How an Aran Island policeman saved Eamon De Valera's blushes.

                   Eamon DeValera and the Garda from the Aran Islands.

Eamonn De Valera admiring the new statue, after unveiling it in June 1935

The recent unveiling of a replica, by sculptor Maurice Quillinan, of the famous Pádraic O Conaire statue in Eyre Square, Galway, has brought back memories of the day the original was unveiled in 1935. 

President Michael D Higgins and the new bronze replica, which he unveiled on 23rd November 2017

The man chosen to do the unveiling in 1935 was the new Taoiseach, Eamon De Valera and but for the keen eye of a Garda from the Aran Islands, the unveiling would have been much more notable than it was.

Pádraic is one of the most important literary figures in twentieth century Ireland and worked mainly through the medium of Irish.
After a short lifetime as a British civil servant, full time writer, journalist and wanderer, Pádraic died in 1928 at the very young age of 46. Many have mistakenly assumed that he lived to be an old man.

The severe limitations of making a living while writing in Irish, resulted in him being broke and in poor circumstances for the last years of his life. Like many an Irish writer before and since, Pádraic had a great love for public houses and the characters who frequented them.

Pádraic O Conaire (Conroy) Born Galway town 1882 and died in Dublin in 1928.

Older readers may well remember his book, M'asal beag dubh (My little black ass) from their school days and which is still in great demand.

A much loved school book from long ago

We once heard from one of Galway's best known historians, Tom Kenny, a story of Padraic and a friend of his, Tim Keane. Tim lived in a little house, a few yards above high water mark, just past the end of Beach Avenue in Salthill. This writer can remember it well from the early 60s when it was rented out to visiting families during the summer.

It's long gone now and the spot ended up a long way from the shore, when the new prom was built in the late 60s. Tim always had a bed for Pádraic and on one visit Tim was bemoaning the terrible disaster that had befallen him the week previously when a huge sea had washed ashore and drowned most of his hens.
  Pádraic was not long in reminding Tim of ignored advice he had often given him.
"Didn't I tell you often enough Tim, that its not hens you should be keeping, but ducks"

The place on Galway docks where Páraic O Conaire was born in 1882. Although Pádraic is popularly known as "sean  Pháraic" (old Patrick), many are surprised to learn that he was only forty six years old when he died.

Padraic's people came from Ros Muc in Connemara and he spent much of his childhood there after his mother died when he was eleven. He and Eamon De Valera had attended Blackrock college together. The new limestone statue, unveiled in 1935, was by the famous Dublin sculptor, Albert Power and has become one of the most iconic symbols of Galway in the years since.

Dublin sculptor Albert Power with his almost completed statue, shortly before its removal to Galway.
Carved from a single block of  Durrow, County Laois, limestone.

 In the years since 1935 the statue was exposed to both the weather and the vast numbers who felt compelled to have their photos taken with Padraic. The statue was moved on a number of occasions and the final indignity happened in 1999 when some drunken latchicos removed his head.

Although it was recovered, it was decided to restore the statue and then site it permanently in the Galway city museum. Decapitating  a famous statue is not unknown and the people of Copenhagen were almost as outraged as the people of Galway, when their famous Little Mermaid was decapitated twice, in 1964 and 1998.

Galway City museum, near the Spanish Arch, is well worth a visit. Apart from the original statue, the museum is full of reminders of days gone by. The new statue in Eyre Square is a bronze replica of the original.

             

The new bronze replica, unveiled by President Michael D Higgins in November 2017

The new statue in 2017 as it awaited its unveiling. Not the first time it was covered up before the big day.

In his highly entertaining autobiography, politician and lawman, Patrick Lindsay, recalled the day, or more importantly, the night, before the 1935 unveiling with a mixture of humour and regret.
At the time, he was a student in U.C.G. and in the harsh times that were in it, hoped to embarrass Eamon De Valera. Patrick was not a supporter of Dev and its hard now to fully comprehend just how vicious Irish political life was during those turbulent years.

