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Murder of Father Griffin
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23-11-2010 3:21am#1
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http://www.galwayindependent.com/local-new...-of-fr-griffin/
It is now 90 years since the murder of Fr Michael Griffin, a night still remembered in Galway. The story has been passed down through generations and even now carries an air of mystery. It was a dangerous time in Galway, with Black and Tans and Auxiliaries controlling the streets. At that time, Fr Griffin was the curate of Rahoon parish and lived in the presbytery in Mountpelier Terrace.
On the night of 8 September 1920, he was called out to attend Seamus Quirke, a First-Lieutenant in the local IRA after he was shot seven times at the docks.
He also concelebrated the funeral mass of Michael Walsh of the Old Malt House following his murder by Black and Tans on the night of 22 September 1920. People were extremely worried about the terror roaming the streets, but nothing could have prepared them for the atrocity that was about to take place.
About midnight on Sunday 14 November 1920, Fr Griffin was lured from the presbytery by British forces directly, or someone aiding them. He was taken to Lenaboy Castle where he was questioned. After being interrogated, he was shot through the head and his body was taken away by lorry and buried in an unmarked grave at Cloghscoltia near Barna.
There was much speculation and rumours about his disappearance over the following days. Then, on Saturday 20 November 1920, his remains were discovered by a local man, William Duffy while he was attending cattle. On 23 November, about 12,000 people gathered at St Joseph’s Church on Presentation Road, for his funeral mass.
During the funeral procession through the streets of Galway, a young woman named Katie Larkin shouted abuse and waved a Tricolour at the Black and Tans who had lined up at certain sections of the route. One of them became annoyed at her and shouted, ‘Shut up, you bitch, it was your own that did it.’ This would certainly give credence to the story that Fr Griffin was lured from his residence by someone speaking Irish. The burial of Fr Griffin took place the following day in the grounds of Loughrea Cathedral.
Although people were getting used to hearing of shootings, the murder of a priest shocked the entire town. Again, there was much speculation regarding the killing, but it was believed to have been in reprisal for the kidnapping and execution of an ‘informer’ named Patrick Joyce.
Joyce was the Principal in Barna National School and was convicted of spying on the evidence of five letters, which he was alleged to have written to the authorities regarding volunteer activities in the area. The IRA suspected that someone was giving information to the Black and Tans and so they employed some of their men working in the post office to intercept letters addressed to the British authorities. The plan worked and the republicans soon built up the evidence they required before taking action. The letters implicated a number of local people, including Fr Griffin, who was named in one of the letters to the police. The following is an extract from the letter explaining one of the reasons why young men were joining the republicans.
‘…these men who joined the Volunteers did so because they were being encouraged by Curates Griffin and O’Meehan who kept telling them that men should never be afraid or scared, that it was only women and children who suffered fear.’
There has always been much speculation as to who actually murdered Fr Griffin. Three people were named in a recent book, ‘All in The Blood, A Memoir’ by Geraldine Plunkett Dillon, published in 2006.
According to this source, it was a terrible night of wind and rain when a ‘raid’ took place at the home of the Kennedy family in Salthill. Three armed men dressed in civilian clothes entered the house demanding to know the whereabouts of the ‘Professor’. They were looking for Thomas O Maille who was known as the Professor, but he was not there at the time.
During the raid, the men called each other by their names, Barker, Smith and Ward, and mentioned that they had a ‘terrible job’ to do later on that night. After a time, the three of them left the house and made their way back in the direction of the town. A neighbour who lived across the road from Kennedy’s house watched these events unfolding and said that sometime later a military lorry passed at great speed and it contained ‘…the body of Fr Griffin and the three men, Barker, Smith and Ward, were his murders.’ This witness also said that it was a Galway RIC Constable who lured Fr Griffin out of the house that night.
In November 1922, a monument was erected at Cloghscoltia on the spot where his body was found, and a wreath laying ceremony takes place there annually. These wreaths are the work of Tom Joe Furey of Meadow Grove, a service he has provided for many years.
In 1937, a road was named in Fr Griffin’s memory. The following is an account of the first anniversary commemoration held for Fr Griffin. It was discovered by Jacqueline O’Brien during research for a book on this period. This report was published in The Connacht Tribune on 19 November 1921, and portrays the genuine esteem in which the young priest was held by the people of Galway.
‘A Year Ago – Grim and Ghastly Deed now a Hallowed Memory – Young Priest Murdered – Galway’s Silent and Solemn Tribute to the Late Father Griffin.
‘Remarkable scenes were witnessed at Galway on Wednesday when the anniversary High Mass for the repose of the soul of the late Rev. Michael J. Griffin, C.C., was celebrated at St Joseph’s Church, to which Fr Griffin had been attached up to the time he was taken from his residence at midnight a week before his dead body was found buried in a grave two feet deep, a few miles from Barna village. On Tuesday evening an order was given that all shops and business houses were to be closed, and the day was observed as a general holiday. Long before the hour for the opening of the Office for the Dead, the road leading to St Joseph’s Church was packed with people. Some 1,500 were unable to gain admission to the church. Many of these went to the Abbey Church, where prayers were said for Fr Griffin, but the greater number knelt on the steps of St Joseph’s and along the footpaths and road outside, whilst the rosary was continuously recited in Irish and English from the steps of the church by Fr Mansfield, OSA, and Fr O’Reilly, STL.
‘Inside the church itself every seat was occupied, whilst over 60 priests took part in the office and Mass. The general congregation included a number of staff officers of the IRA, amongst them Commandant Owen O’Duffy, deputy chief of staff, Commandant O’Droighnean, Vice-Commandant Davoren, Adjutant Walsh, East Connemara Brigade. Staff officers also attended from the South Mayo Brigade IRA, as well as from the South East Ridings of the county. Mrs Griffin, Gurteen (mother), Misses Ciss and Annie Griffin (sisters), and Mr Lawrence and Mr Patrick Griffin (brothers), were accommodated with seats near the altar rails, whilst Mr Joseph Kyne, Clonbur (uncle) and Messrs Patk James and M. Kyne, Clonbur (cousins), Mrs Lohan and family, Menlo, Mrs Forde, Ballymacward (aunt), Mtn. Walsh, Attymon, Mtn. Finnerty, Co.C., Patk. Raftery, Gurteen, James Hynes, Patk Cormican, Nicholas Finn, Gurteen, and other distant relatives attended.
‘Most Rev. Dr O’Dea, Lord Bishop, presided at the High Mass, of which Very Rev. Peter Canon Davis, Adm., was celebrant; Rev. Andrew Sexton, B.A., St. Mary’s, deacon; Rev. P. J. Durkin, C.C., Craughwell, sub-deacon; Very Rev. Dr Sheedy, C.C., Castlegar, master of ceremonies. The assistants at the throne were Very Rev. Canon McHugh, Castlegar, and Very Rev. Canon Griffin, Oranmore. Rev. James O’Dea, D.S., was master of ceremonies at the throne. Priests attended from County Clare, and the most distant parts of the united dioceses, and many of Fr Griffin’s colleagues came from Clonfert to assist at the High Mass.
Rev. J. W. O’Meehan, B.D., now of Kilbeacanty, Gort, who was Fr Griffin’s colleague in the curacy of Rahoon at the time of the murder, was a notable figure amongst the chanters. All the shops and business houses kept closed throughout the entire day, and the theatres were not open at nig0 -
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