The late Hugh Leddy For the people of Annaduff and surrounding area the passing of Hugh Leddy is as if another lighthouse light has been extinguished in our company sea. Hugh died in Arus Carolan, Mohill, on Tuesday 21 March, 2006, aged 83 years. He had been ill for a few months but they say, locally, he never recovered from a farm accident about four years ago. The story of Hugh's life is central to the local history of this area for in it he played a central and significant part. Hugh inherited the family farm in Umera from his father Micheal and mother Catherine, after his brothers John (RIP) and Leo (now in Texas) became a monk and a priest respectively. Two of his sisters Nan (RIP) and Kathleen became nuns and the youngest sister Lil (RIP) became a nurse and leading journalist in New York. As a young GAA player he was an enthusiastic giant. When Annaduff Club broke up in the mid 1940's he played for neighbouring Eslin. When Annaduff began again, in 1958, he was past his best and served as team trainer and club official. Emigration was taking terrible toll and occasionally, to make up numbers, Hugh was forced to line out himself. On one Sunday, in Mohill, I remember one very dramatic episode involving Hugh. He lined out around midfield dressed in a pair of old long trousers and with the socks pulled up over the bottom ends. He could have been close to 40 years and was slowing down. We were playing a neighbouring club and rivalry was intense. He started to solo from midfield heading for the town goals. Two hardy looking fellows decided they were going to "take him out". Both converged on him at speed. They hit him with everything they had but their shoulders from each side perfectly cancelled each other out. He took the shock as if nothing had happened. they fell away like rag dolls and he kept up the solo run to thunderous roars, cheers and applause. Fr Manning CC. Chairman of Leitrim Co. Board often asked him to patrol the sideline if an important match was being played. Armed with an ash plant he did this most effectively and nobody, with any wit, dared run onto the field to join in a melee. He had been club Treasurer for a few years and, in those impoverished times funds were always low. At an AGM new and younger officers were elected. Hugh handed over the one and six in funds and told the teenager to mind it well and not so spend it all at once. Ceilis were run to raise funds and I can still visualise this bulky giant of a man dancing nimbly enough and non stop through out the night. All the while he daily brought milk to Mohill creamery for himself and for about twenty others. On one occasion he and his neighbours were part of a meitheal cutting turf with slanes. When they reached the spit with the keeb the going got very tough. Pouring sweat, he rested and said to the boys "I'm afraid there is more heat generated cutting these turf than will ever be generated when they are being burned". The formation of the NFA (forerunner of the present IFA) in Jan 1955 was the springboard which shot Hugh to prominence in Co. Leitrim and indeed nationally. Half a million young people left Ireland in the 1950's. Those that were left eked out a pittance of a living by subsistenance farming. The NFA became the focus for a large number of young farmers who wanted to fight for a better life for themselves and for their families. Rates and rents were major burdens and then farm prices dropped dramatically. Cattle prices fell disastrously. Hugh took the initiative and became the NFA leader not only locally but in Co. Leitrim. (He was Co. Chairman for nine years). NFA members sought recognition for their right to bargain with government and to get meaningful remedies for their plight. In 1996 the then Minister for Agriculture, Charlie Haughey, refused to meet them. Around the same time Fr McDyer, that great priest and mighty social organiser from Glencolmcille in Donegal, was called "a communist" for daring to weld his parishioners into united community development. Inspired by the Black Civil Rights campaigners in the USA the farmers' protests continued throughout 1966 with a disobedience campaign. Protests were held in local towns and a big march from all parts of Ireland involving 30,000 farmers converged on Dublin on Oct 19, 1966. Again Minister Haughey refused to meet the leaders. Nine of the leaders, including Hugh, sat down on the steps outside the Dept. of Agriculture, at Merrion Street and said they would wait until he would have time to meet them. During the 21 days they slept rough in the cold conditions they were very well supported and fed by Dubliners and by country people. Sean Lemass resigned as Taoiseach and Haughey hoped to replace. They both met the farm leaders on Nov 9th - the eve of the vote for the new Taoiseach, Jack Lynch won. Talks began anew. Leaders like Rickard Deasy, T.J Maher and Hugh were promised that meaningful action would follow the meetings but nothing did come