Tag Archives: Lisbellaw

1942 – Lord Erne, Eamon Anderson.

FERMANAGH FOLKLORE. By EAMON ANDERSON. THE TERRIBLE FAMINE DAYS. In the hurry of writing last week there were a couple of sentences towards the end in which I did not choose my words carefully and they might give readers the false impression that the British Government of that day, being pressed by Parnell and his party, actually voted money to relieve the terrible distress and famine in Ireland in 1879 and later. No such thing did they do during any of the terrible famines of the last century, not one penny at that time did they give gratis. The money that came in ’79 and ’80 to supply what was known as “Parnell’s meal’ and ‘Parnell’s bread’ to the starving multitudes in Ireland was raised by subscriptions, principally from the Irish race in America. There is no doubt of course that many charitable people in England, especially of the Quaker persuasion, did subscribe money during famine years, but their Government gave us nothing, only coercion and plenty of it The landlords ignored the distress, they wanted their rents whether the land earned them or not. The Government ignored the distress and sent out their police and military to enable the landlords to collect their pound of flesh off the walking skeletons in the bogs and mountains to protect, the process-servers and the “bone-grippers” and the crow-bar brigade, and the grabbers and emergency men and the agents and bailiffs and all others of that unholy alliance. In ‘Black ’47’, when the people of Ireland were dying in the ditches in tens of thousands, —when the coffin ships were crossing the Atlantic crammed with starving human beings, dying of famine and fever and being thrown overboard to feed the sharks, the London “Times,” chief organ of the Tory party in England, gloated over the extermination of the Irish race in these words; “The Celts are going— with avengeance. Soon a Catholic Celt will be as rare in Ireland as a Red Indian on the shores of Manhattan.” But strange to say, this stiff-necked Irish race (survived it all—and the Catholic Celt is very much alive to-day—in Ireland, and all over the world.

A DUCAL “JOKE.”  And here is what the Duke of Cambridge said during Black ’46 — ‘Ireland is not in so bad a state as has been represented. I understand that rotten potatoes, and even grass properly mixed, afford a very wholesome and nutritious food. We all know that Irishmen can live upon anything, and there is plenty of grass in the fields, even if the potato crop should fail.” This was in the early stage of the famine, before the real horrors began. O’Connell’s answer, to this outburst is well worth recording:— “There” said O’Connell, ,“is the son of a king—the brother, of a king—the uncle of a monarch—there is his description of Ireland for you. Perhaps he has been reading Spencer—who wrote at a time when Ireland was not put down by the strong arm of force or defeated, in battle; but when the plan was laid down to starve the Irish Nation (in 1602).; For three years every portion of the crop was trampled down by mounted soldiers; for 3 years the crops were destroyed and human creatures were found lying dead behind ditches with their mouths green, by eating sorrel and grass. The Duke, I suppose, wishes we should have such scenes again in Ireland. And is it possible that in presence of some of the most illustrious nobility, of England that a royal personage should be found to utter horrors of this description.”

AN OLD LORD ERNE,

Perhaps some people may say that this is not the time—in the midst of a great world, calamity—to go raking up the sins of the past – maybe so. As a Christian people we can forgive, subject of course, to repentance and full restitution of our National rights on the part of the aggressor. As Christians we are bound to forgive. But there is no reason why we should ever forget! Having said this much to clear the misunderstanding which might arise from the slight mistake in last week’s article, I will now continue our Fermanagh folklore. The Derrylin Shanachies tell many tales of the generosity of old Lord Erne—the Lord Erne who flourished during ’69 and ’79 and those times. Of course everyone will agree that a man  with a rent-roll of £80,0000 a year, drawn largely off lands which his ancestors got for nothing, the confiscated property of the Fermanagh chiefs and clansmen, everyone, I say, will agree that a man like that could well afford to be generous when the whim seized him. His estates stretched like a principality on both sides of the lough as far as the eye could see, and in addition he had vast estates in Mayo and elsewhere. His estate on the west side of Lough Erne included practically the whole parish of Knockninny. Most of the Irish landlords of that day—if a tenant showed any little sign of taste or prosperity, if he whitewashed his house, or had middling deceit clothes, would raise the lent on him at once. But Lord Erne, according to the Derrylin Shanachies, was of an entirely different opinion. He liked taste, he liked his tenants to have, at least, neatly patched clothes and a snug well-kept house and place. Once on a journey through his estates he came to a tenant’s place of which he did not at all approve. The man was ragged in his clothing; his house was badly in need of thatch and black for want of limewash. “What is your name,” asked his Lordship. “My name is Darling,” said the man. “On,” said Lord Erne, “you are the devil’s darling.” On another occasion, with his agent, he was .travelling part of his estate in the Slieve Rushen mountain area when he came to a house and farm tenanted by a widow with a family of small children. The house and place were kept neat and clean, and the children’s clothes were neatly patched. He said to his agent “I will venture to say that the rent of this place is paid up to date.” “No, unfortunately, there are five years arrears against it” said the agent. “Well, there must be something serious wrong, so,”-said Lord Erne. Yes, said the woman there is, ‘I have lost my husband and it takes all the money I can make to rear my family.” “Give this woman a. clear receipt up to date and do not ask her to pay any rent until she is able to do so,” said Lord Erne to his agent. “You are a great woman” he continued “and I am proud to have you for a tenant. – In spite of all your difficulties you are keeping your house and place in good styled and keeping your children, neat and clean.” Another tenant also owed several yearns rent as his cattle had died but as he was keeping his place and himself neat and decent, his Lordship commanded the agent to give him a clear receipt. At his castle of Crom, every year the used to give prizes for. home industries, for neatly patched clothes, for sewing, knitting and spinning, etc.          .

 

DERRYLIN MAN’S APPEAL. On the 1st November, 1869, an immense Tenant Right meeting was held in Cavan town, which was attended by great numbers of Fermanagh farmers and people generally. Even Enniskillen town though 32 miles away, sent a large contingent by jaunting cars and horse-drawn waggonettes. At that time bicycles and motor cans were not even dreamt of. A score of years had still to pass before such things were invented and another score of years passed before any of them were seen in Fermanagh. At any rate the Chairman at that meeting was Fr. Pat O’Reilly, the parish priest of Drumlane, in which parish is situated Belturbet town, near the Fermanagh border. In the course of his address the Reverend Chairman said that if all the landlords of Ireland were as good as Lord Erne there would have been no need to hold a meeting like that. Lord Erne, like all his class probably never read any papers, only such as came from the Tory Press. Certainly he would not read the speeches of those whom he would call “disloyal agitators,” so he was unaware of the- compliment paid him by the Rev. Chairman at the meeting. Some time later he found out that a number of his tenants in Derrylin district, had attended the meeting so he gave orders to have them evicted from their holdings without delay. There was a man named Doogan—a Derrylin man, and he was one of the best judges of a horse in Ireland and Lord Erne had always employed him to buy horses, and he had great influence with his Lordship. So the poor men who were  threatened with eviction—which was almost as bad as sentence of death in those days, asked Doogan to do his utmost with his Lordship to have their sentences revoked. Doogan went to Crom Castle and met his Lordship out on the lawn walking with the Countess. He absolutely refused to reconsider his decision and said that, the offending tenants must go out. Doogan then asked him if he had read the speeches at the meeting and he said “No, I would not read the speeches of agitators.” Doogan then handed .him a paper and asked him to read the Rev. Chairman’s speech. At first he refused to read it, but the Countess prevailed on him to do as the man asked him, so he sat down and read the speech. Then said Doogan, “Will you evict your tenants now for attending that meeting?” “No,’’ said. Lord Erne “I will not. That man speaks very fair.’’

ORANGE SHOOTING.

In some future article I will say a lot about that Tenant Right meeting of 73 years ago. Old Francis Cleary, of Kinawley, who died two years ago, aged 91, told me all about it. He with 100 other young men from this district walked to the meeting 22 miles and back that 1st November, 1869. He could repeat every speech almost word for word. Unfortunately, however, that day ended in tragedy. While the Fermanagh and West Cavan contingents were returning and passing through the village of Drumaloor, near Belturbet,, they were fired on by a party of misguided young Orangemen and a young man named. Morton shot dead. Morton was the servant of the Rev. Chairman, the P.P. of Belturbet, and was driving the priest’s car, and the bullets only missed Father O’Reilly by inches. A number of men were tried for the murder at Cavan Assizes the March following but were acquitted by an Orange jury. Apparently the accused exercised the right of challenging each jury man in turn, till they got twelve men of their own choosing to try them. A friend of mine possesses a newspaper of March, 1870 which gives an account of the trial covering two pages. The young men who fired the shots were sons of tenant farmers themselves, who were amongst the first to reap the benefits of the land agitation. And do we not in our own day in the North of Ireland see the same narrow-minded party bitterness, a party standing against the onward march of the nation although it would be to their own benefit, as well as ours, to have a free and united Ireland. Just one more story of Crom Castle and a former Earl of Erne. In the old days a parish priest of Newtownbutler, was transported for performing the ceremony of marriage between a Protestant and a Catholic. Some time later a great regatta was held at Crom Castle, the Prince of Wales—-who was on a visit there at the time being in attendance. The greatest event of the day was a boat race on Lough Erne between a chosen party of boatmen of Lord Erne’s tenants and a party of boatmen of a gentleman named Saunderson who lived between Crom and Belturbet. Saunderson’s boatmen were a family named Latimer, while Lord Erne’s boatmen were a couple of brothers named Goodwin who lived in Derryvore—that peninsula of Knockninny parish which stretches over the lough almost to Crom and a man called big Ned Martin of Killybrack, also in Derrylin district. In the presence of the Prince of Wales, Lord Erne promised the Goodwins and Martin any favour they would ask for if they would only win the boat race in his honour. That boat race became historic in the Knockninny and Newtown butler districts. After tremendous exertions, the Goodwins and Martin won the race against their wiry opponents. Lord Erne was overjoyed at the honour done to his house with the royal guest present, and he called his boatmen up to name their reward. “Now,” he said, “anything you ask, you shall have it even, to the best farms on my estate.” But the Goodwins and Martin answered as one man: ‘Our only request is that you will procure the release of Father Clarke of Newtownbutler.’’ “Oh ask me anything only that” said Lord Erne. But they still persisted till the Prince, who was listening asked what it was all about. The circumstances were explained to him how Fr. Clarke had been transported for marrying a Protestant and a Catholic. The Prince was shocked. “I did not know” he said that there was such, a law as that upon the Statute Book of England. I must get it removed at once.

So Father Clarke was released and sent home to his parishioners and the iniquitous law was removed from the English Statute Book. As far as I can find out this incident happened long after Catholic Emancipation as there are many people still alive who remember big Ned Martin of Kilnabrack.

