By Eamon Healy
Eamon Healy is a native of Beagh parish and can trace his family connection to the parish back to the late 1780s. While he no longer lives there, he continues to blog periodically about all aspects of local history which interests him. Currently undertaking a PhD in history in Maynooth University, and working as a professional genealogist for Ancestry.com he has the opportunity to encounter interesting stories and shares them on his blog http://www.beaghrootsgalway.weebly.com
Friday, November 26th 1920 was a dry, crisp day, and well suited for threshing operations, the process where grain was separated from the corn and other cereal crops. Robert and Peter Glynn brought their threshing machine to Catherine Loughnane’s comfortable farm in Derry townland (known locally as Shanaglish) and many neighbours gathered there to help with the harvest. The work was directed by Catherine’s sons Pat and Harry, who managed the farm for their widowed mother. By 3pm Pat Loughnane was anxious that the men should have a break for half an hour, but his mother Catherine, a sensible hardworking woman, suggested it would be better to continue to finish early. All agreed and work continued.
An hour later, a lorry full of Auxiliaries, the paramilitary unit of the Royal Irish Constabulary, approached. They jumped out and made straight for the work party. Unaware of the oncoming vehicle due to the noise of the threshing machine the brothers were seized at gunpoint. Robert Glynn, owner of the thresher, tried to run and the auxiliaries opened fire on him. None of the bullets hit their mark, and Robert escaped. Robert later recounted that he ran after reading and hearing about the fate of four men in Scariff, Co. Clare, who were captured and murdered earlier that month.
The remainder of the threshing party were surrounded and placed under arrest. The captives were lined up against the wall and a policeman, who had been stationed in Tubber, Co. Clare, proceeded to pick out Pat and Harry Loughnane. Pat, aged 29, was tall and powerfully built, a fine hurler, with a winning personality, selected as the leader of many activities in the parish and was involved with the Irish Republican Army (I.R.A.) and the Irish Republican Brotherhood (I.R.B.). Pat regretted that he took no part in the 1916 Easter Rising, being then a member of the United Irish League (U.I.L.). Harry, aged 22, was of a gentle, quiet and retiring dispostion, studious and fond of reading. Ill health forced him to give up his intention of becoming a national schoolteacher, but he served as an efficient secretary of the local Sinn Féin club. Though the Beagh I.R.A. unit had seen relatively little action in the preceding two years of resistance against the Crown, Patrick had participated in the Castledaly Ambush in Galway the previous month, which had resulted in the death of a policeman from Kerry.
The brothers were asked if they were Sinn Feiners and Volunteers, to which they replied that they were. The party next inquired of another boy assisting at the threshing, if he were a Sinn Feiner, and he too replied that he was. They told the boy to run, and when he did, they fired several shots after him but did not injure him. The Auxiliaries took Pat and Harry away, and one commented to Pat: ‘Bring with you the rifle you had at Castledaly.” Once the brothers were arrested and placed in the lorry, the Auxiliaries did not bother anybody else, and continued their round-up.
They proceeded to Tubber, where Michael Carroll was arrested between 4 and 5pm. The Auxiliaries questioned him, striking him repeatedly with their revolvers while they searched him. Michael was held in the lorry while his house was searched. Some of the remaining Auxiliaries ordered Michael to jump out of the lorry and run away. When he refused, the lorry started, and two men caught him and swung him over the side on to the road. As Michael fell, his coat was caught on a hook at the corner and he was dragged along, suspended from the lorry for at least 20 yards. He was then caught and dragged back into the lorry, where he was again beaten on the head with revolvers. After a half mile, the lorry stopped for a cigarette break. One man suggested they give Carroll another beating, and immediately after, he was beaten, knocked down and kicked repeatedly. Pat and Harry also received a bad beating, and all three were bleeding.
The lorry stopped at Furpark townland at the houses of the Flahertys and Nellys, both families involved with the I.R.A., and were searched. After 15 minutes the Auxiliaries left Flaherty’s house disappointed – they found nothing. This was bad news for their prisoners, whose beatings now became more violent. Michael Carroll recalled little after this point – it’s likely he was knocked unconscious from the beatings. Police were at the door of Gort R.I.C. Barrack when the lorry arrived. As the prisoners passed inside, one of the policemen struck Carroll, who fell and landed under a table, and was again kicked while he was down. The process was repeated for the Loughnane brothers as they too passed inside.
Welsh born Temporary Auxiliary Cadet, Caradog Wyn Owen of D Company, Auxiliary Division of the R.I.C., oversaw the raiding party. Under his charge, the prisoners were subjected to gross maltreatment. Twelve R.I.C. men dressed only in shirts and pants entered the Day Room in the barracks and beat Pat and Harry around the room for over an hour, until blood was running from their ears and noses. A young R.I.C. constable named Doherty, who knew the brothers, intervened on their behalf, but without effect. When the R.I.C. left the Day Room, Doherty heard Patrick say to his brother: “We’d better say the Rosary as they are going to finish us.”
