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https://www.athea.ie/

 

The Way I See It

 

 

 

By Domhnall de Barra

 

 

 

I have had a go at Joe Duffy on a couple of occasions and I had no intention of ever returning to that topic but, as I was driving the other day, his program was on the radio and as it unfolded my blood began to boil and I had to force myself to pay attention to my driving in case I might cause a crash. A woman who lives by the Gaelic Grounds came on the air complaining of the fact that the Wolfe Tones were going to be in concert there in the near future. I thought she was going to complain about the extra traffic and the noise but, no, she was objecting to their singing “oo aa up the ra” and that this was glorifying the IRA and having a bad influence on young people. Joe Duffy had Brian Warfield of the Wolfe Tones on and he put the point to him. Brian tried to answer but Joe just would not let him make his point; shouted over him, said the song was rubbish and tried as best he could to get Brian to say he was an IRA sympathiser. Now, we all know that the Wolf Tones have nationalist leanings, their very name suggests that, but there is far more to their music than that. They have been one of the most popular and successful groups in the country for decades and people who have gone to their concerts enjoy a great night’s entertainment. Joe should have a history lesson before opening his gob castigating the IRA and calling them murderers and criminals. The troubles in the North were terrible and any sane person would wish they had never happened and that nobody had been killed but the fact is the IRA did not start the war. It started because loyalist paramilitaries tried to “cleanse” their areas of nationalists and Catholics by burning their houses and physically attacking them. The British army were actually brought in to defend the Catholic population against these attacks. It was inevitable that the IRA would grow in strength and fight back. Up to that time people from a nationalist background, mostly Catholics, were treated as second class citizens and were way down the pecking order when it came to employment, especially the top jobs, housing and education. There are those who will say fighting wasn’t the answer but equality would never be attained by saying “pretty please” to the British government. Eventually it comes to negotiation and fair play to politicians like John Hume who brought people to the negotiating table  which resulted in the “Good Friday Agreement”.  It is because of the years of conflict that he was able to negotiate from a position of strength. Of course it was a terribly dirty campaign with many atrocities committed on both sides but guerrilla warfare has no fair play rules. There are no armies facing each other across trenched as in tradition combat so extreme measures are employed. The British army, in cahoots with the loyalists paramilitaries, used every dirty trick in the book to defeat the IRA and failed. That is why we have the relative peace that exists in the North today. Young men and women joined up to defend their homes and cultures, not to become criminals and murderers. It would be nice to think that it would not be necessary but what would the world be like if people like Hitler and Putin were given free rein? The war in the North is now part of our history but it is worth remembering that the IRA could not have operated without the support of the nationalist community. There are a couple of dissident groups today, such as the New IRA, but they are very small and command no support so it was wrong for Joe to try and get Brian to admit that he was supporting them. The Wolf Tones sing some nationalist songs but they are part of our history. Most of the songs I learned going to school were glorifying the men of the old IRA. Songs like, “Who Fears the Men of ‘98”, “Step Together”, “The Foggy Dew” were sung with great gusto and we saw nothing wrong in it. Even in more recent times songs like “The Men Behind the Wire”,  “Come Out You Black and Tans”  “The Patriot Game” and many more were regularly played on the very radio station that pays Joe Duffy’s exorbitant wages. One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. They are merely songs that give us a moment in history and I see nothing wrong with them. I was delighted that a few contributors came on air to complain about Joe Duffy’s treatment of Brian Warfield. Like I said before, he acts as if the show was all about him instead of being a neutral middleman. The program is a really good one which was built up by the great Marian Finucane but it is in danger of being destroyed by the egoistic fame-seeking antics of a presenter who only wants to hear what he himself believes in. He should be ashamed of himself.

 

 

 

Athea Community Council is looking for new blood!. Over the years  we have been lucky to have some great members but most of those have retired or gone to their eternal reward. Becasue of this we are now down to a few directors and we need more urgently. The Council is the umbrella organisation in the parish and has many achievements to be proud of including the Giant’s Garden, the footbridge, stone walls, paths etc and, through the CE Scheme, keeps the village and graveyards tidy. The offices are due to be upgraded in the near future and this will be a great asset to the community.  If you have a little bit of  time to spare we would love to hear from you by contacting me on 087 6758762.

 

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Reflect

 

Try to forget your troubles and give out a great big smile,

 

You’ll find the world a warmer place if you can halt a while.

 

Share your Problems with  a friend, a friend both warm and true,

 

You’ll find what hurt you on the mend and those grey skies turn to blue.

 

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Boat named after Kerry’s Tom Crean completes 300 days’ surveying in first year

 

The RV Tom Crean. Photo supplied by Marine Institute.

 

 

 

The RV Tom Crean. Photo supplied by Marine Institute.

 

Tadhg Evans

 

Kerryman 21 July 2023

 

 

 

A new research vessel named after Annascaul man and Antarctic explorer Tom Crean has completed almost 300 days worth of surveying since it moved to its base one year ago.

 

 

 

On its anniversary, a senior member of the Marine Institute said the vessel has proved “invaluable” to Ireland’s scientific community.

 

 

 

The RV Tom Crean was commissioned in Dingle, to much fanfare, last October, at an event attended by many, including some of Crean’s living Kerry relatives. It arrived at its Galway base in July of last year, and data shared by the Marine Institute this week outlined that the boat has completed 296 survey days since then, across 20 surveys. Almost 180 scientists took part in these surveys, and the boat travelled more than 32,000 nautical miles, the equivalent of rounding the country 46 times.

 

Read more

 

 

 

Its work has included five surveys for INFOMAR, surveys which mapped an area totalling 6,317 square kilometres. It has also collected data from locations such as the Porcupine Bank, some 300 kilometres west of Kerry; Aran Grounds; the Celtic Sea; and the Bay of Biscay.

 

 

 

“With its state-of-the-art capabilities and the dedication of its skilled crew and scientists, we eagerly await the vessel's next chapter, brimming with exciting accomplishments and ground breaking discoveries,” Marine Institute Interim CEO Michael Gillooly commented this week.

 

 

 

“The RV Tom Crean has proven itself as an invaluable asset to Ireland's scientific community, and we eagerly look forward to the remarkable achievements yet to come.”

 

https://www.independent.ie/regionals/kerry/news/boat-named-after-kerrys-tom-crean-completes-300-days-surveying-in-first-year/a1342756196.html?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=seeding&fbclid=IwAR2jOliA5WqYZAa8yUNXu1Bp_L02W6vHO2zWzh8n6tPW-UwD5EiJX7C-1Mg

 

 

 

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School collection

 

https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/stories?SearchText=knockanure&SearchLanguage=ga&Page=1&PerPage=20

 

 

 

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Tralee Heroes

 

https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/stories?SearchText=tralee+heroes&SearchLanguage=ga&Page=1&PerPage=20

 

 

 

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Smuggling of Tobacco

 

https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4706327/4702769/4724024?HighlightText=tralee++hudson&Route=stories&SearchLanguage=ga

 

 

 

During the 18th century smuggling was carried on in Barrow, Ardfert, Co. Kerry, by a man named Collace who resided in "Barrow House", which is still in good repair, and occupied by Mr. Hudson, court solicitor in Tralee. The cave where the tobacco was hidden is still to be seen at the back of "Barrow House."

 

There is a small harbour between Barrow and Fenit and on each side there is a castle. Fenit and Barrow castles, about 200 yards apart. It is said that when the barques with the smuggled goods came into Barrow Harbour that a chain was put from one castle to the other across the water, in order to prevent them.

 

One day however Collace and his carriage man, Sheehy, went to Tralee town seven miles to east. He heard there that the "Excise Men" [?] suspicions on him and that they were to search his house that day. Collace knew that certain papers which he had in a safe would betray him, if found. He gave the of the same to Sheehy, who rode in all haste to Barrow and secured papers in some field not far off. He had scarcely secured the paper when the "Excise men arrived ransacked the whole house from to bottom, even the safe out of where Sheehy had taken the papers. Were these papers found, it would have been the cause of Collace's death. Collace was so frightened that he

 

gave up smuggling altogether and so ended the history of smuggling of tobacco in Barrow.

 

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Tralee Church Search

 

https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/stories?SearchText=tralee++church&SearchLanguage=ga&Page=1&PerPage=20

 

 

 

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Penal Times

 

1. Close to the roadside leading to Blennerville in Mr. Gallivans field and opposite Mrs. O'Shea's entrance gate is a large Cavern to an underground river. This Cavern is known as Fiora-na-Houlko or the cave of the Altar. In this cave Mass was celebrated in the Penal times and the priest according to tradition was taken and beheaded there for the old people say that his ghost was often seen there reading a book and without any head, and sometimes is on horseback but in all cases without his head. About 60 feet from the Fiorách was an old boreen long since obliterated where he used to be seen riding through reading and without a head.

 

2. Far up in Tonevane glen at a point known as the Cross glens is a large rock which the people call Corrig an [?]

 

or the rock of butter. Tradition that in the Penal times Mass was celebrated at this rock many and many a time. This glen of Tonevane is known to the very old people as Gloun na Foula or the Bloody glen and far up the glen towards the source there are two little heaps of stones to mark the spot where two men were done to death in the old times by robbers. Their dead bodies were found on the spots marked by the little heaps of stones.

 

Directly at the back of Curraheen Chapel is a large deep hollow known as Poul an affran, in this hollow Mass was also celebrated in the penal times, and the glen was then a vast forest of stunted wood and under-brush in which horses and cattle went astray and the people often searched for them for days before finding them.

 

The first Chapel built there was a long low thatched building like a Cow-stall. A Protestant gentleman, one of the Rowans of Tralee, was the first to

 

reconstruct and slate it, and Dean Mawe again reconstructed the present Chapel and added the two side transepts.

 

In a very old Ordinance Map of the parish of Anna there is marked in a field at a spot about 150 yards to the west of Anna Abbey and in a direct line for Thonakilla, two points are marked on the map with two Crosses and marketed Saint Keir and what these marks would mean I do not know or whether large flagstones would be buried at these points I cannot tell. This is in the field west of the Church very close to the lower boundary stone ditch.

 

The large rock at the Northern Point of Anna Island in known as Carra [?] an Fholair on the Eagle's rock and was said to be 50 feet high but was continuously cut down by lightning to its present level. A pair of Sea Eagles rested on its crest of old.

 

https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4706331/4703384?HighlightText=tralee++robbers&Route=stories&SearchLanguage=ga

 

 

 

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Listowel Church

 

https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4613716/4611796/4643295?HighlightText=Listowel+church&Route=stories&SearchLanguage=ga

 

 

 

The Churches

 

The lands around Listowel were owned by Lord Landsdowne, a member of the Fitzmaurice family. A wealthy Englishman named Hare bought the lands from him in the year 1795. Later Hare was made Earl of Listowel. He visited Listowel in the year 1814 and gave sites for two churches. The protestant church was propably built the same year but the Catholic church was not built until the year 1829. The old Catholic church is said to have been situates at the back of the market. The spire of the Catholic church was not built until the year 1866. Gerald Griffin refers to the church in his book "The Collegians" Hardress Cregan and his mother were staying at Collopys hotel and they saw the people going to mass. This hotel is the house now known as Behan's and the lady of the house is a descendant of

 

 

 

the Collopys.

 

At first there were no seats in the body of the church but there were three galleries. In the year 1907 considerable changes were made. Two aisles were added And the church was extended to the back. At the same time the wall at the back of the high altar was covered with mozaic. The parish priest at that time was Canon Davis and he is buried in fornt of the high altar. Another priest named Father O'Mahony was buried in the yard but his grave is now included in one of the aisles.

 

Collector  Riobárd de Stac  -Address- Moyassa, Co. Kerry

 

 

 

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https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/stories?SearchText=Listowel+church&SearchLanguage=ga&Page=1&PerPage=20

 

 

 

Old Schools

 

There were three hedge school masters in the district. Their names were Michael Lane, Pat Mulvihill and John Baxter. One school was in Mr Mulvihill's place in the townland of Leitrim and the other was in Mr Baxter's place in the townland of Ahalanaha. In the winter they used be indoors and they taught them in the summer near the hedge. The school used be carried on in the farmers' houses. They used be paid three shillings a quarter. The teachers taught the pupils Irish, English, Latin, Arithmetic and Algebra. Irish was spoken by masters and pupils in some subjects. The name of the book they used was the Primer. They used write with pen and pencil and slate and with a quill. They used be sitting half the day and they used be standing the rest of the day. They used a big slate as a blackboard.

 

https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4666587/4664192/4672544?HighlightText=Listowel+church&Route=stories&SearchLanguage=ga

 

 

 

Parish of Tarbert County Kerry

 

The parish of Tarbert has two names. It is called Tarbert and it is also called Kilnaughtin.

 

Kilnaughtin is the Civil name of the parish and Tarbert is the Ecclesiastical or Church name of the parish.

 

he following are the townlands in this parish:-

 

Doonard which means High fort. There is no trace of this fort now.

 

Shanaway "Seana bhotha" which means old booths or huts.

 

Tieraclea "Tír a' Tsléite" meaning Land of the height.

 

Kilpaddoge "Cill Pacdóug" which means Church of the rush light.

 

There is a tradition that a church formerly stood on the hill overlooking the Shannon where a rush light Páideóg) was kept burning every night to serve as a beacon for mariners hence the name Kilpaddoge.

 

Coolnanoonagh "Cúl na nlongnadh" Corner

 

of the lambs or Corner of the wonders.

 

Glouncloosagh, "The glen of the ears" is in the middle of the townland of Coolnanoona. Glouncloosagh is so called because here in 1653 the Lislaughtin Friars were shorn of their ears. This glen is believed to have been long the stronghold of a robber captain known as "Sile bhuidhe". One night he and his band determined to rob Kilelton House of some of its valuables. Having transported themselves in boats from Kilpaddoge across the river to Rusheen they proceeded the remainder of the way on foot to the scene of their intended operations having arrived at Kilelton the outlaw placed a number of his men on sentry around the building with strict injunctions to let no person pass by a certain part of the house. He then took some more of the men with him to a door at the rere, by which they intended to enter. For some reason probably to fetch some instruments to force the door the robber chief himself returned by the very passage he warned the sentry through which he was to allow no one pass. The sentry seeing a man approaching by

 

the forbidden way and obeying the injunction of his leader raised his musket and fired killing his own captain. The alarm being thus given the outlaws dragged the body of their dead chief to Rusheen and there embarked for Glouncloosagh. Blood-hounds were at once put on the trail of the robbers which they followed till they came to the river vut there had to give up the chase, baffled by the water.

 

To this very day that robbers' hoard still lies secreted in the glen and many stories are told of the fruitless searches made to discover it.

 

In my younger days the belief was prevalent that any person who bore the family name of the robber chief would not be admitted to Holy Orders in this country, a belief which shows the detestation in which the robbers were held by the people.

 

Kilmurrily is situated in the extreme Eastern part of the parish.

 

Kilmurrily. "Cill Murghaile". Church of St. Murghal.

 

 

 

We do not know who St. Murghal was as there is no local tradition of that saint now extant. The peculiar thing about this townland is that though situate in the County Kerry and subject to the administration of the Kerry County Council and is under the jurisdicion of the Bishop of Limerick since the 13th August 1807 during the episcopacy of Dr. John Young who recovered it from the See of Ardfert and attached it to the parish of Kilfergus.

 

Unbaptised children only, are now buried in Kilmurrily though formerly most of the people of Tarbert found their last resting place there; till funerals were stopped by Col. Kitchener father of the late Lord Kitchener of Omdurman, who apparently owned the land in the vicinity of the church over which the people had to pass when conveying their dead for interment there. Many of the inhabitants of Tarbert then chose the disused Church of Kilnaughtin as a burial place though the greated number preferred the old Franciscan Friary at Lislaughtin.

 

There is a wide-spread tradition

 

here that when the Friars were driven from Kilmurrily they cursed Leslie, the leader of the priest-hunters, and his descendants to the seventh generation. As evidence of that curse the crows since then have avoided Tarbert woods and never has a crow been known to build a nest there. In confirmation of this it is related that in memory of people still living, when the wife of one of the Leslie's of Tarbert House was buried in the grounds of Kilnaughtin Protestant Church where grew a number of trees on which the crows had hitherto built their nests, the birds immediately after the interment set to work and tore down their nests, since when they have avoided those trees also.

 

The road leading through Kilmurrily is known as "bóthar bruighne" "Road of the healing or hospital" shows that the Friars had a hospital or "place of healing" attached to the Friary where they ministered to the sick.

 

Carhoonakilla, (Ceathramhna Cille) and Carhoonakineely, (Ceathramhna Cinnfaoileach)

 

 

 

which means Kennelly's quarter, are two townlands in the neighbourhood of Kilnaughtin Church.

 

Kilnaughtin Church was the old parish church of this parish, but it is now in ruins.

 

The church was dedicated to St. Naughtin, (Neachtain) who is supposed to be a nephew of St Patrick. Some people believe that it was from Kilnaughtin Church the monks were fleeing who were shorn of their ears by the Cromwellian soldiers in Glouncloosagh.

 

It is said that when Kilnaughtin Church was knocked, there was another church erected with a thatched roof only a short disstance from Kilnaughtin Church.

 

In confirmation of this, a cross, some rosary beads and some bones were found there a short time ago.

 

There is a blessed well about 1/4 of a mile south of Kilnaughtin Church. This well is called Tobernaughtin. The well dries up during the Summer but some water comes in i during Winter. The cause it dries up is, someone washed

 

 

 

Clothes in it and then the well dried up and came up again a short distance from the well.

 

There was a church a few fields to the North of the blessed well. There is no trace of this church now, but there are briars and bushes around the place where the church was. Some people say it was the monks in that church that blessed the well.

 

Dooncaha (Dún Chatha) Battle Fort. It is said that Dooncaha was covered with trees long ago and that a great battle was at Dooncaha; this battle is said to have lased until it almost reached Listowel.

 

Farranawanna (Fearann bháin) Milky Land. Bán or lea land.

 

arhoona (Ceathramha) land quarter.

 

Meelcon (Maol Con) meaning Bald hill or hounds.

 

Reenturk (Rinn na dtorc) "Boar's Point" or the point of the boars. Reenturk is only another name for Kilcolgan (Cill Colgan) which means St. Colga's Church.

 

One small rath 1/2 mile ? 30 W? from

 

Sallowglen Lodge Gate. This rath probably contains a souterain the opening of which is covered by a flat stone, which sounds hollow when struck.

 

Pulleen (Púillín) Little hole or cavern.

 

 

 

School: Tairbeart (B.) (roll number 10005)

 

 

 

Location: Tarbert, Co. Kerry - Teacher: S. Ó Labhradha.

 

 

 

https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4666589/4664351?HighlightText=Listowel+church&Route=stories&SearchLanguage=ga

 

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Civil War

 

https://echoesofcivilwar.com/news/

 

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A trip to Shrone Lake – 18th August 2020: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAxwu1XZe0I

 

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From the winter of 1914 to the spring of 1918, millions of Allied and Central Powers soldiers hunkered down within an estimated 35,000 miles of zigzagging trenches, from the Belgian city of Nieuwpoort on the North Sea to “Kilometre Zero” at the Alsatian-Swiss border. When these soldiers weren’t being exposed to mustard gas, sent into suicidal battles in the deadly no-man’s land between the opposing front lines, or struggling with the dysentery, typhoid fever, lice, trench mouth, and trench foot that were endemic to life in the trenches, they made art. Naturally, the vases, ashtrays, and other decorative objects they fashioned from spent brass artillery shells and other detritus of war were dubbed trench art.

https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/antique-trench-art/

 

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It wasn’t until the second world war that the number of pupils who got school meals began to rise significantly. But even then, the meals weren’t great. Indeed, during this time, the government introduced rationing, which had a significant impact on school meals. As a result, meals were often limited to basic, low-cost ingredients such as vegetables, potatoes and bread.

https://theconversation.com/a-brief-history-of-school-meals-in-the-uk-from-free-milk-to-jamie-olivers-campaign-against-turkey-twizzlers-198124?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB

 

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2023;

A COMMEMORATION TO MARK THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY of the death of John Linnane who died for Irish freedom will be held at the monument at Trieneragh, Duagh on Thursday 13th April at 7.30. All welcome.

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RUSSIA: “They are fighting Jewish tradition [and] Jewish observance, with humor, with mockery,” says Professor Anna Shternshis, the author of Soviet and Kosher: Jewish Popular Culture in the Soviet Union, 1923-1939. At the time, the early Communist Party was pushing Jews to abandon religion in favor of a secular Jewish identity. In the 1920s, Soviet Jews were still reeling from the brutal pogroms of the Russian Civil War and eager for a more protected life. Of all the participants in the war, the Red Army was the least violent and most protective towards the Jews, so they joined the Communist Party in huge numbers.

 

But there was a problem: although the Bolsheviks were officially against antisemitism, they hated religion of any kind, and the majority of Soviet Jews were strictly observant. The Communist Party’s solution to the problem, carried out by the Jewish section of the Bolshevik Party, was turning Jews into an ethnic group. The government supported Yiddish literature, Yiddish theater, and secular Jewish schools, but waged a fierce campaign against the Jewish religion itself.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/red-passovers-soviet-union

 

 

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Soldiers are taught to be killers - it's part of their job - and their training includes firing at an image of the enemy. German photographer Herlinde Koelbl has made a study of these targets and spoken to many soldiers, but a century after the start of World War One, she still hopes for a world without conflict.

 

When we remember certain events, they are almost always connected to images. Images are the condensed emotions that don't allow us to forget. Which images of World War One do we carry in our minds?

 

Although it was a war of great historical importance whose conflicts have after-effects to the present day, personal stories were rarely told in families - in marked contrast to World War Two, which is deeply rooted in the German consciousness due to the Holocaust and the guilt. We remember photos from the start of the war, on which soldiers hasten to train stations, happy and laughing, to be part of it, still feeling like heroes. But that was to change.

 

At the end of the war, photos show dead soldiers in the trenches, sprawled out, crooked or lying mutilated in the mud. And we also see the pictures of men returning, of tired, emaciated or wounded bodies and numbed, empty faces. They were targets, and they survived. But 10 million soldiers and six million civilians were killed in that war.

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30573936

===========================

 

The River Man

The Documentary

 

Why was an Irishman executed by other Irish men a century ago? The Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed 100 years ago, brought an end to the Irish War of Independence and ending centuries of British colonial control. Ireland became the first nation to break away from the British Empire.

 

During the war members of the IRA were pitted against the Royal Irish Constabulary, the British Army and the notorious Black and Tans and Auxiliaries. It's a story of divided loyalties and the unresolved traumas of war, with resonance today as Britain and Ireland struggle to address the legacy of the more recent violence of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

 

In an investigation into the fate of one man, James Kane, the River Man, executed by the IRA a century ago, Fergal Keane explores some of these issues. Why did they kill him and what were the consequences for his family and his executioners?

 

Producer: John Murphy

 

(Photo: The River Feale, Listowel, County Kerry, Ireland. James Kane was a fisheries inspector, patrolling the Feale)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct3hgp

====================================

Michael Collins’ father John (1816–1897), taught by Diarmuid Ó Suilliobháin, Hedge School Master, Graduate of Belgian University (Louvain?) friend of Wolfe Tone.

durrushistory

 

Mar 11; Collins was born in Woodfield, Sam's Cross, near Rosscarbery, County Cork, on 16 October 1890, the third son and youngest of eight children. His father, Michael John (1816–1897), was a farmer and amateur mathematician, who had been a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) movement.

 

It is believed that many hedge school masters were either failed priests or those who studied at the various Irish Colleges in the Continent but did not proceed to take final vows as a priest.  This might apply to John Collins the Silver Tongue of Munster.

https://durrushistory.com/2023/03/11/michael-collins-father-john-1816-1897-taught-by-diarmuid-o-suilliobhain-hedge-school-master-graduate-of-belgian-university-louvain-friend-of-wolfe-tone/

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Transfer of Treaty ports - Documents on Irish Foreign Policy - Volume 5 - 01/06/1938 (difp.ie)

 

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https://www.britishpathe.com/video/VLVA4RDU5J58OSS6ACH894EAAEGMM-REPPUBLIC-OF-IRELAND-WEDDING-OF-SEAN-MAC-EOIN

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Wedding of Sean Mac Eoin (1922)

https://youtube.com/watch?v=KNe293Ix1dM&feature=shares

==============================

==================================

Bertie Ahern to deliver centenary oration at Liam Mellows grave in Castletown

Dec 9, 2022

History and Heritage

LIAM MELLOWS (1892-1922)

 

By Dan Walsh

 

Today (December 8th) marks the centenary of the execution of Liam Mellows in Mountjoy Jail and the annual Liam Mellows Commemoration takes place next Sunday at his grave in Castletown where the centenary oration will be delivered by former Taoiseach and key architect of the Good Friday Agreement, Bertie Ahern.

 

The current organising committee under the Chairmanship of former Fianna Fail TD Lorcan Allen have a poignant and dignified event planned to mark this important historical event and all are welcome to attend.

 

The commemoration will commence with Mass at 11 am in St. Patricks Church, Castletown, followed by the commemoration ceremony at the graveside where Mr. Ahern will present the keynote address.

BERTIE AHERN TD

 

On a weekend of commemorations, the local committee have also arranged a talk by Jim O’Callaghan TD on Saturday, December 10th at 7.30pm in the Ashdown Park Hotel. Gorey. An interesting talk is assured, and all are welcome to attend.

 

Jim O’Callaghan TD and Fianna Fail Justice spokesperson has made notable and thought-provoking contributions to the high profile and warmly received Irelands Future events and recently delivered a paper on Irish reunification at Cambridge University.

 

JIM O’CALLAGHAN TD.

 

Liam Mellows was an important and hugely significant republican leader, being first involved in Na Fianna Eireann in 1911. He played a leading role in the fight for freedom across the 1916 to 1922 period.

 

Prior to his execution of which he only received a few hours’ notice, he wrote a series of letters, primary among them was his letter to his mother Sarah (nee Jordan). In this letter he asks to be laid to rest alongside his grandparents and among his people in Castletown.

 

After his execution he was buried in Mountjoy, however his final wish was honoured when he was reinterred in Castletown in 1924. However, this grave remained unmarked for several years until on the initiative of his former colleagues of Fianna Eireann, a memorial committee was formed to raise funds to place a fitting memorial for this brave and splendid Gael.

 

This committee under the Chairmanship of local Fianna Fáil TD, Dinny Allen included Tom Brennan TD, Bob Moran, Member County Council, TD Sinnott (long standing Wexford County Manager), Michael Kirwan and Pádraig Toibín, journalist with the Enniscorthy Echo newspaper and uncle to renowned award-winning author Colm Toibín, along with representatives of the National Association of Old Fianna.

 

The Headstone was officially unveiled by Eamon de Valera in 1945 and fittingly marks the final resting place of this important son of Wexford who has many close relatives in the North Wexford and South Wicklow area.

 

It is an honour to have such an important historical figure rest in our midst.

 

https://wordpress.com/read/blogs/179111041/posts/9505

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Advocate SATURDAY, JUNE 24, 1922

https://fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html

New York NY Irish American Advocate 1922-1924 - 0245.pdf

Miss Florence Walshe, who was professed, as Sister M. Evangelist at the Convent of Mercy, St. Mary's of the Isle. Cork, is the youngest daughter of the late Jos. Walshe, Churchfield House, Foynes

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The connection with the recent attack on the residence of George Cunningham, at Kilmorna, Listowel, the Scene of the shooting of the late Sir Arthur Vicars, the Executive forces have made an arrest on suspicion.

The remains of -Sergt. Wm. Sheahan, U. S. Army, who was killed the day before the  Armistice between the Allies and Germany, were re-Interred at Kilfergus Glin. The coffin (of lead) was draped with the Stars and Stripes.

--------------------------

 

Mrs. 'Healy, Ballygrennan, denied to our Listowel correspondent that an armed party called on her and compelled her to swear that she would give up her-second holding at Greenville. Nothing of the kind took place, she said, notwithstanding rumours to the contrary.

============================

------------------------------------

Details

Event by Kilrush and District Historical Society and Paddy Waldron

Teach Ceoil, Grace Street, Kilrush, County Clare, Ireland

Public  · Anyone on or off Facebook

A "KDHS at 10 years" event will be held at the Teach Ceoil in Kilrush from 3pm to 6pm on Sunday 9 October (please note change of date) to celebrate the achievements of Kilrush and District Historical Society since its foundation in 2012. There will be an exhibition of photographs and other items and a series of presentations by committee members to remind those attending of the various events with which the society has been associated. There will also be a box for those who would like to submit ideas and suggestions for the next 10 years. Refreshments will be served.

The society evolved from the Kilrush Local History Group, founded at Kilrush Community School in 2009 by teacher Laura Hogan and some of her students, and its associated Facebook page, established on 28 November 2009. An informal get-together in the Haven Arms on 29 December 2011 was organised via Facebook, and one of the ideas proposed that evening was the formation of a historical society. The Christmas get-togethers remained an annual tradition until interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Plans for the new Society continued to be discussed during tidy-ups of the then overgrown Kilrush Churchyard in early 2012. The Kilrush and District Historical Society was formally launched at a fund-raising concert in the Teach Ceoil on Friday 18 May 2012, with music and dance by Inis Cathaigh Kilrush Comhaltas Ceoilteoirí Éireann and friends, and funds raised going to the Churchyard project. 22 members joined the new society on the night. Anne Hayes and Vincent O'Halloran both gave of their time to help coordinate the evening.

The first permanent committee of the society was elected after the first monthly event, held on 5 June 2012. The highlight of the first decade was probably the 2013 National Famine Commemoration, a week-long programme of events which culminated with the visit of President Michael D. Higgins to Kilrush on 12 May 2013. The society continues to organise monthly lectures in the winter months and outings during the summer months.

The annual Down Memory Lane Calendars were published by Kilrush Local History Group until 2012 and by KDHS from 2013 to date. 2021 saw the publication of the society's first book, Kilrush: Memories of an Irish Market Town, 1879-1979.

Various plaques have been erected at historic sites around Kilrush and West Clare, and the society has mounted a number of exhibitions, for example to mark the 90th anniversary of Patrick Bourke Menswear in 2018 and to remember the ceramics factory. Restoration and preservation projects, apart from Kilrush Churchyard, have included the nearby Turret Lodge and more recently the Maid of Erin statue - retaining the damage inflicted on the statue and railings during the War of Independence as a reminder of those times.

The society supported the local committees set up to mark the centenaries of the 1916 Easter Rising and War Of Independence, and also organised a weekend of events to mark the 150th anniversary of the 1867 Fenian Uprising in Kilbaha. Perhaps the society's biggest contribution to the Decade of Centenaries was the rescue of the Barrett archive, which is now being digitised and catalogued by Clare County Archives.

Like many similar organisations, the society learned how to use Zoom during the recent COVID-19 pandemic, which also delayed the unveiling of the WWI memorial in the grounds of Kilrush Community Centre, finally rescheduled for this coming November.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1227061537837473/?acontext=%7B%22source%22%3A%2229%22%2C%22ref_notif_type%22%3A%22plan_user_invited%22%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22null%22%7D&notif_id=1665262288764567&notif_t=plan_user_invited&ref=notif

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Limerick Cumann na mBan

http://www.limerickcity.ie/media/olj%20vol%2050%20p137%20to%20140.pdf

 

RIC Limerick;

http://www.limerickcity.ie/media/olj%20vol%2051%20p015%20to%20025.pdf

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Boland Family

When the Civil War broke out, the three Boland brothers met for the last time in

Blessington in early July 1922. Gerald was captured and imprisoned until 1924.

https://bolandfamily.files.wordpress.com/2019/05/boland-talk-dublin.pdf

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Michael Collins House

 

soSrdnotpe2 han729a u2lhPt01a0m0Jh11ma33e09 4M :m  ·

 

Happy Fathers Day! To mark the occasion here is a little bit about Michael Collins’ father.

 

Michael John Collins was born in Woodfield in 1815. It was thought that he was seventh son of a seventh son and part of the sixth generation of the Collins family born at Woodfield. He worked most of his life as a tradesman and farmer living on his brother Paddy’s farm. He married a local woman, Mary Anne O’Brien in 1875 and the couple went on to have eight children together. Michael was the youngest and his sisters later stated that he was his father’s favourite and followed the old man everywhere on the farm.

 

It is quite likely that Michael John had a strong influence on his youngest son. He had received an education in a local hedge school and was said to have been well read and could speak a number of languages. As such he encouraged his children into education as a means to better themselves. In his early years he was likely a Fenian like others in the Collins family with one nephew arrested for marching in formation in Co. Louth. It was said that Collins’ father also journeyed once a week to Cork prison to visit his brothers who served time there after beating up a Land agent who was alleged to have trampled their crops. In his later years and by the time of Michael’s youth his father’s politics seem to have moderated. He read the more moderate nationalist Weekly Freeman and was involved in a local dispute where he seemed to break a boycott to assist a man who had previously assisted him. His reward was a severe beating at the hands of a relative.

 

Michael John Collins died in 1897, sadly leaving his young Michael at just six years old, without his idol and father. On his death bed he was remembered as having said of Michael; ‘Mind that child, he’ll be a great man yet and will do great things for Ireland.’

 

Pictured is Michael aged about 11 with his brother Pat, sister Mary, Grandmother and mother.

 

#MichaelCollinsHouse #Museum #Clonakilty #WestCork #Cork #HappyFathersDay #FathersDay #IrishHistory #MichaelCollins

 

https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/museum

 

 

 

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CENTENARY MASS:  The Legion of Mary are celebrating their 100th Birthday all this year. The Legion was founded by Frank Duff, a native son, born in Dublin in 1921.  The Mass will be celebrated by Bishop Ray Browne on Saturday 21st at 3 p.m. in St. Mary's Cathedral, Killarney.  We invite all the Public to attend and send a special invite to our Spiritual Directors, members, active and praying, both present and past.  All family members and in a special way we would love to invite the many students from the local schools.  We have visited the elderly in local care facilities with many students over the past years and it would be lovely to have their presence with us.  Maybe you have photos, memorabilia or stories to share?  We will have tea and cutting of the cake after Mass in St. Brendan's College and we would love to chat with you all.

 

=====================

 

War Relief to Listowel and North Kerry, 1921

 

 

 

Mark Holan sent us the following interesting information he uncovered in his research

 

 

 

I wonder if anyone knows if their family was helped in this way.

 

 

 

 

 

The American Committee for Relief in Ireland collected $5 million (£1,210,627) during the first half of 1921 to ease war-related suffering. The Irish White Cross distributed the money to all 32 counties through summer 1922, with £25,878 in “personal relief” approved in County Kerry. The North Kerry distribution including:

 

 

 

    Ballybunion, £1,312

 

    Ballylongford, £634

 

    Listowel, £2,102

 

    Lixnaw, £680

 

    Tralee, £3,901

 

 

 

“Personal relief” included weekly allowances to dependents of civilians prevented from working “through being ‘on the run’ or imprisoned for reasons connected with the political situation”, dependents of those killed during the war, and to those prevented from following their ordinary occupations due to military restrictions or the destruction of their businesses, the Irish White Cross reported in 1922. Lump sum payments also were made to wounded civilians, and for the purchase of key essentials such as clothes, bedding, and trade implements.

 

 

 

Some 600 volunteer parish committees, typically composed of “local clergy and other responsible people,” helped to process and forward applications to the Standing Executive Committee in Dublin, which made the final determination.

