I received a letter during the week from Fr. Paddy Finn, Parish Priest of Donard, Dunlavin and Davidstown, Co. Wicklow enclosing a copy of his parish magazine “Parish Link”. It’s an excellent publication, which I see is produced by a number of lay people, but its interest for me lay in a short piece on a former Parish Priest of Dunlavin, Canon John Hyland.
Like Paddy Finn, Canon Hyland was an Athy man. He was born in 1793, two years after the Grand Canal was extended to Athy and in the same year that the United Irishmen embarked on the long road which would end in the 1798 Rebellion.
Hyland was a common enough name in Athy at the turn of the 18th century. A John Hyland had his house near the upper Turnpike gate of the town, as was mentioned in information sworn by a local man, who observed the comings and goings of the United Irishmen and reported on them to Dublin Castle. A Robert Hyland was conductor of the canal boat which was robbed of its cargo while berthed overnight at the canal harbour, Athy on the 7th of December 1797. The cargo included 50 stands of arms and 1,000 ball cartridges all intended for a corp of Yeomen Infantry in Leighlinbridge, Co. Carlow. The loss, at the hands of what was believed to be the local United Irishmen, prompted Captain Eskine of the local military barracks, with a party of dragoons, to search every house in Athy. As a result many local men were arrested and lodged in White's Castle jail.
What connection the future Canon Hyland had with any of the aforementioned Hylands I cannot say, but by the time he left Athy in 1813 to enter Maynooth College, he was undoubtedly familiar with the unrest among the workers and tenant farmers of South Kildare. This had led to several local people claiming in correspondence addressed to Dublin Castle that “Athy and its neighbourhood is full of arms” and that “Protestant minds in the vicinity are in great alarm in consequence of rumours of intended rebellion”. No such rebellion took place. Athy and District had already suffered enormously during the earlier 1798 period and to a lesser extent during the Robert Emmet Rebellion of 1803.
John Hyland distinguished himself as a student of theology while in Maynooth College, and following his ordination, he was appointed Chaplain to the Presentation Convent at George’s Hill, Dublin. He was politically active, as was not unusual for Catholic clergy, in those pre-Catholic Emancipation days. When the Catholic Association was re-established in 1823 by Daniel O’Connell and Richard Lalor Sheil, Fr. John Hyland became a member. Every Irish adult was encouraged to join the Catholic Association and to contribute one penny a month to fund the fight for Catholic emancipation. This money, collected at church gates throughout the country, earned for O’Connell the title “King of the Beggars” and was known as “the Catholic rent”. The funding, which priests like Fr. John Hyland helped to put into the coffers of the Catholic Association, secured its success and culminated in the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829.
Two years previously, Fr. Hyland was appointed Parish Priest of Dunlavin, where he was to remain until he died in September 1862. Archbishop Paul Cullen of Dublin, who was to be appointed the first Irish Cardinal in 1866, presided at his funeral obsequies in the Church of St. Nicholas, Dunlavin. Although the Athy-born Canon was ten years older than the Ballytore-born Archbishop, a common South Kildare background guaranteed a strong bond of friendship between both men. Canon Hyland was buried in the vault in the centre of the nave of St. Nicholas’ Church, Dunlavin where Paddy Finn, another native of Athy, is now the Parish Priest.
Canon John Hyland and Fr. Paddy Finn, while separated by over 130 years of Irish history, are linked by youthful years spent in the same South Kildare town, where the Grand Canal and River Barrow meet.
Friday, July 28, 1995
Friday, July 21, 1995
The Legend of Oona More
“Oona More, a Legend of Kildare” was written for the February Session of Carlow College in 1865 by Rev. Patrick Fitzsimons, who had been ordained for the Kildare and Leighlin Diocese seven years previously. A member of Carlow College staff from his ordination until 1871, Fr. Fitzsimons was then appointed administrator of Tullow where he remained until his death on the 15th of January 1876. What connection, if any, he had with Inch or County Kildare, I have been unable to ascertain.
