LIST OF PARISH PRIESTS - K.C.K.

LIST OF PARISH PRIESTS WHO HAVE SERVED IN THE PARISH OF KILGOBINET, COLLIGAN & KILBRIEN

▪️1540 Nicholas Kellihin

▪️1547 Thomas Flood

▪️1615 John O’Hea

▪️1704 Patrick Ronane

▪️1748 Thomas Anglin

▪️1750 James Keating

▪️1780-1795 Thomas O’Connor

▪️1795-1806 Patrick Walsh

▪️1806-1830 James McCann

▪️1830-1842 John Quinn

▪️1842-1861 Michael O’Connor

▪️1861 John Joy

▪️1861-1871 James Power

▪️1871-1890 James Kirby

▪️1890-1893 Richard O’Gorman

▪️1893-1899 Tobias Burke

▪️1899-1909 Pierse Walsh

▪️1909-1921 Andrew Condon

▪️1921-1927 Patrick Burke

▪️1927-1929 John Foley 

▪️1929-1939 Patrick Sheehy

▪️1939-1943 John Roche

▪️1943-1951 Harry O’Brien

▪️1951-1960 Denis Power

▪️1960-1961 Thomas Power

▪️1962-1970 Denis McGrath

▪️1970-1978 James Lawn

▪️1978-1985 John Morrissey

▪️1985-1991 Richard Doherty

▪️1991-1992 Seán O’Dwyer

▪️1993 Michael Kennedy

Information from “The Faith Journey of the Deise People” by Monsignor Michael C. Olden 2018

Kilgobinet Trench Disaster 100th Anniversary

 

KILGOBINET TRENCH DISASTER - 7 JULY 1921 100th Anniversary By Joe O’Brien

 KILGOBINET TRENCH DISASTER - 7 JULY 1921

 In July 1921, just as the War of Independence was nearing its end, (the Truce came into effect on July 11 1921) a large trench was dug across the road leading to Kilgobinet Church, a few miles from Dungarvan. It was common at the time to erect road blocks, either by felling trees or digging trenches, to impede the movement of British forces through the countryside. 

This trench was dug near Crotty’s cottage on the road to the church, but it was filled in again, to allow the funeral of a young local man, James Kelly, Kilgobinet, proceed to the church. 

The Kelly’s home was where Noel O’Connell Transport is today. 

A party of British soldiers from the West Kent Regiment came upon the filled in trench and placed land mines under the clay and rocks. Later the leader of the Flying Column George Lennon asked Jim Kirwan of the Colligan IRA company if all the roads in the area were trenched. Kirwan explained that they were, the exception being Kilgobinet, on account of  the funeral. Lennon told Kirwan that it should be seen to. Jim Kirwan ordered Jack Power of Ballymacmague to retrench the road.

On the evening of Thursday 7 July, Power gathered  a group of local men to reopen the trench at Kilgobinet. As they began their task, the mines were detonated, the terrible explosion was loud enough to be heard in Cappagh and Dungarvan. Three men were killed instantly, another three died later. Thomas Fitzgerald, Tommy McGrath and Rody Whelan were injured in the blast but survived. The bodies were brought to the curate’s house a short distance up the road, where Fr. Tom Power administered the Last Rites, then Jim Dee of Kilgobinet placed the bodies of the dead, injured and dying men on his horse and cart. He took the injured to Queally’s of Barracree, three of the dead were  wrapped in sheets and secretly buried in Knockboy. After the Truce, the corpses were exhumed and buried in their own family graves.

It was a sad, terrible event in the parish of Kilgobinet, Colligan and Kilbrien. 

The roadside monuments commemorating the spot where the Kilgobinet Trench Disaster took place, 100 years ago on 7 July 1921. 

THE SIX MEN KILLED WERE - 

Volunteer John (Seán) Quinn 

Born - Ballymacmague  5 April 1902

Parents - John Quinn and Anastasia Quinn (née Heaney) Labourer 

Died  - Workhouse Hospital, Dungarvan  16 July 1921

James Dunford 

Born - Knockanee 14 July 1902 

Parents -  Patrick Dunford and Alice Dunford (née Dwyer)  Farmer 

Died - Kilgobinet  8 July 1921

Thomas Dahill 

Born - Kilnafrehan 16 November 1893

Parents - Thomas Dahill and Bridget Dahill (née Power) Farmer

Died - Kilgobinet  8 July 1921

Richard Lynch

Born - Inchindrisla 17 May 1892

Parents - Laurence Lynch and Margaret Lynch (née Power) Farmer 

Died - Barracree 15 July 1921

William Dunford 

Born - Kilnafrehan 23 May 1891

Parents  - Thomas Dunford and Ellen Dunford (née Ryan) Labourer 

Died  - Kilgobinet 9 July 1921

Thomas Burke

Born - Inchindrisla 26 April 1889

Parents - John Burke and Mary Burke (née Sweeney) Farmer

Died  - Workhouse Hospital, Dungarvan  20 July 1921

Death registry entries for those that died.

