The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
A CAMPAIGN is underway in Corofin to erect a permanent memorial marking the famous march of the 40 shilling freeholders from the village to Ennis to vote for Daniel O’Connell in the 1828 Clare Election. The freeholders were led by the parish priest of Corofin, 39-year-old Fr John Murphy, a native of Newmarket-on-Fergus, who became a central figure in the election of Daniel O’Connell as MP for Clare, an event which subsequently led to Catholic Emancipation in 1829. In Corofin Community Hall recently, a special night was devoted to the memory of Fr John Murphy by Cumann Staire is Dúchais Chora Finne. The night included a lecture on Fr Murphy, who was parish priest in Corofin from 1818 to 1831, by the association’s chairperson Declan Kelleher and a talk on his biographer, Fr Denis Spellissy, by its president Dr Maccon MacNamara. “The Clare election of 1828 was in itself a statement of defiance from a downtrodden people, who put their necks on …
Read More »