‘Always at home, like Tuite of Sonna’

A man who grew up in Emper and went on to lecture in economics at Technological University Dublin entertained the approximately 100 people who attended a Heritage Week talk on the history of the Tuite family of Sonna and an evening of entertainment at Emper National School last Tuesday.

Sean Byrne was the speaker and a number of local artists also performed. During the evening, the Tess Coyne memorial plaque was awarded for the best arts and crafts exhibit.

Thomasina Maxwell of the community development group announced that the Heritage Council has granted €25,000 for the conservation of the Tuite Mausoleum in Churchtown graveyard, Emper. She thanked the Heritage Council for the grant and Westmeath heritage officer Melanie McQuade, who attended Tuesday’s event, for her help. It is hoped that the project will be completed by the end of October. Thomasina is joined on the development group by Annette Nally, Liz Maguire, Brendan Burke, Mick Phelan and Tom Walsh. Recently they erected a notice board in Churchtown cemetery mapping out the headstones. Thomasina paid tribute to Brendan Burke for “putting it together” and to Westmeath County Council for the funding it.

She also referred to “the lovely Bog Oak piece that Mick (Phelan) installed at the corner of Rathduff”.

Sean Byrne recalled how he used to roll down the hill at the Tuite mausoleum in Churchtown graveyard as a boy. He gave a detailed account of the family’s history from when they came to Ireland from Normandy to when they left after the burning in 1921 of Sonna House, which was described as “one of the finest residences in the midlands”.

Sean outlined the important role played by members of the Tuite family in Irish history from 1172. More recently, the most significant member of the family was Sir Hugh Morgan Tuite (1795-1863), who, though a Protestant, was elected an MP for Daniel O’Connell’s party and campaigned for Catholic Emancipation, he said.

“Sir Hugh was a benign landlord who treated his tenants well. Unlike many landlords of the time, he spent most of his time on his estates and people used the phrase ‘always at home, like Tuite of Sonna’. He gave the equivalent of £150,000 in famine relief and resigned from the Board of Poor Law Guardians in protest at the ‘quarter acre clause’, introduced by Sir William Gregory, which demanded that anybody occupying more than a quarter acre of land had to give it up before being given famine relief,” he said.

Mr Byrne revealed that Sir Hugh gave the site for Emper school, built in 1833, and probably a financial donation, and built the Tuite mausoleum in Churchtown cemetery.

The Tuite family, in 1876, owned 9,000 acres of land in Westmeath. Under the Land Acts, the land was sold to the tenants, and by 1921 they owned 628 acres of untenanted land, which was subsequently bought by the Land Commission for redistribution. The burning of Sonna House in 1921 was motivated, not by animosity towards the Tuites, but by a desire to have the remaining 628 acres divided among local farmers, Mr Byrne stated.

He has been in contact with the present Lord of Sonna, Sir Christopher Tuite, who lives in England and was relieved to learn that his ancestors were good landlords.

The winner of the Tess Coyne memorial plaque was Anne Marie McLoughlin from Glen, Edgeworthstown, for her lace crochet sampler.

Catherine Keena, recently retired principal of Emper NS and judge of the competition, said Tess was a truly remarkable lady – “she was a source of wisdom and had a way of bringing everyone together”.

Many locals entertained the audience with music and poetry, including Eilah and Nova Kelly Coyne, Muireann Maxwell Duggan, Odhran Maguire, Hanna Mulligan, Katie Reynolds, and Tomas Maxwell Duggan, who performed a song he composed himself, entitled War.

Paddy Donnelly gave a recitation; the trio Mick Phelan, Paddy Maguire and Willie Kavanagh played several lively tunes, and Fiona Brennan, principal Emper NS, played the highland pipes.

Local man Jason Phelan told the audience about his charity fundraising adventures with his high flying Teddy bears Captain Paddy and Lucky, who have already raised €12,000 for the LauraLynn Foundation and Dogs Trust Ireland. He called for support for “two massive fundraisers coming up”, the first at Birr airfield in September, and a Hooley Night in the Annebrook House Hotel, Mullingar, on November 18, and praised those who have promoted the Teddy fundraiser.