Babies on Board. The amphibious bus/boat.

 

J

The Connacht Tribune photo from November 1951 showing the bus destination which had people talking. 

In October 1951, the possibility that C.I.E had taken delivery of an amphibious vehicle to cover for the absent steamer S.S Dún Aengus, gave the local comedians in Galway great material for fun. 

A dedicated bus was laid on to take passengers from Galway to Ros a’ Mhíl where an island trawler would carry goods and passengers to the three islands. This bus schedule was influenced by the tides. 

Seeing for the first time a bus with ARAN ISLANDS as destination led to the bus driver being christened ‘The Admiral’. 

These were the days before TV and the internet and entertainment like this was always a welcome distraction. Indeed rationing from WW2 was still in place.

What the Connemara people along the coast road from Galway to Ros a’ Mhíl initially made of this bizarre bus destination, nobody knows but it’s likely heads were scratched. 

The crossroad sign in Connemara which preceded The Wild Atlantic Way. 

In November 1951 the local Connacht Tribune editor, Jack Fitzgerald, decided to do an elaborate story with a photograph of the bus and the result was a highly entertaining piece. 

Not to be outdone, the rival newspaper the ‘Galway Observer’ decided to go one better and in late November despatched a reporter who described the arrival of the bus to Ros a’Mhil. We have borrowed heavily from his brilliantly crafted report. 

(Only our older followers will remember the ‘Galway Observer’which closed down in 1966. It was a great paper for under age sports reporting and every lad in Galway town hoped it had noted them scoring or making a great save and ignored their match losing mistakes)

On August 4th 1951, the struggling  Galway Bay Steamboat company handed over control of the islands ferry S.S Dún Aengus and the state transport company C.I.E assumed responsibility for service. 

This addition of a boat to their train, bus and road freight operations was imposed on the company by the new minister for Industry and Commerce, Seán Lemass. By all accounts C.I.E bosses were not happy, having very little knowledge of the sea. 

Feelings were running high on the islands at the time as it was believed that the state’s neglect of offshore islands had gone on long enough.

The death in Janurary 1951 of a young mother near Mutton Island as she travelled directly to Galway on the lifeboat, brought home the dangers of living on an island.

Here is a photo from the 1940s of John Mháirt’s trawler, MFV St Kieran. At the time it was filling in for the SS Dún Aengus which sunk at Inis Meáin in 1947.  
(Photo with thanks to John’s son, Dessie Faherty)

The Dún Aengus was taken out of service for a proposed refit in Cork and on October 15th 1951, John Mháirt Faherty’s trawler St Kieran began a temporary service from Connemara. 

The old pier at Ros a Mhíl from where passengers and freight were conveyed to the islands in 1951. 

Led by the Parish Priest, Fr Varley, islanders and friends complained that CIE seemed determined to be rid of the Dún Aengus and their responsibility and hoped that a service from Connemara using a trawler might be the way forward. 

Suspicions running very deep in 1951 that CIE were trying to dispose of the SS Dún Aengus. It arrived back in April 1952

That the SS Dún Aengus was still in Galway in December, reinforced this suspicion. This agitation seems to have succeeded and the Dún Aengus eventually headed for Cork in early December. It wouldn’t return to service until April 1952.

The SS Dún Aengus at her home port of Galway. It was out of service from early October 1951 and didn’t return until mid April 1952. It would be replaced a few years later with the MV Naomh Éanna.

The highlight of the Tribune report was the photograph of a bus with Aran Islands as its destination. This highlighted the new reality where the Aran Islands service was now part of the semi-state transportation system, Córas Iompair Éireann. 

In an equally colourful report the Galway Observer focused on the bus passengers, the cargo and the crew of the St Kieran. 

There were ten passengers on the bus, the most important of which were three newly born babies. Two of them were twin girls from Eochaill and the third, a little boy from Inis Oirr.

Here is how the paper described the great excitement as conductor John Monaghan led the way down a muddy road, the bus being parked a long distance from the pier.

Like many newspaper reports before and since, the surnames FAHERTY and FLAHERTY are incorrectly used. Something members of both distinct clans have become annoyingly accustomed to over the years, with the Fahertys being sinned against more often. 

Dec 1st 1951. 

Our reporter was at Rosaveal when the bus arrived there about 2.30 pm on Saturday last. 

First to alight was 19 year old Ronan McDonagh of Kilronan and squealing noisily in his arms was a valuable bonham which he had bought in the city earlier that day.

