The OPW is to restore the damaged monument at Donnelly's Hollow, according to Barney O'Keefe, who raised the issue on the RTE 'Liveline' on Thursday.
The Brownstown man who took the attack on the arm personally, as he has had a longtime interest in the 19th century pugilist Dan Donnelly, will also be presenting to a museum a small silver box he found under the damaged monument. The box was designed to hold a shaving stick, and had the date 1840 on it. Barney believes it was also used to hold tobacco.
During his stint on 'Liveline', many people called in to express their opinions on the vandalism, and to support the call for the monument's restoration. They included calls from locally-born musicians Luka Bloom and Christy Moore, as well as Pat Myler, Donnelly's biographer. "My phone at home was almost on fire after the show," Barney says. On Friday he spoke about the matter on Clem Ryan's morning show on KFM, and read from a poem he wrote in 1996, 'Sir Dan'.
Josephine Byrne was also contacted by the programme and told how Donnelly's arm had come into the possession of the Byrne family. It is currently on display in the Museum at Croke Park as part of an exhibition on famous Irish fighting men which has previously been shown in New York, Boston, and at the Irish-American Folk Museum in Omagh.
Barney says he has been informed of the OPW's intention to restore the monument, and adds that the broken railings are now in storage pending this.
Brian Byrne.
