On 29 April 1922 High Sherrif of Mayo, Major Dominick Browne who lived at Breaffy, Castlebar County Mayo was given three hours to leave his palatial mansion by Oglaigh na hÉireann, 4th Western Division, West Mayo Brigade, 1st Battalion Commandant, Thomas Hevey.[i] He was informed that he and his family were to be deported. This was ‘deemed necessary in view of the continued massacre of Irish Citizens in the North East’. Whether the order was complied with is not known but the Browne’s remained in the house until 1961 when it was sold.[ii]
Five days later on 4 May the leading citizens of nearby Ballina wrote an urgent letter to Arthur Griffith as head of the Provisional Government. The arresting opening lines merit consideration in this debate on the issue of Protestant flight from the Free State. It stated ‘On behalf of the Catholic Citizens of Ballina we earnestly and urgently write to you to take immediate steps to prevent the threatened expulsion of the prominent Protestant merchants and businessmen of Ballina who are on the eve of being served by the Irregular IRA here, with notice to leave the country in 48 hours’. The letter continued ‘We are deeply pained at this cowardly and intolerant act by a section of our fellow countrymen who have no authority but the gun’. The letter writers were appalled that some were ‘using our new found liberty… to persecute our fellow countrymen because of their religion’. They concluded that the vast majority of the people in the area were pro Free State and needed the government to take control. The letter was signed five leading Catholics including John Moylett, and Michael O’Hora the brother of Castlebar IRA Adjudent William O'Hora . Moylett’s signature is particularly significant as, in 1920, the Auxiliaries had arrested
‘…a number of most respectable citizens and men who were wholeheartedly Sinn Feiners Pat Beirne, John Moylett, Martin Corcoran, Michael Moylett and after handcuffing them, the Auxiliaries tied the Tricolour to the last prisoner, trailing it in the mud of the streets and with an itinerant musician marching in front, took them to the Market Cross where the prisoners were beaten and kicked to their knees in an effort to make them kiss a Union Jack placed on the roadway’.[iii]
It seems that even though some among the Anti-treaty IRA believed that they had a right to intimidate Protestants all their behaviour caused was horror and revulsion among the local Catholic community and only led to a demand that all citizens be treated equally.
[i] National Archives of Ireland (TSCH/3/S565) ‘Threatened expulsion of Protestants in Ballina, county Mayo, Apr 1922-May 1922’.
[ii] The 1960’s seem to have been a very difficult decade for the Big Houses across Ireland and Britain when death duties had to be paid out of estates that had lost their supporting lands under the land acts. For example, Elizabeth Bowen’s home at Bowenscourt in North Cork which was sold and demolished in 1960.
[iii] Bureau of Military History WS 1569 George Hewson p.4; See also BMH WS 1554 William J. O’Hora Adjutant, Ballina Company, Irish Volunteers who was the above mentioned Michael O’Hora’s brother.