The teenage lad with the squealing bonamh was the late Ronan McDonagh. He can be seen here on the right. Two of his brothers are featured in this photo also. Benan on the left and the late Seán in the centre. Their father Stephen was a crewman on the St Kieran in 1951.
(Photo with thanks to Ben McDonagh)

Then came Mrs Una Dirrane,(Una Joe from Eochaill) also of Kilronan, carrying her sister Mrs Ml Faherty’s twin daughters, Mary and Bridget. 

“They’ll be great rejoicing when we get over” she said happily.

You’d go a long  way to find a photo showing more pride and joy than this one of Michael Faherty (centre) and his wife Norah Maher from Inis Meáin as they pose with their new twin daughters. The man on the left holding Bríd, was John Manning of Baile na Creige.
Three Maher sisters, Norah, Una and Peig married into the village of Eochaill, to the great benefit of the island.
  Photo with thanks to Bríd’s daughter, Breda O’Donnell Rooney. 

Following closely behind her was Michael O’Flaherty (Faherty) proud father of the twins and in his arms he had two week old Eamonn Flaherty, a new addition to Inisheer’s industrious population. Michael is not a relation of the baby boy. He was giving a hand to a young nurse who had brought the baby from the Central Hospital. 

(Note: The Twin girls Bríd and Máire are still going strong but sadly, Eamonn was only 21 when he drowned while swimming off the pier at Inis Oirr. Eamonn had attended Gairmscoil Éinne in Cill Rónáin in the 1960s) 

Also lending a helping hand were Rev E O’Malley CC Inisheer and uniformed head lighthouse-keeper, John Lavelle who was on his way to do a month’s duty on lonely Eeragh rock, off the north of Aran. 

(Note. The priest was Fr Eamonn O’Malley who would go on to become a canon of the Archdiocese. 

According to Dicky Byrne, the lighthouse keeper John Lavelle used to live near him in Devon Park, Salthill) 

The rest of the passengers also did their bit. These were native islanders who had come over on the “St Kieran” the previous Thursday to buy the necessities of life for their island families. 

Before continuing with the rest of the article it’s worth noting just how difficult and expensive coming to the mainland was before the modern air and ferry links were established in the 1970s.

 Unless you had a friend or relation who could give you a bed for the night, trips to town often involved staying in different hotels and guesthouses, often for longer than planned when stormy weather prevented sailings.

         GUINNESS FOR ARAN

The party, accompanied by jolly conductor John Monaghan, set off on foot for the pier and here we saw the sturdy green painted vessel and from her came the throb of engines. 

On her deck were an assortment of ropes, nets and all the paraphernalia of a fishing boat, but more noticeable than anything else were twenty firkins of Guinness’s XX stout. That too must have been welcome on arrival at Kilronan. (20x68 = 1360 pints of Guinness)

Busy helping the women with the babies were the skipper of the “St Kieran” Tommy Faherty (Flaherty), big able-bodied John Flaherty (Faherty), owner of the boat and able bodied deck hands, Peter Gill and Stephen McDonagh. The crew are Aranmen and thoroughly understand what each and every passenger wants. 

                  ALL ABOARD

After conductor Monaghan had checked the passengers tickets and when the babies had been tucked gently into the vessel’s warm cabin, the Saint Kieran headed out on its twelve mile journey to the cheers of the children of Rosaveal, who had gathered on the pier. At 4pm all would be safely in Kilronan.

The pier was much shorter in 1951. This photo from the IRISH PRESS newspaper, shows a crowd waiting for Eamonn De Valera to arrive in the summer of 1947. 

Travellers are brought from the islands to Rosaveal and these are conveyed by bus to Galway.

On Saturday there was no passengers waiting for the Galway bus at Michael Mac Donnchadha’s depot (Tigh Terry) which sells everything from postal orders to pints. The bus proceeded by the coast road to Spiddal and on to Galway. 

CIE had completed another “operation Aran”.

And so ended the Galway Observer article.

                       The trawler St Kieran 

We came across this boat before when we wrote about the sinking of the S.S. Dún Aengus at Inis Meáin in 1947. As well as bringing the rescued passengers back to Galway, it also filled in with keeping the islands connected with the mainland while the old ferry was being salvaged and repaired.

