Burghers to go...
By Eoghan MacCormaic
Half way down the main shopping street in Galway, just at the
entrance to the town's last surviving open air market - what a
sad fate for a town which began its life as a centre of trade -
and nestling in beside Saint Nicholas Cathedral's railings you'll
find a castle. A small castle. In fact, a Thimble Castle. As
castles go, it certainly isn't the oldest castle in the world,
coming in at just a little over a hundred years of age.
The proud owner of the castle, one Michael Mullins, aspires to no
greatness or grandeur and in fact will happily tell any visitor
to his castle that the building began its illustrious life as a
waiting room of sorts for the coachmen of the gentry whose
station it was in life to wait while their `betters' worshipped
in the neighbouring cathedral.
Just over a hundred years ago Michael's great-grandfather bought
the building but luckily for him, no title accompanied the
purchase. The Mullins, honourable people that they are, remain
plain. No Lords or Ladies there.
I was thinking of Michael Mullins this week, and thinking of the
long running dispute which he has bravely fought for the past
number of years to retain ownership of his premises.
Michael has the misfortune, it has to be said, of inheriting a
building on Irish soil which is claimed by an absentee English
landlord. Or in this case, landlady. Happily settled in Paris
Isobel Davies, daughter of a titled ex-RAF commander, has been
trying with the help of a locally-based solicitor, to have
Michael Mullins evicted for several years now for non-payment of
a lease.
Michael, who until recently carried on the family business
serving meat to the citizenry of Galway, retaliated by turning
the front window of his premises into a shrine of information on
the question of absentee landlords, English lords with Irish
`estates' and rents, rack-rent and famine death and of course the
Lord Lucan story.
For a few years Thimble Castle was more famous and photographed
than the nearby Lynches Castle, Burkes Castle or any other Galway
Castle.
In these BSE times, and faced with vegetarians like myself, it's
tough being a butcher and Michael has now converted the ground
floor of Thimble Castle into a burger bar and for a while, at
least, the newsflashes on Lucan, on his court battles or on
Famine commemorations have been replaced with flashes on his
special opening offers. He is, however, no less determined to
defend his inheritance and the family home and he remains a
source of discontent against the feudal English system of land
theft in Ireland which almost cost him his family home.
A small cheer must have echoed round the walls of Thimble Castle
this week when over beyond, the word broke (ironically from the
worst culprit of all hereditary title-holders, Elizabeth Windsor)
that hereditary Lords were to go and the House of Lords was to be
democratised. Not before time, but then, democracy is a new
concept for the Brits and it will take time for them to get round
it all.
For Michael - and a lot of others - I hope Tony Blair doesn't
stop with removing their undemocratic, archaic, anachronistic
seats. The real challenge is to remove their `right' to rents,
land, wealth, and trespass on the lives of others.
Feudal symbolism is one thing but the persistent benefits of the
feudal system in the late 20th century is another. Of course if
Blair doesn't take that step there's no reason why Ireland should
tolerate for another single day the remnant of a Feudal system
planted here by the colonial power.
One immediate step would be to review all those instances of
`Irish' titles, and claims to rents and leases by hereditary
lords and knights, errant or otherwise. Hope springs eternal.
Help might soon be at hand for the rightful owner of Thimble
Castle.
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