 

 

 

On Sunday, 21 August 1921, a month after the truce, Bishop of Kerry Charles O’Sullivan ordered a special collection taken at all the masses in Listowel to provide local assistance to the Irish White Cross. The collection totaled £119 5s 10d, Kerry People reported.

 

 

 

A few weeks later, the Irish hierarchy sent letters to the Freeman’s Journal thanking the American Committee and White Cross. In Kerry, Bishop O’Sullivan wrote, “our persecuted people have good reason to remember and be grateful for the timely help which has enabled not a few of them to keep body and soul together, after they had seen their homes reduced to ashes, their women ill-treated, their men folk cruelly done to death.”

 

 

 

https://listowelconnection.com/wartime-relief-old-fleadh-photo/

 

 

 

https://wordpress.com/read/blogs/97619153/posts/11216

 

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4 March 1922: The Wife of a Plasterer Tells the Archbishop of Dublin a Secret

 

Gender and Poverty in the New ‘Free State’

 

TAGS

 

 

 

    Ireland 1922

 

 

 

By Lindsey Earner-Byrne

 

 

 

    Dear Archbishop

 

    I humbly ask pardon for the liberty I take of writing to you + also hope you will excuse me as I don’t know how to address you I am the wife of a plasterer + we have 7 children the eldest only 14 years old.¹

 

 

 

On the 4 March 1922 Mrs Anna Lalor* was heartbroken. Little had changed in the previous two years for her family of nine; if anything, things had got worse. Indeed, on this morning she felt compelled to sit down in her overcrowded two-roomed house in Dún Laoghaire, County Dublin, to write to one of the most powerful men in her universe—the Roman Catholic archbishop of Dublin, Edward Byrne (1921–40). Her letter is but one among thousands the archbishop received: these letters represent an extensive archive of the experience of poverty in the first two decades of Irish independence.

 

 

 

According to the 1901 census, prior to marriage Mrs Lalor had been a domestic servant, an occupation she shared with one in three single women: domestic service remained the biggest single employer of women in Ireland until the 1950s. In 1907 she left the formal workplace to marry, thereby entering a period in her life when little was within her control, not her fertility nor the waxing and waning of her husband’s earning capacity. The meaning of this impotence must have become apparent quite quickly to her: within four years she had birthed three children, almost one a year. By 1922 Anna had seven children; the maths of seven children in fifteen years indicates that some of the gaps were miscarriages or infant deaths. Infant mortality was still disturbingly high in 1920s Ireland, and it was a clear barometer of social inequality mapping closely to the geography of class. The 1926 census revealed that Dublin city had an infant mortality rate of 170 per 1,000 births, compared to 79 per 1,000 in the affluent, seaside Dublin village of Howth.² Despite the knowledge that multiple pregnancies increased infant mortality and maternal morbidity, birth control was criminalised in 1935.

 

 

 

The spacing in Mrs Lalor’s brood also reflected the geography of her husband’s work-life, as she explained:

 

 

 

    last October twelve months, there was a strike declared in the Building Trades in Dublin and at the very time I was in Bed seriously ill my husband was forced to go to England to get Bread for his children leaving me heartbroken as I was so ill, he got work in England + was allowed to join the English Trades Union for the sum of 8d with a lot more Irish men.

 

 

 

An excerpt from the letter of Mrs A.L., Desmond Avenue, Dún Laoghaire, (Co. Avenue), to Archbishop Byrne, 4 March 1922 (Image: Dublin Diocesan Archives, Byrne papers, Charity cases, box 1: 1921–26. Reproduced courtesy of Dublin Diocesan Archives)

 

 

 

The unemployment rate in the building sector was 34 per cent, with 32 per cent of workdays lost through strikes.³ She was referring to the bricklayers’ strike in Dublin that had lasted between October 1920 and June 1921. The strike had only secured the workers a temporary increase of 1d per hour, while ‘keeping the city’s modest slum clearance programme on hold’.⁴ That outcome was indicative of the false promise of political independence for the new Ireland’s poorest citizens. While the president of the Executive Council, William T. Cosgrave, oversaw welfare cuts, including to the Old Age Pension, he drew an annual salary of £2,500.⁵ The average industrial wage was £126 per annum.

 

 

 

The new state promoted with vigour the stay-at-home mother as the bedrock of society; women like Mrs Lalor, however, could rarely afford such idealism. The poor continued to survive through seasonal migration and emigration, largely to England. Mrs Lalor articulated the emotional cost of that strategy, deftly connecting it with a sense that political freedom was a ruse that would not feed her children:

 

 

 

    my husband Keeps saying this is free Ireland the Englishman can give the Irishman liberty to earn Bread for his family for 8d per week while the Irishman who is supposed to be good roman catholic christians demand £5 to get liberty to work in their own country.

 

 

 

She was referring to a £5 penalty her husband’s union had imposed on workers who had not returned to Ireland upon the resolution of the strike. This occurred, she explained, even though her husband had regularly sent ‘strike money’ to the ‘Dublin Trade Union’. To her the trade unions were just another source ‘taking the Bread from my children’ with their fees and penalties. She was also appealing to her Church’s dread of socialism, while placing those ‘supposed to be good’ Catholics at the centre of a narrative of social injustice and hypocrisy. By contrast, she portrayed her faith as central to her ability to cope:

 

 

 

    I was unhappy all the time being separated from my husband while he was also in the beginning, but later he seemed not to mind while my children + myself were praying hard for God to send him home. I wrote to the poor Clares + told them my trouble + asked them to pray also last christmas my husband came home + I prayed + tryed to [--------] persuade my husband to remain with me + the children

 

 

 

With a hint of where her husband’s growing acceptance of separation might lead, she proceeded to tap into deep contemporary anxieties regarding the faith of Irish emigrants in England:

 

 

 

Most Rev. Archbishop I will tell you a secret my husband has not been to the Sacraments for 2 years being away when we had our last retreat. England did not improve him, I heard from him that the people go nowhere no church no mass I am praying to the Sacred Heart for him we want him here.

 

 

 

The en passant mention of ‘our last retreat’ underscore her spiritual dominion over the seven little souls she was sheltering.

 

 

 

Mrs Lalor’s letter provides barely a hint of the violence and uncertainty swirling around her country, for she represents the continuity of human experience, which does not always beat to the rhythm of historical periodisation. The challenge of feeding a family changed little for women like her. Despite her mention of ill health, Mrs Lalor outlived her husband by 23 years, dying in December 1974. During her lifetime the structure and trajectory of social inequality remained largely unchanged: the children of the poor continued to be the parents of the disadvantaged. In the intimate relationship Mrs Lalor conjured in her letter, the Catholic archbishop became both her confidante and trusted friend: ‘my husband Knows nothing about me writing … Most Rev. Father again excuse me I could not trust anyone else’. While she feared she was ‘doing a Terrible thing in writing’, she was also ‘sure that you will try to do something’. She wanted him to use his influence to change a system that condemned people like her to live as she did. In asking for nothing specific, she asked for everything in spirit. She already knew what, a year prior to her death, the 1973 report of the Commission on the Status of Women in Ireland laid bare: power is always measured in pounds and pence.

 

 

 

Extracted from Ireland 1922 edited by Darragh Gannon and Fearghal McGarry and published by the Royal Irish Academy with support from the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media under the Decade of Centenaries 2012-2023 programme. Click here to view more articles in this series, or click the image below to visit the RIA website for more information.

 

https://www.rte.ie/centuryireland/index.php/articles/4-march-1922-the-wife-of-a-plasterer-tells-the-archbishop-of-dublin-a-secret

 

============================

 

By Sheila Pires

 

 

 

Manzini, 20 February, 2022 / 9:00 pm (ACI Africa).

 

 

 

A member of the Congregation of the Mantellate Sisters, Servants of Mary (MSM), commonly known as Servite Sisters, has highlighted education and healthcare as the most noteworthy achievements in their 100 years of service in the Southern Africa Province.

 

 

 

In a recent interview with ACI Africa, Sr. Teresita Schiavon who has served in Eswatini for four decades looked back at the 100 years of service of the Servite Sisters in the Southern Africa Province and acknowledged with appreciation the contributions the alumni of MSM learning institutions make to society. 

 

https://www.aciafrica.org/news/5308/education-healthcare-our-biggest-achievements-nun-in-eswatini-ahead-of-centenary-fete?utm_campaign=ACI%20Africa&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=204525736&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_0G0F4Giu54PYBz6CY_EHGwtiUCFey4gW3MtSmUzpG6ItnTuF4NIkRvOO9v2KrNIJbiuE7JAPy61JR4GE0gLZrPcw-5A&utm_content=204525736&utm_source=hs_email

 

 

 

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Dubliner Jack Campbell, Ireland's last "Old Contemptible" served in the Great War with four of his older brothers. He was gassed during the course of the war. He died in Leopardstown Hospital on the 18th November 1992 aged 97.

 

Jack Campbell of The Royal Dublin Fusiliers, 16th Irish Division on Ireland's 'The Late Late Show'.

 

 

 

https://youtu.be/DWnc-ZlIo5s

 

==========================

 

 

 

 

 

Last Tuesday 23rd February marked the Centenary of that dreadful event of 1921. In those olden times, the people suffered great persecution from foreigners and the Irish race was no exception. They suffered greatly from the tyrannical soldiers called the Black and Tans who took possession of almost every village in the Country and Ballylongford did not escape. It was very fitting that this unkind deed was remembered in a dignified manner on Tuesday last as a group of people gathered and said the Rosary at the Village Cross Roads as a mark of respect and those present reminisced of the pain and the torture that local people of that time suffered at the hands of the Black and Tans.

 

 

 

Here through the records of local historian Padraig O’Conocubhair we trace back the events of that time. “As raids on Republican homes became more frequent and IRA men went on the run ‘Flying Columns’ were established, full time soldiers travelling all over North Kerry to attack the British Forces. On 22nd of  February 1921, a party commanded Dennis Quill of Listowel accompanied by Con Dee of Ballyline, who was a column officer of the 6th Battalion who took up position around the constabulary barracks on the Well Road and George Howlett, a Black and Tan, (who were ex-army men recruited into the RIC and so called from their uniforms, a mixture of police bottle-green and army khaki) was killed, and Seaman Wills, a radio operator, was seriously wounded, as they returned to the barracks. Retribution was not long delayed. On the following evening, several lorry loads of Black and Tans and RIC from Listowel arrived in the village. “The Kerry People” reported on 5th March 1921. ‘In the history of reprisals, no place has proportionally been visited with such destruction as the prosperous village of Ballylongford.

 

 

 

What was at one time the business centre of North Kerry because of its port of Saleen Harbour is now little more than a smoking ruin. Seventeen buildings including a creamery, business establishments and dwellings, are reduced to ashes. The houses remaining are shattered and the occupiers confined indoors. Those whose houses were destroyed with no notice and who fled in terror at the dead of night through the discharges of rifle, revolver and machine gun fire, the rattle of petrol tins and the crackling of flames found refuge with their country friends and are afraid to return.’ 

 

 

 

Strange as it may seem, RIC Sergeants Nevin and McNamara from the local barracks, accompanied by Constable Herger, a Black and Tan, helped the locals to fight the fire. Conor Martin, who was the local doctor, confirms this and writes that they saved at least six more houses from being burnt and that he had to treat two of the police for burns received when trying to put out the flames. The usual official efforts were made to cover up what had occurred: ‘When the police were entering the village, intense rifle shotgun and revolver fire was concentrated on them from the houses. The rebels occupied the village in strength and some of them wore police and soldiers’ uniform, the people of the village were roughly handled by the rebels and their property was not spared.’ However, this effort at justifying what happened was unsuccessful because of Michael Moore, Quay Street, who was an American citizen, and who gave an eye-witness account in a letter which was published in the Manchester Guardian newspaper; ‘The shop of Jeremiah McCabe, a baker, (Bridge Street) was set on fire and the children had to be roused from the bed and flung out a back window. Several people had to rush from their houses in scanty attire.

 

 

 

Several houses not burnt were looted and wrecked. The house of John Kelly was one, the house of John Moran was set on fire and his wife has since died, the result of shock. Several efforts were made to set fire to the shop and public house of Mrs. Kennelly (Quay Street), but this brave woman defied their efforts, quenching the fire each time with brine from the salting tubs.’ The Ballylongford girls school attendance book reported; 23rd February 1921, attendance 0 out of 83.  24th February 1921, attendance 5 out of 83 25th February 1921, attendance 6 out of 83 – policeman shot – town burned – children afraid to come to school. On the 19th of March, the “Kerry People” reported: ‘The Dublin White Cross Society have forwarded a sum of £50 towards the relief of the poor recently affected by partial destruction of Ballylongford by fire as the outcome of reprisals. The more fortunate inhabitants, though seriously affected themselves, have with their pastor, Fr. Allman, subscribed more than £100 and a subscription of £1 has been levied on each of the farmers of the district, which it is pleasing to know has been paid willingly.’

 

 

 

http://theadvertiser.ie/100-years-on-the-burning-of-ballylongford/

 

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O’CARROLL    DIES    IN    AUSTRALIA. Prof.  Dan  O’Carroll,   a  noted   Volunteer   and   personal   friend    of   Michael  Collins,  died  on  Christmas  morning  at!  a   consumptive     home     at     Brisbane.     Thirteen  months  ago,  because  of  failing  health,  he  went  to  Australia  with  a   younger     brother,    with     whom   he  worked    on   a   banana   farm    in    New  South  Wales,  but  his  condition  not  improving  he  entered  the  home  at  Brisbane. The   son   of   a   national   teacher   at  Newtownsandes,   he  was   only   31.    In    1913   he   became   professor    of   mathematics  and  Irish  In  Belvedere  College.  Being  a    fluent    native     speaker, he  taught  In  the  Leinster  College  of  Irish during  vacations.  A   member   of   “D”  Co..   2nd   Dublin  Batt,  at  the  time  of  the  rising,  he  was  appointed   despatch-carrier   to   his   native    Kerry,    and   was    shadowed    the entire  way  by  two  British  agents.  Entering   a     hotel,     he     Coolly     walked   through  to  the  back  and  thence  took  to  the   open   country,   and,   though    still  pursued,    eventually    got    clear    away and  delivered  his  despatches.  Later he  was   quartermaster   of   the  company   of  which  Paddy  Moran   (executed    after    “Bloody    Sunday’)    was  captain   and   Martin  Savage   (killed   in the attack on Lord French) was lieutenant. As intelligence officer during the Black and Tan Regime he had numerous exciting adventures and took part in many operations especially in Dorset St. area. Under his control were five batches of secret service agents and in the end all except himself were  arrested.  At  a  time  when the  British  were  eagerly  searching  for  him   he   succeeded   in     paying     three     visits  to  Mountjoy  to  see  Moran,  then  under  sentence   of  death.

 

==================================

 

Rita Shannon, who died in the last few years, who is referred to never got recognition as an entrepreneur. She had her own travelling shop, a Volkswagon van. In a way a legacy of her Shannon ancestry. Her branch was Catholic. The main family probably came down from the northern counties c 1740 in connection with flax/linen/weaving. By 1790 in the general Durrus/Bantry area the Shannons were heavy hitters lending money to the local landlords. Contractors to the Grand Jury working with the Flynn family in house building in Bantry.

 

 

 

Rita married Gerald McCarthy, his father Dr. McCarthy was praised for helping the RIC men in the IRA raid on the Durrus RIC barracks. What was not known at the time war that he had prepared the explosives possibly a result of his experiences as a doctor on the front in WW1.

 

 

 

Rita's branch of the Shannon were active in the War of Independence in Brahalish in Durrus in conducting Dáil Courts. They also descend from the influential 'King' Tobin' family of Kilcrohane.

 

 

 

https://outlook.live.com/mail/0/inbox/id/AQMkADAwATZiZmYAZC1hMTM3LWI4MDYtMDACLTAwCgBGAAADR2Pu9pMPVEyaVYfLas4BFQcAcW0i8PgtSU256Ef7MQJG7gAAAgEMAAAAcW0i8PgtSU256Ef7MQJG7gAFct%2FSxQAAAA%3D%3D

 

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The Bureau of Military history collection is hosted on our website www.militaryarchives.ie

 

From there select the Bureau of Military history.

 

There is a search function which will search through the text of all Witness statements

 

Military Archives militaryarchives@defenceforces.ie

 

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Kerry Writers' Museum

 

148 subscribers

 

Sir Arthur Edward Vicars was a genealogist and heraldic expert. He was appointed Ulster King of Arms in 1893 but was removed from the post in 1908 following the theft of the Irish Crown Jewels in the previous year.  Although Vicars was never seriously suspected of being involved in their theft, the incident led to his ruin.

 

 

 

On April 14th, 1921 while staying with his sister at Kilmorna House, just outside Listowel, Vicars was taken from the house, led to the end of the garden and shot by members of the IRA North Kerry Flying Column.

 

 

 

Based on his 2003 book ‘The Stealing of the Irish Crown Jewels: An Unsolved Crime’, this lecture by historian, author and broadcaster Myles Dungan recounts details of the audacious robbery and Vicar’s fall from grace as a result.

 

 

 

This is the first in a series of lectures organised by Kerry Writers' Museum as part of it's North Kerry War of Independence Centenary Commemoration Programme.  The lecture is kindly supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Art, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media for its generous support under the Decade of Centenaries Programme.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oge7fivfHro

 

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Patrolman Philip Fitzpatrick was born in Aughavas, Co. Leitrim in 1892, and emigrated to America in the early 1920s, settling like so many Irish men and Irish women in New York City. He joined New York's Finest in 1926 and became a Patrolman, assigned to Mounted Squad 1 in Manhattan.

 

 

 

Patrolman Fitzpatrick wrote the song, "Lovely Leitrim," in a loving tribute to his beloved home county. Popularized when it was recorded by Larry Cunningham, the song is still loved both in Ireland and the US.

 

https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/who-wrote-lovely-leitrim

 

 

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Kerry's Downton Abbey: Pierce Mahony & the Kilmorna House Visitors Book

 

Kerry Writers' Museum

 

Charles Stewart Parnell, WB Yeats, Maud Gonne, as well as songwriter Percy French and Home Rule advocate John Redmond had one thing in common - they all stayed at Kilmorna House just outside Listowel in the later years of the 19th century. Their signatures appear with dozens of others in the Kilmorna visitors book which records their visits to the home of Pierce Mahony, nationalist MP and renowned philanthropist, horticulturalist and Irish chieftain. He was the half-brother of Sir Arthur Vicars, the former Ulster King of Arms and keeper of the Irish Crown Jewels, who was killed by the IRA on April 14th, 1921 at Kilmorna and the Great House burned to the ground.

 

 

 

In this lecture, historian Tom Dillon explores the history uncovered by the Kilmorna House visitors book and discusses how it gives an insight into life on the Kilmorna estate in the late 1800s, when it welcomed some of the most prominent political and cultural figures of the time.

 

 

 

This is the second lecture in the North Kerry War of Independence Centenary Commemoration series hosted by Kerry Writers' Museum and kindly supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Art, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media under the Decade of Centenaries Programme.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhZ0YoEZg98

 

 

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15 May 2021

 

ROSARY:  Fr. Kevin will pray the Rosary this Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 4pm on the Radio 99.9fm.  The Church will be open if anyone would like to come and pray. Fr. Kevin and a small group said the Rosary at Gortaglanna, memorial, on Wednesday last.

 

GORTAGLANNA: we remember Jerry Lyons, Patrick Dalton and Paddy Walsh who were killed by members of the RIC and Tan forces at Gortaglanna on the 12th May 1921, and also Con Dee who was wounded but escaped. Our 5th and 6th class students have been very busy researching the atrocity and have put together a short production for you to watch. They are accompanied by 3rd and 4th class for the famous ballad ‘The Valley of Knockanure’. See Facebook for more.

 

https://www.facebook.com/Scoilchorpchriost/

 

 

 

 

 

Kerry Writers' Museum- On May 12th 1921, a troop of Black and Tans were travelling out from Listowel towards Athea when they arrested four young unarmed men in Gortaglanna. They were brought to a nearby field to be executed, but one, Con Dee escaped. See site for more.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_ZnTKqzE-A

 

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Con Colbert Remembered       By Tom Aherne

 

 

 

LIMERICK LOST a noble and brave son when Con Colbert, was executed in Kilmainham Jail for his part in the Easter Rising on May 8, 1916. Small in stature, and young in years, he was a giant in the fight for Irish freedom and paid the ultimate sacrifice. Con was born on October 19, 1888 at Moanlena, Castlemahon. He had twelve brothers, and sisters, and he was the fourth youngest. His father Michael who was a farmer, came from Athea, and his mother Nora Mc Dermott came from Cooraclare, in county Clare. Michael Colbert was a former rebel who had taken part in the Fenian uprising in 1867.

 

 

 

When Con was about three years old the family moved to Gale View House Templeathea, Athea, where he attended the local National School. He was taught the usual subjects reading, writing, maths, geography, grammar, and drawing. Con also attended Kilcolman National School for a while, staying with his relatives, the Colbert family in Balliston. He was very interested in local history the Irish language, and in national affairs, as a youngster growing up.

 

 

 

At the age of fifteen years, he went to live in Dublin with his sister, and he attended the Christian Brothers School’s at St Mary’s Place, and O’Connell’s. On leaving school, Con secured employment at Kennedy’s Bakery in Parnell Street, and remained there until 1916. He joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and he became very proficient in military drill. In 1909 he joined the Fianna Eireann, at the first meeting, and was soon putting his skill as a drill instructor, to good use by teaching the new recruits.

 

 

 

He gave the Fianna every moment of his time, and during his summer holidays, he would cycle from place to place, getting a few boys together to start a new branch. With his eagerness and youthful enthusiasm, he proved a most successful recruiting agent. Con joined the Irish Volunteers, on their foundation in 1913, and was one of their first drill instructors. He was quickly appointed Captain of F Company 4th Battalion-a rank he held until the Rising.

 

 

 

Despite his youthful age, he shortly became one of the inspirations of the new and vigorous resurgence movement and in due course, he was appointed to Volunteer Headquarter Staff. During the years which preceded the fateful Rising of 1916, Con devoted every moment of his spare time, to the work of organising the men, and boys, who were to participate in that historic event. Con wrote poems, as well and signed them with the pen name An Claidheamh (The Sword).

 

 

 

He spent every penny he had of his hard-earned money in the advancement of the movement, to which he had given everything but his soul. Padraig Pearse spoke lovingly of Con, and all the help he gave him as drill instructor at Pearse’s Scoil  Eanna. Con was offered a salary for his services but declined as he saw his work as being a contribution to the national cause. Con was not a big man being just over five feet tall.

 

 

 

Madge, a sister of his comrade-in-arms, Edward Daly from Limerick knew Con very well as he used to call to their house, coming from Dublin, on the way home to Athea. She recalled he was bright and cheerful and always in good humour. So spiritual was he, that he abstained from meat during the seven weeks of Lent, and he was always slipping away to say his prayers in some Dublin Church.

 

 

 

He would visit her uncle also, who was an old Fenian, like his own uncle, who was a member of the Fenian Brotherhood. They would discuss events until the small hours, and Con wrote him a short note before he was executed. Madge said he was highly thought of by all the leaders.

 

 

 

Tom Clarke held him in high esteem, Eamonn Ceannt, loved him and was forever singing his praises, Padraig Pearse, trusted him as a friend and comrade. Their last meeting was a week before the Easter Rising, when they shared tea, and a long chat in O’Connell Street, Dublin.

 

 

 

Con was calm and happy talking of the risks, as part of the day’s work, in the cause for which he lived.  He said that he believed they would all go down in the fight, but the sacrifice would be well worth it. He was in the highest spirits when he left Madge, glad of the opportunity to play his part in the struggle.

 

 

 

When the fighting broke out in 1916, Con had command of one of the outposts of the South Dublin Union at Watkins Brewery in Ardee Street. The number of men under his command was about twenty. After two days of fighting, he was ordered to move his men, to reinforce a large outpost at Marrowbone Lane. This garrison with the others under the command of Eamonn Ceannt and Cathal Brugha, won immortality both for bravery and strategy. They shattered and drove off large forces of experienced English troops, commanded by Sir Francis Vane.

 

 

 

The order to surrender came as a great blow to the men and Con, whose youth and subordinate command could have saved him. He stepped into the place, of an older man who had dependents and suffered in his place. After the surrender, the agents of Dublin Castle made sure that Con was singled out for execution. The reason for this special treatment can be found in his activities, as an organiser of the national movement prior to 1916.

 

 

 

Con did not send for any of his relatives to visit him in jail, as he felt that visit would grieve them too much. He wrote a number of letters to his brothers, and sisters, and relatives and friends. Writing to his sister on the eve of his execution he said: ‘’Perhaps I’d never get the chance of knowing when I was to die, and so I will try and die well. I received this morning and hope to do so again before I die. After asking his sister to have Masses said for him, he continued: ‘’May God help us-me to die well- you to bear your sorrow, I send you a prayer book as a token.

 

 

 

Today we remember Con on his 105th anniversary. I will continue his story in next week’s newsletter.

 

https://www.athea.ie/category/by-carrig-side/

 

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History Lectures ; Kerry Writers’ Museum in conjunction with Listowel and District Historical Society, presents a series of history lectures throughout the year.  Each lecture focuses on a particular aspect of local history or commemorates significant anniversaries in Irish and international history.

 

https://www.kerrywritersmuseum.com/listowel-history-lectures/

 

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The months of April and May, 1921 saw a lot of bloodshed in the Parish of Moyvane-Knockanure.  This was, of course, during the Irish War of Independence.  On Thursday, April 7, Mick Galvin, an IRA volunteer, was killed by British forces during an ambush at Kilmorna in Knockanure.  On Thursday, April 14, 1921, Kilmorna House was raided by the local IRA.  Kilmorna house was burned and Sir Arthur Vicars was shot.  Then on May 12, Crown forces shot dead three unarmed members of the Flying Column, Paddy Dalton, Paddy Walsh and Jerry Lyons at Gortaglanna.  Their comrade and fellow member of the Column, Con Dee made a miraculous escape from the scene.  On Thursday May 26, Jack Sheehan was shot in Moinvionlach bog as he attempted to escape capture by the Crown forces.  To commemorate these events, the North Kerry Republican Soldiers Memorial Committee are asking that each household light a candle on Wednesday, May 12, the centenary of the Gortaglanna tragedy, at 9pm.  Fr. Kevin has very generously sponsored commemorative candles which can be collected by parishioners at all Masses this weekend.                                        

 

GABRIEL’S BOOK LAUNCH- Gabriel Fitzmaurice

 

With freedom now to gather, maintaining social distancing and wearing masks, Gabriel Fitzmaurice will launch his latest book – ‘Rhyming History:  The Irish War of Independence and the Ballads of Atrocity in the Valley of Knockanure’ in the Seanchaí, the Kerry Writer’s Museum on Saturday 15th May at 2pm.  Feel free to join this historic launch which commemorates the centenary of the very tragic and sad events in Knockanure which occurred one hundred years ago this month. 

 

STORYTELLING;  Kerry Writers’ Museum storytelling workshops take place on May 7th, 14th and 21st from 10 am to 12 noon.  Each workshop is a standalone event. This Bealtaine Hero event is organised in partnership with Age & Opportunity as part of the nationwide Bealtaine festival – celebrating the arts and creativity as we age. To register for the workshops email: kerrywritersmuseum@gmail.com.

 

 

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Kerry's Downton Abbey: Pierce Mahony & the Kilmorna House Visitors Book

 

181 views

 

•Apr 18, 2021

 

Kerry Writers' Museum

 

130 subscribers

 

Charles Stewart Parnell, WB Yeats, Maud Gonne, as well as songwriter Percy French and Home Rule advocate John Redmond had one thing in common - they all stayed at Kilmorna House just outside Listowel in the later years of the 19th century. Their signatures appear with dozens of others in the Kilmorna visitors book which records their visits to the home of Pierce Mahony, nationalist MP and renowned philanthropist, horticulturalist and Irish chieftain. He was the half-brother of Sir Arthur Vicars, the former Ulster King of Arms and keeper of the Irish Crown Jewels, who was killed by the IRA on April 14th, 1921 at Kilmorna and the Great House burned to the ground.

 

 

 

In this lecture, historian Tom Dillon explores the history uncovered by the Kilmorna House visitors book and discusses how it gives an insight into life on the Kilmorna estate in the late 1800s, when it welcomed some of the most prominent political and cultural figures of the time.

 

 

 

This is the second lecture in the North Kerry War of Independence Centenary Commemoration series hosted by Kerry Writers' Museum and kindly supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Art, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media under the Decade of Centenaries Programme.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhZ0YoEZg98

 

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Topic

 

WHAT IT SAID IN THE PAPERS: How the Press reported on the War of Independence in North Kerry

 

Description

 

Kerry has always been well served by its newspapers. There have been only short periods in the past 200 years when there was just a single provider of published news in the county. In the early twentieth century there were as many as 10 titles serving County Kerry. The War of Independence was a period when many of these were hard-pressed to survive, needing to walk a very thin line – if a paper was too republican in its editorial, it was prey to Auxiliary Police action; too establishment-leaning and it was liable to attack by republicans.

 

 

 

By the time the Truce was agreed in July 1921, just 1 title (The Kerry People) was still in publication.

 

 

 

This lecture by Michael Lynch, Archivist with Kerry Library, will examine the difficulties of reporting in wartime, and some of the reportage carried in the various Kerry titles during the War of Independence.

 

Time

 

 

 

Apr 30, 2021 07:30 PM in Dublin

 

Add to calendar

 

Meeting ID:

 

823 7385 6755

 

To Join the Meeting

 

Join from a PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone or Android device:

 

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The months of April and May, 1921 saw a lot of bloodshed in the parish of what is now Moyvane-Knockanure near Listowel in North Kerry. This was, of course, during the Irish War of Independence. On Thursday, 7 April, Mick Galvin, an IRA volunteer, was killed by British forces during an ambush at Kilmorna in Knockanure. The IRA had been lying in wait to ambush a group of British soldiers who were cycling to Listowel after a visit to Sir Arthur Vicars at Kilmorna House, his residence. Vicars had been Ulster King of Arms and custodian of the Irish Crown Jewels which were kept in Dublin Castle, the burglary of which in 1907, although Vicars was never seriously suspected of being involved in their theft, led to his ruin and, ultimately, to his death.

 

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A Feature about Major General Sir Hugh Henry Tudor KCB, CMG (1871 -1965)

 

By Michael Boyle

 

General Hugh Henry Tudor: his friends would have called him Hugh or Hughie, never ever Henry. What happened to him after he left Ireland?

 

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Hughie Tudor kept a low profile in the city, avoiding public events and for many years was looked after by an Irish Catholic housekeeper, Monica McCarthy. He rarely gave interviews but he did write a booklet Fog of War which he sent to Churchill. A local myth grew up around him (and in part was perpetuated by local author Paul O’Neill) suggesting that in the early 1950s members of the IRA came to Newfoundland to assassinate him. It is an interesting story, but according to my research lacks historical accuracy.

 

 

 

After his death, his military uniforms and medals mysteriously disappeared, resurfacing at a military auction house in England. Mr Gerry Burroughs, a collector in Belfast, acquired much of his military paraphernalia. Without so much secrecy and intrigue, a long life of service and exile, his unswerving loyalty to his Prime Minister was not returned.

 

 

 

Was Tudor the fall-guy for the shambles in Ireland? Some historians suggest that in other conflicts the British Army had the intelligence and knew the enemy. This was not the case in Ireland and the relatively new campaign of guerilla war by the IRA proved to be formidable. Nevertheless, it is indeed passing strange that a Hollywood producer has not brought the Tudor story to a larger audience.

 

https://tintean.org.au/2019/08/07/the-unremembered-man-of-british-irish-and-newfoundland-history/

 

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A wreath laying ceremony was held on Monday evening, February 8th. 2021 at Knockalougha, Knocknagoshel where the body of Robert Browne was discovered by local people after being shot dead by crown forces on February 8th.1921.

 

 

 

By Éamonn Ó Braoin

 

 

 

In his book ‘Dying For The Cause’ Tim Horgan gives an account of Robert Browne’s life and his involvement in the war of Independence:

 

 

 

Robert (Bob) Browne was born in1894 at Beheenagh in the parish of Knocknagoshel.

 

 

 

His family later owned a shop at Clogher in Ballymacelligott. He was a member of the Irish Volunteer company in Ballymacelligott which was attached to the 2nd Battalion, Kerry No.2 Brigade.

 

 

 

A Shop in Ballymacelligott

 

 

 

Robert Browne had a shop in Ballymacelligott but the business and his home were burned by crown forces in response to his suspected Republican activities.

 

 

 

Subsequently he operated a shop at Feale’s Bridge near the family home at Knocknagoshel.

 

 

 

The shop was located at a junction where the main Castleisland to Abbeyfeale road meets the Listowel to Brosna road. It is now bypassed by the modern road.

 

 

 

Build-up of British Forces

 

 

 

In January 1921 a flying column composed of men from the Lixnaw and Listowel battalion was established under the command of Thomas Kennelly.

 

 

 

Kennelly was O/C of the 3rd. Battalion but had been active in the Duagh area before the flying column was established.

 

 

 

Being familiar with the area, he based the column in the town-land of Derk, a remote district in the Duagh parish.

 

 

 

However, in early February there was a build-up of British forces in Listowel town.

 

 

 

Safety of the Stack’s Mountains

 

 

 

In a local public house a conversation was overheard suggesting that the crown forces were planning to saturate the Duagh area in an attempt to annihilate the column.

 

 

 

On learning of this Bob McElligott, the O/C of the Listowel Battalion, sent Thomas Pelican with a warning to Kennelly.

 

 

 

Kennelly hurriedly evacuated his column and marched them south to the safety of the Stack’s Mountains.

 

 

 

Robert Browne was Taken Prisoner

 

 

 

The expected sweep by the British materialised but failed to capture the column which had retreated to the south of this desolate area.

 

 

 

On the day of the sweep of the Duagh district by the Auxiliaries, Robert Browne was taken prisoner as he walked along a road at Knockalougha, Duagh, where he had been ’on the run.’

 

 

 

He may have been attempting to join the column, which had been billeted nearby.

 

 

 

Shot Dead by the Auxies

 

 

 

His final hours are not recorded but he was shot dead by the Auxiliaries on February 8th 1921 and his body was left in an area known as Willie Walsh’s bog.

 

 

 

It was later found by local people and brought on a cart by Richard ‘Starry’ O’Shea to the Browne family home in Beheenagh.

 

 

 

Republican Plot in Knockane

 

 

 

This site in Knockalougha where the body was found was initially marked by a monument erected in July 1921 and a memorial plaque was unveiled there in 1997.

 

 

 

Volunteer Robert Browne was buried in the Republican Plot in Knockane Cemetery near Knocknagoshel.

 

http://www.mainevalleypost.com/2021/02/17/dying-for-the-cause-remembering-robert-bob-browne/

 

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Kerryman, Saturday, August 03, 1912; Page: 5

 

THE LATE MR. P. KENNELLY.

 

Mr. Fitzgerald proposed and Mr. Moran seconded the following resolution, which was passed unanimously in silence:— "That this Council, representing and voicing the sentiments of the people of Listowel, deeply sympathise with the widow and children of the late Mr. Patrick Kennelly, Knockanure, at the loss they have sustained by the death of a devoted husband and father. His death, mourned deeply by his immediate friends and neighbours, by whom he was dearly and highly esteemed, is equally regretted by the manhood of North Kerry, to whom he was well and favourably known—Firstly as an Irishman who paid the penalty of his strong nationalist convictions on the plank bed in the prison cell, when it took men of pluck and courage to withstand the rigours of the old Land League days under a despotic landlord administration—it is but natural that we should deplore the loss of such a true, genial, generous and kindly Irishman. He also gave two inspired daughters to the Presentation Convent, who are a credit to their parents and an ornament to the Order to which they belong, and we wish to convey to his dear widow our sincere condolence in her bereavement."

