Ulster Planters on the Clanricarde Estate

Tags

Claggernagh, Clanricarde, Gortanumera, Land League, National Education Office, Shaw-Tener, Ulster Planters

 Ulster Planters on the Clanricarde Estate

Lynches Field

As a result of Clanricarde’s intransigence, East Galway was a hotbed of land agitation following massive evictions from his estate in 1887. Protestant planter families from the Caven-Leitrim-Fermanagh counties came to the Portumna area during these turbulent years in the 1890s. A schoolhouse was built in the townland of Claggernagh near to the Clanricarde Demense for the education of their children, and its ruin is still visible today. The schoolhouse served as a temporary golf clubhouse when during the War of Independence the original clubhouse was maliciously burned.[1] The presence of these planter families working the land of local evicted tenants always led to many disputes, boycotts and intimidation in the region.

Following a spate of evictions in the summer of 1890, Clanricarde’s agent, Mr Shaw-Tener, began to allocate the vacated farms to Ulster tenants.[2] On 30 September 1890, the Office of National Education sent a memo to Gortanumera school asking ‘what was the cause of the low average attendance’ during the last two quarters as ‘the average required for the 2nd  assistant is 105’.[3] In reply, an inspector wrote that the principal, Ms. Hurley, and Ms. Gohery, the senior assistant, were held in high esteem but that the family of the second assistant, Ms. Broder, had ‘incurred popular resentment by re-taking the farm from which they had been evicted…Children may have been kept from school owing to the feeling against the second assistant.’ Further some of the children were tenants who were recently evicted and were now living in Land League huts in the neighbouring parish of Tynagh, and attending the new national school in Killeen which was also nearer. The Inspector’s conclusion was that the numbers had so declined as to warrant Ms. Broder’s position untenable.

Due to an amendment to the 1907 Evicted Tenants Act, the Estates Commissioners resolved to purchase 4,000 acres of planter-land from Clanricarde to reinstate the evicted tenants.[4] In the following years, the planter families gradually left the area so that the National Education Office noted ‘as the average attendance or the year ended 31.3.1913 was only 17, the question of the continuance of grants arises under terms of Rule 184.’[5]

1916 – Letter from Rev. Rush to the National Education Office

On 24th April 1916, Rector Rush writes to the National Education Office that the Claggernagh teacher has left and he fears there is little chance of the school restarting due to dwindling numbers. He writes that  “owing to the Congested Districts Board taking up their holdings, the Planters have left this part of the country – most of them have returned to the North of Ireland”.

As a result of declining numbers, the Claggernagh school eventually had to close and it can be assumed that the remaining pupils were dispersed among the schools in the parish. The nearest school under Protestant management was almost seven miles away in Lorrha in North Tipperary with twelve Established Church and four Methodist pupils and with accommodation for fifty-one. [6]

1914 – List of schools in the area

Through the persistent efforts of Reverend Edward Rush, the local rector in Portumna, in 1918 a new Protestant school called Portumna Parochial was finally granted and funded in the town with one teacher, Miss Mabel Hatch. As part of his efforts, Rev. Rushe had to list all the schools within 3 miles of Claggernagh, their religious denominations and number of pupils — giving us excellent information on the number and types of schools in the area one hundred years ago.

1917 – List of potential pupils

Rev. Rush also drew up a list of prospective pupils as part of his campaign. The list includes their ages, how far they live from the school, religious denomination, how they are currently educated etc. Names on the list:

• Vivienne, Eva and Robert Mansfield
• James Shaw (possible relative of Edward Shaw-Tener, Lord Clanricarde’s land agent)?)
• May Stanley
• Alison and Lewis Gordon (many will still remember Lewis who lived in Abbey Street)
• Eva and Maureen Anderson
• Sara, Ethel, Florence, Wilkins and Violet Elliot
• May, George, Violet, Victoria, Jennie, Albert, Evelyn and Ethel Patterson (many will still remember the Patterson sisters from St. Brendan’s Rd.).

Little else is known of its further history so far — or if it ever got off the ground.

[1] John Joseph Conwell, From Little Acorns…, A Centenary History of Portumna Golf Club (2013), p. 23.