A correspondent has written me recently requesting that I write the folklore of the great townland of Aughyoule on the slopes of Slieve Rushen, near Derrylin.. As soon as possible I am visiting that townland—which is the second largest in Ireland—to have a few chats with its Shanachies and I will record everything about it. I find that the folklore of Knockninny parish is almost inexhaustible. Up till lately I thought Kinawley could beat all Fermanagh for folklore, but now I find that Derrylin is

 

KILTYCLOCHER AND DISTRICT NEWS. Deep regret has been occasioned in, the district by the death of Mr. Patrick Burns, Straduffy, which occurred on Thursday last following a prolonged illness. The late Mr. Burns was a. well- known sportsman. The funeral, which took place to Kilmakerrill on Saturday, was large and representative. Rev. J. P. Brady, C.C., Kiltyclogher, officiated at the graveside. The chief mourners were— Mrs. M. E. Tyrkell, Dublin, and Miss Lizzie Burns (daughters), Messrs. John Burns, Garrison; Tom Burns, Cashel, and P. Burns (sons); Messrs. Thomas and Michael Burns (brothers).

Garrison Fair held on the 26th. ult., was large and prices for all classes of cattle (especially springers) showed an upward tendency.

A farm of 35 acres at Tullyderrin, Rossinver, was purchased for £195 by Mr. Thomas Sweeney, Garrison. Killasnett School, which was closed down some time ago owing to declining attendance has been sold for £80.

A little boy aged three years had a narrow escape from drowning in the Kiltyclogher River during the week. Deep pools in close proximity to the village are unprotected, and are a constant danger to small children playing along the riverside.

The death occurred recently at an advanced age of Mr. George Acheson, Whealt. Deceased, who was one of the most extensive farmers in the Garrison district, was brother in law of Mr. Mr. T. Allingham, Kilcoo.

An official of the Department of Supplies visited Kiltyclogher last week in connection with the flour shortage, but nothing has been done since to relieve the situation, which is worsening. On Friday and Saturday Kiltyclogher was without flour or loaves. Oatmeal is also extremely scarce, and several families have to depend entirely on potatoes

 

LISNASKEA FATAL ACCIDENT. An R.A.F. corporal was the victim of a fatal accident near Lisnaskea on Friday evening. Corporal Harold Leonard Nieman, a native of Peckham, England, fell from a lorry, sustaining a fracture of the skull from which he died on his way to hospital. The accident took place at Ballindarragh, and, the police being notified, Constable T. McKernan was immediately on the scene.

At the inquest in Fermanagh County Hospital on Saturday, conducted by Mr. G. Warren. Coroner, Head Constable Thornton, Enniskillen, represented the police authorities.

Sergeant H. A. Saberton said the previous night, at 7-30 he was travelling in the rere of a three-ton truck with deceased and two others. As the truck pulled up and crossed the crown, of the road, deceased, who was standing, fell backward to the roadway on his head, and the rere wheel passed over his shoulder. The truck, which had been pulled up gradually, was stopped within three or four yards.

Witness found deceased unconscious and bleeding from mouth, nose and ears. They removed him to the grass verge, and within ten minutes he was placed in a passing car and brought to hospital, but died just approaching Enniskillen.

Dr. T. J.’ O’Hagan, house surgeon, Co. Hospital, said deceased was dead on admission. There was an abrasion on the right cheek and one on the left side of the chin. There was considerable haemorrhage from the nose and right ear. Some brain tissue was mixed with the blood. Death was due to shock and haemorrhage following fracture of the base of the skull and laceration of the brain. Sister Monaghan saw deceased on admission and he was then dead.

Deceased’s squadron leader said deceased was aged 38 and married. A verdict was returned in accordance with the medical evidence, and Head Constable Thornton and the Coroner expressed sympathy with the relatives of the deceased and to the driver of the truck, whom, the Coroner said was not in any way to blame.

 

APRIL 11, 1942.

DE-CONTAMINATION OFFICER’S INSTRUCTION. MR. BEATTY REFUSES TO CO

When Enniskillen R.D.C., on Tuesday, was requested to send its Decontamination of Food Officer to a course of instruction in Belfast, Mr. J. Brown, Clerk, said Mr. John Beatty, ,J.P., a member of the Council, had been appointed to this post and he supposed it was Mr. Beatty’s duty to attend.

Mr. Beatty—I am not going. I am telling you straight. (Laughter).

Mr. E. Callaghan said no member of the Council had more time at his disposal for attending than Mr. Beatty.

Mr. Beatty said he refused to go.

The Clerk said that in that case he thought the best thing would be for Mr. Beatty to resign. (Laughter).

Mr. J. J. Coalter, J. P., said that supposing gas was used and food was contaminated, he felt the responsibility for any serious consequences arising out of Mr. Beatty’s inability to deal with the situation would rest upon Mr. Beatty. (Laughter)

Mr. Beatty—Don’t think you will frighten me—I am not that green. (Laughter). If there was any £ s d for it I wouldn’t be asked to go. (Laughter).

Chairman (Hon. C. L. Corry, J.P.)— Will you appoint anybody?

Earl of Belmore, D.L.:—No.

Mr, Burns asked if Enniskillen Urban Council had appointed a representative.

The Clerk said it had; so also had Irvinestown and Lisnaskea Rural Council. Mr. Callaghan—Where are the lectures? Clerk—In Belfast. /

Lord Belmore—Oh! hell. (Laughter).

The Council decided to get one of the Sanitary Sub-Officers to attend.

 

LORRY AND P.O. VAN COLLIDE. SEQUEL AT LISBELLAW COURT

Details of the collision between an army, vehicle driven by Private North and a G.P.O. van driven, by Wm. Norman Kerr, Lisnarick, Irvinestown, which occurred at Gola Cross on 11th February, were given at Lisbellaw Petty Sessions on Friday, when both drivers were before the. Court charged on the usual counts with careless driving. The evidence was that the military van was coming across the road at Gola, proceeding from Lisbellaw down the Belleisle road when it struck the G. P.O. van travelling from Lisnaskea to Enniskillen.

Evidence for the prosecution was given by Bernard McCaughey, a passenger in the G..P.O. van, and Const. Wilkinson. Kerr said he was practically stopped when the impact took place. He had slowed down approaching, the cross.

North admitted in evidence that he did not obey the “halt” sign on his road at the approach to the cross. The summons against Kerr was dismissed and North, who had a previous conviction, was fined 40/- and 2/- costs.

 

LABOURERS TO RECEIVE 1/- PER HOUR. URBAN COUNCIL DECISION

Enniskillen Urban. Council have decided to pay their labouring men at the rate of 1/- per hour, instead of on the present basis of £2 5s and £2 2s 6d weekly.

Senator Whaley presided at the Council meeting on Tuesday evening, when the Finance Committee reported that they had under consideration the following applications from employees of  the Council for increases in wages and make the following recommendations thereon:—

From 13 labourers— their applications being for an increase of the present rates of £ 2 5s per week for men on the permanent staff and £2 2s 6d for men casually employed. It was stated in their applications that the rate of wages payable to general labourers in the district is at present 1/0½ per hour. It was recommended that an increase of 2/6 per week be granted to both the permanent and casual labourers.

The Committee also recommended that an increase of 2/6 per week be granted to Andrew Bell, lorry driver, on his present rate of £2 12s 6d per week, and that the wages of William Hynes, mason, be increased from £3 15s to £4 per week.

Mr. P. Kelly said the wages of labourers employed by the E.B.N.I. and builders in the district was 1/1 per hour. Why should Urban Council labourers be paid only £2 5s or £2 2s 6d weekly when all other labourers in. the district were paid £2 12s. Could the Council do nothing better for its labourers than that?

Mr. Donnelly said he wrote to the Ministry of Labour on the matter, and read the reply to the Finance Committee. The reply stated that only builders’ labourers were paid 1/1 per hour.

Mr. T. Algeo said the Council were paying the best wages in the Six Counties with the exception of two or three others.

The Famine 1847. Ballyshannon Herald.

1847. The issue of January 1st records a classic tale that ought to be filmed for it has all the ingredients of high drama or perhaps more accurately melodrama. On Christmas Eve a schooner lay just inside the Bar at Ballyshannon. The Bar is a high sandy ridge four miles down river from Ballyshannon that constantly threatens to block the exit of the Erne to the sea and the schooner was sheltering here waiting on a favourable wind. The ship was bound for Liverpool later with bacon and lard and had been charted by Mr. Edward Chism of Ballyshannon (Food was constantly being exported from Ireland during the famine). After a time a boat owned by Mr. Wade pulled alongside the vessel and men who claimed that they were from the saltworks at Ballyshannon asked to come aboard to light their pipes. (The real salt workers would have had to row outside the bar (sandbar) of Ballyshannon estuary) to the open sea to get saltwater which was then evaporated at Portnason, Ballyshannon, to get the salt for preserving the fish and meat exports from the area). Several men came on board and then produced guns, overcame the captain and crew and took a large quantity of bacon and lard from the ship. This is the Irish famine equivalent of Bob Cratchet’s Christmas turkey, especially when (as it turned out later that) it was hogsheads of ham and bacon that were on board. Many a starving household must have had an unexpectedly happy Christmas as a result of this piece of local piracy. By Christmas day the police recovered some of the booty buried in the nearby sand dunes and the soldiers were out combing the area. Three were arrested. Scarce a night passes by without a robbery in town or the vicinity, the paper reports.

1847.January 8th. There is great distress in the area. One man died after just being admitted to the Ballyshannon Workhouse. People won’t come in for aid until the last moment. The dead from the famine are not being buried properly in the Abbey graveyard in Ballyshannon as the graveyard has not deep enough soil. A man on his way from Ballyshannon to Donegal heard the sound of lamentation from a house along the way. Going into the house he found a girl of about sixteen dying and her parents trying to keep her warm. He gave money for food, etc., in the tradition of the good Samaritan, but the girl died in a short time.

January 22nd reported that Colonel Conolly and his family were staying at Cliff for the winter in order to give aid to their tenantry and a terrible increase of poverty, sickness and death was recorded by the paper. Unfortunately and damningly for the paper the above words were all they reported. It says volumes for their social attitude and incomprehension of the situation that they could write: “The details are too horrid to be published.” From Fermanagh the paper reports the action of the Rev. Grey Porter, whose principal estate was at Lisbellaw and who had brought in 150 tons of Indian meal at Derry per the ship Peru. He had bought in the grain at £10-10s-6d per ton and was going to sell it to his tenants at cost price which he hoped would be less than £12 per ton. This compared with £24-10-0 for Indian meal or £30 for oaten meal at market prices. Robberies for money, cattle or arms are a nightly occurrence.

On February 19th the Ballyshannon Herald published a very long letter from John Hamilton of St. Ernan’s near Donegal Town. This man was estate agent for the Conolly Estate around Ballyshannon and possibly for the Leslie Estate of Pettigo and other estates as well. In his own way he seems a man sensitive to the situation and practical for the future, although badly lacking in short term solutions. He seeks to combat apathy and fatalism in the tenantry which is admirable, if the person has the energy to look some distance ahead, but useless if starvation is a matter of days away.

