on the day following his arrival in Bandon, he told me you and Mick Leahy were

term and I hope he will pass from the “hand so vile who dare not hold hearts so brave”.

I need not refer now to the sudden shattering of our most cherished hopes, to that glorious, though bloody chapter recently added to our fair island’s story. Let us never forget the men who died and pray that their equals in other times may be blessed with better results attending their efforts.

Prior to the outbreak, Jim, I was sorry I was compelled to knock off our correspondence with you through illness, am yet pretty bad and have would never rise. But I am well again thank God and never in my life so anxious to be up and doing. I would dearly like to see you all in Cove now and perhaps in the near future I will turn my steps to that dear place. I would have written sooner but have been enjoying solitude on the seashore for the last six weeks.

I wrote to Maurice Mac some time ago, but as I never got an answer I take it he never received the letter. This is not at all unlikely as the matter it contained was deemed seditious by the Prison Authorities, I’m sure.

I trust you and the boys in Cove are well and would you please remember me to any with whom you may come in contact – more especially your fellow comrade, Mick Leahy. I shall anxiously look forward to a letter from you and believe me still a member of the Cove Special Scouting Section.

KILBRITTAIN’S BELOVED BRIGADIER: CHARLIE HURLEY

I remain, Yours sincerely, (Signed) C. Hurley

After recovering from the long illness described in the preceding letter, Charlie Hurley went to work at McSwiney’s corn merchants in Bandon, where he befriended Liam Deasy. There he became associated with Sinn Fein and the Gaelic League. Liam Deasy would later recall that “as an enthusiastic young Gael he was prominent in hurling. He was an ardent member of the Gaelic League and a popular member in the dramatic class.”10

CASTLETOWNBERE AND THE BEARA PENINSULA

In early autumn of 1917, Charlie Hurley left Bandon to work in Castletownbere. He was employed as a managing clerk for Denis F. McCarthy, who was also a Naval contractor. Also working at McCarthy’s General Supply/Naval Stores were the sisters Maggie and Nora O’Neill from nearby Church Gate. They

During the years between 1917 and 1918 the harbour at Berehaven was full American, were anchored there on and off for fresh stores and water.

Charlie Hurley was in receipt of a wage of £3 per week. Of this sum he contributed £1 per week to the support of his father.12 Had he remained in civilian life, Charlie Hurley may have developed into a prosperous merchant but instead chose to become involved in organising and training the local branch of Volunteers, the Castletown Company IV which had only just started. In the more responsible clerk jobs he was a success, but they were no longer his main work. That was soldiering. He practised sections and platoons and soon, as was inevitable to one with such energy, imagination

esteem in which he was held in the town was found in his immediate

9. Southern Star 29 May 1971, p.4 – accessed from www.irishnewsarchive.com

10. Southern Star 24 August 1963, p.4 – accessed from www.irishnewsarchive.com

11. Charlie Hurley Visit to the Beara Peninsula, Southern Star 05 June 1971, p.4 – accessed from www.irishnewsarchive.com

12.

PDF_Pensions/R5/1D189%20Charles%20Hurley/1D189%20%20Charles%20Hurley.pdf

brother of Maggie and Nora, was elected Second Captain and John Cronin was elected Third Captain. Charlie Hurley would rapidly rise (in days when command.13

A SURPRISE NATIONAL PARADE

hold a parade on St. Patricks Day, 17th March 1918. They marched from Company and also the Beara Battalion Engineer recalled:

“It was decided to carry out a St. Patricks Day Parade as a diversion and

The column of men on the parade carried hurleys and ash plants, pick handles, etc. It was a properly disciplined march and there were several military orders given. The townspeople were nervous as they didn’t know what was on.”14

It was arranged that Charlie Hurley would meet the Eyeries men (about one hundred volunteers led by John Driscoll, O.C. Eyries) there with his Company,

men of the Eyeries Company would unobtrusively drop out of the ranks on the way to the assembly, slip back to the village, and approach as closely as possible to the R.I.C. barracks without being seen. There they would lie in wait till the door of the barracks was opened, and then rush it. The

later of Crossbarry fame) who held up the barrack orderly (Constable 15 The

against an R.I.C. Barracks after the 1916 Rising.

13. Southern Star 24 March 1951, p.4 – accessed from www.irishnewsarchive.com

14. irishnewsarchive.com

15. Deasy, Liam, ‘Towards Ireland Free’, Mercier Press (1973, Rept. Cork, 2015) p.29.

16.

17. Bureau of Military History – Witness Statement No. 1567. James McCarthy, Lieut. IRA, Cork 1921.

52

No arrests were ever made in connection with this raid. On the night following the raid on the barrack, Constable Cahill met Peter Neill one of the raiders in a public house in the village. He referred to the raid saying that he had been in Drimoleague when a bomb had been thrown into the

were dismissed from the R.I.C. following the raid.17

Fig.4 – Some 1918 newspaper accounts of the Eyeries RIC Barrack raid. 18/19

The R.I.C. were very active following the parade and the raid at Eyeries. James O’Sullivan, member of Castletownbere Company, recalled the situation:

“Our Company O.C. (Con Lowney) was arrested. I think that he was charged with illegal drilling. He was brought before the Petty Sessions Court. He recognised the court and, for so doing, was removed from the post of Company O.C. by the Battalion O.C. (Charlie Hurley). It was an

KILBRITTAIN’S BELOVED BRIGADIER: CHARLIE HURLEY

Fig.3 – Le : Eyeries R.I.C. Barracks, (blue building) and right: Christy O’Connell, Eyeries (Photo courtesy of Diarmuid Begley).

order at this time that Volunteers, if arrested and charged in connection with their activities, should refuse to recognise the authority of the enemy

About this time the R.I.C. raided for John Driscoll and Charlie Hurley in connection with the parade in Castletownbere on St. Patrick's Day. It was proposed to arrest them on a charge of illegal drilling. They were not at home when the raids took place and both now went “on the run". Charlie Hurley, who was now Battalion O.C, spent most of his time in the Eyeries district at this period.21

RAIDERS OF THE FLYING FOX

Engineer recalled: “Charlie Hurley was determined that we should raid the Naval Stores and also raid the ‘Flying Fox’, a British Naval patrol boat.22 A few weeks after the raid on Eyeries Barracks, Charlie Hurley, Captain of the Castletownbere Company, assisted by Billy O’Neill, carried out a daring raid on the British patrol boat, HMS Flying Fox, which was stationed at Castletownbere Pier. Armed with revolvers, the two Volunteers boarded the

However, some of the crew of the HMS Flying Fox were local men whose

and the Volunteers reluctantly agreed to do so.23 The courage of the duo’s raid was all the more remarkable as there were two hundred or more crew on board.24 The raid was successful with the arms and ammunition secured

18. Skibbereen Eagle, 18 May 1918, p.3 – accessed from www.irishnewsarchive.com

19. Irish Examiner, 16 May 1918, p.2 – accessed from www.irishnewsarchive.com

20. Bureau of Military History – Witness Statement No. 1528. James O’Sullivan, Castletownbere, Member, IRA, Cork 1921.

21. Bureau of Military History – Witness Statement No. 1567. James McCarthy, Lieut. IRA, Cork 1921.

22. Southern Star 05 June 1971, p.4 – accessed from www.irishnewsarchive.com

23. Deasy, Liam, ‘Towards Ireland Free’, Mercier Press (1973, Rept. Cork, 2015) p.31.

24. Bureau of Military History – Witness Statement No. 1474. Eamon O’Dwyer, Member IRB,

25. Based at Queenstown (modern Cobh) in the south of Ireland, this type of patrol boat escorted incoming ships from the North Atlantic and hunted German submarines. HMS Flying Fox was built on the Tyne in the Neptune Yard of Swan, Hunter & Wigham

Fig.5 – e dazzle camou aged painted '24' class Naval Sloop HMS Flying Fox on her sea trials.25

About the same time, a small group of unarmed Volunteers of the same Castletownbere Company under their intrepid Captain, Charlie Hurley, carried out an ambush on a party of armed military. Jeremiah McCarthy, a local Volunteer, observed three soldiers leaving the town and going in the direction of Furious Pier. He immediately alerted Charlie Hurley and Billy O’Neill. The three Volunteers hastened to Rodeen Cross where they took up a concealed position in the narrow laneway near the main road, and waited for the soldiers to come along. It was still daylight and local people were passing by, but the Volunteers could not be seen from the main road. The military appeared, and each Volunteer was assigned a soldier to overpower and disarm. The soldier assigned to Charlie was nearest in line as the trio approached the crossroads. Ironically enough, the song he was singing as Charlie jumped on him and brought him crashing to the ground was ‘Johnny, Get your Gun!” But this soldier was merely carrying a parcel and

swiftly snatched from them by the Volunteers. Bearing their precious prize they ran, Charlie Hurley remarked, ‘There is no Canon with us today!’26

FORMATION OF BEARA BATTALION

To meet the conscription threat of late spring of 1918, Charlie Hurley

26. Deasy, Liam, ‘Towards Ireland Free’, Mercier Press (1973, Rept. Cork, 2015) p.32.

KILBRITTAIN’S BELOVED BRIGADIER: CHARLIE HURLEY without loss.

organised a very primitive munition factory in a vacant farm house at Eyeries. There he manufactured crude, but effective, canister bombs and mines for future activities.27

Commander.28 The Castletownbere area was organised on a battalion basis. There were now units at Bere Island, Castletownbere, Eyeries, Ardgroom, Urhan, Ballycrovane, Ardrigole and Inches. These companies formed Castletownbere (Beara) Battalion. On the 1st

O.C. Charlie Hurley; Vice O.C. Sean Driscoll; Adjutant, Mick Crowley; Q.M. Dan Sullivan.30 The only type of training carried on was ordinary close order foot drill, with occasional public parades and route marches. Training was carried out under our own military training manuals obtained from members of the British garrison on Bere Island. The strength of the Battalion was about 700.31

Vol. James O’Sullivan recalled:

“Early in June, 1918, the members of Beara Battalion seized a large quantity of gun-cotton, primers; and detonators from the military stores on Bere Island. The whereabouts of this material was discovered by Eugene Dunne (I/O Adrigole Company) who was employed by Bantry Bay Steamship Company as a clerk. He reported the position to me and to his own Company (Adrigole) O.C. It was decided to raid the store and remove the explosives. The raid was carried out on the morning of 5th June 1918. Operations began at about 1 a.m. Nearly every member of Bere Island Company was engaged, acting either as scouts, outposts or in the actual removal of the explosives from the store to a boat at the pier. When the store had been cleared of explosives we rowed across the harbour from Bere Island Pier to Bunow where the men from Adrigole were waiting to unload the boat. When the boat had been unloaded we returned to Bere Island some time about 5 a.m. This guncotton was dumped in Adrigole area, from where it was removed in small Quantities as required.”33

Engineer recalled the arms dumps:

“Charlie Hurley was the only man authorised to take stuff out of the arms dumps. Charlie stayed at my father's place and also at Timmy Kelly's of

56

KILBRITTAIN’S BELOVED BRIGADIER: CHARLIE HURLEY

Pullincha. He was on the run at that time. The British were trying to trace a box of ammunition (500 rounds of shotgun ammo consigned to D.F. McCarthy, Berehaven) taken out of the Bantry Bay Steamship

pointed at Charlie. That man was the only man authorised to take stuff. An arrangement was made with Hurley to take stuff out of the dumps and let a little note as proof. The great danger was if many people were allowed to go near the dumps it would show a trail. If arms were wanted they were taken out and put in a different place for distribution.”34

The Battalion O.C. (Charlie Hurley) was arrested on 26th July, 1918, in the street in Castletownbere by four R.I.C. men. The arrest however was in connection with the illegal drilling on St. Patrick's Day, 1918. He was replaced as Battalion O.C. by Adjutant, Michael Crowley.35

Fig.6 – Beara Battalion Monument in the square, Castletownbere Town. e inscription reads: ‘In memory of the men and women of the Berehaven Battalion who fought for the Irish Republic from 1916 to 1923.32

27. Southern Star 24 August 1963, p.4 – accessed from www.irishnewsarchive.com

28. Deasy, Liam, ‘Towards Ireland Free’, Mercier Press (1973, Rept. Cork, 2015) p.29.

29. Bureau of Military History – Witness Statement No. 1536. William O’Neill, Captain IRA, Cork 1921.

30. Bureau of Military History – Witness Statement No. 1528. James O’Sullivan, Castletownbere, Member, IRA, Cork 1921.

31. Bureau of Military History – Witness Statement No. 1527. Liam O’Dwyer, Commandant, IRA, Cork 1921.

32. Photo accessed from – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Baile_Chaisle%C3%A1in_

33. Bureau of Military History – Witness Statement No. 1528. James O’Sullivan, Castletownbere, Member, IRA, Cork 1921.

34. Southern Star 27 February 1971, p.11 – accessed from www.irishnewsarchive.com

35. Bureau of Military History – Witness Statement No. 1567. James McCarthy, Lieutenant IRA, Cork 1921.

LIEUTENANT WILLIAM HURLEY

Charlie’s younger brother by three years, William, was also a volunteer with Kilbrittain Company, Third Cork Brigade. William (Liam) was born on 25th of January 1896.37 Similarly to his brother Charlie, William was also a noted scholar:

Fig. 7 – e building formerly known as Castletownbere R.I.C. Barracks.36

Fig.8

KILBRITTAIN’S BELOVED BRIGADIER: CHARLIE HURLEY

James Hurley recalled of his brothers, Charlie and Willie: “There was seven of us born & reared in a farm of 35 acres. Those two boys got education. They were both employed as clerks in Haulbowline Dockyards up to 1915 when they gave up their jobs to join the nation's call. They helped their father and mother out of their earnings up to then.”39

movement and was involved in a number of activities between January to 31st March 1918. He took part in an armed training camp held at the Lake House, Maryboro for the purpose of manufacture of buckshot, shrapnel, bombs and equipment for Kilbrittain Company. All the men engaged were trained in the use, cleaning and repairing of all arms. In February 1918, he took part in collecting all arms, principally shotguns and ammunition from sympathizers to be stored in local arm dumps. The houses of ten loyalists' families in the company area were raided for arms during March 1918, with all raids being carried out in one night.

As the company was engaged in resistance to conscription, William Hurley and the local parish priest addressed an organised public

fund, after which all men of military age were immediately enrolled as Volunteers and put through a course of instruction in drill and manoeuvres in view of the local R.I.C. Barracks. These recruits were mobilised twice weekly for drill and other activities until all danger of conscription passed off. In May 1918, he

Fig. 9 – Lieutenant William Hurley, Baurleigh (Photo courtesy of Michael Coleman, grand-nephew).

in order to avoid arrest by military patrols who attempted to encircle the district. The same month he was engaged in raiding for arms at Ahiohill.40

During the months following the passing of the Conscription Act in April 1918, wholesale arrests of leaders of the Volunteers, Sinn Fein, and other nationalist movements were attempted by the British Government. To avoid arrest it became customary for a number of the more prominent Volunteers in adjoining Company areas to meet together at night and sleep in unoccupied labourers cottages and farmyard outhouses, and to post armed sentries for protection. The hardships incurred by this necessity were very great, and some Volunteers succumbed to the rigours of exposure. Among them was Charlie’s brother, Lieutenant William Hurley of Kilbrittain Company.41

On 2nd August, 1918, Lieut. Willie Hurley, age 22, "B" Company, 4th Battalion, Cork Brigade, I.R.A. died at his home in Baurleigh from typhoid

His brother James Hurley recalled of William’s death: “They came home, went organising and drilling the volunteers. They used to be away for weeks at a time. On the last occasion, William came home sick with typhoid fever. He had the care of two doctors but it killed him.”44

Michael J. Crowley, brother of Denis, Con and Paddy and Brigade Engineer with Kilbrittain Company, Cork Third Brigade later recalled of this tragic event in his witness statement:

“Charlie's younger brother, Liam, while 'on the run' had contracted typhoid and, after a brief illness, died. Charlie and I were present and, a few minutes after closing Liam's eyes, he and I walked out from the death chamber. I was surprised at his lack of emotion on the death of Liam whom, I knew, he idolised but when we had got clear from the house and friends, suddenly grasped me and moaned: "Oh, hillside". I mention this in an attempt to describe this man whose love of country

Fig.10 – Memorial Card of William Hurley, Baurleigh.43

its sake transcended all mortal things. Hence, I know that he himself died as he would have wished.”45

On the 4th August, 1918, there was a full muster of the members of Kilbrittain Company together with the other Companies in the Battalion at the funeral of Lieutenant William Hurley (Kilbrittain Company) in Clogagh old cemetery.46

The parade marched from Baurleigh to Clogagh and was watched by British forces.47 He was given a military funeral, including a area was under martial law. All Companies of the Bandon Battalion were mobilised and paraded at the funeral. There was no interference by the British authorities.48

Fig. 11 – Michael J. Crowley, Kilbrittain Village (Photo courtesy of Diarmuid Begley).

AN UNFORTUNATE RETURN TO CASTLETOWNBERE

After the funeral of his brother Willie in August 1918, Charlie Hurley was

40. Cork 1921.

41. Deasy, Liam, ‘Towards Ireland Free’, Mercier Press (Cork, 2015) p.22.

PDF_Pensions/R5/1D189%20Charles%20Hurley/1D189%20%20Charles%20Hurley.pdf

43. Accessed from Fonsie Mealy Centenary Sale Archive, p. 21 https://fonsiemealy.ie/auction/ life for the world, receive in a loving embrace the soul of our gallant comrade Liam, who gave his young life for Ireland. Queen of Martyrs pray for him.

PDF_Pensions/R5/1D189%20Charles%20Hurley/1D189%20%20Charles%20Hurley.pdf

45. Cork 1921.

46. Bureau of Military History – Witness Statement No. 1290. Laurence Sexton, Member IV,

47. Bureau of Military History – Witness Statement No. 1254. Michael Coleman, Captain IRA, Cork 1921.

48. Deasy, Liam, ‘Towards Ireland Free’, Mercier Press (1973, Rept. Cork, 2015) p.22.

KILBRITTAIN’S BELOVED BRIGADIER: CHARLIE HURLEY

captured upon leaving Baurleigh and was brought back to Castletownbere to stand his trial on the charge of illegal drilling on the previous St. Patrick’s Day, he was under such a heavy military guard that it prevented any possible hope of the rescue planned by the local battalion. On this occasion he received a sentence of two months, for the offence of unlawful assembly (drilling).49

ENTRY INTO CORK MALE PRISON

After receipt of sentence, Charlie Hurley was sent to Cork Male Prison (Cork Gaol). Some of the details from his record there showed the following: Age: 25 years old, Birth Year: 1893, Height: 5 feet 9 inches, Eyes: Brown, Hair: Brown, Complexion: Fair, Marks on Person: Fresh bruise on left arm. Mark on left hand. Weight on Admission: 148, Weight on discharge: 154, Trade or Occupation: Clerk. Date of Committal: 24th of August. Under Sentence: 31st of August. Offence: Unlawful Assembly. Court from which committed: Castletownbere, Expiration of Sentence: 30th October, 1918.

A letter from Cork Male Prison to his then sweetheart, Nora O’Neill, showed the indomitable spirit of the man which guided him all through his life: “Let England do her worst, our bodies she can have for the taking, but our spirit never.”

Male Prison

Hurley, Baurleigh.50

letter

Male Prison,

Dearest Nora, I suppose you already know the "news". I am sure you have read in Cork E (possibly Examiner) all about that "young to be rearrested. I am & will be tried by courtmartial one of these days for resisting arrest, seditious documents, ammunition, drill book, whistle, letters, dispatches etc. etc. H__?___

Sean Buckley from Bandon, Brigade

Charlie Hurley’s treatment:

“In resisting arrest and while in custody afterwards, he got badly knocked about. I remember him being brought in to Cork Jail looking terribly ill. He had his clothes wet through on his back for several days. The following day he was down with pneumonia and was brought to death’s door. I remember our anxiety about him and how I loved to get even one glimpse of him.”52

Fig. 14 – Sean Buckley (Photo courtesy of Diarmuid Begley).

use be something nice I'm sure by way of a holiday. Hence be a good deal of 'Separation do her worst. Our bodies she can have for the taking but our spirits, never.”

Southern Star 14 March 1936, p8 – accessed from www.irishnewsarchive.com

KILBRITTAIN’S BELOVED BRIGADIER: CHARLIE HURLEY

Fig. 13 – Le : Charlie Hurley’s letter to Nora O’Neill and right: Nora O’Sullivan nee O’Neill (right) (Photos courtesy of Bandon Historical Journal No. 13).51

RE-ARREST, COURTMARTIAL AND MARYBOROUGH CONVICT PRISON

in his possession plans for the capture and destruction of British posts servitude in Maryborough Gaol Convict Prison (modern Portlaoise Prison).53

Charlie Hurley was now under sentence of Penal Servitude for breaches of the Defence of the Realm Regulations. He was housed in ‘E’ Block section. His record shows that on the 17th December 1918, for Offences under Section: 9AA, and 19 A of the Defence of the Realm (Consolidation) Regulations 1914, Charlie Hurley was found guilty.

Fig. 15 – Charlie Hurley’s prison record on entry into Maryborough Convict Prison.

The initial record shows Charlie was guilty of having had in his possession a book containing instructions for the blowing up of barracks, bridges etc. in Castletownbere District. Also books on military training and 8 rounds of ball ammunition.

53. Southern Star 24 August 1963, p4 – accessed from www.irishnewsarchive.com

Charlie Hurley’s

Maryborough

His registration in the prison showed: Prisoner No. E500 approved for received from Cork Male Prison. Convicted on 17th of December 1918, rd of October 1918. Some of his record details showed: Age: 25, Height: 5 feet 8 inches, Visage [face shape]: Oval. He was received into Maryborough Convict Prison on 31st of December 1918. Sadly for Charlie while detained in Maryborough, his mother Mary died on the 14th of September 1919.

EFFECT OF THE CAT AND MOUSE ACT

in prison, Charlie embarked on a hunger strike with others in protest under the Cat and Mouse Act on 6th of October 1919, and was supposed to report to his local RIC barracks once a month, but he didn’t. The Cat and Mouse Act, introduced by the Asquith government, allowed prisoners on

they were recovered.56

Ernie, ‘The Men

p.72.

