The ‘Forgotten Soldier’ of 1923 to be commemorated - Kilkenny Live

Written by Thomas Hennessy.

On August 30, a message came into my phone from my friend Rob O Keeffe. Myself and Rob are currently writing a book on the recently discovered IRA Map.

“You missed a Ballylooby centenary, ‘John Mahony’,” he said.

Rob had sent me Sean Fitzpatrick’s roll of honour and sure enough after ‘John Mahony’, the description read ‘Volunteer Graigue Company, brutalised and neglected by the Free State in Kilkenny Jail. Died in Cashel hospital 24/06/1923’.

I immediately went to my bundle of copies of 6th Battalion papers. I was lucky to have been given access to the papers of Sean Myles, who was a local IRA leader and organised pension applications during the 30s. The Graigue Local Active Service Unit or ‘Company’ as they are more commonly known, was part of the sixth Battalion, third Tipperary Brigade IRA.

There were 39 members and sure enough there was John Mahony’s name with ‘deceased’ written beside it. My phone alerted me again to a message and it was Rob who had located John Mahony’s pension application online and sent me the link. Castlegrace was his address. 

In a poignant letter to the pension board John's mother, Alice Mahony had written the following lines:

“The people responsible for his removal from Kilkenny Jail saved themselves nicely for if he died in jail the responsibility would be theirs, but they made sure he would die a pauper not a hero.”

Perhaps the moving of John from Kilkenny Jail where he had died as a prisoner, a Republican, helped to hide and cover up John's story from the public and media of the time. 

He was transferred days before he died to Cashel ‘poor house’ Hospital.

I have been travelling the ‘boithrins’ and graveyards of this lovely part of South Tipperary for two years now, interviewing locals and gathering info from various sources, along with Rob and not once had anyone mentioned a local who died during the Civil War. 

There have been amazing moments along the way, sitting in IRA ‘safe houses’ in the same kitchens that the great men of the IRA ‘Flying Columns’ frequented, holding old rifles, the bag that DI Potter had with him when executed, IRA medals, bullets, boots, glasses, all sorts of relics and heirlooms some of really important historical value, all of massive emotional importance. 

There were emotional moments, being able to show sons of IRA men information about their fathers that they never knew. We made amazing discoveries along the way, I was brought to the two ‘dugout’ sites in Graigue and shown an IRA ‘dugout’ on the slopes of the Galtees. 

All great days but no one once mentioned the name John Mahony. It seemed he was lost in the mist of time and his memory had faded, his story forgotten.

In every parish and village in Ireland there are locals who are the person to go to for information. They are the unrecognised historians and storytellers of their parish. 

Kathleen Moloney of Castlegrace is one of these local legends. Kathleen had within a few days of contacting her, traced the house John Mahony lived in and had found his birth certificate and the family census records online. 

There still was a big part of the puzzle to be solved though. Where was John Mahony buried? We had located the grave plot in Duhill cemetery of two of John’s siblings but no mention of John. 

I rang Fr John Nally, the local priest. Fr John suggested the old graveyard at Castlegrace known as ‘Tullaghorton’ which was the original graveyard for generations of locals. The following Sunday, a week after our hunt began, I spent a few hours going grave to grave in the hope that I might find a Mahony headstone but to no avail. 

I trekked Tubrid graveyard and Ballylooby, no luck in either place. 

In the preceding days I had contacted Neil Donovan of Ballyporeen, a local Historian and an expert on the IRA in his area of Ballyporeen and when I got home a bit deflated one Monday evening , Neil rang me with new information regarding John Mahony’s arrest in Two Mile Borris.

David Moher of Mitchelstown was in charge of an Anti Treaty Column of which John Mahony was a member. On July 15, 1922 at TwoMile Borris, 14 members of this Column including John Mahony were arrested by Free State forces. 

In the weeks leading up to this incident, David Moher’s Column had taken part in the capture of Urlingford Barracks and had fought ‘freestaters’ at Mary Willies, Longford Pass on July 8, where they lost another hero of Ireland and a Tipperary man, Patrick John English, a  member of the 6th Battalion who hailed from only a few miles away from John Mahony’s home. Patrick is buried in Whitechurch and in a fitting tribute his headstone carries the line ‘Who was killed in battle for Ireland’s cause’.

The breakthrough finally came in the following days. I had arranged to meet Fr John at Duhill to ask about a possible record of graves I had been told had been kept at one stage in Duhill Church. That day, going back over copies of pension applications and letters written by the local ‘Company’, I stumbled upon Denis Looby’s hand written account of life during those turbulent times.

The lines ‘one man of the Battalion died in prison, when his funeral arrived in Duhill Cemetery I fired 3 volleys over his grave for which I was arrested  a few days later’ jumped off the page at me!!

I was delighted! 

We now had solved the graveyard John Mahony was in. We knew there was a Mahony grave in Duhill with John’s sisters but no mention of John on the headstone. Surely for a man who had paid the ultimate sacrifice in pursuit of his country’s freedom he had to be in a marked grave? 

I walked Duhill cemetery that evening and then went to mass as I had arranged to meet Fr John afterwards. I told Fr John about the Denis Loobys letter but he had no records of graves. However, the next breakthrough that solved the mystery of John Mahony’s final resting place came when Ann Moloney, the sacristan, confirmed her mother Catherine had told her John Mahony, the IRA man, was buried in the same plot as his sisters. 

In an unbelievable twist, Ann confirmed that she lives in the old Mahony home! 

Another amazing coincidence was that that night in Duhill, the anniversary mass was on for a member of a local family, and it was on to their farm. John Mahony’s mother Alice and brother David moved after John’s death.

This is not the first time I have had strange coincidences regarding the IRA men of those days and sometimes I really do think they try to guide us from the grave!

On Sunday, October 29, 100 years after John Mahony gave his young life in the pursuit of freedom, we will assemble behind a lone piper outside the farm house John Mahony was reared in at 2pm, and walk the short distance to Duhill Church where a new plaque will be unveiled. 

The ‘Rebel Hearts’ will play traditional music and Kathleen Moloney and myself will speak. That weekend in Ballylooby and Duhill Churches, mass will be said for John Mahony. The new plaque will be blessed on Sunday morning after mass in Duhill at 9am, all are welcomeI 

I also want to thank Fr John Nally for allowing this plaque to be erected in Duhill cemetery.

This Commemoration is non political and community led. There will be tea in the hall beside the cemetery following the commemoration.

The ‘Forgotten Soldier’ John Mahony will now be rightfully remembered and future generations will pause and read his name and honour the name of another Irish Martyr, a Tipperary man who gave his all for a 32 county Irish Republic.

Beir Bua.

“No leader he, nor mighty Chief, for whom a nation sheds its grief,

But one whose young heart knew no guile, a soldier of the rank and file,

Who grasped his pike when Ireland called, and fell a Martyr true installed”

Duhill Church, Castlegrace, Clogheen, Tipperary, E21 H677.

More details on twitter @tomhennessy20.