‘They all died well, but MacDonagh died like a prince.’

Thu, Apr 28, 2016

Padraic Pearse, the self-identified President of the Provisional Government, and Commandant-General of the Army of the Irish Republic was rushed to the gallows, or in this case to the grim stonebreakers yard at Kilmainham jail.

‘If we do nothing else we shall rid Ireland of three bad poets’

Thu, Apr 21, 2016

Poetry more than any other art form is intimately connected with the events of Easter 1916. Three of the executed signatories of the Proclamation, Padraic Pearse, Thomas MacDonagh (Tomás Mac Donnchadha) and Joseph Mary Plunkett were recognised poets of their day, who had used their poems to espouse the cause of revolutionary nationalism.

‘The face and voice of the coming revolution’

Thu, Apr 14, 2016

Week IV
It was a strange coincidence that within a mile or so of Pearse’s cottage at Ros Muc is the handsome Inver Lodge where William Humble Ward, 2nd Earl of Dudley, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1902-1905) would stay for the summer, fishing and touring Connemara. Lord Dudley represented the might and power of imperial Britain; while close by was Padraig Pearse, the man who would vow to wrench Ireland away from its grip.

The gentle warrior within the man

Thu, Apr 07, 2016

Between 1903 and 1915 Padraig Pearse spent as much time time as he could salvage from the press of affairs in Dublin at Ros Muc. In 1907 he built a cottage overlooking lake Eileabhrach. He became a familiar figure and popular in the neighbourhood. He was known affectionately as ‘An Piarsach.’ As well as his political speeches and editorials for An Claidheamh Soluis (The Sword of Light), he absorbed the culture and language of the people, and wrote short stories and poems.

A family visit to Ros Muc

Thu, Mar 31, 2016

I have been asked how did Pádraig Pearse travel to Ros Muc in the first place, surely it was a burdensome task to get there from Dublin. He had no car, but a bicycle which he kept at his cottage.

The stranger standing at Maam Cross Station

Thu, Mar 24, 2016

There was a humorous mix-up when Pádraig Pearse first visited Ros Muc in 1903. He was 24 years of age, and already imbued by a passion, and a vision for the Ireland of the new century. *

Galway’s literary review attracts new talent

Wed, Mar 16, 2016

Éamon Ó Cuiv TD has had his first tentative piece of literary writing published in the current The Galway Review (volume 4). It is a competent piece of writing, and no one would have expected anything less, from the young Lochinvar who rides out of the west to astounding political victories every time. He wrote a review of Daniel Sammon’s Croagh Patrick and Me, Ireland’s holy mountain, which he can probably see from his kitchen window.

We remain much the same as one hundred years ago

Thu, Mar 10, 2016

One of the most imaginative ideas to mark the 1916 centenary is the 100 To One Project. Three Galway photographers, Enda O’Loughlin, Ian McDonald, Bill Barry, and journalist Caroline Whelan, worked together to produce a book containing 100 photographs of local people aged from 100 years old to a few months. With the exception of the ‘few months’ and other small children, all tell the story of their lives so far.

The authors did chose some high profile characters such as politicians, sports stars, and artists, to get the project going. But through Facebook, and advertisements in the local press, they invited people to come forward. The real power of the book is the stories these people tell, and their Galway faces, many of whom we recognise. Surprisingly despite the enormous political changes during that time, we, as a community, have remained much the same.

Has Ireland become a ‘hellhole’ of socialism?

Thu, Mar 03, 2016

Bill O’Reilly, the host of Fox News’s ‘The O’Reilly Factor,‘ is threatening to flee America if Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont — the self-described democratic socialist who is running for the Democratic Party nomination — is elected president. As quoted in the Huffington Post, O’Reilly said:

1916 - 1922 A time of courage, and divided loyalties

Thu, Feb 18, 2016

I have written before about a terrifying night in Galway when the Black and Tans went berserk following an incident at Galway railway station on September 8 1920. A drunken Tan, Edward Krumm, confronted the crowd of passengers as they emerged from the train. He produced a pistol and began to fire into the air, causing widespread panic. Séan Mulvoy jumped on his back but Krumm managed to shoot him as they fell to the ground. In turn a man stepped from the crowd and shot Krumm dead.

Some Galway women in 1916

Thu, Feb 11, 2016

‘The main cause of disloyalty in the county,’ wrote the RIC inspector for Galway East 1916, ‘were the priests and the women of Athenry!’

