Realities of war

Less romance and more reality – that was one of Conor McNamara aims when he set about writing War and Revolution in the West of Ireland; Galway 1913-1922. The Athenry historian who has been researching this period for some 15 years has succeeded in his objective.  From overcooked beef at Moyode Castle to badly tortured bodies to burnt-out newspaper offices, and a young generation rebelling against their parents, this book is full of fascinating information and new insights.

“My aim was to take out the glory. You have a better sense of people when you talk about them in a less romantic fashion,” says Conor of his approach. “The romance [about the Irish revolution] was put in later and I think a good historian should take it out.”

As he does so, Conor brings many fascinating characters to life, among them Liam Mellows, who led the Galway uprising in 1916, and was subsequently executed during the Civil War – the overcooked bullock incident relates to 1916, when the Volunteers took over Moyode Castle, near Athenry.

Featuring strongly too are Cumann na mBan members, among them Julia Mary Morrisey from Athenry. She fought in Galway in 1916 and was the last woman to leave the Volunteers’ side.

This strong, capable woman was close to Liam Mellows and, following his execution, her mental health began to decline. So much so that less than 10 years after she’d been so central to the Rising in Galway, Julia Mary Morrisey was in the psychiatric hospital in Ballinasloe, says Conor.

Following Irish independence, the Pension Board, which was responsible for allocating army pensions to Old IRA members, sent her a pension application form in St Bridget’s Hospital. Julia Mary wasn’t able to complete it and it was incorrectly filled in by a hospital employee. This happened twice more and eventually the Pensions Board gave up.

She died in 1974 and was buried with her parents. Her brother who had gone to the US was never heard of again and she had no surviving relatives locally. So, her name wasn’t on the headstone and she was in danger of being forgotten.

However, Julia Mary’s poignant story was revisited thanks to the recent 1916 commemorations. When the group, The Relatives and Friends of Galway 1916, arranged for a stone to be placed on her grave as part of the centenary commemorations, Rooney Monumental Works were given the commission – Rooneys wouldn’t take any money for their work, says Conor, still delighted with their generosity.

This mild-mannered man has an enthusiasm and respect for his subject that’s contagious. His love of history was born in childhood, he says, recalling how his parents and eight siblings would take Sunday drives to places like Clonmacnoise and Connemara.

His eyes gaze into the middle distance as Conor recalls his childhood fascination with Connemara’s landscape –  imagining what life must have been like for people on the edge of society 100 hundred years previously.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.