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Home » Tag Archives: Dr Tomás Mac Conmara

Tag Archives: Dr Tomás Mac Conmara

Now more than ever, words matter

Historian Dr Tomás Mac Conmara writes about his time in Palestine considering recent events in Gaza. Over recent weeks, as events in Gaza unfolded, I listened carefully to the words of many. Words of Israelis. Words of Palestinians. Media words. Words of an American President. Words of European leaders and of course, words of those in political leadership in Ireland. All these words are important. Words matter and words spoken at such times matter intensely. Words form stories and stories form narratives. Narratives form impressions. When unchallenged, they can sometimes become the truth. For much of the western media, events in Gaza commenced on 7th October. This of course is not the case. In 2011, after many years of instinctive support for the Palestinian cause, I made the decision to travel there. I had read many books and studied the history of the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Yet I still understood little. I have always lived according to the principle …

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I remember hearing the shot – The Death of Murt Moloney

Historian Dr Tomás Mac Conmara examines the story of IRA Volunteer Murt Moloney, shot dead by Free State forces 100 years ago this weekend. ‘I was standing with my hands up when a bullet struck me. There were two soldiers standing in front of me, about 9 or 10 yards away’ The final words of Murt Moloney as he was being removed to Ennistymon infirmary, recounted by Dr D.J. Keane, who attended him on that journey. Moloney had been shot by a member of a Free State military unit, who had come to arrest both him and his brother Tomás in the final month of the Irish Civil War. While Dr Keane claimed that Murt did not name his killer, this would be disputed by Murt’s father, who was also by his son’s side and listened with the intensity only such occasions can encourage. Murt Moloney was born on 12th December 1901 to Martin and Bridget Moloney (nee Clune) in …

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‘Dying for Ireland and still true to the Republic to the last’

Ahead of a special commemoration at Clooney Cemetery at 1pm on Sunday, January 23, at which he will be the guest orator, Dr Tomás Mac Conmara writes about the controversial Civil War executions of Clare republicans, Con McMahon and Paddy Hennessy.   Readers of the Clare Champion on 3rd March 1923 were informed of the outcome of a Clare GAA Convention, held over the previous week. It was announced that the new County Secretary of the GAA in Clare, a position of some significance, was twenty-three-year-old, P.V. Murphy, better known as Vincent, from Knockanimana, outside Ennis. No reference was made to the man he replaced. Five weeks earlier, when it carried a brief report on eleven Anti-Treaty IRA prisoners, executed by the Free State on 20th January, the Clare Champion referred to two men shot in Limerick as ‘C McMahon’ and ‘P. Hennessy’, with no elaboration on their identity. The men, both from Clooney, were IRA Volunteers, Con McMahon and …

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Liam Mellows memorial event in Tulla

AN event in memory of 1916 and War of Independence leader Liam Mellows will be held in Knockjames Church Tulla this Sunday. Mellows hid out in the Knockjames area for five months, in the aftermath of the Easter Rising, during which he led forces in Galway.  At the time Knockjames was such a Republican stronghold that the authorities installed an RIC barracks there, which was manned by a sergeant and three constables. Despite this, one of the most wanted men in the country was sheltered by the local community for months. In December of 1916, Mellows went to New York and was associated with the Carmelite community there. He taught Irish Music and Dance at the Carmelite Priory in Manhattan. Sean Halpin who comes from Kiltanon in Tulla is currently living in New York and made contact with  the Carmelite community there. Mellows is a celebrated figure among the Carmelites and they have a stained-glass window in his honour along …

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Clare historian to deliver Oral History Network annual lecture

EAST Clare historian Dr Tomás Mac Conmara has been invited to deliver the annual lecture of the Oral History Network of Ireland. The lecture entitled Always in the Human Consciousness will explore the memory and oral history associated with the Revolutionary Period, with audio samples from recordings of interviews he conducted across the country. Tomás said he was delighted to have been approached to deliver the 2022 lecture. “The Oral History Network is a national body and they do one annual lecture. They’ve brought people from other parts of the world previously and obviously I’m honoured. “Whenever you are asked to do a lecture you try and do your best, and take it as an opportunity to talk about what’s important to you and why you feel the research you’re doing may be important, or the material you found is important. I’m treating this the same way, but it is a great honour to be asked to deliver the lecture.” …

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East Clare Continues Tradition of Commemoration

THE East Clare Memorial Committee will begin its second century of commemoration this Easter Sunday.  The group, who have annually commemorated both the East Clare IRA and Scariff Martyrs across the last 100 years, have once again planned to remember those who fought for Irish independence.  At the East Clare Memorial Park in Tuamgraney, where the East Clare IRA and Cumann na mBan Brigades are commemorated, a wreath will be laid at 10am. This year, Chairman of the West Clare Brigade Commemoration Group, JT Larkin, will be called on to perform the ceremonial duty.  Mr Larkin will lay a wreath in honour of the West and East Clare IRA Brigades who combined in April 1921 to attack the heavily militarised town of Kilrush. In April 2021, members of the East Clare Memorial Committee travelled to West Clare to acknowledge the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Kilrush Ambush.  At the ground of Scariff Roman Catholic Church, a wreath will …

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Celebration of brave Clare volunteers from independence war

The Currakyle Ambush is not as well known as some War of Independence actions, but that is about to change THE East Clare Memorial Committee are to mark the centenary of one of the lesser known, but highly significant incidents in the War of Independence in this county. Supported by Clare County Library under the Decade of Centenaries Project Awards, the committee will commemorate the Currakyle Ambush, when, according to local lore, ‘two took on 200’. The event will take place in Flagmount Hall at 8pm on Friday, October 29 and will involve a lecture from Dr Tomás Mac Conmara and the recounting of stories and songs. Chairperson of the committee, Councillor Pat Hayes, outlined the importance of remembering the Sixth Battalion of the East Clare Brigade. “Often commemorations centre on events in relation to The Scariff Martyrs and The Feakle Ambush,” he said. “This event will help to raise awareness of those who came from Flagmount, Killanena and Upper …

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Easter commemorations by order of The Peaky Blinders

This Sunday, the East Clare Memorial Committee will honour Fr. Seán Clancy, who in War of Independence, stood with his parishioners in Scariff. Historian Dr Tomás Mac Conmara reflects on his story and its connection to a famous British crime drama series. In season five of The Peaky Blinders, the main antagonist is a British politician called Oswald Mosley. It is the late 1920s and Mosely’s covert plans for a fascist revolution have been noted at the upper echelons of British power. Thomas Shelby (played by Cillian Murphy), has been approached by Winston Churchill, to eliminate the increasingly influential Mosley. This peculiar dramatization of real historical figures connects a global television phenomenon, to east Clare in 1921. In May that year, then twenty-five-year-old MP, Oswald Mosely spoke at length about the town of Scariff in the British House of Commons. He underlined reports that the local Catholic Priest, Fr Seán Clancy had been denied the right to celebrate mass for …

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