fr kehoe's bazaar and famine

Uí Cinsealaigh Historical Society

Fr Kehoe's Bazaar and FamineAuthor(s): Tom McDonaldSource: The Past: The Organ of the Uí Cinsealaigh Historical Society, No. 28 (2007), pp. 98-105Published by: Uí Cinsealaigh Historical SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25520137 .

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98

Bazaar and Bizarre

Tom McDonald

I

Fr Kehoe's Bazaar and Famine

On 6 July 1918 the Enniscorthy Guardian reported that 'the promoters of

the two day Bazaar at Cloughbawn on Saturday and Sunday were very fortunate in having such beautifully fine weather associated with their

undertaking'.1 The blissfully fine weather on that weekend does not

necessarily indicate premature global warming: as the report noted 'the

weather back for sometime did not give any guarantee of the suitability of

the open street as an ideal place for the erection of the stalls'. The Bazaar was of course in Clonroche; the parish is named Cloughbawn as the

parochial church is at Cloughbawn. The avuncular, charismatic, dynamic and futuristic Fr Paul Kehoe, a native of Cullen's Cross Tullicana, and reared on the broad family lands at Moortown, in the parish of Carrig-on-Bannow,

was the pastor in Cloughbawn then. He was closely associated with the

Sinn Fein movement and may have aspired to create a Catholic/Christian

Republic in Ireland but he was not crudely sectarian as a prominent Church

of Ireland family participated in the Bazaar. He spoke French and Spanish but abhorred bull-fighting. Fr Kehoe was a mover of metaphorical

mountains. His long flowing beard gave him a Biblical aura.2

The Bazaar was intended 'to defray the large expenses in beautifying the

parish church and grounds and also the erection of a village hall'. The hall was by modern standards not especially large but the debts on it do not

seem to have been fully paid off until the 1960s when Tops of the Parish

contests raised money to do so. In 1918 the conventional response of

parishes to debt was to run bazaars.

Fr Kehoe in organising the Bazaar was aided 'by a committee of active

and willing workers who left no stone unturned to achieve success with the

undertaking'. As in a ballad commemorating a team of sporting heroes I

shall name them: Michael Furlong, John Sinnott, Denis Kehoe, Martin

Murphy, Michael Walsh, James Harman, Laurence Harte D.C., Nicholas

Cullen, Thomas Cullen, Gerald Flood C.E., Luke Nolan, Patrick Mullany,

James Maguire, Patrick Buckley, James Lambert, P.J. Doyle. The last

mentioned name is presumably that of the principal teacher at Clonroche

National School who died circa January 1944. The D.C. after Mr Harte's name denoted District Councillor and CE. after Mr Flood's name denotes



Bazaar and Bizarre 99

County Engineer. The absence of women from the committee indicates the

prevalence of patriarchal assumptions. One of the local wits was quoted as saying that the village had washed

its face for the weekend; every house in it having been re-painted or

whitewashed. Four stalls were erected on the village street and with 'the

active assistants displaying and disposing of the varied articles that generous

patrons had presented' the overall appearance was that of an eastern town; that would be quite appropriate as the word Bazaar had oriental origins.

We are told that the lady assistants at the stalls 'made full use of their

charms and the person, those of the masculine sex particularly, would be

dead to all charms of beauty and grace were they to turn a deaf ear to the

applications made for the purchase of tickets or a throw of the dice for the

tempting articles put up for competition'. The romantic and near erotic

language used here hints at a secondary purpose to the Bazaar: it might serve a catalyst to encourage the young men of the area to seek partners in

marriage, in a community blighted by bachelordom and spinsterhood. The

upsurge in the price of farm produce resultant on the Great War would have

temporarily abated the economic dread of marriage. Mrs Laurence Harte

presided over the refreshment stall set on the street also. Those assisting at

the Bazaar were given a sumptuous dinner and tea in the school that stood at the top of the hillock on the New Ross road.

