Seven years ago I wrote an eye on Patrick Moran, the County Roscommon man who worked in Athy some nine or ten years before he was hanged in Mountjoy Jail on 14th March 1921. Just a month before his execution John Moran (no relation) but also connected with Athy through his father William who was a native of the town was shot by the Black and Tans in Drogheda. Both men featured in the Eye on the Past No. 541 which appeared in February 2003.
Last week I attended the launch in Kilmainham Jail of May Moran’s book, ‘Executed for Ireland – the Patrick Moran Story’. Published by Mercier Press and written by Patrick Moran’s niece the book tells the story of the young man who took part in the 1916 Rising after which he was imprisoned in Knutsford and Frongoch. He continued his active involvement in the Volunteers after his release.
Born in Crossna near Boyle in County Roscommon in March 1888 Patrick Moran came to Athy in or about September 1910 after serving his time as a grocer’s assistant in Boyle. When he left Boyle he intended to work in Dublin but a job he sought in Doyle’s pub on the North side of Dublin did not materialise. How or why he turned his sights southwards towards Athy 42 miles from Dublin we do not know. Whatever the reason he took up a position as a grocer’s assistant with Stanislaus George Glynn who in 1911 was 52 years old and married to Mary Miriam Glynn from County Armagh. Glynn carried on business as a grocer, wine and spirit merchant and employed a number of people at his premises at No. 42 Duke Street, Athy. Two grocer’s assistants worked on the premises in addition to a porter/messenger who in 1911 was 19 year old Patrick Byrne. In addition there was a domestic servant employed in the house, a position then held by 20 year old Margaret Wall.
Local newspaper reports indicate that while in Athy Patrick Moran played football for the local Geraldine Football Club and as well was a member of the Catholic Young Men’s Society in Stanhope Street. He was also reported as having played an acting part in local amateur dramatics. His fellow worker in Glynns was Carlow man 28 year old Joseph O’Brien who enlisted at the start of the First World War Patrick Moran left Athy in or about July 1912 after he got a job with Doyles of Phibsboro.
May Moran in her excellent book quotes a letter which Stanislaus Glynn wrote in 1915 to Patrick Moran asking him to consider returning to work for him in Athy. In the letter Glynn wrote:-
‘Our Joe of late has a tendency to be careless about the business and I fear the tendency to get tired of constant work may lead him in a wrong direction. I find it hard to keep him from boozers’ company; he is well inclined but very easily led astray so I have decided to make a change in my assistants. We could find no men since O’Brien left for the army, so I tried girls but they are all an utter failure ..... Would you be willing to come to us, your political and other opinions coincide with our own and they will help keep Joe straight ..... The Gaelic League wants a bit of energetic organisation as it is at sixes and sevens and you are just the man to get them together again ..... If you consider this offer let me know your terms, I may say that at present trade being under the average owing to the war I could not afford to pay a big salary .....’
Patrick Moran did not return to Athy but instead stayed in Dublin where soon after joining the Irish Volunteers he was elected adjutant of D. Company Second Battalion of the Dublin Brigade. D. Company was comprised of men who worked in the bar and grocery trade. He was later a member of the Jacobs factory garrison under the command of Eamon De Valera and following the ceasefire and surrender he was imprisoned, initially in Knutsford and later in Frongoch internment camp in North Wales from where he was released on 27th July 1916. He worked in a number of different bars throughout Dublin before becoming foreman in McGees of Blackrock just a few weeks before his final arrest.
All the time he was actively involved in the Volunteer Movement and took a leading part in the events of Bloody Sunday on 22nd November 1920 when British intelligent officers were executed by raiding parties of the Volunteer Movement. May Moran has done enormous research for her book and has been able to discover Patrick Moran’s leading part in the execution of two British intelligent officers who were living in the Gresham Hotel in Dublin.
The story of Patrick Moran’s arrest and subsequent execution in Mountjoy Jail on 14th March 1921 is well recorded. What perhaps is not so well known is that Patrick Moran was a man who was familiar with this town and its people in the years prior to the First World War and who played an active part in the social life of Athy while he lived here. During his term of imprisonment in Mountjoy Jail while awaiting execution he associated with another man whose family were subsequently to have and still have links with the South Kildare town. Frank Flood, one of a number of Flood brothers who were actively involved in the Republican Movement in Dublin during the War of Independence, was also hanged in Mountjoy Jail and his brother Tom Flood subsequently came to live in Athy where he operated the Railway Hotel in Leinster Street.
This well written book should be of great interest to Athy people.
Showing posts with label Frank Flood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Frank Flood. Show all posts
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Friday, December 24, 1993
Tom Flood and Kavanaghs Autograph Book
On the 6th of September, 1984 the Irish Independent reported the death of Sean Kavanagh, former Governor of Mountjoy Jail. Born in Tralee in 1897 Kavanagh spent the early part of his life as a member of the Gaelic League, on whose behalf he worked as an Irish teacher in County Kildare. It was in that capacity he stayed in Athy on numerous occasions prior to and during the War of Independence. Unknown to those who met him he was also employed as an agent for Michael Collins’ Intelligence Services as Chief Intelligence Officer for County Kildare. He was a frequent visitor to No. 41 Duke Street, then the home of Michael Dooley who was very active in Republican circles during the War of Independence. Dooley’s Terrace is named after him.