 

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Book Ireland's Call is the story of 40 Irish sportsmen who died fighting in the Great War. They were the heroes of their day and they entertained crowds in stadia like Lansdowne Road, Croke Park and Dalymount Park, as well as in events like the Open Championship and the London Olympics.

 

 

 

As soldiers, they saw action in the horror of the Western Front and in the carnage of Mesopotamia.

 

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/life/features/the-sporting-heroes-who-answered-irelands-call-on-the-field-of-battle-31539187.html

 

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Bertie O'Connor

 

t1Spa8onnshortedd  ·

 

Jack Dineen dancing the hornpipe at his home in Kilmore August 1949.His mother Johanna O’Connor Dineen my grand aunt seated on the left.Paddy Mc Carthy Ardagh;Johanna Dineen McCarthy;Bridge Hara O’Sullivan Kilmore; Pat Dineen ;Rev Batt Hayes Slievadara; Willie McCarthy Ardagh; Maureen O’ Connor Corridon New Jersey; Janey Dineen Kilmore &New York.

 

 

 

https://www.facebook.com/100011075582118/videos/1305803839798790

 

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Kay Caball marked the Centenary of two famous Cow's lawn (Town Park) incidents, in a talk at the Seanchaí Listowel 22.4.2018. Excitement in Listowel as 1000 men with Hurleys , Gurtenard Gates Burst, Lawn - Ploughmen start. VIDEO Michael Guerin 22.4.2018

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zTvQkBZHgY

 

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                                                             NOT A PRAYER IN SIGHT!

 

Am I the only one who was disappointed that the ‘Bloody Sunday’ tribute from Croke Park on Saturday 21st November, commemorating the 100th Anniversary of those who were killed – not one prayer was said!  I found that sad!  Even an “Eternal rest grant onto them” could have been uttered by a lay person, if the power that be, were uncomfortable with having a clergy man present.  

 

REMEMBRANCE MASS:  Our remembrance Mass was deeply appreciated by so many but especially by those living outside the Parish who were able to connect with us in prayer last Monday evening.  Sincere thanks to all who helped in making the celebration special. 

 

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This article is based on the research and writings of Cora O’Connor, who is a great-great granddaughter of John O’Connor.

 

 

 

Click for Bureau Statements

 

 

 

Thanks to Denny McSweeney you can read witness statements on the John O’Connor murder from page five in the Bureau of Military History. 1913 – 1921 by witness John J. Walsh of Lyre, Farranfore. Please Click on the link below here:

 

 

 

https://www.militaryarchives.ie/collections/online-collections/bureau-of-military-history-1913-1921/reels/bmh/BMH.WS1002.pdf

 

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Ashe was sent to Mountjoy where he was denied political status and to protest against this he went on hunger strike. He started his hunger strike on September 20th and on the fifth day warders entered his cell to take him away for a session of force feeding. An hour later they returned the bike loving Kerry man, unconscious. After a few more hours he was pronounced dead on the 25th of September 1917 at the age of 32.

 

A year after his death both the Hudson and Hazelwood were offered by the Ashe family as prizes in a raffle to raise funds for the construction of a memorial hall in Tralee. The tickets for the raffle cost a shilling each and the draw took place on St Patrick’s Day 1918. The first prize was the impressive Hazelwood with its wicker side car while the Hudson which saw action in 1916 was the second prize. The ticket also informed the prospective winner that the Hudson’s ‘magneto requires attention.’

 

The tickets were sold across Ireland and as far away as Britain and the US and the winning numbers were published in newspapers. Even though we do not know who won the bikes or what became of them afterwards, we do know that enough money was raised to build the Ashe Memorial Hall on Denny Street in Tralee.

 

Construction did not begin until 1924, there was the little matter of the War of Independence and a Civil War to get out of the way first. The building was finished in 1928 and it became home to the Kerry County Council for the next 60 years. These days the Ashe Memorial Hall is home to the Kerry County Museum and earlier this year it was rededicated to the Kerry patriot who died 100 years ago and whose love of biking indirectly resulted in the construction of the famous building on Tralee’s Denny Street.

https://www.headstuff.org/.../his.../thomas-ashe-motorcycle/

 

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"He would spend hours and whole days in those slums working with Indian doctors. He would start vaccinating in the morning before people went to work, and continue after they came back in the evenings, sitting by an oil lamp in the slum."

 

 

 

Haffkine's work in the Calcutta slums placed him among a select group of scientists who pioneered a profound and global shift in the way disease was understood and treated. But unlike Edward Jenner before him and Jonas Salk after, Haffkine's name never really entered the public imagination, either in India or in Europe.

 

 

 

"Haffkine was the first person who brought that kind of laboratory medicine into a tropical country like India," Professor Chakrabarti said.

 

 

 

"He was a Paris scientist who came to the slums of Calcutta. He has a very dramatic story."

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-55050012?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB

 

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From Maine Valley Post 16 Dec 2020

 

Currow Murder Raised in UK Parliament

 

 

 

The treatment and ultimate murder of John O’Connor were deemed so barbaric that the case was raised in the House of Commons at the time.

 

 

 

The event and others like it served to highlight the unjust acts of violence carried out in communities across Kerry during this time.

 

 

 

“On the day of the murder, John O’Connor was searched and arrested. He was taken in a lorry in the direction of Farranfore,” said O’Connor family representative, Cora O’Connor.

 

 

 

Legs and Hands Broken

 

 

 

“Before arriving in Farranfore the Tans threw John O’Connor from the lorry. Already badly beaten and injured from the fall, they fired at him and wounded him badly.

 

 

 

“Maurice Keane, a witness, stated hearing shots and a man groaning in pain calling out ‘Maurice come to me for God’s sake I’m dying.’

 

 

 

“It is stated that his legs and hands were broken and he was bleeding from gunshot wounds.

 

 

 

“John O’Connor was carried to a nearby house in Threegneeves, Currow. They propped him in the bed beside the fire.

 

 

 

The Last Sacraments

 

 

 

“Father O’Sullivan, parish priest at the time, arrived to deliver the Last Sacraments and a private motor car then returned from Farranfore.

 

 

 

Father O’Sullivan’s witness statement recalls ‘one person in the house felt someone was at the window.’

 

 

 

“It was a figure clad in the attire of RIC policemen. Three men entered in military uniform.

 

 

 

“They cleared out the occupants of the kitchen. They then sat John O’Connor upright in the bed, already dying of his injuries.

 

 

 

Three Bullets to the Head

 

 

 

“They murdered him by firing three revolver bullets into his head. They left and returned to Farranfore,” said Cora from family lore and her own research.

 

 

 

The murder sparked outrage in the community and the Currow volunteers grew from 41 members to 127, as all young men joined due to the outrage of the unjustified murder.

 

 

 

“Kate O’Connor was left a widow by this brutal act and had to raise seven children on her own,” – Cora continued.

 

 

 

“This incident at the time was such an outrage that it was raised in the House of Commons in the UK.

 

 

 

Innocent and Inoffensive

 

 

 

“An investigation was held and John O’Connor’s body was exhumed to establish the extent of his injuries.

 

 

 

In the hearing he was described as a 45-year-old farmer of 50 acres. He was defined as an ‘innocent’ and inoffensive man.’

 

 

 

“The hearing concluded by the judge stated that ‘he saw no excuse whatsoever for this occurrence.’

 

 

 

“A memorial was erected on the road where he was thrown down from the lorry and fired on. His memory resonates in the community and with his family to this day.”

 

 

 

This article is based on the research and writings of Cora O’Connor, who is a great-great granddaughter of John O’Connor.

 

 

 

Click for Bureau Statements

 

 

 

Thanks to Denny McSweeney you can read witness statements on the John O’Connor murder from page five in the Bureau of Military History. 1913 – 1921 by witness John J. Walsh of Lyre, Farranfore. Please Click on the link below here:

 

 

 

https://www.militaryarchives.ie/collections/online-collections/bureau-of-military-history-1913-1921/reels/bmh/BMH.WS1002.pdf

 

 

 

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Republican Memorial Tributes 32

 

5tSrponshogredc  ·

 

#OTD - 22nd November 1920; Edward 'Eddie' Carmody, Ballylongford Company, No.1 Kerry Brigade is murdered by the RIC - 100 Years Ago.

 

Eddie came from the Ballylongford parish and joined the Irish Volunteers on their foundation in the area in 1914. After the split of the Volunteers (IV), many - rallying to the call of the British war effort by Redmond's National Volunteers to fight for Home Rule (in vain) in Flanders & Gallipoli etc. - the Ballylongford Company of the IV became inactive in his local parish. Although reorganised months before the 1916 Rising and waiting in anticipation, until they were stood down by Éoin MacNeill's counter-mander, and they never rose... much like the vast majority of Ireland. During April 1917, when Sinn Féin Clubs were formed, the Company became active again and Carmody became Second Lieutenant. During the Tan War the Company was to the forefront of the campaign in North Kerry.

 

On the morning of the 21st of November, the day that Bloody Sunday took place, a force of Black & Tans and regular RIC arrived in Ballylongford. Their mission to capture local IRA men. They began indiscriminately shooting and destroying civilian property, where they also looted public houses drinking copious amounts of alcohol at the expense of the publican.

 

Three IRA Volunteers, being - Óglaigh Brian Dillon, Edmond Hayes and Eddie Carmody - were in Brian O'Grady's house when the RIC arrived at the village. The house was on the Ballyline road on the outskirts. The three Volunteers exited from the rear and in a nearby village sports field is where Hayes volunteered to get three arms from an IRA weapons dump. This was so they could fire upon the RIC, if approached. The three Volunteers decided to meet at Rusheen, near the local doctor's house and went west of Ballylongford. Hayes managed to get one rifle and went searching for another two weapons. Carmody and Dillon were met by another Volunteer, Óglach Peter Deegan, who had fled the village centre.

 

After a while Eddie Carmody could here footsteps and thinking it was Hayes returning with weapons, stepped out onto the roadway. However, it was the RIC and Eddie began to run for his life. The RIC fired shots at him and one hit him in the back, but he managed to jump the doctor's wall; of which he hid behind. The RIC went looking and searching the home of the doctor and found nothing, but it was a bright moonlit night, and one spotted Carmody lying beneath the roadside wall of the garden. Eddie was dragged onto the road where they brutally executed him by kicking and beating him with rifle butts and stabbing him with bayonets before he was finally, and horrifically, shot in the face numerous times.

 

The RIC and Tans returned to Ballylongford village and burnt down the local creamery, saw mills and local shops. Carmody's body was dragged through the village until they reached the local barracks, where he was thrown into a turf shed. His father retrieved Eddie's remains the following day. Eddie Carmody is buried in Murhur Cemetery, near Moyvane. He was awarded full Military Honours and a volley of shots rang over his grave after burial.

 

The following year on the 12th December 1921, (during the Truce) the man responsible for Eddie's shooting, Sergeant John Maher was killed in a hail of bullets in the Green in Ballybunion.

 

 

 

Amelia Wilmot - A Forgotten Listowel Revolutionary Woman

 

Oct 23, 2020 -Kerry Writers' Museum

 

While many of the women who were in leadership positions in Cumann na mBan or the Citizen army during the Irish revolutionary period are already well known, there were hundreds if not thousands of other women – working class women, rural women, ordinary members of Cumann na mBan, whose contribution to the War of Independence, 1919-1921, was vital but often hidden. They were the intelligence gatherers, they were the spies and message carriers, they ran safe houses and took care of arms dumps, they transported arms and bomb making equipment to ambushes, they collected and buried the war dead, they were the essential backbone of the military operations. They were also the ones most in danger from the Crown Forces as they could not, usually, go on the run.

 

 

 

 

 

WILMOT: One of those women was a North Kerry woman, Amelia Wilmot (nee Canty), daughter of a blacksmith, born in 1874, in Lyracrompane, near Listowel, who is the subject of this lecture by Dr. Mary McAuliffe, assistant professor/lecturer in Gender Studies at UCD. Mary explores Amelia’s activism in the Irish War of Independence and her afterlife in the Irish Free State.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1w6b5185AlA&t=3s/

 

 

 ====================================================

 

Kerry's summer of violence in 1920

 

 

 

May 20 2020 06:30 AM

 

 

 

Kerry's summer of violence in 1920: APRIL

 

 

 

17 Apr - Constable Martin Clifford killed near Waterville.

 

 

 

18 Apr - Court House burned in Dingle.

 

 

 

21 Apr - Const. Patrick Foley, 25, of Annascaul kidnapped near home.

 

 

 

23 Apr - Const. Foley's body found at Deelis.

 

 

 

27 Apr. - Three RIC men held up in Annascaul. Constable Macpherson wounded.

 

 

 

30 Apr. - Military supplies burned in Dingle rail yard.

 

MAY

 

 

 

3 May - RIC Sgt Francis J. McKenna shot dead near Listowel.

 

 

 

4 May - RIC break windows in Tralee.

 

 

 

6 May - Fr. Curtayne, Ballybunion, threatened with death.

 

 

 

7 May - D.J. O'Sullivan, chairman of Tralee UDC, released from Wormwood Scrubbs after 14 days on hunger strike.

 

 

 

8 May - W. Mullins, Tralee; Mortimer O'Connor, O'dorney; and P. O'Shea released from Wormwood Scrubbs after 21 days on hunger strike.

 

 

 

10 May - Dan Healy, Tralee; and Alexander O'Donnell, Castlegregory, released from Wormwood Scrubbs after hunger strike.

 

 

 

14 May - Four cannons taken from Ross Castle by IRA.

 

 

 

15 May - Vacant RIC Barracks at Lixnaw burned.

 

 

 

16 May - Five men sentenced to death in Listowel unless they return money obtained in a bogus Republican collection.

 

 

 

23 May - Brandon Coast Guard station burned down.

 

 

 

25 May - Ballyheigue Coast Guard station burned down.

 

 

 

26 May - Attack on a Black-and-Tan contingent at Glenbeigh.

 

JUNE

 

 

 

2 June - Fenit RIC barracks attacked. Sgt. Murphy and Con. O'Regan wounded.

 

 

 

5 June - Newtownsandes (now Moyvane) Barracks burned. Military patrol attacked near Newtownsandes. Plan to burn Brosna RIC barracks foiled by military.

 

 

 

9 June - Fenit coast guard station attacked.

 

 

 

11 June - Army petrol consignment seized in Tralee.

 

 

 

18 June - Brosna barracks attacked.

 

 

 

19 June - Army attacked near Castleisland. Listowel mutiny.

 

 

 

28 June - RIC Constable Rael wounded in Ardfert.

 

JULY

 

 

 

11 July - IRA attack on Rathmore barracks,;Const. Alexander Will killed.

 

 

 

11 July - IRA attack RIC barracks in Farranfore,.

 

 

 

13 July - Consts Michael Lenihan, 34, and George Roche, 32, killed in ambush en route from Clochán to Dingle. D.I. Michael Fallon wounded.

 

 

 

16 July - Consts Cooney and Clear hurt in Glencar ambush.

 

 

 

20 July - Surprise attack from train in Tralee.

 

 

 

26 July - Two RIC constables wounded in Lixnaw.

 

AUGUST

 

 

 

2 Aug - Cloghane RIC barracks burned.

 

 

 

13 Aug - Two RIC hurt in IRA attack near Abbeydorney

 

 

 

14 Aug - Military stores burned at railway yard in Tralee.

 

 

 

14 Aug - Police burn printing works of Kerry News, Kerry Weekly Reporter and Killarney Echo in Russell Street, Tralee.

 

 

 

18 Aug - Military escort disarmed near Annascaul.

 

 

 

19 Aug - Paddy Kennedy of Annascaul killed.

 

 

 

28 Aug - IRA raids for shot guns in Cahirciveen.

 

 

 

For more see

 

https://www.independent.ie/regionals/kerryman/news/kerrys-summer-of-violence-in-1920-39218611.html

 

 

 

=================================================

 

 

 

 

 

The War of Independence in Kerry

 

Publisher 2 December, 2016 The Irish War of Independence

 

By Thomas Earls Fitzgerald

 

https://www.theirishstory.com/2016/12/02/the-war-of-independence-in-kerry/

 

Joseph Pronechen Blogs

 

October 1, 2020

 

When France entered into World War I in 1914, Thérèse of Lisieux had yet to be officially declared Blessed. She had died in 1897, but there she was among the French troops — fighting with them, protecting their lives and renewing their faith. After all, she admired Joan of Arc.

 

Soldiers flooded the Carmel in Lisieux with letters about their devotion to her. How she saved them. How she even appeared to them!

 

https://www.ncregister.com/blog/french-soldiers-tell-how-st-therese-helped-and-protected-them-in-world-war-i?utm_campaign=NCR%202019&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=96477149&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--jr5_Kd73dzPkJnVo7moNLfBn0pethoQtzZXpyUVB5Kn91bxpgcO6MF9P-_lz__JnsYi9DPf-7ffnyayaP670jICXHgQ&utm_content=96477149&utm_source=hs_email

 

Abbeyfeale County Limerick

Healy/Harnett

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Patrick Harnett was a young postman and he lived with his parents at Bridge Street, Abbeyfeale. His friend, Jeremiah Healy, was an apprentice blacksmith at Batt Begley’s forge, next door to the Harnetts.

 

 

 

It was September 1920, a time of great unrest in the area. There had been an ambush at Mountmahon where a constable was shot dead and the Black & Tans were seeking revenge.

 

 

 

On September 20th. at six in the evening, Patrick and Jeremiah went for a walk out the road we now know as Killarney Road. According to The Farmer Harnett they were going to see a horse that was lying dead on the inch, having been shot. As they left Bridge Street they were being observed by a Black & Tan named Thomas Huckerby who was standing at the barrack door, across the street from the Harnett household. Huckerby, with a pistol strapped to his thigh, followed the two men and a short time later shot them both dead. A memorial marks the spot beside Mulcahy’s Garage on the Killarney Road. Following their funerals in the parish church they were laid to rest side by side in St. Mary’s Cemetery.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Further information:  James Harnett  0872500929

 

Names of police officers whose details are contained in the

 

Roll of Honour at the National Police Memorial

 

For IRELAND http://www.policerollofhonour.org.uk/memorial/memorial_trust/npm_roll_ireland.htm

 

 

 

1920- Patrick Foley-Constable, RIC, Co. Kerry

 

1920- Martin Clifford-Constable, RIC, Co. Kerry

 

1920- Alexander Will-Constable, RIC, Co. Kerry

 

1920- John Stokes- Sergeant, RIC, Co. Tipperary

 

1920- Michael Lenihan- Constable, RIC, Co. Kerry

 

1920- George Roche- Constable, RIC, Co. Kerry

 

1920- William Madden- Constable, RIC, Co. Kerry

 

1920- George Morgan- Constable, RIC, Co. Kerry

 

1920- Philip St John Howlett Kelleher- District Inspector, RIC, Co. Longford

 

1920- Ernest Bright- Constable, RIC, Co. Kerry

 

1920- Albert F. Caseley- Constable, RIC, Co. Kerry

 

1920- Herbert John Evans- Constable, RIC, Co. Kerry

 

1920- Patrick Waters-Constable, RIC, Co. Kerry

 

1920- Robert Gorbey-Constable, RIC, Co. Kerry

 

1921- Tobias O`Sullivan- District Inspector , RIC, Co. Kerry.

 

1921- George Horace Howlett- Constable, RIC, Co. Kerry

 

1921- Patrick Roche- Constable, RIC (Retd.), Co. Kerry.

 

1921-Walter V. Falkiner MC- Cadet, ADRIC, Co. Kerry.

 

1921-John Grant- Constable, RIC, Co. Kerry.

 

1921-John Alister Mackinnon- Commander, ADRIC, Co. Kerry.

 

1921- William E. Clapp- Constable, RIC, Co. Kerry

 

1921- Robert Dyne- Constable, RIC, Co. Kerry

 

1921- Alfred Hillyer- Constable, RIC, Co. Kerry

 

1921- Samuel H. Watkins- Constable, RIC, Co. Kerry

 

1921-Hedley D. Woodcock- Constable, RIC, Co. Kerry

 

1921- Walter Thomas Brown- Constable, RIC, Co. Kerry

 

1921- James Phelan- Constable, RIC, Co. Kerry

 

1921- William K. Storey-Head Constable, RIC, Co. Kerry

 

1921-Thomas McCormack- Sergeant, RIC, Co. Kerry.

 

1921- Francis Benson-Head Constable, RIC, Co. Kerry.

 

1921- Charles F. Mead- Constable, RIC, Co. Kerry.

 

1921- James Christopher Collery-Sergeant, RIC, Co. Kerry

 

1921- Joseph Cooney- Constable, RIC, Co. Kerry

 

1921-Michael Francis McCaughey- District Inspector, RIC, Co. Kerry

 

1921- John Quirk-Constable, RIC, Co. Kerry.

 

1921- John S. McCormack- Constable, RIC, Co. Kerry.

 

1921- James Kane- Sergeant, RIC (Retd.), Co. Kerry.

 

1921- James Butler- Sergeant, RIC, Co. Kerry.

 

1921- John Maher-Sergeant, RIC, Co. Kerry.

 

1922- Charles F. Ednie- Constable, RIC, Co. Kerry.

 

=========================================

 

Sub-Const Patrick Cleary-Died 8 November 1828

 

Killed on duty in an affray in Co. Down.

 

http://www.policerollofhonour.org.uk/forces/ireland_to_1922/ric/irish_constabularies_roll_1800-1836.htm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lead Up to the Mutiny

 

 

 

The Listowel RIC Mutiny had all the ingredients of high drama.  It was triggered off by the visit of ex-war hero, Colonel Gerald Bryce Ferguson Smyth, Divisional Police Commissioner for Munster. However, the situation had been building up for some days.

 

 

 

On the night of 16th June 1920, RIC constables in Listowel received orders to hand over their barracks to the British military effective at noon the next day. They also received orders that they were nearly all re-assigned to other stations in Kerry to act as scouts for the military. Three sergeants and one constable were to stay in Listowel as scouts.  None of the men were from the area, because the RIC always stationed men away from whence they came; but these men had acquired valuable local knowledge from their duties and experience in the area.

 

 

 

The constables held a meeting and decided unanimously not to obey these orders. They saw that they were going to be used in a war against their own people. They reasoned that whatever the outcome, the British soldiers could go home; but the constables would have to live in Ireland with the consequences of their actions. They even considered the possibility that they may have to resist by force. They figured there were enough bombs, rifles, and revolvers there to hold out at least a few days.

 

 

 

They telephoned the County Inspector in Tralee at 9pm and told him they were refusing to leave their barracks. There was no immediate response, but District Inspector Thomas Flanagan later got orders by phone from County Inspector Poer O’Shea to have the constables assemble at 10am the next day.

 

 

 

County Inspector O’Shea arrived at 10am on the 17th to address the men.  He chastised them and advised them about the seriousness of their refusal to obey these orders. He told them the military were required to be installed in the barracks at noon and that this applied to all headquarters in the Province of Munster. O’Shea demanded: “Do you refuse to obey the order of the Divisional Commissioner, an order that applies to all Munster, and bring discredit on the Police force?”

 

 

 

Thirty-one year old Constable Jeremiah Mee from Glenamaddy, Co. Galway; whom the constables had chosen as their spokesman, affirmed his refusal.  O’Shea advised him that he should resign. Mee offered his resignation immediately. O’Shea asked if anyone else was prepared to resign. Thirteen other constables each stated “I resign” in turn.

 

https://www.kerrywritersmuseum.com/listowelpolicemutiny/

 

So far we have identified 418 soldiers of the National Army who died during the Civil War:

 

  320 were killed in action or died as a result of wounds received in action.

 

  98 died as a result of accidents or illness attributable to service.

 

http://www.irishmedals.ie/National-Army-Killed.php

 

 

 

30/06/1922

 

On Friday morning the 30th of June 1922 a soldier of Óglaigh na hÉireann/National Forces was killed when Anti Treaty troops opened fire on shops and a hotel in Tralee County Kerry where Óglaigh na hÉireann/National Forces troops were billeted, the dead soldier was,   Edward Michael Sheehy, 21 years old and a native of Tralee. He was employed as an egg packer before joining the national Army and had served with the IRA during the War of Independence. He was from Listowel County Kerry

 

05/08/1922

 

 

 

On the 5th of August 1922 a National Army soldier was shot dead at Ballymacthomas in County Kerry, the soldier had only joined the National Army the day before. He was married with two sons a daughter and a stepdaughter. He served with the British Army during WW1 as a Private in the Leinster Regiment, service number 5667.

 

    Private Michael Purcell a native of Tralee County Kerry.

 

 

 

19/08/1922

 

A soldier of the National Army was killed in an ambush when a party of Troops marching near Listowel County Kerry on Friday the 19th of August 1922.

 

  Private John Quane a native of Meleek County Clare.

 

 

 

09/09/1922

 

On Saturday the 9th of September 1922 brothers John and Thomas O’Connor were killed in action in Kenmare, County Kerry during a fierce battle as several hundred Anti-Treaty Irregulars took over the town. The two brother, both officers in the National Army, were killed in an attack on their home. Both brothers were asleep when the house was raided at about 6am.

 

 Brigadier Thomas O’Connor, 2nd Kerry Brigade, Óglaigh na hÉireann/National Forces. He was born on the 3rd of March 1902. He served throughout the War of independence.

 

    Captain John O’Connor, 2nd Kerry Brigade, Óglaigh na hÉireann/National Forces. He was born on the 1st of June 1896. He served with the I.R.A. throughout the War of Independence.

 

13/10/1922

 

 

 

On Friday the 13th of October 1922 a soldier of the National Army was shot dead by an Anti Treaty sniper while on sentry duty at Abbeydorney County Kerry. The dead soldier was,

 

 

 

    Timothy Goggin, aged 22 and from Abbeydorney County Kerry.

 

 

 

27/10/1922

 

On Friday the 27th of October 1922 a soldier of Óglaigh na hÉireann/National Forces was killed in an exchange of fire with Anti Treaty Forces at Tonevane near Castlegregory County Kerry. He was,

 

 Private Nagle, a native of Killarney serving with the 1st Western Brigade.

 

25/01/1923

 

On Thursday the 25th of January 1923 while travelling to from Barracks to Caherciveen Town, Count Kerry, a group of unarmed soldiers of Óglaigh na hÉireann/National Forces were ambushed resulting in the death of one National Army soldier, he was,   Private Patrick Roche from Waterville County Kerry and a member of the Kerry Brigade.

 

 

 

10/02/1923

 

On Saturday the 10th of February 1923 a soldier of Óglaigh na hÉireann/National Forces was shot when ambushed near Scarthaglin Village County Kerry. The dead soldier was:

 

  Lieutenant G Slattery, Kerry Number 1 brigade.

 

05/03/1923

 

 

 

On Monday the 5th of March 1923 while engaged in an operation to clear Anti Treaty Troops from Gurrane Hill Caherciveen County Kerry 3 soldier of Óglaigh na hÉireann/National Forces were killed in the operation. The 3 soldiers were:

 

   Lieutenant Timothy O’Shea from Caherciveen. He was employed as a Shoemaker before joining the National Army.

 

    Sergeant Jeremiah Quane, service number 7732, he was a native of Ardfert County Kerry. He was employed as a postman before joining the National Army. He was born on the 11th of December 1896. He joined the National Army in February or March 1922 having arrived in Dublin’s Beggars Bush Barracks with a group of men from the Ardfert district who all joined the National Army.

 

    Private William Healy, service number 7765. He was from Valentia, County Kerry. He was born in 1904 and had joined the National Army in September 1922. He was employed on the family farm before joining the National Army.

 

06/03/1923

 

 

 

On Tuesday the 6th of March 5 soldiers of Óglaigh na hÉireann/National Forces were killed in a mine explosion in Koncknagoshel County Kerry. The soldiers went to investigate an arms dump in Baranarig Woods, the arms dump contained a landmine wired to a trip-wire which exploded when the soldiers approached the arms dump.

 

 

 

The soldiers killed were:

 

  Captain Michael Dunne, 14401 Dublin Guards, Óglaigh na hÉireann. He was from Dublin. He had been a member of the Irish Volunteers and the I.R.A. and fought during the War of Independence. Before joining the National Army he was employed as a Fitter with the Tramway Company, Ballsbridge, Dublin.

 

    Captain Edward Stapleton, 14096, C Company, 19th Infantry Battalion, Óglaigh na hÉireann.

 

    Lieutenant Patrick O’Connor, 50697, C Company, 19th Infantry Battalion, Óglaigh na hÉireann. He worked on his father’s farm before joining the National Army. He was a native of Knockaneatee, Castleisland, County Kerry. His father was kidnapped and threatened with death and had cattle stolen and the sum of £50 extorted from him by Anti-treat Irregulars.

 

    Private Michael Galvin from Killarney.

 

    Private Laurence O'Connor, Causeway, County Kerry. Army number 49515, Óglaigh na hÉireann.

 

12/03/1923

 

On Monday the 12th of March 1923 an officer of Óglaigh na hÉireann/National Forces was killed in a tragic accident, while returning from an out-post at Finuge to Listowel County Kerry, Lieutenant A Glynn and Captain Cleary experimented with a bomb by throwing it into the river Feale. The bomb exploded with great force and Lieutenant Glynn was killed instantly. Captain Cleary was seriously wounded and died later that day, Cleary was a native of whitegate and a prominent member of the East Clare Brigade during the War of Independence. Lieutenant Glynn was the son of Mr J H Glynn Commercial Hotel Gort County Galway.

 

25/03/1923

 

On the 25th of March 1923 Private Hayes of Óglaigh na hÉireann/National Forces was accidently shot dead when challenged by a sentry at Newtownsandes County Kerry. Hayes was a native of Killarney County Kerry.

 

21/04/1923

 

On Saturday the 21st of April 1923 a soldier of the National Army, Stephen Canty a native of Causeway County Kerry, was shot dead when on duty in the town of Ennis County Clare. He was on patrol and when passing through Carmody Street shots were fired at the patrol, Clancy was shot through the head and died instantly. He was 21 years old and had worked as a labourer before joining the National Army.

 

http://www.irishmedals.ie/National-Army-Killed.php

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paddy Griffin was born on 4 August 1894 at 139 North King Street in Dublin’s North West inner city. His father, also named Patrick, worked as a Labourer in a local brewery but died when Paddy was 11 years old in 1906 leaving his mother Mary to raise seven children. Four of them would later die of TB.

 

https://www.customhousecommemoration.com/2018/03/18/who-was-specky-griffin-custom-house-burning/

 

#OTD in 1921 – Sir Arthur Vicars was assassinated in Kilmorna, Co Kerry by the IRA.

 

 

 

Sir Arthur Vicars is executed by the IRA in Co Kerry and around his neck the IRA placed a placard bearing the inscription ‘SPY. INFORMERS BEWARE. IRA NEVER FORGETS’. Vicars, who played a pivotal (and probably negligent) role in the theft of the Irish Crown Jewels in 1907. Born in England, Vicars spent most of his life in Ireland where he was Custodian of the Irish Crown Jewels at the time they were stolen. Vicars was dismissed from his post as a result. The jewels were the insignia of the Illustrious Order of St Patrick, instituted in 1783 as the Irish equivalent of the Order of the Garter. The star and badge, made in the royal insignia and decorated with Brazilian rubies, emeralds and diamonds, were a gift to the Order of St Patrick from King William IV in 1831. Legend has it, the Irish Crown Jewels may have been sold to a Dutch pawnbroker, or to private collectors, or buried outside Dublin or even (according to an official document) offered for sale to the Irish Free State in 1927. To this day their whereabouts is unknown.

 

 

 

Read more | https://stairnaheireann.net/?p=53714

 

ARMY Search Canada

 

Title       Letters from the front : being a record of the part played by officers of the bank in the Great War, 1914-1919. Vol. 2- Date        1920- Publisher Canadian Bank of Commerce

 

Leslie, Thomas Edward—Private. Born 5th May, 1893, at Cahirciveen, County Kerry, Ireland. Father, Thomas J. Leslie (deceased). Educated at Kilkenny College, and Galway Grammar School. Entered the service of the Bank, 14th March, 1913. Enlisted, 12th January, 1918, from Gilbert Plains branch, in 1st Depot Battalion, Manitoba Regiment, with the rank of Private. Transferred to llth Canadian Reserve Battalion, February, 1918. Service: Trained as a Signaller in Canada and England. Returned to duty with the Bank, 25th July, 1919.

 

 

 

 

 

Title       Letters from the front : being a record of the part played by officers of the bank in the Great War, 1914-1919. Vol. 2- Date        1920- Publisher Canadian Bank of Commerce

 

Clery, William Valentine Patrick—Lieutenant. Born 14th February, 1892, at Bantry, County Cork, Ireland. Father, P. F. Clery, Bank Manager. Educated at St. Michael's College, Listowel, Ireland, and Skerry's College, Dublin. Entered the service of the Bank, 26th April, 1911. Enlisted, 30th June, 1915, from First Street West, Calgary, branch, in 50th Canadian Battalion, with the rank of Lieutenant. Transferred to 16th Battalion (The Canadian Scottish), June, 1916. Principal actions: Ypres, Somme, 1916; Cambrai, 1918. Wounded (gun shot), 26th September, 1916. Demobilized, 3rd May, 1919. Returned to duty with the Bank 6th May, 1919.

 

http://contentdm.ucalgary.ca/digital/collection/cmh/id/25601

 

 

 

 

 

Title       Letters from the front: being a record of the part played by officers of the bank in the Great War, 1914-1919. Vol. 2 -Date        1920- Publisher Canadian Bank of Commerce

 

Digital Publisher University of Calgary

 

280    LETTERS FROM THE FRONT

 

Maginn, Francis John—Lieutenant, D.S.O. Born 12th May, 1892, at Tralee, County Kerry, Ireland. Father, John Maginn, Manager, Bank of Ireland, Ballina, Ireland (retired). Educated at King William's College, Isle of Man. Entered the service of the Bank, 23rd March, 1912. Enlisted, June, 1915, from Marcelin branch, in 65th Canadian Battalion, with the rank of Private. Transferred to 75th Canadian Battalion, May, 1916; London Irish Rifles, June, 1917; London Rifle Brigade, December, 1917. Promoted Corporal, November, 1915; Second Lieutenant, June, 1917; Lieutenant, December, 1918. Principal actions: Somme, 1916; Cambrai, 1917; German Attack on Arras, March, 1918.

 

Appointed A Companion of The Distinguished Service Order "For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. When an officer of another regiment was very severely wounded and was unable to move, he rushed forward with two stretcher-bearers under heavy machine-gun and sniper's fire and sniped the enemy  for fifteen minutes, covering  the   stretcher-bearers, who   were thus able to bring the wounded officer back.    He showed splendid courage and resource." (Supplement to the London Gazette, 5th July, 1918). Mentioned In Despatches For Gallant and Distinguished Service in the Field.

 

Severely wounded (shrapnel) in the thigh, Somme, 1916; slightly wounded (shrapnel) in the head, Cambrai, 1917.     Invalided home. May, 1918, with trench fever.

