The mystery French lady who visits Michael Collins’ grave every year

A mysterious French lady will visit Michael Collins' grave once again this year, continuing a 15 year tradition since she fell in love with the Irish revolutionary after watching the movie Michael Collins.

She is known as the “Mysterious French Lady” and she appears like clockwork at his grave and lays them down gently before saying a prayer.

The woman has been identified as Veronique Crombie a lecturer at the French National Museum who admits to a passionate love for the Irish revolutionary.

The 55-year old academic explains her love for the patriot after she saw the movie.

"The draw of seeing the Neil Jordan (director) film three years after it was released appeared to me that it was more than an excellent actor giving a great performance, Michael's life story was finally being told [to the world]," explains the intensely private woman.

She said she cannot explain the magnetism and draw that Collins has on her. Veronique told the Sunday Independent how she was attending an Indian classical dance workshop in the south of France in August 2000 when she felt the inexplicable need to rush to a nearby cathedral and light a candle for Collins.

“On the 22nd, the date he was shot dead, was the decisive moment which helped me understand that definitely, sooner of later I would have to go to Ireland to know more and that going to his grave would show me the way. That Michael himself was drawing me to continue on his story,” she said. “I’m not the only one who feels that way, my friend, author Chrissy Osborne, told me time and again, when she published her first book about Michael, Michael Collins Himself and also the second one, Michael Collins, A Life in Pictures, that she had always felt that it was Michael who wanted those two books to be written and published because both were a different approach to recounting his life.

Michael Collins in London

Having no Irish connections that she knows of, she cannot explain why this "draw" to mark and carry on his name has taken such a hold. But her journeys to Ireland have created friendships that carry the history of the Cork man who died 98 years ago.

An annual candlelight ceremony at his grave, is when she plans to visit Glasnevin Cemetery again.

"The amazing thing was indeed that Mercier Press immediately agreed and wanted to go ahead when Chrissy contacted them to talk about her project, even though she was not a historian, had never written a book and wasn't even a journalist.

Veronique also adds that: "Amazingly, that is also what I felt when I saw Michael Collins -- a Musical Drama, in 2009 . . . The musical was just fantastic, I know it was very special for Bryan Flynn who wrote it and Eoin Cannon who played the part on the three occasions I saw it, and gave a fabulous performance." All three are now good friends. Finally, visiting Collins's grave was a powerful moment for Veronique.

"It is difficult to find words to describe how I felt. It was emotional and tears welled up in my eyes but I didn't cry and I wasn't afraid. It was the start of something that is still with me. When a person dies young an energy is left behind. An energy surrounding things left undone. Speaking to relatives of Michael, they say they feel the same."

So many strangers have now become firm friends due to the politician's and soldier's legacy. Bumping into men who -- without being asked or seeking recompense -- care for his grave, now becomes something of a reunion for Veronique.

"The selfless devotion of Denis Lenihan who has kept Michael's grave for years. Two others, both former army men, James and Ronnie helped Denis out with cleaning the grave and bringing fresh flowers every week.

"I suppose what I do appears more spectacular because it comes from a foreigner but their work shouldn't go unnoticed. Now other people are placing flowers on his grave."

Since her first trip to Dublin, she has become involved in a campaign to Save Moore Street and preserve it as a National Monument. These are the houses where the leaders of the 1916 Rising took shelter when they had to evacuate the GPO and where they made the decision to surrender. It is hoped to create an interpretive centre out of the houses.

"The Hewitt sisters at Rosary Florists do a great job for me on preparing the floral arrangements for Collins's grave. It happens sometimes that I ring them early in the morning saying: 'Sorry to ring you so early but I woke up this morning knowing that Michael needed something, can you have a few red roses delivered to the grave asap?' and there is never a problem.

"Usually I realise in an afterthought that the day is a date of some significance in his life."

Mary Hewitt said that visitors to the grave and callers to the florists are intrigued by the French woman's commitment to the memory of Collins and her devotion to his legacy. A legacy which has formed a part of modern-day Irish politics.

Photo minute: Images of note in history

 Times Square NY 1945

A message to Hitler 1945

Buchenwald Concentration Camp 1945

Otto Frank, father of Anne Frank and only surviving member of their family, in the attic where Anne stayed in hiding

Abandoned boy with stuffed toy elephant in 1945

Albert Einstein in 1945

Old country store in 1938 is southern USA

The moment Goebbels had been told that the photographer taking his photo is Jewish

Mark Twain in 1908

Kicking the can of responsibility down the road

Olympic Council of Ireland president Pat Hickey leaves a police station in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on September 6. Picture: Reuters

HERE comes another inquiry with all bells and whistles attached. The latest revelations about Nama’s disposal of its assets in the North looks set to open up fresh prairies of investigation in this state.