The following day, Father John Nagle, parish priest of Beagh, accompanied Catherine Loughnane to Gort barracks. She brought clothes for her sons with her, believing her boys were still in custody there. They were informed that the auxiliaries had removed the two brothers the previous night; no further information could be found as to their destination. At midnight, Monday 29th November, a force of Auxiliaries called at Mrs. Loughnane’s home and informed her that her sons had escaped from Drumharsna Castle. They raided and searched her house and found nothing. Friends and family started to become anxious for their safety after this incident.
Their sister Nora made a diligent but fruitless search, calling on military officers in Galway city and elsewhere, but feared the worst. Enquiries at Eglinton Street police street station and Galway Jail at Earl’s Island provided no information regarding Pat and Harry’s whereabouts. On Saturday, she visited the Auxiliary camp at Lenaboy, Taylor’s Hill, Galway. Nora had an interview with the commanding officer there and inquired if he knew where her brothers were. The officer informed her that eight prisoners (out of a total of 12 arrested), including her brothers, had escaped, and that one had been re-arrested and that the other seven were supposedly “running south.” When leaving, the officer took Nora’s name and address, stating that if any information were discovered as to her brothers’ whereabouts, he would let her know. She returned to Beagh dejected and worried.
During this time it was known that the R.I.C. commandeered rope in Martin Coen’s shop in Gort. It was thought they tied the two brothers to the back of a lorry, dragging them along the road to Drumharsna Castle, Ardrahan, where the Auxiliaries were stationed at the time. An entry in Lady Gregory’s journal noted this atrocious act was witnessed by a man named MacGill. D Company of the Auxiliaries used Drumharsna Castle as an outpost. It was about six miles north of Gort, between Kinvara and Ardrahan. Today Drumharsna Castle is a gaunt ruin, but at that time a large house stood next to it until it was demolished in the 1920s.
Disturbing rumours circulated around the town to the effect that the Auxiliaries returned to Mr. Coen’s with the rope and that a girl overheard the Auxiliaries talking with an R.I.C. man. The latter asked what they did with the two prisoners, to which the reply was: “Oh! we have killed them”. Other rumours suggested they were made carry large stones and run before the lorries, being prodded with bayonets until they fell exhausted. They were then tied to the lorries and dragged along the road. Four shots were fired in Moy O’Hynes’ (also called Moyvilla) wood near Kinvara on Friday night, and men fitting their description were seen in the wood dead or in a dying state on Saturday. Several Crown forces were spotted in the wood on Sunday night, four shots were fired, two men were taken away in a lorry, and a fire was seen near Drumharsna. Contradictory rumours also suggested that the brothers were safe and well chipping wood in Earl’s Camp, Galway. These rumours confused the search parties and, when the men who supposedly knew about the torture and murder of the Loughnanes were interviewed, they denied that they ever knew, heard, or told anybody anything about them. Further searches seemed futile.
The eventual discovery of Patrick and Harry’s bodies came about in a surprising manner. Michael ‘Mickey’ (Tully) Loughnane of Creggbrien, aged about 18, first cousin of Pat and Harry, saw Pat in a vision after his arrest by the Black and Tans. On Saturday evening, 4 December, nine days after their abduction, Michael dreamt that he saw Pat and Harry in a pond at Dombriste (or Owenbristy), near Drumharsna, at Murty Sheehan’s crossroads. After hearing Mass at Gort the following day, Michael took two friends with him (brothers Michael and Willie Hynes, both Kinvara I.R.A. Volunteers), and cycled to Dombriste. Crossing a field to the pond, 100 yards from the road, the brothers lay as he saw them in his dream, in about three feet of water, the surface of which was covered with oil.
The boys told nobody of their discovery until they reached Kinvara. After revealing their find, over 20 of the Kinvara I.R.A. procured a horse and van and hurried to Dombriste. On reaching the pond they took out the charred remains and laid them side by side on the grass; the bodies had been hideously mutilated. Patrick was found lying on his back, and Harry on his right side, about two yards apart. The brothers were naked, save one of Harry’s boots, his once graceful figure was a mass of unsightly scars and gashes; two of his fingers had been removed, his right arm was broken at the shoulder, being almost completely severed from the body, while nothing remained of his face save the chin and lips, and the skull was entirely blown away. The remains were badly charred. The location of their suspected shooting, before their bodies were dumped at Dombriste, just off the public road near Moy O’Hynes, is now marked by a cross to their memory.
