Collecting Kelp, Connemara, 1911

 This painting titled 'Collecting Kelp, Connemara' was painted in 1911 by William H. Bartlett, ROI, (1958-1932) and was sold at auction in 2015 for €10,000, considerably more than that ever earned by the kelp-gatherers of old.

A 'weed drag', is a type of long-handled, bent-tine, fork used for clearing rivers and lakes of weed. Seaweed gathering also utilised a drag fork like this, even today. Along the Connemara coast, in shallow bays and rocky inlets and islands, a variety of seaweed called kelp was cut above the root with a knife/saw attached to a long pole, and it then floated free. The buoyant kelp was gathered into floating piles or rafts, called 'cleimins', and towed, or poled to shore, or, if further out, on an island or deeper water, the weed was dragged into the boat with the special bent fork, brought to shore and spread along piers or walls to dry.

Harvesting seaweed on the Atlantic shore was hard and cold work, standing waist-deep in Autumn seawater, out below the low-water mark, cutting the seaweed by hand, and gathering it into bundles to be floated to shore. From there, someone had to carry the cut seaweed in bundles from the foreshore, up to the place where it was to be dried, before it was collected and loaded onto boats to be processed in Galway to extract iodine and potash. Men usually did the cutting and harvesting of the seaweed, while the women and children had the task of hauling the heavy, cold, wet, sea-sodden, smelly seaweed inshore. No seaweed baths needed for those hardy folk.

When the seaweed had dried it was burned in-situ, in sheltered rocky areas, to produce alkali or iodine. Alkali was an important and necessary commodity in the soap, glass and textile industries and

was manufactured from the burned ashes of vegetable substances (potash, kelp and barilla). Iodine became important for the advances in medicine and photography in the 19th century.

Archaeological evidence for the kelp industry includes kilns, drying-walls and storehouses which are found all along the Atlantic coastline from Wexford to Antrim.

From the 1850's the dried kelp was transferred by boat, usually Galway 'Hookers', from the scores of harbours along the coast, and from the Aran islands, to the Claddagh quay, and then carried onwards on smaller boats, through the locks on the Eglinton Canal into the Corrib, and on to Menlo where the Galway Iodine Works was located. There it was burned and iodine was extracted. The remainder, ash mainly, was used as fertiliser, and also used in the photographic, munitions, bleaching, glass-making, soap-making, ceramics, salt and linen industries.

The business of converting seaweed to iodine was very labour and fuel intensive, quite polluting, and was subject to.and later on victim of, competition from European and S. American sources of potash.

After WWI synthetic iodine replaced seaweed iodine, and that seaweed-based industry became obsolete. Seaweed was also harvested and burned locally, to produce fertiliser, though that practice has also died out, and was never really sufficiently financially rewarding to be sustainable.

Seaweed is still harvested in Connemara, and elsewhere on the Irish coastline, and is used to produce ingredients for cosmetics and food-additives. It is now collected 'wet' and does not have to be dried on the walls along the coast. Controversy still surrounds the sale of seaweed-collecting rights in Connemara to a Canadian cosmetics company, Arramara, around 2014.

You can buy seaweed to eat, Dulse and Carrigeen, to enjoy at home, from several Irish companies, healthy and worth supporting. You could also go for a seaweed bath, Leenane and Enniscrone are two of several locations on the west coast where such baths are offered today. Indeed Salthill, Galway was originally a victorian seaweed spa town, where folks took the salt air and the baths, for health in the late 19th century. The seaweed baths were where Seapoint now stands.

1Brian Nolan

Landlord, Rent, Eviction, Emigration.