A Calvary Monument erected by parishioners in memory of the Kilgobinet Trench Disaster at Kilgobinet church on 7 July 1966. The monument was restored and refurbished by parishioners in 2012. 

A POEM TO MARK THE CENTENARY OF THE KILGOBINET TRENCH DISASTER - 7 July 1921

A Celtic Cross on a country road, in remembrance of  tragedy a century ago

*Thomas’ Buffs a trap mine had laid, in the trench at Kilgobinet to kill and to maim

Reopening that trench, to keep Crown forces at bay.

Six young and brave Irishmen were blown away. 

Evening stillness is shattered by the mine detonation

Sounds deafening, earth shaking, disbelief and desolation  

Clay, dust, smoke and rock, thrust up to the heavens

with flesh and blood mingle in ruthless devastation.

They hadn’t the time or even get a chance

To  pray to God or think of home before the awesome blast.

When the dust and smoke settle, how terrible the damage 

And the awesome sight of dead and dying amid the utter carnage.

Three men blown to eternity, in the blink of an eye

Another three men lingering in agony til they die.

As the priest arrives and the last rites he imparts.

Those injured, dead and dying are removed by horse and cart.

Those lives cruelly cut short, we will remember still

All from that ancient parish that Saint Gobnait blessed 

The Dunfords, James and William and the Volunteer Quinn

Thomas Burke, Richard Lynch and Thomas Dahill.

One hundred years on, from those troubled days, 

When our forebears stood in the great empire's way

Here's to the Déise folk who played their own part.

May all those great people rest in the peace of God's heart.

*The Buffs were the West Kent Regiment stationed in Dungarvan and commanded by Captain Thomas, who was captured during the Burgery Ambush in March 1921 but released unharmed.

Photos taken at the blessing of the Calvary monument on 7 July 1966. 

Just something that I found on the net., I liked it, very thought provoking.
A thought for anybody who is grieving the death of somebody that they have loved......

And God Said

I said, "God, I hurt."
And God said, "I know".

I said, "God, I cry a lot."
And God said, "That is why I gave you tears."

I said, "God, I am so depressed."
And God said, "That is why I gave you Sunshine."

I said, "God, life is so hard."
And God said, "That is why I gave you loved ones."

I said, "God, my loved one died."
And God said, "So did mine."

I said, "God, it is such a loss."
And God said, "I saw mine nailed to a cross."

I said, "God, but your loved one lives."
And God said, "So does yours."

I said, "God, where is she now?"
And God said, "Mine is on My right and yours is in the Light."

I said, "God it hurts."
And God said, "I know..........." 

Death of a Journalist

Holy Thursday night 18 April 2019, the night before Good Friday and 21 years after the famous agreement on another Good Friday. 29 year old, Lyra McKee, a highly respected investigative journalist, an award winning author, and a LGBT activist was covering a riot and disturbances in the Creggan area of Derry city. The disturbances were triggered when the PSNI, believing the “freedom fighters “ of the “New IRA” were planning attacks in Derry over the Easter weekend, no doubt, their way of honouring the memory of the 1916 Rising. A riot broke out, petrol bombs pelted at the police, cars set on fire, just like the bad old days of the Troubles.
At 11pm, a “brave and courageous freedom fighter” from the noble “New IRA” fired at least 10 shots into the crowd of police and civilians. A bullet hit Lyra, and despite the efforts of the PSNI, she died shortly at Altnagelvin hospital.

We thought we were finished with this sort of tragedy. The war was supposed to be over.
How the hell was shooting into a crowd, burning cars, going to free Ireland.
Saoradh, the republican political party, blamed “British Crown Forces “ for the riot. In its statement, Saoradh announced to us, that, as a “mark of respect” their annual Easter Monday Commemoration was to be cancelled.
So, what was it all about? Why did Lyra, a much loved, highly thought of woman have to die?

If Lyra’s death proves anything, it is that the Peace Process is a fragile thing, that there are those in this country, Real/New/Continuity IRA &  Loyalist armed groups, who wouldn’t mind one bit if the war broke out again. As the Brexit shenanigans have shown, the Brexiteers, the Tories in Britain wouldn’t mind one bit, sacrificing the Good Friday Agreement, as long as the  “will of the people” is upheld, and Britain leaves the tyrannical EU.
What about the people’s will who voted North & South for peace.