The filming of an adviser to Nama in the North apparently accepting a bag with £40,000 in cash from a developer appears to have pushed over the line the requirement for an inquiry down here.

There has been a smell off Nama’s business in the North since Mick Wallace first told the Dáil in July 2015 that £7m had been deposited in an offshore account as a pay-off associated with the sale of Nama’s assets in the North.

For over a year, the Government rejected calls for a full-blown inquiry on the basis that there are inquiries, including a criminal investigation, afoot in the North and in the US over the deal. Fianna Fáil has largely supported the Government’s stance on the matter, but now the smell has become a stench.

A commission of investigation, the mother and father of all inquiries these days, looks set to be established. A hunt will be undertaken to track down an idle, retired judge, a species that is becoming increasingly rare in these inquiry saturated days.

Once a commission is established the whole affair will be off the political agenda and deemed out of bounds. Any political reckoning will be placed on the never-never. In the Nama controversy, this amounts largely to a question as to whether the agency was put under political pressure to sell off assets quicker than its original design allowed for. In such a scenario, the potential opened up for the exchequer to get fleeced as a price for the political capital that might accrue to the Government.

Any such question will be long-fingered with an actual result most likely due between two and four years into the retirement of Michael Noonan and Enda Kenny.

So like much else, the Nama inquiry will be another problem to be long-fingered by the coalition for kicking the can down the road.

A huge chunk of the business of government has been thrust onto the never-never in this fashion. Apart from Nama, there are commisisons of investigation afoot into alleged Garda malpractice, alleged sweetheart deals in the IBRC/Siteserv, and alleged ticket touting at the Olympic games.

An inquiry has also been completed into the case of alleged abuse of “Grace”, the disabled girl whose experiences in a foster home in the South-East were highlighted

That inquiry is at a stage where the minister of state concerned, Finian McGrath, is examining whether it can be referred to a full commission of inquiry.

All of these have about them the common theme of kicking the can down the road. In each case, the Government has effectively silenced controversy by setting up an inquiry. What is noticeable is the difference in approach to establishing these inquiries.

Some, such as Fennelly (into taping of calls at Garda stations) and the Rio affair, get off the ground almost immediately.

In both those cases, the fallout is likely to fall on bodies or agencies outside the Cabinet and therefore there is no reluctance to find those who should be held accountable.

This approach differs when dealing with the likes of Siteserv/IBRC and Nama. In these instances, decisions at Cabinet come under close scrutiny and possible criticism. While Messers Noonan and Kenny can fortify themselves in the knowledge that a result won’t be due for years, there is also the matter of their legacies, something politicians hold dear.

It’s not just controversies that involve allegations of wrongdoing that are getting kicked down the road: Two of the most contentious issues of recent years, water and abortion, are also being thrust onto the never-never.

The expert commission on domestic public water services has been handed the task of debating what exactly is the best way to pay for the water infrastructure in this country. There was a time when a government would decide a matter like this, but that was oh so long ago.

At least this commission has done some service for one of the political parties by giving cover to Fianna Fáil to change its principles on paying for water.

An anti-water charges protest in Cork. The issue of paying for water is another one kicked down the road. Picture: Dan Linehan

Heretofore, the party was in favour of some form of water charges but it has now told the commission that it no longer espouses that principle. The people didn’t like Micheál Martin’s principles, so he changed them.

Another handy vehicle to kick another can down the road is the citizens’ assembly which will decide on whether and how to repeal the Eighth Amendment.

In a functioning democracy, the Oireachtas would make this decision, but that would cause headaches for the Cabinet. In a functioning democracy, the people would simply be allowed to have their say on such a primal matter, but that might cause further grief.

So as with much else, the issue is put on the never never, where a decision might be arrived at after the next election, which, in political, terms, is engulfed in a foggy future off on the horizon.

Water woes

- Noel Baker

The issue the Government must wish would simply disappear down the plughole.

Water charges proved to be an issue that many voters wouldn’t swallow, meaning the Government’s planned rollout of payments was stymied from the beginning. First came the sop of the water conservation grant, then the precipitous drop in the number of people making quarterly payments, and finally the general election result. The Government would still prefer to pay for water through charges, but without Labour and down numbers in the Dáil, there was no way it could push it through.

With charges suspended, the expert commission on domestic public water services was formed as part of the agreement which allowed for the formation of the Government. It will make recommendations having considered submissions made before last Friday’s cut-off, but the Fianna Fáil position has hardened. It wants water paid for through general taxation and a scrapping of any charges.

Meanwhile, the European Commission has said Ireland could be fined over the suspension of water charges as it is a signatory to the water framework directive. Like a yard tap on a frosty night, this one will run and run.

Abortion

- Noel Baker

Historically, no single issue has proved as divisive, emotive and, arguably, downright toxic as abortion.

