by Joe Power
In November a large advertisement called upon the men of Clare to enlist: ‘Men of Clare … join your county regiment, the 5th Royal Munster Fusiliers … recruits must be over five feet in height … train at the Curragh and by the summer of 1917 you will fight shoulder to shoulder with the gallant heroes from the hills and valleys of Clare, who stormed Guillemont and Givinchy last September and added fresh laurels to the banner of the Royal Munster Fusiliers … ’33 What was ironic about that advertisement was that the ‘gallant heroes’ were mainly not from the hills and valleys of Clare, but were largely the labouring classes from the towns of Clare!
The advertisement also did not state that 244 officers and 4,090 men of the 16th Irish Division were either killed, wounded or missing in action following the Battle of the Somme; as Johnstone observed, ‘for the disastrous loss of the finest manhood of Britain and Ireland, there was only a small gain of ground to show’.34
By this time, mainly because of the Easter Rising and the high level of mortality in the battlefields, recruitment in Ireland was minimal, as Harris wrote, ‘By October 1916 it was abundantly clear to both senior officers and leading politicians that Irish recruiting was almost at a standstill’.35 There is no reason to believe that it was any better in County Clare.
The war continued to have an impact on the economy. Daylight Saving Time was introduced and Dr Fogarty announced that the hours for Masses and the angelus would be at the new ‘summer time’.
Agricultural land values as reflected in rentals were still rising. For instance, an auction of meadowing for letting at Lissane near Clare Castle showed a huge price increase, with prices of between £6 and £8 10s per acre on the O’Grady Roche estate. This significant increase reflected the prospering farming economy.
The Weather
The weather during this year, as measured at Carrigoran, created a difficult farming environment:
The rainfall at 44 inches was 3 inches above average, with rainy days being 17 days above average. There was much unseasonable and adverse weather throughout the year. The frequent rains, with cold, sunless weather of spring, being followed by phenomenally low temperatures and many sunless, gloomy days of May and June created an almost unprecedented record for the first six months of the year. A period of fine seasonable weather, with high temperatures from mid-July to August 10th, a practically rainless period, gave us a fortunate hay-making season, though it was too dry for other crops. Following on this, as if to complete a bad record, we have had during the last three months of the year, for this locality, an almost unparalleled rainfall, with violent gales, with 8 inches of rain in October [during the harvesting of the main potato crop]. There were frosts and fog in December of most unusual severity, with frost on 20 days.
Such bad weather was not conducive to a good harvest, which had adverse effects on the price of food. The bad harvest for the second year in a row, accompanied by the sinking of British merchant ships by German submarines, led to a scarcity of food in Britain. The poor experienced more hardship when the price of a loaf of bread jumped by 50 per cent from 2d to 3d a loaf!36
Sport and Leisure
In November, cinemagoers in Ennis got an opportunity to see some scenes from the Battle of the Somme. This cinematic projection was shown for one day only. There was also an exhibition of war relics, which were put on display as a fundraising measure for Royal Munster Fusiliers prisoners of war.37
Martial law was lifted in Clare after three months and some social and sporting life continued in the county. The following sports events took place; the County Clare Agricultural Show, the West Clare Show, Labasheeda Regatta, Tubber Sports, the County Clare Horticultural Show, Ennis Races at Clare Abbey, Quilty Races, New Quay Regatta, Scariff Sports, Ballynacally Sports and Kilrush Races. The team sports of cricket and hockey, usually associated with the Protestants of Clare, were abandoned during the war, mainly because most of the gentry were in the services.38
