A great demonstration was held at Kinvara on Sunday in furtherance of the object of the United Irish League. At an early hour the picturesque little town was thronged by a great concourse of people, and as each contingent arrived from surrounding parishes, ringing cheers greeted them. Clarenbridge and Rooveagh had a splendid turnout, headed by their fife and drum band, followed by an immense procession of horsemen dressed in green sashes and wearing their membership cards on their hats.
The following communications, have been forwarded to us by the committee for publication. They present the most gratifying prospect yet afforded with respect to the probable consequences and progress of the potato disease. In strictness we should say that one letter presents those gratifying features – that of Mr. Gregory of Coole, father of the representative for Dublin. That gentleman’s station and character are guarantees for the perfect truth of this consoling announcement; Coole Park, 27th December, 1845 My Lord, I have to apologise for not replying immediately to your communication, dated the 10th inst. I was, however, unwilling to answer your queries from my own individual judgment, without endeavouring to obtain the best information I could procure from those most able in this neighbourhood to give it. Among such I have carefully considered the evidence I have received from tenant farmers, and now that the panic has ceased, I am more likely to ascertain the truth than when I had last the honor of addressing your lordship. 1st Query – I am happy to be enabled to state that a most favorable change in the potato crop has taken place since my last letter, inasmuch as the disease is not on the increase. 2nd – I wish particularly to make this addition to my former letter – that in the return of the police constable of the Kinvara district, every potato was enumerated as bad in the percentage I had the honor to enclose, which had the last appearance of taint upon it, the greatest portion of these were perfectly available for human food, but from the rapid progress of the disease at that time, I considered it my duty to send you the actual number of the potatoes affected, without note or comment, as we entertained but little hope of the disease being so mercifully averted. 3rd – Presuming the potatoes now in pit to remain as sound as I hear they are at present, I have no reason to dread a deficiency of the potato food in the immediate neighbourhood. 4th – for fear of inaccuracy I must decline replying to this question but as an index to the state of opinion, I have to inform you that the price of potatoes in Gort market on Saturday was 2 1/2d per stone, and that the contract entered into yesterday by the Poor Law Guardians of the Gort Union was for a supply of sound potatoes at 4d per stone, for the next three months. I have the honor to be, my Lord, your obedient servant, Robert Gregory
Michael Bohanan, a native of Gelha (Geeha?), Kinvara, County Galway, who came to this country 21 years ago; he served some time in the late American War; when last heard from he was in St. Louis, Mo, Information concerning him will be received by his brother Stephen Bohanan, Geneva, Ontario County, N.Y.
24th April, 1874
Michael Kelly, a native of the parish of Kinvara, County Galway; father’s name Patrick Kelly and mother’s name Eilen Cavanagh, who sailed from Londonderry seven years ago last March; he worked in the State of New York; he left there and went to Chester county, Pa., and worked there until January 1981 when he went to Philadelphia and enlisted in the navy. Information of him will be received by his brothers, James and Peter Cavanagh, Address James Cavanagh, Millstone Point, Waterbury, Connecticut
The Volume of the Old Year’s ended,
The Volume of the New, begun
To what have all these pages tended?
Mark, what is lost, and what is won.
The opening pages are bright and fair,
Now many a blot appears,
See, here the leaves are bleak and bare,
Further on, they are blurred with tears.
Close the book gently,
Lay it away,
To be opened again,
On the Judgement Day.
Now take the Volume for Sixty-two,
‘Tis all unwritten still,
God grant its blots will be far and few,
Perhaps, ’tis the last we may till.
May each high resolve, each virtuous deed,
Be as picturing’s on the page,
It will bring thee joy, in thy utmost need,
And the sorrows of death assuage.
Anon
During Christmas, placing a light in the window of one’s home is
a tradition in parts of the west of Ireland, including Kinvara. In the old days the cottage door was also left unlocked throughout the night and a member of the family watched in prayer. The tradition arose from the story of the flight of the Holy Family into Egypt, following which, Joseph, Mary and Jesus wandered without shelter for fourteen days and nights.
Candles are placed in the windows to mark the event and offer safe refuge.
Kinvara – Politics, as they go, are still matters of conversational interest here. The Sinn Fein movement is mentioned by some with sympathy for motive and contempt for methods and organisation. The rising came as a surprise, if not a shock, to some persons, but there were, or are, scattered sympathisers or objectors to the more drastic of the methods of repression among the middle as well as the working classes. For among those who paid the inevitable penalty of revolt in time or war were some leaders of ripe scholarship and, in other respects, stainless lives; “Poets of the Insurrection” as they were called, whose mistakes of judgment, policy and method are lightly regarded by those of emotional temperament to whom disinterestedness primarily appeals. Discontent now turns on the recent check to Home Rule as expressed in the Government of Ireland Act 1914. There is a feeling that the political system – Union Government – is still the source of any economic maladjustment and that the country will at once flower under the working of autonomy.
the Hon. P.McM.Glynn K.C. Minister for Home and Territories.
The Burren and Beyond 