REBELS, PILOTS AND MUSICIANS – ALL HUMAN LIFE IN TIMAHOE HISTORY JOURNAL

Rebels, pilots and musicians – all human life in Timahoe history journal

Liam Kenny

We have been through economic doom and gloom, followed by weather storm and gale. But there are some bright spots in the panorama of community life and one of them is the health of the local history movement. Whether because of the recession –or in spite of it — the health of the local history interest has never been stronger. The Kildare Federation of Local History Society numbers more than twenty affiliated local groups of various capacities and character. Some are highly organised operations with a monthly programme of walks and talks, tours and exhibitions. Others are more low key, meeting occasionally to progress a publication on their area or to organise a programme for heritage week. Falling firmly in the first category is the St Mochua Historical Society based in Timahoe and which covers a wide area of the mostly rural west County Kildare.

The Timahoe society is this year marking its twenty-first anniversary and among its achievements is an enviable publishing record of videos and books in relation to the history of the locality embracing townslands such as Cooleragh, Coolcarrigan, Killinagh, Staplestown and Hodgestown and the Bord na Mona village of Coill Dubh. The St Mochua’s Society’s latest annual achieves that most difficult of goals – improving on already high standards. The editors have given a new cover to the journal – an attractive painting of a canal-side scene featuring a bridge astride the waterway with tree-lined towpaths on either side. Finding the bridge illustrated would be something of a wild-goose chase in the modern era. The structure was a bridge over the now abandoned Blackwood feeder canal which fed water from Ballynafagh reservoir to the main Grand Canal east of Robertsown. The bridge was taken down after the feeder was de-watered. Thus the painting by Cyril Kelly in 1956 is a rare – and, perhaps, unique – visual record of a structure now vanished from the west Kildare landscape.

The new cover for the St Mochua annual journal accompanies a new name for the journal – “The Bridge.” The editors express the hope that the re-naming of the journal will make the publication “a bridge between the past, present and future” and between “young and old, history student and teacher, and even between historical societies.” This sense of bridging a gap between the generations is a strong feature of the content of the magazine with many articles and some photographs helping to convey the life and times of people in past generations in west Kildare.

A topical contribution is included from the renowned historian Seamus Cullen who writes about Timahoe connections to the Easter Rising of 1916. He documents the stories of some seven fatalities in the Rising – rebels, security forces and civilians – who had Kildare links. Apart from those who lost their lives there were other participants with specific connections to Timahoe and adjoining districts. Well known names in Kildare nationalist circles such as Tom Harris, TD, from Caragh; Frank Bourke from Carbury who was a pupil of Padraig Pearse at St Enda’s; and Domhnall Ua Buachalla who led the famous contingent from Maynooth to the GPO are all given due mention. Such is the depth of Seamus Cullen’s research that he has identified others from the locality who were caught up in the Rising. These included Michael Cosgrove of Coolcarrigan who fought under Commandant Ned Daly in the Four Courts; Bill Mulreany who came from Carrick and a family who had a tradition of service in the British army; and Michael Kavanagh from Ballinafagh who worked as a carter in Dublin and was shot dead when he refused to allow his cart to be commandeered to make a barricade on Easter Monday.

Irish culture takes many forms but one not normally associated with Co Kildare is that of traditional music. Therefore it is all the more of a discovery to read an article in the Timahoe journal about Sonny Brogan, a Dublin born musician who was central to the traditional music scene in the capital in the 1960s. The article by Sean Byrne traces Sonny’s Kildare connections to his parents who were from the Timahoe and Donadea areas. Sean Byrne suggests that Sonny Brogan developed his interest in Irish music when, as a young boy, he was on holidays with his relations in Co Kildare and heard his uncle Thomas Cleary playing the accordion. Wherever Sonny learned his music, he learnt it well, and went on to play music with the likes of Sean Ó Riada, Eamon de Butleír, Paddy Moloney, Sean Potts, and Ceoltóirí Chualann. On one occasion he entertained Senator Edward Kennedy when he stopped off at O’Donoghue’s in Merrion Row. Although spending his life in Dublin, in death Sonny came back to his Kildare roots and lies at rest in Staplestown cemetery. In concluding his article Sean Byrne makes a plea for Sonny Brogan’s musical heritage to be celebrated with a “Sonny Brogan Music Weekend” in the Timahoe/Donadea area.

The Timahoe journal takes to the skies in its pursuit of unexpected local connections. Aviation historian Andy Flaherty recalls the day an aeroplane made a forced landing in the pump field on the Coolcarrigan estate. The pilot was Ernest Dease of Celbridge who was a pioneer aviator having flown with Royal Flying Corps during the First World War. His aviation exploits in the north Kildare area meant that for many locals his was the first aeroplane they had laid eyes on. His forced landing at Coolcarrigan, and another planned landing at Firmount House near Clane, was recalled for many years by locals astonished at seeing a flying machine at such close quarters. His plane was grounded in Coolcarrigan for a couple of days while a magneto was repaired and then it roared into the skies above Timahoe. Andy Flaherty in a previous journal recounted the equally exciting story of a float-plane piloted by a member of the Guinness family which made a landing in Ballynafagh Lake. The foregoing is but a small selection of the content of the St Mochua history society’s 2014 journal which sets a standard for local publishing which other history groups in the county would do well to emulate. Leinster Leader 25 February 2014, Looking Back, Series no: 371.