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Robertstown claim origin of Lily White name |
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| On Sunday 27th Sept 1998 Kildare
play Galway in the All-Ireland Senior Football
Championship. The venue of course will be Croke Park. Win
or lose, Dublin will be overcome by a white tidal wave.
The Irish Sea will mythologically impose itself on the
soil of Éire. The white flags of Kildare will cause the
Lily to bloom majestically throughout the new kingdom of
Cill Dara. Proudly Robertstown claims the origin of the name Lilywhite. It is ours. The following will explain: |
"In 1864 Kildare had a football
team. The captain's name was John Hyland, from
Ballyteague. He used to work for Odlum's Mill in Naas.
The bags of flour weighed 20 stone. They were all
horse-drawn vehicles at this time. He was sitting on a
load of flour, when the horse saw the water in the canal;
he wanted a drink, and he pulled in to get a drink. The
bags of flour came down and so did John Hyland, and he
drowned. In those days all Europe used to mourn in white;
the only country that mourns in white today is France. John Hyland was engaged to a girl called Lily Moran, who was born and reared in Robertstown Hotel. Jasper Rogers's sisters were living in the hotel at this time. It was called Moran's Hotel. Lily was the last person to carry him to the grave. She wore a suit of white and the team got a white kit to wear for that particular day, and they never changed it after that, and they called themselves the Lilywhites." |
| These are the words of Mr. Jack Gill, who was interviewed on Monday 12th February 1996 in his home in TyrConnell Park, Inchicore, D.8, by Joan Potterton, Jennifer Farrell & Bridget Johnson. (O.P.W.) | |
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