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MIXED MESSAGES.

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T. C. MURRAY - More Questions Than Answers

12/10/2014

0 Comments

 

QUESTION ONE

OLYMPICS

Picture
I was very well aware of this plaque from many years of passing the building but it was only in July that I stopped to photograph. My instant thought was that it was another for the sports collection – Dr. Pat O’Callaghan, Denis Horgan, Dan O’Leary and Steve Casey all justifying a daily blog comment earlier in the summer following on from the likes of John C Lordan and Jack Doyle.

There has been a delay while I have read (most of) a book on
T. C. Murray as the web provided contradictory information with regard to an Olympic Medal – which was for literature and not for sport.

Please expect some more plaques to sports people for times past in the near future.

I have added to my mental To Do list further research as to the 1924 Olympics – was the “‘literary competition ‘for men of letters’ associated with the 1924 Olympic Games” the same as the “Art competitions at the 1924 Olympics in Paris” or were they different competitions; and who were the prize-winners.

I suspect that this item may remain on the list for a good while.


Picture
New St., Macroom
T. C. MURRAY
  1873 – 1969
  PLAYRIGHT, POET, NOVELIST,
  OLYMPIC MEDALIST
  WAS BORN HERE


LEE VALLEY ENTERPRISE BOARD

“Years after its initial success, Birthright earned European recognition for Murray. In 1924 it was awarded the bronze medal and a diploma in the literary competition ‘for men of letters’ associated with the 1924 Olympic Games (VIII Olympiade) in Paris (Ms. 23,510, TCM, NLI.)The play was eligible because of its references to hurling. A news report from Dublin’s Weekly Freeman, ‘Olympic Honour for Irish Dramatist’, published on 9 August 1924, explained that the literary adjudicators included ‘such distinguished names as M. Jean Richepin, Gabrielle d’Annunzio, Paul Claudel, Marcel Provost, Blasco Ibanez, and Maurice Maeterlink’ (Ms. 23,510, TCM, NLI). Another article, ‘Irish Playright’s Honour’, published by the Dublin Evening Mail on 4 August 1924, drew attention to the international significance of the award: ‘In the modern drama of Europe, Synge, Yeats, and Lady Gregory have won universal recognition. Mr. Murray has further emphasized and enhanced the literary attainments of the nation’ (Ms. 23,510, TCM, NLI). “

T.C. Murray, Dramatist – Voice of Rural Ireland – Albert J. DeGiacomo [Syrause University Press – 2003] 
“It has been stated both by A DeGiacomo and by R Allen Cave that in the Art competitions at the 1924 Olympics in Paris France Murray was awarded a bronze medal for his play Birthright However according to the official record for the games although Murray was a participant in the literature category with this play and also with Maurice Harte he did not win a medal”

Biographies.net AND Wikipedia 
“The bronze medals went to French Charles Anthoine Gonnet for Face to Face with Olympia's God and Irish Oliver St. John Gogarty for Ode to the Tailteann Games. Gonnet also played rugby for the French national team from 1921-27. In 1924, he was a substitute for the French national team at the Paris Olympics, but did not play in any match. He was also an athlete, swimmer and boxer. Besides his writing Gogarty was a physician, sportsman, pilot and politician, and from 1922-36 served as a senator in the Irish Parliament.”
  Sports_Reference.com 
“In Cork city he co-founded the Cork Little Theatre Company with other authors such as the famed Daniel Corkery and Con O’Leary and the heroic Lord Mayor of Cork, Terence McSweeney, who died on hunger strike at Brixton Prison, England in 1920.  The group became known as The Cork Realists.

The new theatre soon blossomed and many who threaded its boards became household names in the 20 th century.

Murray won a bronze medal for Literature at the 1924 Paris Olympics for ‘Birthright’ a play central to hurling.”
  Scoreboard Memories

QUESTION TWO

RATHDUFF, GRENAGH AND MUTUAL LOVE

Picture
When reading about the life of T. C. Murray, I was reminded of this plaque that I had seen earlier this year in Grenagh. The first question to myself was answered by Rathduff N.S.   in that it is the National School for the parish of Grenagh.

