Kilrush link to generous Choctaw tribe

TWENTY years ago, PJ Kennedy (RIP) walked the 500-mile Choctaw ‘Trail of Tears’ walk from Oklahoma to Mississippi. With the National Famine Commemoration (May 3 to 12) launched this Friday in Carrigaholt, PJ’s wife, Maureen, last week recalled her husband’s month-long walk with the AfrI charity in September 1992.

 

As detailed on the website choctawnation.com, in 1847, the Choctaw people donated $170 to Ireland during The Famine. It was with this in mind that PJ, who was on the 1970s Kilrush Shamrocks five-in-a-row championship-winning team, raised £3,000 and embarked upon the 20-mile daily walk.

In 1831, the Choctaw Indians were forcibly removed from their ancestral lands in Mississippi to what is now known as Oklahoma. The Choctaws were the first of several tribes to make the trek along The Trail of Tears. The years during and immediately following this journey were very difficult for the tribal people. The winter of this particular Trail of Tears was the coldest on record – the food and clothing of the people were severely inadequate and transportation needs were not properly met. Many of the Choctaws did not survive the trip and those who did not perish faced hardships establishing new homes, schools, and churches.

A few years after this long, sad march, the Choctaws learned of people starving to death in Ireland. The Irish were dying because although there were other crops being grown in their country, all but the potato were marked for export by the British rulers. Only 16 years had passed since the Choctaws themselves had faced hunger and death on the first Trail of Tears and a great empathy was felt when they heard such a similar story coming from across the ocean. The Choctaw people gave all they could to people who were in greater need.

A renowned footballer with Coolmeen, Shannon Gaels, Kilrush, Clare and Munster, PJ wasn’t one to boast about his achievements or even talk much about his interest in history. “PJ led a very simple life and didn’t say much. You’d never get a word out of him although he talked about the walk. He loved talking about that. PJ was very gentle and very quiet but he was into this kind of thing. It was 1992 and he was fit, finished with the football and he thought, why not do something useful with himself?” Maureen explained.

“They walked the 500 miles in the gruelling heat. He had a watch on his hand and it burned. He saw it sizzling and he had to throw it away immediately. They had to head off in the early morning before it got too hot and then walk 20 miles. They’d take a rest and then they’d take off in the evening again. It took a month to complete the walk,” Maureen noted.

Having completed the 500-mile trek, PJ and the 22 people who walked with him were accorded honorary Choctaw membership.

“He was very proud of the fact that he was an honorary member of the Choctaw Indians,” his wife told The Clare Champion.

On PJ’s return from the US, Maureen had to take a second look at her husband. He had only been gone a month but he was a new man.  “He lost four stone weight. We didn’t recognise him. We met Donncha Ó Dúlaing, who was on the walk and I asked him ‘is PJ with ye at all?’ I couldn’t see any sign of him. There was a lad standing up but I turned away, thinking that wasn’t him at all. It turned out it was PJ. That was only half the man that went off out,” Maureen laughed.

PJ, who played minor, U-21 and senior football for Clare, ran a business in Lower Moore Street, Kilrush, and also worked at Moneypoint ESB power station. Sadly, he passed away suddenly, while on holiday in Spain, on June 16, 2011.

“That night he just fell across my lap. He was just gone 72. He was as fit as anything. He was walking around Aylevaroo right to the very end,” Maureen said sadly.

Prior to the walk, PJ Kennedy attended a civic reception in May 1992 in the Mansion House, Dublin. The then Lord Mayor of Dublin, Seán Kenny, unveiled a plaque commemorating the contribution made by the Choctaw Nation during the Irish Famine. The reception was attended by a small delegation of Choctaw Indians and 10 of the walkers who took part in the Trail of Tears walk later that year.