You can read an account of the 1947 sinking HERE

1951 would be a bad year for John Faherty and his boat. On two occasions in December of that year, the lifeboat was called out to assist. On December 8th an oil problem with a recently installed engine saw the boat drifting for two hours as it made its way from Inis Oirr to Connemara.

Before the lifeboat arrived, the owner John Faherty had managed to make emergency repairs and the skipper Thomas Flaherty brought the boat to Cill Rónáin as a storm had blown up. 

The following week newspapers reported the St Kieran having to be towed to port by the lifeboat after the gears got stuck in neutral. It seems the sea was after this fine boat and would not be denied. 

On Christmas Eve 1951 the St Kieran made a successful final trip with supplies for the three islands and then tied up at the pier for the Christmas celebrations. 

Little did they know but the islands and west coast were about to be struck by what many would describe as the worst storm in living memory. 

The highlight of Christmas for many in those days was the arrival home of islanders from Britain and Lá Fhéile Stiofán was a great day of greetings and celebrations. 

Bridey Daly’s thatched pub long ago.
 (Photo with thanks to Peter Bryson)

To this end, some of the crew of the St Kieran adjourned to Bridey Daly’s, waiting for the tide to rise and take their boat across to Chéibh Chill Éinne, through the narrow channel an angel (it is said) carved out with a flaming dagger in the time of the famed Naomh Éinne. 

The very tidal harbour of Cill Éinne, a safe refuge for boats down through the centuries. It was planned to get the St Kieran over from Cill Rónáin but fate and a sudden storm, intervened. 

A sudden increase in the wind prompted two men, Stephen McDonagh and Tom Madden of Eochaill to head for the pier and put out extra ropes. Tom was related to John Mháirt,

A model of the St Kieran which was constructed long ago by Tom Madden.
(Photo with thanks to Gabriel Faherty)

However, as Stephen and Tom attempted to get down the pier in the fading light, it became obvious that getting aboard would be almost impossible, so ferocious was the storm. Given the huge waves crashing ashore, this was a wise move. 

Regarded as one of the worst storms in living memory, it did massive damage around Galway Bay and the west coast with part of the pier at An Spidéal being washed away. The Long Walk, Claddagh and Salthill saw much destruction and flooding. 

Further west at Rosmuc, a father and son were drowned after getting out of bed to try and attend to their currach. 

Michael Newell (Pat) and his eighteen year old son Michael were found by their neighbours who searched in the dark after they failed to return home. Another of the many drowning tragedies that Aran islanders and their neighbours in Connemara suffered over the centuries. 

A storm arriving to coincide with high tide is always bad news for those living by the coast, with wind direction making things more serious for some than for others. 

County Clare coastal areas were severely hit and in Kerry two more men were drowned, when swept away on a coastal road after abandoning their vehicle. 

After Stephen and Tom wisely abandoning their attempt to get aboard, the St Kieran was ripped from its moorings and almost incredibly, thrown up on the road. 

This 1952 photo from the Richie/Pickow collection at University of Galway, shows how a boat could end up on the road during a storm at high tide. A sea wall has been built since. 

In those days the low wall protecting the road was yet to be built, which makes the newspaper reports of the St Kieran ending up on the road, credible. This was the final journey of the St Kieran and some older readers may remember her keel lying on the shore under Pier House Guesthouse.

The rocks on the beach where the St Kieran was wrecked on St Stephen’s night in 1951. 

Recently we were talking with a man who built an extension in the late 1970s for the owner, John Mháirt Faherty in Eochaill. He remembered John using a sledge to straighten a long piece of metal and insisting that it be used in a door lintel. A memento of his long gone trawler as it was part of the St Kieran’s metal keel band. 

                **************************

               THE CREW OF THE ST KIERAN

The skipper of the St Kieran who is mentioned in the newspaper report was the late Thomas (Tamín) Flaherty of Cill Rónáin. A hugely experienced seafarer, Tamín was only fifteen when he first joined a steam trawler out of Milford Haven in Wales. 

The skipper of the St Kieran was the late Tamín Flaherty of Cill Rónáin. He can be seen here getting directions from a London Bobby on the occasion of a RNLI awards ceremony in London in 1939.

He was part of the lifeboat crew decorated in London in 1939 for their efforts in rescuing the crew of a Welsh Steam trawler. 

In his later years many will remember him fishing out of Cill Rónáin from his lobster boat ‘MARSIN’.

