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​irish  women  in  history

The ‘Indomitable’ O’Halloran Family

1/12/2019

47 Comments

 

Eviction Resistance in Bodyke in 1887

​A widely publicised eviction took place on 10 June 1887 near Bodyke in east Clare. The farm in question was held by John O’Halloran. Women played an important defensive role in evictions during the Land Wars, and the O'Halloran sisters – Honoria, Annie and Sarah – and their mother, Harriet, were by no means unique in their fierce resistance during the siege on their homestead. The family held out for hours against an armed invading force, which according to the Freeman’s Journal (11 June 1887) numbered 400 men.  
Female members of the O'Halloran family from Bodyke, Co. Clare. Photo taken June 1887 following an evicition.
Female members of the O'Halloran family from Bodyke. Photo, taken June 1887, forms part of the Eblana Photograph Collection in the National Library of Ireland (ref. no. EB_2664).
​​The O’Halloran holding in the townland of Lisbareen, southwest of Bodyke village, consisted of about 18 acres rented from Colonel O’Callaghan at an annual cost of £23 10s, with an additional drainage charge of £2 10s. Some years previous, the rent had been raised to £33 but was subsequently reduced when the tenants took the case to the Land Court. Despite this reduction, the O’Hallorans owed two years’ rent in large part due to the construction of a new two-storey slated house and outhouses; reports differ but the building work seemed to have cost between £176 and £220, which the O'Halloran family had in part borrowed from the Board of Works (Irish Times, 15 June 1887; Cork Examiner, 11 June 1887).
In the weeks leading up to the eviction, the family made the necessary defensive adjustments to the house: constructing earthworks in the vicinity of the house, digging a trench around its perimeter, barricading the windows and doors, and making small apertures at strategic points in the walls like loopholes. They also stockpiled pitchforks, wooden poles and sandbags.

On the day of the eviction, present in the house were the three O'Halloran sisters, two of their brothers – Frank and Patrick – and their mother Harriet, while the Freemans Journal (21 June 1887) reported that a young girl of only eight or nine years was also present and took part in the resistance, but whether or not she was another of Harriet’s daughters is unclear. Outside the farmhouse, Michael Davitt – founder of the Irish National Land League – was in attendance; prior to the siege, he attempted to dissuade the family from the use of pitchforks. Also in attendance in support of the family were a number of local clergymen and MP Joseph Richard Cox.
​
Armed with rifles, bayonets, picks, axes, huge iron crowbars and shields, the bailiffs, RIC and soldiers led by Colonel Turner arrived at the farmstead at about 10.30 am, as a large crowd of tenants were gathering. Also present were the agents for the property (Hosford and Delmege) and Sheriff Croker. The family busied themselves boiling a mixture of dirty water and meal, and when the bailiffs cautiously approached the house, the O'Halloran sisters threw the boiling substance at them through the loopholes. The police threatened to shoot but the family remained defiant to the enthusiasm of the spectators. The magistrate present, a Mr Crotty, instructed the women that if they continued to break the law, they would be sent to jail but they took no notice of such threats. Subsequently, the ‘Emergency men’ advanced under the protection of shields and umbrellas, and began to use crowbars on the gable wall. In response, Frank started firing slates down upon them, to a chorus of ‘Don’t, don’t’, while one of the O'Halloran girls courageously challenged the troops shouting, ‘Come now, if you dare’.

