June 2015 – The Burren and Beyond

Galway – 1894

Posted on June 30, 2015 by The Burren and Beyond

Irish Examiner 24th September, 1894

A repetition of the disorderly scenes which are the outcome of the street preaching nuisance took place in Galway on Friday. A fair was being held when the preachers commenced, and during the proceedings a crowd kept up whistling and groaning. The thoroughfares leading to the National and Provincial Banks to the railway were blocked by a large force of police drafted into town. Traffic was stopped on the west and east sides of the Square. A number of carts of grain and floats of merchandise to be sent by rail and other vehicles had to stand from the time the preaching commenced till it finished, and would not be allowed to pass. The police were remonstrated with for obstructing the thoroughfare and preventing traffic, but it was no use. It is stated the carriers intend to take proceedings against those in command of the police for preventing them from doing their business. The citizens are greatly annoyed at the likelihood that they will be obliged to pay for the extra police force drafted into town every time the preaching farce goes on.

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A Scene Unique – Eyre Square – 1922

Posted on June 29, 2015 by The Burren and Beyond

Skibbereen Eagle 3rd June, 1922 p.2 (abridged)

Photo: Mr deValera unveiling statue of Padraic O'Conaire Photo: Irish Press 10th June, 1935 — Photo: Mr deValera
unveiling statue of Padraic O’Conaire in Eyre Square, 1935
Photo: Irish Press
10th June, 1935

A scene, unique in the history of Galway, was witnessed at Eyre Square on Thursday night, 25th inst, when Messrs Stephen J. Cremin, Secretary of the local Transport Workers, and W. J. Larkin, Dublin, headed some hundreds of town tenants, with a fife and drum band, who tore the bronze statue of Lord Dunkellin from its pedestal, and marched in triumph with it to Nimmos Pier, a mile distant. Here, amidst the shouts of the crowd, it was thrown into the sea. On Friday, apparently to prevent its recovery, it was taken up on the beach, and the arms and legs sawn off.

Lord Dunkellin, who was one of the Clanricarde family, and a Lieutenant Colonel in the British Army, was born in 1827 and died in 1873. He was M.P. for Galway City and County and the bronze statue, one of John Henry Foley’s works, was erected in 1873 by public subscription.
Flowers and the railings in the square were injured during the removal of the statue.

At subsequent meetings the Labour leaders declared that they would root out the slums of Galway and rename the Square after the late Father Griffin.

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Galway – 1928

Posted on June 28, 2015 by The Burren and Beyond

Galway
Oliver St. John Gogarty

A gray town in a country bare,
The leaden seas between,
When light falls on the hills of Clare
And shows their valleys green,
Take in my heart your place again
Between your lake and sea,
O city of the watery plain
That means so much to me!

Your cut-stone houses row on row,
Your streams too deep to sing,
Whose waters shine with green as though
They had dissolved the Spring:
Your streets that still bring into view
The harbour and its spars;
The chimneys with the turf-smoke blue
That never hides the stars!

It is not very long since you,
For Memory is long,
Saw her I owe my being to
And heart that takes to song,
Walk with a row of laughing girls
To Salthill from Eyre Square,
Light from the water on their curls
That never lit more fair.

Again may come your glorious days
Your ships come back to port,
And to your city’s shining ways
The Spanish dames resort!
And ere the tidal water falls
Your ships put out to sea.
Like crimson roses on grey walls,
Your memories to me.

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The Doorus Flamingo – 1967

Posted on June 27, 2015 by The Burren and Beyond

Connacht Tribune 8th September, 1967 p.1 (abridged)

Flamingo flock, Brazil Photo: Cláudio Dias Timm Wikimedia Commons. — Flamingo flock, Brazil
Photo: Cláudio Dias Timm
Wikimedia Commons.

A south Galway ornithologist this week issued a “don’t shoot” appeal to local farmers and sportsmen. He believes that a strange bird that turned up on the shores of Galway Bay at Kinvara is a Flamingo!
Ornithologist Mr John A. Bevan issued the appeal after he saw the bird opposite the An Oige hostel in Dooras. The bird has marked similarities with a Flamingo. It is white in colour with a touch of pink on its breast and it has a hooked beak.
The Flamingo, sighted four times before in Ireland (between 1938 and 1947), is usually found only on the south-west coast of South America. Mr Bevan believes it must have escaped from captivity. A spokesman at Dublin zoo said: There are thirty Flamingoes here. It cannot be one of ours because their wings are clipped so that they cannot fly.
The area around Kinvara where the bird was sighted is a noted district for many types of wildfowl.

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At the mercy of the waves – 1893

Posted on June 26, 2015 by The Burren and Beyond

Irish Daily Independent 22nd May, 1893

Kinvara Bay Photo: Norma Scheibe — Kinvara Bay
Photo: Norma Scheibe

Sir,
A report appeared in the Independent of the 29th April from the Cork Evicted Tenants’ Association, inquiring if there was any evicted tenants who did not get grants for the last twelve months.

I wish to inform you that I was evicted in 1887. Immediately after the eviction I took forcible possession in presence of the sheriff and the evicting party. The property being in Chancery, I was arrested on an attachment order and sent to Galway Jail for twelve months, my wife and children keeping possession during my confinement. After my release I joined my wife and children, where were laid up with typhoid fever. I was rearrested and sent back to jail for another twelve months. My wife was also arrested.