The late Thomas (Tamín) Flaherty as a young man. Photo with thanks from his son Joey 

A dedicated lifeboat member, he would eventually serve as coxswain on the local lifeboat. A man who covered a vast number of sea miles in his decades with the lifeboat. 

The owner of the St Kieran John Faherty was described as being “big bodied” and those of us who remember him will recall his imposing physique.

John was a licensed Taxi driver in New York before returning in the 1930s to help his father after his brother Anthony was killed. 
Photos with thanks to his grandson, Gabriel Faherty 

John had emigrated to the U.S. in his youth and was working in New York as a cab driver when news arrived of the death in a fall in Galway of his brother Anthony. 

His father Máirtín and his mother Mary Conneely, had begged John to come home and his return would alter the history of Árainn and lead to numerous island descendants. 

One of the deck hands aboard was the late Stephen McDonagh of Cill Rónáin. Stephen’s sister Mary Anne, was married to John Faherty. Stephen and his wife Peg Costello ran the famous Bay View guesthouse overlooking the harbour. 

 A familiar figure around the island in later years, Stephen was the agent for the revolutionary Calor Gas when it arrived in the late 1950s. Paddy Gill (Robert) was his rival agent for Kosangas. 

Stephen McDonagh is on the left holding the bike. On the right is Bartley Gill of Cill Rónáin who operated one of the boats which replaced the St Kieran, the Scottish built 45 footer ‘Alice Webster’
Photo  with thanks to Bartley’s grandson, George (Johnny) Guest .

Stephen and Peg raised four adult sons and a daughter Veronica, with only his son Benan still going strong and still involved with boats. 

A recent photo of Benan on the left. 

Stephen and his wife Peg had, like John Faherty, spent time in New York in the 1930s. Stephen’s absence in America  was mentioned in our report some years ago of  Motorcycle Visitors to his parents Michael McDonagh and his wife Margaret Hernon’s shop and guest house in Cill Mhuirbhigh in 1931. 

The youngest member of crew was a teenager, the late Peter Gill (Michaelín) of Cill Rónáin. Like Stephen McDonagh, Pete also had a connection with the owner John Faherty as his mother Bridget was John’s sister. 

Pete spent time in England before heading eventually for America where he spent his life. 

The four sons of Michael Gill of Cill Rónáin.
 Left to Right: Máirtín Joe, Pete, Paddy and Jackie. All dead and gone but fondly remembered by their families and friends.
Photo taken in America when Jackie was visiting and with thanks to his daughter Lena Gill O’Connell.

Pete was a skilled sailor and we heard recently from an old friend, of his escapade as a schoolboy with Pete and a few young Cill Rónáin lads in the mid 1950s. He recalled the day Lord Killanin and some friends tied up a Gleoiteóg belonging to Dr Daly of Renville near Oranmore and headed up the village for some light refreshments. 

Lord Killanin was very familiar with the islands. In his student days at Cambridge he had worked on the SS Dún Aengus during the summer season. 

Seeing his chance, Pete convinced a few young lads to join him for a quick sail in the bay. In time they could see a commotion on shore and returned the boat to the pier. 

As he scampered up the steps, Lord Killanin used a short rope to give our young friend a stinging whip to his backside. Strangely we were told, nothing was said to Pete who was much older. 

Lord Killanin welcoming the late Grace Kelly to Ireland long ago. A little more gracious welcome than he extended to a carefree schoolboy at Céibh Chill Rónáin in the 1950s. 

In later years when the Olympic president Lord Killanin appeared on TV or when his name was mentioned, our friend’s memory of  his stinging backside long ago would make him wince involuntarily. Mind you, he doesn’t blame the Lord for exacting some retribution on the Gleóiteóg joyriders. 

         REPLACING THE SAINT KIERAN

In the months that followed the wrecking of the St Kieran, CIE hired two trawlers belonging to Peter Ashe and his famous politician sister Maggie.

 The Carbery King operated from Galway as it was not licensed to call at Ros a’ Mhíl. The other Ashe boat was the famous Alice Webster which a few of our older followers will remember hearing about. It once collected live lobsters around the coast. The system included a holding pond near New Quay run by the Scovell family from England. 

After the sudden death on board of the skipper Michael Folan of Cill Rónáin in 1927, the late Bartley Gill operated the ‘Alice Webster’ for many years afterwards. 

Apart from the six to eight hour ordeal on the trip from Galway by trawler, the situation with cattle was getting critical with fodder and financial pressures building. The Dún Aengus did return in April.

