Archive News
Bid to prove hanged man was victim of an unfair trial
Date Published: 13-Dec-2012
The telegram from the Viceroy’s office to the Governor of Galway Jail in the early hours of December 15, 1882 was terse and to the point. “Having considered statements, I am unable to alter my decision. The law must take its course.”
That brief message ended any hope Myles Joyce had that his life would be spared. The hanging of the Maamtrasna man on the basis of a faulty trial became renowned as one of the greatest miscarriages of justice ever to take place in Ireland and now, 130 years later, it’s in the news again.
This Saturday, which is exactly the 130th anniversary of Myles Joyce’s death, a commemoration will be held at Galway Cathedral and at the City Museum – part of an attempt to have the hanging declared a miscarriage of justice by the British Government.
The event, which will be attended by President Michael D Higgins, has been organised by An Coimisinéir Teanga Seán Ó Cuirreáin, Breandán Ó hEaghra of Galway City Museum and Peadar Mac Flannachadha of Conradh na Gaeilge. According to Seán, this renowned case is one of the greatest examples ever of what can happen if a person is denied the right to legal representation in their own language. And it was for this reason that his office – basically he’s the ombudsman for Irish language rights – got involved.
The chain of events that led to Myles Joyce being the victim of a miscarriage of justice began on August 17, 1882 in the mountainous Gaeltacht area of Maamtrasna on the shores of Lough Mask, on the Galway-Mayo border.
On that day, five members of the one family were slaughtered in their mountainside cottage: John Joyce, his wife Bridget, his daughter, Peigí and his mother Margaret were killed. John’s son, Michael was badly wounded and died the following day. The youngest of the family, Patsy, was also injured but lived. The only other member of the family to survive the tragedy was a son, Martin who was in service in Clonbur at the time.
The Maamtrasna murders caused huge shock and revulsion throughout Ireland and the United Kingdom. While various theories have been given about why the Joyce family were murdered, there are no definitive answers.
Ten local men were arrested and charged. They included Myles Joyce, his brothers Martin and Páidín and his nephew, Tom. Also arrested were Pat, Michael and John Casey; Pat Joyce and Tom Casey.
Most of these men spoke only Irish. Despite this, they were tried in Dublin in front of a judge and jury who spoke no Irish at all.
Two of the men became informers – either because they were afraid of being executed, or in the hope of a reward. That meant they gave evidence against their neighbours and friends.
The first three who were tried, Pat Joyce, Pat (‘Pádraig Shéamuis’) Casey and Myles Joyce were found guilty and sentenced to death, although Myles Joyce protested his innocence. The other five accused were advised by Fr Micheál Mac Aoidh from Clonbur to plead guilty in order to avoid the hangman. They did this and although they were sentenced to death, the queen’s Viceroy in Ireland, Earl Spencer, commuted their sentences to penal servitude for life. It was reported that Queen Victoria wanted them all to hang.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
People’s living conditions less than 100 years ago were frightening. We have come a long way. We talk about water charges today, but back then the local District Councils were erecting pumps for local communities and the lovely town of Mountbellew, according to Council minutes, had open sewers,” says Galway County Council archivist Patria McWalter.
Patria believes we “need to take pride in our history, and we should take the same pride in our historical records as we do in our built heritage”. When you see the wealth of material in her care, this belief makes sense.
She is in charge of caring for the rich collection of administrative records owned by Galway County Council and says “these records are as much part of our history as the Rock of Cashel is. They document our lives and our ancestors’ lives. And nobody can plan for the future unless you learn from the past, what worked and what didn’t”.
Archivists and librarians are often unfairly regarded as being dry, academic types, but that’s certainly not true of Patria. Her enthusiasm is infectious as she turns the pages of several minute books from Galway’s Rural District Councils, all of them at least 100 years old.
Part of her role involved cataloguing all the records of the Councils – Ballinasloe, Clifden, Galway, Gort, Loughrea, Mountbellew, Portumna and Tuam. These records mostly consisted of minutes of various meetings.
When she was cataloguing them she realised their worth to local historians and researchers, so she decided to compile a guide to their content. The result is For the Record: The Archives of Galway’s Rural District Councils, which will be a valuable asset to anybody with an interest in history.
Many representatives on these Councils were local personalities and several were arrested during the political upheaval of the era, she explains.
And, ushering in a new era in history, women were allowed to sit on these Rural District Councils – at the time they were not allowed to sit on County Councils.
All of this information is included in Patria’s introductory essay to the attractively produced A4 size guide, which gives a glimpse into how these Rural Councils operated and the way political thinking changed in Ireland during a short 26-year period. In the early 1900s, these Councils supported Home Rule, but by 1920, they were calling for full independence and refusing to recognise the British administration.
“I love the tone,” says Patria of the minutes from meetings. “The language was very emotive.”
That was certainly true of the Gort Rural District Council. At a meeting in 1907, following riots in Dublin at the premiere of JM Synge’s play, The Playboy of the Western World the councillors’ response was vehement. They recorded their decision to “protest most emphatically against the libellous comedy, The Playboy of the Western World, that was belched forth during the past week in the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, under the fostering care of Lady Gregory and Mr Yeats. We congratulate the good people of Dublin in howling down the gross buffoonery and immoral suggestions that are scattered throughout this scandalous performance.
For more from the archives see this week’s Tribunes here
Date Published: 23-Jan-2013
SLIGO 0-9
GALWAY 1-4
FRANK FARRAGHER IN ENNISCRONE
GALWAY’S first serious examination of the 2013 season rather disturbingly ended with a rating well below the 40% pass mark at the idyllic, if rather Siberian, seaside setting of Enniscrone on Sunday last.
The defeat cost Galway a place in the FBD League Final against Leitrim and also put a fair dent on their confidence shield for the bigger tests that lie ahead in February.
There was no fluke element in this success by an understrength Sligo side and by the time Leitrim referee, Frank Flynn, sounded the final whistle, there wasn’t a perished soul in the crowd of about 500 who could question the justice of the outcome.
It is only pre-season and last Sunday’s blast of dry polar winds did remind everyone that this is far from summer football, but make no mistake about it, the match did lay down some very worrying markers for Galway following a couple of victories over below par third level college teams.
Galway did start the game quite positively, leading by four points at the end of a first quarter when they missed as much more, but when Sligo stepped up the tempo of the game in the 10 minutes before half-time, the maroon resistance crumbled with frightening rapidity.
Some of the statistics of the match make for grim perusal. Over the course of the hour, Galway only scored two points from play and they went through a 52 minute period of the match, without raising a white flag – admittedly a late rally did bring them close to a draw but that would have been very rough justice on Sligo.
Sligo were backable at 9/4 coming into this match, the odds being stretched with the ‘missing list’ on Kevin Walsh’s team sheet – Adrian Marren, Stephen Coen, Tony Taylor, Ross Donovan, David Kelly, David Maye, Johnny Davey and Eamon O’Hara, were all marked absent for a variety of reasons.
Walsh has his Sligo side well schooled in the high intensity, close quarters type of football, and the harder Galway tried to go through the short game channels, the more the home side bottled them up.
Galway badly needed to find some variety in their attacking strategy and maybe there is a lot to be said for the traditional Meath style of giving long, quick ball to a full forward line with a big target man on the edge of the square – given Paul Conroy’s prowess close to goal last season, maybe it is time to ‘settle’ on a few basics.
Defensively, Galway were reasonably solid with Gary Sice at centre back probably their best player – he was one of the few men in maroon to deliver decent long ball deep into the attacking zone – while Finian Hanley, Conor Costello and Gary O’Donnell also kept things tight.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Date Published: 23-Jan-2013
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