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Mr Thomas Fahy

The Burren Wikimedia Commons
The Burren
Wikimedia Commons
NEW ZEALAND TABLET VOL XXII IS 6 – 7th June, 1895 p21

Mr Thomas Fahy, one of the oldest, best known, and most esteemed of the Irish residents at Clapham, London, died at 33 Leppoc road, the residence of his son, Mr F. A. Fahy (the popular Irish poet and humourist), on Ash Wednesday. Mr Fahy’s circle of friends extended far beyond Clapham. Indeed, in every part of London the news of the death of this kindly, genial, and most lovable of Irishmen, was heard with the deepest regret. He was born close on 80 years ago at Burren, Clare, but most of his long life was spent in Kinvara a town on an inlet of Galway Bay, famous as the home of The little Irish Colleen,” of his son’s charming and popular ballad, “The ould plaid shawl.” He was emigration agent for the district during the exodus that followed the famine of ’48, and he booked thousands for the land of the Stars and Stripes. He was the medium through which thousands of pounds reached the hands of the lrish emigrants’ relatives. His remains are interred in the Catholic cemetery at Mortlake, on the Upper Thames, and close to the remarkable tomb, in the form of a tent, of that famous Galway man, Sir Frederick Burton, the Eastern explorer and Orientalist. Kilkenny.

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Dear Mr Ford – 1898

Easter Lily Wikimedia Commons
Easter Lily
Wikimedia Commons
New Zealand Tablet, 8th July 1898 P9 (abridged)

Dear Mr Ford,

I send you two dollars for dear Ireland.

I left Doneraile in 1848 with my husband and one child. The visions of the famine victims dying in every caving at that time will ever remain in my mind. I had two children before leaving Ireland. I buried my baby the day before we sailed. The other child was buried at sea.

My husband took to grieving, and died later on, leaving me alone in the world.

I pray night and day for Ireland’s liberty. But I am now 72 years old, and I am afraid I shall not live to see it.

God help dear Ireland

Mary Murray

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Arrests Proceeding Satisfactorily – Galway – 1916

Easter Proclamation 1916
Easter Proclamation 1916
Ashburton Guardian Vol XXXVI I. 8441 5th May 1916 p5

ARRESTS PROCEEDING SATISFACTORILY.
(Per Press Association)
LONDON, May 4
An official communique says: “The situation in Ireland is quiet. Arrests of rebels and the collection of arms are proceeding satisfactorily.
“The police barracks at Oranmore were attacked, but resisted until they were relieved. The situation in the West Riding of Galway is under control, the rebels having been dispersed. The south part of Ireland is quiet.
Aliens are being refused entry into Ireland for the time being.”

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Welcoming the “criminals” – 1889

Galway Gaol c.1930
Galway Gaol c.1930
Zealand Tablet Vol XVII I. 18 23rd August, 1889 p 21

Jas. Keane, Thomas Prendergast, Pat Moylon, Robert Thomson and Michael Burke of Ardrahan, were recently released from the gentle care of Balfour’s turnkeys in Galway Gaol, after being two months there. They were met by the Craughwell band, with Father Considine. Contingents from Gort, Kinvara, Kilbecanty and Clarenbridge were on hand to welcome the “criminals”.

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Kinvara – 1887

Wuilliam O'Brien MP. (1852–1928), Irish politician, journalist, social revolutionary, author and Member of Parliament in the Parliament of the United Kingdom United States Library of Congress Wikimedia Commons
Wuilliam O’Brien MP. (1852–1928), Irish politician, journalist, social revolutionary, author and Member of Parliament in the Parliament of the United Kingdom
United States Library of Congress
Wikimedia Commons
New Zealand Tablet, Volume XV, I 18, 26th August 1887, P 21
The demonstrations of delight at Mr. O’Brien’s safe return were by no means confined to the large towns, or those on the immediate line of route from Cork to Dublin. Amongst those places which were illuminated and en fete over the event were the towns of Rathkeale, County Limerick, and Kinvara, County Galway. Nearly every house in these towns was lit up, bonfires blazed in their streets, and crowds of people, with the local bands, turned out in processional order to do honour to the occasion. In Kinvara the burning of Lord Salisbury in effigy at the small hours of the morning brought the proceedings to an appropriate close.

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Kinvara League – October 1889

Wikimedia Commons
Wikimedia Commons
New Zealand Tablet 18th October 1889 p21

Irish news

At last meeting of the Kinvara League, Rev. J. Moloney presided, Other members present— Dr. W. J. Nally, Messrs. Burke, Tallman.
Halvey, Shaughnessy, Spellman, and Corless, Hon. Sec The Hon. Sec. reported the receipt of a cheque for £3 from Mr. Harrington, M.P., amount of grant voted by the Central League to Michael Tracy, the evicted tenant of Cahercon.
A communication from John Hall, of Kinvara, relating to a dispute he had with the landlord of his house, Richard Burke, and complaining of the treatment he had received at his hands, was next read and considered. John Burke, of Killina, stated he was being persecuted by his landlord, Mr. Langan, of Dublin, he having sold Burke’s holding for a nominal sum to one Kendall, of Clifden.

