Tuam early 1900's

This picture features of group of men from Tuam early 1900's.    Liam Langley is in the second row second from right. Langley worked as a bookkeeper in McTigue's, Maher's and Fahy's stores in Tuam in the early 1900.  This may be a photo of the staff from one or other of these shops.

Another Tuam group outside Fahy's shop.  Liam Langley centre front.

Old Postcard of Tuam early 1900s

Seamus Nestor Na Fianna Éireann

Seamus Nestor

‘C’ Comp 2^nd Batt Dublin Brigade 1916-21 Fianna Éireann

1^st Batt Dublin Brigade IRA 1921/22

Seamus Nestor C.1930
Photo Liam Langley

'While a pupil in St. Patrick’s School, Drumncondra, Dublin, Seamus Nestor joined Fianna Éireann upon it’s re-organisation after the Easter Rising in 1916.  He was attached to Sean Heuston Sluagh, afterwards ‘C’ Company of the 2^nd Battalion, Dublin Brigade.  For almost three years he was just an ordinary member of the Fianna.  After passing through all his tests and being noted for punctuality and regular attendance on parades at lectures and camps, he was appointed Quartermaster of his Company at the end of 1919; in this capacity he attended classes in Musketry Instruction held by the I.R.A., afterwards imparting these instructions to Fianna on the use of small arms and grenades.  About this time he took part in a raid for cycles on the Central Telegraph Office.  Fifty machines were taken from the stores.

In 1920 he was appointed 1^st Lieutenant.  He was then one of the squad told off for special intelligence work in connection with enemy spy activities.

In May 1921 he was in an armed engagement with Crown Forces:  Accompanied by two others they served as covering party opposing a raid by British Military on a Fianna Camp at Finglas.  Armed with revolvers their fire held off the enemy until all the Fianna in camp, about sixty, had escaped.  Seamus visited the area on the following day and found the British Military still in the vicinity of King James’s Castle.  As he was returning he met a Dispatch Rider, whom he know, attached to the Department of Home Affairs, on his way to shift a dump at the Castle.  Despite the warning and advice given by Seamus the other insisted in taking a chance, having first handed over his dispatches which were addressed to Austin Stack, The Minister of Home Affairs, and were duly delivered.  At the time the capture of these documents would have been a very serious matter indeed.  The Dispatch Rider was arrested by the British Military, court-martialled and sentenced to a long term of imprisonment.  This arrest took place on 24^th May 1921.

Following these incidents the services of Seamus Nestor were immediately requisitioned by Commandant P. Holohan and he was transferred as Assistant Battalion Quartermaster to the 1^st Battalion, Dublin Brigade of the I.R.A.  In this capacity he was responsible for the purchase, custody and distribution of arms and the inspection of arms dumps in the area.  He had also to ensure that Company Quartermasters submitted full returns of arms and ammunition after armed attacks.  He served in this capacity to the end of hostilities.

During the Truce, his works as Q.M’s Assistant, if not so risky, remained just as heavy.  There was Camp Training at Mulhuddart, night manoeuvres and duties in connection with carnivals as a fund raising campaign, as well as continuing to purchase arms whenever possible.  Following on the Belfast purge, as part of his duties, he was responsible for the billeting and feeding of refugees from that city.  He took part in many raids for Belfast goods and did much duty at Fowler Hall.

During the last occupation of the Four Courts he was responsible for the transport of arms to and from there for Battalion use.  During the attach and bombardment of the Four Courts when the street fighting commenced in the area, Seamus, under the supervision of Quarter Master Corliss, undertook the collection of arms and ammunition from dumps and distributed them amongst the different garrisons.

On the 28^th June 1922 he reported to 44 Parnell Square and during the week he served at the Duke of Leinster’s house in Dominick Street and at Jenkins’ of Capel Street where the Garrison surrendered.

He was imprisoned in Wellington Barracks, ‘B’ Wing, Mountjoy Prison and transferred to Newbridge Barracks in January 1923; he took part in the mass hunger strike and was released in December 1923.

He joined the Irish Press staff in 1931, later becoming Limerick Branch Manager until he retired through ill health in 1954.  His death took place in Limerick on 23^rd March 1956.

Liam Langley
Battalion Commandant 2^nd (North Dublin) Battalion
Staff HQ Director Organisation and Education

23.7.57

Extracts from the account of Sean Nestor typed up by 

Liam Langley dated 23 July 1957

Influences on Liam Langley

Liam enjoyed reading and from an early age he was influenced by the many pamphlets and periodicals available in the early 1900's.  Below is one such pamphlet which is in Liam's collection of papers, Denvir's Monthly Irish Library. These publications consisted of collections of Irish poetry, history, and patriotic biography.  They were sold at 1d each and were referred to as Denvir's Penny Library.  This particular issue features an article by the Fenian Michael Davitt (1846-1906) , Fenian, member of IRB, agrarian agitator and founder of the Irish National Land League.  He was a labour leader, Home Rule politician and Member of Parliament.                                                                                          

As well as reading Liam Langley enjoyed drama and the theatre.  He introduced dramatic classes to the Tuam Sluagh of Na Fianna Éireann, 'The Eloquent Dempsey' being one piece staged by them. Liam attended many plays, mainly nationalist, one being The Membory of the Dead, with Constance de Markievicz in the lead role.  The programme from the play remains in his papers, this dates from around c.1912.