From reading the plaque in Grenagh, there was no doubt in my mind that Grenagh was proud of its association and happy with its memory of T. C. Murray. From reading Albert DeGiacomo’s book, it does not appear to have been a shared happiness.

Nelson Mandela probably had very few happy days on Robben Island yet Robben Island continues to be a tourist attraction on the strength of the Mandela connection – why should Grenagh not adopt a similar position.


“GRENAGH    GREANACH

The Parish name derives from the Irish….. meaning Sunny Place.

Historic evidence of early settlements is visible in the many ring forts that still exist in the area. These were the homes and sanctuaries of our Ancestors.

The ruins of the church of St. Nicholas which date from Medieval times are located in Grenagh Cemetery. This Monastery church was a dependency of the Great Abbey of Mourne. St. Lachteens Church in Grenagh dates from 1836. The present structure was built around an already existing thatched Mass House.

The Woolen Mills were built in 1808 and worked until 1870 cording, spinning and weaving wool. The Mills were located near the bridge over the River Martin and were totally powered by the flow of water.

Thomas Cornelius (T. C.) Murray the Macroom born teacher, poet, playright, novelist, literary critic and Olympic medallist was Principal of Rathduff N. S. from 1900 to 1915. Between 1909 and 1943 he wrote 17 plays amongst other works. Five of his early plays were written in Rathduff, and his works were part of the Abbey theatre repertoire on their American tours. His plays were very popular with drama groups all over the country.”

“Certified by the National Board of Education, Murray became a national teacher at the age of twenty. Upon his return to County Cork, he served as national teacher, first at Carrignavar in the country and later at Saint Francis National School in a poverty-stricken district of Cork City, where he came to know fellow teacher Daniel Corkery. As his health was endangered by the overcrowding and other conditions in this school, Murray accepted advice to move on to Caarrigtwohill where he ‘breathed more freely’ (Conlin 1952,, 3). While teaching at St. Mary’s School there, Murray met his future spouse, Christina Moylan, a colleague teacher and daughter of the principal……….they married on 31 July 1903 at the Franciscan church of the Holy Trinity in Cork City. In 190o Murray was appointed principal of the national school in Rathduff, another country town, near Blarney.”

“Murray described Rathduff  as “a rather dreary district of scattered farmhouses midway between Cork and Mallow”, yet for his family’s security he remained there for fifteen years. ‘Were it not that Rathduff was a short run to cthe city by rail, it would have been desolation’ (Conlin 1942, 6).”

T.C. Murray, Dramatist – Voice of Rural Ireland – Albert J. DeGiacomo [Syrause University Press – 2003]
“Though Rathduff locals remember Christina Murray as a lovely woman who staged operattas with the school children, Murray, they recall, was so exacting – and given to sarcasm – that some parents sent their children to schools in neighbouring towns rather than expose them to Murray’s tongue.”

T.C. Murray, Dramatist – Voice of Rural Ireland – Albert J. DeGiacomo [Syrause University Press – 2003]
“Murray did not mix with the locals. Owing to the elevated status of his profession and to his own reserved nature, Murray never strolled down to the local pub to enjoy ‘the craic’ (social conversation). Rather he drove his pony and trap six miles to Blarney on Saturdays ‘if the weather was fine”.

T.C. Murray, Dramatist – Voice of Rural Ireland – Albert J. DeGiacomo [Syrause University Press – 2003]

“Later, in a letter to Holloway dated only 1913, Murray extolled the stimulation of the city and lamented its loss. ‘I felt I was being cheated in being obliged to leave the capital so soon, and the breath of excitement was so grateful after the ‘mists that do be on the bog’ down here.1 (Ms. 13,267, NLI)”

T.C. Murray, Dramatist – Voice of Rural Ireland – Albert J. DeGiacomo [Syrause University Press – 2003]

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