It could be argued Labour’s implosion in the last general election had one silver lining for the Government: The smaller party was committed to holding a referendum on repealing the Eighth Amendment, whereas Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s position was always more circumspect.

Amnesty International and supporters demonstrate outside Government Buildings over the Eighth Amendment and issues surrounding abortion in Ireland. Picture: Rollingnews.ie

The issue hoved back into view after the election when the UN concluded Ireland’s ban on abortion subjected a woman carrying a foetus with a fatal abnormality to discrimination and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

It sparked calls from pro-choice advocates for the Government to change the laws, with pro-life groups equally steadfast in calling for the existing ban to remain in place.

The Government-appointed citizens’ assembly, chaired by Ms Justice Mary Laffoy, is now due to meet next month and the matter of the Eighth Amendment will be top of the agenda.

Just this week People Before Profit TD Brid Smith said: “The citizens’ assembly is really just a cover and kicking to touch an issue that is very urgent.”

Project Eagle

- Noel Baker

Nothing to do with a fictional German plot to kidnap Winston Churchill at the height of the Second World War, nonetheless Project Eagle appears to have its own fair share of intrigue.

Nama, the State’s bad bank, took over property loans made by Irish banks in the North with a book value of more than €6bn. In April 2014, it sold the lot of them in a single transaction, covering 860 properties, to Cerberus, a US investment giant, for about €1.6bn. The codename for the sale within Nama was Project Eagle.

As the biggest property deal in Northern Ireland, the sale was first dogged by controversy after €7m linked to it was found in an Isle of Man bank account.

Project Eagle has been examined on several occasions by the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee and opposition politicians are currently calling for a commission of inquiry. It’s also under investigation by the UK’s National Crime Agency, the US department of justice’s securities and exchange commission, and the subject of a parliamentary inquiry in Stormont.

In August, Finance Minister Michael Noonan received a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General into the sale by Nama of its Northern Ireland properties.

It is due to be published on Wednesday.

‘Undue’ benefits

- Noel Baker

The Apple cart was well and truly upset when the European Commission ruled that Ireland had granted undue tax benefits of up to €13bn to the technology giant, in a move which not only called into question the country’s international reputation, but also caused a significant wobble within the Government.

The finding by European competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager prompted sustained complaint from senior government figures, with Finance Minister Michael Noonan instantly saying that the decision would be appealed.

However, some Independent figures in government, including Finian McGrath and Katherine Zappone, needed to be convinced.

The issue was also complicated by soundings that other EU states would be interested in sharing any €13bn windfall, with Taoiseach Enda Kenny and others stressing that at no time did Apple get a sweetheart deal, and that our tax affairs were entirely our own concern.

According to the Department of Finance, the State has two months and 10 days to lodge the appeal but the European Court process is expected to take several years and it is likely to be a year before there is an oral hearing. Ultimately, the result will have huge ramifications for the country’s finances and economic outlook into the future.

Siteserv sale

- Noel Baker

Siteserv was sold by the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) in March 2012 to the Denis O’Brien-owned firm Millington for €45m.

The deal saw State-owned IBRC (formerly Anglo Irish Bank) write off €110m of its €150m debt, effectively a 70% haircut.

Subsequently, an unsuccessful underbidder raised concerns saying they were prepared to offer more for Siteserv. It also emerged the law firm Arthur Cox advised both Siteserv and Millington on the sale. In 2015, the Siteserv controversy blew up again after Independent TD Catherine Murphy retrieved documents under freedom of information, which revealed a level of official concern over the deal. In an effort to quell the controversy, the Government announced a review of IBRC deals, including Siteserv and a commission of inquiry was set up. The inquiry is investigating the sale of IBRC loans where there was a loss of at least €10m to the taxpayer. Six transactions involved write-offs of over €100m. Last year, the commission’s examination of up to 38 transactions — including the 2012 sale of Siteserv — effectively stalled after the commission’s chairman, Judge Brian Cregan, concluded he did not have sufficient legal powers to proceed. New laws were drafted to allow him continue his work.

‘Grace’ report should clear way for full inquiry

- Noel Baker

The report into the ‘Grace’ case is with Disabilities Minister Finian McGrath, who said just last month that he would aim to bring it to government as soon as possible with a view to early publication.

Finian McGrath: Has received ‘Grace’ report.

The allegations are grave: That decades of sexual abuse of a woman with severe intellectual disabilities who lived in foster care may have been covered up.

The case involves a foster family in the South-east who looked after 47 children and adults with severe intellectual disabilities between 1983 and 2009. The old South Eastern Health Board became aware of concerns about the family as far back as 1992 and three years later removed all of the people in their care.

