I.R.A. and the War of Independence in North County Longford

County Longford or more specifically East Longford’s earliest identifiable connection with the Irish Republican movement was the election of Joseph McGuinness, the Sinn Fein Candidate in the bye-election of May 1917. McGuinness who was a prison in Lewes Jail in England defeated the Home Rule candidate with Sinn Fein using the slogan ‘Put him in to get him out’ for the first time. It was a slogan which would be used in many subsequent elections to equally good effect. Not so well known is that during the War of Independence County Longford, and particularly the northern part of the county saw more I.R.A. activity than any other County with the exception of those in the Munster region. Longford’s part in that campaign now forms part of the story of Longford’s Republicanism which has been written by former librarian Sean O’Suilleabhain. It follows on an earlier book dealing with Leitrim’s Republican story written by his son Cormac and Marie Coleman’s excellent book ‘County Longford and The Irish Revolution 1910-1923’ published in 2003. County Longford was my fathers home County and it was there that several generations of the Taaffe’s farmed near to the Cavan border in the townlands of Legga and Moyne. My father and his four brothers attended the National School in Moyne and it was that same school many years later my brother George joined as the school principal. My father was the youngest of five brothers, two of whom emigrated to America as soon as they reached adulthood. The oldest, my uncle George fought as an American infantry soldier in World War 1. The next two brothers James and Frank were each in time to take over the running of family farms in Legga and Moyne while my father was a pupil in the Patrician College in Ballyfin and later in the Teachers Training College in Dublin. It was in Legga that Michael Collins addressing a public meeting on 3rd March 1918 said, ‘when the Volunteers raid for arms they will go where they will find ones that will be of some use to them.’ It was for this speech that Collins was later arrested and lodged in Sligo jail. James Taaffe and Frank Taaffe were members of the Dromard Company, Fifth Battalion I.R.A., a fact not previously known to me but confirmed by the listings in O’Suilleabhain’s book. The leading Longford I.R.A. man during the War of Independence was Sean Mac Eoin, known as the legendary ‘Blacksmith of Ballinalee’ whose biography written by Padraic O’Farrell was published by Mercier Press in 1981. Mac Eoin led the search for arms which Collins had encouraged and the first serious engagement with British forces was an unsuccessful attack on Drumlish R.I.C. barracks on the 5th January 1920. A later attack on the well-fortified Ballinamuck Barracks again led by Mac Eoin resulted in the destruction of that building. The I.R.A. attack on Ballymahon R.I.C. barracks on the 19th August 1920 was the Longford Volunteers first real success when the I.R.A. men led by Mac Eoin captured the barracks, accepted the surrender of the R.I.C. men and captured their weapons. Arva, the nearest village to the Taaffe homesteads saw an I.R.A. attack on the R.I.C. Barracks on the 2nd October 1920. The barracks was set on fire and again the I.R.A. men seized a large quantity of ammunition and guns. The shooting dead of R.I.C. Inspector Philip Kelleher by the IRA while he was drinking in Kiernan’s Greville Arms Hotel, Granard on the 21st October 1920 resulted in the ransacking of the town by Black and Tans three days later. The most famous War of Independence battle in County Longford took place in Sean Mac Eoin’s own village of Ballinalee over two days starting on the 3rd November 1920. The battle of Ballinalee is an important part of County Longford’s War of Independence story as it was there that a superb defence was put up by Mac Eoin’s men in defiance of a much superior military force. The battle ended with the withdrawal of the British forces, an outcome which helped create the legend of the fearless Sean Mac Eoin, who received an address from Athlone U.D.C. on his takeover of Athlone military barracks on 28th February 1922 which included the lines, ‘as long as the story of Ireland lasts Ballinalee and its hero will be written large upon its pages.’ Into February 1921, the war continued and the Clonfin ambush of 2nd February where a British convoy was attacked and the British Commander Francis Craven killed resulted in the surrender of its men. The action at Clonfin became another famous and memorable I.R.A. victory in the War of Independence in County Longford. The day after the ambush, the British Troops carried out numerous reprisals in and around the north of the county. Granard in North County Longford was the home of Michael Collins’s fiancé Kitty Kiernan. County Longford was also the home of Ruairi O’Bradaigh, President of Sinn Fein and one time chief of staff of the modern day I.R.A. His story and that of the Republicans of the past and recent decades is outlined in O’Suilleabhain’s interesting book which adds an amount of colourful detail to the story first told in Marie Coleman’s book almost 20 years ago.

