Halpins of Wicklow, etc. - Part 4

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A few years ago the fact that I was working on a recovery of the Halpin tale reached a distant relative of mine living here in Dublin.  Through her brother she invited me to visit her lovely home overlooking Dublin bay, to examine the contents of a few bags and boxes that lay hidden in her attic for decades.  The bags contained what remained of her father's papers, and her father was William R Halpin's eldest son.  There had originally been a great deal more to her father's archive, which included a significant number of books, but after his untimely death in the mid-1970s her mother had disposed of a large part of it.  What was left was stacked up on the kitchen table when I arrived, and I immediately set about sorting through piles of old newspapers dating from the second decade of the 20th century, as well as scores of letters and documents arranged in no particular order, a selection of tiny notebooks dating from the last year of the Civil War, along with a large Irish flag and parts of a Citizen Army uniform.  My host had given me full access to a treasure trove of Halpin memorabilia, and to this day I remain indebted to both her and her brother for the faith they placed in me.  I well remember my disbelief as I discovered letters from Patrick Pearse, the De Valeras, Dorothy Macardle and Nora Connolly.  My disbelief grew when I flicked through a tiny notebook-cum-diary written in an extremely agitated hand, describing the awful experiences of William R Halpin and his young family as night after night Free State troops raided his home and took him away for questioning.  He was on 'sticks' at the time, slowly recovering from a gunshot wound received while fighting alongside Oscar Traynor in Barry's Hotel during the Battle for Dublin in 1922.  Lodging with him and his family in their home on Hawthorn Terrace, was his father, Edwin Francis Halpin (1855 - 1924), who, despite his age, was mentally alert but physically frail, emphysemic and partial to a drink.  I thought of where Edwin had come from - a comfortable middle-class home on Main Street, Wicklow, where his well-read father and mother entertained people from all walks of life, and where the matter of Ireland's political status was the subject of constant discussion and debate.  That home was a secure, comfortable, well-provided place where Edwin and his siblings were never hungry or cold or scared.  Yet one hundred and fifty years later I was reading about a man who was cold, hungry and scared all the time, living in a working class district in Dublin's northern suburbs, among hostile neighbours during a time of civil war. 

To do full justice to the story that lay spread out on the table before me, I'd have to transcribe the diaries and letters as accurately as possible and sort everything into chronological order.  Thankfully my cousin felt exactly as I did, and as it turned out she did most of the difficult transcription while I did much of the sorting and background research.  All in all it took us about a year to fully appreciate what we had before us, and it is on the basis of those long hours of grind and toil that my understanding of the entire Halpin tale, stretching from the late 17th century to the mid-1970s, took shape.

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In the weeks after that first visit to my cousin's home I became gradually more familiar with the items in the archives.  Letters I could place in chronological order quite easily, and as each entry in the diaries were dated as well, my cousin and I began to form a sense of the day-to-day thoughts and activities of William and his family.  Uppermost in William's mind during the violent days of the Civil War were the psychological state of his wife and children, who were badly unnerved by the raids.  Visitors to the Halpin household would bring much-needed provisions, like food and clothing and a little tobacco, and from Jack Hanratty, who seemed to act as a go-between for William and his IRA comrades, he received a little over a pound a week in monetary assistance.  William's childhood friend, Elliott Elmes, who served as a Lieutenant in the Citizen Army during the Easter Rising and shared a cell with William in Knutsford, had been interned by the Free State for the duration of the fighting.  Every so often William received a visit from a distressed and strung out Mrs Elmes.  She begged for food, clothing, money, and any little news he might have about the whereabouts and welfare of her husband.  William gave what he had to spare, and went about Dublin on his crutches trying to find out what he could about the internees.  But news was hard to come by and everyone was acutely suspicious.  Letters, he was told, were being sent in to the authorities; his every move was being monitored by neighbours, who still resented what he and his small band of followers had done during the War of Independence.  They had terrorized their own as well as the Crown Forces, and were largely responsible for the unwanted attention of the Black and Tans.  And then there was the death of Andrew Hanratty (no relation to Jack Hanratty, eventual commandant of the ICA), which no one had forgotten.  All in all, then, the pressure on William and his family was immense, and it showed in the emotional and psychological fragility of Mrs Halpin in particular, who had been severely beaten while heavily pregnant by members of the Free State forces a month or so before William had emerged from hiding.  According to the diaries, on at least one occasion William called on the home of his friend, Dr Kathleen Lynn, seeking assistance.  But Lynn took a dim view of psychological illness and refused to help.  Relief for Mrs Halpin really only came after she gave birth to her son, ''Billy Boy,'' in early 1923, and especially after the order to 'dump arms' was delivered in May of that year.  After that the family slowly healed and Willy's handwriting gradually improved.  But the financial situation didn't improve, and work was impossible to find.

