An Article From Munitir ALCA

In 1941 Seamus Maguire of the Department of Irish Folklore, U.C.D. recorded the memories and stories of Michael Gallagher (Mici Tomi) of Curraun. Michael had been born in Kildownet in 1847 and was 94 years of age when he spoke to Seamus Maguire. The following extracts from Maguire’s records are published here by kind permission of the Head of the Department of Irish Folklore.

Muintir Micheáil Ui Ghallachobhair (Mici Tomi)

My great-grandfathers name was Michael Gallagher and he lived in Corraun, in Aird (a village in Corraun). He had a son named Michael and that was my grandfather. My grandfather had three sons and one daughter at home. Matthew, Michael and Tommie were the son’s names and Alice was the daughter’s name. She married a man named Gibbons from outside Newport. My mothers name was Leneghan, one of the Leneghans of Ballycroy, and my father’s name was Tommy. My grandfather had a place in Newport and it was the first slated house that was built in the town. It was in the main street on the right hand side going in from here. Along with the three uncles and the aunt I had at home. I had two uncles who went to America. I never saw them. I ha& two aunts in America too but they came home and got married. Alice married Pat Henry and Sarah married Dominick Henry. The two men were first cousins.

My eldest uncle Matthew got my grandfather’s place in Newport. He was a smuggler and he used to be going to Flush (Flushing) for tobacco and other things and selling them out here and in Newport. He was drowned coming home from Flush. Páidin Ban ac Cormac was a first cousin of my mother’s.

Smuggling

My uncle Matthew was a smuggler and he used to bring tobacco and wine and other things from Flush (Flushing). He used to be with the Caiptin 0 Máille sometimes and sometimes he used to be with Páidin Ban ‘ac Cormac. Páidin was a great smuggler and he had a ship of his own and he used to have a man named Leneghan from Ballycroy, a first cousin of my mothers, with him and a man named MacNeela. I think MacNeela was from Toin Re Gaoith (a townland between Mulranny and Achill Sound) or Claggan (in Ballycroy). Páidin himself was from Croc Maoilin in Ballycroy and he was a relation of my mother’s. They used to put their cargoes out at Toin na Dumbacha (a place in Corraun) sometimes and they used to bring the stuff from there on horseback to Newport and in the country. Old men used to bring a hundredweight of tobacco on their backs from Toin na Dumhacha to Newport at night. I seen the men mesel an’ was talkin’ to them. (The distance from Toin na Dumhacha to Newport is about 14 miles SM.) Páidin Ban was drowned himself. He was a fine tall, strong man arid be used to wear brOgaf go(de) leathar na Spáinneach up to his knees. There was a song composed about Páidin. I heard it often in Ballycroy.

MacNeela and the Caiptin Omáille

MacNeela was from lower Achill some people said but more said he was from Claggan (a place South Ballycroy). I believe mesel’ he was from Claggan. He used to be with PáidIn Ban (ac Cormac) sometimes but he used to be with the Caiptin OMaille most of the time. He was a great seaman and people used to say that he was a better seaman than the Caiptin. Their ship would be drownded once only for MacNeela. They were come from Flush with a cargo. The wind favoured them all the way and they were six hours too soon or sooner than they thought. MacNeela was on deck and he shouted that Sliabh Mor was in sight and he called the Caiptin OMáille up to see it but he couldn’t. He ordered MacNeela down to get the supper and when he came up again Sliabh MOr was plain to be seen. Only for MacNeela was on watch that time the ship would be in smidthereens on the wild rocks at Achill Head.

Caiptin OMáille

I’ve seen the Caiptin OMáille indeed and I remember the day as well as I do today. I was 14 or 15 years old at the time. He was going on crutches when I seen him but he was a fine tall man. I seen him comm up the Kildownet road (a village in the south east of Achill Island) from lower Achill and he was on his way to Clare island. He stopped for the night in the public house that was that time at Kildownet behind at the chapel. We all went in to see him because we heard so much about him before. He was tellin’ stories about his life but I don’t remember any of the stories now. The house was full because all the village went in to see him. There is a new house now at the chapel (north side) and the public house was where the stable is now between the new house and the chapel. He was related to the O’Malleys of Clare Island and lower Achill. I never heard that he was married or that he had a family. Maybe he was married. He used to put out cargoes at Corraun. He had a whisker but indeed he seemed to be a fine man when he was young. The last cargo he brought was sunk at Poll na Rairie near Newport. They sunk (the ship) themsel’ when they saw the revenue comm. The name of the ship was “The Sloopeen Vaughan’ and there was a song made about her. I knew it once but I’m afraid I won’t be able to say it all now.