Cumann na Gael politician, the late Patrick Lindsay(1914-1993), TD for North Mayo.

As we approach the 100 year anniversary of the very bloody civil war, there are bound to be books in the writing, that will shock many who have not fully appreciated the terrible atrocities committed by both sides. 
Attending a political meeting in the 20s and 30s often involved wearing a strong pair of hob nail boots and having a thick blackthorn stick in your hand. Many had a gun in their pocket.
De Valera's most trenchant opponents came to be known as "The Blueshirts".

Padraic O Conaire, in the days when Eyre Square was enclosed by railings.

A couple of nights before the unveiling, Patrick Lindsay, who would later become Master of the High Court, and some friends climbed over the enclosed park's railings and silently approached the veiled statue, which was secured with a string.
 Loosening the string, they proceeded to dress Padraic in a blue shirt, tie and black beret before carefully replacing the veil.

Could the late Fianna Fáil Taoiseach Jack Lynch and the late Fine Gael politician Patrick Lindsay ever have been talking about the day Dev came to Galway in 1935 ?

On the Sunday of the ceremony, they hung around waiting to witness the reaction when Eamon formally unveiled the statue. There are mixed views on how developed Eamon's sense of humour was but there is little doubt but that he would not have been amused. However, it's likely that his wife, Sinéad O'Flanagan would probably have enjoyed the whole thing. Sinéad's influence on the course of Irish history is probably much undervalued.

The late Garda Colm (Coleman) Gill of Cill Rónáin.(1903-1999)

Alas for Patrick Lindsay and his friends, their plans would be foiled by the eagle eyed Guard Pat Joe Gill from Cill Éinne, who ruined the surprise.
While checking the statue, Pat Joe was obliged to remove the string and inspect the sculpture.

The late Pat Joe Gill of Cill Éinne. Seen here with his late uncle.

Patrick Lindsay identifies the man who foiled their plot as Guard Gill from the Aran Islands. At the time , there were two Guard Gills from Aran stationed in Galway town and after some further investigating we are now fairly sure that the man involved was Pat Joe Gill from Cill Éinne. Apologies to those we misinformed before. 
Pat Joe and his 3rd cousin Colm  from Cill Rónáin were known in Galway as Ginger Guard Gill and Black Guard Gill. Colm had two brothers also in the force, Peter in Killorglin and Paddy who ended up in Spiddal (An Spidéal) Both Colm and Pat Joe had arrived in Galway in July 1934. Pat Joe Gill was a brother to the late Matty Gill in Cill Éinne and the late Baba in Cill Rónáin.



Of course as soon as the policeman loosened the string and had a look at Pádraic in his new blue shirt, tie and beret, the game was up and the statue was quickly stripped, just before Eamon De Valera arrived.

Although the plotters were to be denied their moment of glory, they did have some consolation in what happened shortly after.



According to Patrick Lindsay, all the great and the good of the West of Ireland were congregated on a recently constructed platform. For the most part, according to Patrick, the majority were people who just a few years previously, would have crossed the road if they saw Pádraic O Conaire approaching, in case they might have to buy him a drink.


The tendency to ignore troubled souls and artists when they are alive and then celebrate them after they are dead, is not a recent phenomenon it seems. A man to be avoided in life, can often be quickly embraced in death.

So great was the amount of goodness and greatness that climbed on to that stage that, to the sound of splintering timber and loud screams, the platform collapsed. Luckily, the only injury done was to the pride of some of the dignitaries. The amount of injury being relative to how much self-esteem the victims believed themselves worthy of and how loudly they had screamed.

For well over a hundred years, back to Royal Irish Constabulary times, the Aran Islands have been famous for producing very high quality police officers. Hundreds of years of working with precious timber, washed ashore from the countless shipwrecks in the North Atlantic, has also produced generations of very high quality woodworkers.

