Bullet holes, botháns, Brownes and a fountain

TALKING HISTORY Pictured on a recent Westport Historical Tour from left: Sr Dolores Grady, Brónach Joyce (Clew Bay Heritage Centre, Guide), Tom McArville and Gary O’Hagan.

Westport’s guided tour is much more than a walk of its historic streets

Áine Ryan

STANDING under the statue of St Patrick on Westport’s Octagon will never quite feel the same again for this Mayo News hack with an interest in history. That is courtesy of the fascinating facts and colourful anecdotes learned on last Wednesday’s tour of the  town, by Clew Bay Heritage Centre’s guide, Ms Brónach Joyce.  
Turns out the patron saint is a relative newcomer to the prominent plinth. The original incumbent was George Glendenning (1770-1843), son of a rector and  an agent for the Browne family  of Westport House.  Apparently, he was happily ensconced overlooking the town, and all he could survey, until the Free State Army started taking pot-shots at him during the War of Independence. Billeted in the nearby Town Hall in 1922 and with nationalistic ideals at fever pitch, the soldiers amused themselves in the evenings by shooting at the statue. Just stand on the Octagon and look up: the bullet holes are still visible.  Hilariously, Glendenning’s head was eventually blown off by one of their marksmen and according to local lore, used as a football on the Octagon afterwards.
Indeed, Brónach Joyce, reveals that decades later the headless statue was gifted to Clew Bay Heritage Centre, which is situated at the Quay.

Local lore
THE weekly Wednesday morning scheduled tour attracts visitors from around the world, Ms Joyce explains.
“There are visitors who have no connection to the town or the west of Ireland and those whose forebears came from the town or area. If you get locals, I invariably end up learning some new snippet of history. We also run tours by appointment during the winter months and have lots of schoolchildren. This spring we hosted several tours of alumni and lecturers  from various universities in the US. These kinds of groups often take a tour at the beginning of their holiday to get a sense of the place,” she said.
The scheduled summer tour, which concludes tomorrow (Wednesday, August 31) for the season, convenes at the Clock with Brónach Joyce sweeping back over the centuries to the origins of the O’Malley clan,  the time of famous pirate queen, Granuaile, and their ongoing connection to Westport House.
Brónach Joyce wove a cross-century tapestry which painted pictures of the  beginnings of Cathair na Mart, with  its higgledy-piggledy clutter of bothΡns and the development by the Browne family of the planned town, the only one of its type in Connacht.
After leaving the Octagon, we followed our guide down James Street, stopping at the Browne’s town house – now the offices of social welfare services –   to which they decamped during the Great Famine years as they couldn’t afford to pay the rates on the main house.

Holy Trinity Church
ACROSS the Doris Brothers’ Bridge, Holy Trinity Church was a hive of activity with volunteers selling crafts as part of its fundraising drive. This Church of Ireland was officially opened in 1872, replacing the original parish church whose ruins can still be seen in Westport demesne.
Ms Joyce shared one colourful vignette, which added to the church’s rich historical and architectural narrative: The pulpit in Holy Trinity is made from alabaster taken from a shipwreck in Clew Bay.
Back along the tree-lined Mall we heard about Major John MacBride’s legacy, the Browne’s establishment of the now closed Railway Hotel, their Dower House (now Credit Union House) and, of course, how the meandering Carrowbeg River was canalised to gurgle and dance in perfect formation through the town.
Over at The Fairgreen she told us the story of The Fountain. It was erected by the townspeople in memory of Dr Johnson, a medical officer for Westport Workhouse who died in 1904.
Longtime Westport resident, Brónach Joyce is a FΡilte Ireland approved guide whose passion for history and her adopted home-town brings an energy and novelty to the story she tells. It is as if she is relating and reliving it for the first time.

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