Search Results for 'Fr Griffin'

Patrick O’Flaherty bought an old thatch cottage in 1901 and converted it into a two-storey house which would become Numbers 15 and 16 Upper Dominick Street, part of which became a small shop operated by his wife Aggie (née Staunton) and part became O’Flaherty’s Garage. They operated a hackney service and advertised “Galway’s leading hire service in luxurious charabancs and motors (touring and saloon). All tours through beautiful Conemara radiate regularly from O’Flaherty’s”.

On November 14, 1920, a young curate, Father Michael Griffin, was lured from his house at No 2 Montpellier Terrace by the Black and Tans. Whatever ruse they used to get him out of the house, it was not to go on a sick call, as he did not take the holy oils or the Eucharist with him, but went peacefully. He went missing and volunteers and search parties were organised and combed the city and surrounding countryside looking for him. A week later his body was found buried in a bog at Cloch Sgoilte in Barna. There was an international outcry. He had worked in the parish of Rahoon since June 1918 and was hugely popular. He spoke in Irish to young and old, organised feiseanna, currach races, and donkey races on Silver Strand. He was very republican and was suspected by the Tans of having heard the last confession of the informer Patrick Joyce, which was probably the reason why they abducted him and tried to extract the identity of Joyce's killers from him.

The Annual Memorial Mass and Commemoration in memory of Fr Michael Griffin will take place on Sunday November 21.

PERSONAL BELONGINGS of IRA volunteer Seamus Quirk and Fr Michael Griffin; Bronze Age artefacts from Dún Aonghasa; the myths of the River Corrib; and an exploration of Gaelic Ireland - there is a wealth of local and Irish history to be experienced at the Galway City Museum.

Galway City Museum will reopen its doors on Tuesday May 18 at 10am. Visitors will have access to both the ground floor and first floor galleries. The second floor will remain closed until the new Sea Science exhibition works have been completed.

At about 3pm on the afternoon of Saturday, November 20, 1920, William Duffy of Cloghscoilte near Barna was driving cattle locally when one of them got stuck in the mud. William noticed part of a coat sticking out of the gap, so he went for his neighbours Patrick and Thomas Lydon, and later Patrick Cloherty and Patrick Concannon from Truskey joined them at what turned out to be a grave. They uncovered part of the body and realised that it was that of Fr Griffin. They decided to wait until it was dark so they covered up the body again, afraid that the Tans might return to remove it. William Duffy rode on horseback into Fr O’Meehan in Montpellier Terrace to inform him of the tragedy. Fr O’Meehan, Fr Sexton, and Canon Considine then hired Patsy Flaherty’s side car and went out to Clochscoilte.

A programme of Commemorative events has been organised to commemorate the centenary of the murder of Fr Michael Griffin during the War of Independence.

Michael Joseph Griffin was born on September 18, 1892, in Gurteen in east Galway, one of five children of Thomas Griffin and Mary Kyne. He was educated locally, then in St Joseph’s College, Ballinasloe, and finally in Maynooth. He was ordained in April 1917 and was seconded to the Galway diocese. He worked for a year in Ennistymon and in June 1918 was transferred to the parish of Rahoon which stretched from the river out to Furbo and Corcullen. He developed a great rapport with the children of the parish, spoke in Irish to young and old, organised feiseanna, currach races, and donkey races on Silver Strand.

Patrick Joyce was born at Lisheenagaoithe, near Headford, on May 23, 1868. He became a monitor teacher in 1884, taught in Cloghanover School for two years, later as principal of Trabane, and then Tiernee in the parish of Carraroe. In 1892 he married Margaret Donohue. He was eventually appointed as principal of Barna National School and his wife taught in Boleybeg National School.

Edward Krumm was 5ft 11in, 26 years old, a bachelor and a member of the Church of England from Middlesex. He was a lorry driver with the Black and Tans and had been in Galway three weeks when he arranged to meet a civilian driver he had come to know in a pub in Abbeygate Street. This man, Christopher Yorke, described Krumm as a “generally reckless fellow who drank a lot”. Krumm was fairly drunk, brandishing a revolver and bragging that he could knock the neck off a bottle at 10 yards' range, and apparently shot at a few bottles in the pub.