Letterfrack

Letterfrack Leitir Fraic
Village
View of Letterfrack and Ballinakill harbour, 2008
Letterfrack Location in Ireland
Coordinates: 53°33′N 9°57′W / 53.55°N 9.95°W / 53.55; -9.95Coordinates: 53°33′N 9°57′W / 53.55°N 9.95°W / 53.55; -9.95
Country	Ireland
Province	Connacht
County	County Galway
Elevation	81 m (266 ft)
Irish Grid Reference	L697591

Letterfrack or Letterfrac (Irish: Leitir Fraic meaning "The Speckled Hill") is a small village in the Connemara area of County Galway, Ireland. It was founded by Quakers in the mid-19th century. The village is south-east of Renvyle peninsula and 15 kilometres (9 miles) north-east of Clifden on Barnaderg Bay and lies at the head of Ballinakill harbour. Letterfrack contains the visitors centre for Connemara National Park.

History[]

James and Mary Ellis, a Quaker couple from Bradford in England, moved to Letterfrack, during the Great Famine. Ellis became the resident landlord in Letterfrack in 1849.^[1] As Quakers, the Ellises wanted to help with the post-famine relief effort. They leased nearly 1,000 acres (405 ha) of rough land and set about farming it and planting it with woodland.^[2] They built a schoolhouse, housing for tradesmen, a shop, a dispensary, and a temperance hotel.^[3] In 1857 the property was sold to John Hall, a staunch Protestant, and supporter of the Irish Church Mission to Roman Catholics. The ICM used the building with the aim of converting Catholics to Protestantism. After 25 years without much success, Hall sold it in 1882, under the impression he was selling it to a Protestant buyer, for £3000 for 1,000 acres (405 ha).^[4]

However, under a false name, the Catholic Archbishop of Tuam, John McEvilly, bought the former Ellis property in 1882, which at that time was being used by the Protestant Irish Church Missions to Roman Catholics.^[5] In 1885, he established St Joseph's Industrial School, Letterfrack^[3] which opened in 1887. Letterfrack Industrial School became notorious for neglect and abuse of the children in its charge, and the school closed in 1974.^[6][7]

Marconi wireless station[]

Letterfrack was selected by Marconi as the location for the transatlantic wireless receiver station for his new duplex transatlantic wireless service.^{[citation needed]} It is one of the few Marconi stations still standing in the world.^{[citation needed]} The duplex operation was initially developed by Marconi at Letterfrack using a balanced Carborundum detector with the aerial suspended between Diamond Hill and Mweelin.^{[citation needed]} This later became standard practice for commercial and military radiotelegraph communication worldwide.^{[citation needed]}

Beginning in April 1911, eastbound messages were sent from Marconi Towers, a high power wireless station in Nova Scotia, to Letterfrack; while westbound messages were sent simultaneously from the Clifden high power wireless station to Louisbourg in 1913. The Letterfrack station was moved to Currywongaun and closed in April 1917.^{[citation needed]} Some experimental work on shortwave and other work, by Marconi engineers Franklin and Witt, was carried out into the early 1920s.^{[citation needed]}

St. Joseph's church[]

St. Joseph's church

In 1924–26 a church was built on the ground of the Industrial School after the designs of the architect Rudolf Maximilian Butler in a Romanesque Revival style. The church was dedicated to Saint Joseph by Thomas Gilmartin on 12 June 1926. The church consists of a single four-bay nave aligned north-south with two small side chapels and an attached sacristy on its western side.^[8][9][10]

GMIT campus[]

GMIT Campus building in Letterfrack, originally built as St Joseph's Industrial School in 1887 after the designs of the Cavan architect William Hague.^[11][12]

In 1987 the Connemara West began running furniture courses which has become the Furniture College/Campus for the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology.^[13]

Media[]

Connemara Community Radio broadcasts from Letterfrack.

See also[]

• List of towns and villages in Ireland

Further reading[]

• Whelan D. (ed.) Founded on Fear; Letterfrack Industrial School, war and exile by Peter Tyrrell. Irish Academic Press 2006. ISBN 978-0-7165-3403-7

References[]