Mercier Press (Cork

KILBRITTAIN’S BELOVED BRIGADIER: CHARLIE HURLEY

In 1919 men from different parts of Ireland who had been sentenced to long terms of imprisonment for political offences were released (after undergoing hunger strike) under what was known as the "Cat and Mouse permitted and would then have to complete their sentence of imprisonment. Charlie Hurley, and, like the others who were released with him, went "on and now he devoted his whole time to organising and training in the different units of the Brigade. At the same period the Adjutant of the 1st Battalion (Liam Deasy) had to go "on the run" to avoid being arrested and he was appointed organiser for the Brigade. The perfect organisation and military activities for which Cork No. 3 became afterwards noted were due,

Fig. 17 – Le : Poster against the Cat and Mouse Act and right: Poster showing what the women’s Su ragette Movement thought about the Asquith Government’s tactic of force-feeding.57

KILBRITTAIN’S BELOVED BRIGADIER: CHARLIE HURLEY

Charlie Hurley returned home and it was during a brief period of recuperation in his own district of Kilbrittain that he saw the menacing military position which had developed while he was in prison. The enemy had been concentrating in the Bandon district and had strengthened their posts, in order to protect this vital gateway to West Cork. It was such

history, the need produced the man, and Charlie Hurley stepped into the breach in the glorious tradition of Tone, Emmet and O’Donovan Rossa, and few have ever manned the Bearna Baoghail (gap of danger) with greater honour and success.59

Vol. Sean Buckley later recalled the concern for his friend:

“I remember discussing his career with some of the G.H.Q. staff in Dublin at the time, they were anxious to get him out of the country for a while on account of the long sentence hanging over him. When I mentioned this to Charlie he would not listen to it. He said his place was in West Cork and there he would stay. He threw all his energies into organising and building up the Brigade and was a driving force in the activities undertaken at this period.”60

During his stay in Kilbrittain and on the run after his time in Maryborough Prison, Charlie Hurley lived for a time with John and his sister, Margaret O’Driscoll (Burren) close to Burren Pier. Interestingly, a member of that same family, James O’Driscoll, would years later serve as member of An Garda Síochána in Adrigole, Castletownbere.

57.

force feeding by prison authorities. In reaction to this and after a general election in which the Liberals had lost a lot of support the UK government passed the Temporary Discharge of Prisoners Act (1913) Hunger strikers who were very weak were released from prison but were then admitted back to prison once they were healthy. If a prisoner died from hunger

58. Bureau of Military History – Witness Statement No. 470. Denis Lordan, Captain IV, Cork 1916; Commandant IRA, Cork , 1921.

59. Southern Star 24 August 1963, p.4 – accessed from www.irishnewsarchive.com

60. Southern Star 14 March 1936, p.8 – accessed from www.irishnewsarchive.com

Fig. 18 – Newspaper notice of the retirement of Garda James O’Driscoll in 1964, stationed in Castletownbere, whose family provided a safe-house for Charlie Hurley while he was “on the run” a er release from Maryborough Prison.62

FORMATION OF CORK 3RD (WEST CORK) BRIGADE

On the 5th January 1919, Cork Brigade was divided into three brigades; Cork I (city and surrounding areas); Cork II (North Cork); Cork III (West Cork). Cork III Brigade comprised of battalions in Bandon, Bantry, Castletownbere,

new brigade (Cork Ill) were: O.C.

Vice O.C. (Kilbrittain), Adjutant Quartermaster 63

Fig. 19 – Map showing the area covered by the ird Cork Brigade (Photo courtesy of Diarmuid Begley).

KILBRITTAIN’S BELOVED BRIGADIER: CHARLIE HURLEY A VACANT POST IN BANDON BATTALION

Bandon Battalion was now 1st Cork 3rd Brigade was Tom Hales, Knocknacurra, Ballinadee. When Tom Hales became Brigade O.C. of the new brigade, his brother, Sean Hales, became O.C. Bandon Battalion.64 The companies of the Bandon battalion were:65

South Side Centre North Side

A. Ballinadee

B.1 Kilbrittain

F. Bandon H. Crosspound

G. Innishannon I. Kilpatrick

B.2 Ballinspittle K. Farnivane

C. Timoleague

D. Barryroe

E. Clogagh

L. Newcestown

M.Quarries Cross

The 1st Battalion Staff up to this period were: O.C. - Commandant Seán Hales, Ballinadee, Vice O.C Adjutant Kilmacsimon and Quartermaster

Battalion. In September 1919, for personal reasons he had resign as Vice Commandant of the 1st Battalion and went to live outside Cork No. 3 Brigade area so the position became vacant.66

After a Brigade Convention meeting in Caheragh 27th November 1919, Liam Deasy returned to Brigade Headquarters at Frank Hurley’s of Laragh, and there learned that Charlie Hurley had been released from Maryborough

Volunteer activities, and with others had been unexpectedly released. Liam and Charlie arranged to meet a few days later at Fitzgerald’s of Clashreagh,

61. Diarmuid Begley, Personal Records.

62. Southern Star 17 October 1964, p.11 – accessed from www.irishnewsarchive.com

63. Bureau of Military History – Witness Statement No. 1567. James McCarthy, Lieut. IRA, Cork 1921.

64. Bureau of Military History – Witness Statement No. 1306. Denis O’Brien, Lieut. IRA, Timoleague, Cork 1921.

65.

66. Bureau of Military History – Witness Statement No. 470. Denis Lordan, Captain IV, Cork 1916; Commandant IRA, Cork, 1921.

(Kilbrittain) close to Ballinspittle. It was a happy reunion, and sitting by the that had occurred since Charlie’s arrest and imprisonment twelve months earlier. Charlie’s one ambition now was to return to Castletownbere and resume there, the Volunteer activities that his imprisonment interrupted. But as the night wore on he came to appreciate the new situation that had

would become the gateway to West Cork in the coming struggle, it was here that he could best meet the challenge. Once this decision was made known, the Brigade O.C. (Tom Hales) and staff were only too happy to offer him 67 Charlie

Hurley, who had been 'on the run' prior to his appointment did not return to the Castletownbere after his release from prison.

Charlie’s friend and comrade, Liam Deasy recalled: “Charlie’s reputation as a soldier was widespread not only in the district of West Cork, but throughout the entire country. We were indeed fortunate to have such a man at such a time and in such a place: his experienced leadership, personal magnetism, indomitable courage, and initiative were so perfectly blended as to make him the automatic choice when a post of higher command fell vacant later on.”68

A JOYFUL AND MERRY HOLIDAY

Dick Barrett was a schoolteacher at Gurranes National School near Crossbarry and a member of the Crosspound Company. Unsuspected by the enemy of complicity with the Volunteer organisation, he was able to move about in all circles, and rendered very useful service from 1918 onwards. He was particularly valued as an adviser to the Brigade Staff. As December 1919 advanced, Dick invited Charlie Hurley and Liam Deasy to spend Christmas with him at his home in Holyhill, Ballineen, and they gladly accepted, knowing full well that their own homes would surely be raided during the Christmas period by the R.I.C. as they searched for them.

After midnight on Christmas Eve 1919, Dick, Charlie and Liam crossed the Bandon River at Enniskeane, and proceeded in high spirits to Hollyhill. Liam Deasy recalled:

“To add to our jubilation we found that a number of Kilbrittain Volunteers had arrived in the same townland for Christmas before us. They had been forced to abandon their homes as a result of

KILBRITTAIN’S BELOVED BRIGADIER: CHARLIE HURLEY

the intensive raiding that took place after the shooting of the R.I.C. Constable (Bolger) on 15th December 1919.71 And to crown our joy we found among them the wounded hero of the Rathclarin ambush, Mick O’Neill, now completely recovered, and as courageous as ever. As we had to avoid appearing in public during the daylight hours, we were left with no option but to forgo the Masses on Christmas Day; it was indeed a strange experience for us to miss the Christmas ceremonies for the

On New Year’s Eve 1919, Charlie Hurley went with the Kilbrittain lads to the south side of the Bandon Battalion area, while Liam Deasy went to Brigade Headquarters at Laragh for a staff meeting with Tom Hales and Flor Begley to arrange for two barrack attacks: Mount Pleasant and Timoleague in the Bandon Battalion area. The prospect that presented itself as the New Year dawned showed the promise of dramatic action and plenty of excitement. It did not betray its promise.

To be continued in Part 2 in the next Historical Journal…

67. Deasy, Liam, ‘Towards Ireland Free’, Mercier Press (1973, Rept. Cork, 2015) p.85.

Deasy, Liam, ‘Towards Ireland Free’, Mercier Press (1973, Rept. Cork, 2015) p.85.

Photos from Barry, Tom, ‘Guerilla Days in Ireland’ (Rept.Cork, 2013) Mercier Press.

Deasy, Liam, ‘Towards Ireland Free’, Mercier Press (1973, Rept. Cork, 2015) p.91.

See article by Fergal Browne elsewhere in this journal.

Fig. 20 and 21 – Le : Dick Barrett, Ballineen and right: Liam Deasy, Kilmacsimon.69

ACTION AT RATHCLARIN1

By Liam Deasy

By 1919 the Company of Kilbrittain comprised a force of standard of organisation. Despite police vigilance, raids, in so far as this was possible with the few available weapons. Raids which there was no ammunition, three obsolete revolvers and about a dozen shotguns.

During the early months of 1919 timber was being felled on the lands of Kilbrittain Castle, and was being exported from Burren Pier in Courtmacsherry Bay about three miles away. Agrarian and labour had recently acquired the Castle and its lands were dismissed. Thereafter a reduced export trade in timber was carried on under police protection.

1. This extract is from Liam Deasy’s book, Towards Ireland Free – the authentic history of the 1973 by Mercier Press). The Kilbrittain Historical Society is grateful to Mercier Press and RCB Publishing for their kind permission to reprint this extract.

Fig.1: Signpost showing entrance onto Burren Pier with Courtmacsherry in the distance. (All photos courtesy of Denis O'Brien)

ACTION AT RATHCLARIN

In May the local police force, housed in a strong isolated building in Kilbrittain village, was reinforced by a party of military, sixty to eighty strong, billeted at the Castle about a thousand yards from the police barracks and in telephonic communication with it. With the police acting as guides, this military party became very active. Cyclist squads patrolled the district in the daytime and parties on foot moved about at night. They paid particular attention to the roads leading to, and in the vicinity of, the homes of the most active Volunteers, all of whom were, of course, well known to the police.

These movements were kept under close scrutiny by the Company of Volunteers, and soon it was noted that there was a regular night patrol going to Burren Pier, usually leaving the post at Kilbrittain Castle towards nightfall and returning to it at 3.00 or 4.00am. The with a revolver. It was decided to attempt the disarming of this patrol on its return from Burren Pier, and Rathclarin was the point selected for the operation.

Fig.2: Burren Pier. In 1919 regular RIC night patrols would arrive here from Kilbrittain Castle.

The night of 16th June saw fourteen Volunteers leaving their at Rathclarin. Only two of them were armed, one with a shotgun, the other with a revolver. As the military patrol to be attacked sometimes moved in extended order, the two armed Volunteers were placed

front or rear making his escape when the attack began. In effect, what had been planned was an attack with their bare hands by twelve men on six trained and alert armed opponents. It was a very dark night. Eight Volunteers waited silently in the cover of the ledges at the point where a laneway providing a short cut to Kilbrittain joined the road. On the opposite side of the road, outside the fence, the remaining

relied entirely on the element of surprise and the strength of their hands, but they well knew that the greatest risk of failure lay in the possibility that the patrol might be moving in extended order or that some member of the patrol might straggle behind the others. For the unarmed Volunteers a simultaneous attack on all six members of the patrol was essential to a quick success.

the footsteps of the. approaching party. Within a few feet of them the leading members of it stopped, and the voice of the policeman was heard asking, `Which way will we go? Will we take the short cut?' So far as could be seen in the darkness there were only four men in the group, but in the few seconds they took to decide on their route the two remaining soldiers who had fallen a little behind came along. And then the Volunteers pounced on them.

and four of the soldiers were disarmed. The remaining soldier broke loose for a moment and struck a Volunteer named Mick O'Neill two vicious blows on the head with the butt of

the injured O'Neill and disarmed. One soldier was slightly wounded. All of them were bound with ropes, and an armed Volunteer was placed on guard by them till the rest of the plans were put into operation.

Three things now remained to be done

Fig.3: Lieut. Michael (Mick) O’Neill, Maryboro.

equipment had to be taken to a place of safety without a moment's delay; the men participating in the ambush had to get back to their houses some three or four miles across country before the police and military started the inevitable raids on the homes of the Volunteers in

wounded, had to be taken to a place of safety for medical treatment immediately.

Jeremiah O'Neill of Maryboro, a brother of the wounded Volunteer, procured a horse and trap, and accompanied by Con Crowley, who acted as armed guard, and by his own sister, Maud, who was a member of Cumann na mBan2, brought the semi conscious Mick to a house near Ballineen, fourteen miles away. There Dr Eugene Fehilly of Ballineen, one of the few medical men in the area who was trusted by the Volunteers, dressed Mick's wounds, and continued to attend him till he recovered completely. It was this same Dr Fehilly who in 1918 attended Michael Crowley after his being seriously wounded

Ahiohill in quest of arms.

2. Cumann na mBan, literally 'Society of Women', was the women’s auxiliary of the Volunteers which was founded in Dublin in April 1914. The movement was launched in Cork City on June 8 of the same year. During the course of 1916) Miss Daisy Walsh of Kilbrogan Hill, Bandon, whose brother Paddy took part in the Easter Rising, helped to organise the Cumann in the Bandon district. Branches soon spread through the Brigade area. It would the national cause.

Figs.4, 5 and 6: Le to Right: Jeremiah O’Neill, his sister, Maud O’Neill, Maryboro and Con Crowley, Kilbrittain Village.

The captured arms, ammunition and equipment were hurriedly taken to Burren schoolhouse, and concealed in a drain there. Immediately afterwards the Volunteers, with the exception, of course, of Mick O'Neill and Con Crowley, made for their homes as, quickly as possible, and got into bed. Within a half hour of their return the police and military were on their doorsteps.

It transpired that one of the ambushed patrol had succeeded in freeing himself shortly after the armed Volunteer guard had left, and he released the others. When the patrol reached the police

diately, both police and military were turned out to raid the houses of suspects in Kilbrittain. So closely had the R.I.C. kept the Kilbrittain Company under observation that they made a very shrewd guess as to the men likely to have carried out the ambush, and they made directly for their homes. Fortunately, all the Volunteers, other than Mick and Jeremiah O'Neill, and Con Crowley, were in their beds when the police arrived, military raids took place, and every shred of incriminating evidence had been hidden. In every house visited the Volunteers were stripped and examined closely for wounds or injuries. Their clothing was minutely examined for blood stains. By good fortune, this latter examination had been anticipated, so that

of clothing substituted for them before the Volunteers had gone to bed. Deprived of the slightest clue, the raiders were unable to make any arrests. Naturally O'Neill and Crowley had to remain on the run after the ambush.

Endless searches were made for them by the R.I.C. and military, and in their searchers they were always looking for a man with a scar.3

June 1919 the time and local circumstances must be borne in mind, as well as the general national situation as it affected the Volunteer organisation. At such an early date, the Volunteers were still in the

3. The men engaged in the Rathclarin ambush were, James and John O’Mahony, Denis and Daniel Manning, Patrick and David O’Sullivan, Patrick and Con Crowley, Mick and Jackie who did scout duty between his native village and Rathclarin, should also be mentioned.

defection of many of those brought into the ranks merely because of the conscription scare. The Volunteers who remained formed a smaller but more steadfast and determined body of young men for reality. They were realistic and practical: they saw clearly that after organisation, discipline; and training, their greatest need was arms, and that to acquire them: no other source was available than the enemy forces of occupation.

The Executive of the Volunteers in Dublin at this time was directing the Volunteer movement at the time which had considerable support

lead only to defeat and to the destruction of the nation's last shield against foreign aggression. Because of the policy of the Volunteer sanction to the proposed action of the Kilbrittain Company, but the men of that Company, in whose minds an idea for the development of the struggle was germinating, decided to seize the opportunity they saw of gaining possession of some modern arms.

At this time, too, a distinction was beginning to emerge between the view taken of attacks made on R.I.C. men and those made on soldiers of the British army. Prior to June 1919 the attacks that had taken place were directed mainly against the R.I.C. Some of these had occurred in the West Cork area, for example at Eyeries and Donemark, and others had taken place outside Cork County, for example at Camp and Gortalea in Kerry, at Soloheadbeg in Co. Tipperary and especially at Knocklong in Co. Limerick. In contrast, attacks on British army personnel had been very rare, and it is this completely successful had an immense effect on morale and on the whole direction of the Volunteer military effort in West Cork. It was a model of good planning and resolute execution, and demonstrated and courage to maintain the initiative even against armed troops.

Figs.7 & 8: Le to Right: James and his brother John O’Mahony, Cloundareen.

Figs.8 & 9: Le to Right: Patrick (Paddy) Crowley his brother, Denis (Sonny) Crowley, Kilbrittain Village.

Figs.9 & 10: Le to Right: Denis (Dinny) Manning, Kilbrittain Village & John (Jackie) O’Neill, Maryboro.

Figs.11 & 12: Le to Right: John (Jack) Fitzgerald, Clasreagh & John O’Leary, Granasig.

Fig.13: Paddy O’Sullivan, Glendubh.

Fig.14: Bullethole in Rathclarin Church Clock from ambush.

ACTION AT RATHCLARIN

as to its function and method. Rathclarin indicated decisively the way to follow.

Meanwhile at Battalion H.Q., elation at the success of Rathclarin was followed by concern for the fate of the gallant Mick O'Neill. We butt he received on the head, and if he survived, what his chances were of evading capture by the enemy. Two days passed and the only news we received was that Mick had been given medical treatment,

Hales, discussed the matter with his staff, and it was decided that Flor Begley and I should make inquiries.

a day when most of the workers moved out of town; and so it was possible for Flor and me to set off by bicycle in search of Mick O'Neill's whereabouts without rousing suspicion. To throw possible spies off our tracks we left the main Dunmanway road at Palace Anne, eight miles out from Bandon, and went to Castletown. Thereafter we lost our way among the hills for a time, but eventually found the home of the Behagh Company Captain, Tom O'Donovan. There to our pleasant surprise we learned that Mick was in the house next

Figs.15, 16 and 17: Le to Right: Brigade O.C. Tom Hales, Flor Begley and Liam Deasy

door. We were shown to the bedroom, and found our hero with his head swathed in bandages sitting up in bed. He was unable to speak but the 'laughing eyes of the man spoke more eloquently to us than words. We felt that he was out of danger so far as his wounds were concerned, and with the reliable Con Crowley, who was remaining with him, we knew he was safe. We remained until one o'clock the following morning, and then left for Bandon. Both Flor and I were due back for work in the town at eight o'clock, and it would have been dangerous not to put in an appearance on time.

On the return journey we joined road at Manch, and continued on our way towards Bandon. As day was dawning, we suddenly ran into a big convoy of military lorries parked in the square in front of Bandon military barracks with armed soldiers on guard. It was too late to retreat so we had no option but to continue on

pass unchallenged: In the event we were permitted to pass. Later we learned that the convoy was Kilbrittain district with a view to safety of the mountains and in the care of his friends at Behagh.4

Fig.18 Cover of ‘Towards Ireland Free’, by Liam Deasy

4. (Editor’s note) Deasy went on to extol the Rathclaren Ambush as a seminal moment at the outset of the war that inspired other Volunteers to successfully seek the capture of arms and munitions from British agents. Indeed, after the heavy losses of six men from the Kilbrittain district during February 1921, Deasy asserted that: “…the people of Kilbrittain remained over the critical months that followed. To such a race of people freedom could not be denied

80

THE KILLING OF CONSTABLE BOLGER, KILBRITTAIN, DECEMBER 1919.

By Fergal Browne

Atabout half past six on the evening of Sunday 14th December, Constable Edward Bolger left the house in which he lodged with his family in Kilbrittain village, to return to the

wife Hannah and daughter Annie. Under Royal Irish Constabulary regulations, his family were not allowed to live at the barracks with him, but

after he had left them, his wife and daughter

Hannah made to go to the door but was prevented from doing so by her daughter. Annie Bolger left the house and ran up the street towards the barracks. There was no street lighting and Annie could see very little in front of her. On reaching the barracks, seventy yards from the house, she found

Fig.1: Constable Edward Bolger (Cork Examiner).

if her father was inside and was told that he was not. ‘He must have been shot so’, she responded and headed back down the street in the direction of her home. As she did, she saw a small light lying on the side of the street. At the same time, Sergeant James O’Connell discharged a Verey light, or rocket, which illuminated the whole street. This clearly showed the body of Constable Bolger lying on the side

lighting, was lying at his side.

He lay, feet facing the barracks, with his hand stretched out before him. By that time, he was quite still and it appeared as if he was dead, although Sergeant O’Connell would later state that he was still breathing at the time he was found, but expired a few moments later.

Running to the nearby pub, she met the proprietor, John F. Burke, and told him that her father was lying dead in the street, and asked him to help her to carry him home. Mr Burke agreed that he would,

back into the pub to get a lamp and at the same time told James O’Sullivan, who was in the pub at the time, to run and fetch the priest. By the time Burke, O’Sullivan and Fr. McKenna, the curate, arrived at the scene, the body had been moved, although there were still bloodstains on the ground, with a policeman’s cap and two spent cartridges lying nearby. Burke picked up the cap and cartridges and the three proceeded to the Barracks, whence the body had been carried by Constable Bolger’s colleagues. John Burke handed over the cap and cartridges to the Sergeant and told him where he had found them. Fr. McKenna proceeded to administer the last rites.1

CONSTABLE EDWARD BOLGER

Edward Bolger was born on 21st November 1871, in Tullaroan, Co. Kilkenny. He was himself the son of an RIC Constable, Patrick Bolger.2 In 1891, Edward followed in his father’s footsteps, joining the RIC on

Fig.2: Photo of Kilbrittain RIC Barracks which appeared in the Irish Independent, two days a er the shooting.