The ballad tells the story of Oona More, or more correctly Moore, who lived in Ballycullane, near Athy. In nearby Inch Castle lived the MacKellys or O’Kellys, either name is to be found in different versions of the ballad. In the best manner of Irish folk tradition, MacKelly was described as a tyrannical landlord, whose son Ulick had a brief relationship with the beautiful Oona More, a farm worker’s daughter. Later abandoned by her lover, Oona returned broken- hearted to live with her brothers in Ballycullane.
“Full many a hopeful promise to the maiden fair he gave,
He swore to be her guardian from that moment to the grave;
But his love tho’ warm was fleeting as an echo from the shore,
Not many a sun had risen ere he slighted Oona More.”
The plague commonly called the Black Death raged through Ireland and England in 1349, leaving over one million dead in its wake. It was to erupt periodically thereafter, and in 1439 made its appearance yet again amongst the Irish people. Ulick MacKelly from Inch Castle was struck down, and like all others similarly afflicted he was removed to a plague shed in the middle of the Kildare countryside. There he was to remain “so changed that those who shared his feast fled sickening at the sight.”
Not so, Oona, the girl he had spurned, who hearing of his plight hurried to the plague shed to be near her former lover.
“Three nights she vigil’d whilst the glow was fading from his cheek,
More soothing words than Oona’s were scarce angel-tongues might speak;
But all was vain, his hour was come, his eyes were closed in death,
And tended by that faithful one he sighed his parting breath.
That self-same hour died Oona, by the plague-shed’s cheerless door,
The carrion crow and raven o’er the lifeless bodies soar,
But yet they dare not enter, for since Oona pass’d away,
A snow white bird is resting there, and guards the door all day.
Next morn they burned the plague-shed, where the two lay side by side,
False Ulick and fair Oona, like a bridegroom and his bride;
And from the ashes of their bones which mingled with the clay,
Sprang seven fair trees of hawthorn, which are living there today.”
The legend of Oona More and Ulick MacKelly is in the best traditions of Irish folklore, and strikes a very responsive link with our hidden past. The remains of Inch Castle, which lie three miles to the north east of Athy, are those of a 15th century tower house. A substantial portion of the north east corner fell in 1896, carrying with it the original entrance and part of the staircase. The intervening years have not been kind to the old structure.
In the Dublin Penny Journal of 1835 the following lines appeared as representing part of a favourite wake song in the Ballycullane/Inch locality :
“On moonlight nights the shadow flits
across the furry moor,
And at the Moate in silence sits,
Until the midnight hour.
The bitterns only moan is heard
Along the boggy glade,
But the shadow still is feared
As Oona’s restless shade.”
The story of Oona More from Ballycullane is remembered even at the remove of over 500 years. Hers is a tale of love, betrayal and loyalty, so beloved of the folklorists and of the people from whom the story passed from generation to generation, until it found permanency in print with the pen of a Catholic priest in Carlow College 130 years ago.
The ballad tells the story of Oona More, or more correctly Moore, who lived in Ballycullane, near Athy. In nearby Inch Castle lived the MacKellys or O’Kellys, either name is to be found in different versions of the ballad. In the best manner of Irish folk tradition, MacKelly was described as a tyrannical landlord, whose son Ulick had a brief relationship with the beautiful Oona More, a farm worker’s daughter. Later abandoned by her lover, Oona returned broken- hearted to live with her brothers in Ballycullane.
“Full many a hopeful promise to the maiden fair he gave,
He swore to be her guardian from that moment to the grave;
But his love tho’ warm was fleeting as an echo from the shore,
Not many a sun had risen ere he slighted Oona More.”
The plague commonly called the Black Death raged through Ireland and England in 1349, leaving over one million dead in its wake. It was to erupt periodically thereafter, and in 1439 made its appearance yet again amongst the Irish people. Ulick MacKelly from Inch Castle was struck down, and like all others similarly afflicted he was removed to a plague shed in the middle of the Kildare countryside. There he was to remain “so changed that those who shared his feast fled sickening at the sight.”
