The “Liberator” returns to Galway’s Shantalla for monster meeting

When Daniel O'Connell campaigned for Catholic emancipation and repeal of the Act of Union, he addressed a "monster meeting" in Shantalla, Galway, in 1843. Some 170 years later, Seamus Hughes is employing his best oratorical skills as he re-enacts the historic address at Shantalla's Emancipation or Sliding Rock for President Michael D Higgins.

“For too long, this country has been the pitiful pelting farm of the Saxon and the stranger!” (Roars!)

“Is this not a country worth fighting for?” (Cheers!)

Hughes admits that O’Connell would have been a lot more portly, and somewhat older. “It’s great to be back,” he jokes with the crowd.

This time, the throng isn’t quite 300,000, and there is no navy warship monitoring activity from Galway Bay. Nor are there the green fields that one Thomas Bodkin Esquire had given for the evening meeting as Shantalla has been a suburb of Galway city for 70 years.

The pageant is a highlight of the community’s 70th anniversary festival, Seachtain an tSeantalamh, and began with a parade through the streets to the Sliding Rock, led by the band of local school Scoil Bhríde.

Cepta Joyce, Ann Mannion, Della Quirke and Emily Nyland had made their aprons, bonnets and shawls over the past seven months in St Joseph’s Ladies Club.

Recalling how they had “grown up sliding the rock”, they were among about 50 residents and friends who generated excitement as they arrived in period dress.

“Where’s the Troika!”one member of the audience quips, as “the Liberator” and supporters take to the platform to denounce “the domination of the Saxon and the Alien”.

The Right Hon Lord Ffrench, played by Galway city arts officer James C Harrold, describes how the Act of Union was “founded on injustice and corruption”, while the Rev BJ Roache, played by Sean O’Brien, declares that “the people should not be trodden to the earth by a cruel oligarchy”.

The Liberator, employing his best Kerry accent, speaks loud and long. Raising his arms periodically, he criticises the “nine millions” that were being drawn from Ireland by absentee landlords.

Repeal would give every head of family a vote, would give fixity of tenure and keep those rents at home, he says, to cheers and roars, and applause from President Higgins, flanked by Mayor of Galway Cllr Terry O’Flaherty.

Afterwards, Mr Higgins received a painting of the Sliding Rock, presented to him by Shantalla Residents’ Association president John McDonagh, and mingled with residents who would have been constituents of his when he was a TD for Galway West.

An ecumenical service, to which representatives of the Muslim community were invited, was led by Fr Martin Downey and Rev John Godfrey.

Mr Higgins described the pageant as “wonderful”, reminding him of the power of oratory and constructed speeches. O’Connell’s address had been “very significant”, he said, as it was just a few years before his death, at the age of 71, and within four years of the worst of the Great Famine.