Eventually, the police managed to prop a scaling ladder against the house. About half a dozen policemen attempted to climb the ladder but were forcibly pushed off it by Frank using a long wooden pole, including District Inspector Hill who hurt his arm in the fall. After several attempts Constable Naughton (reported as Norton in some newspapers), managed to enter through an upstairs window. Once the policeman was inside, Honoria caught the long blade of his bayonet with her bare hands, at which point Frank overpowered Naughton to prevent any injury to her hands. Honoria – then armed with the bayonet – ran to the window and dispersed the gathering policeman using her newly acquired weapon. Immediately, Fr Hannon entered the building via the ladder. While the family intended to throw Naughton out the window, the priest convinced them to reconsider knowing that the police would surely fire on them if they did so. By this time, more policemen had managed to enter the house. As Fr Hannon held Frank to prevent further conflict, one of the policemen confronted Harriet who had been showering sand and stones from a back window on the authorities below. The priest let go of Frank so he could go to his mother’s aid but by this time the O’Halloran family could hold out no longer. All of the O’Halloran family members were taken into custody having been charged with assaulting District Inspector Hill and Constable Naughton, and while most of them were immediately released, some were brought to Limerick Jail to await the trial.
​
As events unfolded inside the O'Halloran family home, a number of shocking incidents took place outside. The Cork Examiner (11 June 1887) reported that members of the Constabulary knocked a man of seventy years to the ground, and every time he attempted to stand, he was pushed over again and again until Fr Glynn interceded on his behalf, while a young man was also brutally attacked by the policemen, after the eviction had come to an end, for jeering at the authorities as they left the scene. 
Headline Cork Examiner, 21 June 1887, p. 3.
Headline Cork Examiner, 21 June 1887, p. 3.
In the days following the eviction, the event garnered much media attention with detailed accounts appearing in all the national and regional newspapers relaying the ‘exciting’ and ‘extraordinary’ scenes. The pluckiness, daring and defiance shown that day was commented upon in many publications, with the Cork Examiner (11 June 1887) referring to the resisting party as ‘the indomitable O’Halloran family’.  In the aftermath of the eviction, a public meeting was held locally by Davitt and Cox where they commended the strength of the O’Halloran family, and in particular Harriet’s heroic defence of her home.  ​
The case was heard in Ennis Courthouse on 20 June 1887. The presiding magistrates were Cecil Roche and J. M. Kilkelly. At the opening of the case, a circus band started playing outside and Roche declared angrily – to the amusement of all present – that he would hold the musicians in contempt of court if they did not desist. ​
Following statements by the plaintiffs and witnesses, Frank and Patrick were sentenced to three months imprisonment and hard labour, while Honoria and Annie received a sentence of one-month imprisonment with hard labour; Sarah and Harriet were not sentenced. In a lengthy speech, Judge Roche declared the sentence a miscarriage of justice and that he wholly disagreed with his colleague Kilkelly believing he was far too lenient on the O’Halloran family. He stated that the attack on Naughton was ‘brutal and savage’ and described the conduct of the sisters as ‘extremely violent’ (Cork Examiner, 21 June 1887). After a recess, Kilkelly addressed the court saying that he did not deserve the observations made by Roche and that he was trying to do his duty impartially and fairly. While he stated that he would not continue on the bench that day and would retire immediately, no other magistrate was available to take his place and so he continued on the bench in Ennis Courthouse to hear the remaining cases. It is heartening to note that by the time of the 1901 and 1911 censuses, some members of the O’Halloran family were still residing in Lisbareen, including Harriet who was then the landowner.  
​Sources
Census 1901: http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Clare/Boherglass/Lisbareen/1084945/

Census 1911: http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Clare/Boherglass/Lisbarreen/368137/

​Cork Examiner
, 11 June 1887, p. 3; 21 June 1887, p. 3

Freeman’s Journal, 11 June 1887, p. 5; 21 June 1887, p. 3

Image: Ref. no. EB_2664, Eblana Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland, available to view at http://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000187890

Irish Times, 15 June 1887, transcribed here: http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/history/bodyke_evictions/frank_ohallorans_account.htm

The Nation, 18 June 1887, p. 12
​
This event was also covered in an episode of a TG4 documentary series, called Tríd an Lionsa, which was not available at the time of writing this article. 
47 Comments
John Thomson
1/30/2019 07:14:36 pm

Does anyone know whether members of the family then relocated to the US? Trying to trace family members named Holleran back to Ireland from Bradford PA and Alfred NY.

Reply
Herstoric Ireland link
1/31/2019 03:37:36 am

Hi John, thanks for your question. While researching this story, I noticed that some newspapers reported that the O’Hallorans (or possibly just John O’Halloran) had returned from America; they were even called ‘Irish-Americans’ in one newspaper article. If you take a look at the 1901 census of Ireland, you’ll see that present in the O’Halloran household is 5-year-old Nonie Moran, a granddaughter of Harriet O’Halloran (called ‘Hannah’ in the census). Here’s a link to the original census form: http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai000485767/
It states that Nonie was born in America. One of Harriet’s daughters presumably married a man named Moran and perhaps this may be of some use in your search. John and Harriet had more sons than those involved in the eviction resistance, perhaps some remained in the US or later returned to the US. Good luck with your research!

Reply
Jim Kennedy
5/9/2021 03:53:02 pm

◦ Nonie was known by her middle name, Marion. Her mother was Honora and was known to me as Nora. Marion was born in NYC on Sept 6, 1895. Her father was an American, whose surname was Moran. He died when she was very young, but I have no more knowledge of him. I have Marion’s actual passport showing her name, date and place of birth, signature, and photo. I knew her all my life. As stated elsewhere, her mother was my grandfather, Frank O’Halloran’s, sister. It is his account of the Evictions available on the Clare Co. Library.

