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1787 Clonakilty Memorial Signed by 19 Good Law Abiding Citizens.  To suppress Riotous and Illegal Meetings and Combinations

John T. Collins Extraction of Cork Newspaper Extracts 1753-1784.

John T. Collins Extraction of Cork Newspaper Extracts 1753-1784.

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Re Peadar Ó hAnnracháin. Peadar was a wonderful Conradh na Gaeilge organiser throughout a number of counties including Cork and he wrote several books as Gaeilge. He also wrote on the Southern Star as ‘Cois Life’ in the 1940s and 1950s. In that period he worked in the Pigs and Bacon Commission in Dublin.  The column often wandered over long lost history, family relationships and there was a touch of the ‘Seanachaí’ about them.  The daughter of the Gaelic Scholar, landowner and businessman in Ballydehob Thomas Swanton, Crianlarich, gave him her father’s papers.

One of 13 children, 10 of whom survived and the majority emigrated.

In Colaiste Chairbhe (owned by Judge Devoy, New York, later Tony O’Reilly, former CEO, Heinz Corporation).

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1641.  Listing of West Cork Gentry Indicted for ‘Treason’ at  Youghal Quarter Sessions

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rqooHGaNMgSKBGXaY3_Ls5WcVYfiu8nQGUr6k45KT_w/edit

Bandon Census

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Courtesy Peadar Ó h-Anracháin, Southern Star, Cois Life (Dublin Letter).

Peadar O’Hourihane, Raiceadoir/Auctioneer, Skibbereen

https://wordpress.com/post/durrushistory.com/40440

Gaelic League (Conradh na Gaeilge) Meeting addressed by Peadar Ó h-Anracháin, in Durrus, West Cork, 1905.

Gaelic League (Conradh na Gaeilge) Meeting addressed by Peadar Ó h-Anracháin, in Durrus, West Cork, 1905.

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https://wordpress.com/post/durrushistory.com/40367

1826 Subscription List New Catholic Chapel Ballydehob. Some Catholic Swantons.

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The Catholic `swantons of Kilcrohane adn Casper Wyoming descedn from a Ballydehob Mining Captain working on the Kilcrohane mines. He married a local woman. According to family tradition he continuet to worship at St.James in Durrus but the children were brought up as Catholics.

Subscription Lists, New Catholic Churches at East Schull 1825, Rosnacaheragh (Akakista) 1826, Durrus 1899.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dM5rsbc3AyTde6dJK7aWogFA2A85emvdb1g0M-4IRCs/edit

O’Driscoll Properties, Three Ploughlands in the 1630s from a Schedule of 1850 of The O’Donovan

The enclosed in a number of articles by Peadar O hAnracháin, in the Souther Star from thr mid 1940s his ‘Dublin Letter’

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mEc84UgnEmDBGiNgUUSEc_jnMaZO9mUoTE28DWIr9_8/edit

O’Driscoll pages 84-86

Futher information p. 86-95

Ceárdachas Gaelach: Fíodóireacht (Weaving) in Ireland, Brehon Laws 438 A.D.

This information piece in the Southern Star was sponsored by the Hospital Trust. In later years it enjoyed a bad press but in its heyday in Ireland it brought huge amounts of foreign exchange to the county the lottery being illegal in most countries except in Ireland

Joe McGrath one of the founders later became involved in establishing Waterford Glass:

http://centretruths.co.uk/pctih/085_Joe_McGrath.htm

Updated Clothiers, Flax, Linen, Textiles, Weaving, West Cork

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1u0vIz1nxG34pJua7qC7jtTCKWLjwVY81jSl0usPdojk/edit

William O’Sullivan, Carriganass Castle, Kealkil, Bantry, (1775-1859). His Life and Times. A Landlord, Middleman, Moneylender, Political Activist.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/12y7RsWJg2F8ZlJ-q2yLDh7rZhZz-sByfqI90VfH03zI/edit

William O’Sullivan is a figure not well known but he is representative of a tenacity that characterised elements of the old Gaelic order despite the Penal Laws.  The bulk of the land held in West Cork by Catholics was forfeit for ‘Rebellion’; or lost through the legal chicanery of people like Richard Boyle the Great Earl of Cork or Sir Walter Coppinger.  The only families that come to mind who managed to retain their lands were the descendants of Sir Teague O’Regan who retained ownership to about 1905 when the estate outside Rosscarbery was acquired by the Land Commission.  Also Lord Kenmare estate took in part of the general Bantry aea as well as Kerry.

