Emily name appeared in the newspapers on many occasions throughout her lifetime, and after her death too. She still to this date appears from time to time especially in connection with Scoil Acla and the Easter Rising. The last series of articles she appeared in during her lifetime were in 1944. The event could have been called the “Last Gathering of the Great Republicans” because unbeknownst to Emily and friends that is what it turned out to be.

At the ripe old age of 76, Emily and her lifelong friends Eva O’Flaherty and Anita McMahon, along with others, fund-raised for, commissioned and erected a monument dedicated to the Patriot Priest of 1798, Fr. Manus Sweeney near his birth place in Dookinella. This event was the last time that the Republicans of her generation got together, for in a decade or so most of them would be no more.

The local papers, Mayo News, Connaught Telegraph and Tuam Herald, all reported on the event. Emily’s good friend Anita McMahon, a retired journalist wrote the below article for the Mayo News. This would be her last report as old age had begun to take it’s toll on her. Indeed this would be the last big event for her and Emily as within the next few years both friends would be gone. Eva the younger of the three would live on for a decade after her friends, but she would be the last survivor of that generation reaching almost 90 years.

“…The Westport L.D.F, who sent the town’s Brass Band down to Achill in honour of the occasion; all the Emergency Services who with courteous efficiency kept order during procession and ceremony, to the Keel and Bunnacurry Fife and Drum Band under the direction of Mr Anthony Lavelle of Keel, which in addition to melody supplied a not of colour with their beautiful banners and sashes…”

Eva. Thanks to Mary J Murphy

Anita

Emily Courtesy of National Library of Ireland

Sources

Mayo News 1893-2004*, 26.08.1944, page 3

Thanks

Mary J Murphy; http://achilltourism.com/shop/achills-eva-oflaherty-forgotten-island-heroine/