Athenry News & Views Summer 2026

Summer 2026

the Governor strongly advised against the prudence of it. Hopes of release were raised by the attitude of the Irish Parliamentary Party at Westminster and by its tactic of obstruction. Conditional releases were offered to some prisoners, but as a group the prisoners counselled against accepting the conditions attached. An amnesty at Christmas would not be accepted if it was “fraught with any danger to their political purity.” They resolved to remain imprisoned “until it is free and unfettered, to abide by our fate.” Peter Broderick was an insatiable reader and an inveterate letter writer, corresponding every seven or so days. His reading while in prison included a biography of Henry Grattan, Knocknagow, Corbett’s Advice to Young Men, The Imitation of Christ, and the works of Thomas Davis. Broderick accepted his fate. Excluded from the outer world like a criminal, he reminded himself that he was imprisoned only “on the suspicion of some enemy with an imaginary treasured wrong… for advocating in my humble way the wants of our motherland I have offended against the mighty.” He found a striking similarity between Matt Donovan, the imprisoned hero of Knocknagow held in a Clonmel cell, and his own situation in Galway Jail. Broderick saw the harmful effects of imprisoning people on suspicion of imaginary crimes. He regularly reflected: “What benefit to society has been my arrest and imprisonment?” He understood that British supremacy in Ireland could not compel the kind of obedience to its laws that is the natural outcome of loyalty. For Broderick one only needed to look around and daily see the outrages, the glaring injustices enacted on the people of Ireland in the name of law, and he was himself imprisoned “for not even the semblance of a crime”. But the prisoners sang and whistled. On one evening in the Association Rooms P. C. Kelly sang “The Rising of the Moon’; M. Spelman sang ‘Our Land Shail Be Free; Conneely sang “The Fenian Man-of-War”; Harrington recited “The Pall of Poland’; John Sweeney sang The Vagrants of Erin” and ‘Lord Dunsandle’, and Hooban had them all in stitches with tall tales. Without warning the stentorian tones of the Warder’s “All Our” dispersed the gathering and ‘the dissolute ruffians’ marched off to their cells. Entries in Peter Broderick’s diary abruptly end on March 15, 1882. They contain verses and thought provoking extracts from books he had read. He also wrote there an imaginative dream-like story about an imaginary Christmas Day amongst the suspects in Galway Jail. We’ll give the last words to two of his friends, Tuite and O’Beirne. Tuite on February 19th (the Sunday before Lent) announced he “refuses to drink any more contraband as he wants to keep steady before his release (!) while he expects every day, O’Beirne is in the same category”. Link to full Diary Extracts

Words: - By Paul Holland

Young days I cycled to school Where I never Learned the lesson That teasing my Neighbour’s dog Was neither kind Nor sensible Lord Protector

The situation demanded it And Oliver became King

To protect his subjects Although the term was Not to be used, the Office was being revived Problems solved by pretending Car import tax to VRT School fees to voluntary contributions Italia Attica There were slaves On the loose

Who didn’t know Their place and Like beasts of Burden no longer Useful, they were Put down by Means not humane Hurler ditched He got his chance And didn’t shine In a game that Counted for nothing An evening he was Out of sorts Not impressed They passed him Over every other Game, the greatest Player ever born Who was good But wasn’t lucky Time She came home Not coming home The sibling who Had emigrated Each time to a Place that had Less of herself Her visits became Less frequent

73