THE KILLING OF CONSTABLE BOLGER

2nd January that year, aged 19 ½ and standing 5ft 11 inches.3 He would have been trained at the Constabulary Depot in the Phoenix Park, Dublin and on 20th Tipperary South Riding.4 RIC Regulations stated that a constable could not serve in either his native county, or that of his wife.5 In October 1897, he was transferred to Cork East Riding, being stationed at Kingwilliamstown (now called Ballydesmond), in North Cork.6

In 1899, he was commended for helping to save the life of one John Carroll, at Kiskeam. While on patrol with another constable, Bolger came across Carroll, who had badly lacerated one of the arteries in his hand. Tearing off his tunic, Bolger used it to staunch the blood. The Cork Examiner expressed the hope that his actions would receive appropriate recognition from the proper authorities, as it was likely that Carroll would have otherwise lost his life.7

On 9th July 1901, Edward Bolger married Hannah Carroll, a farmer’s taking place in the Catholic Church in Newmarket.8 While it cannot be proven with certainty, as the Carroll surname is quite common in that area, it is possible that Hannah was a sister to John Carroll, whose life Edward Bolger had saved two years before. Certainly, per the 1901 Census, her father, Jeremiah D. Carroll, had a son called John.9

Due to the aforementioned regulations, Bolger was transferred on the following month to the district of Cork West Riding, a separate jurisdiction to the area from where his wife came. By 1903 he was stationed in Clonakilty.10

Skibbereen Eagle, 20 December 1919; Cork Examiner, 22 January 1920.

Jim Herlihy, ‘The Royal Irish Constabulary: A Short History and Genealogical Guide’, Four Courts Press (2016).

Cork Examiner, 10 April 1899.

7 November 1903.

The RIC carried out many duties similar to what the Garda Siochana carry out today. Archives of the Southern Star newspaper show Bolger bringing prosecutions against people for being drunk and disorderly, for allowing livestock to be loose on the public road, illegal gambling in a pub, and in one case, he prosecuted a man for having nineteen unlicenced dogs (the man kept a pack of hounds).11

However, in another sense, the RIC were markedly different from the Gardai, in that they were the eyes and ears of the British Government. Founded in 1822 as the Irish Constabulary, the force

the 1867 Fenian Rebellion. During the Land War in the 1870’s and 1880’s, they assisted at evictions and were involved in the arrests of prominent Land League members. At the rise of the Independence Movement, they actively monitored what were considered to be seditious gatherings, including GAA matches.12

By the time of the 1911 Census, Edward Bolger and Hannah were living at Slivereagh, Ballyvourney, with two of their children, Anna and

On 1st June 1911, Edward Bolger was promoted to Acting Sergeant.14 He was also moved to Kinneigh, near Enniskeane. The main newspaper report in which he features as Acting Sergeant dates from 17th February 1912. This was at an inquest at the death of a labourer called Leary, who was killed in a blasting accident at a quarry. Bolger lead the investigation and was the principal witness

Fig.3: Community Policing: Two helmeted RIC men keep a watchful eye at a market in Kinsale c.1890. e RIC changed from helmets to caps in the early 20th Century. (Kinsale Hospital)

THE KILLING OF CONSTABLE BOLGER

on behalf of the authorities at the inquest. A verdict of accidental death was returned.15

Being promoted to Acting Sergeant would have meant increased pay and status for Edward Bolger, and on 1st February 1913, he was promoted to full Sergeant.16 However, in November of the same year, he was demoted again to Constable. Unfortunately, the records of why this occurred have not survived.17 Undoubtedly this would have been

Fig.4: RIC on duty outside the Courthouse in Kinsale c.1910. (Lawrence Collection).

By 1913, Constable Edward Bolger had been transferred to Kilbrittain.18 In November 1916, he prosecuted several farmers from the Kilbrittain area for:

‘having sheep in their possession during the sheep-dipping period, ending 15th November 1916, failing to send notice of their intention to dip such sheep to the sergeant of police in the sub-district in which intended time of dipping’.

During the case Constable Bolger, and Constable O’Sullivan who place, but that the prosecution was being brought for the failure to of the farmers.19 The purpose of notifying the police when sheep dipping was being carried out, was so that they could supervise and

11. Southern Star, 7 November 1903; Southern Star, 16 November 1904; Southern Star, 3 June 1905; Southern Star, 7 October 1905; Southern Star, 19 May 1906; Southern Star, 2 June 1906; Southern Star 20 October 1906.

12. Collins Press (2016).

accessed from www.census.nationalarchives.ie

15. Southern Star, 17 February 1912.

Evening Herald, 1 March 1913.

Cork Examiner, 22 January 1920.

Skibbereen Eagle, 23 December 1916.

the process to ensure that it had been done properly, as part

Considering the pedantic nature of the charge above, it can be proposed that Constable Bolger was the type of policeman who imposed the law to the letter. He was careful in ensuring his family followed it – his wife Hannah dutifully applied and paid each year for a dog licence for the Brown Pomeranian terrier that she owned.21 Potentially however, it was this minute application of the law that would be one of the contributory factors to the events of December 1919.

HEIGHTENING TENSIONS.

By 1918 in Kilbrittain there had been friction between local IRA Volunteers and the RIC. In their statement to the Bureau of Military that they had the RIC under observation in Kilbrittain from early door to the RIC Barracks and so was perfectly placed to observe the routines of policemen in the barracks, times of patrols etc. He was also in contact with two sympathetic RIC men who advised him before any raids took place on the homes of Volunteers. In March 1918, the Company drilled within view of the Police Barracks as part of the protest against conscription. In March 1919, the Company took part in an armed Cattle Drive at Kilbrittain Castle, and sabotaged a shipment of timber from the estate.

THE KILLING OF CONSTABLE BOLGER

Fig.5: A joint RIC and Military bicycle patrol leaves Clonakilty RIC Barracks c.1920. (Imperial War Museum).

more daring, drilling and holding parades two or three times a week. Failing to cope with Volunteer activity, the RIC were reinforced by a detachment of British Military, headquartered at Kilbrittain Castle. Following an ambush in June 1919, when a patrol of Military and RIC were disarmed by the Kilbrittain Company, raids on the homes of Volunteers became more frequent and a curfew of 10pm was imposed – with a warning that any Volunteer captured would be shot. The then Sergeant at Kilbrittain RIC Barracks, who was in fact one of Denis Crowley’s informants, was reposted to RIC HQ at Bandon and demoted, and a new Sergeant appointed, ‘a most hostile man’.22 Presumably this was Sergeant James O’Connell. It can also be presumed that Edward Bolger had been involved in all the events leading up to this.

In September 1919, a meeting of the Sinn Fein Club, consisting largely of Company Volunteers and their sympathisers, was held in Kilbrittain, at the house of John Aherne. The Defence of the Realm Act had recently been introduced by the British Government, making such assemblies illegal. Constable Bolger observed who was attending the meeting and then went to report to Sergeant O’Connell. O’Connell, Bolger, as well as Constables McMorrow and Lynch, proceeded to the house and entered a room known as ‘The Sinn Fein Hall’. They were challenged by those at the meeting as to what right they had to be there. One of the attendees challenged Sergeant O’Connell with the words ‘I’d say you’d hold your own with any man of your weight, but I would not be afraid of you. I’d give you a box in the mouth’. The Police retreated to their barracks and armed themselves with carbines before returning to the meeting. By this time some of the attendees had exited the house and were standing on the street. They began to sing ‘Amhran na bhFiann’, which Sergeant O’Connell described later in court as a ‘seditious song’. There were also shouts of ‘Up the Republic’ and ‘Strafe the Police’. O’Connell ordered the crowd to disperse and

Minutes Wexford County Council 11 May 1921.

CSPS 2/0607 Petty Sessions Dog Licence Registers, March 1918 – accessed from

Bureau of Military History – Witness Statement No. 560.

Skibbereen Eagle, November 8 1919.

Following this meeting seven men were arrested, two being members of the Rural District Council, and tried under the Crimes Act in Bandon. The trial was adjourned several times, and each time some of the men who had been held in custody were transported to the court in Military lorries under escort. The Kilbrittain Company hoped to conduct a rescue attempt, but the men were always too heavily guarded. During the trial, it became clear that the raid been instigated on the report of Constable Bolger and both he and Sergeant O’Connell were key witnesses. Referring to the threat made to Sergeant O’Connell about being punched in the mouth, Constable Bolger declared that there would be no fear of anybody giving the Sergeant a punch in the mouth while he (Constable Bolger) was

Fig.6: Unidenti ed RIC Sergeant with Major Arthur Perceval of the Essex Regiment, Bandon c.1920. (Imperial War Museum).

THE KILLING OF CONSTABLE BOLGER

around. When the prosecuting solicitor, Jasper Wolfe asked him to clarify, he responded ‘There would be somebody in hospital; I’d be in gaol’. This was met by laughter in court.25

Four of the men were sentenced to between three and four months in jail. All were released in December 1919.26

It can therefore be seen that Constable Bolger, as well as Sergeant O’Connell could be considered targets of war by the Kilbrittain prosecution of those arrested.

The evidence given to the Bureau of Military History in 1951 by state:

‘Early in October [1919], a Volunteer, unsuspected by the enemy of any such connection with the National Movement, was detailed for observation duty on the movements of two R.I.C. men, a sergeant and a constable who were to be shot. These two men, unless when out with raiding parties, never left the vicinity of the barracks except to visit a

24. Bureau of Military History – Witness Statement No. 560.

25. Skibbereen Eagle, November 8 1919.

26. Bureau of Military History – Witness Statement No. 560.

Fig. 7: Kilbrittain Garda Station today – formerly the RIC Barracks.

public-house across the way at irregular intervals. During November and December, a scout was placed on special duty in this public-house and in contact with men on duty outside until 11-12 p.m. On 17-20 occasions, between 24th Oct. and 15th Dec., Volunteers waited in the vicinity ready to enter the ambuscade at the signal from the observer, but all attempts proved abortive, as the 'wanted' men could not be got together and the ambush party, having already run considerable risk by coming so often, could not be in position regularly because of the frequency of R.I.C. raiding parties in the village and the close proximity of ambuscade position to the barracks.

On Dec. 15th an order was issued to shoot one of the wanted R.I.C. men and this was executed on the 16th. (This date is mistaken: with the 14th being the actual date). The man on outside observation duty got the ambush party into position and had to remain close by to signal the 'wanted' man as a second unwanted R.I.C. man was due too and did pass by a few minutes before the ambush took place. As the ambush party got into action this man obliterated all signs of their previous position and severed telegraphic connection between the barracks and Kinsale, while a second Volunteer on duty outside the village severed connection between the barracks and Bandon, with the result that headquarters, had no knowledge of the affair until next day when great numbers of R.I.C. men came on the scene.’27

It is unknown whether the order on December 15th to shoot Bolger alone came from a belief that he was more dangerous than Sergeant O’Connell, or that it was more likely that he could be got alone. The observers must have been aware that his wife lived in the village and presumably he walked to and from her lodgings each day. Certainly, by this time he was severely disliked in the village, with evidence being given later that the slogan ‘We’ll lodge our lead in old Bolger’s head’, had been sung outside the police barracks.28

Liam Deasy, in his autobiography Towards Ireland Free, described Bolger as:

‘a particularly obnoxious member of the RIC who was the leader of all of the raids on Volunteer houses in the District and was the Chief

he was arousing among his countrymen, and had been frequently been warned to moderate the zeal he was showing in the service of the national enemy, but unfortunately to no avail … Normally, he took precautions not to expose himself and would only appear in public in

THE KILLING OF CONSTABLE BOLGER

the company of the military. But he permitted himself one exception to this rule: in the company of an RIC Sergeant he would cross the street at irregular intervals for a drink in the local public house. For sixteen nights the local volunteer company waited in the street to get him. Eventually, on 15th of December he appeared, and was shot down.’29

together with the Bureau of Military History accounts, have one key difference between their version of events and those of the newspaper reports from the time of the shooting, including those Southern Star. Deasy and the BMH accounts state that Bolger only left the barracks to go for a drink in the nearby pub. However, the newspaper accounts and the inquest stated that he had been having dinner with his family in their home and had left to return to the barracks. The fact that his wife did live in

According to Peter Hart’s The IRA and it's Enemies, the killing infuriated Cathal Brugha, the Dail’s Minister for Defence, who demanded that the perpetrators be punished. Tom Hales, the West Cork IRA Brigade Commander responded that it was an accident, ‘a brush’, but that the killing had served to quieten what had been a very active RIC Barracks. An IRA volunteer directly involved recalled the killing as being deliberate, stating ‘we would only be allowed to shoot bad RIC men’. However, he did go so far as to admit that there was an element of revenge involved, stating ‘In practice however, the ones shot were ones people didn’t like’.30

INQUEST

An inquest into the shooting of Constable Edward Bolger was convened in McCarthy’s Pub, Kilbrittain, by the Coroner, Richard Neville, on the following day, Monday 15th December 1919, at 2.30pm. A jury of local men were sworn in. It would appear looking at the names of the jury members, that at least two of them were either members of the Kilbrittain Company of the IRA, or members of the same family.

27. Ibid. 28. Cork Examiner, 22 January 1920. 29. Liam Deasy, ‘Towards Ireland Free’, Mercier Press (1973), p.86. 30.

described hearing the shots and coming across her father’s body on the street. Dr. Denis Hennessy gave evidence on the

Bolger’s body, together with Dr. Joseph Shinkwin. Dr. Hennessy stated that he found several wounds on the body. The

point of the bullet had shattered the bone into splinters. The second was on the right forearm, caused by a bullet passing through the skin. He believed the same

midway between the lower rib and hip bone. The bullet pierced the muscles and entered the abdominal cavity, rupturing the viscera and large blood vessels. The third bullet grazed the left heel, passing through the sock and boot as it did so. Dr. Hennessy believed that death had been caused by the bullet which passed

Fig.8: District Inspector Conner photographed at Clonakilty c.1920. (Imperial War Museum)

in his evidence. Head Constable William M Howard gave evidence that he examined the place shown to him as being where the shooting had taken place. He saw on the wall opposite McCarthy’s Pub what appeared to be two bullet holes. He stated that the bullets came from a revolver. Coroner Neville, in summing up, stated that the shooting was a terrible occurrence – and called on the jury to give a verdict. The jury found that Constable Bolger died as a result of bullets

sympathy with the dead man’s widow and children. District Inspector Conner, on behalf of Mrs. Bolger and the Constabulary, thanked the jury sincerely.31

FUNERAL

On the Tuesday morning, Constable Edward Bolger’s funeral mass was celebrated at St. Patrick’s Church, Kilbrittain. The remains were

THE KILLING OF CONSTABLE BOLGER

Bolger and her four children and the third contained more police. According to the Skibbereen Eagle31, the cortege attracted much ‘sympathetic interest’ as it passed through Bandon town.32 It is likely that Edward Bolger was buried in the O’Carroll family plot in Clonfert Graveyard near Newmarket, although his grave is unmarked.

AFTERMATH

On the night of the shooting, a number of the Kilbrittain I.R.A met and it was agreed that they should go on the run. They remained on the run until the Truce in 1921. There was a heavy police and military presence in the district in the immediate aftermath. The Cork Examiner and Skibbereen Eagle both expressed shock at the killing in their editorials, but also stated that some of the blame lay at the feet of the British Government for again postponing the Home Rule Bill which had been promised after the end of the First World War, thereby handing the initiative to men of violence.34 In Cork City, the Lord Mayor, William F. O’Connor, condemned the shooting but also condemned the British Government for their treatment of political prisoners.35

target by the IRA, was transferred from Kilbrittain following the shooting. He was a native of Cahirciveen, Co. Kerry and had received a number of awards and commendations throughout his service. In 1899 he had been awarded the Bronze Royal Humane Society Medal for saving a man from drowning in a river in Galway. He was moved to the RIC Depot in the Phoenix Park and later promoted to Temporary Head Constable. He survived the War of Independence and remained in the RIC until it was disbanded in 1922.36

Hannah Bolger was eventually awarded £3,000 out of a claim of £6,000 in compensation for the death of her husband. The decision was appealed by Cork County Council and Kinsale R.D.C, from whose

31. Skibbereen Eagle, 20th December 1919.

Ibid.

33. Bureau of Military History – Witness Statement No. 556.

Cork Examiner 16th December 1919; Skibbereen Eagle, 20th December 1919.

Irish Independent, 19th December 1919.

Conversation with Jim Herlihy 21 Aug 2018.

Skibbereen Eagle, 3 April 1920.

funds the compensation would have to be paid. The appeals court against the whole county due to the nature of the killing.37

In February 1920, some RIC and Military were issued with Verey body on the night he was shot.38

Kilbrittain R.I.C Barracks would later be taken over by Black and Tans. An unsuccessful attack was made on it by the IRA later in the War.39

THE REASONS WHY.

Cork since Easter 1916.40 Just because he was a Constable in the RIC does not necessarily mean he was a Unionist. Many policemen were Nationalists, with some assisting the IRA from within the force, such as David Nelligan, ‘the Spy in the Castle’.41 Others turned a blind eye to IRA activities. Many of the force were Home Rulers, who believed espoused by John Redmond and the Irish Parliamentary Party, was the correct Nationalist route to follow. Others saw security in the status quo, occupying permanent and pensionable positions as they did. To such men, the gunmen represented anarchy. BBC Journalist Fergal Keane, in his recently published book ‘Wounds’, which covers

quotes an IRA Volunteer who, on being interviewed many years after the War of Independence, lamented the missed opportunity that the IRA had not tried to ‘turn’ the RIC and bring them onside as allies.42

It is possible, though we can never know now, that Edward Bolger was himself the son of an RIC man, and so respect for Law and Order would likely have been instilled in him at a young age. We have also

dipping prosecutions in Kilbrittain in 1916. Many RIC men turned a blind eye to Sinn Fein meetings. What drove him to rouse out the entire force in Kilbrittain RIC barracks, to break up the meeting which took place in Kilbrittain in September 1919, is a matter of conjecture. Ultimately, it lead to his death.

Often, RIC men were shunned or forgotten after the War of Independence. A relative of the Carroll family recently recounted

94

THE KILLING OF CONSTABLE BOLGER

that Edward Bolger was rarely mentioned or discussed amongst the family over the years, and indeed the connection was only fully investigated when the 1911 Census became available online and it was discovered that one of the Bolger children was living with his Carroll grandparents in 1911.43 Kilbrittain has done better than many towns in commemorating both sides in the struggle for Independence. A historical marker at the current Garda Barracks, formerly the RIC Barracks, mentions the shooting, and names Edward Bolger.

On April 24th 2016, on the 100th Anniversary of the 1916 Rising, a beautiful commemorative garden was opened in the village. In it are contained seven stones, commemorating the seven signatories of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic, plus a further monument to JJ Walsh, the Kilbrittain man who fought in the GPO in 1916 and

the entrance to this garden is a small plaque. It states that the garden commemorates:

‘All those, on all sides, who were involved in the struggle for the freedom of Ireland as an independent Irish Republic’.

As such, perhaps, Edward Bolger is remembered there as well.

Fig.9: Plaque in the 1916 Centenary Commemorative Garden, Kilbrittain Village.

The Liberator (Tralee), 19 February 1920.

Bureau of Military History – Witness Statement No. 560.

David Nelligan, ‘The Spy in the Castle’, Prendeville Publishing (Reprinted 1999).

Fergal Keane, ‘Wounds. A Memoir of War and Love’, Harper Collins (2016).

Conversation with relative of the Carroll family, 18 December 2017.

LOCAL LINKS WITH THE TUSKAR ROCK AIR TRAGEDY (1968)

By Ann Marie Desmond, Ballycatten

Oth March 1968, an Aer Lingus plane en route from Cork to Heathrow, London crashed off the Wexford coast of Ireland at around noon, just south of the

Phelim (called after an early Christian hermit from Co. Meath) had taken off at 10.32 am from Cork Airport with sixty one people on board, four

Monday 25th but the remaining forty seven bodies never were. One of the up off of the Welsh coast. There were no traces of burn marks on his body or clothing. The autopsy report revealed that he did not die from drowning. John Nyhan, Ballinspittle, a colleague of Michael Joe's at Moorepark Agricultural Research Institute (now known as Teagasc) was one of the bodies that was not found. Neither was the body of Nancy (Mc Swiney) Shorten (my husband's aunt), or her eighteen year

Fig.1: An Aer Lingus Viscount in ight in the 1960’s.

LOCAL LINKS WITH THE TUSKAR ROCK AIR TRAGEDY

returned to her family. Nancy and Thomas had planned on taking a to Wimbledon earlier to Nora (20), Olan (16) and Benjamin (15). The of the Atlantic. Fr. Murphy in his homily at the 40th Anniversary of the tragedy said; “Many of the sixty one victims of Tuskar Rock were left without a tangible grave” (Irish Examiner 24.03.2008).

I attended the 50th Anniversary Remembrance Mass last March in Ballyphehane, where Bishop Buckley said that the Tuskar Air Disaster was a particular tragedy for Cork as thirty six of those who died were from the city or county. He said he knew four of those who died on

Ballinspittle’s John Nyhan and Michael Cowhig from Kilbrittain, Ballyphehane parish priest, Fr. Edward Hegarty and Gus O’Brien from Douglas. Prayers were said for all sixty one victims as their names were read out and sixty one candles were lit during the Mass which was attended not only by relatives of the deceased, but by many retired staff from both Cork Airport and Aer Lingus who were working on the day of the tragedy (Irish Examiner April 4th 2018). A commemoration plaque base was blessed afterwards so as to remember the names of all the victims.

Fig.2: John Nyhan (third from le , front row) with his family.

I visited Fr. Charlie Nyhan recently in Carrigaline who told me about his brother John F. Nyhan M.V.B., M.R.C.V.S. (32 Years), Michael J. Cowhig (B. Agr. Sc. 32 years old) and Thomas P. Dwane, (B.E. (Agr. Co. Limerick, 24 years), who were on their way to a symposium at Reading to talk about their research into milking machine practice and mastitis control, when disaster struck their plane.

In January 1968 Fr. Charlie had been dropped to Shannon airport (for his appointment as a priest in Peru) by his older brother John. In February 1968 John wrote excitedly to Fr. Charlie telling him of his planned trip to Reading with his two other brilliant colleagues. On Sunday morning 24th March around 6am Fr. Charlie woke from a dream about a plane crash. That evening he heard of a plane crash on BBC World News but got no information as there were no phones or electricity where his mission was. Fr. Charlie had this premonition

Fig.3: Biographical details of three of the victims published a er the tragedy.