Not so, Oona, the girl he had spurned, who hearing of his plight hurried to the plague shed to be near her former lover.
“Three nights she vigil’d whilst the glow was fading from his cheek,
More soothing words than Oona’s were scarce angel-tongues might speak;
But all was vain, his hour was come, his eyes were closed in death,
And tended by that faithful one he sighed his parting breath.
That self-same hour died Oona, by the plague-shed’s cheerless door,
The carrion crow and raven o’er the lifeless bodies soar,
But yet they dare not enter, for since Oona pass’d away,
A snow white bird is resting there, and guards the door all day.
Next morn they burned the plague-shed, where the two lay side by side,
False Ulick and fair Oona, like a bridegroom and his bride;
And from the ashes of their bones which mingled with the clay,
Sprang seven fair trees of hawthorn, which are living there today.”
The legend of Oona More and Ulick MacKelly is in the best traditions of Irish folklore, and strikes a very responsive link with our hidden past. The remains of Inch Castle, which lie three miles to the north east of Athy, are those of a 15th century tower house. A substantial portion of the north east corner fell in 1896, carrying with it the original entrance and part of the staircase. The intervening years have not been kind to the old structure.
In the Dublin Penny Journal of 1835 the following lines appeared as representing part of a favourite wake song in the Ballycullane/Inch locality :
“On moonlight nights the shadow flits
across the furry moor,
And at the Moate in silence sits,
Until the midnight hour.
The bitterns only moan is heard
Along the boggy glade,
But the shadow still is feared
As Oona’s restless shade.”
The story of Oona More from Ballycullane is remembered even at the remove of over 500 years. Hers is a tale of love, betrayal and loyalty, so beloved of the folklorists and of the people from whom the story passed from generation to generation, until it found permanency in print with the pen of a Catholic priest in Carlow College 130 years ago.
Friday, July 14, 1995
Jim Connor
One of the many enduring traditions of our town, is the yearly visit home by our emigrants. Throughout the summer months they are to be seen renewing old acquaintances and keeping in touch with what are for them, the sights and sounds of their youth.
One man who has made the annual pilgrimage since 1952 is Jim Connor, formerly of Castlemitchell, whom I had the enormous pleasure of meeting during the week. For Jim, Athy and especially Castlemitchell is still home, despite having spent 43 years in London, where he now resides with his wife, the former Mary Lawler of Athy.
His father was a member of the Dublin Metropolitan Police who joined the Irish Guards Regiment in 1905. Wounded in World War I, he was invalided out of the army in 1917 and returned to Castlemitchell. There he reared his family which included Jack and Eileen, both of whom died in recent years, Jim and his sisters, Mary Dempsey, still in Castlemitchell, and Kathleen Fay who now lives in America.
Jim attended Churchtown National School, and remembers many a trip down “Kangs” Lane, where Jack “Kang” Kearney and his wife Kate lived in a small mud cabin. Both cabin and lane have now disappeared, but the outline of the lane which ran from the site of the new National School exiting out beyond the Bleeding Horse, is still visible in parts. Jack joined the revived Churchtown Pipe Band after he started piping lessons with Jerry Byrne of Castlemitchell in 1932. Others who joined at that time included Joe Fennelly, Willie Pender and George Byrne, and many a night they spent sitting in the shadow of the paraffin oil lamp in Byrne’s house, learning the pipe scales, before progressing to their first tune, “The Minstrel Boy”. The band room was a shed at the back of Byrnes house, which doubled as a dance hall on Saturday nights. Known as the “Besonk”, it was there that the locals danced to “Byrnes Dance Band”, with John Byrne on piano accordion, Jerry on the banjo and his brother Christy on violin. The only non-Byrne family member of the quartet was the drummer Mick Sourke. Irish set dances were the rage and Marcella Donnelly, a dance teacher from the Newbridge/Kildare area, travelled over to Castlemitchell to teach the steps.