'Casimir Markievicz set up the  Independent Dramatic Company.  His first Irish plays feature  social comedy and obscure allegory however from 1908 in keeping with his wife’s increasingly radical stance, Markievicz’s plays veered into nationalist politics – most noted is the play the Memory of the Dead put on in both the Abbey and the Gaiety in 1910.  The theme dealt with by Markievicz was one of heroic patriotism.  Set in Sligo and Mayo during the 1798 Rising it deals with two rebels (one cautious, one hot-headed) in love with the same girl.  A wedding takes place to mislead the authorities about the planned Rising, the husband disappears and is suspected of betraying the rebels.  He is later revealed as a hero after his return in disguise and noble death.  His child is consecrated to set Ireland free, as the curtain falls.  The cast included Constance Markievicz, Helena Moloney and the young Fenian doctor Patrick McCartan and the charismatic Sean Connolly, who would later join the Abbey, and die on the roof of the City Hall during the 1916 Rising.’ (R.F. Foster, Vivid Faces, The Revolutionary Generation in Ireland 1890-1923)

Photography

From an early age Liam was a keen photographer.  He took many photographs of friends and neighbours in Tuam and later of his family.  A number of his glass plates have survived the various raids on his home by both the RIC and Free State Army as well as the many house moves during his life.  

Above is the original of the 'selfie',  Liam lined up his camera and took this photo of himself!

Daughter Ita c.1933

Son Jarlath c.1930

Unknown people, old glass plate from Liam's collection
Possibly Tuam c.1915

   LANGLEY FAMILY C.1942

Liam's wife Mollie standing, her sister Bree sitting
Children L to R Brendan, Nuala, Ita, Mairead, Jarlath 
Photo Liam Langley

With eldest daughter Ita around 1952

Christmas Card from The O'Rahilly

Liam Langley helped to set up the Irish Volunteers in Tuam in 1913.  This Christmas card was received by Liam from The O'Rahilly, a republican he got to know through their shared involvement in the rebellion.  The date of the card is between 1913-1915.

Michael Joseph O'Rahilly  (22 April 1875 –29 April 1916) known as The O'Rahilly,was an Irish republican and nationalist; he was a founding member of the Irish Volunteers 1913 and served as Director of Arms. Despite opposing the action, he took part in the Easter Rising in Dublin and was killed in a charge on a British machine gun post covering the retreat from the GPO during the fighting.

Howth Gun Running July 1914

Liam Langley travelled from Tuam Co Galway with a group of Fianna Eireann members to take part in the Howth Gun Running on 14 July 1914.  He can be seen in the photograph below in the light coloured suit wearing a boater type hat (third from right)

Family

Liam with daughter Ita late 1940s

Sons Brendan front centre, Jarlath left
Tuam 1941 25 Anniversary of 1916 Rising

Liam right with sons Brendan & Jarlath 1941

Jarlath, Ita, Mollie, Mairead, Nuala, Brendan

OBITUARY

This is the original obituary from: The Tuam Herald,
Saturday July 6 1968

Since this obituary was written further research into Liam's life and times have revealed and clarified details of his life which were not available at the time.

Mr Liam T. Langley

Late of Tuam

   The death of Mr. Liam T Langley, which occurred on June 21st at his residence, ‘Glenealy’, 23 Blackheath Park, Clontarf, Dublin, severs one of the last Tuam links with the 1916 Rising.  The number of people now left in the town who remember him is comparatively small, but here surely was a man whose name can be recalled with pride.  For Liam Langley had given a lifetime of devoted service to the national cause, and was friend and confidant of many whose names stand high in our country’s roll of honour.  “It wasn’t from the wind he took it,” for he was born with a Fenian heritage that he carried from childhood through the length of years.

   Though he always regarded Tuam as his home town, Liam Langley was born in Sydney, Australia, on January 23rd, 1888, and was only four years old when he first came to the land of his fathers.  It was homecoming too for his father, Michael Langley, a native of Caltra, Ballinasloe, who had to flee “down under” a a hunted felon after the abortive Fenian Rising of 1848.  While in Sydney, he married and raised a large family, and owned a book shop in the city.  Some years after the death of his first wife, he married Mary Kavanagh, daughter of emigrants from Co. Wicklow, both of whom had died and been buried at sea on the long voyage to Australia.  Liam was the only child of that marriage and in 1892 they returned to Ireland and came to live in Tuam.  In a thatched cottage on the Cloonthue Road, Liam Langley learnt the Fenian tradition from his father, whose brother Charles had been hanged outside his own house in Clastleblakeney in April, 1820, for organising the Ribbonmen in the area.

Bureau of Military History

Mentions of Liam T Langley in Witness Statements

National Activities North Galway 1913-1921 John D Costello click here

Statement  Liam Langley re arrest Sean MacDiarmuid Tuam May 1915 by R.I.C.

Statement  Activities of Tuam Company, Irish Volunteers Tuam Battalion, Irish Volunteers, Galway 1914-1921 Thomas Nohilly

Statement of Patrick Dunlevy activities of Irish Volunteers Tuam Battalion Galway 1916

Statement John Hosty activities Galway and Tuam 1910-16

Mrs Austin Stack biographical note on her husband - An Coosan IV Training Camp Athlon 1915

Statement of Michael O'Droighneain Galway 1916

Statement  Michael Ryan Tuam Battalion 1916

Statement  William O'Brien Reading Jail 1916

Statement  Ernest Blythe Reading Jail 1916

Statement  Sean Saunders activities 1917-1921

Statement  Sean Saunders re Dept of Local Government 1919-1921

Statement  Gary Holohan activities 1917-1921

Statement  Joseph Reynolds 1917-1921

Statement  Michael McDunphy 1921

Statement Harry Colley 1917-1921

Statement Major General Hugo MacNeill Organisation Na Fianna Éireann 1917-1921


Irish Volunteers, Tuam, Galway, 1913-1921 Sean O'Neill.  This is a very detailed statement consisting of 112 pages.  It is also an excellent social history of the era.