On Wednesday 8th July we had the pleasure of
welcoming the family of M J Kilgannon to the Deirdre and Irial Finan Archives
and Special Collections Reading Room to mark the accession of papers relating
to his life and work. Monica Crump, University Librarian, welcomed the wife, children and grandchildren of ‘the
man who stopped the train’ in Woodlawn who came from Ireland, England and New
Zealand for the event. Monica highlighted the use of the collection for many
areas of research for our students in the years ahead and thanked the family
for their donation of papers to the Library.
MJ Kilgannon was a Fine Gael county councillor in the
1970s-1980s for the Ballinasloe area. He was a strong community activist,
heavily involved in group water schemes, community development and the heritage
of Woodlawn and its vicinity. He was school principal at Ballymacward National
School for many years. He also campaigned for mental health supports at a time
when there was not much there. He is perhaps best known as the man who stopped
the train at Woodlawn in 1977, campaigning to keep Woodlawn station open at a
time when it was threatened with closure. He would also have campaigned to keep
post offices open in later years.
The collection fits in with a number of research themes
across our collections. One of MJ's uncles, Tommy, died in the Titanic, so that
ties in a lot with the transatlantic journey recorded by many people in the
Imirce material. Another uncle, John Nutley, a member of the RIC, was killed
outside Bansha Church in May 1921 during the War of Independence, this ties in
with a good number of the political collections. The history of the Woodlawn
area comes across in his papers very much, so people like Lord Ashdown and his
opposition to the Land Acts tie in with a lot of our Landed Estates material.
The intersection of community activism, local politics and rural development is
a theme researched a lot in Soc & Pol, Geography and History, and his views
on the changes in national education from the 1960s to the 2010s are very
interesting also from the research point of view. The connection with Muintir
na Tire is very interesting, and how community councils took over the role of
Parish Guilds, including group water schemes, community councils themselves and
community alert. By keeping the Woodlawn train station open, for example, that
became an important piece of infrastructure in the locality that has keep young
families coming into the area, ties in with engineering and transport studies
for Galway and its hinterland in our holdings.
Anyone wishing to access the collection can get in touch
with us in Heritage Collections.
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