When the summer of 1934 arrived the pipers were sufficiently skilled to take to the road, and joined by Willie and Lar Hutchinson, former members of Kilberry Pipe Band, and Ned Hyland and John Luttrell, formerly of the New Inn Pipe Band, the Churchtown Pipe Band was re-activated. The band’s future was assured when it got a booking from the National Radio Station 2RN. The musicians travelled to Dublin in hackney cars, and performed so impressively that further radio bookings resulted. Churchtown Pipe Band was to broadcast on Radio 2RN, on average three times a year, between 1935 and 1941.
Jim got his secondary schooling in the Christian Brothers School Athy, where he remembers Master Walsh and Master Spillane, two lay teachers who taught with the legendary Liam Ryan. Brother Dolan was the Principal, and also on the teaching staff was Brother O’Farrell, who did so much to revive the skill of hurling in the Athy area.
In 1937 Jim started work in McHugh’s Pharmacy, Duke Street where he was employed for three or four years developing photographs. This job ended during the early part of the Second World War due to the shortage of photographic material. A spell on the building sites followed, with Jim taking up employment with Murray and McCartan, a county Meath firm which was responsible for building the County Council houses at Castlemitchell.
In 1942 he got a job in the local Asbestos factory where the redoubtable Mr. Cornish was works manager. Jim acknowledges with a wry smile that Cornish, a Welsh man, was a tough, no- nonsense man whose influence on the early development of the Asbestos factory was vital for its future success.
In 1948 Jim became an insurance agent with the Irish Assurance Company, covering the Ballylinan, Barrowhouse, Luggacurran and Castlemitchell areas. His local colleagues in the Assurance Company were Tom Moore, who had responsibility for the Rheban area, and Mick Doyle, who covered the area south of Athy. It was hard, demanding work at a time when jobs were scarce. Money was needed to put food on the table and little could be put aside for insurance policies. In 1952 Jim decided to go to England. By then, Churchtown Pipe Band had long ceased to operate, when its members joined the L.S.F. Band in Athy, which was formed by Garda Sergeant Hayes.
When Jim took the mail boat at Dun Laoghaire he was 32 years of age and embarking on a new phase of his life centred in London, where there were few opportunities to play the bagpipes. He enlisted in Brixton School of Building and later the Wandsworth School of Building before taking up employment with Tenson’s, for whom he worked for 15 years. A six-year stint with McAlpine’s followed, before he ended his working career with Higgs & Hill. Rising through the ranks from building worker to foreman he retired nine years ago as an area supervisor.
Jim has never forgotten his home place, and spends his annual summer holidays in Athy and Castlemitchell. There are so many more emigrants like Jim and Mary Connor who maintain strong links with Athy but there are also many living abroad who do not feel able, for whatever reason, to return to their “old haunts”.
One man who has made the annual pilgrimage since 1952 is Jim Connor, formerly of Castlemitchell, whom I had the enormous pleasure of meeting during the week. For Jim, Athy and especially Castlemitchell is still home, despite having spent 43 years in London, where he now resides with his wife, the former Mary Lawler of Athy.
His father was a member of the Dublin Metropolitan Police who joined the Irish Guards Regiment in 1905. Wounded in World War I, he was invalided out of the army in 1917 and returned to Castlemitchell. There he reared his family which included Jack and Eileen, both of whom died in recent years, Jim and his sisters, Mary Dempsey, still in Castlemitchell, and Kathleen Fay who now lives in America.
Jim attended Churchtown National School, and remembers many a trip down “Kangs” Lane, where Jack “Kang” Kearney and his wife Kate lived in a small mud cabin. Both cabin and lane have now disappeared, but the outline of the lane which ran from the site of the new National School exiting out beyond the Bleeding Horse, is still visible in parts. Jack joined the revived Churchtown Pipe Band after he started piping lessons with Jerry Byrne of Castlemitchell in 1932. Others who joined at that time included Joe Fennelly, Willie Pender and George Byrne, and many a night they spent sitting in the shadow of the paraffin oil lamp in Byrne’s house, learning the pipe scales, before progressing to their first tune, “The Minstrel Boy”. The band room was a shed at the back of Byrnes house, which doubled as a dance hall on Saturday nights. Known as the “Besonk”, it was there that the locals danced to “Byrnes Dance Band”, with John Byrne on piano accordion, Jerry on the banjo and his brother Christy on violin. The only non-Byrne family member of the quartet was the drummer Mick Sourke. Irish set dances were the rage and Marcella Donnelly, a dance teacher from the Newbridge/Kildare area, travelled over to Castlemitchell to teach the steps.
