Balbriggan & District Historical Society is looking forward to a new year of activities and we would be delighted if you can join us. For our first talk on March 27th at 8pm in the Bracken Court Hotel we welcome Skerries native Gerard Shannon for a talk on Liam Lynch titled – To Declare a Republic: The life of Liam Lynch, IRA Chief of Staff, 1892-1923.
General Liam Lynch was one of the most important republican leaders of the Irish revolutionary period. Hailing from rural Limerick, Lynch proved himself an accomplished guerrilla commander of the IRA’s Cork No. 2 Brigade in north Cork, masterminding important operations against British forces during the War of Independence. Following the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, Lynch soon established him as a chief opponent to the settlement, seeing it as a betrayal of the Irish republican cause. On becoming leader of the anti-Treaty IRA at the outset of the Irish Civil War, Lynch was a major driving of republican resistance to the emerging Irish Free State, with his death in April 1923 ultimately signalling an end to the military fighting of the conflict. This talk from Gerard Shannon, author of the most recent biography of Lynch, explores the life of this fascinating figure.
Bio – Gerard Shannon is a public historian of the Irish revolutionary period from Skerries and has a MA in History from the DCU School of History and Geography. His first book, ‘Liam Lynch: To Declare a Republic’, was published in March 2023 from Merrion Press and featured on the non-fiction best seller lists. He is currently developing a biography of IRA leader Rory O’Connor, to see publication in early 2025.
For our April talk on the 24th we welcome local historian and Committee member our own Jim Walsh for a talk on the tragedy of the Bolingbroke children in 1930. His talk will focus on their death in a fire in Balbriggan, and the impact on the Bolingbroke family and the community of a tragedy remembered in Balbriggan almost a century later.
On May 29th we welcome Aiden Arnold for a talk based on his recent book Barnewall de Berneval – 800 years of a Norman Irish family. As we all know the Barnewall family were associated with Bremore Castle in Balbriggan so this will be of huge interest.
All our talks take place in the Bracken Court Hotel at 8pm on the last Wednesday of the month, and all are welcome. Membership is €15, €20 family or €10 for seniors or you can pay €5 for any individual talk.
Statement by President Michael D. Higgins on the Centenary Anniversary of the Sack of Balbriggan
Date: Sun 20th Sep, 2020 | 00:51
Today, exactly 100 years ago, an event occurred that would become a defining and exemplary episode in the Irish War of Independence. The sack of Balbriggan, which occurred on the night of the 20th September 1920 and continued into the morning of the 21st, was an act of collective punishment, a “reprisal”, a term that would become the mark of a policy aimed at subjugation, installation of fear in a public that had in its midst those that sought independence.
That September night in Balbriggan, on which we reflect today, was a day of rampant violence and carnage that, along with other key acts of reprisal during Ireland’s War of Independence, its ferocity and reports of it resulted in the galvanising of support for the military struggle that would ultimately lead to the establishment of our independent State.
The atrocity that was the sack of Balbriggan has characteristics that are similar in many respects to so many other acts of reprisal violence and collective punishments that were administered by British armed forces during the War of Independence. They marked an escalation in terms of their ferocity and were calculated to have a strategic impact on the local community, which Dublin Castle were anxious to claim was having an effect.
On the night in question, between 100 and 150 ‘Black and Tans’ ransacked the North County Dublin town of Balbriggan in revenge for the shooting of RIC District Inspector Burke and his brother Sergeant Burke, who were shot by the IRA while in Smyth’s pub, Balbriggan, earlier in the day.
The Black and Tan activities were often preceded by heavy drinking, but behind it was a policy that believed that no restraint of a military or civilian kind should stand in the way of, as Winston Churchill might put it, “having terrorism by the throat”.
A large factory, 49 houses and four pubs were burnt down, widespread looting occurred, including the business of John Derham, a local Town Commissioner, while two men, Seán Gibbons and Séamus Lawless, were taken to Quay Street and viciously beaten to death, despite protesting their innocence.
The event led to debate in the British Parliament, with H.H. Asquith, the former Prime Minister and then leader of the opposition, comparing the sack of Balbriggan with the actions of the Imperial German Army during the Rape of Belgium.