LOCAL LINKS WITH THE TUSKAR ROCK AIR TRAGEDY

up to Thursday when he accompanied Fr. Kevin O`Callaghan to Trujillo to collect his newspaper from the Monday before with the GAA headlines from Sunday, only to see a photograph of his brother as one of the victims of the Tuskar Rock Air crash on the front page. Because of the foreboding he had he wasn't as shocked as he could have been. He said he thought of his parents and siblings, Kevin and Kay as well as John's wife Mary (Crowley from Timoleague) and their two little children Mark and Eunice. Bishop Lucey of Cork had sent the news to Fr. Charlie through a fellow priest Fr. Michael O'Riordan (Toames), who arrived back to Peru the following day, Friday March 29th. Fr. Charlie came home from Peru three years later and visited Rosslare with Mary's dad, Andy Crowley. Today John's name is inscribed on the family headstone at Templetrine Graveyard.

Fig.4: e Irish Times, Monday March 25th, 1968

Fr.Charlie spoke of his role model John who was born seven years before him at Ballycatten, Ballinspittle. John wore the Courcey Rovers' red and white hooped jersey with pride and was a very good hurler. He and his brother Kevin were also very involved in their local dramatic society, participating in plays at Ballinspittle hall and at Rossmore Festival. Their mentors were Fr. Gus Regan, Fr. Jack Mc Carthy and Fr. William Ahern. John went on to study Veterinary at

Dublin University and graduated in 1959. Two years later he secured a job with Moorepark Research Institute. He did an advanced course in Micro Biology in Manchester in 1962. John and Mary Nyhan got married in 1963 and visited Fr. Charlie at the Irish College in Rome while on their honeymoon. John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline were on tour to Rome at that time and they saw them as they travelled through the city in an open air car. When asked about his views on what happened to cause the plane to crash Fr. Charlie replied;

parish assignment had been at St. Winifred's in Wimbledon. After the Tuskar tragedy he reconnected with the Shorten children who had lost their mother Nancy (Mc Swiney) and their brother Thomas, as did Fr. Michael Murphy P.P. Ballyphehane and Fr. Richard Hurley, Newcestown.

passengers Rita and Chris McCarthy from Skibbereen and Baltimore respectively, and their young son Jeremy, as well as Eileen Gallivan and her two daughters Marion (16 years old) and Paula (2 years old), who were from Kilmurry. Nellie Quilnan from Macroom, also who

two were American (wife, Irish), nine Swiss and six Belgian anglers.

spring at Glenbeigh, he was forty two years old. His daughter Eliane told me:

“It was a real shock for my mother as well as for my father's parents as he was their only child. The fact that no remains were found made the trauma even worse. In the 1950's, before his marriage, my father

all the world around and came back alive after more than one year without news, and as such my grandmother couldn’t believe he was dead. During months and years after the crash, she liked to believe he could have been swimming – my father was a very sportive man.

All those kind of questions that haunt you, for the rest of your life!”

Jacques Creyelman a friend of Marcel's also perished. His son Philippe emailed me recently:

“My father Jacques was among the victims of the 1968 St. Phelim crash near Tuskar Rock. I was 15 when the tragedy occurred. Growing

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up without a father is tough. You miss a lot of things. My mother and I managed to keep on with our lives but the pain still hurts. I do not wish anyone to experience such a loss.”

The plane crew consisted of 35 year old Captain Barney O’Beirne, Anne Kelly (one of the fourteen bodies recovered) and Mary Coughlan who had only been working with the airline for one month and had changed shifts with a colleague that day. The Vickers Viscount Aircraft were very popular with Aer Lingus at that time for

pilots; “The Viscount was a new design, powered by turbine engines with a pressurised hull which climbed above the weather. It was fast, roomy and comfortable” (Reynolds, p.52).

This tragedy was the worst in Irish aviation history involving an Irish plane but irrespective of that, numerous investigations into the cause of the tragedy and several reports later show that there is still “no set of established facts has been able to show what actually caused the

the relatives of the survivors. The Viscount had reached an altitude of 17,000 feet, then 15,000 feet for a while, before it plunged into the sea off the Wexford coast. The last words heard from the twenty

along its designated course just south of Hook Head on that sunny spring morning: ‘Twelve thousand feet, spinning rapidly!”

Many theories abound as to what caused the plane to spin rapidly this ten year old aircraft for forensics to examine and it took many months before the plane wreck was located and partly recovered from the sea. About one third of the plane was salvaged, the tail was never recovered. From the very start of the inquiries, aviation experts speculated that the manner in which the plane spun in an

efforts to regain control, could only have been the result of some major structural damage or failure. Whether that failure or damage on.

Fig.5: A large piece of the wreckage of the St. Phelim being hauled up during the recovery operation

The three main theories that have been advanced for the cause of the crash have been;

1. Another aircraft or drone in the vicinity hit the Viscount E1 712

2.

3. Mechanical failure of the Viscount

AIRCRAFT OR DRONE ACCORDING TO THE 1970 REPORT

vicinity. According to Elaine Vastenavondt`s Mum who received news of her husband's death on the English Times a “shooting of missiles” was mentioned immediately after the tragedy but retracted subsequently by the journalist in question. The possibility that an accidental missile or drone strike from the Royal Air Force base at Aberporthin, Wales is credible given that it was located below the

like object passing close to the Viscount on that morning. Against that theory is the fact that “no other plane other than the Viscount, civil or military, was reported or known to be in the area at that time, no aircraft was missing; no aircraft carriers were operating in the

LOCAL LINKS WITH THE TUSKAR ROCK AIR TRAGEDY

area, and the missile and the target ranges on the Welsh coast were closed, it was a Sunday” (Irish Press 08/09/1970).

The results of the 1970 Report submitted by the Inspector of Accidents to the then Minister for Transport, Mr. R. W. O`Sullivan suggested that a drone could have been responsible, but could not be proven conclusively as only part of the wreckage was recovered. This conclusion was rejected by the family of the American couple Joseph and Mary Gangelhoff who hired a private detective to initiate an independent inquiry to uncover the truth of the plane crash. The investigators report did little to establish clearer facts but did succeed in keeping the public debate on the Tuskar Tragedy alive. In 1974

air collision may have caused the Viscount to crash back in 1968. In 1998 it was revealed that a secret British Report on the Royal Navy`s role in the search by the Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) had been reviewed in 1994 but was “not selected by the Public Record

destroyed at that time” (Irish Independent 19/01/99).

Fig.6: Part of the original documentation relating to the accident that was later reviewed in subsequent reports.

I think it is very disappointing that more effort was not put into the recovery of the dead at the time of the accident. It seems that local trawlers who offered help in the aftermath of the accident were turned away from the crash site “in case their nets disturbed the wreckage” (Irish Examiner 24/03/18). The Irish State lacked the

July 1968. The Irish Government Investigation Report of 2002 claims that the outcome of these salvage phases was very limited due to

recovered of the wreckage as to the cause of the crash. What was recovered of the plane “was disposed of without adequate notice to interested parties who may have wished to examine same” (Irish Examiner 24/03/18). The records of the British vessels working

HMS Shoudton, HMS Clarbeston, HMS Iveston, HMS Nurton, HMS Bronnington, HMS Reclaim (diving & rescue).

SOME KIND OF MAJOR STRUCTURAL FAILURE ACCORDING TO THE 2002 REPORT

In 1998 the Tuskar Relatives Support Group was established and they petitioned the then Minister for Public Enterprise Mary O’Rourke to commission a new report. She was astonished that no written report had been drawn up by the state's airline in 1968 especially given the fact that 61 passengers and crew had been lost; all they had was a recall of the oral presentations made to the Aer Lingus Board at that time. “The release of documents by the National

Echo 26/02/2011). In 2000 Aviation experts were hired from Australia and France and they concentrated on the mechanics of the aircraft. Mike Reynolds, aviator and author of “Tragedy at Tuskar Rock” (2003) was also a contributor to the 2002 Report. They found the tragedy

fully rule out the possibility of the plane being struck by a missile

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LOCAL LINKS WITH THE TUSKAR ROCK AIR TRAGEDY

a Fasten Seat Belt/ No Smoking sign to prove that the signs were they knew they were in trouble!

negligence such as the fact that the maintenance records of the St. Phelim were missing 12 months previous to the crash and nobody seemed to have noticed it. On 14th

examined. The man who issued that report was the same man who released the wreckage to Aer Lingus and signed off on the 1970 Report in his capacity as Inspector of Accidents (p. 56 Reynolds). Aer Lingus had owned twelve Viscounts at the time of the crash and replaced them all with Boeings after the Tuskar tragedy. It seems that faults such as metal fatigue and corrosion at the tail section together had grown slowly to cause a disc to rupture.

inspection procedures contributed to the failure to detect the crack and, thus, to the accident” (Reynolds p. 57).

The 2002 government report into the crash also highlighted errors such as the 1970 Report focusing exclusively on the likelihood of a missile strike or a pilotless drone. "Inescapable" was a word they used

Berwick’s swans that could have been responsible for an air collision with the plane. “I discovered that Berwick’s swans leave Ireland for Siberia and other breeding locations in March, crossing the Irish Sea and St. George`s Channel in the process” (Reynolds, p.15).

Eye witness accounts (which were ignored in the 1970's Report)

10.45 am. The Air Track Reconstruction in 2002 shows that it was

Stumble” (Reynolds, p. 122). These anomalies in the Shannon radio at the time of the crash, or did the captain attempt to turn back? Why

Fig.7: Tuskar Rock Lighthouse located 11 km o the coast of Wexford.

In the book “States of Denial: the Tuskar Tragedy and Other Mysteries” (2013) by Carl Nally & Dermot Butler, they claim that dozens of witness evidence has been ignored over the years by force instructor, Eric Evers claimed that the crash was caused by a corps, which struck the Viscount after responding to a request to check the passenger plane`s undercarriage. “Both the French and Magister wreckage may still be on the seabed off Wexford” (`The Guardian 26/03/2013). Another newspaper report quoted Alan Mc the state, by the state” due to the lack of information and assistance to the relatives of those killed in the Tuskar Rock air disaster (Irish Independent 05/07/2000). “It is a depressing exercise to look at the manner in which some state institutions and other parties seek to protect themselves when confronted with credible conclusions such as those which form part of the 2002 study. They engage in a

(Reynolds, p. 149).

A Memorial Park for the victims was erected at Rosslare Harbour in 2006. The relatives of the air disaster continue to meet there to

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LOCAL LINKS WITH THE TUSKAR ROCK AIR TRAGEDY

th Anniversary a new stone was unveiled at the memorial park; it is intertwined with a chain which had a link for each one of those lost.

Fig.8: Memorial at Ballyphehane commemorating the victims of the Tusker Rock air disaster.

“It is important that we remember and continue to pay tribute to everybody involved in something that changed so many lives forever. For the relatives of the 61 people who died, life was never the same again but for all of the rescue services and the local men and women who opened up their hearts and their homes to assist in whatever way they could, they can never forget the sadness that permeated this corner of Ireland” (Leo Coy, Chairman, St Phelim 50th Commemoration Committee).

Thank you to: Fr. Charlie Nyhan, Mark Nyhan, Denis O`Brien, Leo Coy-Commemoration Committee, Anne Breen-Southern Star, and Eliane Vastenavondt

References:

Tragedy at Tuskar Rock (2003), Mike Reynolds, Gill & Macmillan

Mercier Press

INTERVIEW WITH NORA

INTERVIEW WITH NORA COWHIG.

By Denis O’Brien

Interview with Nora Cowhig (neé O’Brien, Clonbogue), former principal of Burren National School, sister-in-law to Michael Joe Cowhig: Dated 19-09-2018, 8pm.

Fig.1: Burren school photo with Joe Cowhig. Back Row (L-R): Mary O’Neill, Nora O’Neill, May O’Donovan, Essie Hurley, Eileen McCarthy, Eileen ompson, Nellie Hayes. Centre Row (L-R): Tony Hunt, Bernie Hunt, Maura Cowhig, Phil Curran, Denis O’Mahony. Front Row (L-R): Tadhgy Cowhig, Tom Keohane, Joe Cowhig, Tadhg McCarthy, Jackie O’Neill, Ned Curran (kneeling). (Source: Burren School Reunion, Commerative Booklet Oct 2001).

Denis: Would you mind if I ask you a few details about Michael Joe Cowhig?

Nora: No, not at all.

Denis: Did Dave [Nora’s husband] go to the scene of the accident to see Michael Joe’s body?

Nora: Dave didn’t get to see his brother’s body washed up. By the time he got there it was already recovered so he stayed in Cork until

Michael Joe’s body was brought back to Fermoy. David got the pair of brown gloves that were in Michael Joe’s pocket and they weren’t even plane went down very quickly.

Denis: Did Dave get the call when the crash happened?

Nora: No, it was Michael Lyons [Bandon] who rang us as Dave had gone to Mass that Sunday evening. Dave used to look after the kids in the morning when I went to Mass myself in the Isle of Wight. It was a small chapel nearby and Dave used to go at half past six but he had to travel to Newport, the main town on the Isle of Wight, and he was always returning at the same time. We had a friend down at the lighthouse, Brendan Quigley, and his wife, they were our friends.

Denis: What did Michael Lyons say to you?

Nora: Michael Lyons rang us at half past six in the evening and he asked if we had heard it on the radio but we didn’t take much notice of it, ‘a plane had disappeared’ is what came on the radio so Michael then said: “Did you know Joe was on that plane”? We didn’t know anything about Michael Joe because by that time he was in Reading University. He used to come to Reading quite often because himself, John Nyhan and the other lad from Limerick used to come regularly as they had an arrangement between Reading University and Cork University about milking machines.

Denis: How did Dave take the news of the crash?

Nora: I was told around 5pm when Dave had gone off to Mass. Michael Lyons said Michael Joe was on board and I thought, “oh my goodness how am I going to tell Dave?” Dave used to go to a pub called ‘The White Lion’ in the middle of Niton, the village where we lived on the Isle of Wight and when going home from Mass he always went in there for a pint. So I thought “How do I get in touch with Dave”? I rang Brendan Quigley, one of the lighthouse keepers and told him and he said he would go along in his car and meet Dave on the way. So Brendan went along in his car, saw Dave’s car approaching, pulled in, got out of the car and waited for Dave. They talked for a while about Brendan’s car. Dave asked what’s wrong with the car and then Brendan broke the news that Michael Joe was on the plane that went missing. Both Dave and Brendan came back to our house and Dave got in touch with ships all around the coast from the radio stations he was

INTERVIEW WITH NORA COWHIG

in charge of on the Isle of Wight. Dave was told the plane had gone into the sea off Tuskar Rock. I remember that night was a long night. Brendan had brought up a bottle of whiskey with him to share with Dave to drown their sorrows. So we did nothing for a couple of days because nothing had been sorted out until they found bodies and we didn’t know what the reaction was back home in Ireland. Dave did go eventually when he heard that Michael Joe’s body had been found as it was the only male body found. Michael Joe contracted polio a couple of years before and was on cortisone or something similar and

Denis: Had Michael Joe family at this stage?

Nora: He had three children at that stage, two boys and a girl. He was married to Kathleen Condon, a teacher and were married for four years I think.

Denis: What was Michael Joe like as a person?

Nora: He was lovely. He was the youngest of the family and was the

Fig.2: e Cowhig Brothers (Burren). Standing (L-R): Jerry, Michael Joe, Jack, Dave, Tadhg, Jim Cowhig. Source: Burren School Reunion, Commerative Booklet Oct 2001. Joe’s brother, Jim served with the UK Royal Navy during World War 2 and survived the war.

in Ireland. Both himself and a McCarthy boy from Kilbrittain went to Farranferris and then to University together. That’s where he started doing dairy science. Dave went to Presentation Brothers in Cork and he used to cycle up every day and stayed with his uncle in Crossbarry. Afterwards he went to the radio school near Tivoli in Cork. Dave didn’t go to University and Jim, the eldest, went to Rockwell College before he went and joined the Royal Navy. But Dave went to sea as a radio

Denis: How did his siblings react to the news?

Nora: Michael Joe was our best man when we got married and he was sort of special. His brothers Jackie and Tadgh, because they were farming, always asked Michael Joe about cows and cattle, so he was very special to the Cowhigs. Maura was younger than Michael Joe. Maura always tells me that she felt it worse than any of the others because she was the youngest girl. Kitty was the only other sister and she was in England for years but Michael Joe used to call to see her when he was at Reading. She lived in Bristol. So he was just a lovely person and just very valuable to his family, with the result that when he was killed the way he was, it played on Jackie’s mind. So it was just something they said shook the whole family and they said Jackie really gave up the ghost even though he had a big family himself. Michael Joe was considered the most promising one of the family.

Denis: When you were teaching in Burren National School, was he a pupil there?

Nora: No, when I was at Burren he was in Farranferris.

Denis:

Nora: He was a very good hurler, played for Cork Minors.

Denis: Jackie his brother, also played for Kilbrittain?

Nora: Yes, but Jackie wasn’t as good as Joe. Joe was good. He had all the practice at Farranferris.

Denis: His elder brother Jim took part in World War II?

Nora: Jim joined the Royal Navy you see which was very unusual that time especially coming from Ireland and I always remember Dave telling me that Jim had to get a reference from Mrs. Scott; the old

Mrs. Scott from Rathclarin because a Catholic’s reference wouldn’t be much good to you to get in the Royal Navy. Jim was said to be the best farmer in the family and should have got the farm but he didn’t because they had only a small piece of land and afterwards Jackie

acres. In the old days Tim Cowhig (Michael Joe’s father) and his wife

and nine children and Maura told me that when her mother died she said Jim went off to sea, which he hated, made his money and sent it back. Jim was in the war. He was the eldest and had bad health when he came out of the Royal Navy. He wrecked himself but he was a nice person as well. A very good farmer everybody used to say.

Fig.3: Dave Cowhig’s Wedding, Michael Joe Cowhig as his Best Man. September 1957 Standing (L-R): Michael Joe Cowhig, Burren (Best Man), Dave Cowhig, Burren (Groom), Hanora Cowhig (neé O’Brien, Clonbogue), Eileen O’Brien, Clonbogue (later Lyons, Bandon).1

Denis: Where did Dave work? Nora: Shipping. Dave had to come to England to join the ships before I met him. He had been all over the world, Australia, Port Said in Egypt etc. Jerry was the brother in Crossbarry who got the farm there from his aunt and that’s where Dave used to work and go to school up in Cork. There were not many schools in Bandon at that time. He came home every night to Crossbarry and to Burren for the weekends with a broken

life altogether! Times have changed so much now. Michael Joe was exceptional as was that McCarthy lad who went to Farranferris and University with him, “John the Darkie” they used to call him. Michael Joe went to Dublin University, not Cork.

1. Incidentally, Hanora (Nora) was also Principal of Burren N.S. appointed in 1952.

INTERVIEW

NORA

Denis: Then Michael Joe went to the Dairy Research Centre in Moorepark, Fermoy?

Nora: He was working for Cork University. He is buried in Fermoy. His family was in Fermoy for a while, and then Kathleen got married

Fig.4: Kilbrittain Juvenile Hurling Team - South West Champions 1951. Back Row (L-R): J. Browne, L. Aherne, P. Crowley, M. O’Regan, C. O’Regan, T. McCarthy, D. Collins, J. Cowhig, T. Hunt, S. Lane, M. Holland, D. Aherne, D.Harrington, C.O’Leary. Front Row (L-R): M.Fehily, N. Harrington, S. Crowley, L. Keogh, R. Crowley, T. Hallinan, M. Fitzgerald, S. Whelton, D. O’Mahony, P. Aherne, (missing from semi- nal group are C. Corcoran, D. McCarthy and D. Madden who played in the nal). Source: Our Gods and Our Heroes, Kilbrittain G.A.A. 19042004, (2004), pages 75, 78, 79 & 80. 4

2. Sunday 11th

included players from neighbouring parishes Timoleague and Courcey Rovers. Three players went on to play minor for Cork. The three were Michael Holland from Timoleague, Chris Corcoran from Ballinadee and Michael Joe Cowhig from Burren. For Michael Joe

Joe, Tipperary put an end to Cork’s championship ambitions in both years. Michael Joe was called up along with Kevin Manning (Kilbrittain P.O.) to the Cork Minor Hurling Team in 1952. Both players were students of Farranferris. Kevin Manning started the chanpionship game against Waterford played at Killeagh on Sunday May 5th 1952. Michael Joe came on a

Final defeat by Blackrock. Michael Joe’s brother Tadhg also played for Kilbrittain throughout the years.

again. They had children, the eldest David and the girl, Mary and then William. Michael Joe’s third son, Michael was born soon after the accident. John Nyhan’s wife had two children when he was lost. John wife’s always said to me her children could never face the thought that their father was dead because they never saw a body or anything. At least Michael Joe’s body was found.

Denis: So Michael Joe was actually the only man found?

Nora: Yes, the latest thing was that there were eleven people found. We were told at the time there was only six women and one man found. Michael Joe was washed up and as I say there wasn’t a mark on him. Dave never saw the body when it was washed up but he was there when the body was brought to Cork that evening. The brown gloves were still in the pocket of Michael Joe’s coat. There were saying a missile or something like that was the cause but there were no signs

there would be burn marks on the clothes and he had no marks on him when he was found. I don’t know about the women they were probably the same.

Denis: I heard a mention of holy water on his person when he was found. Is this true?

Nora: I don’t know what was in his pockets but the gloves were there. I wouldn’t be at all surprised; maybe his wife put it in there before he went. God bless us but it is true that whatever happened, the plane went down like a stone.

Denis: Did his family get any compensation from the government?

Nora: It wasn’t said that the plane company were responsible. The family only got very little compensation.

Denis: When was the last time Michael Joe was around locally before the accident?

Nora: Eileen Cowhig told me that the week before he died, Michael Joe had been visiting as he was the godfather of Eileen’s daughter Maura’s (married to Michael Whelton) baby, Josie. Michael Joe was killed on a Sunday and the Sunday before that he stood as a godfather for Josie.

Denis: How soon after the crash was he found?

Nora: nothing, we couldn’t get in touch with anybody. Nobody knew anything. It was cloak and dagger. That was the thing, all these theories something. The fact there was no damage to his body would say the accident was nothing to do with that.

Denis: He was buried the following weekend?

Nora: No, he was buried much sooner, middle of the week. They had a guard of honour from Moorepark to the Kilcrumper Cemetery, Fermoy.

Denis: I hear some people called him Joe?

