Tag: Ballinderreen

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Welcome home – Kinvara – 1910

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Connacht Tribune 24th Dec 1910 p5 (abridged)

Kinvara Photo: Norma Scheibe
Kinvara
Photo: Norma Scheibe

On Monday morning the Kinvara cattle drivers, M.H. Donohoe, Gortnaclogh; T. Gorman, John Hynes, P. Healy, Bartly Quinn, Moy, and John Smith, Kinvara, were released from Galway Jail after undergoing a term of six months’ imprisonment. They were tried at the Summer Assizes and sentenced by Judge Kenny for driving cattle off the lands of Funshinbeg. The severity of the sentence and the respectability of the prisoners evoked the greatest sympathy at the time, and the Nationalists of the district vied with one another in doing the farm work and harvesting for their families ever since.

They were met at the door of the prison as they emerged, by Mr. Ml. O’Donohoe, J.P., Co.C, and seven cars, laden with members of the Kinvara hurling ciub. They were sumptuously entertained by Mr. O’Donohoe, and started from Eyresquare after “doing” Salthill, about 3 p.m. for Kinvara. They were loudly cheered passing through Oranmore and Clarenbridge, and on reaching Kilcolgan they were greeted with illuminations. They were met outside Kilcolgan by a big contingent with cars and horses, from the Kinvara and Duras branches U.I.L., consisting of Messrs. T. P. Corless, D.C., president; M. Curtin, B, Quinn, M. Melia, Pat Hanlon, Bryan Kilkelly, T. Keane, Joe Forde, Pat Halvey, P. Callanan, P. Whelan, Ml Carty (Secretary), Michael Huban, A. Connors, C. O’Loughlin, P. Noone, J. Moylan, John Glynn, etc., who cheered them loudiy. As Ballinderreen was approached it was seen that every house was illuminated, bonfires were ablaze on every hill, and lighted torches lit up the horizon. A noticeable feature in Ballinderreen was a big force of police, under arms on the outskirts of the crowd.

A hurriedly convened meeting was held under the chairmanship of Mr. Michael O’Donohoe, Co.C, J.P., who thanked the sterling Gaels and fearless Nationalists of Ballinderreen for the great reception they had given the prisoners (cheers). He would never forget it. He reminded them of the early days of the Land League Movement and of the proclaimed meeting in 1879, and said he was glad to see the same spirit animating them today. Mr. T. P. Corless, D.C., also addressed the meeting.

Amidst a scene of great enthusiasm the procession, which had now assumed enormous dimensions, started for Kinvara. The houses along the route were illuminated and bonfires and torches blazed at Pollough and Toreen.

At Ballyclera the whole village turned out and the procession passed with great difficulty through a virtual sea of fire. Dungora Castle presented a grand appearance with its many and various coloured lights. Overlooking the town and harbour, the lights could he seen for miles. The turrets on the top were beautifully lighted and arranged in such a way as to resemble a huge harp. A bonfire was ablaze in front of the Castle as the prisoners were passing.

Kinvara town was brilliantly illuminated and an immense bonfire was lighted in a field opposite the Convent of Mercy.
In Moy and Gortnaclogh, the homes of the prisoners, bonfires and illuminations were kept up until morning.
Mr. Cruise, D.I., and a number of extra police were drafted into Kinvara, but notwithstanding the greatest excitement, everything passed off quietly.

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Up Ballinderreen! – 1888

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New Zealand Tablet 10th February, 1888 p9tyrone house

Over 200 men from the parish of Ballinderreen assembled at Kilcolgan to build a house for Redmond Grealy, an evicted tenant, Grealy was evicted in 1883 by William St. George, Tyrone House, his landlord. Since his eviction Grealy has made a long and stubborn fight to keep a grip of his homestead. For retaking possession he has been summoned frequently, heavily fined, sent twice to gaol and his wife three times to gaol.

On their return home from Galway Gaol, Grealy and his wife were met by over 200 men, who escorted them and installed them in the house they had built.