Landlord families could be adaptable, The Bernards of Bandon later the Earls of Bandon had extensive estate in West Cork and Kerry.  Annually there was a dinner for major tenants those in West Cork tend to be pious Protestant the dinner was a  muted affair.  However the Kerry dinner was for mainly Catholics and resembles a mediaeval feast by an Irish Chieftain, uilleann pipers, fiddlers and drink overflowing.

Recent work on land ownership and the Penal Laws would suggest that perhaps up to 30% of the land was in de facto Cathoolic ownership.  Underneath ownership there were various estates in land and the class of which William O’Sullivan was a member in West Cork had effective control subject to a head rent right through the 18th and into the 19th century.

Even for the group of whom William O’Sullivan was a member the pettifoggery of the Penal Laws rankled.

Father Barry, Parish Priest of Bantry  in evidence to the Select Committee of the House of Commons on Distress in Ireland under the Insurrection Act sitting in Bantry.   He said that 

Protestant  Half Pay Officers  on £40 a year  preferred as Quarter Session Jurors in Bantry to Opulent Catholics the likes of Deasy, Clonakilty on £2,000 a year. He was also presumably referring to John O’Conell of Bantry, a wealthy merchant and political activist.

In assessing the Penal Laws it is worth bearing in mind that in France broadly similar laws were passed but with the exception that they were applied to their own people the Huguenots.  In Ireland’s case they were imposed by an alien invading power.  By 1750 the worst was probably over but legal disabilities on holding land or having professional qualifications remained until the 1770s onwards.  Perversely the Penal Laws contributed to the development of a very wealthy Catholic Mercantile Class……,.,

Recollections Of An Old School in Gallows Hill, Bandon

https://docs.google.com/document/d/10vyehS62fTcayeReTnIZrbWqyKUKR-RJVzhtE2o8-9g/edit

1944 Installation of Micro Hydro Electricity Scheme at Castletown Kinneigh by Colonel Patrick (P.J.) Coughlan.

1944 Installation of Micro Hydro Electricity Scheme at Castletown Kinneigh by Colonel Patrick (P.J.) Coughlan.

The Colonel is better known for his Blueshirt (Quasi Fascist ) Organisation in the 1930s associated with the Cumann na nGaedheal/Fine Gael political party and other fringe movements including support for Duffys Brigade to help Franco in Spain. He also was the organiserof the annual Michale Collins commoratin at Beal na Blath

Here however he is involved in setting up a small community based hydro scheme as in the newspaper report. There are futher details of a tenancy dispute with Colonel Conner of the Manch Estate. It must have resulted in the Colonel recovering posession as Colonel Coughlan afterward is operating from Fort Robert nearby.

Apparently the late Tommy Camier who set up Camiers Garage in Ballydehob developed aa small hydro dam on his family farm At Gortnagrough when he was only about 12 yers of age.

Colonel Patrick J. Coughlan, Manch Cottage, Ballineen

https://docs.google.com/document/d/19TCeYd9nU6b1JH9bXaJHDA17N7C3TgF-DI8ywA28Yv0/edit

1944 Secret Weapon Invented By 2 Durrus Men at Experimental Stage

Working on the Bog

There was significant distress and little local employment except for seasonal work on the extensive bogs at Barnagaoithe, Clonee, Glanlough, Liseenacreagh.  The largest bog (15 to 20 acres) was at Glanlough and it was owned by Sonny Clarke, Sullivans (Ballinvillan), Ward and Love families.  For the duration of the war it was operated under the control of the County Council who employed a staff of around 50 from March to October to save the turf. Many of the men were employed with their horses or ponies who also worked in the bog. Glenlough bog was worked by men from the general Durrus area, many of whom travelled many miles on foot to get to work.  The Lisheenacreagh bog (owned by the Trender and Daly families) was somewhat smaller and operated by men from the Ballydehob area.  The turf when saved into sods 9”x 1’ was transported either directly to Cork by lorry or to Bantry railway station and thence to the Cork Hospitals.  One of the trucks was driven by the late Mrs. O’Callaghan (who later owned the Bantry Bay Hotel), then of O’Donovan’s Cove, Ahakista, another by her brother Jackie Cronin.  

The day started at 8 am and apart from a dinner break of an hour went on to 5.45.  The pay was 35/= a week.  There was dissatisfaction with working conditions and a short lived strike of one day towards the start.  Some of the workers such as Eugene Crowley Ahagouna and others  rented adjoining bogs at Barnagaoithe and worked late in the evening.  Turf from these was sold privately to people in the village or out west Goleen and Toormore.  In nearby Lognagapall Bog in Caheragh the Council operated a bog with difficult working conditions.  A strike commenced led by Michael Pat Murphy.  It succeeded in improving conditions and was to launch his career as a Labour TD and Parliamentary Secretary.