Yet one woman, given the pseudonym Grace and who turned 18 in 1996, was left with the family for 14 more years, and is alleged to have suffered severe sexual abuse.

The report into matters related to the former foster home was prepared by Conor Dignam SC, who advised some legal procedural and administrative issues should be addressed before the report is published.

Once published, it should open the way to a full commission of investigation into the care of individuals with a disability in the former foster home. The case is also the subject of a garda investigation.

A separate case, based in Cork, is the subject of another review by the HSE and Tusla.

Olympics lap of honour turned into massive headache

- Noel Baker

When OCI president Pat Hickey flew out to Rio for the Olympic Games, it must have seemed like a lap of honour at the end of a glittering career. Instead it has turned into a personal nightmare for Mr Hickey and a massive headache for the Government.

While Mr Hickey has consistently proclaimed his innocence of all the charges levelled at him by Brazilian authorities, the staccato nature of the controversy seemed to catch the Government on the backfoot. Some members of the Dáil were not convinced a non-statutory inquiry would be sufficient to answer the many questions sparked by the tickets scandal.

Transport Minister Shane Ross admitted Mr Hickey “ate me for breakfast” during their meeting in Rio before the latter’s arrest, although he’s bound to be the more chipper of the two men at the moment.

The collective countenance could change if Brazilian authorities do provide the evidence they claim they have that shows widespread abuses regarding the dissemination of tickets.

In addition to the process in Brazil and the inquiry here, the OCI is carrying out its own review, which is likely to conclude in October. Already, some OCI affiliate bodies are querying why everything seems to be on hold and have called for changes in corporate governance.

Given the importance of sport to this country and its international reputation, the outcome of all three probes are eagerly awaited.

Industrial action over pay

- Noel Baker

And now begins the winter of our discontent. That is how some members of the Government might be feeling after the Luas strikes gave way to the on-running (and sometimes non-running) Dublin Bus dispute.

Last week’s two-day stoppage by Dublin Bus staff affected as many as 400,000 commuters daily.

Last week’s two-day stoppage affected as many as 400,000 commuters daily, and more stoppages are planned after workers rejected a Labour Court recommendation on increased wages, to be phased in over three years.

The next stoppage is scheduled for Thursday and Friday of this week. The situation appears to be in deadlock, but given the earlier Luas drivers wrangle, how this plays out could influence how workers elsewhere view their rights to increased pay following years of austerity.

Where the bus drivers go, Dart and train workers could follow. There is also the issue of teachers, who have consistently voiced their concerns not only over central issues such as pay and pupil-teacher ratio, but also over proposed reforms to the curriculum.

Just last month, the Teachers’ Union of Ireland said it may take industrial action over pay discrimination against newly recruited teachers, claiming the removal of qualification allowances from new entrants almost five years ago was effectively a 20% pay cut compared to their colleagues.

Michael Clifford

Two women hanged in 20th century Ireland

Mary Daly and Annie Walshe were both executed for the murder of their husbands

John Daly Jr knew there was a man in the house. The man, a neighbour who lived about 300 yards away, was sitting beside the fire with John’s mother. The two were speaking in low tones - it was the afternoon and John Snr was not at home.

John, 11 years old, was put to bed along with his 10-year-old sister at about 9.30pm on the night of June 16th, 1902. They awoke a short time later, disturbed by a violent commotion outside the house.

The children quickly dressed and followed the noise of shouting out into the yard. Joseph Taylor, the man the children had seen earlier, stood above their father, kicking and punching him.

Their mother, Mary, stood by, watching the attack, as John Snr spoke his last words: “Leave me my life.”

Joseph had been drinking heavily that day. When the attack ended, he grabbed the victim’s two arms and dragged his unconscious body some 70 yards up the field and out of sight. The children heard the “jingling” clang of a pitchfork ring out as Joseph brought it down on John Snr..

The next morning, the children were woken at 7am by Mary. Three hours later, young John was sent to report his father’s death. Sergeant Conlon as identified in an Irish Times report from December 13th, 1902, was the first to arrive at the scene in Clonbrock, Co Laois.

“He went to the place and found the body lying on its left side in a field at the rear of Daly’s house,” the report reads. “There were three wounds on the back of the head and several on the left side of the head.”

When police walked the short distance to Taylor’s house and confronted him, he said he knew nothing about the man lying in the field - he was asleep at 10pm the night before.The police already had experience with Taylor. Five weeks before the murder, following an assault complaint made against him, he told police that Mary had wanted her husband dead and asked him to commit the murder. He refused her request “because he did not wish to be burned in hell”.Taylor was arrested and following further investigation, both he and Mary were tried for the murder of John Daly Snr. The proceedings were kept separate.

In the case of Taylor, some of the facts were clear, according to the judge. “The immoral relations between the prisoner and Daly’s wife were certain. There had for some time been murder in the air.”

