Knocknagoshel’s eye-catching salute to Rás Mumhan

Knocknagoshel and Good Friday have been inextricably and unavoidably linked with the wit and wisdom of the late Con Houlihan ever since a famous Sunday in Croke Park in September 1975.

Then, John Egan scored an earth and Dub shattering goal against the reigning All-Ireland Senior Football Champions, and Con wrote: “Hill 16 was as quiet as Knocknagoshel on a Good Friday.”

And it stayed quiet for the rest of that memorable hour of pure Kerry magic in the rain. I know because I was there.

Knocknagoshel wasn’t quiet on Good Friday 2024 and it had all the signs of being different this year.

Take the local national school in the heart of the village. There, they had the finest temporary monument to what was different about The Mall on this Good Friday.

Fellow photographer, Eamon Fleming and myself have fallen into the habit of taking a Tuesday out each month and visiting places like Knocknagoshel and taking photographs.

On Tuesday of last week we wound up in The Mall via Tooreenard and we met school caretaker Johnny Morrissey on the quiet street.

I remarked on the artistic and striking effort the school had gone to in acknowledging and welcoming the Dornan RÁS Mumhan to the village.

“That’s Kate McSweeney for you,” said Johnny, getting his spoke in - and that said everything. Currow native Kate is the most recently appointed principal of the school.

As luck would have it I met Kate during the Rás stop in Castleisland on Friday and she said that the event monument at the school wouldn’t have happened without Johnny Morrissey.

You wouldn’t find a monument to the cycle race to match it in any of the other towns or villages it touched, passed through or stopped in on its course.

You might see something like it during the Tour de France. Like another famous man said on a notable occasion in Athlone in 1691: “I have seen no deed like that in France!