[2] Miriam Moffitt, Clanricarde’s planters and land agitation in east Galway 1886-1916 (Dublin, 2011), p. 20.

[3] National Archive of Ireland, ED/9/6291.

[4] Miriam Moffitt, Clanricarde’s planters and land agitation in east Galway 1886-1916 (Dublin, 2011), p. 39.

[5] National Archives of Ireland, ED9/27949.

[6] Ibid.

Population Decimation

Tags

census, Eyrecourt, Famine, Killimor, Meelick, population, Portumna, Tiernascragh, Tynagh, Woodford

Population Changes in Portumna 1841-2002

Screen Shot of the Irish Population Change Atlas

The Famine of 1846-50 determined the course of Irish history even to this day, and reduced the population dramatically through starvation, disease and emigration. In terms of death by famine alone, the biggest losses were in Galway and Clare. The National Centre for Geocomputation’s (NCG) Online Atlas Portal is an absolute goldmine of information on 160 years of population data mapping changes across the decades. The data used in the Atlas is from 16 censuses, taken in both the Republic and the North of Ireland between 1841 and 2002.

It is incredible to learn that almost 6,000 people lived in Portumna in 1841! Between 1841 and 1851, Portumna suffered a massive 30.6% loss of population, and in the years after the Famine, another 29%. The population has never recovered and steadily declined ever since except for the period after 1971 when it has risen slightly. The surrounding parishes of Meelick, Tieranascragh and Tynagh suffered even greater declines of over 40%. The parishes of Killimor and Meelick are today 10% of their 1841 populations!

	Total Population
Names	1841	1851	1861	1871	1881	1891	1901	1911	1926	1936	1951	1961	1971	1981	1991	2002
EYRECOURT	2521	1670	1520	1120	1018	738	670	625	518	546	590	586	580	565	552	532
KILLIMOR	2779	2096	1459	660	623	604	812	829	847	850	759	687	745	754	379	321
MEELICK	2096	1172	894	833	745	570	484	441	434	410	391	336	311	273	258	231
PORTUMNA	5887	4083	2892	2626	2660	2270	2082	1998	1841	1851	1721	1618	1669	1889	1883	1920
TIERNASCRAGH	968	577	444	338	321	251	228	242	354	296	297	262	255	210	181	164
TYNAGH	2308	1329	833	801	750	685	550	512	546	568	510	425	452	476	409	369
WOODFORD	2046	1452	1266	1207	1147	1068	870	749	670	620	499	9	411	452	441	479

 All maps produced in this Irish Famine Population Change Atlas are produced under the National Centre for Geocomputation (NCG) mapping license: Ordnance Survey Ireland Licence Number EN. 0072711 © Ordnance Survey Ireland / Government of Ireland

Portumna Lawn Tennis Club

Tags

Fr. Solan, Portumna, tennis, Town Development, Westpark hotel

History of Portumna Lawn Tennis Club

Portumna Lawn Tennis Club can be dated back as far as 1880, and in this year six grass courts were established in Portumna. The Tennis club facility also included a wall-ball and a clubhouse where senior citizens would go regularly to socialise and play cards – bridge mainly. The wall-ball was made of timber with no sides and this facility allowed patrons to practise their shots while waiting for a game. In 1913 a British vessel was commissioned to carry out a hydrological survey on Lough Derg; the vessel was known as the “Chanqsha” vessel. The crew was skippered by a man called Tommy Suggat. Tommy Suggat was captain of that vessel and spent much of his spare time, as did the crew, playing the game at the club in Portumna. The crew was ordered back to Britain in 1914, when World War 1 broke out. They donated a cup to the club called the Chanqsha Cup which was made out of sterling silver. There was also a cup donated for the ladies but there was no name given to this cup. Unfortunately both cups were never returned after the last tournaments prior to1960 and the location of these cups is unknown.