 

http://contentdm.ucalgary.ca/digital/collection/cmh/id/25807/rec/1

 

 

 

LETTERS FROM THE FRONT

 

Foley, Ernest George—Corporal. Born 8th July, 1893, at Limerick, Ireland. Father, The Rev. Archdeacon Foley, B.D., Clerk in Holy Orders. Educated at Avoca School, Dublin, Ireland. Entered the service of the Bank, 29th September, 1913. Enlisted, June, 1915, from Melville branch, in 45th Canadian Battalion, with the rank of Private. Transferred to 29th Canadian Battalion, April, 1916. Promoted Lance-Corporal, September, 1915; Corporal, March, 1916. Principal actions: St. Eloi, Ypres, 1916. Wounded (five compound fractures), 26th June, 1916. Demobilized, January, 1917, on account of being medically unfit for further military service, owing to amputation of the left leg at thigh. Subsequent occupation: Cashier in shipping firm's office, January, 1917.

 

 

 

McCarthy, Charles Leopold Joseph—Captain. Born 14th June, 1893, at Sligo, Ireland. Father, Jeremiah McCarthy, Solicitor. Educated at Mungret College, Limerick, and National University of Ireland (Matriculation). Entered the service of the Bank, 21st March, 1911. Enhsted, 20th January, 1915, from Shaunavon branch, in 46th Canadian Battalion, with the rank of Private. Transferred to Connaught Rangers, 12th August, 1915; attached to the Indian Army, 7th October, 1917. Promoted Second Lieutenant, 12th August, 1915; Lieutenant, 12th May, 1917; Captain, 4th November, 1918. Service: General Infantry engagements in France and Belgium, September, 1916, to March, 1917; in India, November, 1917, to May, 1918; in Mesopotamia, June to December, 1918.

 

Awarded

 

A Parchment Certificate for Gallantry in the Field (Flanders, 1916).

 

Returned to duty with the Bank, 2nd October, 1919.    Retired from

 

the service of the Bank, 30th September,  1920, on account of ill health.

 

http://contentdm.ucalgary.ca/digital/collection/cmh/id/25853

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IRELAND IN   THE LAST  FIFTY   YEARS (1866-1916)

 

be got out of the way until the claims of Irish nationality are recognised," and

 

such recognition means " an Irish Parliament and an Irish Executive for the management of Irish affairs."Perhaps one may say that the Irish question, as it has shown itself through the centuries, goes even deeper than politics and economics. It is the result of a clash of two ways of life. England

 

early evolved the conception of the State. We may even say that England was the first heir of Rome, among modern nations, in the transmission of that conception. But it is a conception which under most of its forms—and there have been several—has failed to square with the tribal conception so long maintained by the Irish. The feudal form of the Middle Ages did not satisfy mediaeval Ireland. The administrative form of the Tudors and Stuarts did not satisfy the Ireland of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The parliamentary form of the eighteenth century was very far from satisfying eighteenth century Ireland. We have still to see—and here there is far more (Break)

 

Title       Ireland in the last fifty years (1866-1916)

 

Creator Barker, Ernest, Sir, 1874-1960. Author Date 1916

 

Description         A 190 page book created in Britain as a tool for education during World War I regarding the history of Ireland. Inscription -The number 5592, written in pencil, upper right-hand side of title page

 

http://contentdm.ucalgary.ca/digital/collection/cmh/id/159522/rec/29

 

Feb 2020

ADVANCE NOTICE OF COMMEMORATION:  Patrick Harnett was a young postman and he lived with his parents at Bridge Street, Abbeyfeale. His friend, Jeremiah Healy, was an apprentice blacksmith at Batt Begley’s forge, next door to the Harnetts.

It was September 1920, a time of great unrest in the area. There had been an ambush at Mountmahon where a constable was shot dead and the Black & Tans were seeking revenge.

On September 20th. at six in the evening, Patrick and Jeremiah went for a walk out the road we now know as Killarney Road. According to The Farmer Harnett they were going to see a horse that was lying dead on the inch, having been shot. As they left Bridge Street they were being observed by a Black & Tan named Thomas Huckerbery who was standing at the barrack door, across the street from the Harnett household. Huckerbery, with a pistol strapped to his thigh, followed the two men and a short time later shot them both dead. A memorial marks the spot beside Mulcahy’s Garage on the Killarney Road. Following their funerals in the parish church they were laid to rest side by side in St. Mary’s Cemetery, ninety years ago.

They were two innocent, unarmed men who had no political involvement whatsoever. Yet, by their deaths they became a part of the struggle for Irish independence. Their deaths link the town of Abbeyfeale, the people of Abbeyfeale and especially their families to the birth of our nation.  Sunday September 20th. 2020, 6.05 p.m. will mark the exact centenary, to the minute, of the assassinations. A commemoration will take place at that time. Full details will be announced nearer the time, but we especially ask all Healys and Harnetts  to circulate this advance notice among family and friends. 

REVEALED: The fifth Kerry man to die during the Easter Rising

 

Nov 15, 2016

 

Duagh native and UCD historian Dr Mary McAuliffe will give a talk at 8pm on Thursday, November 24th in Duagh national school hall on Robert Dillon, from Lyreacrompane, who has now become known as the ‘Fifth Kerryman’ killed during the Easter Rising.

 

 

 

Dr McAuliffe – one of the co-editors of ‘Kerry 1916: Histories and Legacies of the Easter Rising – has researched the story of the north Kerry native who was a successful businessman in Dublin’s Moore Street. He died tragically while trying to get his family to safety during the worst fighting of the Rising. Witnessing Dillon’s death on Moore Street, Pádraig Pearse is said to have finally decided to surrender to prevent further civilian casualties. Robert Dillon’s name is now on the list of the Rising dead in Glasnevin Cemetery. His descendants are the Dillon family in the parish.

 

 

 

Dr McAuliffe will also talk on the other north Kerry men and women who took part in the Rising and who were active during the Revolutionary Years. Poet and Ballylongford native Brendan Kennelly will give a poetry reading and there will also be a musical interlude with a 1916 theme.

 

 

 

This event is a fundraiser for the local Transition Year students who are travelling with the Hope Foundation to Kolkata and entry is €5 per family. The book on the period, Kerry 1916: Histories and Legacies of the Easter Rising – A Centenary Record will be for sale at a special price on the night. All are welcome.

 

 

 

NOTE: The full story of Robert Dillon will be published on this website shortly. Follow us on Twitter @kerry1916book for updates.

 

 

 

 

 

The Irish at War

 

@irelandbattles

 

Feb 5

 

#OnThisDay 1922 Cumann na mBan held a convention & voted 419 against to 63 for the Treaty. Countess Markievicz was elected President & the pro-Treaty members were asked to resign. They formed their own group called Cumann na Saoirse led by Jennie Wyse Power.

 

 

 

1916 Items;  https://www.rcpi.ie/heritage-centre/1916-2/revolutionary-diary-kathleen-lynn/

 

DEV: According to Kennedy aides Kenneth O’Donnell and David Powers in their book ‘Johnny, we hardly knew ye’, de Valera responded that ‘he had lived in Ireland since his early childhood, but he was born in New York City, and because of his American citizenship, the British were reluctant to kill him. “But there were many times when the key in my jail cell door was turned”, he said, “and I thought that my turn had come”.’ O’Donnell and Powers report that Kennedy was ‘spellbound’ as he listened to the aging rebel’s tale, with its emphasis on de Valera’s American connection.

 

https://www.historyireland.com/20th-century-contemporary-history/ambiguous-reprieve-dev-and-america/

 

 

 

23 July 1946, New York Times; The Rev. Thomas J. Wheelwright, half-brother of Prime Minister Eamon de Valera of Eire and superior of St. Alphonsus Retreat House, Tobyhanna, Pa., died yesterday in Mercy Hospital, Scranton, Pa., it was announced here by the Redemptorist Order, of which Father Wheelwright was a member. He was 55 years old.

 

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1946/07/23/96935646.html

 

 

 

 

 

They are not ‘hanging men and women for the wearing of the green’ these days,” an American newspaper commented on May 13, 1916, of events recently transpired in Dublin; “they are shooting them.” That terse opinion was expressed in the pages of the Sacred Heart Review, published weekly in Cambridge, Massachusetts, but with a readership, largely Irish Catholic, throughout the United States.

 

http://bcm.bc.edu/index.html%3Fp=5213.html

 

 

 

Paddy Waldron

 

6 Jan 2020

 

Cathal Crowe, the Mayor of Clare and a candidate for the imminent general election, has raised some interesting questions by announcing a boycott of an event on 17 January to commemorate those who served in the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) and the Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP).

 

 

 

What do our monuments and commemorations call to rememberance? Of what do they preserve the memory? Do they preserve good memories for all, bad memories for all, or good memories for some and bad memories for others? Are they concerned with events, dates, individuals, institutions or organisations? Should we commemorate wars themselves, or the end of wars?

 

 

 

There are many monuments that already preserve the memory of the RIC. I pass two on a regular basis - Mark Kelly's mural outside the Museum of Irish Rural Life at the Old Creamery in Kilrush, depicting RIC men at an eviction during the Land War in 1888; and the monument on the bridge between Ballina and Killaloe to the Scarriff Martyrs, four men killed by the Auxiliary Division of the RIC and the Black and Tans in November 1920.

 

 

 

The Royal Irish Constabulary was disbanded on 30 August 1922, so 30 August 2022 would be an appropriate and neutral date for a centenary commemoration.

 

 

 

I have always had mixed feelings about the RIC. My greatgrandfather and greatgreatgrandfather, both named Thomas Waldron, were members of the organisation from 1847 (when it was still the plain Irish Constabulary) to 1898. I remember my cousin Tomás de Bhaldraithe explaining, when asked about his ancestors, "Bhí muid i seirbhís an namhaid" ("We were in the service of the enemy"). I remember my greatuncle Des Waldron lamenting when his grandson followed his father into the Garda Síochána that he was the only break in a five generation tradition of police service. I later discovered that this tradition went back two generations further to John Keas, who was regularly appointed between 1815 and at least 1837 as High Constable of the Barony of Pubblebrien, a local office soon replaced by the new Irish Constabulary; John Keas's granddaughter married the older Thomas Waldron in 1851.

 

 

 

In 1907, my grandfather's first cousin Bill Glennon (RIC registered number 62442, joined 18 March 1907) and my grandmother's first cousin George Roche (RIC registered number 62449) joined the organisation at around the same time. They may therefore have known each other during their initial training, and may have been aware that their respective first cousins married each other the following year. Bill and George both met violent deaths, at the hands of different enemies, while serving the crown: Bill at the Battle of the Somme on 12 October 1916 after transferring to the Royal Dublin Fusiliers; George in an ambush at Cloghane/Dingle, County Kerry during the War of Independence on 13 July 1920 while still serving with the RIC. I know that some of George Roche's relatives are wondering how best to commemorate the centenary of his death this coming summer, but I don't know how to answer that question.

 

CANADA: Participate in the Indexing of the

 

Canadian World War I Personal Records

 

During the last indexing week, you were almost 2,000 participants and you have indexed more than 200,000 records.

 

To mark the Armistice of 11 November 1918, we propose to participate in the indexing of Canadian World War I personal records, from November 8, 2019 until November 17, 2019.

 

 

 

Over 600,000 men and women enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) during the First World War (1914-1918) as soldiers, nurses and chaplains.

 

 

 

To participate, go to the menu "Projects" and "Collaborative indexing", select the collection "Canadian World War I personal records" and the time you can spend on it, then click the button "Start indexing".

 

Daniel Rudd- Calling a Church to Justice

 

by Gary B. Agee

 

 

 

In May of 1890, the Christian Soldier, an African American newspaper, identified the Catholic journalist and activist Daniel Arthur Rudd as the "greatest negro Catholic in America." Yet many Catholics today are unaware of Rudd's efforts to bring about positive social change during the early decades of the Jim Crow era. In Daniel Rudd: Calling a Church to Justice, Gary Agee offers a compelling look at the life and work of this visionary who found inspiration in his Catholic faith to fight for the principles of liberty and justice. Born into slavery, Rudd achieved success early on as the publisher of the American Catholic Tribune, one of the most successful black newspapers of its era, and as the founder of the National Black Catholic Congress.

 

More on Belfast

 

https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/belfast-pogrom-book.amp

 

 

 

 

SOME IRISH HISTORY: In the face of intimidation of Cumann na nGaedheal meetings by the anti-treaty IRA and the rise in support for Éamon de Valera’s Fianna Fáil from 1926, a new strategy was required to strengthen the voice of the pro-Treaty tradition who now found themselves in opposition. The National Guard, popularly known as the Blueshirts, and originally the Army Comrades Association, a nationalist-conservative and covertly fascist movement led by Eoin O’Duffy, took up the task of defending Cumann na nGaedheal rallies from republican intimidation. When they planned a march on Dublin, de Valera banned the demonstration, fearing a repeat of Mussolini’s infamous March on Rome. As a result, Fine Gael–The United Ireland Party was founded as an independent party on 8 September 1933, following a merger of Cumann na nGaedheal, the National Centre Party and the National Guard. The merger brought together two strands of Irish nationalism namely the pro-treaty wing of revolutionary Sinn Féin and the old Home Rule party represented by Dillon and the Centre Party. In reality, the new party was a larger version of Cumann na nGaedheal, the party created in 1923 by the Pro-Treaty leaders of the Irish Free State under W. T. Cosgrave.

 

 

 

https://wordpress.com/read/blogs/58539435/posts/46659

 

 

 

 

 

Oct 2, 2019

 

  Pearse KellyPensionsSean McCaugheyStephen Hayes

 

The Military Archives have released their most recent set of pension files today including documents shedding light on the activities of the IRA, Cumann na mBan and Fianna Éireann. While they primarily relate to the years 1916 to 1923, there is a wealth of information buried within them relating to later periods of equally significant historical value. Here is one example to get started with.

 

https://wordpress.com/read/blogs/60634191/posts/4698

 

 

 

Pension Files

 

https://treasonfelony.wordpress.com/2019/09/25/belfast-brigade-ira-files-new-release-by-mspc/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An Address from the Army Council of the Irish Republican Army to the Men and Women of the Orange Order

 

https://treasonfelony.wordpress.com/2017/07/10/ira-appeal-to-the-orange-order/

 

[This is the text as quoted by The Kerryman on 16th July 1932. It was published in An Phoblacht the same day and had been largely written by Peader O’Donnell. Prior to publication, it had been circulated with a covering letter from the IRA’s Adjutant General, Donal O’Donoghue, on 8th July to newspaper editors. Most, even including the Belfast Newsletter, published abridged versions as early as 11th July 1932. I have kept the formatting here from The Kerryman version. The address was distributed as leaflets in unionist districts of Belfast by IRA volunteers.]

 

North Kerry Word press

 

https://northkerry.wordpress.com/

 

‘Pray for me’: The last letter of an RIC officer executed by the IRA

 

Ronan McGreevy

 

 

 

The poignant last letter of former Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) officer who was executed by the IRA for being a spy has been released as part of the Brigade Activity Reports.

 

James Kane, a fisheries protection officer in Co Kerry, was executed on June 16th 1921 on suspicion that he gave his former RIC colleagues details of eight IRA men who were  involved in the shooting dead of the constabulary’s divisional commander.

 

Detective Inspector Tobias O’Sullivan was shot dead on January 20th, 1921 outside Listowel barracks in Co Kerry. Some time later men from the 6th Battalion, Kerry North Brigade, kidnapped Kane. They did so on instruction from IRA General Headquarters (GHQ) and interrogated him.

 

After a prolonged period of interrogation he was executed on June 16th, 1921. His body was left by the side of the road with a note, “Convicted spy. Let others beware. IRA.”

 

Before he died Kane composed a letter to his family which is in the newly-released Brigade Activity Reports files of 1 Kerry Brigade. The letter is addressed to his children, one of whom is said to have cried out as the coffin was lowered into the ground, “Daddy, daddy”.

 

It beings: “My dear children, I am condemned (to) die. I had the priest today, thank God. I give you all my blessing and pray God may protect you all. Pray for me and get some masses said for me.”

 

Kane goes on to list the financial provisions he has made for the family and the money he owes to people locally.

 

It is clear that his children will be left as orphans as he requests that he be buried next to his “loving wife if possible”.

 

He concluded: “Don’t go to too much expense at the funeral and have no drink or public wake. I am told my body will be got near home. I got the greatest kindness from those in charge of men.

 

“Good bye now and God bless you and God bless Ireland. Pray for us constantly and give my love to all my friends and neighbours and thank them for all their kindness.”

 

 

 

The Valley of Knockanure

 

 

 

You may sing and speak about Easter week and the heroes of ninety eight.

 

Of Fenian men who roamed the glen in victory or defeat,

 

Of those who died on the scaffold high or outlawed on the moor,

 

But no word was said of our gallant dead in the Valley of Knockanure.

 

 

 

There was Padraic Dalton and Padraic Walsh they were known both far and wide,

 

In every house in every town they were always side by side,

 

A Republic bold they did uphold though outlawed on the moor,

 

And side by side they bravely died in the Valley of Knockanure.

 

 

 

In Gortaglanna’s lovely glen these gallant men took shade ,

 

While in young wheat both soft and sweet the summer breezes played,

 

It was not long ‘till Lyons came on saying time is not mine ‘nor yours,

 

But alas it was late and they met their fate in the valley of Knockanure.

 

 

 

It was from a neighbouring hillside we listened in calm dismay,

 

In every house, in every town a maiden knelt to pray,

 

They are closing in around them now with rifle shot so sure,

 

And Walsh is dead and Lyons is down in the valley of Knockanure.

 

 

 

They took them hence behind the fence wherein the furze did bloom,

 

Like brothers so they faced their foe to meet their vengeful doom,

 

When Dalton spoke his voice it broke with a passion proud and pure,

 

For our land we’ll die as we face the sky in the Valley of Knockanure.

 

 

 

And there they lay on the cold cold clay they were martyred for Ireland’s cause,

 

While the cowardly clan of the Black and Tan it showed them England’s laws,

 

No more they’ll feel the soft breeze steal o’er the uplands so secure,

 

For the wild geese fly where our hero’s lie in the valley of Knockanure.

 

 

 

I met with Dalton’s mother and she to me did say,

 

May God be with my darling son who died in the glen today,

 

If I could kiss his cold clay lips my aching heart ‘twould cure,

 

And I’d gladly lay him down to sleep in the Valley of Knockanure.

 

 

 

The golden sun it is sinking down behind the Feale and lea,

 

And a pale, pale moon is rising there far out beyond Tralee,

 

A twinkling star through clouds afar shone down o’er Cullen’s moor,

 

And the Banshee cried when Dalton died in the Valley of Knockanure.

 

 

 

Dalton Walsh and Lyons brave, although your hearts are clay,

 

Yet in your stead be true men yet who will take your place today,

 

While grass is found on Irelands ground your memory will endure,

 

So God guard and keep the place you sleep in the Valley of Knockanure.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/easterrising/songs/rs_song08.shtml

 

   

Subject: Re. North Kerry World War 1 Dead.

 

 

 

 Hi. Jim.

 

It was with interest I read the piece on the memory of those killed from North Kerry while serving with various Countries in World War 1.  My uncle Daniel J Culhane, Leitrim East, Moyvane was one of those brave young men who gave his life in that war. He left Moyvane in his teens for America and

 

was drafted  into the U.S Army 210th Infantry, 78th Division. He was killed in action on Oct, 25th 1918 in the Argonne Forest, France. He was  23 yrs old. I have photos and cuttings from U.S newspapers about him as he was only married a couple of months, and was dead for 9 months

 

before his wife was informed.

 

 

 

Sincerely John Culhane

 

(Ballyduff)

 

 

 

 

THE VALLEY OF KNOCKANURE

 

 

 

    In memory of Jeremiah Lyons, Patrick Dalton and Patrick Walsh, murdered by Crown Forces

 

    at Gortagleanna, Co. Kerry on 12th May, 1921.

 

 

 

    You may sing and speak about Easter Week or the heroes of Ninety-Eight,

 

    Of the Fenian men who roamed the glen in victory or defeat,

 

    Their names are placed on history’s page, their memory will endure,

 

    Not a song is sung for our darling sons in the Valley of Knockanure.

 

 

 

    Our hero boys they were bold and true, no counsel would they take,

 

    They rambled to a lonely spot where the Black and Tans did wait,

 

    The Republic bold they did uphold though outlawed on the moor,

 

    And side by side they bravely died in the Valley of Knockanure.

 

 

 

    There was Walsh and Lyons and Dalton, boys, they were young and in their pride,

 

    In every house in every town they were always side by side,

 

    The Republic bold they did uphold though outlawed on the moor,

 

    And side by side they bravely died in the Valley of Knockanure.

 

 

 

    In Gortagleanna’s lovely glen, three gallant men took shade,

 

    While in young wheat, full, soft and sweet the summer breezes played,

 

    But ’twas not long till Lyons came on, saying “Time’s not mine nor your”,

 

    But alas ’twas late and they met their fate in the Valley of Knockanure.

 

 

 

    They took them then beside a fence to where the furze did bloom,

 

    Like brothers so they faced the foe for to meet their dreadful doom,

 

    When Dalton spoke his voice it broke with a passion proud and pure,

 

    “For our land we die as we face the sky in the Valley of Knockanure.”

 

 

 

    ‘Twas on a neighbouring hillside we listened in calm dismay,

 

    In every house in every town a maiden knelt to pray,

 

    They’re closing in around them now with rifle fire so sure,

 

    And Dalton’s dead and Lyons is down in the Valley of Knockanure.

 

 

 

    But ere the guns could seal his fate Con Dee had broken through,

 

    With a prayer to God he spurned the sod and against the hill he flew,

 

    The bullets tore his flesh in two, yet he cried with passion pure,

 

    “For my comrades’ death, revenge I’ll get, in the Valley of Knockanure.”

 

 

 

    There they lay on the hillside clay for the love of Ireland’s cause,

 

    Where the cowardly clan of the Black and Tan had showed them England’s laws,

 

    No more they’ll feel the soft winds steal o’er uplands fair and sure,

 

    For side by side our heroes died in the Valley of Knockanure.

 

 

 

    I met with Dalton’s mother and she to me did say,

 

    “May God have mercy on his soul who fell in the glen today,

 

    Could I but kiss his cold, cold lips, my aching heart ‘twould cure,

 

    And I’d gladly lay him down to rest in the Valley of Knockanure.”

 

 

 

    The golden sun is setting now behind the Feale and Lee,

 

    The pale, pale moon is rising far out beyond Tralee,

 

    The dismal stars and clouds afar are darkened o’er the moor,

 

    And the banshee cried where our heroes died in the Valley of Knockanure.

 

 

 

    Oh, Walsh and Lyons and Dalton brave, although your hearts are clay,

 

    Yet in your stead we have true men yet to guard the gap today,

 

    While grass is found on Ireland’s ground your memory will endure,

 

    So God guard and keep the place you sleep and the Valley of Knockanure.

 

REMEMBRANCE Ceremony will be held in Listowel on November 11th 2018 at 11.30 am, to mark the anniversary of the end of WW1

 

Limerick and Language: revival, resurgence and new beginnings.

 

9 November 2018

 

T118 Tara, Mary Immaculate College, Limerick

 

More from Dr. Úna Ní Bhroiméil, Roinn na Staire:  una.bromell@mic.ul.ie

 

 

 

 

 

Irish Protestant nationalists and rebels

 

 

 

(in chronological order)

 

 

 

Click on name for link

 

 

 

| Irish Parliament               |Henry Grattan                       |1746 – 1820 |

 

 

 

|United Irishmen                |William Drennan                 |1754 – 1820 |

 

|United Irishmen                |Henry Munro                        |1758 – 1798 |

 

United Irishmen                |Oliver Bond                            |1760 – 1798 |

 

|United Irishmen               |Samuel Neilson                    |1761 – 1803 |

 

|United Irishmen               |Lord Edward Fitzgerald     |1763 – 1798 |

 

| United Irishmen              |Theobald Wolfe Tone          |1763 – 1798 |

 

| United Irishmen              |James Hope                          |1764 – 1847 |                   | United Irishmen              |Thomas Russell                    |1767 – 1803|                           |United Irishmen              |Henry Joy McCracken        |1767 – 1798 |                        |United Irishmen              |James Orr                               |1770 – 1816 |

 

 

 

United Irishmen               |James Dickie                         |1776 – 1798 |

 

|United Irishmen              |Robert Emmet                        |1778 – 1803 |

 

 

 

|Catholic Emancipation |Henry Villiers-Stuart            |1803 – 1874 |

 

 

 

|Young Ireland                  |William Smith O’Brien         |1803 – 1864 |

 

| Young Ireland                 |Thomas Davis                         |1814 – 1845 |

 

| Young Ireland                 |John Mitchel                           |1815 – 1875 |

 

|Literary Revival               |Samuel Ferguson                   |1810 – 1886 |

 

|IRB                                      |Thomas Luby                           |1821 – 1901 |

 

|Gaelic League                  |Euseby Cleaver                        |1826 – 1894 |

 

|IPP                                      |Isaac Butt                                   |1815 – 1879 |

 

 

 

|CNB                                    |Charlotte Despard                    |1844-1933 |

 

 

 

IPP                                       |Charles Stuart Parnell           |1845 – 1891 |

 

|Howth                               |Alice Stopford Green               |1847 -1929 |

 

|Fenian                              | William Philip Allen              |1848 – 1867 |

 

|Literary Revival             |Augusta (Lady) Gregory         |1852 – 1932 |

 

| Land League                  | Anna Parnell                            |1852 – 1911 |

 

| IAOS                                 |Horace Plunkett                       |1854 – 1932 |

 

| Howth                             | Sir Thomas Myles                   |1857 – 1937 |

 

|Gaelic League                | Douglas Hyde                           |1860 – 1949 |

 

|IRB                                    | Fred Allan                                  |1861 – 1937 |

 

|1916                                   |Roger Casement                       |1864 – 1916 |

 

|Literary Revival            |William B Yeats                        |1865 – 1939 |

 

|Literary Revival            |Alice Milligan                            |1865 – 1953 |

 

|Literary Revival            | George Russell (AE)                |1867 – 1935 |

 

|CNB                                  | Ella Young                                 |1867 – 1956 |

 

|Sinn Fein                        |Countess Markievicz              |1868 – 1927 |

 

|ICA                                   |Richard Brathwaite                 |1870 –    ?     |

 

|Howth                             |Erskine Childers                       |1870 – 1924 |

 

|CNB                                 |Margaret Dobbs                         |1871 – 1962 |

 

|Literary Revival           | James M Synge                        |1871 – 1909 |CNB                                |Annie M.P. Smithson                |1873 – 1948 |

 

|Sinn Fein                     | Kathleen Lynn                           |1874 – 1955 |

 

|Howth                           | Molly Childers                           |1875 – 1964 |

 

|Howth                           | James Creed Meredith           |1875 – 1942 |

 

|ICA                                 |Alfred Norgrove                         |1876 – 1937 |

 

|CNB                                |Elizabeth Bloxham                   |1877 – 1962 |

 

|ICA                                 |Rev. Robert Gwynn                   |1877 – 1962 |

 

|ICA                                 |Ellen Norgrove                           |1877 – 1934 |

 

|ICA                                 |James McGowan                       |1877 – 1955 |

 

|IRB                                 |George Irvine                              |1877 – 1954 |

 

|1916                               | Dr Ella Webb                               |1877 – 1946 |ICA                                |Jack White                                   |1879 – 1946 |

 

|ICA                                |Sean O’Casey                              | 1880 – 1964 |

 

|Howth                          |Mary Spring Rice                       | 1880 – 1924 |

 

|ICA                               |Helen Donnelly                           |1880 – 1971 |

 

|Howth                         |George O’Brien                            |1880 – 1952 |

 

|Howth                         |Darrel Figgis                                |1880 – 1925 |

 

|1916                              |Robert Barton                               |1881 – 1975 |

 

|IRB                               |Bulmer Hobson                            |1883 – 1969 |

 

|CNB                             |Mabel Fitzgerald                         |1884 – 1958 |

 

|IRB                               |Sam Heron                                    |1887 – 1937 |

 

|IRB                               |Ellett Elmes                                  |1887 – 1958 |

 

|IRB                               |Sean Lester                                   |1888 – 1959 |

 

|IRB                               |Henry Nichols                              |1889 – 1975 |

 

|IRB                               |Ernest Blythe                               |1889 – 1975 |

 

|CNB                             |Margo Trench                               |1889 – 1936 |

 

|IRA                             | Dr Elinor Price                              |1890 – 1954 |

 

|CNB                            | Frances Trench                           |1891 – 1918 |

 

 

 

|SE                               | Denis Ireland                               |1894 – 1974 |

 

 

 

|IV                                |Arthur Shields                              |1896 – 1970 |

 

|ICA                             |Emily Norgrove                            |1897 – 1977 |

 

|ICA                             |Annie Norgrove                            |1899 – 1976 |

 

|ICA                             |Frederick Norgrove                     |1903 – 1973 |

 

 

 

In studying Irish history I am forcibly struck by the number of people born into the Protestant or Dissenter tradition who became involved in the campaign for Irish independence, many in leadership positions. By Willie Methven.

 

https://wordpress.com/read/blogs/68065011/posts/1088

 

 

 

 

 

BURNING; In early 1923, during the period of civil war in Ireland, Anti-Treatyites embarked on a concentrated campaign against the Big Houses of the he landed gentry. Between June 1922-April 1923, a staggering 199 Big Houses went up in flames. In the civil war, the only county in Leinster with no burnings was Queens County (now Laois).

 

 

 

Thirty seven of the houses destroyed were those of Free-state Senators, of whom about 20 were old landed families. However, the campaign against the senators is only a partial explanation of the burnings. Most of the landed class were not senators and some were social reformers (even nationalists of a sort).

 

 

 

A Free State Army report of 21 January 1923 states, “with depleted numbers, lack of resources and unified control and almost complete ineffectiveness from a military standpoint, their [Anti-Treaty IRA] policy of military action is slowly changing to one of sheer destruction and obstruction of the civil government.”

 

https://www.irelandxo.com/ireland-xo/history-and-genealogy/timeline/blitz-big-houses

 

MALLIN (O'Mealláin) SJ, Fr Joseph (Hong Kong, China and Dublin, Ireland). Peacefully, in Hong Kong on April 1, 2018. Deeply regretted by his Jesuit companions, relatives, extended family and friends. Beloved son of Commandant Michael Mallin (executed in 1916 Rising) and Agnes Mallin (née Hickey), brother of Séamus, Séan SJ, Sr Úna and Maura and uncle of Germaine Mallin. R.I.P. Sadly missed by his nephews Mícheál and Seán Mallin, David and Michael Phillips and nieces Úna O Callanáin and Annette Mallin-Ryder.

 

Requiem Mass to be held at 10.00am (local time) tomorrow (Saturday) at St Ignatius Chapel, Wah Yan College, Kowloon, followed by burial in St Michael's Cemetery, Happy Valley, Hong Kong. A Memorial Mass will take place at 11.00am on Saturday, April 21, 2018 in St Francis Xavier Church, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin 1. Tá fáilte roimh cách.

 

 

 

Rosscarbery and District History Society

 

February 13, 2016 ·

 

 

 

Details of Duchas Clonakilty lecture are attached;

 

 

 

 

 

Our next lecture is as follows:

 

 

 

Diarmuid Lynch: A Forgotten Irish Patriot

 

by

 

Eileen McGough

 

in

 

The Parish Centre, Clonakilty

 

on

 

Wednesday Feb 24th

 

at 8.30 pm

 

On Saturday night 22 April 1916, a tense meeting in Dublin went on into the small hours to decide whether or not the Easter Rising would go ahead. Present at that meeting were Pádraig Pearse, Tomás MacDonagh, Joseph Plunkett, Seán MacDiarmada and Diarmuid Lynch. Diarmuid Lynch was the only one of the five still alive a month later. A member of the Supreme Council of the IRB, Lynch was at the heart of plans for the Rising and was aide-de-camp to James Connolly in the GPO. Initially sentenced to death, his sentence was commuted to ten years penal servitude. On his release in 1917 Lynch became active again, and along with Michael Collins and Thomas Ashe, participated in the reorganisation of the IRB. He was again arrested and deported to America in 1918. While working frenetically as the national secretary of the FOIF (Friends of Irish Freedom) in the US he was elected as a TD for the Cork South-East constituency in the 1918 elections. Later sharp differences arose between De Valera and the FOIF about how funds raised in America should be spent. Diarmuid Lynch's part in the struggle for independence deserves to be better known and more widely acknowledged.

 

Eileen McGough, originally from Killarney, worked as national-school teacher from 1964 to 2000. She is active in the local community of Tracton, near Kinsale, where Diarmuid Lynch was born and raised, and has published two local history books. Her book on Lynch, Diarmuid Lynch: A Forgotten Irish Patriot, which was researched through his own extensive writings as well as many other primary sources, goes a long way to rightly reinstate him as one of the most influential figures in early 20th century Irish nationalism.

 

 

 

Slán go fóill,

 

Marian

 

 

 

 

 

duchaslecturesandfieldtrips@gmail.com

 

Around the turn of the century, Scottish businessman and philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie, decided that the "best gift" to give to a community was a free public library. Carnegie credited his remarkable success to access to library books in his childhood and teenage years and believed strongly that educational opportunities should be free and accessible to all. In 1898, Carnegie put his beliefs into action and started a funding program that would lay the groundwork for the public library system in the US and Canada. By the time his corporation ceased funding the projects 20 years later, over 2500 libraries had been built around the world using the "Carnegie formula," which provided initial capital for the construction of the building with municipalities committing to carrying ongoing operational costs.

 

Stair na hÉireann/History of Ireland

 

 

 

Irish History, Culture, Heritage, Language, Mythology

 

Kilmorna House, Co Kerry

 

    Oh Mother Ireland, dry your tears

 

    Be ever full of cheer,

 

    Pray for those noble volunteers

 

    Who fought to set you free.

 

    When freedom comes to Ireland’s sons

 

    Brave Irishmen will say

 

    “Lay down your guns, the fight is won

 

    At the dawning of the day”

 

 

 

The months of April and May, 1921 saw a lot of bloodshed in the parish of what is now Moyvane-Knockanure near Listowel in North Kerry. This was, of course, during the Irish War of Independence. On Thursday, 7 April, Mick Galvin, an IRA volunteer, was killed by British forces during an ambush at Kilmorna in Knockanure. The IRA had been lying in wait to ambush a group of British soldiers who were cycling to Listowel after a visit to Sir Arthur Vicars at Kilmorna House, his residence. Vicars had been Ulster King of Arms and custodian of the Irish Crown Jewels which were kept in Dublin Castle, the burglary of which in 1907, although Vicars was never seriously suspected of being involved in their theft, led to his ruin and, ultimately, to his death.

 

 

 

Found guilty of negligence and dismissed from his post, ruined socially and financially with neither position nor pension, Vicars, at the invitation of his half-brother, George Mahony, came to live in Kilmorna House. When George died in 1912, he left the estate to Sir Arthur’s sister, Edith, who lived in London. She decided that Sir Arthur could live out his life in Kilmorna. That he remained there during the War of Independence when British Forces and Sinn Fein activists were matching atrocities was foolhardy rather than courageous, and typical of the man who was generally regarded by the local people as a decent, if eccentric, gentleman. But he was also passing information on IRA activity to the British army.