Patrick’s body was not charred to the same extent as his brother’s and his back and shoulders remained intact. The limbs of both brothers, however, were charred so badly that bones were exposed, the flesh completely burned away. Diamond shapes were cut along Pat’s ribs and chest. Both his wrists were broken and his right arm above the elbow. Patrick’s face was completely lashed away, to the extent that he was unrecognisable, and his skull was badly fractured, as if a bomb had been forced into his mouth and exploded. The bodies were said to have been set alight in a wood, where it is believed that they may have been still alive. Patrick’s back was the only part of his body that was not blackened by burns; he was evidently thrown on his back before being set on fire. Henry’s body was scorched all over. Both bodies were in a good state of preservation, without sign of decomposition. After being taken out of the water, blood flowed from a wound in Harry’s side.
Having recovered the bodies, the next problem was to carry them away. Drumharsna, the Auxiliary stronghold, was only a mile away and the Volunteers were all “wanted men.” The funeral had only proceeded a short distance from the pond when a lorry of Auxiliaries approached and halted near the pond, where they searched for a time. Luckily, the lorry proceeded towards Kilcolgan, the opposite direction, while the funeral turned towards Kinvara. Large crowds joined along the route, until they reached Kinvara. While the coffins were readied, P. Hynes (father of Michael and Willie who had discovered the bodies with Michael Loughnane) gave the use of his barn for the wake, about 200 yards from Kinvara town. It was his only habitation, as his house and out-offices were burned down by Crown forces the previous Monday. His barn too was later burned by Auxiliaries a few days after the Loughnane’s wake. Bleeding resumed when the bodies were laid in Hynes’ barn, leaving a bright red stain on the linens. Hundreds dipped their handkerchiefs in the martyrs’ blood, which they treasured highly.
Pat and Harry’s bodies were identified by their sister Nora. When several people tried to dissuade her, she replied: “Their souls are in heaven, of that I am confident; and they died for Ireland, so it really doesn’t matter how their bodies look. They were ready to make this sacrifice for their country’s sake and, because I have the same idea of nationality that they had, I, too, can bear, this ordeal”. For a moment the fearful sight almost unnerved her, but by a superhuman effort Nora held herself together, and again she was calm and resigned. “Oh! Poor Harry” she exclaimed as she viewed the mutilated features of her younger brother. Nora could not identify the elder brother except by his broad shoulders and his stature.
Dr. Connolly, medical officer in Kinvara, examined the brothers’ remains. He believed the immediate cause of death was injuries to the head, so extensive that it was not known how they were caused. A number of I.R.A. officers also present held an investigation and ordered the verdict to be written on the breast-plates of the coffins;
‘Padraig O LocnÁin, A ghabhadh, a marbhuigeadh agus a dhoigeadh ag na Sasanacaibh, Mí Shamhna, 1920 in aois a naoi mbliadhain is fiche. Dia le n-a anam.’ ‘Anraoi O LocnÁin, A ghabhadh, a marbhuigeadh agus a dhoigeadh ag na Sasanacaibh, Mí Shamhna, 1920 in aois a trí mbliadhain is fiche. Dia le n-a anam.” (Patrick Loughnane, Arrested, murdered and burned by the English, November, 1920 at the age of twenty-nine. God bless his soul. Henry Loughnane, Captured, murdered and burned by the English, November, 1920 at the age of twenty-three. God bless his soul.)
Canon Fahy of Kinvara arrived at the barn, the Rosary was recited, and the coffins taken to Kinvara Church at midnight. The Kinvara Company formed a guard of honour. The coffins were draped in Sinn Féin flags with the letters “I.R.A.” and were kept guard during the night and marched in front of the procession. Tomás OhEighin (Thomas Hynes), an Irish teacher, took photographs of the Loughnane’s bodies in the coffins and traumatised relatives and neighbours can be seen standing around them in a tight, almost protective huddle.
Hundreds of mourners came to pay respect to the martyrs, including many of their comrades who were on the run. When word was brought to Gort that the bodies had been found, Daniel Ryan, Patrick Glynn (Volunteer of Kilbeacanty Company), John Coen (O/C Kilbeacanty Company), Jack Flaherty and Joseph Stanford (Captain of Gort Company), visited Father Nagle in Shanaglish and asked for permission to mark out a Republican plot in the new cemetery, which was granted. These men dug the graves while a British force was present at the Church, a quarter of a mile away.
On Tuesday 7 December, shortly before the remains were removed from Shanaglish church for internment, a party of 2 policemen, 2 auxiliaries, and 2 soldiers, under the command of Lieutenant R.B. McCreery of the 17th Lancers, accompanied by Dr. James Sandys, of Gort, arrived in a lorry, entered the church to carry out an “inquest.” A machine gun was mounted on the wall of the church grounds, while the mock inquest was held inside. The coffins lay side by side in the centre of the church, covered by floral wreaths and wrapped in Republican colours, and were guarded by a party of young men. Doctor Sandys informed Father Nagle that he had orders to view the bodies before internment and ordered the church to be cleared. The coffin lids were unscrewed but the bodies were not removed. Doctor Sandys knew Patrick Loughnane by sight but could not attribute his identity to either of the two bodies, such was the terrible state of their bodies.
