The North Clare Historical Society marks the centenary of 1916 with a presentation of North Clare links to the 1916 Rising at Courthouse Gallery, Ennistymon on Wednesday, 23rd March at 8pm.
Colm Hayes will talk on Irish Republican Brotherhood and Volunteer Activities in North Clare prior to 1916 while Mick O’Connor will narrate the story of Gaelic League man Eamonn Waldron’s arrest in Ennistymon in the days after the Rising.
An Ennistymon native, Colm Hayes will outline the creation of an IRB Circle in the Ennistymon area by Tomás O’Loughlin, a native of Carron and a lifelong Republican brought up in the Fenian tradition. Following the establishment of the Irish Volunteers all over the country from 1913, the Clouna Company became the most important unit in North Clare as they trained and prepared for the call to rise up against British rule in Ireland.
Mick O’Connor is no stranger to North Clare. He is married to Anne Dillon from Ennistymon and is a regular visitor to the area. Mick is better known as a musician and music historian and his talk will trace Éamonn Waldron’s time in County Clare, his arrest in Ennistymon, his subsequent internment and his activities during the War of Independence while he was teaching in St. Flannan’s College. At the time of his arrest he was a teacher with the Gaelic League.
In 1929, Éamonn married Harriet Gibson of Ballyvoe House, Kilmaley, and moved to Galway where he devoted the latter part of his life to teaching and promoting the Irish language at Coláiste Naomh Éinne and Coláiste Iognáid.
Éamonn died on the 6th of April 1966 during the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising. It is fitting that in the centenary of 1916 the people of Clare would recall the idealism and zeal of Éamonn Waldron who was imprisoned for his nationalist activities in Clare in 1916.
