Search Results for 'Frederick Cavendish'

Castlebar Fever Hospital was the first structure demolished in 1965 when works on what would become the Sacred Heart Hospital commenced. The Fever Hospital and the Workhouse that shadowed it are at the top of the list of former public spaces in Castlebar with a dark and terrible history.

On this day, 193 years ago, Frederick Cavendish launched the Connaught Telegraph in Castlebar. Three days later, the Freeman's Journal noted that the paper's first edition 'evidences a great deal of talent in its conductors.' Sometime after the death of Cavendish, it came to be understood that the Connaught Telegraph was founded in 1828. This error was not subsequently corrected.

The Maamtrasna Murders happened at a time of deep unrest in Ireland. Three years previously, the most effective protest against the insidious landlord domination of the vast majority of the Irish people found expression in the Land League. It was established on October 21 1879, in the Imperial Hotel, Castlebar, by a former Fenian prisoner Michael Davitt. In a sweeping revolutionary statement, the League proclaimed the right of every tenant farmer to own the land he worked on. Because of the abuses heaped on tenants by some landlords, it had an immediate impact.

Faction fighting and duelling were common in Mayo well into the 19th century. Duelling with swords or pistols was the preserve of gentleman and military men. On the other hand, faction fights were fought with sticks, clubs, stones, and other instruments of bludgeon by large numbers of people who gathered after Mass or at fairs, patterns, or other events.

Anyone who has watched 'The Duchess', the 2008 film adaptation of Amanda Foreman's excellent biography of Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, will be aware of the sad parallels between the life of Georgiana and Lady Diana Spencer. Georgiana's maiden name was Spencer; she was Diana's four times great aunt. Spencer Street, Spencer Park and the former Spencer Park House took their names from the Spencer family. In 1781, Lady Lavinia Bingham, daughter of Charles Bingham, 1st Earl of Lucan, married George Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer. George was Georgiana's brother.

One does not have to dig very deep into the archives to find evidence of wholescale corruption, pervasive nepotism, and general theft of public monies by public representatives and officials in nineteenth-century Mayo.

On a Sunday in March 1847, John Hogan, Secretary of the Castlebar Evangelical Relief Committee, was walking on Gallows Hill, Castlebar, when he was drawn into a cabin.

Like the many, I too have travelled the route to England through the port of Holyhead and then onwards east through Wales until the seemingly unintelligible road signs suddenly appear comprehensible.

In 1887 Arthur J Balfour, a quintessential English unionist, was appointed chief secretary of Ireland by his uncle Lord Salisbury, the Conservative prime minister. No one expected much from this man whose appointment appeared so nepotistic as to suggest he was an incompetent. He was far from that.