Fascinating talk on Kilcullen's revolutionary activists

Author James Durney with Nuala Collins and PJ Lydon.

A capacity audience in Kilcullen Library last evening heard details of many Kilcullen men and women who took part in the fight for Ireland's freedom in three revolutionary periods, writes Brian Byrne. These were the 1916 Easter Rising, War of Independence (1919-21) and the Civil War (1922-23), and the talk by Kildare historian and author James Durney was based on local people described in his book Stand you now for Ireland's Cause.

Many of those present were family members of people involved, and in addition to the author's mentions other memories were recalled from the floor. James Durney has been undertaking similar events across the county, and he said that every time he does one he learns more about the times and the people involved. "I've been getting a great reaction," he told the Diary. "People are very interested in their own local areas, because everybody knows the local names, the family names. Some are long gone from the areas, through emigration or dying out, but people are delighted to see the local people mentioned. For the local man, woman and even small child who played a part, that was the whole idea of the project, to give everyone who took part their small place in history."

James recalled how Stand you now for Ireland's Cause had begun, when had come across some of the names while researching another book on Kildare people who had died fighting in WW1. "I thought I'd add a little list of the revolutionary activists, but the list kept getting bigger and bigger," he said. "Eventually I had 1,200 names of activists across Kildare, and it became a book on its own."

He noted that most people know of the big names from the period, Michael Collins and similar, but it was the ordinary people involved who had made the whole thing happen. "The people involved in ambushes, in cutting roads, in carrying dispatches. I decided that everyone involved in Kildare should get their mention." The book in all took him 12 years to complete, he said. "Not all at once, but in pieces between doing other projects. I decided eventually that it had to come out last year, the end of the Decade of Commemorations, or it would all be forgotten about."

By the time of the Truce in July 1921 there had been 51 local people involved in the Kilcullen Company of the Volunteers, he said. "Of these, 22 enlisted in the National Army, a very high percentage."  Commenting on the overall breakdown of loyalties post-Treaty, he said 427 activists in Kildare were anti-Treaty and 314 pro-Treaty. "That left about 400 who were neutral. One thing we forget about the Civil War was that there was a huge cohort who were neutral on the issue and could not take it on themselves to fight against former comrades, and took no part in the Civil War." 

Among those recalled last evening were James Coogan, James Dillon, the Aspell brothers James, Joe and William, Paddy Brennan, Peter Brennan, Mick Sammon, Jim Collins and Daisy Patterson whom he later married, Hugh and Charlie Curran, Jim Barber, Pat Foley, Thomas Haslett, Patrick Quinn, Daniel and Paddy Brennan, Ned Cranny, John Doyle, Michael O'Connell, Thomas Orford, Rita Brennan, Nellie Brennan, Mary Wright, Catherine Keating, Brigid Hogan, Maurice Lambe, James Bolger, James Delahunt, Joe Dowling, Joseph McGrath, James McGuirk, Edward Byrne, Jimmy Byrne, John Murphy, Andrew Nolan, Matthew O'Neill, John O'Rourke, James Taylor, Jack Delaney, James Pender and Patrick Rankin. The recently-deceased Cecilia Conway and her late husband Matt were also mentioned for their more recent activities.

The author commented on the difficulties later experienced by women involved in the revolution in getting acknowledgement and pensions for their activities. "They often said afterwards they had been written out of history, and I agree they definitely were," he said. "If you look at the pension applications, and the book by my colleague Karl Kiely, Rebel Hearts, you'll see the battle they had to get what the men got more easily. It's heart-breaking stuff, a lot of it."

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