Nora: He was always called Michael Joe rather than Joe. It was the the father’s father and if the second child was a boy he was called after the mother’s father!

Denis: He was best man at your wedding?

Nora: We got married in 1957 with the reception in the Esplanade Hotel, Courtmacsherry and Joe didn’t get married for quite a while after that. He was in University when he was our best man. He had a caliper in his leg so he always walked with a limp. He had it at our wedding. He was just lovely. It was a small crowd and we were all lying on the grass taking photos at the clearing at the end of the woods out to the point as it was a beautiful day. If they did it nowadays they would laugh at it!

Denis: How old was Michael Joe when he died?

Nora: In his thirties. He was on this continuous drug medication so he was a completely different looking person when he got married to Kathleen. Dave went to his wedding, I didn’t go. He became very

Denis: Michael Joe got his ideas from Jackie?

Nora: Yes, as he was doing dairy science he was bound to know about cows and milking. He had been booked to go to America to do a Masters on this new type of milking machine system. John Nyhan was a vet. He worked with Michael Joe who was behind the idea of the

INTERVIEW WITH NORA COWHIG

system. While Michael Joe was at University, Jackie was always picking his brains. Jackie got a lot of conacres, that’s how he made his money but he sold the place at home and went off down to Midleton.

Denis: Were Michael Joe and John good friends?

Nora: Yes, they got on well and they were both living in Fermoy.

Denis: What members of the Cowhig family are buried in Kilbrittain?

Nora: Jackie is buried in Midleton. Tadhg is buried in Bandon. Jim is the only son buried in Rathclarin. Michael Joe’s parents are both buried in Rathclaren graveyard.

MARGARET COLLINSO’DRISCOLL ALONE AMONGST MEN

By Con Mc Carthy

Thanks to local historians, Tim Crowley and Michael O'Mahony for their support in making this article

MClonakilty.

She was the eldest sister of General Michael Collins.

She attended Lisavaird School, and later trained as a national teacher in Baggot Street Teachers’ Training College. After some years teaching, she became the Principal Teacher in Lisavaird Girls School.

She married Patrick O Driscoll in 1901. They subsequently became parents of a large family. They moved into number 13 Shannon Square (now Emmet square) in 1902. Her youngest brother, Michael Collins, lived with Margaret and her family during the weekdays while attending Clonakilty National School and studying for the the

In 1905 the family moved to Clogheen and later moved to a farm in Carrigroe, west of Clonakilty.

February 1906 in Queens College Cork (now UCC) and began working

Her husband Patrick O Driscoll worked as a correspondent for the Southern Star newspaper. He later became editor and managing director of the Star. Subsequently, he worked with The Cork Sun. He then went on to set up his own newspaper, The West Cork People

Fig.1: Margaret Collins-O’Driscoll TD.

COLLINS-O’DRISCOLL

When the Irish State came into being after the Dail had voted to accept the Treaty in early 1922, Patrick O’Driscoll attained a post in Dáil Éireann, where he became a recorder in the Dail. Margaret O’Driscoll sold the farm in Carrigroe in March 1922, and the family moved to Dublin and lived at 147 North Circular Road.

Margaret Collins O’Driscoll was elected to Dáil Éireann in 1923 for the constituency of Dublin North as a Cumann na nGaedheal TD. She was re elected in June and September 1927, and in 1932 but she was defeated in 1933. She was Vice President of Cumann n,a nGaedheal in 1926. She was the only woman to be elected to Dáil Éireann in the men’.

standing for election in the 1920s and early thirties. People like Richard Mulcahy, Alfred Byrne, Sean T. O’Kelly (who later became President of Ireland),Oscar Traynor, Jim Larkin and Mrs. Tom Clarke were all well known names, and most of them got a big vote.

JOE MC GRATH AND THE COLLINS CONNECTIONS

Joe Mc Grath became a close friend of Michael Collins in 1916 when

Fig.2: Margaret Collins-O’Driscoll surrounded by her family.

Fig.3: Margaret Collin’s notice for the sale of the farm and residence by public auction on March 20th 1922

He joined the IRB and fought in the 1916 rising, and later in the War of Independence. He was elected as a Sinn Fein TD in 1918. He was one of Michael Collins' personal staff during the Treaty negotiations in London. He voted for the Treaty in January 1922. He became Minister for Industry and Commerce, but resigned in 1924 because

mutiny, and because it was felt that the government had abandoned the revolutionary aims of Michael Collins. He and eight other TDs resigned from Cumann na nGaedheal and formed the 'National Group'. They later resigned their Dáil seats. In the by elections that followed, none of the National Group were elected.

Joe Mc grath left politics and went into business, he later founded the Irish Hospital Sweepstakes.

On centenary of the birth of General Michael Collins, the relatives of Joe Mc Grath presented a bust of Michael Collins to his nephew Liam Collins, and this is on display at Michael Collins birth place in

through extraordinary times. She came from a family who contributed

much and suffered much for the freedom that we take for granted today.

She died in June 1945 and is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery with her husband Patrick who died in 1940. Their grave is very close to the grave of her brother General Michael Collins.

Fig.4: e bust of Michael Collins, which was donated by the family of Joe McGrath to Liam Collins. It can be seen at Collin’s birthplace in Wood eld.

Fig.5: e Collins-O’Driscoll memorial at Glasnevin Cemetary.

BALLYMORE BECKONS - 45 YEARS OF THE O'CONNORS IN KILBRITTAIN

The beginning - November 1973 to June 1974

ICork.

My employer, based in Leeds, Yorkshire was not keen to the Pennines of West Yorkshire. We motored around the West Cork coastal areas and it was more my Dutch wife who was keen to see opportunities there, and I was the mere chauffeur. Dutch people were known to have settled small pockets of coastal West Cork and Kerry long before we arrived on the scene. We stopped for a refreshment

premises in the town. We wondered at the bar facilities, the grocery shop and calendars with greyhound racing themes. PJ was his usual courteous self and enquired our purpose of visiting. I made one of my

unoccupied properties in the district which had potential and could be developed over time. His eyes narrowed and he thought, instinctively, that he had here a couple of cábbógs who could be enticed to invest in the region. He offered us a drink on the house (drink and driving rule was less strict in those days) and said he the very thing in mind and went to fetch some keys. This was, inadvertently,

and over ancient stone bridges that led us to Ballymore Townland and the forlorn, abandoned cottage in a

stone–built haggard or animal barn. It is described by estate agents as a ‘typical Dev cottage of the 1930’s’.

a brief conversation with President Eamon de Valera when receiving a

Fig.1: e cottage in Ballymore, 1973

sport prize at college in 1970. We surveyed the building and enclosing

PJ left us with the keys to be returned when convenient. We, as total beginners, stood amazed and aghast at the prospect of taking this

Our neighbour, Margaret Hurley, had noticed the commotion with cars and visitors and was curious to see the cause. We introduced ourselves and as I, a native from the north side of the county, was

speaking in perfect English. Margaret, in true West Cork manner, invited us to come down to the farmhouse for the tea when we were ready. There, in the traditional kitchen with a large cooking range,

uniformed farmer splendour. We enjoyed a huge typical West Cork rural high tea and Elly had not seen the like of it before.

from a greyhound race track somewhere in Yorkshire. Given my we decided it would be good to have an affordable anchor in southern Ireland to which we would return frequently. Elly together with her mother came by plane and hire car to Bandon via Shannon and Leeds airports in June 1974 to sign the legal papers in, what was then, O’Driscoll’s legal practice in Bandon. Scarcely was the ink dry, when they set out to see the splendour of Ballymore Cottage and asked for directions which sent them via Ballinadee. Again, and as it would seem by Divine Intervention, local people were emerging from the church celebrating a religious festival as they slowly entered

Fig.2: Meeting the neighbours June 1974

the village. Elly recognised both Margaret and David amongst the parishioners and they were pleased to guide them up the steep slope road to the heights of Ballymore Cottage. The cottage was formerly the property of the White family who were relatives of the Butler family in Ballybeg. The visitors were once again entertained by the Hurley family and that has been the central theme presence in the townland. Discussions of a possible local builder ensued, and the O’Mahony

They contacted Nealus and agreed an unusual open contract of developing the site as best and practicable as possible over a period of at least two years, and at modest cost.

1976-1980 PERIODIC VISITS

As we were both on residential assignments overseas it was only in time of annual leave when we could visit the Cottage and assist with the refurbishment and partial occupation. Nealus and Peter were

the kitchen and bathroom extension. A curious development in the refurbishment was the requirement to sink a well, and the use of an experienced person who employed a hazel rod to locate a productive part of the water table which was conveniently found within about tenmetres of the west wall of the building. Drilling to thirty metres

that time. By 1980 the main work was completed and when on leave from our South American project we asked Peter O’Mahony to build a porch structure which would give additional protection from the ravages of Atlantic weather. This was constructed by 1983 when our structure which adds an aesthetic charm to the building.

Fig. 3: Nealus O’Mahony Ballymore 1976

BECKONS

As we were able to visit a little more regularly from that time we got to know our neighbours more intimately. Margaret came in morning time for her visit and this was followed by afternoon visits from David. Our neighbours on the other side in that time were the Condon brothers and one Liam, in particular, would call at irregular times and gaze at the improvements and wonder the presence of the lady from foreign parts. The Hurley children Dan, Rita and Artie were still at school, or very busy with farm work, so we did not have the same level of contact other than our occasional visit to the farmhouse, which typically was unplanned.

THE 1990’S

This decade saw several of our UK and Dutch family and friends coming to visit the house at different intervals. We made improvements to the central heating system which was easier for our visitors who

together with friends or colleagues from the UK, and this would have friends came on numerous visits from this decade on to the 2000’s.

made with our near neighbours to the east in adjacent Knoppogue townland namely Con and Kathleen McCarthy and family. Con was instrumental in introducing us to the ceilidhe social scene around the district and the annual charity threshing event in Argideen. Thus began the social ritual of the evening high teas and savouries accompanied by political and historical anecdotes, which happily continue to this day.

THE 2000’S

Con, in particular, was encouraging us to do more improvements and make the place more modern for family occupation. Thus in 2009 we undertook an extension of an additional bedroom and bathroom undertaken by local craftsmen from Bandon. We were fortunate to have such a competent project manager to assist with this phase ably aided by his son, Niall, in the plumbing domain. Additional conversion of the old open hearth to a green energy stove heater has complimented the heating system. Other improvements were replacement to PVC windows and a new kitchen to match the needs of modern times. Our immediate neighbours Dan and Artie Hurley play important roles in checking the place before and after our visits

farm. Rita and Arthur are frequent visitors who teach us the rudiments of agricultural economics.

We had a narrow escape from disaster when storm Ophelia invaded the area in October 2017 and felled our ancient crab apple tree which, fortuitously, massaged the front of the property with the outer branches on its downward descent. We are grateful to Artie who helped with cutting the remains into logs and restoring the front lawn to some semblance of normality. I am happy to report that the deep roots of the tree have regenerated and new growth of several metres has been observed.

2018

We were pleased to visit Margaret Hurley in April this year to help celebrate her 90th birthday surrounded by family and friends. We reminisced on all the occasions when we visited Ballymore and the connections and relationships to other neighbours and people of the Parish. Notable among these were the invitations to the weddings of Rita and Arthur, Annette and Aidan, Niall and Leona and the christening of their daughter, Ella, subsequently.

Our life and times in Ballymore revolve around the central pivot of the Hurley and McCarthy families and we consider ourselves to be so lucky to have chosen this site as our Irish family home.

Fig.4: Elly O’Connor (Visser), Ballymore 2018

MICHAEL MCCARTHY, CREAMERY MANAGER

MICHAEL MCCARTHY, CREAMERY MANAGER

By Edward McCarthy

MichaelPatrick McCarthy was born on April 7, 1914 the youngest (of six) children to Michael and Minnie (nee Donovan) of Inchydoney Island, near Clonakilty. The McCarthys had been in Inchydoney for a couple of generations, starting with Patrick McCarthy who came as a tenant farmer from Gurteen near Bandon in the 1860s. Patrick was a Land League activist, and had numerous battles with the Hungerford family, who owned the area before the tenants bought them out via government loans in the

her family had a saddlery until the 1940s.

His oldest sister was Kate (Katty) who married John Long of Brittas

siblings were May, who married Tom Hayes and lived in Darrara; Paddy, who inherited the farm which his son Michael now works; Nan who

area, and ran an agricultural equipment service in Clonakilty.

Michael attended Clonakilty National School during the war of independence and the Civil War. That War of Independence came close to home in the winter of 1921 when during a curfew, his father went out to the grain storage house to kill a rat that had been caught in a trap. A British Army patrol spotted the light and came to investigate. His father’s story about the rat in the grain was not believed by the commander, a (then) Major Percival, and he was beaten with the butt

month later. That same (now) General Percival surrendered Singapore to the Japanese force 1/3 the size of the British Defence Force twenty years later in 1941!

In 1931, at the age of 17, he was selected for the Dairy Science Programme at Albert College in Dublin, and over the next two years he trained there as a Creamery Manager. He learned about the separation of milk into cream and whey (skim), the manufacture of butter, the manufacture of cheese and the basics of accounting and business

Fig.1: e 1932-1933 class from Albert Agricultural College, Dublin. Michael is second from the right in the third row.

management.

Before he left for Albert College, he had already developed his love as he walked down from the train in Clonakilty to home, the terrier smelled him out and came running and jumped up on him barking wildly. As his sister Nan came out to greet him she noticed the dog was

MICHAEL MCCARTHY, CREAMERY MANAGER

going crazy looking for his bare leg as the dog always remembered him in short pants!

War, he, along with most other young men, served in the FCA. He also purchased a BSA motorcycle. He was introduced to Kitty O’Driscoll from Timoleague, who worked for Harrington’s (later Liam Collins) Solicitors in Clonakilty, by his sister May, and they travelled around on the motor bike to dances and following the Clonakilty football team, who were the sensation of the county in that era. Clonakilty men were to the fore when the Cork team won the football All Ireland in 1945.

In 1944, he was appointed to the Manager position in Kilbrittain and

In June 1946, he married Kitty O’Driscoll at 6.30 in the morning in Courtmacsherry, and they left after breakfast to get a train to Dublin.

Another story my mother often related from that honeymoon, was a trip where he rented a boat and rowed his bride out in Dublin Bay to the island known as Ireland’s Eye, where they had a picnic. As they were coming back, the tide was going out and the wind picked up blowing them back past the island and terrifying poor Kitty! Luckily, a passing motor boat spotted them and gave them a tow back to the shore.

In Kilbrittain, they initially lived on the terrace in Harbour View and then in the Ahern property further

Fig.2: Michael McCarthy and Kitty O’Sullivan on their honeymoon, crossing O’Connell Bridge Dublin, June 1946.

east. In 1951, Ned Moloney sold him three acres in Shanakiel, and he engaged local mason Jim Crowley to build the yellow house there that

from the foundations. Together, they raised and educated six children, Michael, Eamon, Padraig, Mary, John and Anne.

Along with running the Kilbrittain Creamery, Michael frequently helped out in the Timoleague and Ballinspittle Grain Mills, subbed for Barryroe General Manager Maurice Collins in his absence, and was

he took good advantage of in his later years. His was a vigilant job, seven days a week in the summer when the milk was in. Other than days he might have been incapacitated by infrequent bouts of severe allergy, I don’t believe he ever missed a day in his 35 years in Kilbrittain.

He was a combative joker at both work and in personal life. On one

in the creamery and began whining about having to drive up the long lane to Katty Russel’s place, to which Michael replied that he would call Katty to put the cow in a trailer and bring her down to road to facilitate him!

On another occasion, Maurice Collins, who was wont to micromanage, wrote a note on a small cement job in Kilbrittain Creamery, suggesting ‘to whoever was in charge for the time being, that he should whitewash

General Manager’. My father added ‘for the time being’ after the title!

At home, he always had a big garden and over time had cows, pigs and breeding hens. In later years he cobbled together a glasshouse from old windows and took great pride in the tomatoes, cucumbers and grapes he cultivated.

He was also active in community projects with the agricultural associations and social activities like Master Coppin’s Theatre Group in the 1960s, and building the Kilbrittain Community Grounds in the 1970s.

and he spent countless hours with Paddy Manning and John Dolly and the Kilbrittain hounds chasing foxes all over Kilbrittain and neighbouring parishes. At hurling and football games he was inclined to be strong in his opinions but above all else he loved to discuss the

130

MICHAEL MCCARTHY, CREAMERY MANAGER

hunting, the hurling and the politics of the day at the old Atlantic Hotel in Harbour View, in the Pink Elephant or wherever else his friends and acquaintances might gather.

He spent the last six years of his life living with Padraig in Brittas, but he could not wait for a member of the family to come home and allow him to spend time in Shanakiel. His soul always resided in Kilbrittain!

On November 4, 2004, he got up as usual in Brittas, took the drove to back Padraig’s and had his breakfast while reading the paper as he always did. He got up and handed it to Mary, Padraig’s wife, and said ‘we were going to have to put up with the darn Bush’s (in America) for another four years!’

Then he went over to the farmyard where he kept another glasshouse and where he always had some small construction project in hand. It was there that Padraig found him shortly afterwards, a chisel and hammer still grasped in his stiff hands!

A life well lived, and a life well left!

Fig.3: Kilbrittain Carnival Committee 1973. L-R John Joe O’Sullivan, Tadgh Hallissey, Frank O’Brien, Michael McCarthy, John Joe O’Connor, Danny Hickey and Tom Ryan who were responsible for the development of the present day Community Grounds.

THE RARE STAINED GLASS OF ST. PATRICK’S CHURCH, KILBRITTAIN

By Fr. Jerry Cremin

Dof

their prohibitions and restrictions had lost their powers, either through repeal or lack of enforcement. Thus, in the second half of the 1700s Catholics had recovered a great deal of their freedom to worship and to improve their standard of living – some, indeed, achieving reasonable prosperity. The effect of this in the parish

in Ballinspittle in 1752 and Timoleague in 1771. The next hundred years or so saw the construction of imposing churches in almost every parish in Ireland, made possible by the generosity of Catholics rich and poor and, indeed, of many of the Protestant landlords who freely

Fig.1: A view from the balcony of the three pieces created for Kilbrittain sanctuary by stained glass artist, Stanley Tomlin (Photos courtesy of Fr. Jerry Cremin).

THE RARE STAINED GLASS OF ST. PATRICK’S CHURCH

As a result of this, the mid 1800s in Ireland experienced the beginning of an insatiable demand for builders, architects, stonemasons, carpenters, sculptors, carvers and artists in various media, including stained glass.

Patrick H. Pearse’s father, James, a young sculptor from Birmingham who had been reared in great poverty, took the opportunity to come to Ireland and set up business in Great Brunswick St. (now Pearse St.), head sculptor was Patrick Tomlin, another English artist who had come to Ireland. Patrick Tomlin later left James Pearse to set up a studio under his own name and was succeeded in Pearse’s by his nephew, Charles Edward Tomlin.

Charles Edward’s son, Stanley, is the artist who made the Kilbrittain famous Harry Clarke studios in 1932. He was there until 1941 when, because work dried up during World War II, he was let go, together with the other unmarried employees.

Fig.2 e window depicting St. Joseph. & Fig.3: e window depicting the Madonna and child.

glass window was made.

The Irish Glass Bottle factory was built in Ringsend, Dublin in 1871 to take advantage of black clay from

porter bottles. It survived until its eventual closure in 2002. Among the buildings erected by this industry on its were commissioned to provide three the cruciform prototype of the Kilbrittain window and two smaller windows. These were executed by Stanley Tomlin. When the derelict factory and ancillary buildings were demolished in 2008 the cruciform window was found to be in very poor condition and was bought by a collector in Birmingham. Of the two small windows, one is back in the Tomlin studio and the other is installed the chapel at the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital on Adelaide Road, Dublin.

Fig.4: e Kilbrittain cruciform window on show in Dublin in November 1951 with Stanley and Diana Tomlin. (photo courtesy of Alan Tomlin).

The second cruciform window was made from the template of the Glass Bottle Factory window in 1951. It is inscribed with the name and

with the 1951 date and the signature of ‘S Tomlin’. It seems to have been specially commissioned by Fr. Jeremiah Coakley for Kilbrittain. We have a record from the Irish Times of Nov 7th 1951 referring to this window on the occasion of its being in an exhibition of stained glass by A.W. Lyons in Dublin.

Co. Cork, is unusual in that the window itself takes the form of a cross. Within this strict limit, the artist has made a very compact and striking design” (Irish Times, Wednesday, November 7, 1951)

depicting Our Lady and St. Joseph respectively as also being the work of his father. He has told me that cruciform windows are not very common because of the challenge of making them, in contrast

134

THE RARE STAINED GLASS OF ST. PATRICK’S CHURCH

in a regular oblong window. It takes great skill, apparently, to balance the various vectors in the shape so that the window won’t tend to sag or collapse under its own weight.

The cruciform window was donated

only extant since 1959, so there is no record of how much the windows cost or who the donors were, if any, of the other two windows. There may be local or family information on this and we would be grateful to hear it.

In 1957 Stanley Tomlin and his glass company, ‘Irish Stained Glass’. The company supplied windows for Ecclesiastical and civil projects all over Ireland. After Stanley’s death in 1976 his son Alan, who had been working with his father, continued as stained glass artist/ designer and managed the business with his wife Barbara. They downsized recently and nowadays Alan specialises more in stained glass conservation particularly high detailed stained glass and acid work. Alan and Barbara are frequent visitors to Kilbrittain because, by an amazing coincidence, their daughter Julie, who is also an artist, lives here with her two sons.

Fig.5: e unusual cruciform window in St. Patrick’s Church, Kilbrittain took great skill to balance the vectors, so that it wouldn’t collapse under its own weight.

Paul Carton is a journalist with NewsFour, a community newspaper serving an area of Dublin City roughly corresponding to the Dublin 4 postal district. In May 2017 he rang me to

Fig.6: One of the panels accompanying the original cruciform window.