Aside from the picture we were able to form of the family's daily plight in Dublin, there were references throughout the diary (for 1922 - 23 in particular) to Wicklow.  The sentence ''No word from Wicklow'' appeared once a week, and we remain unsure of what William was referring to when he wrote it.  Could he have been referring to his father's sister, Emma, who continued to live in Wicklow town?  Emma was elderly and poor at the time and William might have been echoing a concern of his father.  But throughout the Civil War William received visits from republicans from the North and elsewhere, so it's not inconceivable that the line refers to IRA contacts. 

There is, however, another possibility, and it relates to James Everett.

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The diaries, letters, outdated newspapers and the rest of the Halpin archive had been put together by Eamonn Halpin Snr (1915 - 1977), who was William R Halpin's eldest son.  Like his father, indeed like every generation of Halpins since the mid-1700s, Eamonn had an obsessive interest in local politics, and was one of the founding members of Clann na Poblachta.  Selected to run for Dublin North-East in the general election of 1948, Eamonn was de-selected at the last minute by the party hierarchy, who parachuted Kathleen Clarke into the constituency, only to see her defeated by a resentful electorate, who preferred Eamonn, the popular local.  Clarke was extremely close to the family of Andrew Hanratty, so she may have had personal reasons for wanting to shaft the son of the boy's killer.  Despite the possibility of an ulterior motive, however, the entire incident was notable for another reason - the friendship it forged between Eamonn Halpin Snr and Captain Paedar Cowan, T.D., who condemned the party for what it had done to Eamonn.  Cowan had been a Labour Party member before leaving it in 1944, and it was while he was with Labour that he got to know James Everett. 

Among the many letters contained in the Halpin archive there is this one, which hints at the testy nature of the relationship between Cowan and Everett, who were members of the First Inter-Party Government formed after the election in February 1948:

Department of Posts and Telegraphs,
Dublin.

31 Deireadh Fomhair [October], 1948.

Dear Peadar,

               With further reference to your complaint regarding the Quiz feature broadcast from the BBC on Sunday 4th instant, I write to say that this matter had already come under the notice of the Director of Broadcasting who immediately got in touch by telephone with the BBC.  It appears that the omission of a reference to the fact that on this occasion ‘’Round Britain Quiz’’ was going outside Britain was an oversight which will not be repeated in subsequent contests between London and Dublin, of which several have been arranged.  When these contests were first proposed we welcomed them but stipulated that BBC announcements would have to make it clear that the programme was going outside Britain, so that there could be no possible complaint to the effect that Dublin or Ireland was being treated as part of Britain.  The BBC gave the necessary undertaking and in previous contests their announcements were in accordance with the understanding mentioned.

There may still be the objection that the title of the series is ‘’Round Britain Quiz,’’ but we can hardly make the BBC change the title of a long established series of broadcasts and so long as they make it clear each time they are in competition with the Dublin team that they are going outside Britain, I do not think anyone can seriously object.

These programmes have in fact redounded very greatly to the credit of Dublin, since on each occasion the Dublin contestants have won the battle of brains by a comfortable margin, a most satisfactory result in a competition which is on a very high level of literary, historical and scientific knowledge.

Yours sincerely,

James Everett.

Peadar Cowan, Esq., T.D.


I won't go into the political context in which the letter was written (that can wait for another time).  I merely draw attention to the fact that Halpin, Cowan and Everett were communicating.  But one letter doesn't necessarily indicate anything more than a professional relationship, does it?  To suggest that Everett knew the Halpins reasonably well, and knew of Eamon's grandfather, Robert Wellington Halpin, I'd need to produce something a little more substantial, wouldn't I?  Thankfully, the Halpin archive provides me with it.

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At around the time Clan na Poblachta was being brought into existence, the Wicklow Regatta and Maritime Fete was being organized by the town council.  It was the summer of 1945, and news of the progress of the allied forces in Europe led everyone to anticipate a swift end to the war.  Wicklow's Regatta committee was concerning itself with matters much closer to home, however - it was holding a ''Great Eastern'' exhibition and commemorating the life of Captain Robert Halpin.  Chairing the committee organizing the event was James Everett.   

Among the personal effects of William Robert Halpin we found an invitation to the Wicklow Regatta. 

