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In remembering Dr. Edward Mac Lysaght we
acknowledge the pioneering efforts of a man who dedicated himself to developing
excellent farm practices in Raheen from 1910 onwards; who founded a
Nua-Ghaeltacht among his family and workforce; was a member of the first Senate
from 1922 to 1925; edited a magazine in Irish, An Sguab; and who in
later life engaged his considerable talents to the study of genealogy and the
collection of manuscripts which gave us an exciting insight into our past
history.
Youth
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Edward Mac Lysaght was born in Flax Bourton near
Bristol. His father, S R Lysaght, was born in Hazelwood near Mallow Co. Cork. He
descended from the old Irish family Mac Giolla Iasachta, whose origins were said
to date back to Brian Boru. His mother Kathryn Clarke came from Lincolnshire,
where her forbears, originally from Offaly, had settled two generations
previously. S R was employed as a principal in the Orb, Ironworks founded by his
uncle John Lysaght.
Edward got his schooling in Nash House, Bristol,
and afterwards was sent to Rugby College, and to Corpus Christi College in
Oxford to study law. He spent only two terms in Oxford, and having hurt his leg
in a rugby match spent 6 months recuperating in a caravan overlooking the sea at
Lahinch, Co. Clare. He became a fluent Irish speaker as he had to converse in
Irish with the fishermens’ wives who sold fish in Lahinch and Liscannor. He
became friendly with several Mac Lysaght families whose ancestors had been
driven from their homes in Limerick and Cork into North Clare.
This bird’s eye view of history concurred with
his own idea of English occupation of Ireland, a subject he spoke loudly on at
English school gatherings and earned him the nickname ‘the wild Irishman’. His
father and mother travelled the world on behalf of the Orb and had very little
idea of how Edward was progressing. When S R returned in August 1909 he found
Edward had done a six month apprenticeship with a farmer in Somerset, and had no
intention of returning to full-time study.
Pioneer Farming in
Raheen 1910-1956
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After much discussion with S R it was decided to
buy Morland’s farm of 600 acres in Raheen. This farm had been let run fallow by
the previous owner. SR received a solemn promise from Edward that he would work
it as full-time manager/workman. This onerous job he undertook in 1910 and even
though he had very little experience of farming he soon became adept at all the
farm tasks with the exception of ploughing.
As AE remarked, ‘I have an obscure delight in
watching the transformation of the Oxford undergraduate into the skilled farmer
who, because he was not born to it, but got his skill by hard work, takes more
pride in it than the farmer on the land ever feels.’ He spent the day working in
the fields with the workmen and out of this experience came a great appreciation
of the dignity of farm labouring but he was determined to greatly improve the
results of that labour. He bought a generator which produced electric light in
Raheen 40 years before rural electrification, he built a limekiln which produced
lime as a fertilizer, he set up a sawmill which cut logs. He put together a pure
bred Shorthorn Dairy herd. He won many prizes with these animals in the Royal
Dublin Society from 1911 onwards. He founded Mac Lysaght’s Nurseries and he set
in train a farm apprentice scheme by which young men of means could learn the
rudiments of farming for a fee. But it was not all work and no play in Raheen as
S R funded the building of a handball alley at Tuamgraney in 1911 which has, to
this day, nurtured top class handballers such as the Kirby Brothers and has also
given enjoyment to the boys and girls of Tuamgraney for many years.
Founder of
Nua-Ghaeltacht in Raheen 1915
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Edward had a reasonable knowledge of Irish when
he took over Raheen but his interest in it as a national language was much
sharpened by his contact with the leaders of the Gaelic League in Dublin, where
he stayed for a period after his marriage to Mabel Pattison in 1913. The League
was at its zenith in this period with 933 branches countrywide. Edward decided
with the co-operation of Father Seán Ó Dea, Padraig Ó Cadhla and Conor Clune and
the cooperation of the workforce to promote a Nua-Ghaeltacht in Raheen. He built
a clubhouse which would be a place of entertainment for himself, the workers and
their families and this through the medium of Irish. He gave scholarships to
workers to the Irish College at Carragaholt so that all would have a working
knowledge of the language, be it in the office, in the kitchen, in the dairy, or
in the fields sowing or planting trees. He employed native speakers from
Gaeltachtaí in Ring, Kerry, and Connemara to facilitate the speaking of Irish on
a daily basis among the Raheen community. The descendants of the Ó Neill and Ó
Cadhla families still live in Tuamgraney.
