by Joe Power
It may, however, be of interest to note that December 1916 and the first four months of 1917 furnish a most unusual record of severe and prolonged frosts, as during these months frost was recorded on 97 nights, ranging from one or two degrees, to 17 degrees on different occasions, with 15 degrees of frost recorded on the night of April 1st. In January, frost was registered on 25 nights, and in February on 21 nights. These unusual frosty periods continued with the almost unbroken prevalence of fierce NE and SE winds, bring the winter of 1916-1917 well to the fore amongst record cold winters, and I should say, this might surely be classed as ‘one of the old fashioned winters, which many people infer are almost extinct.’ The consequences of the very bad weather this year were realised in the winter and spring of 1917 and 1918, because food stocks were lower than normal.
Distress
The war continued to have a huge economic impact in the county. Emigration had almost ceased, and the papers noted that the numbers emigrating in 1916 was the lowest on record. There was a sense of shock when the Clare Journal ceased publication on 30 April 1917. The reason given was that there was a scarcity of newsprint. Perhaps sales and revenue were also declining because of the war. But the loss of this venerable newspaper, which was established in 1778, was still a shock and a big loss to journalism in the county. Its sister publication, the Saturday Record, also owned by the Knox family, and the Clare Champion, owned by the Galvin family, continued to be published. However, the shortage of newsprint meant that the papers were greatly reduced in size, down to four pages by 1918.
Early in the year the Clare Champion of 31 March announced that the Food Controller’s regulations regarding bread came into operation. ‘The new loaf will be of a darker colour and less palatable than the present and must contain not less than 81 per cent flour, with an admixture of rice, barley, maize, oats or beans to 6 per cent, a further 10 per cent is admissible.’
One anonymous correspondent wrote to the Saturday Record of 24 November to complain about the high cost of food:
The Food Controller’s Act having fixed a price on all articles of food, I cannot understand how shopkeepers should be permitted to add to these prices with impunity.
A scare about flour took hold of the people last week and to add to the panic, the shopkeepers said “it won’t be had at all”, and at the same time tacked on 5s. advance on the Food Controller’s fixed price. Best tea has been fixed at 4s. in the pound, shopkeepers are now charging 5s and 5s 6d in the lb.
Potatoes had been sold freely at the Miltown market for 5d per stone. The police visited the butter merchants on Monday to see that they did not exceed the Food Controller’s price. I wish they visited the shopkeeper. The shopkeeper, ingeniously, to avoid prosecution, put all the account in one item – sugar, tea, etc. It is not easy then to see where the deception comes in.
Any person aggrieved has only to complain to the police. I am sure they will do their duty impartially. No doubt, but the police are more in touch with the shopkeeper than the labourer or farmer.
Yours, Fair Play.
The Saturday Record painted a depressing economic picture at the end of 1917, with great scarcity, which was barely raised by the spirit of Christmas:
The Christmas of 1917 will long be remembered by householders for the difficulties which confronted them in securing their supplies to celebrate the great festival in the time-honoured way.
Every article, whether of luxury or direct necessity, was scarce to be had. Sugar was almost an unknown quantity, tea was to be had with only less difficulty; hams were not to be had at any price, and so the stories of house-keepers go.
Those traders, who were fortunate enough to have normal supplies in these days, were able to do a very fine business, money being evidently, no bar when the required article was to be had. Though the heavy hand of war was over all, the inextinguishable spirit of Christmas, the greatest festival of the Christian world, was still living, and in Ennis, its great traditions were observable as fully as possible under depressing conditions.
Christmas morning was bright and clear and the day remained very fine and so did St Stephen’s Day, with the exception of a light drizzle in the morning. Large numbers of pleasure seekers travelled to Limerick for the annual holiday fixture, which was one of the most successful yet held over this popular course.
