Claude Chavasse (1886-1971) and the Gaelic Revival
Claude
Albert Chavasse was born in Oxford where his father, Albert Sydney Chavasse was
Professor of Classics and a fellow of University College Oxford. Claude read
Celtic studies at Oxford and visited the West of Ireland with some Scottish
students to learn the Irish language. His sister Marguerite was already in
Achill having set up a lace school. Claude learned to speak Irish well and
eventually he only conversed in Irish. He also took to wearing Celtic Revival
clothes as seen in his portrait by Pádraic Woods on display in Waterford County
Museum.
In
1917 he married Maureen Fox in Dublin, who later wrote a biography of Terence
McSwiney. Douglas Hyde, and Joseph Hone supported Claude, and author and poet
Ella Young, Neilí Ní Bhriain, artist Cesca Trench (Sadhbh Trinseach) and her
sister supported Maureen. Claude met his wife through his involvement with the
Irish school, Scoil Acla, which was established in 1911 on Achill Island. A
number of the women connected with the school became involved in the newly
formed Cumann na mBan.
Claude
was imprisoned at Richmond Barracks in May 1916 but was later released without
charge. He wrote a letter to the Chief Secretary on 9 May 1916 appealing for
the release of the prisoners, who were, in his opinion, held in very poor
conditions:
In the name of God, for your own honour, for the good
of Ireland and so that England will not get a bad name…pay a visit to the
prisons and do not allow anybody to suffer as they are (a great number of the
prisoners are innocent of the rising) or as they suffer yesterday in any case.
I fear that when an account of this bad treatment and
the hardship which these Gaels were subjected reaches America and the other
countries, that the people there will be angry; that it will do much harm to
the cause of our allies and that it will be more difficult to make a settlement
between Ireland, England, and the Colonies. I am in a position to speak of this
for I spent six days in Richmond Barracks – it was awful! I cannot understand
how old delicate people survived it all.
I
am with much respect
Claude
Chavasse
President of Gaelic League, Oxford.
He
was a distant cousin of the Chavasse family who lived at Whitfield Court (later
of Cappagh House), near Waterford, and in the early 1900s he visited his
relations there.
In
1925 Claude and his wife acquired Ross House, Galway, former home of Violet
Martin. They had a small farm and the farm manager was Martin Tobin from
Ballinacourty, Ring, Co Waterford. In 1949 Claud was elected Sinn Féin
representative in Galway, using the Irish version of his name – Cluad de
Ceabhasa.
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| General Claude Chavasse (1886-1971) |