Frenchpark
Encyclopedia
Frenchpark, historically known as Dungar , is a village in County Roscommon
, Ireland
on the N5 national primary road
. It was the home of Douglas Hyde
, the first President of Ireland
.
The nearby French Park Estate was until 1952 the ancestral seat of the French family, Barons de Freyne
. The estate was sold to the Irish Land Commission in the 1950s and was dismantled by the mid 1970s. An historic smokehouse is now one of the few remaining legacies of this period.
and was dedicated to the late Peadar Gallagher whose creative talent and artistic flair inspired the project. Since then it has been utilised by a number of artists and at one stage hosted a theatre company. Presently [May 2011] it is home to Black Hole Studio founded 15 October 2008 by David j. and Mary Duignan. Together they continued the work of the late Peadar Gallagher by hosting a number of exhibits and events: Earthlings, Mind Bomb, and two exhibits for Culture Night in 2009 and 2010. The partners continue to exhibit work from artists, both national and international.
in the west of County Roscommon. The clubrooms and playing field are located at the heart of this area in the village of Frenchpark, situated on the N5 about 10 miles east of the town of Ballaghaderreen. The Club fields Men’s and Ladies' Gaelic football teams from Under-12 to senior level.
Frenchpark House
The ancestral seat of the Barons de Freyne was the French Park Estate, near Boyle, County Roscommon
, in the Republic of Ireland
. The manor house, originally built in the mid-17th century before being rebuilt in the Georgian style in the 18th century was demolished after the sale of the estate by the French family to the Irish Land Commission
in 1952. The Land Commission removed the roof of the buildings in 1953 and eventually demolished the remaining structures in ca 1975.
A distant cousin of the de Freynes was Charlotte Despard
(née French) (1844–1939), one of the Frenches of High Lake, a British-born, later Irish-based suffragist, novelist and Sinn Féin
activist. Despard spent a lot of time in Frenchpark where her father was born. In 1908 she joined with Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington
and Margaret Cousins to form the Irish Women’s Franchise League. She urged members to boycott the 1911 Census and withhold taxes and provided financial support to workers during the Dublin labour disputes.
In 1909 Despard met Mahatma Gandhi
and was influenced for a time by his theory of passive resistance. She settled in Dublin after World War I
and was bitterly critical of her brother, Field Marshal John French, 1st Earl of Ypres
, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
in 1919-21, who unsurprisingly tended to ignore her.
During the Irish War of Independence, together with Maud Gonne
, she formed the Women's Prisoners' Defence League to support republican prisoners.[2] As a member of Cumann na mBan
she opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty
, and was imprisoned by the government during the Irish Civil War
. She was buried in the Republican Plot at Glasnevin Cemetery
in Dublin.
[62][63]. Unlike in Britain, the land in Ireland was owned mostly by Anglican people of English descent, who did not identify culturally or ethnically with the Irish population. The landlords were known as the Anglo-Irish. As the landowners felt no compunction to use their political clout to aid their tenants, the British government's expedient response to the food crisis in Ireland was to leave the matter solely to market forces to decide. A strict free-market approach, aided by the British army guarding ports and food depots from the starving crowds, ensured food exports continued as before, and even increased during the famine period. The immediate effect was 1,000,000 dead and another 1,000,000 refugees fleeing to Britain, Australia and the United States.
'Famine
Relief Commission Papers, 1845-1847'
from the National Archives of Ireland.
Description:
Rev Thomas O'Connor RCC, secretary of the Frenchpark Relief Committee, enclosing a list of subscriptions, reporting symptoms of extensive failure in the potato crop and indicating that a large proportion of the baronial population of 28859 was surviving on one meal a day.
Date: 20/07/1846
Description:
Fitzstephen French MP forwarding a letter from Rev William French, Protestant minister for Frenchpark, urging the distribution of meal 3 times a week, noting the '...fierce and wicked...' disposition of many men in the area, recent threats against merchants and non payment for work on the public works. Fitzstephen French also requests 10 tons of either biscuit or meal as 1 500 people had had to be provided with meal the previous day, with draft reply, and writes to TN Reddington, under-secretary, stating that he has persuaded several people to have their supply of oats threshed to provide food in the short term, that free timber is being provided for use in kilns and that he had received a refusal from Sir Randolph Routh for his request for a supply of food. Concludes with the argument that food is necessary to '...preserve confidence amongst the people...', especially as there is not a single soldier in the barony.