 

 

 

On Thursday, 14 April 1921, Kilmorna House was raided by the local IRA. One of the party, Lar Broder, told the steward, Michael Murphy, that they had come to burn the house. Which they proceeded to do. However three members of the Flying Column led Vicars to the end of the garden and shot him. (One of his executioners, Jack Sheehan, was himself shot dead by the British army near Knockanure on May 26). On 12 May, Crown forces shot dead three members of the Flying Column at Gortaglanna, Knockanure, a short distance from Kilmorna (Patrick Walsh, Jeremiah Lyons and Patrick Dalton).

 

 

 

The Liberator (Tralee) 1914-1939, Tuesday, August 11, 1914; Page: 5

 

At the Listowel Petty Sessions, held on Saturday, Mr. D. M. Rattray presided. Other magistrates in attendance were: Messrs. J C Harnett, and J. Boland, M.C.C ,

 

ORDERED FROM THE DRILL FIELD,

 

Morgan Sheehy, publican, Church Street, summoned John Stack, blacksmith, for threatening language, and sought to bind him to the peace. There was also a cross case of a like nature Mr. Marshall, solicitor, appeared for the complainant, and Mr. J. Moran, for the defendant.

 

 

 

It appeared from the evidence of Mr. Sheehy, the complainant, that on the evening of the 28th July, he was at drill with his corps in the Sportsfield, which, for some time, past, was confined to the members of the Corps, when the defendant entered the field ; he (complainant ), with two or three other Volunteers was ordered by the man in command to put him out; they did so, he (defendant) offering but passive resistance; about an hour and a half afterwards, he (complainant) was standing at his door when the defendant and Michael Fitzgerald came across from the archway at the opposite side of the street, and said to him: "Morgan, you're one of the men who did the dirty work to-night" ; he (complainant) said he would do the same to his father if he was ordered to do so by his commanding officer; the defendant then said he would pin him to the door and threatened to have his life; he (complainant) then sent for the police, , and Constable Laffy came on the scene but the defendant had gone away.

 

 

 

The defendant, Mr. Stack, sworn , said he went to the sports field that evening, and on entering was objected to by the gate-keeper, but went in any way, leaned against the paling, and was not long there when Morgan Sheehy, Pat Landers, and someone else—Mr. Marshall: And perhaps Mr. Moran's son. (Laughter).

 

 

 

Mr. Moran: And that's the reason I'm defending him. (Laughter). Witness, continuing, said they asked him to leave, saying no one but members of the Volunteer Corps was allowed on the drill field, he left and about an hour afterwards himself and Michael Fitzgerald were chatting on the street opposite complainant's door, when he (complainant) came out and said if he (defendant) didn't; leave he would get him removed ; he (witness) asked why he should leave, but shortly afterwards himself and Fitzgerald went down to Mr. Enright's public house and had a drink, and while having it Morgan Sheehy came to the office door and burst it in and challenged him to come out and light but he did not go out; some time after, himself and Michael Fitzgerald left the house, but saw no policeman outside. Continuing, witness added that when he went to the Sportsfield, he did not know the rules and regulations, but went with the intention of joining the Volunteers, and still intended to do so.

 

 

 

In reply to Mr. Marshall, witness admitted that he was cautioned by John Nolan, the gate-keeper, but he went in anyway; he had to go across the street to Morgan  Sheehy's side to go down to Mr. Enright's publichouse; he didn't, remember about saying he would pin the complainant to the door or in any other way threatening him ; but the first insult he (witness) got was that if he did not leave the street he (complainant) would get the police to remove him.

 

 

 

Mr. James Enright, examined, said John Stack and Michael Fitzgerald came to his house, and went, into the office for a drink.. They were there two or three minutes when Morgan Sheehy came in and opened the office door, John Stack banged the door and Sheehy went away; he (witness) heard no challenge to fight.

 

Mr. Marshall: There was no question of fighting by Mr.Sheehy ?  No. He (witness) saw Constable Laffy outside the door at the time.

 

Michael Fitzgerald sworn, said he and the defendant were talking on the street for some time; when they crossed the street, inclined to go into Morgan Sheehy's: they met him (complainant) at the door. John Stack said something to him about, what happened in the Sports field, when he (complainant) said he would do the same to his father, and Stack then said he would pin him to the door; himself' (witness) and Stack then went, down to Mr. Enright's and Morgan Sheehy came to the office door and called out Stack, but Stack would not go out. The Chairman said the magistrates were unanimous in binding John Stack to the peace for twelve months, himself in £5 and two sureties of £2 10s. each.

 

Knockanure Old IRA, included Pat Carroll, Toronto; Patrick Casey, New York;, Denis Goulding Chicago;, Michael and Hugh Goulding Knockanure;, Paddy McMahon Knockanure, ; Bill Flaherty Knockanure;, Jack McElligott Knockanure;, Mick Mulvihill Coilagurteen;, Danny and Lar Broder and Bill Fitzmaurice Coilagurteen. Jerry Kennelly Knockanure.

 

 

FLU: Three Percent of the World’s Population Died in the 1918 Flu Pandemic

 

Blue lips. Blackened skin. Blood leaking from noses and mouths. Coughing fits so intense they ripped muscles. Crippling headaches and body pains that felt like torture. These were the symptoms of a disease that was first recorded in Haskell.

 

Kerry News 1894-1941, Monday, July 27, 1925; Page: 2

 

DEATH of Patrick Enright. Greenville, Listowel, Captain during the Anglo-Irish and recent wars of the Listowel Volunteer Company, died at the Hospital, Listowel, early on Saturday morning.

 

 

 

The story of his death is the story of Gortaglanna, "that field of fate and blood," whose name should be changed to "Gort an Air." On the 12th May, 1921 with his comrades Jerry Lyons, Paddy Dalton and Con Dee he was captured unarmed on the roadside between Listowel and Knockanure by a large force of Tans.

 

 

 

Mick Galvin ;He was a member of the Flying Column from its inauguration and met his death in action at Kilmeaney Wood between Listowel and Kilmorna on the 7th April, 1921.

 

 

 

Kerryman 1904-current, Saturday, December 18, 1971; Page: 13

 

Death of Knockanure  Volunteer

 

MR. MICHAEL GOULDING, Knockanure. who died at an advanced age, was a member of the 6th Batt.. Kerry No. 1 Brigade Old I.R.A. He joined the Volunteers in 1916,

 

 

 

Irish Independent 1905-current, 30.10.1971, page 21

 

. CRON1N (Bunagara, Listowel, Co, Kerry) — Oct. 29, 1971, at Glanmire Hospital, Cork, Thomas Cronin, member of 6th Batt., Knockanure Company Old I.R.A.; deeply regretted by his loving stepbrother, relatives and friends. R.I.P.

 

 

 

 

 

Kerry Reporter 1924-1935, Saturday, April 23, 1932; Page: 5

 

 

 

Republican Kerry, and especially North Kerry, will pay honour to the memory of some of its dead soldiers on Sunday next, when at Gale Cemetery, midway between Listowel and Liselton, a memorial will be unveiled.

 

The names of the six men to be honoured are Commandant Sean Lenane. 6th Batt., Kerry No. 1 Brigade; Capt. Paddy Walsh, 3rd Batt. Kerry No. 1 Brigade; Section Commander Michael Galvin, Ballydonoghue. Co., 3rd Batt., Kerry No. 1 Brigade; Vol. Michael Lynch, Ballydonoghue Co.. 3rd Batt. Kerry No. 1 Brigade: Vol. Thos. Leane, Ballydonoghue Co., 3rd Batt. Kerry No. 1 Brigade; Vol. Michael Lynch, Ballydonoghue Co., 3rd. Batt., Kerry No. 1 Brigade.

 

 

 

Kerryman 1904-current, Friday, April 12, 1985; Page: 6

 

Duagh Notes

 

Sympathy is also extended to the wife, sons, daughters, relatives and friends of the late John (Jack) McMahon, Old IRA, of Knockanure.

 

Kerryman 1904-current, Saturday, May 24, 1930; Page: 8

 

GORTAGLANNA. A Field and a Memory.

 

Padraig O'Ceallachan, O.S., Knockanure, recited a decade of the Rosary in Irish. He then addressed the crowd in Irish, and afterwards in English, introducing the speaker, Mr. John Ryan, Caherciveen. 

 

Statement of Archbishop Eamon Martin on the death of former Taoiseach Mr Liam Cosgrave RIP

 

October 2017.

 

Archbishop Eamon Martin, the Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, has issued a statement on the death of former Taoiseach Mr Liam Cosgrave RIP. Archbishop Eamon said, “As with many people across the country, I was saddened last evening to hear of the death of the former Taoiseach Mr Liam Cosgrave. 

 

 

 

“Following in the political footsteps of his beloved father, Liam Cosgrave was admired by people the length and breadth of Ireland as a wise, modest and kind man of great integrity.  During uncertain times in our history Liam Cosgrave did not shirk from making important and challenging decisions which demanded decisive political, economic and moral leadership. 

 

 

 

“A man of strong faith, Liam Cosgrave placed great value on the primacy of conscience in his political career and in his private life.  One of the high points of his life was his attendance at the 1975 canonisation in Rome of the martyred Saint Oliver Plunkett during which he read one of the readings at the Mass.

 

 

 

“At this sad time for Mr Cosgrave’s family, friends and colleagues in politics, I pray for all those who mourn him and for the happy repose of his soul.

 

 

 

“Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dilís.”

 

 

 

From Listowel Connection

 

A Poem from The Trenches of WW1 is uncovered

 

 

 

This photo and story is from The Irish Post

 

 

 

 

 

The photograph was taken at Cornelius’ home at 40 Shannon Street in Bandon after his return from the war.

 

It shows the O’Mahoney family posing for the camera in front of their humble Co. Cork home – their graceful mother sat wearing a smile, exuding pride.

 

 

 

A MOVING poem written by an Irish soldier during World War One has been unearthed in an attic in Britain over a century on.

 

 

 

Peter ‘Derry’ McCarron was clearing the house of his late mother in Kendal, Cumbria when he discovered the poem within a stack of old documents.

 

The verses were written by his great-uncle Cornelius O’Mahoney, who was born at 40 Shannon St (now Oliver Plunkett St) in Bandon, Co. Cork in 1889.

 

Cornelius was 26 when he fought in the Dardanelles, Turkey in 1915 for the 1st Royal Munster Fusiliers – who lost over a third of their regiment during the Great War.

 

His beautiful poem – titled simply ‘The Royal Munster Fusiliers’ – was dedicated to the “memory of our dear comrades who died in Seddul-Bahr, April 25 1915.” It reads:

 

 

 

‘They are gone, they are gone

 

Yet their memory shall cherish

 

Our brave boys who perished

 

And crossed over the bar

 

O’er their graves now the wild hawk

 

Doth mournfully hoverIn that lone weary jungle

 

Of wild Seddul-BahrIn

 

In the highest of spirits they

 

Went through the Dardanelles

 

And scattered their rifles

 

O’er the hills afar

 

Not knowing their days

 

On this Earth they were numbered

 

When the regiment arrivedIn wild Seddul-Bahr

 

Shot down in their gloom

 

And the pride of their manhood

 

But God’s will be done

 

’Tis the fortune of war

 

With no fond mother’s words

 

To console their last moments

 

Far, far from their homesteads

 

In wild Seddul-Bahr.

 

May they rest, may they rest

 

Unhallowed in story

 

Tho’ their graves they are cold

 

Neath that lone Turkish star

 

Yet their presence is missed

 

From the ranks of the Munsters

 

Our heroes who slumber

 

In wild Seddul-Bahr.’

 

 

 

Following the Royal Munster Fusiliers’ disastrous campaign in the Dardanelles, Cornelius O’Mahoney’s unit was redeployed to the Western Front after a humiliating retreat.

 

“It was a case of out of the frying pan and into the fire,” Derry, who was delighted to discover his great-uncle’s moving stanzas so many years on, told The Irish Post.

 

“Cornelius thankfully survived the Western Front and most of his family went to England after the warFollowing the Irish War of Indepencence, the Irish Civil War and establishment of the independent Irish Free State in 1922, The Royal Munster Fusiliers were disbanded.

 

On June 12 of that year, five regimental Colours were laid up in a ceremony at St George’s Hall, Windsor Castle in the presence of HM King George V.

 

Nevertheless, the regiment chose to have its standard remain in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin.

 

The Royal Munsters won three Victoria Crosses in total during the Great War.

 

“Cornelius died in Shanakiel, Co. Cork in the late 1950s. His youngest son John Joe stayed in Bandon and died only around 15 years ago,” Derry said.

 

He added: “I found his poem among old documents when we cleared my mother’s house in Cumbria. It was a beautiful surprise.”

 

Derry kindly provided The Irish Post with a picture of a young Cornelius with his mother, two brothers, and two sisters taken almost a century ago.

 

SANDES: At the outbreak of the First World War, Flora Sandes volunteered to become a nurse but was rejected due to a lack of qualifications.

 

 

 

Sandes nonetheless joined a St. John Ambulance unit raised by American nurse Mabel Grouitch and on August 12, 1914 left England for Serbia with a group of 36 women to try to aid the humanitarian crisis there.

 

 

 

They arrived at the town of Kragujevac which was the base for the Serbian forces fighting against the Austro-Hungarian offensive.

 

 

 

Sandes joined the Serbian Red Cross and worked in an ambulance for the Second Infantry Regiment of the Serbian Army.

 

 

 

During the difficult retreat to the sea through Albania, Sandes was separated from her unit and for her own safety enrolled as a soldier with a Serbian regiment.

(Break)

Flora was imprisoned by the Gestapo - the German political police - and was freed after a week, but had to report to a Gestapo officer every week, her beloved husband died of heart failure in 1941.

 

 

 

She moved around several times before settling again in Suffolk.  After a brief illness, she died at Ipswich and East Suffolk Hospital on 24 November 1956 of ‘obstructive jaundice’, aged 80.

 

 

 

 

Daniel Desmond Sheehan

 

September 12, 2011 sheehanofireland   Leave a comment

 

Daniel Desmond (D.D.) Sheehan, barrister-at-law, Captain,

 

May 28th 1873 – November 28th 1948.

 

Teacher, journalist, labour leader (Irish Land and Labour Association), Member of Parliament for mid Cork 1901 – 1918, barrister-at-law, soldier in WWI, author.

 

Sheehan’s Cottages. Under the Labourers (Ireland) Act 1906, 40,000 cottages on an acre of land were built around the country. Known locally in Cork as Sheehan’s cottages due to D.D. Sheehan’s campaigning as part of the ILLA. He organised the building of the Irish Model Village at Tower near Blarney.

 

From 1909, He campaigned for the AFIL – All for Ireland League. The aim was for an all Ireland by consent.

 

Served with the Royal Munster Fusiliers and other units during The Great War from 1914 to 1917. Decommissioned in late 1917 due to ill health; receiving the honorary rank of Captain.

 

Wrote “Ireland since Parnell” published in 1921.

 

Worked as a Journalist. Exposed slums in the Dublin region. Editor of the Dublin Chronicle from 1929.  During the 1930s provided legal advice and campaigned for Buy Irish Goods.

 

Died in 1948 and was buried at Glasnevin National Cemetery.

 

Ashe Memorial Hall Rededicated To Thomas Ashe, 23 May 2017.

 

The Hall was built on Denny estate lands and which was purchased by Tralee Urban District Council in 1922 –the park, including the site for the Hall, bought for  £5,575.

 

The building was designed by Thomas J Cullen Architect, Dublin and John Kenny & Sons Limited was the contractor. Construction, at a cost of £32,480 commenced in 1924 and was completed in 1928.

 

Dublin Food Supply Company 1916

 

Posted on 23rd December 2016 damien

 

 

 

One of the legacies of 1916 in Dublin was the increased price of food and milk. By the year’s end, due to poor supply and profiteering, this became a crisis. In December 1916, a committee was formed whose object was the supply of cheap food to the poor of Dublin in difficulties due to either the Great War or the ‘local Irish situation’. Jesuit Tom Finlay, who had previously worked with Sir Horace Plunkett in the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society, established the Dublin Food Supply Company (1916-1926) at a meeting in the Royal Hibernian Academy, Lincoln Place.

 

 

 

The following individuals became part of the Dublin Food Supply Company committee: Lady Frances Moloney (Chairperson) (in 1918, she became one of the founders of the Missionary Sisters of St Columban), Miss Conroy, Miss Janet Cunningham, Mrs Wilson, Mrs Cogan, Mrs O’Brien, Mr McKee, Mr Fallon, Mr Desmond O’Brien, Mr Cruise O’Brien, Mr Michael J. Dillon and Mr W.A. Ryan.

 

 

 

It was agreed that 4 Killarney Street (later transferred to 10 Lower Gloucester Street) should be taken temporarily as a shop, from Monday 18 December 1916. The society had £137 in their account and Fr Tom Finlay SJ was able to source ten gallons of milk, Lady Moloney secured a half a ton of potatoes and Mr O’ Brien, bags for the potatoes from IAWS. The milk crisis of 1917 resulted in the Corporation of Dublin requesting that the Dublin Food Supply Company take over the distribution of the milk supply previously provided by them. By 1918, depots where food and milk could be bought were located at: Grattan Street; Francis Street (later transferred to 88 Thomas Street); North King Street and Old Camden Street. By 1924, further properties were bought at Gloucester Place Upper; Middle Gardiner Street and No. 1 Pimlico, parish of St. Catherine, city of Dublin to ‘carry on business solely for the purpose of supplying to the poor, all or any manner of household supplies at such a price and no greater over and above the wholesale price as will cover rents and other costs of distribution’. In February 1925, the Dublin Food Supply Company was running a deficit and the falling off in trade due to the business depression resulted in the ceasing of operations n 1926.

 

 

 

http://www.jesuitarchives.ie/blog/dublin-food-supply-company-1916/

 

MORE ON 1.13 MICHAEL (MICK) GEOGHEGAN 1899-1930.

 

https://georgelangandotcom.wordpress.com/tag/johnny/

 

 

 

 On September 25th 1917 Mick travelled to Limerick City to the recruiting office and enlisted in the Prince of Wales Leinster Regiment (The Royal Canadians) for the duration of the war. He underwent his training at Birr in Co. Offaly and was posted to the Machine Gun Corps in Glencorse, Scotland.  In the month of March 1918 he joined the 2nd battalion and was posted to France.  In 1918 the German offensive had hit the Western Front and somewhere along the line Mick, who was deployed as a sniper marksman went missing and was found to be a prisoner of war in Limburg 21/27th March 1918. Following the armistice of November 1918, Mick was released and discharged from the army in February 1919. Not having his full of army life and with the fighting spirit still hot in his blood he re-enlisted almost immediately at Portsmouth in the south of England and was posted to India landing in Bombay November 21st 1919. He returned from India in April 1922. In July that same year the Leinsters were disbanded and soon after Mick returned to Ireland to join the offensive against the Black and Tans. He was arrested by the said Tans in Newcastle West on one occasion and narrowly escaped death at Blaine-bridge on another when three Crossley Tenders drove down the Glin to Athea road passing by the spot where Mick and his comrades were billeted for the night. Was it not for the sentries whistle (who more likely than not was Jack Griffin, Glenagragra, Glin they would all be massacred. It is of the belief that Jack Griffin was the designated whistle man during fight against the Tan’s.

 

 

 

My great grandfather Tom Langan of Glenagragra, Glin also joined the British Army but at an earlier time. Tom was wounded whilst fighting with the 1st Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers during the Battle of Tel-El-Kebir, Egypt, September 1882. On June 8th 1883, he had the honour of being presented with The Bronze Star for his heroics in the said campaign. Following his wounding, Tom, along with many of his fellow injured colleagues, all returned to Aldershot in Surrey.  (Tom’s mother in law was Margaret Mackessy a sister to Mary Mackessy, Patrick Geoghegan’s wife) Tom Langan was born in Kilcolman, later moved to Creagh St. Glin before settling in Glashapullagh, Athea, Co. Limerick. Although his address is referred to as Glenagragra through all these writings it’s actually Glashapullagh as the house is situated inside the Glasha river which is the bounds between the parishes of Glin and Athea.

 

 

 

More relations

 

Thomas F. O’Connor, b. Jan 15th 1919, New Haven. Military service – Army WW2 African-European theatre, awarded Purple Heart. Member of New Haven Police for 25yrs. Died Oct 23rd 1998 at Yale-New Haven Hospital. Married to Uretta Smith.

 

Hewson, Falkiner Minchen (1862–1926)

 

 

 

There passed away on the 16th June Captain Falkiner Minchen Hewson, of Highfields Station, in the Augathella district, Queensland.

 

 

 

He was the son of Mr. William Minchen Hewson, of Finnge House, Kerry, Ireland, and was born in 1862. Upon the completion of his education and at the age of 19 years he migrated to Australia, and gained colonial experience on Tambo Station, Queensland, under Mr. Terrick Hamilton. In 1895 he purchased Highfields, which he made his home until his death. He also had Laguna Station, Augathella, and was associated with many interests both in Brisbane and England.

 

 

 

Although well over the age for active service, he offered his services, and as a Captain in the Transport Division in the British Army did useful work at the front all through the war. The late Capt. Hewson married Miss Dodd, of Melbourne. His elder son, on finishing his course at Cambridge, came out to Australia and assisted his father on Highfields Station. Mrs. Hewson, their daughter, and younger son, who is still at school, are living in London at Uplands, East Sheen. Mr. Frank Hewson, who lives in Sydney, and owns Talleyrand Station, Longreach, Queensland, is a brother of the late Capt. Hewson. (See Picture below link)

 

http://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/hewson-falkiner-minchen-492

 

Maurice Reidy, third son of Michael Reidy of Castleisland was the only one who did not go to USA. He went as a very young man to Tralee and was successful with Healy Brothers. He had nine [?] children most of whom went of USA except:

 

 

 

                                                                                                Michael Reidy - architect

 

                                                                                                Maurice Reidy - killed in Great War

 

                                                                                                John Reidy - missing in Great War

 

Eileen Reidy - in London from Cork College [author of this letter]

 

 

 

There was no issue of Michael, Maurice, John or Eileen Reidy. There was no issue for Cecilia Reidy of Boston.

 

(Break)

 

John and Mary Reidy of Beaufort, Killarney, Kerry.

 

Issue:

 

Rev John Reidy, Professor of Theology, Killarney Seminary. Lager Dean Reidy of Kerry living at St John's Presbytery, Tralee.

 

Mary Reidy, Domestic Science teacher Kerry. No issued. Died unmarried [??]

 

Joe Reidy, Barrister of Law, Dublin and Killarney 

 

1911 Heat Wave

 

Fourth of July celebrations across New England and New York City were interrupted in 1911 by a deadly heat wave. Record highs were set during the week-and-a-half scorcher that sent temperatures soaring into the 110s in some areas. Eggs could be cooked on the sidewalks and tar streets melted, trapping cars and pedestrians. The 11-day hot spell took the lives of 2,000 in New England and 211 more in New York City before thunderstorms cooled down the Northeast. Humans weren’t the only casualties of the heat wave. In New York alone about 600 horses died from the record high temperatures.

 

DORE GLIN

 

 

 

PORTRAITS 1916 Eamon Dore. RTÉ.ie EamonDore describes the months leading up to the Easter Rising. Check out video on www.rte.ie/portraits 1916.

 

Posted on 14/01/2017    by glinnews

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interview with Eamon Dore, a native of Glin, Co. Limerick. He was a confidante of Seán MacDiarmada and Tom Clarke. He ended up to marry Nora Daly, Kathleen Clarke’s sister in 1918.

 

“We Careered Up Moore Street With The British Firing Down On Us” 1916

 

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WAR AND CONFLICT

 

back to Portraits 1916 exhibition

 

 

 

Eamon Dore describes the months leading up to the Easter Rising. He fought in the GPO during Easter Week and talks about the fighting, the leaders, O’Rahilly’s charge and the surrender.

 

Eamon Dore was from Glin, County Limerick and was studying medicine in UCD, Dublin. He was a member of the IRB and joined the Irish Volunteers soon after their inception. This interview begins with Dore recalling the meeting of the Military Council of the IRB where they decided on the date of the Rising. According to Dore, “They’d all their arrangements made”. The tension was high in Dublin as it was feared that the authorities were going to arrest the Volunteer leadership at any moment.

 

While the IRB were finalising their plans, James Connolly was preparing his Citizen Army to strike a blow also. A meeting was arranged with Connolly, which took place in Dolphin’s Barn on the south side of the city. After this the IRB and Connolly agreed they would fight together.

 

Dore was very close to both Tom Clarke and Seán MacDiarmada, who he met sometime around 1914 while in Tom Clarke’s shop on Parnell Street. Remembering that first meeting Dore says,

 

I was really thrilled with the sincerity that seemed to come out of his face.

 

At the time of the Rising Eamon Dore was on holiday at home in Limerick. As soon as he heard the Rising was on, he made his way to Dublin and managed to get into the GPO. Dore was ordered by MacDiarmada to escort the Daly sisters to Kingsbridge (Heuston) Station. The sister were to bring word to Cork and Limerick that the Rising had begun. He got the girls safely away but when returning to the GPO he noticed a large number of British troops in the area surrounding O’Connell Street.

 

After some difficulty he made it back to the GPO but as he was about to enter the building he came under fire from the military. Unharmed he got into the post office and reported his findings to Tom Clarke, MacDiarmada and James Connolly. Not believing Dore, Connolly left the GPO to see for himself the situation, and was shot.

 

By Friday the position in the GPO was becoming untenable. Even though the building was ablaze and beginning to collapse Dore was amazed at his comrades,

 

They were all standing there as if nothing was wrong. The whole place was on fire, the shelling was still going on, the heat was intense… and here were those fellas waiting for further instructions.

 

Dore was chosen to go out with the advance guard lead by ‘The’ O’Rahilly. Describing the charge up Moore Street he says,

 

It struck us that we couldn’t get any further, the British were too strong there. We’d no hope of doing anything.

 

O’Rahilly and a number of other Volunteers were killed. Dore and his comrades managed to find shelter in a nearby yard where they remained until the surrender. He was interned in Frongoch Internment Camp. At the time of the Easter Rising he was attached to ‘B’ Company, 1st Battalion, Dublin Brigade, Irish Volunteers. On his release he rejoined the IRB and during the War of Independence served as an Intelligence Officer IRA Limerick. He married Nora Daly in 1918, whom he had brought safely to Kingsbridge Station during the Rising. Eamon Dore died in 1972, he was seventy-six years old.

 

Eamon Dore was interviewed for the RTÉ Television project ‘Portraits 1916’ in 1965.

 

 

 

Glin Historical Society will meet on Thursday February 2nd 2017 at 8 p.m. in Cloverfield Centre.

 

There has been a recent exciting discovery of documentation including new photos and manifests relating to boats and trading at Glin Pier.

 

Come along and bring a friend to reminisce and stroll down memory lane.

 

 

 

https://glin.info/2017/01/19/interview-at-glin-church-in-december-featuring-john-sheehan-of-the-dubliners-and-members-of-glin-development-by-john-prendergast/

 

 

 

  We are back! Glin Historical Society will meet on Thursday February 2nd at 8 p.m. in Cloverfield Centre. There has been a recent exciting discovery of documentation including new photos and manifests relating to boats and trading at Glin Pier. Come along and bring a friend to reminisce and stroll down […]

 

 

 

 

 

Ebenezer Turner, the Inland Revenue officer, originally from Scotland who was resident in Milltown between 1869 and 1875, writes  his memoirs:

 

 

 

Ebenezer Turner “Six Years in Ireland – Part One”, The Venture, Vol. 6, pages 93-111 (Edinburgh, 1897)

 

TALK ON THE 5TH KERRYMAN KILLED DURING THE RISING

 

 

 

FEATURING READINGS BY POET BRENDAN KENNELLY

 

Duagh native and UCD historian Dr Mary McAuliffe will give a talk at 8pm on Thursday, November 24th in Duagh national school hall on Robert Dillon, from Lyreacrompane, who has now become known as the 'Fifth Kerryman' killed during the Easter Rising.

 

Dr McAuliffe - one of the co-editors of 'Kerry 1916: Histories and Legacies of the Easter Rising - has researched the story of the north Kerry native who was a successful businessman in Dublin's Moore Street. He died tragically while trying to get his family to safety during the worst fighting of the Rising. Witnessing Dillon's death on Moore Street, Pádraig Pearse is said to have finally decided to surrender to prevent further civilian casualties. Robert Dillon's name is now on the list of the Rising dead in Glasnevin Cemetery. His descendants are the Dillon family in the parish.

 

Dr McAuliffe and fellow author Owen O'Shea will also talk on the other north Kerry men and women who took part in the Rising and who were active during the Revolutionary Years. Poet and Ballylongford native Brendan Kennelly will give a poetry reading and there will also be a musical interlude with a 1916 theme.

 

This event is a fundraiser for the local Transition Year students who are travelling with the Hope Foundation to Kolkata and entry is €5 per family. The book on the period, Kerry 1916: Histories and Legacies of the Easter Rising - A Centenary Record will be for sale at a special price on the night. All are welcome.

 

Whenever you approach any of God's children -- no matter who or where they are -- treat them with dignity, integrity, honor, and humility. Remember, they are kings and queens in God's eyes.

 

James Goll.

 

 

 

 

 

Teahan Kerry

 

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NOT19170706.2.9?query=sweeney%20kerry

 

ROLL OF HONOUR.

 

North Otago Times, Volume CV, Issue 13925, 6 July 1917

 

 

 

 

 

John Kane of Co Kerry

 

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH19160929.2.92?query=sweeney%20kerry

 

ROLL OF HONOUR.

 

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16347, 29 September 1916

 

 

 

Cronin Co Kerry

 

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ODT19170630.2.88?query=sweeney%20kerry

 

ROLL OF HONOUR

 

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17044, 30 June 1917

 

 

 

 

 

Butler Co Kerry

 

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/SUNCH19170630.2.12?query=sweeney%20kerry

 

CASUALTIES.

 

Sun, Volume IV, Issue 1056, 30 June 1917

 

Mossy of Glin County Limerick, was the second son of ‘Big Maurice’ O’Shaughnessy (1878 – 1943) by his wife Margaret Colbert. Margaret was a first cousin of Captain Con Colbert who commanded the rebels at the Jameson Distillery during the Easter Rising. Colbert was subsequently court-martialled and shot

LYNCH: Thanks for the list. Going through the names I came across the name of Captain Francis Spring, 24th.Regiment, Tralee parish church. My great grandfather Michael Lynch served over twelve years in India with the 88th.Regt. of Foot. He received the Indian Mutiny medal when the British Government suppressed the revolt by the East India Company, the most powerful trading company in history. In March 1869 he was discharged as medically unfit due the effects of the India climate. He returned to Tarbert married a local girl having qualified for an army pension . A grandson of his also named Michael was killed in France in 1916 while serving with the Royal Munster Fusiliers. So there is a lot of history there.

 

Bartholemew (Batt) O’Connor was born in Brosna, East Kerry on 4 July 1870. Educated at the local national school, he worked with his father and brother as a stonemason and in 1893, emigrated to the USA. He returned home in 1898 and moved to Dublin and in 1904 he branched out as a sub-contractor building houses.

 

 

 

He joined the Gaelic League in Dublin and later the Irish Volunteers and was sworn into the IRB. During Easter 1916 he was sent to Kerry to await instructions about the Rising

 

planned in the county. However upon hearing of the arrest of Sir Roger Casement and the loss of the German guns he returned to Dublin and was arrested by the police. He was taken to Kilmainham Jail where he was sentenced to be shot but was deported to Wandsworth Jail and later Frongoch prison camp in Wales.

 

 

 

He formed a close friendship with Michael Collins after their release and helped him in re-organising the IRB network and the Sinn Féin organisation. O’Connor was entrusted with the gold collected from the Dáil loan and buried it under the concrete floor of his house. This was never found despite frequent raids during the War of Independence. He was elected as a Sinn Féin councillor in 1920 and soon became chairman of the council which swore allegiance to Dáil Éireann. His various houses were used as safe-houses during the War of Independence and he himself was on the run throughout 1921. He persuaded Michael Collins to go to London to form part of the Anglo-Irish Treaty delegation.

 

 

 

He remained a councillor for Cumann na nGaedheal after 1922 and was a joint treasurer of the party. He was elected to the Dáil in 1924 and remained a TD until his death in 1935. His funeral was attended by many of the then Fianna Fáil government.

 

 

 

(UCD Archives) Letters from Batt O’Connor, mainly to Máire and Billy [in America], analysing the implications of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, the Treaty debates, the possibility of civil war, the attitudes of Eamon de Valera, Cathal Brugha and Michael Collins, and the euphoria of Collins going to Dublin Castle ‘to take over all its power and all it stood for’. Dwells at length on the character and significance of Collins (December 1921–January 1922). Includes a letter written from Rome when accompanying William T. Cosgrave, President of the Executive Council, and his wife on a visit there; copy of a letter from George McGrath, Comptroller and Auditor General, to O’Connor about the deposit of gold reserve in the Bank of Ireland.

 

http://www.generalmichaelcollins.com/life-times/in-memorium/batt-oconnor/

 

Aherns in Ireland's Memorial Records 1914-1918

The following list has been extracted from Ireland's Memorial Records
1914-1918. For additional information and names, see the index
ofAherns in Commonwealth War Grave records.

AHERN, Cornelius. Reg. No. 12330, Rank, Private, Royal Dublin
Fusiliers, 11th Battalion ; killed in action, France, July 1, 1906 ;
born Cork. [see obituary]

AHERN, Daniel. Reg. No. 4165. Rank, Private, Royal Munster Fusiliers,
8th Battalion ; died of wounds, France, September 1, 1916 ; born
Castleconnell, Co. Limerick.

AHERN, David. Reg. No. 11124. Rank, Sergeant, 1st Royal Dublin
Fusiliers ; killed in action, France, April 16, 1917 ; born Middleton,
Co. Cork.

AHERN, Edward. Reg. No. 4634. Rank, Private, Royal Munster Fusiliers,
1st Battalion ; died Gallipoli, December 5, 1915 ; born St. Ann's,
Cork.

AHERN, Francis Australian Imperial Forces ; killed in action, April 16, 1918.

AHERN, James. Reg. No. 7265. Rank, Private, The Oxfordshire and
Buckinghamshire Light Infantry ; died, Mesopotamia, November 22, 1917
; born Cork,

AHERN, John. Reg. No. 26. Rank, Private, 6th Leinster Regiment ; died
of wounds, Egypt, March 21, 1918 ; born Limerick.

AHERN, John. Reg. No. G/4943. Rank, Private, The Royal Sussex
Regiment, 7th Battalion ; killed in action, British Expeditionary
Force, July 7, 1916 ; born Tralee, Co. Kerry ; age 19. [see obituary]

AHEARN, John Edward. Reg. No. 7901. Rank, Private, Royal Inniskilling
Fusiliers, 1st Battalion ; died of wounds, France, July 4, 1916 ; born
St, Heliers, Jersey.

AHERN, John Patrick. Reg. No. 1811. Rank, Lance-Corporal, The London
Regiment, 3rd Battalion ; killed in action, France, March 10, 1915 ;
born Skibbereen [Co. Cork].

AHERN, Joseph. Reg. No. 6728. Rank, Private, Irish Guards, 2nd
Battalion ; killed in action, France, July 31, I917 ; born Lehenagh,
Co. Cork.

AHERN, Joseph. Reg. No. Spts/3570. Rank, Private, The Royal Fusiliers,
24th Battalion ; killed in action, France, November 13, 1916 ; born
Cork.

AHEARNE, Michael. Reg. No. 897. Rank, Gunner, Machine Gun Corps (Motor
Branch) ; killed in action, France, March 11, 1916 ; born St. Mary's,
Tipperary.