‘Some Gallant Clare Men’
The following officers and soldiers were mentioned in despatches and received awards for gallantry and heroism in warfare: Lt Col C.O’Gorman, Cahercalla, Ennis, Royal Army Medical Corps, was awarded a DSO; Maj. F.C. Sampson, MB, Royal Army Medical Corps of Moynoe House Scariff was awarded the DSO; Lt Col John O’Brien Minogue, Scariff, of the West Yorkshire Regt., received the Third Order of St Michael and St George (a Russian award); Sgt Michael Butler, Ennis, of the Royal Munster Fusiliers, received the DCM for bravery; Lance Cpl J.A. Hynes, a clerk of Ennis Post Office, was awarded the DCM for bravery at the Battle of the Somme; Lt Hugh Murrough Vere O’Brien of Ballyallia, was awarded the DSO for gallantry; Gunner James T. Sullivan, Royal Field Artillery, from Clare Castle received the DCM for devotion to duty and conspicuous gallantry while repairing telegraph wires under shellfire; Cpl T. McMahon of the Royal Munster Fusiliers, from Ennis, was awarded the Cross of St George, second class for bravery; Capt. Michael Fitzgerald, Royal Navy, from Roughan, Corofin, was awarded the MC for gallantry with the 19th Bengal Lancers, and Cpl John O’Shea, Royal Engineers, Rangoon, Burma, from Lack West, Kilmihil, was decorated with the DCM.39
Roll of Honour
The Roll of Honour that year included Pte John McDonnell of Kilrush, who died of wounds after fighting for more than twelve months in France and Flanders. He actually took part in eighteen engagements with the Germans, being injured in the last battle. Among the battles he took part in were: Festurbebt, Le Basse, Neuve Chapelle, Lerig, Loos, Guinchy, Richburg, Vimy, Hulloch, Vermeilles, the Brickfields, Ypres, Arras, Contelmaison, Guillemont, Ginchy, Combles, and Espinol. He was seriously wounded in Espinol and died in Cardiff Hospital. He left a widow and child as well as a mother and sisters. His remains were brought back to Kilrush for burial in Shanakyle.40 That year at least 147 Clare people died because of the Great War, mainly in France and Belgium, while three died at sea.41
To My Daughter Betty, the Gift of God
… So here, while the mad guns curse overhead,
And tired men sigh with mud for couch and floor,
Know that we fools, now with the foolish dead,
Died not for flag, nor king, nor emperor,
But for a dream born in a herdsman’s shed
And for the secret scripture of the poor.
Tom Kettle, MP
September 1916
Notes
1. CJ, 13 April 1916; Glynn Papers.
2. Glynn Papers; See list published in CJ, 11 March 1916 and typed supplementary list, dated 16 March 1916 and CC, 25 March 1916. The following gentlemen were also members of the West Clare Recruitment Committee set up by Mr C.E. Glynn. Kilrush: L. O’Brien; P.J. Dillon; P.J. O’Shea, NT; J.J. Bradley; and M. Slattery. Kildysart: Thomas and Timothy Kenny; P. McNamara; John Meehan; F. O’Dea, Clerk of the Union; and M. Shannon. Knock and Killimer: Revd P. Barrett, PP; F.W. Hickman, DL; P. Hassett, JP; Capt. Poole Gore. Kilmihil: Francis Ryan and James Griffin, JP. Doonbeg: M. McInerney. Cree: Mr B. Kelly. Carrigaholt: Dr Studdert, JP; P.J. O’Kelly; T.D. Roughan; and A. O’Dwyer. Querrin: James Lillis. De Wiel, op. cit., p.25.
3. See McCarthy, Daniel, op. cit., p.113; de Wiel, op. cit., p.18.
4. SR, 4, 25 March 1916. The CJ of 13 April 1916, mentions the names of the ladies of West Clare in attendance: Miss Glynn, Mrs Hennessy, Mrs W. Glynn, Mrs Silles, Mrs T. Kelly, Mrs Killeen, Miss Supple, Mrs Watson, Mrs Dowling, Mrs Bradley, Mrs Kirby, Mrs Parker, Miss Nellie Walsh, Miss Rose Clancy, Miss Blake, Miss Culligan, Miss Carey, Mrs Nagle, Miss Napier, Miss O’Dea, Miss Slattery, Kilrush, Miss E. Ellis and Mrs Elliott, Miltown Malbay, the Misses Hassett, Burrane, and Mrs O’Dwyer, Clonadrum. Apologies were received from several ladies in Kilkee, Kildysart, etc. Mr F.W. Johnstone, Limerick and Mr C.E. Glynn, recruitment officer also attended.