After my liberation the Kinvarra Branch of the National League made an application to the Central Branch in Dublin, and I received two grants in succession. Some time afterwards the Kinvarra Branch broke up, and since 1889 I was left to provide for a helpless family, and never since then got a penny from any quarter. At the late general election I was asked to vote for the McCarthyite. I refused to do so, and voted for the Parnellite. Some time after I got forms down from the Evicted Tenants’ Commission. I took them to the parish priest and he told me to take them to the Parnellites, that he would not do anything for me being one. I am now in a helpless condition, and am appealing to your association to do something for me. If not I will be left at the mercy of the waves.

Michael Treacy,
Kinvara,
Co. Galway

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St. Coman’s, Kinvara – 1866

Posted on June 25, 2015 by The Burren and Beyond

Freeman’s Journal 8th December, 1866 p.4

Engraving, St. Coman's Photo: Norma Scheibe — Engraving, St. Coman’s
Photo: Norma Scheibe

The Council during its sitting considered a requisition sent to it by the guardians of the Gort Union to close Kinvara burial ground, alleging that it was overcrowded and intramural. The inhabitants petitioned the Council not to close the burial ground, stating that there was ample accommodation, and that the sanitary condition of the town would not be injured by the burial ground being left open. The Rev Francis Arthur P.P. attended the council to support the petition. The council having considered that there was not sufficient reason for closing the burial ground refused to make an order for enclosing. The petitioners were represented by Messrs Blackburne, Mullens and Mr R B Forster.

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Seamount Bazaar – 1890

Posted on June 23, 2015 by The Burren and Beyond

Nation 11th January, 1890 p.18

Seamount Image: landedestates.nuigalway.ie/LandedEstates — Seamount
Image: landedestates.nuigalway.ie/LandedEstates

The Sisters of Mercy’s concert and bazaar at Kinvara came off on Thursday the 2nd inst. Both were a great success, and a proof of the popularity of the nuns. The Misses and Master Corless, the Burlington, Dublin; the Misses Regan, Miss Burke, Lisdoonvarna; Miss McCuley, Miss Delia Corless, Kinvara; the Misses Kennedy and the Misses Sheahan, Gort, contributed their share to the day’s pleasure. Any notice of the concert would be incomplete if one were to omit reference to the successful part taken by the gentlemen, clerical and lay, who kindly gave their services in the cause of charity. Father O’Donohue, Balyvaughan, and Father Nestor, Clarenbridge, sang, and so did Fathers Sweeny and Tully. The lay element was well represented by Dr. Glynn, Gort, and Mr Hewson, Tyrone, who both sustained the role of first class vocalists.

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Notes on Kinvara – 1936

Posted on June 22, 2015 by The Burren and Beyond

Connacht Tribune 4th January 1936 p 13

Kinvara Photo: EO'D — Kinvara
Photo: EO’D

About the reign of Henry VIII Rory Mór Darag O’Shaughnessy took the Castle of Doon from Flan Killikelly, totally demolished it, and erected one near its site which he named Doongorey. In 1612 it became the property of Thomas Taylor, who encircled it with a strong baun or wall, and it is now in a good state of preservation.
On 1st of November 1755, the day of the earthquake at Lisbon, a castle on the western boundary of the parish, which had formerly belonged to the O’Heynes, was destroyed to its foundation and a portion of it swallowed up, and at the same time the chimneys and battlements of Caherglissane rocked and then fell into a chasm which was formed by rending the rock to the depths of several fathoms.
A quay about fifty yards long was build here in 1773 by the late J French Esq (great-grandfather of the present Baron de Basterot) which was lengthened and raised in 1807 and such an addition made to it in 1908 as converted it into a kind of dock. At high tide there is 12ft of water at the pier, which is then accessible to vessels of 150 tons burden.
There are some remains of the old church, which was for ages the burial-place of the O’Haynes and Magraths, no others being allowed to be interred within its walls. Near the shore are two extensive subterranean caverns. A castle stood near the pier, but its materials have been used in building.

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The Ballinderreen Corps – 1914

Posted on June 21, 2015 by The Burren and Beyond

Connacht Tribune 25th July, 1914 p.6

Courthouse Lane with Corless's top right Photo: Cresswell archives — Courthouse Lane
Corless’s top right
Photo: Cresswell archives

The Ballinderreen Corps marched from the town to Kinvara on Sunday under the command of Mr J. Linane and Mr L Quinn. On arrival at Kinvara, they drilled in front of Mr. T.P.Corless’s hotel, after which Mr. Corless entertained them. Afterwards they marched back to Ballinderreen, when the corps sang “A Nation Once Again,” and then dispersed.

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This strange and lovely land – 1956

Posted on June 20, 2015 by The Burren and Beyond

Swan on Kinvara's blue Photo; Norma Scheibe — Swan on Kinvara’s blue
Photo; Norma Scheibe

Oh, for the gift of a fairy brush
And magic to guide my hand.
I’d paint, in the peace of a spellbound hush,
This strange and lovely land.

Cloud shadows on a barren hill,
On the rocky coast of Clare,
A watered sky, that goes drifting by,
And salt in the morning air.

Small fields of stone with rocks around;
A smiling woman at a door,
And always on our ears the sound
Of the sea, on the murmuring shore.

A grey keep in a field of green
Swans on Kinvara’s blue,
White pebbles on the sand, washed clean,
Age old, but ever new.

A wheeling gull, a curling wave,
The hiss of spreading foam,
Cliffs, and a distant secret cave,
Some ancient hero’s home.

Captain Meany

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