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Kinvara Branch of the National League – 1889

Wikimedia Commons
Wikimedia Commons
New Zealand Tablet, 26th July, 1889 P9

Irish News

Kinvara Branch of the National League held a meeting April 28th

Rev. John Moloney presided. Among those present are Dr. W.J. Nally, Messrs Holland, Burke, Spellman, Cavanagh, Tallman, Shaughnessy, Farrell and Corless. £5 was forwarded to the Central Branch. The following resolution was passed:

“That we hereby beg to tender to Thomas and Patrick Cavanagh our sincere sympathy on the harsh and cruel treatment they have received at the hands of their landlord, Major Lynch, and his agent, Kendall of Connemara, in being evicted.”

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Kinvara – 1893

Wikimedia Commons
Wikimedia Commons
NEW ZEALAND TABLET VOL XXI, ISSUE 20 3rd March 1893 p21
A writer in the Freeman’s Journal has the following suggestive remarks with regard to the sorrow and poverty which he found amongst the children of a typical school in the West of Ireland.
“I once asked the Sisters in charge what might be the children’s idea of Home Rule. The reply was eminently practical – ‘Remunerative employment, shoes and stockings, bread and milk for breakfast, and no more rags.’
I confess I feel not a little ashamed to find myself obliged to pen this letter. Must the cycle of Irish beggary forever go round and round, like Ixion’s wheel? Must those unhappy Kinvara children – so modest and shy that they only reply to your questioning in monosyllables and whispers – must they continue to suffer perennial nakedness and hunger?

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An Dreoilín – 1895

An Dreoilín Wikimedia Commons
An Dreoilín
Wikimedia Commons
New Zealand Tablet 12th July, 1895 P11 (abridged)

Francis A. Fahy is a writer who seems to have struck the popular vein in his productions. Like Mr Graves, he has written a number of songs to familiar airs, and as they are all of the “catching order,” they sink deep in the fancy of the masses. In reading his songs one is struck with the peculiar domination of the national spirit in them, It is interwoven with every other sentiment of the poem and seems inseparable from his verse. Even in his songs of affection, begun in a tender strain, we hear the tread of the soldier and the jingle of his sabre.

He was born at Kinvara, County Galway on September 29, 1854, and entered the Civil Service in 1873. He has resided in London since that time, and has taken part in many Irish movements, notably the Southwark Irish Literary Club and its successor, the Irish Literary Society. At sixteen years of age he wrote a play “The Last of the O’Leary’s,” which was produced in his native town. In the same year his first printed poem appeared in the Nation. Since then he has contributed from time to time to nearly all the leading periodicals of Ireland and to many in England. Most of his writings appeared over the nom de plume of Dreoilín (the wren).

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The mythical Mr Hogan – Kinvara – 1909

Two laughing men - double Self-Portrait c.1574 Hans von Aachen (1552-1615) Olomouc Museum of Art Wikimedia Commons
Two laughing men – double Self-Portrait c.1574
Hans von Aachen (1552-1615)
Olomouc Museum of Art
Wikimedia Commons
New Zealand Tablet
Vol 27 Issue 21 – 27th May, 1909

GALWAY— A Myth (abridged)
Mr. William Moore, M.P., is a gentleman who takes a genuine delight in endeavouring to make the inhabitants of Great Britain believe that the wickedness of the people of Ireland, the country where he represents a constituency, is past imagining. No matter how pleasant or how peaceable the Irish Catholic may look, he is always, in Mr. Moore’s opinion, brewing mischief. Mr. Moore’s parliamentary life, therefore, consists of a daily array of questions as to what measures the Government have taken or intend to take in order to prevent this or that crime, or to punish this or that criminal. On Thursday, March 11, he enquired in tragic accents what the Government meant to do with Mr. James Hogan,- J.P., of Kinvara.
Mr. Hogan, he stated, was a plague in the community. He was a boycotter and oppressor, and had been inflicting suffering on innocent people. The law-breaker had been brought before the magistrates for his misdeeds, but being of his religious and political belief, they acquitted him. The Resident Magistrate had unavailingly protested against the scandal, and the County Inspector had urged the institution of further proceedings. The Attorney-General for Ireland had, however, refused to act on the suggestion, and the audacious Mr. Hogan, of Kinvara, was still at liberty.
Mr. Redmond Barry, amidst the laughter of the House, informed the-hon. member that Mr. James Hogan, J.P., was a myth that no such person exists at Kinvara, a Galway village, by the way, made famous through- one of Mr. Frank Fahy’s songs. The moral is very plain— that anti-Irish members are perfectly reckless as to the grounds upon which they prefer charges against Irish Catholics and Nationalists.