5. CJ, 20 April 1916. The full list of East Clare ladies included Lady Inchiquin (president), Mrs G. de Willis (secretary), Lady Beatrice O’Brien, Hon. Mrs Blood, Miss Stackpoole, Miss Hester Mahon, Mrs Butler and Miss H. Butler, Mrs Loftus Studdert, Mrs Vere O’Brien, M
rs Bulger, Mrs and Miss Crowe (Dromore), Mrs MacDonnell, Mrs Allen, Misses Kerin, Mrs Fogarty, Mrs O’Callaghan Westropp and Miss O’Callaghan Westropp, Mrs H. Webster, Mrs and Miss O’Mara, Mrs T.M. Stewart, Mrs Healy and Miss Healy, Mrs Abrahall, Mrs J.A. Reardan, Mrs H. Mills, Mrs Marcus Keane, Mrs J.W. Scott, Mrs Tierney, Mrs J. Dawson, (Ballynacally), Mrs Charles Mahon, Mrs T.A. O’Gorman, Mrs Fitzjames Kelly, Miss Simpson, Mrs Hadden, Mrs Maunsell, Miss Byrne, Miss Cissie Lynch, Mrs M.V. O’Halloran, Miss O’Brien, Mrs McMahon, Miss Studdert (Bunratty), Miss E. Frost, Mrs C.W. Healy, Mrs J. Healy, Miss E. Mahon, Mrs Scanlan, Miss Scanlan, Miss M.C. McNamara, Mrs T.J. Hunt, and Mrs Penman. Letters of apology were received from Mrs Berry, Mrs Ievers, Mrs Stackpoole, Mrs Hibbert, Mrs Marcus Patterson, Mrs F. Gore Hickman, Mrs F.N. Studdert, Mrs Sampson, and Mrs Mellett.
6. SR, 11 March 1916.
7. SR, 16 March; CJ, 20 March 1916. Those councillors who voted for the resolution in March included: Messrs J. Lynch; M. Leyden, JP; P. J.Linnane, JP; W. Purcell; P. Garry, JP; F. Burke; M.F. Nagle; M. Griffin, JP; W. O’Connor, JP; P. Culloo, JP; and S. Maguire. The councillors who voted against the resolution – Messrs P. McInerney, D. Healy, B. Crowley, L. Brohan, G. Frost and J. Collins. SR, 18 October 1916.
8. CC, 22 January 1916.
9. SR, 11 March; CJ, 20 January, 2, 27, March, 13 April 1916.
10. Glynn Papers, C.E. Glynn to Capt. Kelly, Dept. of Recruitment, Dublin, 22 February, 1916; C.E. Glynn to John Redmond, MP, 21 February 1916; Dinneen to Glynn, 25 February 1916; Glynn to Dinneen, 25 February 1916; Glynn to Capt. Kelly, 18 March 1916; Barrington to Glynn, 15 March 1916; Sir Charles Barrington to C.E. Glynn, 15 March 1916; Glynn to Barrington, 18 March 1916; Richard Stacpoole, Eden Vale, to C.E. Glynn about organising a motor service for the recruiting officer, 19 March 1916; Glynn to R. Stackpoole, Edenvale, 20 March 1916; CC, 30 March 1916; Glynn to F.N. Studdert, Sec. to Clare County Council, 22 March; Capt. Kelly to C.E. Glynn, 28 March, 1916. Lord Pirrie to H.R. Glynn, 27 March 1916. After a recruitment conference in Ennis on 9 March a deputation was appointed to wait on Clare County Council with the object of securing their assistance and co-operation in the recruiting scheme. Led by Lord inchiquin, the deputation included the following gentlemen: Sir Charles Barrington, Bart., DL; Capt. Kelly, Director General of Recruiting in Ireland; P.J. Linnane, JP; P. Kinealy, JP; M.S. Honan, JP; F.N. Studdert, DL; J. O’Regan, JP; G. Mcilroy, RM; M.V. O’Halloran, JP, controller of recruiting East Clare; H.R. Glynn, DL; B. Culligan, JP; Dr Scanlan, JP; M. Brady, JP; J. Daly, Solicitor; C. Healy, JP; M. McNamara, JP; and C.E. Glynn, controller of recruiting, West Clare. The dissension at the Kilrush Board of Guardians was noted in the local paper, The Kilrush Herald, of 31 March 1916, (news-cutting in the Glynn papers); newspaper cutting, The Kilrush Herald, & Kilkee Gazette, in the Glynn papers, Box no. 7.
