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IRISHTOWN

CO. MAYO · IE

Irishtown
An Baile Gaelach, Co. Mayo

The Ireland's West
STOP 07 / 07

An Baile Gaelach · Co. Mayo

A small village on the Mayo-Galway border where, one Sunday in 1879, the Land War began.

Irishtown is a small village in south Mayo, on the R328 about halfway between Claremorris and Tuam, sitting right on the county line where Mayo meets Galway. One hundred and eighty-two people at the last census. A church, a school, a community centre, a corner shop and a single pub. By looks it is unremarkable. By history it is one of the most important small places in nineteenth-century Ireland.

On Sunday the 20th of April 1879, a tenant-right meeting was held here. The tenants on a local estate were facing eviction and a rent increase they could not meet, and they had gone to James Daly, the editor and owner of the Connaught Telegraph in Castlebar, for help. Daly used the paper to advertise the meeting and presided over it on the day. The crowd was put at eight thousand and more by some accounts, far higher by others. John O'Connor Power, the local MP, spoke. Michael Davitt drafted the resolutions but did not attend in person; Parnell was announced but did not come.

The meeting worked. The threatened evictions were dropped and the rent cut by a fifth. More than that, it proved the point Daly had been making in print for years - that organised tenants, acting together, could face down a landlord. Within months the Land League of Mayo had formed, and by October the National Land League was founded in Castlebar. The Land War of 1879 to 1882 followed. The plaque in the village calls Irishtown the Cradle of the Land League, and for once a plaque is not exaggerating.

Come for the story, not the buildings. There is a single pub and not much else, and the historical weight is invisible until you know it is there. Stand at the plaque, look at the ordinary fields and the ordinary road, and understand that this is where it started.

Population

182 (2022)

Pubs

1and counting

Walk score

Through the village in five minutes

Founded

Civil parish of Crossboyne; first National Schools 1873

Coords

53.6800° N, 8.9300° W

01 / 07

At a glance.

Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.

01 The meeting

The Cradle of the Land League.

On 20 April 1879 a tenant-right meeting here drew a crowd estimated at eight thousand and upward. The plaque in the village reads: 'Cradle of Land League. Site of Tenant Right Meeting of 20 April 1879 which led to foundation of The National Land League.' Everything that followed in the Land War started on this ground.

Stories & lore → 02 The village

One pub, a church, a school, and a hundred and eighty-two people.

Irishtown sits on the R328 between Claremorris and Tuam, right on the southern county line with Galway. A corner shop, a community centre, a playground and playing fields. This is a place you come to for what happened, not for what is here now.

The story →

02 / 07

The pubs.

None of these are themed Irish pubs, because they don't need to be. A few that earn the trip:

The village pub

Local, and the only one

One pub in the village

Irishtown has a single pub. It is the social centre of a village of fewer than two hundred people, and it is where you will end up if you come on a quiet evening. Honest about itself: this is a local, not a destination bar. Buy a pint, ask about the 1879 meeting, and someone will likely have something to tell you.

03 / 07

Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

Where the Land War began

The meeting of 20 April 1879

The tenants on a local estate in Irishtown were in arrears, facing eviction and a rent rise, and in early 1879 they approached James Daly of the Connaught Telegraph for help. Daly, with Matthew Harris and others, organised a public tenant-right meeting for Sunday the 20th of April. He used the newspaper to publicise it and presided on the day. The crowd was large - eight thousand by the conservative count, far more by some estimates - and turned out in spite of clerical warnings to stay away. John O'Connor Power MP spoke; Michael Davitt drafted the resolutions but was not present; Parnell was billed but did not appear. The immediate result was concrete: the evictions were dropped and the rent reduced by twenty percent. The longer result was the Land League itself, formed in Mayo that summer and nationally in Castlebar that October. The Land War of 1879 to 1882 grew directly out of this field.

The editor who lit the fuse

James Daly and the Connaught Telegraph

James Daly was born around 1836 at Boughadoon near Lahardane in north Mayo, into a reasonably comfortable farming family. He went into partnership to buy the Connaught Telegraph in 1876 and took full ownership at the start of 1879, turning the paper into the most effective propaganda vehicle the land movement had. He campaigned in print against absentee landlords, rack rents and evictions, and gave western tenant farmers a public voice. He presided at the Irishtown meeting and was later arrested with Davitt for a speech at Gurteen in November 1879. He stayed in public life for decades, serving on Mayo County Council and Castlebar Urban District Council, and ran the Telegraph until 1892. He died in 1910. The paper he made famous still publishes today.

Poll Chormaic and Poll Dumh

Bardic schools and the hunger for learning

Long before the meeting, Irishtown had a tradition of education. Two bardic schools are recorded in the area - one at Poll Chormaic in the townland of Leface, another at Poll Dumh in Lisduff. These preceded the hedge schools that ran in the surrounding townlands during the Penal era. The first schools under the National Schools system opened in Irishtown in 1873, in the old priest's house, and the present national school building went up in 1897. It still serves the village, with sixty-odd children on the rolls in recent years - a sizeable school for a village this small.

04 / 07

Things to do outside.

Wear waterproofs. Bring a sandwich. Tell someone where you're going if it's the mountain.

The village and the plaque There is no marked trail here. Walk the length of the village on the R328, find the Land League plaque, and read it standing on the spot. The country around is gentle farmland on the Mayo-Galway line. The walk is short; the thinking it prompts is longer.

Short strolldistance

20 minutestime

05 / 07

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

April is the month for the history-minded - the anniversary of the 1879 meeting falls on the 20th, and the land around is in early growth.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Long light and open roads. The best time to combine Irishtown with Strade, Claremorris and the wider Land League country in one run.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

High clear light over the farmland. Quiet, which suits the place.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Short days, a long way from services, and very little open. The village empties to its core in winter.

◐ Mind yourself

06 / 07

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

If a local was sitting beside you, this is the bit where they'd lean in.

Expecting a heritage centre

There is no museum or interpretive centre in Irishtown. The history is told by a plaque and by the village itself. If you want the Land League told in full, the Michael Davitt Museum is at Strade, north of Claremorris.

Coming for the buildings

Irishtown is a working farming village of under two hundred people, not a preserved streetscape. The church, school and pub are ordinary. The reason to come is what happened in 1879, and that is invisible unless you bring the story with you.

Getting there.

By car

Irishtown is on the R328 midway between Claremorris and Tuam. Claremorris is about 12 km north; Tuam, in Co. Galway, is roughly the same distance south. From Galway city it is about 50 km north via the N17 to Tuam then the R328. From Castlebar it is around 30 km south.

By bus

There is no scheduled bus stopping in Irishtown itself. The nearest towns on the public network are Claremorris and Tuam, both on the N17 corridor served by Bus Eireann; Local Link covers the rural roads between. You need a car to reach the village comfortably.

By train

Claremorris, about 12 km north, is the nearest railway station, on the line between Manulla Junction and Limerick via Athlone. From there it is a short drive or local hop to Irishtown.