EPISODE 1 - THE MONUMENTS OF JFK PARK
(EYRE SQUARE)
A lot of ye
reading this blog will know of the many history pieces I did for the Echo
Newspaper's 'REWIND' Column.
Due to taking up fill-time employment, writing that column ceased.
I still have a burning love for all things historical and thus have decided to write the odd historical blog post in between my current affairs/political musings.
Due to taking up fill-time employment, writing that column ceased.
I still have a burning love for all things historical and thus have decided to write the odd historical blog post in between my current affairs/political musings.
For this
first such post I will focus on the monuments in John F Kennedy Memorial Park
in Eyre Square Galway...
This iconic
part of Galway City was developed by the then Mayor Edward Eyre, who gave this
amenity to the people of Galway as a gift in 1710.
He was a major landowner whose Irish lineage began when a relation was gifted a substantial acreage by Cromwell as a gift for helping him defeat people who had rose up in anger at the restrictions on those who were members of the Catholic faith.
It was initially enclosed by wooden fencing which was replaced by iron railings in the 1700’s.
They were to remain in place until the 1960’s, when they were removed and now surround Saint Nicholas’s Church on Lombard Street.
The Square’s official title is “John F Kennedy Memorial Park” in honour of the late U.S. President who visited Galway City on Saturday June 29th 1963, less than 5 months before he was assassinated in Dallas Texas.
A bust of him commemorating the visit now stands in the park named after him, and is one of a number of monuments dotted around this square space.
He was a major landowner whose Irish lineage began when a relation was gifted a substantial acreage by Cromwell as a gift for helping him defeat people who had rose up in anger at the restrictions on those who were members of the Catholic faith.
It was initially enclosed by wooden fencing which was replaced by iron railings in the 1700’s.
They were to remain in place until the 1960’s, when they were removed and now surround Saint Nicholas’s Church on Lombard Street.
The Square’s official title is “John F Kennedy Memorial Park” in honour of the late U.S. President who visited Galway City on Saturday June 29th 1963, less than 5 months before he was assassinated in Dallas Texas.
A bust of him commemorating the visit now stands in the park named after him, and is one of a number of monuments dotted around this square space.
One of the first to be erected - and still in place - are two brass cannons which were gifted to the Connaught Rangers army Regiment as a thank you for their bravery in the Crimean War.
In 1881 a major review of the stature of the British Army led to major reforms being initiated and one of these led to the amalgamation of the 88th and 94th Foot Regiments into what became known as The Connaught Rangers.
In it’s early years the regiment saw action in the likes of Egypt, Sudan and the infamous Boer War in what is now South Africa.
The first and second battalions set out in 1914 to fight on the Western Front, but by the end of the First World War, so many of had been killed that the two had merged into a single regiment by then.
Another battalion saw action both in the ill-fated attempt to fight the Turks in Gallipoli and further south in Palestine.
There were two battalions that were held in reserve and had not been summoned to war by 1916.
When they were eventually summonsed they did not leave the Island as they were sent to Dublin to quell the Easter Rising.
However an
incident most historians would recall when asked to talk about the Connaught
Rangers, started in India at the foothills of the Himalayas on the night of
Sunday 27th June 1920.
Traumatised by various actions carried out by British troops against rebellious Indian citizens allied with reports from home about the actions of the black and Tans; many Irish troops had truly had enough.
It was on this night that the soldiers mutinied and declared their refusal to serve the Crown from then on.
Traumatised by various actions carried out by British troops against rebellious Indian citizens allied with reports from home about the actions of the black and Tans; many Irish troops had truly had enough.
It was on this night that the soldiers mutinied and declared their refusal to serve the Crown from then on.
On July
1st Two large battalions of Seaforth Highlanders and South Wales Borders
arrived and quelled the Resistance.
While being marched off to a makeshift internment camp, a drunken Major Payne, who was in charge of the march ordered everyone to stop.
He then called out 20 names and declared they would be shot on site, when a Fr. Livens – a Belgian Priest who accompanied them on the march - stood in line with the 20 men and said if they died he would die too.
This defused the situation and the men’s lives were spared.
While being marched off to a makeshift internment camp, a drunken Major Payne, who was in charge of the march ordered everyone to stop.
He then called out 20 names and declared they would be shot on site, when a Fr. Livens – a Belgian Priest who accompanied them on the march - stood in line with the 20 men and said if they died he would die too.
This defused the situation and the men’s lives were spared.
Given the dire conditions of the internment camp, most of the soldiers eventually relented and would continue to follow orders until it’s disbandment in 1922.
As you walk
around JFK Park you will notice the statue of a man sitting down and deep in
thought; The man in question is the late
Padraic o’ Conaire, reckoned by many to be the finest writer of works in the
Irish language.
This writer of some renown was born in what is now Galway City in 1882, but sadly both his Mother and Father had passed away by the time he reached 12 years of age.
Initially he lived with family in Connemara and Co. Clare before being sent off firstly to Rockwell College in Co. Tipperary and then Blackrock college in Dublin.He never really took to the Boarding School regime and left before his final exams to take up a Civil Service job in London.
