British Admiral Killed in the thirties in West Cork

Admiral Boyle's sister
http://www.usna.edu/EnglishDept/ilv/sandr.htm

Edith OEnone Somerville and Martin Ross (aka Edith's cousin Violet Florence Martin)

...Literature, particularly Irish literature, at the turn of the century, took on a new voice. Authors began to make political statements regarding the class system and society. Edith Oenone Somerville and Martin Ross (a pseudonym), were leaders of this literary movement in Ireland, and leaders for women in society.

Edith Oenone Somerville was born on the island of Corfu, off the Greek coast, on May 2, 1858. She was a child of the Somerville family of Castletownshend, "a lovely southwest Cork seacoast village dominated by four or five Anglo-Irish Big House families and their extensive social life,"(Charlotte, xiii.). One of her siblings, her brother, Admiral Boyle Townshend Somerville, was an accomplished sailor, as well as an author of many books himself.

Edith's cousin, Violet Florence Martin, was born on June 11, 1862, at Ross House in County Galway. In 1889, Violet adopts the pseudonym of Martin Ross, which "was not used exclusively for authorship" (Charlotte, xiii.). Edith and Martin (Violet will be referred to as Martin from this point), originally met on January 17, 1886 at Castletownshend, fourteen years after Martin and her mother moved to Dublin from Galway. The move came after Martin's "father died and her brother, on succeeding to the estate, closed their Big House and moved to London, leaving his mother and younger siblings," to fend for themselves in tough times (Charlotte, xii). This change in fortune, however, affected both Edith and Martin.

When the two young women met, they began a lifelong journey of culture, society and, of course literature. They fit together perfectly in their first work, The Buddh Dictionary, a dictionary of terms created throughout the years by their family. As Edith Somerville describes it:

"Our respective stars then collided, struck sympathetic sparks. We...discovered in one another a comfortable agreement of outlook in matters artistic and literary...." The pleasure they experienced writing together and their need to earn money...soon prompted them to embark on a more ambitious effort. (Charlotte, xiii)

Following a few short efforts, Somerville and Ross publish An Irish Cousin, their first novel, in 1889. The novel began as an effort "begun in idleness and without conviction," (Charlotte, xiii.) but turned into the passionate beginning of a literary career for the young duo...
Posted by The Cinquefoil Press at 07:52

who the fug wrote: »

The lady is right about thoses surnames, specially about the locations

who the fug wrote: »

Anyone ever hear about Mr. and Mrs. Annan Bryce, this is news to me

IN the security files recently released Cork barrister Paul O’Sullivan stated that Tom Barry threatened him in April 1936 because he had written references for three local people who wished to join the Royal Navy. "Let it not occur again or you’ll get the lead," Barry said.

"He put his index finger over my heart as he made those remarks," Sullivan noted. "I gave him an undertaking that I would not furnish such references in future qualifying it with the remark, ‘you were a British soldier yourself. ’ "

At that point somebody came in, and the conversation ended. The next time O’Sullivan met Barry he offered his hand but O’Sullivan never knew what hit him.

Gardaí were convinced Barry was behind the murder of Admiral Henry Boyle Somerville, 73, a month earlier because Somerville had provided references for local people wishing to join the Royal Navy. Meda Ryan, Barry’s biographer, wrote to the Irish Examiner recently that Barry "was certainly infuriated with Fianna Fáil policy and it is believed that it was he who gave the order to have Somerville kidnapped and used in a type of deal/bargaining ploy with the government".

Barry confirmed for Meda Ryan that this was his intention, but things did not go according to plan and Somerville was shot dead instead. Even if Barry had only ordered that Somerville should be kidnapped and held hostage, he was just as guilty of that reprehensible murder as if he had pulled the trigger himself.

Dan Breen and Tom Barry may have been the kind of men you would like to have on your side during a fight, but each of them was bloody nuisance in times of peace.

Read more: http://www.examiner.ie/opinion/columnists/ryle-dwyer/some-war-of-independence-leaders-were-just-a-bloody-nuisance-later-86739.html#ixzz1WnZBood0

West Cork, revisited: 2. Some more historical background ...

This piece, let it be remembered, sprang from the political assassination of Vice-Admiral Henry Boyle Townshend Somerville.

Let's ignore the affection of "Townshend" -- that was claiming collateral descent from the Townshends of West Raynham, Norfolk. The first Townsend into Ireland, a Cromwellian captain and adventurer, probably from Dorset, took a variation of the Townshend arms when he received his land-grant.