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The Progress of Temperance – Ballinderreen – 1840

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Australasian Chronicle 17th November, 1840

"Theobald Mathew" by Thomas Kelly (fl. 1871-1874) United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs Wikimedia Commons
“Theobald Mathew” by Thomas Kelly (fl. 1871-1874) United States Library of Congress’s Prints and Photographs
Wikimedia Commons

The Very Rev. Fr. Mathew, being on a visit at Kilcornan, the hospirable mansion of N. Redington, Esq., M P., administered the total abstinence pledge on the 21st and 22nd ult., to upwards of eight hundred postulants.
Many from the neighbouring parishes of Oranmore, Ballinacourty, Ballinderreen, &c., who lost the opportunity of approaching him while in Galway and Loughrea, took advantage of his propitious visit to Kilcornan. The people of this locality have been extremely fortunate.

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Tyrone Estate – 1910

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Tyrone House home of St. George family Photo: Tom Cosgrove Creative Commons
Tyrone House
home of St. George family
Photo: Tom Cosgrove
Creative Commons

Freeman’s Journal 17th March, 1910 p14

Through the exertions of the Most Rev. Dr. O’Dea, Bishop of Galway, and the Rev. Miohael Walsh.. P.P., Ballinderreen, Kilcolgan, the trouble on the Tyrone estate is at last practically at an end. There are close upon two hundred holdings in the vicinity of the Tyrone estate, and in about 70 per cent, the rent ranges from £1 to £8. The ‘acreage’ of the farms is in many cases little more than one acre, and in no case larger than twenty.

The land allotted to the tenants is full of rock, an held in rundale. Although the tenants had entered the Land Court, the rents are still exorbitant. Under these circumstances the people were forced into a vigorous agitation. Experience has taught them that nothing but agitation would win for them the right to live as every human being is entitled to live, in peace and – in their own land.

Under the settlement which has just been arrived at, 400 acres of grass land on the Tyrone farm; the property of Mrs. St. George and Mrs. Concannon, together with the Drumcoo and Killeenarin farms are to be handed over to the Estates Commissioners. The tenants have agreed to pay a year’s, rent down on the understanding that a half year’s rent is remitted, and they will get a general reduction of 4s in the £. First term tenants are to get a reduction of 6s in the £, and the game rights are to be reserved to the tenants..

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John Lennon – Ballinderreen – 1868

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Photo; Aiden Clarke Creative Commons
Photo; Aiden Clarke
Creative Commons
THE MORNING STAR AND CATHOLIC REGISTER 21ST JUNE, 1868 P3

With feelings of deep regret, says the Galway Vindicator, we record the demise of the Rev. John Lennon P.P., which sad event occurred on the 11th ult. at his residence, Ballinderreen. Father Lennon had been for a long period paster of the parish of Ballinderreen, and to his strenuous exertions are due the splendid repairs of the parish chapel, and the erection of a national school in the parish The school and chapel, also the residence of Father Lennon, are on the estate of Charles St. George, Esq., of Tyrone House, and to his unbounded liberality Father Lennon owed the restoration of the chapel, the erection of the national school and numerous other laudable works which have been completed through his instrumentality. We would draw the attention of the public to the friendly relations which existed between Mr St. George and the Rev. Mr Lennon and advise others of our landed proprietors to follow the example so noble set them by this highly popular gentleman. That he is one of the best – if not the best – of our western landlords, the absence of “notices to quit,” evictions, and their concomitant result – emigration – and the flourishing state of his tenantry, amply testify. We understand that the Rev. Mr Geoghegan, R.C.A., Kinvara, succeeds Father Lennon in the parish.

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N67 – archives – 1910/22

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Ballinderreen Wikimedia Commons
Ballinderreen
Wikimedia Commons
Galway County Council Archives ‘…to acquire, preserve and make accessible the documentary memory of county Galway’ U:\Archives – Collection Management\Descriptive Lists\Rural District Councils, G00 & G01\G01-10 Gort RDC.doc
17 December 1910 – 17 June 1922 p9

‘Resolved – That we disapprove of the action of the County Council in endeavouring to change the route proposed by the Road Board from Kinvara to Kilcolgan (through Ballinderreen) and having it changed in another direction from Kinvara to Kilcolgan (through Ardrahan) as we believe the former road is through a congested area, and by the sea, would be more frequented by tourists, and would be the better road to have steam rolled as it is the mail road between Galway and Clare through Ballyvaughan’ (p122).

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The N67 – 1909

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A McCarron Creative Commons
A McCarron
Creative Commons
Tuam Herald 5th June 1909
Last week a young man named Moran, son of a herd in the employment of Mr. M. McDonogh, Galway, was fired at from behind a wall on the public road at Ballinderreen, near Gort. Moran was in company with two other cyclists who were returning from Kinyara. There were, it is stated, about 200 pellets lodged in his left arm and back. He was treated by Dr. Foley, Ardrahan, and his injuries are not considered serious. The police are investigating the affair, but up to the present no clue has been obtained.

