The Dunkellin Monument Pulled Down and Drowned Amidst Plaudits of Thousands — Symbol of Landlord Tyranny — Extraordinary Occurrence

The Galway Observer, 27th May, 1922, by W. O'M.

On Thursday night a crowd numbering several thousands assembled inside the Square, and two men set to work sawing at the base of the life—size bronze monument of Lord Dunkellin, a brother of the late Lord Clanricarde. A rope was afterwards procured and fastened around the neck and with a strong pull, over it went amidst great applause.

This monument was erected in the year 1873, and subscribed for by the Clanricarde tenantry, a good deal of which it was stated, was obtained from the people by threats. When the monument disappeared in the rere, the pedestal was mounted by Mr W. J. Larkin, Mr S. J. Cremin, Secretary of the Transport Workers Union, and Mr P. Kiely, Secretary Galway Tenants' Association.

Mr Cremin made a lengthy speech, in which he said they went before the Urban Council that day and told them they would pull down that monument, which had just fallen to the ground. It was a symbol of landlord tyranny, and they intended to pull down every symbol of its kind in Ireland and put a monument of some good Irishman in its place. The speaker then went on to denounce the present members of the Urban Council, as also the new magistrates as not being representatives of the people, and being indifferent to the wants of the workers. There was no justice to be had for the workers in the new courts any more than the old courts. They had, he said, 375 houses in town certified by a doctor as unfit for human habitation, and they had sewerage running into the main water pipe. At the Urban Council meeting that day they wanted to see the schemes of the new houses which they said was drafted, but they were refused a look at them, and he would not be surprised if those schemes were drafted in the back parlour of some landlord in town. The tenants of Galway were not out to abolish all landlords, and would not stop till they had every tenant the owner of the roof over his head.

Mr Larkin also spoke.

After the meeting a rope was put round the neck of the statue and it was drawn by thousands through the main streets with band playing Irish reels and hornpipes and taken out to the pier head where it was thrown into the water.

The scene at the pier head was of the most extraordinary kind. The thousands who followed (and dragged the 'corpse') cheering wildly. As the 'body' was being hurried into the sea opposite Devils Head on the Claddagh side Mr Larkin stated that neither Gettysburg, Bodenstown or Greece had sufficient eloquence to panagerize such a "corpse" — "Let it go boys" said Mr Larkin "and may the devil and all rotten landlordism go with it." As the body was hurried into the sea, the band amidst a roar of joyous laugher, played "I'm for ever blowing bubbles."

???? ...could scarcely avoid condemning that atrocity.

"If you gently touch a nettle It will sting you for your pains."

Mr De Valera has been too gently touched, and now that Mr Griffith has grappled the nettle firmly, I believe De Valera's sting will prove not such a virulent poison as he hoped it would be.

It is infinitely better that there should be no compromise with that man or his followers. Better to fight it out now than to be worried and plagued by them in the years to come. The country will now have its chance of getting rid of the men who would deny them the right of a free Election. It is for the people to say whether they mean to exercise their powers under the Treaty, or to reject the Treaty, and trust to getting a Republic of one sort or another when they have conquered England — when they have fought "behind hedges and ambushes" for an indefinite period!

If the Irish people mean to rule themselves and to save their country from red ruin and degradation they must take off their coats and set to and give full and hearty — aye, and financial support to Messrs Griffith and Collins. Shopkeepers and farmers have contributed — willingly or unwillingly — large sums in support of gunmen. Let them now give generous help to the party and the cause that means their own future happiness and prosperity. What they give now will in truth be their final contribution towards the freedom of their country. Therefore it should be generous. People should make a sacrifice, even a great sacrifice, in order to make sure that the Nation's will will be made manifest and unmistakable. The time is short, and moral and financial support must not be stinted. The result of the Election will determine once and for all whether Ireland rules herself or is to be ruled by her old enemy. England does not want to come back, unless she is forced by the hedge fighters. She will never allow a Republic to function should the Treaty be rejected. That fact must not be forgotten.