Dr. Owen O'Shea
@OwenOShea
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More coffee please! #PhD @UCD | Politics in Kerry 1923-33 | Historian | Author | Researcher @CivilWarInKerry | Media and Communications Officer @countykerry
Kerry
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Finishing touches ... 📚
Coming in early 2025, the memoirs of Dan Mulvihill, IRA leader, Liaison Officer, hunger striker, advocate, campaigner and lifelong republican
Delighted to be working again with
@MerrionPress
to tell another fascinating story from Ireland's revolution
4
12
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The other Croke Park 🏟
The field at Fron-goch in Wales where prisoners held after the 1916 Rising played Gaelic football to pass the time
Among them were Michael Collins and 37 Kerrymen incl Dick Fitzgerald after whom Fitzgerald Stadium
#Killarney
is named
@Kerry_Official
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738
Thrilled to have passed my Viva Voce examination for my
#PhD
at
@UCDHistory
today.
Thanks to Dr Anne Dolan TCD and Dr Susannah Riordan UCD for their positive feedback.
Many thanks to my supervisor, Prof Diarmaid Ferriter and
@IrishResearch
for supporting my studies since 2019
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11
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I was pleased to meet the Tánaiste
@MichealMartinTD
at the commemorations at Ballyseedy earlier today
He expressed great praise for my book on the Civil War in Kerry which I presented to him a few months ago
Though rare, a Kerry man will always accept praise from a Cork man!
10
7
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Andrew McGinley interview
#rtept
puts all the silly problems we think we sometimes have into perspective
So brave and just heartbreaking 💔
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"On the lip of the volcano"
My article on the Blueshirts in Kerry features in the latest Journal of the Kerry Archaeological and Historical Society available here:
Picture is of Ladies Branch of the Kenmare League of Youth c.1934
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44
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On this day
#OTD
1st June 1921
#Thread
The Ballymacandy Ambush in County Kerry
A timeline of events of that dramatic day:
9.30am: Twelve RIC and Black and Tans leave Killorglin RIC Barracks by bicycle to travel to Tralee to collect their wages
#Ballymacandy
(more ...)
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100 years ago tonight, one of the most shocking examples of Free State brutality occurred in Kenmare in County Kerry
Kevin O'Higgins threatened to resign as a minister but the case was shamelessly covered up by his government
6
52
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The heart-shaped Mass Rock in Killacloghane Wood between Milltown and Castlemaine in County Kerry.
In 1653, Fr Thaddeus Moriarty (Dominicans) was arrested by Cromwellian solidiers while saying Mass and later hanged at Ross Castle in Killarney
3
37
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Faces of the Irish Revolution:
Nellie Corcoran, Keel Cumann na mBan, Co. Kerry built a first aid centre at her home for injured IRA men. She hid guns, carried messages and fed those on the run, often at great personal risk
Honoured to tell her story:
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Thrilled to have been awarded a scholarship from Irish Research Council
@IrishResearch
to pursue a PhD with
@UCDHistory
on political culture in Kerry after the Civil War
#PhD
#CivilWar
#Kerry
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6
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What a privilege to have visited Fron-goch in north Wales this week where 1,800 Irish Volunteers were interned following the Easter Rising in 1916, among them 37 Kerrymen
Really moving to visit a place so central to the story of the campaign for Irish Independence
🏴 🇮🇪
6
24
136
How wonderful of you to revive Michael's Twitter feed on this saddest of days
I can't but think that he's briefing the Man Above about the likely transfer patterns in his beloved
#Kerry
at the next election
Rest in peace, Michael 💚💛
Goodbye to a dad like no other…
A fierce, funny, giant of a man whom we’ll miss very deeply.
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4K
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The privilege of being able to cast a ballot and express an opinion through the voting process is one which should always be treasured in a world where so many have no such right 🗳
#Referendum2024
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Such dreadfully sad news. Michael was the quintessential Kerryman with a deep love and knowledge of politics. He was a kindly figure to a young staffer from Kerry in Leinster House many moons ago and was a font of knowledge on elections over the years. Rest in peace, Micheal 🕯
Michael O’Regan, ‘generous, compassionate’ Irish Times journalist, dies at home in Dublin
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876
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Here's the cover of my new book on the Civil War in Kerry, coming off the presses in mid-October
Delighted to publish my first ever hardback
Launch is mid-October ... details to follow!