It was certain, too, that Taylor was in the neighbourhood that afternoon, and had been drinking. But whether or not he committed the murder was solely down to the jury’s belief in the above testimony of John Daly’s 10 and 11 year old children, “both of whom were unusually intelligent”, the judge said.

After about an hour, the jury found Taylor guilty and he was sentenced to death.

“Taylor, on hearing the sentence, appeared somewhat affected. Speaking, however, in a clear voice, he said: ‘Thank you, my lord; I am an innocent man all the same.’”

He was hanged in Kilkenny on January 8th, 1903.

In the case of Mary Daly, she was also charged with murder. The defence argument was clear. The evidence showed that both Taylor and Daly were drinking heavily that day. The murderer, Taylor, would have been in a “dangerous condition” by the time Mary’s husband arrived home.

The defence counsel argued that even if the young Dalys’ testimony was true, the death was simply the result of a drunken quarrel, “in which a woman like the prisoner would not have the courage to interfere”.

It took about 55 minutes for the jury to find Mary Daly guilty. Despite a recommendation of mercy along with the verdict, she was also sentenced to death. Unlike Taylor, she kept quiet after the sentence was handed down and “was removed in a dazed condition”.

Mary Daly was hanged in Tullamore  gaol on January 9th, 1903. She was the first woman executed in Ireland in the 20th century.

The last woman hanged in Ireland and the second of the 20th century was 31-year-old Annie Walsh from Co. Limerick. Like Mary Daly, she was tried for the murder of her husband, Edward “Ned” Walshe. Also charged was Michael Talbot, Ned’s nephew.

The hanging room in Mountjoy prison, where the last woman to be hanged in Ireland, Annie Daly, was executed. 

When questioned about the death of 61-year-old Ned at the couple’s house, the suspects accused one another. Talbot claimed Annie invited him over to the house on the night of October 24th, 1924 to kill her husband with the promise of a share of the death compensation.

He alleged the three were sitting together when Annie asked Ned to fetch more sticks for the fire. Ned got up, and while he was distracted, Annie picked up a hatchet and hid it beneath her apron. On his return, and with the lamps lowered, she hit him once on the head. She told Talbot to hold her husband’s hands as he stirred on the floor - she then delivered the fatal blow.

Talbot gave this account to police in the presence of Walshe, according to an Irish Times report, and she interrupted him and denied it. Instead, she said, on the same night, Talbot had forced his way into the house, knocked her husband over and shot him in the head with a revolver.“Talbot, in reply to that statement, said that he never carried a revolver in his life,” the report reads.

Walshe and Talbot were both found guilty and hanged in Mountjoy prison in Dublin on August 5th, 1925. Talbot went to the gallows first, followed by Walshe 45 minutes later.
Dean Ruxton

Photo Minute: Images of 2nd Word War in Colour

Francis Cosby (1510-80) and the Tudor conquest of Leinster

Laois and Offaly c. 1562, viewed facing west, the physical view afforded to Cosby and his fellow English adventurers from the Pale side of the Barrow. The atmosphere created is one of a topography as untamed and inaccessible as its inhabitants. (Trinity College, Dublin)

Following Henry VIII’s break with Rome—leaving England diplomatically weakened and strategically vulnerable to her largest European rivals, France and Spain—an increasing number of royal officials regarded the need to consolidate and expand the English lordship of Ireland beyond the confines of the Pale as an urgent matter of self-defence. Henry VIII was the first English king to proclaim himself ‘king of Ireland’ (as distinct from ‘lord of Ireland’), thereby triggering a more proactive, centralising, expanding Crown policy towards Ireland.

In the early sixteenth century the Pale consisted of Dublin and its surrounding counties, from Drogheda to Dalkey, and west through Kildare as far as the Barrow. Immediately to the west lay the Gaelic midlands, which became the target of an initial campaign of Tudor reform—a reform that soon degenerated into conquest and resettlement, a process that began in 1534 and was considered complete by 1603.

Mid-sixteenth-century O’More and O’Connor country

This Tudor conquest was preceded by the collapse of ‘Silken’ Thomas Fitzgerald’s revolt (1534–6) in Kildare against Henry VIII, which exposed the midland Gaelic lordships of the O’Mores of Laois and the O’Connors of Offaly to direct contact with English government at Dublin. Heretofore the Geraldines at Maynooth had acted as a buffer, straddling the Pale with a foot in both camps. By January 1538 the O’Mores had submitted to the new order under the ‘surrender and regrant’ arrangement, which obliged them to accept the rule of English law in return for their recognition by Dublin Castle as lords of Laois. It also provided for a government presence at the fort at Stradbally. This agreement was facilitated by the policy of Tudor reform (as opposed to Tudor conquest) associated with Lord Deputy Anthony St Leger, who held office at various times between 1540 and 1556. The aim was to assimilate the Gaelic and Anglo-Irish lordships into the Tudor state, and its legal basis was the 1541 ‘act for the kingly title’, which provided for equality for all Irish subjects before the law and under the king of England. This reform was most favoured by the ‘doves’ among the Pale officials, principally the Old English, and their hope was that it would lead to a peaceful assimilation and the gradual adoption by the Irish of English laws, habits and customs. Especially important was the acceptance of primogeniture, whereby lands must be passed on to the eldest son rather than by the Gaelic method of selection from a wider kin-group.

