August 1913 – The Ard Fheis of the Gaelic League met in Galway. Delegates were photographed outside Galway Town Hall. This photograph, published 100 years after it was taken, lay in an attic for many years until rediscovered in 2010. It includes a who’s who of the Irish revival, and revolution; The Connacht Tribune has managed to identify some of those photographed, including three future Presidents; Douglas Hyde, Seán T Ó Ceallaigh and Éamon de Valera; leaders of the 1916 rising; Pádraig Pearse, Seán Mac Diarmada and Éamonn Ceannt, Cathal Brugha, Countess Markievicz, as well writers, poets, scholars, and academics, and activists.
The Connacht Tribune of 2nd August 1913 lists the delegates to the Gaelic Parliament and officers elected to the Coiste Gno of the Gaelic League. Delegates include one Maighread Ni Oisin as a representative of Cill Scire (Trillick) in County Tyrone; Father Maguire of the same Parish was elected to the Coiste Gno at that meeting. Fr Maguire who employed both Annie and Maggie Hession of Belclare as Teachers in Trillick is also pictured below, as are several members associated with Annie, Maighread and Maire in their subsequent careers, including Piaras Beaslai, Micheal O Foghluda, Maire Ni Cinneide. Is Maighread in the picture? If so she has yet to be identified.
In a search for her picture, the Freemans Journal of the same date (2nd August 1913) turned up one Maire Ni Oisin, listed as as a prize winner at the Oireachtas held in conjunction with the Ard Fheis. However this is apparently an different Maire to . our Maire Ni Oisin of Belclare as she is referred to as Maire Nic Oisin of Ennystymon Co. Clare.
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