A subsequent inquiry put the blame for the loss of lives, destruction of property and livelihoods firmly at the doorstep of the British forces. It awarded compensation to the families of Lawless and Gibbons of £1,750 each. Also levied to the county were damages totalling over £80,000, with costs for Deeds and Templar Hosiers, the burned-down factory, which an inquiry heard had left 200 unemployed and would take two-and-a-half years to rebuild. Numerous other claims were settled for destroyed businesses, homes and damages to other property incurred.
Strategic Reprisals
The targeting of local businesses and factories that were completely destroyed in the sack was a policy that included strategic acts of violence. Deeds and Templar Hosiers factory had employed as many as 200 workers directly, with an additional 180 indirectly employed. Its destruction decimated the livelihoods of a significant proportion of the local population, at least temporarily, resulting in significant hardship in a time when poverty was already high and social welfare minimal. There is little doubt that the infliction of such economic damage by both the Auxiliaries and Black and Tans was a key strategic tool, a response of empire, employed in an attempt to quash support for Republicanism.
The move by the British forces towards attacks on business and co-operatives, including rural creameries – which were major employers and sources of essential foodstuffs – marked an escalation in both the wider socio-economic impacts and the sophistication of reprisal tactics. From the summer of 1920 onwards, British forces consistently responded to IRA activities by attacking factories and co-operative creameries. For example, by the time a truce between the IRA and the Crown forces came into effect, 40 co-operative creameries had been destroyed, with another 35 rendered unfit for work. The destruction of each creamery put an estimated 800 farmers out of business.
The violence unleashed by the War of Independence, therefore, possessed a decidedly economic dimension. Guerrilla warfare and reprisals saw the loss of life and widespread destruction of property. As historian Patrick Doyle has noted, the targeting of businesses and co-operatives caused maximum economic damage and became a key tactic in the security forces’ war against the IRA. Such arson attacks punished the civilian population by destroying a cherished public utility or key employer in many communities.
Violence of Empire
Reprisal-based violence was a key element of the British military imperialist strategy in the Irish War of Independence. However, it was not unique to the Irish struggle, and had been used effectively by the British ruling forces in India in the previous century.
‘Reprisals’ were a key aspect of empire rule and its imposition of colonial power, laws, attributes and ideologies, though such acts are not unique to empires, at least not in the typical definition of ‘empire’. The United States, for example, used the policy of reprisals, allied to ‘villagisation’, explicitly during the Vietnam War, as the Pentagon Papers have revealed.
Collective punishments – that is to say, retaliation in which a suspected perpetrator’s family members, friends, acquaintances, neighbours or entire ethnic group is targeted – were used extensively by ruling British forces throughout the Irish War of Independence. The punished individual or group often had no direct association with the other individuals or groups, or direct control over their actions. We see this in Balbriggan where there is virtually no evidence that either of the two men who were slain, Lawless and Gibbons, had any role in the killings of the RIC officers.
Collective punishments were used again some decades later by the British as an official policy to suppress the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya in 1952. In 1956, Britain officially used collective punishment in Cyprus in the form of evicting families from their homes and closing shops anywhere British soldiers and police had been murdered, with the stated aim of obtaining information about the identities of the attackers.
There can be little doubt that collective punishments were already an established strategic tool of imperialist military strategy by the time they occurred in Ireland during the War of Independence. Their use is rooted in ideological assumptions, of superiority and inferiority in terms of race, culture or capacity, in the notion of the collective as a disloyal, hopeless or threatening version of the ‘Other’. The othering of particular cultures, particular nationalities, particular attributes and particular ideologies served as an insidious rationalisation of, and distorted logic behind, acts of violence such as collective punishments and reprisals.
Standing behind this was a supportive intellectual tradition. Pejorative attitudes towards the Irish by the British are well-documented, and had been well-formed by this period. Scottish philosopher David Hume wrote in his History of England:
“The Irish from the beginning of time had been buried in the most profound barbarianism and ignorance; and as they were never conquered, even, indeed, by the Romans from whom all the Western world derives its culture, they continued still in the most rude state of society and were distinguished by those vices to which human nature, not tamed by education, nor restrained by laws, is for ever subject”.
Indeed, a century later, Winston Churchill would write, “We have always found the Irish to be a bit odd. They refuse to be English”. The ‘othering’ of Irish people and their culture was undeniably ingrained at all levels of British society.