Coming up to two o'clock the Bunclody Brass Band paraded through the village and then assembled in the Square where they 'discoursed a few

choice selections, which evoked hearty applause from those assembled'. I

presume that the Square was the wide part of the street opposite the road

to Chapel or it could have been within Dier's lawn. Rev. J. O'Brien CC,

Bunclody, opened the Bazaar. He told the crowd that 'since Fr Kehoe came

to the parish of Cloughbawn he had spent hours untiringly beautifying God's House. In fact it might be said of him that the zeal for God's House

had eaten him up'. Fr Kehoe would undoubtedly have shared in the

theological disposition of that era which sensed in the Church, the physical

building, a seamless synthesising of the temporal and the divine. There is a

poetic grandeur to Fr O'Brien's description of Fr Kehoe's tender aspiration: 'In addition to their handsome parish church, they had beautiful grounds,

decked out with flowers of every hue to form, as it were, a bodyguard for

the Infinite Majesty concealed within.' His words humming with such

fragrant imagery must have electrified his audience.

Fr O'Brien then turned to a much more practical matter: 'Father

Kehoe's latest work was the erection of a village hall. A village hall was a

long felt want in Clonroche. It was a pity to see the boys of Clonroche going around of a winter's evening trying to amuse themselves, trying to get a



100 The Past

place to pass a social evening. That want had now been supplied and the

hall in all its grandeur would remain as a tribute to the work and generosity of Father Kehoe.' Fr O'Brien's comments denote an utterly stark absence of

social facilities in the parish; although that begs the question: why did

previous generations not seek to build a hall? The probability is that they lacked the money to do so but improved means of transport by 1918 may

have meant an enticement for youngsters to visit the village and maybe further afield. The use of the word 'grandeur' in regard to the hall at

Clonroche will inevitably amuse the modern reader: in an era devoid of access to latter day technology the construction of the most elemental of

buildings represented an enormous project. The unwritten sub-script to Fr

O'Brien's words is that a hall could be a place both to have meetings and

classes to improve the young and via dances to induce the young men to

consider the possibility of marriage. The afternoon was taken up by fifteen sporting events in racing and

cycling; Phil Murphy of Enniscorthy served most efficiently as starter. Half

hour dances with the Bree Band providing the music in the hall were another

attraction during the afternoon and evening. The big event of the evening was the performance of 'Marriage of

Ballymarescal', written by Rev. Sylvester Cullen CC, Marshalstown, by the

Marshalstown Dramatic Class; the hall was packed. The stage must also

have been packed if all the actors and actresses listed in the report were

really there. At the conclusion Fr Paul Kehoe came onto the stage to

'rapturous rounds of applause'. He informed them that the parochial debt

of ?500 had been wiped out that day and as the applause abated he added

that 'the long contemplated hall was approaching completion'. The people of Cloughbawn were deeply indebted to Lord Carew (the 3rd Baron) for a

munificent gift of timber for the floor, roof and stairs that could not be

procured through the usual channels. Neither Fr Kehoe nor his audience

felt any irony at a strongly Sinn Fein-supporting priest in such ample laudation of a Peer of the British Empire. He further informed the audience

that a few public spirited parishioners had guaranteed ?300 to the Bank

and the Trustees of the Hall would have to pay off that amount through

staging entertainments in it. One presumes that the Tops of the Parish series

in the 1960 finally enabled the parish to pay off that ?300 or its residue.

Fr Kehoe indicated that after the vacation, usually timed to coincide with the harvest time, the hall would be used as a girls' National school,