While there he became active in the local branch of the Gaelic League where he taught Irish to others and wrote his first ever work a short story entitled “An t-Iascaire agus an File” (The Fisherman and the Poet in English)
O’Conaire mostly wrote about the harsh reality of ordinary life in Ireland, be it emigration, alcoholism or poverty and the like.
In 1906 he won the prestigious Oireachtas Literary Award for his short story “Nora Mhárcais Bhig” (Nora, Daughter of Little Marcus in English).
It is harrowing tale of a women who is driven to prostitution by an addiction to drink which sees her being disowned by her Father back home.
He continued to write until his passing in 1928 and his works are still dissected and discussed to this day.
The final
monument we will visit is the statue dedicated to the late revolutionary Liam
Mellows.
Mellows was born in Manchester, but his family soon after returned home and he celebrated his first birthday in their new lodgings in Fairview on Dublin’s Northside, when his father ran army Sergeant was moved there.
As a young boy Liam suffered from ill health and it was decided that living with his Grandfather in Inch near Gorey Co. Wexford might cure him.
Mellows was born in Manchester, but his family soon after returned home and he celebrated his first birthday in their new lodgings in Fairview on Dublin’s Northside, when his father ran army Sergeant was moved there.
As a young boy Liam suffered from ill health and it was decided that living with his Grandfather in Inch near Gorey Co. Wexford might cure him.
At his father’s pushing he enrolled in the Wellington Barracks in Cork and continued his military training in Portobello Barracks in Rathmines.
However he did not stick around long enough to become a soldier proper, opting instead to take up a desk job in various firms in Dublin.
His first
introduction to militant Republicanism came about after he had approached Tom
Clarke, who owned a tobacconists shop on Amiens Street.
He was co-opted into Fianna Eireann, an organisation that agitated for Irish Independence while also embracing socialism after meeting James Connolly, whom he had a number of conversations with.
He was co-opted into Fianna Eireann, an organisation that agitated for Irish Independence while also embracing socialism after meeting James Connolly, whom he had a number of conversations with.
He was one
of the founding members of the Irish Volunteers, which was setup after a
meeting was held in the Round Room of the Rotunda Hospital in response to the
creation of armed militias in parts of Ulster.
His activities saw him placed in a prison cell on a number of occasions and eventually the authorities decided to deport him to England to serve out his sentence.
With the help of his brother Barney and Nora Connolly – James Connolly’s daughter – he managed to escape whilst dressed as a priest and was soon on a boat from Stranraer to Belfast.
During the 1916 Rising he commanded IRA forces in the west of the country, eventually fleeing to the USA to escape arrest when the insurrection failed.
In 1918 he was elected as MP for two constituencies – Galway East and North Meath – and when The Dail was later convened to debate the recently signed treaty agreement, he voted against the deal.
In June
1922, Mellows joined a band Anti-Treaty militants who had been occupying the
Four Courts on Dublin’s Quays since April of that year; many regard this event as the start of the
Civil War.
After the Free-State army bombarded the complex with bombs fired from the Royal Navy warship the Helga, (whom the British had leant the Irish authorities as they anxiously wished a swift end to the siege), the insurrectionists surrendered.
Liam Mellows was imprisoned along with other from the Four courts occupation in Mountjoy Jail.
He was executed in December 1922 in reprisal for the killing of the Pro-Treaty TD Seán Hayles outside the Ormonde Hotel, which was ironically just 500m from the Four Courts.
After the Free-State army bombarded the complex with bombs fired from the Royal Navy warship the Helga, (whom the British had leant the Irish authorities as they anxiously wished a swift end to the siege), the insurrectionists surrendered.
Liam Mellows was imprisoned along with other from the Four courts occupation in Mountjoy Jail.
He was executed in December 1922 in reprisal for the killing of the Pro-Treaty TD Seán Hayles outside the Ormonde Hotel, which was ironically just 500m from the Four Courts.
Thursday
April 13th 2006 was a momentous day for Galwegians, as Eyre Square
was officially reopened after lengthy renovations works costing almost €10M.
Upon viewing the finished project many locals concurred that it was worth all the disruption as they marvelled at the new children’s play area, 120 newly installed trees and the marvellous paving that now adorned the pedestrian walkways around the square.
It truly was a fine blending of the old with the new as many of the magnificent buildings that look out on this popular thoroughfare, including Ceannt train station and the Hardiman (formerly Great Southern Hotel).
Upon viewing the finished project many locals concurred that it was worth all the disruption as they marvelled at the new children’s play area, 120 newly installed trees and the marvellous paving that now adorned the pedestrian walkways around the square.
It truly was a fine blending of the old with the new as many of the magnificent buildings that look out on this popular thoroughfare, including Ceannt train station and the Hardiman (formerly Great Southern Hotel).
So the next time you get off the train or bus in Galway City, instead of legging it to the nearest pub, why not take the time to appreciate the true beauty that is JFK Memorial Park?
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