Kavanagh was eventually captured and imprisoned in Mountjoy Jail in November 1920 where he was to remain for 12 months. During his long term in prison he got many of his Republican colleagues to sign an autograph book which was recently for sale at a rare book auction. The first signature in the book is that of Michael Staines, one of James Connolly’s stretcher bearers during his evacuation from the G.P.O. in Easter week. Staines was later to be appointed the first Commissioner of the Garda Siochana. Arthur Griffith and E.J. Duggan, two signatories of the Anglo Irish Treaty appended their signatures in Kavanagh’s book on the 21st of April, 1921.
Perhaps the most interesting signature for an Athy reader is that of Thomas Flood who on the 23rd of September, 1921 dedicated an inscription to his late brother Frank Flood who was hanged in Mountjoy Jail. Given Kavanagh’s links with Athy it is a strange coincidence that Thomas Flood, a Dublin man, was soon thereafter to come to live in the same South Kildare town where he set up business in Leinster Street.
Frank Flood and his brother Thomas were members of the Republican movement during the War of Independence and Frank was captured following an attack on Crown Forces in Drumcondra. Court marshalled and convicted of treason he was hanged at Mountjoy Jail on the 14th of March, 1921.
Thomas Flood took part in the attack on the Custom House, Dublin by Republican Forces on the 25th of May, 1921. After being wounded he was captured and lodged in Mountjoy Jail to await trial. He escaped a probable conviction for treason and the inevitable sentence of hanging when an acute appendicitis on the eve of his trial led to its postponement. He remained in Mountjoy Jail until November 1921 and the Declaration of the Truce on the eve of his re-scheduled trial allowed him to escape the death penalty.
Following the end of hostilities Thomas Flood married Peg Mullane from Carlow and came to Athy where he purchased the Railway Dining Rooms owned by Margaret Byrne. He was later to become a member of Athy Urban District Council and he died in 1950 on the eve of an election to Kildare County Council for which he was a candidate. His son, Tom, lives in Church Road, while another son Danny was a member of the last Kildare team to win a Leinster Championship medal in 1956.
Sean Kavanagh, the original owner of the autograph book, was to return to Mountjoy Jail as Deputy Governor after the Treaty and he was later promoted as Governor, a position he held for 34 years.
Looking through the autographs and inscriptions, now 72 years old, it is difficult to imagine the personal sacrifices made by these men and their women folk at such a crucial time in Ireland’s history. Now that we have arrived at another cross-roads in our country’s story it is important for us to acknowledge our debt to these men and women while realising that it does no disservice to what we believe in if we seek a peaceful solution to the problems facing our country today.
Kavanagh was eventually captured and imprisoned in Mountjoy Jail in November 1920 where he was to remain for 12 months. During his long term in prison he got many of his Republican colleagues to sign an autograph book which was recently for sale at a rare book auction. The first signature in the book is that of Michael Staines, one of James Connolly’s stretcher bearers during his evacuation from the G.P.O. in Easter week. Staines was later to be appointed the first Commissioner of the Garda Siochana. Arthur Griffith and E.J. Duggan, two signatories of the Anglo Irish Treaty appended their signatures in Kavanagh’s book on the 21st of April, 1921.
Perhaps the most interesting signature for an Athy reader is that of Thomas Flood who on the 23rd of September, 1921 dedicated an inscription to his late brother Frank Flood who was hanged in Mountjoy Jail. Given Kavanagh’s links with Athy it is a strange coincidence that Thomas Flood, a Dublin man, was soon thereafter to come to live in the same South Kildare town where he set up business in Leinster Street.
Frank Flood and his brother Thomas were members of the Republican movement during the War of Independence and Frank was captured following an attack on Crown Forces in Drumcondra. Court marshalled and convicted of treason he was hanged at Mountjoy Jail on the 14th of March, 1921.
Thomas Flood took part in the attack on the Custom House, Dublin by Republican Forces on the 25th of May, 1921. After being wounded he was captured and lodged in Mountjoy Jail to await trial. He escaped a probable conviction for treason and the inevitable sentence of hanging when an acute appendicitis on the eve of his trial led to its postponement. He remained in Mountjoy Jail until November 1921 and the Declaration of the Truce on the eve of his re-scheduled trial allowed him to escape the death penalty.
Following the end of hostilities Thomas Flood married Peg Mullane from Carlow and came to Athy where he purchased the Railway Dining Rooms owned by Margaret Byrne. He was later to become a member of Athy Urban District Council and he died in 1950 on the eve of an election to Kildare County Council for which he was a candidate. His son, Tom, lives in Church Road, while another son Danny was a member of the last Kildare team to win a Leinster Championship medal in 1956.
Sean Kavanagh, the original owner of the autograph book, was to return to Mountjoy Jail as Deputy Governor after the Treaty and he was later promoted as Governor, a position he held for 34 years.
Looking through the autographs and inscriptions, now 72 years old, it is difficult to imagine the personal sacrifices made by these men and their women folk at such a crucial time in Ireland’s history. Now that we have arrived at another cross-roads in our country’s story it is important for us to acknowledge our debt to these men and women while realising that it does no disservice to what we believe in if we seek a peaceful solution to the problems facing our country today.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
