The old graveyards.
There are three graveyards in this parish, Tynagh in the townland of Tynagh, Kilcorban in the townland of Newbridge and Billiu in the townland of Lecarrew. The graveyards of Tynagh and Kilcorban are still in use. The churchyards are round in shape both facing to the south. In Kilcorban there is a ruined church. It is believed that it was built about eleven hundred years ago. It was built by a man named St. Corban and that is how it got the name of Kilcorban or the church of Corban. St Brendan, the navigotar spent some time learning in the church or monastery. There are no trees growing in any of the churchyards. There were trees growing in Tynagh churchyard but they were all cut down. The Nugents were buried in the old ruins in Kilcorban. The Nugents tomb is over three hundred years old. There was an old tomb in Tynagh belonging to a man named Perse. When he died there was no one belonging to him in the country so it was closed a few

Jim Horan, Cloonacusha was able to carry two hundred weight of flour under each arm off a horse's car and into a store. Mary Fallon, Ballyleen, Tynagh walked to Galway a distance of thirty miles for flax-seed and walked back again and sowed it after coming home the same day.
There was a woman named Mrs Keon of Gurrane, Tynagh who milked her cows in the morning and walked to Galway and was back again to milk the cows in the evening.
A woman named Mrs Donnellan, Ballinasmall, Tynagh walked seven miles to Portumna and on her return carried a hundred of flour on her back.
There was a man named Thomas Gohery of Gurrane, Tynagh, who had a bad leg. He used to jump off the cart out over the horse's head. John Donlan, Ballinasmall, Tynagh who is still alive carried a stone roller across three fields. Its weight was about four hundred. He rolled an acre of ground the same day pulling it after him.

There were two old grave~yards in the district. their names are:- new bridge and Tynagh. they were set a part from the village of new bridge and Tynagh. They are still used. the grave-yard in Tynagh is of a round shape and a great number of head-stones there. They grave yard is a plot of ground taken in from a field in which the people took a plot for himself the old crosses were made of wood or stone. Long ago the people used to bury the small children in a field. There grave yards were called hiso. some people like to be buried in different grave yard. The bishop visits the grave yards once every three years.

on the potatoes. It is said the year before the potatoes were very big and the bog was worth more than the potatoes. The famine was in 1846-1847.
The people are able to know houses that are in ruin now. In the parish before the famine the were Keons, and Tierneys in Gurrane, Brennans in Carrew, Bannons in Lecarrow, Bohans in Gurrane. Headds in Tynagh and Egans in Tynagh. When the people would be coming from Loughrea and the doors shut they would often open them and get the people dead. The famine swept a great deal of the people.Maureen Gohery, Lecarrow, Tynagh
Information got from, Mrs Gohery, Lecarrow, Tynagh
Age 50 years

could see were roofs of houses and the beds flying around. The poor people had to sleep under the table at night. These were the only roofs they had to protect them. The point the wind blew was south west. The day after the storm everything tasted salty as the wind blew the spray from Galway Bay to Tynagh. Even the leaves of the trees were salty for days.Annie Mooney, Highstreet, Tynagh
Information got from Martin Forde, Highstreet, Tynagh.
Age 72 years.

There was a great wind storm on the 18th of February 1903. There were no previous signs as it came all at once. It lasted for a whole day. It uprooted trees and unroofed houses. The trees were of great benefit to the poor people afterwards for fuel. Fortunately there were no lives lost.The storm of 1839 is locally known as the night of the big wind. It occurred on the twelfth of January about nine o'clock. It lasted until seven o'clock in the morning. Lawrence Broderick, Cappacur built a new house and the storm knocked off the chimney. So fierce was the storm that it blew the spray from Galway Bay to Tynagh and farther.In 1912 there was a raging thunder storm. It occurred on the twelfth of June. For a few days previously the sky was copper colour and the weather was sultry. It lasted for a day. Two cows, a horse and a bull were killed on Mr. Ryan, Tynagh, and two were killed on Mrs Brien Carrew, Tynagh. Martin Heaney, Carrew, was in a bog with his

The local fairs are held in Tynagh, Kilimore, Portumna and Loughrea. There are eleven fairs held in Tynagh annually. There are thirteen held in Kilimore annually there are twelve held in Portumna and twelve held in Loughrea annnually. Fairs are held in towns now but long ago the landlords used tohold fairs in the country for their own business. There was such a fair in Newbridge but it has been discontunied for the last thirty years. All the local fairs are held in fairgreens. There is no toll now but long ago there used to be 2 and 4 paid on every beast that would be sold. When an animal is sold the buyer has always to get back luck money according to how the bargain is made When parties are making a bargain they strike hands and divide the difference in the money. When a horse is sold the halter is gien with the horse. Portumna is the great fair locally. Loughrea is also the great fair locally for bonhams and cattle.