In 1547 St Leger was replaced by a succession of lord deputies—William Brabazon, Edward Bellyngham and James Croft—whose policies and actions diluted or abandoned surrender and regrant. In its stead they prosecuted campaigns of conquest and colonisation, marking a dramatic and aggressive volte-face in government behaviour towards the midland Gaelic powers. Government forces captured and garrisoned the O’Connors’ stronghold at Daingean and the O’More castle at Ballyadams (an adjoining townland to Stradbally). Daingean was fortified and renamed Fort Governor, and a new fort in the middle of Laois was established and named Fort Protector (after the duke of Somerset, protector of the boy king Edward VI, and called ‘Campa’ by the Irish). This sustained military action had the desired effect: the O’Mores and O’Connors were cowed into submission and their leaders, Giolla-Pádraig O’More and Brian O’Connor, were taken to and confined in London, where Giolla-Pádraig was to die in 1548 and from where O’Connor was eventually released in 1553.

The Cosby coat of arms.

In 1556 the earl of Sussex was appointed; his goals included the overhaul of government finances, the suppression of the midland Gaelic Irish and the resettlement of the area. His plan for the O’Mores and O’Connors was specific: if they cooperated they were to be allocated inferior lands in the west of modern Laois and Offaly, a mere third of the region, and their former lands and strongholds were to be systematically allotted to English planter captains. Accordingly, in June 1557, Sussex’s parliament at Dublin confiscated Laois and Offaly and shired the counties, to be called Queen’s and King’s in honour of Queen Mary of England and her Spanish husband, Philip II, with Fort Protector to be renamed Maryborough. From these acts can be traced the foundations of modern Laois and the undermining of the Gaelic lordship of the O’Mores.

Francis Cosby, newly arrived adventurer

One of the foremost ‘good subjects’ to be settled was Francis Cosby(e). Born in 1510, he was the second son of John Cosby of Great Leak, Nottingham, and was married to Lady Mary Seymour, daughter of the duke of Somerset. Having first soldiered in the armies of Henry VIII in the Low Countries, he arrived in Ireland in 1546. One of the earliest official records of Cosby comes from a July 1548 letter sent by him and others residing along the Pale border with Laois to Lord Deputy Bellyngham in Dublin, at a time when government incursions into Laois/Offaly were under way.

Woodcut depicting triumphant English soldiers in the aftermath of an engagement with the O’Mores. The severed head held by the hair is reputedly that of Margaret Maol O’Byrne, Rory í“g O’More’s wife, sister of Feagh MacHugh O’Byrne of Glenmalure, with whom Francis Cosby was to have a fateful encounter. (John Derricke’s Image of Ireland, 1581)

In 1549 Francis Cosby petitioned for permission to plant in Queen’s County, and was a member of the commission that shired it in 1556. At the time he was living at Monastereven in a residence controlled by the lord deputy. Now aged 46 and with a growing family, it seems certain that he intended to settle permanently, a decision perhaps based upon his success as a military man and the lucrative rewards of lands in Laois, now within reach. That he was well placed in the forefront of a battle-hardened clique of enforcers of the Tudor conquest of the midlands, willing and able to be true conquistadors and frontiersmen in pursuit of lands and power, seems clear. What is also clear is support from the very top, and this is highlighted when he was rewarded with the post of general of the kern in 1558 by Queen Mary in a communication from St James’s Court to Dublin castle: ‘Thanks for his services. Francis Cosby to be general of the kerne’.

Many of Cosby’s kerns were local men of the bogs of the midlands who threw in their lot with him rather than with their Gaelic lords. Perhaps the terms and conditions offered by the new master proved attractive, and some details of these are included in another letter from the queen to Lord Deputy Sussex concerning Cosby’s appointment as general of the kern in 1558: ‘Appointment of Francis Cosby to the office of General of all the kern retained, or to be retained, in “the solde” of Ireland, with a fee of 3s. 8d. a day; the leading of 32 kern, and a 3d. a day each for their entertainment’.