This unique letter dated 1912, housed in the little museum in LetterMullen in Connemara, provides a very personal glimpse into the minutiae of our social history. Our modern society ironically resembles this early 20th century vignette, more than we might care to admit.
Today, as in 1912, renting is the norm. Back then, it was a rented house and farm, today an apartment or house. Today, so many renters are in financial difficulty, from covid19, or more likely, from an underlying social inequality, unemployment, refugee, single parent family. Our social services and charities strive to provide some support for those families, much as did this priest (and many other benevolent people), helping a family keep a roof over their head and stave off eviction.
Today it’s the banks, investors and hedge funds who are the landlord class, back in 1912, the landlord class had morphed from primarily Anglo-Irish landed estate, to a merchant and investor middle and upper class, who took advantage of the encumbered estates fire sale (think NAMA).
The old landlord system was bankrupted by the famine, tithe tax and the Land League, and were bailed out by the British Government (think NAMA). They had even less empathy and familiarity with their tenants, and the cautionary tone at the end of this letter reflects that distancing of tenant and land owner. That generational clan and community system was all washed away by 1912, with the arrival of the carpetbagger opportunist landlord and his ‘Agent’, as is the case here.
Connemara had rolling famines. Crop failure after crop failure, bad summer after worse winter. Emigration was their only escape. Most Connemara farms were in arrears. This agent had an unenviable and impossible task, which by 1921 became academic.
Lastly, the tenant's debt while small by our standards, was insurmountable by his. A ticket in third class on Titanic in 1912, the same year as this letter, was £7-10s., just shy of his overall rent arrears of £8-5s. So, I think that I will finish on a hopeful note. Sometimes the family had foregone paying rent in order to save up and pay the passage to America for one of the children.
Perhaps owing to the sacrifice of his or her family in 1910 and 1911, that young emigrant managed to save some money in Boston and paid off the family’s debt, avoiding eviction and eventually buying out the family farm in Rosmuc. Wouldn’t that have been a good end to a very sad, but not uncommon tale. Brian Nolan. Walking Tours of Galway

Touring Connemara in 1914 by rail and by charabanc

A pre-1924 MGWR Touring Car, or charabanc ("char-à-banc", usually in Ireland it is pronounced sharabang), en-route somewhere between Clifden and Westport, although the photo says Recess, suggesting that perhaps the touring party were being taken to the Recess Hotel, partially visible in the background, or to the Recess Railway Station. 

No white lines in the middle of the road back then, probably around 1914. It prompted me to write this little story. Sit back and enjoy. 

From 1895 to 1935 Galway city was connected to Clifden by the Midland Great Western Railway line. The MGWR had some 538 miles (866 km) of rail, linking Connacht to Leinster, with lines ending in Westport and Clifden, which towns were in turn, linked by touring car. This particular car in the photo connected the two train termini, Clifden and Westport, so rail passengers could go by train to one, or the other town, and then, connect to return home on the other train line, via a 'jaunt' on the charabanc 'touring car'.

Charabancs. Funny word eh! The name derives from the French, char à bancs or "carriage with wooden benches". It had 'benched seats' arranged in rows, looking forward, commonly used for large parties, whether as public conveyances or for excursions. It had a retractable canvas roof and the side windows were made of mica (a thin layer of quartz-like stone). The motorised touring car took over from the Bianconi horse-drawn carriages that had plied the roads of Ireland until the arrival of rail and eventually motorised horseless cars.

If you look closely, you will see that the touring car's registration plate number is 'IM 180'. For you young 'uns out there, car registrations in Ireland were done alphabetically by county. So Antrim was IA, Armagh IB, and eventually, Galway IM. Them when IM was all allocated, they want to AIM, then BIM, and so on to ZIM. Later on, maybe in the late 1960's Galway went to ZM, then AZM, BZM etc... until all that system was scrapped in the 1990's and we went to the current registrations of just G.

I happen to have access to the Irish Motor Directory for the year 1914 for cars and motor-cycles registered in Ireland. Nationwide (32 counties) in 1914 there were a total of 20,211 cars and 4,438 motor-cycles. Galway had only 189 cars and 163 motor-cycles registered in the county in 1914. Northern Ireland, Dublin and Cork had the bulk of all cars in the country.

If you look closely at the page below, you will see the entries for IM 179, IM 18o and IM 181. They are three char-a-bancs, and all three are registered to the Midland G. W. Railway in Broadstone (now Phibsboro in Dublin) where the registered office of the MGWR was located.

This page of car registrations from the Irish Motor Directory in Galway in 1914, showing IM 180 the charabanc owned by the MGWRy which is shown in the old photo at the top of this story. 

It's not often that I get to tie one piece of evidence to another..I'm actually kinda chuffed! 

The other car and motor cycle owners on this page are quite interesting including The Right Hon Lord Killannin of Spiddal, J. A. B. Trench of Clonfert, Harry Usher of Loughrea, Tom Cawley of Cawleys in Craughwell (motor-cycle), Maurice Sweeney of Loughrea, and James J. Ward of Eyre Square (the former two had garages and several cars). 

