One of the most popular plays ever staged in the west of Ireland was The Country Boy by John Murphy from 1959, chiefly by Charlestown Theatre Group and produced by a doyen in local amateur dramatic circles, Paddy Henry. The play had many resonances which were familiar in the west of Ireland at the time. Located near Castlebar in County Mayo in the late fifties, The Country Boy is based on the theme of emigration and its effects on those who went and on those who stayed, with the dreams, thoughts and fears as seen from both sides of the Atlantic over two generations. The plot centres around the family of Tom Maher and his wife, Mary Kate, who farm a small holding. They have two sons, Eddie and Curly. Eddie has just arrived back from the USA after fifteen years, with his American-born wife, Julia, and is hailed as a paragon of success. Curly, 25, now wants to follow Eddie to America, chiefly to escape from the stultifying influence of his obdurate, dominating, and uncommunicative father. After a short time, the initial boasting of their success by Eddie and Julia gives away to exchanges which show a troubled marriage and that their real lifestyle, of hardship, alcoholism, and numerous regrets, is far from what they led their family in Ireland to believe. As a result, Eddie does not want Curly to follow in his footsteps and tries to convince him that he would be far better off to remain at home. Curly has a girlfriend, Eileen Tierney, and is torn between his love of her and his desire to escape to a new life. Tom Maher, a product of his time, place, and circumstances, has inevitably to accept change. It results in a happy ending, but with a final revealing comment from the aging patriarch. Eventually Curly and Eileen agree to marry and stay at home. He informs his parents of the news and that the wedding will take place on Monday… three weeks. His father, Tom, responds:

“Monday, three weeks (slowly something dawns on him and he turns back into the kitchen, his face a mixture of pain and frustration), well wouldn’t you swear he does it to me on purpose. Monday, three weeks! The bloody fair-day in Castlebar!”

  John Murphy (1924-1998) was born in Bellaghy, Charlestown, County Mayo. As a youth, he was a member of the Charlestown Dramatic Society. Like so many young men and women of his generation he was forced to leave and seek employment in England. After some time in England, he went to Belfast, working as a ship engineer for a company based in Rugby. There, he regularly attended plays staged by the Ulster Group Theatre. He wrote The Country Boy in Belfast in 1958. Its first production was by the Ulster Group Theatre in Belfast on April 7, 1959, followed by a month later by the Abbey Theatre in Dublin on May 11. It proved to be a great success. After attempting to secure employment in RTÉ, John Murphy became disillusioned with Ireland and, after marrying Kathleen Rodgers from Sonnagh, Charlestown, they left the country, settling for a few years in England before emigrating to Los Angeles. He worked as a lighting technician and engineer in Hollywood for Disney, Paramount and 20^th Century Fox. He started another play, “The Man from Ballybeg”, but it was not published or produced. John Murphy came to Charlestown in September 1996 to see the local Dramatic Society unveil a plaque on the house in Bellaghy where he was born. (Thanks to Paddy Henry, I had the pleasure of meeting him on that occasion). John Murphy died in Los Angeles on May 31, 1998, and his ashes were buried on the side of Nephin Mountain in County Mayo at his request.

       James Daly (1836–1911) has been described by historian Joseph Lee as ‘the most undeservedly forgotten man in Irish history’ in his book The Modernisation of Irish Society 1845-1918 (1979, pp.69/70).  He had a big role in the land agitation that started in the west of Ireland in the late 1870s, which led to the formation of the Land League and eventually to tenant farmers becoming owner-occupiers of their holdings within a generation.

       A native of Boghadoon in the parish of Addergoole in north Mayo, James Daly inherited a large holding of land on the Palmer estate from his father.  He was educated locally and at the Franciscan Friary at Errew, near Castlebar. With Alfred O’Hea, he purchased the then Mayo Telegraph newspaper in February 1876, and changed its name to the Connaught Telegraph.  Due to illness, O’Hea sold his share of the newspaper to Daly in January 1879.  A strong nationalist, a town commissioner and Poor Law Guardian, James Daly served as secretary of the Mayo Tenants’ Defence Association from 1878, and became a tireless constitutional champion of agrarian reform. Under his editorship, the Connaught Telegraph became the most important newspaper in the country for articulating the grievances of tenant-farmers and social conditions in general in the west of Ireland.  Despite his large farming interests, James Daly was a big supporter of those with small holdings.

         Some tenants on an estate near Irishtown, County Mayo, who were under threat of eviction in January 1879, met James Daly, and asked him to publish their grievances in the Connaught Telegraph.  He rejected their request, in fear of libel action, but advised them to hold a public meeting to ventilate tenant grievances in general, as well as demanding a reduction in their rents.  A meeting was held in February 1879 in Claremorris attended by James Daly, Michael Davitt and others at which arrangements were made for a demonstration to be held at Irishtown on Sunday April 20, 1879.   The Irishtown meeting, which was attended by a large crowd and chaired by James Daly, ignited the flame that was to change the face of rural Ireland. The eviction notices were withdrawn and the rent was reduced by twenty-five per cent. The next big meeting took place in Westport on June 8, 1978, again chaired by James Daly, at which both Charles Stewart Parnell and Michael Davitt spoke.  All such land meetings were well publicised in the Connaught Telegraph.  The National Land League of Mayo was established on August 16 ,1879, in James Daly’s Hotel in Castlebar.  This evolved into the Irish National Land League, which was established in Dublin on October 21 1879, with Parnell as President and Michael Davitt, its organiser-in-chief, one of the secretaries.  After becoming a member of its central committee, it is said that James Daly addressed over a hundred Land League meetings.  He, Michael Davitt and James Killen were arrested for alleged seditious speeches on November 19, 1879, at Gurteen, County Sligo and sent to Sligo Jail, but the trial against them later collapsed.  The Land War lasted from 1879 to 1882. After the introduction of the Coercion Act in 1881, James Daly was arrested and spent five weeks in Galway Jail.

         The pioneering work of James Daly in ventilating the grievances of tenant-farmers in the Connaught Telegraph created hope that the system could be changed.  His major roles as secretary of the Mayo Tenants’ Defence Association from 1878, in organising and chairing the important meetings in Irishtown and Westport, in his influential evidence to the Bessborough Commission in 1880, which led to major changes in the 1881 Land Act, as well as his involvement in the Land League campaign deserve special recognition.  However, it was Michael Davitt who recognised the potential of the local agitation in the west of Ireland to change the landlord system.  It was his vision, organising genius, and networking skills which transformed this local protest in Mayo into a county movement and later into a national one with the immediate goal of protecting the rights of tenants and the ultimate radical objective of replacing the landlords with tenant-owners within the law.

         A rift developed within the Land League, and James Daly felt that it had deserted the social group for which it was founded, and left the organisation. In 1888, he sold his newspaper to Thomas Gillespie, who had managed the paper for him, and became a full-time farmer. He was elected as a Castlebar Town Commissioner and from 1899 as a member of Castlebar Urban District Council. He supported the United Irish League after its establishment in 1898 campaigning for the redistribution of large ranches to small farmers. James Daly died in January 1911 and is buried in the new cemetery in Castlebar.