As the months dragged on there was much agitation regarding the return of the SS Dún Aengus. After numerous letters to the papers and articles by sympathetic journalists, the S.S Dún Aengus finally returned to Galway in April 1952. 

The return from Cork was not without incident for as well as drifting for hours with boiler trouble off the Kerry coast, the seventy five year old fireman, Michael Geary suffered a heart attack and died off the coast of Clare. Michael had been on board when the Dún Aengus went on the rocks at Inis Meáin in 1947. 

The 1951 newspaper reports of the use of a bus and trawler to keep the islands connected with the mainland recalls a different era. 

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Céibh Ros a’ Mhíl has changed a lot since the winter of 1951. A small section of the old pier can be seen on the left. The harbour is now accessible at all tides. 

With many passenger connections to Ros a’ Mhíl in Connemara all year round and Doolin in Clare during the tourist season, islanders and visitors are well catered for. An all year round freight service operates from Galway.

In 1970 the islands were connected to the mainland by air with the arrival of Aer Arann. A curious coincidence is that in 1977 the first set of newborn twins to fly home to Aran were Margaret and Catherine, daughters of Máire, one of the tiny babies who braved the North Sound in 1951. 

These twins journey home by plane was a far cry from what their mother and grandparents endured. Indeed, three of their grandparents were aboard the St Kieran that dark November evening in 1951 as their father was the late Seán McDonagh, a son of crewman Stephen. 

Michael Muldoon  April 2025

Religious conflict in Arran in 1841.

   In June 1841, the following account of alleged priestly intolerance on Arran, appeared in the Protestant newspaper, The Statesman and Dublin Christian Record. It gives an account of how the islands were under the complete dominance of the local Roman Catholic priests. At the time there was no permanent Protestant clergyman stationed there and work on the new Episcopalian church in Cill Rónáin would not start until 1845, with completion in 1846 Here is the unsigned report about a letter by D Foley. 

Popery in Arran. 

The Statesman and Dublin Christian Record. 

 June 8, 1841.

Arran persecution.

The struggle between truth and error we do really believe is on the increase in Ireland and its petty dependencies and when it rises to its height, we know on which side victory must desend. 

The letter of D Foley, a missionary on ARRAN ISLAND dated of the 31st instance and published in the Galway advertiser, gives the most extraordinary account of brutal treatment inflicted by the Roman Catholic priest or priests, not on  Protestants or avowed converts to Romanism,  but on the still-deluded members of the popish church in order to hinder the least intercourse of a kindly nature between them and Protestants and prevent, if possible, the spread of truth so fatal to the interest of the Holy See. 

Where it not that we have ourselves witnessed similar, outrages perpetrated on defenceless Romanists by their tyrant priest,  we could scarcely credit the report of the outrages committed on the miserable inhabitants of Arran against which the interference of a Roman Catholic magistrate was offered in vain. 

 The priest who  exhibited on the occasion now referred to is named Jennings, but before this worthy divine appeared in single performance, we are told that two of the Rev party distinguished themselves by an assault on a poor man and his donkey, for having conveyed some baggage on the island for one of the scripture readers. 

On Sunday after announcing at mass the curses of his church on all who should favourite Protestants, father Jennings cudgelled two of his congregation severely for having listened to the Bible. 

The next day a man named Joyce underwent the same mild discipline from this minister of the gospel of peace, after which a second poor man was dragged out of his house by the furious zealot and cruelly beaten in the presence of many witnesses.

A man named Costello, was next threatened for having given lodgings to a Protestant and compelled to rid his house of the pestilence heretic; 

A woman is threatened in like manner for carrying milk to the children of the protestants; a man named Gow is terrified by the same priest with the assurance of corporal chastisement because he was hardy enough to despise execrations from the altar; 

while a woman named Curlin is abused and beaten mercilessly though in a delicate state of health, for some regard shown to the protestants on the island. 

In fact we are obliged to break off our enumeration of crimes committed by this Herculan pastor and his enslaved people, as we find it would extend far beyond our present limits.

 Yet, after all, we rejoice to learn that this brutality has produced a strong feeling of disgust towards the monster and that the efforts of this raging opponent of the gospel have completely failed to prevent the progress of inquiry. 

Such ferocity in inverse ratio with the mind of the miserable agent, forwards, rather than retards, the religion of Christ.