Irish Folklore Collection (IFC) 827, pp 86-93

The Gallagher Scholarship Fund -

A man of the Gallaghers from Tiernar (Tir an Air, a townland between Mulranny and Newport) who was a parish priest in America and whilst he was there he was among most of his relations from Ballycroy and Achill and They gathered a lot of money for him. His mother’s name was Campbell, a relation of the Campbell’s of Corraun. In his will he left the money to be spent to educate the Gallaghérs of Achill, Ballycroy, Tiernaur or their offspring for the priesthood and if there was any money left over it was to go to Donegal ‘to the offspring of the Gallaghers there. A good many Gallaghers got the scholarship but here was never a priest of the Gallaghers ordained from the money of the scholarship. There was a few of their offspring ordained but they were not Gallagher - their mothers were some of the Gallaghers -and the first to be ordained from the Scholarship Fund was a policeman’s son from Newport, but he was not Gallagher. He (the parish priest who left the money) came home to Tiernaur on a visit and he walked to Achill through Corraun and back again to Tiernaur on foot.

This Fr Gallagher was ordained sometime after my uncle (Fr Michael Gallagher) and it was through Fr Michaels recommendation he got the place in America There was a good many of the Gallaghers from Achill here who got the Scholarship but something happened every one of them before they were ordained, So none of them ever was a priest from it. There must be some mallacht or mi-adh (curse) on it.

‘Michael a Mhala’ Michael Gallagher

This Michael Gallagher was my father’s father and Fr Michael Gallagher was his son and a brother of my father’s. My father’s name was Tommy Gallagher. My grandfather was very well off. He had a hooker and used to go whale fishing; He used to go to Donegal and buy stockings and sell them all over the country. When he started selling the stockings first he hadn’t much to spare. One day here in Corraun where he was living; a young man, a stranger to the place, came in and said he was goin’ on a journey and that he wanted a few pairs of stockings but that, he had no money. My grandfather said to him:

When his son, Fr: Michael was in college in Maynooth there used to be a day every year that the fathers used to go to set their sons in thé college. They used to have a big feast and it’s how the fathers of the students used to collect among themselves and pay for the dinner. Once my grandfather was at the college looking at his son and he was at the dinner. When they began to collect the money’ my grandfather stood up and said:

Paragraph in Irish

An tAthair Micheal Ogallachobhair (Father Mick)

F

ather Mick Gallagher was my uncle as I said before and I was only thee weeks old when he came to Achill as a parish priest. He came in 1847. He spent a while in Turlough (A place about four miles from Castlebar on the road to Ballyvary) and a while in Islandeady (a place between Castlehar and Westport). It was from Islandeady he came to Achill. When he came he was livin in a small house in Cashel (a village in the centre of Achill island). He got the house repaired and

had a fine comfortable thatched house then. When the jumpers got the land in Cashel the priest had to leave. He came up to Breanaskill (a village about three miles south of Achill Sound on west side of the Sound) Breanaskill was in Pike’s estate (Pike was a landlord and grandfather of the present Mr. Pike who lives about half a mile west of Achill Sound). Pike was a great friend to the priest although Pike was a Protestant. He put a man out of his house in Breanaskill and gave the house to Father Mick, but he built a house for the man he put out. Indeed Mr. Pike was good to my uncle (Fr Mick). He gave him eight acres of land at Kildownet chapel and fenced it in for him. You can see it today. It is on the south side of the chapel and it is now divided into eight stripes. If you count eight stripes up (southwards) from the chapel you will come to an aitin ditch. All them eight stripes was the land that Pike gave to my uncle. Father Mick was a great horseman and he used to have a good horse always. He had one grey horse once and indeed he was a fine horse. There is a likeness of the priest riding on the grey horse in Pike’s below yet (In Mr. Pike’s residence half a mile west of Achill Sound). You can see the house in Breanaskill where my uncle was living. It is down at the shore. It is a two-storyed slated house now but it was only a thatched house in my uncle’s time. There is a man named Scanlon living in it now.

