VOICE FROM HISTORY BRINGS THE SUMMER OF 1798 TO LIFE MICHAEL FORTUNE
FOLKLORIST RECONNECTS WITH WEXFORD’S PAST THROUGH AN UNEARTHED RECORDING FROM 1971 AND A SADDLE SAVED FROM THE RUBBLE OF A DEMOLISHED HOUSE
On Sunday, November 24, I was sent a text message from Micheál Kavanagh who as a teacher taught me in Ballygarrett National School in 1985. I don’t think I’d spoken to the man since then, so it came as a surprise to hear from him.
The message contained a link to an audio recording of the late Julia Murphy of Knockadawk, Ballygarrett – a woman I’d heard stories about as a child but who was dead before I was born. The recording was made on January 8, 1971, by James Kavanagh, Micheál’s father, a national school teacher in Monamolin and it is probably one of the best local 1798 Rising accounts I have ever heard from this area.
Julia passed away the following year 1972 and that timeframe alone speaks volumes about the importance of recording such local history, folklore and song. Sadly James passed away in 2006 and his sons Donnacha and Micheál Kavanagh discovered these old recordings by chance when going through their father’s belongings.
Julia Murphy lived alongside my parents and grandparents in an area close to the Boira Bog, a remote area straddling the borders of Ballygarrett, Kilmuckridge and Ballyedmund. I heard loads of stories about Julia growing up and many people in the wider Kilmuckridge and Ballygarrett area remembered her and the incredible memory she had for recalling local events, histories, relations etc. She was a classic example of someone who embodied the oral tradition in Ireland, where local histories, stories and songs are passed on in the age-old fashion by word of mouth.
So, on Monday morning, November 25, I sat down to have a listen to this hour-long interview and I was simply knocked back. I could not believe my ears the moment when James started the interview and asked this 83-year-old woman to recall some the 1798 history and songs from the area. This wasn’t someone who had spent years researching 1798 history, this was someone who recalled what she actually heard from her own father, as his father, John Murphy of the Boira Bog took part in the 1798 Rising.
As she speaks, she literally brings the summer of 1798 to life. She mentions incidents involving neighbours, some who were Pikemen, more who were Yeomen. She brings the local landscape that I know so well alive, with accounts of skirmishes, where men were piked and shot, where men escaped from etc.
Her grandfather was married to a sister of Myles Byrne of Monaseed, a well known figure in 1798 history in Ireland. Julia’s accounts start on May 27, 1798, when her great-grandfather and a group of men from the surrounding townlands gathered at Corbally with a view to walk to Oulart Hill for what would become infamous in Wexford history.
She claims that they could see the smoke from the burning houses in Monamolin that morning and as they gathered they noticed three Yeomen on horses come over the Boira Bridges. Although they had blackened faces, the men recognised each other as they were all local. An incident occurred and one Pikeman called Byrne was shot, while one of the Yeomen called Shaw from Ballywater was knocked from his horse and piked.
To hear her voice connects you to the incidents in a different way, as the human aspect of the stories come through.
Through this telling, you get a better sense of who her great-grandfather was and in one account you hear how he made his way back to see his pregnant wife and children in between the turmoil of it all. You connect with his son who was harassed by the Yeos as he was walking home one day with bread for his mother. But equally you connect with the story of Mrs. Shaw, the mother of one of the Yeomen who was piked and subsequently shot in his bed.
The local aspect is very important here as these accounts highlight the conversations that many of us never had with regard to 1798 in Wexford – the sectarianism, the deep feuds and the wounds that ran between families and neighbours since. In this particular part of Wexford, neighbours turned against neighbours and in many cases people held their histories tight and private for obvious reasons.
I’m a great believer in creating a wider picture and no sooner had I listened to this, I shared the interview with some neighbours who knew Julia; my own family, local singers, local historians but also some neighbours of different faiths and none. One included a neighbour and friend Will Bailey whose family grew up beside each other.
In the interview Julia mentions a local Yeoman called Johnson who had the saddle of his horse piked at a skirmish in
SHE WAS A CLASSIC EXAMPLE OF SOMEONE WHO EMBODIED THE ORAL TRADITION IN IRELAND, WHERE LOCAL HISTORIES, STORIES AND SONGS ARE PASSED ON IN THE AGE-OLD FASHION BY WORD OF MOUTH
Corbally on May 27, 1798. When I mentioned this to Will last week, he came back to me saying that his grandmother’s people were indeed related to Johnson, but not only that, he had Johnson’s saddle hanging in the shed.
Will’s father, William also heard that story of Johnson but was told it happened in Ballycanew in slightly different circumstances.
During the week I called to their home to see the saddle and William recalled the story to me with such clarity as if the incident only happened just the other day. He heard the story growing up and he saved the saddle when Johnson’s house was being knocked down.
What struck me was how these accounts were never spoken about publicly or ever written down, yet the stories still survive in local memory. Both local accounts tally up, give or take, however Julia’s accounts were from her great-grandfather who was a Pikemen, while William’s accounts were from that of a Yeoman.
On another aside, my own parents grew up beside Sam Johnson who owned the saddle and they never knew a thing about it. And to join up the dots further, I actually have a photo of Julia which was taken at my grandparents’ wedding back in the 1930s. So here it is, an incredible piece of Wexford history that unravelled as a result of a willingness to open conversations, share, talk and listen.