Dan Shiel, Shangarry, Tynagh, jumped a gate six feet eight inches. No man since or before was able to do it. He lived about twenty five years ago. Jimmy Fahy, a man of no fixed abode was able to jump a razor backwards and forwards holding it between his hands with edge upwards. He died about twenty years ago. John Regan, Stonepark who lived eleven years ago was able to mow and Irish acro of land in a day.
Teresa Broderick, Lisduff, Tynagh, Information got from Laurence Broderick.
age 60 years.
A man whose name was Mr. Lynch of Springvale between Tynagh and Duniry was known as giant. He said that he was able to break a horse's hip bone. A crowd of onlookers bet against him that he would not be able. To let them know clearly he put the bone across his knee and broke it. He did it in the street of Killimor.
James Horan, Cloonachusa, could lift a half barrel of porter from the ground and leave it up on the counter with

scrape the potatoes with the scraper and then they would put them into a cloth and bruise them. Then they would put them on the lossit and mix them up through the flour. They used to put a small grain of flour in it. It was baked on the griddle or else on the tongs.Annie Cullen, Nutgrove, Tynagh,
Information got from, Martin Forde, Highstreet, Tynagh,
Age 72 years.

of water. After that he climbed up on the top of a tree. After a short time his would-be murderers came in hot pursuit of him. They stood under the tree where the man was. The water was dropping from his clothes on the hands of the three men below, but one of them said to the other it was the dew was falling off the tree. They then returned to the dead body and carried it still farther till they placed it in the village of Garrane. After a week the body was found and a search was made for the murderers. Now the man who made his escape was getting very uneasy and could not eat or sleep. His wife became suspicious and reported the matter to the police who came and arrested him. After his arrest he divulged the whole story, and the three culprits where they arrested. They were tried in Galway and sentenced to be hanged in Tynagh. Their coffins were made in Galway and placed in three horses's cars and the three men were compelled to sit on their own coffins till they reached till village of Tynagh. A scaffold was erected in the fair green to hang them. The father was the first man to be hanged, then one of his sons. The third man was put up to be hanged but the rope broke twice. He said "my life is my own", but the hangman

A large mansion called Pallas is situated south of Tynagh. It is supposed to be the largest one in the west of Ireland and that is how it got its name.
About a century ago a man named Lord Reverston lived in Pallas. When he died he haunted the place. At midnight a carriage and four horses all lighted up used to come up to the hall door. No servants would stay in the house.
Lord Reverston's son, who lived in the mansion told Fr Hynes who was parish priest of Tynagh at that time. He sent for the bishop and twelve

Once there lived in (the) Loughdana in the parish of Tynagh on the road between Tynagh and [-] a woman whose name was Hanna and she lived alone. She led a bad life up to the time of her death. When she was dying she sent for the priest but the priest wouldn't come owing to the bad life she had led up to that time, so on second thoughts e said he would go to the house.When he landed at the house she was dead, and when entering the house he met three women dressed in white, coming out and they carried candles and after a while they disappeared into the clouds. Then they said that she wasn't fit for Christian burial so they buried her inside the wall. There is a gate situated on the opposite side of the road and one night as Father Cunningham was passing in a horse and trap it is said that she put him in through the gate trap and all, and he couldn't get out until the owner of the land opened the gate because it was locked. After all

transplantation after 1652, how does O Heyn in 1706 still call them Burkes "DePallis".
That is one difficulty.
Another is __ can the statue of Our Lady with the Divine Infant at Tynagh in 1902 be historically identified with the one mentioned by O'Heyn?
In other words is there any record that the Burkes or the (Nugents) gave this statue to Tynagh church?
It does not seem a difficulty that they were three Kilcorban statuesat Tynagh, while O Heyn mentions but one; for that one only was to his purpose to explain why the bishop was buried in Our Lady's chapel of Kilcorban (ex ejus alta devotionead sanctain) 'Sanctam dei Matram'.
The greatest difficulty however is that Mgr. Cunningham and Father Coleman speak of three Statues: Our Lady, St. Peter & Paul and that there are four statues among which neither St. Peter nor St. Paul is to be found.
The two smaller statues may be set aside; they are certainly not about 2ft high and in execution are altogether different from the two larger ones.
The latter is identified as Our Lady first, and the other Saint Catherine V.M. of Alexandria with the instruments of her martydom.
The figure still retains the Sword, as usual, in the right hand; The left hand with the wheel, having been cut in relief, are missing for they could easily be broken off.
The image deprived of the distinctive wheel, seems

