A mural commemorating the Young Ireland movement has been unveiled near Co Kilkenny

A mural depicting the Famine Rising of 1848 in Ballingarry has captured much attention amongst locals as well as in nearby Co Kilkenny border areas since its creation.

Located on the end wall of Tobin's shop, at the entrance to the church grounds in the centre of the village and facing directly onto the picturesque Slievenamon mountains, the mural commemorates the Young Ireland movement whose Famine Rising of 1848 took place in Ballingarry.

Skilfully painted by accomplished artist Neil O’Dwyer to a plan by Dr Thomas McGrath, the finished project was driven by the Ballingarry 1848 Committee comprising of Martin Maher (Chairman), Marie Barry, Jimmy Meagher, John Webster, Anthony Ivors Jnr, and Thomas McGrath. Newly re-elected Councillor Imelda Goldsborough secured funding for the project and the parish community provided strong support.

The Young Irelanders were cultural nationalists who believed in national self-determination by an Irish government. They were also influenced by the great initial success of the 1848 Revolutions across the European continent.

There are eleven named individuals framed in oval portraits on the mural. Each of these were present in Ballingarry and The Commons in 1848. These are important figures in the cause of Irish freedom. Between them, they encapsulate much of the history of Ireland in the mid-nineteenth century.

At the top is William Smith O’Brien, the leader who was born in Dromoland Castle in Co Clare and who was MP for County Limerick. He sought to stage a bloodless revolution. For his part in the Rising, O’Brien, along with Thomas Francis Meagher (from Waterford), Patrick O’Donohoe (Carlow) and Terence Bellew Mac Manus (Fermanagh) were tried for High Treason in Clonmel and sentenced to death. The sentences were commuted to penal transportation to Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania).

After the Rising, John Blake Dillon (Mayo) escaped to the United States. He later became MP for Co Tipperary and was the father of John Dillon (also an MP for Co Tipperary) and last leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, and grandfather of James Dillon who as Minister for Agriculture participated in Ballingarry in the centenary celebrations in 1948. He was subsequently leader of Fine Gael. The Mural looks down on steps from where O’Brien and Dillon made speeches in 1848.

The tricolour has pride of place at the very top of the mural. Thomas Francis Meagher brought it home from Paris in 1848 and it is commemorated at the National Flag Monument in the village of The Commons where it is raised daily by John Webster. He is the caretaker of the scene of the Rising, Famine Warhouse 1848, the OPW national heritage museum and visitor attraction. The state national famine commemoration was held at this location in 2017.

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The presence of the European Union flag on the mural references the fact that all the leading countries in Europe were affected by the Revolutions of 1848 which swept across the continent from Paris to Berlin, Rome, Vienna, Budapest and Bucharest.

The USA flag recalls that eight of the eleven Young Irelanders on the mural died in the United States and it also stands for the Irish who fled from the Famine into exile in North America.

On the lower line of oval portraits is Thomas Devin Reilly from Co Monaghan, a committed colleague of John Mitchel, who died in New York at the early age of twenty-nine. Beside him are the barrister Michael Doheny who was born near Fethard and lived in Cashel, John O’Mahony of Carrick-on-Suir and James Stephens of Kilkenny who escaped dramatically after the Rising. These three founded the IRB or Fenian movement which was responsible for the Risings of 1867 and 1916.