John Hamilton begins by asking everyone to work hard in order to hold on to their tenancies. “Stir yourself and be doing. Drain a rood of ground and dig it eighteen inches deep and you will be paid for it if it done right and get many years to repay this money” (not a generous bargain and in the same vein) “seed will be provided and can be paid for later. Sow corn and not potatoes in rows nine inches apart and the seed two inches apart. This requires two stone of seed and repays 200 stone if the !and is well dug or well ploughed and is dry”. Tenants will be allowed to burn as much as they like and he (John Hamilton) will say nothing for this season (burning the dried sods of the land gave a short term fertility but was ultimately ruinous and absolutely forbidden normally). Tenants were urged to burn as much as they liked on black land i.e., bog land and to cart it to other ground to grow turnips. Sow “pease” (sic) and barley and field and garden beans (and mangle wozzels. Come to him for help. Uncommon work is required and he will not help anyone who holds land but will not work it. He, Hamilton, works hard himself and expects others to do likewise.

In the same issue Colonel Conolly has imported 500 tons of rice and one ton has been sent to the Bundoran schools and two to the Ballyshannon Relief Committee. The columns were illuminated by a row between the Vicar of Drumholm Mr. M. G. Fenwick and a local land agent. Alexander Hamilton, on the question of who should be allowed to get a place on the Relief Works. Should a man who has paid his rent get on the Relief? — if he is able to pay his rent does he need relief work? (as long as you managed the rent you could do what you liked afterwards and if you hadn’t the rent you could work until you could pay the rent — either way the rent was sacrosanct and Catch 22 was born long before Joseph Heller).

From now until April the Famine cannot squeeze into the Ballyshannon Herald and on March 12th we are informed that Fermanagh is improving and that petty thefts and slaughter of cattle had completely ceased, according to the Erne Packet. The reporting of the Donegal Assizes on March 12th at Lifford hints at what the newspaper doesn’t report. Bartley Loughlin, a former bailiff to Mr. H. Coane of Waterloo Cottage, Higginstown, Ballyshannon was alleged to have sent a threatening letter to Mrs. H. Coane saying that their family would be blown up with gunpowder for their oppression of the tenantry. Laughlin had been bailiff for Coane for fifteen years and his handwriting was familiar to his former master. In his capacity as bailiff Laughlin had been ordered to serve notice to quit on thirty tenants and ordered to distrain those persons who had not paid — as far as the landlord was concerned it would not be hard to seize fodder in lieu of rent. For inability or unwillingness to carry this out Bartley Loughlin was sacked. Councillor Doherty defended the ex-­bailiff and demolished the case by asking if Laughlin’s handwriting was so well known to Coane then why would he be so stupid as to write the letter in his own hand? A not-guilty verdict was returned. In the next case a John Donald got seven years’ transportation for stealing sheep from Michael Ward, but a woman, Rebecca Brack, (Brock?) was found not guilty of exposing a child to die at Finner, near Ballyshannon.

1847.In an echo of the Christmas Eve piracy in the Erne Estuary, James Currie, was accused of receiving a ham knowing it to be stolen. The ship’s name is now given as The Confidence and its Master as Joseph Davidson. The ship had been boarded by two boat’s crews and nine bales of bacon and hogsheads of ham had been stolen. Sub-Constable Davis arrested Currie walking through Ballyshannon on Christmas day carrying a ham. Currie said that he had found it in a hole in the ground among the sand dunes. He was found guilty with a recommendation for mercy and got nine months hard labour.

At Fermanagh Assizes at this time Daniel Nealy was convicted of stealing valuable property, plate, etc., from J. C. Bloomfield at Castle Caldwell. He was sentenced to seven years’ transportation. For a similar crime in the same area, the breaking into the house of Launcelot Corcoran near Castle Caldwell on the previous December 27th the following were tried:- James Mulrean, Maurice Connor, Peter Gallagher, Francis Gallagher, Maurice Lannon, William Lannon, George W. O’Connor and Edward Muldoon. All were found guilty and sentenced to fourteen years’ transportation except the last four, who got seven years’ transportation.

The March 26th issue details a brutal occurrence in the Pettigo area which happened on March 23rd. George Allingham with one Patterson and “the notorious Melanefy, the bailiff” came to the house of John McCrea of Clonaweel. Their purpose seemed to be to execute on order upon the person of John McCrea who wasn’t present. Only his two sons were there and after some persuasion they managed to get the three intruders out of the house. They seemed rather inebriated and threatened the sons and finally Melanefy fired at young Edward McCrea “wounding him dreadfully” in the head. Melanefy has run off and the countryside is now in pursuit!

By 2nd April, 1847 things have got so bad in the area as to force its attention upon this blinkered newspaper. It reports that the poor house is crowded to excess and fever and dysentery are spreading alarmingly. “Deaths are frightfully numerous. A fever hospital is urgently needed and its building would give employment to the poor.”

  1. April 23rd:- Captain Fortescue has arrived to take charge of the Commissariat Department, i.e., to give out food for the starving. A vessel with breadstuffs for this town and Enniskillen is waiting for a fair wind to get into port. It is hoped that she will get in today as the people discharged from the workhouse are in great distress. There is plenty of food coming in from America, but it is still at famine prices. Captain Lang is to superintend the public charities. Arrangements are in hand to setup a public soup kitchen to the plan of Mr. Sayer (but the paper notes with unaccustomed concern). “We fear it will not answer the purpose.”

Between Garrison, Derrygonnelly and Holywell many hundreds of acres wilt be left without crops because of the utter poverty of the people. Farmers and graziers cattle are being stolen nightly.

April 30th: There is a great fever sweeping Fermanagh especially in the country districts and arising largely from those who have left (or been sent out) of the workhouse and had now gone home and infected their friends who had generously but fatally taken them in.

  1. May 7th: Reports the hanging of Samuel Crumrner at Lifford. He was hanged for the murder of his father. His wife had also been sentenced for the same crime, but the sentence was commuted to transportation for life. It was the first hanging in Donegal for fourteen or fifteen years and about a thousand people came to watch. On the scaffold Crummer said (the name was not printed) swore his life away for small money in these times. He was a big man of 6’-2” and he said goodbye to his wife and children from the scaffold, although they were not present, before he was launched into eternity.

The steamship Albert under Commander Geary arrived in Ballyshannon with breadstuffs. It also towed in two ships which had been waiting outside the Bar for a favourable wind. The Albert is 147ft long, 42 feet wide, can carry 600 tons and has a capacity of 200 horse power. Many people have been shown over this ship.

On May 14th it is reported that the deaths around Clones, Co. Monaghan, are “inconceivably great”. In Enniskillen the poor and starving rushed the Board of Guardians meeting and all had to be admitted. Colonel Conolly has given his tenants eight tons of rice this week free plus free turnip seed. John and William Tredennick (local landowners between Ballyshannon and Belleek) are reducing their rents by 40% to 50%.

1847.May 21st reports the melancholy death of Captain Drake of the 92nd Regiment and a young local man, Henry Lipsett of Ballyshannon, who were drowned when their sailing boat was upset in the estuary.

Hundreds of the poor are being provided for by the Johnstons of Magheramena Castle near Belleek and their rents are reduced also.

There is great fever in Fermanagh and the well known Dr. Collum has recently succumbed. “God knows who will be next sacrificed on the altar of pestilence and death”. This last item is reprinted taken from the pages of the Erne Packet.

  1. May 28th: reports great fever in the locality of Ballyshannon and all classes were affected. People are warned not to feed beggars at their own door, especially strange ones. Heaps of manure must be removed from thoroughfares, lanes and alleyways as otherwise the Committee of the Ballyshannon Board of Guardians will cause them to be removed and prosecute the offenders. This is signed by M. Davis J.P., chairman.

In the June 11th issue the fever has greatly moderated and not a single death has been reported last week. There is a huge plague of snails affecting crops and people are advised to gather them as they are very suitable for feeding pigs.

June 18th: issue contains a very indignant letter protesting about a pauper with fever lying on Ballyshannon Bridge since Sunday last. The Board of Health should have put him in a lodging house and had a doctor visit him. Only one death has been reported in the past three weeks and that was of Matthew Donohue, an inoffensive, industrious man who kept a public house in Main St., Ballyshannon. There are very good prospects for the harvest. Enniskillen jail is said to be the most crowded in the kingdom.

At the Donegal Petty sessions reported on June 25th a little boy pleaded guilty to stealing a few ship’s biscuits from Messrs Bradshaw of Donegal Town. He was given six months’ jail. He cried as he was led away. Mary Ward got two months jail for stealing two hens.

Sept. 17th: reports that no rot can be seen in the potatoes and that a great fever rages about Enniskillen. The news from Fermanagh continues in the Oct 1st newspaper as it reports on the dissolution of Lowtherstown (Irvinestown) Poor Law Union. The immediate cause was the raising of the salary of the R.C. Chaplain to the Workhouse. In the row that followed the Protestant Chaplain’s salary was raised. Further rows caused the dismissal of the master of the workhouse and finally the Board of Guardians themselves were dismissed! This is the newspaper version of the dissolution of Lowtherstown P.L.U., but in fact there were much more grievous reasons why this

Union was taken over by a Government appointed Commissioner. The Guardians failed to levy anywhere near sufficient funds to support the poor and starving of the locality, thus causing the effects of the Famine to be even worse than need have been and the Workhouse which they were in charge of was very badly run. An inspector who visited Lowtherstown Workhouse wrote that he found people half naked dying in their own vomit and excrement, lying on the floor. He said that Lowtherstown was the worst workhouse that he ever visited. (See Parliamentary Papers: Irish Famine).

October 15th: reported the dissolution of Ballyshannon P.L.U. Commissioners and the appointment of a new government inspector. November 19th sees a letter saying that the people of the country are living on turnips and nothing else. The Gentlemen of the country must unite to stave off famine as they did last year.

The final note of 1847 reports the death of Mr. William Hassard of Garden Hill near Belcoo in Fermanagh. He was shot in the leg and died later. Suspicion pointed to one Creagh, (probably a Mc Grath from the Irish rendering of the name Mc Creigh) but there was insufficient evidence. Creagh’s father had been jailed by Hassard for non-payment of arrears of rent and had died in jail. (This is the type of indirect evidence of the Famine and its effects which makes one wish that this paper had made any decent attempt to write about the momentous events it was living through).

June 1915.

