Remembering great Irish patriots in fascinating Mayo book
by Dr. Richard Martin
I was in Ballinrobe a few weeks back. One Thursday evening, I spent a few hours in O’Malley's Bar on Glebe Street for the official launch of a book titled The Tan War, by Ultan and the late Micheál Lally.
Éamonn Ó Cuív was the guest of honour. Former councillor Martin McLoughlin and current Councillor Patsy O’Brien from Robeen were also in attendance.
Tommy O’Malley, who we all know and admire, asked me to attend a few weeks in advance.
It’s funny, I’ve passed through Ballinrobe umpteen times over the past 30 years on the commute up and down to Galway, but I’ve rarely if ever stopped in it.
That all changed a few Christmases back when Tommy brought me down for an afternoon spin. We pottered around the town for an hour or two.
Of course, as one of their better known sons, he knew most of the people knocking about the place. He brought me into Balance You Foods Café on Church Lane and the honest truth is that ever since I can’t pass through that town now without making a pitstop there first. Good coffee is hard to come by.
Church Lane connects Bowgate Street and New Street. I wasn’t to know it then, but I know it now. Church Lane is where the Browne family resided between 1927 and 1929.
Noël Browne spent two years of his childhood in Ballinrobe. His mother was from Hollymount. She brought her family there from Athlone after her husband died of TB in 1927.
His mother contracted TB, and knowing that it was a death sentence she made the decision to move her family to England before she passed.
She did not want her orphaned children to face the horror of workhouses and Letterfrack’s notorious industrial school. They had a backyard sale on Church Lane and all their possessions were sold. It’s hard to imagine and believe that such poverty and desperation existed on this island less than a century ago.
The family moved to England and shortly after their arrival she died in 1929. She was buried in a pauper’s grave. In Noël Browne’s words, ‘no grave, no headstone, no funeral – a non-person’.
Noël Browne was one of eight children. Seven of those children - including himself - contracted TB. He was the only survivor.
He, along with another sister, Eileen, who was the only child fortunate to not contract TB, were the only members of the family to survive into middle age. The story of the Browne family would move the heart of a stone.
Dr. Noël Browne was later to become Minister for Health in the 1948-1951 Inter Party Government. He didn’t change Ireland. He cured it. Under his leadership, TB was eradicated on this island.
This was an extraordinary man. As I understand it, Johnny Mee was a close friend of Noël Browne. Aithníonn ciaróg ciaróg eile.
I digress. I had a fantastic evening at the book launch. If you haven’t been to O’Malley’s, just visit. The food and the hospitality is second to none.
The backroom of the pub was packed with members of the O’Malley clan who had come from far and wide, from across the island and across the Atlantic Ocean.
After all, Tommy’s uncle Michael O’Malley was Vice OC of the Ballinrobe Battalion of the old IRA. The OC of the Ballinrobe Battalion was Tom Lally, the grandfather of Ultan Lally.
The book – The Tan War – is the definitive and authoritative account of the War of Independence in south Mayo. The first edition was published by the late historian Mícheál Lally in 2008. His son Ultan has now completed and expanded a second edition of the book.
Éamonn Ó Cuív gave a wonderful opening address. For those of us who love Irish history and culture, it was an enthralling experience.
He spoke about Douglas Hyde or Dubhghlas de hÍde, who founded the Gaelic League in 1893, and how Irish nationalists flocked to Tourmakeady and south Mayo in that period.
Tom Lally along with Liam Rabbit founded the Gaelic League in the area. People like Padraig Pearse, his brother Willie Pearse, Seán McDiarmuida, Louise Gavan Duffy, Thomas Clarke and Eoin McNeill and many other notable people congregated to the area and in hindsight made a huge contribution to Irish independence.
He explained that the league led to the inevitable. Cultural independence was going to lead to physical independence.
And as you see from the list of names, Sean McDiarmuida, Pádraig Mac Piarais, Willie Pearse and so on, a lot of them decided that if Ireland wasn't free to control its own destiny, the cultural work would be at naught.
Now I always believed that the Rising was one of the interesting contradictions in history. It was a spectacular failure and an extraordinary success.
I think it is the most successful failure in history.
Ultan Lally spoke afterwards. He read a paragraph from the book. It was deeply moving. In it he recounted his father’s final days in the Galway Hospice. His voice was leaden with emotion and broke and choked as he spoke.
"I think it was the Saturday morning before he died that I walked into his room, when I noticed for the first time that he had transitioned into the dying mode.
"His sister and godmother, Resamena, was sitting beside him holding his hand, and saying the trimmings of the Rosary in Irish for both of them. She was reciting Ag Chríost on Síol like a mantra when I walked in."
Ultan and his father both devoted their lives to preserving this part of our unique history. His cousin Cormac Ó Corcoráin then came to the front of the room and sang 'The May Morning Dew' acapella. I heard pins drop and hearts move in unison.
Later, I was lucky enough to spend some time with Ó Cuív in the pub alleyway outside and discuss Irish politics and history.
We discussed the complexity of the civil war divide, the famous poet Máire Mhac an tSaoi, her father Sean McEntee and the de Brún family, his work with republican prisoners over the decades and his own connections with Collins’ family. FF made a colossal error in judgement in not fielding him in the Presidential campaign.
It was a night of Irish culture, remembrance, reflection and family. The coming together of Lally and O’Malley descendants to remember their forebearers and patriot dead.
It was a privilege and an honour to be present and welcomed amongst them.
To meet and speak with Ó Cuív was the cherry on top.