Patrick J. Farragher was a dark-complexioned individual but was otherwise of regular features. His heavy moustache gave him a military appearance. Up to September 1879, Farragher held the lease to a farm on the Mannin Estate in Aghamore.
Six months earlier, Farragher attended a meeting at Aghamore where a land agent named Blake was denounced. Michael Davitt and John W. Walsh of the Land League were at the meeting. Afterwards, Farragher met Davitt and Walsh. He later contended they encouraged him to withhold twenty-five per cent of his rent, telling him that should he be evicted, they would find a position with the Land League for him.
After his eviction, Farragher lived in Dublin with another Mayo man, a Fenian, Thomas Weldon. Weldon had been tried and acquitted of the murder of James Young of Harristown, Castlerea, in June 1877. After nine months, Farragher was appointed to the position of clerk in the legal department of the Land League at its offices on Upper Sackville Street, Dublin. When the league was suppressed, Farragher went to work for the league's legal adviser, a man named McGough.
In the autumn of 1882, the Swinford Union Board of Guardians proposed appointing Farragher as a relieving officer. The Local Government Board in Dublin informed them that Farragher was not a fit and proper person. Farragher was not engaged. When the Ballinrobe Union Board of Guardians proposed appointing him workhouse master in November 1882, the board again raised a red flag. The Ballinrobe Guardians insisted on a public inquiry to clear their man of allegations of immorality and drunkenness. Farragher acknowledged there were issues, noting that he was a 'celebrity of the turf' and had mended his ways. Farragher was appointed master in January 1883. By August 1883, the guardians may have regretted their decision. Farragher was called before them to explain why he was absent from the workhouse. He made his excuses, and the guardians accepted them.
Honora Byrne was a Galway woman, an experienced nurse, and matron of Ballinrobe Workhouse. She became an officer of the Ballinrobe Union in 1872 at 30. Byrne had considerable difficulty with the appointment of Farragher. Farragher responded by actively undermining and discrediting her. In conjunction with a nurse named O'Malley, he sought to exclude Byrne from the workhouse infirmary. Several public inquiries followed complaints by Byrne against Farragher and O'Malley. Byrne highlighted alleged misconduct and failings in the care given to workhouse inmates. In the first inquiry in 1885, the Local Government Board did not uphold her complaints. Complaints in 1887 of insubordination by O'Malley were upheld, and O'Malley was reprimanded. In August 1887, Byrne complained about an immoral act she witnessed between Farragher and O'Malley. Byrne was not believed at the Local Government Board inquiry that followed. Ballinrobe Board of Guardians dismissed her but reinstated her on 15 September 1887 following a public outcry. Byrne was fortunate and learned from the episode.
Byrne then built a solid evidence-based case against Farragher and O'Malley centred on the state of the infirmary and the condition of the patients. She brought forward evidence of vermin infestations on the persons of inmates, on clothes, and on bedding. She detailed appalling neglect of four men, two of whom had died. She highlighted untreated bed sores on male patients, the absence of the doctor from the workhouse and failings by the head nurse. In parallel, several complaints were made by inmates against Farragher. A public inquiry in September 1888 led to the dismissal of Farragher and O'Malley. Honora Byrne retired due to illness in 1909 and was awarded the highest pension permissible for her services.
In January 1889, Farragher gave evidence at the Parnell Commission on Parnellism and Crime. In cross-examination, Farragher detailed the workings of the Land League, including fundraising activities and explained he delivered letters, telegrams, and cheques for the league to James Mullett's public house and other locations. Farragher disclosed the names of senior operatives in the Land League and details of the Ladies Land League. He admitted accompanying Weldon to England to deposit money at the Hibernian Bank. His evidence was the highlight of an otherwise dull inquiry.
Image: Ballinrobe Workhouse, www.buildingsofireland.ie