Active in the War of
Independence 1918-1921
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Edward staunchly supported the War for
Independence, and especially that of the efforts of the East Clare Brigade led
by the Brennan brothers. His office in Raheen was a meeting place for the
Volunteers and guns, documents, ammunition were hidden under a big stone wall
and were never found even though the house was raided on 26 occasions in the
space of 2 years. This continuous war activity led to the near demise of many of
the projects so carefully nurtured by Edward on the farm. Meetings were banned,
and ordinary work was curtailed because of the curfew and the indiscriminate
firing by the Tans as they drove by the farm on their way to and from Killaloe.
The transport of farm produce was stopped by roadblocks, and drivers were turned
home unless an oath was taken to proscribe Sinn Fein. Edward tried to get some
produce across Lough Derg by motor boat, but the Tans sunk it. Edward backed
Eamonn de Valera’s election in East Clare and loaned him his car for the
election period. In November 1920 his lifelong friend, Conor Clune of Quin, was
shot along with Dick Mc Kee and Peadar Clancy. On the day of Conor Clune’s
funeral the Tans raided Raheen House and wrecked it. Edward went to the
opposition parties in London on behalf of Sinn Féin to publicise the brutality
of the Tan warfare, and when he returned he was arrested and imprisoned in
Dublin. His solicitor C J Denroche saved him from being shot.
Senator 1922-1925
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Edward was appointed to the first Senate by the
Free State Government in 1922, to promote the use of Irish among that body. This
was the most difficult assignment of his life as only four members understood
Irish and a great majority of the others were averse to an Irish Ireland. The
chairman of the Senate was Lord Glenavy a close friend of Edward Carson’s and he
spent much time mocking the attempts of the Irish to govern themselves. The
Civil War was over, but the rancour it inflicted on the Irish mind would take
many years to heal. Edward spoke on 43 bills in the Senate and took part in 30
debates on other subjects. He lost his seat in the Senate in 1925.
Founder of
An Sguab 1922-1925
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Edward, Pádraig Ó Cadhla and Bríd and Donncha Ó
Réagáin founded An Sguab, a magazine in Irish which reflected the ideas of Irish
people of its day i.e. that of de-Anglicising Ireland and sweeping all remnants
of English power from Ireland, hence the title An Sguab (The Brush). It
was a most difficult time to launch a magazine in Irish, or in any language, as
the country was in great turmoil after years of war, resulting in the
destruction of all communication systems in the South and West. Eamonn and his
team pursued this project with vigour resulting in a monthly sale of 1000 copies
of An Sguab. This operation lasted for three years with Edward combining the
role of Editor and Manager.
Member of Governing
Bodies of Cork and Galway Universities 1926-1935
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When Fr. Seán Ó’Dea resigned from his position
as member of the governing body of Galway University, Edward was chosen by Clare
County Council as its representative on that body. A few years later he was the
Government appointee to the Board of Governors of Cork University. It was
unfortunate for Edward that Cork University Board was riven by two factions, one
led by President Merriman, the other by the Registrar, Alfred O’Rahilly. Edward
took a neutral stance, which meant that any change he wished to bring about was
stymied by the intractability of both sides. In those years he had returned to
academic life and was writing a thesis on his ancestry, ‘A Short Study of a
Transplanted Family’ under the tutelage of Professor James Hogan. This was
followed by his treatise on the Cromwellian Occupation in Ireland, which he
published as ‘Irish Life in the Seventeenth Century’. This work received much
acclaim for its excellent research and for which he received a Doctor of
Literature some years later.