If we are to be serious about ethical remembrance and the creation of diverse, complex, shared memory at peace with the past in the interest of a present or future understanding, it is important to recognise these facts. It constitutes a prerequisite for any meaningful healing. We must all acknowledge that such acts of violence would be judged illegal by today’s international standards of war and conflict. Indeed, collective punishments and reprisals are now considered violations of the laws of war and the Geneva Conventions, the standards of international law for humanitarian treatment in war.
Recognising this does not mean that acts of violence against any civilian should be condoned. A later independence cannot justify a cowardly act against a civilian, a civilian used as exemplary victim.
Reprisals continued throughout the War, with famous incidents such as Bloody Sunday in Croke Park, and perhaps those less well-known, such as the indiscriminate shooting of Eileen Quinn, shot dead while seven months pregnant as she stood outside her house in County Galway with her three children. The use of collective punishments and reprisals would, ultimately, become a decisive factor in the outcome of the War, resulting in shock and outrage. When reported internationally, it increased support for the IRA and the independence movement more generally at home and abroad.
Ethical Remembering
Today, as we remember the bloody violence that occurred in Balbriggan exactly a century ago, violence that would result in tragedy, widespread suffering, and lingering bitterness, we must strive to do so ethically and responsibly. Such an ethical remembering must refuse any kind of conscious or unconscious amnesia. The exercise in remembering must be open to all perspectives, requires us all, each of us, to summon up our shared humanity, a humanity which was tested, often brutalised, but also magnified during the War of Independence and indeed over the longer revolutionary period.
There are challenges in relation to the war of memory, the journey from personal memory to collective memory to celebrated memory, to the use and abuse of memory. These are matters to be parked if not forgotten, so that a mutual respect in narratives is made possible.
I have often turned to the work of the great French philosopher Paul Ricoeur in trying to deal with these challenges. Ricoeur’s work forces us to face up to uses and abuses of memory in contemporary society which occur on a pathological level as the problem of blocked memory, on a practical level as manipulated memory, and on an ethical-political level as obligated memory. Two key questions then arise from such a consideration: whether history is a remedy for, or rather a hindrance to, these problems; and to what extent does history depend on memory?
If historians know more about the past than individuals remember, can history completely break with an appeal to memory as a form of evidence? History as written, Ricoeur suggests, “stands for” the past as “having been”. On this basis, we can seek to address “the problem of forgetting” in relation to the problems listed earlier.
Traces of the past can be lost, and that past will be forgotten in the sense of being beyond memory, but what of forgetting where the traces remain? This is where the problems of blocked, manipulated, or commanded memory linger, especially in the latter case with attempts to order forgetting, either through amnesty, censorship, state versions or ideological rationalisations of present failure or future danger that are used to exclude any pluralism of stories and their use. This problem leads to us to consider the vital possibility of forgiveness.
Forgiveness is difficult but not impossible. It can be considered, as Ricoeur proposed, something that is akin to a gift, one that unbinds the agent of the act from the act itself. To forgive is not to forget. It is this idea of a gift, not as requiring or expecting a gift in return, but as something received and passed on as a second gift that has the transformative and emancipatory potential of mutual recognition that can ultimately result in states of peace. The currency of the gift of forgiveness, however, as Hannah Arendt might remind us, is compromised if the giver of forgiveness uses it as an invocation to superiority.
Through the cultivation of an ethics of commemoration to replace our past entrenchments – on this island, and indeed across Europe – as well as an openness to others, we have a real opportunity together to strive to cultivate memory as a tool for the living and as a solid base for our shared future.
This is not an easy undertaking. It requires self-knowledge at the individual and collective levels, as well as recognition that generosity and compassion from both sides does not lead to reductionist outcomes. Rather, it can be reciprocally beneficial, allowing us to yield to each other in mutual respect – to recognise that our fears, insecurities and vulnerabilities can only be assuaged by actions of mutual generosity.
This requires generous effort. Reaching an accommodation with sometimes conflicting versions of the past is merely a stepping stone in the journey via understanding to the destination of forgiveness for past hurt, neglect or omission; a destination which, in so many areas of conflict, at home and abroad, past and present, the participants may not reach.
Yet, as the great German philosopher and Holocaust-survivor Hannah Arendt has written, “forgiveness is the only way to reverse the irreversible flow of history”. In its absence, we run the great risk of lingering bitterness that can lead to tit-for-tat violence, intensifying rather than resolving conflict – to quote the late John Hume’s famous adage, “an eye for an eye leaves us all blind”.