When the summer of 1934 arrived the pipers were sufficiently skilled to take to the road, and joined by Willie and Lar Hutchinson, former members of Kilberry Pipe Band, and Ned Hyland and John Luttrell, formerly of the New Inn Pipe Band, the Churchtown Pipe Band was re-activated. The band’s future was assured when it got a booking from the National Radio Station 2RN. The musicians travelled to Dublin in hackney cars, and performed so impressively that further radio bookings resulted. Churchtown Pipe Band was to broadcast on Radio 2RN, on average three times a year, between 1935 and 1941.
Jim got his secondary schooling in the Christian Brothers School Athy, where he remembers Master Walsh and Master Spillane, two lay teachers who taught with the legendary Liam Ryan. Brother Dolan was the Principal, and also on the teaching staff was Brother O’Farrell, who did so much to revive the skill of hurling in the Athy area.
In 1937 Jim started work in McHugh’s Pharmacy, Duke Street where he was employed for three or four years developing photographs. This job ended during the early part of the Second World War due to the shortage of photographic material. A spell on the building sites followed, with Jim taking up employment with Murray and McCartan, a county Meath firm which was responsible for building the County Council houses at Castlemitchell.
In 1942 he got a job in the local Asbestos factory where the redoubtable Mr. Cornish was works manager. Jim acknowledges with a wry smile that Cornish, a Welsh man, was a tough, no- nonsense man whose influence on the early development of the Asbestos factory was vital for its future success.
In 1948 Jim became an insurance agent with the Irish Assurance Company, covering the Ballylinan, Barrowhouse, Luggacurran and Castlemitchell areas. His local colleagues in the Assurance Company were Tom Moore, who had responsibility for the Rheban area, and Mick Doyle, who covered the area south of Athy. It was hard, demanding work at a time when jobs were scarce. Money was needed to put food on the table and little could be put aside for insurance policies. In 1952 Jim decided to go to England. By then, Churchtown Pipe Band had long ceased to operate, when its members joined the L.S.F. Band in Athy, which was formed by Garda Sergeant Hayes.
When Jim took the mail boat at Dun Laoghaire he was 32 years of age and embarking on a new phase of his life centred in London, where there were few opportunities to play the bagpipes. He enlisted in Brixton School of Building and later the Wandsworth School of Building before taking up employment with Tenson’s, for whom he worked for 15 years. A six-year stint with McAlpine’s followed, before he ended his working career with Higgs & Hill. Rising through the ranks from building worker to foreman he retired nine years ago as an area supervisor.
Jim has never forgotten his home place, and spends his annual summer holidays in Athy and Castlemitchell. There are so many more emigrants like Jim and Mary Connor who maintain strong links with Athy but there are also many living abroad who do not feel able, for whatever reason, to return to their “old haunts”.
Friday, July 7, 1995
George Bermingham - Canon James Hannay and Caralway Kilcullen
Carnalway, near Kilcullen, is noted in “Monastican Hibernicum” as the site of a monastery founded in 1486 for Franciscans of the Strict Observance, by Sir Richard Eustace, son of Sir Edward Eustace of Harristown, Lord Chancellor and Treasurer of Ireland. In 1831 the population of Carnalway was 1,291 and ten years later it was 1181. The local parish church, built at the expense of John Latouche of Harristown, was described by its Rector in 1918 as “very tiny but very attractive and except for the Tower which is older, was built in the Hiberno Romanesque style, being a copy of the ancient Chapel of King Cormac in Cashel”.