Fermanagh Times June 3rd, 1915.  AN OPPORTUNITY FOR WOMEN.  There is one sphere which is particularly women’s province, and where their talents should find official recognition and employment.  Prodigious sums of money are being spent on food at the military camps throughout the kingdom, and it is said that the amount of food thrown away at these places every day exceeds even the limits of British thriftlessness.  We should like to see a committee of women formed under the auspices of the War Office, in the neighbourhood of every camp, and charged with the duty of ordering and preparing all the food eaten in it.  They would do it too far more economically and carefully than it is done at present, and the health and digestion of the troops will be all the better for it.  Daily Mail.

 

Fermanagh Times June 3rd, 1915.  LISNASKEA GUARDIANS.  FEVER HOSPITAL CROWDED.  THE CHAIRMAN AND RECRUITING.  Dr. Knox wrote and stating that the Fever Hospital was crowded with different forms of infectious diseases, so much so that the old kitchen had to be utilised for a diphtheria case.  How he asked in future will any emergency be met if the apartments for nurses were cut off the Boards?

The Chairman said his attention had been drawn that morning to a comment made by Mr. Trimble on what he said after the Board on that day fortnight.  He did not think Mr. Trimble had any right to make such a comment or to throw mud at him.  The mud, however, would not stick, but would only give him a gloss and show that he was a true Irishmen at heart.  He ( the Chairman) had said nothing to interfere with recruiting, but only that they wanted more men in Fermanagh to raise and mature their crops so that when the wings of Famine spread over the country as they surely would do, the it would be seen that the men who had laboured on the land and had gathered in the crop would be more honoured and more appreciated than those who had gone to bleed in Flanders.  They would be more appreciated by the Government and by the people, and by Mr. Trimble too, although everything Mr. Trimble did was against the Irish people.

 

Fermanagh Times June 3rd, 1915.  SUMMER TRIPS ON THE LAKE.  Notwithstanding the grim outlook of the war and the pathos of the general suffering it entails the Directors have thought it well to keep up this season also the running of the Lady of the Lake.  We must not, as a people, give way to gloom and depression.  That would ill-fit us for the desperate struggle in which we are involved.  To keep up the health is to sustain our physical vigour and a sound tone of thinking, and there is no pleasanter way of obtaining these much prized ends than by spending as many sunny days as possible in the open air sailing in and out amongst the lovely islands of Lough Erne.

The Lady of the Lake will, therefore, commence the service to Castle Caldwell, on Monday the 14th Inst…  We regret that the response of the public to the appeal made to them by the company was not too encouraging.  But probably now, when the Directors display so enterprising a spirit many of those who were disposed to hold back will change their views and send in a request for season tickets.  They are marvellously cheap.

 

Fermanagh Times June 3rd, 1915.  THE REAL CULPRITS.  The Daily Mail has been attributing a good deal of our lack of high explosives to Lord Kitchener.  Now we have a great deal of traditional admiration for that gentleman.  He is a great soldier.  As an organiser he is supposed to be unsurpassed.  We do not know whether he has taken upon himself more than he can fulfil or on what other shoulders blame should be located.  The plain, bald fact is that our men have suffered terribly and our position has been much weakened for want of a proper kind of shell for which Sir John French has been writing time and again.  Now the  Mail is a shrewd paper with ample resources of information, and if it is honestly satisfied that this dire and most calamitous shortage is the fault of Lord Kitchener it was its duty to speak out plainly and boldly.  This is no time for mealy-mouthedness.  Men and their reputations must not be considered for a moment, when the country is in danger.  We have been greatly impressed by the logic of the Mail, by the irresistible logic of all the circumstances of the situation.  In attacking Lord Kitchener the Mail knew it was assailing a popular hero, and that in these sentimental times a great deal of venom against itself would be evoked.  We do not see that it had anything to gain by adopting the course it did.  The motive and action would seem to us to be patriotic.

 

Fermanagh Times June 3rd, 1915.  DEATHS.  ELLIOTT – May 27th, at the residence of his son-in-law, Moses Maguire, Cashel, James Elliott, aged 77 years.

TYDD.  On the 24th of May, at the Rectory, Inver, Co., Donegal, Louisa Leslie Tydd, wife of the Rev. A. P. L. Tydd and eldest daughter of the Rev. W. Steel, D. D. late Headmaster of Portora Royal School.

 

Fermanagh Times June 3rd, 1915.  WANTED.  Henry Lyons & Company Ltd.  Sligo, require immediately several first class COAT MAKERS.  Society wages.  Healthy and well ventilated work rooms.  Good prospects for suitable men.

RAILWAYMEN – Steady Men wanted as Porters at Buchanan Street Goods Station, Glasgow.  Wages to start, including war bonus, 25 shillings per week.  Apply Mr. Cooper, Goods Superintendent.

WANTED an Apprentice (Protestant) to the Hardware and Grocery.  Good opening for smart youth.  Apply 3157, this office.

 

Fermanagh Times June 3rd, 1915.  LOCAL MILITARY NEWS.  The recruiting party of the 11th ( Service) Battalion Inniskilling Fusiliers under Lt.  William Knight, which has been in this district for the past fortnight concluded their tour on Saturday.  Altogether about 100 men were attested by Lt. Knight and so pleased were the authorities with the admirable work done by him and his men that they granted them five days’ leave.

Pettigo was the most responsive town visited for here Lieutenant Knight secure 24 men.  Lisbellaw came next with 15 men.  It may be mentioned that we understand that other recruiting parties visited Pettigo without success.

On Friday the party in visited the Ballyconnell.  They were most heartily entertained by a number of ladies to an excellent repast in the Courthouse.  Afterwards a meeting was conducted on the steps of the Courthouse and addresses were given by General Tennyson, Colonel Rowe, and Rev. Mr. Rogers.  Later a smoking concert was held in the Markethouse where music was supplied by the band and the local ladies.  Lieutenant Knight spoke here, but it must be regretted that a certain section of the audience was of anti-recruitment sentiments and kept up a continual interruption.  “Where are Carson’s men?”  shouted one individual.  The attitude of the interrupters was such that it is only a pity they could not be individually identified and punished.  Next morning the band played selections through the streets and the Bank Manager distributed cigarettes among the men.

Official intelligence has been received by the parents of Private James Maguire, son of Francis Maguire, Roslea Road, Clones, and Private John McCormack, son of Thomas McCormack, Analore Street, Clones, that they have been killed in action at the front.  News has also reached Clones, but as yet no official confirmation is to hand of the death in action of Private John McElroy, Clones.

Mrs. Lynch, Dame Street, Enniskillen, has been notified by the War Office that her son Private James Lynch, 4th Battalion Royal Irish Regiment was killed in action on the 11th of May.

Lieutenant Edward Crawford, 3rd Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers attached to the Royal Irish Regiment, died on the 27th of May from gas poisoning received in recent fighting in Belgium.  Lieutenant Crawford was a son of the late Mr. Robert Crawford, D. L., of Stonewold, Ballyshannon, and was educated at Portora Royal School and Cheltenham College.  He had been invalided home with frostbite before Christmas and had only recently returned to the front.

We observe the names of two members of the same Fermanagh family, the sons of Mr. Hugh Crooke, Glenwinny, Cosbystown.  One of them Sergeant William H. Crook, 1st Battalion Inniskilling Fusiliers was killed, while his brother Private Montgomery Crooke, was wounded both on the same day, the 8th of May, at the Dardanelles.  It appears that Sergeant Crooke was sent out on a “listening patrol” with a few of his section, and one of his men got hit; he went over to bandage him and in doing so got hit himself, both of them dying in a short time.  About two hours before this Private Crook had got shot through the shoulder while another bullet passed through his coat, but without touching his skin.  He is now in hospital and progressing favourably.  Sergeant Crooke had served through the South African War, while both brothers had been in India for about eight years.  The sad news of the death of one and the wounding of the other has caused deep regret throughout the Cosbystown district where their family is well known and much respected and sincere sympathy is being extended to them in their loss.

 

Fermanagh Times June 3rd, 1915.  MR. W.  R.  WHYTES’S BROTHER KILLED.  Much sympathy will be felt in Enniskillen and district with Mr. W. R. Whyte, J.P., manager of the local branch of the Scottish Co-Operative Wholesale Society, in the loss he has sustained by the death of his brother, who was killed in France on Sunday the 23rd of May. Quarter Master Sergeant Whyte was in the Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders, Infantry Brigade, 51st Division, and was transferred to France about a fortnight before he met his death.  The Germans it appears, shelled the billets behind the trenches and it was while in one of these that Quartermaster Sergeant Whyte was struck.  He died the same day.  He was only 32 years of age and unmarried.

 

Fermanagh Times June 3rd, 1915.  SERGEANT MICHAEL O’LEARY, V.  C.  READS AN ACCOUNT OF HIS OWN DEATH.  A report having been widely circulated that O’Leary, V. C. was killed, the Sergeant himself removed any doubt as to his condition.  In a letter, dated May 29th, he writes “I have seen by today’s paper is that I have been killed in action.  No, I am still in the firing line, doing my bit for my King and country.  I trust God is not going to call me so soon until I have done a bit more for my country.  I came out of the last battle with only a few scratches, thank God.”

 

Fermanagh Times June 3rd, 1915.  THE THINGS PEOPLE WANT TO KNOW.  Are the only really active branches of the Catch–My–Pal Society in Fermanagh those in Kesh, Newtownbutler and Brookeborough?  Will the Enniskillen branch ever be revived?  What practical work is being done by the Churches in this country in the cause of temperance?

What response has there been by the public to the appeal made by the Enniskillen YMCA for funds to provide a reading and recreation rooms for our soldiers?

Is it true that soldiers in Enniskillen are to be provided with a dummy hand which will be kept constantly at the salute, owing to the fact that they have to perform that ceremony every 10 yards they walk through our streets in the afternoons?

 

Fermanagh Times June 3rd, 1915.  FELL OUT OF THE TRAIN AN ACCIDENT ON THE G.N.R.  A woman named Boylan, the wife of a solicitor, who was on her way from Ballyshannon to Londonderry on Tuesday night, accidentally fell out of the Great Northern Railway train between Fintona and Omagh with a child in her arms, the accident being caused through the carriage door having been opened.  The communication cord was pulled by another passenger, and the train brought to a standstill.  The woman, who was found sitting on the railway bank, escaped without injury, but the child was slightly injured.

 

Fermanagh Times June 3rd, 1915.  BELTURBET CASUALTIES.  Already a number of soldiers from the Belturbet District have laid down their lives in the great cause, and almost every day adds to the alleged list of casualties.  Mr. Ebenezer Fraser, coach builder, Belturbet, has been notified of the death of his son, Private E.  Fraser, of the Royal Irish Fusiliers and Mrs. Shellin, Bridge Street, Belturbet, has received a letter from her son, Private J.  Shellin, 1st Lancashire Fusiliers, stating that he is been wounded during the operations in the Dardanelles.  He is cheerful despite his wounds, and hopes to have another crack at “the Lusitania murderers soon.”  Private Fraser, who was a fine strapping lad of 19, was only about a month in France when he met his death.