Forgiving, therefore, enables us to come to terms with the past. If forgiveness and forgetting did not exist, we would be trapped in the past where every previous action would be irrevocable and where the present is dominated, burdened even, by preceding events and memories. Recognition of the act committed, however, is essential. Heidegger refused to accept this and thus he remained one whom Hannah Arendt could not forgive. Empirically, I suggest peoples and nations manage forgiveness easier than empires. There is often too dense a paraphernalia of privilege and title that gets in the way, but more usually atrocities too great to recall.
It is only through such forms of ethical remembering that we can avoid retreating to the blinding categories of censure or denunciation, or indeed revenge and bitterness, that blighted this island for so long. Let us all continue with, indeed embrace, the new beginning that the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement represented as we continue to carve out our peaceful co-existence on the island of Ireland through a genuine democratic dialogue grounded in respect for our communities’ identities and their lawful traditions, recognising and paying tribute to John Hume’s vision of a shared island at peace.
One hundred years on from the notorious ‘sack of Balbriggan’ by Black and Tans, in which homes and businesses were burned and two local men were killed, North East Correspondent Sinéad Hussey reports on the legacy of the incident.
‘We should not forget’ – remembering a grandfather murdered by the Black and Tans in the Sack of Balbriggan- Irish Independent
Article by John Meagher in the Irish Independent on Saturday September 19 2020 following interviews with Mary English and Brian Howley.
Tomorrow marks the centenary of one of the most notorious atrocities of the War of Independence when the Black and Tans went on the rampage, setting fire to the town and killing tow men in a reprisal attack. John Meagher on and event that resonated around the world.
When Mary English thinks of his gruesome death, she feels sadness, not rancour. On the night of September 20, 1920, her paternal grandfather, James Lawless, was murdered by the Black and Tans in one of the most notorious episodes of the War of Independence.
The 40-year-old IRA lieutenant, who was a barber in the north Co Dublin town of Balbriggan, was hauled from his home late at night and subjected to the most horrific death. It was a fate that also fell on another local man, John Gibbons, who had been suspected of being a Republican rebel.
It is thought that they were beaten and stabbed with rifle bayonets before their bodies were dumped on the street. Their killings had been in reprisal for the killing of an RIC head constable, Peter Burke, earlier in the day. Burke, a Catholic policeman from Galway, had been shot dead after an altercation in Smyth’s pub in the town. His brother William, also an RIC officer, was seriously wounded, but would escape with his life.
COMMEMORATIONS ARE TAKING place to mark the centenary of the Sack of Balbriggan, a night 100 years ago that saw homes and businesses burned down and two men in the town beaten to death.
Commemorations are taking place today to mark the 100th anniversary of the Sack of Balbriggan – one of the worst atrocities of the War of Independence.
The remembrance marks the night of 20 September 1920 when between 100 and 150 Black and Tans ransacked the north Dublin town in revenge for the killing of RIC District Inspector Burke and his brother Sergeant Burke, who were shot dead by the IRA while in Smyth’s pub earlier in the day.
IRISH President Michael D Higgins said that Britain must face up to its history of bloody reprisals as he marked the 100th anniversary of the sack of Balbriggan which fell today.
‘An act of collective punishment’: Commemorations to mark the centenary of the Sack of Balbriggan
100 years ago today more than 100 Black and Tans ransacked the north Dublin town and two men were beaten to death.
Sep 20th 2020, 2:22 PM 40,474 Views 26 Comments Share119 Tweet Email1The destruction of Clonard Street.Image: Fingal Local Studies and Archives
COMMEMORATIONS ARE TAKING place to mark the centenary of the Sack of Balbriggan, a night 100 years ago that saw homes and businesses burned down and two men in the town beaten to death.
On Sunday September 20th Mass was celebrated by Father McNamara in honour of the Lawless and Gibbons families and those who suffered during the Sack of Balbriggan. Mary English granddaughter of Seamus Lawless brought a wreath, which was presented by the Society, to the alter and May McKeon and Fr McNamara spoke about the tragic events of the Sack of Balbriggan.
