The Cork and Kerry Regional Group of

An Óige

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An Óige in Munster during the 2nd World War

by V.Godsil

A true stalwart then and now was George Harding (later a Regional President)
George was a member of the committee of the Grocers Club and the CTC.

It was from these bodies that that initially the early members came. As most of them were long distance cyclists, the idea of an organization like An Óige having simple hostel accommodation to assist them on their travels was a great incentive.
These were often placed in strategic locations linking up one CTC house with another or located in an area away from any form of hostel or accommodation.

Many joint cycling trips around the country were undertaken by both groups and use was made of the CTC houses and the few scattered hostels in Munster
On the 5 th of October 1939 a meeting of Cork members was held. A committee of 7 was formed . It was to be called the Cork Group committee

1939List of Members

Gortavalig 1940
Pride of place as the very first hostel in Cork went to Gortavalig. It very nearly was in Cobh as plans were very far advanced in acquiring Glanmore, the home of the Swanton family. There was a lovely avenue sweeping up to the house. There was a garage, a harness room and a passage , one large bedroom and three small rooms. There were three lofts and it was proposed to have a separate yard for the wing on top.

Mr .Swanton who had retired from the navy and his wife were appointed wardens. The meeting in April was attended by Terry Trench, Theckla Beere, P. Thompson and Jack Sutton. Quotations had been received from Jim Casey, Plumber, Cobh for installing two wc's. Then all of a sudden the whole scheme fell through.

The hunt started again and before the end of the year work was well underway in providing a hostel at Gortnavalig House near Bantry Co.Cork.
Happily Anne Swanton continued on in An Óige.

This was a lovely hostel with a lovely location and was situated five miles from Glengarriff and six miles from Bantry. It was 200 yards south of of the main Bantry- Glengariffe road marked on the 1'' O.S. map. 120 feet above sea level 1/4 mile from the shore of Bantry bay.

It was officially opened at Easter 1940. It had been a close shave as far as a hostel in Cobh was concerned and the hostel equipment had to be brought back from Glenmore House by train and then on by lorry to Glengarriff.

We got a grant of £10 around early December 1939 and straight away spent £11- 8- 10

Shopping list for Gortavalig YH

A trip was made by rail to Bantry and we established by walking that it was 6 miles to the hostel.
There was also a Glengarriff- Bantry-Cork bus however this was very infrequent.
The Post Office was at Ballylickey Bridge 3 miles away . However there was a letter box at the entrance.

There were special forms to be filled out by "aliens". These were issued by the Dept. of Defense and had to be kept under lock and key and dispatched promptly by post to Army H.Q. in Dublin. All maps especially Ordnance Survey had to handed up to the authorities in case they fell into enemy hands.

We knew that the Catholic Church was 2 1/2 miles away at Coomhola and that the Church of Ireland was 2 miles away at Snave. There were also stores at Coomhola and Ballylickey.
However the notice board remained blank for the "duration"as this information could not be advertised.

Water for Drinking came from the well which was 100 yards away. Rainwater was used for washing and the hostellers cooked on an old range.
The rates for a half year were £2-17 -4 and the rent was £15 a year.
Railway and I.T.A posters were used in decorating the Common Room thus we became acquainted with works of Paul Henry

ref Jack Colemans Notebook
The warden was installed at Gortavalig on the 11th February 1940 after a work party of 5 women and 11 men and 2 drivers had got the hostel ready for occupation.
Enthusiasm seems to have waned as the next entry is a telegram (1s- 5d) sent to Jack Sutton advising the temporary closure of the hostel due to a water shortage 19/8/40

The American Note
After DeValera said " no " to the now historic American Note whose tone and content and purpose was to land forces, seize the country, and occupy the ports, the combined forces of the state were put on alert.

Early in 1941 the Army, Air Force, Navy and L.D.F. (local de fence force) were called up to defend the south coast of Ireland from a possible invasion by the might and power of America. I amongst others patrolled for miles the coast at Kinsale for three to five days until the order came to stand down.
I was armed to the teeth with 5 rounds of ammunition and a Lee Enfield rifle. Well the south coast of England was was being defended by my first cousin -armed with a four pronged pitchfork-a bigger joke.

During the war
The membership remained about 40-50. The committee during the war years was Misses Kay Buckley, A Drummy, Mary Tobin. Messers J. Cotter, JC Coleman, M Murphy , S McLeod, F Cleary, R Looney, T Crone, M Lynch, J O Neill. Meetings took place at members houses.
A meeting held in St. Francis hall and a committee elected consisting of :- Chairman JE Cotter, Vice Chairman Kay Buckley, Sec. V Godsil, Treas. Frank Murphy.

In 1943 new members joined like Kay Buckley, Annie Drummy, Mary Tobin , Noel Lynch and Ray Looney

Under the wonderful leadership of a sincere quiet but forward thinking Chairman the late James E Cotter things really got moving in Cork and Kerry
Kay Buckley was his Vice Chairperson and with Frank Murphy as Treasurer. I (Vincent) was secretary . As usual in those days as money was short, many of our letters we delivered ourselves .

Our first Life Member was Eoin (Pope) O Mahony with Anne Swanton of Cobh a close second.