Journalist in South
Africa 1936-1938
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In 1936 Edward decided to leave farming and to
make a living as a journalist in Capetown, South Africa, where he married Mary
Frances Cunneen. He had been in South Africa on several occasions previously,
twice on trading missions for the Free State Government. Now he was on a
different footing, having to make a living as a freelance journalist. He secured
work with the Rand Daily Mail and the Capetown Argos and he
settled down with his wife and son William, and all seemed well. After some time
he was restrained from writing on the subjects of Race, Religion and Politics, a
constraint which greatly narrowed his field of writing, and brought him into
sharp conflict with religious and political bigotry. This created a major
difficulty for him as a writer and, with a reduced income, he was looking
forward to returning to Ireland – his spiritual home which he loved so dearly.
It was here that he compiled an excellent book An Afraic Theas.
Inspector for
Irish
Manuscripts Commission 1939-1943
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In 1938 he spent a year cataloguing Irish
manuscripts in the British Museum under the direction of the scholar Robin
Flower. But he regarded exile in London as a dire punishment and he returned to
Ireland in 1939 as Inspector for The Irish Manuscripts Commission – a body which
oversaw the collecting of manuscripts kept in the Big Houses and which were a
great source of social history and genealogy. He spent four years travelling the
country in search of these manuscripts. At the end of his term in 1943 he had 87
collections edited and had 700 Irish manuscripts collected.
Chief Herald of
Ireland 1943-1949
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In 1943 Edward was asked to take charge of the
Office of Arms in Dublin Castle. The Office was one of the last bastions of
English authority in Ireland. It did not pass to Irish rule in 1922 as it was
founded by King’s writ and was above the writ of parliament. In 1943 the Office
was renamed Chief Herald of Ireland. The function of the office had been to test
the veracity of grandiose titles which people took to themselves, such as The O
Callaghan, The O Malley, and O Connor Donn. Edward found himself working in a
difficult environment as the Office and its work was totally English orientated.
He was faced with an amazing backlog of work which took years to get through.
But he learned a great deal about genealogy, a subject he dearly loved.
Keeper of Manuscripts
in National Library 1949-1954
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In 1949 Edward took up his new post as Keeper of
Manuscripts in the National Library of Ireland in which he had the onerous task
of cataloguing the thousands of manuscripts which had accumulated in the
library. When he started work in 1949 there were 847 manuscripts catalogued, and
five years later there were 9000 manuscripts catalogued. He also catalogued the
parish registers of the country, which in itself was a mammoth task. He loved
this work as he felt he was rolling back the pages of history as he checked each
manuscript. He gathered a fount of knowledge from 1939-1954 in the whole area of
genealogy which resulted in the publication of his book Irish Families
in 1957 and was later reprinted and enlarged in ’72, ‘78, ’85 and ’91. He also
carried on a voluminous correspondence with people of Irish extraction from all
over the world who wanted to trace their roots and found in him a patient
listener and a conscientious researcher.
Chairman of Irish
Manuscripts Commission 1956-1973
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When Edward retired from his work in the
National Library, it seemed as if he could look forward to another period of
nursery tending in Raheen. But after two years he was appointed Chairman of the
Manuscripts Commission. The work was that of publishing, in book form,
manuscript material deemed to be of historical importance.
This was his heart’s desire but the monetary
problem stood in his way. Lack of funding created another problem, the National
Library was rapidly running out of space while there were large volumes of
manuscript material being unearthed around the Continent and in Ireland. He
served on several deputations to the Department of Education pleading for the
provision of extra space, but to little avail until 1982 when the National
Archives were opened in Dublin. In his ninetieth year he was the guest of honour
at a dinner given by The Thomond Archaeological Society of which he was the
oldest member. He died in Dublin on March 4th 1986 and was buried in Tuamgraney.
Author and Historian
The amount of
Edward Mac Lysaght’s published work is monumental. It spanned an active writing
period of 71
years in the realms of fiction and academic work, from his first book of verse
Irish Eclogues in 1915 to his
final work on Irish family names in 1986. He wrote four books in Irish, fifteen
in English. He edited sixty-one
compilations of manuscript material for the Irish Manuscript Commission. He left
a legacy of learning in its
many facets to the people of Ireland, for which we as a nation are extremely
grateful and proud. |
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