A Forgotten Limerick Man, Sir Thomas Myles

Thomond Archaeological and Historical Society

8pm Monday 9 March 2015, Room T.1.17 in the TARA building at Mary Immaculate College

by Paddy Waldron

WWW version:

http://pwaldron.info/Thomond/Myles/

The Myles family of Limerick

• The family history was written down by a local politician, Alderman Zachary Myles (1812-1897).
• Zachary's parents George Myles (1782-1832) and Eliza Myles (c1785-1862, greataunt of Sir Thomas) were first cousins.
• Therefore Alderman Zachary and Sir Thomas were first cousins once removed through the Alderman's mother and second cousins once removed through the Alderman's father.
• Zachary was first elected as town councillor for the Shannon Ward in 1858 and re-elected every year until 1888 inclusive and was Alderman every year from 1873.
• He was a candidate for Mayor of Limerick for 1876.
• However, John Francis Walker was eventually elected unanimously, so all other candidates must have withdrawn.
• In 1888, he is also described as J.P.
• The Clare Elections by Kieran Sheedy reports that, also starting in 1858, he was elected Poor Law Guardian for Castlecrine division in the part of Limerick Union which lay in county Clare, but `also contested three separate Wards in Limerick City.'
• In 1874, 1875, 1881 and 1882, he was re-elected Deputy Vice-Chairman of the Limerick Board of Guardians.
• In 1882, he was backed by the majority of Nationalist guardians when defeating Michael Millane (of Ardhue, North Circular Road, Limerick, first elected guardian for Cloghera division in 1877).
• In 1883, outgoing vice-chairman Zachary Myles was defeated by Land League candidate Patrick O Riordan, and he afterwards complained that John Mc Inerney had told him during the year that "he was only there with his permission".
• In 1884, Patrick O Riordan defeated Zachary Myles for the post of deputy vice-chairman by 37 votes to 33.
• Zachary was a member of the Limerick Bridge/Harbour Commissioners between 1868 and 1899.  See Donnelly et al. (1994, p.64).
• Zachary was frequently the representative from Limerick at the annual Conference in Dublin of  the Primitive Wesleyan Methodist Society.
• Sometime between 1875 and 1882, Zachary wrote an invaluable and later much-copied and much-updated manuscript entitled `The Myles family: Their first seven generations in Ireland.'
• Version by Ronnie Ryall (1907-1995)
• Version by Alice Dwyer-Joyce née Myles (1913-1986)
• Version by Wendy Parker (still living)
• Zachary's seven sons all became doctors, beginning a dynasty of at least 27 Myles doctors, lasting from 1868 until at least 2008.
• Sample pages from the Medical Register: 1883 (all except Thomas Patrick related) and 1915 (all related).
• Full list of Myles doctors.

The Myles name in Limerick today

• No Myles descended from John Myles (b.1707), grandson of the original ancestor Thomas Myles, remains in Limerick today.
• John Myles (b.1707) is ancestor of Zachary and of Sir Thomas.
• Betty Kingston (née Myles) and Pat Ellis (née Myles) now living in Limerick are GGGGgranddaughters of his younger brother William (b.1710)
• In the 1911 census, there were two families in Limerick descended from John and three descended from William.
• According to Gerry Joyce's Limerick City Street Names, both James' Street (1827) and the adjacent Myles Street (1826) in Limerick are named after local property developer James Myles. (Images from Limerick Civic Trust `Street Art and Artefacts, Limerick City', 2008; also Myles Place plaque and doorway.)
• According to Zachary, his paternal uncle James Myles (d.1847)

  `had a mania for building, neglected his business for it, and sunk his capital in houses. He got financially embarrassed and unable to meet his engagements. His brothers Tom and George arranged his affairs, on condition that he ceased from building. They had a horror of a fondness for brick and mortar.'

