Gympie Times and Mary River Mining Gazette (QLD) 29th Oct. 1896 p. 4
A Singular Revolt in Galway
(Times, September 13.)
A singular revolt against ecclesiastical authority in the Roman Catholic parish of of Killannin, in the county Galway— a revolt which has been in existence for the last three years — has now assumed a formidable aspect. Some three or four years ago Dr. MacEvilly Archbishop of Tuam transferred the parish from the diocese of Tuam to that of Galway. The
parishioners indignantly protested against the change, and the parish priest, the Rev. Father Coyne, strenuously opposed it by every possible means, and finally went to Rome to present an appeal to the Pope on the subject, his parishioners undertaking to defray the expenses of his journey. He complains that by the influence of ecclesiastics surrounding his
Holiness, his appeal was intercepted and never brought before the proper tribunal, and that a decree had been obtained against him by misrepresentation and suppression of the facts. After waiting in Rome for over 12 months in the hope of having his case heard, he returned to
Galway and was the object of a great popular demonstration. In the meantime, Dr. MacCormack, Bishop of Galway, took over the parish and appointed another priest, the Rev. Father Conry, to administer it.
The parishioners built up the chapel doors with masonry and secured the windows, and before mass could be celebrated in it the building had to be broken open amidst a scene of great excitement, by a party armed with crowbars and pickaxes, protected by the police with fixed bayonets and loaded rifles.
Some of the parishioners repudiated the right of Bishop MacCormack’s nominee, and an angry controversy, in which violent language was used on both sides, has raged ever since. The novel spectacle of two rival priests in the same parish is now presented. The parishioners are about equally divided, and one portion of them attends the ministrations of the Rev. Father Coyne, who celebrates mass in his house and performs the rites of marriage and baptism, while the other party attends the chapel.
In order to vindicate his authority and put an end to the opposition, Father Conry announced a public meeting on Sunday week, which was a failure. Another was organized for Sunday last, and the country was covered
with placards calling on the people to assemble in their thousands to denounce ‘the Killannin Jumpers, Heretics, and Schismatics.’
A large crowd, headed by the Rev. Father Conry, assembled, and it was proposed to hold the meeting opposite the Rev. Father Coyne’s house, but that Rev. gentleman, surrounded by about 400 people, looked so menacing that it was thought expedient to hold it in front of Father Conry’s house. Father Conry presided, and motions were proposed calling upon the faithful to have no dealings with ‘these pompous heretics and schismatics,’ and recommending that neither the young men nor the women of the faith should marry or speak to them. Father Coyne’s supporters having come up when this resolution was passed are reported to have received it with roars of laughter, and the proceedings ended amid the shouts and yells of the rival parties.
The Burren and Beyond 