                       …………………………………

The 19th century on the islands and in particular Árainn, saw a number of sectarian clashes over how to attain salvation and avoid the flames of Hell.

At the time of the accusation of brutality by Fr Jennings, the Parish Priest was John Loftus who had succeeded Michael Gibbons in 1840. 

We have been unable to determine who the Fr Jennings mentioned in the report was. He may have been a curate or he may have been a visiting preacher. 

There was a lot of religious agitation in 1841. This was the year that Presbyterian minister, Henry McManus from Virginia in County Cavan, visited Árainn. 

Henry had spent some months at Roundstone in Connemara in 1840. It was there that he finished off his study of the Irish language. 

It came in very handy for him at the pier in Galway in Spring 1841 after being refused passage to the islands on the suspicion that he was a “Jumper” or Protestant Bible reader. 

A sketch from 1842 by William Makepeace Thackeray showing sailing craft at Galway. One was bound for Arranmore he reported. On a boat like this, Henry McManus travelled to Cill Rónáin, on a rough day in 1841. 

The bádóirí, who were returning home after delivering seaweed, had been warned about bringing men like Henry, into the islands. 

Showing great determination and convinced that he was on God’s mission to save souls, Henry stormed aboard with the words, “Racaigh mé isteach in ainm Dé”

These few words in Irish were enough to convince Andrew, the skipper, to bring him, free of charge, to Cill Rónáin. 

A very rough passage of 12 hours or so, followed. Henry was shown great kindness during the crossing by what he described as “the wilder looking of the two men”. He spent most of the voyage prostrate on the deck. 

His stay on the island was not very successful as a boycott was ordered. He was marooned for some time until, with the help of an Islander he had previously clashed with over scripture, a visiting boat took him back to Galway. 

In 1863 Henry published an account of his different missions to save the people of the west of Ireland.

A story for another day perhaps but his experience of threats and boycott was undoubtedly known to our letter writer of June 1841.

The census of 1841 recorded 3,521 people living on the three Arran Islands. 

Árainn……………2612

Inis Meáin……….473

Inis Oirr…………..456

It’s likely that a number of Bible readers and preachers found a reception similar to the report of clerical attacks. 

Highlighting how Roman Catholic islanders were suffering for their Christian kindness to Protestants, would have been a valuable propaganda asset for Protestant publications. 

Bible Readers would travel the country offering to read passages of the Bible in English or Irish, in every house they visited. It’s likely that natural curiosity and native hospitality resulted in them occasionally being invited inside. 

However, as tensions rose after some conversions, many priests followed John McHales’ instruction to condemn those who showed any interest. 

Cill Rónáin in 1840. (Galway County Library.)

In April 1841, newspapers carried a report of an unnamed Roman Catholic priest on Arran, being bound to the peace for his attacks on Bible Readers. The report goes on to outline sectarian behaviour which included the burning of a house.

In early March there had been a letter to the newspapers outlining what the writer termed the “persecution” of Protestants on the island. 

The letter writer also mocked and belittled some of the Islanders religious rituals. This letter also made a reference in passing to the labours of the proselytising group, ‘Irish Church Mission Society’.  

Shortly afterwards a letter appeared which pointed out that while the ‘Irish Society’ operated on the mainland, the islands were being looked after by HIS  group, the Protestant ‘Missionary Society for the Islands off the Irish coast’

The Protestant Islands and Coast society which
operated on many of the western islands. 
They would play a leading role in the  ‘Bread War’
controversy of the 1860s. 

The man who wrote this correction was the Rev Charles Henry Seymour. He was a recently ordained curate in Tuam and had just spent some weeks on the island. 

A fluent Irish speaker since his Mayo childhood, Charles had been working with the Protestant island and coastal mission which had two poorly attended schools on the island. This society employed the teachers and a number of Bible Readers. 

According to Rev Seymour, life in 1841 would not have been possible on the island without the imposition of some form of order by the police and the local Catholic Magistrate in Kilmurvey.

Charles Seymour had a very distinguished and somewhat controversial career and ended up as Dean of the Anglican Archdioses of Tuam. 

The thatched home of the local resident Magistrate, Patrick O’Flaherty of Cill Mhuirbhigh, can be seen in this 1839 sketch by William Wakeman. 
William sketched many of the islands landmarks including this one of Teampall Mhic Duach at the foot of Dún Aengus.  (N.L.I.)

