Appeals fall on deaf ears. The people neither see, hear nor say anything – Review of ‘The Field’ in The Stage, 4 November 1965
It is generally accepted that The Field, a 1960s play by the late Listowel writer, John B Keane, is a thinly disguised account of the Reamore murder which took place in 1958. The body of 50-year-old Maurice (Moss) Moore was found near his home in north Kerry on 15 November. He had been strangled. His neighbour, Dan Foley, was questioned about the murder but not prosecuted.[1]
An earlier murder at Rathea, however, is reckoned to be more in keeping with the subject of Keane’s play than the Reamore case, both taking place in north Kerry, and both involving land related disputes. It has been speculated that the association of the clergy in the Rathea case may have hitherto stifled this hypothesis.
The Rathea murder, which occurred in 1935, followed a growing dispute over house and land at Gortacloghane near Listowel. The property at the centre of the affair was that of Father James Galvin who died a few months before the murder took place.
Father Galvin, who was educated at St Brendan’s College, Killarney and the Irish College, Paris, was ordained on 19 June 1913 at Maynooth. He ministered as a curate in Tarbert but suffered ill health and in about 1928, returned home to his mother, Catherine Galvin at Gortacloghane. He had built a house there in about 1922.[2]
Father Galvin was one of eight or more children of James and Catherine Galvin (née Power).[3] James Galvin senior died c1892.[4] His death occurred about four months after the birth of Annie, the youngest of the family.[5] In November 1928, Annie Galvin, against her family’s wishes, married neighbour James Lyons who was about ten years her junior. It appears she was pregnant. James, like Annie, was one of eight or more children of farmer John Lyons (1854-1939) of Gortacloghane and his wife Johanna Heffernan of Kilmorna.[6]
After the marriage, Annie and James lived for a while with his relatives in Newcastle West. It was suggested James deserted Annie on occasion, and in 1929, she moved back to Gortacloghane to live with her mother, now resident in the home of Father Galvin. Her son Stephen had married and now occupied the main family residence where he managed, and was the registered owner of, the entire 100 Irish acre farm. In 1930, when Annie’s sister Ellen, who was housekeeper to James, became unwell, Annie took on the role of helper.
Mrs Catherine Galvin died on 29 June 1934. Family tensions were evident when Annie did not (or was warned not to) attend the funeral on 1st July 1934. Father Galvin subsequently decided to make a new will, which he did on 8 December 1934. His assets, consisting of a house and an acre and a perch of land on which his house stood, were bequeathed to Annie. In return, he asked that Annie and her husband look after him as he was a sick man and believed ‘the rest of his family had deserted him.’
In February 1935, Annie’s husband moved in with his wife in the residence of Father Galvin at Gortacloghane. A number of disputes subsequently took place between James Lyons and his brother-in-law and neighbour, Stephen Galvin, evidently over fencing and straying of cattle. It was alleged that Stephen Galvin threatened Lyons with a gun.
Father Galvin died from bronchial pneumonia on 30 March 1935 aged 47. His funeral was held in the parish church, Listowel and he was laid to rest in Duagh.
There was fifteen feet of trampled ground red with blood … it was apparent Lyons had crawled to the spot where his body was found
The poor relations between the two families intensified. Stephen Galvin disputed his brother’s will and requested Annie to sign the property to him. Indeed, a hearing was listed in the circuit court for 11 July 1935.
On 20 April 1935, James Lyons made a formal complaint about Stephen Galvin to Sergeant Deasey, Listowel. On the night of Sunday 30 June/morning of 1 July 1935, as the date of the disputed will approached, an altercation took place between Stephen Galvin and James Lyons near a dividing fence between the properties. An iron bar and slash hook were used as weapons.
James Lyons was found dead in his potato field the next morning. A report of the incident described James as ‘a young and popular 33 year old farmer.’[7] Stephen Galvin was arrested for the murder of James Lyons, but claimed he had been set upon by him and acted in self-defence.
The trial took place in the Central Criminal Court, Dublin in December 1935. Stephen Galvin was found not guilty and discharged.
The following year, in April 1936, Annie Lyons sought to establish the validity of Father Galvin’s will in Listowel Circuit Court before Judge Edward John McElligott, KC. Stephen Galvin sought to set the will aside on the grounds that the deceased testator was not of sound mental capacity at the time the will was made.