Following Mass Brian Howley, Chairman of Balbriggan and District Historical Society laid a wreath at the Sack of Balbriggan Commemorative Plaque on Bridge Street. We would like to thank the colour party from the Balbriggan 34th and 161st scouts and bugler Martin McEvoy for joining us to honour the occasion.
All the members of the Society Committee: May McKeon, Kilian Harford, Caitriona Chuinneagáin, Anne Collins, Brian Kavanagh, Bernie Kelly, Íde Ní Liathain, Denise Richardson and Jim Walsh were in attendance as well as Councillors Gráinne Maguire and Tony Murphy and members of the Lawless family.
After the ceremony at the plaque they continued to Balscaddan Cemetery and laid a wreath at the grave of Seamus Lawless and Sean Gibbons.
The Sack of Balbriggan Commemorative Seminar, featuring six speakers giving a broad perspective on the events of September, 20 1920 and also including a new digital version of a video from 1992 of three eyewitness accounts of this tragic night, was recorded in the Bracken Court Hotel on Friday September 18, 2020.
The evolution of the Balbriggan & District Historical Society Sack of Balbriggan Commemorative Seminar is of historical note in itself. Originally planned as a major public event where we hoped to welcome an enthusiastic local and visiting audience, by August 2020 due to Covid-19 restrictions it was clear that this wouldn’t be possible. We decided rather than cancel to go ahead and record the lectures and make them available via Youtube. There was one final twist as the date of the Seminar – September 19, 2020 – loomed and due to a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases, particularly in Dublin, on Thursday 17th it became increasingly clear that no indoor gatherings would be possible from Saturday 19th. A frantic evening of phone calls and quick decisions from our Committee, and a very cooperative venue The Bracken Court, videographer Eric Campbell and our fantastic speakers ensured that the Seminar could go ahead a day earlier on Friday 18th. Please now enjoy the six talks giving a broad and varied perspective on the tragic events of September 20, 1920.
But first……..
Eyewitness Accounts of the Sack of Balbriggan
It is a particular honour for the present Committee to bring to you remastered in digital format on Youtube a Video made in 1992 by the Jim Walsh and Tom Coughlan from Balbriggan & District Historical Society where we interviewed local people about their experiences of the Sack of Balbriggan. The video features Michael Hammond, Mrs Kathleen McGillivary and Mrs Bridget Daly
Diarmaid Ferriter: The War of Independence in Ireland in 1920
Diarmaid Ferriter is one of Ireland’s best-known historians. A Professor of Modern Irish History at University College Dublin, his main research interest is the social, political and cultural history of 20th century Ireland. He has written a number of books, including the critically acclaimed biography, Judging Dev, an insight into one of Ireland’s most influential leaders, Éamon de Valera. He also contributes widely on radio, television and to the print media.
Jim Walsh: The Sack of Balbriggan, September 1920
Born in 1948, Jim attended Balrothery N.S. and Skerries De La Salle College. He served as librarian with Dublin City and County Library Services from 1966 to 2010. He completed a thesis on printed sources relating to North County Dublin, and was awarded a fellowship of the Library Association of Ireland in 1979. He was a co-founder of our Society in July 1981. His passion for, and in-depth knowledge of, local history is legendary.
Jim Herlihy: The Black & Tans in context
Jim Herlihy is a retired member of An Garda Síochána and co-founder of the Garda Historical Society. He has written three books on the Royal Irish Constabulary, two books on the Dublin Metropolitan Police and one on the Irish Revenue Police.
Brendan Matthews: Balbriggan 1920,the Rise & Fall of a Thriving Community
Brendan Matthews is an independent historian, with his speciality focusing on community history research and all that it entails – settlement, transport, industry, health, education, justice, crime, etc., and the establishment, progression and/or decline of communities over periods of time.
Frank Whearity: Aspects of the life and times of Ellen Costello and her family in Clonard St., Balbriggan, in September 1920, now 100 years ago.
Frank Whearity is a local historian and member of Balbriggan & District Historical Society. He holds an M.A. in Local History from Maynooth University. Frank’s book Balbriggan a History in Maps1655-1900 was published by Balbriggan& District Historical Society in 2016.