Wicklow Regatta and Maritime Fete 1945.

The ‘’Great Eastern’’ Exhibition
Commemorating Captain Halpin.

The Wicklow Regatta Committee present
their compliments, and request the pleasure of
your company at the opening of the ‘’Great
Eastern’’ Exhibition in the Assembly Hall,
Wicklow, at 3 p.m. precisely on Thursday,
2nd August 1945.

Please present this card at the door.

Patrick Conway, Director.
Patrick Maguire, Hon. Sec.

Next to the invitation we found a few loose pages torn from a small notebook containing the following entries.  They form the only proof we have of William's attendance (or near attendance) with his wife Matilda:

1945.

August Holidays.

Finished at Dockyard at 5.36 pm August 3rd.
Left Dublin at 7.25 am on August 4th for Delgany.
Arrived at [...?...] Hotel at 8.30 am.
Lovely day.  After breakfast went down to Greystones.  Had hair cut.  Sat down on headland.  Sea very calm.  Very warm.  Tilly delighted.

Sunday 5th August.

Arose at 9 am.  Went to 11.30 mass at Greystones. 
Tilly and I felt very tired so decided to take a good rest.
After dinner went up to [--- ---] and had a good sleep in the open.
After tea sat reading until bed time.

Monday 6th August.

Weather changed.  Not so warm today. 
After dinner went for walk. 
Caught in heavy shower of rain and hailstones.
After tea had a good read.  Went to bed at 9 o’clock.
Tilly looking well and enjoying herself.

Tuesday 7th August.

Weather not so bad. 
After breakfast went for nice walk until dinner time. 
Out again after dinner.  Weather getting fine and warm again.
Went to bed early.  Tilly and self very tired.

[William wrote across both pages of his diary, beginning his first sentence at the left hand side of the left page, ending it at the right hand side of the right page.  Unfortunately, we only have one page – the left hand page – of the last diary entry for 1945.  For this reason it makes little sense, but clearly indicates a visit to Wicklow.]

Wednesday 8th August.

Arose 8.30 am.  Left ...
Arrived 12.30.  Blowing strong ...
Met Murphy, Spence, Kelly ...
Spence putting out to sea ...
... went up to Tilly ...
... and his brother ...
After dinner went for ...
...of Visitors.
After tea left for ...
... number travelling ...
Left Wicklow at ...
Arrived at Hotel ...
...early.  Tilly fed up.

Murphy, Spence and Kelly were probably residents of Wicklow and republican friends.  I don’t know if the Maritime Fete was still going by the 8th, but if not it’s probable William met someone in Wicklow who could tell him something about the ‘’Great Eastern’’ Exhibition.  William must have received the invitation to attend from James Everett, whom he knew fairly well, but precisely how he knew him is a mystery to me.  I suspect it had something to do with their republican past.  It was Everett who, in the late twenties and early thirties, contacted the Halpin family when their Wicklow aunts, Emma (1842 – 1932) and Ellen Halpin (1850 – 1939) were suffering in very reduced circumstances.  Ellen died in my grandparent’s home on Clonliffe Avenue, in Ballybough, Dublin, but not before telling my grandfather a little about his father’s people.  Everett may or may not have liaised with William during the War of Independence, but it's clear he knew Captain Peadar Cowan, a lifelong friend of the Halpin family, very well.  The dates of the document transcribed above roughly corresponds with the entries in William's brief diary, which indicates to me a sincere desire on William's part to attend the ''Great Eastern'' exhibition.  But why the 'personal' invitation?  It suggests to me that the organizing committee thought William might be a distant relation to Captain Halpin, and William appears to have thought so too.   

Obviously, when my relatives visited Wicklow in the 1950s, some time after the death of William Halpin, and received a warm and hospitable reception from James Everett, they were meeting a man who knew William reasonably well, and reserved a degree of personal respect for him.  Does this prove a blood tie between the Bridge Inn Halpins and the Halpins of Wicklow's Main Street?  No.  It doesn't.  But it proves that good people believed it might have been the case, and given the strength of the circumstantial evidence I presented earlier in the week (in summary form), I'm satisfied my forbears were telling the truth when they claimed to be related to Captain Robert Charles Halpin. 

By the way - that claim was not made proudly.  According to my great grandaunt, her father, William Robert Halpin, Wicklow's Town Clerk from 1849 to 1883, detested the Bridge Inn Halpins.  And from what I've been able to ascertain, the feeling was definitely mutual.

PS: Who were Murphy, Spence and Kelly?

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Here are photographs of a few key documents:

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