Omnibus – BRICK AND BRASS

Of red brick and merchant princes The following is a continuation of last week's column, featuring extracts from J.P. Burke's Omnibus series on the history of Tuam Post Office, first published in 1991.   BRICK AND BRASS THE russet brick building at Circular Road, which is now being refurbished and expanded, is typical of British post offices and shares with the Bank of Ireland offices at Shop Street the distinction of being the only building in Tuam town finished in that medium. At this juncture I have to hark back to the Shop Street building, not because of its use as a post office but on account of its place in the history of the town. What is now the offices of the ACC and before its use as a licensed hotel, was owned by the Cloran family who had extensive holdings on either side which will be remembered by older citizens who bought bread or confectionery at Cloran's, when Stephen Keane was manager there. That business has been closed for several years and is now part of the property owned by Mr Joe O'Toole of the supermarket, who has provided pedestrian access from Shop Street to his store. He may not be aware that in the 19th century or earlier there were lanes off Shop Street leading to yards and workshops at the rear of the buildings on the corner of the street.[private] The Clorans have long since left Tuam and the last member of the family to maintain the connection was Mr Michael Cloran, who was an engineer and lived in London. The property was acquired by the Bank of Ireland after the death of the previous Michael Cloran and his wife Mary Anne, who succeeded him, and at the time of sale to Thomas McHugh around 1914 were part of the lands of the Commissioners of Church Temporalities in Ireland. Readers may recall that in dealing with maps of Tuam I showed that the Bishops and Deans if the Church of Ireland owned extensive tracts of land in the town environs. POWER AND PRIVILEGE Though I am departing from the narrative of the post office in Tuam, I cannot make reference to the Cloran family without recalling some of the commercial history of the time. From the late 1700s, when the Blakes and Kirwans were the big landlords in this area, the growth of trade drew the balance of power away from the gentry to what they regarded as the tradespeople, mere shopkeepers and merchants. They in turn acquired power and privilege to a certain extent by reason and property, as well as a modicum of education denied to the peasantry. Small towns all over the land spawned from their merchant princes, especially after the famine years, when land and life were cheap, and Tuam was no different. It was a town where thousands had died on the streets, or in the workhouse at Dublin Road, described in the House of Commons by Tom Sexton of the Irish Party as 'the trojan horse of Tuam,' because it housed thousands when it was intended to accommodate hundreds. Many of the post-famine merchants had their roots in the country and in Tuam the Clorans, Hostys and Murphys became the leaders in trade and commerce. Shop Street was the fiefdom of the Clorans and Murphys, while Hostys established themselves on the Square, challenging the supremacy of the Kilgarriff family who had their ground at Bishop Street at the time when the Town House (or Hall) was on that side of the Square. Another merchant prince of the time was James McDonnell, who had big businesses in Dunmore and Milltown as well as Tuam. He lived at Waterslade House for some years before it was occupied by Frederick B McDonagh, one of the leading legal luminaries of his era who not infrequently crossed verbal swords with Patrick M Hosty, a Rumpole figure in my memory of Court proceedings. TO CIRCULAR ROAD THE history of the post office in Tuam has been sketched in as much detail as I can muster up to the final move to Circular Road and in future columns I hope to give an account of the men and women who have served the public with such diligence and courtesy over the best part of the century. But ere I take my leave, I cannot omit mention of the site of the temporary office at Bishop Street, now owned by the Browne family, scions of the Kilgarriffs who in their heyday had a chandlery and tanyard in that area in addition to their trade in the traditional groceries and provisions as well as the lucrative wool trade. Their descendants still hold their mark on that old part of the town of Tuam; long may it continue. â€Â¢ â€Â¢ â€Â¢ IN this 175th anniversary year of The Tuam Herald we will from time to time re-publish columns and photographs from decades past. If any reader has a particular interest, please write to the editor or email editor@tuamherald.ie.  â€â€ DB[/private]