The Veiled Woman of Achill by Patricia Byrne

Author:Patricia Byrne [Byrne, Patricia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Historical, General, Criminals & Outlaws, Women, History, Europe, Ireland, Modern, 19th Century, 20th Century, True Crime
ISBN: 9781848899537
Google: 1wiWDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Gill & Macmillan Ltd
Published: 2012-04-07T03:05:12+00:00

Part 2

12

Convict Escape

September 1902

Agnes MacDonnell tilted her head and looked skywards through her veil at the towering Church of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary in Castlebar. It must have seemed to her as if the construction work on the ecclesiastical building over the previous seven years had mirrored her own project in rebuilding the Valley House. Each time she had travelled over and back to Castlebar the clang of the stonemasons’ chisels on limestone and the hammering of nails on timber and slate rang out across the town. When she passed by she could see the horses and carts pull their loads of stone up steep ramps as pulleys hoisted building materials through the tall scaffolding.

She had heard the talk back in Achill about the Bunnacurry monk with the crimson cheeks who had travelled across America raising funds for the Castlebar Church with his guile and free-flowing words. It was the same monk who had associated with James Lynchehaun and she was more than pleased when she heard from the Rector that the friar had been transferred out of Achill shortly before Lynchehaun’s conviction. She hoped he would not return. The building work on Castlebar Church was now complete. It was a year since Bishop McEvilly presided at the Pontifical High Mass to mark the formal dedication when 200 dignitaries dined in the Town Hall, which had been decorated with flags and colour streamers. She had been surprised to read the newspaper reports of the extravagance of the occasion where the guests had dined on turbot, veal cutlets, roast duck and beef, washed down with the finest wines, port and whiskey.

At last, Agnes MacDonnell was back living in her home, happy to have moved out of the cramped conditions at the gate lodge before the winter set in. She had overseen the rebuilding work on her own, following the death of her husband just a few years after the Valley House destruction. Each day she rose early, instructed her employees in their tasks on the estate, oversaw every detail of the work on her house, and rode her mare on the Sandybanks in the afternoon. Things were almost back to the way they had been at the Valley House, with just the last of the plastering work to be completed. But the two workmen she had employed, Thomas Brown and Thomas Duffy, were giving her a hard time. Their work was shoddy and some of the plaster was already blistering and chipping away. Her agreement with them had been that she would provide the lime and sand for the work but now they were turning this against her, claiming that the materials were of poor quality. She had told them in no uncertain terms that she would not pay until the task was completed to her satisfaction. They could sue her for the money she owed but she would hold fast. If there was one thing she had learned since her arrival in Achill it was that she needed to be resolute and unflinching in defending her rights.

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