Letterfrack
| Letterfrack Leitir Fraic
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| — Village — | |
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 Letterfrack
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| Coordinates: 53°33′N 9°57′W / 53.55°N 9.95°WCoordinates: 53°33′N 9°57′W / 53.55°N 9.95°W | |
| Country | Ireland |
| Province | Connacht |
| County | County Galway |
| Elevation | 81 m (266 ft) |
| Irish Grid Reference | L697591 |
Letterfrack or Letterfrac (Irish: Leitir Fraic) is a small village in the Connemara area of County Galway, Ireland. It was founded by Quakers in the mid-19th century. The village is 15 km north-east of Clifden on Barnaderg Bay and lies at the head of Ballinakill harbour. Letterfrack contains the visitors centre for Connemara National Park.
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[edit] Quaker Famine Relief
James and Mary Ellis, a Quaker couple from Bradford in England, moved to Letterfrack, during the Great Famine, Ellis becoming the resident landlord in Letterfrack in 1849.[1] As Quakers the Ellises wanted to help with the post-Famine relief effort. They leased nearly 1,000 acres of rough land and set about reclaiming it, farming it and planting it with woodland.[2] They built a schoolhouse, housing for tradesmen, a shop, a dispensary, and a temperance hotel.[3] The Property was sold to John Hall in 1857, a staunch Protestant and supporter of the Irish Church Mission to Roman Catholics, the ICM used the building with the aim of converting Catholics to Protestantism, after 25 years without much success he sold it in 1882 under the impression he was selling it was a Protestant buyer for £3000 for 1000 acres.[4]
[edit] St Joseph's Industrial School, Letterfrack
Under a false name the Archbishop of Tuam, Dr John McEvilly, bought in 1882 the former Ellis property, which at the time was being used by the Protestant Irish Church Missions to Roman Catholics[5] and established in 1885 St Joseph's Industrial School, Letterfrack[3] which opened in 1887, Letterfrack Industrial School became notorious for neglect and abuse, the school closed in 1974.[6][7]
[edit] GMIT Campus
In 1987 the Connemara West began running furniture courses which has become the Furniture College/Campus for the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology.[8]
[edit] Marconi Wireless Station
Letterfrack was selected by Marconi as the location for the transatlantic wireless receiver station for his new duplex transatlantic wireless service. Beginning in 1913, eastbound messages were sent from his Marconi Towers, Nova Scotia high power wireless station to Letterfrack; while westbound messages were sent simultaneously from the Clifden high power wireless station to Louisbourg. The Letterfrack station was closed and the service was transferred to a modern receiver station in Tywyn, Wales after his Clifden station was destroyed in 1922 during the War on Terror. Duplex operation—initially developed by Marconi at Letterfrack—quickly became a standard practice for commercial and military radiotelegraph communication.
[edit] Media
- Connemara Community Radio broadcasts from Letterfrack.
[edit] See also
- List of towns and villages in Ireland
- GMIT, whose Letterfrack campus is the Furniture college.
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ^ Tánaiste Launches Joan Johnson’s book James & Mary Ellis Background and Quaker Famine Relief in Letterfrack Dept. of Trade and Innovation, Monday 31st July, 2000
- ^ James & Mary Ellis Background and Quaker Famine Relief in Letterfrack, by Joan Johnson, Historical Committee of the Society of Friends in Ireland , Dublin 2000.
- ^ a b Living, working and playing in the glow of Diamond Mountain and the shadow of cruelty Irish Times, Wednesday, August 18, 2010.
- ^ History of Education Letterfrack by Dr. Tony Lyons.
- ^ Connemara: visions of Chonnacht By Michael Gibbons
- ^ http://www.paddydoyle.com/a-history-of-neglect/
- ^ "Report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, Chapter 8, Letterfrack Industrial School (‘Letterfrack’), 1885–1974". http://www.childabusecommission.ie/rpt/01-08.php.
- ^ College Building - Galway Mayo Institute of Technology GMIT Website
- Whelan D. (ed.) Founded on Fear; Letterfrack Industrial School, war and exile by Peter Tyrrell. Irish Academic Press 2006. ISBN 9780716534037