There are pre-order discounts here 👇
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Time to let it go! 🥹
Finally ready (and relieved!) to release this for examination after four very enjoyable years of delving deep into the politics of my native county in the 1920s and 1930s 🗳️
Godspeed!
Fingers crossed! 🙏
#Kerry
@UCDHistory
@IrishResearch
20
3
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Just when you think you could not be more angry and ashamed by the moral perversity and criminal behaviour of the Catholic Church in Ireland and the successive governments and civic leaders who enabled it all to happen
An enduring stain on our society
#Stolen
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14
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Final proof read ... 🤞
70,000 words and 1,000 footnotes later ...
See you later this year 📖
@CivilWarInKerry
#CivilWarinKerry
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22
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Almost 100 years after the
#Ballymacandy
Ambush:
Seán O'Keeffe, grandson of IRA Officer Commanding Tom O'Connor meets Mary O'Neill, granddaughter of RIC Sgt James Collery who was killed in the ambush. Pictured today during interviews for RTÉ Nationwide
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Faces of the Irish Revolution
#FacesIrishRev
Josephine 'Jo' Cashman, Brookhill, Beaufort was Captain of the Kilgobnet Cumann na mBan. Carried a gun to Tralee by train, hosted IRA meetings, did intelligence work, tended to wounded men and organised training camps
@MaryMcAuliffe4
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Paid my respects recently in Sneem at the grave of Gobnait Ní Bhruadair (Lady Alibinia Brodrick) who was the first woman elected to Kerry County Council in 1920
An aristocrat turned republican, she lived a truly remarkable life
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This evening in Kerry, its that rare and lethal combination of being simultaneously humid, muggy, warm, clammy, heavy and (as my grandmother used to say)... close!
#summerinKerry
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My forthcoming book takes its title from the IRA's Dan Mulvihill of Castlemaine who wrote of the divisions of the war: 'There was no middle path in the Civil War in Kerry.'
'No Middle Path: the Civil War in Kerry' will be published by
@MerrionPress
in November
@CivilWarInKerry
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22
96
Delighted to announce that my book on the Ballymacandy Ambush will be published in mid-May by Merrion Press. The book is available to pre-order now on the publisher's website:
Updates on
@ballymacandy
10
16
94
A picture of a Blueshirt march in Kenmare, Co. Kerry c. 1934 featuring female members known as the Blueblouses
My article on the Blueshirts in Kerry is here
@KerryArchHist
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29
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Thrilled to have been accepted as a participant in the
@UCC
Irish Civil War National Conference in June
Looking forward to presenting a paper on the traumatic legacy of the Civil War for the families of combatants in County Kerry
#history
#CivilWar
#centenary
@DeptCulturelRL
12
7
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Delighted to team up again with
@MerrionPress
who will publish my new
#book
on the Civil War in Kerry at the beginning of 2023
I look forward to sharing new research on the traumatic impact on civilians and the legacy of the conflict in
#Kerry
#CivilWar
@CivilWarInKerry
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There's a lot going on here. From The Kerryman in January 1924 ...
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So pleased to see a plaque unveiled by
@countykerry
today to the memory of Hannah Carey of
#Killarney
, the last person to die in Ireland's War of Independence on 11 July 1921. A fitting reminder of the civilian casualties of the conflict
#HannahCarey
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Bishop Ray Browne and Fr Larry Kelly laid a wreath on the grave of Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty in Cahersiveen this weekend as part of the programme for the Daniel O'Connell School
O'Flaherty died 60 years ago next Monday. May he rest in peace
#Cahersiveen
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9
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Flying the flag for
#Kerry
at the National Civil War Conference at
@UCC
with Tom Dillon, Mary McAuliffe
@MaryMcAuliffe4
and Helen O'Carroll
@KerryCoMuseum
#CivilWarConferenceUCC
#UpKerry
@CivilWarInKerry
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Remember being so moved by this touching piece from Michael O'Regan in 2019 about his battle with cancer in
@IrishTimes
Honest, eloquent and fundamentally decent as always
RIP Michael 🙏
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11
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In this centenary year, it was a great honour to present my new book on the Civil War in Kerry to An Taoiseach
@MichealMartinTD
at Government Buildings
A fellow history graduate!