Stanley Tomlin in

Fig.7: Identifying panel on the cruciform window – note the signature ‘S. Tomlin’ on the top of the panel. It can be found on the bottom right of the cruciform window.

the history of the local Irish Glass Bottle Company for his newspaper. This was how we were alerted to the origin of our windows. In June this year I visited Alan and Barbara Tomlin at their home in Sandyford, Dublin. They were most welcoming and generous to me. I had the pleasure of visiting Alan’s studio while he patiently recounted this history.

am most grateful for the help and advice he gave me

Glass in the Church

work by Alan Tomlin

THE WRITING OF THE ANCIENT IRISH LEGAL TRACTS

THE WRITING OF THE ANCIENT IRISH LEGAL TRACTS

By Ciarán O’Donovan

The study of native Irish law is still in its infancy. Approximately 150 years posthumous publishing of O’Donovan and O’Curry’s six volumes of the “Ancient Laws of Ireland”.1 While their work was later criticised for its inaccuracies and misinterpretations, it was still heralded as a milestone in the study of ancient Irish laws.2 Their efforts encouraged debate and development in the area which was primarily advanced by such great Celtic scholars as MacNeill, Thurneysen and Binchy, the latter’s career being crowned by his publishing in 1978 of a six volume diplomatic collection of all extant ancient Irish legal material, which had taken him more than 20 years to complete.3

Fig.1: Daniel A. Binchy (1899-1989). Medieval Irish legal scholar who took twenty years to complete his magnum opus ‘Corpus Iuris Hibernici’(6 vols.). is work was seminal in the study of ancient Irish law. Binchy, a Cork man of many talents, became Ireland’s rst diplomat in Germany during the Weimar Republic, and came into close contact on several occasions with Hitler during his rise to power in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s. Binchy warned friends and colleagues of the danger posed by Hitler even before he came to power in Germany. D. A. Binchy was uncle to the author Meave Binchy and legal scholar Professor William Binchy.

1.

2. Thurneysen, “Celtic Law”, in Jenkins (ed.) Celtic Law Papers, 49

3. Binchy (ed.), Corpus Iuris Hibernici,

Fig.2: Eoin MacNeill is considered ‘the father of the modern study of Early Irish Medieval literature’. He co-founded the Gaelic League in 1893, was appointed Professor of Early Irish History at University College Dublin in 1908, founded the Irish Volunteers, attempted to stop the Easter Rising in 1916, and went on to hold several in uential political positions. As a scholar of early Irish history, he was one of the pioneers of the study of early Irish law, and the rst to discover the nature of the succession of Irish kingship. His theories laid the foundation for modern ideas on the subject and continue to be in uential today. McNeill’s grandson is former PD Minister for Justice and barrister, Michael McDowell.

It is easy to believe that since there was no central legislative body in ancient Ireland, and since each tuath (petty kingdom) was separate and may have had slightly different customs from one another, that any legal conformity or consistency would be impossible throughout the country. This, however, was not the case. The Brehons, being one of the nemed (privileged) class, like doctors and poets, were one of the few persons allowed to move freely throughout the country; ordinary people, whether free or unfree, were very isolated in that they were not allowed, or able, to travel outside the boundaries of their tuath.

The Brehons were taught in one of a number of schools which retained close relations with each other and preserved uniformity in the legal language.4 exclusivity in the profession than a concentrated attempt to standardise the law throughout the country. In the absence of anything like a central

4. Binchy,

Law

Linguistic

Historical

Irish Law Tracts”, in Jenkins (ed.)

THE WRITING OF THE ANCIENT IRISH LEGAL TRACTS

authority, regional variation was inevitable, as is shown by the different law tracts composed in different schools which disagree with the Senchas Már (‘The Great Tradition’ – the largest and most important ancient Irish compilation of legal tracts), or with each other. Indeed, not only were there slight variations between the law taught in different law schools, but there were also differences between tuaithe in the way law was practised. In other words, local tribal customs often caused laws to be interpreted or practised differently. However, while we cannot speak, as MacNeill did, of a national system for the whole of Ireland, we certainly can speak of a native Irish system of law.5

Fig.2: Redwood Castle, Co. Tipperary. Although built by the Normans, it was later occupied by the MacEgan juristic family and served as a school of Irish law under them. In earlier times, Brehon Law schools nationally taught a uniform legal language, and thus preserved a native Irish legal system.

POETS

Originally, the jurists of ancient Ireland were the 26). The law had been handed down by their oral tradition, preserved, as the compiler of the Senchas Már puts it, by “the joint memory of the ancients, the transmission from one ear to another [and] the chanting of were much more than poets.

“knowledgeable in the jurisprudence of his Irish law … and in all historical science”.6 Thus he was a learned scholar who had undergone a vigorous education in all branches of secular knowledge.

5. MacNeill, “Ireland and Wales in the History of Jurisprudence”, in Jenkins (ed.), Celtic Law Papers, 176

6. Breathnach, Uaireach na Riar the poetic grades in early Irish law (1987)

7. Breathnach, “Lawyers in Early Ireland” in Hogan & Osborough (eds.), Brehons, Serjeants and Attorneys : Studies in the History of the Irish Legal Profession, 5

While they were mainly concerned with secular knowledge, this is not to say that they were isolated from ecclesiastical learning. In fact it was quite monasteries, for example Colmán mac Leneni (d. A.D. 604), who began his career as a entering the church in later life and founded the monastery at Cloyne.7

Fig.3: e chief of the Mac Sweynes is seated at dinner and being entertained by a bardic poet ( lidh) and a harper, (by John Derricke 1581 AD). John Derricke was an English o cial who accompanied Sir Henry Sidney on his campaigns against the Irish in the late 1570s. He subsequently published an illustrated book describing his experiences, which painted the Irish in a less than attering light (‘Image of Irelande’, 1581).

The , because of their oral tradition, often employed mnemonic devices and alliterative phrases to teach and recite, for example at a popular assembly, the traditional lore and legal rules (fenechas).8 which were written probably around the start of the 7th century, 9 due to the

basis an archaic stratum of quotations from the fenechas. Indeed some were mainly written in this fenechas style.10 Ironically, it was their use of verse and the technical and obscure language they employed which contributed to the poets’ demise as jurists. We know that they were deprived by kings of their

obscurity of their language as their judgements were often incomprehensible (A.L. i 18.11). Again, the poets’ oral tradition of preserving the law was replaced gradually by the transcribing of the laws, due to the advent of the

THE WRITING OF THE ANCIENT IRISH LEGAL TRACTS

Latin alphabet through the spreading of Christianity in the country. Therefore a new breed of professional legal experts, the brithemain (Brehons) became generations of legal poets, eventually replaced them, and in unbroken succession became the guardians of the native customary law.

BREHONS

The Brehons were, exclusively, the professional lawyers of their time. They were educated at a number of legal centres throughout the country. Although

the law texts (7th – 8th centuries), the 9th century Triads of Ireland refers to the monasteries of Cloyne, Cork and Slane as legal centres.11 This does not mean that legal education was only available in monasteries, although there is no denying that some monasteries12 may have been outstanding intellectual centres, for example the Lismore of St. Cartheach. The fact that Brehon families were educated by ecclesiastical scholars is obvious in that there was a tension between conserving the native law and trying to conform the law with Christian ideals, as will be shown later.

Fig.1: Painting of Brehons recording ancient Irish Law.

11. Kuno Meyer (ed. & trans.) Triads of Ireland, Triad

Triad

Triad

Brehons placed their faith in a venerable tradition of proven legal rules; it is no accident that the greatest compilation of legal tracts is called the Senchas Már (‘The Great Tradition’). They strove to preserve this ancient law intact and entire, just as they had received it from their own teachers. The mere fact that some of its rules had come down from a less developed form of society than existed in their own day was no reason for discarding them, even if the provisions were not applicable anymore. This preserving of what had gone before was the cornerstone of their system of recording the law. Thus, later scribes continued to copy out provisions relating to institutions that had been

can be seen side by side in some law texts. One example of this regards the ancient Irish institution of othrus (sick maintenance). Othrus operated when a person suffered physical injury at the hands of another. The injurer had to undertake the duty of nursing his victim back to health and providing him with medical attention. Most of our knowledge regarding othrus in ancient Irish law comes from the old Irish medical tract Bretha Crolige13 which formed part of the last third of the great collection of Irish customary law, the Senchas Már (B.C. 1). As with other materials within the Senchas Már, Bretha Crolige dates further back than the former’s date of compilation (the early 8th century) as it contains elements of both the early and later stages of development of othrus in ancient Irish society. Indeed, the earlier aspects of othrus must have th century, as we are informed in Crith Gablach, the tract on status and rank in society which was written around A.D. 700,14 that at the time of its writing othrus was obsolete. It was commuted to a payment to the injured party in accordance with his rank which included the physician’s fee and the fee which had to be paid in addition to the dire 15

The conservatism of the Brehons and the transcribing of the archaisms in the law tracts give the tracts a particular importance, as we are able to observe the transition of society and of legal ideas over time, for example the evolution in the contractual capabilities of women.16 The fact that ancient

coming of Christianity preserved the continuity of old institutions until they were eventually recorded in written texts. This is why the Irish legal texts give

12.

13. Binchy (ed. & trans.), “Bretha Crolige” (hereafter B.C.) in Eiriu

14. Binchy (ed.), Crith Gablach 14

15. Ibid., 8 & MacNeill in Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy (P.R.I.A) s.70, 284

16. McLeod, Early Irish Contract Law, chapter 3.5. Binchy “The Legal Capacity of Women in regard to Contract” in Thurneysen, Binchy & Ors (eds.), Studies in Early Irish Law

THE WRITING OF THE ANCIENT IRISH LEGAL TRACTS

an insight into a more traditional, purely Celtic society than do the legal texts of other contemporary cultures.

The paradox of the texts was that they were both contemporary and archaic, practical and outdated. The Brehons who composed them were in regular contact with the vicissitudes of the legal process, but when they wrote about the law they portrayed it as eternal and unchanging. To us, accustomed as we are to the tenacity with which modern lawyers cling to the precise legal prose of their statute books, such inconsistencies seem troublesome in works of serious law. However, the ancient texts were not statute books, nor were they intended to be strictly and uniformly applied to every case that came within their purview. They were teaching texts. Thus the Brehons were not only advocates and judges but also teachers. Education was one of the means by which one advanced through the legal ranks from advocate to judge.17 The extant tracts which remain to us now were the very books from which younger jurists learned their craft. The textbook style of many of the 18 They were composed both by and for practising members of the profession.

Although the tracts were educational, they were also texts of law. When giving judgment, the Brehon must bear in mind several factors: he must be guided by the maxims and precedents of the law books.19 There is no reason to doubt the essential accuracy of the legal procedures the texts describe nor to question the jurists’ knowledge of the legal structures of the society in which they lived, as ancient Irish society was inextricably bound up within its legal rules. It is obvious that the authors of the law texts were well informed about the topics with which they were dealing.20 Robin Chapman Stacey

could be applied to the case at hand, but rather for a general understanding of how things ought to be. She notes how ‘elastic’ concepts like “duty” and “status” could be continually reinterpreted in the light of contemporary standards and expectations and thus, as she said, “rooting out the old or resolving every inconsistency was simply not a pressing need”.

17. Sharpe, “Dispute Settlement in Medieval Ireland: A Preliminary Inquiry” in Davies & Fouracre (eds.), The Settlement of Disputes in Early Medieval Europe, 185 18.

19. Robin Chapman Stacey, The Road to Judgement: from customer to court in medieval Ireland and Wales (Philadelphia, 1994) 23 20.

THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY

conversion of Ireland to Christianity. When Christianity came to Ireland in the 5th century the teaching in the law schools was still oral. By the 6th or 7th centuries the Latin alphabet had seeped from the monastic into the native schools of ecclesiastical scholars on the teaching of the law, and the prominence of monasteries as educational centres, Binchy estimates that the law texts were 21 This meant that the law was regarded as eternal and immutable; therefore the task of the Brehons was to expound and interpret it, not to expand and develop it.

Since it was from the monasteries that the written form of law emanated, it was natural that this law would have a strong Christian colouring. While some

authorship so as to give them a religious authenticity.22 For instance, the Senchas Már was supposedly both drawn up by St. Patrick, inter alia, and in accordance with the dictates of Christianity teaching.23 This is so even though throughout the Senchas Már the past and it has been shown that the text was not recorded in writing until many centuries after St. Patrick had died. This legend purported to show that the native tradition and the new religion were not at odds. Binchy felt this legend originated in the law schools in an attempt to defend secular laws from an attack based on their inconsistency with Christian teaching.24 Again, the introduction to the Senchas Már says that it was established by an amalgamation of the law of nature, the extant traditional rules and “the law

Much has been written about the effect which Christianity had upon the ancient Irish native law.25 Some commentators debate the prevalence of the “law of nature and its relative importance or lack of it within the ancient legal system”26

21. Binchy, “Ancient Irish Law”, in Irish Jurist (2nd series), (1966): 88

Breathnach, “Lawyers in Early Ireland” 5. Also Breathnach, “The Ecclesiastical Element in the Old Irish Legal Tract “Cain Fhuithirbe

Binchy (ed. & trans.), “Corus Bescna

McLeod, “The Concept of Law in Ancient Irish Jurisprudence”, in Irish Jurist (2nd series)

THE WRITING OF THE ANCIENT IRISH LEGAL TRACTS

Indeed some texts are explicitly ecclesiastical, for example Cáin Domnaig (The Law of Sunday) which deals with the penalties for breaking the sanctity of Sunday.28 However, beneath the Christian phraseology of the tracts

points the Irish law tracts show an obstinate refusal to conform to Christian teaching. This may have been due in part to the absence of anything like a central authority which the church could use for the purpose of introducing the necessary reforms (remembering that a king only had power over his own tuath). Another factor was the reluctance of the Brehons to abandon the native system. Their conservatism, in conjunction with their dislike of interference by others in what had hitherto been their exclusive domain, made them steadily resist suggested changes. For example, the refusal to

from which one is sprung and which is responsible for one’s liabilities, shall be prejudiced by not being left in possession of its rightful portion” (A.L. iii 44.13 – 47).

jurists was with regard to marriage law. Cáin Lanum (the ‘Law of Couples’) (A.L ii 343 – 409) recognises nine forms of sexual union.29 Permanent marriages, temporary unions, and even transient sexual relations were all recognised by the law and invested with legal consequences. In the Church’s eyes such adulterous unions were reprehensible, and ironically this attitude was adultrach', based on the Latin adultera (adulteress), which became the ordinary legal word for concubine (A.L. ii 406.12). Polygamy was common. One text, Bretha Crolige, distinguishes three ranks of wife, each one being entitled to a different amount of food while their

“Every woman who is living in a proper union is entitled to half the

partner when on sick maintenance. Every other woman [who lives with a sick maintenance.”

the Old Testament: s.57 of Bretha Crolige says, “there is dispute in Irish law as to which is more proper, whether many sexual unions or a single one : for the chosen people of God lived in plurality of unions, so that it is not easier

to condemn it than to praise it” (B.C 44/45). Indeed one of the glossators of s.57 notes that Solomon, David and Jacob lived in many unions with several

changing the law, it did not totally subvert the native rules or institution, but it did give a Christian colouring to the ancient pagan legal system.

THE LAW TRACTS

i) Authorship

The majority of the manuscripts in which the law texts are found date from the 14th – 16th centuries.30 Not all of these manuscripts are explicitly legal: for Bretha Crolige was found in a Latin medical manuscript. Due to a growing knowledge of the stages of development of Old Irish, linguistic scholars have found that most legal texts were written between A.D. 650 and A.D. 750.31 Some texts can even be recognised as 32 while other texts have been shown to have had the same author.33

case of St. Patrick and the Senchas Már often attributed with the compilation of a legal tract. For instance, the famous king Cormac MacAirt is said to have written Bretha Etgid, while the mythical physician Dian Checht, we are told, wrote Bretha Dein Checht (The Judgments of Dian Checht). The law texts are peppered with references to leading cases by famous judges which provide the authority for individual legal rules. Such references may have been attempts to give validity to new rulings which lacked the test of time to establish their harmony with the traditional law and so are placed in the mouths of fabulous personages of special renown for their ability to declare truth.35 These persons always belong to antiquity and so, while actual tradition cannot be cited in support, traditional status is

Kelly A Guide to Early Irish Law 70

Edwards, “Review Article”: 153

Breathnach, “Lawyers in Early Ireland”: 5

E.g. Moran or Sencha

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THE WRITING OF THE ANCIENT IRISH LEGAL TRACTS

nevertheless attained for the pronouncements fostered upon them.36 These pronouncements are often cited later as authorities, just as modern judges cite leading cases when developing the common law today.

ii) Glossing

An important element of the legal texts has been their accompanying glosses and commentaries which later jurists added to the original texts throughout the centuries. These glosses and commentaries sought to clarify, explain and detail the original texts but, unfortunately, they also misunderstood, misinterpreted

their changing society without affecting the immutable position of the texts. Such efforts often had disastrous results which rendered the glosses worthless as they only confused the legal position.

Good examples of this practice are found in the text regarding compensations for personal injuries, Bretha Dein Checht. The glossator tried to harmonise the text’s rules and tariffs with corresponding rules found in other tracts, or with the contemporary rules and penalties of his day, which were obviously different. For instance s.13, which lists tariffs for facial wounds, states that the penalty for commentator, who doubtless regarded this as much too light, says that it applies only where (i) the assailant was a deorad (a member of a different tuath),

by a weapon, and (iii) where the victim has himself used violence to repel the assault, which if proved will normally reduce the amount of compensation by one third. This example is a good demonstration of glossators’ usual procedure of attempting to reconcile the irreconcilable – a straightforward general rule of the text is narrowed down to a single case containing such unusual features that it would be most unlikely ever to occur in real life.

Another reason for glossing, was that some of the archaic technical legal phrases used in the texts had become obsolete by the glossator’s era and thus an explanation was sought for them. This was done by using the system of etymology which is a method of interpretation consisting of resolving a word of more than one syllable into its ‘original’ elements, each of them being a separate word. While this was a method used throughout the world in early judicial works,37 as Binchy said, “the Irish jurists ran it to death”.38 Later jurists used it as a cloak to hide their ignorance. An unfamiliar word

36. Binchy (ed.), “Corus Bescna”: 41

Binchy, “The Linguistic and Historical Value of the Early Irish Law Tracts”: 90

is explained by them in a series of alternative ‘etymologies’; the more alternatives they give, the more clueless they are as to the word’s original meaning. One extreme example is in a glossator’s attempt to guess the meaning of the unfamiliar word enud (vow), by offering a choice of seven fantastic ‘etymologies’ (A.L. iii 62.7). However, regardless of the inaccuracies of the glossators, they transmitted to us, almost unwittingly, a unique legacy. These scribes of the Middle Ages, by their juridicial conservatism, by copying more of less accurately the archaic 7th century phrases even though they had no idea of their true meaning, fossilized the unique ancient laws of Ireland.

Fig.4: A good example of the art of glossing on the margins and between the lines in an ancient Irish manuscript. Harley MS 1802, f 61r. Decorated initial and letter ‘In’(itium) with animal heads at the beginning of the Gospel of Mark. Ireland, N. (Armagh), 1138 (British Library).

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CONCLUSION

Ancient Irish law, its construction, writing and transcribing, was ultimately

has given the reader some small insight into the machinations of early Irish society and the environment in which the law tracts were written and preserved. The conservatism of the Brehons, and of the scribes in particular,

contributed to the fact that the extant ancient Irish legal tracts are unique

development of ancient Irish culture. Laws and institutions which were obsolete for centuries, even at the time of their transcription, have been conserved in the law texts to the delight of us all – historians and jurists in particular.

References

1. (ed. & trans.) Binchy, “Breatha Crolige” in (1938) Eiriu 12 pp. 1-78

2. (ed. & trans.) Binchy, Crith Gablach

3. (ed. & trans.) Binchy, “Breatha Dein Checht” in (1966) Eiriu 22 pp. 1-66

4. (ed. & trans.) Binchy, Corpus Iuris Hibernici

5. Binchy, “Sick Maintenance in Irish Law” in (1938) Eiriu 12 pp. 78-134

6. Breathnach, “Lawyers in Early Ireland” in (ed. & trans.) Hogan & Osborough, Brehons, Serjeants and Attorneys : Studies in the History of the Irish Legal Profession pp. 1-55

7. Breathnach, Uaireach na Riar the poetic grades in early Irish law (1987)

8. Kelly, A Guide to Early Irish Law

9. MacNeill, Celtic Ireland

10. MacNeill, “The Ancient Irish Law : Law of Status or Franchise” in Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 36C (1923) pp. 265-316

11. (eds. & trans.) O’Donovan, O’Curry, The Ancient Laws of Ireland, vols. i – v

12. (ed.) Jenkins, Celtic Law Papers

13. (ed. & trans.) Kuno Meyer, Triads of Ireland

14. (ed. & trans.) Charles Edwards & Kelly, Bechbretha : An Old Irish Tract on Beekeeping

15. (eds.) Thurneysen, Binchy & Ors, Studies in Early Irish Law

16. Robin Chapman Stacey, The Road to Judgement: from customer to court in medieval Ireland and Wales (Philadelphia, 1994)

17. (Eds.) Davies & Fouracre, The Settlement of Disputes in Early Medieval Europe

18. Peritia (vols iii, v)

19. Edwards, “Review Article”

20. (ed.) Binchy, “Corus Bescna”

21. Breathnach, Uaireach na Riar the poetic grades in early Irish law (1987)

INTRODUCTION TO DOROTHY STOPFORD PRICE

By Anne Mac Lellan

The Kilbrittain Historical Society is indebted to Dr. Anne MacLellan for her kind contribution to our journal

Dfamilywith both ecclesiastical and medical connections.1 She spent her childhood in Dublin but at fourteen years of age, following her father’s death, the family relocated to London where she became a foundation scholar at St Paul’s, a progressive school. Dorothy’s sister Edie recalled that ‘we children were brought up in the true Irish Protestant social and cultural tradition. We attended church regularly with governess or parents. Socially, we consorted only with other little Protestants, the children of our parents’ friends.’ 2

In 1916, Dorothy returned to Dublin to study medicine in Trinity College Dublin. She spent her Easter holidays that year in the home of Sir Matthew Nathan,

administration.3 This was to be no ordinary Easter – however Dorothy’s response to the 1916 Rising, which began on Easter Monday, was largely limited to concern about the safety of Nathan, who has been described by historian Charles Townsend as the ‘real ruler of Ireland’.4 She was very much an outsider looking in on events.5 However, very soon afterwards, probably in response to

Fig.1: Dr. Dorothy Stopford-Price lived and worked in Kilbrittain during the War of Independence. She maintained contact with the people of Kilbrittain for the rest of her life..

