THE OCCUPATION OF MAYO

Wellington Barracks
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I spent last evening in Wellington Barracks on Dublin's South Circular Road. You might think I was detained but I was there on the same terms as got me locked into a police cell overnight in Longford town many moons ago.

I had wangled my way into one of the monthly lectures of the Military History Society of Ireland, or as it said on the screen Société d'Histoire Militaire d'Irlande.

I did know the time of day, it was heading for eight o'clock pm, but in case I was in any doubt about the date, the screen informed me that it was 17 Frimaire 225 which made it very hard to figure out how many days were left for last Christmas posting. But I suppose if you were actually going by that calendar you wouldn't be paying any attention to Christmas in the first place.

Enough of the light stuff and down to business. The subject of the night was 1798: The French in Mayo, a case study in military occupation and the speaker was Dr Sylvie Kleinman.

Sylvie was the ideal speaker for this talk. She specialises in Irish-French interactions in this period and her command of the French language has enabled her to intensively and extensively interrogate French sources, including vast military archives, along with usual English language sources.

On the night, she was bringing the results of this research to bear on the structure and logistics of what we might broadly refer to as the civilian side of the occupation, or the occupation as it impacted on the civilian population.

General Humbert

The parameters were set by General Humbert, or rather by the orders under which he was operating. These enjoined him to give good example to the population by strictly abiding by the rules of war, such as those dealing with the taking of prisoners and their treatment, the provisioning of the army by appropriating only such food and livestock as was absolutely necessary, and avoiding uncontrolled and wanton killing of the local population. It was apparently made clear to the soldiery that anyone violating these rules would simply be shot out of hand.

You might think that all of that should go without saying, but the outcome of the French occupation was in starkly benign contrast to the subsequent retribution by British forces after the ultimate defeat of the French at Ballinamuck.

Implementation of these rules in Killala fell to Col (Capt ?) Charost, whom Humbert left in command there, and who turned out to be a decent skin, unlike his counterpart, Truck, in Ballina.

Humbert actually declared an Irish Republic and installed a civilian president, John Moore, of its Connaught Province.

French Military Archives, Vincennes

Sylvie relied heavily on the reports/memoirs of the Anglican Bishop Stock who became interpreter for the French and their liaison with the local population. The Bishop was in an invidious position, acting in some ways as a champion of the people and at the same time facilitator of the occupation. Fortunately Charost and Stock developed a mutually respectful relationship which facilitated a relatively smooth occupation, at least as far as Killala was concerned.

Bishop Stock's writings are known and published but Sylvie also accessed original manuscript sources from a range of participants some of which gave less restrained accounts than published versions where these latter existed.

It was a most interesting evening, but I must confess to not being able to assess what was new material or conclusions as most of the stuff was new to me.

My personal interest, and what bought me to the talk was twofold.

My father was from Ballyhaunis in Co. Mayo and I have relatives living in the county, including in Castlebar.

I have an interest in the period and particularly in attempted French invasions arising from my work on the defence of Killiney Bay in the Napoleonic period.

In fact, in looking at Sylvie's work generally, it struck me that she would have been the ideal person to have taken part with me in the Café Historique at the Alliance Française in 2015. I was dealing with the British government's efforts to defend the kingdom(s) and defeat the French régime with the help of disaffected royalists. Sylvie deals with French efforts to defeat the British with the help of the Irish revolutionaries. Perfect mirror images.

But it was not to be and I am still only partly along the way to understanding why.

And, finally, I should admit that Wellington Barracks is no more. It is now Griffith College.

Typocast 2

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I have already drawn attention to typos cast in stone or otherwise and now, following a visit this morning to Croppies Acre, I'm back again.

The panel above has a few things wrong with it ranging from an apparently random choice of font sizes to some very tight fits. One of the tight fits just about makes it but only at the expense of substituting an "I" for an "L". The big faux pas, however, is getting the gender of the NATION wrong in French, not to mention the sandwiching of the two words before it. And what's the big space at the bottom all about. Are they expecting more casualties? I'm sure the Acadamie Française would be only too happy to oblige if asked.

The view is pleasant and the place is very tastefully laid out, as you can see above. But on a closer look at the stone to the right of 1798 ...

... the word CATECHISM is unfortunately mis-spelled, with the E dropped.

Looking back up from the other end, the commemorative stone, over where the mass grave is assumed to be, is starkly simple.

But the accompanying plaque takes the Lord's name in vain, with the fada over the D instead of the E. Moreover, echoing the Borg, is seems to assume the victims share a single soul as well as a grave, with that word (anam) in the singular.

I was afraid to look too closely at anything else in case my visit was further upset, so I went on down to the smaller section of the memorial park nearby. And who did I meet there but the Floosie herself, looking fit and well. But she must be getting a fierce pain in her back without the benefit of the old jacuzzi back-rest she had before she was deported from O'Connell Street.

At least, unlike Nelson, she's still in one piece.

Trahison

The French always start a job like this by displaying their credentials. So, in deference to them, here we go.

I don't have a general in the family but my cousin is a French Knight. Michael (above) is a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Palmes académiques.

And I have in my possession a letter, from the Chief Conservator in the National Library of France, thanking me for an article I wrote which he says "illuminated in a very useful manner a period in the history of Franco-Irish relations". If you don't believe me you can click on the image below and keep clicking until it gets big enough to read.


And now to the point of this post.

Minister Varadkar has just opened an exhibition, in the French War Museum at Les Invalides in Paris, which deals with Franco-Irish cooperation on the battlefield over a period of three centuries. If you don't believe me, look at the picture below and read the news item.


Now, this cooperation, often directed against the English, does raise a heap of tricky philosophical questions. I am thinking, for example, of attitudes to Flemings and Bretons who collaborated with the Nazis during WWII in an effort to secure a measure of independence for their own people against an occupying imperial power. However, that is not my purpose here, and it will keep for another day.

My interest is in a French Major La Chaussée who did some magnificent work in Ireland in 1797 (note the date) analysing the strengths and weaknesses of various sections of the Irish coastline and how these weaknesses might be exploited in any French seaborne attack against the British in Ireland.

So far so good, and that is what I thought myself. Until, that is, I found out the Major was not working for the French as an advance party spy. Rather, he was working for the British in order to help them thwart any such invasion.



I doubt if he is included in the current exhibition and I am aware of only one place where his work is on display in this country, and that is in the restored Martello Tower (No.7) in Killiney Bay.

So if, unlike the Minister, you cannot currently afford the trip to Paris, even for the replay, you might like to see the work of a Frenchman who cooperated with the other side on the eve of the glorious Rebellion of 1798.



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