Long ago there was a man by the name of “Thomas Gantley” living in Ballyglass. He walked to Galway and back again in a day. He also carried a bag of bread with him, because there were people belonging to him in jail in the Fenian times.
“Mary Naughton” walked to Galway in a day and back again, She also had a stocking knitted coming and going. “Michael McDonagh” and “Thomas Stableton” (Ballyglass) used to mow about two and a half acres a day.
“John Killeen” (Killeen) was also a great mower. “Michael Shaughnessy” (Tynagh) and his brothers Ned and Pat used to walk to Spiddel, Kinvara & Gort to fairs.
“Thomas Noone” and “Pat Lawless” (Kilcorban) were great mowers.
They used to mow 3 acres in a day.
“John Donlan” (Tynagh) was also a great mower.
There were men call the “Quirks” in the parish of Tynagh. One of them carried a mill-stone from Castle-town to Kilcorban with a thick stick on his back. The mill-stone was a ton weight from him. He also flung a head-stone a ton weight from him.
“Paddy Ward” was a very good runner.
He was called a “deer-footer” because he was able to run a deer.

as oaten cakes oatmeal and butter if they had it for the journey.
Great mowers. men sixty years from Derrybrine often walked to Abbey eight miles away cut an Irish acre of haying return the same day and doing the same thing the next day.
Maria Murphy's grandfather used to walk nine miles to Tynagh. They lived in Drim. He used to get up in the night and eat nothing but roasted potatoes and sometimes without milk and walk to Tynagh cut an Irish acre of hay and walk back the same day. He got only 1/6 and his dinner as wages.
When my father was very young there lived a man of the Cooneys up in Clare who never brought a car to carry him any place and he used always walk to fairs and towns. He used to walk to Limerick, Tipperary and other far off places and bring with cattle and sheep. He was also a great fighter and runner in his youth but he

drinking water is also a sign of very bad weather. The stones, floor and windows to weep when rain is approaching. The goats and sheep when on the hills are a sign of good weather and the goats came home from their pastures it is a sign of bad weather. When you see the dust flying on the road it is one of the principal signs of bad weather. When you see springs rising it is a great sign of good weather. When there is a blue blaze on the fire it is a sign of bad weather and when there is a bright light it is a sign of good weather. When the smoke is going straight from the chimney it is a sign of good weather.Mary Kelly, Pallas, Tynagh.
Information got from Thomas Kelly, Pallas, Tynagh.
Age 45 years.

Local Heroes
About forty years ago there lived a man in Shangary, big David Robinson, the Connaught giant. One day he was drawing wheat from his home to Birr. Men heard of his strength and knew the days he used to go. They knocked a tree across the road and lay in hiding to see what he would do. He came and saw the tree. He removed it into a drain by the roadside. He said it would take twice as many to take it up out of that as to knock it across the road.
The same was coming home from Loughrea with a horse and cart. He had twelve hundred weight on his cart. On coming up a very steep hill (Limehill) on the road near his house the horse failed to pull the load. He took the horse from under the load and pulled the cart himself. John Kelly of Lecarrow Tynagh who is still alive was the champion weight thrower of this locality. He was able to throw four stone weight twenty two feet without following it.
In our parish of Tynagh we had a

mouth, then the toothache would go. A child that would be born after his father’s death could cure wildfire by putting their spits on the ground and making the sign of the cross on the spots of wildfire with the spits. There are a great many cures for warts. If you were walking a road or field and see a Greek stone with water in the middle of it and if you made the sign of the cross on the warts with the water, they would go. There was another cure for warts if you went into a neighbor’s house and stole a piece of bacon and rubbed the bacon to the warts, then went out and stuck the bacon in the manure, the warts would go.Mary Kelly, Pallas, Tynagh
Information got from Thomas Kelly, Pallas, Tynagh
Age 45 years

years ago. There was an old ruin in Tynagh long ago but it was removed from it a few years ago. It was a Protestant church that was to be built there but a man said that if the church was started it would never be finished. They started it and they never finished it. There is a disused graveyard in Billun in the townland of Lecarnew. People remember burials taking place there.

There is a monument in Tynagh graveyard to John Smith Rahan who was a great hurler and there is a hurl and ball drawn out on it. He is dead about twenty eight years.