Jim Glennon: The Sack: A family’s reflections
Jim Glennon is a former TD, Senator, and member of the British & Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body. A company director and chairman, he is currently Chairman of the Fingal Age Friendly Alliance. He is also a former Irish international rugby player and coach of Leinster Rugby
Sunday September 20, 2020 marks 100 years since the Sack of Balbriggan and despite the challenges posed by Covid-19 restrictions Balbriggan and District Historical Society are determined that this important centenary is marked in an appropriate manner. Our plans announced at the beginning of the year included holding a school’s competition, having a historical seminar and a photographic exhibition and producing a commemorative calendar and medal and we are delighted that all of these plans have gone ahead, albeit some online. We have been working along with other local groups and Fingal County Council in the Sack of Balbriggan Commemorations Committee to organise a major event for the weekend and while these plans had to be adapted the Council has commissioned a commemorative mural and is producing a commemorative video which will feature some of our events.
Lawless and Gibbons Families: Uppermost in our minds at this time are the families of the people who lost their lives and local families who include the Lawless and Gibbons people– this also extended to the members of the diaspora a lot of whom had firm intentions to be in Balbriggan at this time for the commemoration but whose travel plans were obviously affected by COVID-19. We remember them especially at this time
Church Service: We would like to thank Fr McNamara for facilitating our request for a Mass in memory of those who died during the Sack of Balbriggan and this will take place on Sunday at 12 o’clock. Due to Covid-19 restrictions not many can attend but everyone can join this commemoration by tuning in to the Church broadcast here
Schools Project: Preserving the memory of the events of the Sack of Balbriggan and sharing them with a new generation was one of the principal aims of our commemoration. To this end we gave a presentation on this to local schools and organised a Schools competition based on it. We are delighted that some of the competition entries will be displayed in the Our Balbriggan hub in the town over the weekend.
Jim Walsh Sack of Balbriggan talk on Youtube: We were delighted to share some of Jim’s insights in a Heritage Week talk which is available on our Youtube channel. see link here: https://youtu.be/_Gs6hfcBCMo
Local historian and founding member of our Society Jim Walsh has been doing extensive research on the Sack of Balbriggan and we were delighted to share some of his insights in a Heritage Week talk which is available on our Youtube channel.The talk begins with an introduction giving the local and historical context and continues with the aid of many images, to give a comprehensive account of the Sack of Balbriggan, based on contemporary accounts, military and RIC archives, newspaper coverage, other publications and interviews with family members. The youtube presentation which has garnered huge interest is interspersed with many images from the time as well as contemporary images from Balbriggan provided by Society Secretary Kilian Harford to give context.
Commemorative Medal: We produced a commemorative calendar featuring images from the Sack of Balbriggan and this was hugely popular. We can now announce that we have taken delivery of a limited number of beautiful commemorative medals which will be available to purchase on www.balbrigganhistory.com . The medal depicts a scene from the Sack of Balbriggan and other symbols which are clearly representative of the town and comes with a booklet containing a short history. We anticipate that this medal will be in huge demand as a memento of this important commemoration, along with the Calendar we produced earlier. Balbriggan and District Historical Society would like to thank most sincerely the Progressive Credit Union Ltd for their very generous sponsorship of our Sack of Balbriggan Commemorative Medal. This sponsorship has been of huge assistance to us in our Commemoration.
Photographic Exhibition Shopfronts: As you are walking around town this weekend keep a look out for our photographs exhibited in some shop windows. These images from the private family collection of Jim Glennon had been restored, digitised and printed, with help from Fingal County Council Community Funding, for a photographic exhibition we had planned in the Bracken Court Hotel, but this is deferred due to Covid-19 restrictions. We exhibited some of the images in Bremore Castle and you will be able to see Brian Howley and May McKeon speaking about them in the Fingal County Council Commemorative video. You will also notice a dramatic art installation, commemorating the Sack of Balbriggan, covering the gable of the Central Bar by the Bracken River. This mural was commissioned by Fingal County Council Arts Office in partnership with and on behalf of the Sack of Balbriggan Commemorations Committee of which we are part. Check it out as this dramatic mural is gradually created during the week.
