Speaking at Kinvara on Wednesday, after dealing with the Pastoral of 1931
Most Rev Dr O’Doherty said; There is another evil that is creeping in slowly and the people must be on their guard against it. You may not know that some years ago a dozen young Communists from this country went to Moscow and Berlin to be educated in the methods of Communist propaganda and the Godless methods of Soviet Russia and came back, some of them paid, some of them unpaid, to propagate these methods in Catholic Ireland.
More on Kinvara in the news, archives at theburrenandbeyond.com
Galway Wednesday
Amazement was expressed in Kinvara at the report published in yesterday’s “Irish Independent,” that revolver shots had been fired at the meeting on Sunday last, and that eight people had been wounded.
The facts were given to me today by the Very Rev. M. Cannon Fahy, P.P., Kinvara, who presided at the meeting, and opened the proceedings by speaking in favour of the Treaty. He asked that those who had come to address them should get a fair hearing.
When Mr Geo. Nicholls, one of the Cumann na nGaedheal candidates, rose to address the meeting, he was cordially received by the greater mass of the poeple, but a group of about fifteen youths immediately began to interrupt and heckle the speaker.
Four young men who had arrived in Kinvara earlier in a motor car immediately approached the interrupters, and told them that they would not be allowed to upset the meeting.
Canon Fahy asked for a fair hearing for the speakers, and order was temporarily restored. Later however, the interruptions were renewed, and something in the nature of a free fight took place between the four men who had objected to the interrupters and the youths, who were putting a number of questions to Mr. Nicholls.
Ultimately the interrupters surrounded the four men, whereupon they produced revolvers. At this the crowd fled in panic and the meeting came to a conclusion. Canon Fahy assured me that not a single shot was fired, and the report of the affair was a gross and scandalous exaggeration.
Home of Francis A. Fahy, poet and songwriter; 1854-1935 Kinvara Wikimedia Commons
Mr Frank Fahy’s paper on “ould Kinvarra” at the Irish literary Society last night was one of the most delightful things the Society has had for many a long day. It was an authentic picture of Irish life in a little country town in the sixties and seventies. It was real because the memories were Mr. Fahy’s own memories, and yet as he truly said, other things being equal, it might have stood for a picture of life in any other little Irish town in the same period.
Those of us who heard the paper saw the people of Kinvarra and heard their familiar talk in their homes and out of them, took part in their joys and sorrows, and were one with them in their passionate love of the scenes among which they moved, a love which years of exile from them and leagues of sea and land now lying between the exiles and them only seem to increase.
The success of Mr. Fahy’s paper lay not only in the sympathetic chords it touched in the hearts of his audience but in the artistry with which he drew his picture, and the inimitable way in which he made every word tell. Every inflection in his voice was full of meaning. No one else could have written the paper. No one else could have read it so well. It was little wonder that in the subsequent discussion there were appeals to Mr. Fahy to have “Ould Kinvarra” printed – and along with it the other lecture which he gave not so long ago before the Society in which he described the work of the Southwark Irish Literary Society in London in the eighties. The only drawback to the evening was that its attractiveness demonstrated severely how inadequate is the space in the Society’s room for such an occasion
Questions in the Commons – Land Purchase in Kinvara District
Mr W.J. Duffy asked the Chief Secretary in the House of Commons on July 24th whether he is aware of an inspection having taken place in connection with the Blake Foster estate, Kinvara; was it offered for sale to the Congested Districts Board; has any offer been made to the trustees for its purchase; and how does the estate stand at the present time?
Mr Birrell;
This estate was offered for sale to the Congested Districts Board and has been inspected by their valuers, but the report of the valuers is not yet completed. The Board will consider the question of making an offer as soon as practicable.
Mr Duffy asked the Chief Secretary whether he is aware of the number of uneconomic holdings to be found in the neighbourhood of Kinvara, Co. Galway; whether, in order to assist in the relief of this congestion, Mr Brady Murray B.A., Moydore House, Kinvara, offered some untenanted land to the Congested Districts Board; what was the extent or acreage of the untenanted land offered by Mr Murray; and when it is proposed to take up this land and prepare a scheme for its allotment?