@CivilWarInKerry
#CivilWar100
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11
78
Mary O'Sullivan, Tralee was member of Cumann na mBan which had '14 major engagements' with Black and Tans. Her newly published pension file says she carried guns for IRA and she 'washed and laid out men who were killed at Ballyseedy'
@MaryMcAuliffe4
@dfarchives
3
11
75
Special delivery from the post lady this morning in Kerry
Thrilled to have it hand at last
Thanks to
@MerrionPress
for a really fabulous publication
BUY NOW:
@CivilWarInKerry
7
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I'm so sorry to learn of the passing of one of Kerry's and Ireland's finest historians, Maurice O'Keeffe
Maurice's oral histories in the Irish Life and Lore collection are his outstanding legacy
Condolences to his family.
May he rest in peace 🙏
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On this day 12 January 1885
Thomas Ashe was born at Kinard, Co. Kerry.
Commanded the Volunteers at the Battle of Ashbourne in 1916
Arrested at Ballinalee, Longford in 1917
Died while being force-fed during hunger strike in Mountjoy 25 September 1917
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Alicia Vikander joined Michael Fassbender at Muckross House Killarney this evening for Order of Inisfallen induction
0
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Thanks to
@Kerrys_Eye
for this report today on my new book on the Civil War in Kerry which will be launched this evening at Tralee Library at 6.00pm
@CivilWarInKerry
@MerrionPress
#CivilWar100
#Kerry
#history
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The remarkable Kerry woman who became a member of Pakistan's first parliament
Bridie Wren: the "Queen of Balochistan" provided assistance to Afghan refugees who fled the Soviet invasion.
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The Lenten Regulations for 1923 from the Diocese of Kerry
Fasting and abstinence ceased at noon on
#HolySaturday
Lard and dripping were permitted as condiments
Pregnant women, the poor, and those under 21 and over 59 were exempt from fasting
#Easter
#Kerry
12
19
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Thrilled to finally get my hands on the bound copy of the thesis
My thanks to Hubert Bookbindery in Cork for doing a fabulous job on the binding 🙏 📖 📕
@UCDHistory
@PhDVoice
@CivilWarInKerry
#PhD
7
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"They are all Free State girls"
The shocking killing of a young Kerry woman by a Free State army soldier 100 years ago this week
Hannah O'Connor was shot as she walked home from a dance in Glenbeigh on 2 September 1923
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📢BOOK NEWS 📚
Thrilled to work again with
@MerrionPress
to publish the memoirs of an important Irish revolutionary figure
Dan Mulvihill of the Kerry IRA was central to local and national events throughout the 1920s and beyond
Based on his own accounts/letters
🗓️Spring 2025
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Excellent supplement in today's
@irishexaminer
on the Civil War in Cork and Kerry to which I was delighted to contribute on aspects of my own research
@JohnDorney2
@131Weeks
@RichardMcELL
@Mickcliff
@MerrionPress
@CivilWarInKerry
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"A couple of tarts getting a few lashes!"
A vicious assault on two sisters in Kenmare
A century ago this week
Threats of ministerial resignations
One of the most shocking cover-ups of Free State army brutality in Kerry
2
22
71
All set here at
@KerryLibrary
in Tralee for the launch of 'No Middle Path: The Civil War in Kerry'
Drop if if you're in the area
@CivilWarInKerry
@MerrionPress
0
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A Killarney hotel waitress was the final victim of the War of Independence and was shot just minutes before the Truce at noon on 11th July 1921
Hannah Carey worked at the Imperial Hotel and was killed by a bullet accidentally fired by an RIC officer
4
16
68
Today's commemorations at Knocknagoshel and Ballyseedy, at which I was honoured to speak, were marked by an important magnanimity with many relatives connected to both incidents attending both events
#Knocknagoshel
#Ballyseedy
@CivilWarInKerry
3
9
69
I'm still shocked that Cadbury got away with dropping two of the six biscuits in a yellow Snack! and that there haven't been nationwide protests and riots in the streets
#yellowsnack
🙄
13
6
69
From The Kerryman, August 1920
#puckfair
'Wars may come, wars may go, but Puck Fair goes on for ever.' It's cancellation 100 years on leaves a big hole in the summer. Best wishes to ctte for 2021
@puck_fair
#Killorglin
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12
66
A great honour today to meet Aidan Larkin, grandson of John O'Connor, one of the eight IRA prisoners killed at Ballyseedy on 7 March 1923.
