St. Patrick’s Day 1919 was the first one since the end of WWI. Rationing had all but ended, a fact that had not escaped retailers, as seen in the advert below. The usual novelties, such as badges, rosettes, cards and pictures of the saint, were also advertised and offered at competitive prices.
In honour of the national saint of Ireland Seachtaine na Gaelilge was and still is marked by Connrad na gaelige. Nowadays it runs for a fortnight then it was a week long.
The time the railway was completed, tourism began to take off in the West of Ireland. With the new improved infrastructure of rail and roads, tourist began to make their way west. Before that it was only the odd intrepid traveler that wandered to remote Island. In the 1870’s newspapers and magazines began to recommend Achill and similar places such as Connemara and the Cliffs of Moher as tourist destinations, talking about them as them as they were new discoveries, which in a way these places were at the time.
The above was written in 1877, when tourist books on Ireland were beginning to be printed, enticing visitors to places such as Connemara and Clare and the lesser known regions of Donegal and Achill. The areas mentioned would be known collectively as the Wild Atlantic Way.
The above accounts were taken from the Handbook of the Midland, Great Western Railway Guide to Connemara and the West of Ireland.
It is more than eighty years since the closure of the Achill Railway. It was in it’s time a great asset to the island, greatly improving, the flow of goods and people to and from the Island. But ironically the improvement made to roads in the early twentieth century, lessened the demand for rail travel to the area.
Officially open for business on May 13th of 1895, although the first train to make the forty mile journey from Westport, traveled the previous year. Its maiden journey was not celebrated. It carried the bodies of the victims of the Clew Bay Disaster, the first of the two tragedies that book-ended the route. The second 43 years later, carried the victims of the Kirkintilloch Disaster. Again the track was opened specially for the tragic occasion, another coffin train. The prophecy by Brian Rua O’Cearbhain, the 17th century seer, complete.
In spite of the tragedies that overshadowed its short existance, the Achill railway, contained all the elements of romance that rail travel carries. The scenery from Westport to Achill rivals any in the world. The vista from the forty or so miles of track, displayed mountains, valleys, lakes, seascapes and beaches, not to mention the quaint little villages with their human and animal inhabitants, scattered along the route.
When it first opened for business in 1895, the Sligo Champion 08 June 1895, reported that; “Already the Achill railway line is being largely patronised. There is a large amount of strangers present on the island.” Island life had changed for good, and was on the brink of changing even further, with the build up of tourists and day trippers that, began to make the 1 hour 40 minute journey.
The Achill line carried in and out people that would help “put Achill on the map”. Many public figures, the good and the great of those times, traveled the line that terminated at the end of the main land adjacent to the Michael Davitt bridge that joined it and the island at Achill Sound.
In January 1919, while the fist Dail was being formed and the Anglo Irish War was beginning. Life as continued as normal in most parts of the country. On Achill it was impossible to tell that great changes were unfolding in the country. Most people in Ireland, including Achill were too busy dealing with their immediate environment to contemplate what was taking place nationally.
After the Great War unemployment was high, but a new type of welfare was introduced, but that didn’t stretch too far if there was a number of mouths to feed. To make to make matters worse, the dreaded flu was still ravaging the land. Achill was not exempt, and in the first few weeks of the new year there were new cases. Had Emily been there at the time she would have been caring for the victims. But she was still in Dublin, nursing victims there and hoping to stave off the loss of her house for all long as possible.
As 1918 changed to 1919, life for Emily remained the same. The Spanish flu was still rampant throughout the world, and as a nurse she worked flat out nursing its victims. Financially she was no better off . She still hung on to her house on Achill, but only just. However, politically things in Ireland were on the brink of great change, that was something she could smile about.
Dail Eireann assembled at the Mansion House on January 21st, 1919, issued its Declaration of Independence, and formally and legally established the Republic of Ireland, electing Cathal Brugha as its first President. De Valera and Griffith, although members of the Dail were in Jail, but Brugha and Collins had escaped the round-up.
The Derry Journal, Wednesday, 21st December, 1955
Mansion House 1919
Sources
The Derry Journal, Wednesday, 21st December, 1955
MS 46 328/2 Coffey and Chenevix Trench papers, 1868-2007. National Library of Ireland. Department of Manuscripts.