For this reason, it seems reasonable to speculate that while the policeman on duty that June day in 1935, was an Aran Islander, the carpenter was not.

M. Muldoon

Singer Delia Murphy and her time on the Aran Islands.

              A happy photo of Delia Murphy, in Cill Rónáin in the 60s.
                                      "The Queen of Connemara"

The singer Delia Murphy looks happy to be going to sea as Liam Redmond tends to the currach.
(Photo by P.J. Bryson of Magherafelt, Co Derry)

Here is a lively photo of one of Ireland's most famous singers, Delia Murphy. A short time jigging for ronnach (mackerel) and mangach (pollock) around these shores, guaranteed plenty of fish for supper. 

The photo shows Delia, standing with the oars, as the well known actor Liam Redmond tends to the currach.The Redmond family were regular visitors to the island which they made their home on a number of occasions.

The now derelict Carra house, and the field in front where the Redmond children and their cousins and friends once played

Recently, happy days spent playing with the Redmond children, were recalled by an island woman who spent many a memorable hour with the family when they were renting the Carra house near Cill Rónáin. The family also on occasion rented a house near the top of An Chaircir Mhóir.

Another view of the Carra House  near Cill Rónáin with Inis Meáin deceptively pulled up close by the camera lens.

Liam was a very famous actor and some readers may recall seeing some of his stage or film performances. His wife Bairbre (1915 -1987) was a daughter of the executed 1916 leader, Thomas MacDonagh.

Well known actor Liam Redmond (1913-1989). A regular visitor to Aran in the 50s and 60s. Can be seen tending to the currach in our main photograph, with Delia Murphy.

Bairbre's mother Muriel, was one of the six radical Gifford sisters, two of whom lost their husbands in 1916. Muriel was drowned in 1917 and her sister Grace had married Joseph Plunkett, just hours before his execution.

Bairbre Redmond's father, Thomas McDonagh. One of the sixteen men executed after the rising in 1916.

Delia Murphy was a good friend to Bairbre and Liam and on occasion joined them on the island for a few days away from it all. We got the photo from a great friend of the islands, Peter Bryson from Co Derry, who along with parents P.J. and Kathleen and his family, has been visiting Aran for over sixty years. Peter has recalled travelling back to Galway on a packed Naomh Éanna, while Delia entertained the crowd with a succession of old favorites.

The M.V. Naomh Éanna, where many a great music and song session was held. When the day was rough, the first roll, as the shelter of the land was lost, heralded a great evacuation from the bar as nervous passengers rushed for the open air.
(Photo P.J. Bryson)

When the passengers disembarked in Galway, a chauffeur, whose music tastes, if he had any, didn't include old "Come all ye" tunes, approached Kathleen Bryson.
With perfect diction he enquired “Excuse me madame, are you Delia Murphy”?
Like the honest woman that she was, Kathleen directed him towards Delia.

Brysons bar in 1942. Note the U.S. Army jeep parked outside. Ireland, North and South, benefited greatly from the large number of American and Canadian troops who were based here. Soldiers inside obviously had more important things to do than pose for a photo with the locals.

Brysons Bar and Restaurant today. Celebrating Arthur's day.

                                                                   

Peter and his family run one of Ireland's most famous musical pubs, in the town of Magherafelt, Co Derry. If you are ever passing, drop in and say hello to the Brysons.
 Just mention the Aran Islands and you will get an endless supply of stories from long ago as you sample that great Derry hospitality.

The library at Coole as painted by W.B.Yeats himself. Perhaps the very bookcase where he hunted down Anthony Trollope, for some bedtime reading.

          

Liam Redmond is credited with recording a great story that Delia once told him. It seems Delia and her husband Thomas Kiernan, were guests of Lady Gregory at Coole park near Gort. The great poet W.B.Yeats was also present. As bedtime approached, W.B. started to go through the bookshelf looking for some reading material. Muttering aloud to himself he declared  “ I always find that a little Trollope helps me to sleep”.