It seems the islands were very disturbed at this time. They were owned by the Digby family of Landenstown County Kildare and the land agent was a very committed evangelical Protestant, George Thomson of Clonskeagh Castle in Dublin. 

While the second reformation attempts were resented by almost all Roman Catholics, they were also opposed by a large number of Irish Protestants for their tendency to promote conflict and disharmony with their condescending attitude and patronising comments. 

In many ways the proselytising societies were driven by English zealots. There was great excitement in 1852 when Rev Seymour was accused of falsifying Tuam convert numbers in order to promote donations. 

The killer comment was that his society was exploiting ‘ that numerous and extremely nasty sisterhood - the Protestant Old Maids of England’. A view shared by numerous Irish Protestants.

The use of the Irish language by evangelical Protestant groups was seen by some as a form of cheating. The first translation of the Protestant Bible (66 books) into Irish was done in the 16th century. 

In 1817 the British and Foreign Bible Society published ‘An Biobla Naomhtha’ which was probably the version used by the Protestant Bible Readers in Árainn. 

The book of Genesis, as Gaeilge 1817

The Bible was used sparingly by the Catholic Church and the first Roman Catholic Bible (73 books) translation wasn’t published until the great priest, writer and Irish scholar, Peadar O Laoghaire, completed his work in the early 20th century. 

The intrusion of Protestant evangelicals into his diocese was resisted fiercely by the Catholic Archbishop of Tuam, John McHale (1791-1881)

Archbishop John McHale who 
took the fight to the Protestant 
missions in Achill & Connemara

What is known as the Second Reformation in Ireland, had its foundation in a call in 1822 by the Protestant Archbishop of Dublin William Magee, for mass evangelisation of the Roman Catholic population. 

Daniel O’Connell’s success in the granting of Catholic emancipation in 1829 and his campaign for repeal of the union, caused both anger and fear in many Protestants. 

The building of a new Catholic chapel in Eochaill by Michael Gibbons, shortly after the 1829 Catholic emancipation act, would have been a sign to redouble efforts at saving souls. 

Map from Galway County Library showing the recently opened chapel in Eochaill and the ruin of an older church building across the road. 

We probably shouldn’t but on a lighter note, here is an old conversion story from the 19th century. An old man was telling of the lucky escape a neighbour of his had.  

He had decided to change religions as things were very bad. The old man repeated how near he had come to damnation, but luckily, the night before his neighbour was due to become a Protestant, “he died”.

Tuam archdiocese included two evangelical hotspots, Achill and Connemara and those interested in finding out more about those times should read Miriam Moffet’s book Soupers and Jumpers or have a listen to Patricia Byrne’s Trasna na Tire lecture on Edward Nangle and the Achill Mission Colony

 The endowing by the state, of the established Anglican Church was the cause of understandable resentment. The Tithe war in Ireland of the 1830s is evidence of this as many, and not just Catholics, resented paying a tax to fund a competing religion. 

Bible Readers were subject to much abuse as many of them were converts from Roman Catholicism. Indeed a few priests changed religion during those times and Aran’s second permanent Protestant minister in 1855, is believed to have been baptised a Catholic.

That many changed religion over issues unconnected to hunger and want, is often overlooked. 

The use of food and education to entice people to convert was widespread but to some extent, his violent opposition to the new system of nondenominational National Schools by Archbishop McHale, left the door open for evangelicals to take advantage. 

In truth, both Catholic and Protestant churches fiercely opposed the idea of children of different religions and none, being educated together. 

Children whose grandparents would have been schoolchildren back in 1841
Photo by Robert Welch. James Hardiman Library, Galway. 

Both churches recognised the importance of segregated education. Both knew that small children with an innate sense of justice, would come to reject the notion that the child who sat beside them or played with them in the schoolyard, was destined for the fires of Hell, just for being the wrong religion. 

But back to the letter to the papers in 1841. 

The credibility of the accusations is strengthened by the naming of those who were allegedly assaulted. 

One unnamed Islander who helped a Bible Reader carry his possessions, was not only assaulted, but his poor ass got a beating too.

Asal Árainn.
Perhaps descended from an ancestor who paid a price for carrying the books of a Bible Reader in 1841. Photo P A Ó Goill

The next day a man named Joyce was beaten while another was dragged from his house and assaulted in front of his neighbours. 

Following on from this a man named Costello was threatened for giving lodgings to a Protestant and forced to evict his lodger. 