Irish Folklore Collection (IFC), 827 pp. 100-106

Booleying in Corran

About sixty years ago the people from Corran used to up to the “Coire” (a glen on Corrán hill to the east side of Corran) booleying. The people used to go up with their cattle in June, up to the Coire. The women and young used to go up, but men used to go up as well if there was no women in the house to go. There used to be good wholesome grass in the Coire in June and July and the cattle used to thrive well whilst they’d be above and they’d be the better of it again for the year after. Any cattle that wouldn’t spend a while up in the booleys would never stand the winter. They’d get “crupán”, a kind a disease that used come in their bones and they wouldn’t ate and then they wouldn’t be able to weather the winter. Everyone that could used to send their cattle up. Anyone that hadn’t one to go up with his cattle would send the cattle up with some other one and then he would help that one’s people with the work at home.

While they would be above in the booleys, don’t think they’d be idle. Sarra fear o them. They’d be knittin’ or sewin’ or other jobs and the men would be makin’ baskets and jobs like that. They’d have horses and asses above as well, but they were only for bringin’ down the milk and the butter for three or four parties and bringin’ up the stuff in the same ways.

The bothógs used be made of stones and some would be made of sods. Some of them were bigger than others. Some parties had one for themsel’ but three or four parties would sometimes be joined in one bothog. The bothógs used be near one another. If you’d be above now, I believe you’d be able to see the oul’ walls. They used be roofed with scraws an creataf and they wouldn’t let any drop in. Some of them had chimleys and some of them had only a “poll deataigh” out at the top of the gable. They wouldn’t be very high. you’d have to stoop goin’ in the doot They used have sráideogs (a shakedown or bed laid on the floor with no frame) of straw or cib and they used be a sort of a table in every one of them.

Twas above in the booleys they’d prepare their own food. They had fires and vessels above as well and they used have plenty of milk and butter. When they’d come down for things to ate they’d have the buffer and milk down with them and they’d bring praties and fish and eggs and báirneachs (linpets) and things like that up. They’d only come down once or twice a week. They used make the churnilf above but I heard of one man named Owen O Gallachobhair who had two chums on a straddle on his mare and when he’d put the milk in the chums above and bring them down on the mare’s back, he’d have the churnin’ finished when he’d reach home. The like of him was in it but Fm not sure if that’s true about him, but he used to be above in the booleys and he had a line of stones up from Poll a’ Bhric to guide him lithe day was foggy. Tisn’t so long ago since he was goin’ up. ‘Tis no more than twenty or twenty five years ago. I think he was the last one from here that was goin’ up. He wouldn’t wear a hat or a cap. Oul’ men used to be goin’ about that time without a cap or a hat. That would be maybe 40 or 50 years ago, Young lads and young men are doin’ the same now.

They used have great pastime above at the booleys. In the evenings when the cows would be milked the people would gather together in one bothog if the evening was wet and they’d have dancin’ and singin ‘till it would be time to go to bed. Sure the summers were comin good that time and it’s out on the crocan they’d have their concert. They used go up about the first of June and wait above ‘till the last week of July but some years they’d go up before June and sometimes they’d be down before July. It would all depend on what kind of a year it was. Then on Sundays whilst they’d be above the young people of the village here and other villages would be above at the dance and the pastime. But the Sunday before they’d come down would be the best of all. They used come from far and near and have a great dance entirely that day. Maise aren’t the times changed now. But the times that’s gone were the best, but sure the people now don’t know that, but indeed they were grand pleasant times without any harm but great fun. Lord have mercy on all that’s gone.

Irish Folklore Collection (IFC) 827, pp. 133-138

The Cormacks, landlords of Corran

The Cormacks (McCormick’s) were Catholics and I think it’s from Dublin they came to Corrán. They had a place in Islandbridge in Dublin and it must be near Dublin because peop]e that used be goin’ from here to England used go out to Cormacks place at Islandbridge and they’d be in time agin to catch the boat for Liverpool. They were good people, the Corniacks. They used help the people from ConS that would call to Islandbridge and they liked the Corrán people to call to see them. ‘Twas a man named Lee, I think, that had Corrán before him but when Cormack came he had plenty money and he gave plenty earnin’. He made good land out of Aird (a village in Corrán). The land was full of stones when he came but he gave work to the people clearin’ the stones out of the land. He paid the men a shilling a day and the women lOd a day, but that was good pay that time. They carried the stones on their backs and made fences, and all that was left after makin’ the fences, they carried them down and out on the strand where they left them for seaweed to grow on them.