 

Fermanagh Times June 3rd, 1915.  THERE ARE EIGHT MILLION MEN OF MILITARY AGE.  The appeal issued by the War Office for 300,000 men includes an analysis of the census figures of men between the ages of 18 and 39.  There are altogether 6,513,938 in England and Wales.  Scotland has 803,434 men, and Ireland 735,707 making a total of 8,053,079 men of fighting age in the United Kingdom.  Two million men of all ages are stated to be engaged in the manufacture of war munitions.

Fermanagh Herald June 5th. 1915.  THE DUBLIN FUSILIERS AND THE GAS ATTACK. Mr. G.  A Valentine Williams, the Special Correspondent of the Daily Mail says: – Private Frank O’Brien of the Dublin Fusiliers, one of the men gassed, whom I found convalescent in the “gas ward” of this casualty clearing station this afternoon gave me a dramatic account of his experience.  “I had my respirator on,” he said “but the gas came full at me the way I could not see or breathe. I went all weak.  We couldn’t hold the trench at all.  We had to fall back.  I was staggering down the road just strangling.”

“There was one of our police there.  He stopped me.  “Get back to your trench, he says, or I’ll shoot you.”  I was that weak by this that I went down there in the dust at his feet.  When he saw I was bad he leant down to me and though fair strangling as I was I just begged him to shoot me.  But he says I see how it is with you.  You’re a brave lad and we’ll get you to the ambulance.

Private O’Brien was not the only man that had prayed that day that his life might be ended.  For 4½ hours the Germans poured out dense fumes of their deadly gas, which, fanned by a brisk north-easterly breeze spread over an area of 6 miles beyond Ypres.  “It would have brought the tears to your eyes,” the doctors say, “to see these splendid men, great brawny fellows – many of them tearing at their throats, rending their tunics, screaming to us in hoarse, rattling voices to put them out of their misery.”

 

Impartial Reporter.  June 3 1915.  GAS-POISON WAR.  A 40 FEET WALL OF VAPOUR.  A correspondent near Ypres says: – Within 20 yards of me a score of gas patients are lying struggling for breath in a ward, the last batch of the several hundreds of victims sent down on Monday as the result of the great German gas attack.  Of these 17 are dead; the rest have been sent to the base.  It was in the half light of dawn on Monday morning that the Germans delivered their attack.  The men on the watch at the parapet saw what they first took to be smoke of fires rising at frequent intervals all along the German lines.  Almost before the men could warn their comrades, many of whom were asleep, the fumes were upon them in an immense wall of vapour 40 feet high.

 

Fermanagh Herald June 5th. 1915.  CLIFF FATALITY AT THE CAUSEWAY.  AN ENGLISH VISITOR FALLS 250 FEET.  The victim was Mr Fred Blackshew, aged about 34 years belonging to George Street Coventry.  Accompanied by three companions, the deceased drove from Portrush to see the Causeway arriving there about 3.00.  Two of the men went in by the toll-gate but Blackshew and Bush, the fourth, decided to walk along the cliff head.  Shortly afterwards a local resident named James Martin, and his wife were returning home from gathering seaweed, and they were horrified to find Mr. Blackshew lying on the footpath at the bottom of the amphitheatre cliff, from the top of which he had fallen, a distance of about 250 feet.  The injured man was carried to Mr. Frank Kane’s hotel, but notwithstanding all that medical skill could do he never regained consciousness and passed away about 1.00 yesterday morning.

 

Fermanagh Herald June 5th. 1915.  FERMANAGH BRAVERY RECOGNIZED.  The Trustees of the Carnegie Hero Fund have awarded certificates and the sum of £5.00 to Mr. and Mrs. Cullen, Kesh, in recognition of their prompt and plucky action in saving from drowning last December William Snow and Thomas McCabe.  These two men were crossing to Bow Island in a boat with William Gibson.  The boat overturned and hearing cries for help Mr. and Mrs. Cullen, who are herds on Bow Island went in tempestuous weather to their assistance, Gibson being drowned.  The Cullens are in poor circumstances and have 12 children.

Fermanagh Herald June 5th. 1915.  WAR CASUALTIES. We regret to announce the death in action of Private Berty Emmet, Strand Street, Enniskillen.  Deceased was attached to the 2nd Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and was stationed at Dover with his regiment when the war broke out.  Two of his brothers, Sergeant Emmet and Private  Emmett are at present serving in the Dardanelles.

Official intelligence has been received by the parents of Private James Maguire, son of Francis Maguire, Roslea Road, Clones, and Private John McCormack, son of Thomas McCormack, Analore Street, Clones, that they have been killed in action at the front.  News has also reached Clones, and as yet no official communication is to hand, of the death in action of Private John McElroy, Clones.

Fermanagh Herald June 5th. 1915.  WOUNDED ENNISKILLEN MEN.  Private Frank Fitzpatrick, Inniskilling Fusiliers, writing from St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, to his sister in Enniskillen, says “as for myself I could not be doing better, though I thought I would never see you again.  I will never forget it during my life.”  He then describes an engagement in which he took part, and says he was hit, in both feet and on the left hand, and got a slight wound on the side.  He lay on the ground the whole night, the bullets cutting his trousers and his pack “I had,” he adds, “my mind made up for death.  I tried to crawl but it was no good.  There was a poor fellow moaning beside me, and the bullets hit a box of matches in his pocket, and he went on fire, and I could do nothing for him.  It nearly broke my heart I thought I would have bled to death, but thank God and his Blessed Mother for it.  The priest gave me absolution that evening.  He started to cry, but he told us to fight for all we were worth, and so we did.  We get everything one could ask for in this hospital.”

 

Fermanagh Herald June 5th. 1915.  THE PASSING OF A GREAT GOVERNMENT.  After 9 ½ years of glorious crowded life, the great Liberal Government which came into office in December 1905, has ceased to be.  The end has not come the way Liberals we have wished.  It came stealthily, silently, ingloriously.  A blast of war’s mephitic breath killed in a night a government that had emerged scathless for many a furious storm.  But they can take pride in the reflection that the government which is just passed away has to its credit a noble record of accomplished work, and that it has left a deep and an enduring mark on the history of our time.

 

Fermanagh Times June 10th, 1915.  DESTROYING ZEPPELINS.  A DARING FEAT.  AIRMAN AWARDED THE V. C.  News was received this morning of two daring attacks by British naval aviators on enemy airships, which resulted in the destruction of a Zeppelin  and the setting on fire of an airship hangar.  For daring and skill the destruction of the Zeppelin which was accomplished by one naval airman alone and unassisted, can rarely, if ever, have been excelled in the annals of British flying.  When over the German lines between Bruges and Ghent early this morning the airman encountered a German Zeppelin.  Rising above it he reached a certain height, and then swooping down upon the aircraft launched a bomb which fell true to its aim, and pierced the envelope of the dirigible.  A loud explosion followed, and the Zeppelin fell crippled to the ground, a mass of smoke and flame.  The force of the explosion, however, with the consequent disturbance of the atmosphere, caught the aeroplane as it was passing (its mission accomplished) over the wrecked dirigible.  The machine was travelling at a very rapid pace, and as the result of the upward blast of air was forced to loop the loop.  During this manoeuvre petrol escape from the rear tank of the aeroplane, and it was compelled to come down within the German lines.  With extraordinary daring and quickness, however, he managed to refill the empty tank from reserve tins he had with him, and then resuming his seat in the craft he soared up again and returned safely and unhurt to the British lines.

(Ed. Reginald Alexander John WARNEFORD. “The KING has been graciously pleased to approve of the grant of the Victoria Cross to Flight Sub-Lieutenant Reginald Alexander John Warneford, Royal Naval Air Service, for the conspicuous act of bravery specified below: —

For most conspicuous bravery on the 7th June, 1915, when he attacked and, single-handed, completely destroyed a Zeppelin in mid-air. This brilliant achievement was accomplished after chasing the’ Zeppelin from the coast of Flanders to Ghent, where he succeeded in dropping his bombs on to it from a height of only one or two hundred feet. One of these bombs caused a terrific explosion which set the Zeppelin on fire from end to end, but at the there for the same time overturned his Aeroplane and stopped the engine. In spite of this he succeeded in landing safely in hostile country, and after 15 minutes started his engine and returned to his base without damage.” (London Gazette – 10 June 1915).

 

Fermanagh Times June 10th, 1915.  FROM THE FRONT TO CLONELLY.  SILENT SUE.  Mr. Harry Hart is a stepson of Mr. Folliott Barton, J. P., Clonelly.  A medical student in Australia he was a member of the University Scouts and came to this country in September last.  In April he went to London and joined King Edward’s Horse one of the first in Pettigo District to join the colours.  Within six days of joining he was sent to the front.  He has since been in France and seen a great deal of active service.  He writes frequently to his mother, Mrs. Barton, and judging by the tone of his letters he is full of the splendid Colonial spirit we have all learned nowadays to greatly value.  He is certainly not downhearted and the grit he exhibits is a grander and more patent element in the British trenches than the cement and steel with which the Germans fortify theirs.  Here is one of his latest communications from the front.

  1. E. H., A. S., About 3rd of June. My Dear Mother, we shifted again last night, but not into the trenches only to new billets on a new part of the line, where they say the trenches are much more comfortable. I have just been reading an account of the trenches by some academic bespectacled correspondent.  My advice to him, whoever he may be, is to come and have a look at one, then I guess he won’t feel like waxing poetic over the beauty of the night and the brilliance of the star shells.  The new billets are a trifle exciting, the German guns drop a few shells round here now and again, don’t know why they do it, we’re not doing anything to them.  Now, all we want is sleep and they try and stop us from getting it by kicking up as much row as they can.  I think I forgot to tell you of a friend we made while in the trenches; we called her “Silent Sue”, she is one of our big guns.  She has a tremendous range, but it was only when the wind was with her that we could hear her report though we could see the shell passing over our heads and burst in the German lines with a terrific bang.  It was awfully soothing to hear her quiet purr just after a Germans shell had burst close to you, and to know that she had a straight eye behind her.  Thank God she wasn’t shooting the opposite direction.  I am sending you home the five franc note I got as my first pay on active service, it will do as a curiosity to stick in the collection of notes.  It is a week’s pay worth 4s 2d, so you see the British Tommy depending on his pay out here is well paid.  I might scrape of a few other things for the museum for instance my valise is well marked with shrapnel holes.  Love to all, Harry.

