Tag: Currane History

Many of the young women one sees about Achill are undoubtedly handsome-one or two we saw would be called beauties in any country-and they have dark blue eyes, deep red hair perfect complexions, features, figure, and carriage. And then another charm has to be added: the voices of Achill men, women, and children are always low-pitched, softly modulated, and musical-rather remarkable characteristics when one considers the open air life they lead, and the windy, boisterous climate of the Island. But hard work and open-air life soon destroy boudoir-like beauty, leaving, however, always the graceful carriage and pleasant voice. The women’s dress of Achill consists of bodices, skirts, and shawls, hats and boots being more conspicuous by their absence. The colours affected are gorgeous. Reds of all shades, from that associated with the Post Office to the pale, washed-out tint; purple of the most deeply imperial to the salty; magentas and a colour called “puce” are likewise in vogue, as is also a vivid blue. Their blankets are home-made, of wool from the mountain sheep, and “natural wool” coloured. The woollen skirts are generally home-made, and dyed in various and locally fashionable shades with dyes purchased from Westport. The yellows and browns and a prevalent mustard colour for the men’s homespun are obtained by boiling a lichen which grows on the rocks at Kim Bay. On Sundays and festivals the better-to-do women wear the well known large, cover-all, Irish cloaks, generally deep blue in colour when going to or returning from mass.

I seen the Caiptín Ó Máille indeed and I remember the day as I do today, I was 14 or 15 years at the time. He was going on crutches when I seen him but he was a fine tall man. I seen him comin’up the Kildownet road (a village east of Achill Island) from lower Achill and he was on his way to Clare Island. He stopped for the night in the public house that was that time in Kildownet behind at the chapel, we all went in to see him because we heard so much about him before he was tellin’ stories about his life but I don’t remember any of the stories now. The house was full because all the village went in to see him. There is a new house now at the chapel (north side) and the public house was where the stable is now between the new house and the chapel. He was related to the O’Malleys of Clare Island and lower Achill. I never heard that he was married or that he had a family, maybe he was married he used to put out cargoes at Corrán. He had a whisker but indeed he seemed to be a fine man when he was young. The last cargo he brought was sunk at Poll na Ráite near Newport. They sunk her (the ship) themsel’ when they saw the revenue comin’and no escape. The name of the ship was “The Sloopeen Vaughan” and there was a song made about her,I knew it once but I’m afraid I won’t be able to say it now.

Mac Neela was from Lower Achill some people said but more said he was from Claggan (a place South Ballycroy). I b’lieve mesel’ he was from Claggan. He used to be with Páidín Bán(‘ac Cormac) sometimes but he used to be with the Caiptín Ó Máille most of the time. He was a great seaman and people used to say that was a better seaman than the Caiptín. Their ship would be drowned once only for Mac Neela. They were comin’from Flush with a cargo ,the wind favoured them all the way and they were six hours too soon or sooner than they thought . Mac Neela was on deck and he shouted that Sliab Mór was in sight and he called the Caiptín Ó Máille up to see it but he couldn’t ,he ordered Mac Neela down to get the supper and when he came up again Sliab Mór was plain to be seen, only for Mac Neela was on watch that time the the ship would be in smidhreens on the wild rocks at Achill Head.

My uncle Mathew was a smuggler and he used to bring tobacco and wine and other things from Flush(flushing). He used to be with Caiptín Ó Máille sometimes and sometimes with Paidin Ban ‘ac Cormaic. Páidín was a great a smuggler and he had a ship of his own and he used to have a man named Leneghan from Ballycroy, a first cousin of my mother’s with him and a man named MacNeela. I think Mac Neela was from Tóin Re Gaoit (A Townland between Malranny and Achill Sound) or Claggan in Ballycroy . Páidín himself was from Croc Maoilín in Ballycroy and he was a relation of my mother’s. They used to put their cargoes out at Tóin na Dúmaca (a place in Corraun) sometimes and they used to bring the stuff from there on horseback to Newpor, and in the country.old men used to bring a hundredweight of tobacco on their backs from Tóin na Dúmaca to Newport at night, I seen the men mesil’ an was talking ‘to them. (The distance from Tóin na Dúmaca to Newport is about 14 miles s.m.) Páidín Bán was drowned himself. He was a fine tall strong man and he used to wear brógaí go (de) leatar na Spáinneac up to his knees. There was a song composed about Páidín, I heard it often in Ballycroy.

My great-grandfather`s name was Micheal Gallagher and he lived in Corraun, in Áird (A village in Corraun) He had a son named Michael and that was my grandfather. My grandfather had three sons and one daughter at home, Mathew, Micheal and Tommy were the son’s and Alice was the daughter’s name. She married a man named Gibbons from outside Newport. My mother’s name was Leneghan, one of the Leneghan’s of Ballycroy, and my father’s name was Tommy. My grandfather had a place in Newport and it was the first slated house that was built in the town, It was in the main street on the right hand side going in from here ..He had a shop, along with the three uncles and one aunt I had at home, I had two uncles who went to America, I never saw them, I had two aunts in America too but they came home and got married. The two of them married two Henry’s from Erris, Alice married Pat Henry and Sarah married Dominick Henry, the two men first cousins
My eldest uncle Mathew got my grandfather’s place in Newport, he was a smuggler and he used to go to Flush (flushing) for tobacco and other things and selling them out here and in Newport. He was drowned coming home from Flush. Paidin Ban ‘ac Cormaic was a first cousin of my mother’s.