Timber was cut from woods such as that of the Rectory which at that time extended to the pier.  The area around the community field on the Dunbeacon Road was forested and these trees were felled with two man saws.  The larger logs were sent to Fullers of Skibbereen and the smaller were cut up as firewood.  This was taken to Cork by Jacky Cronin for sale.

There was a big trade in rabbits which were caught in snares, with ferrets or dazzled.  The price of rabbits went from a half crown (2s 6d) to 3s 6d and were bought by Jackie Cronin, Tom Dukelow, Sea View, the Creamery and O’Sullivan, a dealer from Dunmanway.  There were newspaper ads letting lands for trapping as that of the Cronins at O’Donovan’s Cove and other ads preserving lands and complaining of the damage caused by ferrets, dazzling and general trespass.  The Durrus River had a good run of salmon and it was not unknown for a salmon to be speared under the creamery bridge with a hay fork.  There were no artificial manures; sea sand and coral were used and were landed at the ‘Sand Quay’, opposite the former Good Times Café.  Just after the War there was agitation for a new pier and it was stated that there were 3 sand boats operating and 16 scallop boats. Fertilizer was scarce for a number of years after the war and the late John Crowley (late creamery manager) recalls in 1947 marine wool from the Bay laid out on the road from the Sandquay (the former Good Times café) to the former  Cronin’s forge.  This was a good nutrient.  Post war sand came by lorry from Barley Cove, the Burchill family were active in this trade,  together with ground limestone and chemical fertilizers re-appeared.   In former times townland had a traditional right to a part of the shore.   For example just off the strand is a rock called Carrigeen Cúl na h-Orna.   This sub townland is north of Clashadoo about 3 km away but the farmers in that area had the exclusive right to take seaweed from there.  It seems like the other townlands had similar rights.

Oats, barley and wheat were grown for the farmer’s own use and were threshed on the farm. In earlier years threshing was carried out by horses turning the machine in a circular fashion, Harnedys of Dunbeacon had such a machine. Among the threshing machines in the Bantry area was one operated by Peter O’Neill (Peter Neal), he was also a cattle dealer of Ballycomane. It was jointly owned by Jacky Cronin a local businessman but Peter worked it with his crew who included Eugene Crowley, Ahagouna, Jack Connolly, Gearhameenn, Bernie Kelly, Ballycomane, later Sonny Hosford, Kealties. Like the Whellys of Mealagh the machine went to West Waterford when the local threshing was done. The machine ended up rusting in Pete’s yard after the combine harvester came in. The later threshing machines were owned by Crowleys of Colomane, John McSweeney of Drumsullivan and the Whelly Brothers from east of Bantry.  They would normally spend around 6 weeks threshing in the district from September and then go on to West Waterford where the activities continued until February.  Jack Attridge of Gearhameen built his own threshing machine which operated successfully for many years. Tractors began to appear and the first in the district was around 1940 and was owned by Jack Shanahan, Dunbeacon

Some improvement works were carried out. In 1939 sanction was given for a loan of £560 to develop the Durrus sewage system.  In the same year compulsory purchase orders were issued dto authority the acquisition of land to build labourers cottages at Gearhameen (Flynns), Ballycomane (Flynns) adn Rusheeninaska (Coughlan) as well as multiple other sites around WEst Cork

In 1945 John O’Mahony was associated with the Farmer’s Association Later Party (John Dillon and P O’Neill were also involved) and claimed that due to lack of fertilizer he only achieved a yield of 7 stone per acre despite putting out 16 stone of seed.  There were lectures on improved techniques of potato growing and in 1945 drainage works in Parkanna employed 10 men.

Life went on as there are references to dances in Bantry, Ahakista and Ballydehob and races in Kealkil and Mallow and Ballydehob, many associated with the LDF. In 1941 Durrus races were held and attracted local entries and also from Baltimore, Kinsale and Drinagh with at least 6 horses in each race.

Dancing in these years could be in Bantry in the Town Hall where Spillane’s shop is near the Catholic Church and in the Boy’s Club after 1950. The Town Hall was also the venue of plays put on by strolling players such as Anew McMaster and Frank O’Donovan, in particular during Lent, when there was a 6-week embargo on dances. A Fourpenny Hop in the Green Shed near the Ouvane Falls Inn Ballylickey was popular from 1933 until the late 1940s, as was Vaughan’s Hall in Kealkil.  Many of the dances were associated with the LDF as were sports of ‘Aeriochts’ in the district.  The Durrus LDF Shooting team won the District Shield in 1943.

There were often large crowds at venues such as Dunbeacon Cross near the school on Sunday afternoons for patterns and returning from scores of bowls crowds of up to 150 were not unknown. Another pattern was sometimes held at Gearhameen at the coast crossroads.