• Also Myles Creek in Kilkee - Clare Journal, 30 June 1892
• Myles the surgeon is commemorated in his native city today by the annual Sir Thomas Myles Lecture at the University of Limerick, inaugurated in the year 2000 and delivered by an invited lecturer at the Sylvester O'Halloran Surgical Scientific Meeting every March.
• Sir Thomas was one of the alumni honoured to mark the tercentenary of TCD School of Medicine 1711-2011

Sir Thomas Myles (1857-1937)

• Son of  John Myles, merchant, and his second wife Prudence Bradshaw
• On 20 April 1857, Thomas Myles, second child of John Myles, born in Catherine Street.
• Which house?
  • Griffith's Valuation pages 174101 174102
  • Map reference 13 still occupied by Nich. Bindon Scott, Esq.
  • 1856 & 1857 Valuation Office revisions
  • John Myles now occupier of Map reference 13, local number 15.
  • 1864-6 Revisions: John Myles moved to 13 Upper Mallow Street and replaced by John Robinson
  • 1867-8 Revisions: John Robinson replaced by William Earls
  • 1878-82 Revisions: local numbers dropped
  • 1888 Revisions: William Earls replaced by William Hinchy
  • 1895 Revisions: William Hinchy replaced by William Humphreys
  • 1901-1910 Revisions: William Humphreys replaced by Margt. Troy and houses renumbered, with 13 becoming 21
  • Map showing renumbering
  • Modern map
  • Live OSi Street Map
  • Google Street View
• The Myles family later moved to 13 Upper Mallow Street.
• The brothers Jack and Tom Myles, although separated by more than two years in age, were both admitted to Trinity College on the same date, 22 January 1873, aged 17 and 15 respectively.
• See Index to Trinity College Dublin student admission register, 1868-1879 and Trinity matriculation register, 1847-1876, Entrance books 1847-1876
• Both brothers had previously been educated in Limerick by Rev. James John Hall (d.1874) the principal of the Diocesan School on Roxborough Road (completed in 1838 to a design by James Pain, but no longer extant)
• Their College tutor was Dr. George Ferdinand Shaw (1821-99)

• A generation earlier (1848), Shaw was present in the rooms of John Kells Ingram (1823-1907) in House 30 in Trinity on the night when the latter wrote The Memory of the Dead, better known as Who fears to speak of '98
• He was briefly the first editor of The Irish Times in 1859
• Shaw's recent tutees had included Bram Stoker (1847-1912)
• G. F. Shaw should not be confused with his apparently unrelated contemporary George Carr Shaw (1814-85), father of George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950).
• Not surprisingly, they were confused in their lifetimes, by the local laundry.
• The two unrelated families got to meet each other as the laundry company mixed up the delivery so the Shaws of Synge Street got the sheets of the Shaws of Harrington Street
• The Home Government Association was launched by Isaac Butt on 1 September 1870.
• Besides Butt, the principal persons involved in the Home Government Association, all of them Irish Protestants, were Shaw, soon to be tutor to the Myles brothers; Major Laurence Knox, founder of The Irish Times and E. R. King Harman, from a leading landlord family.
• By November 1873, there had been behind-the-scenes contacts between Fenian sympathisers, the Catholic Church and the Home Government Association.
• Following a meeting called for by Dr. Keane, the Catholic bishop of Cloyne, and held in Dublin, there emerged a new body to replace the old Home Government Association.
• This new organisation, which enjoyed Fenian and Catholic support, was the Home Rule League.
• Could young Thomas Myles's political views have been influenced by the activities of his College Tutor during this period?
• Both Myles brothers shared sporting skills and interests (rowing, sailing, swimming, rugby, boxing, shot put, etc.)
• Thomas's medical degrees conferred 1880 and 1881
• He was resident surgeon in Dr. Steevens's Hospital from 1881 to 1884; later associated with Jervis Street and Richmond hospitals
• On Saturday, 6 May 1882, Dr. Thomas Myles, just turned 25 years of age, was summoned from Dr. Steevens's Hospital to the Phoenix Park to attend to the newly-sworn in Chief Secretary for Ireland, Lord Frederick Cavendish, and his Permanent Undersecretary, Thomas Henry Burke, who had been stabbed in broad daylight by the Invincibles.
• Myles was one of six doctors who performed the post mortems - in the present U.S. Ambassador's Residence.
• A new organisation, the Irish Protestant Home Rule Association, was founded on May 21, 1886, in the Castle Restaurant in Belfast's Donegall Place.
• On June 23, 1886, Dr. Myles was involved in the noisy inaugural meeting of the Dublin branch of the Irish Protestant Home Rule Association, held in the Central Hall, Westmoreland street.
• On April 21, 1888, at St. Peter's Church in Dublin, he married Frances Elizabeth (Fanny) Ayres, daughter of a deceased English-born clergyman and landowner, Rev. George Ayres (1825-1881) [Certificate].
• Lady Myles's greatgrandmothers included a Sarah Hely of King's County mentioned in the Marriage Licence Bonds of the Diocese of Killaloe for 1777
• Barack Obama's GGGGGGgrandmothers included a Sarah Hely of King's County mentioned in the Marriage Licence Bonds of the Diocese of Killaloe for 1761
• Lady Myles card (courtesy of Paul O'Brien/Glynn Archive)
• first residence 30 Harcourt Street
• M.D. conferred later in 1888
• Professor of Pathology, RCSI, 1889-97