The Costello in question is undoubtedly from the same family who gave lodgings to another Protestant in the summer of 1898. 

That Protestant was the writer John Synge and his opening lines from his famous book recount him listening through the floorboards in his bedroom, to conversations going on in the bar below. 

Costello’s hotel where Synge stayed in 1898. It is located on the spot where the Bible Reader was evicted in 1841.

A woman is threatened for selling milk to the Protestants. This was all part of the shunning of a community, undoubtedly on orders from the priest. 

We came across a similar course of action when we wrote some years ago about the Aran Bread War of 1868/69. 

The letter writer is mistaken when he refers to a man named Gow, being threatened for making known his disagreement with the priest’s orders from the altar. 

Obviously, somebody reported his comments back to the priest. No episode in Irish history is complete without there being mention of a spy. 

As those familiar with the islands and with the Irish language will realise he was the village blacksmith, the word Gow referring to his profession. 

One possibility is that it was a Poitín smuggler from Connemara called Micil Riabhach Ó Niaidh (Nee). Micil’s forge was located in Mainistir. 

Another possibility is that he was a Mullin, whose family smithy was located in the village of Cill Rónáin. 

The late Matt Mullin,
outside his old family forge. 

Historically, blacksmiths prided themselves on their skills and were not inclined to take orders from anybody. We noted this when writing about the blacksmith, Colman “Tiger” King and his relationship with the film director Robert Flaherty, during the making of the film Man of Aran  .

The Kings had an air of independence about them which gives us a third possible opponent of the priests orders. We will never know.

The final accusation is probably the worst and tells how a woman named Curlin was badly beaten despite being in a poor state of health. 

This was allegedly because she showed some friendship towards her Protestant neighbors. This was probably in the village of Cill Éinne where many can still remember the last Curlin to live on the island.

Cill Éinne in 1840. 
Map from Galway county library. 

If community relations were bad in 1841, they would deteriorate a lot more in 1842 with a report on a shameful episode. 

It seems that the wife of a Protestant schoolteacher died and police had to be on hand during her burial as there were objections to her being buried in an island graveyard. 

Some protesters were arrested but the most shocking part of the whole affair is that later that night, her grave was interfered with and the coffin exposed. 

A truly shocking newspaper report from April 1842. 

It was always a very controversial issue as to who could be buried alongside Catholics.

Apart from non Catholics, those excluded included victims of suicide and unbaptised infants. 

There are instances of controversy in more recent times than 1842. 

In 1915, the Parish Priest confronted the relieving officer Martin Ned Bán O’Flaherty for having buried two victims of the Lusitania disaster inside the graveyard at Cill Éinne. 

The relieving officer stood his ground and raised the matter with his employers, the Board of Guardians in Galway. They endorsed his decision and the priest’s threat of exhumation, led to him being ridiculed. 

Relig Chill Éinne where two victims of the Lusitania sinking were buried in 1915.

In 1941 the body of a young English airman, Alfred Tizzard, was recovered by two Cill Mhuirbhigh fishermen who gave him a Christian burial inside the local graveyard. 

Flight Sargent Alfred Tizzard with his nephew Ron. 
His burial in Relig Chill Mhuirbhigh in 1941 would lead to a rebuke from the local priest. 

This would lead to repercussions at a later date. 

You can read that story of the gravediggers and the priest HERE 

We can only speculate but it’s likely that the incidents in 1841 and 1842 gave huge impetus to the Protestant authorities to build a permanent church, employ a permanent minister and have their own graveyard. This came to pass just a few years later.

The Church of St Thomas in Kilronan. 
Built in 1846, it wasn’t consecrated until 1853. 
This photo from around 1914 is from the National Library of Ireland.

The derelict Protestant church in Cill Rónáin and the deserted and sadly neglected old Protestant graveyard. 

The past is a different world and must be viewed with an understanding of how people lived with the stresses and strains of being exploited by an absentee landlord and the almost absolute power of their priest. 

We must also maintain caution when reading ancient newspaper reports as the politics of both Unionist (Protestant) and Nationalist (Catholic) newspapers could on occasion, be reflected in what was published and how it was interpreted.

The controversies of 1841 and 1842 would soon pale into insignificance with the arrival of An Gorta Mór or the great famine, which decimated the country and whose effects are felt in Ireland and elsewhere, to this day. 

Michael Muldoon, December 2024