AHERN. Michael. Reg. No. 9988. Rank, Private, The Royal Irish
Regiment, 1st Battalion ; died, home, April 13, 1915 ; born St.
Munchin's, Limerick.

AHERN, Michael. Reg. No. 53068. Rank, Sergeant, Royal Regiment of
Artillery (Royal Horse and Royal Field Artillery) ; killed in action,
France, July 20, 1916 ; born Limerick.

AHERN, Patrick. Reg. No. 5888. Rank, Private, Irish Guards, 1st
Battalion ; killed in action, France, September 17, 1916 ; born Cork.

AHERN, Patrick. Reg. No. 6950. Rank, Private, Royal Munster Fusiliers,
1st Battalion ; killed in action, Gallipoli, August 21, 1915 ; born
St. Ann's, Cork.

AHERN, Patrick. Reg. No. 42381. Rank, Gunner, Royal Garrison Artillery
; killed in action, France, October 4, I917 ; born Youghal. [Co. Cork]

AHERN, Patrick Joseph. Rank, Captain (and Quartermaster), 7th Leinster
Regiment ; killed in action, France, August 9, 1916 (or September 9,
1916) ; born Tipperary ; age 42 ; decoration, South African Medal.

AHERN, Richard. Reg. No. 5937. Rank, Private, 2nd Leinster Regiment ;
died of wounds, France, November 24, 1917 ; born Portsmouth.

AHERN, Rodney. Reg. No. 11298. Rank, Driver, 1st Royal Dublin
Fusiliers ; died of wounds, Gallipoli, August 8, 1915 ; born High
Leas, Portsmouth. [see obituary]

AHERN, Thomas. Reg. No. 9379. Rank, Private, Royal Dublin Fusiliers
2nd Battalion ; killed in action, France, March 21, 1918 ; born
Newbridge, Co. Kildare.

AHERN, Timothy. Reg. No. 4729. Rank, Private, Royal Munster Fusiliers,
9th Battalion ; died of wounds, France, April 3, 1916 ; born Newcastle
West, Co. Limerick.

AHERN, William. Rank, Petty Officer, H.M.S. Indefatigable ; died, May
31, 1916. [see obituary]

AHERN, William. Reg. No. 6045. Rank, Private, Irish Guards, 1st
Battalion ; killed in action, France, June 18, 1916.

AHERNE, William. Reg. No. 10354. Rank, Rifleman, Royal Irish Rifles,
2nd Battalion ; killed in action, France, March 31, 1915 ; born Cork.
[see obituary]

Back to Contents

http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~aherns/ahloii.htm#WWIdead

Remembering Con Colbert, May 2016

By now everybody is aware that 100 years ago Irish men gave their lives to free our country from the oppression of the British who had tried to keep us down for over 700 years. Many attempts had been made throughout the generations without success and the pages of history are filled with the gallant deeds of those who made the ultimate sacrifice. In 1916 it was no different. Superior British forces quelled the rising and who knows what would have happened if they had not decided to teach the republicans a lesson by executing the leaders. Instead of ending the conflict it galvanised them into action with increased support from the Irish people who were abhorred by the savage actions of the crown forces. On Sunday last, May the 8th, it was fitting that, 100 years to the day, the death of one of those martyrs, our own Con Colbert, was commemorated in a ceremony in St. Bartholomew’s Church in Athea. It was a dignified, moving ceremony with an input from many people in the parish, from one of the oldest, John O’Connell who lit the candle, to the three young boys from Athea national school who read out the proclamation, not the original one but one the pupils of the school had composed. It was a very well structured document that sought fairness and equality for all the nation and it was beautifully delivered by the three boys. Johnny Mullane read a poem by a poet from Dirreen called Jer Histon about both Con Colbert and another Athea man, Paddy Dalton who also lost his life in the fight against the Black and Tans. Theresa O’Halloran read a piece by Padraig Pierce’s mother about the sacrifice of her two sons and Mike Hayes read the last letter written by Con Colbert to his sister on the night before he was executed. Prayers were read by a number of people from the parish and Fr. Bowen gave a very down to earth talk about some things he would like to change. He is to be complimented on organising the ceremony.  John Moran did a great job as MC, pulling the whole thing together. The choir were in great voice and enriched the occasion with very suitable pieces ending with “Faith of our Fathers”  I had the privilege of playing the slow air “Róisín Dubh” which was used as the music for “Mise Éire” that great film on Ireland by the late Seán Ó Ríada.   Refreshments were served in the hall afterwards and all agreed it was a very fitting tribute.

 

There are many reminders of Con Colbert in Athea. The main street is named after him and the Hall, built by the parish in the 1970s stands at the entrance to the village for all to see. It was a very big undertaking at the time but the committee worked tirelessly to achieve their aim of a permanent memorial to Con that would be used for the good of the people of the parish.  A few months ago Aide Colbert Lennon, his great-niece, unveiled a plaque in the Hall grounds at a ceremony that was organised by West Limerick Republican Monument Committee.

 

Athea Community Council now have plans to erect a life size bronze bust to commemorate the centenary of the rising and Con’s execution. Tenders have been sought and though the cost is high, we feel it is worth doing and we are confident that the people of Athea won’t be found wanting when we look for financial help. It is important that we are seen to be doing something special during this year for a son of Athea whose sacrifice ensured that we have the freedom we enjoy today. It will be there for the generations to come and keep his memory alive. We will have more news on this in the very near future and we look forward to another celebration in the village when the bust is finally unveiled. In the meantime well done to Fr. Bowen and all involved in last Sunday’s ceremony.

By

Domhnall de Barra

 

 

THE YPRES NUNS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16199, 8 April 1916, Page 2

Mr. John Redmond. M.P., and Mr. R. Barry O'Brien have issued an appeal for funds with which to establish in County Wexford the Benedictine community of Irish nuns which had its home at Ypres from the time of William 111. until the recent destruction of the town by the Germans.

Two of the flags which the Irish Brigade captured from the English at the battle of Ramillies were deposited in the Irish convent at Ypres, and a part of one of them has been preserved to this day. The nuns, who were forced to fly from Ypres, are now living in London. A sum of £1050 is needed for the purchase of their new home in County Wexford. '"Under the calamities of war," says the appeal "they fled from Ireland; under the calamities of war they have returned."

 

THE NUNS OF YPRES

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 124, 26 May 1923, Page 20

'APPEAL FOR A NEW HOME. An effort is being launched in England to raise £40,000 in order to re-establish the homeless nuns of Ypres Abbey in another, sanctuary. At a meeting' of the Catholic Truth Society says the Daily Telegraph," it was explained that the 'Abbey of Ypres, which stood, in the Rue St. Jacques, was built in. 1665 for British and Irish nuns, and during the whole of its history it maintained an unbroken connection with the mother countries, the community always consisting of British subjects. In October 1914. the abbey was bombarded, but the nuns remained until a month  later, when, yielding to orders for complete evacuation, they became homeless wanderers. The building was entirely destroyed, but its ruins were always a sanctuary for British soldiers.

 http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=EP19230526.2.179&srpos=10&e=-------10--1----0irish+nuns--

1916;  From Carrigkerry Notes by Tom Ahern

 

A re-enactment of the March of the West Limerick volunteers to Glenquin Castle in 1916 will take place on Sunday 24th April 2016. Ger Greaney has been in touch with the following information: Currently there are groups walking from the parishes of Ardagh, Ashford, Broadford, Carrigkerry, Castlemahon, Dromcollogher , Feohanagh, Kilcolman, Killeedy, Milford, Monagea, Mountcollins, Newcastle West, Templeglantine and Tournafulla. Please join us on the day on any of these marches and walk in the footsteps of the brave men and women of West Limerick. You can walk the full route or join in along the way if you prefer. Would you like to start a march from a parish not already organised. Of so please contact us here. If you do not wish to walk you can join us at Glenquin castle outside Ashford County Limerick at 2pm for a moment of reflection and an afternoon of traditional Irish Craic. Remembering Fir agus Mnà Cròga as Iarthar Luimnigh To Remember is to Never Forget: Join us on Facebook at Footsteps to Freedom FTF.

 

 

 

The following is a distance reckoner from Kilcolman to Glenquin via Ardagh and NCW in Km. Kilcolman PO: 19.5, Ardagh Railway, 14.0, Ncw Railway/Gaelscoil, 10am, The Square,09.5, Old IRA Monument: 09.3, Free State, Grotto, 08.5, Monagea N.S. 05.6, Rathcahill Cross: 03.4, Strand: 01.9, Glenquin: 00.0.

 

The following is a list of the Kilcolman people whose names have popped up in research who were involved in the march to Glenquin Castle. John Condon, William O’Connell, William Cremin, James Culhane, Patrick Culhane, James Dalton, David McDonnell, Michael Dore, John Downey, Daniel Egan, Maurice Egan, Joseph Enright, Michael Enright, John Flanagan, Patrick Flanagan, William Flanagan, Daniel Foley, John Geoghegan, Thomas Geoghegan, Michael Greany, Thomas Greany, Rodger Greene, Thomas Greene, Denis Hallinan, John Hallinan, Matt Hallinan., Frank Harold, John Harold, Maurice Hayes, Michael Hayes, Patrick Hayes, Denis Histon, Maurice Histon, Patrick Histon, Edmond Hurley, Jeremiah Hurley, Gerald Kelly, Daniel Kennedy, Thomas Kennedy, Michael Kennelly, Stephen Kennelly, William Kennelly, Joseph Lane, Michael Lane, James Leahy, Joseph McMahon, Thomas McMahon, John Maloney, John Meade, Peter Meade, Con Mulcahy, Daniel Mulcahy., Thomas Mulvihill, William Mulvihill, James Nash, Patrick Nash, Stephen Nolan, Denis Scanlan, Murt Scanlan, Patrick Scanlan, William Scanlan, and Martin Sheehan. Many of the Kilcolman Company later lived in Ardagh and Shanagolden. This is not a complete list, and Gerard Greaney   would appreciate help with the following questions. Do you know anyone on the list, have you photographs of them or stories to share? Would you like to remember them by taking part in one of our walks on 24th April? Have you other names for us?  Gerard can be contacted on 086 8278155 or email footstepstofreedom1916@gmail.com.

 

1916;   The people of  Glin have decided to commemorate two local men, Constable James OBrien of Ballybeg, Glin, a member of the Dublin Metropolitan Police Force and Eamonn Dore of Main Street, Glin, a member of the Irish Volunteers, who were involved on opposite sides of the conflict. As we commemorate the 1916 Rising, we need to respect all past differences and although these men served on different sides of the political divide, as fellow parishioners, we feel that it is important that they both be equally honoured and remembered.

 

 

Leen Abbeyfeale 1917

 

http://abbeyfealeonline.blogspot.ie/

 

 

 

The following extract is from The Easter Rising by Michael Foy and Brian Barton:

 

“Half an hour after Pearse read the Proclamation the Post Office garrison was in action in what is often described inaccurately as the 'Charge of the Lancers' down O'Connell Street.

 

The cavalry had in fact been dispatched from Marlborough Barracks to investigate reported disturbances in O'Connell Street and were simply trotting down from the northern end, completely unaware of the danger ahead.

 

When they reached Nelson's Pillar the waiting Volunteers in the Post Office opened fire, killing three soldiers and fatally wounding another. One horse was also killed and its putrefying body lay in O'Connell Street until the end of the Rising.”

 

The wounded lancer was said to be Private Patrick Leen from Abbeyfeale in County Limerick.

 

Irish Courts Martial Files 1916-1922

 

by Kay Caball

 

 

 

As of this week, two new set of records have been released on Ancestry.co.uk.  These are free to research and neither have been online before.  They mka blog Horgan Courts Martial (2)are Irish Courts Martial Files 1916- 1922 and  Ireland Intelligence Profiles 1914-1922.   They are not the easiest in the world to search through, but if you have a Kerry name whose records may be included, my best advice is the put in the minimum - just name and Kerry, Ireland in the location.

 

 

PEACE CONCERT IN KNOCK BASILICA Mayo International Choral Festival is hosting a Peace Concert with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, in the beautiful surrounds of the fully refurbished Knock Basilica on Saturday, May 14th.   This Peace Concert will commemorate the 1916 Rising and World War One. The RTÉ Concert Orchestra will be conducted by David Brophy. The orchestra will perform with a 120 member choir and soloists Anne Marie Gibbons and Owen Gilhooly. For information and tickets, visit www.mayochoral.com.

 

 

HISTORY LECTURE:  The youngest of the 1916 leaders to be executed was Limerick man, twenty-five year-old  Ned Daly who had defended the Four Courts area of Dublin during the Rising and was generally acknowledged as the best military tactician and most gifted commander of all the leaders.  Well-known historian, Liam Irwin will give an illustrated lecture on the life and career of Ned Daly on Monday next March 21st in Mary Immaculate College, SCR, Limerick at 8.00pm in Room T.1.17. Admission is free and all are welcome.F

 

 

WAR 1

 

Some 4.9 million men were enlisted in the British army between 1914 and 1918, of whom 2.4 million enlisted prior to the introduction of conscription and 2.5 million after it. It is calculated that only 1.3 million men were actually conscripted.

 

only 16,500 claims for exemption were made on the grounds of conscience between 1916 and 1918 when compared, to over a million exemptions granted on medical grounds in the last 12 months of the war alone.

 

Courtesy: Jesuits in Ireland

 

 Fr Joseph Mallin SJ, the last surviving child of an executed leader of the Easter Rising in 1916, is to receive the Freedom of the City of Dublin in Hong Kong.

 Dublin’s Lord Mayor, Críona Ní Dhálaigh, has stated that the 102-year-old would receive it not only for his status as a child of a Rising leader but also for his life-long work serving the people of Hong Kong and Macau through his ministry and teaching.

 

 For many of his years in China he has worked at Wah Yan College, a Jesuit secondary school in Hong Kong.

 

 

TALK: Tuesday 26th April @ 8pm Newcastle West, Co Limerick. Lecture by John O’Callaghan at Newcastle West Library entitled 'For my God and my country' - The Life, Death and Afterlife of Con Colbert.

 

 

A Bloody Step On The Road To Irish Freedom

 

March 13, 1988|By June Sawyers.

 

 

 

It was a great place for a murder-an old cottage in an open area in what was then suburban Lake View and now the Uptown neighborhood. There, on the night of May 4, 1889, Dr. Patrick Henry Cronin, a 43-year-old prominent Chicago physician, was bludgeoned to death. His attackers were allegedly members of the Clan-na-Gael, a secret organization working for Irish independence, and for months the murder was the talk of the town.

 

 

 

The clan, according to historian Michael F. Funchion, was founded in New York in 1867 and established a branch in the Bridgeport neighborhood in 1869. Its local head was a lawyer, Alexander Sullivan, and Cronin`s troubles with the clan began when he accused Sullivan and others of misappropriating clan funds and threatened to bring his charges to the press. Sullivan, in turn, accused Cronin of being a British spy.

 

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1988-03-13/features/8802290577_1_clan-cottage-buggy

 

 

 

 

 

Martin Hogan, who was born in Limerick in 1833, first became a British soldier, later joining the Fenians. Fennessy said he suspects that he joined the British Army only because he couldn't find other employment. Hogan served six years with the Royal Dragoons, a mounted infantry, before becoming part of the Fenian movement. But before the Fenians could strike, their plan was uncovered, and in 1866, the men were court-martialed and sentenced to death.

 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/daily-southtown/news/ct-sta-grave-for-fenian-hogan-st-0910-20150914-story.html

 

PEACE CONCERT IN KNOCK BASILICA Mayo International Choral Festival is hosting a Peace Concert with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, in the beautiful surrounds of the fully refurbished Knock Basilica on Saturday, May 14th.  

 

This Peace Concert will commemorate the 1916 Rising and World War One. The RTÉ Concert Orchestra will be conducted by David Brophy. The orchestra will perform with a 120 member choir and soloists Anne Marie Gibbons and Owen Gilhooly. For information and tickets, visit www.mayochoral.com.

 

Talk on 1916 by former Lenamore headmaster Pádraig O Conchubhair was held in March 2016.

HISTORY LECTURE:  The youngest of the 1916 leaders to be executed was Limerick man, twenty-five year-old  Ned Daly who had defended the Four Courts area of Dublin during the Rising and was generally acknowledged as the best military tactician and most gifted commander of all the leaders.  Well-known historian, Liam Irwin will give an illustrated lecture on the life and career of Ned Daly on Monday next March 21st in Mary Immaculate College, SCR, Limerick at 8.00pm in Room T.1.17. Admission is free and all are welcome

 

. West Limerick singing club are also hosting a night of songs in remembrance of 1916 on Friday April 1 in the Ramble Inn, Abbeyfeale at our monthly singing session which takes place on the 1st Friday of every month.

 

WAR 1

 

Some 4.9 million men were enlisted in the British army between 1914 and 1918, of whom 2.4 million enlisted prior to the introduction of conscription and 2.5 million after it. It is calculated that only 1.3 million men were actually conscripted.

 

only 16,500 claims for exemption were made on the grounds of conscience between 1916 and 1918 when compared, to over a million exemptions granted on medical grounds in the last 12 months of the war alone.

 

 

On Easter Monday, the 28th of March 2016, the community of Glin will commemorate the 1916 Rising in the Town Park.The Centenary celebrations are of particular significance to the people of Glin, as two local men, James OBrien and Eamonn Dore were involved in the 1916 Rising in Dublin during Easter Week. Constable James OBrien , Kilfergus, Glin was the first person killed in the Rising, while Irish Volunteer Eamonn Dore from Main St. Glin, fought alongside many of the rebel leaders in the GPO during Easter Week 1916.

 

The Irish Government has announced a commemoration programme with the emphasis on remembrance and reconciliation. In commemorating the 1916 Rising it is important to respect all past differences. The footbridge in the Town Park, which spans the Glencorbry River, will be officially named The Centenary Bridge and will stand as a symbol of reconciliation and  remembrance  and will  honour all the men, women and children who were involved in the 1916 Rising.

 

An Interpretive Board will outline details of the Rising and plaques will be unveiled to honour the two Glin men, James OBrien and Eamonn Dore, who were from the same parish, but happened to be on opposing sides in the struggle for Irish freedom.

 

Courtesy: Jesuits in Ireland

 

Fr Joseph Mallin SJ, the last surviving child of an executed leader of the Easter Rising in 1916, is to receive the Freedom of the City of Dublin in Hong Kong.

 

Dublin’s Lord Mayor, Críona Ní Dhálaigh, has stated that the 102-year-old would receive it not only for his status as a child of a Rising leader but also for his life-long work serving the people of Hong Kong and Macau through his ministry and teaching.

 

For many of his years in China he has worked at Wah Yan College, a Jesuit secondary school in Hong Kong.

 

Fr Joseph was born in 1914, just two years before his father was executed, leaving a wife and five small children.

 

The night before the execution, Joseph was taken by his mother (then pregnant with her fifth child) to visit Michael in his cell.

 

 

WEST LIMERICK MEN at Glenquinn Castle 1916; Taken from Carrigkerry Notes Jan. 2016.

n the coming weeks I will post the names that have popped up in research so far, parish by parish. This is not a complete list. Do you know anyone on the list, have you photographs of them or stories to share. Would you like to remember them by taking part in one of our walks on April 24th? Have you other names for us? If so contact me through the Footsteps to Freedom Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100010200969076&fref=nf or E-Mail footstepstofreedom1916@gmail.com. Gerard Greaney 086 8278155 Keep an eye out for a FTF Meeting in your area.  Here is the current list of names for the parish of Ardagh/Carrigkerry.

 

Ardagh.

 

PJ Aherne, James Ambrose, Patrick Ambrose, Thomas Ambrose, Tim Barrett, Michael Barry, William O Brien, Michael Brouder, Maurice O Connell, Patrick O Connor, John Cosgrove, William Cremin, James Danaher, John Mc Donagh, Michael Doody, Patrick Doody, Patrick Dowling, Paddy Drinane, William Dunne, Martin Fitzgerald, John Flanagan, James Gaffney, Daniel Goulding, John McGrath, Thomas McGrath, Tom Greaney, Patrick Healy, James Heffernan, Jim Hough, Patrick Keating, Tim Keating, Maurice Kennelly, John Lane, Maurice Lenehan, James Lynch, Patrick Mangan, John Moore, Michael Moore, Michael Mulcahy, Robert Mulcahy, Michael Mullally, William Nash, Jeremiah Power, Michael Scanlon, Patrick Scanlan, Leo Sexton, Charlie O Shaughnessy, Con Sheehan, Daniel Sheehan, Michael Sheehan, John O Sullivan.

 

Carrigkerry.

 

Daniel Aherne, Denis Ahern, Joseph Ahern, Michael Ahern, Patrick Ahern, PJ Ahern, Thomas Ahern, William Ahern, James Bourke, James O Connor, John O Connor, John F O Connor, Michael M O Connor, Michael Copse, Thomas McCoy, Michael Dalton, William Dalton, Philip Danaher, David McDonald, Patrick Downey, john Duggan, Denis Falahee, Maurice Fitzgerald, Michael Fitzgerald, Patrick Fitzgerald, Martin Flaherty, William Flaherty, John M Flynn, Tim Flynn, Thomas Foley, Denis Goulding, John Goulding, Thomas Goulding, William Goulding, Thomas Hannafin, Thomas Hartigan, Michael Hartnett, Denis Hayes, Thomas Healy, Maurice Holly, Michael Hough, Patrick Hough, Thomas Keane, James Lynch, John McMahon, John Mulcahy, Patrick Murphy, Timothy Murphy, Patrick O Neill, John Nolan, Patrick Nolan, Tim Quinn, William Reidy, Maurice Sheehan, John M Sheehy, Patrick Sheehy, William Taylor, Michael White, James Windle, John N Windle, John P Windle, Pat Windle, Thomas Wren,

IRISH-AUSTRALIAN WOUNDED—Private T. O'Neill Lane, son of  the Irish. Lexicographer-of that-name, has-been on a-visit, to his friends at Abbeyfeale. He volunteered with the Australian contingent, and was wounded  in France.   Taken from
Irish Examiner 1841-1999, Thursday, 26 October, 1916; Page: 2

 

 

BUREAU OF MILITARY HISTORY, 1913-21 STATEMENT BY WITNESS. DOCUMENT NO. W.S. 1,390

 

Witness Brian O'Grady, 70 Shandon Park,Phibsboro, Dublin.Identity.

 

Captain Ballylongford Company Irish. Volunteers, Co. Kerry; Battalion Adjutant. Subject.

 

 

 

 Ballylongford Company Irish Co. Volunteers, Kerry, 1913-1921.Conditions, if any. Stipulated by Witness.Nil File No S.2688 Form BSM2

 

 

 

STATEMENT OF BRIAN O'GRADY, 70 Shandon Park, Phibsboro Dublin.

 

I was born in Ballylongford in the year 1895, and attended the local national school until I was thirteen years of age. While attending school, I won several prizes for Irish history, on which I afterwards lectured to I.R.A. The prizes were put up by The O'Rahilly and Councillor Paul Jones, a lawyer of New York and a native of Ballylongford. After leaving the national school, I attended St. Michael's College, Listowel, for eighteen months. An I.R.B. Circle was established in Ballylongford

 

in the year 1913 by Michael Griffin, a schoolteacher living in Listowel. I was not a member. In the month of May 1914, a company of Volunteers was formed in the village. A man named Rodger Mulvihill became Captain, and I became Lieutenant. Our strength was sixty men. An ex British soldier named Tim Enright was drill instructor. A committee was appointed for the purpose of procuring arms, but up to Redmond's speech, offering the Volunteers to England in her "fight for small nationalities", we did not succeed in obtaining any arms. Our only arms were wooden rifles with which we drilled at the time. Following Redmond's offer, two men of the company joined the British army. Our drill instructor, who was on the army reserve, was called up at the same time. After this, we became disorganised for a short while. On 17th March 1915, Eoin MacNeill visited Killarney for the purpose of reorganising the Volunteers in Co. Kerry. The meeting was attended by Volunteers

 

from all over the county, including two from Ballylongford. Subsequent to this meeting, I was

 

appointed acting company captain, Eddie Carmody,1st Lieutenant, and Tom Carmody, 2nd Lieutenant of Ballylongford company. After my appointment, I corresponded with The O'Rahilly in Dublin on the purchase of arms and other military matters. We did not succeed in purchasing any arms at the time. When The O'Rahilly's office was raided by the military and police during

 

Easter Week 1916, my name was found among his papers. I was arrested and taken to the local R.I.C. barracks and questioned, but was not detained.

 

 

 

Ballylongford Barracks burned down at Ballylongford by Irregular forces on 4 August 1922 in advance of the entry of National troops.

 

Kerryman 1904-current, Saturday, 21 February, 1914; Page: 6

 

As reported in another column  Miss Kathleen O'Connell was appointed Superintendent for Dublin City Tuberculosis Hospital. Miss O'Connell is the second daughter of Mr O'Connell, D.L., Darrynane Abbey, and was attached to the Richmond and Hardwicke hospitals, where she took out her training a few years ago. The City Tuberculosis Hospital was formerly known as the Allen Ryan Sanatorium.

A O.H—BALLYLONGFORD DIVISION.

At the usual fortnightly meeting of the above, which was held on Sunday night last, it was unanimously adopted and carried—"That we, the members of Ballylongford Division, of the A.O.H., in the strongest manner possible condemn the burning of 35 tons of hay, the property of Mr E Holly, one of our most respected citizens. And, furthermore, that we maintain and are of opinion that such conduct should be denounced and condemned by every self-respecting and honest Irish Nationalist, not alone at any time, but especially at the present juncture when Home Rule is within sight." It was further resolved that the mass of the people will use every means possible to stop once and for all this despicable and nefarious system emanating from irresponsible and jealous motives.

THE GAELIC LEAGUE —LANGUAGE FUND.

On last Sunday the annual collection in aid of the Gaelic League Fund was made at the Church gate Newtownsandes. The collectors were Messrs J Barry. N.T.: R Keating, T Buckley, N.T. ; T Dineen, R D.C., and T W Scanlan, who are happy to state that they met a cheerful and generous response from priests and people.

 

FIFE AND DRUM BAND FOR ABBEYFEALE.

A fife and drum band has been organised in connect on with an independent society at Kilconlea, Abbeyfeale, by the young men of the district.

 

VOLUNTEERS. The route march which took place to Abbeyfeale on 8th inst. was, as was expected, a real success. Notwithstanding; that the day was anything but fine, the crowd of the Nationalist  youth of the parish that assembled with their horses and sashes outside the local Hall was indeed a pleasure to behold. On their arrival at Abbeyfeale the band, which accompanied the corps, played through the town till the Fr. Casey Memorial was reached. The horsemen then ranged themselves in circular form around the Memorial, the horses heads being turned towards the Memorial; inside the horsemen the footmen ranged themselves in like fashion, and when the order "hats off was given, every Volunteer doffed his hat as a mark of respect to that great and never to be forgotten priest, to whose memory too much respect cannot be paid.

The band then played some choice selections, after which Mr. Francis O'Keeffe who headed the procession, addressed the crowd at great length on the political situation, and thanked the people of Abbeyfeale for the hearty cead mile failte extended to them on that as well as on other occasions. The Volunteers then returned home by a different route, and when Duagh was reached in the evening they were all pleased and proud of themselves after the days outing, possessed of voracious appetites, and ready to start again in persuit of Carson and his mob if his whereabouts could be traced

Attack by Suffragette.

Lord Weardale, who is the gentlest of men and the arch apostle of peace was struck on the face by a suffragette’s dog whip as he was joining the train at Euston on Wednesday. The women mistook him for  Mr. Asquith. Lord Weardale, who was on his way to a wedding,was so much hurt that he had to return to his home. The woman was remanded at the police court.  

QUARTERLY MEETING. Kerry County Council

Mr. M. J. Nolan, J.P., V.C., presided in the absence of Mr. D. M. Moriarty, chairman. There were also present—Messrs. J. McKenna, J. P O'Donnell, J. O'Donnell, W. Barrett, W. O'Donnell, J,P.; R. Callaghan, T. Keane J.P.; J T O'Connor, .J.P.; W. L, Quinlan, M. T. Moriarty, F. O'Sullivan, J.P ; G. Pierce, E. Fitzgerald, J.P.; James O'Shea, Bryan O'Connor, J.P.; ,P. Trant, J.P.; D. J. O'Connell, D. J. O'Sullivan.

HOME RULE BILL.

The Chairman said he would like to move the suspension of the standing orders. There was a resolution to go before the Council which was a critical one in connection with the Home Rule Bill before Parliament. As they were all aware efforts were being made to dismember Ireland and cut it into bits and scraps. The resolution was as follows: " That in congratulating the Irish Party on the position of the Home Rule Cause, we take this opportunity of stating that there can be no splitting up of Ireland which from all time has been one country and nation as God intended it to be, and that one and indivisible it must remain, come weal come woe. In resisting any attempt made from any quarter  to divide Ireland, temporally or otherwise, into parts, the Irish Parliamentary representatives will have at their backs the enthusiastic support of the whole Irish race" (hear, hear). Continuing, he thought it was not necessary for him to occupy their time recommending that resolution. At this juncture it was necessary for the County Council of Kerry to pass that resolution (hear, hear). Mr. J. T, O'Connor seconded the Chairman. Mr. Jas. O'Shea supported. Passed unanimously.

 

 

Volunteers North and South of Ireland 100 years ago.

 

IRA

C na mBan list Taken from Army Archives

 

ASDEE

 

Mrs Blake, nee Foley Captain. Maggie Relihan sec, Asdee Ballylongford. Mrs W Finucane, nee Coughlin, treasurer, Larha, Asdee. Mrs Moran nee Deenihan, Mary A Russel. Mrs J Walsh.

Annie O Connor.

 

BALLYLONGFORD

 

Mrs J Ahern, nee O Brien, Sec, Ballyline. Mrs J O Sullivan, treasurer, Ballylongford. Mrs Moriarty. Nell Creedon, Ballylongford. Josie Walsh, RIP. Mrs W O Sullivan, nee Walsh, Derry, Listowel.

 

BEHINS

Mrs D ODonoghue nee Molyneaux, Captain. Mrs J Carey ?, nee Murphy, Sec, Behins. Nora and Lizzie Greaney. Miss Mary Buckley, Greenville. Mrs J Cahill, RIP. Maggie Hayes, Mary A Murphy. Hannie Murphy. Joe McLoughlin. Nora Stack. Nellie and Tessie Keane. Mrs D Curtin nee Lyons, Furhane. Nellie Mahony. Mrs G Stack, nee Curtin, Treasurer. Mary G Casey GS. Mrs G Stack GS, Limerick.

 

BEDFORD

Margaret Barrett, Captain, Bedford. Mrs M Galvin, nee O Donnell, USA. Mrs R Donoghue, Treasurer, , Bedford. Mrs Michael Regan, nee Kelly, Church Street, Listowel. Mollie Browne, Jersey City, NJ. Mrs E Quirke, nee Browne, 200 Dwight St, Jersey City. Nellie Leahy, Bedford. Mollie Halpin, USA. Nora O Donoghue, Bedford. Hannie Joyce.

 

 

 

 

COILBEE

Mrs J Carmody, Bridge Street, Ballylongford.Lizzie McCoy, USA. Mrs Mary Kirby, nee O Sullivan Derrindaffe, Duagh. Mrs Nolan,nee O Sullivan, Trieneragh. Mrs G Fitzgerald, nee O Sullivan, Coolkeragh. Ellie O Sullivan. Mollie Fitzgerald, Derry. Hannah Fitzgerald, Derry, Nellie and Bridie Ned Walsh. Nellie McNamara. Nellie Lyons. Catherine O Connor, Nellie Rohan. Ciss O Connor. Mary and Kit J Walsh. Elsie Walsh. Mary Faley. Nellie Moloney. Annie J Lyons. Mary P O Connor. Mary M Walsh. Ellie Walsh. Tess Lyons. Nell Barry.

 

DUAGH

 

 

Katie Foley, Captain. Johanna O Connor, Mrs McAuliffe, Sec, Kilcara. Minnie O Connor, Kilcara. Madge and Lizzie Galvin. Mary Faley. Babe Lyons. Tess McElligott. Nora Fitzgerald. Ellie Broderick. Julia Cahill.

Mary A Relihan, Foildarrig, treasurer. Mrs M O Connell, Foildarrig. Ciss Maher, Toor. Mary McMahon, Knockavallig. Mrs A Beasley, Ballybunion. Mrs Broderick, Islandanny.

 

 

 

 

Names of girl assistants but not members of C na mBan.

Bedford; Mrs A Loftus, nee Mangan Bedford. Margaret Barrett. Katie Kennelly. Mrs Michael Regan, Church Street, Listowel. Mollie Browne, Bedford. Mrs E Quille, 200 Dwight, St, ? City. Nellie Leahy, Bedford. Mrs O Donoghue. Mrs John Galvin, USA. Miss J McElligott, Bedford.

Mrs Imelda Wilmott, Charles Street, Listowel, cook at the barracks, was not a member, bur was active in procuring material from barracks.

 

FINUGE

Maggie Woulfe, Finuge, Captain. Nora O Sullivan, Sec, RIP. Maggie Sheehy, treasurer, RIP. Kate Cronin. Nora M Deenihan. Lizzie Carmody, Ennismore. Mrs P O Sullivan, nee Woulfe, Finuge. Maggie Galvin, Finuge. Joe Twomey, Finuge. Susie Hannon. Jane Kissane. Hannie Harnett. Nora O Connell. Mrs P O Sullivan.

 

 

KNOCKANURE

 

Mrs P O Callaghan, Captain, Knockanure. Mary O Carroll, USA. Madge Dunne, USA. Hannah Casey, Knockanure. Mollie Flavin. Mrs J Goulding, Knockanure.

 

 

NORTH KERRY 1st July 1922

Listowel; Mrs T Brennan, nee Murphy, Church Street, Listowel, District Council, Sec, North Kerry, Treasurer, Listowel Branch.

Mrs M Healy , nee Cremins, Captain. Ciss Cahill, Upper William Street, Listowel. Nora Buckley, Church Street. Josie Browne, Church Street. Ciss Mahony, married name not known. Mrs R Woulfe, nee Mulvihill, Finuge. Maggie Stack, Church Street. Mrs M E Walsh, Tarbert. Mrs D Brassil, nee Doody, Ennismore. Mrs J O Donovan, nee Walsh, ? ,Loughill. Mrs E Browne, RIP. Josie Enright. Mai Enright, RIP. Mrs G Ryan, Thurles. Mrs M Enright, nee Boyle , RIP. Mrs J O Donoghue, nee Fitzgerald, Dublin. Mrs McLoughlin, nee Dillon, Dundalk. Maggie Coughlin, USA. Mollie Walsh, USA.

 

 

NEWTOWNSANDES

Marie Moore, Captain, Nurse. Mary O Grady, Sec. Nts, Bridie Kissane, Treasurer, Mrs J Keane nee Collins Ballygrennan, Mrs C O Farrell, nee Culhane, Church Street, Listowel. Mrs Dalton, nee Cunningham, Glin. Mrs Culhane, nee Goulding, Glin. Mrs D Grady, nee Kearney, NY USA. Pidge Kearney Nts. Mollie Larkin USA. Mrs J O Sullivan, nee Larkin Market St, Listowel. Brenda Moore, Keylod, Nts. Kathleen O Connor England. Mrs Hegarty, nee O Connor Listowel. Kate O Connor Claar Nts. Mrs Marron, nee O Connor Clonmel. Mrs Leane nee O Grady NY. Ellie O Sullivan Australia. Mrs Culhane nee O Sullivan Kinard, Glin. Mrs J Dillon nee Stack, Trieneragh, Duagh. Liz Barrett, Nurse Croom Hospital. Mrs O Carroll, nee Culhane, Church Street, Listowel. Nellie O Sullivan, Australia. Check Marie Moore, Nun.