Date: 8/10-16/10/1846
Douglas Hyde
(Irish: Dubhghlas de hÍde; 17 January 1860 – 12 July 1949), known as An Craoibhín Aoibhinn ("The Pleasant Little Branch"), was a scholar of the Irish language
who served as the first President of Ireland
from 1938 to 1945. He founded the Gaelic League, one of the most influential cultural organisations in Ireland.
In 1867, his father was appointed prebendary and rector of Tibohine, and the family moved to neighbouring Frenchpark, in County Roscommon.
23 September 1920: Two RIC men were killed in an ambush by East Mayo and South Sligo IRA brigades, at Ratra near Frenchpark, County Roscommon. One volunteer died in the action; Black and Tans mutilated his body and dragged it through the streets of Ballaghaderreen
.
County Roscommon
County Roscommon is a county in Ireland. It is located in the West Region and is also part of the province of Connacht. It is named after the town of Roscommon. Roscommon County Council is the local authority for the county...
, Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
on the N5 national primary road
National primary road
A national primary road is a road classification in the Republic of Ireland. National primary roads form the major routes between the major urban centres. There are over 2,700km of national primary roads. This category of road has the prefix "N" followed by one or two digits...
. It was the home of Douglas Hyde
Douglas Hyde
Douglas Hyde , known as An Craoibhín Aoibhinn , was an Irish scholar of the Irish language who served as the first President of Ireland from 1938 to 1945...
, the first President of Ireland
President of Ireland
The President of Ireland is the head of state of Ireland. The President is usually directly elected by the people for seven years, and can be elected for a maximum of two terms. The presidency is largely a ceremonial office, but the President does exercise certain limited powers with absolute...
.
The nearby French Park Estate was until 1952 the ancestral seat of the French family, Barons de Freyne
Baron de Freyne
Baron de Freyne is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.-Two baronies:Baron de Freyne, of Coolavin in the County of Sligo, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created 1851 for Arthur French, 1st Baron de Freyne, with remainder to his younger brothers John, Charles and...
. The estate was sold to the Irish Land Commission in the 1950s and was dismantled by the mid 1970s. An historic smokehouse is now one of the few remaining legacies of this period.
Art
The Old Courthouse Art Gallery was opened on 16 July 1993 by the then president of Ireland Mary RobinsonMary Robinson
Mary Therese Winifred Robinson served as the seventh, and first female, President of Ireland from 1990 to 1997, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, from 1997 to 2002. She first rose to prominence as an academic, barrister, campaigner and member of the Irish Senate...
and was dedicated to the late Peadar Gallagher whose creative talent and artistic flair inspired the project. Since then it has been utilised by a number of artists and at one stage hosted a theatre company. Presently [May 2011] it is home to Black Hole Studio founded 15 October 2008 by David j. and Mary Duignan. Together they continued the work of the late Peadar Gallagher by hosting a number of exhibits and events: Earthlings, Mind Bomb, and two exhibits for Culture Night in 2009 and 2010. The partners continue to exhibit work from artists, both national and international.
Sport
Frenchpark is home to Western Gaels GAA club. The Club consists of the Parishes of Fairymount/Tibohine and Frenchpark/BellanagareBellanagare
Bellanagare is a village in County Roscommon, Ireland. The N5 national primary road passes through it , though a by-pass is planned. The village is located between Tulsk and Frenchpark on the Dublin to Castlebar/Westport road.-O'Conor Don:...
in the west of County Roscommon. The clubrooms and playing field are located at the heart of this area in the village of Frenchpark, situated on the N5 about 10 miles east of the town of Ballaghaderreen. The Club fields Men’s and Ladies' Gaelic football teams from Under-12 to senior level.
2008 Honours
- Senior County Semi Finalists
- Leo Kenny Cup Champions
- Stephen Nolan Memorial Cup Champions 2008
- Minor Ladies Division One Runners Up
- U-12 Division One Runners Up
- Club Colours: Navy Blue & Light Blue
- Founded: 1962
- Home Pitch: Nash Park, Frenchpark
- Previous Club Names: Tibohine, Ballinagare, St. Enda's Frenchpark (Minor Club).