'pending the erection of a new one and they would have for the first time

provision for the teaching of cooking. It would take a good deal of money to equip the hall for school purposes and they hoped that the Bazaar would

supply that too'. The present writer after examining the relevant file has




always suspected that the scheming Fr Kehoe moved the girls into the hall

that autumn not because of dreadful overcrowding but as an exertion of

pressure on the Board of the Commissioners of Education to build a new

room to the school in Clonroche. The designation of girls' school merely means that girls were put in one room and the boys in another: the one

principal teacher (sometimes with an assistant) would teach all the classes

of girls in the one room. The obvious unspoken purpose was that of

inculcating a culture and disposition of gender segregation, possibly an

almost essential requirement of economically impoverished societies unable

to withstand surging demographics. It is important to point out, however, that the Commissioners of Education imposed these rules and that the more

efficient mode of non-segregated education became the norm in the post 1922 era. The emphasis on cooking for girls indicated an assumption that

girls would either work as mothers in the home or take situations as

domestics in the towns and cities at home and abroad. The emphasis on

cooking may also have been intended to rectify a perceived lack of such

skills in the community. Before the Famine Lady Carew had established a

girls' school at Castleboro to teach the young girls habits of cleanliness and

cooking.3

Fr Kehoe thanked Fr O'Brien, the Pioneer Brass Band from Bunclody, and anticipated that on 'the following day the Enniscorthy War Pipers, in

their new uniform, would stir the cockles of their hearts'. The metaphorical militarism of the name of the Enniscorthy Band is one supposes not entirely

unique in an era when Europe was at war. He then observed of the

Marshalstown Drama Group: 'It was surely a good thing that amusements of that kind should be

furnished by the people themselves and to place no dependence on a foreign

supply. Father Culien had shown his capacity in that respect. He was a

gifted man with a deep and sympathetic comprehension of the Irish

character, and his band of artistes possessed talent of a high order.' These

sentiments are classic representation of an assumption fundamental both to the Catholic Church and to the Gaelic League at this time that Ireland

and its civilisation was a divinely ordained repository of profound spiritual values; it was conversely believed that barriers of language via the revival

of the Gaelic tongue and enactment of legislation to prohibit foreign media

coming in were necessary to save this civilisation. There may be a resonance

of the theories of Canon Sheehan in Fr Kehoe's remarks, also: the celebrated

author had in My New Curate articulated his conviction that the Catholic

clergy should acquire the expertise to give leadership in all facets of Irish

society. Fr Culien was possibly taking on such a role in the cosmos of amateur dramatics.



102 The Past

Fr Kehoe noted that 'audience's applause and appreciation of the

humorous points, the keen attention and orderly demeanour showed their

recognition of the excellence of the play'. That is a roundabout way of

saying that unless a community had some minimum level of literacy it could have little use for a hall! The work of the National Schools, however deficient and fragmentary it was, had created a society capable of

responding to hall-staged entertainments.

Fr Kehoe had a parting request of Fr Cullen, in a choice of words that

dovetailed humour and hard reprimand: 'He would suggest to Fr. Cullen, of whom he was very proud, to marry

another of Dempsey's daughters (laughter and cheers). Marriages in Ireland were so few that it was something new to see one on the stage. A

neighbouring priest whose name he would not divulge preached on

matrimony recently. One of his hearers afterwards declared to him that it was labour lost, as no one in the parish got married until qualified for the

old age pension.' One presumes that the old age pension was perceived as

a guaranteed income but the occupations available to Fr Kehoe's flock as

farmers, drovers, artisans, masons, labourers, etc., were not of such

remuneration as to induce a man to think of taking a bride. Marriage for

the greater majority was the ultimate in the unthinkable and in the official

records of that era the patterns are of brothers and sisters living together all

their lives and also of single people living alone. Fr Kehoe's anguish in the matter was most understandable: a community of bachelors and spinsters cannot perpetuate itself.

The beautiful weather continued on Sunday and the Bazaar was opened at 3 o'clock but the Corpus Christi Procession at Enniscorthy depleted the

crowd for the afternoon; the attendance hugely augmented as evening set in.