 

Impartial Reporter.  June 10 1915.  A BREEZY LETTER. SIDELIGHTS ON THE CAMPAIGN.  The following breezy letter from the Dardanelles has been received by a gentleman in Dublin whose brother is a naval officer.  The Army is safely landed and are steadily battering its way to Constantinople.  By Jove if you had seen those Australians shining up the hills, (cliffs in places) with the bayonet alone, and ripping up the Turks, (those who stayed), it would have done your heart good. The enemy are most stubborn and are well led.  We have a few prisoners on board, and the officers among them are well dressed and hard looking.  The men are mostly scaly-wags and very badly fitted out.  Their foot gear is poor being, either rope-soled boots or Turkish slippers.  Their rifles are of the very latest German pattern, except in the case of Greeks and Arabs pressed in to fight and they have only old Lee Enfields taking German ammunition.  Von Sanders is in command of their whole army on the peninsula and he is a good hand and very ruthless.  He has issued an order that no prisoners are to be taken.  The worst enemy we have got to fight against are the snipers, whose name is legion, and his bravery is magnificent.  Many of them have been found dug in holes with ammunition and provisions for six weeks!  One man had painted himself green all over, and had branches of trees round him and it took a long time to catch him.  His end was swift.

 

Impartial Reporter.  June 10 1915.  ROLL OF HONOUR.  CROOKE.  Killed in action, May 5, 1915, at Gallipoli Peninsula, Dardanelles, Sergeant W.  H.  Crooke, 1st Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, and dearly loved son of H. Crooke, Glenwhinney, Derrygonnelly.

 

Impartial Reporter.  June 10 1915.  WORK FOR PRISONERS.  The War Office’s decision to make use of prisoners of war for working on the land has been welcomed with general approval throughout the country. Farmers are already suffering badly from lack of labour, and have been seriously wondering how their various crops are to be harvested at all if the rural exodus to the trenches continues. The German military authorities have from the first pursued the wise policy of getting all the work they can out of their prisoners and it is stated on good authority that the vast majority of the prisoners themselves infinitely prefer the healthy life of a labourer in the land to lounging about in the concentration camps.  He also fully appreciates the advantages of being enabled to earn a little money to purchase the small luxuries which their canteen offers.  Doubtless our German prisoners will view the matter in the same light.  Whatever his many vices, the Teuton is not constitutionally a loafer and he outvies the proverbial Scott in his appreciation of the bawbees.  There will no doubt be many efforts to escape made by the prisoners in the early stages of the experiment.  There should however be little anxiety as to the ultimate result of such attempts.  It is difficult enough for loyal British citizens to leave the country at the present time, and for an alien enemy the task is practically an impossibility.

 

Impartial Reporter.  June 10 1915.  THE GERMANS RAN BEFORE INNISKILLING BAYONETS.  A CHURCHILL MAN’S AWFUL EXPERIENCE.  FOUR DAYS WOUNDED ON THE BATTLEFIELD.  Sergeant James Hassard, one of two sons of Mr. Hugh Hassard, Whiterock, Churchhill, County Fermanagh, serving in France in a letter home to his parents gives an account of a night encounter with the Huns and how after he was wounded lay helpless on the battlefield for over four days till found by Indian stretcher bearers.  Sergeant Hassard is in of the 2nd Inniskillings, and says that on Saturday, May 15, the Battalion got the order to take the first line of German trenches at all costs.  The attack was made by night and they moved off at 10.30 p.m.  We moved out in the open in front of our own trenches and took up the position in three lines.  I was in the front line and at 10.30 p.m. we got the order: ‘fixed bayonets.’  ‘Advance’ an order which every man seemed eager for.  We had about 350 yards to go till we reached the Huns’ trenches. No doubt, they did let us have it with machine gun and rifle and also shell fire.  All of a sudden as we were about 20 yards from the trench it stopped then we rushed, but all the Germans were gone.  So we got the position quite easily.  Then the Germans started and shelled us for all they were worth.  It must have been a about 11.45 p.m. that I got hit.  I was struck by the nose of a shell and I thought it was the Kaiser that hit me with a sledgehammer.  On that spot I fell and there I lay till early on Thursday morning when four Indians carried me to the dressing station, and O, what a relief it was!  It had rained nearly all the time but I was in no way  downhearted as I knew God would send somebody to take me to safety.

 

Fermanagh Herald June 12th. 1915.  COMING VICTORY IN THE DARDANELLES SAYS MR. CHURCHILL.  Addressing a non-party meeting of his constituents at Dundee, Mr. Winston Churchill spoke in a very optimistic vein.  In a reference to the Dardanelles he said we were separated only a few miles from a victory such as this war had not yet seen.  Reviewing the work of the late Liberal Government, Mr. Churchill paid a great tribute to Lord Haldane, than whom, he said, no more sincere patriot had ever served the Crown.  He added that he was sure that conscription was not necessary, and referring to the new national government he said that what the nation required of it was action.

 

Fermanagh Times June 17th, 1915.  MOTOR ACCIDENT AT CLONES.  On Sunday a Gaelic football match was held at Clones, and a large number of people came to the town by motors and bicycles.  A number of cyclists were riding abreast of from the direction of Newtownbutler, and a motor was approaching from behind.  One of the cyclists named John Murphy aged 27 of Knocknacreeve, Kinawley, Co., Fermanagh, in attempting to get out of the way of the motor, was knocked down and before the car could be stopped it caught him and dragged him along for some distance.  He sustained rather serious injuries to the head, ribs, and legs, and was at once conveyed in the car to Clones Infirmary, and medically attended to.

 

Fermanagh Times June 17th, 1915.  THE CAT AND MOUSE ACT.  Mr. Sheehy Skeffington who was sentenced to six months imprisonment on Wednesday last under the Defence of the Realm Act for an anti-recruiting speech at Beresford Place, was released from Mountjoy Prison on Tuesday evening.  Mr. Skeffington had gone on hunger strike from the date of his committal.

 

Fermanagh Times June 17th, 1915.  FIRE AT BUNDORAN JUNCTION.  Bernard McManus, signalman at the station, discovered that the fire had broken out in two small houses immediately behind the main building about midnight on Thursday last.  One of these contained the plants for generating the Acetylene Gas used on the premises, and the other was a tool and lumber room.  All possible efforts were made by Mr. George Bell, stationmaster, and other willing workers to extinguish the flames, but owing to the inflammable nature of the articles in the houses – coal, paints, oils, etc.  all they could do was to confine the fire to the place of the outbreak.  The damage is estimated at over 100 pounds.  The Trillick Constabulary investigated the occurrences, but could find no clue as to the origin of the fire.

 

Fermanagh Times June 17th, 1915.  OUTRAGE AT AUGHER.  A dastardly act was perpetrated by some evilly-disposed individuals at Augher on the occasion of the Methodist Excursion last week.  A large number of cyclists accompanied the party from Fivemiletown and Brookeborough and store their bicycles in Mr. Johnson’s yard.  And on going for them in the evening it was discovered that the tyres on 35 of them had been hacked and cut up by some sharp instrument in an atrocious manner, patches being actually cut out of tyres and tubes in some instances, leaving the machines quite unfit for use.  The matter was officially reported to the police and it is likely more will be heard of it.

 

Fermanagh Times June 17th, 1915.  CLONES MAN GASSED.  Private Francis Cooke, Royal Irish Fusiliers, a native of Clones, is in hospital in France in a very serious condition from the effects of having inhaled the poisonous gas fumes of the Germans in a recent engagement.

 

Fermanagh Times June 17th, 1915.  WAR NEWS.  Mrs. John Boyle, Maguiresbridge, has received for their information from the War Office to the effect that her son, Lance-Corporal E.  Boyle, 1st Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, previously reported wounded, has died from the effect of his wounds, received in action in the Dardanelles on 14th of May.  Lance-Corporal Boyle was 24 years of age and had eight years of service in the Inniskillings.

Mrs. Sarah Camping, Queen Street, Enniskillen, has, we are informed, received word that her brother-in-law, Private Arnold Campling, Royal Enniskillen Fusiliers has been killed in action in the Dardanelles.  Deceased was well known in Enniskillen before joining the army.  When his body was picked up a postcard addressed to Mrs. Campling was found in one of his pockets.  The Captain under whom he served has written, paying a high tribute to the deceased fine soldierly qualities.

Mrs. Shaw, New Road, Enniskillen, has received a letter from the front informing her of the circumstances of her husband’s death in action. The letter which was written by Sergeant F.  Hodd, “C” Company Royal Irish Fusiliers, contains the following: – “I was the next man to him at the time he was killed.  It was on the 25th of April, where we were attacking the Germans, and we were under a very heavy fire, when he was hit. The bullet passed through his forehead death being instantaneous.  I can vouch for this, for as soon as he was hit I went to render any assistance I could, but he was dead.  I have known your husband since he came out here, and I can say that he was a man of whom his country should be very proud as he was absolutely fearless, and every man in “C” company with myself, join in sending our sympathy to you.

With the departure of the 12th battalion Enniskillen Barracks is now empty.  They have gone to Finner Camp, Bundoran on Wednesday last.  The Battalion, which is now 800 strong has been stationed in Enniskillen since its inauguration some months ago.  They left in two detachments, one by special train at 10.20 o’clock and the other by a special at 11.00 and on their march through the town from the Main Barrack to the Railway Station, each detachment was headed by the Battalion’s fife and drum band.  Although hastily formed they nevertheless were a surprisingly competent body of musicians.

Will the resolution passed by the Fermanagh Recruiting Committee in regard to opening the Ulster Division to all denominations help or retard enlistment for that military body?

What did Mr. W.  J.  Brown really mean when at the annual meeting of the Enniskillen Board of Guardians he declared that the war had been caused by the idolatry of the nations professing Christianity?

 

Fermanagh Times June 17th, 1915.  The things people wish to know.  Will grocers throughout Fermanagh reduce the price of flour now that there has been such a substantial fall in the price of wheat?  And if not why not?

How can butchers in Lisnaskea and other towns sell beef from 20 to 25 per cent cheaper than the butchers in Enniskillen and still make a respectable prophet?

Why he is Fivemiletown so far behind other places in not having a weekly half holiday, a privilege which is now enjoyed by most towns and villages in Ulster?

 

Fermanagh Times June 17th, 1915.  LISNASKEA GUARDIANS.  DEATH OF A CHILD.  EXPLANATION BY NURSE.  The Master, Mister P. Lunny, reported that an inmate named Rose Lowry give birth to a child on the 6th inst. The child died about 5 ½ hours after birth without having been baptised.  The coroner was not communicated with.  The Chairman said it was a horrible state of affairs to let a child die without having been baptised.  Mister T. Molloy said this child may have received a private baptism which has the same spiritual effect when the circumstances of the case render it necessary.  Mr. Burns said it was a very serious matter.  The chairman stated that it was a terrible state of affairs in the 20th century.  Miss McCusker, temporary nurse, was brought before the Board, and when the Master’s report had been read for her, she stated that both the mother and the child were healthy and not very ill.  The child was not a delicate child.  The maid and herself were up with the mother and child about 4.45 o’clock, and at that time they were all right.  She was back again about 5.00, and the mother in the meantime had fallen asleep, and the child might have been too near the mother’s breast and got smothered.  It was not quite dead at the time, and she with the assistance of Nurse Bogue gave it a private baptism and the child died.  The chairman thanked Nurse McCusker and said her explanation was very satisfactory.

