An Irishman’s Diary

 

Thu, Dec 6, 2012, 00:00 http://www.irishtimes.com/debate/an-irishman-s-diary-1.1312

One of the more picturesque events of next year’s Gathering, surely, will be the opening of a commemorative garden on the shores of Blacksod Bay, Co Mayo.

The garden will honour emigrants who left that beautiful, if economically desolate, part of Ireland in the late 19th century. But although emigration was all-too-common in the area then, the particular event being commemorated was unique in several respects.

When the first 350 people left Blacksod in March 1883, for example, an Irish Times correspondent noted that the scene lacked “the usual display of grief and sorrowful leave-taking” on such occasions.

The reason, in part, may have been that whole families were going together, one of the stipulations of a fund that was paying their fares to Boston and Quebec. On this occasion, at least, there was no need for American wakes, at which parents said goodbye to children they would never see again.

Another principle of the scheme, officially anyway, was that nobody would be forced to go. The fund had been set up in the wake of the Arrears Act of 1882, which allowed for cancellation of outstanding rents. Even so, financial circumstances for many in the “congested districts” remained dire.

As he watched the steamer leave the bay, the IT reporter was in no doubt that this and subsequent migrations would improve the lot both of those who left and those who stayed. “At all events one desirable end will have been attained,” he wrote, “the abolition of many holdings of five and six acres of sterile, boggy land, upon which the people dwelt in wretchedness and dirt.” There was no shortage of take-up, anyway. Between 1883 and 1884, some 3,297 emigrants sailed from Blacksod, mostly for Boston. It is hoped some of their offspring will now return for the opening of the Garden of Remembrance, and a series of related events in late July next, organised around the local Ionad Deirbhile Heritage Centre.

Background circumstances aside, the Blacksod emigrations were also unusual for the manner of departure. Although the bay was then, as it remains, of the best natural anchorages in Europe, it had no quayside from which passengers could embark.

Instead, emigrants had to be taken out in rowboats and other smaller vessels to the deeper water where the main ship awaited.

But what may give an added poignancy to next year’s commemorations is that, at the end of the 19th century, thanks to its natural advantages, Blacksod Bay appeared poised for maritime greatness.

During the first decade of the 20th century, it was mooted as the terminus of a new shipping route that would, as one commentator put it, “make Ireland the highroad of traffic between Canada and the United Kingdom and between the Eastern and Western Worlds”.

Galway was in the running too. But by 1911, Blacksod Bay was favourite for a scheme that would have seen Liverpool ousted not just as the transatlantic departure point for British passenger traffic, but for Scandinavia too. With the provision of rail ferries from Holyhead, it was even predicted that, soon, Londoners would leave Euston Station and not have to set foot outside their carriages until Mayo.

In November 1913, newspapers reported that construction of the harbour at Blacksod Bay would almost certainly commence in the new year and that, in the words of a former local MP, its effects on world commerce would outdo “the Panama Canal”.

As late as 1915, although construction still hadn’t started, the British Royal Academy featured designs of a magnificent Blacksod Bay Railway Terminus, to be built on a reef jutting into the harbour, from where passengers would board the world’s largest liners.

But events on mainland Europe had by then taken an unfortunate turn. And even though war gave Blacksod Bay another chance to demonstrate its worth – the North Atlantic Fleet anchored there – time and tide was running out on the need for express shipping lanes between Britain and its “colonies”.

The Blacksod Bay commemorative events will take place between July 21st and 27th next, and you can find out more from ionaddeirbhile.ie. Further down the west coast, meanwhile, and slightly later in the summer, the island of Inis Mór will be also hosting a new event, in this case literary.

It follows a meeting in Galway last week, advertising which (Irishman’s Diary November 29th) we lamented that, almost alone of his generation of writers, Liam O’Flaherty did not have a summer school or festival in his honour. No longer. The first annual Liam O’Flaherty Weekend is now tentatively scheduled to take place some time around August 28th, his birthday.

Blacksod Bay Emigration 1883 – 1884

Article re Emigration from North West Mayo in 1883 - 1884

Assisted emigration from Ireland to Boston & Quebec.

Long eisimircigh Cuan Fód Dubh Blacksod Bay Emigration Ships 1883-84

Tóstal Iorras, The Gathering Festival in Erris, along with Ionad Deirbhile Heritage Centre, Eachléim, An Fód Dubh, Blacksod are marking the “Assisted Emigration” of the 1880s with a re-enactment walk from Béal an Mhuirthead, Belmullet to An Fód Dubh, Blacksod on the 24th of July 2013.

The Assisted Emigration was a scheme by which people in the most deprived areas of Ireland were helped to emigrate to the U.S. and Canada in search of a better life. Known as “The Tuke Fund” it was named after James Hack Tuke, a Quaker who for over 60 years sought to address starvation and deprivation in the West of Ireland.

Between the years 1883-84 entire families left these shores with over 3,300 people from North West Mayo emigrating on steamships of the “Allan Line” from Blacksod Bay bound for Boston and Quebec.

They were rowed out from the shores of Cuan Eilí, Elly Bay to the emigration ship in the deeper waters of the bay with many arriving from Achill on Hookers to embark the ship.

