Army at Kilconly 1916 ceremony
where 100-year-old Jim will hoist the Tricolour
Tom Gilmore
THE Army will be represented by an officer who will read the Proclamation at Kilconly’s ceremony this Sunday afternoon to commemorate all from North Galway and South Mayo who took part in the War of Independence.
100-year-old Jim Burke-Daly, born in Ironpool, Kilconly three months before the Easter Rising, will raise the national flag and may be the only man born in 1916 to do so at any Irish Rebellion ceremony anywhere in 2016.
The ceremony will start at 3.30 pm with Mass in Kilconly Community Centre followed by the unveiling of a Limestone Celtic Cross ‘An Claidheamh Soluis’ by retired MEP Mark Killilea.
Admission is free and there will music by Matt Keane and the McHugh family from Belclare. There will also be refreshments for all in attendance.
Memorabilla including guns, a volunteer’s uniform as well as a Singer sewing machine from 1912 used to make Sam Browne belts will be on display. The stories of many from the area who fought for Irish freedom will be on exhibition on special display boards and the organisers plan to have all those, and others, published in a booklet later this year.
Anyone with a story about a relative involved should contact Bríd Brady at 093-47541. Interviews with relatives of those involved will be filmed and uploaded to the Galway Co Council 2016 website, making it accessible to people all over the world.
Two of the organisers, John Courtney and Vincent Connolly, say Kilconly links to the fight for Irish freedom go back much further than 1916 to the 1867 Fenian Rebellion when a man from the parish, Dr Mary Ryan, was involved.
He later became a leading figure with Parnell and Davitt in the Land League and was an associate of Pearse, Clarke and Sean McDermott in the period leading up to 1916.
Local historian Johnny Courtney added that Madeline ffrench-Mullen, a lieutenant in the Irish Citizen Army during the Easter Rising in Dublin, had her roots in Kilconly and her ancestors Madeline, Laurence and Jane Mullen are laid to rest in the local cemetery.
School children will also take part in Sunday’s event and the local Foróige Clue will decorate and prepare Kilconly Community Centre, and the village, for Sunday’s commemoration which is open to all.
Article published in The Tuam Herald on Wednesday April 20th 2016
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