11. The poem was published in the CC of 16 March 1916; the letter was in the SR of 29 January 1916. Presumably, the Patrick McMahon mentioned in the letter was referring to Lt Patrick McMahon, 8th Battalion, Royal Munster Fusiliers, of Knocknagun House, Newmarket-on-Fergus, who died of wounds in France on 29 December 1915.
12. CJ, 20 January 1916. According to the testimony of Chief Inspector Gelston of the RIC in Clare, speaking at the Inquiry into the 1916 Rising, ‘recruitment was very good, especially among the labouring classes and in the towns, but there was no recruiting at all from the farming class’, pp.180-181; CC, 3 June 1916. Also, Martin Staunton, ‘The Royal Munster Fusiliers in the Great War’, MA thesis, UCD, unpublished, p.12.
13. CJ, 20 January, 19 March; SR, 22, 29 January, 15 April 1916.
14. CJ, 1 May 1916. County Inspector Gelston’s testimony was given at the Royal Inquiry into the Easter Rising held at the Shelbourne Hotel, Dublin, in late May, early June, 1916. CC, 3, 10 June 1916; SR, 10, 20 June 1916, see minutes of the Inquiry, pp.180-181; for more detailed accounts from a republican perspective, of the organisation of the Volunteers in Clare between 1913 and 1916, see Brennan, Michael, op. cit., Chapter 1, passim; also, Ó Ruairc, Pádraig Óg, Blood on the Banner, the Republican Struggle in Clare (Cork: Mercier Press, 2009), pp. 30-40.
15. CC, 6 May, 3 June 1916; SR, 6, 13 May 1916.
16. CC, 20 May; CJ, 15 May 1916.
17. County Inspector Gelston’s testimony, see note 14 above; Brennan, Michael, op. cit., pp.18-19; also, O’Ruairc, op. cit., Chapter 3, pp.41-58, passim, on the Irish Volunteers activities in Clare during the 1916 Rising. O’Ruairc states on p.54 that the parish priest of Carrigaholt had persuaded the local Irish Volunteers to hand up their weapons to him after the 1916 Rising and that he had given them to the RIC.
18. Letter from Lord Inchiquin to the Hon. Donough O’Brien, 2 May 1916. I am grateful to the Hon. Grania O’Brien, daughter of the 16th Baron Inchiquin, for showing me this correspondence. Judge Bodkin’s observations are cited in the SR, 24 June 1916.
19. CJ, 27 April; SR, 6, 20 April, 6, 13, 20 May; CC, 5 May, 1916; Sheedy, Kieran, The Clare Elections (Bauroe Press, 2000), p.786.
20. LDA, /BI/ET/O/7 (episcopal correspondence), Fogarty to O’Dwyer, 31 July, 7, 10, 12 and 17 September 1916; Morrissey, Thomas, J., SJ, Bishop Edward T. O’Dwyer, of Limerick, 1842-1917 (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2003) with an afterword by Professor Emmet Larkin, p.380.
21. CJ, 1, 5 May; SR, 6, 13, 20 May, 3 June; CC, 6, 25 May 1916.
22. CC, 3 June (testimony of County Inspector Gelston), 10 June, 1 July, 19 August, 9, 30 September, 7, 28 October 1916.
23. Glynn Papers, Col Barrington to Glynn, 26 April 1916; Capt. Kelly to Glynn, 6 May 1916; Capt. Kelly to Glynn, 8 May 1916; Capt. R Kelly to C.E. Glynn, 3 June 1916. SR, 20 May 1916. H.R. Glynn to Lloyd George, 27 May, 1916; H.R. Glynn to Mr Birrel; Mr Lewis Gray, Director of Ministry of Munitions, Ireland, to H.R. Glynn, 28 October, 1916; M.E. White to H.R. Glynn, 23 October, 1916. For the flour contract with the British Army, see company accounts, Glynn Papers, Box no. 4.
24. Joe O’Muirceartathaigh, Chronicle of Clare 1900-2000 (Ennis: Fag an Bealach, 2000), p.35; CC, 29 July 1916, 12 May 1917.