By far the most interesting car-owner listed on this page is the notorious land agent, landlord and Galway Sheriff, Mr. F. M. Shawe-Taylor of Castle Taylor, Ardrahan, (IM 165) who was killed in an IRA ambush on the way to Galway on the 3 of March 1920. The killing took place at Egans Pub in Cashla, near to Carnmore Cross. This in turn led to an increased RIC and military presence in the area, more and more unrest, shootings and reprisals which brought in the dreaded Black and Tans and Auxilliaries to the area, leading directly to the death of RIC constable Timothy Horan in an ambush at Castledaly, the Black and Tan shooting of innocent civilian Ellen Quinn at Kiltartan (1 November 1920), a pregnant mother of six and a tenant of Lady Gregory; murder by the Black and Tans in Galway of Fr. Michael Griffin (14 November 1920); killing of Tom Egan and the gruesome torture and murder of the two brothers from Beagh, Gort, Patrick and Harry Loughnane. In addition, there were numerous incidents of violence, many of which were recorded with horror by Lady Gregory in her journal, who remarked that "the country has gone wild since the killing of Frank Shawe-Taylor." I guess he had no luck with that car!

Anyway, I digress. Back to the Connemara Charabancs. I think it's likely that the three touring cars (IM 179, IM 18o and IM 181) were based in garages in Westport and Clifden, so as to meet all trains. The days of grand touring were upon us and the novelty of seeing the 'Wild West' of Ireland by train and charabanc must have been irresistible. The poster even mentions going to Achill, so the third car was likely based there. These posters were put up in railway stations and rail carriages all over Ireland and were no doubt, very effective marketing, long before the Irish Tourist Board started to promote Connemara. I love the 'Book of Kells' font and artwork on the poster.

It has to be appreciated however, that touring on such a vehicle through Connemara in 1914 would have been uncomfortable, cold, bumpy (imagine the roads), noisy, slow and sometimes dangerous, as the touring cars were quite high and when loaded with passengers, were apt to list too far on sharp bends and sometimes tipped over. 

The charabancs were phased out by the mid 1920's, though these saw service in Connemara right up until 'The Emergency' or WWII in 1939.

And now for the trivia piece of the story. I don't know if any Irish charabanc survived, but if I am not mistaken, the bench seats from one of these three charabancs ended up in Ryans Hotel in Cong, as part of the bar furniture. They were there fairly recently. They may still be there for all I know! This photo shows Ryans Hotel on the right, around 1910.

The Galway-Clifden railway line can be see paralleling the road, on the lake shore. (The lake is called Glendollagh) This is probably roughly where the 'Connemara Giant' statue sits, outside Joyce's Craft Shop in Recess in Connemara today. The car is travelling in the direction of Galway I think.
And that folks, is all she wrote. 

I hope you enjoyed this story which was prompted by my seeing the photo of the touring car by the lake on Whites Auctions pages. 

That's it...I'm off for a pint. Brian Nolan.

Walking Tour of Galway - Eyre Square, Galway

All in a Galway Walk;

 

A freshening breeze breathes life into the iconic Galway Hooker's sails billowing against a cottoned-blue sky in Eyre Square, the main square in the centre of Galway City, on the west coast of Ireland.

 

Galway was founded by the Norman invaders around 1230 AD and the growing fortified medieval town of Galway was granted a City Charter by none other than King Richard III (of Leister fame) in 1484. Galway Corporation commissioned Northern-Ireland sculptor Eamonn O'Doherty to make the sails sculpture in 1984, for the city's 500th anniversary, or our city's Quincentenary or Quincentennial Celebration.

 

 

 

The sculpture represents the sails of a Galway Hooker, a traditional sail-boat that was used for trade and fishing up and down the Atlantic coast of Ireland for centuries. The sails were traditionally red or dun-coloured and the rusty sculpted steel sails are a life-like representation of the sails that are still used on Hookers on Galway Bay. You will see the Hookers sailing off Salthill, or berthed in the Claddagh.

 

The sculpture  was from the very get-go, a simultaneous source of joy and annoyance for Galwegians. Some see it as an eyesore, others think it looks rather Picasso-esque and love it. It is nominally a fountain, but whether for budget reasons or conservation, or to stop college kids chucking soap-powder into it, the water jets are now rarely turned on, and even when they do the water jets are barely knee-high.

 

On the flag-poles behind the sculpture fly the banners and coats of arms of the fourteen 'Tribes of Galway', the 14 Norman families who more or less dominated trade in this bustling medieval city until they too were dispossessed by the army of Oliver Cromwell in 1652, when they captured the city and confiscated all the land, houses and wealth that these enterprising families, and other Irish families had amassed in the previous 400 years.

