Ernie OMalley - Nobodys Business: The Aran Diaries of Ernie OMalley

The Aran Diaries of
ERNIE O MALLEY

Edited by CORMAC O MALLEY
and R ISN KENNEDY

Afterword by LUKE GIBBONS

THE LILLIPUT PRESS

DUBLIN

Dedication

This volume is dedicated to Paddy Mullen of Inishmore (19482016) and to Dr P draig (Pat) OToole of Bung Gowla, Inishmore (19382015), who were so supportive of this endeavour.

Illustrations

Ernie and Cormac OMalley on Inishmore, 1954. Photographer Jean McGrail. Courtesy of Cormac OMalley. (Cover)

Ernie OMalley on Inishmore, 1954. Photographer Jean McGrail. Courtesy of Cormac OMalley.

Elizabeth Rivers in doorway of Man of Aran Cottage, Inishmore, Aran, c. 1940. Photographer unknown. Courtesy of David Britton.

Pat Mullen. Photographer unknown. Courtesy of David Britton.

Sean Keating, Launching a Currach . Charcoal drawing. Private collection. Photograph courtesy of Adams Fine Art Auctioneers. Sen Keating. All Rights Reserved IVARO , 2017.

Irish Dancers in a cottage on Inishmore [Bridget Johnston, on right Sonny Hernon], March 1952. Photographer George Pickow. Ritchie-Pickow Collection James Hardiman Library National University of Ireland, Galway. National University of Ireland, Galway.

Charles Lamb, A Quaint Couple , 1930. Crawford Art Gallery, Cork and Laill Lamb de Buitlear.

Elizabeth Rivers, Loading Cattle for Galway from the Aran Islands. Wood engraving. Courtesy of David Britton.

Annie Hernon knitting close to a cottage hearth, 19 52. Photographer George Pickow. Ritchie-Pickow Collection James Hardiman Library National University of Ireland, Galway. National University of Ireland, Galway.

Sen Keating, Two Girls waiting by harbour for hooker. Charcoal drawing. National Museum of Ireland. Photograph courtesy of Adams Fine Art Auctioneers. Sen Keating. All Rights Reserved IVARO , 2017.

Maurice MacGonigal , Unloading Turf, Kilmurvey Pier, Inishmore , c. 1954. Private collection. Photograph courtesy of Adams Fine Art Auctioneers. Estate of Maurice MacGonigal, b y permission of Ciaran MacGonigal.

Elizabeth Rivers, Seaweed Harvest, Aran Islands . Wood engraving. Courtesy of David Britton.

A young woman spinning, Aran Islands, c. 1952. Photographer George Pickow. Ritchie-Pickow Collection James Hardiman Library National University of Ireland, Galway. National University of Ireland, Galway.

Sen Keating, Self-Portrait . Drawing. Private collection. Photograph courtesy of Whytes.com. Sen Keating. All Rights Reserved IVARO , 2017.

Preface: Aran on his Mind or Nobody s Business

Cormac K.H. OMalley

My father, Ernie OMalley, had the Aran Islands on his mind on and off for almost forty years. The islands represented a special place for him, an intellectual getaway, a place where he could have peace and freedom. This relationship was not critical to his life or career, but his reflections on Aran in his diaries and in other writings tell us much about himself as a nationalist, a long-suffering patient, art critic, archaeology buff, folklorist, military organizer, parent, wanderer and writer.

In his youth my father summered around Clew Bay, Co. Mayo, and retained vivid memories of the local boats, islands, islanders, fishing, fishermen, stories and folktales, and he wrote of these nostalgically in the first chapter of his memoir, On Another Mans Wound. Thus when he first went to Inisheer, the smallest of the Aran Islands, in spring 1919, with Peadar OLoughlin of Clare, to help start a company of Irish Volunteers there, he would have been familiar with some of the rural island traditions of storytelling and their way of life. Father was not an affable, easy-going young man who could sing a song or tell a ballad easily; in fact, he was a relatively shy introvert, who could never speak well in public. However, when required in the evening time sitting around a turf fire on Inisheer, he drew upon his resourceful memory to relate to the islanders some seafaring stories such as those of Till Eulenspiegel, Hakluyts sea tales, Bricris Feast and The Story of Burnt Njal. Since he could not speak Irish, no doubt, Peadar in translating his tales for the islanders must have added some engaging language, and they in turn apparently rocked with delight. Sadly for him from the perspective of his immediate mission, no Volunteer company was organized, and he comments on that in his later diaries, but at least his tales were remembered after he left. Folklore remained an interest throughout his life, and he wrote up tales and folk traditions when he travelled later in New Mexico and Mexico.

Ernie OMalley on Inishmore, 1954.

Father took about ten years off after being released from his military internment camp just before the start of the Tailteann Games in mid July 1924. He first went to Europe to recover from his ill health and wounds after his eight years of military activities. When he returned to Ireland in autumn 1 926, he found he could not concentrate on his medical studies and by autumn 1928, he went off to the United States to raise funds for the founding of the Irish Press . When that campaign ended, he remained there and wandered around the United States and Mexico writing his memoir, principally in New Mexico and New York. It was there he met my mother, Helen Hooker, an American sculptor, artist and photographer, and fell in love. When he returned to Ireland in 1935, one of the places he wanted to go to get away from his own familys domestic life in Dublin was to the quietude of the West. Having lived in such relative isolation during his travels perhaps returning to the centre of his parents family home was too much, and soon after arriving home, he wanted some solitude. He would also have encountered many people who still wanted him to be as he had been in his activist nationalist days, whereas he had moved on and wished not to be thought of in that heroic light. As in his days on the run, he took off to wander around Ireland to see archaeological sites and monastic ruins. He went to Clare and Galway, and it is thought that he went on to Aran. By that September he had married Helen Hooker, settled down in Dublin where he returned to his medical studies, and started to prepare his memoir for publication in early 1936. Their first child was born in July 1936, and while Helens American family visited in Dublin, my father once again sought out peace and quiet and headed to the Aran Islands.

It must have been quite a surprise when my father landed in Kilronan on Inishmore and met Barbara MacDonagh, daughter of the 1916 executed leader, Thomas MacDonagh, who was there on her honeymoon with her husband, Liam Redmond, and had rented McDonaghs hotel in Kilronan for a few weeks that August. There were plenty of unoccupied rooms there, and he was invited to stay. Despite his good intentions to be isolated, no doubt, he was interested in meeting up with young people who knew of nationalist politics, literature and theatre. Barbara was studying Arts while Liam was doing Medicine at UCD , and both were involved in the Dramatic Society, which father had helped found in 1926. There would have been great chats, and father would have met Dr John OBrien who became a great source of friendship and information for years to come.

After his respite in Aran father returned to Dublin and continued his medical studies, but my parents spent more and more time on excursions around Ireland photographing archaeological and medieval Christian monastic sites. After father lost a libel suit on his memoir in 1937, my parents decided in 1938 to live in County Mayo where eventually they settled in an old OMalley home at Burrishoole Lodge, near Newport. There they started an almost self-sufficient farm during the Emergency years, but also spent time photographing rural Western Ireland. My mother took a special interest in fixing up the farm buildings and continuing her sculpting, while my father collected extensive folklore tales from around Clew Bay and started to research and write on local history.