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4/28/2022 09:25:31 pm

Nice blog post so thanks a lot for sharing this great blog post.. keep more post for sharing.. have a nice day.

Reply
Sean Murphy
2/18/2019 05:08:27 am

Thank you for the great article.

May I ask a question. Why is it that Hannah was 60 and Patrick was 35 in the 1901 census and then 80 and 47 in the 1911 census ?

Reply
Herstoric Ireland link
2/18/2019 05:20:27 am

Thanks Sean! Yes, I spotted that too. It is not uncommon to see large jumps in age between the two censuses or even very small jumps of 4 or 5 years. There are several possible reasons for this. Many people simply did not know their age, while some people were claiming they were older than they were so they would be eligible for the old age pension (available to all over 70). Some young men claimed that they were older than they were to join the army or navy. While some women lied to their husbands claiming they were younger than they were for child-bearing reasons (my own grandmother did this). It's impossible to say what the motives were in the case of the O'Hallorans. Thanks for your question!

Reply
James Larkin
11/20/2021 03:29:46 am

A brilliant article, brilliant. But a woman lying to her husband....I can't believe!

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4/29/2022 04:05:36 am

Good Post! Thank you so much for sharing this pretty post, it was so good to read and useful to improve my knowledge as updated one, keep blogging.

Reply
Study Permit Visa for Canada link
5/9/2022 10:13:41 am

Very nice post, impressive. its quite different from other posts. Thanks for sharing.

Reply
Charlie Halloran link
4/29/2019 09:41:42 am

Wow, so cool to see this article! I have no idea if these O'Hallorans are related to my Halloran line (mostly in St. Louis in the US), but it's an awesome story and I'll share it with the family.

Reply
Herstoric Ireland link
4/29/2019 10:17:21 am

Thanks Charlie, we're really glad you enjoyed it and please do share it with all your Halloran family members, we'd very much appreciate the shares!

Reply
Mary Anne Freitag born O'Halloran link
6/8/2019 08:09:58 pm

I am born O'Halloran and my niece also born O'Halloran has done research on my dad's side of our family. If you would like to know about our family let me know and I will have my niece contact you. My dad was born in Dublin in 1889.

Reply
Herstoric Ireland link
6/10/2019 04:23:17 am

Thanks Mary Anne. You can email us directly on herstoricireland@gmail.com. We hope you enjoyed the article!

Reply
Marty O'Halloran link
5/1/2021 02:21:56 pm

hi do you have any records of any family moving to New Zealand? Michael Bernard O"Halloran is a family name my great grand mother was Mary Quinn. We have been in NZ for 4 generations

Reply
Charles O'Halloran
6/18/2019 09:40:21 am

I came across this while trying to research about my family history. Frank O'Halloran is my great great grandfather. I remember my father and grandfather telling me stories about our history in Ireland (my grandfather emigrated to England in the 1960s), but i didn't realise how big this event was.

Reply
Herstoric Ireland link
6/19/2019 03:24:58 am

Charles, lovely to hear from you! Your family were an amazing bunch! I hope you have found this article useful. Do you know anything more about Frank? Enjoy researching your very interesting family history!

Reply
Mary Anne Freitag link
7/23/2019 12:16:12 pm

To Charles O'Halloran
My dad had a brother named Frank. As I said in my note above my dad was born in Dublin. His mother was Mary Anne Nolan O'Halloran and his dad was Matthias.
I believe there was also a James. My niece has this information

Reply
Charles O'Halloran
10/18/2019 02:09:52 am

Hello there Mary,

Sorry for the long wait I didn't see this reply. From what I have gathered my family were born in Clare, but I will find some more information on this.

Herstoric Ireland link
3/16/2020 11:53:17 am

Hi Charles, please see Jim Kennedy's comment below. If you wish to make contact with him, please email this website directly on herstoricireland@gmail.com and I put you in touch with each other.

Reply
Marty O'Halloran link
5/1/2021 02:10:51 pm

Hi Charles, do you have any record of any of your family moving to New Zealand? Micheal Bernard O'Halloran is a repetitive name in our family, my Great Grand Mother was Mary Quinn

Reply
Delia O'Mara
5/5/2021 11:00:24 am

frank o halloran in bodyke was never married he was my dads uncle

Reply
Jim Kennedy
5/5/2021 11:25:03 am

Delia O’Mara,
I have provided details about my relationship to Frank O’Halloran.
I’d love to be in contact with you outside of this blog, as it is very slow to communicate. There were more than one Frank O’Halloran from Bodyke. I believe you may be talking about a cousin of my mother’s. All of the family first names were repeated in subsequent generations with few exceptions. I am on FB and you can PM me. Could you be more specific about your Maiden name, and your dad’s name, or anything else that might help? Thank you.