Seminar on Sack of Balbriggan: We are delighted to welcome Diarmaid Ferriter as our keynote speaker for our Sack of Balbriggan Seminar on Saturday. While sadly we will not be able to have a live audience, all the seminar talks will be made available on our Youtube channel so you can watch them in the comfort and safety of your home. The Seminar will also feature a talk by our own Jim Walsh which will focus on the key events of the 20th of September. Jim Glennon former TD and rugby player will give a personal family account of the time. Jim’s grandfather was the owner of the Gladstone Inn and his photographs from the time have formed the basis of our calendar and photographic exhibition. We are delighted to also have visiting speaker Jim Herlihy whose talk will concentrate on the RIC perspective on the events. Our regular speaker and long term member Frank Whearity will speak about a particular family and also some of the buildings on Clonard Street then and now. A link to all the talks will be made available on our website www.balbrigganhistory.com
Speaking about the Commemoration Brian Howley, Chairperson of Balbriggan & District Historical Society said “The Balbriggan & District Historical Society in conjunction with other local groups and Fingal County Council had comprehensive plans in place for the Commemoration but due to COVID-19 restrictions major public events could not go ahead. However as a Society we were determined to ensure that the centenary of the Sack of Balbriggan still received a fitting, appropriate and meaningful commemoration. We have adapted our plans and our online lectures will bring the commemoration to people in their homes and will be available on into the future as a legacy and a resource for research and education. The Commemorative Medal and Calendar will be fitting mementos of the year and we hope our engagement with the schools will foster a lifelong enthusiasm for history among some of the students.’
Balbriggan and District Historical Society would like to take this opportunity to thank all our members and friends who have supported us down through the years by attending our talks and events. We hope you are keeping well and healthy in these tough times and look forward to when we will be able to see you in person at our events in the future. In the meantime we hope you will be able to enjoy our online content and be sure to get some assistance if you can’t access Youtube! The Society can be contacted at balbrigganhistsoc@gmail.com or on our website www.balbrigganhistory.com and we are also on Social media.
At the launch our Sack of Balbriggan Commemorative Calendar the Committee of Balbriggan & District Historical Society had an opportunity to look back at another busy and successful year and forward to 2020.
Committee 2020
Brian Howley took over as Chairperson from Anne Collins for what will be a very busy year for the Society as we plan for the important commemoration of the Sack of Balbriggan by the Black and Tans in 1920. The Commemorative Calendar features pictures kindly donated by Jim Glennon from his treasured family collection, including one of his grandfather standing outside his ruined pub, now the Milestone.
Some of the highlights of a busy year were the tours of Bremore Castle during the Balbriggan Summerfest and the Day trip to Cavan Museum in August. The Society has a long association with the restoration project at Bremore Castle and are delighted to see it restored and showcased in these hugely popular tours facilitated by Kevin Halpenny in Fingal County Council. The Castle was also host to the wonderful Christmas market this year. Our Day Trip was to the Cavan Museum in September. The museum is well worth visiting for the WWI trenches and the 1916 exhibition. There are many other attractions also in this beautiful building which is a former convent an a peace garden in the grounds.
Our talks programme commenced in March with a talk to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Seamus Ennis called “The Wonderful work of Seamus Ennis Folk Music Collector” by Sean Corcoran. Drogheda native Seán Corcoran is a performer, academic and radio and TV documentary maker and an internationally-recognised expert on Irish Folk Music and Song. In April Aidan J Herron spoke about “Ardgillan Castle Revealed” . Aidan, former principal of St. Teresa’s National School in Balbriggan, is the author of the recently published and hugely popular book Ardgillan Castle Revealed which was launched by Pat Kenny in Ardgillan last year and features beautiful photography by Eamon O’Daly. In August Dr. William Murphy, lecturer in modern Irish history at Dublin City University, presented “From Creating a Counter-State: Establishing and Building Dáil Éireann 1919”.
In August for Heritage week we helped organise the Heritage Network Pastimes and Past Times Heritage week event in Malahide. We value our involvement with the Fingal Heritage Network and events like this give us an opportunity to meet up and celebrate our Fingal heritage together. For our September talk our long standing member Rory McKenna presented a talk on the Foreshore Dispute 1874-76 which involved the sale of the Hamilton lands and their claim to the foreshore. In October we welcomed the students from Loreto Secondary School who shared their research into the Sack of Balbriggan. Then Eithne McDermott gave a fantastic talk on Clann na Poblachta and the Interparty Government. Eithne who has taught in NUIG spoke about the Interparty government and Clann na Poblachta who included Sean McBride and Dr Noel Browne,about the power of the Church and the poverty of the 1940’s.
Our activities in 2019 also inculded a Quiz, school visits and guided walks, mainly led by our long standing member Jim Walsh.