Mr Birrell;
The Congested Districts Board are unable to state the number of uneconomic holdings in the neighbourhood of Kinvara, Co. Galway. Mr Brady Murray has offered 339 acres of untenanted land in Gort Union to the Board, and a decision will be come to regarding purchase as soon as practicable.
To the Editor of the Sun Sir, For some time past I have been reading in your paper a good deal of matter bearing on the cuckoo and cuckoo politicians. In Ireland, where I was born, I have both seen and heard the cuckoo scores of times. All cuckoos who visit the Emerald Isle are attended by a small bird which is called by the Irish people the goobeadawn. This bird acts in the capacity of pilot and, I believe, nest builder to the cuckoo, and wherever you see the cuckoo there you will also see the goobeadawn.
The term goobeadawn is generally applied with derision and comtempt to the mean and obsequious fellows who are always to be found curring favors from the local squireens and are always in attendance on them, cap in hand, ready to perform the most menial service.
Yours,..
It is a popular belief that we should hear the cuckoo about the 21st of April and that whatever you are doing the first time that you hear the cuckoo, the same you will be doing most frequently through the year. Another belief is that an unmarried person will remain single as many years as the cuckoo utters its call when first heard.
The cuckoo was often celebrated in the medieval poetry of all ages and all languages, and was looked upon as possessing some share of supernatural knowledge. In some parts it seems to have been an article of belief that it was one of the gods who took the form of the bird. It was considered a crime to kill it. Its most singular quality in this superstitious lore was the power it had of telling how long people would live.
The notion which couples the name of the cuckoo with the character of the man whose wife is unfaithful to him appeared to have been derived from the Romans and is first found in the middle ages in France. The opinion that the cuckoo makes no nest of its own, but lays its eggs in that of another bird, who brought up the cuckoo to the detriment of its offspring was well-known to the ancients and is mentioned by Aristotle and Pliny.
Galway, Feb 4.
Last Wednesday and Thursday were so prodigious a storm that the spring tides on those days swelled so high as to overflow the Quay and parts adjacent. In several houses in the neighbourhood, the water was above three feet high; but on Thursday a circumstance happened which much surprised all that observed it, as the like was never perceived here before. Whilst it was flowing, the tide, as if by some violent emotion, was twice within the space of an hour, suddenly raised above its usual height, and as suddenly subsided, which made many think there had been an earthquake.
A sloop, said to be from Limerick, bound for Rotterdam with butter, has been for some days past in the Bay of Kinvarra, opposite this coast, her name or the master’s name not intimated; but it is said she has lost her rudder and is otherwise damaged by the tempestuous weather.
Freemans Journal May 6th 1910 p.10Triumph Bicycle Photo: Andrew Dressel Wikimedia Commons
Following up the cattle drive of two days ago at Duras, Kinvara, it is reported here that another large drive took place early this morning at a place called Caherglissane, six miles from here. The police are very busy all this morning running on bicycles from place to place in the district. Inspector Cruise has left here for Kinvara. Fifteen arrests have been made.
The harbour authorities of Kinvara exact three pence for every load of turf coming in from Connemara. During the turf season over 20 boats come and go every day and this season the cost for a boat load of turf was from 45s to 60s.
The men who bring the turf from Connemara are fine specimens of Irishmen. Each puckaun contains three men and they are excellent sailors and navigate their crafts in so expert a way that never an accident occurs. The turf is expensive but most necessary. There is no turf in the immediate neighbourhood of Kinvara or within miles of the town, so the people must depend on the supply from Connemara brought in these boats from over the bay.
Kinvarra Waterworks.
A waterworks scheme has just been completed at Kinvarra, Co. Galway at a cost of £2,000. The well at Cartron has been enlarged and a windmill has been erected to drive the water a distance of about 250 yards to the reservoir on a hill overlooking the town.
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