I remember when the oul’ school (old N school) was made. You can see the walls of the oul’ school yet behind at the Schoolhouse (The present N.S in Corrán). Before any schoolhouse was made in Corrán there was a master from Newport be the name of Flynn goin’around to some of the house in Corrán teaching their children. Twas this Flynn that was teaching my uncle, Father Mick, only a few families that used to go to school to him. The Gallagher’s the Ó Máille’s and the Pattens mostly (that used to attend). Indeed he had no school only goin’ from house to house or anywhere he would get a barn to bring his scholars into. This was not the Flynn I was tellin’you about before that was in the soup school but a namesake of his.
I didn’t know much about the schools or the masters on this side of the channel because it was on the other side (west side of channel) in Kildownet I went to school. A man named Donnellan was our teacher but I don’t know where he came from, when he left Kildownet he went to Ballycroy we used to have states and oul“weathered” shells from the shore were the pencils we used to have sometimes. Everyone of us hadn’t a state. The master used to have a big slate hangin’ on the wall. Pike the landlord, was the manager of the school and he used be putting masters in and out as he liked himsel’ I couldn’t remember anyone of them but Donnellan because they usedn’t we left long in it, women mostly that used to come. Some of them used to get eleven shillings a week and some more and I believe some less. I don,t know who used to pay them. The school I went to in Kildown’et was where the school is now. (Derreen N S) We never learned any Irish at school, but the master used to speak Irish and he never stopped anyone from speaking it. It was Irish we used to speak always besides. I never heard of the “bata scóir or anything like it, we were learning reading writin’ and sums at the school.

About sixty years ago the people from Corrán used to go up to the “Coire” ( a glen on Corrán hill to the east side of Corrán) booleyin.” They had little boiógs there and one night all the women left the Coire and came down home with the milk and the butter except one woman.
The people used to go up with cattle early in June, up to the Coire. The woman and young girls that used to go up, but men used to go up as well if there was no women in the house to go. There used to be good wholesome grass in the Coire in June and July and the cattle used to thrive well whilst they’d be above and they’d be the better of it again for the year after.

I remember when there was up to sixty houses in Ailte but Pike evicted them. Pike was the Landlord, William Pike was his name. He wanted the land for grazin’ and he put the people out of it. It was a big village and streets in it like a town. Every five or six, or more of the houses were stuck together, like you’d see in a town. They were only small houses.

There was two “soup schools” here in Corrán, one of them was two stripes back from this house where the “pound” is now. The pound is just where the oul’schoolhouse was. Twas only a small thatched house . Oul’Pat Sweeney was the teacher. Pat Sweeney at the Sound is his son . Oul’Pat, the teacher, turned a Catholic and got married to a girl named Mary Mc Cann. There never was many scholars goin’to the school and it didn’t last very long. Oul’ Pat Sweeney left and it went over to Kildownet and he was teaching there for a while. Then another teacher named Cafferkey from Ballycroy came here to the school here, but he didn’t stay long. The people didn’t like him and anyhow they didn’t go to the school very much Cafferky left and went to Meelin (a townland north of Dooega in the southern part Achill Island) Cafferkey was teaching after that for a long time in Meelin. Some of his people ( his descendants)are there yet and they are jumpers’ yet.
There was another “soup school” behind at Gallagher’s house is near where the road that’s going over to Poll a ‘Cric meets this road that’s goin’from her to the Sound ((Gob a ‘Coire) twas in the corner where thee two roads are meetin’ the oul’ school was. You can see the track of the schoolhouse yet on your right hand side when you turn over from road (rd to sound). That school didn’t last very long at all. There was only one teacher ever in it. He was a man of the Flynn’s (s m) Newport that was the master in it , but he wasn’t long in it when a man Ryan from Newport got a least of the land wher the school was and of the first things he done when he got the land was to knock the school and Flynn, the master had to go. The road that’s goin’over to Poll a Cric from this road (rd to Achill Sound from Corrán) is called “Bóitrín Ryan”yet after that Ryan that had the land and knocked the school.
The “Soupers” never got much of a hold here in Corrán. All the landlords here at the time were catholics and they wouldn’t let any school on their land unless it was made on commons or someplace like that. But down the Island (Achill Island) the “soupers”were very strong and had schools and churches and ministers and bible readers. Nangle was their headman, and they had a college in Meelin called “Trinity College.” Twas in that college they used to train their own ministers and bible readers. The best and cleverest lads that were going to the soup schools were sent to “Trinity College” in Meelin where they made ministers and bible readers of them. Some of them then went to England and never came back and some more waited at home in Achill preaching for the “jumpers”. Nangle had a paper, a newspaper called the “Achill Herald.” It was printed in the “Colony”(a village at the foot of Sliab Mór on north east side. The village got its name when a colony of settlers (protestants) were planted there in Nangle’s time about 1836 or so S.M).
It was only a small paper I heard, I never seen it, but I heard it was a man named Daly that used to print it. They had a machine for printing it like any paper. Once a month I think it used to come out.
“Trinity College” in Meelin was a big place and there was a big church along with the college in it and houses where the students used to sleep in. They had a big farm in it too and the students used to work the farm. You could see the ruins in it yet I believe.

That was the time they were makin the railway from Westport to Achill and if the people could wait a little longer they could go on the train, but they couldn’t wait. There was only a small piece to be finished before the train would come to Achill. When they were bringin’the coffins home to Achill they finished the little piece someways to carry the train and that was the first train that came to Achill and it had a load of dead with her. That was in the Prophecy and it was in the Prophecy too that the last train that would come would have a load of dead too. That happened too when the 10 men from Achill burned in Scotland (in Kirkintilloch,Sept,1937) in a bothy. That’s the time they were liftin, the railway from Achill to Westport and when the ten coffins were comin’ home, they sent a special train from Dublin with them, and that was the last train that came to Sound (Achill Sound ) Now isn’t it hard to go beyond the Prophecy .(The train that took the coffins to the Sound was the last train Special train. The usual trains ran for a week or so afterwards.