Seneschal of Leix and constable of the fort of Maryborough

One of the first official records of Cosby’s presence at the fort of Maryborough also appears in 1558, when the O’Mores and O’Connors ‘came to the fort of Leix, with such a power as they never had before, intending to take the castle’. They sacked the fort but failed to take the castle. A combination of 60 English soldiers of the garrison and Cosby’s 30 kerns thwarted the attack. Later Cosby gave chase, and a letter from Lord Deputy Sussex to Secretary Boxoll records:

‘Francis Cosby seeking some of the rebels where they were making merry, met with Donough O’Conor himself, accompanied Cormack O’Conor’s son that is yn Scotland, and Richard Oge the basse Garentyne, and after long fight killed Richard Oge, Cormack’s sonne, and XXX or XL of the beste of them. Cosby himself kylled Rychard Oge (“a bastard Geraldine and a man of enormous stature and strength”) with his awne hands, whyche wold not have bene don by no man els.’

It appears that Cosby was now resident in Maryborough and was actively engaged in further pursuit of the O’More and O’Connor rebels. A mark of his success and the negative response from Dublin Castle may be gauged from an official entry from Sir T. Wrothe: ‘the Mores have desired peace by Francis Cosbie. The Lord Justice and Council have rejected their request’. But the next record from the earl of Sussex to the queen brought positive news for Cosby—his appointment as seneschal (state officer with powers of martial law) of Leix and constable of the fort of Maryborough. At this time he also built a large house out of materials from the friary at Stradbally.

Massacre at Mullaghmast

In 1577 Cosby was issued with a commission of martial law in a government response to a rising led by Rory Óg O’More (whose father had once resided at Stradbally). Rory Óg, as a chief of the O’Mores, had earlier submitted to and was an ally of Cosby’s in the hope of being granted inferior lands to the west of Stradbally at Galin. When Rory became convinced that that was not going to happen, he made a daring raid into the heart of the Pale; he burned a large part of Naas on 3 March 1577 and later Carlow town in a misguided attempt to be treated more favourably. Furthermore, his kidnapping and mutilation of Captain Harrington, the nephew of Lord Deputy Sidney, personalised the increasingly vicious campaign.

From this point on it was war to the death. Cosby’s discretion was sweeping, and under pretext of safe passage to a parley at Mullaghmast (a townland in the parish of Narraghmore, Co. Kildare) in March 1578 an O’More band of 74 men, led by Muircheartach Mac Laoighseach O’Mordha, a member of the O’More élite, were surrounded and slain by forces commanded by Cosby and Robert Hartpole (whose daughter, Helen, was to marry Cosby’s grandson) and supported by the O’Dempseys.

This massacre in the midlands was not unique in Ireland during the Tudor conquest. Similar massacres occurred at Rathlin, Belfast and Smerwick. Not surprisingly, Rory Óg’s own days were numbered, but it was his wife and extended family who were first killed. This was graphically captured by John Derrick, Lord Deputy Sydney’s propagandist, in a contemporary woodcut. The practice of displaying the decapitated heads of slain adversaries seems to have been quite commonplace and, indeed, Francis Cosby himself is recorded in government papers as being involved: ‘Cosbie has sent the head of Piers O’More’.

To the victors go the spoils—reaping a harvest of lands

Francis Cosby was granted his first lands in 1550 at Moyanna, Ballynavicare (Vicarstown) and Garrymaddock when he was still living in Kildare, and in addition he appears to have received, thirteen years later, when he was operating as seneschal of Leix and constable of the fort of Maryborough, even more extensive lands in the barony of Stradbally. This is supported by Robert Dunlop’s 1563 map of the plantation of Leix and Offaly, with ‘F. Cosby’ marked on lands at Stradbally eight miles to the east of Fort Protector. The superior quality of the land of Stradbally barony in 1563, in country previously regarded as dominated by woods and bogs, is described as ‘cultivated, apart from not very steep grassy hills’. We get a better picture when the grant is confirmed to Francis’s son, Alexander, in the Calendars of Patent and Close Rolls of Chancery records of 1594:

‘to Alexander Cosbye, of the ambient, site, and precinct of the late religious house of Stradbally, in the Queen’s county; a water mill and all messages, cottages, gardens, with one thousand three hundred and eighty-five acres of land arable and pasture, in Stradbally’.

With all this land and privilege came responsibilities, however, and these are laid down in the same record, including that

‘he shall attend with the greater part of his domestics and tenants, armed in a warlike manner, with victuals for three days to serve against the neighbouring Irish . . . and keep upon the site of the monastery nine horsemen of the English nation’.

Decline and demise of Francis Cosby

As the 1570s progressed, for Francis Cosby, now in his sixties, the going seemed to be getting tougher. The O’Mores were in revolt again and a July 1573 record seemed ominous: ‘Great stirs imminent . . . English governors of countries, for evil respects winkers at rebellion. Francis Cosbie to be called to a severe account for the loss of Leix’. The writing was on the wall, and in 1577 Elizabeth confirmed his successor at Maryborough: ‘George Harvie, who had been appointed Constable of Maryborough fort, should hold that office with the commodities thereto belonging, and not be removed without her Majesty’s commands’.