Aidan attended events at which I spoke today at Knocknagoshel and Ballyseedy
@CivilWarInKerry
0
10
66
Michael Fassbender arrives at Muckross House to receive the Order of Inisfallen
0
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This is a great picture of Minister for Education Dick Burke, Michael Begley TD and Mícheál Ó Gaothín, son of Peig Sayers, at the opening of the new school in Dún Chaoin in the early 70s
@DDeibhinn
@SlaineNi
@Buailtin
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6
64
Looting, kidnap, murder and mayhem
A dramatic four days of violence in my home village during the Civil War which left an innocent father of ten children dead on the roadside
The shocking murder of Jeremiah Hanifin in 1922
2
18
63
Still bizarre and infuriating that in 2024 on a 3.5 hour train trip between Dublin and
#Kerry
you can't get so much as a bottle of water or a cup of tea (coffee in my case!)
Trolley has been restored on the Cork trains!
Any trolley/snack bar on a Kerry train soon?
@irishrail
8
5
63
Absolutely blown away by the sales of 'No Middle Path' with most Kerry bookshops now sold out
Few copies left in Eason, Killarney and First Chapter, Tralee 📚
The good news is the paperback is coming soon from
@MerrionPress
4
11
63
@irelandbattles
@barry_shep
Fuller rarely if ever spoke about his experience but did so in a BBC series on Ireland in the 1980s (as recounted in 'A Century of Politics in the Kingdom: A County Kerry Compendium)
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14
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Lovely to drop into
@easons
in Killarney this evening to sign copies of my new book
Selling very well already 📚📚
@MerrionPress
@CivilWarInKerry
4
12
62
Hot off the press, as they say. Delighted to receive my copy of 'Kerry: History and Society' edited by Prof Maurice Bric and published by Geography Publications
#Kerry
#history
#TheKingdom
4
12
62
Incredible find!
RTE news : Cumann na mBan memorabilia found in dusty attic
0
13
61
Faces of the Irish Revolution
#facesirishrev
Annie Cronin, Milltown Cumann na mBan, Kerry tended to injured at
@ballymacandy
ambush 1921. She catered for Liam Lynch when he visited Kerry and served two jail terms during the Civil War
This is her story:
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Pleasure to have joined
@MaryMcAuliffe4
and
@RichardMcELL
on
@morningireland
from the Kerry Civil War Conference this morning
Thanks to
@s_mcelhatton
for presenting
#kerrycivilwarconference
6
7
61
Look our for a special feature on the centenary of the Ballymacandy Ambush on RTÉ
@RTENationwide
this Wednesday evening at 7pm with presenter Donal Byrne.
Including interviews with many of the descendants of those involved in events 100 years ago
@ballymacandy
2
26
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Maybe I'm late to this or missed the press release but there are now only four pieces instead of six in a yellow Snack bar. I declare a national emergency!
#yellowsnack
8
7
60
Delighted to feature in today's
@IrishTimes
supplement on 1923 and the end of the Civil War
Why did the fighting go on for so long in County Kerry?
@CivilWarInKerry
@MerrionPress
5
12
58
Thrilled to have installed a plaque this evening in memory of three civilians from my native Milltown who were killed during the Civil War
Commemoration and unveiling on Sunday at 12noon
Fáilte roimh chách!
@CivilWarInKerry
#CivilWar100
1
4
58
Lovely to meet my former lecturer at
@ucdpolitics
and Cahersiveen native
@BrigidLaffan
today in her home town at the Daniel O'Connell Summer School
#Cahersiveen
#summerschools
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2
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Michael Fassbender signing the visitors book at Muckross House this evening
0
40
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Postman had a big delivery today. Glad to see many years of our research coming to fruition. In all good bookshops, as they say, later this week
@IAP_MERRION
2
13
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Such sad news. RIP Weeshie. A great colleague in my Radio Kerry days. A shared road trip to the Radio Awards in Galway some years ago lives in the memory. May he rest in peace
#Weeshie
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4
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So I've put together a new website with some information about my research and new and forthcoming publications as well as some random meanderings through history and politics. Hope you find something of interest ...
