Fr. Conroy

Lahardaun had a part to play in 1798. There is a monument there to commemorate father Andrew Conroy who played a heartbreaking role in the 1798 rising. Little is known about Father Conroys early life but he followed the footsteps of the “Wild geese” to France and he went to study for a vocation in the priesthood. After he was ordained he returned to Mayo he was appointed the priest for the parish of Addergoole (Lahardaun). He set up several hedge schools in the area to give the children of the local population a chance at success under a system that gave little to no opportunities to poor catholics. At the time this was a very poor and isolated area.

When General Humbert and his 1000 soldiers landed in kilcummin on august 22nd, 1798, the word spread like fire across Mayo. Humbert quickly took the small village of Killala and the town of Ballina. The British anticipated that Humberts next move would be to Castlebar which was correct and the only good roads to Castlebar went through Foxford. So the British assumed he would go that way, they set up a strong defense along the river Moy. The British militia were right about them going to Castlebar next, but they were wrong about what path Conroy and his men would take. Humbert decided to go up the windy gap to Castlebar which the British were not expecting. Therefore he attacked the British from the back. As Humbert and his men entered Castlebar from the blind side, the British were facing Foxford (where they expected general humbert and father conroy to come from). As a result the British had their strongest men at the front and their weakest men at the back. When the time came for Humbert and his men to strike they took out all of the inexperienced soldiers without a problem sending the British militia into a frenzy. This led to the ‘Races of Castlebar’.

Humbert skillfully weaved his way northeast, trying to join forces with rebels he heard were rising in Longford and Westmeath. He was finally hemmed in at Ballinamuck in County Longford on September 8th by forces far larger than his. He put up a short defense in their hopeless circumstances, to uphold his honor, then surrendered to forces led by the same Lord Cornwallis who had surrendered to Washington at Yorktown.

In the aftermath of the Rising, Ireland was awash with arrests and executions, and one of those who would be swept up in this bloody vortex of British revenge would be Father Andrew Conroy, the priest of Addergoole. A few months after the Rising ended, British soldiers arrived in Lahardane. Various stories had been circulating in the area about his aid to Humbert. There was also speculation that the Ormsby's of Gortnor Abbey had been involved in his death. In his "History of the Irish Church," Rev. Thomas Walsh writes:

There is another family in the neighbourhood of Crossmolina, who possess a portion of monastic property of this Abbey(Abbey of the Blessed Virgin, now Abbeytown) as its name denotes: Gortnor Abbey; a family particularly distingushed by persecution and cruelty towards the people, whenever the opportunity ocurred .

The unfortunate rebellion 0f 1798 gave the representatives of this family an opportunity of indulging their spleen, and of imbruing their handsin the blood of the Rev. James Conry of Aldergoole. Within the last twenty years, the vengenance has been visibly displayed towards the Ormsbys of Gortnor Abbey."

Once captured, they transported Father Conroy to Castlebar for a trial that was, like so many other trials of Irish rebels before and after, merely a sham prelude to the execution all knew would follow. He was tried, quickly found guilty, and immediately taken to a tree on the mall opposite the Imperial Hotel and hanged. Numerous grief-stricken residents of the Lahardane area bore the body of their beloved parish priest back home, sadly following the reverse of the same route Humbert had taken to Castlebar. He was buried by the shores of Lough Conn within the ruins of an ancient church at the picturesque Addergoole burial ground.

Like so many Irish martyrs created by the British, Father Conroy became a local legend that could be used by succeeding generations opposed to British rule.

A tree on the Mall in the centre of Castlebar was identified as the gallows on which the venerated Mayo rebel priest, Father Conroy of Addergoole, was hanged. After it was uprooted by a storm in 1918, Celtic crosses were made from the wood and preserved locally as treasured keepsakes. Their status as nationalist relics was publicly confirmed at a civic reception in 1924, when one of the commemorative crosses was presented to the visiting Irish-American dignitary John Devoy, and other revered crosses later resurfaced in commemorative celebrations.