The Enniscorthy War Pipers 'during the evening discoursed some very choice selections which were much appreciated'. GAA matches were played on the Sunday afternoon, in hurling and football. As on Saturday the

stallholders had a busy time and by Sunday night the stalls 'which on the

opening day were laden down with articles' were empty. The new hall

proved altogether too small for the large crowd that attended the dance

that concluded the Bazaar; the fee to go in was very low. The most exotic event of the weekend was of course the Mumming Competition: the village hall was crowded as Poulpeasty, the winners of the Mumming competition at the Co. Feis at New Ross, were opposed to the Rathfylane set from the

neighbouring parish of Davidstown. It was arranged that the votes of the

audience should decide the outcome but this proved impractical. The

performance went on for about an hour and a half and after it ended Fr

Kehoe once more took to the stage. He said that 'their portrayal and recital




of the character and deeds of the Irish heroes and soldiers was well

calculated to inspire love of country and was worthy of the highest praise. The captains of both teams had authorised him to announce that the

performance that night was simply to be regarded as an exhibition'. The

appeal of Mumming, which never reached very high levels, was in its

simplicity: a story of Gael and Gall, Irish and foreigner and a minimalist

symbolisation of myths and stories from an uncomplicated nationalist

version of centuries of Irish history. A population educated to the merest

levels of literacy and numeracy would not of course respond to the nuances

and mental gymnastics of latter day historiography; they could only access

it via myths, stories, folklore and simplesse; in a certain sense they should

be commended for making such an effort! In the Co. Wexford the

Mumming took themes from the genre of rebel ballads such as 'Kelly of

Killanne' and 'Boolavogue'. The Gothic scenarios at the core of these

ballads were ideally suited to dramatic representation. The artistic excess

was not deemed significant in any sinister sense: nobody really believed that

the conflagration of 1798 could or would be ever re-enacted again. And if one exempts the relatively small amount of fighting at Easter 1916 and the

sporadic guerrilla warfare of the War of Independence it is correct to say that that the horrendous and ghastly sacrifice of life in 1798 was never

repeated. Love of country was a virtue most desired by the clergy of early 20th century Ireland: the identity of the country was deemed to be

essentially Catholic and most Catholic scholars, priests and opinion formers

believed that Providence intended that Ireland should become the heart of a spiritual empire. Love of country readily translated as love of the faith. Fr

Kehoe, himself, most fervently supported the Sinn Fein movement. His

diaries indicate that his family defied attempts to auction their cattle during the Land League agitation.4

The remarkable thing about the report of the Bazaar at Clonroche in

1918 is the presence there of so many artistic and musical groups: it is clear

that in contrast to the previous century when men and women worked

nearly all their waking hours that leisure time had become by 1918 a regular

aspect of ordinary life. A report of a hurling match in the early summer of

1864 between Ballinaslaney and Edermine observed that such a contest

could only take place on a Sunday as 'the working portion of our

population' were at work 'from sun rise until after sun down'.5 It would, for

example, take a group of men in a band a very long time to practise all their

airs, songs and tunes. A hall is essentially about the utilisation of leisure

time in an enjoyable and challenging manner. That is as good an explanation as any other of why there was such a determination to build and complete a hall in Clonroche in 1918.



104 The Past

We now turn to observe Fr Kehoe in another guise: that of Chairman

of the Clonroche Co-operative Wheat Growing Society. In connection with

this it was noted: 'in addition to ministering to the spiritual wants of those

committed to his care, he has at all times exerted himself in the advancement

of their material ones'.6 His exertions did not at all approximate to the

gargantuan plans of Fr Letheby in Canon Sheehan's My New Curate but

there is a likeness of mindset. In February of 1917 he arranged for the

purchase of ten statute acres at a cost of ?27 at an auction and this was

allocated in portions to 24 labourers. Fr Kehoe intended to take advantage of a Government scheme whereby the clerks of each Poor Law Union were

enabled to provide seed at a reduced price to the poorer strata of people. I

am baffled that land could be bought at less than ?3 an acre even then;

maybe it was taken on a conacre system or the vendor gave it below its

value for charitable purposes. On the following Sunday Fr Kehoe,

presumably from the pulpit at Mass, requested fifteen farmers to plough the field, 'a help that was ungrudgingly given'. In early April Fr Kehoe

requisitioned the aid of a group not called upon on the previous occasion to 'harrow the ground and sow the seed'. The interested labourers turned out on an evening after work 'and spread the manure, the work of the