Remarks ‘Unworthy of the men in the Dáil’

Thu, Feb 04, 2016

I have written before how records from the Military Pensions Archive show that more than 200 members of Cumman na mBan, some who had sustained injuries and took risks with their lives participating in military action both during the Easter Rising, and in the subsequent War of Independence, were refused a pension because the pension was only applicable ‘to soldiers as generally understood in the masculine sense’.*

Dáil Eireann - ‘The only Government that I recognise’

Thu, Jan 28, 2016

Following the throwing out of the so called Galway Resolution in December 1920, by which some Galway county councilors attempted to reject the authority of the newly elected Dáil, to rescind the process of passing on the rates' revenues to the Dáil (rather than to the British authorities); and to absurdly propose to bring the War of Independence to a close by directly offering to negotiate with the British prime minster David Lloyd George, the council'c vice-chairman, Alice Cashel, was arrested almost immediately.

‘The Galway Resolution’ - An attempted coup by some county councillors

Fri, Jan 22, 2016

On December 3 1920, at the height of the War of Independence, quite an extraordinary event happened in Galway County Council. It passed a resolution, known as ‘The Galway Resolution’, repudiating the authority of the newly established Dáil; it rescinded the resolution for the collection of rates, (which were collected locally, and passed on to Dáil Éireann, and not to the British authorities), and incredibly, Galway County Council now offered its offices to negotiate peace, directly with the British prime minister, David Lloyd George.

It was an extraordinary development after a terrible year of violence, and sacrifice in Galway. That year, 1920, saw murder and mayhem come to a climax.

Soldiers of 1916 - ‘generally understood in the masculine sense’

Thu, Jan 14, 2016

Despite the crucial role many women played in the 1916 Rising, very few were given the credit they deserved. In fact some were refused a pension for many years because they were not ‘men’. In at least one case, the valiant role played by Nurse Elizabeth O’Farrell was simply airbrushed out of history.

‘What the hell is going on?’

Thu, Jan 07, 2016

‘What the hell is going on?’ appears to be what the British Prime Minister Herbert H Asquith, is thinking as he disembarks at Dun Laoghaire on May 12 1916, almost three weeks after the Easter Rising. Following six days of intensive fighting, Dublin city centre was unrecogniseable. Practically all its main buildings were destroyed either by artillery fire or burnt out. The list of casualities was horrendous. One hundred and sixteen army dead, 368 wounded, and nine missing. Sixteen policemen died, and 29 wounded. And this at a time when Britain was fighting an appalling war in France, which seemed unending, and its mounting causalities were not only threatening his government’s survival, but had filled the British people with dread and alarm.

‘When I makes tea I makes tea, and when I makes water I makes water’

Wed, Dec 23, 2015

part II
James Joyce’s famous novel Ulysses describes the appointments and encounters of Leopold Bloom as he wanders through Dublin on an ordinary day, June 16 1904.

Christmas dinner with the Misses Morkan

Thu, Dec 17, 2015

We get out of bed at nine, and Nora makes chocolate. At midday we have lunch which we (or rather she) buys (soup, meat, potatoes and some thing else)...At 4 o’clock we have chocolate, and at 8 o’clock dinner which Nora cooks.

‘Coming in from the cold’ at UCG

Thu, Dec 10, 2015

Even the master of intrigue himself, John le Carré, would have been mystified at the bizarre challenges the late Labhrás Ó Nualláin was presented with when he applied for a lectureship in economics, commerce and accountancy (through Irish) at University College Galway in 1953.

Why Irish women are on the borderline of lunacy!

Thu, Dec 03, 2015

Poor Irish women. The journey from Peig Sayers to Miriam O’ Callaghan has not been an easy one, and for many women simply unattainable. While in that time, men have found new confidence in the worlds of business, science, sport, teaching and the professions (even having the confidence to wreck the country in a spectacular fashion, as they did some years ago), women, in a patriarchal society, are still struggling to find their own expression, to escape the dominance of the Catholic Church, and, in the views of author Emma Comerford, ‘to control the tendency towards alcohol abuse and other manifestations of low self-esteem’.

It is a serious matter. Recently we have all read the stories of women seeking equality in the boardroom, the Dáil and the Seanad; and an appropriate acknowledgement for their role in our history. Even to secure a place on the stage of the national theatre, which was originally founded by a Galway woman, the great Lady Augusta Gregory, has been difficult, if not impossible. And much more.

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