 

Fermanagh Times June 17th, 1915.  THE AUSTRIAN EMPEROR IN DOTAGE.  A correspondent of a Paris journal, who has recently passed through Austria, says the aged Emperor is now completely in his dotage.  His present state is the result of shock.  During his last visit to a hospital, he was speaking a few kind words to the wounded soldiers, when he saw in one of the beds a major who used to be a member of his household.  He was a terrible sight.  Both legs and both arms had been amputated.  Francis Joseph was horrified.  Was there anything he could do, he asked, and promised to grant any request the poor fellow liked to make.  The major said he had one request to make, and hoped it would be granted.  Asked to name it, he replied – “Have me shot.”  The Emperor, it is said, cried like a child and fainted.  He has never been the same man since.

 

Fermanagh Times June 17th, 1915.  THERE HAS BEEN AN 8 SHILLINGS DROP IN THE PRICE OF WHEAT.  The world abundance is the cause of reduced prices one of the largest dealers in London informed the Daily Mail representative that the drop was the natural result of a fall in the prices in the United States, which he said, govern the world prices.

 

Fermanagh Times June 17th, 1915.  KILLING OUR MEN BY COTTON.  Before this war most people imagined the cotton was used principally for the manufacturers’ of calico and cotton fabrics in Lancashire or the bandaging of wounds in hospitals.  They are gradually coming to understand that cotton is the chief ingredient in modern gunpowder and that the substance with which men are killed in the war of today, the explosive which propels the bullet from the rifle and a high explosive shell from the field gun, is not, as in Napoleon’s time made of charcoal, saltpetre, and sulphur.  It is made chiefly of cotton.  To convert cotton into an explosive it is dipped in nitric acid, washed and dried.  The resultant is gun–cotton.  Unless extreme care is taken in its manufacture, and unless the cotton is pure and clean, there is an early end of the explosives factory and all employed in it.  When properly made, however, it is stable and trustworthy.  The British powder, cordite, his 2/3 composed of gun – cotton and the other third of various ingredients.  The German and Austrian powders are much the same.  Without gun-cotton the German guns and rifles would be silenced.

 

Impartial Reporter.  June 17 1915.  ODDS AND ENDS.  Eighty-three per cent of the Presbyterian ministers in Ireland are total abstainers.  The aged and infirm ministers of the Irish Presbyterian Church can now receive at least £100 a year

The acreage under wheat in Canada is nearly 15 per cent greater than in 1914 owing to the patriotic effort to produce a war crop.

The price of bread has been reduced in Enniskillen by one farthing for the 2lb loaf.

Lady postmen are now going the rounds at Epsom to relieve the men

Lunacy has increased in Westmeath owing to the war to the extent of 10 over the corresponding period of last year.  Some former and older patients say they are afraid of conscription.

School holidays are being granted much before the usual time in Wrexham to allow the children to gather the strawberry crops as the men are in the army.

The Archbishop of Malta has ordered a cessation of bell ringing in the Churches of the Valetta District so as not to disturb the wounded from the Dardanelles.  The Governor has thanked his Grace.  Those who know of Malta’s many church bells will appreciate the Archbishop’s thoughtfulness.

Three hundred butchers in Glasgow have been obliged to close their shops owing to unprofitable trading and the remainder close during dinner hour.  Beef brought £5 14 shillings per hundredweight liveweight last week, or nine shillings more than the famine rates of 40 years ago.

 

Impartial Reporter.  June 17 1915.  INNISKILLINGS REFUSE QUARTER.  GERMANS AND THE BAYONET.  Private John Milligan, Strabane who belongs to the 2nd Battalion Royal Inniskillings writing to a friend from a hospital in Wales confirms the truth of the report that the Germans do not appreciate bayonet charges.  In the engagement in which he was wounded the Inniskillings took some trenches at the point of the bayonet, and so terrific was the slaughter the Germans on their knees appealed for mercy, and begged to be taken prisoner, but the gallant Inniskillings, shouting “Revenge for the Lusitania,” refused to give any quarter, and drove home their charge with decisive effect.  Private Milligan had a narrow escape, and his clothes and straps were torn into ribbons.  He has been at the front since November last and has seen a great deal of fighting.

 

Impartial Reporter.  June 17 1915.  THE 12TH INNISKILLINGS LEAVE FOR FINNER CAMP.  MILITARY AND THE DRINK TRAFFIC. SHEBEENING CARRIED ON.  Yesterday Wednesday morning the 12th Inniskillings under the command of Colonel Leslie,  left Enniskillen.  There were about 800 men on parade, and they went to the station in two parties about 10.00 a.m. to journey to Ballyshannon by two special trains and from there march to Finner Camp.  The battalion has now a corps of drums and the fifes playing the “The girl I left behind me,” “Red, White, and Blue” and other patriotic airs headed the battalion as it marched through the streets.  The drums have been lent by the Enniskillen Unionist flute band and this kind action has been much appreciated by the battalion.

 

Though there have been restrictions as to the sale of liquor to the troops quartered in Enniskillen, certain individuals have evaded by order and in isolated cases men during the day have been set drunk.  This state of affairs has given considerable trouble to the military authorities and caused the departure of the old battalion for it had been intended to keep permanently in Enniskillen or one or perhaps two companies.  Shebeening has been prevalent, and it is notorious that women in some of the houses in Queen Street and this neighbourhood reaped a rich harvest from the sale of beer and cheap whisky which had the effect of converting quiet and peaceful men into troublesome characters. Complaint was made to the police authorities but this had no deterrent effect on the evil traffic.  To show the extent to which some people would go, drink was sold openly in the public street at 3.00 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon!

Regret at the departure of the battalion is general – and it is due to the practice mentioned above that has caused the removal of every man and will delay the return – if the battalion do return under the circumstances that have prevailed in Enniskillen.

 

Impartial Reporter.  June 17 1915.  DEATHS IN ACTION.  Mrs John Boyle, Maguiresbridge has received further information from the War Office to the effect that her son Lance Cpl. E.  Boyle, 1st Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers previously reported wounded, has died from the effects of his wounds received in action in the Dardanelles on the 14th of May.  Lance Corporal Boyle was 24 years of age, and had eight years’ service in the Inniskillings.

Private Francis Harren and Ernest Campling, 1st Battalion Royal Inniskillings are reported killed at the Dardanelles.  Both belong to Enniskillen.

News has been received in Belturbet that Private John McPartland, Inniskilling Fusiliers, only son of Mr. P.  McPartland, Deanery Street, Belturbet has been killed in action.

 

Fermanagh Times June 24th, 1915.  LISBELLAW PETTY SESSIONS.  Terence Conlon, Toneyglass, was summoned by Sergeant Hughes for having been drunk in the Roman Catholic Church, Tempo on the evening of the 27th of May.  The Sergeant said that defendant kept speaking and muttering during prayers, and did not seem to know our realise where he was.  Witness went and sat beside him, but he started to mutter again and witness had to take him out by linking him to the door, where defendant fell and was taken to the barrack.  A fine of 10 shillings and 1s 6d costs or in default a week in prison was ordered.

 

Fermanagh Times June 24th, 1915.  RECRUITING IN DONEGAL.  THE COUNTIES UNPLEASANT PRE-EMINENCE.  His Honour Judge Cooke, K.  C. at the opening of Lifford Crown Sessions on Friday said “You must know that nothing stands between you and your property but the British Fleet to prevent the Germans taken possession of Donegal.  The only reason I mention this is the Donegal has the unpleasant pre-eminence of being the county in Ireland which up to the present from all sections has returned the fewest number of recruits. Of 21,000 men of recruitable age in the county less than 500 have joined the colours since the commencement of the war.  The proportion of recruits to the population is only about a quarter to the proportion in Ireland as a whole. The fact is said that there are 8,500 Nationalist Volunteers and 3,000 Ulster Volunteers in the county of Donegal and of those of military age there have been only 500 recruits. It is up to you to make an effort to induce your sons and labourers of military age to join the colours in defence of their country.

 

Fermanagh Times June 24th, 1915.  FERMANAGH COUNTY COUNCIL.  Mr. R. L. White reported that with reference to the motor licence duty in county Fermanagh the amount at present collected for the year was £261 12 shillings as compared with the sum of £343 4s 6d for 1914 which meant a deficit of at £81 12 shillings.  The number of motorists who paid duty in 1914 was 127. The number paid for the year was 89, showing that at least 38 motor owners in the county have not yet paid duty for the year 1915 Mr. E. M. Archdale said the more of this money that was collected the more that comes back to the county to be utilised for the good of the county. It was a great shame that a lot of motor owners in the county had not yet paid their duty.  There were 89 motor owners short this year, notwithstanding the fact that there were a lot more motors in the county.  He supposed are there would be 50 more in the county instead of 89 short.  He proposed that Mr. White be directed to be to take legal proceedings against motor owners in this county who have failed to pay their motor licence for the year 1915.

 

Fermanagh Times June 24th, 1915.  ENNISKILLEN WORKHOUSE.  The ratepayers of the union will be very much interested indeed in the fact that Enniskillen Workhouse has just now the smallest number of inmates recorded on its books since at any rate 1887.  It is probable that never before have the staff had to administer relief to so few paupers as 97 – the full figure on the books on Tuesday last.  We are not prepared to analyse the cause of this decrease, but we fully welcome it.  The poor we will have always with us, but paupers helpless and homeless would not be the burden they are on the working and self-reliant public were it not for the encouragement they receive in these big demoralising institutions.

 

Fermanagh Times June 24th, 1915.  ANOTHER WAR LOAN.  The Chancellor of the Exchequer said that in spite of the late war loan with other methods of borrowing the time had come when it was necessary for a further loan to be asked for. They proposed that the war loan should be issued at par and should carry interest at 4 ½ per cent.  They proposed also that the lender should be entitled to have his money back by 1945.  It must be borne in mind that the State required not a few millions but many hundreds of millions.