Business in Kilrush was fairly good under the circumstances of the times of stress. On Saturday things were lively and the town had large crowds from the rural districts, but it was nothing like the volume of business done in pre war times. The arrival of a couple of companies of military in the early part of the week caused an agreeable stir. Their reception by the vast bulk of the inhabitants was quite cordial, and there was nothing to complain of their behaviour, as they became quite friendly with the people – officers and men. They passed through after four days stay in Moore Street. The Christmas period was quietly observed.37
‘Some Gallant Clare Men’
The following Clare officers and soldiers received various distinctions for bravery in the war: Cpl Jack Barrett, from Barnageeha, serving in the French Army, was posthumously awarded the Croix de Guerre for bravery; Sgt John Joe O’Shea of the Royal Munster Fusiliers, from Miltown Malbay, was awarded the DCM; 2nd Lt Burke, of Kilrush received the MC; Capt. R. Hassard Stacpoole of Eden Vale was awarded the MC for ‘conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty’; Pte John Dwan of Scariff, Royal Munster Fusiliers, received the DCM; Capt. A. Hickey, MD, of the Royal Army Medical Corps, received an MC for distinguished service; Pte Michael Canny of Ennistymon, got a DCM; Sgt P. McKnight, of Killaloe, received a DCM; Dr J. Mescall, Royal Army Medical Corps, received a silver badge for medical services; Sgt C. Kelly, Kildysart, was awarded the DCM; L-Cpl T. McMahon, Royal Munster Fusiliers, got the MSM and the Russian Cross of St George, second class; Pte T. Devers of Kilrush, Royal Munster Fusiliers, received the DCM. (Pte Devers had been sixteen months in France, had been wounded four times, and took part in the Battle of the Somme, and he was one of five brothers serving in the British forces.)38
Roll of Honour
Among the Clare officers killed in action that year was Maj. George MacNamara, of the Wiltshire Regiment, who was the third and youngest son of Mr and Mrs H.V. MacNamara, DL, of Ennistymon House. He was born in 1890, entered Sandhurst to pursue a military career and was gazetted as cadet in 1910. He was sent to the front in France in October 1914 and, about a fortnight later, he was severely wounded and invalided home. He was engaged on home service from February 1915 until June 1916. He then went back to the front and joined his old regiment, which he commanded for about two months. He was subsequently posted to a unit of the North Staffordshire Regiment as acting major and second in command when he was killed. The general of his division wrote:
He met his death at the conclusion of a most recent successful enterprise carried out by the battalion, and for the success of which he was largely instrumental. I deplore exceedingly the loss of this most valuable officer, in whom I had the most complete confidence, and who was loved and respected in his battalion.
Obituary notice for Lt Dan O’Brien, found among the Linnane papers.
Just before he was killed his name was mentioned in the list of those mentioned in the despatches by Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig.39
One well-known Clare victim of the war was Lt Dan O’Brien of Clare Abbey, Clare Castle, who was killed in action at Passchendale in Flanders on 10 November. Inspired by the example of Willie Redmond, MP, he joined as a private in the Royal Irish Regiment, from which he later exchanged for the Royal Munster Fusiliers. He was commissioned as an officer early in the year. Councillor Dan O’Brien was in fact the third member of Ennis Urban District Council to join the forces. Mr John Joe Connolly, a former soldier who had served in the Boer War joined the Royal Irish Rifles in September 1914; and Mr P.E. Kenneally, a former chairman of the council, joined in December 1916.
His regimental officer, Lt Col H.R.A. Ireland, sent a letter of sympathy to h
is mother:
Dear Mrs O’Brien – it is my painful duty to inform you of the news of the death of your son, Daniel O’Brien. He was killed in action fighting at the head of his men at about 7 a.m. on 10th November. He was seen to have conducted himself with the greatest gallantry throughout the action, and when he was killed he was at our furthest objective. He was shot dead and suffered no pain. The regiment and myself feel the loss of a brave officer …
Another officer, Lt Corry O’Callaghan of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Munsters Fusiliers, also wrote to Mrs O’Brien:
… He died a very gallant death, leading his men and encouraging them on. No soldier could wish for a better death. I have known Dan well since he joined this battalion, as we were in the same company, and he was a universal favourite with his brother officers and with the men. We have suffered very heavy casualties amongst officers and those of us who are still with the battalion will always cherish the memory of those grand lads who have fallen …
Tributes to Lt Dan O’ Brien were published in the local newspapers.