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Local Spirit(s) – Kinvara, Duras, Ballinderreen – 1920

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The Burren Photo; Norma Scheibe
The Burren
Photo; Norma Scheibe
Visions and beliefs in the west of Ireland, collected and arranged by Lady Gregory: with two essays and notes by W. B. Yeats.
Second series, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, New York and London
The Knickerbocker Press 1920
https://widgetworld3.wordpress.com/podcasts/
A FAIRY FORT
A woman I know had business one time in Ballyvaughan, and when she was on the road beyond Kinvara a man came to her out of a fort and he asked her to go in and to please a child that was crying. So she went in and she pleased the child, and she saw in a corner an old man that never stopped from crying. And when she went out again she asked the man that brought her in, why was the old man roaring and crying. The man pointed to a milch cow in the meadow and he said, “Before the day is over he will be in the place of that cow, and it will be brought into the forth to give milk to the child.” And she can tell herself that was true, for in the evening when she was coming back from Ballyvaughan, she saw in that field a cow dead, and being cut in pieces, and all the poor people bringing away bits of it, that was the old man that had been put in its place. There is poison in that meat, but no poison ever comes off the fire, but you must mind to throw away the top of the pot.

A GATHERING OF SPIRITS

Stream near St. Colman's The Burren Photo: Norma Scheibe
Stream near St. Colman’s
The Burren
Photo: Norma Scheibe

There’s a bad bit of road near Kinvara Chapel, just when you get within sight of the sea. I know a man has to pass there, and he wouldn’t go on the driver’s side of the car, for it’s to the right side those things are to be seen. Sure there was a boy lost his life falling off a car there last Friday week. And I knew him, a quiet boy, and married to a widow woman; she wanted the help of a man, and he was young. What would ail him to fall off the side of an ass-car and to be killed?

It’s by the big tree outside Raheen (where you take the turn to Kinvara) that the most things are seen. There was a boy living in Gort that was out before daylight with a load of hay in a cart, and he sitting on top of it. He was found lying dead just beside the tree, where he fell from the top of the cart, and the horse was standing there stock-still. There was a shower of rain fell while he was lying there, and I passed the road two hours later, and saw where the dust was dry where his body had been lying.

And it was only yesterday I heard a story of that very same place. There was a man coming from Galway with a ton weight of a load on his cart, and when he came to that tree the linching of his wheel came out, and the cart fell down. And presently a little man, about two and a half feet in height, came out from the wall. He lifted up the cart, and held it up till he had the linching put up again. And he never said a word but went away as he came, and the man came in to Gort.

The Old Castle, Kinvara Photo: Norma Scheibe
The Old Castle, Kinvara
Photo: Norma Scheibe
THE SHEE
I heard a churning one time in the hill up by the road beyond. I was coming back from Kinvara, and I heard it plain, no mistake about it. I was sorry after I didn’t call down and ask for a drink. Johnny M— did so, and got it. If you wish for a drink and they put it out for you, it’s no harm to take it, but if you refuse it, some harm might happen to you. Johnny H——— often told that he heard churning in that spot, but I wouldn’t believe the sun rising from him, he had so many lies. But after that, I said, “Well, Johnny H——– has told the truth for once.”

THE MONSTER
There is a monster of some sort down by Duras, it’s called the ghost of Fiddeen. Some say it’s only heard every seven years. Some say it was a flannel seller used to live there that had a short fardel. We heard it here one night, like a calf roaring.

THE BANSHEE
There is a boy I knew near Ballinderreen, told me that he was going along the road one night and he saw a dog. It had claws like a cur, and a body like a person, and he couldn’t see what its head was like. But it was moaning like a soul in pain, and presently it vanished, and there came most beautiful music, and a woman came out and he thought at first it was the Banshee, and she wearing a red petticoat. And a striped jacket she had on, and a white band about her waist. And to hear more beautiful singing and music he never did, but to know or to understand what she was expressing, he couldn’t do it. And at last they came to a place by the roadside where there were some bushes. And she went in there and disappeared under them, and the most beautiful lights came shining where she went in. And when he got home, he himself fainted, and his mother put her beads over him, and blessed him and said prayers. So he got quiet at last.