• By 1899, moved to 33 Merrion Square
• In 1899, Dr. Thomas Myles was elected to hold the office of President of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland for a three-year term, 1900-1902.
• libel action and injunction against his fellow candidate Fitzgibbon who claimed that Myles's association with the nationalist United Irish League (U.I.L.) would 'associate the college with the promoters of anarchy and discord.'
• Honorary Freeman of the City of Limerick in 1900, during the three-year Mayoralty of John Daly, on account of his medical achievements. The others so honoured under Daly were Thomas J. Clarke (soon to marry Daly's niece), James F. Egan and Maude Gonne.
• Along with Vincent Nash (1865-1942), the High Sheriff of Limerick, Thomas Myles was one of two Limerick men awarded knighthoods (Kt. Bach (1902)) in King Edward VII's coronation honours list, announced on 26 June 1902.
• Nash was also a Licentiate of the RCSI.

1913/1914 Timeline

• January 1913: Ulster Volunteer Force founded
• Tuesday 25 November 1913: Irish Volunteers launched
• Friday 5 December 1913: Royal Proclamation published in The London Gazette prohibiting, under the provisions of the Customs Consolidation Act, 1876, the importation of arms and ammunition into Ireland
• Saturday 25 April 1914: Larne gun-running
• Friday 8 May: Committee meets at Alice Stopford Green's house in London:
  
  • Roger Casement
  • Erskine and Molly Childers
  • Lord Ashbourne
  • Sir Alexander Lawrence
  • Alice Young
  • Mary Spring Rice
  • Captain Berkeley
  • Min Ryan
  • Conor O'Brien
  • Hugh O'Brien
• Monday 25 May: House of Commons passes Third Home Rule Bill (Government of Ireland Act 1914)
• Sunday 28 June: Archduke Ferdinand assassinated
• Monday 29 June: Kelpie sets sail from Foynes
• Sunday 12 July: 1500 rifles loaded on Gladiator at Hamburg; 900 rifles transferred to Asgard and 600 rifles transferred to Kelpie near the Ruytigen lightship in the North Sea off the Dutch coast
• Saturday 25 July: Kelpie's cargo transferred to Chotah in St. Tudwell's Roads, twenty miles west of Bardsey Island in Cardigan harbour
• Sunday 26 July: 900 rifles landed at Howth by Asgard
• Tuesday 28 July: Austria declares war on Serbia
• Sunday 2 August: 600 rifles landed at Kilcoole by Chotah
• Monday 3 August: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland declares war on Germany
• Monday 3 August: General Sir Thomas Kelly-Kenny proposed as a leader for the Irish Volunteers by Sir Thomas Myles
• Friday 18 September: Government of Ireland Act 1914 and Suspensory Act 1914 received the royal assent, so the former was never put into operation

What were the guns for or against?

• counterblast to the Larne gun-running? (Diarmuid Coffey, BMH witness statement)
• for volunteers "restive for the lack of arms"? (Tim Donovan, p.116)
• for show?
• for publicity?
• for presentation to senior nationalists, like John Daly of Barrington Street? (See 1916 monument)
• against the Unionists?
• against the Germans?
• against the British? (1916 Rising)
• Even Conor O Brien was uncertain:

  "I, to be in the fashion, had put my yacht at the disposal of the other side. If I were asked which other side, I should have to admit that I knew as little as my employers did, so obscure were Irish politics in 1914; by the other side I mean not Ulster."