The Rector was Canon James Owen Hannay, an Irish writer whose literary efforts, like those of his contemporary, the once famous Kerry playwright George Fitzmaurice, are largely neglected today. Canon Hannay, who wrote under the pseudonym George A. Bermingham, was born in Belfast on the 16th of July 1865, the son of a clergyman. Ordained for the Church of Ireland in 1889 he served as a curate in Delgany, Co. Wicklow before being appointed to Westport, Co. Mayo in 1892 where he served until 1913. A fluent Gaelic speaker, he became a member of the Gaelic League, and was later elected to the executive of that organisation. The publication of his first novel “The Seething Pot” in 1905, gave rise to the false claim that he had caricatured the Parish Priest of Westport, and as a consequence he was boycotted by the local people. The unpleasantness which resulted spilled over into the Gaelic League, and Canon Hannay, the Church of Ireland Rector, was expelled from the organisation.
He continued to write, and in 1913 his most famous play “General John Regan” was produced, by the legendary Charles Hawtrey, on the London stage, to much critical acclaim. When the same play was later put on in Westport by a touring company, it led to riots similar to those experienced during the Abbey Theatre presentation of Synge’s “The Playboy of the Western World” in 1907. In both instances, the audiences felt outraged at the perceived insult to pure-minded Irish nationalism by the realism of the playwright’s characters.
Hannay was a prolific writer, but the difficulties presented for him in his West of Ireland parish prompted him to enlist as an army chaplin in France during World War I. On his return from the War in 1918, he was appointed to the Parish of Carnalway just outside Kilcullen, where he remained for two years before finally leaving Ireland.
His biography “Pleasant Places” was published in 1934, and in it he recounts his time in Carnalway, a Parish “without a village and no shop of any kind”. Referring to Carnalway as “pleasant and interesting”, Canon Hannay recalls that “there was one pillar box into which we used to drop our letters. If we ran short of stamps we dropped the necessary pennies into the box along with our letters and the Postman who emptied the box stamped the letters”.
The idyllic lifestyle of another era ended when he left to take up an appointment as a Church of England Minister in France and later in England. Canon Hannay, who died in 1950, was writing up to the end and his last book, “Two Scamps”, was published just shortly before he died. In all, his published works amounted to over 70 novels, plays and works of non-fiction. His short sojourn in County Kildare coincided with the publication of “The Island Mystery” in 1918, “A Padre in France” in 1918, “An Irish Man Looks At His World” in 1919, “Our Casualty” in 1919, “Up The Rebels” in 1919 and “Inisheeny” in 1920.
As a novelist, playwright and humorist, George A. Bermingham, alias Canon James Hannay, was a better writer than many who have achieved greater literary fame. His books, which give an insight into Ireland of another time, deserve a wide readership amongst the present generation, and it is hoped that their re-issue will be taken up by some enterprising publisher.
The Rector was Canon James Owen Hannay, an Irish writer whose literary efforts, like those of his contemporary, the once famous Kerry playwright George Fitzmaurice, are largely neglected today. Canon Hannay, who wrote under the pseudonym George A. Bermingham, was born in Belfast on the 16th of July 1865, the son of a clergyman. Ordained for the Church of Ireland in 1889 he served as a curate in Delgany, Co. Wicklow before being appointed to Westport, Co. Mayo in 1892 where he served until 1913. A fluent Gaelic speaker, he became a member of the Gaelic League, and was later elected to the executive of that organisation. The publication of his first novel “The Seething Pot” in 1905, gave rise to the false claim that he had caricatured the Parish Priest of Westport, and as a consequence he was boycotted by the local people. The unpleasantness which resulted spilled over into the Gaelic League, and Canon Hannay, the Church of Ireland Rector, was expelled from the organisation.
He continued to write, and in 1913 his most famous play “General John Regan” was produced, by the legendary Charles Hawtrey, on the London stage, to much critical acclaim. When the same play was later put on in Westport by a touring company, it led to riots similar to those experienced during the Abbey Theatre presentation of Synge’s “The Playboy of the Western World” in 1907. In both instances, the audiences felt outraged at the perceived insult to pure-minded Irish nationalism by the realism of the playwright’s characters.
