Parra Glas , Peggy Jo , The Doctor ?and The Hood
On my way into work here in Monaghan’s 4th largest workwear store I pass by Kilmore Church which was a religious site even before Christian times. In the 17th century Cromwell turfed the O’Connolly family off their estate there and after initially farming a piece of rented land the O’Connollys abandoned regular society and occupied some caves in Tullygillen, near where Rossmore Park is today, and became outlaws.
Patrick O’Connolly, who was six feet tall, grew his hair long and had a beard to match which had a greenish grey appearance. He was an imposing figure , and acquired the name Parra Glas, ‘glas’ being Irish for green and ‘Parra’ a pet name for Patrick. He terrorised the English landowners and merchants throughout Monaghan and was hugely popular locally due to his generosity. Even his victims had a grudging respect as ne never harmed anyone.
He became very successful due to a network of informants in Monaghan Town who let him know in advance of the expected visits and departures of the local nobility, and more importantly, troop movements. Unfortunately his success proved his undoing. A growing number of cousins, uncles and nephews followed him into the family business and it became common for a local landowner to be ambushed twice in the same short two mile journey from home to town. The increasing number of bandits, or rapparees as they were known, also meant that they started to set the bar much lower in terms of their targets and soon ended up following and robbing each other after an ambush.
Eventually the locals got tired of them altogether and started to lead the local militia to their hideouts. They quickly started to do deals to save their own necks and within a short time they had all been rounded up…..except Parra Glas himself. It was widely reported that he had been caught and hung in 1711, but three of his family , a cousin , a nephew and an uncle also went by the name Patrick O’Connolly and it is now believed that it was one of them that actually hung and it suited the authorities to let the public at large believe that they had done their duty and restored peace.
And Parra Glas ? Local lore says he dyed his hair and beard black and moved to Bristol.
In the West Indies during the golden age of piracy, 1711-1718, the most fearsome was Blackbeard, who was six feet tall, grew his hair long and had a beard to match. He was hugely popular with his crews due to his generosity. Even his victims had a grudging respect as ne never harmed anyone.
Why do we have a grudging respect and affinity with outlaws ?
This is not just an ancient phenomenon.
Peggy Jo Tallas
Peggy Jo lived with her elderly mother in Texas and had an uneventful life, as far as we can tell, until one day in 1991 she put on a fake bear,cowboy hat, scary Tom Cruise mirror sunglasses, a padded beer belly and extra large boots and sauntered into Irving’s American Federal Bank and in reply to the nice teller lady’s greeting of “How may I help you ?” placed a hand written note against the partition which simply said “This is a bank robbery,give me your money. No marked bills or dye packs.”
The teller handed over a bundle of money which Peggy Jo put in her own man bag , smiled at the teller , nodded, tipping the brim of her hat and left, slowly. She went home and made lunch for her elderly mother.
She repeated this process innumerable times over the next 12 months all across Texas, within a 2 hour drive of her house. She was never armed, never threatened violence and never spoke and always spent less than 60 seconds in the bank.
The FBI never suspected that she was a woman.
She never stole more than €5,000 and was so calm and collected, even handing back a bundle of cash to a teller in one robbery that she spotted contained a dye pack which would explode if it left the bank. And then one day she decided for some reason to rob two banks in the same day. The first robbery went without a hitch, as did the second…except that she hadn’t bothered to cover her number plates for the second robbery and the FBI now had her address.
They surrounded her house with SWAT teams and when she left the house in jeans and a tee shirt they assumed that she was the bank robber’s girlfriend and let her leave in the car. They stopped it around the corner out of sight of the house and quizzed her as to who was in the house. They didn’t believe her when she said that her mother was alone. It was only when they searched the house and found the cowboy hat and false beard in her room that they began to think it could be her.
She only admitted to the robbery they’d caught her after and seemed such an unlikely bank robber that she was only sentenced to 3 years. She hated it.
When she got out she moved and got a job in a shop beside the marina at Lake Ray Hubbard near Dallas. She quickly endeared herself to the owner, staff and customers, particularly the poorer customers. She would pay for fishing bait and tackle herself and give it to families who’d come to fish. A Vietnamese lady who came to fish to feed her family regularly was given lifts home by Peggy Jo. A deaf customer would only let himself be served by Peggy Jo because she was so patient with him and wrote down questions for him and a man who had recently been released from jail would often find a $20 dollar bill in with his purchases when Peggy Jo served him. One day he handed the money he’d found in with the bait he’d bought to a manager, thinking it belonged to someone else. The manager panicked thinking that Peggy Jo had slipped him money from the till, she didn’t say anything but quietly checked the cash at the end of the day. The takings balanced perfectly. She asked Peggy Jo why she’d helped the guy out.
“Well, we all got a past, you know”. She smiled.
Her mother passed away in 2002 and in 2004 she sold up everything she had and bought an RV, she told the shop manager she was going to make her way to Mexico. The manager always remembered her saying:
“She told me I ought to come along while I had the chance, before life ran out on us. I’ll never forget her saying that. Before life ran out on us.”
No one knows exactly where she went after that but in May 2005 she walked into the Guaranty Bank in Tyler and spoke to the teller telling her to give her all the money, which she duly did. Peggy Jo was not wearing a disguise, spoke and didn’t check for dyepacks. The bag exploded red as she exited the bank and a red mist followed her to the RV. Lots of people phoned in the description of the RV and she was eventually boxed in on Irish Mist Drive.
She ignored repeated calls to come out, smoked a few cigarettes and flicked through a box of family photographs before going to the bedroom where she kept a loaded .357 Magnum. She left it where it was and picked up a toy replica gun instead and made her way outside.
The police called out to her “Please Ma’am, don’t. Please !”
She didn’t stop. She was shot 4 times and died almost instantly.
“Before life runs out on us.”
And The Hood ?
Apparently there were many characters in history from the 12th to the 14th century who could claim to be the original, but the image we all have is of a man in green tights with a fetching little pixie hat featuring a long feather.
In an episode of Dr.Who a couple of years ago he visits Sherwood and at the end of the episode the have this conversation :
“ Is it true what they say Doctor ?”
Is what true ?
“That in the future I am forgotten as a real man. I am but a legend ?”
The Doctor looks downbeat as he answers “I’m afraid it is.”
“Good ! History is a burden. Stories make us fly !”
Have a great weekend,
Thank you for flying with us today,
Paul