 

Memorial in Glenmalure, Co. Wicklow, commemorating the battle of 1580, where Feagh MacHugh O’Byrne defeated an English army and Francis Cosby was killed. (Michael Quinn)

Cosby finally met his death at the battle of Glenmalure, Co. Wicklow, on 25 August 1580. This battle followed the attempt of the newly arrived and inexperienced Lord Deputy Grey to quash a revolt led by Viscount Baltinglass and Feagh MacHugh O’Byrne, whose army retreated into the heart of the Wicklow Mountains. There Grey’s soldiers, under the leadership of George Moore, in bright coats and with officers in armour made easy targets for O’Byrne’s men equipped with ‘shot’, and at least 30 Englishmen were killed. Presumably the veteran Francis Cosby, now aged 70, was present for his extensive knowledge in the art of pursuing rebels. It seems remarkable that such a wily and successful campaigner, with 34 years’ experience in outwitting the native Irish in their own territories, could have been snared in such a trap. Perhaps he allowed his better judgement to be over-ruled by the brash new English arrivals? Or perhaps, more likely, he was unaware that the O’Byrnes had acquired the then latest in military hardware—hand-held muskets—which afforded additional deadly effect to traditional Irish guerrilla tactics? Whatever the reason, the following extract from the contemporary government state papers gives an insight into the difficulty of the terrain and the incompetence of leadership:

‘When we entered the foresaid glen we were forced to slide some tymes 3 or 4 fedoms or we colde staide our feete: it was in depth, where we entered, at the least a myle, full of stones, rocks, bogs, and wood, in the bottome thereof a river full of lose stones, which we were driven to crosse diverse tymes. So long as our leaders kept the bottome, the oddes of the sermych (skirmish) was on our side. But our coroneld (Colonel George Moore) being a corpulent man not hable to endure travaile, before we were hallf through the glen, which was foure myles in length, ledd us up the hill. The slain were Sir Peter Carewe, Captain Audley and his lieutenant; old Captain Francis Cosbie, Mr George More, George Staffarde and others, about 30.’

Painting of Stradbally c. 1740. By the early eighteenth century the Cosbys had developed an impressive demesne and a model estate village, with superior-quality two-storey houses, an arcaded market house, a market square and waterways. (Private collection)

Furthermore, a fateful connection existed between the old adversaries Rory Óg O’More and Francis Cosby: Rory Óg had been in fosterage with the O’Byrnes of Wicklow, had married Feagh’s sister and indeed had made a name for himself here as a swordsman before his return to Laois. So, it seems, fate conspired to cast Rory O’More’s fosterers and in-laws as the slayers of one of his greatest adversaries, Francis Cosby.

The Cosby heirs and legacy at Stradbally

The Cosby family crest includes the motto Sub libertate quietem (‘Peace under liberty’), while Burke’s Irish Family Records gives the alternative Audaces fortuna juvat (‘Fortune favours the brave’). And, indeed, Francis’s heirs did inherit a fortune in extensive lands at Stradbally. By the early eighteenth century the family had developed an impressive demesne. With the assistance of an energetic middleman and Dublin clothier, Israel Mitchell, a model estate village was developed alongside. Superior-quality two-storey houses flanked Main Street, and an arcaded market house, market square and waterways were established; these features survive to this day. Stradbally’s distinctive eighteenth-century inheritance has been admired in recent years by many visitors to the demesne lawns and village streetscape at the annual Stradbally Steam Rally and Electric Picnic.

For over four centuries the Cosby family has had a continuous tradition of military and civil service in the British imperial and colonial establishment. The notables in the family include:

Dudley Alexander Sydney Cosby, first and last Baron Sydney, ambassador to the Court of Denmark, died 1774;

General William Cosby, governor of New York and Jersey, died 1743;

Admiral Phillips Cosby, admiralty of the White, died 1792;

brothers Major Errold, Eric and Ivan Cosby all served in World War II. Major Errold also served in the First World War, and went straight from Eton to the trenches; he died in 1984.

So continued a tradition begun by Francis Cosby, whose skills and ambitions matched the promises of land and power in the Tudor conquest of Leinster.

Michael Quinn is a student of Local Studies at NUI, Maynooth.

Further reading:

Burke’s Irish Family Records.

Calendar of Patent Rolls and State Papers.

P.G. Lane and W. Nolan (eds), Laois: history and society (Dublin, 1999).

H. Morgan in S.J. Connolly (ed.), The Oxford companion to Irish history (Oxford, 1998).