 In the polite circles of Irish high society, this remark might have gone unnoticed, or at least unacknowledged, but with a loud laugh Delia Murphy from Mayo, could not resist saying “ God Mister Yeats, you're a howl “

Lady Gregory was not amused.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQoxdTFprvg

The Lonely grave of Alfred Tizzard

           The Lonely grave of Alfred Tizzard.

Grave of Fl Sergent Alfred Tizzard from Littlehampton, Sussex with the great cliff fort, Dún Aengus, in the background.

In a lonely corner of the Cill Muirbhigh graveyard of Cnocán na mBan lies a well maintained grave with the distinctive headstone of a British commonwealth soldier.

Here is the final resting place of a young  English airman, Alfred Tizzard, whose body was discovered in Galway Bay by two Aran Island fishermen in 1941.

His was just one of two bodies found after a R.A.F. seaplane, with a crew of nine, disappeared on April 21st, 1941. The other body came ashore in Donegal.

A Catalina Flying boat, similar to Alfred's, landing on Lough Erne, County Fermanagh.

Flight Sgt. Alfred Tizzard 1915-1941 (Photo thanks to his Gr. nephew Martin Tizzard)

Their Catalina Flying boat had been based in Scotland but had taken off from the flying boat base on Lough Erne in County Fermanagh. They were providing air cover for one of the great Atlantic convoys from North America which were keeping the Allied war effort going.

Much feared FW Condor which may have had a part in the loss of the Catalina

 Although their comrades had searched as best they could, no sign of them or their plane was found in the vastness of the North Atlantic.
 As they returned from their fruitless search, which extended as far south as Slyne Head, the Sunderland rescue plane came under attack from a German Focke-Wulf Condor but managed to fight it off.

Flying  Boat station on Lough Erne, Co Fermanagh. From where Alfred Tizzard and his comrades left on their last mission.

The commander of the Catalina was Flight Lieutenant Henry Demster Breese who was just 22 years of age. Lt.Breese had attended the burial at sea of his father just a few weeks previously. His father, Vice Air Marshall Charles Breese, was a very senior R.A.F. officer and had been killed in an air accident in Scotland. Charles had started out as a navy man and hence the burial at sea. His eldest son John was at the time a P.O.W. in Germany but would survive the war. His youngest son Henry and most of the Catalina crew would soon join him forever, beneath the waves.

The only other body recovered was that of the young  20 year old wireless operator, Flight Sergeant Horace Tann from Essex. He was recovered in early August by fishermen and is buried on the island of Cruit near Kincasla in Donegal.

Fl Sgt Horace Tann.

The Catalina would probably have flown out through the shortcut air corridor over Sligo and

Lough Erne Flying Boats during World War Two.

Donegal, which the technically neutral Irish government had secretly opened in January 1941 for Allied aircraft. The Catalina had a range of over 2,500 miles and was an important part of the protection of the great convoys from Canada and the United states, that were so vital to the war effort.

 By April 1941, what became known as the Battle of Britain was over although British cities were still being regularly bombed by the Luftwaffe. These were difficult days as the Soviets had yet to turn back the June 1941 German invasion and the United States would be outside the conflict until the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbour, later that year.



  Alfred Tizzard came from a family of railway people and had qualified as a plumber before joining the Royal Air Force in 1937. He had qualified as an Air Gunner, just a few weeks after war broke out in September 1939. At twenty six, Alfred would have been a senior airman as many others who answered the call, were little more than boys.



We are reminded that a great favorite of the elderly Islanders was the late Captain Bill Wallace who, with Capt Hayden Lawford got the island air service, Aer Arann, off the ground in 1970. Bill had served in the R.A.F. during the war, as a bomber pilot and had twice survived being shot down. Bill had often stayed and visited at Billy Bogg's house in Cill Muirbhigh and would have been well aware of his fellow airman buried nearby. Bill had a great way of making nervous passengers feel safe and his own survival during the war was looked on by many as a sign from God.