- Official web page: http://www.westerngaels.com/
The Barons de Freyne, former owners of Frenchpark
At the time of Griffith's Valuation Frenchpark was owned by Rev. John Ffrench, Lord de Freyne and was valued at £60. In the 1749 Census of Elphin it was the residence of Arthur and Lady French. Members of the French family were buried in the graveyard surrounding the ruins of Frenchpark Priory.Frenchpark House
The ancestral seat of the Barons de Freyne was the French Park Estate, near Boyle, County Roscommon
County Roscommon
County Roscommon is a county in Ireland. It is located in the West Region and is also part of the province of Connacht. It is named after the town of Roscommon. Roscommon County Council is the local authority for the county...
, in the Republic of Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
. The manor house, originally built in the mid-17th century before being rebuilt in the Georgian style in the 18th century was demolished after the sale of the estate by the French family to the Irish Land Commission
Irish Land Commission
The Irish Land Commission was created in 1881 as a rent fixing commission by the Land Law Act 1881, also known as the second Irish Land Act...
in 1952. The Land Commission removed the roof of the buildings in 1953 and eventually demolished the remaining structures in ca 1975.
A distant cousin of the de Freynes was Charlotte Despard
Charlotte Despard
Charlotte Despard was a British-born, later Irish-based suffragist, novelist and Sinn Féin activist....
(née French) (1844–1939), one of the Frenches of High Lake, a British-born, later Irish-based suffragist, novelist and Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...
activist. Despard spent a lot of time in Frenchpark where her father was born. In 1908 she joined with Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington
Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington
Johanna Mary Sheehy-Skeffington, was a suffragette and Irish nationalist. Along with her husband and Margaret Cousins and James Cousins she founded the Irish Women's Franchise League in 1908 with the aim of obtaining women's voting rights...
and Margaret Cousins to form the Irish Women’s Franchise League. She urged members to boycott the 1911 Census and withhold taxes and provided financial support to workers during the Dublin labour disputes.
In 1909 Despard met Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , pronounced . 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement...
and was influenced for a time by his theory of passive resistance. She settled in Dublin after World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and was bitterly critical of her brother, Field Marshal John French, 1st Earl of Ypres
John French, 1st Earl of Ypres
Field Marshal John Denton Pinkstone French, 1st Earl of Ypres, KP, GCB, OM, GCVO, KCMG, ADC, PC , known as The Viscount French between 1916 and 1922, was a British and Anglo-Irish officer...
, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland was the British King's representative and head of the Irish executive during the Lordship of Ireland , the Kingdom of Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...
in 1919-21, who unsurprisingly tended to ignore her.
During the Irish War of Independence, together with Maud Gonne
Maud Gonne
Maud Gonne MacBride was an English-born Irish revolutionary, feminist and actress, best remembered for her turbulent relationship with William Butler Yeats. Of Anglo-Irish stock and birth, she was won over to Irish nationalism by the plight of evicted people in the Land Wars...
, she formed the Women's Prisoners' Defence League to support republican prisoners.[2] As a member of Cumann na mBan
Cumann na mBan
Cumann na mBan is an Irish republican women's paramilitary organisation formed in Dublin on 2 April 1914 as an auxiliary of the Irish Volunteers...
she opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty
Anglo-Irish Treaty
The Anglo-Irish Treaty , officially called the Articles of Agreement for a Treaty Between Great Britain and Ireland, was a treaty between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and representatives of the secessionist Irish Republic that concluded the Irish War of...
, and was imprisoned by the government during the Irish Civil War
Irish Civil War
The Irish Civil War was a conflict that accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State as an entity independent from the United Kingdom within the British Empire....
. She was buried in the Republican Plot at Glasnevin Cemetery
Glasnevin Cemetery
Glasnevin Cemetery , officially known as Prospect Cemetery, is the largest non-denominational cemetery in Ireland with an estimated 1.5 million burials...
in Dublin.