9
14
54
Lighting of the Lughnasadh Fire at Féile Lughnasadh tonight in Milltown 🔥
Great atmosphere
#Lughnasadh
0
12
53
Delighted to have my new book on the
@Ballymacandy
ambush in the window of
@eason
in
#Killarney
alongside such prestigious authors including:
@DermotTodayFM
@MylesDungan1
@DerekinBerlin
@johncreedon
#books
#authors
#summerreads
7
8
52
Delighted to see Bridie Wren of
#Tarbert
being honoured today in her home place
She was an MP in Pakistan's first parliament and became known as the 'Queen of Balochistan'
Here's a piece I wrote on her some time ago:
3
18
53
My new book on the Civil War in Kerry is now available at First Chapter at
@ManorWestRetail
in Tralee
Signed copies now available!
@CivilWarInKerry
#CivilWar100
2
10
50
Ballymacandy: the next chapter 🎭
Hoping my new play on the
@ballymacandy
ambush can reach the stage later in the year
(Covid-permitting 🙏🤞)
Delighted to team with up with director and playwright Mike O'Halloran
@StageandSport
who will bring much experience
#Ballymacandy
5
6
50
Delighted to learn that my book on the Civil War in Kerry is entering another print run
So humbled by all of the positive feedback and interest in the book and the subject matter
'No Middle Path' is available from
@MerrionPress
and in all good bookshops
1
11
50
Wonderful picture of a group of Killorglin Cumann na mBan circa 1920 from the Killorglin Archives
@kas_archives
If anyone can identity any of them, please get in touch
#Killorglin
#CumannnamBan
#WarofIndependence
@ballymacandy
@MaryMcAuliffe4
4
17
51
The White Church near Milltown, County Kerry, which is located a short distance from the Abbey of Killaha and is perhaps located on the site of the original village of Milltown. It was abandoned about 1810.
#history
0
6
49
On this day in 1923 - the first general election after the Irish Civil War took place and in Kerry, four anti-Treaty and three pro-Treaty candidates were elected.
Anti-Treatyite Republicans elected were Austin Stack, Paddy Cahill, Thomas McEllistrim and Thomas O'Donoghue
3
12
46
As the Paris
#Olympics
get underway, the remarkable story of the Kerry MP who was Ireland's first Olympic medal winner at Athens in 1896
John Pius Mary Boland was MP for South Kerry between 1900 and 1918
He won the singles and doubles tennis in Athens
0
21
49
Looking forward to Nationwide this evening, to which I was pleased to contribute some thoughts on the Civil War in Kerry
Nationwide has devoted much valuable coverage to the Decade of Centenaries in recent years
@CivilWarInKerry
@MerrionPress
Presenter Donal Byrne reports from Kerry on one of the most brutal periods of the Civil War & recounts the atrocities at Ballyseedy, Killarney & elsewhere on
#RTENationwide
Monday 6th March
@RTEOne
7pm
@irelandbattles
@dfarchives
@theirishstory
@ThisDayIrish
@HistIreHedge
@rte
RT
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2
13
47
Finally got to the recently re-opened Tomies Wood today. Fabulous amenity in the heart of the Kingdom. Good for the body and the soul
#NewYear
3
3
48
I was pleased to contribute to this important piece by
@KeithDugganIT
on the Civil War in Kerry
@CivilWarInKerry
@MerrionPress
3
17
47
On this day : 11 July 1921
#OTD
The very last victim of Ireland's War of Independence died on the streets of
#Killarney
Hannah Carey was killed just moments before the Truce came into effect
@Stairnahireann
@theirishstory
@CivilWarInKerry
2
25
46
Any tallies yet from the west Kerry boxes?? Always a good indicator!
#USElections2020
#Election2020
@DDeibhinn
@SlaineNi
@afmobrien
@Aidanthehack
@mullinsmary
@teabagtimes
@EamonnHickson
#tallies
#clipboards
9
4
45
Relatives of both sides of the Civil War in Kerry attended the conference over the weekend
Alison Bohan, a granddaughter of General WRE Murphy (travelled from Leeds) and Jimmy O'Connell, nephew of Michael O'Connell of Castleisland who was killed at Ballyseedy
@CivilWarInKerry
1
5
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