Visit of Manchester Mayor to Athy

On St. Patrick’s Day 1922, the Royal Irish Constabulary barracks on Barrack Lane, Athy was taken over by members of the Irish Free State forces. The building, erected in the early years of the 18th century and occupied as a cavalry barracks by the Princess Charlotte of Wales Dragoon Guards in 1716, was used as an R.I.C. barracks from 1889. Following the Barrowhouse ambush on 16th May 1921 in which William Connor and James Lacey were killed the Athy barracks was attacked by the I.R.A. without any loss of life on either side. On Friday the 17th of March, 100 years ago at 12.30 in the afternoon, after the R.I.C. police men and the few remaining British military had departed, the barracks was taken over by I.R.A. officers and men who paraded down by Barrack Lane led by Commandant Finn of the Carlow/Kildare Brigade. The Irish tricolour was hoisted over the building and so ended 700 years of English rule in the former fortress town of Athy. 100 years later, St. Patrick’s Day 2022 witnessed another parade, this time through the principal streets of Athy led by an English politician - the Mayor of Manchester. The two parades distanced by several generations highlighted the ironies in the historical relationship between England and Ireland. That relationship was determined and regulated by the imperialistic nature of the British empire but despite this Irish men for centuries helped the English to keep control over its foreign colonies by serving in its armed forces. The relationship between the two countries is pitted with paradoxes and no place is that more evident than in the history of the Irish in Manchester. The late John Dowd, one of the founding members of the Irish Association in Manchester wrote of his experiences as an Irish immigrant. “When we left home we carried nothing with us except a strong religious faith and a strong desire for advancement ----- emigration was a leap into the unknown. It was an enormous intellectual and emotional commitment to leave home and loved ones and begin an adventure filled with incalculable uncertainty, risk and hardship”. Manchester over the years was to accept thousands of Irish immigrants like John Dowd despite periodic outbreaks of anti Irish violence in that city. The United Englishmen group organised in Manchester in 1798 was closely associated with the United Irishmen and following the passing of the Act of Union there were several riots in the city involving Orange Lodge members and emigrant Irish. The anti catholic and anti Irish riots in Stockport which followed the Pope’s announcement of the reestablishment of the Catholic Hierarchy in Britain in September 1850 was a difficult time for the Irish communities in Manchester. The Murphy riots followed with Catholic churches in Manchester attacked by followers of William Murphy, an Irish man who toured throughout England lecturing against the Church of Rome. Irish men and women living in Manchester were politically active and perhaps the best known of those Irish Activists was John Doherty, a Donegal man who was to the forefront in ending the Combination Acts which made trade unions illegal. He championed the workers cause and made a huge contribution to the British labour movement. Another Irish man with links to Manchester was Fergus O’Connor a leader of the Chartist movement in the 1830’s. In more recent years the Manchester Irish were represented by many Irish organisations including the Gaelic League and the now defunct anti Partition League while County Associations representing most of the Irish counties are to be found in Manchester. I had the privilege of attending the annual dinner of the Kildare Association in Manchester 25 or so years ago where I met it’s president Tony Connolly, formerly of Kilberry and met many more Kildare folk including my old friend Sarah Allen. It was Sarah who brought me to the “Fenian Arches”, the site of the Fenian ambush in 1867 which led to public hanging of Allen, Larkin and O’Brien. Later that same day I visited the Manchester martyrs memorial in Moston Cemetery. The history of the Irish and the English has been closely interlinked ever since the 13th century but in more recent years by emigration. The conflicts of the past were symbolically ended with the taking over of English military barracks such as Athy’s in March 1922. Family members of Irish emigrants now living in England have strengthened the bonds of friendship between the two countries even if England’s colonial past is still present in the partitioned six counties of Ireland. The visit of the Manchester Mayor to lead Athy’s St. Patrick’s Day parade confirms the unique bond between England and Ireland which despite our troubled history has been shaped and strengthened by many generations of Irish emigrants.

Discovery of Shackleton's 'Endurance'

