Rebellion

It was not uncommon for stroytellers to relay their tales over a few sittings, like chapters in a book or episodes on TV. Pat continued;

“That brings us up to 1798. the clergy in Newport were suspected by the authorities of helping the rebellion. Helping to suppress persecution, and one night Fr. Manus got information that he was about to be arrested. He escaped from Newport to the Valley down here (Achill) Ton an tSean Bhaile- He must have travelled on foot all night till he come to a friend’s house there. There people were surprised at his coming at such an hour at night, or early in the morning. he told them what had happened so they prepared a hiding place for him in their old house.

He wasn’t long there till the soldier came, there used to be any amount of spies going them times, and likely one of them told on Fr. Manus. The house was searched upside down, but they couldn’t find any trace of him in the first search. When they were leaving the house, there was an old woman, and she thought they had gone clear away. She shouted from the kitchen below “Athair Manus build tu beo”. One of the soldiers understood, and conveyed what the old woman had said to the officer in charge. They returned to the house and made a second search, and found the priest, arrested him and brought him to Newport.”

Sources

Pat Molloy, Keel, Achill;  NFC 1015: 54-9

Bridie Mulloy may well have attended the unveiling of the monument dedicated the Fr. Manus Sweeney in 1944, as she was living on Achill at the time. The Patriot Priest featured quite a bit in her folklore collection. The most concise account of his life and death was dictated to her by Pat Mulloy (perhaps her father in law), from Keel. The entire piece and indeed all her folklore collection was written by hand, unfaltering and without mistake.

“Fr Manus Sweeney was born, according to tradition in the village of Dookinella, Achill. I heard this from my father who heard it from his father before him so I know it wall to be true. In those days 1763 or 1764, for that was about the year her was born there were poor scholars going about. They used to roam from village to village and remain in some house during the night. On the night of Fr. Manus birth one of these poor scholars happened to be in his father’s house.

the father’s name was Denis Sweeney and the mother Alice Mulloy before she married- When Mrs Sweeney took ill, when she was in labour, the poor scholar walked outside, it was a beautiful moonlight night and he remained outside for a bout ten minutes. When he returned to the house he spoke to the nurse, and asked her if it would be possible to keep the birth back a couple of hours. The nurse said it would be impossible. He walked out a second time and on his return the child was born. Said he to the nurse “I’m sorry that child is born to be hanged”. A terrible prediction wasn’t it?

The nurse didn’t inform the family as to what the scholar had said until the child was a week old, and when she did they were surprised and troubled. They were considering for themselves what to do what the boy while he was growing up, and when he came to a certain age they came to the conclusion that they would send him to college. the family had nice means, and of course they were gathering up what money they could to pay for his education in the end they decided to make a priest of him as they felt sure that, as a priest, he could commit no crime to be hanged. He had a distinguished career in college and was ordained in France, I believe it was around the age of twenty five or twenty six. His first mission was as curate in Newport, and he remained there for nine of ten years.”

Sources

Pat Molloy, Keel, Achill;  NFC 1015: 54-9

Mayo News 1893-2004*, 26.08.1944, page 3

Corrymore House in the 1940’s was a hive activity and perhaps the hub of Achill Island at the time. It was owned by Major Dermot Freyer, doctor, politician and poet turned hotelier. A colourful character, he had great ideas for his hotel, which he implemented with great success.

One of the successful ventures were his tea-dances. Bridie recalls:

Corrymore House

Our tea dances were very popular this year – I think that, it was due to the fact that there was nowhere else for people to on a Sunday. Can you imagine 150 people crammed into a lounge, some of the drinking tea and others dancing while the Major roared instructions at them, and two or three of us charged in and out among them with trays?

Bridie at only 20 years old was housekeeper and manageress of the hotel, she along with her two sisters served at the famous tea dances of Corrymore.  A 1959 article for the Sunday Independent describes those Sunday afternoons many years ago.

With Mrs. Weddall, who had accepted the West as her home, they organised afternoon-tea dances, which brought well over a hundred guest to tea hotel each Sunday afternoon to sip tea out of fine china eat the Gunning sister’s cakes and follow the intricate patterns of old Irish and English folk dances.

