PAGE 3 of the Boston Irish/American newspaper The Pilot carried the following item under ‘News From Cork’ on Saturday, October 31, 1899.
‘Cork; James Maye of the Rural District Council, Corrin, died on the 25th ult., from injuries to the spine caused by a fall from a trap.
“Mr Maye was a prominent Nationalist and during the recent agitation was imprisoned for six months under the Crimes Act in connection with the famous Coolagowan prosecution. He leaves a wife and a large young family.”
The fact that James Maye’s death was reported in the press in America, England, and elsewhere across the globe indicates that this 44-year-old Cork farmer was a person of high standing.
Here in Cork county and city, and all over Munster, his death at such a young age was covered extensively, with detailed accounts of his funeral.
Born in 1855, James Bernard Maye was first of all a farmer but also a GAA activist and a politician, being a member of the Fermoy Rural District Council - forerunner of Cork County Council. Growing up on the family farm at Corrin in the parish of Castlelyons, just a few miles from Fermoy, young James would have heard stories of Famine times from his father, John.
With the population of Ireland having lost a million people to death by starvation and disease, and another million to emigration, one might have imagined that some pity or even kindness might be shown to those who remained on the land. Not so, however, ’cause Ireland in the 1860s and 1870s was still under British rule and in the countryside the writ and regime of the landlords still held sway.
Michael Davitt, son of a Mayo tenant farmer, led the charge for change. The Land League was founded to fight for the ‘three Fs’ - Fair Rent, Fixity of Tenure and Freedom of Sale’.
With Parnell and the old Fenian John Devoy in support, the Land League grew and spread, using the practise of boycotting to help tenant farmers in taking their land back from the grabbers, gombeen-men, and Middle men - ‘ agents’ of the often absentee landlords.
As a young man, James Maye took the tenancy of a farm in Ballydecane, near Lismore in Co. Waterford. In February of 1879, at the age of just 24, James married Nano (Hanorah) Dilworth of Dunmahon in Glanworth. The couple settled into farming the land at Ballydecane, but agitation against the high and unfair ‘rack rents’ was increasing all the time.
When tenants had a bad farming year or crops failed, or bad weather caused bother, the landlords still demanded their full 100% rent. The Land League and the Irish National Federation urged farmers to pay what they felt was a fair rent and no more.
For his joining in the campaign, James Maye was evicted from his farm. Along with his wife and new-born son John Charles, James spent a harsh winter living in a makeshift timber hut in an open stone quarry.
Sadly, little John Charles Maye died. Hanora and James, broken-hearted, returned to his ancestral farm at Corrin. The couple had six more sons, Charles Stewart, Francis, Timothy, William Francis, James and Bernard.
The Land League’s ‘Plan of Campaign’ of boycotting and shunning anyone who moved into the farm from where a family had been evicted worked spectacularly well in the case of a farm in Coolagown.
The actions of League members in using hunting horns to alert neighbours when the ‘Emergency Men, bailiffs or RIC were in the area drew huge attention and the ‘Coolagown Horn Blowers’ are still remembered to this day.
Many locals were arrested on trumped-up charges.
James Maye was articulate, brave and fearless - a good friend of the Kent brothers of Bawnard, who were to play an important role in Irish history in 1916.
My own great grandfather, Jeremiah Twomey, like Maye, was also evicted and I note both men were at a well-attended Federation meeting in Castlelyons in September, 1896. Before that, Maye had been arrested and imprisoned in two counties.
His memorial plaque in Castlelyons village states “he suffered long terms of imprisonment and innumerable torments in the dark and dreary cells in the County jails of Cork and Waterford”.
In January, 1890, the Mayor of Cork City, Daniel Horgan of the Irish National League, visited the ‘political prisoners’ in Cork goal - James Maye, William. Kent, Edmond Kent, James O Brien, Maurice Doyle, John Cajhill, Patrick Donovan, John Egan, Callaghan McCarthy, David Kent, Bartholomew Crowley, Edmond Geaney, Daniel Connor, William Corcoran, Denis Healy, Michael Leahy, John Curtin, Patrick Sweeney, and Michael Keohane - ‘all were well and made no complaints’.
On his release from prison, James Maye was given a heroes’ welcome.
The Nationalist newspaper devoted a lengthy column in describing the joyous homecoming.
“The Revd. Fr O Dwyer drove from his native place in Coachford to be with us on our homeward journey. The Coolagown band struck up, the long procession of cars set out, and every man, woman and child of us made music on our horns, from the shortest soprano to the deep basso of the conch shell. Away we span through Patrick Street and King street and by Glanmire and Riverstown, followed by a cheering and enthusiastic crowd.”
It was the same in Watergrasshill and Rathcormac, where massive crowds lined the streets as the released prisoner headed for Fermoy.
“He went to goal manacled and surrounded by police and soldiers, he came back like a victor crowned with laurels and cheered to the echo by hundreds of true and loyal hearts.”
The vendetta that the authorities had against Maye was relentless. In November, 1890, he was prosecuted once more at Rathcormac Court. The then British Prime Minister Balfour had ordered his henchmen in Ireland to carry on the practise of ‘shadowing’ so-called Irish Nationalists. ‘Suspects’ were literally followed constantly at fairs, markets, in towns and villages, by RIC men or their agents. This practise was designed to provoke Land Leaguers and others into retaliation.
After being ‘shadowed’, one day James Maye raised a stick “as if to strike a policeman but he didn’t actually hit him”. He was still charged with ‘a constructive assault’, found guilty and sentenced to jail for another six months.
Despite all the harassment and constant goading from policemen, land agents and others, Maye remained resolute in his struggle for farmers’ rights. At Fermoy RDC meetings he spoke out his mind and, though it might have been easier to ‘turn the other cheek’, he never shirked in fighting for his guiding principle - ‘The Land for the People’.
In early September, 1899, he was on his way home from Fermoy, travelling, as was customary, by horse and trap. Near the foot of Corrin hill he was accidentally thrown or fell from the trap and seriously hurt. He had severe back injuries and was taken to a nearby house.
Medical assistance was called for but there was little the doctor could do. For three weeks, Maye struggled on but no improvement was forthcoming. He died on Monday, September 25, 1899, in the house where he had been taken to.
His funeral the following Thursday from Castlelyons Church to Gortroe cemetery was huge.
It was indeed a fitting tribute from a grateful populace to one who had for so many years fought their battles and struggled for their rights.
Just last Monday, I visited the farm at Corrin where James Bernard Maye was born in 1855. I held in my hand the sterling silver hunting horn belonging to this great Irishman. It was made by Kohler & Son of Covent Gardens, Piccadilly in London. It is inscribed with the phrases ‘Keep Smiling’ and ‘God Save Ireland’ and also the words ‘Blue Black Cap’ - maybe a code for one of the Coolagown Hornblowers?
Already, plans are afoot to adequately commemorate the 125th anniversary of his death in September. We should never forget men like him.
Read More
John Arnold: My GAA pilgrimage to Newry, and memories of Cork legend Ring More in this section
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