Everyone has his scair (share) of the seaweed now and everyone knows his own stripe. But for Cormack they’d be no seaweed in Corrán for manurin’ the land. They have to raise up the stones every three years because the sand would be coverin’ them. If you were below on the strand you’d wonder how they brought down some of the stones, they’re so big. ‘Twould take a horse to pull some of them, but people were stronger that time than they are now. ‘Tis the same way beyond in Aird with the rocks of stones that are in the fences. The people now wouldn’t be able to stir them. I remember when they were clearin’ the stones out of the land. They had no creels on their backs but the stones left down on them and their backs bent so’s the stones wouldn’t slip off. That’s over seventy years anyway but Lord, if you seen the fine, big, strong men and women that was in Corran that time, you’d be proud of them.

When Cormack came first there was no road at all goin’ any side out of Corran. We used go everywhere from here in boats or on horseback along the shore. ‘Twas Cormack that made the road to the Sound for his own use to bring a cart on it. He was the first man that had a cart in Corran. The road from Corran to Maol RaithnI (Mulrarmy) is a committee road.(This road runs along Clew Bay from Corrán to Mulranny thro’ Buailidh a’ Ghleanna and Dumhach Beag SM.). Some of this road was made in the bad times. In the bad times none died in Corran. They had plenty to ate to get on the shore. There was dilisc. And creannach (a weed like carraigin), triopadaoi (a weed like canaigin also but much coarser and it does not bleach), cuirdins (pr. kurgeens, a weed much like a parsnip), caisearbhájn (dandelion), and this place was full of sayna (sena?) that time and they used make tay out of it. I don’t see any of it growth’ around here now.

Cormack had plenty money when he came here to Corran but he spent it in a way that he got no return. He spent it makin’ land out of the bad land in Corrán. He was a very “ready” man and wouldn’t press for the rent and when the people seen that they stopped payin’ rent altogether. They used go workin’ to him instead of payin him, but they wouldn’t do much for him.

Cormack never had “duty days” but Pike, the landlord on the other side of the channel, had “duty days” and a man named Ned Sweeney was his agent and if the “duty days wouldn’t be given Sweeney would come and drive the cattle to the “pound” and sell them. A priest, a fine priest be the name of Fr. Lavelle came to Achill and one day Sweeney was comin’ with a drove of cattle from Kildownet and Fr. Lavelle met him and turned them back home and no cattle was taken after that for “duty days”. Fr. Lavelle was changed from Achill a short time after that but he stopped the drivin’ of the cattle.

As I was sayin’ Cormack was always spendin’ money and he hadn’t any income and the land he had was bad, or a good dale of it was bad and gettin’ poorer he was while he was never paid any rent or gave any day’s work to Cormack or he wouldn’t work his own land either so he was evicted. Cormack had 15 fine stacks of corn in his haggart and they were all burned one night. ‘Twas believed that ‘twas the man that was evicted that done it. He was bad enough to do it anyway. ‘Twas my father that brought him here when he used be bringin’ up the oats in a hooker from Tullachau (a townland south of Gaoith Saile in Iorras at the mouth of the Abhainn Mor and Ballycroy.

Cormack had a place in Islandbridge in Dublin. His daughter was married there and it was up to the daughter he went when he left Corraun, a poor man. When Dickens got the land after Cormack, Cormack was livin’ in a poor bôthán behind in Aird and one day went back for a harrow to him. He had a “cast” of potatoes down in the griosach for himself. All his people were gone from him then. He was middlin old then. He didn’t live long after he went to Dublin. I bought the harrow from him for 10/-. It was an iron harrow and well worth what I paid for it.

Cormack was 16 or 17 years here in Corrán and he was middling old when left it. He was near seventy years old when he left Corrán and ‘tisn’t much short of seventy years since he left. The McLoughlins that had the land before Cormack came. Maybe I said it was a man named Lee that had it but it wasn’t. Lee had a lease on some of the land from the McLoughlins. When Cormack left, Dickens came and built the big house beyond where the gardèns are (the Corran Gardens to the east of Béal na gCliath overlooking Clew Bay.

Ta cail mhór ar na “gairdini” faoi na gcuid bláth agus planndai. Mr. Anderson àinm an ghairadora agus fear lách é Ic héinne a bheireann cuairt ar na GairdInf. SM.).

Dickens himself never stayed in it except a while every summer he had another place in England. One of the Dickens that has the place yet but he hardly ever comes near the place. He spent a lot of money repairing the place three or four years ago.

Irish Folklore Collection (IFC) 827, pp. 151 – 157

End of Munitir ACLA Article