The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Fr Tom tells the story of Óglaigh Chill Airne
A HISTORY of Killarney’s Volunteers from 1913 to 1916 is the focus of a new book by well-known Killarney priest, Fr Tom Looney. ‘Óglaigh Chill Airne 19131916’ is published as part of the ‘Echoes of Easter’ Irish language series and its launch takes place this Friday evening, December 9, at The Meadowlands Hotel, Tralee at 7pm when former Kerry footballer, Donie O’Sullivan, will launch the book.
The Killarney Volunteers were one of the first groups founded in Ireland and grew from ‘An Seabhac’s Gaelic League Class’ of November 28, 1913. Tom Looney’s study tracks the progress of the founders and names the fifty-three armed and mobilised men who gathered for action in Killarney on Easter Sunday, 1916. But like so many towns and villages outside of Dublin, the anticipated battle failed to take place.
After the Rising, 1,863 Volunteers were later imprisoned in Frongoch Camp in Wales; a contingent of men that included five Killarney men. This book contains over 21 photos and Frongoch autographs that help tell their story. The publication is the culmination of a lifelong interest for Tom and is a project with its origins in the Rising’s Golden Jubilee of 1966, as Tom explains.
“In 1966 I was asked to write an article on the Volunteers in Killarney which was at the behest of Susie Casey who, incidentally, is the wife of Con Casey, a former editor of The Kerryman. Then 3-years ago on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Irish Volunteers, I gave a talk about the Killarney Volunteers. They had their headquarters where the AXA Insurance building is today in High Street.”
The publication is in Irish by Coiscéim costing €7.50 and is dedicated to the author’s late mother, Alice, to Aghadoe born Mercy Sister Thaddeus Collins, and Killarney’s Conradh na Gaeilge. Those attending Friday night’s launch will also be treated to an illustrated lecture in Irish on the Kerry Prisoners of War in Frongoch in 1916.
“One of the great things about this publication is the names of the men have now been recorded as some of their own family members would not have known of their involvement during that important period in our local and national history,” Fr Tom added.