In an effort to prove the incapacity of Father Galvin, it was revealed that he had suffered a period of mental breakdown in 1930 and had spent two short periods in institutional care. Dr Cashman of the Cork Mental Hospital, who examined Fr Galvin in the Lindville Mental Hospital (formerly Lindville Private Lunatic Asylum), Ballintemple, Cork, where Father Galvin spent three weeks, diagnosed progressive chronic melancholia.[8] He informed the court that Father Galvin would not have improved from the condition and ‘it would be nothing short of a miracle if he did.’
It was shown that Father Galvin also spent sixteen days in Killarney Mental Hospital.[9] Dr E O’Sullivan, RMS, who treated the reverend there, diagnosed depression and acute melancholia. He informed the court that in his opinion, Father Galvin would not have been capable of making a will on 8 December 1934.
However, it also transpired that Stephen Galvin was bound, under a marriage agreement, to maintain Father Galvin but had failed to do so adequately. Father Galvin was owed money by Stephen Galvin who had failed to pay him an annuity for a number of years.
Father Galvin had made his new will on the grounds that he did not wish to be under the care of Stephen Galvin but under the care of his sister, Annie. He provided a letter of consent to the new will and, at the request of his solicitor, was medically examined by Dr Joseph Maguire, Listowel. He bequeathed everything to Annie except a gramophone and records which he intended for his niece. He left his books to his sister Kate, a nun. Dr Joseph Maguire considered Father Galvin to be quite normal at the time of the making of the will.
It also transpired that shortly before Father Galvin’s death, his brothers Michael and Jeremiah went to his solicitor, Mr R A Macaulay, Listowel, to state that Father Galvin wished to change his will again. Mr Macaulay, who became solicitor for Father Galvin in 1934, consulted Dr Maguire, who attended Father Galvin and found he had a fever. Dr Maguire considered that making a will at that time and in that condition might be ‘a menace to his life.’
Judge McElligott, who described the case as ‘a nauseous contest,’ and ‘sad and sordid,’ also heard evidence from Mr Hartnett, a neighbour of Father Galvin. Mr Hartnett informed the court that he assisted in minding Father Galvin when he returned from the period in care in 1930, when he found him ‘very bad … in the midst of a sane conversation he would suddenly suggest something else.’
Judge McElligott asked Mr Hartnett if he knew a man named Jeremiah Maher of Clanoughter, Glin, a relative of Stephen and Annie Galvin, and Mr Hartnett replied that he did. The judge informed him that Jeremiah Maher had written to ‘a gentleman in Limerick’ urging that gentleman ‘to influence my decision in this case’ to the benefit of Stephen Galvin.
Judge McElligott, a native of Listowel, described it as ‘shocking and improper’ and a terrible business that ‘the miseries of this poor priest should be discussed in open court.’[10] He described as ‘incredible’ the suggestion that Father Galvin was insane at the time of making his will on 8 December 1934. The will was admitted to probate.
It is not clear if Annie Lyons continued to reside at Gortacloghane. She later lived at 13 Courthouse Road, Listowel and died on 11 May 1966.[11] Stephen Galvin of Gortacloghane died in Listowel District Hospital on 22 June 1971.
Unmasking Bull McCabe?
In the years before the death of James Lyons, Stephen Galvin was the subject of a number of news reports. In 1923, he had a narrow escape from an infuriated bull:
While ‘ringing’ a powerful two-year-old bull, Mr Stephen Galvin, Gortoclohane, Listowel had a narrow escape from death by the timely appearance of a boy named Barty Dillon who, with splendid courage, beat off the infuriated beast and rescued Mr Galvin from an otherwise hopeless position.[12]
In 1932, Stephen Galvin was thrown onto the road outside the library in Listowel when the bellyband on his pony gave way. Gardai McCabe came to the rescue:
The pony jumped and threw Mr Galvin onto the road. The pony, still attached to one side of the trap, cantered through the town at great speed and even though the greatest efforts were made to stop him by Gardai McCabe and Ward, they were unable to do so.[13]
These colourful accounts of the bull and Garda McCabe would certainly have provided entertaining and lasting conversation in the locality. It is perhaps more than curious that J B Keane selected the name Bull McCabe for his lead character in The Field.
