The Raymochy Historical Society (Manorcunningham) will host a public talk tonight on Irish ‘Loyalist’ Refugees & the Irish Grants Committee 1922 – 1929.
The lecture, given by Dr Niamh Brennan (main pic), County Archivist, Donegal County Council, will take place in the Resource Centre, Manorcunningham on Wednesday, 30th April at 8pm.
This is a free event and everyone is welcome to come along. Tea and refreshments will be served afterwards.
Dr Brennan will endeavour to answer the question as to who were ‘southern Irish loyalists’ and what happened to them during the revolutionary years? What was the Irish Grants Committee? What did it do to assist refugees and why? Who were their supporters? The talk will also look at a number of the applicants claiming compensation, including some from County Donegal.
The Irish Grants Committee (IGC) was set up by the British government to assist people who fled from Ireland to England during the Civil War and were received there as southern Irish loyalist refugees. The IGC investigated and compensated thousands of people who claimed compensation. Claims included for personal and business property destruction or damage, personal injury and assault, in some cases murder or kidnapping of a family member, threats to family and property, confiscation of land, driving of cattle, injury to animals and boycott of businesses.
Among those who sought compensation were landowners, small farmers, tenants on estates, former policemen, civil servants and their families, business people; there were men and women, Protestants and Catholics, they came from across the country. Many if not most of the claimants would not have regarded themselves as political. Many did not regard themselves as loyalists. Each applicant had their own file and each file is held in the National Archives in London. The IGC finally wound up in 1928 following six years of work.
Dr. Niamh Brennan is the author of a Ph.D. thesis: Compensating Southern Irish Loyalists after the Anglo-Irish Treaty, 1922 – 1932. Her talk is being hosted by the Raymochy Historical Society and will take place in the Resource Centre, Manorcunningham, on Wednesday 30th April at 8.00pm.
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