INTRODUCTION TO DOROTHY STOPFORD PRICE

the brutal summary executions of the leaders of the Rising, Dorothy became an ardent Republican.

She worked as a dispensary doctor and G.P. in Kilbrittain, Co.

6 Stopford’s Republican activities demonstrated strong nerves while illustrating her willingness maintained throughout her medical career.

Although active politically, Price’s main work was in the medical sphere – her l career spanned three decades from 1921 to 1954. She graduated at a time when women were a rarity in the medical profession. After her sojourn in Cork, Dorothy found her professional home in St Ultan’s Infants Hospital, Dublin.

She began to focus on tuberculosis in the early 1930s. Much of her early work with tubercular children focused on the development of diagnostic and treatment regimes and epidemiological surveys. By the Stopford Price became an acknowledged childhood tuberculosis expert but she never forgot her friends in Kilbrittain.

1. Obituaries and appreciations of Dorothy Price: IJMS 6, no. 338 (1954), p. 95; Journal of the Irish Medical Association (JIMA) 34, no. 201 (1954), p. 72, p. 84; British Medical Journal

Press, 2 Feb. 1954; Irish Independent, 1 Feb. 1954.

2. Edith Stopford, Recollections (N.L.I., MS 11,426).

3. R.B. McDowell, Alice Stopford Green. A Passionate Historian (Dublin, 1967), p. 78.

4. Charles Townshend, Easter 1916. The Irish Rebellion (London, 2005), p.25; Dorothy Stopford, diary, April 1916 (N.L.I., MS 6,063).

5. Edith Stopford, Recollections (N.L.I., MS 11,426); William Sheehan, British Voices from the military whereas Price’s recollections are those of a young civilian.

6.

(What follows is reprinted with permission of the author from her 2014 book, Dorothy Stopford Price – Rebel Doctor, Irish Academic Press.)

OF SEA PINKS, BLACK AND TANS, AND MEDICAL MATTERS: THE KILBRITTAIN YEARS (1921–1925)

By Anne Mac Lellan (Part 3 of 3)

Part 1 of this essay can be found in the Journal of the Kilbrittain Historical Society, vol.2, 2016/2017, pp.50-63. It details how Dorothy was warmly accepted into the community in Kilbrittain, and charts her practical support for the local I.R.A. up until the Truce in July 1921.

Part 2 is contained in vol.3, 2017/2018, pp.43-54. It describes the time in Kilbrittain and Dublin during the Truce and the subsequent negotiations, leading to the Treaty of 1921 and the beginning of the tragic Civil War

The Irish civil war between the IRA and supporters of the Free

on the Republican army which was occupying the Four Courts in Dublin. Dorothy may have remembered writing that essay on War in her Sophister year in TCD when she declared: ‘…civil war is the most

to the city centre. This initial battle in Dublin lasted some eight days. Edie’s employer, The Peace with Ireland Council, had been wound up and Edie had gone to live with her sister Alice in Bray, County Wicklow. Hearing the rumours of civil war, Edie and Alice travelled into Dublin, some twelve miles away. They found a ‘silent city, except for the tramp of innumerable Dubliners as they patrolled the streets endlessly in order (like us) to get some idea of what was happening’. There was a ‘sulphurous and ominous feeling in the air, as before a thunderstorm’.

DOROTHY STOPFORD PRICE

There were no incidents that day although they were intrigued to see a Ford car dashing down O’Connell Street, and ‘in it, in professional white coat, our sister Dorothy, who had put her professional skill at the disposal of the rebels’. The next day, Edie once again travelled into the city centre, lunched with Aunt Alice and, together, they went to watch the battle at the Four Courts. They stood on O’Connell Bridge, assuming they were out of range, when a burst of machine gun

yards away. They withdrew to a ‘respectful distance’ and the next day the Four Courts fell to the Government forces. War had broken out in Cork within a few hours of the opening salvos in Dublin. Apparently, while hurrying back to Cork, Dorothy was arrested with Mrs Tom Barry and held in Kilkenny temporarily.85

Back at work in Cork, she had a professional battle on her hands.

parish priest, William Murphy who was school manager in northeast Ballinspittle. He was incandescent that she ‘off her own bat’ visited the school and then closed it down. Dorothy ably defended herself saying that she had closed the school for disinfection after a child, in the desquamation (skin shedding) phase of scarletina, had attended the school. She couldn’t get in touch with the parish priest who was

(MOH) ‘in cases of urgency’ had the right to close any school or public place on his own authority. She was rebuked in a letter from Bandon District Council which pointed out that an MOH had no power to

if he considers it necessary to the manager of the school’.86 Dorothy had overstepped the mark and was, no doubt, smarting as a result of the rebuke.

Fig.1: Dorothy Stopford-Price

Another even greater humiliation was in store. On 6 December 1922, the Irish Free State was established and the Republican side, the toll of dead and wounded reached 7,500. In Cork, more than 700 people were killed, 400 of them by the IRA. The IRA killed 200 civilians including some 70 Protestants. Historian Charles Townshend noted that compared with other civil wars, the violence in the Irish the toll went far beyond ‘simple bloodshed. It represented the violence permeated society’. While he agrees that the Protestant community felt the ‘threat of harm and dislocation’ acutely, a ‘sense 87

The Protestants who remained in Ireland included Aunt Alice, who held until her death in 1929. Another Protestant, the poet and mystic William Butler Yeats was a fellow senator. He was enthusiastic about the role of the Senate, believing that it was a distinguished body and would get ‘much government’ into its hands.88 Aunt Alice and Yeats set up a Senate committee to organise a scheme for editing, indexing and publishing Irish language manuscripts. Alice also appealed for reconciliation between the warring parties in the civil war.

On the losing side, Dorothy had to continue with the mundane tasks associated with her job. Transport was still heavily regulated. On 19 January 1923, Dorothy was issued with a motor permit by Óglaigh na hÉireann allowing her to drive her Ford car (registration IF 2499). She

– of medium build with dark hair. The permit was issued subject to the following regulations: ‘That the holder of the permit does not engage in any activities prejudicial to the elected government of the people; that the vehicle in respect of which this permit is granted will not be used for any purpose prejudicial to the elected government of the people.’89 She also had to procure permission to purchase and use motor spirit. In July, she was issued with an Irish Republican Army motor permit, signed by F. (presumably Florence) Begley.

imprisoned in gaols and internment camps including Robert Barton, Denis Lordan and many more of Dorothy’s friends. Liam Deasy signed

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an appeal for surrender. On 30 April, de Valera was authorised by an army council to offer a suspension of hostilities. Throughout the ensuing negotiations, the Irish Free State continued to hold its untried Republican prisoners. In July 1923, it was estimated that there were more than 11,000 military prisoners.90 Dorothy’s sister Edie noted that good men were lost on both sides of the civil war with the Republicans losing Erskine Childers, who was executed for carrying arms and Michael Collins who was killed in August 1922. Gradually, ‘events went back to normal’.91

By the end of 1922, Dorothy had decided to leave Cork and widen her professional horizons by seeking employment in Dublin. Her contribution during the War of Independence and the civil war was valued and, later, marked by the IRA in the form of a gold watch presented to her when she left Cork in 1923.92 In Dublin, Dorothy kept in touch with her Cork friends. Writing to Birdie Crowley, she signed herself off as ‘the Doctoreen’, telling her amusing anecdotes

spent washing the black Ford car. ‘She [the car] is glorious looking, the hose is great sport.’93

Throughout 1923, Dorothy had a stream of correspondence from her friends in prisons and internment camps.94 She was kept busy reading and answering letters and making up parcels. Denis Lordan, who had been arrested at Bandon on 26 December 1922, was now prisoner number 1856 in Hut 19, Newbridge Barracks, County Kildare. He described the camp as ‘quite a little town of all male inhabitants’. He had met several friends, also some of Dorothy’s friends. He was endeavouring to start a debating class and warned Dorothy to be prepared for trouble when they met again.95 He told Dorothy that Birdie Crowley and Co. were rather disgracefully running after the new MD, Dorothy’s replacement, and joked that it would be a relief to Sonnie if he had Birdie off his hands.96 In February, he thanked her for sending on some macramé twine and promised her some articles he would make with it. ‘Ciggs’ and tobacco were a ‘godsend’ as all the lads were ‘short of smokes’ when they came in.97 In his next 98

Her response was evidently satisfactory as he called her ‘Dear Fairy Mother’ and thanked her for the sweets and ciggs.99 In September, Denis asked Dorothy to get in touch with Maud (possibly a relation) to stay well while walking around in bare feet. He was studying Irish

and said that pencils and notebooks were hard to come by. He was Dorothy to keep a look out for any vacancies ‘from a private secretary to a farm labourer with a preference for motors or engineering’.100

In October 1923, more than four hundred prisoners went on internment camps.101 Denis Lordan duly joined them. He told Dorothy that he was in ‘cheery mood’ and was striking for their ‘immediate and unconditional releases … ciggs are our only comfort now with an occasional sip of tepid water’.102 He wrote to Dorothy saying that he would telephone her when he was released although he did not expect to be very strong.103 She sent in health salts and cigarettes as requested. When he came off strike, Denis asked Dorothy to send in a you know to most suitable, we can have such things cooked here’. He sounded despondent and asked her to excuse his short note as he did not feel like writing much.104 Denis Lordan was released on 8 November 1923. He travelled to Cork with Dan Buckley and met Birdie Crowley in Bandon. Then they all motored to Kilbrittain. A plebiscite was taken there to ask for the release of the remaining prisoners and they got 600 names.105

Robert Barton, who was interned in Harepark, the Curragh, County Kildare, wrote to Dorothy in early November, thanking her for the medicines which she had sent in. Dorothy had motored to his house in Annamoe, County Wicklow to see his sister. He thanked her for being so good to his sister and told Dorothy to tell her he had enough clothes and not to send any more. He was pleased Dorothy had moved to Dublin and was very glad she was successful. She had

fees,’ he wrote. He asked her to pass on his love to Aunt Alice.106

At the end of 1923, Liam Deasy was in Mountjoy jail. He wrote more formally to ‘Dr Stopford’ thanking her for advice which he had not followed. He had been on hunger strike too and said the hardest part had been abstaining from potatoes for ten days, as he ‘always had a great desire for them; also the porridge which is a food one loves to get in prison’.107 He sent Dorothy a hand drawn Christmas card, a tricolour with an illustration of barred windows. The text read: ‘Greeting from Mountjoy, Christmas 1923’.108

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independence had also pushed women into prominent roles in the public sphere. Indeed, William T. Cosgrave, head of the Free State government during the civil war, blamed the war on interference by these women, whom he described as ‘no ordinary women’. His 109 Some 250 women were arrested. Prisoners included Máire Comerford, Aunt Alice’s former secretary, who went on hunger strike while detained in Mountjoy. Dorothy Macardle, who was a member of Sinn Féin and Cumann na mBan, was also imprisoned. She was an active Republican and worked on the staff of An Phoblacht, a newspaper founded in on hunger strike.110 While no letters from these women prisoners to Dorothy Stopford were found among her correspondence, she may well have been in touch with them, and she, undoubtedly, would have been aware of their plight.

Outside prison, other former Volunteers were also in distress. Sonnie Crowley, who had been badly beaten by soldiers of the Essex regiment, had been hospitalised because of his weak back. That he wrote to ‘My dear, dear doctoreen’ telling her how much he missed her. ‘...anyway Doctor we all liked you very very much, loved you in fact…’ He told her to wear the watch the IRA had given her with pleasure. ‘… you deserved it and got it with a céad míle fáilte from some of the best and most true of Ireland’s soldier sons who I know were all glad that you were so pleased with such a small token of gratitude for your services to Cork 3.’111 In October, Dorothy had an attack of asthma and Sonnie wrote to commiserate. He remembered her having an attack in Cork and wished he had visited her everyday however at that time he ‘hadn’t penetrated that stone wall’. He had hung on and waited for her to come to them as he didn’t want to interfere.112

Writing from the Bon Secours Hospital, in Cork, he teased Dorothy that he would not marry her and in fact, always knew that it was his money she was after. ‘“I will not marry you” and hope that you will cease your unwelcome attentions for the future’. He told her he must marry a lady and his failure to make her one put her out of the running. Turning more serious, he said he was sure she was worn out from her exertions to help the hunger strike. He was very pessimistic about the whole business himself.113

In 1924, Sonnie went to a sanatorium in Leysin, Switzerland, in spirits were high and he told Dorothy that he hoped to meet a nice

enough to fall victim’ to her ‘wily self’. He told Dorothy of a regime of fresh air, sunshine and wound dressing and thanked her for helping his brother, Mick, who was back in college, studying engineering.114 The Irish White Cross115 was paying towards Mick’s education; it was also funding Sonnie’s stay – he reckoned it was costing about

Sonnie provided Dorothy with details of Dr Rollier’s innovative light treatment however, at this time tuberculosis was not a priority in her professional life.

Although Dorothy remained committed to the Republican cause for the remainder of her life, she began to put most of her energies into her medical career once she returned to Dublin. She began a small private practice but she found her true professional home in St Ultan’s Hospital, Dublin which was founded in 1919. Initially conceived by Madeleine ffrench Mullen and Kathleen Lynn as a hospital to treat the country’s increasing number of syphilitic infants, this hospital expanded to treat infants with other conditions. St Ultan’s Hospital was predominantly Protestant and the founders and medical committee comprised some of the most politically active

1913 Lockout. Three years later, as a captain in the Irish Citizen Army, Lynn participated in the 1916 Rising. Madeleine ffrench Mullen was also active in the Rising. Ella Webb, who had been Dorothy’s doctor during her student years in TCD, was on the medical board. In addition, she ran a Womens’ National Health Association of Ireland (WHNAI) dispensary to distribute pasteurised milk to women and children.116 Alice Barry, the only Catholic on the medical board, had preceded Dorothy to Kilbrittain, County Cork, and had been active on behalf of the Irish revolutionary leader Michael Collins in Dublin in 1920.117 Dorothy’s Aunt Alice had been an early supporter of St Ultan’s. In 1920, she wrote the introduction to the Leabhar Ultain which was

Guild118 book is a collection of poems, drawings, and pictures by Irish artists and writers including Jack B. Yeats, Harry Clarke, AE, Douglas Hyde

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and Maude Gonne MacBride.119 St Ultan’s Hospital practiced gender discrimination in favour of the employment of women and Margaret Ó hÓgartaigh has aptly described the hospital as a ‘women’s medical republic’.120 In the days prior to legislation with respect to gender discrimination, St Ultan’s could express its preference for female employees openly in job advertisements.121

Dorothy was appointed as house surgeon at St Ultan’s for two months from 31 July 1923; she was paid 15 shillings per week instead of board and lodgings. In December 1923, the hospital offered Dorothy the position of assistant physician, the duties as follows: ‘to lecture and examine nurses, to do one dispensary a week, to take the duty for members of the staff when requested and to attend emergency committee meeting. From then on, she was a diligent attender, and vocal participant, at the monthly meetings.122 Importantly for Dorothy’s career, the hospital had credentials reaching beyond the political. It was research oriented and encouraged experimentation. Staff were encouraged to travel, gain experience and attend postgraduate courses on the continent.123 This was unusual at a time when specialisation was largely an ad hoc process and many 124 Initially Dorothy’s medical interests centred around the common complaints of childhood such as gastroenteritis, a common and often fatal illness of infants in the 1920s.

In her leisure time, Dorothy loved to hill walk in Wicklow, and on one of these excursions in 1923 she met Liam Price. He was a tall, thin man with a slight limp. A photograph of him in the National Library of Ireland collection shows him on a motorcycle, quite dashing in a trench coat with a thick thatch of hair parted at the side. Like Dorothy, he wore glasses. Born on 23 February 1891, he was named ‘William George’. He had one sister, Kathleen, born two years after him. Liam’s father was George Roberts Price, a graduate of TCD in classics and a lawyer. The children were brought up in the Church of Ireland and, like the Stopfords, their gaze was towards Britain. Liam went to Aldenham Public School in England and, later, graduated in classics from TCD. Again, following his father, Liam became a barrister. During the Easter Rising, Liam was serving with the British Army Pay Corps and, stranded in Dublin for the weekend, he observed events.

from William to Liam, he, like Dorothy, was converted to Irishness.

Diarmid Coffey, the widower of Cesca Trench (Dorothy’s friend who

also on the outskirts of this circle.125

So, perhaps it was inevitable that Liam and Dorothy met through their mutual acquaintances and their interest in Irish nationalism. However, unlike Dorothy and Robert Barton, Liam was a supporter of the Free State. Dorothy and Liam wisely agreed to differ when it came to Irish politics.126

In the autumn of 1924, while walking at Luggala, a hill which falls away abruptly into the dark depths of romantic Lough Tay in County Wicklow, Dorothy and Liam decided to get married. They hurried to Bray to tell Alice and Mary.127 Dorothy’s Republican friends in Cork were very gracious about the proposed wedding. A letter signed by a veritable who’s who of the West Cork IRA – Sean Buckley, Liam Deasy, Mick Crowley, Jim Hurley, Jack O’Neill, John Lordan, Liam O’Buachalla, Tadg O’Sullivan, Sean Lehane, Thomas Kelleher and Dan Holland – told Dorothy that they had heard of her forthcoming marriage with great pleasure and ‘we feel that you who have shared with us the burden of the struggle for the independence of our Motherland will appreciate this little token to remind you or our esteem and affection’. They wished her every happiness in the new life that was before her and wrote that they would ‘always treasure

all love and we trust that friendship made in times of danger shall continue to the end. From the men of the Old Cork 3 Bde’.128 A list of wedding gifts compiled by Dorothy includes a clock from ‘Liam Deasy and the 3rd Corks’.129 She also received a silver photo frame from Sean Buckley. Mr. and Mrs. Dan Buckley sent her a silver fruit salver. Another old Cork friend and colleague, Dr. (and Mrs.) Welpy gave Dorothy a silver soup tureen. A poignant letter from Mollie O’Neill (now Walsh and living in Kilountain, Bandon, County Cork) accompanied a present of a little cushion which was intended for the chair Dorothy used most. It didn’t deserve the name of wedding

grateful friend … you don’t belong to us down here anymore but we love you just the same’. Mollie assured Dorothy that she would feel a ‘deal more comfortable’ now that she had someone to lean on and to share her joys and reverses. She told Dorothy that Denis Lordan had stayed with her for a few weeks and now had work driving a lorry but hoped to better himself.130

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The strained relations with her family, due to Dorothy’s Republican allegiance, had evidently been overcome and the wedding list included £10 from Alice, £30 from her mother Constance as well as a set of silver brushes from Edie and Constance. Liam gave Dorothy a fur coat, an appropriate gift for a winter wedding.131 The day before the wedding, Dorothy’s purchases for the marriage and honeymoon were stolen from her car while she visited Aunt Alice, who was ill. Generous Aunt Alice replaced everything. On 8 January 1925, Dorothy and Liam got married in the beautiful St Ann’s Church, on Dawson Street in Dublin City centre. Their best man was their friend, Diarmaid Coffey. Dorothy’s niece, Mary was their bridesmaid. Directly after the ceremony, Dorothy and Liam hurried away to catch the morning mail boat – they were going to honeymoon in Italy. Diarmaid took the Stopfords (Mary, Alice, Edie, Robert and Constance) and the Prices (Liam’s mother and sister, Kathleen) to breakfast. Aunt Alice’s illness prevented her from attending.132

Fig.2: A plaque erected in memory of Dorothy by the Kilbrittain Tidy Towns Committee outside the Health Centre on the main street. e people of Kilbrittain will never forget the service that Dr. Stopford gave to the community in the years she lived there.

The wedding came as a surprise to at least one of Dorothy’s friends. An astonished Dorothy Macardle dashed off a letter: ‘me Da [the wealthy brewer of McArdles ales] says you are married! I’m out of breath!’ She wondered: ‘Did you take it into your head and propose all of a sudden or was it premeditated?’ As long as Dorothy promised not to give up her medical practice, she was assured of her friend’s approval and blessing. ‘I do hope you won’t leave Dublin as I should miss you dreadfully’. She didn’t even know the name of Dorothy’s bridegroom. ‘Me Da says he is a judge,’ she wrote.133 A year prior to their wedding, Liam had been appointed as a District Justice in the Wicklow circuit,

a post he remained in until retirement.134 Dorothy and Liam remained in Dublin and Dorothy continued to practice medicine. Indeed, in later years, when medicine occupied her time to the detriment of her wardrobe, Dorothy may have been used by her friend as the model for the pragmatic, unfashionable and drily humorous Dr. Stack in Dorothy Macardle’s 1945 novel The Unforeseen. 135

The Stopford years were over. Dorothy Stopford became Dorothy Price. This is the name associated with her professional work on

blossomed into international renown

Notes

85. Irish Press, 2 February 1954.

86. D. Stopford notes, 29 December 1922; letters from Kinsale District Council and Bandon District Council (6 January 1923).

87. C. Townshend, The Republic: The Fight for Irish Independence (London: Allen Lane, 2013), p.452.

88. Ó’Broin, Protestant Nationalists, p.202. 89. Owner’s Permit (NLI, MS 15346).

90. Macardle, Irish Republic, p.862. 91. Ibid.

92. Ó Broin, Protestant Nationalists emigrated to South America and thirty years later, when he was back in Cork, Dorothy gave him back the watch for him to give to his daughter.

93. D. Stopford to B. Crowley, undated (NLI, Crowley papers, Acc. 4767).

94. William Kearney was a regular correspondent and Dorothy sent him in sugar, tea, copybooks and envelopes. He was prisoner No. 1866, Hut 39, Newbridge Camp. Jack O’Neill also wrote: there were letters from a woman addressing Dorothy as ‘Doctor Darlint’ and signed ‘H’ which told Dorothy of Jackie being on hunger strike and her worries about his health.