The combination of those given names, though, tells us that we are deep into the intricacies of Anglo-Irish gentry. At a quick look, this involves the Fitzgeralds and the de Burghs and the Barrys and the Synges and ... many more. In other words, the Vice-Admiral could prove Irish (and, no, not just "Anglo-Irish") ancestry back, at least, to the twelfth century, and by the "Old English" marrying into pre-Norman Irish clans, into distant pre-history. It also means that Tom Barry, the IRA captain who ordered the old man's assassination, shared at least a name in the Somerville matrilinear ancestry.

The first of the Somervilles to arrive in Ireland seems to be the Reverend William Somerville, accompanied by his wife, Agnes, and their two sons, William and Thomas. That was around 1692. Some sources suggest that Somerville had left presbyterian Scotland because of prejudice against Anglicans and episcopalians.

The young Thomas Somerville followed his father into the Church, married a widow (a useful financial move in those days) and sired five sons (four whom seem to have emigrated to the American colonies) and four daughters.

By the third Irish generation, the Somervilles were inter-marrying with the Townsends of Castletownsend, which village became the family base through to the twentieth century.

As a pallid youth, Malcolm even shared Somerville tea at Castletownsend. No doubt about it: by that time, terms like "decayed gentry" and "distressed gentry-folk" were not far amiss.

It needs to be remembered that the Great Famine devastated not just the Irish peasantry but also the landlord class. Resident Irish landlords could not, and did not ignore the plight of their tenants: with few exceptions, they had been investing and encouraging agricultural improvements over decades. With the Famine, they were confronted with a disaster far beyond their comprehension -- and their means.

If one needs real villains of the piece, look to the absentee landlords, living in England, interested only in rack-renting their Irish estates.

... where they ate the donkeys

By a coincidence, Malcolm found himself browsing Stuart McLean's book on an Gorta Mór: The Event and Its Terrors: Ireland, Famine, Modernity. He started to pay closer attention when he came to the passage on Skibbereen, Schull (an old stamping ground) and, in particular, Rev. Richard Townsend.

Here, in full, and at some length, it is:

Conditions in Skibbereen, County Cork, close to Ireland's southern-most tip, were made known to the British reading public during the winter of 1846-47 in part through the writings and illustrations of James Mahony, a Cork-born artist, employed by the Illustrated London News to report on conditions in his native locality."Sketches" (published on February 20) he gave a description and sketch of the hut of a man named Mullins, “who lay dying in a corner on a heap of straw, supplied by the Relief Committee, whilst his three wretched children crouched over a few embers of a turf fire, as if to raise the last spark of life.” Mullins, it turned out, had buried his wife some days previously. He himself had been found in a state of unconsciousness by the local Protestant clergyman, whose efforts had succeeded in pronging his life by a few days. In the accompanying illustration, the children crowd around the fire with their backs turned. Mullins himself lies center-right, his face partially averted and his eyes closed.
Reports about Skibbereen had been appearing with increasing frequency since the autumn of 1846. In early December, two Protestant clergymen, the Reverend Caulfied and the Reverend Richard Townsend (whose bulletins concerning conditions in the district had been published in newspapers in both Britain and Ireland) had travelled to London to meet with Trevelyan. They had informed him that the government relief schemes were failing, that no “practical and responsible persons of property and respectability” had come forward to form a relief committee, and that in consequence, no subscriptions had been collected. The committee, now in a "state of suspension, was unable to take effective action. The only employment in the district was on public works, which, at 8 pence a day, was insufficient to feed a family. Caulfield himself had been dispensing soup at his own house each day to between sixty or seventy people, who would otherwise have starved. Trevelyan was asked to send emergency supplies of food, but none were sent. On December 15, the commissioners of the Board of Works had written an official letter to the British government, giving notice of the extreme destitution at Skibbereen. Trevelyan responded by writing to his commissary general. Sir Randolph Routh, advising him he should not send emergency supplies, in the absence of an effective relief committee at local level, because to do so would deplete government stocks; nor was he to consider the purchase of further supplies from overseas, thus interfering with the trade of local merchants. Appeals for Skibbereen received an official response in the form of a treasury minute, written by Trevelyan on behalf of the lords of the treasury, on January 8, 1847:
It is their Lordships' desire that effectual relief should be given to the inhabitants of the district in the neighborhood of Skibbereen …local Relief Committees should be stimulated to the utmost possible extent; soup kitchens should be established under the management of those Committees at such distances as will render them accessible to all destitute inhabitants and ... liberal donations should be made by Govcrnment in aid of funds raised by local subscriptions.
As a result, Skibbereen received no emergency supplies of food. although two soup kitchens were started with privately collected funds after the visit of a commissariat officer. Richard Inglis. on December 17.



http://redfellow.blogspot.com/2009/10/west-cork-revisited-2.html