Dan O’Brien was well known in the public life of County Clare. He was a member of the Ennis Rural District Council and a member of Clare County Council for a number of years. He first came to prominence in the county as a 19-year-old in 1902, when he was one of eleven ‘respectable farmers’ from Clare Castle incarcerated for three months over an alleged ‘conspiracy to intimidate’ following the formation of a branch of the United Irish League at Clare Castle. He was for some years a member of the magisterial bench in Clare, and was a member of the management committee of the Clare County Infirmary. Mr G. McElroy, RM, wrote of him that as a magistrate ‘he was particularly sympathetic towards the working men in his district … the only fault, if that was a fault, it inclined to the side of virtue with him, was that he was too inclined to leniency.’ Mr P.J. Linnane, JP, said: ‘He was always sympathetic to the working man and was always fair in his judgements at the petty [court] sessions.’ At a special meeting of the Clare Castle Land and Labour Association, the chairman, Mr Edward Russell, spoke ‘in feeling terms of the late Mr Dan O’Brien and of the good he did for the labourers, not only of Clare Castle, but of the whole county’.40
Another Clareman who died in France and achieved distinction this year was John (Jack) Joseph Barrett, who was born in 1890. Jack Barrett was a member of the Barrett family from Barnageeha, in the parish of Clare Castle and Ballyea, members of whom were prominent in Sinn Féin and in the War of Independence. Indeed, his brother Frank Barrett was commandant of the Mid-Clare Brigade of the IRA during the War of Independence and the Civil War. Perhaps because of his family’s political allegiances, Jack Barrett, a railway official, did not join the British Army. Instead, he joined the French Foreign Legion on 10 September 1914 and, after training, was sent to Morocco. In September 1915 he transferred to the First Foreign Regiment and was promoted to the rank of corporal. He was sent to the Western Front on 18 November 1915 and was killed on 20 April 1917 at Auberive in the Marne. He was advancing at the head of his squad of riflemen during an assault on a heavily defended trench when he was killed. For his heroic actions, Cpl Jack Barrett was posthumously awarded the Croix de Guerre, with Silver Star.41
The death of the prominent Kilrush businessman, Mr H.R. Glynn, DL, a member of Clare County Council also took place around this time. After his death a resolution was passed in December 1917, calling for the co-option of his brother Mr C.E. Glynn, the recruiting officer for West Clare, to fill the vacancy and called upon all other candidates to withdraw their names. However, despite this resolution, Mr Glynn was defeated by Mr Denis McInerney of Kildysart, who was opposed to recruitment. His defeat was another indication of the rise of Sinn Féin and of the decline of the Home Rule party.42
An editorial in the Clare Champion at the end of the year reflected the growing disillusionment with the war and highlighted the profound political changes which had taken place in Ireland during this year, with the decline of the Home Rule Party and the rise of Sinn Féin following the death of Willie Redmond, MP, and the election of de Valera as MP for East Clare:
The year 1917 is drawing to a close. The history books will record it as a memorable one in Irish history. Not even the World War, of which the world has grown wearily tired, will overshadow the great happenings which have taken place in Ireland. For the first time in the history of their subjection, the Irish people have cast off their shackles and demand the freedom of the Gael.43
This year a total of at least 113 Clare people died because of the Great War, mainly on the Western Front, though some died in Mesopotamia and Salonika, while ten were lost at sea. Among those who drowned were three sailors from Clare Castle, A. Considine, R. Cole and J. McMahon, along with the captain, William McCready, who was married to a woman from Clare Castle, Delia Murphy, besides eight others aboard the merchant ship SS Keeper, carrying grain for Bannatyne’s of Limerick, which was sunk by a German submarine off the coast of Antrim on 10 June 1917.44
A Soldier’s Grave
Then in the lull of midnight, gentle arms
Lifted him slowly down the slopes of death
Lest he should hear again the mad alarms
Of battle, dying moans, and painful breath.
And where the earth was soft for flowers we made
A grave for him that he might better rest,
So spring shall come and leave it seet arrayed
And there the lark shall turn her dewy nest.
Francis Ledwidge
Notes
1. SR, 10, 17 February; 3, 24 March, 1917; CJ 15 March 1917.
2. SR, 24 February; CC, 27 February 1917;
3. CJ, 30 April 1917.
4. SR, 24 February 1917; CJ, 5 April 1917.
5. LDA/BI/ET/O/7 (Episcopal Correspondence), 17 and 25 February 1917; De Wiel, op. cit., p.170
6. Ó Ruairc, Pádraig Óg, Blood on the Banner, The Republican Struggle in Clare (Cork: Mercier Press, 2009), pp. 75-78, citing Thomas Macnamara; Brendan O’Cathaoir, ‘Another Clare: Ranchers and Moonlighters, 1700-1945,’ in Matthew Lynch and Patrick Nugent, editors, Clare History and Society (Dublin: Geography Publications, 2009), pp.392-398. O’Cathaoir cited the testimonies of O’Donoghue, Brennan, Barrett and O’Loughlin.