95. D. Lordan to D. Stopford, 10 January 1923 (NLI, 15341 (3)).

96. D. Lordan to D. Stopford, 8 February 1923 (NLI, 15341 (3)).

97. D. Lordan to D. Stopford, 21 February 1923 (NLI, 15341 (3)).

98. D. Lordan to D. Stopford, 5 May 1923 (NLI, 15341 (6)).

99. D. Lordan to D. Stopford, 21 May 1923 (NLI, 15341 (6)).

100. D. Lordan to D. Stopford, 5 September 1923 (NLI, 15341 (3)).

101. Macardle, Irish Republic, p.867.

102. D. Lordan to D. Stopford, 22 October 1923 (NLI, 15341 (6)).

103. D. Lordan to D. Stopford, 21 February 1923 (NLI, 15341 (3)).

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DOROTHY STOPFORD PRICE

104. D. Lordan to D. Stopford, 29 October 1923 (NLI, 15341 (3)).

105. D. Lordan to D. Stopford, 12 November 1923 (NLI, 15341 (6)).

106. R. Barton to D. Stopford, 2 November 1923 (NLI, 15341 (3)).

107. L. Deasy to D. Stopford, 20 December 1923 (NLI, 15341 (3)).

108.

L. Deasy to D. Stopford, December 1923 (NLI, 15341 (3)).

109. J. Molidor, ‘

Earth-Bound: Nine Stories of Ireland, 1924’, New Hibernia Review, 12, 4 (Winter 2008), pp.1–2.

110. See N.C. Smith, Dorothy Macardle: A Life account of Dorothy Macardle’s life.

111. S. Crowley to D. Stopford, 23 May 1923 (NLI, 15341 (6)).

112. S. Crowley to D. Stopford, 27 October 1923 (NLI, 15341 (6)).

113. S. Crowley to D. Stopford, 27 November 1923 (NLI, 15341 (6)).

114. S. Crowley to D. Stopford, 14 November 1924 (NLI, 15341 (6)).

115.

A. Ceannt, The Story of the Irish White Cross, 1920–1947 (Dublin: At the Sign of the Three Candles, 1948). The White Cross, an apolitical organisation, was formed towards the end of 1920 to provide aid to volunteers and their dependents. Its executive committee included R.

Cross received substantial funding from America.

116. For an account of Kathleen Lynn’s life and work in St Ultan’s, and for insights into ffrench Mullen, see M. Ó hÓgartaigh, Kathleen Lynn: Irishwoman, Patriot, Doctor (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2006).

117. Alice Barry, witness statement (WS), Bureau of Military History (BMH) (National Archives of Ireland (NAI), BMH/WS 723); F. Clark, ‘Barry, Alice Mary’, in Dictionary of Irish Biography online, (accessed 28 July 2010).

118. The Dun Emer Guild was an Irish arts and crafts venture founded by Evelyn Gleeson and the two Yeats sisters.

120. Ó hÓgartaigh, Kathleen Lynn, p.154.

1935 (RCPI, SU/3/2/1). Text of advertisement placed in the British Medical Journal (1929) inviting applicants for the post of bacteriologist and pathologist, woman preferred.

122. Minute Books of St Ultan’s Hospital Medical Committee, 30 June 1919–11 December 1935 (RCPI, SU/3/2/1).

Reports 1931–39 (RCPI, SU/1/2); St Ultan’s Annual General Reports 1940–49 (RCPI, SU/1/3); St

124. W.R.F. Collis, The State of Medicine in Ireland (Dublin, 1943), p.28; J.F. Fleetwood, The History of Medicine in Ireland (Dublin: Skellig Press, 1983), p.271.

125. Ó Broin, Protestant Nationalists, p.198.

126. L. Corlett and M. Weaver (eds), The Price Notebooks

127. Ó Broin, Protestant Nationalists, p.199.

128. M. Crowley to D. Stopford, 2 January 1924 (NLI, MS 15341 (9)).

129. D. Stopford, List of presents, undated, notepaper headed 33, Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin (NLI, MS 15341).

130. M. Walsh to D. Stopford, 1 January 1925 (NLI, MS 15341 (9)).

131. D. Stopford, List of presents, undated, notepaper headed 33, Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin (NLI, MS 15341).

132. Ó Broin, Protestant Nationalists, pp.199–200.

133. D. Macardle to D. Stopford, 9 January (NLI, MS 15341 (2)).

134. A. O’Brien and L. Lunney, ‘Price, Liam’, in Dictionary of Irish Biography online, (accessed 28 July 2010).

135. D. Macardle, The Unforeseen (London: Peter Davies, 1945).

SCHOOLS IN KILBRITTAIN, TEMPLETRINE AND KILMALODA IN 1824

By Tony McCarthy

While words of learned length and thundering sound

Amazed the gazing rustics rang’d around;

And still they gaz’d and still the wonder grew That one small head could carry all he knew.1

INTRODUCTION

Education today forms a very important part of all aspects of our lives. Education loans for our children’s second and third level budgets. This is a relatively recent phenomenon as it is only in the last accessible to many Irish families.

In our times, the main driver for the widespread participation in secondary school education was the announcement in 1967 by the then Minister for Education Mr Donagh O’Malley, of the introduction of free second level education in Ireland. The move caused consternation in some circles as O’Malley had not briefed his cabinet colleagues or sought sanction from the Department of Finance. However, it was to radically alter Irish education standards forever. At the time of the announcement 17,000 students left full time education on leaving

education. At sixteen years only 36% were still at school. Within ten years, by 1977, participation in second level education had doubled. Today Ireland has one of the highest rates of second level education completion within the EU with 90% of students completing the Leaving Cert.2

In this article I am going to look at education in Ireland in the 19th

SCHOOLS IN KILBRITTAIN

1826 as it related to schools in Kilbrittain, Templetrine and Kilmaloda. This report sheds a light in an era of Irish history that has been mostly before this time.

EDUCATION IN EARLIER TIMES.

Despite it not always being widely available to the population in general, education has been important to the Irish through the ages. There is a contemporary account from 1561 that gives us an insight into education in Gaelic Ireland. This report tells us that there were four very important occupations in Gaelic Ireland. They were what we now refer to as the professional learned classes. They were the Judge (Brehon), 3 These four occupations were very highly regarded in Gaelic society and they were usually hereditary occupations with some families such as the Dalys being bardic families providing bards to the O’Sullivan Beares, Mc Carthy Reaghs and O’Donovans.4 The Cullnanes were physicians to the Mc Carthys. The Egans were hereditary judges and lawyers in Gaelic Ireland. Being in the learned classes brought privileges to these families. There is a record from 1473 of James Lord Courcey of Kinsale granting land to his physician, Rory Mac Betha along ‘with medical

Fig1. e ruins of the O’Daly bardic school which dates from the 16th century. (Photo taken by author in 2015)

liberty throughout my lordship’. 5

Bards learned their trade in ‘bardic schools’. The bardic schools had existed from pre Christian times and continued into the 17th century. There was a very famous bardic school (the ruins of which still exist today) in Muintear Bhaire (Sheeps Head) run and owned by the

their patrons. One of the more unusual privileges enjoyed by Fionn O’Daly chief poet to the Mc Carthys of Desmond was that he had the right to the wedding garments of every girl married in Desmond or Duhallow. These were taken on the day of the wedding and it caused some consternation in 1576 when a Margaret Scally took exception when her garments were removed by force by a Dermond O’Daly on behalf of the chief poet.6 Bardic schools ceased when their patrons lost their land, wealth and power in the aftermath of the battle of Kinsale, the rebellion of 1641 and the Cromwellian conquest of the 1650’s.

HEDGE SCHOOLS:

P.J. Dowling tells us that Hedge Schools probably date to Cromwellian times as they are mentioned in some Cromwellian records.7 It is very likely that there is a direct connection between the the Cromwell, and the assurance of power to the Cromwellian landlords after 1691 brought these hereditary educators to be absolutely one with the whole mass of the Irish people. Such teachers were the inheritors of the poetry and of the law of Gaelic Ireland…’ 8

PENAL LAWS AND EDUCATION

A major blow to Gaelic culture and education was the introduction of the discriminatory Penal Laws. Rather than being introduced all at once, these laws were introduced incrementally. The earliest of them were introduced in the reign of King James I. Their aim was to coerce Catholics and other dissenters (including Presbyterians) to conform to the Established Church of England. They gradually eroded the liberties of Catholics and other dissenters over the next two centuries. One of the principle tools used to achieve this was to try to deprive Catholics of education by various legislative

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eighteenth century saw the most oppressive of these acts. However hedge schools continued to operate successfully ‘underground’ and some contemporary accounts of the time claimed that they offered a of the time.10 The Catholic Church remained interested in education and there is an account of a diocesan visit to Cashel from the 1750’s that shows there were at least seventy three schoolmasters teaching catechism. 11

Fig.2: A depiction of a hedge school in 18th century Ireland.

Throughout the era of the penal laws there were many different English schools in Ireland which depended on either private or public funding. The earliest of these schools went back much earlier to the time of Henry VIII when free parish schools were set up in Ireland with the objective of teaching the Irish the word of God through English. During the reign of Elizabeth I diocesan schools were established in Ireland where only Englishmen could teach. Later, different societies and associations set up schools using private funding. These included Charter Schools, Free Schools of Royal Foundation, Association Incorporated for the Discountenancing Vice, London Hibernian Society, Kildare Place Society and others. The aspiration of many of these schools was the proselytization and Anglicisation of Catholic children and they were treated with suspicion by the majority of Catholics.

Hedge Schools increased in great numbers in the latter half of the 18th century. This was because of an exploding population and a

relaxation of the Penal Laws. It is at this time that we see the Catholic Church begin to formally establish an exclusive Catholic system of education which has remained with us up to this day. This took the form of training priests in new seminaries such as Carlow, Kilkenny, Killarney and Maynooth. A number of Catholic religious orders began to provide the poor with a Catholic education. These included the Presentation nuns who had been established by Nano Nagle, who had herself been a hedge school student. The Christian Brothers of 12

THE IRISH EDUCATION INQUIRY 1826

By the early nineteenth century there was much debate about education, and the spotlight turned on effectiveness of the education concluded that the Parish and Diocesan schools were a failure and

which is the subject of this article was published in 1826. It is based on statistics gathered from the Catholic and Protestant clergy on the state of education in their respective parishes throughout Ireland over a three month period in 1824. The returns from both churches, two different sources, were very similar and this is testament to the accuracy of this comprehensive report. Therefore I think the report is

I have no doubt that many of the Catholic schools featured in the report were the remnants of hedge schools. The report gives us some very interesting information on the teachers naming 12,530 of them and tells us in which school they taught in every parish in the country. It also gives the religion of each teacher. The total number of teachers in the report was 12,530. There were approximately 565,000 children being taught by these teachers. This gives us a national pupil teacher ratio of 45:1. The pupil teacher ratio for the local schools which are subject of this article was 52:1.

THE RETURNS FOR KILBRITTAIN AND RATHCLARIN IN THE REPORT:

1. Kilbrittain – Glandove (Glanduff): James Lee was the teacher. He was a Protestant and it is described as a free school. He earned Discountenancing Vice and Promoting the Knowledge and Practice

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Established Church Protestant Disenters

SCHOOLS IN KILBRITTAIN

Roman Catholics Religion not stated

Ulster 1,093 938 1,482 27

Leinster 1,128 65 2,612 25

Munster 597 45 2,913 17

Connaught 280 10 1,293 3

Totals: 3,098 1,058 8,300 74

Fig.3: Table shows breakdown of religious beliefs of teachers in Ireland in 1824.

of the Christian Religion. The school house is described as being built of stone and lime and was slated. It was valued at £80. A note in the report states that the incumbent rented the house. Scriptures were read in the school. There were 23 children in the school – 13 boys and 10 girls. All children were Protestant.

2. Thonroe: Denis Hegarty (Catholic) was the teacher. He was paid about £13 per year. This was a Pay School with no societies or associations supporting it. It is described as an old house made of stone and mud. It was valued at £12. There were 40 children attending the school. 39 of them were Catholics and 1 was a Protestant. When thereturns were made for the report there were 24 boys and 16 girls attending the school.13

3. Kilbrittain – Glandove (Glanduff): Thomas Flynn (Protestant) was the teacher. He was payed £3 or £4 per year. It was described as a ‘Pay School’ with no patronage from any associations or societies. The school is described as ‘poor accommodation in a slated house’. All the children were Catholic. There were 8 boys and 4 girls attending the school at that time.

The teacher was John Hurly (Catholic). He was payed £8 a year. It was described as a Pay School. There is a note in the report that says ‘Francis and James Kearney, esqrs. built the house and give the master £1 per ann.’ The school was described

as a good slated house valued at £20. According to the Protestant returns for the report there were up to 90 children attending this school. The Catholic returns gave 86 students consisting of 66 boys and 20 girls attending the school.

5. Shanakiel Old Wood: Denis Lynch (Catholic) was the teacher. It was a Pay School with no support from any societies or associations. Denis was paid £5 to £7 per year. The school was described as bad accommodation in a thatched cabin with a value of £10 or £12. All the students were Catholic. There were 28 boys and 10 girls in attendance.

6. Glen Daw: The teacher in this school was John Riordan, who was a Catholic. It was a Pay School with no support from any societies or associations. John was paid £8 to £10 per year. The school was in a hired room. According to Protestant returns there were 50 students in the school but the Catholic returns state that there were 60 pupils. They consisted of 33 boys and 27 girls. All pupils were Catholics.

7. Gareendroig (Garryandruig): The teacher was Marmaduke Grady (Catholic). It was a Pay School and the teacher received between £7 and £8 per year. Like many of the other schools there was no support from societies or associations. The report notes that the school had been built by neighbouring farmers. It was described as being a thatched cabin worth £5. There were 70 pupils in the school all Catholic. 52 of them were boys and 18 of them were girls.

THE RETURNS FOR TEMPLETRINE IN THE REPORT:

8. Kilmore: There was a boys school and a girls school here in the one building. This was the parish school for Templetrine parish. The boys’ teacher was Adam Heagarty (Protestant). He was paid £18 per year and also had one acre of land as a condition of employment. At the time of the survey there were 16 boys in the school – 14 Protestants and 2 Catholics. The boys’ school is described as ‘a free and Pay School’. The girls’ teacher was Ann Wright (Protestant). She was paid £24 16s. 8d. per year. There were 7 Protestant and 6 Catholic girls attending the school. The girls’ school was a free school. The report described the school as ‘a good slated house, consisting of boys and girls school rooms costing £270. Defrayed by grants from Lord Lieut’s fund, the Kild. Str. Soc. and the Association for Discountenancing Vice’. It also notes ‘the parish school – The

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Association for Discountenancing Vice and the Kildare Str. Society. Incumbent gave an acre of ground and contributed to the building

supported by ‘the Ladies Hib. Female School Society and the Kildare Str. Society’. Scriptures were read in both schools.

9. Bogstown: The teacher was Denis Mc Carthy (Catholic). He was paid £15 per year. It was a Pay School. The school is described as ‘a wretched thatched house worth £7’. According to the Protestant returns in the report there were 40 pupils in the school. However, the Catholic returns give 50 pupils consisting of 40 boys and 10 girls. All pupils were Catholic.

THE RETURNS FOR KILMALODA IN THE REPORT:

10. Ballinscarthy – Madame: Thomas Powell (Protestant) was the teacher. He was paid a total of £20 per year. This was the parish school. It was a free school. The report tells us that two of the patrons to the school were Thomas Walker, esq. and Rev. Thomas Walker paid £10 a year to the master. The school was described as a slated house rented by the master. It was valued between £50 and £60. There were 33 pupils in the school of which 8 were Catholics. Of the 33 pupils 20 were boys and 13 were girls. Scriptures were read in this school.

11. Ahalusky (Ahalisky): Daniel Leary (Catholic) was the teacher. It was a pay school. The master earned about £20 a year. The school was described as ‘a small room in a dwelling house’. There were 90 pupils in the school all of whom were Catholic. There were 60 boys and 30 girls in the school.

12. Clogagh: Frances Hunt (Catholic) was the teacher. It was a pay school and the teacher got about £14 per year. It was a pay school. The school is described as a thatched cabin worth between £8 and £10. There were 90 pupils in the school, 3 of whom were Protestants and 87 Catholics. 70 of the pupils were boys and 20 were girls.

Conclusion:

The data in the report in relation to Kilbrittain, Templetrine and free parish schools were expensive to maintain. An example was the free parish school in Templetrine which cost £270 to build,

while the paying Catholic school in the same area was a ‘wretched cottage’ valued at £7. The wages in the parish schools were also much higher than the pay schools despite much larger numbers of pupils attending the pay schools. The report tells us that the pupil

local teachers having seven extra pupils each to teach. The main consequence of this report was that the government took a more central role in the funding and support of primary education in Ireland and in 1831 the primary national school system was set up under the National Board of Education. This brought regulation, inspection and an improvement in standards of primary education and was the foundation of our current primary education system. Many of the teachers named in the report were hedge school teachers, even

torch of enlightenment through one of the darkest periods of Irish education history and passed it on to future generations. I think we all owe these local heroes a depth of gratitude, and they should not be forgotten.

Notes

1. ‘The Village Schoolmaster’ from ‘The Deserted Village

2. Irish Times, 14 Feb. 2017.

3. P.J Dowling, The Hedge Schools of Ireland, (1935, rept. 1968, Mercier Press) p.8.

4. James Coombes, Timoleague and Barryroe, (1969). At p.19 Fr. Coombes makes reference to Philib Bocht O’Dalaigh being buried in Timoleague Abbey in 1565. This was also the burial place of high ranking Mc Carthy Reaghs.

5. K.W. Nicholls, Gaelic and Gaelicized Ireland in the Middle Ages, (Dublin, 2003), p. 93.

6. Diarmuid Ó Murchadha, Family Names of County Cork, (Cork, 2000), p.116.

7. Dowling, Hedge Schools, p. 35.

8. T. Corcoran, ‘Education in the Ireland of 1825’, Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, Vol. 14, No. 53 (Mar., 1925) p. 39.

9. Antonia McManus, The Irish Hedge School and Its Books, 1695-1831, (Dublin, 2011), p. 15. Note: This act was described as ‘an Act to restrain foreign education’ and its aims were to limit contact between Irish Catholics and their European allies in the aftermath of the Jacobite wars.

10. Dowling, Hedge Schools

11. Antonia McManus, The Irish Hedge School and Its Books, 1695-1831, (Dublin, 2011), p. 23.

12. Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh, Ireland before the Famine 1798-1848

13. The author doesn’t know the location of this school. From the description given on the report it would appear to have been a hedge school.

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KILBRITTAIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY TRIPS

COURTMACSHERRY TRIP

went to Courtmasherry on Friday June 15th and were treated to a hugely enjoyable evening. Local man Diarmuid O'Mahony, retired member of the RNLI, spoke to the group about the importance of the West Cork Railway to the economy and history of Courtmasherry village and harbour. The group was then brought to the life boat station where retired members of the RNLI, including Jim Crowley

dramatic rescues in done of the worst storms in living memory.

Following this, the group went on an exhilarating boat trip around Courtmasherry bay and viewed Horse Rock up close as well as the original life boat station at Barry point, from where the Lusitania rescue mission was launched, over a century ago.

Huge thanks to all who contributed to this wonderful evening in our own beautiful locality, especially Denis Cahalane, Mark Gannon Niall O'Brien and Triona O'Sullivan for organising an excellent evening

BEAL NA MBLÁTH AND KILMURRAY TRIP

On Thursday 12th July 2018, Kilbrittain Historical Society gathered at the monument at Beal na Blath that marks the place where Michael Collins was killed during the Civil War. On a glorious evening we were guided by Tim Crowley of the Michael Collins Centre, Timoleague.

After a talk that set the context at the monument, Tim led the group through the footsteps of those who fought in the battle that led to the death of Collins. We even got to see the position from which the fatal

From there we made our way to the recently opened independence museum at Kilmurry. This is a really impressive cultural project in a beautiful building. The exhibits ranged from the stone age to the 20th Century, with much social as well as political and military history on display.

The chairperson of the Kilmurry Historical Society, Deirdre Burke led us expertly through the exhibition and Mr. Tony Murphy of the Kilmurry Historical Society expressed special thanks to our own vice chairperson Con McCarthy for the pivotal role he played in delivering this wonderful project at Kilmurry.

Thank you to Con and Triona for organising a most enjoyable evening.

HISTORICAL

PARISH TRIP

On Wednesday the 15th of August, Kilbrittain Historical Society brought a coach full of it's members on a local trip around the coastal parish boundary, from the Argideen river to Harbour View. The trip was led by Michael Larkin who guided the group expertly from the sand

Harbour View.

Michael's study of old ordinance survey maps provided a wealth of information about the features of the landscape that have come and gone throughout the centuries. He combined this information with local knowledge and lore to make for a fascinating trip in which even the most well informed locals heard new and interesting information about the area.

A big Thanks to Michael for all involved in the organising for a wonderful evening.

AMENDMENT

In an article published in The Journal of the Kilbrittain Historical

a map on p. 10 showing the distribution of ogham stones in Ireland was attributed to the French researcher F. Melmoth. Ms. Melmoth had used this map in her own research and failed to attribute it to the original generator of the map. We are happy to state that the original creator of this image is Ms. Claudia McManus. The work is contained in the book, “A Guide to Ogam” (author Damian McManus, published by An Sagart, St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth, Co. Kildare, 1991, ISBN 1 870684 75 3, acknowledgement on page xii, see p. 46). The author of the article, Joanne O’Sullivan bears no responsibility for this oversight of the French researcher, and we sincerely appreciate Ms. O’Sullivan’s

Journal of the Kilbrittain Historical Society.

GIRLS FROM KILBRITTAIN

(Many thanks to Niall O'Brien for the image and to Ann Kelly, Baltinakin for supplying names)

Back Row L-R: May Hallisey, Cloundereen; Madgie Healy, Granreagh; Chris Hallahan, Barley eld; Lolly Healy; Cissy Sullivan, Ballymore; Maudie Ryan, Ballymore; Birdie Crowley, Village; Patricia Brennan, Barley eld; May Burke, Barley eld.

Middle Row L-R: Joan O’Brien, Bawnea; Sheila Twohig, Baltinakin; Mary Roach, Village; Ethel Burke, Baltinakin; Mary Coughlan, Coolshinagh; Marie Lotdan, Barley eld; Molly Healy, Granreigh; Maureen Ahern, Harbour View.

Front Row L-R: Kitty Burke, Baltinakin; Babe Crowley, Glendu ; Nellie Dennis, Barley eld; Mary Kate Crowley, Clonbuig; Patricia O’Mahony, Clashavanna; Kathleen O’Sullivan, Ardacrow; May O’Sullivan, Ardacrow; Maggie Walsh, Shanakiel.