Hannay was a prolific writer, but the difficulties presented for him in his West of Ireland parish prompted him to enlist as an army chaplin in France during World War I. On his return from the War in 1918, he was appointed to the Parish of Carnalway just outside Kilcullen, where he remained for two years before finally leaving Ireland.
His biography “Pleasant Places” was published in 1934, and in it he recounts his time in Carnalway, a Parish “without a village and no shop of any kind”. Referring to Carnalway as “pleasant and interesting”, Canon Hannay recalls that “there was one pillar box into which we used to drop our letters. If we ran short of stamps we dropped the necessary pennies into the box along with our letters and the Postman who emptied the box stamped the letters”.
The idyllic lifestyle of another era ended when he left to take up an appointment as a Church of England Minister in France and later in England. Canon Hannay, who died in 1950, was writing up to the end and his last book, “Two Scamps”, was published just shortly before he died. In all, his published works amounted to over 70 novels, plays and works of non-fiction. His short sojourn in County Kildare coincided with the publication of “The Island Mystery” in 1918, “A Padre in France” in 1918, “An Irish Man Looks At His World” in 1919, “Our Casualty” in 1919, “Up The Rebels” in 1919 and “Inisheeny” in 1920.
As a novelist, playwright and humorist, George A. Bermingham, alias Canon James Hannay, was a better writer than many who have achieved greater literary fame. His books, which give an insight into Ireland of another time, deserve a wide readership amongst the present generation, and it is hoped that their re-issue will be taken up by some enterprising publisher.
George Bermingham - Canon James Hannay and Carnalway Kilcullen
Carnalway, near Kilcullen, is noted in “Monastican Hibernicum” as the site of a monastery founded in 1486 for Franciscans of the Strict Observance, by Sir Richard Eustace, son of Sir Edward Eustace of Harristown, Lord Chancellor and Treasurer of Ireland. In 1831 the population of Carnalway was 1,291 and ten years later it was 1181. The local parish church, built at the expense of John Latouche of Harristown, was described by its Rector in 1918 as “very tiny but very attractive and except for the Tower which is older, was built in the Hiberno Romanesque style, being a copy of the ancient Chapel of King Cormac in Cashel”.
The Rector was Canon James Owen Hannay, an Irish writer whose literary efforts, like those of his contemporary, the once famous Kerry playwright George Fitzmaurice, are largely neglected today. Canon Hannay, who wrote under the pseudonym George A. Bermingham, was born in Belfast on the 16th of July 1865, the son of a clergyman. Ordained for the Church of Ireland in 1889 he served as a curate in Delgany, Co. Wicklow before being appointed to Westport, Co. Mayo in 1892 where he served until 1913. A fluent Gaelic speaker, he became a member of the Gaelic League, and was later elected to the executive of that organisation. The publication of his first novel “The Seething Pot” in 1905, gave rise to the false claim that he had caricatured the Parish Priest of Westport, and as a consequence he was boycotted by the local people. The unpleasantness which resulted spilled over into the Gaelic League, and Canon Hannay, the Church of Ireland Rector, was expelled from the organisation.
He continued to write, and in 1913 his most famous play “General John Regan” was produced, by the legendary Charles Hawtrey, on the London stage, to much critical acclaim. When the same play was later put on in Westport by a touring company, it led to riots similar to those experienced during the Abbey Theatre presentation of Synge’s “The Playboy of the Western World” in 1907. In both instances, the audiences felt outraged at the perceived insult to pure-minded Irish nationalism by the realism of the playwright’s characters.
Hannay was a prolific writer, but the difficulties presented for him in his West of Ireland parish prompted him to enlist as an army chaplin in France during World War I. On his return from the War in 1918, he was appointed to the Parish of Carnalway just outside Kilcullen, where he remained for two years before finally leaving Ireland.
