Thurles Information

In April of this year we (Thurles.Info), expressed the view that, as a community, we should rightfully commemorate those who took part in the 1916 Easter Rising here in Ireland.

With all of the well funded 1916 commemorative activities targeted at Dublin’s O’Connell Street and its immediate environment; we also expressed the view that perhaps the name General Richard James Mulcahy could easily, shall we say, ‘be sidelined’.

Pic (1) Michael Collins (Center) with Richard Mulcahy (Right); Pic (2) General Richard Mulcahy TD; Pic (3) General Mulcahy with his wife Mary (Affectionately known as ‘Min’), taken in 1922.

We were of the then opinion that a man responsible for the only successful military action taken in 1916; (that of the defeat of the RIC at Ashbourne, County Meath), could be totally forgotten in rural Ireland, amidst the advertising aimed at O’Connell Street’s national mêlée.

We were correct. Here we are, almost into the last 9 weeks of 2016; with Dublin’s jingling tourism coinage beginning to sound less musical; when suddenly, imagine my irrepressible delight on hearing the glad tidings today that on Sunday next, October 23rd, a Memorial Ceremony for that once great Tipperary patriot General Richard Mulcahy will after all take place in the ground which today marks his last resting place. That resting place of course is Ballymoreen Graveyard, Littleton, Co. Tipperary (Take the N8 Old Cork to Dublin road), with the event starting at 2.00pm.

This event I am happy to relate is the most welcome initiative of a local Littleton committee (Well done), assisted by the membership of the ‘Collins 22 Committee’. I am also given to understand that an invitation has been sent to Mr Sean Kelly (MEP) and Mr Paul Keogh (F/Gael Chief Whip) both of whom could well be in attendance.

Now if we could attract RTÉ, (Ireland’s National Television and Radio Broadcaster), then just maybe the leader of the present government (what’s his name), or the ninth and current President of Ireland could well be encouraged to show up in an effort to further enhance their rural profiles.

Still, after all one must realise that the village of Littleton is not Dublin’s O’Connell Street; here is ‘Potholed Rural Ireland’, the ‘Forgotten Place of the Unemployed’, inhabited by the ‘Forgotten Few without Broadband’. Here you will find a place where ‘Voices are not sufficiently heard’, because individual party politicians continue to bicker; ever in search of that elusive one-upmanship, while highlighting each other with constant criticism; never offering real alternative solutions.

Alas, in lonely, though truly peaceful, Ballymoreen Graveyard; without Ireland’s National Television cameras in attendance next Sunday, same will hardly gain much attraction for senior political celebrities. Yes here in Ballymoreen, Littleton, Co. Tipperary, expect to find no Glasnevin Cemetery State funding, no sunken rose gardens or memorialised manuscripts by the Irish artist Harry Clarke.

Still, I suppose in defence of our current political leadership, as the British music hall song (written by Jack Judge and co-credited to Henry James “Harry” Williams) states, “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary”, even using the tax payers Ministerial car and driver.