Maybe, this weekend, the politicians in the DUP and the Tory party, will reflect on the killing of Lyra McKee. They might just realise that the hard border issue, isn’t just politics. It’s a-lot more serious than that. The Good Friday Agreement is delicate, there are people ready to pounce on any reason to wreck the peace, to go back to how things  were.
Stop the play acting and the antics we see in Westminster too often  on the news bulletins, and get a deal sorted, tell the people not what they’re against but what they actually want.
Northern Ireland and the Good Friday Agreement are more important than any civil war in the Tory party. It’s time for Michelle O’Neill and Arlene Foster to show leadership, stop the squabbling and give the North, a government. A united front fighting the cause of the North in these uncertain times.

It’s a matter of life and death.

Hillsborough

Last Monday was the 30th anniversary of the terrible day at Hillsborough, Sheffield when 94 Liverpool supporters at the FA Cup Semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest,were crushed to death at the Leppings Lane end of the ground. On the 19 April the death toll reached 95 when a 14 year old lad, Lee Nicol died in hospital when his life support was switched off. The 96th victim was 22 year old Tony Bland, who had been in a persistent vegetative state for nearly four years, Tony showed no signs of recovery and his hydration and artificial feeding were withdrawn. Stephen Whittle is considered by many as the 97th victim of Hillborough. He had sold his ticket for the match to a friend, as he wasn’t able to go due to work commitments. His friend was one of the those who died that day, Stephen was wracked by survivor’s guilt over the death of his friend and committed suicide in February 2011.

I was 14 years old that day, an avid Liverpool fan, loved the Irish players on the team, Whelan, Houghton and Aldridge. Barnes, Rush and Dalglish were also my heroes.
We lived in two channel land so there wasn’t much live football from England on telly, but that Saturday, RTÉ were showing the match live on Sports Stadium. I remember it so well, it kicked off at 3pm. There didn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary. After 5 mins, Liverpool’s Peter Beardsley, unleashed a shot which hit the Forest crossbar. Fan’s behind the goal began pleading with Liverpool k keeper Bruce Grobbelaar for help as the crush got worse. At 3.06 pm the ref stopped the game, the players went back to the dressing rooms, fans broke through gates to try to escape the crush. Fans in the stand above the terrace were pulling people up to safety. The crush was so tight that fans died standing up, crush barriers were bent and broken. Fans carried their fellow fans in makeshift stretchers onto the pitch, trying to perform CPR.  It was terrible.
Throughout the following days and weeks, the TV news was all about the Liverpool stadium, Anfield, how the club opened the ground on the Sunday to allow the people to honour those who died. Scenes of of the thousands visiting the stadium and the pitch covered with flowers, scarves and tributes.

Most people now know how the Liverpool supporters were blamed for the tragedy, they were accused of hooliganism, drunkenness trying to enter the stadium without tickets. The Sun newspaper, carried the story of how they pick-pocketed the dead and dying, urinating on them, obstructing attempts to help the injured. They were portrayed as scum, the lowest of the low.
After 27 years of inquiries, reports, investigations and two coroner’s hearings, on 26 April 2016, the jury in the second coroner’s inquest returned a verdict of unlawful killing in respect of the 96 people who died. After a long hard struggle, the families got justice. The fans weren’t responsible for the tragedy, a mixture of  “errors or omissions” by police commanders, Sheffield Wednesday Football Club, the ambulance and  the design and certification of the Hillsborough stadium had all “caused or contributed” to the deaths. The behaviour of the Liverpool supporters had not.

A terrible miscarriage of justice had been righted.

Justice For The 96 - JFT96

11 November 2018

100th anniversary of the ending of World War One

Just thinking of this man today

Harry Patch was conscripted into the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry at the age of 18 in 1916 and was badly wounded in the battle of Passchendaele in 1917. He was the last surviving combat soldier of the First World War and briefly, the oldest man from any country in Europe. In his later years, he spoke about his experiences, and his anti-war, pacifist beliefs.

Harry Patch (Private) Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry

Born 17 June 1898, Combe Down, near Bath, Somerset. Died 25 July 2009, Wells Somerset

By his 19th birthday, Harry was in the water-logged trenches, on the front line of the Ypres Salient. On 16 August the Battle of Langemark, the second assault of the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele) commenced and Harry went over the top for the first time. As he and his team advanced across Pilckem Ridge towards Langemark, they passed fallen men and men with horrific wounds. They finally reached a vacated German trench, spent the night listening to the fading cries and screams of the wounded. When they were relieved they were given a rest period before returning in September to the front line. That experience remained with Harry for the rest of his life.

