My paternal ancestors came from Doocastle and Kilaville both of which are in the parish of Kilturra but the former is situated in County Mayo and the latter in County Sligo. This makes researching both interesting and challenging. For example, when I discovered the location of the Burke landholding in Doocastle, I also came across some text which refers to the landlord of Doo Castle, Joe Mór McDonnell. As my family have a strong thread of interest in traditional music I found this piece of research hilarious. Added to this, my daughter is acquainted with a young piper named John Touhey who hails from Kilkenny. In passing I asked him had he ever heard of Piping Joe Mór and to my astonishment he retorted that not only did he hear of him but he had seen his pipes which are on display in the National Museum! So, we all plan another day out in the autumn to find the ruins of Doo Castle. So as I stated above, research is interesting but my modus operadai is like that of a butterfly, I keep stopping on the way when I find another interesting topic
Joe MacDonnell like many impoverished Connacht gentry of his day - ‘as high-spirited and irresponsible as schoolboys’ - Joe Mór refused to let debt cramp his lifestyle. Irish hospitality reigned at Doo Castle, and while local custom demanded that no drink be consumed before dinner, that meal was at 4 p.m. Howver, after dinner, the dining-room door was locked, the key thrown out the window, and the man who could not take his bumper of claret as the decanter went around was forced to drink a pint of salt water. Joe Mór is not likely to have ever suffered this penalty: He was known to drink twenty-one tumblers of punch after dinner - though he was never seen to be drunk, or even under the influence of liquor (McDonnell Bodkin, 7-10)
The precarious state of Joe Mór’s finances is highlighted in the story told of an unfortunate Dublin wine-merchant who supplied a barge load of his best vintages to Doo Castle. Realising, too late, that he was unlikely to ever see any payment for his wares, he visited Doo Castle with the object of buying back what was left of the cargo in order to sell it and limit his loss. After several days hospitality, the merchant nervously broached the subject, diffidently suggesting that Joe and his guests, from the short shrift that they gave to his best vintages after dinner, would be just as content with whiskey-punch. Not only would punch suffice after dinner, he was told, but it would be much preferred - but Joe, alas, had no ready money to buy the requisite lemons. (McDonnell Bodkin, 8-9).
Joe’s stratagems for outwitting the summons-servers who besieged Doo Castle became legendary. He organised fox-hunts by moonlight, with the participants returning to Doo Castle for a hearty breakfast. Sunday being the only day on which debtors were free from arrest, when Joe found himself being pursued one Saturday evening he promptly went to ground in the hospitable house of the attorney who had taken out the summons against him (McDonnell Bodkin,10-11):
“There he dined, drank punch, played cards and won heavily. But a little after midnight he said to his host, "it’s time for me to be going home. It’s Sunday morning now, and I have already kept that poor fellow of yours too long waiting outside in the cold.” A year as MP for Mayo gave Joe a respite from his creditors. In March 1846 he stood as a Repeal candidate in a by-election caused by the retirement of Richard Blake, MP for Mayo.
His opponent was George Henry Moore (1811-91) of Moore Hall, Carrahall, co. Mayo, father of the novelist George Moore. An election address by Daniel O’Connell on Joe’s behalf was published on 21 February 1846 and, a week later, O’Connell remitted £250 for his election fund to John MacHale, Archbishop of Tuam. When the result was declared on 2 March, Joe had polled 477 votes against Moore’s 417.
A folklore account of the contest, ‘A Parliamentary Election during the Famine’, was one of the tales James Berry (1842-1914) published in the Mayo News between 1910 and 1914 - though Berry’s informants confused the Repeal Movement with that for Catholic Emancipation nearly two decades earlier. The description of Joe in this account is not very flattering, and the odd spelling of his name, ‘Joe Moore McDonnell’, was probably due to his being confused in popular memory with an earlier MP for Mayo, James Moore O’Donel of Westport, who was killed in a duel in Galway in 1801:
If the Archbishop had searched all Ireland he couldn’t have found a worse candidate that than his nominee, Joe Moore McDonnell of Doocastle, a country squire, who had nothing to recommend him save his drinking proclivities, his vile, immoral, immodest anecdotes, and his colossal stature; but the great Archbishop could find no other candidate, and he was determined to oust James Moore O'Donel at any cost in order to show the Government and the landlords what he could do. Some thought it a rash, forlorn hope, but the Archbishop was dismayed for, like Napoleon, he had a staff of priests around him, generals in fact, who were the bravest of the brave, foremost among them being Father Michael Conway, Father Luke Ryan, and Father Michael Curley who, although small in stature, was surely the Roman of them all.
On one occasion Joe, standing as the champion of the “ould faith” in Mayo, was caught by a horrified supporter eating meat on Friday. Instantly his popularity departed. There was shout of derision when he appeared on a platform. “Give him an egg to take the taste of mate off his mouth!” and an egg whizzed past his ear. ‘Big Joe’ was equal to the occasion. He drew a letter from his pocket.
“Does anyone here,” he roared out in a voice of thunder that dominated the tumult,
“know the handwriting of His Holiness Pope Pius the Ninth?”
There was moment’s pause. No one seemed to know the handwriting of His Holiness. Without waiting for an answer, Joe read the letter at the top of his voice: -
‘MY DEAR JOE,
I am well pleased to hear you are fighting for the old faith down in Mayo. You are neither to fast nor abstain while the good work is in hand.
“With kindest regards for yourself and the boys that are helping you,
I remain,
Yours very sincerely,
POPE Pius IX.
A roar of applause followed the name, and “Big Joe” was once more the popular hero. But Joe’s relief from his creditors was to be short-lived. In the general election of 1847, James Moore O'Donel, having this time taken the Repeal Pledge, swept home with 504 votes to Joe Mór McDonnels 53 (Freeman’s Journal, 1 August 1912); he held the seat until 1857 and served as MP again from 1868 to 1870.
During his year in Parliament, Joe Mór never spoke, but did once attempt to serenade the members (McDonnell Bodkin, 12):
It is said that on one occasion ‘Big Joe” determined to enliven the dull routine of the House of Commons by a spirited tune on his favourite pipes, and with this intent had carried his instrument with him into the front lobby, but was captured by his friends at the door of the legislative chamber.
Sometime in the 1850s, Joe lost the battle against his creditors, and was arraigned before the Encumbered Estates Court, the occasion of the much-quoted statement on his assets. He had no male heirs and the estate appears to have been placed in trust for his grand-children.
Joe moved to Dublin, where he lived in Rathmines with a Dr Hughes, to whom he was probably related through his grandfather, Myles McDonnell. He died on 14 January 1872 and was buried in Glasnevin cemetery. Again, according to family tradition, there was not enough money to pay the grave-diggers to fill in the grave, and some labourers from DooCastle, who were returning from England, performed this service out of respect and liking for the big man (McDonnell).
Administration of his estate was granted to Dominic Darcy of Doo Castle; described as the father and guardian of Joe’s grand-children; he was obviously his son-in-law.
The Seán Reid Society Journal. Volume 1. March 1999.
http://www.seanreidsociety.org/SRSJ1/A%20piping%20MP%20Joseph%20Myles%20McDonnell.PDF
A Piping MP: Joseph Myles McDonnell (1796-1872), Doo Castle,
Ballaghadereen, County Mayo.
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