Bill Wallace from Dublin, was one of the many non British personnel who joined the R.A.F. in the fight against fascism and Hitler. About 20% of the wartime Royal Air Force was made up of non nationals. During the Battle of Britain a large number of pilots were from Poland, New Zealand, Canada and Czechoslovakia with smaller numbers coming from other parts of the commonwealth and empire as well as parts of occupied Europe. 

Why the Catalina came down will never be known but the most likely explanation is that it had some form of mechanical failure or mishap. Enemy action could have been the cause but at this stage nobody will ever know. The Catalina, being American built, was not regarded by many in Britain as being as reliable as the other great W.W 2 seaplane, the Sunderland. The Sunderland was much more heavily fortified which of course made it a more dangerous aircraft to attack.

The incredibly long 24 hour patrols, with little sleep, along with the biting cold, might also have been a contributing factor. It's possible the crew made it into their life-rafts but nobody will ever know for sure. This was one of the initial flights in the recently purchased Catalinas and the crew had only just completed their training as they were more at home with the Belfast built Sunderlands.

Flight Sergeant Alfred Tizzard would have spent over four months lost at sea before, on the 9th of September 1941, two Cill Muirbhigh fishermen, Brian Peter Stephen Hernon  and Bartley Bhabba Hernon, found his badly decomposed body in their nets. There are many stories from around the coast  of bodies being left to the ocean but the men who found Alfred felt it was their God given duty to afford him a decent burial.

Led by Brian Peter Stephen Hernon, his crew-mate Bartley Bhabba Hernon, and with the help of the two Feeney Hernon brothers Tom, Bartley and others, they proceeded to bury the dead airman.

Tom Feeney Hernon (right), who helped bury Alfred. Seen here with the late Mikey McDonagh who would be himself lost at sea and never found.(Photo Áine Hernon)

Most of those involved in the burial were of the Hernon clan who were descended from two brothers who came to Aran at the end of the 18th century. At the time, it was often the practice to bury bodies like this in unconsecrated ground when the religion of the body was unknown. Although it is hard to understand this today, this was also the practice for suicide victims and unbaptised infants.

Brian Peter Stephen Hernon on the right. Taken around 1970 (Photo thanks to Áine Hernon)

This presented a problem for Brian as he knew full well that the Parish priest in Cill Rónáin, An tAthair Ó Cillín, would never allow Alfred to be buried inside the consecrated Catholic graveyard. Those of us who knew Brian will remember him as a free thinking man with a mind of his own. In truth, this is just another way of saying that he had a fierce stubborn streak.

As is often the case with men like Brian, there were two ways to get him to do something. The first was to ask him nicely which usually worked. The second way, which always worked, was to forbid him to do it.

Brian overcame the problem of the Parish priest raising an objection by simply not asking him and he and his Cill Muirbhigh neighbours laid Alfred to rest in a corner of the graveyard in the shadow of the great fort, Dún Aengus.

(We have recently been informed that Robert Gill of Cill Rónáin, played a part in having Alfred buried inside the graveyard walls. Robert was an ex Royal navy man and had bravely intervened to calm down the situation during the Black and Tan raid on the islands in 1920. He had donned his old uniform and possibly saved a man's life)

Shortly afterwards a fine wooden cross was made by Cill Rónáin shipwright, Robert's son, the late Coley Gill, which remained until the War Graves commission sent a headstone. The new headstone was transported back to Cill Muirbhigh in the 60s by one of the best men in Aran for old tales and island history, Dara Mullen.

Ships carpenter, the late Coley Gill, who made the first marker for Alfred's grave.

By all accounts the priest was very annoyed but he had no choice but to let Alfred rest in peace.

Well, not quite in peace.