Matthew Pease
2/19/2020 09:08:00 am

Many thanks for an interesting article.
The following may be helpful to researchers:

Jack Pease, a son of the Quaker liberal MP Sir Joseph Whitwell Pease, was present at the evictions together with his wife Elsie so as to provide his father with first hand information to bypass partisan English press reports and to let him speak directly to parliament about it with authority. Jack interviewed John O'Halloran on the day and made the following notes of their conversation:

John O'Halloran 60 (age)
Lisboreen
Acreage 16
Rent £23.10 Judicial
1869-1882 £33.10
1849 - 13.10
50 - 23.10
....yrs 28.4
- 30
- 32
Built own house & buildings. 1879
reclaimed 8 acres bog.
- 4 rooms - enlarged own pocket
3 abroad (children)
£56 @ 6% Board of Works
repayable in 21 yrs. 1879

He also sketched eviction scenes, one of which is entitled 'Bodyke Fort', presumably on the O'Halloran's farm, showing a copse of trees surrounded by a wall; three men lying on the ground beside what looks like two trumpets and a drum; two officials in the foreground; and a crowd in the background. This perhaps relates to the events described above with an elderly man repeatedly knocked to the ground, but it certainly suggests that a musical band had been encouraging the protesters which was silenced by the same tactic.

Reply
Herstoric Ireland link
2/20/2020 05:47:40 am

Hi Matthew, thank you for this extra information; it adds another layer to the narrative. Were Jack’s notes and sketches published somewhere? And did the Pease family have any direct connection with Ireland? The presence of a band at an eviction and at subsequent trials would not have been that unusual. For example, in 1886 the protestors at the attempted eviction of the Hurleys of Castleview Mills (near Clonakilty, Co. Cork) were accompanied by the Timoleague and Kilbrittan bands, while the Butter Exchange Band and the Tailor Society Band were apparently present at later protests in Cork before Tim Hurley’s trial. Thanks again for sharing this information with us.

Reply
Matthew Pease
2/20/2020 07:55:07 am

I don't think Jack's notes themselves were published, but he was working with his brother Alfred who was also there for the first day or two and wrote a pamphlet called 'Bodyke' which will have summarised their joint findings and was published at the time. I haven't seen a copy but he refers to it in his later book 'Elections and Recollections' (John Murray, 1932). The two brothers had been encouraged to gather first hand information on the evictions by their father Joseph Whitwell Pease (JWP), who had himself been sent to Ireland by his father in the 1840s to help with the Quaker famine relief efforts - an experience he described as 'so awful as to be barely credible', so while the family had no direct connection with Ireland JWP was moved by the injustices of the landlord system he had observed then to take a close interest in the welfare of its people. The brothers were given letters of introduction by John Dillon and Timothy Harrington to local priests and protesters, as well as one to the RM assisting Colonel Turner, which was vital to get through the cordon around the houses to be able to witness the evictions, so they were able to speak to those on both sides of the argument.

JWP was an MP and he used the information provided by his sons to press in parliament for a much more radical approach to GB / Irish relations than was then being proposed by the government, in which he argued that the rural economy must be reformed to redistribute income much more widely amongst the population, to give them a stake in the country as a whole and reasons to conclude that union with GB was positive. The alternatives, as Alfred pointed out, were either "Home Rule or our (GB) rule by force", neither of which accorded with the Quaker view of states as cohesive and collaborative communities.

Jim Kennedy
3/16/2020 09:59:23 am

John & Hannah (Harriet) were my great-grandparents. Frank O’Halloran was my maternal grandfather. His sisters in the photo emigrated to the USA, and settled in NYC. All are interred in Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, NY. None have descendants, and Frank has none living with his surname. Frank and his wife, Margaret, my grandparents are buried in Drumcliff Cemetery just outside of Ennis, Co. Clare.

Reply
Jim Kennedy
3/16/2020 10:28:55 am

A clarification - Marion Moran was Honoria (Nora) O’Halloran Moran’s only child. She had no descendants. Her father died when she was very young.

Delia O'Mara
5/5/2021 11:04:49 am

john and harriets son john had 3 sons one of which had 4 children

Jim Kennedy
5/8/2021 08:35:04 am

I found photos I took in 2004 of my grandfather, Frank O’Halloran’s headstone. It is his account of the Bodyke Evictions that is available on the Clare Library website. The girls in the above photo were his sisters. The monument is very weathered but says he died May 20, 1926. His wife, my grandmother, Margaret, died July 16, 1925.