7. National Archives, Bishop Street, Dublin, CSORP, 7673 S, (13489 Secret) with respect to Fr Maher, Killaloe and Garranboy. Unfortunately no copy of this could be found on 17 April 2014; letter from Sgt Daughton (RIC No 55,619), Kilboy, enclosing reports by Constables Bray (RIC No 57577) and Folan (RIC No 65850) of sermons at Sunday Masses in Silvermines and Ballinclogh, dated 4 and 11 November 1917; Reports sent to Chief Secretary’s Office, file number 13567S, dated 5 and 12 November 1917. Fr Charles Culligan was transferred to Kilmihil in 1918.
8. CC, 13 18 January 1917.
9. CJ, 1, 18 January, 2 April 1917.
10. CJ, 11 January 1917.
11. CJ, 15 January 1917.
12. SR, 17 March 1917. See also Richardson, Neil, A Coward if I Return, a Hero if I Fail, stories of Irishmen in World War I (Dublin: O’Brien Press, 2010), pp.157-58.
13. SR, 16 June 1917.
14. ibid.
15. CC, 9, 14 June; SR, 7 July 1917. Jeffrey, Keith, Ireland and the Great War (2000), pp.84-86; Dermot Maleady, John Redmond The National Leader (Kildare: Irish Academic Press, 2014), p.410.
16. Linnane family papers.
17. Jeffrey, op. cit, p.85; Sheedy, Kieran, The Clare Elections, (Dún Laoghaire: Bauroe Publications, 1993), see Chapter 12.
18. Redmond, William, Trench Pictures from France (New York: George H. Doran and Co., 1918), pp.20-23, 28-9.
19. Johnstone, Tom, Orange, Green and Khaki, The Story of the Irish Regiments in the Great War, 1914-1918 (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan,1992), p.278.
20. Denman, Terence, A lonely Grave (Dublin: Colour Books, 1995), pp.135-136. Moloney, Timothy J., ‘The Impact of WWI on Limerick’, MA thesis, Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick, 22 July 2003, p.63.
&nbs
p; 21. SR, 16 June 1917.
22. CC, 23 June 1917.
23. CC, 22 September 1917; McCarthy, Daniel, op. cit., p.113; SR, 31 October 1914.
24. CC, 3 November 1917.
25. SR, 16 June 1917. The Election Committee chosen at this meeting included the following delegates: All the priests who were summoned to the Convention; Messers M. Quinn, chairman of Ennis Rural District Council; J. Murray; H. Hehir; J. Barrett; T. O’Brien; T. Kelly; Jas Brennan, DC; D. Healy; P. Roughan; P. McGrath; P. Casey; - McCormack; H.J. Hunt, DC; P. McInerney, County Councillor; O. Hegarty, DC; T. O’ Loughlin, Carron; Austin Brennan; Joseph Keane, DC; F. Shinnors-Moran; Thomas Hogan; P. Duggan, Scarriff; J. Considine; A. Power; Dr Brennan; - Scanlan; Sean McNamara; J. O’ Connor; Jas Lalor; Martin McInerney; Peter O’Loughlin, Carron; D.S. Steward; F. Breen; Arthur O’Donnell; J. Hoare, Caherea; E. Lysaght; T. Clune; - Bingham; P. Culligan, Spancilhill; J. O’Brien, Ogonneloe; and P.J. O’Loughlin, County Councillor, Ballyvaughan.
26. Brennan, Michael, op. cit., p.25. On the other hand, Eamon Gaynor in his book, Memoirs of a Tipperary family, the Gaynors of Tyone (Dublin: Geography Publications, 2000) p.73 states that his uncle Fr Patrick Gaynor, a curate in Kilmihil at the time, remembered Fr Tom Meagher, CC of Killaloe, shouting out de Valera’s name at the convention. Gaynor also states that several other priests in the county actively supported de Valera, such as Frs Hewitt, Molony, Molloy, S. O’Donoghue, W. O’Kennedy and W. Gleeson. Gaynor states that the ‘separation women’ were fiercely opposed to Sinn Féin. He added that Fr A. Clancy was ‘the best orator in the diocese’.