The crews of the three yachts

• Asgard (51ft. 27.5 ton gaff rigged cutter, now on permanent display in Collins Barracks, Dublin)
  
  • (Robert) Erskine Childers (owner) (b. London)
  • Mrs. Molly Childers (née Osgood) (b. USA)
  • Mary Spring Rice (b. London; see 1881 census)
  • Gordon Shephard (b. India)
  • John Dolan (mentioned in Brian Doyle's account but not in most other accounts)
  • Patrick McGinley (b. Donegal)
  • Charles Duggan (b. Donegal)
• Kelpie (26 ton ketch, built in 1871, ran ashore on the Scottish coast and was wrecked in 1921)
  
  • (Edward) Conor Marshall O Brien (owner) (b. England)
  • Kitty O Brien (his sister) (b. England)
  • (Hugh) Diarmuid James Coffey (b. Dublin)
  • George Cahill (b. Limerick)
  • Tom Fitzsimons (b. Limerick)
  • Hervey de Montmorency (boarded at Cowes, left after one night!)
• Chotah (48 ton, 60 ft. cutter, engine powered, largest of the three yachts, no surviving picture)
  • Sir Thomas Myles (owner) (b. Limerick)
  • James Creed Meredith (b. Dublin)
  • Hervey de Montmorency (b. Gibraltar)
  • George Cahill
  • Tom Fitzsimons

  Myles's own description:

  the Chotah was 60 ft. overall, straight stemmed, 14 ft. beam. She carried relatively more canvass but in a breeze when on a wind the side of the dining table was one moment on a level with your nose and the next in your lap.

The Limerick people aboard

Conor O Brien and Kitty O Brien were siblings.

Mary Spring-Rice was their second cousin.

All three were greatgrandchildren of Thomas Spring-Rice, 1st Baron Monteagle (1790-1866), and all three were born in London, as their parents were essentially absentee landlords!

Monteagle's statue stands in the People's Park, Pery Square:

After the gun-running

• Sir Thomas Myles (like his older brother Jack) joined the Royal Army Medical Corps.
• He is named on a plaque listing members of the Limerick Protestant Young Mens' Association who took part in the Great War, 1914-1918 'For King and Country'
• on duty in Dublin at Easter 1916; briefly taken prisoner according to Witness Statement by James Clarke, who once brought Austin Stack to him for treatment for a football injury
• did not allow any of the wounded to fall into British hands, except one
• in 1917, gave medical evidence at the inquest on Thomas Ashe, according to Witness Statement by Kevin O'Shiel
• After Matt Brady (father of Ruairí Ó Brádaigh) was shot and wounded in Longford on 29 April 1919, he was transferred to the Richmond Hospital, where according to Seán MacEoin's Witness Statement:

  Dr. Michael Burke and Sir Thomas Myles took care of him till the Truce, many times locking him into presses and other places of concealment when the place was being searched by Black and Tans and other British forces.

• signed a memorial to the Prime Minister, published in The Times on 12 May 1921, containing a new peace proposal
• By 1932, moved to 32 Leeson Park
• continued to pursue his professional duties and met the demands made upon his services until he was in his mid-seventies
• died in the Richmond Hospital, 14 July 1937
• buried at Dean's Grange with Lady Myles
• Only the Irish Press obituary mentioned his gun-running exploits: “No One More Nationalist”: How Sir Thomas Myles Risked His Position For The Cause
• For probate purposes, his seventy-ton ketch Sheila was worth more than his home at 32 Leeson Park; a neighbouring house (no.26) sold for €6.5 million in 2007.
• Sir Thomas Myles's medals were sold for EUR 3,800 at Adam's auction on 19 April 2011 and are now on display in the RCSI in the Sir Thomas Myles Room along with a bronze
• His name still appears on the list of RCSI Presidents

On the beach at Kilcoole, a bronze plaque on a granite boulder reminds the visitor of the events that took place there in 1914. Sir Thomas Myles is named on the Kilcoole monument.

Postscript

None of the six Limerick gunrunners produced any offspring.  Four of the six were members of the Church of Ireland.

Mount Trenchard Memorial Committee

• John Cussen (Newcastlewest, chairman)
• Tom Toomey (Castletroy, secretary)
• John Curtin (Ballyhahill)
• Seán Diffley (Foynes)
• Tim Donovan (Rathkeale)
• Tom Donovan (Clarina)
• Liam Dundon (Foynes)
• Patricia Haselbeck (Lisnagry)
• Seán Liston (Knockaderry)
• Denis Nolan (Ballyhahill)
• Seán Nolan (Ballyhahill)
• Pádraig Ó Ruairc (Newcastlewest)
• Seamas O'Sullivan (Broadford)
• Paddy Waldron (Killaloe)

Unveiling of monument took place at 2p.m. Sunday 21 September 2014.