Tomás Ághas commemorations

PÁIRC an Ághasaigh in Dingle has the distinction of being the only GAA pitch in the country named after Tomás Ághas and in recognition of this Dingle GAA will host a commemoration on Sunday to mark the 100th anniversary of the Lios Póil patriot’s death.

What is now Páirc an Ághasaigh has been in use as a football pitch since 1903 and Tomás Ághas himself played there in his youth, at a time when Dingle and Lios Póil formed a combined team. However, Ághas apparently had a falling out with Dingle GAA and he subsequently formed his own Lios Póil team, which went on to contest a county final.

Despite that blip in inter-parish relations, Dingle GAA named the field in honour of Tomás Ághas after they bought the land from the Christian Brothers and developed the facilities in the 1940s.

Sunday’s commemoration by Dingle GAA will begin at the War of Independence monument on The Mall at 12.30pm with a talk about Ashe’s contribution to the 1916 Rising. The Dingle Fife and Drum Band will then lead a parade to Páirc an Ághasaigh where brief speeches will be followed by the John Sheehy Memorial Underage Blitz, starting at 1pm.

The Dingle commemoration dovetails with events in Lios Póil where at 2pm on Saturday a new bust of Tomás Ághas will be unveiled beside his family home in Cinn Aird. Michael Collins’s armoured car ‘Sliabh na mBan’ will be on display, Banna Ceoil Lios Póil, Coiscéim na Caillí, and piper Feargal Mac Amhlaoibh will provide misic and a lament, ‘Marbhna Thomáis Ághas’, will be delivered by Mossie Ó Scanláin. On Sunday a mass in memory of Ághas will be celebrated in Séipéal Naomh Eoin Baiste, Lios Póil.