What an evening it was, last Wednesday night, when Society Secretary Arlene White presented a selection of oral history recordings taken over 25 years ago of some of Killaloe’s and Ballina’s most elderly residents. A very special audience of just under 80 people, made up of regular attendees mixed with the families of those recorded, made for an enthusiastic and emotional night. To hear those voices ring out clearly again in the setting of Wood and Bell cafe, which would have been a shop when these people were living their lives out in our twin towns, was surreal. It was an evening where we felt absolutely directly connected to our past, and to history as it happened during the twentieth century in Killaloe and Ballina.

The collection was introduced in an informative and entertaining way by Dr Kevin Griffin. Known to many locally, Kevin is from Ballina, and co-authored the local history book Ballina/Boher Parish: Our History and Traditions with his dad, Kevin Snr. This is available in the library for anyone to read. Kevin now lectures in DIT on heritage and tourism. We are grateful to him for travelling to talk to us about his work on the project when it was first begun in 1992. He spoke about putting photographs up in the windows of Ard na Rí house on Main Street (where the project was based), with a sign saying ‘If you know the names of anyone in this photo, come on in and tell us!’. He also presented the Society with a number of original hand-typed transcripts of the interviews and photographs from the project. We are going to mind them very carefully, research them thoroughly, and let you know how we get on!

Arlene White then presented the recordings, giving a short historical context of each, while Deborah Dudgeon, the Society’s Research Officer, led us through a slideshow of relevant photographs that illustrated each of the recordings. Many of these photographs had never been seen by our attendees before, and they greatly added to the richness of the presentation. We do intend to digitise the presentation and add it to a larger Oral History project on this website, but in the meantime, here is a flavour of what we heard last Wednesday night.

Jerry Gough was the first voice we heard. Born in Ballina in 1912, Gerry moved to Killaloe in the early 1950s. He talked about working on the Shannon Hydroelectric Scheme in the 1930s. He also went back further and spoke of events he remembered as a young boy in Killaloe. He was eight years old when he walked across the bridge and saw blood all over one part of it. He continued up the Main St to the fair which was taking place outside the church, and saw the bodies of the four men who would become known as the Scarriff Martyrs. Gerry also shared stories about what the presence of the Black and Tans felt like in Killaloe, and what it was like one night when they broke into his parent’s home searching for hidden IRA men.

Moira Ryan was the next speaker. She lived on Abbey Street, where the health-food shop An Siopa Beag is now. She shared with us a ghost story which took place between the Pier Head and New Street. We will not spoil the ending of this highly entertaining story, but watch out for it when we upload it to our website, as you will not walk up the Aillebaun again without thinking of what may or may not have happened there a hundred years ago!

Gerald Brooks was next and was born in 1913 near Portroe. His tale was of working in McKeogh’s Bakery, which had been established in Ballina as early as 1860. Gerald spoke of working in the Bakery during the war years, how barm bracks became the in thing, and how he spent his Christmas bonus as a young man!

Michael and Margaret Mai Moloney (born in 1910 and 1904 respectively) were brother and sister from Moloney’s butchers on Main Street, right opposite Wood and Bell café. They shared their very humorous recollections of what people in Killaloe did for fun in their early years, describing the regatta and the excursion trains that came out from Limerick in great detail. None of us will forget Mai’s story of the slippery pole competition! It came as a great surprise to the interviewer, and to us, when it turned out that Michael was one of those who had actually moved St Lua’s Oratory from Friar’s Island up to the top of Main Street before the island was flooded by the Shannon Scheme. Hearing a personal account of moving this tiny church was absolutely fascinating.

Tom Grimes spoke next, and shared his memories of his childhood spent on the lake. His father drew his living from fishing on the lake, and Tom describes the compensation given to fishermen on the loss of their livelihood due to the Shannon Scheme. Tom also worked in the Benson Box Factory for over fifty years, and told the fascinating story of how they kept the deliveries going during the war years, by burning anthracite for fuel in the vans, or by pushing a handcart down to the railway station in Ballina.

Tom Nolan then spoke about his time working for the Grand Canal Company before it was amalgamated into CIE. He lived with three other men for long periods of time on a canal boat, delivering stout and oats along the canals between Dublin, Carrick-on-Shannon, and Limerick. One incident in particular stood out in his recording – the accident which happened in December 1946, when a canal boat sank in Lough Derg and three of the four crew members were lost. Tom was in a neighbouring boat, and his personal testimony to the accident, which made the national newspaper headlines, is very poignant.

The very last speaker last Wednesday night was not one from the collection made in 1992, but one that Arlene had recorded herself earlier this year. Jimmy Whelan‘s interview had had such an enormous reaction on our blog and Facebook that it could not be left out of such a night. We were thrilled and delighted also to welcome Jimmy himself into the audience on Wednesday evening. In his interview, Jimmy described the different locations on Main Street that housed Whelan’s shop, as well as the Jimmy Whelan Show Band which travelled the country in the 1960s and 70s, playing in dancehalls.

Thanks for reading, if you got this far! News of our September talk is imminent! If you would like to get involved with our Oral History project, we’ll have a dedicated page on the website for it soon, and in the meantime do email us at killaloeballinalhs@gmail.com with any queries, tips, ideas, or offers of help. We would love to hear from you!

Thanks to committee member Elaine Dinan for photographs of the evening above.

Wow, what an incredible evening last night, when we welcomed Joe Coleman, author of Falling Gradient: Limerick’s Railway Connections to tell us more about the Killaloe railway line and station which was located across the river in Ballina. We started a little late, as we were struggling to seat the nearly ninety attendees who came! As soon as everyone was comfortable though, we settled in for a treat, as Joe showed us an impressive slideshow of historic images of trains, rails, stations, staff, and members of the travelling public from all eras.

Joe covered the establishment of the railway system, and the private companies who began it. He spoke about their relationship with the steamship companies on the canals, and later, the bus services. We travelled with him right back to the early nineteenth century and learned about Charles Bianconi’s public transport business. The Killaloe line was a branch off the Limerick to Castleconnell line (incidentally, Castleconnell railway station is celebrating its 160th birthday this summer!), and ran commuters out to Ballina, and tourists out a bit further to the pier head there. The pier head has since been submerged by the raising of the water level with the Shannon Scheme in the 1930s, but Joe was able to show us a remarkably rare photograph of what it looked like before then.

The level of audience engagement in this lecture was amazing, and the talk was more like a conversation, with many people sharing their stories of trains past. It all contributed to a really special evening. We would like to thank Joe wholeheartedly for sharing his knowledge and expertise so generously with our community.

Falling Gradient is sold out everywhere, but you can access it from any library. If you are local, Killaloe library will order it in for you so that you can read about some of the topics that Joe raised last night. Joe’s next book, Breaking Rapids, is a historical miscellany spanning a thousand years, and will be released on 21st September this year, so keep an eye out! He has given us a sneak preview of the content relating to Killaloe and Ballina, and it looks like being a great read!

We would like to thank the current owners of Killaloe Station House for attending, and for issuing a general invite to anyone interested in local rail history to see the house. Killaloe Station House these days is a wonderful guesthouse – check out their website here, and think of them if you have relatives coming to stay! Thank you too to Wood and Bell Café for providing us with this beautiful historic venue for our speakers, free of charge as always.

Our August lecture will be on 22nd August. Stay tuned for more details coming soon!