Local history: Days of shoots and hunts in Breaffy
PART THREE
By Tom Gillespie
FOR the next part of his research on the Brownes of Breaffy, Tom Higgins relied heavily on the memories of local people. The period under discussion covers about 60 years - 1900 to 1961 - when the remaining part of the Brownes of Breaffy estate was sold.
Around 25 people were employed in Breaffy House. There was the steward who lived in the farmyard - the house marked on the 1927 map was still inhabited when Tom wrote his thesis.
The steward was responsible for the running of the estate, for sales and purchases, and was in charge of the farm workers. The remains of the farmyard buildings can be seen at the end of the Breaffy GAA grounds.
In the house itself, among the domestic staff was the butler, who was in charge, then the footman, cooks, housemaids, chamber maids and other servants.
Coachman Pat O’Malley, father of Michael O’Malley, lived with his family in the stable yard. The two gamekeepers lived in the gate lodge, one in the lodge which was Lally’s house, the other in the lodge off the Cottage Road. In the other gate lodge on the Castlebar road a gate keeper lived whose duty was simply opening and closing the gate. This lodge was demolished for the new road works.
Gamekeepers who lived in Lally’s house at different times early in the century were Michael Wilcox and Billy Smith. A man named Baker who had three wives lived there in later times. Billy Wolfe is remembered as the gatekeeper who lived in the gate lodge on the Castlebar road.
The gamekeeper’s job was to raise pheasants, kill vermin and catch poachers. The pheasants were raised indoors inside wire fences. A week before the big shoot around 40 of them were released through the woods.
On the day of the shoot local men were employed to beat the brush towards the shooters to raise the game - a great day for the men with the guns but not for the men beating the brushes through hedges, briars and water. On one occasion Mike Golden got pellets in his face from a shot.
Next came the famous character known as Percy Dickenson, an ex-British army gentleman, employed as groomsman, who looked after the beagles and lived in the farmyard. He had 12 dogs and 12 bitches. He killed old cows and used dead horses and other dead animals for dog food. He skinned them, boiled the meat in a large boiler and fed it to the dogs. It’s said that horses wouldn’t pass the place due to the smell.
Hunts were held in spring in Doonamona, Galway and other parts of Mayo, with eight to 10 horses in the hunt. Percy sounded the hunting horn and the hunt for foxes was on. It is said that Mrs. Browne rode side-saddle over walls and ditches. She had a special saddle made for her.
Dave Lavelle, a brother of Mike, assisted Percy Dickenson. He looked after the hunting horses, and he brought them to the hunt with Percy, where he groomed, fed and watered them after, before eating himself - on orders of the Brigadier.
The Brownes owned jumping horses, and Percy Dickenson rode them at shows, sports and gymkhanas. According to reports in The Connaught Telegraph, Percy won many jumping prizes, riding a horse called Rathkeale.
Heating and lighting the big house was a complicated business early in the century. In the days before electricity the house was lighted by carbide gas. Pat O’Malley was in charge of the carbide plant in the old part of the house. Some time after 1900 a pond was dug to provide a reservoir of water for the mill stream where there was a turbine and a dynamo to generate electricity. The water levels were controlled by sluice gates. The saw mill was used to cut up timber - mostly fallen trees - which were used together with coal for heat.
There was an underground furnace at the west end of the house which was used for a supply of hot water before the days of rural electrification.
Life in Breaffy House during this period, and especially before the Second World War, was a happy, social round of entertaining and parties: the shoot and the hunt at home, then off in the coach and four to the big houses of your friends, to Rahins, Castlemacgarrett, Ballinrobe, Ballina and beyond.
Over between the house, the stable yard and extending down to the stream, pleasure gardens were all laid out - the trees, the flowers, open spaces, tennis courts, a wigwam, fun houses with stained glass windows, a fountain powered by the mill stream - and here the garden parties were held, the news and gossip exchanged.
When Dominick Browne retired from the army after the war he took a leading part in the life of Breaffy. He was president and one of the chief organisers of the famous Breaffy sports, for which he made available the sports field.
When the local branch of the Gaelic League held an Aeridheacht in the sports field, he and his wife enjoyed coming to see the Irish dancing. His daughter, Dominina, whose governess was Norah E. Bright, learned Irish dancing and was taught by the legendary late Dot Redmond of the Redmond Academy of Irish Dancing.
After he sold the estate in 1961 he bought a farm in Carlow. After retiring there he lived in Oughterard for a time.
Soon after Tom Higgins came to Breaffy school he wrote to Dominick in appreciation of the contribution his family made to Breaffy. Dominick acknowledged his letter and thanked him for his interest.
After leaving Breaffy, Dominick returned occasionally and called on Michael O’Malley. He always regarded himself as a good Irishman and loved to come back to Ireland after being abroad. His wife, Iris Kathleen, died on December 29, 1977. Dominick died on September 9, 1982. Both are buried in the Castlebar Church of Ireland cemetery, the two headstones side-by-side.
The epitaph over Dominick Browne’s grave reads: ‘He who would valiant be’.