A few years later an old man was to die in unusual circumstances which are really not relevant to the story but we will mention them anyway. (It never stopped us before). It is said he accepted a bet that he could eat a very large amount of fresh goat meat.

While he won the bet, it was to cost him his life.

As he had no close relatives, his neighbours gave him a great wake as is the custom on the islands, where the death of an old person is not regarded as a time for undue mourning.

Everything was going fine until the funeral arrived at the graveyard. When they got to the proposed grave, recently dug by the neighbours, the Parish priest declared that he would not allow his parishioner be buried beside Alfred. 

Perhaps the priest may have objected to his parishioner being buried beside a non Catholic or perhaps he might have objected to him being buried beside a British serviceman. Neither reason seems rational in the times we now live in but perhaps the real reason was that he now had a chance to reverse the defeat that Brian Peter Stephen  had inflicted on him a few years earlier.

The priest had a great reputation for piety but not so much for pity.

Indeed one old man described him to us as being "sinfully proud of his humility".
He had a great fear of dancing, music, communists, courting and dirty books.

The famous writer Liam

Fr. Killeen

O'Flaherty was the main target with regard to "dirty books"and "communism" and he was very hard on Liam's sister Delia, who was a local school teacher.

He appears to have believed that Delia should be her brother's keeper and had tried to force her  and her husband, schoolmaster Padraig Ó hEithir, from the island. 

If the men of Aran could be stubborn, it seems the women were just as determined and Delia and he were like the unstoppable force meeting the immovable object.
 Delia had used a uniquely Catholic way of dealing with a clerical adversary by continuing to go to confessions to her tormentor. One can only imagine what she might have confessed about having occasional unchristian feelings.
Perhaps Delia and the priest played out an honorable draw.

The priest had instigated a lot of new processions and services which he enacted with great ceremony. Some say he was very hard on both his flock and his curates. In fairness to the man, all say that he was not  a man who hungered after money.

He had led a campaign against women wearing trousers and had preached about the biblical practice of stoning loose women. It backfired on him spectacularly when some children in Gort na gCapall, took him at his word and threw stones at two female tourists wearing trousers. 

The women turned out to be the wife and daughter of a very senior policeman and the Archbishop had to intervene to smooth things over. It is said that he was finally humiliated when some American female relations of his own, whom he was meeting at the pier, with half the island looking on,  marched down the gangway of the old ferry, S.S. Dún Aengus, wearing trousers.

The priest had also led a kind of a vendetta against an English woman, Elizabeth (Betty) Rivers who came to live , paint and write on the islands. 

Artist Elizabeth (Betty) Rivers 1903-1964 (N.L.I)

 Elizabeth was a writer and artist and at the time it was believed by many that artists, actors and writers spent their lives either committing sin or thinking about committing sin. As thinking about committing sin was regarded as a sin, it could be said that artistic types were in a constant state of sin.

In fairness, there probably wasn't a Parish priest in Ireland who could have slept easy, knowing that he had a popular, Protestant, female, trousered, English artist in his parish who had been publicly praised by one of her peers, Basil Ivan Rákóczi (1908–1979) as one of the finest exponents of the male nude.

The thought that some fine man of Aran might throw off  his woolen geansaí and homespuns and pose in his pelt for a female, English, Protestant, trouser wearing artist, must have been very unsettling.

Betty Rivers had been instrumental in introducing Muriel Gahan of the Irish shop in Dublin to the traditional island knitters and so helped greatly to promote this cottage industry. Most of her wood engravings and carvings were destroyed during the London blitz.

To get back to the story of the burial of the old man, the mourners were shocked at the priest's outburst and refusal to bury the old man beside Alfred.

 Picking up his spade, the main grave digger sprung into action.

Those who didn't know him well, assumed he was about to start digging a new grave. Those who did, knew better.

Walking up to the priest with the words "seo leat a Athair" (here you are Father) he invited him to dig a new grave himself. As he and his companions headed for the gate, the priest relented and called them back. The main gravedigger shortly after emigrated to Canada, which may help explain his courage in defying a priest.