 

Galway city went into decline under English rule and much of the Spanish influence that the Normans brought to bear on the city's architecture is now visible in the many preserved medieval windows and doorways that survived the siege and occupation. Today Galway is a modern city with many successful industries, a strong tourism sector, beautiful beaches and mountain scenery, and some 20,000 third-level students in our University. It has been voted the friendliest city in Europe and is bidding to be the European City of Culture in 2020 ( +Galway 2020 or @Galway2020 )

 

Eamonn O'Doherty is far more famous these days for his 'Armoured Pram for Derry' sculpture, but sometimes in Galway's Eyre Square, on a suddenly-Spring day, one can almost hear the crack of the gallants, the jibs, the mizzens and the moonrakers as the wind picks up and the herring are running, and the captain calls for canvas!

 

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Join me, Brian Nolan, on one of my walking tours of Galway, whether on the streets of the city or at O'Connors Fanmous Pub in Salthill, where I entertain locals and visitors alike with my 'Fireside Tour' of O'Connors Pub. www.galwaywalks.com galwaywalks@gmail.com  Phone 086-3273560

The Way They Went - How the Irish 'got about' in 1850!

The Irish, while extremely fond of their horses, tended to walk everywhere, most of them not having the means nor the land to support a horse. Public Transport was inefficient, to say the least. The Railways had only just arrived in Ireland but were confined to short lines in Dublin. River boats and canals carried goods and passengers, though very, very slowly. The Mail Coach from Galway to Dublin took 2 to 3 days, stopping frequently to change horses and rest. 

Charles Bianconi changed all that. He was the Michael O'Leary of his day. Having arrived here in 1800 as a door-to-door salesman of Italian engravings, he soon saw the need for faster coach transport. His Bianconi Coach business had humble beginnings. in 1815 he started with just two coaches (called Bians), each carrying 8 passengers, sitting back to back, face out to the roadside, in 2 rows of 4 longitudinally on a hard bench, plying between Clonmel and Cahir. 

By 1850 he had revolutionised public transport around Ireland, managing some 100 vehicles, which traveled an astonishing 3,800 miles daily, calling at 120 towns, and 140 stations for changing horses. Each of these 'stations', many of which were hotels, inns or public houses, employed several grooms and a farrier, not to mention the catering and other people involved. With over 500 drivers on the payroll and 200 'Bians' in the fleet, they kept over 1,300 horses to pull the cars, that ate around 3,500 tons of hay a year, plus 35,000 barrels of oats. Bianconi also owned a coach-builders company in Clonmel where they made and repaired their own fleet of coaches, and also contracted to dozens of tradesmen and harness-makers, as well as establishing a network of over a thousand ticket-vendors all over the country. 

Blacks Hotel in Eyre Square Galway, Ireland was the Bianconi station in the city (now the Imperial Hotel). The Central Hotel In Loughrea, owned by J. Salmon was the Marconi depot there. A laden Bianconi Royal Mail Day Car or Coach covered about 8 miles per hour and passengers were charged one penny and a farthing per mile (about a 1/2 cent nowadays). 

The fare from Galway to Clifden was 7 shillings and six pence (about 30 cents today) and took 11 to 12 hours to cover the fifty-odd miles! And you sat outside, in all weather! Coaches to Dublin took 2 days, with passengers staying overnight in places like Athlone or Kilbeggan. 

 

They carried mail, passengers and trade-goods. Bianconi's coaches helped the revive the fishing industry by allowing fish caught today in Galway or Cork, to be sold in Dublin within 24 hours, by driving 24 hours straight with perishable cargo.

The mass migration of the Irish people ignited by The Great Famine brought huge increases in passengers, who used Bianconi's services to reach the ports from which they emigrated to England, Canada, America and Australia. The departing emigrants would have passed harrowing scenes of poverty, beggars, evicted families, demolished or uninhabitable homes and lean-to's on the sides of the roads, no doubt reinforcing their decision to leave their native land. 

The Railways finally put the Coaches out of business in the final years of the 19th century, though these new rail-lines, while they provided huge employment in their building, only helped spur and enable more emigration from Ireland..
Today you can still see some Bianconi Coaches in use as jaunting cars on Killarney. 

Charles 'Carlo' Bianconi, who brought cheap public transport to Ireland, died in 1875 and left his company to his employees. A truly modern, innovative and patriotic Irishman, though he was born 130 years ago in a little village called Tregolo, in northern Italy, in 1785.

Hope you enjoyed this post. If you'd like to hear more Galway stories, check out my website www.galwaywalks.com or my Facebook page www.facebook.com/galwaywalks or follow me on Twitter @galwaywalks 
Regards
Brian Nolan
Galway Walks 
Galwaywalks@gmail.com