For many years I have been fascinated by the drama and the tragedy of the sinking of the Titanic, partly inspired by a personal family connection to the event. I have written previously of my relation Ellen Corr, a third-class passenger, who survived the sinking and spent the rest of her life in New York. Invariably when a ship is lost at sea loss of life follows adding to the poignancy of these events. I well remember the excitement generated by the discovery of the Titanic in 1985 by the American Oceanographer Dr. Robert Ballard, southeast off the coast of Newfoundland at a depth of 3,800 metres. I had a similar reaction when my phone ‘pinged’ early last Wednesday morning with the news of the finding of the polar exploration ship, Endurance. It had disappeared into the watery depths of the Antarctic Seas 107 years ago and few of us believed it would ever be seen again. The Endurance was the ship which brought Ernest Shackleton and 27 other souls south to the Antarctic in 1914 with the ambitious aim to cross the Antarctic continent, some 2,400 kilometres from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea. The story is well known, how Endurance was crushed and sank beneath the ice in November 1915 and the epic journey to safety by Shackleton and his men over the following 9 months. It seemed unlikely, that after its mauling by the ice, that much of the Endurance would survive but like many of us I marvelled at the pristine imagery of the ship now sitting on the Antarctic seabed at a depth of 3,000 metres. Prominently in view was the lettering ‘Endurance’ on the stern of the ship above the five pointed star, a survival from its original name ‘Polaris’. Within hours the worlds media was in touch with the Shackleton Museum in Athy and contributions from the Museum’s directors featured in both print and television media both here and abroad. The Museum has in it’s collections a superb large scale model of the Endurance from the Channel 4 drama series ‘Shackleton’ which featured Belfast born Kenneth Branagh in the titular role. The Museum was delighted to be able to provide the ‘Irish’ angle to this breaking international story, a welcome respite to the darker stories that have dominated the news recently. With the return of the Shackleton Autumn School this October we will all have an opportunity to hear the full story of the search as Mensun Bound, one of the expeditions leaders, a distinguished Marine Archaeologist known as the ‘Indiana Jones of the Deep’, will be presenting a lecture at the weekend. Mensun, a proud Falkland Islander, came to Athy just before his departure on the Endurance 22 expedition, anxious to see Shackleton’s birthplace and to view the Museum’s expanding collection of Shackleton artefacts. The return of the Autumn School will be welcomed, marking as it will the renewal of acquaintances with visitors from here and abroad whom have made long lasting friendships with the town and its people. These connections have been sustained by virtual online events in 2020 and 2021 (Virtually Shackleton) but it is difficult to replicate the sense of togetherness which an ‘in person’ event gives to people. While the Endurance will remain on the seabed, I note press reports about the acquisition by the Irish state of two new ships for the Irish Naval Service from New Zealand. What better way to mark the centenary year of Shackleton’s death by having one of the ships named after the Kildare born explorer. His comrade in arms, Tom Crean, will be similarly celebrated with the launch of the marine research vessel ‘RV Tom Crean’ this summer which will be operated by the Marine Institute and other state agencies. Maybe 2022 will see the return of two Irish icons to the sea?

Joe Byrne Piper and Traditional Music in Athy

Last week’s release of local uilleann piper Joe Byrne’s CD ‘Uilleann Piping from County Kildare’ prompted me to look back over notes I wrote in 1996 after a visit to the weekly traditional music session in Clancys. That night’s session was marked by the appearance of 14 musicians, singers and the unique monologist Ger Moriarty. Ger, who came to Athy from Mullingar to work in M.G. Nolan’s drapery shop in Duke Street, was a regular at the weekly sessions with his witty monologues. I was presented some years later with a CD of Ger performing a number of his monologues which is a wonderful memento of a man who in his younger days acted in many of the plays put on by the Social Club Players in the Town Hall and St. John’s Hall. Others noted on that night 26 years ago were Mary Smith, singer and her husband Niall, a singer and guitar player. Dinny Langton and John Hayden were also singing that night, as was Ger Gibson whose Uncle Ned Whelan played the tin whistle. While I can’t now recall the ballads they sang that night, I do remember that their contributions were in the narrative ballad tradition which was and still is an important part of traditional Irish music sessions. I was told that Ned Whelan who was from Barrowhouse previously played the banjo, but I have since learned that he was an uilleann piper of note. Indeed, Ned had the unique honour of sharing many an uilleann piping session with the legendary uillean piper Johnny Doran and his brother Felix when they called to Ned’s forge in Barrowhouse whenever they were in the area. Uilleann piping was very much to the fore during the Clancy sessions, with piper Toss Quinn leading the session, assisted by fellow piper Seamus Byrne. Jimmy McDonnell from Skerries played the piano accordion, with Conor O’Carroll on tin whistle and Jack Dowling on button accordion. Conor has since made the transition to the uilleann pipes, following in the steps of many uilleann pipers including our own Brian Hughes who is a master piper and whistle player. Two other musicians who enlivened that night’s session were Tony Byrne on fiddle and Martin Cooney on banjo. Tony, a retired National school teacher, came from Glencolmcille in County Donegal to a school just across the county boundary in Laois in or around 1954. He was a great favourite of the Thursday night session in Clancys which today still continues after many decades. The earliest Clancy sessions may have been linked to the establishment of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann in 1951. I am unsure of this but certainly it seems that public house sessions replaced the private house sessions which were a regular feature of social life in rural Ireland up to the 1950s. Sadly many of those mentioned in this article are no longer with us but the memory of that night remains with me as I look forward to the musical career of the young Athy man Joe Byrne whose uilleann piping has now been recorded for posterity. Music has been an integral part of everyday life in Athy and South Kildare for many decades. Several pipe bands based in and around the Athy area had been noted in the early part of the last century. Fife and Drum bands were also a feature of life in Athy over many decades, helping to sustain the music tradition which would in time give rise to the local dance bands of the 1940s and the show bands of the 1960s. I have often wondered what part, if any, Athy’s music tradition played in shaping the extraordinary carer of Henry Phillips who was born in Athy in 1866. Phillips was the man who over a 60-year career as an impresario and owner of the world-renowned Carl Rosa Opera Company brought the world’s leading musicians and singers to venues in Northern Ireland, including Enrico Caruso to Belfast and John McCormack and Paul Robeson to Derry. Whatever about the Athy born Henry Phillips and his enormous contribution to the music scene in Northern Ireland over many decades, Athy has earned for itself over the years a very notable music tradition. Athy, the town where the legendary piper Felix Doran died, has now provided to the world of Irish traditional music two young pipers of exceptional merit. Athy man Brian Hughes, a master musician, has already reached out to a nationwide audience and indeed to an audience beyond this island of ours with his CDs of pipe and whistle music. He is now joined by Joe Byrne, another young Athy man whose recently launched CD of pipe music from County Kildare is Joe’s first venture into the Irish traditional recording scene. We wish him well.

