Anniversary of first wearing of the green and red of Mayo
By Tom Gillespie
ONE-hundred-and-thirty-four years ago this week the green and red county colours of Mayo were first worn on the field of play.
Two years earlier, the Blake family of Towerhill Demesne in Carnacon are credited with introducing Gaelic football to Mayo.
On Sunday, January 23, 1887, the Blakes arranged a game and the local team, Carnacon, wore red and green jerseys, the colours presumably taken from the Thomas Davis poem ‘The Green Above the Red’.
The historical event is commemorated with a plaque at the gates that once formed the main approach to the Towerhill house.
David Hicks has researched the history of the Blakes, Catholic landlords who provided employment, built a local school and also are credited with supporting the early incarnation of the Gaelic Athletic Association.
Unfortunately, Towerhill has not survived but has disappeared from view, surrounded by a forest of trees that obscure its very existence.
The two-storey over-basement classical style house, unique in having a pediment on each of its four facades, is now indistinguishable from the ivy covered hulk it is today.
Towerhill was once the home of the prominent Blake family who descended from John Blake, the 4th son of Sir Valentine Blake of Menlo in Galway.
The Blakes of Towerhill were relatives of prominent families in the locality such as the Blakes of Ballinafad House and the Moore family of Moorehall.
Towerhill is said to have been built for Isidore Blake, who died in December 1818, so the house was built prior to her death.
Isidore married in 1767, which could give a better indication of when the house was built.
Isidore's son, Maurice Blake, born in 1771, married Maria O'Connor, the daughter of Valentine O'Connor, in August 1803. The marriage produced a son and heir to Towerhill, Valentine O'Connor Blake, who was born in 1808.
Valentine O'Connor Blake married the Honourable Margaret Mary ffrench, the daughter of Charles Austin ffrench, 3rd Baron ffrench of Castle ffrench in Galway. Lord ffrench died in September 1860, aged 74 years, and, strangely, he is buried in the Blake family vault outside the church in Carnacon rather than in the ffrench family vault.
Valentine O'Connor Blake was the High Sheriff in Mayo in 1839 and was said to have been one of the first Catholics since the Reformation to hold that position.
Valentine O'Connor Blake died in 1879, aged 71, at St. Kevin's, Bray, Co. Wicklow, where it is said he had been staying for a number of months. His remains were conveyed by rail to Claremorris station where they were met by horse-drawn hearse and brought to Towerhill. Here they lay until his burial in nearby Carnacon in the Blake family vault where his hearse was followed by a procession of 250 of the tenants of the estate.
In 1894, Towerhill is recorded as being the fine home of Colonel Maurice Blake. He had married Jeanette in 1863, the only daughter of a surgeon named Pierce O'Reilly from Dublin.
At the time of the 1901 census, Maurice Blake and his wife, Jeannette, were living in Towerhill with their son Valentine, aged 34, and his three sisters, Olivia, aged 35, Georgina, aged 22 and Margaret, aged 25.
Maurice's brother, Thomas, a barrister, aged 51 and listed as being born at Towerhill, was also present in the house. Staff in the house on the night of the census extended to five female servants and a groom.
In the same year, a serious fire occurred in the stables of Towerhill, which threatened all the buildings in the yard near the rear of the house. Colonel Blake dispatched his three daughters on bicycles to cycle through the village and gather as many people as possible to help put out the fire.
Horses, carriages and carts were rescued from the stables before the roof collapsed. A section of the roof near the adjoining buildings was pulled down in case the fire might spread.
By 1904, plans were afoot by the local tenants for the estate to be broken up and the land sold to them, if the sale price was agreeable to all parties involved.
At the time of the 1911 census, Maurice Blake was still in residence in Towerhill. He was then aged 73, a retired Colonel, a Roman Catholic, and his birthplace was listed as being Dublin.
He shared the mansion with wife Jeannette, aged 69, their daughters Olivia, aged 45, Georgina, aged 42, and Margaret, aged 36, all of whom were born in Dublin and were unmarried.
Maurice's son Valentine also lived in Towerhill, a retired Captain, aged 44, and he was also unmarried.
Staff in Towerhill included five female servants and Michael Hayden, aged 28, from Tipperary, who was the butler. The house is recorded as having 31 rooms and 30 outbuildings.
It was the death of Valentine in 1947 that heralded the end for Towerhill as the home of the Blake family. His two sisters remained living in the house for roughly another year after which they auctioned the contents in 1948 and then moved to Loftus Hall, a convent, in Co. Wexford.
In June 1949, a demolition sale was announced for Towerhill, where 'first class' materials were available for purchase. The walls of Towerhill were to be stripped bare as an advertisement declared a 'highly important demolition auction' where items for sale included timber, joists, rafters, mahogany doors, slates, slate slabs, mouldings, panels, mantelpieces, fire grates, etcetera.
The Blake sisters spent the rest of their lives in St. Mary's Convent, Loftus Hall, Wexford, where Georgina Blake died in January 1959, with Olivia passing away in 1966. Both were returned for burial in the family vault in Carnacon.