📖 Ancient Restoration

An eviction scene in County Clare, 30 July 1888 An eviction party at the house of John Flanagan in Tullycrine, led by Sheriff Turner and DI Hill. The doors, the windows and the furniture had been removed in advance of the Sheriff’s arrival. One of the girls told the group, ‘Battles were won abroad by smaller forces than Balfour sends here to turn out old men and children.’ As well as soldiers from the Royal Berkshire Regiment, there are many onlookers in this photograph. The contents of the house can be seen behind the horse just to the right of the house. It is assumed that it is Mrs Flanagan who is greeting the eviction party at the entrance to the house. Photograph by Timothy O’Connor

Medieval Irish sympathy for Caesar: "Marbsat Romain in rig rain ina nglordail cen glanbaig; tucsat i n-échtaib a alt, tria cheithre créchtaib tríchat." The Romans killed that splendid king in their glorious assembly without a clean contest... by means of thirty-four wounds. Source: P. Mac Gabhann, 'Flann Mainistrech’s Flaithius Rómán ríge glonn ‘The sovereignty of the Romans was a kingship of feats of prowess’. ' In 'Classical antiquity and medieval Ireland' (2024)

Early 20th century Halloween.

Balor Of The Evil Eye was the Irish mythical king of the Formorians. He was a giant with one large eye in the middle of his forehead, when opened the eye wreaks destruction. He ruled all Ireland from his foreboding glass tower at Dún Bhaloir, Tory Island.

Oct 31: #Celtic holiday of Samhain, or "summer's end", is celebrated; a night where the dead are unleashed from the Otherworld to roam ours.

Though Samhain, the precursor to Halloween, is considered to be a Celtic festival, the Mound of Hostages at Tara, which aligns with the rising sun at Samhain, is thought to be 5,000 years old, far predating Celtic inhabitation, and hints at more primordial roots.

'Most vulnerable in this bilingual world was the Irish monoglot, a category that the sceptical state often refused to believe even existed: denying any knowledge of English was seen by many officials as a strategy to subvert the judicial process.' https:/…

'Most vulnerable in this bilingual world was the Irish monoglot, a category that the sceptical state often refused to believe even existed: denying any knowledge of English was seen by many officials as a strategy to subvert the judicial process.' https://archive.is/FQxzQ

The murders themselves were horrific, and the true culprits were never found. On having the verdict translated, Seoighe pleaded "Níl mé ciontach", meaning "I am not guilty". James Joyce called him a "bewildered old man, left over from a culture which is not ours, a deaf-mute before his judge ... a symbol of the Irish nation at the bar of public opinion." "Táim ag imeacht." - the last words of Seoighe before his execution by hanging. 17 August 1882 - the brutal shootings and bludgeonings of John, Micheál, Brighid, Mairéad and Peigí Joyce.

Seoighe was confused and upset that he was to be hanged, but only spoke Irish. The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, John Spencer bribed three eyewitnesses, and the Crown Prosecutor withheld key evidence. The media characterised the suspects as savages, with The Spectator paper describing: "a class of peasants who are scarcely civilised beings, and approach far nearer to savages than any other white men ... and in the discipline of life no higher than Maories or other Polynesians." Pat Casey and Pat Joyce were also executed. Seoighe was a father of five children.

17th August 1882, five members of the Joyce family were murdered in Mám Trasna, Co. Mayo. The ensuing prosecution of Maolra Seoighe, an innocent man, is infamous in legal history. Seoighe was executed for the murders as he could not defend himself in an English-speaking court.

A ‘poc’ is an Irish he-goat, & at Puck Fair in Co. Kerry, in early August, a goat is crowned king by a young queen, & then worshipped over 3 days of festivities. Perhaps linked to Lughnasa, it is hoped the goat as a symbol of fertility will bring a good harvest.