Dresscode

All members of the club wore full length all white outfits. This dress code was strictly adhered to for all practicing members of the club.In the 1920’s the club was again beginning to falter. Many locals of Portumna did not want to see the tennis club faltering so the chairman of the club in 1923 was Mr. Moran who embarked on a campaign to entice more members to join and maintain membership of Portumna Lawn Tennis Club. The O’Kelly family was instrumental in getting catholic families to join the club and membership of the club increased and an offshoot of table tennis came from this. The members used to have table tennis competitions in an upstairs room at Portumna Workhouse during the winter.  It is interesting to note that an outdoor court also existed in the grounds of the Workhouse.

The courts were kept in good condition and were taken care of by a man named Joe Coniry. Joe had made a bargain with the club that he would take care of the courts if his donkey was allowed to graze on the courts during the winter months. When there were enough members in the club, a committee was formed. When new members wanted to join the club, the committee would vote by placing white beads if they were in favour and black beads if they weren’t in favour into a jar. This was a practice used by the free masons also and the term “black balled” was used when someone was excluded using this process of voting. The black beads and the white beads were counted and if the black beads outnumbered the white beads, then the prospective member could be excluded from joining the club. The Club organised competitive tennis matches against clubs in Nenagh, Birr, Athenry and BallinasIoe.

High Teas

It was common at the time that the ladies of the town baked delicious strawberry cakes that were consumed in the pavilion and these events became very important socially for quite a number of years. These events added another dimension to the social life of the club.Members of Portumna Lawn Tennis Club were also instrumental in starting Portumna Players. In the mid- forties a meeting was held to raise funds for a Table Tennis Club, it was proposed to stage a play to raise funds.The last Chanqsha Tennis Tournament took place in St. Mary’s (1960) and the competition was won by Sean O’ Dwyer but the cup was never presented because at some stage it had not been returned to the club. There is no known account of the equivalent cup for the ladies.

More Recent Years

Click to enlarge

In 1967 a number of entrepreneurial minded business men embarked on a very ambitious project. This was the provision of a hotel, ‘The Westpark Hotel’, to provide for the needs of the thriving local tourist industry. A site was secured but there was a problem with the lack of car park facilities adjacent to the hotel itself. Rev. Fr. Solan, who was curate at the time in the parish of Portumna, negotiated with the Tennis Club to give up their facility on the west side of the hotel and they would get three hard courts further out St. Joseph’s Road. The Tennis Club agreed to this and they gave up six grass courts and their pavilion and agreed a hundred year lease with Town Development and the Hotel at that particular time. The Hotel provided the three courts and the Pavilion was built by the club itself. The indenture was made on the 26th of November, 1969, between Portumna Hotels Limited and the Portumna District and Development Company.  The Hotel would have access to one court for its patrons when not in use by the club.

The future is continuous with the past and a major effort is being made to restore the facility at St. Joseph’s Road and provide tennis in Portumna yet again. This is an extremely worthwhile enterprise which offers to the youth of Portumna an added facility which will enhance not just sporting skills but also promote healthy activities in an era more and more concerned with healthy lifestyles.  The committee has undertaken this initiative with the Portumna and District Development Company so that exercise, teamwork, skills development and social activity can be the hallmark of the club going forward just as it was in the past.

(Source: Portumna Tennis Club website)

The Romance of the Fisherman’s Daughter

Tags

Coen, Folklore Commission, genealogy, graveyard, Miller, Portumna

  

The Miller vault in St. Brigid’s Graveyard Portumna, Co. Galway is one of the many interesting architectural features to be seen on a walk around the town. With its vermiculated decoration it is quite unique in the town according to Christy Cunniffe, Galway County Council Field Monument Advisor. Today we ask ourselves who were the Millers who are commemorated here and where did they live — because there are no longer any Millers in the town? Well, look no more: the recently digitally-released Folklore Commission stories for the Portumna area tell the origin of the Miller family in the town. A beautiful romantic story… or legend!

Extract from original school essay (click to enlarge)

Around 1880, Portumna was the scene of a marriage between a Mary Coen of humble means and an English millionaire named Miller. This is the story of the Miller Vault in the old St. Brigid’s Graveyard as related by John Mulcahy, ex RIC man and aged 56 as part of the 1937-39 Folklore Commission Collection.