ploughing, sowing and preparing the ground on all occasions being

superintended by Father Kehoe'. On a fine Sunday in the harvest time two

machines were provided by Mrs Sweetman (of Ballymackessy, and widow

of Laurence Sweetman JP, I presume) and Mrs Lakin 'and with fifty willing hands six acres of the crop were tied and stucked in about four hours'. The

rest of the crop was saved in a similar manner on the following Sunday. The report continues: 'The appeal by Father Kehoe for horses to draw the corn in for threshing was responded to with alacrity and all was deposited in a corner of one of one of the fields in about two hours. The next day an

engine and machine was provided free by a parishioner and the twenty-four labourers assisting in the threshing they had the satisfaction of having

provided for their use 80 barrels of wheat'. (Syntax is as quoted). The reverse of Murphy's Law may have blessed the initiative of Fr

Kehoe: that most erratic and irritable of phenomena, the Irish weather,

certainly favoured the scheme! The willingness of farmers to provide horses,

ploughs and both harvesting and threshing machines may have derived less

from an innate generosity on their part than a reticence about baulking at

a direction from Fr Kehoe, a man of immense prestige due to the reverence

then had for the priestly office. Furthermore Fr Kehoe was a man of great charisma and total determination. The query that I wish to put is: if a

scheme such as the present one was vastly expanded might not the pressure on their resources prompt the farmers to metaphorically drag their feet?




Six barrels was kept as seed for the next year before the rest was equally divided between the 24 labourers. Mr P O'Neill, JP and auctioneer from

Enniscorthy, sold the straw for ?25 and returned his commission to the

society. The sale of the bran when the gain was ground into flour realised

?23 and this plus the members' subscriptions brought the total receipts to

?89. The scheme cost ?66 4 shillings, that is the cost of the land, seed, and

coal for threshing. Those who supplied these goods-Mr O'Neill, JP,

Enniscorthy; Mr J.R. Dier, JP, Clonroche; Mr P. O'Doherty, Clonroche, and

the Co-operative Society did not seek payment until the crop had been

disposed of and thus the members, labourers, did not have to seek an

overdraft from the Banks, a favour that might have not been forthcoming. The obvious deficiency of Fr Kehoe's scheme as a paradigm for greater

application is that it redistributed wealth rather than creating it; the prestige of his priestly office and his charismatic personality enabled the

Cloughbawn pastor to cajole and coercively persuade the better-off people to aid his scheme. The overall macro-economic context favoured him also:

in 1917 there was a widespread and genuine fear of serious food shortages, an apprehension entertained at the highest echelons of Irish society and

government at the time. The respectable strata would have felt an obligation to respond to appeals such as that of Fr Kehoe. In the neighbouring parish of Bree the newly founded Irish Countrywomen's Association were engaging

with Captain Alcock of Wilton and Captain Cliffe of Macmine in plans to

provide labourers with firing and to organise wheat growing schemes.7 In one respect Fr Kehoe's scheme generated extra productivity: it

mutated the leisure time of the labourers into productive work totally for

the provision of food for themselves and their families. It is significant that

the labourers came to work on Sundays and in the evenings after normal

working time. The writer would, however, categorise Father Kehoe's scheme as inadvertently futuristic in an unanticipated direction: the principle fundamental to it of the more secure social strata contributing to the relief

of the distress of the poor was also fundamental to the social welfare

systems then beginning to emerge.

1 The Enniscorthy Guardian July 6 1918. The Wexford Library. Unless specified otherwise all quotations are taken from this issue.

2 Quotes from diary of Fr Kehoe in the All Hallows Annual 1959. In the National Library Dublin Ir 37941 A23.

3 William Russell Farmar, agent to the Carew estate, boasted about it to the Devon Commission. 4 Ibid 2. 5 The Wexford Independent May 11, 1864. In the Wexford Library. 6 The Enniscorthy Guardian February 9, 1918. In the Wexford Library. All quotations on the wheat

growing from this source. 7 Ibid 6.



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