On the night of 22 September 1917, near Langemark in Belgium, a German gun crew fired a shell in into the British lines. Harry had an incredible escape but three other men serving with the Lewis gun team were killed and none of their remains were ever found. Harry was blown off his feet and injured with a shrapnel wound. He was taken to a Casualty Clearing Station where a doctor removed the shrapnel without anaesthetic. He then got shipped back to England to a hospital in Liverpool and then to a convalescent camp at Sutton Coldfield, near Birmingham where he met his wife, Ada Billington. After one year's rehabilitation, he was sent to the front in Ypres once again in 1918.

Harry never spoke about the war for 81 years, until a BBC researcher contacted him just after his 100th birthday. His story was told and he returned to Flanders Fields for the first time in 2003. Harry was a witness for all his comrades who fell in the mud of Passchendaele. 
The BBC persuaded Harry at 106, to return in the autumn of 2004, for a BBC documentary, The Last Tommy where he was filmed at Tyne Cot, the largest British war cemetery, containing almost 12,000 graves, many of them holding unidentified bodies. At the north east boundary of Tyne Cot,  The Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing bears the names of almost 35,000 officers and men whose graves are not known. 
On 27 September 2008, in a private ceremony attended by a few people, Patch opened a memorial on the bank of the Steenbeek in Langemark, at the point where he crossed the river in 1917. The memorial reads:

'Here, at dawn, on 16 August 1917, the 7th Battalion, Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, 20th (Light) Division, crossed the Steenbeek prior to their successful assault on the village on Langemarck. This stone is erected to the memory of fallen comrades, and to honour the courage, sacrifice and passing of the Great War generation. It is the gift of former Private and Lewis Gunner Harry Patch, No. 29295, C Company, 7th DCLI, the last surviving veteran to have served in the trenches of the Western Front.’

Patch had refused to discuss his war experiences, until approached in 1998 for the BBC One documentary Veterans, on reflection of which and with the realisation that he was part of a fast dwindling group of veterans of "the war to end all wars".

Patch was featured in the 2003 television series World War 1 in Colour and said "if any man tells you he went over the top and he wasn't scared, he's a damn liar". He reflected on his lost friends and the moment when he came face to face with a German soldier. He recalled the story of Moses descending from Mount Sinai with God's Ten Commandments, including "Thou shalt not kill" and could not bring himself to kill the German. Instead, he shot him in the shoulder, which made the soldier drop his rifle. However, he had to carry on running towards his Lewis Gun, so to proceed, he shot him above the knee and in the ankle. Patch said,

I had about five seconds to make the decision. I brought him down, but I didn't kill him… Any one of them could have been me. Millions of men came to fight in this war and I find it incredible that I am the only one left.
          —Commenting on graves at a Flanders war cemetery, July 2007.

In November 2004, at the age of 106, Patch met Charles Kuentz, a 107-year-old Alsatian veteran, who had fought on the German side at Passchendaele (and served on the French side in World War II).^[22] Patch was quoted as saying: "I was a bit doubtful before meeting a German soldier. Herr Kuentz is a very nice gentleman however. He is all for a united Europe and peace – and so am I". Kuentz had brought along a tin of Alsatian biscuits and Patch gave him a bottle of Somerset cider in return.^[23] The meeting was featured in a 2005 BBC TV programme The Last Tommy, which told the stories of several of Britain's last World War I veterans.

In December 2004, Patch was given a present of 106 bottles of Patch's Pride Cider, which has been named after him and produced by the Gaymer Cider Company. In the spring of 2005 in an interview which he said of the First World War: "Too many died. War isn't worth one life" and in July 2005, Patch voiced his outrage over plans to build a motorway in northern France over cemeteries of the First World War.

When Harry died in 2009, the theme of his funeral service was "Peace and Reconciliation" and in addition to pallbearers from The Rifles (the successor regiment to the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry), Patch's coffin was accompanied by two private soldiers from each of the armies of Belgium, France and Germany.

In accordance with Patch's instructions, no guns were allowed at the funeral and even the officiating soldiers did not have their ceremonial weapons.

In his autobiography The Last Fighting Tommy, Patch wrote that “politicians who took us to war should have been given the guns and told to settle their differences themselves, instead of organising nothing better than legalised mass murder.”

An incredible life, Rest in Peace Harry.