 

 

 

TARBERT

 

Bridget Egan, Captain. Josephine Buckley, Sec. Mrs B Hayes, treasurer, nee Walsh, Doonard, Tarbert. Mrs Rohan,? nee Crowley, Catlegregory. Annie Finucane. Mary Ita Nolan, USA. Julia Egan. Ellie Sheahan. Mollie Keane?. Annie and Bridie Curnane. Deborah Egan. Mary Kelly. Daisy Wren. Mai Finucane. Mary Walsh. Kitty Murphy.

List from Mai Brennan nee Murphy, Church Street, Listowel.

 

Taken from Army Archives, some pages have beeb doubled up

Irish Army Archives

http://www.militaryarchives.ie/home

 

 

 

 

 

VOLUNTEERS

 

CATHOLIC Press NSW 27 September 1917

 

 

 

Irish National Volunteers.

 

A CONVENTION.

 

Colonel Moore presided at a convention of representatives of 170 companies of the Irish National Volunteers in the Mansion House, Dublin, when allegiance to the original objects of the Volunteers, to secure and maintain the rights common to all Irish men, were declared. The convention's most important step was the appointment of a committee to open negotiations with the leaders of the Irish Volunteers with a view to the reunion of the forces and to begin a general re-organisation and opening

 

organisation to all Irishmen willing to pledge themselves to the original declaration. Mr. Devlin and Volunteers. Amongst the documents read at the Convention was the following letter marked 'private,' and dated .July 7, 1916, 'My dear Mr. Rooney. — I have your letter of the 1st inst., with enclosure, handed to me by Mr. Redmond, which I return herewith. I would respectfully suggest that the Westley-Richards people should be distinctly told that we do not 'want any arms in Ireland, and that we will not have them. As law-abiding citizens, we consider them a clanger to the State; instead of getting arms into the country we want, to got them out of the country. When this is done, we will see what further action should be taken. — Yours &c, 'JOSEPH DEVLIN.' Statement by Colonel Moore. The following letter appears in the 'Dublin Independent': 'Sir, — I see a letter in your issue to-day, stated to be signed by Mr. Devlin, addressed to Mr. Rooney, and read at Convention I.N. Volunteers yesterday. It was read suddenly and unexpectedly without having been laid before the committee; I at once rose and said, in my opinion, it ought not to have been read. I distinctly object to letters marked 'private' being published. The letter was not under my care, and I had nothing to do with it being read or published, and I regret the fact. — Yours, &c, 'MAURICE MOOR.E (Col.). '70 Harcourt-street, Dublin.'

 

 

 

A LOAD OF TURF. 'There's money in turf now,' writes Father Fitzgerald, O.F.M. 'This load cost 10/- delivered 'next door. I snapped it yesterday. The poor bog districts are scoring. In other parts of Ireland they sell it in high creels.'

 

 

 

Notes. The Pope and Irish Missionaries. The Pope has received in private audience Father Blowick and Father Galvin, who have been in Rome in connection with the Maynooth Mission to China, and conversed with them regarding Ireland and .Maynooth, declaring that their project was 'a great and holy work, and worthy of the highest praise. Cardinal Soraiini, Prefect of the. Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda, who also received the missionaries, said he was not surprised at their work, as Ireland, the home of martyrs and missionaries, had on many former occasions given of its best to the pagan. Monsignor Laurenti. Secretary of the Congregation, referred to the opportune time that Ireland had chosen to send her priests to convert the heathen. During their stay in Rome Father Blowick and Father Galvin were the guests of the Right. Rev. Monsignor O'Riordan, Rector of the Irish College, and were accorded a cordial welcome by other Irish ecclesiastics in the Eternal City.

 

American Impertinence. A Belfast evening paper describes as American Impertinence the introduction in Congress of two resolutions, one of which proposed that the President should express to Great Britain the hope of America that the future Government of Ireland, should be submitted to the vote of the people, and the other that the State Department should make representations for the establishment of an Irish Government on the lines of that of Canada. Under the same heading of 'American Impertinence' is given the statement of Mr. Gerard, ex Ambassador at Berlin, to the effect that 'we all want to see Ireland free, and if she will follow the doctrine of President Wilson instead of German autocracy she might be certain of her freedom.' It is a mild claim that the United States should ask Britain to do her best to solve a problem which, unsolved, leaves the Allies open to vital attack at the Peace Conferonce. But it is described as 'impertinence' in an Ulster Unionist paper which took delight in jeering at America when that country was engaged in the throes of a fateful decision which eventually fell on the side of the Allies. An attitude like this does not conduce to the friendly feeling of the alliance, although we suppose it will not gravely divert the course of the Allies' general policy.

 

 

 

Mr. Redmond's Health Good. Mr. John Redmond's friends in Dublin are unable to give any credence to the statement that owing to the state of his health he would have resigned his chairmanship of the Irish Party but for the assembling of the Irish Convention. His bronzed, healthy appearance was the subject of general observation during his recent visits to Dublin.

 

 

 

Mr. McGuiness in Longford. About 5000 Sinn Feiners welcomed Mr. Joseph Mc Guinness recently to Longford, and the town was decked with Republican colours. Sinn Fein clubs were formed.

 

Irish Party's 'Blunders.' The 'Cork Examiner,' the staunchest of the Redmondite organs, commenting on an article in 'Truth,' on the reasons leading up to the present political situation in Ireland, makes some remarkable admissions as to the blunders of the Irish Party, which it supported through thick and thin, no matter what that party did or omitted to do. It now acknowledges that certain courses taken by the Irish Party, principally the acceptance by them of Mr. Asquith 's pronouncement that 'the coercion of Ulster Is unthinkable, ' have proved blunders.. 'We admit now that the position then laid down by the ex-Prime Minister was absolutely wrong,' the 'Examiner'' proceeds, 'but we do not feel called upon to blush because, in common with many others, we accepted that dictum, for we then had high hopes, and we still believe with good grounds, that Ulster was to be won, not conquered.' Again, it declare?: 'Indeed, studying the article in 'Truth' carefully, it is clear that the mistakes of the Irish Party — and in all their mistakes we admit we shared — were the result of trusting to Englishmen, and relying on peaceful persuasion to eradicate the prejudices of our Northern fellow country men.' Proceeding, the journal pays a tribute to the party, stating its belief that the public, in a short time, will realise that the mistakes they made were the mistakes that honest men might easily fall into.

 

 

 

Sinn Feiners Rearrested. Austin Stack, a member of the Tralee Irish Volunteers, who was sentenced to penal servitude for life for complicity in the Irish rebellion of April, 1916, but who subsequently was released under an amnesty, was rearrested on August 12, in the crowd which was waiting the arrival in Dublin of William Cosgrave, the newly elected .Sinn Fein member of Parliament for Kilkenny. It is understood that Stack was arrested in connection with the celebration in Tralee on the anniversary of the execution of Sir Roger Casement. J J. Walsh, another prominent member of the Sinn Fein Party, whose death sentence for participation in the recent rebellion was commuted to ten years' penal servitude, and who was lately granted amnesty. was also rearrested in connection with the formation of Sinn Fein cubs in the South of Ireland. Courts-martial recently have sentenced three Sinn Feiners from the County Clare and four from the County Galway to imprisonment varying from two years to three months for offences, against the anti drilling order.

 

 

 

The Roger Casement Anniversary. The. anniversary of the execution of Sir Roger Casement was marked by a remark able demonstration, headed by bands, in Tralee. Contingents were stationed at various points from the Sports field to the fort at Carahan, where Casement was arrested in 1916. This fort is now known as Casement's Fort. About .1000 Volunteers, of whom about 200 were cyclists and . 300 horsemen, were features of the display, and cars carried hundreds of persons wearing Sinn Fein colours. The road from Tralee to Ardfert. which is five miles in length, was thronged all day. The Causeway and Kilmoyley Volunteers, headed by brass bands, also attended, and it is estimated that about 12,000 persons were present at the demonstration at Casement's Fort. The roads at many points were decorated with flags and mottoes. After the Rosary was recited in Irish, Mr. T. Ashe addressed the meeting.

 

A public demonstration was also held in Glin. When a Sinn Fein club was established at Mallow, Mr. E. Fitzgerald, chairman U.D.C., presiding, Canon Wigmore, who wrote wishing the club every success, was appointed president of the Provisional Committee.

 

 

 

 

 

Townsville Daily Bulletin Queensland 23 Oct 1935

 

 

 

CHAMPION OF ULSTER. 23 October 1935

 

NOTED LEGAL LUMINARY. Death of Lord Carson. LONDON, October 21.1935

 

The death has occurred of Rt. Hon. Sir Edward Henry Carson, Baron of Duncalrn, P.C., L.L.D. (hon.), Bencher of King's Inns, Dublin, and Bencher of Middle Temple in 1900. Lord Carson, who was born on February 9, 1851, was the second son of Edward Henry Carson, C.E., Dublin, and Isabella, daughter of Captain Lambert, of Castle Ellen, County Galway. He received his education at Portarlington School, and Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated as a M.A.

 

 

 

Lord Carson held the position of M.P. , Dublin University, from 1892 to 1918, and served in the Dun cairn Division, Belfast, from 1918 to 1921. He became a Queen's Counsellor of the English Bar In 1894 and of the Irish Bar in 1889. He was Solicitor General for Ireland in 1892 and again from WOO to 1906. followed by his appointment In 1915 to the post of Attorney-General. His creation as a First Lord of the Admiralty occurred in 1917, and he was a member of the War Cabinet without portfolio from 1917 to 1918. He was created Lord of Appeal in Ordinary in 1921. and served in that capacity from 1921 to 1929. Lord Carson married twice. His first wife was Sarah Annette Foster, daughter of H. Persse Kirwan. whom he wed In 1879, and the issue was one son and one daughter. The death of his first wife occurred In 1913. and in the following year, he married Rubs', eldest daughter of Colonel Stephen Frewen. The issue of the second marriage was one son. The Right Honourable Edward Henry Carson, first Baron of Duncairn, belonged to the long life line of famous lawyers, who have won titles of nobility at the point of their forensic chins. Lord Carson's chin was razor blue, and projected with belligerent menace that often raised Cain across the floor of the House of Commons, and caused the heart of many a Law Court witness to take quaking refuge in his boots. Re had the distinction of being perhaps the only man who succeeded In combing in excelis a real Dublin accent and a true Ulster flair. Born In the dear dirty city In 1854. and son of a well-known architect, he took his M.A. at Dublin University, which later returned him M.P. to -Westminster, and was called to the Irish Bar in 1887, There was a prevalent canard that in. his younger -days he figured as a member of the National Liberal Club, but In the strenuous days of Mr. Arthur James Balfour's Chief Secretary ship, when 'don't hesitate to shoot' orders were about, he distinguished himself as Crown Prosecutor in memorable cases arising out of Ireland's troubled politics. In 189S he crossed over to England and was called at the Middle Temple. His great legal acumen, tremendous capacity for hard work, and formidable personality soon built up a superb practice at the English Bar, where he won the reputation of being hardly second even to the subtle Sir Rufus Isaac, now Lord Reading, as a cross-examiner and special pleader. There was a severe contrast between these two brilliant counsel, however, Sir Rufus wielding a cunning epee whilst Sir Edward, as Lord Carson became on appointment as Solicitor General in 1900, swung a blackthorn bitterly. Some good stories are told of his Law Court sallies. One is a fairly familiar chestnut variously attributed but it was narrated to me one night, in the lobby of the House of Commons by Mr. John Burns himself, as being rightly told of Sir Edward Carson. II was a sordid matrimonial case, and the petitioner, a faded blond matron with weary eyes, was Sir Edward's client. Her husband took his stand In the witness box, and Sir Edward, twitching his gown and pursing his mouth, asked: 'Mr. ? , are you the husband of the petitioner?' ''I am,' came truculently from the rather dissipated-looking witness. 'Do you drink heavily. Mr. ? ' 'That's my business!' snapped the witness fiercely. 'Any other business. Mr. ? suavely Inquired Sir Edward. Another typical Carsonian comment is also related. Sir Edward's case, for the respondent lady this time, was going badly, and the butler was the worst witness against her. 'You say positively,' asked Sir Edward, 'that you frequently saw the respondent and the co-respondent kissing and cuddling?' 'I do.' replied the butler stolidly. 'How close were you?' 'As close as I am to you, Sir Edward.' 'Humph,' said the great K.C. dryly, 'you have all the luck!' When the Liberal Government brought in it. Home Rule Bill. Sir Edward, despite the inevitable jeers of enemies, who enlarged on the enormity of a lawyer raising armed rebellion, took a leading part In organising the Ulster Defence Force, and appointed the Earl of Birkenhead, then plain 'F.E.' as his galloper. These two kindred spirits of the law were then the closest cronies, and made many a coruscating political platform campaign together. Later, when Lord Birkenhead took a leading part In the Downing Street negotiations that eventually, by a toss of the coin of destiny, constituted the Irish Free State at Dublin, a bitter coldness ensued, and. Sir Edward having meanwhile been removed from the active political arena with a judicial appointment followed by a Peerage, they even crossed sparks forensic swords before the highly interested eyes of the sporting House of Lords. During the War. Lord Carson played his patriotic role in many ways, and even held Ministerial and Cabinet portfolios as chief of belligerent service departments. The feud between himself and Lord Birkenhead was afterwards assuaged and an old friendship happily renewed. Though most of his career troubled by rather bad health. Lord Carson twice married, and had two families. He did not entirely neglect sport, riding. golfing, and cycling being his special younger hobbies. He looked a terribly saturine person, and one was not pleasant to quarrel with. He was all that. but. with it all. a most genial companion In the mood, and a staunch friend to those he loved. At the zenith of his legal career at the Bar, his Income far exceeded from private briefs the £30.000 a year he made as Attorney-General, and eventually, as There was the demand for his eminent services on behalf of wealthy clients, be made a hard and fast rule, limiting himself to so many briefs a year, but these at fees calculated to make the Inner and Outer Temples green with more than mere ace.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Advertiser Adelaide, SA 23 Oct 1935

 

 

 

 

 

DEATH OF LORD CARSON 22 October 1935

 

Close of Notable Career

 

PART IN ULSTER QUESTION

 

Brilliant Advocate

 

The death occurred today after intermittent illness extending over many months of Lord Carson one of Britain's most notable advocates whose political

 

months, of Lord Carson, one of Britain's most notable advocates whose political career was largely the history of the Ulster question. Lord Carson was in his 82nd year. Last June he was gravely ill with pneumonia. The death of Lord Carson has removed a powerful, picturesque, and altogether remarkable figure, whose political career, associated as it was With one of the stormiest periods m British history, cannot even yet be distinguished clearly from the confusion ann misunderstanding that surrounded, and still surrounds, the "Ulster question," which. more than any other man, he resolved in its present form. Probably not even the most outstanding of his contemporaries has been more hotly attacked or aroused greater passions in his time than Lord Carson did in his when at the head of 100,003 volunteers, he stood willing, if necessary, to plunge Ireland into civil war rather than accept Home Rule and join Ulster with Southern Ireland on the conditions which the Home Rule Bill sought to impose. The "partition" of Ireland remains a vexed and apparently in soluble problem, and because of his determined stand to maintain Ulster as an integral part of the United Kingdom Lord Carson, although all but idolised in the six counties was and his name will doubtless long remain identified in Southern Ireland with every difference of race, religion, tradition, and outlook that for 300 years has divided the Irish people. Had Lord Carson not entered politics he would have left a name pre-eminently honoured in the legal world. From a struggling Dublin barrister he rose through sheer intelligence and personality to be one of the greatest advocates the British Bar has ever listened to. When, at the age of 57. took the leadership of Ulster in its resistance to Home Rule, he was t wealthy. respected, and famous man. a crusading zeal, he sacrificed the richest practice in Britain, and the position which he had won after years of endeavour, for a cause in which he believed not only implicitly, but which he felt irresistibly compelled to under take. Whatever the" merits of that cause. Lord Carson's motives must be placed completely beyond question. Native Of Dublin Such is the nature of the Irish "partition" that the fact that Lord Carson was not an Ulsterman, but a native of Dublin, does not require explanation. His father was a civil engineer in Dublin, and his mother came of an old Protestant family in County Galway. On his father's side he was of Italian descent, the name Carson having originally been Carsoni. One of a family of six, he was born in February, 1854. The Carsons belonged to the "southern minority," and Edward was brought up in its traditions and steeped in its loyalties, imbibing them, as the late Earl of Birkenhead said of him, "with all the resources of a chivalrous heart, and a strong intelligence." His earliest inclinations were for the Church, or failing that, to become an architect His father, whose favourite son he was. determined, however, that he should become a lawyer. He was educated at Portarlington School and Trinity College. Dublin, where he was a contemporary or Oscar Wilde, the cross examination of whom in after years, when Wilde was led by his inordinate vanity to sue the Marquees of Queensberry for libel, with tragic consequences to himself, was one of his greatest triumphs at the English bar. Trinity College. Dublin, has always been one of the most distinguished universities in the world, and Carson held his own. and perhaps a little more than his own. in the society of very remarkable and brilliant young men. Delicate health debarred him from sport, and he was able to give his whole time to study. with results that became apparent immediately he began to make his way in the legal world.

 

LORD CARSON

 

The Ireland of his youth was far from being a land of opportunity. Thousands of the able-bodied young men of his day were, in fact. flocking overseas each year, mostly to the United States. and the constantly low level of living of the great majority of the Irish people had been still further reduced by famine and starvation. Edward Carson had to make his way. unassisted by his parents and in the face of the heart-breaking obstacles that a young and unknown lawyer has usually to encounter. For the first five years progress was slow, but gradually his eloquence, and more still his keen perception and knowledge of the Irish character, brought him under notice, and a few years later won him recognition as one of the most able advocates in Dublin. One notable stepping stone to success was the prominence he received as an advocate for a number of small tenant farmers whose standing was considerably altered as a result of Gladstone's Irish Land Bill. So capable was his advocacy, indeed, that he was approached with a request that he stand as a Nationalist and a "no-rent" member for Waterford. He astonished the farmers who put the request to him by telling them that he was a Unionist, and had. moreover, no intention of entering politics. Another event of interest and importance in those cays, when he was fighting for recognition at the Irish bar. was his first marriage. After a swift, court ship he married Sarah Kerwin. a young Irish girl. and having at that time only £50, went with her to live at her father's house. Shortly after wards she nursed him through a critical illness, and was for many years a constant source of encouragement to him. Later in life she became a permanent invalid, and Lord Carson's devotion to her in her illness is one of the gracious aspects of his life. After her death he married again, his second wife being a daughter of Colonel Frewen

 

Danger Of Assassination In 1886, at the age of 32, he became a Crown Counsellor. It was a time of great bitterness and unrest. The eviction of tenants and peasants who could not meet their debts was countered with intrigue, boycott, and lawlessness, including murder, and Carson, as a Crown prosecutor, was exposed to even more of risk. "Coercion" Carson he was called, and when in 1892 he was appointed Solicitor- General, he went in almost constant danger of assassination. It was then a common occurrence for armed police men to display their revolvers in court in order to ensure that there should be no interruption of the proceedings. But Carson, who was utterly fearless, continued not only to do his duty, but to do it remarkably well. As Solicitor-General he was the right-hand man of the Secretary for Ireland Mr. Balfour. Bloody Balfour afterwards Prime Minister. When Mr Balfour was summoned back to England to lead the Unionist Party, he resolved that Carson should accompany him, with that purpose persuaded him to stand as a member for Trinity College. Carson, with some reluctance, consented, and was elected, and in 1892 took his place in the House of Commons. Although his eloquence and his strong and arresting personality soon made a prominent figure in the House of commons, law and not politics was still his main concern. He now began to practice in London. His success was dazzling His keen analytical mind, which made his an unrivalled cross examiner, his cold and precise manner of speaking and his ability to seize on the weakness of his opponent's case, lifted him in a few years to the peak of his profession. The Wilde case was but one of many that made his name world famous. Lord Birkenhead. who was himself a towering figure in the legal world, has said that he was the most formidable advocate he ever en countered at the Bar. and the greatest advocate the Bar has produced since Eskine Devastating Cross-Examiner In his first volume of "The Life of Lord Carson.' the late Edward Marjoribanks describes the pains Carson took in the trials, in which he showed himself so great an advocate, to master both the law and the facts, the Napoleonic concentration on the weak point of the other side, the bold disregard for every thing that was not vital, the intense human feeling which transfigured pleading and cross-examination. In his greatest victories, as in the Oscar Wilde case he so managed it that the chief witness on the other side, under his skilful handling, made out the case he wanted to prove. On several occasions these chief witnesses utterly broke down. Thus "Havelock Wilson was unable to continue under cross-examination, and was carried out of court in a pitiful condition by his friends, sobbing like a woman and the tears streaming down his checks! Yet he never bullied the witnesses: he led them suavely and easily to their own discomfiture. There are some excellent stories of the humours of the Leinster Circuit, where Carson developed his wonderful gifts of cross-examination. Thus, for example, three valuators, examined separately, all gave the value of a field at £10 15 2. When the third repeated this figure Carson intervened thus: Carton you went over the field carefully, by yourself? Carson What sort of a field did ye find it? Witness— It had a wall all around It. I noticed everything about it. Carson did you notice any coincidences about the field? Witness yes. indeed. I didn't rightly recall it at first, but now you come to remind me. there was a little heap of them lying up in a corner of a field by themselves. Or again: Should I be right If I called you a heavy drinker? That's my business. Have you any other business?

 

Home Rule Struggle His Parliamentary career, while note worthy, was not at this stage out standing. From the outset he had assumed the leadership of the small group of Ulster Unionists who for years fought every Home Rule proposal in the House of Commons and resisted every attempt at compromise. In 1911 the great constitutional struggle between the House of Commons and the House of Lords having been disposed of. the stage was set for what was then believed to be the final settlement of the thorny "Irish question" The Home Rule Bill had neither the support of Redmond's Irish Nationalists, the Ulster Unionists, nor perhaps of a majority of the British people. The Unionists, though for a very different reason, were as strongly opposed to it as the Nationalists. Sir Edward Carson he had been Knighted in 1900, threw himself into the three cornered struggle with all his extra ordinary ability and energy. Ulster was determined to resist Home Rule, if necessary by force, and Carson became its leader. A committee of 400 was formed to make arrangements for a Provisional Government of Ulster, arms were smuggled in wholesale, and thousands of volunteers enrolled. Carson told the committee to "take the consequences and trust in God." Ulster. he declared, would march from Belfast to Cork and take the consequences, even if not one of them returned. An appeal was made to friends of Ulster in England. and an announcement was actually published in the London "Morning Post' calling openly for support for Ulster's "armed resistance." That was In June. 1913. Recruits flocked to Belfast, gun-running increased, and the situation became daily more critical The British Government found itself in a situation of extreme delicacy and danger. There was a vivid apprehension in England lest the Government should attempt to coerce Ulster, while a number of British Army officer fearing that they might be ordered to attack the Ulster volunteers, resigned their commissions. Carson declared in July 1913 that the forces of the Crown could not be used against Ulster because, if they did Great Britain "could not rely tomorrow on the army. Machinery was put in place for a revolutionary government and Ulster Women were to be admitted to the organisation. Ulster was to separate themselves from the rest of the country. Effort by the King in 1914 to broker a deal failed and Sir Edward Carson, hurried back to Ulster and placed himself at the head of the volunteers in readiness for whatever might happen. Such was the stage the crisis had reached when it was dissipated by the outbreak of the Great War. Carson, accepting the Government's pledge that no attempt would be made to raise the question of Home Rule until after the war, disbanded his troops and offered his services to the Government. "In doing so. he became a much greater man." wrote Lord Birkenhead. "He left parochialism far behind him, and devoted a competent mind to Imperial issues on an Imperial scale " Although he joined the Asquith Ministry as Attorney-General in May, 1915. Carson quickly came to the conclusion that that Government could not win the war, he resigned after three months. Thereafter he became chairman of the committee of Unionist members which attempted to add driving power and imagination to the conduct of the war The fall of the first Coalition Government was due in no small measure to the hostility against it which he had engendered, because he did not think it was prosecuting the war seriously enough. In 1917 he became First Lord of the Admiralty in Mr. Lloyd George's Government, and subsequently a member of the War Cabinet without portfolio. Sir Eric Geddes taking his place at the Admiralty. Carson remained a member of the War Cabinet, rendering valuable service, until 1918. when the Irish question once more inopportunely obtruded itself. He then felt that his position had become impossible for he found himself out of tune with many of his colleagues in the Ministry He resigned. After the war the Irish Government Act was passed, a measure of -which Carson did not seriously disapprove, as it safeguarded Ulster in its own boundaries. Soon afterwards a vacancy occurred in the Law Lords, which his previous achievements had admirably qualified him to fill. He therefore resigned his seat in the Commons in 1921 and was anointed a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, which position he filled with great credit for eight years. .Since 1929 he has been living practically in retirement.

 

By his first wife Carson had a son and a daughter. and by his second, whom he married in 1914. one son. ? His second wife and his children survive him

 

 

 

 

 

Freeman’s Journal 13 Aug 1917

 

SERGEANT-MAJOR'S DEATH-The death in action of Sergeant-Major John Hennessy,Leinsters, has occasioned keen regret in his native town, Listowel. The deceased was 21 years in the army, and served through the South African war,

 

and was about receiving a commission when he was killed by a shell. He was the son of the late Mr. D.C. Hennessy, journalist, and author of the "Lays of North Kerry."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SHEEHY

 

Who was Frank Sheehy?

 

The question is answered by Vincent Carmody

 

 

 

Frank was born in 1905 to John J.(b 1870) and Annie Sheehy.(b 1874) His father served as a drapery assistant in the Listowel and his mother was a native of Tipperary. Frank was the youngest of 4 children, with a brother John (b 1898), Margaret(b 1899) and Ellen ( b 1901).

 

 

 

He received his primary education at the Boys' National School, only 3 doors up the street from his home,. After this he attended St Michael’s College where he was a classmate of Seamus Wilmot among others.

 

Having achieved an M.A. at University College Dublin he then applied for and was accepted to attend at St. Patrick's Training College 1932-1934 to complete his studies to become a National Teacher. Among his colleagues at this time was the redoubtable Sean O Síocháin, later to become a long time General Secretary to the Gaelic Athletic Association. OSíocháin, in a tribute to Frank in 1981 wrote, ‘I first made his acquaintance in 1932/1934 as a student teacher in the Primary School attached to St. Patrick’s Teacher Training College, in Drumcondra, Dublin, where Frank had established himself as one of the great primary teachers of his time. In the following years, through the thirties and into the forties, we worked in after-school hours for the Comhar Dramaíochta, in the production and promotion of plays in Irish, he as runaí and I as a junior actor and sometimes Bainisteoir Stáitse. His high efficiency, his drive and his sense of humour streamlined many a situation for amateur actors which, otherwise might have been chaotic. During the forties, as Principal of an Endowed Primary School in Oldcastle, Co. Meath, gave him a distinction enjoyed by few in Primary Education, while his period in that part of Co. Meath, which coincided with that of the incomparable Paul Russell as Garda Sergeant, transformed the town and the district into a mini-Kingdom all their own’.

 

 

 

He returned to his native town in the early 1950s and quickly immersed himself in the local club and county GAA scene. He became Chairman of the county board in 1953 and many would say that he indeed was the spark that ignited the Kerry Senior team to regain the Sam Maguire, the first since 1946. That year he also organised the golden jubilee of the county’s first All Ireland success in 1953 and he was also instrumental in initiating the scheme that allowed Kerry All Ireland medal holders the right to apply for two tickets whenever the county reached the final.

 

 

 

He was appointed as principal of the senior boys’ school on his return to Listowel, a position he held until 1960. He served as Munster Council President from 1956-1958 and was narrowly beaten for the Presidency of the GAA by Dr.J.J.Stuart.

 

 

 

 

 

In 1961 he went to Nigeria, Africa, to take up a position of Professor of Educational Science at a training college in Asaba. He died there in 1962.

 

Listowel sports field is named ‘Pairc Mhic Shithigh’ in his honour.

 

 

 

 

 

'I See His Blood upon the Rose'

 

by Friar Jack Wintz, OFM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have reflected upon this poem in past E-spirations, but it’s such a prayerful poem that I wanted to revisit it.

 

 

 

“I See His Blood upon the Rose” is a perfect reminder of God’s great gift of love as revealed through the suffering and rising of Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word. In this poem, all created things seem to remind the poet of God’s incredible love, dramatized through the person of Christ.

 

 

 

About the Poet, Joseph Mary Plunkett

 

 

 

Born in Dublin in 1887, Joseph Plunkett wrote many poems of rare, mystical force. Plunkett was one of the signers of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic and was imprisoned by the English army. He was executed in 1916 for his part in the 1916 Easter Rising. Shortly before his execution on May 4, he married his fiancée, Grace Gifford, in the jail’s chapel. Plunkett was 28 years old.

 

 

 

Because of his great love for the Incarnate Word—and the Word’s close connection to all created things—Plunkett saw Christ’s destiny and great love as forever entwined with this earth and this universe.

 

 

 

“I See His Blood upon the Rose”

 

 

 

I see his blood upon the rose

 

And in the stars the glory of his eyes,

 

His body gleams amid eternal snows,

 

His tears fall from the skies.

 

I see his face in every flower;

 

The thunder and the singing of the birds

 

Are but his voice—and carven by his power

 

Rocks are his written words. All pathways by his feet are worn,

 

His strong heart stirs the ever-beating sea,

 

His crown of thorns is twined with every thorn,

 

His cross is every tree.”

 

 

 

My Line-by-Line Meditations

 

 

 

I see his blood upon the rose

 

When we gaze at a rose—or any other part of this universe—we see not only the individual beauty of the rose, but also the intensity of God’s care behind that rose and behind the universe itself.

 

 

 

And in the stars the glory of his eyes

 

In the stars, we see not only the glory of his death and total self-giving, but also the glory of his risen body and his death-conquering gaze.

 

 

 

His body gleams amid eternal snows

 

When we look at snowcapped mountains or other snowy vistas, we might see glimpses of Christ’s pale body, as when taken down from the cross—or his glorified, transfigured body shining brighter than snow.

 

 

 

His tears fall from skies

 

Again, behind the lovely everyday processes of nature, we can’t help seeing the love of our Great Lover—and the tears he shed over Jerusalem or during his agony in the garden.

 

 

 

I see his face in every flower

 

Every flower, indeed everything in this universe, reminds us of Christ. As St. Paul tells the Colossians (1:16), “All things were created through him and for him.” We recall, too, that St. Francis saw in the beauty of flowers the One who is Beauty itself.

 

 

 

The thunder and singing of the birds/Are but his voice

 

Singing birds and all other sounds of nature communicate one thing: God’s great love for us.

 

 

 

And carven by his power/Rocks are his written words

 

Christ, the Word made flesh, is truly intermingled with the universe. Creation itself is a reflection of the Word through whom “all things came to be” (Jn 1:3).

 

 

 

All pathways by his feet are worn

 

At the Incarnation, God made this world his home. Every path, trail, and road of this earth has taken on an elevated dignity and meaning because of the pathways Christ took while accomplishing his mission on earth. All paths remind us of the pathway he took to save us—the Way of the Cross.

 

 

 

His strong heart stirs the ever-beating sea

 

In the sea pounding against the jagged coast, we get glimpses of Christ’s mighty heart pounding with love for us.

 

 

 

His crown of thorns is twined with every thorn

 

Every thorn is somehow intertwined with Christ’s crown of thorns. Indeed, in every created thing we see Christ’s saving love.

 

 

 

His cross is every tree

 

Behind every tree, we can see Christ’s cross—and the Creator’s unconditional love.

 

 

 

MCELLIGOTT: War Office: Army of Ireland: Administrative and Easter Rising Records. IRISH SITUATION, 1914 - 1922. Prosecution of civilians. Prosecution of Michael McElligott; possession of a seditious documents; 28th September, 1920; Listowel, County Kerry; 18 months imprisonment with hard labour.

 

Collection: Records created or inherited by the War Office, Armed Forces, Judge Advocate General, and related bodies

 

Date range: 01 January 1920 - 31 December 1920

 

Reference:WO 35/117/9

 

Subjects:Armed Forces (General), Ireland, Army

 

Patk Mcmahon

 

Ireland, Prison Registers, 1790-1924 birth: 1894 Duagh

 

other: 1919 Cork County, Cork, Ireland

 

 

 

 

 

James Mcmahon

 

[John Mcmahon]

 

Ireland, Prison Registers, 1790-1924 birth: 1900 Duagh Co Kerry

 

residence: 1922 Duagh Co Kerry

 

other: 1922 Galway, Galway, Ireland

 

 

 

 

 

Denis Lyons

 

Ireland, Prison Registers, 1790-1924 birth: 1903 Knockhalonga Duagh

 

residence: 1924 Knockhalonga Duagh

 

other: 1924 Cork County, Cork, Ireland

 

 

 

 

 

Padraig Og O Ruairc is a PhD student at the University of Limerick. He has published a number of books and articles on the War of Independence & Civil War in Clare and Limerick. His most recent book “Revolution – A Photograph History of Revolutionary Ireland 1913 -1923” was short listed for the Best Irish Published Book category in the 2011 Irish Book Awards.

 

 

 

Padraig Og O Ruairc

 

Bits from his Article on Hibernian Rifles

 

 

 

JJ Walsh who held talks with Eoin McNeill, The O’Rahilly and Desmond Fitzgerald at McNeill’s house in Herbert park to try and arrange a working relationship between the Hibernian Rifles and Irish Volunteers

 

 

 

 

 

With the exception of Thomas Mac Donough the I.R.B. element that controlled the Irish Volunteers did not trust the Hibernian Rifles. Mac Donough had made advances to Scollan suggesting that the Hibernian Rifles should be amalgamated with the Irish Volunteers. Mac Donough had also urged the Hibernian Rifles to participate in the O’Donovan Rossa funeral. Divisions of the Hibernian Rifles from around the country assembled in Dublin August 1915 for the funeral and paraded one hundred and fifty strong carrying fifty rifles. They led the I.A.A. divisions and the ladies auxiliary divisions who dipped the American flag at the funeral. The Hibernian section of the funeral was placed under the command of the O Rahilly, an executive member of the Irish Volunteers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OSULLIVAN: War Office: Army of Ireland: Administrative and Easter Rising Records. IRISH SITUATION, 1914 - 1922. Courts of inquiry in lieu of inquest. Death of District Inspector Tobias O'Sullivan, RIC; 20th January, 1921; Listowel, County Kerry.