Norwegian Ambassador to Ireland visits Athy

We welcomed the newly appointed Norwegian Ambassador to Ireland on a day long visit to the Shackleton Museum and Athy last Tuesday. Her Excellency, Miss Mari Skåre, was appointed just over 18 months ago. She had previously been the Norwegian Ambassador to Afghanistan and her most recent appointment was as Chef de Cabinet to the President of the 74th Session of the United Nations General Assembly where she oversaw the recent elections of Ireland to the Security Council. Athy and particularly the Shackleton Museum has had a long and fruitful association with the Norwegian Embassy extending over the last 15 years. Ambassador Skåre is now the 5th Ambassador to visit the Museum and like her predecessors was anxious to learn more about the town and its history. She began her visit at the Clanard Court Hotel where she met representatives of the National Ploughing Association. Coming from a country which prides itself on the support and assistance which it affords its agricultural sector, the Ambassador was anxious to learn more about the National Ploughing Championships which returns to Raheeniska in September 2022. She met two of the driving forces behind the event, Anna May McHugh and her daughter Ann Marie. The meeting was hosted in the Fennin family run Clanard Court Hotel and the Ambassador was particularly appreciative of the warm welcome she received there. The Ambassador next called to the Shackleton Museum which over the last decade and a half has fostered an enduring and growing relationship with the Fram Polar Museum in Oslo. The Ambassador had an opportunity to enjoy the exhibits in the Museum and also met with two pupils from Ardscoil na Tríonóide accompanied by their teacher, Mr. Paul Quinn, who outlined Shackleton related research which some of the schools pupils will be embarking upon shortly. The Ambassador was then treated to a presentation on the Museum redevelopment plans which will incorporate the ship’s cabin from RYS Quest. This is the ship’s cabin in which Shackleton died on 5th January 1922 and will form an important part of the Polar displays in the revamped and redesigned museum which is expected will open towards the end of 2023. The Ambassador was treated to lunch in O’Briens pub and grocery where she was intrigued to find that the O’Brien family have been running their Irish traditional grocery and pub business since the late 1870s. The Ambassador’s trip to Athy concluded with a visit to the Athy library, followed by a tour of the Boormalt malting facilities, better known locally as Minch Malting. Due to pressure of work I was unable to meet the Ambassador until the library visit where she was hugely impressed by what is a superb example of modern Irish architecture. The visit to Boormalt provided a remarkable insight into the present day malt manufacturing process. Athy now has one of the leading malt manufacturing plants anywhere in the world and is in fact the malting capital of Ireland, a role which has evolved since the founding of the Minch malting works in 1847. 2022 marks not only the centenary of the death of Shackleton, but also marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Roald Amundsen, the great Norwegian polar explorer who enjoyed a relationship of mutual respect and admiration with Shackleton. Athy’s Shackleton Museum and the Fram Museum in Oslo are planning a number of related events to commemorate these two anniversaries which will include lectures in Oslo and Athy. The joint publication of a book of commemorative essays and other planned events are yet to be finalised. On a day in which war broke out in Ukraine the Ambassador reflected on the importance of fostering good relationships between the countries on this globe and regarded the ongoing cooperation between the museums in both Oslo and Athy as an indication of the positive outcomes that can develop from such relationships.