Galway In Days Gone By

1915

Shocking crime denounced

These are the salient sentences from the Public Letter which the Most Rev. Dr. O’Dea, Lord Bishop of Galway, sent to the Rev. Father Walsh, Parish priest of Ballindereen, in condemnation of the agrarian crime by which John Kelly, aged 79, lost his life at midnight on February 25. The Letter was ready by Father Walsh at both Masses in Ballinderreen on Sunday.

“Any of your people who know the perpetrators of this horrible murder should at once hand their names to the police and give evidence against them in open Court.

“I repeat that I hold your parish responsible till they show that they are Christians, by protesting publicly the horror that their feel at such an outrage perpetrated in their midst.

“Till then, the parish of Ballinderreen will be a by-word and a disgrace; and if nothing else can bring them to a Christian sense, I hope the good people of neighbouring parishes will take them in hands by making them feel that they are the lepers and the outlaws of these dioceses. These, I feel, are strong works, but they are deliberately chosen as true and just.

“I thank God that I have only one parish of Ballinderreen. This parish alone has already made me answerable before God for two brutal murders in the few years since I have become Bishop of these dioceses.

“I say, according to the words of Christ in a like case, the people of Ballinderreen are worse off than these pagan blacks of darkest Africa, and it will go harder with them on the day of judgement.

“If anyone asks, ‘Why does the Bishop blacken the whole parish for the crimes of a few?’, I answer, ‘What have your people done to show their horror of those crimes?’.

“I need scarcely add that this letter is not meant in the smallest degree as a reflection upon you, the parish priest, for I know you have done all in your power to civilise and Christianise your people. Rather, I pity you from my heart, and sympathise with you; because I feel that if all my people were like yours, I should regard it as a disgrace to their Bishop.”

1940

Daring poteen raid

One of the most daring raids ever carried out by Gardai in Connemara led to the discovery at dawn on Friday of a poteen-still working at full pressure in a house, on: the island of lnisheire, Lettermullen.

A ten-gallon keg had already been filled with “the fire water”, and the still had been put to “run” on a second keg when the Gardai arrived.

The Gardai dismantled the still, destroyed a large fifty-gallon vat containing two tons of wash and a large quantity of malt, and captured a still, a still-arm and a twenty-one foot copper worm.

The total cost of this seizure which is the biggest made within thirteen years is estimated at £75 and is believed to be the first ever made in a private house. The raid was carried out by Sergeant Patrick Rafferty and Guards E. McSweeney, B. McSweeney and M. McMahon, of Lettermore.

Proceeding at first to Creapach Island some distance from the mainland, the raiding party rowed across the bay and landed at the back of the island of lnisheire unseen. Hearing shouts coming from the direction of a lighted house, Guards E. McSweeney and M. McMahon carried out reconnaissances before proceeding inland. Creeping cautiously across the uneven ground, the guards arrived at the house unknown to the revellers inside.

Making a dash into the house, they found some men and women carousing inside, but seeing nothing to arouse their suspicion, they went into the kitchen where they found a poteen-still on the kitchen fire working at full pressure.

Two men lay fast asleep on a bed nearby while a fifteen-year-old boy tended the still. One keg was found to contain ten gallons of poteen made from barley and oats and the still had been put to “run” on a second keg.

The Gardai then returned to their station with their haul, having covered a total of thirty miles in carrying out the biggest raid with the smallest number of men that Connemara has known – a severe blow to the illicit traffickers.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.