 

Fermanagh Times June 24th, 1915.  THE FESTUBERT BATTLE AND THE CHARGE BY THE INNISKILLINGS.  A graphic description of the charge of the 2nd Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers at Festubert on the 16th ult. is given by Private R.  Thornton.  Thornton escaped with a bullet wound in his thigh, and in the course of his letter he says:- “I thank God  that I got off so well, as many a gallant Inniskilling fell in that charge never to rise.  I shall never forget that day or rather night.  We were in the frontline trenches under heavy shell and rifle fire.  During the week before and on Saturday afternoon we had a lecture from a company officer as to the coming advance.  After that some of the boys had a sleep.  Then we had tea about 5.00. All the conversation was about the charge, and the boys were as jolly and light-hearted as if it was play, saying what they would give the Germans.  At 8.30 p.m. we went to our trenches, and an hour later we were ordered over the parapet and lay in front of the trench on till 11.30, when we got the order to advance.  We started very slowly so as not to let the Germans know, but had only gone 100 yards when the enemy sent off rockets, but I think they were so much surprised they could hardly think it was us.  They then sent up hundreds, and made the night as clear as day.  They could see us quite plainly, and opened a terrific shell, rifle and machine gun fire.  We began to rush amid this shower of hail and shrapnel, the men falling in dozens.  The King’s Royal Rifles were luckier than we were, meeting with very little opposition.  They gained their first line and started for the second.  The Worcesters, who were beside us, could not advance at all.  Our fellows, shouting and yelling rushed on, but were pushed back.  They came a second time, and by this time we were all mad and angry at our losses, and thinking of nothing rushed the first line of the enemy with bomb and bayonet.  As soon as we gained the first line we rushed off to the second, and had a good deal of fighting to get them out of the second trench.  At one time half the trench was full of Germans and us but we soon cleared it.  After that we started to prepare for a counterattack, but none came during our stay in the trench, and on Sunday night we were relieved.  When we were coming down out of the trenches along the supporting trench it was thick with dead and wounded.  Our stretcher bearers when carrying the wounded back were killed, and the wounded buried alive with the trenches being blown in on top of them.

 

Fermanagh Times June 24th, 1915.  RECRUITING IN FERMANAGH.  A LADIES COMMITTEE IS APPOINTED.  That a meeting of the Joint Fermanagh Recruiting Committee the following ladies were appointed to act on a ladies Committee representing the different districts of the County: – Mrs. E M. Archdale, Riversdale; Mrs. A Collum, Bellevue; Mrs. Archdale, Castle Archdale; Miss Reade, Castletown; Mrs. D’Arcy Irvine, Castle Irvine; Mrs. Irvine, Killadeas; Mrs. Wray, Enniskillen; Mrs. Patten, Ederney; Mrs. Donnelly, Enniskillen; Miss Morris, do; Miss R.  Barton, Waterfoot; Mrs. Stack, Tubrid; Mrs. Naylor,  Belleek Rectory; Mrs. Packenham, Carrickreagh House; Mrs. Mulhern, Enniskillen; Miss Coll; Mrs. Betty, do; Mrs. W.  P.  Maguire, do; Lady Teresa Corry, Castlecoole, Mrs. W.  H.  West, Mullaghmeen, Mrs. W.  Maguire, Ederney; Miss Lee, Irvinestown; Mrs. Cleary, Belleek; Miss Cleary, do; Mrs. Porter–Porter, Belleisle; Miss Porter, do; Mrs. Falls, do; Mrs. Maguire, Munville; Miss Gavin, Lisnaskea; Miss O’Donnell, Brookeborough; Mrs. Taylor, do; Lady Brooke, Colebrooke; Mrs. Richardson, Lisbellaw; Mrs. James Eadie, Lisbellaw;  Miss Ida Henderson, do; Mrs. Crozier, Blacklion; Mrs. Smith, Derrygonnelly; Miss Johnston, Belleek; Miss Arnold, Lisnaskea and Miss King, Enniskillen.

 

Fermanagh Times June 24th, 1915.  THE NATIONAL EGG COLLECTION. CONTRIBUTIONS FROM MAGHERACULMONEY PARISH (KESH).  The parish of Magheraculmoney has so far had done splendidly in connection with the National Egg Collection having already sent the truly gratifying number of 191 dozen (2,292) eggs for the use of our wounded soldiers and sailors.  The first week 42½ dozen were sent, the second week 44½ dozen, and last week the magnificent contribution of 104 dozen was made by the parishioners who also give a sum of £1-13 shillings for the same purpose.

 

Fermanagh Times June 24th, 1915. A PRIEST’S EXTRAORDINARY PROTEST.  THE BURIAL OF LUSITANIA VICTIMS.  Several bodies have been picked up off the Aran Islands, County Galway which is supposed to be those of victims of the Lusitania outrage.  One was that of a lady clothed in expensive garments, and with a wristlet watch.  At the Galway Board of Guardians meeting on Wednesday, Mr. O’Flaherty, R. O., wrote stating that he had the bodies interned in Killeany Graveyard, as far from the other burial ground as space would permit.  The R.O. in his report, added: -Father, Farragher, P. P., says I had no right to bury the bodies in consecrated ground, that he would have to write to the Bishop, and that probably the bodies would have to be exhumed.  I wrote to Father Farragher that I did not know to what denomination they belonged, that I had no other place to bury them in, and an I saw Protestants buried in Inishene Graveyard, and at the new cemetery in Galway.  Mr. Cooke said these unfortunate victims of the Lusitania were human beings, and why should they not be interned as such?  (Hear, hear.)  The Board expressed concurrence with the action of the R. O.

 

Impartial Reporter.  June 24 1915.  EMIGRATION AND CONSCRIPTION.  FARMER’S SONS RUN AWAY.  The rumour that certain to influences are at work to induce young Irishman to emigrate has caused considerable discussion, and correspondents in different parts of the South and West of Ireland give evidence of how general has been the rush of emigration within the past few weeks.  It is said that these young men, mostly farmers’ sons, are running away to avoid military service, and they are described by those who have travelled across the Atlantic with them as being well supplied with money.  These young men belonged to the type associated with Mr. Redmond’s volunteers.  They cry for “Home Rule and ask to be armed, but they rush away from the country because of the prospect of being forced to fight against Prussian militarism.

 

Impartial Reporter.  June 24 1915.  IRISH COWARDS AND THEIR TREATMENT BY SAILORS.  The arrival at New York on board the American liner St. Paul of 300 young men from, Connaught has served to direct attention to the apparently organised efforts being made to induce Irishman to avoid enlistment by transporting them.  During the voyage the sailors forced many of the biggest of the emigrants to march about the decks carrying broom sticks over their shoulders and wearing tin saucepans on their head.  An officer of the ship observed that what puzzled him was where the lads got the money for the passage. They all carried gold. (Ed. A bit of an unlikely story with 300 Irishmen on board.)

 

Impartial Reporter.  June 24 1915.  SOLDIERS FOR THE HAY HARVEST.  The Board of Agriculture announces that it has been informed by the Army Council that in view of the possible shortage of agricultural labour for the harvest furlough will be given at the discretion of the military authorities to a limited number of soldiers of the New Armies and of the Territorial Force for weeks in the hay harvest as circumstances may permit. The furlough granted to each soldier will last only for such number of days, not exceeding 14, as he is actually required for hay making.  The employment of soldiers in the hay harvest will be subject to the following conditions: – 1. That suitable labour cannot be obtained in the locality.  2. That the farmer will undertake to pay each soldier sent at his request (a) 4 shillings a day if the soldier provides his own board and lodgings or (b) half a crown if board and lodgings is provided by the farmer. 3. That the farmer would provide conveyance to and from the nearest railway station.  No charge would be made to the farmer for railway travelling expenses.  Every endeavour will be made to ensure that the men released have been accustomed to farm work, but no guarantee to this effect can be given.  These arrangements do not apply to the corn harvest.  The farmers’ applications for soldiers for the harvest are to be made to the Labour Exchanges.

 

Impartial Reporter.  June 24 1915. DONEGAL RECRUITING.  AN UNENVIABLE REPUTATION.  In his address to the Grand Jury at the opening of Lifford Crown Sessions on Friday afternoon, Judge Cooke, K. C., said: Donegal has the unpleasant pre-eminence of being the county in Ireland in which up to the present, from all sections, has returned the fewest number of recruits.  That is something for you to consider.  A few moments before I came into court here a return, which led me to make these observations, was put into my hand showing the recruiting in Donegal up to the 1st of April last out of 21,000 men of recruitable age in the county less than 500 have joined the colours since the commencement of the war. The proportion of recruits to the population is only about ¼ of the proportion in Ireland as a whole.

 

Impartial Reporter.  June 24 1915.  BITS AND PIECES.  Skibbereen is shaming other places in the south west of Ireland.  It sent off 120 recruits of last week.

Six girl postmen are acting in New Ross, and one in Tipperary, where there is already a lady bank clerk.

Mr. Schumacher, chairman of the Rand mines, speaking at Johannesburg, said that Germany must be made to pay the cost of the war to the utmost farthing.

Over 85 per cent of the horses treated in hospitals at the front have been returned fit for duty.  This is a great tribute to the hospitals.

The Pope has three nephews serving in the Italian army, the youngest of them only 18 years, and when his mother seemed in doubt as to the wisdom of this course the lad’s uncle, the Pope, said, “Quite right your place is with your friends at the Military Academy in Turin.

 

Impartial Reporter.  June 24 1915.  THE CENTENARY OF WATERLOO.  HOW THE INNISKILLINGS FOUGHT.  Friday was the 100th anniversary of the battle of Waterloo.  It is a curious coincidence that the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons and the 27th Inniskilling Foot – now the 1st Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers – were the only Irish regiments at Waterloo.  The 27th had marched in very bad weather all the way from Ghent, making a short halt for refreshment in the market place of Brussels, and then on they trudged through the rain and mud for Waterloo.  The 1st battalion of the 27th regiment was then composed of veterans inured to war (says the Sprig of Shillelagh).  They had made the acquaintance of the Mussoos under their choicest generals in Spain.  They had the honour and pleasure of crossing bayonets with them.  It was rough on the Mussoos. Wellington knew the stuff the Inniskillings were made of, and they were assigned what might well be called the post of honour in the centre of the British line, with the other two regiment of Lambert’s Brigade, the 4th and 40th, covering the road which Napoleon’s Army would have to pass in order to reach Brussels.  The 27th took up position early on that Sunday morning, and a hot spot it was.  During the day they were pounded by artillery, then dense columns of steel clad cuirassiers charged them, the earth shaking under their ponderous weight, then another dose of shot and shell from the French batteries, and so on succession they had to stand artillery and cavalry through that long day.  Then Napoleon in person led his Imperial Guards, numbering 12 battalions, and a corps that up to this had never been beaten, and were supposed to be invincible up to within a short distance of the La Haye Sainte.  They were then led on by Ney the bravest of the brave

 

“But on the British hearts were lost

The terrors of the charging host:

For not an eye the storm that viewed

Changed its proud glance of fortitude. “

 

At the close of the day the 27th Regiment lay dead in square; their loss was much heavier than that of any other British regiment engaged.  They nobly held the position they were order to maintain, and not a man flinched.  Their loss after La Haye Sainte had fallen was awful.  A British officer who was an eyewitness of the gallant conduct of the 27th said – “If ever the Sovereign gives them another motto, it should be muzzled to muzzle, for so they fought at Waterloo.”  The strength of the 27th in the morning was 693 – only 218 were able to march of the field.  Total of all ranks killed and wounded was 480.