Pat Walsh Memorial Committee Kilkenny: Upcoming Events
Pat Walsh Memorial Field Trip 14th March [FULLY BOOKED]
Field trip taking in many of the historic sites around East Tipperary and West Kilkenny during the War of Independence. Including Drangan Barracks attack, Mullinahone, Nine mile house ambush, Hugginstown Barrack attack, Garryricken ambush.
As we will have many of the older generation (some sons and other descendants e.g. Ned Alywards two sons) we’re bringing a film maker (Marcus Howard of Easter Rising Stories) to accompany us on the day and hopefully produce a short documentary if we get enough material. All local historians of that period for example Jim Maher and Commandant Larry Scallan are attending.
Pat Walsh Memorial Hike 5th April
The hike will follow the route of the combined forces of Ned Aylward’s West Kilkenny Killkenny Flying Column and Sean Hogans Flying Column from Dunamaggin to Knocknagress, Tullaroan where Pat Walsh and Sean Quinn were shot in 1921.
The route is circa 33km. The meeting place for the hike is the Pat Walsh Memorial Monument, Dunnamaggin, Co. Kilkenny.
All welcome.
Lecture Series
| 27-Feb | William Murphy | Tom Ryan’s War of Independence Diaries
Taking place in: Kells Mill, Kells, Kilkenny |
| 11-Apr | Commandant Larry Scallan | Kilkenny during the War of Independence
Taking place in: Old School Hall, Dunnamaggin, Kilkenny |
Pat Walsh Festival Weekend 11th and 12th April
As always we will have our commemorative ceremony the Pat Walsh Memorial Weekend at Easter.
This consists of parade, oration, traditional music and dance and a range of other activities.
For further information about any of these events place contact:
Liam O’Sullivan, Committee Secretary 087-9101571 [email protected]
www.facebook.com/
The circumstances of Pat Walsh’s death can be read in Kilkenny: In Times of Revolution 1900-1923 by Eoin Swithin Walsh, pp 88-9, the following is an extract:
‘Pat Walsh, from the village of Dunnamaggin, had just completed a jail term for the possession of ‘seditious documents’ the week previously and had only been a member of the flying column for four days. The two men [Seán Quinn and Pat Walsh] were still alive at the point of their capture [by British Forces], were left in a military lorry for two hours on their way back to Kilkenny City when the British Forces visited a public house. The captured and badly injured men were denied food or water which locals attempted with provide them with.
Seán Quinn, who was 22 years old, died shortly after arriving in Kilkenny Military Barracks and was subsequently buried in his native Mullinahone.
Pat Walsh was transferred to the main military hospital in Fermoy but died there five days later on 18 May 1921, during an operation to amputate his leg. He was 33 years old.
Walsh was popular in GAA and Sinn Féin circles and was a founding member of the Gaelic League in Dunnamaggin.