A stark reminder of how innocent people were killed in the War of Independence was observed in Knocknagee in recent days with the 100-year commemoration of the shooting of teenager Michael John Kelleher.
The young lad was playing hurling in the company of friends when he was gunned down by a Crown forces convoy. His death on Sunday, February 6, 1921, earned fitting memory at two dignified ceremonies hosted at the field of the atrocity and in Knocknagree village last weekend. Historian Aogáin Ó hÍarlaithe referred to the event as one of the darkest and saddest events in the history of Knocknagree at Sylvester Cronin s field, today owned by Mike and Valerie Doyle.
Dysart Cemetery on the Castleisland to Farranfore Road doesn t get a lot of attention these days in terms of funerals or ceremonies of any kind.
On the most recent St. Stephen s Day, however, a ceremony of great historical and local significance was held there.
A Covid-19 restricted gathering held a ceremony to commemorate the death and burial in 1920 of Irish Volunteer, patriot and Knocknagoshel native Captain James Hickey who was tortured and murdered by British forces in Tipperary Millitary Barracks on the Sunday of St. Stephen s Day 1920.
The Kerryman of January 8-1921 carried the following report of the funeral which occurred on Friday, December 31st. 1920.