The South Isles of Aran (County Galway)

by Oliver J. Burke

THE FLORA OF ARAN.

a.d. 1700. An excursion was made to the islands in this year by one whose name is well known by those who prefer to contemplate the silent life of vegetation to the saddening spectacle of man at variance with his fellow-man. Edward Lnwyd spent many months inspecting the flora of the islands, and having done so, made his report upon them, which is said to be a marvel in its way.

The fee of the islands had become vested in Edmund Fitzpatrick of Galway, Esquire; and he in 1717 demised the whole island of Inisheer to Andrew French of Galway, merchant, for thirty-one years, at the yearly rent of £100, with liberty to cut and carry away as much straw from Straw Island as should be deemed necessary to thatch the houses on the island of Inisheer.

ROYAL FRANCHISE.

a.d. 1746. The case of The Mayor of Galway v. Digby, conversant as it was with the royalties of the islands of Aran, caused great excitement in the town during the summer assizes of the year. The action was tried before Mr. Justice Caufield. Mr. Staunton, Mr. French, and another, appeared as counsel for the plaintiff; Mr. John Bodkin and Mr. Morgan for the defendant. The case as stated by the learned counsel for the plaintiff was that from times of remote antiquity the O'Briens were lords of the isles of Aran, or to use somewhat of legal phraseology, were lords of the manor of Aran, and as such, and in their manorial rights they were entitled to all the royal franchises, wrecks, and other strays washed on the shores either of the islands or mainlands of the bay. But the Crown had made a grant of the royal franchises away from the lords of the manor, and had conferred the same on the Admiral of the Bay of Galway, the office of Admiral of the Bay belonging to and being held by the mayor of the town. Now, on the 1st of August, 1745, a great whale, which appeared in the Aran waters, was stranded, and harpooned by the defendant, who obtained from it no less than fifty gallons of oil. The blubber and the whalebone were all there ready to be transported to the Dublin market, and the defendant had actually converted to his own use so much of this royal franchise as would realize a sum of £160. Plaintiff's patent was full, ample, and large; so full, so ample, and so large, that he, counsel, could not but wonder that any lawyer at the bar would sign the pleadings in a case in which a verdict must be directed on the spot for the plaintiff.

Counsel for the defendant did not feel so sure of the success of his learned friend's case as his learned friend did—quite the reverse; he must and at once ask the learned judge for a direction that the verdict be entered for him. He, Mr. Bodkin, admitted that a sturgeon and a whale were royal fish, but they were governed by widely different principles of law. If a sturgeon had been washed on the shore, then the King or his grantee could claim it and grant it to whomsoever they pleased, and the grantee here would not be entitled to it at all; but the whale is not the King's property to grant. Half of the whale is the perquisite of the Queen consort, and that being so, the grant fails. The King is only entitled to the head and the Queen to the tail. It was in old law laid down to be for the Queen's convenience to have abundance of whalebone for her boudoir, and so it is said in Bracton [l. 3. ch. 3], "of the sturgeon let it be noted that the King shall have it entire, but it is otherwise of the whale, for the King shall have the head and the queen the tail, sturgeone observetur quod rex illum habebit integrum: de Balena vero sufficit si rex habeat caput et regina caudam." A verdict was directed against the plaintiff, but whether any after move was made in the matter, or whether the Attorney-General intervened, we have been unable to discover. Suffice it to say that the corporation of Galway interfered no more in the matter.

a.d. 1754. John Digby demised the island of Inisheer to William MacNamara of Doolin, county Clare, for thirty-one years, at an annual rent of £90.

ARCHBISHOP PHILLIPS.

a.d. 1786. The Catholic Archbishop of Tuam, the most Rev. Philip Phillips, D.D., partaking of the hospitality of the parish priest of Aran, stopped a week in the islands: sleeping, however, on a bed of rushes, to which he had been unused, he got an attack of bronchitis, of which he shortly after died at Cloonmore, in the county of Mayo. One would have thought that he could have outlived a discomfort of that trivial kind, for he had been in early life a soldier—not a feather-bed soldier, but a distinguished officer in the Austrian service, and therefore it was that he was called Captain Phillips to the last hour of his life. It is not unworthy of remark that this prelate had, previous to his translation to Tuam, been Bishop of Killala, to which see he had in 1760 [1 Geo. III.] been by James III., King de jure sed non de facto of Great Britain and Ireland, nominated as appears by the apostolic letter of Clement XIII., dated Rome, November 24, 1760.

EARL BUTLER OF ARAN.