Natives return to Spike Island
Island Visitor Centre, and were accompanied by Archaeologist John Tierney, Christy Lehane, Lissigiveen, and Sheila O’Sullivan, Newmarket.
Dermot and Ann were interviewed by Christy Lehane beside the building where their father was imprisoned nearly 100 years ago. This recording will be attached to the Kiely graves in Cullen.
Dermot Kiely said his first impression on arriving on the Island was of the beauty and tranquility of the place. “Of course, it was a completely different experience for my father nearly 100 years ago as he was here against his will and one would assume in fear; as an internee he didn’t know how long he would be detained or, indeed, if he would leave the island alive,” Dermot said.
Ann remarked that it must have been a source of comfort to her father that he would have been friendly and familiar with many of the other detainees on the island at the time.
Both Der and Ann said they assume that John Mitchel’s Jail Journal was familiar reading for Roger Kiely and, like Sean Moylan, he must have been surprised to find himself on Spike as Mitchel had in 1848, both victims of their efforts on behalf of Irish freedom.
Der then mentioned another Duhallow man, Edward Walsh, who was a teacher on Spike Island during the famine and who lost his job because he bribed a prison warder to allow him enter Mitchel’s cell before his deportation.
Ann Kiely then opened a box containing a beautiful silver brooch that her father had made while on Spike. He gave it as a gift to his sister, who was a nun in England, and on her death it passed down to Ann. “This is of immense sentimental importance to me,” Ann said and noted that she had seen a similar brooch in the exhibition.
When asked if their father spoke much about the War of Independence, they both replied “rarely”. They remember him telling of his arrest while teaching at the national school in Cullen, and Christmas Eve never passed without mention that this was the night in 1921 when he arrived home following months of internment.
Asked what their feelings were on Sean Keatings’s ‘Men of the South’ becoming one of the most recognised icons of the War of Independence, they said of course they were very happy. Ann Kiely went on to explain that Keating took artistic license with her father’s image, depicting him holding a revolver. She explained that on Seán Moylan’s orders, Roger Kiely was to serve as an intelligence officer reporting on enemy movements and was not at any stage to be part of the active service unit as he would then have had to go ‘on the run’.
Archaeologist John Tierney asked Der and Ann about meeting Seán Moylan and Seán Keating. Ann Kiely said she remembers a day in 1948 when both men arrived at the Kiely family home together. Only the children were at home at the time and one child had to cycle to the local church to tell their parents to come home.
Regarding their father’s life after the War of Independence, they said he was lucky that he could resume his teaching career in Cullen, marry, and rear a family. His great passions in life were the Irish language, teaching Irish music and promoting the feiseanna. They are hugely proud that Roger’s great-grandson, Eoin O’ Sullivan from Newmarket, is carrying on the musical tradition.
Before leaving Spike Island, the Kielys had a special word of thanks for John Crotty, manager, and Tom O’Neill, assistant manager, for honouring ‘ The Men of the South’. In reply, Tom O’Neill thanked them for visiting the Spike Island Exhibition and said the story of ‘ The Men of the South’, along with accounts of all the other prisoners and internees, continues to be a very popular element of the ‘Spike Island Experience’ with 80,000 people visiting the island so far this year.