 Needless to say no new grave was dug and although, like the vast, vast majority of the countless thousands buried in Cnocán na nBan, the old man has no marking on his last resting spot, in many ways he is marked by Alfred's fine headstone.

Perhaps we are a little hard on the priest as it is unfair to judge people from a different era and mindset by today's norms. He was perhaps just a man of his time but his brother John, who was also a priest, was said to have, like most Mayo people, a more relaxed "Live and let Live" attitude to life . The traits which some remember him for negatively were also on occasion of great benefit to the islanders as he fought hard to have roads and piers improved and lobbied to have more fuel provided for the local boats during wartime rationing.

We have also been told that he was instrumental in getting some Island children into further education at a time when most children's education ended at age fourteen.

In his youth he had shown great courage when in May 1921, he and another young curate, Fr. Michael Walsh, attended the dying during a battle in Mayo between a local rebel unit and a mixture of R.I.C and Tans. They would have had members of their flocks on both sides of the conflict as the R.I.C. was composed of about 80% Catholic in the lower ranks.
This was at what was known as the  Kilmeena ambush in Co. Mayo. The two priests put themselves in great danger as the battle was still raging as they attended the dying.

After leaving Aran in 1948, the priest would spend over thirty years in his next parish in Mayo where he is remembered fondly for his tireless work on behalf of his people. Like many a young zealot, the years may well have mellowed him.

In an ironic twist, Elizabeth Rivers was to be received into the Catholic church a few years before she died. She is still remembered on Árainn where many can still recall hearing of the great nights of music, singing, story telling and dancing at her Man of Aran cottage, overlooking Cill Muirbhigh bay.

Readers who ever find themselves in Connemara, can view a lovely stained glass window in the church at Cashel, which was designed by Betty Rivers.

 Cnocán na mBan or Relig Chill Mhuirbhigh with Betty River's thatched Man of Aran cottage in the distance.
Billy Bogg's house can be seen on the right. Alfred's grave at corner to the left nearest camera.

Elizabeth was a proud English woman and had returned to London to work as a fire warden during the blitz

Pat Mullen by Betty Rivers

as she felt it was her duty to help in the war effort. Most of her most important work was lost in the blitz. She died in 1964 at the age of sixty one and is buried in St Maelruain's church in Tallagh, Dublin. Her book 'Stranger on Aran' contains possibly the finest account ever written of an Aran currach crew fighting to save themselves and their two passengers as they made their way in huge seas from Cill Muirbhigh to Connemara. It rivals her great friend Pat Mullen's thrilling currach scene accounts from his book, 'Man of Aran'.

The well known Welsh poet Andrew McNeillie spent a life changing year in Cill Muirbhigh in the late 60s which he later recalled in his beautiful 2001 book 'An Aran Keening'  He has recently written a lovely, haunting piece about Alfred, whose grave he passed on a daily basis, during his youthful days on the island. It is included in his 2014 book of poetry 'Winter Moorings' and is called 'An English Airman's Death Recalled'. 

Winter Moorings ISBN: 978 1 847772 40

The late Tom Feeney Hernon (nearest camera) , who helped to bury Alfred, enjoying a drink in 1972 with L to R Padraig McDonagh, Micheál Cheata Faherty and the publican Dara Kenny. (Photo by Hiroji Kubota and copyright to Magnum Photos.) 

Bartley Bhabba Hernon who, along with Brian Peter Stephen Hernon, found the body of Alfred Tizzard. Seen here with his wife Annie. (George Pickow collection, James Hardiman library,  N.U.I.G)

 

The last resting place in Cnocán na mBan of Brian Peter Stephen Hernon and his wife Kate Mullen.