Herstoric Ireland link
2/20/2020 09:17:07 am

Thanks Matthew for all this extra information. I’m sure it will be of great interest to our readers. Joseph Whitwell Pease sounds like a fascinating character, with an interesting relationship with Ireland.

Reply
Jim Kennedy
5/8/2021 08:17:29 am

Please re-subscribe me. I hit the wrong link earlier. Thanks

Reply
Herstoric Ireland link
5/8/2021 09:09:16 am

Hi Jim, I don’t think I can fix that on my end sorry. But anyone that wants to get in touch can email us directly on [HerstoricIreland@gmail.com] and we can maybe put everyone in contact with each other (if all are in agreement). Alternatively, if everyone pops over to our Facebook page and leaves a comment under the post for this article here [https://www.facebook.com/HerstoricIreland/posts/804514690167307] you can communicate in a much faster way with one another directly.

Reply
Jim Kennedy
5/11/2021 07:54:47 am

I am over the moon to report that I just found the misplaced medal after more than a year or two of searching. It was logically placed in a box of Bodyke family photos, mostly from 1950 or 1960. Yea! It is a medal given to my grandaunt Honora (Nora) for defending the homesteads of Bodyke during the Evictions of 1887.

Reply
John Kennedy
7/17/2021 07:13:14 pm

Looking to get in touch with Jim Kennedy as I believe we may be related.

Reply
Jim Kennedy
7/18/2021 06:55:13 am

Anything is possible! Please provide your contact information or why you feel so. Thanks for your interest.

Reply
Herstoric Ireland link
7/26/2021 09:14:58 am

Hi John and Jim, thanks for your comments. Hope you two have managed to make contact with one another. We will delete John’s contact details but will forward them by email to Jim just in case he hasn’t received them. Thanks again for your interest.

Herstoric Ireland link
7/26/2021 09:18:02 am

Hi John and Jim, hope you two have managed to make contact with one another. We will delete John’s contact details but will forward them by email to Jim just in case he hasn’t received them. Thanks again to you both for your interest.

Reply
John Thomson
11/20/2021 08:00:23 am

Please resubscribe me. I hit the wrong link in an email. Thanks.

Reply
Herstoric Ireand link
12/31/2021 06:41:50 am

Hi John, sorry we cannot resubscribe you on our end but if you add another comment in here and at the bottom of the form tick “Notify me of new comments to this post by email”, you will be automatically resubscribed.

Reply
Oona
12/19/2021 08:02:27 am

I really loved the article! It‘s a very interesting story, and I‘m glad I found this summary of the events, since I‘ll be talking about them as an introduction for an important presentation.
Does anyone know how old the girls were? It would be a nice detail to know that, and I haven‘t found reliable data on their ages yet.

Reply
Jim Kennedy
12/30/2021 10:14:32 am

Oona,
After considerable research, here is my best info on the ages of my greataunts at the time of the Evictions:
Frank, my grandfather was 28, Honora 23, Annie18, Sarah 17.
Will update as more info is found.
Jim

Reply
Oona
12/31/2021 05:56:57 am

Hello Jim
Thank you very much for your effort so far! I really appreciate it.
Best wishes,
Oona

Herstoric Ireland link
12/31/2021 05:49:08 am

Hi Oona and Jim, sorry for not replying to your queries sooner. I will put you in touch with one another via email tonight. I have some data on their ages but it does not correspond with Jim’s ages so I recommend proceeding with caution. I will email you both tonight with the relevant documents. Thanks as always for getting in touch with Herstoric Ireland.

Reply
Oona
12/31/2021 05:59:08 am

No problem! What are the ages corresponding to your data?

Jim Kennedy
12/19/2021 08:53:04 am

Oona,
I have data showing their dates of birth, but I am not 100% satisfied with the accuracy. I’d say they were teenagers in the photo. If I can be of help, try messaging me on FB. My avatar is a gazebo with flags on it.
Jim

Reply
Oona
12/19/2021 10:33:24 pm

Dear Mr. Kennedy,
Thank you very much for your reply! That would indeed be very helpful! Unfortunately, I don‘t use FB. Is there any other way to contact you?
Best wishes,
Oona

Reply
Jim Kennedy
12/20/2021 12:29:21 am

Oona,
My email would be the easiest, but one can’t post it here. You are welcome to ask the admin to give you access to it.


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