of it. Then, on Jan 9th, 1967 the pent up frustration finally boiled over as all over Ireland farmers blocked the major roads using tractors and farm machinery. The bridge over the Shannon at Rooskey was the scene of one such blockade. The first to stop his tractor on the bridge and refuse to move it was Hugh Leddy. The second to join him was his near neighbour Tony Gannon. They, in turn, were joined by a hundred more. The Government was alarmed and threatened to proscribe the NFA using the old British laws. The leaders were brought to court and were fined. The fine, imposed by Justice Loftus, was £5 or three months in jail in default. They refused to pay the fine (even after it was reduced). Peter Killian (Drum) the Connacht vice-president was arrested in March. The government found they could not break the farmers and Hugh Leddy was in the next group of many to be sent to Mountjoy/Portlaoise for a few weeks. The role of honour among Annaduff/Drumsna farmers was Hugh Leddy, Tony Gannon, John Ward, Packie Gralton, Micheal McKeon, John Harte, Jon "Slim" Shanley, Paddy Mollaghan, Jimmy Carroll, PJ Barry, John McManus, Johnny Murray. On 25th April 1967 Hugh, John Ward and Johnny Murray (Kilmore) were brought by squad car to Mountjoy. Tommy Harvey father of Brendan from Aughnasheelin was another detainee. Hugh and those arrested with him were released on May 2nd. The farmers had boycotted the Spring Show in the RDS and, on May 1st, the RDS paid the fines to take the heat out of the situation. Within three weeks there was a third wave of arrests and some of these men were kept in jail for about two months. The local elections of 1967 was a factor in their release. They had suffered a lot and unofficially they were common criminals. However, the effort made the NFA and it could no longer be ignored. As Chairman in Leitrim Hugh Leddy put in a tremendous effort to go to meetings at night in Drumshambo. He travelled on an open tractor. About 1970 he took a NUIG course in Social and Rural Studies. As a member of the National Executive IFA for about twenty years he spent at least two days per month travelling by train to Dublin. Hugh's son, Adrain, is now Regional Development Officer with the IFA and is based in Roscommon. Personally, I knew Hugh best as Chairman of the Hall Committee formed when the old Hibernian hall in Annaduff was taken by Leitrim Co. Council from the community by Compulsory Purchase Order. It was not easy to get agreement but Hugh commanded enough of respect and used great patience to calm things we put forward a good case for compensation. The case went to arbitration. Four of us were called as witnesses and on the second day Hugh got up again to verify that the hall was indeed worth the 35,000 compensation that was won. Luckily a vote of thanks to Hugh was passed on the night he attended his last meeting about the hall. This was Nov. 25th, 2001. He had been an excellent Chairman for about fifteen years. Ten years ago he and his neighbours opposed the building of a factory half a mile from his home as he believed it would pollute them as badly as factories in the south of Ireland had done down there. Tony Gannon described Hugh as "A completely honest and honourable person, very committed to what he believed in; he was a great fighter and there was no stepping back". In the eulogy Adrian, his son, said that he left school at thirteen but he "learned from the university of life". He also said his father "was a very religious man" but that "for him his religion was a private matter". I know for sure that, until recently, Hugh took his turn doing readings at Mass in Annaduff. Also when, about 1974, there was talk of disposing of the famous marble Maynooth College altar in Annaduss he, and the rest of us successfully opposed the idea. The recently elected 12th President of the IFA, Mr Padraig Walsh, attended Hugh's funeral and gave the oration at the graveside. He said "Hugh dug the well and drew the water back to the farmers in Leitrim and the West". "He called a spade a spade" and "of all of nine who sat on the steps of the Department in 1966 Hugh was the most determined". There is but one surviving member of the nine i.e Tom Cahill from Clare, and he attended the funeral. Tom Parlon T.D, Minister of State, and former IFA President, also attended. A very large crowd attended both the removal and the funeral. All levels of the IFA and of Fine Gael attended and they formed a guard of honour. To his sorrowing wife, Patricia, son Adrian, and daughters, Bernadette, Michelle and Patricia and to all his relations and friends deepest sympathies were extended. It will always be said of him "He had the courage to stand by what he believed in". The epitaph "He loved his country and he served his people" would befit the man who worked so earnestly to improve the lot of small farmers. Courtesy of the Leitrim Observer 03 March 2006 Tweet

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