We look forward to a very busy year in 2020 as we plan to inform Balbriggan residents about the Sack of Balbriggan as we commemorate it in a meaningful and inclusive manor.
“A brief overview of Clann na Poblachta, and the Inter-Party Government 1948-51” by Eithne MacDermott. This also featured talks by Loreto Secordary School Students on various aspects of the Sack of Balbriggan, including newspaper articles from the time, and Black and Tan attacks elsewhere.
Eithne’s talk covered some of the interesting features of Clann na Poblachta who included Sean McBride and Dr Noel Browne, a different political generation, the first time an inter-party or coalition government, which is now the norm, was formed and took office – and some comments on the inter party government itself. In light of Brexit she will also looked at Ireland, the Commonwealth and the Declaration of the Republic, and what leaving a major international organisation, the Commonwealth entailed. She spoke without notes and had a huge knowledge of the subject including talking about when she met with the main people involved while researching her book on the subject. She brought us back to the awful poverty of the 1940’s, the emergence of a new radical political movement, the fight against TB and the church, and the new concept of Coalition government
Eithne MacDermott has studied and taught in NUIG (Irish Politics; EU Studies; Comparative Politics: Western European Political Systems; and Eastern European History) and TCD (Modern History – Russian and Eastern European History), and has written a book on Clann na Poblachta which was published by Cork University Press in 1998.
She has served as an international election observer – nominated by the Irish Government for the past 22 years and has observed and reported on more than 25 elections across three continents in that time. She has also served as with a number of EU civilian missions – seconded by Ireland – in Georgia, Afghanistan, and Somalia as a political adviser or analyst.
The Wonderful Work of Séamus Ennis as a Folk-Music Collector –
An illustrated lecture by Seán Corcoran.
Wednesday March 27th 8pm, Town Hall Balbriggan Adm: €5, members free
Our first talk for 2019 will took place on Wednesday March 27th in the Town Hall Balbriggan at 8pm and was about Séamus Ennis whose birth 100 years ago is being celebrated this year, The talk by Seán Corcoran was called The Wonderful Work of Séamus Ennis as a Folk Music collector.
Drogheda native Seán Corcoran is a performer, academic and radio and TV documentary maker and an internationally-recognised expert on Irish Folk Music and Song. From the late 1960s he pioneered fieldwork/collecting techniques and at present lectures in Irish Music at Mary I College, University of Limerick.
We all know about the Séamus Ennis Centre in Naul and many of you knew Séamus Ennis himself. But this talk gave a further insight into his immense contribution to the collection and preservation of our wonderful musical heritage. Séamus Ennis was renowned as a master uilleann piper but this lecture highlighted his extraordinary work and international importance as a folk music collector.
Balbriggan and District Historical Society Day Trip June 16th 2018
We will be heading north to visit to Omagh and the Ulster American Folk Park, Omagh and returning for dinner to the Glenside Hotel.
Immerse yourself in the story of the brave emigrants who made the journey across the Atlantic to America hundreds of years ago. Wander through the thatched cottages and log cabins,Board a full-scale emigrant ship to experience the conditions faced by many as they set sail for a new life in America. With 30 buildings and exhibits to explore, the Ulster American Folk Park is a wonderfully unique experience.
All included for €50. This is always a lovely sociable occasion and I would really recommend it.
See link to Folk Park website https://www.nmni.com/ou…/ulster-american-folk-park/Home.aspx
Bus leaves Car Park at St Peter & Paul’s church at 9.30 sharp.
To book email Balbrigganhistsoc@gmail.com or ring Brian Howley 087 2269144 or Anne Collins 087 6245343
A great night was had at our quiz in the Milestone Inn on Thursday April 12th. Well done to our quizmaster Brian Kavanagh and Kilian Harford for help with what were great questions. Congratulations to winners Jim Walsh’s team and very close runners up Fran Carroll’s team. Thanks to Damien and everyone at the Milestone for providing the room and all help on night, and to Supervalu, Browne’s Centra, and McLoughlins Oil for sponsoring prizes. Last but not least thanks to all of you for coming along and contributing to a great night.
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The destruction of Clonard Street.Image: Fingal Local Studies and Archives
Balbriggan and District Historical Society Day Trip June 16th 2018
Quiz Night Thursday April 12th Milestone Inn
