Kinsale, Co. Cork — Discover Cork’s rebels’ stories from the Curragh prison camps, with historian James Durney at Kinsale Library, Saturday, November 1st at 2pm.
Entitled A Calico Shack in Kildare. Cork Volunteers behind the wire, 1922–24, James is set to tell the tale of the struggle that continued from the outside to behind the camp’s gates.
A graduate of Maynooth University, James is more than qualified to tell the unique story of the camps as he’s published several books on the topic.
Included in the line up are Jailbreak. Great Irish republican escapes 1865–1983 and Interned. The Curragh internment camps in the War of Independence.
Eagerly awaited is his next instalment on the topic Special Powers. Civil War internment in Newbridge Barracks and Tintown Camp, 1922–24.
As for those Cork men fenced in, there are a number of notable Rebels, including Liam Deasy, Kilmacsimon and Jim Hurley, Clonakilty, who were just two of 11,300 men interred in the camp by July 1923.
Both men had been key figures in the anti-treaty campaign, and had been present at Béal na Bláth ambush at which Michael Collins was shot.
Hurley would be one of numerous prisoners to join a Republican hunger strike in October 1923 to protest their continuing imprisonment without trial.
Sharing the fast was Denis Barry, Riverstick, a well-known hurler with Blackrock and Cork, who played his part in the Independence movement in the city.
Barry died on hunger strike at the Curragh in November 1923.
Other men from the locality to feature in the lecture are William Sullivan, Ballinaclashet, Kinsale, and William Reynolds, Ballinhassig, both of who were involved in successful tunnel escapes from the camps in October 1922 and April 1923.
For the chairperson of Kinsale Cultural and Heritage Society, JJ Hurley, he’s very excited and honoured that James accepted the society’s invitation.
‘James is at the top of his game, when it comes to the topic. I am certainly looking forward to hearing what promises to be a fascinating afternoon’s lecture,’ JJ said.
‘In addition, during the recent decade of centenary, the esteem in which he was held was recognised by his appointment as the historian-in-residence for the County Kildare Decade of Commemoration from 2015 to 2017.’
Referring to the Civil War, JJ acknowledged that despite the reservations coming in the centenary about the Civil War period, it has not proven to be divisive.
‘The Civil War had for over a century been locked in Pandora’s box, but the recent opening of that box has not proven to have been a negative one,’ JJ remarked.
‘And it is a credit to historians – like James – to be brave enough to tell the story of those men.
‘Indeed, there are many families scattered across Cork who know nothing about the time their ancestors spent behind the wire of Hare Park and Tintown.’
James will also be available after the lecture to sign copies of his last publication Jailbreak. Great Irish republican escapes 1865–1983.
