Portumna, a Galway parish by the Shannon

Portumna, a Galway parish by the Shannon, by John Joe Conwell, has been reprinted. The book is the culmination of extensive research and deals with aspects of the parish’s history since man first set foot in that part of Ireland. Divided into seventeen chapters, it runs close to 900 pages with a corresponding number of photographs. The research has brought to light historical material on Portumna town and the wider parish that would not otherwise become available.

The early chapters examine the local landscape, field monuments and first settlers in the area. The significance of Lough Derg and the River Shannon as a highway through medieval Ireland and later as a major trading and leisure route is examined in some detail. The contribution of the hugely powerful Clanricarde family to the development of Portumna as a fairs and market town in the early years of the 17th century is well documented as is Portumna Castle and the parish’s other ‘Big Houses’ and their owners. The history of the doomed Parsonstown and Portumna Bridge Railway line, constructed mainly at the instigation of the 14th Earl of Clanricarde also commands extensive coverage.

The topics of religion, education and farming in the parish feature largely in the book while two chapters are devoted to the impact of the Great Famine locally and to Portumna Workhouse which served the needs of Portumna Poor Law Union for over seventy years. Land acquisition, agrarian strife and the Land War of the 19th century, featuring the 15th Earl of Clanricarde, command a substantial number of pages of this book. Accounts of Portumna men who were involved in the 1916 Rising, the Great War, the War of Independence and the Civil War are also provided in this publication.