Rosemarie Geraghty researcher in Ionad Deirbhile Heritage Centre has spent over 5 year transcribing and collecting information to the extent that they now have copies of the original Ships’ Manifest for all 15 ships that left Cuan an Fód Dubh, Blacksod Bay in 1883 – 1884.

At 1pm on July 24th Atlantic Rhythm and Achill Pipe Band will perform in Béal an Mhuirthead. There will be an hour’s entertainment followed by a 1.5km walk following the route these people from Achill, Newport, Belmullet & Erris regionss would have taken to An Fód Dubh. A free bus will bring people from Béal an Mhuirthead, to a re-enactment in Ionad Deirbhile, Eachléim at 3pm – a family leaving their home heading for the ship, followed by a further 1.5km walk to the Official Opening of the Gairdín Cuimhneacháin in An Fód Dubh. There will be music, entertainment, a traditional craft marquee and a Family Fun Day at the Gairdín Cuimhneacháin in An Fód Dubh from 4.30pm – 6.30pm. This is a free event and everyone is welcome to attend. Atlantic rhythm will be dressed in period clothing and everybody is welcome to join them in doing so.

Ionad Deirbhile will be launching their online database which hosts a wealth of information relating to these passengers, where they came from, who they travelled with, where they went to and more. Here is a small sample of some of the family names of the passengers and the townlands they left from. Are any of your family listed here?

TALLAGH: Coleman, Sheerin, Fleming, Murphy, Mills, Shevlane, Toole, Jennings, Meenaghan, Ginnelly, Monaghan, Lavelle, Geraghty, Gaynard, Cooney, Caul, McNeila, Cawley, Gallagher. MORAHAN: Duggan and Ginnelly. AUGHALASHEEN: Togher, Monaghan, O’Malley, Reilly, Bell, Davis, Coyle, Lavelle, Murphy, Barrett Loftus, Murray. BALLYGLASS: Dinnery, Walsh. KNOCKSHAMBO: Dunleavy, Sullivan. TOORGLASS: Duggan, Gaughan, Rowan, Tighe, McEwan. CORCLOUGH: Carey, Keane, Murphy, Roach. BELMULLET: Buttler, Dixon. ATTYCUNNANE: Hopkins. ARDMORE: Madden, Kearns, Padden, Barry, Coleran, Geraghty, Tougher, Joyce, Gaughan. CARNE: Costello, Cafferty, Murray, Barrett, Monaghan. CURRAGHBOY: Geraghty. GLADDERY: Gilboy. EMLYBEG: Dunleavy, Gilboy. TARMON: McHale, Keane, Lavelle, Phillips. ELLY: Barrett, McGorman. CROSS: Gallagher, Gaughan, Ginnelly, Wilson, Kennedy. INISHKEA: Stephens, Barrett, Meenaghan. BARNAGH: Duggan, Manning, Lynch. FALLMORE: Lavelle. DEVLANE: Lavelle. INNISHGLORA: Gilboy, Gaughan. BINGHAMSTOWN: Lavelle, Barrett, Dixon. MULLAGHROE: Geraghty. DRUM: Geraghty. MONAGHRORY: Keane, Connor. AUGHADOON: Murphy, O’Boyle. CLOONEEN: Ruddy, Donahoe, Wills. CORCLOUGH: Monaghan.

More Townlands next week

Information available at www.ionaddeirbhile.ie/deirbhiles-blog

Blacksod Bay Railway Terminus

Blacksod Bay Railway TerminusInterior of the Station Hall

This is an extract from The Building News and Engineering Journal Oct 13 1915. There is currently an exhibition running in Ionad Deirbhile with more pictures and information regarding this interesting find.

Blacksod Bay Railway Terminus Station in the Harbour, Mayo, Connaught, Ireland

We give to-day an interior of the station hall or concourse, with an exterior perspective and plan, reduced, on a separate sheet, with the entrance elevation of this station, which has been designed to be built on a reef of rock projecting into Blacksod Bay, and to be a terminus for the Transatlantic traffic. The largest liners are able to berth at the end of this reef, which is the reason for the railway station being so placed.  The construction of the building is intended to be carried out in reinforced concrete.  The main feature is the concourse, which forms a waiting-place between the platforms and the harbour.  The interior perspective shown by our double-page plate was included in the Royal Academy Exhibition this year.  The architects are Messrs. E. B. Hoare and M. Wheeler  FF.R.I.B.A. of Portman Street, Portman Square W.”

 

Genealogy

Did you know that the 1901 and 1911 Census of Ireland is available free of charge on the National Archives website . Search by name or Browse by place.

The Mullet Peninsula is currently divided into D.E.D. (District Electoral Division) Binghamstown North and Binghamstown South. At the time of the 1901,1911 Census Belmullet D.E.D. also covered townlands on the peninsula.

In the Census records of 1901 & 1911 part of  what is now known as Blacksod is with the Fallmore records

Whaling Afloat & Ashore 1908

This short 1908 film by London born inventor and pioneer cinematographer Robert William Paul (1869-1943) shows Norwegian and Irish whalers at the Rusheen Iniskea County Mayo whaling station. The boats involved in the enterprise were the Alectro, the Erling and the Carsten Bruun (Owner skipper Captain Lorentz Bruun) who later operated his own Norwegian Irish whaling station, Captain Bruun’s daughter Alice Bruun later (1913) visited the area and documented her observations.