John Ryan, aka 'big-spit' Ryan, was a farmer with a house on Abbey Street, Loughrea, County Galway, where he milked his cows and had a dairy. I remember one of us going down to the dairy each evening in the early sixties for a pail of milk, with the cream floating on the top, still warm from the cows' udders. That was before Morgan's Dairy delivered a dozen milk bottles daily to our door.
John Ryan's farm was roughly where the Supermarket complex stands now I think, on the Athenry road. John was a great friend of my dad's. He'd wander up to our house late at night for a chat at the fire, tamping his pipe out on the Aga, much to the annoyance of my mother. I remember his big hat on his knee, the plumes and smell of the tobacco smoke and him spitting into the fire, thus the nick-name, I suppose. He told tales of old Loughrea, about the Land League and the faction fights and the elections and the 1916 Rebellion and the Black and Tans.
He told dad about being hired with his horse and cart, carting the thousands of old glass negatives from the old Loughrea Printers (Kelly's The Printers on Main Street), out to the Yellow Bog to be dumped. They'd been printing local newsletters and pamphlets back as early as 1790,
Can you imagine the history he saw destroyed?
I don't know when John Ryan was born, but Dad said he'd gotten married on the same day Alcock and Brown flew across the Atlantic, and crash landed in Clifden, so that would be 1919, so let's say he was born around 1890.
During one of his visits to our house he described the raising of this huge iron cross that sits atop St. Brendan's Cathedral in Loughrea to my late father Dermot Nolan, probably sometime in the early sixties before John died. Dad related it to me on one of the many long radio-less car journeys we did those days driving greyhounds to dog-tracks all over the country, usually to lose, and then drive back again, listening to more stories. I wish I'd listened better.
The cross, which is over 14 feet tall, was designed by William Scott, who designed much of the wrought ironwork in Saint Brendan's Cathedral. Probably cast in several pieces in Dublin, the cross was assembled in front of the cathedral, most likely using Scully's Forge where the crane is, as the workshop, to do the final riveting and welding. Here is the story, as best I remember my father telling it to me, as a child, just as John Ryan had told it to him.
I don't say it's entirely true, but I am sure it has some truth in it.
I don't say it's entirely true, but I am sure it has some truth in it.
The year was 1901, so John Ryan was probably eleven or twelve, just a boy, but this was an historic moment and he took it all in.
By 1901, the stonework of the spire had just been completed and the builders needed to have the cross installed before the elaborate wooden scaffolding could be removed.
They also needed the cross installed in order for the lightning rod to be affixed, (you can see the lightning rod cable in the photo, it runs all the way to the top of the cross) before any lightning strike could do damage to the unprotected building.
John Ryan's story went something like this;
'It took 16 horses, huge draught horses, tied off in four teams of four to haul the rope cable that lifted the cross from the ground to the top of the spire. They had a scaffold up there, up on the spire, with a pulley, high up above the spud-stone that's up there, at the base of the cross. It was another thirty feet taller than that.
The cable went from the cross, through the pulley, and back down again, to a spot outside Scully's Blacksmiths, where the horses were hooked up to the harness.
With lots of urging from their teamsters, the four horse teams began pulling, slowly and carefully, straining at the huge weight of the enormous iron cross. They were almost at John Hanafin's house (the doctors surgery with the steps and railings on Main Street) by the time the cross reached the top of the scaffolding, and then, while the men on top man-handled the heavy iron cross over the spire, they had to back, back, back-up the horse teams ever so slowly, easing the slack on the rope, with shouts and signals from the men on top of the spire, to the men below, and then more shouts along the line to the men in charge of the teams of horses.
Back and forth, the horses straining, back a bit, back a bit more, hold it, hold it, forward a bit, too much, back a bit more. It took what seemed like hours and it was very dangerous. If something went wrong, or a rope or harness snapped, someone could be hurt or even killed.
There were cables on the far side of the spire too, to counteract the pull of the horses. Nothing was left to chance. There were hundreds of people watching, from a distance, being kept back by the police and the military who had been called in to help. Children were running everywhere and the excitement was contagious.
The priests and the bishop were there too as the cross was their pride and joy and it would soon dominate Loughrea's tallest houses and the Protestant church too.
Slowly they eased the long base of the cross down, down into the hole in the spud-stone at the apex of the spire, and once it was settled in, everyone waited while the cross was levelled, and bolted onto the huge wooden beam inside the spire, and others, using special wedges and molten lead, fixed the cross permanently in place, where it still stands today... a great day for Loughrea!'
PS. Thanks to Larry Morgan for letting me use his beautiful close-up photo of the cross on the spire that reminded me of all this 'history' or whatever one might call these Loughrea memories. St. Brendan's Cathedral, is in Loughrea County Galway. It is a treasure trove of Celtic Revival art, stone and wood carving, stain glass windows and architecture. There is also a museum open to the public daily showcasing unique Church and local history.
My Walking Tours are generally in Galway city but I am happy to walk you around my home-town, Louhgrea, anytime, or indeed around Connemara and the Burren too.