 While driving some tourists around the island a few years ago, we happened to mention the story of Alfred to an old man who had told us and the other bus passengers of once serving in the Canadian Air Force. He asked us to stop at the grave and gave Alfred as ramrod straight a salute as his old frame could muster.

The custom at island funerals is for many mourners to disperse immediately to their family plots while the funeral moves towards the grave. A prayer is then said for the departed and as Alfred had no relations to pray for him, many islanders included him in their prayers. No matter how fine a headstone one has, everybody in a graveyard is equally dead.

Grave in Newport of Fr. Tomás Ó Cillín (Thomas Killeen). A man of his time with a great sense of duty.
 May he and all the others, Rest in Peace.

The story of the priest and the gravedigger was related to us at a sad island wake some years ago and we agreed to meet again when further details could be collected. This was not to be as just a few weeks later our informant was to join his many relations, Alfred, the Hernons and the old man in Relig Chill Mhuirbhigh.

Cecil and Emily Tizzard, Alfred's parents. Both died in 1964

 Alfred Tizzard's parents, Cecil and Emily,  asked that his name not be inscribed on the Littlehampton town war memorial. They held out that impossible hope that their young son might be alive as he was only identified by some documents. Up until her death in 1964, his mother Emily would regularly set a place at dinner for her beloved Alf. Recently, Alfred's niece, Heather Tizzard Perry, has had this rectified and his name has now been added to the Littlehampton war memorial.

Committee members at the War memorial at Littlehampton, Sussex. Alfred's home town.(Littlehampton Gazette)

It is said locally that some of his family visited Cill Muirbhigh after the war with a view to bringing Alfred home but when they saw his lovely, peaceful spot by the sea,  they decided to let him be.  Along with his family, Alfred also left behind a heartbroken fiancee, Ann Helps and whether she ever visited, is not known. 
Ann, like many young women from those times, would never marry but kept in touch with Alfred's family throughout her life. She had cherished Alfred's war medals and had arranged to have them passed on to his family after she died. The thought of the many years with Alfred she had missed out on and the unborn children they might have raised together, must have been with her all her life.

Sources and inspiration for this story include local lore, newspaper articles, the books An Aran Keening (2001) and Winter Moorings (2014) by Andrew McNeillie, Brendán ÓhEithir (2000) by Liam Mac Con Iomaire, Stones of Aran (1986 & 1995) by Tim Robinson, Stranger in Aran (1946) by Elizabeth Rivers, He was Galway (2016) by Jackie Uí Chionna, Catalinas and Sunderlands on Lough Erne  (2013) by Joe O'Loughlin,Culture of the Atlantic Edge (2017) by Nick Groom, N Allen, J Smith, a thesis by Katherine Kenny called Elizabeth Rivers as a Graphic Artist (2012) and pieces garnered over the years, some whose source identity we can remember and some not. 

Our great friend, the late Jim Street had an interest in both Aran and American history and had posted photos of Alfred's grave many years ago on the internet. Jim was an authority on many aspects of Aran life and in particular the life of Aran American Olympic athlete James Brendan Connolly and a victim of the sinking of the Lusitania, Nellie Woolven, who is buried in Cill Éinne cemetery. Jim died recently but was delighted to finally see a photo of Alfred, after all the years of wondering.

 We are grateful to Alfred's grandnephew Martin Tizzard, for kindly supplying  us with a number of photos. We are also grateful to Alfred's niece, Heather Perry and her brother Gerry Tizzard for helping keep Alfred's memory alive. We wish to thank Alfred's nephew Ron Johnstone for supplying some great background on Alfred and his life. Ron's mother Edith was Alfred's sister and his Dad Robert was one of Alfred's closest friends.

A name that was familiar to generations of Islanders can now be matched with a photo of a handsome young airman.

Fl. Sgt Alfred Tizzard, seen here in Littlehampton, with his young nephew, Ron Johnstone.
Ron has supplied invaluable information in the composing of this article. Many thanks.

(Michael Muldoon. September 2017)