His biography “Pleasant Places” was published in 1934, and in it he recounts his time in Carnalway, a Parish “without a village and no shop of any kind”. Referring to Carnalway as “pleasant and interesting”, Canon Hannay recalls that “there was one pillar box into which we used to drop our letters. If we ran short of stamps we dropped the necessary pennies into the box along with our letters and the Postman who emptied the box stamped the letters”.
The idyllic lifestyle of another era ended when he left to take up an appointment as a Church of England Minister in France and later in England. Canon Hannay, who died in 1950, was writing up to the end and his last book, “Two Scamps”, was published just shortly before he died. In all, his published works amounted to over 70 novels, plays and works of non-fiction. His short sojourn in County Kildare coincided with the publication of “The Island Mystery” in 1918, “A Padre in France” in 1918, “An Irish Man Looks At His World” in 1919, “Our Casualty” in 1919, “Up The Rebels” in 1919 and “Inisheeny” in 1920.
As a novelist, playwright and humorist, George A. Bermingham, alias Canon James Hannay, was a better writer than many who have achieved greater literary fame. His books, which give an insight into Ireland of another time, deserve a wide readership amongst the present generation, and it is hoped that their re-issue will be taken up by some enterprising publisher.
The Rector was Canon James Owen Hannay, an Irish writer whose literary efforts, like those of his contemporary, the once famous Kerry playwright George Fitzmaurice, are largely neglected today. Canon Hannay, who wrote under the pseudonym George A. Bermingham, was born in Belfast on the 16th of July 1865, the son of a clergyman. Ordained for the Church of Ireland in 1889 he served as a curate in Delgany, Co. Wicklow before being appointed to Westport, Co. Mayo in 1892 where he served until 1913. A fluent Gaelic speaker, he became a member of the Gaelic League, and was later elected to the executive of that organisation. The publication of his first novel “The Seething Pot” in 1905, gave rise to the false claim that he had caricatured the Parish Priest of Westport, and as a consequence he was boycotted by the local people. The unpleasantness which resulted spilled over into the Gaelic League, and Canon Hannay, the Church of Ireland Rector, was expelled from the organisation.
He continued to write, and in 1913 his most famous play “General John Regan” was produced, by the legendary Charles Hawtrey, on the London stage, to much critical acclaim. When the same play was later put on in Westport by a touring company, it led to riots similar to those experienced during the Abbey Theatre presentation of Synge’s “The Playboy of the Western World” in 1907. In both instances, the audiences felt outraged at the perceived insult to pure-minded Irish nationalism by the realism of the playwright’s characters.
Hannay was a prolific writer, but the difficulties presented for him in his West of Ireland parish prompted him to enlist as an army chaplin in France during World War I. On his return from the War in 1918, he was appointed to the Parish of Carnalway just outside Kilcullen, where he remained for two years before finally leaving Ireland.
His biography “Pleasant Places” was published in 1934, and in it he recounts his time in Carnalway, a Parish “without a village and no shop of any kind”. Referring to Carnalway as “pleasant and interesting”, Canon Hannay recalls that “there was one pillar box into which we used to drop our letters. If we ran short of stamps we dropped the necessary pennies into the box along with our letters and the Postman who emptied the box stamped the letters”.
The idyllic lifestyle of another era ended when he left to take up an appointment as a Church of England Minister in France and later in England. Canon Hannay, who died in 1950, was writing up to the end and his last book, “Two Scamps”, was published just shortly before he died. In all, his published works amounted to over 70 novels, plays and works of non-fiction. His short sojourn in County Kildare coincided with the publication of “The Island Mystery” in 1918, “A Padre in France” in 1918, “An Irish Man Looks At His World” in 1919, “Our Casualty” in 1919, “Up The Rebels” in 1919 and “Inisheeny” in 1920.
As a novelist, playwright and humorist, George A. Bermingham, alias Canon James Hannay, was a better writer than many who have achieved greater literary fame. His books, which give an insight into Ireland of another time, deserve a wide readership amongst the present generation, and it is hoped that their re-issue will be taken up by some enterprising publisher.
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