25. SR, 13 May 1916.
26. CC, 12 February, 1916; the eight prisoners mentioned in the newspaper included Pte T. O’Brien, Pte P. Collins, Pte P. Insko, Pte J. Hogan, Sgt J. Scanlon, Pte Martin Kennedy, L-Cpl A Hogarty and Sgt P. Ryan. CJ 20 November 1916. SR, 29 September 1917. Dungan, Myles, They Shall Not Grow Old, Irish Soldiers in the Great War (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1997), pp.138-40, 155; Also Mitchell, Angus, 16 Lives, Roger Casement (Dublin: O’Brien Press, 2013), pp.240-41, 243 and 206. Gilbert, Martin, The First World War (London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1994), p.114.
27. Bowman, Timothy, Irish Regiments in the Great War, Discipline and Morale (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003), pp.128-9. Harris, Henry, The Irish Regiments in the First World War (Cork: Mercier Press, 1968), pp.53, 127.
28. Letter from Willie Redmond, MP, to P.J. Linnane; Linnane family papers, courtesy of Dr Michael Linnane, Shannon.
29. Maj. William Redmond, Trench Pictures from France (New York: George H. Doran Company, 1918) with a biographical introduction by E.M. Smith-Dampier, pp.106-109, 121. The letter to Dr Fogarty was published in SR, 12 February and the letter to Mr Linnane on 14 October 1916.
30. The death of Pte John Power was announced in the SR, 20 January 1917. The article stated, ‘he had joined the “Pals” Battalion of the Dublin Fusiliers soon after its formation, and that he had taken part in many engagements. He had a promising career before him in the service.’ I am indebted to Frank Power and John Power, Clare Castle for bringing these letters to my attention. Pte John Power was killed on 13 November 1916, about two weeks after writing the letter to his sister Mary. He died during the late stage of the Battle of the Somme, when the 10th Battalion of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers captured the village of Beaumont Hemel and rounded up 400 prisoners. The battle took place in terrible weather conditions, in a blinding snowstorm, which later turned to sleet and rain. His brother Timothy, who was in the Royal Army Medical Corps, never recovered from
‘shellshock’ as a result of his wartime experiences in the Western Front.
31. First World War diary of the Hon. Donough O’Brien (later 16th Baron Inchiquin of Dromoland), 2nd Lieutenant, Kings Rifles Regiment, entries from 25 October 1916 to 14 December 1916. The total entries in the war diary are given in Appendix One. Lt O’Brien was injured in the following summer, but was able to serve till the end of the war. After the war ended he served as an aide-de-camp to the Viceroy of India, Lord Chelmsford. See Grania R. O’Brien, op.cit., pp. 206-209.
32. De Wiel, op. cit., pp.111-114.
33. SR, 4 November 1916.
34. Johnstone, T. op. cit., p.254.
35. Harris, Henry, Irish Regiments in the First World War (Cork: Mercier Press, 1968), pp.140-141.
36. SR, 15 May; CJ, 17 July, 26 August 1916. CJ, 17 January, 1916.
37. SR, 23 November 1916.
38. See the various local papers in July, August and September 1916. See also, Joe Power, ‘Sport and social life in nineteenth century Clare’, in The Other Clare, Published by Shannon Archaeological and Historical Society, Vol. 33, 2008, pp.42-43.
39. SR, 24 January, 5 February, 15 April, 12 August, 9, 16, 30 September, 4 November 1916.
40. SR, 21 October 1916.
41. Based on published lists compiled by Burnell, Browne, and McCarthy, op. cit.
5
THE SPIRIT OF 1916
‘Sinn Féin arose and struck the English rust from the soul of Ireland.’
Bishop Fogarty
The war entered its third year, with no end in sight and the frightful mortality rates continued. There was growing concern about a food shortage in Britain and Ireland due to the war and the bad weather, which led the authorities to sponsor a major advertising campaign to promote tillage farming instead of pastoral farming. The spectre of food shortages and the promotion of compulsory tillage by the government – also encouraged by Bishop Fogarty in his pastoral letter – fomented a wave of cattle drives and illegal tillage on large ranches throughout the county.