 

Collection: Records created or inherited by the War Office, Armed Forces, Judge Advocate General, and related bodies

 

Date range: 01 January 1921 - 31 December 1921

 

Reference: WO 35/157A/50

 

Subjects: Armed Forces (General), Ireland, Army

 

 

 

 

 

DAIL Question

 

Dáil Éireann - Volume 2 - 20 December, 1922

 

 

 

TOMAS Mac EOIN: To ask the Minister for Defence whether he is aware that Volunteer James Byrne, of the Dublin Guards, was wounded in an ambush at Duagh, Kilmorna, Co. Kerry, on October 13th, that the casualty was reported in the Sunday Independent of October 15th, and that enquiries were made by this Volunteer's mother, Mrs. Byrne, of 3 Willbrook, Rathfarnham, Co. Dublin, at Portobello Barracks, and Army Medical Headquarters, Merrion Square, during the following week, but failed to elicit any information; whether the Sunday Independent of October 22nd reported the funeral of this Volunteer from Portobello Barracks, although no notification of his fate had been sent to his relatives; whether, in answer to further enquiries, [405] Captain Stafford, the officer in charge of funerals at Portobello, told the mother on Monday, October 23rd, that he could not say if the lad buried was her son, and expressed the opinion that the soldier buried was either killed instantly, or else had died of blood poisoning; whether the same officer on the following day informed Mrs. Byrne's sister-in-law that the boy killed was Mrs. Byrne's son, and that he had made enquiries in Rathfarnham and had sent notice to the newspapers that an unidentified body was lying in the Barracks in order to enable him to get into touch with the relatives — statements of which no corroboration could be obtained in the newspaper offices or in Rathfarnham; whether, or subsequently, Army Medical Headquarters undertook to communicate with Abbeyfeale, and then notified Mrs. Byrne that the boy who had been buried was not her son but a native of Kerry; whether upon enquiry being made at Oriel House, a message was sent by Mr. Frank Fagan that Mrs. Byrne's son had not been killed, but was in hospital, not so seriously wounded as to require to be brought to Dublin for an operation; whether enquiries were also made of Commandant O'Connor, at Beggars' Bush Barracks, who promised to communicate with Mrs. Byrne, but failed to do so; whether Mrs. Byrne was left without definite news of her son's death until she received on December 14th, in reply to an enquiry she had addressed to the Parish Priest, a letter from Father F.J. Harrington, C.C., Duagh, Kilmorna, Co. Kerry, stating that her son was wounded in the abdomen on October 13th, was removed in a motor ambulance to Abbeyfeale that night, and died half an hour after his arrival there; whether he will ascertain and communicate to Mrs. Byrne the exact facts of her son's death and burial, with an apology for the treatment hitherto accorded to her, and whether he will establish such machinery of identification and notification of casualties as will prevent in future such unnecessary suffering as was inflicted in this case.

 

General MULCAHY: On the 16th October, Capt. Stafford received from the British and Irish Steam Packet Co. the remains of Vol. James Byrne, supposed to have been killed in action at Duagh, Co. Kerry on October 14th. Records were looked up, and it was found [406] that there were several Volunteers of that name, and many of them on duty in Kerry. Exhaustive enquiries were made to ascertain the identity of this man, but without success. Notices were inserted in the Dublin evening papers that the remains of Volunteer Byrne were lying unidentified in Portobello Barracks. A large number of people visited the mortuary for identification purposes, but as the man was beyond recognition, identification was, presumably, impossible. The remains were kept in the mortuary until October the 21st, when they were buried in the Army Plot at Glasnevin, with full military honours.

 

It is much regretted that Mrs. Byrne should have been caused any unnecessary pain. Everything possible was done to secure identification, but identification did not result.

 

Enquiries have not yet been completed in respect of some of the details given in the question, nor as to what the final aspect of this matter is as regards identification.

 

 

 

BARRY. JOHN.

 

Rank: Private. Regiment or Service: Irish Guards. Unit: 2nd Battalion.

 

Age at death: 22. Date of Death: 17-March-1917. Service No: 7579.

 

Supplementary information: Son of Bridget Barry, of Knockanune, Newtownsandes, Co. Kerry. Grave or Memorial Reference: V. H. 6. Born in Listowel, County Kerry.

 

Enlisted in Listowel, County Kerry. Killed in Action. Cemetery: Sailly-Saillisel British Cemetery in France.

 

 

Examiner 1841-1949, Friday, March 10, 1922; Page: 6

NEW CIVIC GUARD

MR. AUSTIN STACK'S STRICTURES.

Reply By Home Affairs Minister.

Dublin,. Thursday Night.—The Minister of Home Affairs to-night issued the following  statement on Mr. Austin Stack's letter criticising the action of the Provisional in Government, in organising a new police force:—

"The  Dail having  approved the Treaty, the provisional Government is charged with the duty of giving effect to its decision, and  consequently, with the responsibility for the maintenance of peace and order  Outside the Dublin Metropolitan area there will be no regular police force functioning in a few weeks, as the R.I.C. is being immediately disbanded. It is therefore obvious that in taking the necessary steps to organise a regular police force, the Provisional Government is doing its manifest duly to the people and to the Dail. It, will be the duty of the new force to protect the lives and property of the people, irrespective, of their political view  and in their recruiting and training HIM end will be kept in view. The men  will be chiefly recruited from the I.R.A.  and the Republican  police.

"Mr. Stack's implication that because there is a minority opposed to the Government in Dail Eireann, the police will be at the disposal of the political party for party purposes is  absolutely without foundation, and can only be regarded as a repudiation of the authority of Dail Eireann. If this view were conceded no country in which there is party government could have a police force. It is absurd for Mr. Slack, with his intimate knowledge of the Republican Police, to suggest that they could

take the place and perform the duties of a regular police force, and seeing that it takes several months to train and organise such a force, it is equally absurd to suggest that Dail Eireann, which has approved the Treaty and must proceed to give effect to its decision, should seriously consider a proposal to organise a force to function during  transitional period.

"This difficulty is being  got over by entrusting  responsibility for police duly to the I.R.A.. who are tanking possession of the R.I.C Barracks all over the country, according as they are being evacuated. I am fully in agreement with Mr. Stack  that every patriotic citizen  is anxious to see law and order preserved. It was in that  spirit that  Mr. Collins at the Dail meeting in December last, asked the minority party should co-operate with the majority in forming a committee of Public Safety. But there was no response from Mr De Valera or his colleagues. It is quite obvious that the disorder which at present exists would not continue if the guilty parties did not believe they has a least the tacit acquiescence of the leaders of the  minority. Why is it that there has not been a single of denunciation from the leaders of the Anti-Treaty party of the acts of indiscipline that are daily occurring. Mere destructive

criticism of the actions of the Provisional Government in their efforts to give effect to the decision of the Dail approving the Treaty will not relieve Mr Stack and his colleagues of their responsibility to the Irish people

 

 

 

 

Sr. Mary Estelle was born Margaret Cunningham in 1898 in Kilbaha, Newtownsandes (now Moyvane), Co. Kerry. Her parents were Richard Cunningham and Brigid Dore. At the age of 17 she and her older sister Johanna joined the Sisters of St. Joseph in Concordia, Kansas where a distant relative, John Francis Cunningham, was a bishop. Sr. Mary Estelle worked as a nurse for many years at St. Joseph's Hospital in Belvedere, Illinois where she died in 1987 aged 89.

 

 

 

Johanna, Sr. Mary Estelle's sister, became Sr. Mary Ellen and worked in El Paso, Texas for a time before moving back to Concordia to work in St. Anthony's Hospital there. Sr. Mary Ellen died in Concordia in 198?

 

 

 

VALLEY of Knockanure

 

 

 

Easter Week or the heroes of Ninety-Eight

 

Those Fenian men who roamed the glen for victory or defeat

 

Their names on history's page are told, their memory will endure

 

Not a song was sung of our darling sons in the valley of Knockanure.

 

 

 

There was Walsh and Lyons and the Dalton boy, they were young and in their prime

 

They rambled to a lonely spot where the Black and Tans did hide

 

The Republic bold they did uphold though outlawed on the moor

 

And side by side, they fought and died in the valley of Knockanure.

 

 

 

It was on a neighbouring hillside we listened in hushed dismay

 

In every house, in every town, a young girl knelt to pray

 

They're closing in around them now, with rifle fire so sure

 

And Lyons is dead and young Dalton's down in the valley of Knockanure.

 

 

 

But ere the guns could seal his fate, young Walsh had broken through

 

With a prayer to God, he spun the sod as against the hill he flew

 

And the bullets cut his flesh in two, still he cried with voice so sure

 

Oh, revenge I'll get for my comrades' deaths in the valley of Knockanure.

 

 

 

The summer sun is sinking now behind the field and lea

 

The pale moonlight is shining bright far off beyond Tralee

 

The dismal stars and the clouds afar are darkening o'er the moor

 

And the banshee cried when young Dalton died, in the valley of Knockanure.

 

 

 

MOLONEY

 

 

 

Fr William Moloney lately arrived from Ireland took up a temporary position in Sierra Valley where lived about 1000 people many of them Ranchers in 1868 . He is noted as being the first Missionary to visit the north of Pumas County . Visiting Johnsville on Deer Creek , Quincy, Indian Valley, Susanville and Honey Lake Valley in Lassen County . He was the first Priest in Lassen County . The records show that Fr William Moloney was very active on the Missions in California and Nevada .He gave 40yrs service to the Church in this area . Journeys of 50 miles were common . At times he would be 100 miles from the end of the trail at Downieville where mining took place in 1880 . He named his famous Horse Charley . In the mountain area of Northern California travel in winter was difficult with deep snow drifts . To travel you would need a pine board 4" wide and 8 to 12ft long fixed to the soles of shoes a long stick was needed for balance . A priest had to be strong and fit to cope with the hardships of Missionary life . It took 6 weeks to make the circuit from Truckee to Alturas and back home again . Fr William Moloney son of Tadhg and Kate Enright born Coilagurteen, Knockanure in 1841 Ordained 1864, died Sutter Creek 1903 . He was a brother of M T Moloney Solicitor General Ottawa .Inscriptions on Family Headstone Gale Cemetery , Timothy Moloney died Nov 1st 1885 aged 93yrs . Memorial Erected by their son Maurice Moloney Ottawa Ill. USA . Also remembered son John Moloney who died Jan 19th 1904 .his wife Ellen died 13th April 1908 .son Edward Moloney died Nov 5th 1872 aged 27yrs.

 

 

 

Mission Notes.18 Sept 1915 Sacred Heart Review,

The heroism of missionary life surpasses all romance, and many a missionary's deeds if made known to the world could not fail to inspire many others to dedicate their lives to the service of God in the mission-field. —Father Kennelly. S. J., China. Father Botty, formerly President of the Belgian Seminary for Foreign Missions at Brussels, and at present a missionary in Mongolia, tells us that, during the past decade, the number of Christians has increased six-fold in the vast mission. This seems to be the realization of the prayer of the late Bishop Hammer, put to death by the Boxers fifteen years ago, who on the eve of his martyrdom said, "Once I have been received by my Lord and Saviour, I shall draw this whole province to the Faith." Father Fraser recently visited a village in the mountains where it was very difficult to understand the dialect as it differed so much from the Chinese he speaks. On this same trip, at the catechist's request, he climbed or rather was carried up a steep mountain four miles to a village, where an old man lay dying. He gave him the last Sacraments, and thereby did a good turn to the missionary in whose district the patient lived, for in order to attend this sick call the latter priest would have had to travel one hundred miles and back on foot. This gives one some idea of the extent of territory often in charge of one missionary priest.

 

CRONIN, EDMOND THOMAS. Rank: Private. Regiment or Service: Australian Army Medical Corps. Unit; 1st Australian General Hospital. Age at Death, 24. Date of Death: 07-May-1917. Service No: 4283. Supplementary information; Son of Thomas and Margaret Cronin, of Knockanure, Newtownsandes.

 

J O Shea Private 9842 Munster f died 6 July 1916 aged 32 years, stone at Rathass Tralee.

 

D J Baily Munster F. died 21 Feb. 1917 stone in Tralee.

 

 

LETTER 1918

http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?q1=salary;id=umn.31951002358122s;view=plaintext;start=1;size=100;page=root;seq=353;num=351

 

The following letter, Signed, amongst other prominent men, by Sir Edward Carson,

the lord mayor of Belfast, the mayor of Derry, and the president of the Belfast

Chamber of Commerce, has been addressed to President Wilson at Washington:

City Hall,

Belfast, August 1, 1918.

To the President of the United States of America:

Sir: A manifesto signed by the leader of the Irish Nationalist Party and certain

other Irish gentlemen has been widely circulated in the United Kingdom in the form

of a letter purporting to have been addressed to Your Excellency.

Its purpose appears to be to offer an explanation of, and an excuse for, the conduct

of the Nationalist Party in obstructing the extension to Ireland of compulsory military

service, which the rest of the United Kingdom has felt compelled to adopt as the

necessary means of defeating the German design to dominate the world. At a time

when all the free democracies of the world have, with whatever reluctance, accepted

the burden of conscription as the only alternative to the destruction of free institu-

tions and of international justice, it is easily intelligible that those who maintain

Ireland's right to solitary and privileged exemption from the same obligation should

betray their consciousness that an apologia is required to enable them to escape

condemnation at the bar of civilized, and especially of American, opinion. But

inasmuch as the document referred to would give to anyone not intimately familiar

with British domestic affairs the impression that it represents the unanimous opinion

of Irishmen, it is important that Your Excellency and the American people should

be assured that this is very far from being the case.

 

 

There is in Ireland a minority, whom we claim to represent, comprising one-fourth

to one-third of the total population of the island, located mainly, but not exclusively,

in the Province of Ulster, who dissent emphatically from the views of Mr. Dillon and

his associates. This minority, through their representatives in Parliament, have

maintained throughout the present war that the same obligations should in all respects

, be borne by Ireland as by Great Britain, and it has caused them as Irishmen a keen

sense of shame that their country has not submitted to this equality of sacrifice.

 

KERRY PEOPLE and newspapers about 1921-‘22

(Kerry People 30 April 1921) Judge Cusack, Widow of late District Inspector Sullivan shot20th Jan was awarded £9,000.

16 April1921: Patrol attacked at Kilmorna, officer and two ranks wounded, one attacker shot dead.

Death of National Teacher Jeremiah McCarthy NT of Abbeyfeale. Six members of his family adopted the teaching profession.

Crown Forces search house of Con Brosnan in Newtownsandes at night on 10th April. While they were searching a fire started in the landing and when they got through it the door was locked and the two women in the house were gone, the soldiers escaped they only got scorched clothes.

 

KP: 16 April 1921 on this Thursday morning at 10am, Sir Arthur shot dead, he had tag bearing words Traitors Beware, We never forget. IRA.

 

Sat. May 20th 1922Executed for espionage, Constable Michael Denneehy RIC, Ruskey, Co Roscommon. His father Mr. T Dennehy of Granafulla. Mastergeehy, Co Kerry.

Constable Patrick Waters RIC disappears, left Tralee barracks at 9.30 on Oct. 31st 1920, presumed dead.

 

KP May 20th 1922; Krnnelly/ Brown wedding 25 April 1922 at St Michael’s Church Dunlaoghaire, with Nuptial Mass by Rev, Eamon Kissane DD, Maynooth, Rev James Kilgariff uncle of the bride. Patrick J Kennelly MPSI, Tralee No 1 Brigade IRA to Cathleen ? Brown daughter of late Patrick Brown of Tuam.

 

Gortaglanna Anniversary, large crowd and bands leave Listowel for Knockanure.

 

June 24th 1922; Election, many surprises, Madame Markievicz and Mrs Clarke and many others in danger.

 

July 1st 1922: Listowel fight between Republicans and Free State Soldiers.

Window of Mrs Naylor’s Millinery Shop in Upper Church Street, Listowel, broken on Wednesday night.

Funeral of Private Sheehy Free State soldier, attended by large crowd of people.

Thursday night, 17 cows of Madam Janasz carried off, her steward was Mr Cunningham. Commandant J Sugrue of Listowel Barracks sent despatch to Kilmorna.

 

July 8th 1922, Letter dated 28 June 1922, from T J Kennelly OC NO 1 Brigade, correcting report in paper.

 

 

Notes on Garda from Donal J O Sullivan of Tralee.

First Garda came to Kerry Autumn 1922, more arrived in first half of 1923 and all Civic Guards stations manned at end of 1923.

First of the Civic Guards came by sea in cattle boats etc, as the rail servicewas disrupted till 1923.

Garda Patrick O Doherty a native of Donegal was brought by boat to Kenmare, he used cycle on his holiday back to Donegal, his son is Maurice O Doherty of RTE.

IRA members used try to intimidate people joining Guards and Guards arriving and doing police work.

Several Civic Guards and their barracks were attacked by anti-government elements and some were shot injured and a few were killed.

All the serving Civic Guards in Kerry were from other counties.

At election time and when speakers drew big crowds there was often great strain placed on the Guards to keep order, members from nearby counties were drafted to help at times.

 

 

MOYVANE Compensation Claims

Keating's Creameries, Newtownsandes [Moyvane], Mar 1923-Dec 1924

Michael Keane, parish priest, Newtownsandes, Feb 1923-[?1926] page 17

Jeremiah O'Connor, Rathoran, Kilmorna, Feb 1923-[?1926]

Mary Walsh, Clounprohus, Mar 1923-Jan 1927

Maurice Heffernan, Kilmorna, Mar 1923-[?1926]

Leen Rice, Kilmorna House.

http://nai.adlibhosting.com/brief.aspx?gotopage=60

 

File Reference 5D75

Name Timothy Prenderville Gender male Address detail Street Glenalappa, Newtownsandes

County Kerry

Country Ireland

Address detail Street Maddenstown South

County Kildare

Country Ireland

Notes Date of birth not recorded on file.

Date of death 1926-09-21

Associated files in MSPA 30Pensions99

Related files 5D66 Edmond O'Reilly killed in the same incident.

Easter rising service No Organisation Óglaigh na hÉireann/National Forces Rank Lieutenant

Pension Claim No Award Pension No Military Service Pensions Acts 1924 No Military Service Pensions Acts 1934 No Military Service Pensions Acts 1949 No Digital file Scanned/digital copyW5D75TIMOTHYPRENDERVILLE.pdf

Scanned/digital copyW30PENSIONS99TIMOTHYPRENDERVILLE.pdf File dates 27 September 1926 - 17 September 1954

Subject Information File relates to Ellen Prenderville’s unsuccessful application under the Army Pensions Acts in respect of the death of her son Timothy Prenderville who was killed in an air accident while taking part in manoeuvres on 21 September 1926 at Hempstown, County Wicklow. Ellen Prenderville awarded an extra statutory grant of £200. Also includes unsuccessful application from Michael Prenderville. File contains: report from an Gárda Síochána detailing Ellen Prenderville’s circumstances. - See more at: http://mspcsearch.militaryarchives.ie/detail.aspx?parentpriref=#sthash.TB2fRC49.dpuf

 

 

Click here to add this item to the selection File Reference 3D136

Name Cornelius Hayes Gender male Maiden/Other names Con

Address detail Street Clover's Lane, Killarney

County Kerry

Country Ireland

Notes Date of birth not recorded on file.

Date of death 1923-03-25

Associated files in MSPA FA12

Related files 8284 subjects National Army service number.

Civilian occupation Postman; Easter rising service No Organisation Óglaigh na hÉireann/National Forces Rank Private

Unit 19 Infantry Battalion

Commanding Officer(s) Maurice Culhane

National Army Service Number 8284

Pension Claim No Award Pension Yes Army Pensions Act 1923/1953 Yes Type of Award OTHOther

Notes Norah Hayes awarded a gratuity of £100.

Military Service Pensions Acts 1924 No Military Service Pensions Acts 1934 No Military Service Pensions Acts 1949 No Digital file Scanned/digital copyW3D136CorneliusHayes.pdf

Scanned/digital copyWFA12CorneliusHayes.pdf File dates 30 May 1923 - 23 October 1924

Subject Information File relates to Norah Hayes’ application under the Army Pensions Acts in respect of the death of her brother Cornelius Hayes who was accidentally shot and killed on 25 March 1923 at Newtownsandes, County Kerry. Reference made to payment of Dependant's Allowance from Army Funds. File contains: report from an Gárda Síochána detailing Norah Hayes’s circumstances. - See more at: http://mspcsearch.militaryarchives.ie/detail.aspx#sthash.mnc0U05I.dpuf

 

 

http://www.waterfordcity.ie/library/wararchive/Display.aspx?id=3712&Filter=LIMERICK

WEST WATERFORD R.I.C. MEN FOR THE FRONT Waterford News, Page 8 30th April, 1915

Recently Corporal Michael Murphy and Private William Fennessy, both of the  Irish Guards Regiment, stationed at  Warley, London, were home with their parents at Ballyduff Upper, Co. Waterford, for a few days leave. Corporal Murphy prior to joining the Irish Guards was Constable Murphy, R . I . C . , Brickfields, Belfast, and had eight years service and  i s  son of Mrs Catherine Murphy, vintner, Ballyduff.  H i s  plucky comrade, who comes from the Ballysaggart district, which is on the Lismore side of Ballyduff  village, was also an  R . l . C . policeman of about 18 months service, and prior to joining was stationed at Ardfert Co. Kerry.

 

 

 

ARMY: Register Adelade 6 Oct. 1916

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/59918052?searchTerm=listowel%20old%20country&searchLimits=

The Old Home in Ireland. Pte. J. E. Dee, in a letter to his father at Mundoora, says: — "I have arrived safely in England after an anxious trip. Just after we left Port Said I saw two steamers sunk by German submarines. We had a good escort, which kept the sub- marines away from us. We were landed at Marseilles and entrained through France. It was lovely to see the country green from one end to the other. I have just returned from a week's leave. I went to London, then across to Ireland, and down to Ballybunion, County Kerry, and met friends in Listowel. I had an Australian pal with me, and they offered to take us to Killarney, but we had not time. I saw where you used to live at Lahardane, and met several here who used to be boys with you. We were the first Australian soldiers to go to that part of Ireland, and every one stared at us. They were taken with our hats, and were all anxious to shake hands. I also saw the ruins of Dublin. The Sinn Feiners made a terrible mess of things. We are camped about 60 miles from London— two hours train ride. I have met a lot of boys from our way since I arrived. The first night I saw Maurice Garman and Syd Sando, of Mundoora. They both look really well, and are in the same camp as self."

 

 

Michael HANRAHAN died in date unknown.

http://www.helensfamilytrees.com/ha2g02.htm

 

In family notes outlining the Michael's branch of the Hanrahan family tree, the word 'sapper' and 'Aust.' (presumably meaning Australia) appear after Michael's name. A search of World War I casualties on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website (www.cwgc.org) shows that a Michael Francis Hanrahan, a private in the Australian army, died on 11 April 1917 in northern France. However, no information as to his age or his parents' names and address is given so there is no evidence that Michael Francis Hanrahan is our Michael above.

 

 

Executed War Independence

The ten men were Kevin Barry, a UCD medical student of 18, with roots in County Carlow; Thomas Whelan from Clifden; Patrick Moran from Roscommon; Patrick Doyle, Bernard Ryan, Frank Flood and Thomas Bryan all from Dublin; Thomas Traynor of Tullow; and Edmond Foley and Patrick Maher, from Galbally, County Limerick.

 

2Oct 1915 Freemans Journal  p2

 DEATH OF A KERRY SOLDIER.—News has reached Mr. James Keane, 'Clieveragh, _Listowel, of the death from wounds of his son, Private James Keane, R.M.F., at the Dardanelles. Deceased was a young married man, and leaves a wife and  child _'to mourn his loss. Much sympathy is felt for the family, and regret for himself, who was a good soldier and respectable young man.

 

19 Oct. 1922 Examiner

http://archive.irishnewsarchive.com/Olive/APA/INA.Edu/Default.aspx#panel=search&search=2

CO. KERRY AMBUSH NATIONAL SOLDIER S DEATH

Our Limerick Correspondent wrote on Monday.—Sergeant John Browne, who was fatally wounded on Saturday morning in an ambush between Listowel and  Abbeyfeale  while a member of an escort from  Tralce with Con. Murphy, was an only son. He was nephew of the R ev. Canon Canty. P.P., Dromin, Co. Limerick, and fought in the great war, in France  and Italy. During the attack on irregulars at Bruree he joined the Nation:;! Army, and was a reliable and daring soldier. He was 25 years of age, and educated at Mungret College. The remains were conveyed to  church yesterday, and the interment took place to-day, military honours being accorded

 

Easter Rising 24 April 1916, 254 civilians killed,2,217 civilians wounded. Total killed: 466

 

One witness recalls seeing people in the Gresham Hotel with jewellery they had bought from the looters. In his memoir, On Another Man’s Wound, Ernie O’Malley recalled arriving onto Sackville Street and being pestered by looters hawking their booty: “Diamond rings and pocketsful of gold watches were selling for sixpence and a shilling, and one was cursed if one did not buy.”

 

 

 

Meanwhile, Volunteers with batons tried in vain to protect business, and the journalist Francis Sheehy Skeffington, who would not survive Easter week, stood atop a tram car and pleaded with people not to steal.

 

 

 

One Volunteer described witnessing looters carrying a stolen piano from the direction of Mary’s Lane. They ignored warnings to stop, and only did so after a volley was fired over their heads. The would-be plunderers scarpered, leaving the piano in the middle of the street.

 

 

 

The bizarre sights didn’t end there. Several Volunteers broke into the Waxworks Museum and were soon to be seen parading up and down in all manner of outlandish costumes.

 

 

 

The looting lasted for most of the week. CItizens had gone mad and no manner of threats or impeachments would disuade them from their path.

 

 

 

In his book, Dear, Dirty Dublin: A City in Distress, 1899-1916, Joseph O’Brien wrote that “according to police statistics for 1916, 425 persons were proceeded against for looting during the rebellion and 398 of these were either fined or imprisoned”.

 

 

 

The Irish Independent reported on May 11, 1916, how a mother and daughter had been charged with being in illegal possession of “two mattresses, one pillow, eight window curtains, one lady’s corset.. one top coat, two ladies coats, five ladies hats and four chairs.”

 

 

 

In the same news report, it was noted that two ladies from Camden Street had been prosecuted for being in possession of, among other things, “3lbs of tea, 12 boxes of sweet herbs…some lemonade and cornflower.” The constable told the court that the accused told him: “We were looting, like the rest. We had a bit out of it, too!” They were sentenced to a month in prison each.

 

 

 

The testimony of Royal Irish Regiment Sergeant Flethcher-Desborough, found in the Bureau of Military History, states that “months after the end of the Rising, flower sellers and paper vendors round the pillar, sported fur coats and bejewelled fingers, which they could never have bought with the profits from their flower selling.”

 

http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/granny-the-looter

 

 

 

Belfast Newsletter

 

Extract

 

papers if published will disclose proof of a remarkable series of plots and conspiracies, not only against Ireland, but against all our colonial possessions. The papers, it will be remembered were discovered by Government detectives when the New York office of Captain Von Papen, the disgraced German Military Attache was raided and Von Igel,Von Papen’s secretary was arrested. The raid on Von Papen’s office was one of the sequels to the disclosures which the German spy, Von Der Goltz made when he was arrested in England. The German Ambassador at Washington at first made strong demands that Von Igel’s papers were official; that they were, therefore, precluded from seizure, and must be handed over to him without examination. Now he has changed front, by admitting that they are not official, to escape from the difficulty of having to identify them as such, and thus implicating the German Embassy in the conspiracies against the United States which they disclose. The ground he now takes up is that the papers are personal belongings of an Embassy Attache and as such are immune from seizure. The Department of Justice, it is said, will hold that documents relating to plots against the security of the State are not immune from seizure and the security of the State is certainly involved in plots to foment rebellion in Ireland.

 

 

 

                Little doubt now exists that the Sinn Féiners were partly financed by hyphenated Americans of Irish and German descent...         

 

 

 

Now, are we to suppose that our own Government was ignorant of the close connection thus revealed between the enemy and the Sinn Féin propaganda in Ireland? That is preposterous. It is precluded by the fact that it was upon the confessions of Von Der Goltz that Von Igel was arrested at Von Papon’s private office in New York and the incriminating papers seized. John Devoy the editor of the "Gaelic American" the organ of the American Sinn Féiners, is threatening to accuse the President of the responsibility for the sinking of Sir Roger Casement’s ammunition ship, on account of the warnings given by a member of the Administration to the British Government. He charges that this is the "most disgraceful and dishonourable act ever committed by an American President – a deliberate violation of neutrality"

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/easterrising/newspapers/na01a.shtml

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/miracle-hunters-manual/

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.patrickcomerford.com/2016/02/1916-finding-voice-for-church-of-ireland.html?fb_ref=Default

 

 

 

Patrick Comerford

 

 

 

Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick,

 

 

 

3 p.m., Saturday 20 February 2016

 

 

 

It is very kind of the Bishop of Limerick and Killaloe, Bishop Kenneth Kearon, and the Dean of Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, to invite me here this afternoon to share some of my thinking about how we are commemorating 1916 this year, and how we might reflect on the events 100 years ago that shaped the Ireland we live in today.

 

I lecture in Church History in the Church of Ireland Theological Institute on a course that leads both to ordination in the Church of Ireland and to a master’s degree in theology from Trinity College Dublin.

 

As a canon of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, I am concerned with the way the commemorations of 1916 look like forcing the cathedral to close on Easter Day, the most important day in the Christian calendar. For the first time since Christ Church Cathedral was built almost 1,000 years ago in 1030, it looks like the central act of worship in calendar of the Church is not going to take place in the cathedral, and all because of a peculiar quirk in our calendars.

 

 

 

If this were to happen in Mecca or Moscow, under Saudi laws or Soviet diktats, you could imagine the righteous anger throughout the Christian world.

 

The calendars of the state and of our schools, popular events and television programmes, are revolving around events marking the centenary of the 1916 Rising.

 

The Easter Rising began on Monday 24 April 1916, which was neither Easter Day nor in March. But this year’s main centenary events are taking place on Easter Day, Sunday 29 March 2016. The most important day in the Christian calendar has been taken over so that on Easter Day most churchgoers in Dublin are not going to get to the church or cathedral of their choice in the city centre.

 

Despite representations from the Churches, a lockdown in Dublin is going to keep people away from Christ Church Cathedral and many more churches. But this is not the first time that the Christian message of Easter has been hijacked for political purposes.

 

We revel in our myths, so who is going to point out that neither Sinn Féin nor the IRA took part in the events of Easter Week, or that Patrick Pearse did not lead the rising?

 

 

 

The three organisations named in the Easter Proclamation are the Irish Republican Brotherhood, the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army, and the IRA was not formed until 1917.

 

Irish Examiner 1841-current, Friday, 05 February, 1915; Page: 3

 

Constable Michael Kennelly, Ballybunion, has left his station to join the Irish Guards. Shortly after his advent to Ballybunion two young ladies happened to get into difficulties while bathing, and Kennelly, who happened to be on the beach, immediately swam to their aid and succeeded in bringing both ladies safely to the shore, in spite of the fact that a heavy sea was running at the time. For this brave act he was presented with a magnificent gold watch and, the Royal Humane Society presented him with a certificate for bravery. He was the recipient of numerous presents from his friends in Ballybunion on his departure. We congratulate this young man on his bravery, and hope he will win further laurels at the front.

 

 

 

Kerry Sentinel 1878-1916, Saturday, 02 September, 1916; Page: 3

 

Munster Casualties The following Kerry men appear in the casualty list, under various dates, as wounded :—Bartishale P, Listowel, Brandon T, do; Burke, Acting Sergeant, Tralee; Casey J, Comerford P, do; Curry, P. do; Danaher D, Castleisland; Fitzgerald J, Tralee; Kennelly P, Ballybunion, Lucitt M, Tralee; Murphy, Sergeant C, (Tralee Enlt); Murphy F, Tralee; Carroll J, Listowel; O'Sullivan M, Tralee; Pierce J, Ballyduff; Sheehy, Lance Corporal P, Tralee; Sullivan C, Waterville; Donoghue, Sergeant D, Tralee ; Traynor W, Ballybunion.

 

               

 

How the Enchanted Earl (d. 1398) inspired the defenders of Limerick in 1691

 

by Gerald O'Carroll

 

 

 

'The estates that for four centuries enabled the family of  Desmond to support the English throne in Ireland, in Wales, in Scotland, in France, and even in the Holy Land, and by means of which, according to the best historians, they led to the field eight thousand of their own principal gentry and freeholders, were, after their transfer to Orrery, Inchiquin, Barrymore, and others, successfully directed against the rights of the Crown, in favour of the Cromwellian government. But the moral effects which followed this revolution in the fortunes of a house so illustrious and potent, were not such as the rulers of a people should desire; for, long after its destruction, the family of Desmond lived in the songs and tales of their country; their merits were extolled; their exploits, as is usual in such cases, were magnified; and the circumstances of their seemed but to rivet the affections of the people to those opinions and feelings, of which that family, from their elevated rank, had been considered the natural champions. So difficult is it to eradicate the long-entertained opinions of the people, and those ideas of superior greatness which they feel towards their favourite nobles, that, even in one hundred years after the fall of this family, we find the Irish army within the walls of Limerick, when besieged by King William, and threatened with the horrors of famine, consoling themselves by assurances of succour from ‘one of the Earls of Desmond, that dyed above two hundred years ago’, and was secretly buried, but ‘who the Irish fancied was carried away by enchantment’.'

 

 

 

(Account of William Lynch, 1830)

 

Northern Star (Lismore, NSW :

 

Wed. 5th July 1916

 

 

 

KITCHENER AS A BOY.

 

AT SCHOOL IN; CO. KERRY.

 

A CHUM'S RECOLLECTIONS.

 

Mr. Michael Byrnes, who is now on a visit to Manly, was a schoolmate of Kitchener’s

 

'' It- is over 55 years ago," says 'Mr. Byrnes, since Lord Kitchener went to the old National School at Kilflinn, Sweet County Kerry, which I attended. It was half-way between Listowel and Tralee, and his father,, .(Colonel Kitchener, had a farm called Crotta Domain. My recollections of the boy Kitchener are very distinct, although it is so many yours ago. We were neighbours and playmates together, and always 'the best of .chums. We were just about the same age, both under 10 years, and we were both literature lovers and rambled about the beautiful countryside in each other's company. All though there was nothing very remarkable ' .about the boy in the way of cleverness at school, yet I've .always vividly remembered him through the long years. No doubt he. had a personality; He was a very strange boy in many ways, very reserved, and studious. like

 

.preferred being by himself very often, not that he was stuck up in any shape or form, and although not many of his schoolmates shared his confidences, he was liked and respected by the. whole of them, and enjoyed a popularity which was strange considering his studious moods and attitude of aloofness. He never cared for footall or hurling, but was passionately fond of horses. He was always happy on horseback, and loved to follow the hounds. The sight of the huntsmen and the, dogs and the sound of the horn, always woke him out of his usual seriousness, and he used to get very excited and enthusiastic when the meets were on.

 

'At school he was not by any means a dull boy,  I said before, he didn't, to our minds at least, show any signs of cleverness. The masters, however, thought a lot of him, and he always managed to get through his lessons without difficulty.

 

 Every summer we boys used to spend a month at a Strand, a little watering place on the sea. Young Kitchener always came with us?  we all stayed with uncles and aunts of mine. With all I my family he was a great favourite and the womenfolk particularly were fond of the ' gentlemanly, quiet lad. Strange to say, he had  a dread of deep water a big wave would always drive him back to shore, and he would never go in any depth. The. remarkable, thing was that he was utterly fearless in every other direction. Looking back on his extraordinarily boyish fear of the deep sea, it appears uncannily, pathetic now that he has found a lonely grave in the depths of the ocean.

 

''There are some stories of the late Lord Kitchener that convey the idea that he was official and unapproachable, but my experience of him to me, on that memorable morning of his visit to Sydney,' showed that he was possessed of indeed very human qualities. "