On Saturday, April 18, 1896, the following headline appeared in the letters page of the Irish Times

Modern day ‘Kingstown’

The letter was from a Miss Emily Burke and with it was a sum of money collected from her fellow residents of Hotel Splendid in Meneton, France in aid of the families of the men who lost their lives in the Kingstown Lifeboat Disaster of 24th December 1895.

    December 1895 had begun with south-westerly gales which continued to blow without moderating as the wind direction backed around to southeast. This brought a trail of devastation in its wake on land and sea. The River Lee overflowed its banks in Cork and the towns of Skibbereen and Bandon were flooded. Clonmel in Tipperary suffered the same fate. The Blessington steam tram found the road impassable at Tallaght and a local man, Mr. Nicholson, was drowned in a flood in the same locality. Pedestrians had difficulty walking due to high winds and there was great damage to windows from flying slates. Rainstorms swept Dublin city for days… Read more:http://www.dunlaoghaire-lifeboat.ie/index.php/Latest-News/detailed-historical-account-of-the-dublin-bay-lifeboat-disaster.html

RNLI Fundraiser, October 2016

It was from this address that the first hint of Emily’s meeting with her future husband, Edward Weddall was recorded. He made an ostentatious contribution to the fund. Young Emily must have been impressed with his generosity, and he with her concern for others. When their relationship is hard to pin down, but in 1896 his first wife also Emily was still alive so it was probably not then.

Sources

The Irish Times – Page 5 Saturday 18 April 1896

http://www.dunlaoghaire-lifeboat.ie/index.php/Latest-News/detailed-historical-account-of-the-dublin-bay-lifeboat-disaster.html

Emily was a fluent French speaker. She also had a good command of German, and lastly she spoke Irish too, perhaps not as well as the first two. She may have grown up listening to her father speak in his native tongue but she would not have been taught it at school, given the time it was not encouraged. When the Gaelic League was set up in the 1890’s it became ‘fashionable’ to speak Irish.

The Gaelic League, or Conradh na Gaeilge, was founded in Dublin on July 31, 1893 by Douglas Hyde (Dubhghlas de hÍde in Irish), a Protestant from Frenchpark, County Roscommon with the aid of Eugene O’Growney, Eoin MacNeill, Luke K. Walsh and others. The league developed from Ulick Bourke’s earlier Gaelic Union and became the leading institution promoting the Gaelic Revival…

Read more:https://www.cnag.ie/en/info/the-irish-language/a-brief-history-of-conradh-na-gaeilge.html

As a Nationalist Emily promoted the Irish language, speaking it when and where possible. The purpose of Scoil Acla was to promote the speaking of Irish. She was also masterful at writing it too, as a regular correspondent with the Gaelic League’s weekly, An Claidheamh Soluis.

Achill Summer School
The Achill Summer School has been closed for this year. It was small but in every way a remarkable success. Its promoters claim that it has accomplished all that they had hoped from its institution. it has turned the tide of Anglicisation. it has been a pure well of Gaelic spirit and enthusiasm in an arid and neglected district. It has refreshed and renewed all who have had the happiness to visit it. Its good work has made itself felt all over the country side. Next year it will open with a reputation already made.

Emily Weddall  

Sources

https://www.cnag.ie/en/info/the-irish-language/a-brief-history-of-conradh-na-gaeilge.html

An Claidheamh Soluis September 16th 1911  P. 8

The superstition around Fr. Manus Sweeney is what myths are made of. There is superstition around his life and death that even reach beyond the grave.  Bridie Mulloy recorded much of it in her folklore collection. Most of the informants stories matched with of course slight variations but the general consensus was that the was certainly something myth-like about the patriot priest.

The most mysterious occurrence which is sadly fading from living memory has to be when Emily, Anita, Eva and the committee for the erection of a monument dedicated to Fr. Sweeney back in 1944. Theresa McDonald recorded the folklore of the event in her book Achill Island;

The people of Achill decided to build a monument to commemorate his death, but could not agree on a suitable location. One evening, two men saw a bright light down on the shore beside Fr. Manus’s old home in Dookinella and, needless to say the monument was erected there, where it stands to the present day.

1798 Monument in Castlebar

A myth that lives on but is all but forgotten is the one that since Fr. Sweeney was hanged it always rains on market day in Newport!

Market Day in Newport in the Rain

Sources

McDonald, Theresa. Achill Island. Tullamore: I.A.S, 1997. p341