Nora Loughnane, again spotting the remains of her brother reportedly exclaimed: ‘There is my poor youngest brother” while Fr. Nagle on seeing Patrick stated: “There is the other poor, unfortunate man – a saint of God’. Like their sister, Pat and Harry’s mother Catherine bore up remarkably well. During the inquest Father Nagle was accompanied by Rev. John Garvin, P.P. of Tubber and both were in tears. One of the policemen present stated: “We, who are here, are not responsible, and nobody regrets it more than the police”. Father Nagle requested the military officer and police to view the remains several times, and asked them “Could you believe it?” Father Nagle had been Chaplain to the British forces during the Second Boer War (1899-1902) and had witnessed many unspeakable crimes but never, he declared, could he even imagine such hideous barbarity.
2pm that afternoon, the coffins were taken 200 yards down the road to the family burial ground, followed by a funeral of vehicles of all descriptions. There was scarcely an individual in that huge cortege not overwhelmed with sorrow, with several women wailing aloud and young men sobbing. The coffins were taken from the shoulders of the pall bearers and placed side by side in one grave by young men from the surrounding parishes. The Rosary was recited in Irish and Father Nagle officiated. Arms had been placed in a wood close by, and three volleys of shots were fired as a final token of respect to the two brave soldiers once the authorities had left the area. Despite the reign of terror at the time, the Loughnanes’ funeral was one of the largest possible and showed that their deaths had only stiffened the people into greater resistance. The heroic brothers, gentle souled, noble-hearted and lovable, were laid side by side in a laurel garlanded grave with the Sinn Féin flag wrapped round their coffins.
Following the funeral, a British military court inquiry, in lieu of an inquest, was opened by three officers (Captain H.B. Turner M.C., 17th Lancers, as president and members Captain D.E. Hearn Royal Army Medical Corps and Lieutenant R.B. McCreery, 17th Lancers). The inquiry was held at Gort police barracks on Wednesday 8 December 1920, lasting 4 hours, by order of Brigadier General J.G. Chaplin, Commanding Galway Brigade. Although Father Nagle was present in the barrack yard during the inquiry, he was not examined. Lieutenant Colonel F.H.W. Guard, Commanding ‘D’ Company Auxiliary Division, swore that he commanded the auxiliaries at Drumharsna. He reported that the two brothers were arrested on 27 November while engaged at threshing, and when surrounded by his men they attempted to escape. Several shots were fired, and the men were subsequently arrested. Guard was informed on the following morning that two men had escaped the previous night.
As the inquiry continued, Auxiliary Cadet Caradog Wyn Owen of D Company, swore that he oversaw a party of auxiliaries that arrested the brothers. Owen’s party called at Gort and proceeded to Drumharsna Castle. Both brothers were placed in detention, guarded by an armed sentry (South African Temporary Cadet Victor Percival Albert Lawrenson, D Company) on the ground floor. He swore that about 11pm, one of the prisoners asked to be allowed out to relieve himself. Shortly after he imagined he heard voices in the barn 20 yards away, and thought it might have been some of the Loughnanes’ comrades who were coming to their aid. Lawrenson left the prisoners to investigate, and upon returning, found the prisoners had escaped. A search ensued, but the brothers could not be found. The men were to be sent to Galway on the following day. Interestingly, just five months later Owen was involved in the shooting, and subsequent death of, Louis D’Arcy, another prisoner, by Auxiliaries in Galway while he was being driven from Oranmore to Galway.
In the inquiry, another witness, Sergeant Michael Mooney, R.I.C. in Gort, stated that he was sent out to Shanaglish by Head Constable Somers for the purpose of finding Michael Loughnane, who found their bodies. Mooney failed due to the unwillingness of the people to assist, but Michael Loughnane appeared later and testified where he found the bodies. The findings of this case were never made public. It was probably concluded that any attempt by the British inquiry to acquit themselves of guilt would have been deemed feeble and would likely increase the already negative opinion held of the British authorities. A year later, Catherine Loughnane was awarded £700 and £600 by the Recorder of Galway for the murder of her sons, while Nora and Katie, their two sisters, were awarded £100 each.
After their burial, a committee was formed by the South Galway I.R.A. to raise funds in order to erect a memorial to the Loughnane brothers and in 1927 Dr. Madden of Westport unveiled a beautiful Celtic cross in Shanaglish cemetery. Commemoration speeches were made and the rosary recited in Irish by Thomas O’Hynes. The memorial remains to this day and had new railings erected around it in the 1980’s. A memorial was also erected at Moy O’Hynes wood to the Loughnane brothers.
Clan Ólochlainn 