Kilkenny’s revolutionary past brought back to life at the castle

In the midst of a packed Heritage Week calendar of events, an engaging look at Kilkenny’s role in the Irish revolutionary period was held in the atmospheric Parade Tower in the castle.

Retired Irish Army Commandant and local military historian Larry Scallan took attendees through the story of the 1st Battalion Kilkenny Brigade from their foundation during the Home rule Crisis of 1914 all the way through to the end of the Civil War in 1923.

After a brief recap of the history of British rule in Ireland, Larry began the talk by outlining the Brigade’s foundation at a meeting in the city in March 1914.

The main speakers were Roger Casement and Thomas McDonagh who was a teacher at St Kieran’s College at the time. Both men would be executed a little over two years later and the men who signed up that day formed A Company Kilkenny of the Irish National Volunteers.

The committee was composed by volunteers of several local nationalist groups including the Ancient Order of Hibernia, Irish Republican Brotherhood and Sinn Féín and although old Italian rifles were distributed amongst the volunteers in August 1914, no ammo was provided.

The talk featured striking images and videos of volunteers marching in formation in places like High Street and the Parade, many with rifles strung over their shoulders.

The vast majority of volunteers in Kilkenny supported John Redmond’s position behind the British war effort and after a split in their ranks only around 30 men led by Tom Treacy left a meeting and set about bolstering their numbers.

Further companies were formed with outposts in Callan, Castlecomer, Graiguenamanagh, Dunmore and Clara. The Kilkenny volunteers didn't attempt any operations during the Easter Rising due to their isolated position, but many of their members were still arrested and sent to places like the Frongoch Internment Camp.

After the reorganisation of the Irish Volunteers into the IRA, numerous battalions were formed including Kilkenny City and North Kilkenny, South Kilkenny and Castlecomer.

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One table showed the strength of a battalion which stood at 449 men in 1921 and reduced to 193 in 1922, highlighting that most members supported the pro-treaty side in the Civil War.

Towards the end of the talk Larry read aloud some names from the Order of Battle of A Company 1st Battalion Kilkenny Brigade No 2 South Division, something that he believed hadn’t been done in over 100 years. 

This act and the sight of the men’s names and addresses brought a poignant end to the talk as the soldiers were resurrected as individuals rather than numbers or the groups they were part of.

Speaking after the talk, Larry, who is also an expert on Kilkenny soldiers in WW1, outlined some of his motivations for bringing attention to the sometimes overlooked Kilkenny Brigade.

“My primary interest was always about Kilkenny’s independence story and how the brigade was formed and was a lot more active than was given credit for by a lot of the post-war analysts and academics. You have to look into all these lists of volunteers to get to the personal stories.”

“You have to remember and recall the time when all these events were happening and how important these people were to the formation of our county, the county that we live in today,” he concluded.

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