Sources

National Folklore Collection / Cnuasach Bhéaloideas Éireann NFC 1015: 54-9.

Irish Independent 1905-2001*:Date Oct 3, 1959;Section:None:Page Number 9

Co. Sligo

Bridie Mulloy began collecting folklore, as a school teacher but her love if it began long before, perhaps as a child. She grew up in rural Sligo. As she recalls later on in life in her  1991 book Itchy Feet & Thirsty Work: A Guide to the History & Folklore of Ballinrobe, her early images of the Seanachai James Flynn;

Everybody listened, captivated no matter how far-fetched the stories were indeed the more far-fetched the better they went down. He’d sit on his favorite kitchen chair, shoulders hunched gazing into the glowing coals as if her was drawing inspiration from them. Though he seldom raised his voice above conversation level, he spoke with the same conviction as if he was following his characters, enjoying their adventures, reveling in their feasting and fearful disasters. So night after night the stories rolled our of fairy hijacking to Greece and Turkey, changeling children and magical music which lured inspection mortals into all kinds of trouble.

These early memories perhaps left a lasting impression on Bridie Mulloy, inspiring her to search for stories herself. She not only listened to his tales but studied the storyteller himself.

He would sit at the butt of a cock of hay chewing a trawneen (piece of straw) and enjoying the heat of the sun. In this leisurely wait e studied the gap in the mountains over which the fairy horse would leap, that night in his story. The ring fort would inspire tales of abduction where mortals were forced to join the fairy revels. A stone field in the distance was the scene of mighty battles between long dead men and intruders who came to disturb their peace. He accepted help from neighbors if work got a bit behind hand, while he dreamed up his stories. He knew they liked to do so and that they’d be in at night to enjoy his flights of fancy and the currant bread and tea which his wife and family would provide.

This early brush with a man who not only spoke in narrative, but shaped his stories by the flora and fauna, the landscape and its moods, must have prompted her to search for the ‘magic’ essence that made the storyteller a master of his art. As a result Bridie made her way around the counties of  Sligo, Mayo and Waterford collecting local folklore during the thirties and forties. The fruits of her labour are contained in 21 manuscripts in the Irish Folklore Department in University College, Dublin. In her pursuit of the folktales and lore of days gone by she arrived on Achill in the forties when the last of the older generation were around to pass on their knowledge to the younger woman.

Destiny played her part too because Bridie Gunning would meet her future husband Tony Mulloy and her path would cross with that of the now elderly Emily Weddall.

Sources

Itchy Feet & Thirsty Work: A Guide to the History and Folklore of Ballinrobe. [Ballinrobe]: Lough Mask and Lough Carra Tourist Development Association, 1991.

http://www.mayonews.ie/obituaries/8008-bridie-mulloy

In the early 1940’s Bridie Gunning arrived on Achill. Born in about 1919 in Ballindoon, Co. Sligo. As a pupil at Ballymote Vocational School, she first became interested in folklore. Her schoolgirl hobby became a career when she took it upon herself to collect the folklore of her home county Sligo, followed by Mayo and Waterford. As a result 21 of the manuscripts in the Irish Folklore Department in University College, Dublin, are the fruits of her labour.

In the 1930’s there was a national competition, inviting entrants (schoolteachers) to submit an example of their work to the National Folklore Commission, as a schoolteacher Bridie was perhaps one of the entrants, although there is no record of her entry. Nevertheless she was one of the biggest collectors of that era. To read more on the collection follow the link: http://www.ucd.ie/irishfolklore/en/schoolsfolklorescheme1937-38/

Bridie met and married Keel man, Tony Mulloy, whose family owned the Village Inn, in the village. Tony school teacher, was very knowledgeable in the folklore and stories of Achill. Perhaps it was where and how they met!

Sources
http://www.mayonews.ie/obituaries/8008-bridie-mulloy

Thanks

Special thanks to Croistoir at the  National Folklore Collection at University College Dublin