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[1] For an account of this murder, see ‘A Community on Trial’: An Overview of Murder at Dromulton http://www.odonohoearchive.com/a-community-on-trial-an-overview-of-murder-at-dromulton/ (Collection Reference: IE MOD/C73). [2] The site was not formally conveyed to him until 1933. [3] Jeremiah (Jerry), Ballyhennessy; Stephen, Gortacloghane; Michael, Tarbert; reverend James, Gortacloghane; Margaret, married Thomas O’Connor, died at her residence in Lisselton, 13 May 1912; Daughter married Thomas Fitzgerald, Tarbert; Kate (otherwise Rev Mother Benignus, Cahirciveen); Annie, married James Lyons, Gortacloghane. A report (1936) of the disputed Will of James Galvin mentions John, Michael, Stephen, James, Margaret (deceased), Ellen (deceased), Mollie and Kate (nun). [4] Tithe records (1823-37) document the farms and occupiers at Gortaclahane as Pat Shanahan, Charles Kelly, James Galivan and Matt and David Dillane. There is evidence that the district suffered like so many during the Land War. James Galvin was boycotted in 1882 (‘Outrage in County Kerry’ Dublin Daily Express, 4 November 1882). See also ‘Boycotting in Listowel,’ Tralee Chronicle, 4 January 1881 where one John Gallivan had taken the farm of a man named Shanahan at Gortaclahan. On 7 January 1886 the house of James D Gallavin of Gortacloghan (and others in the neighbourhood) was the subject of a moonlight raid for arms. In 1887, James D Gallivan and James J Gallivan of Gortacloghane (parish of Kilshenane) numbered among those whose arms licences were revoked under the Peace Preservation Act. [5] Annie Galvin was born on 4 August 1881. Catherine Gallivan, widow, of Gortaclohan was summoned by George Hewson Esq, Ennismore, Co Kerry in January 1892 in the sum of £410.00 (Commercial Gaxette (London), 3 February 1892). [6] Census 1901: John Lyons (45), Johanna Lyons (30), Mary 5, Katie 4, Honora 3, Hannah 2, James 4 months. Census 1911: John Lyons (58) and Johanna Lyons (42), Catherine 13, Honora 12, Johanna 11, James 10, Elizabeth 8, Thomas 7, John Joseph 3, Ellie Maria 1. [7] Kerry Champion, 6 July 1935. [8] Lindville Private Lunatic Asylum, designed by William Atkins, was erected by Dr Osborne (or Osburne) in 1855. A Roman Catholic chapel was added in 1908. The red brick asylum was demolished to make way for a housing development completed circa 2000. ‘The Church Restaurant,’ Skibbereen, Cork, utilised salvage from Lindville in the façade of the downstairs bathroom of the restaurant. Notes on Lindville in Blackrock Portrait of a Cork Suburb in 1916 by Diarmuid O Drisceoil. There is an image of Lindville Asylum in 1911 in Cork in Old Photographs (1983) by Tim Cadogan. [9] Further reference to this institution in Asylum A Record of the Church of Ireland in St Finan’s Hospital, Killarney (2014) by Janet Murphy and Eileen Chamberlain. [10] Edward John McElligott (1874-1946), fourth son of Gerald McElligott, Mount Rivers, Listowel. He was educated at St Vincent’s College, Castleknock and in 1896, was called to the Bar. He joined the Munster Circuit and became a well-known figure at the Cork, Limerick, Tralee and Ennis assizes. During the troubled times he was one of the best known and successful defenders of Republican forces at courts martial, his oratory and grip of legal points being reinforced by his quiet but intense patriotism. He was the first judge appointed for the South Western Circuit when the Courts of Justice Act came into force in 1924. He married in 1912 Margaret Hilda (1888-1972), daughter of Colonel J N Cahill, JP, Ballyconra House, Co Kilkenny. They had one son, Niall (or Neil) Martin McElligott (1915-1989). [11] Irish Press, 12 May 1966. Funeral from St Mary’s Church, Listowel to Duagh Cemetery. An account of this case by Kay O’Leary names the benefactor of Annie’s will as Maureen Daugharty (‘Will the real Bull McCabe stand up?’ Lyraecrompane & District Journal, November 2024 (Issue 15). pp56-61). [12] Freeman’s Journal, 5 November 1923 & Offaly Independent, 10 November 1923, ‘The Boy and the Bull.’ [13] Irish Examiner, 8 July 1932. Fortunately, another car coming in the opposite direction gave Gardai sufficient time to catch the animal.
