Search Results for 'Michael Davitt'

A new exhibition celebrating the historic links between one of Mayo’s greatest patriots, Michael Davitt, and the Scottish football club, Glasgow Celtic, was officially opened at the Michael Davitt Museum in Straide last Friday.

The threat of another famine in 1879, within living memory of the horror and catastrophe of the Great Famine some 29 years earlier, brought renewed terror to the vulnerable tenant farmers in the west of Ireland. This time it was not just the humble potato, but severe weather conditions which devastated crops and feed stuffs over a three year period. Farm incomes dropped dramatically, landlords fussed that rents would not be paid. Whereas some landlords were patient, others warned that evictions would follow if rents were not paid on time.

Week III

The succession by the infamous Marcella Netterville to a large estate near Mount Bellew, Co Galway, in the 1820s owed as much to chance as it was to her unlikely mother-in-law, with the wonderful name, Kitty Cut-a-Dash. The Nettervilles were an ancient Norman family, who came to Galway from County Meath after purchasing land from the Bellew family. A judicious marriage with the Trenchs of Garbally, Ballinasloe, increased their holdings. It appears that for a time both the Nettervilles and their tenants lived at peace and in some prosperity, at least until Frederick Netterville began to spread his wild oats somewhat wide of the field.

He is one of Mayo’s most famous sons who came to be known as a world renowned social activist, human rights campaigner, a statesman and an author, described as the Nelson Mandela of his era.

A Great Famine grave in Swinford, where 564 victims are buried, has been restored and commemorated.

On Tuesday March 12 one of Mayo’s finest young traditional musicians took centre stage as a guest artist for the Department of Education and Skills’ Conference on Qualifications organised as part of Ireland’s EU presidency. Nominated by Music Generation Mayo, harpist Alannah Thornburgh performed to an audience of international delegates at the event in Dublin Castle.

Sinn Féin councillor Thérèse Ruane has expressed her disappointment that the Community Employment Scheme based at the Davitt Museum in Straide will cease today, Friday, November 30. She is appealing to the Davitt committee to reverse this decision to ensure that the museum can remain open and that the jobs of 21 workers can be saved and that the legacy of Michael Davitt be kept alive in the place of his birth.

The Mayo Association Dublin is hosting a memorial lecture to one of Mayo’s great heroes, Michael Davitt, on Friday April 20 at 7.30pm at the Garda Club, Harrington Street, Dublin 2.

Go ahead punk, make my day. Just picture the scene. Dirty Harry aka Phil Hogan pointing his pistol in the face of the nation and asking “Do you feel lucky, You’re asking, did I fire five or did I fire six?” Yes, folk’s with just 72 hours until the deadline for the Household Charge, the country and the Government are playing the ultimate game of brinksmanship.