- Arthur French, 1st Baron de FreyneArthur French, 1st Baron de FreyneArthur French, 1st Baron de Freyne and de Freyne was an Anglo-Irish peer and Member of Parliament.De Freyne was the eldest son of Arthur French, of French Park. The French family had been major landowners in County Sligo and County Roscommon for many years. He was elected to Parliament for...
(1786–1856) - Despard
- Frenchpark Estate Record
- Baron De Freyne
- French Family
The Great Famine in Frenchpark (1845–1849)
The Great Famine in Ireland, 1845–1849, was in no small part the result of policies of the Whig government of the United Kingdom under Lord RussellJohn Russell, 1st Earl Russell
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, KG, GCMG, PC , known as Lord John Russell before 1861, was an English Whig and Liberal politician who served twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century....
[62][63]. Unlike in Britain, the land in Ireland was owned mostly by Anglican people of English descent, who did not identify culturally or ethnically with the Irish population. The landlords were known as the Anglo-Irish. As the landowners felt no compunction to use their political clout to aid their tenants, the British government's expedient response to the food crisis in Ireland was to leave the matter solely to market forces to decide. A strict free-market approach, aided by the British army guarding ports and food depots from the starving crowds, ensured food exports continued as before, and even increased during the famine period. The immediate effect was 1,000,000 dead and another 1,000,000 refugees fleeing to Britain, Australia and the United States.
'Famine
Famine
A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including crop failure, overpopulation, or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompanied or followed by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality. Every continent in the world has...
Relief Commission Papers, 1845-1847'
from the National Archives of Ireland.
Description:
Rev Thomas O'Connor RCC, secretary of the Frenchpark Relief Committee, enclosing a list of subscriptions, reporting symptoms of extensive failure in the potato crop and indicating that a large proportion of the baronial population of 28859 was surviving on one meal a day.
Date: 20/07/1846
Description:
Fitzstephen French MP forwarding a letter from Rev William French, Protestant minister for Frenchpark, urging the distribution of meal 3 times a week, noting the '...fierce and wicked...' disposition of many men in the area, recent threats against merchants and non payment for work on the public works. Fitzstephen French also requests 10 tons of either biscuit or meal as 1 500 people had had to be provided with meal the previous day, with draft reply, and writes to TN Reddington, under-secretary, stating that he has persuaded several people to have their supply of oats threshed to provide food in the short term, that free timber is being provided for use in kilns and that he had received a refusal from Sir Randolph Routh for his request for a supply of food. Concludes with the argument that food is necessary to '...preserve confidence amongst the people...', especially as there is not a single soldier in the barony.
Date: 8/10-16/10/1846
- Great Famine Ireland
Douglas Hyde
Irish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
who served as the first President of Ireland
President of Ireland
The President of Ireland is the head of state of Ireland. The President is usually directly elected by the people for seven years, and can be elected for a maximum of two terms. The presidency is largely a ceremonial office, but the President does exercise certain limited powers with absolute...
from 1938 to 1945. He founded the Gaelic League, one of the most influential cultural organisations in Ireland.
In 1867, his father was appointed prebendary and rector of Tibohine, and the family moved to neighbouring Frenchpark, in County Roscommon.
- Douglas HydeDouglas HydeDouglas Hyde , known as An Craoibhín Aoibhinn , was an Irish scholar of the Irish language who served as the first President of Ireland from 1938 to 1945...
20th - 21st Century
Irish War of Independence 1919–192123 September 1920: Two RIC men were killed in an ambush by East Mayo and South Sligo IRA brigades, at Ratra near Frenchpark, County Roscommon. One volunteer died in the action; Black and Tans mutilated his body and dragged it through the streets of Ballaghaderreen
Ballaghaderreen
Ballaghaderreen is a town in County Roscommon. It is located on the N5 National primary road. The town has become a bottleneck on the N5 route in recent years and the opening of the Charlestown bypass down the road has exacerbated the problem...
.
See also
- List of towns and villages in Ireland
- Market Houses in IrelandMarket Houses in the Republic of IrelandMarket houses are a notable feature of many Irish towns with varying styles of architecture, size and ornamentation making for a most interesting feature of the streetscape. Originally there were three, four or even five bays on the ground floor which were an open arcade. An upper floor was...