The 1798 march to Old Kilcullen

They came to Old Kilcullen today to the rousing music of The Rising of the Moon, pikes and flags of the rebellion held high, writes Brian Byrne. Albeit the music coming from a modern boombox rather than marching to the drums of more than two centuries ago.

It was the annual walk from Scoil Bhride to the site of the local rebel engagement in 1798 on the anniversary day of the start of that attempt to unshackle Ireland from England’s chains. A march now embedded in the school’s calendar and one to which the pupils look forward in this last school term.

“The interest and engagement of both children and staff has spread through the school over the years,” says Muiris Ó Raoghaill, who with colleagues from Scoil Bhride organises the trek to the round tower site. “There's been a huge buy-in. In the early years, the children would be very self-conscious about dressing up and marching with flags and pikes, but now they're clamouring to be part of it.”

There’s much more going on in the classes now about local history, with stories and the songs that pepper Ireland’s revolutionary history, and Muiris says the pupils today are much more aware of the details of a very complex history. “They know the context, that there were Catholics and Protestants on both sides, for instance, there were wealthy landowners on both sides, and Irish speakers on each. It cannot be underestimated their ability to understand when it's presented in song and in story and with props, and the great resource we have in local historian Gerry O'Donoghue.”

Also by visiting the actual site of the battles. Muiris looks around where has been monastic spirituality, Viking raids and abductions, Norman invasion, and the tragedy of a failed insurrection by young men, many of whom might have been in their teens. “We can't begin to imagine the trepidation, the fear. What were their thoughts? What was the desperation that drove them to do what they did? Wearing their Sunday best, thinking they might never get another opportunity to do so again. On a morning that could have been just like today, did they realise the import of what they were doing and the consequences of what might happen?”

Would they have understood the politics of the time, how that might transform the future? “I like to think they did. When their children and their children's children went to America, they stood out as being the most politically aware immigrants of all. I think there is always something in the Irish that they have a hunger for justice.”

The children who had marched to Old Kilcullen today settled down in groups to have their lunch. With much to think about, and in some cases trying to relate their own lives to what was happening around them 227 years ago. Somewhere in the distance of time, muskets barked, men roared as they charged with pikes ... and others died by steel and ball ...

All the Diary pictures from today are here.

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