Tall tales from West Mayo...
Two stories: The rather unexceptional house on the left was once the residence of one of WWII's most reviled individuals; so despised was he that was hung by the British for his deeds in 1946. This, you see, was the childhood home of William Joyce, who broadcast Nazi propaganda on German radio throughout the war years. Popularly known as 'Lord Haw Haw' he was born in America and raised in this house in Co. Mayo. During the Irish War of Independence, Joyce was recruited while still in his mid-teens to work as a courier for military intelligence personnel stationed in County Galway. He was also suspected by the Irish Republican Army of working as an informant for the Black and Tans.
Subsequently moving to England, Joyce became a member of Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists (BUF) from 1932, before finally moving to Germany at the outset of the war where he took German citizenship in 1940.
At the end of the war, after capture, Joyce was convicted in the United Kingdom of high treason in 1945 and sentenced to death, with the Court of Appeal and the House of Lords both upholding his conviction. He was hanged in Wandsworth Prison by Albert Pierrepoint on 3 January 1946, making him the last person to be executed for treason in the United Kingdom. More here if you're interested: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Joyce
Now, on to the abandoned bar on the right. Thirty years ago while working in Southern California, the fellow I worked for would tell yarns about a character named 'Digger Jay' who he'd known, and who had eventually moved on to run a bar in Ireland. His nickname had come from his occupation... Jay, it seemed, earned his living digging graves. Now, I have no idea if bar was owned by the same man, but the odds of having two bar-owning Digger Jays seems rather remote, wouldn't you agree? EDIT: Turns out there ARE two Digger Jays!
Tall tales from West Mayo...
Two stories: The rather unexceptional house on the left was once the residence of one of WWII's most reviled individuals; so despised was he that was hung by the British for his deeds in 1946. This, you see, was the childhood home of William Joyce, who broadcast Nazi propaganda on German radio throughout the war years. Popularly known as 'Lord Haw Haw' he was born in America and raised in this house in Co. Mayo. During the Irish War of Independence, Joyce was recruited while still in his mid-teens to work as a courier for military intelligence personnel stationed in County Galway. He was also suspected by the Irish Republican Army of working as an informant for the Black and Tans.
Subsequently moving to England, Joyce became a member of Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists (BUF) from 1932, before finally moving to Germany at the outset of the war where he took German citizenship in 1940.
At the end of the war, after capture, Joyce was convicted in the United Kingdom of high treason in 1945 and sentenced to death, with the Court of Appeal and the House of Lords both upholding his conviction. He was hanged in Wandsworth Prison by Albert Pierrepoint on 3 January 1946, making him the last person to be executed for treason in the United Kingdom. More here if you're interested: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Joyce
Now, on to the abandoned bar on the right. Thirty years ago while working in Southern California, the fellow I worked for would tell yarns about a character named 'Digger Jay' who he'd known, and who had eventually moved on to run a bar in Ireland. His nickname had come from his occupation... Jay, it seemed, earned his living digging graves. Now, I have no idea if bar was owned by the same man, but the odds of having two bar-owning Digger Jays seems rather remote, wouldn't you agree? EDIT: Turns out there ARE two Digger Jays!