Tipperary Young Irelander leaders deserve to be honoured in statue, Slievenamon event told

Caption for picture above: The Irish flag displayed on the summit of Slievenamon on Sunday, July 20 by the group of 70 hikers who took part in the Slievenamon Day climb of the mountain. Kevin St John from Drangan and his wolfhound are pictured on the far left.

Tipperary Young Irelander leaders Michael Doheny and John O’Mahony deserve to be visibly commemorated in their home counties with statues, historian Dr Thomas McGrath told the fourth annual Slievenamon Day celebration.

In his address at the summit of Slievenamon, the Ballingarry historian recalled Fethard barrister Doheny’s and Gaelic scholar O'Mahony’s role in the ill-fated Young Irelander Rising of 1848 and how they later became founders of the Fenian movement while in exile in the United States.

Historian Dr Thomas McGrath (in blue jacket and cap) addressing the Slievenamon Day hikers at the summit of Slievenamon.

Dr McGrath was joined on top of Tipperary’s most famous mountain on Sunday morning, July 20 by 70 hikers who made the climb with him to mark the fourth annual Slievenamon Day, which coincides with the anniversary of the famous 1848 Monster Meeting organised by the Young Ireland movement to protest against Britain’s response to the Famine.

The mass meeting on the mountain, attended by thousands of people, took place just a week before the Young Irelander rebellion in Ballingarry.

“There are no statues yet of Doheny and O’Mahony in county Tipperary. These leading figures in Irish history deserve to be visibly remembered in their home county. I have no doubt that one day they will be,” said Dr McGrath.

He recounted how Doheny hid out in Slievenamon after the 1848 rising with James Stephens from Kilkenny and later wrote, The Felon’s Track, a terrific account of his escape with Stephens through the mountains of Munster.

Dr McGrath recalled how John O’Mahony from Mullagh near Carrick-on-Suir, who also attended the Slievenamon Monster meeting tried to re-start the All Irelander Rising around Carrick-on-Suir before he too was forced to escape.

The historian described Slievenamon as Ireland’s most famous mountain that has lodged itself in the Irish psyche and celebrated in Charles Kickham’s “exile’s lament” Slievenamon, which would be sung all over the world that day as Tipperary played Cork in the All-Ireland Hurling final.

He said the annual Slievenamon Day climb celebrates all aspects of the mountain, its history, heritage, its archaeology and its mythology.

It also celebrated the mountain’s sustainable environment, its almost untouched landscape of heather and fauna, its animals and wildlife.

“I am of the belief that when we climb this mountain we are communing with our ancestors and with nature and in some ways we are transcending ourselves.

“We are connecting with intangible threads of our past, with ancient Ireland and remembering all those who have gone before us in climbing this mountain.”

Dr McGrath pointed out the great Monster Meeting on Slievenamon’s summit on the third Sunday of July in 1848 took place in the middle of the Great Famine, “the darkest and most catastrophic period in our national history”.

“The meeting was addressed by the leading Young Irelanders, both out on bail, the barrister Michael Doheny who was born at Brookhill, Fethard and lived in Cashel, and the orator Thomas Francis Meagher of Waterford.

“Meagher’s ancestors were from Tullohea on the side of this mountain. The Young Irelanders were cultural and interdenominational nationalists who sought freedom in an independent, pluralist Ireland.”

The historian recounted how the Irish tricolour Meagher brought back from Paris was flown on the mountain that day and the thousands in attendance heard Doheny and Meagher denounce the British government’s handling of the Famine and call for Irish freedom.

“What was impressive about this meeting was that so many people were on the summit of Slievenamon in the middle of the Famine. It showed that the spirit of Ireland was still alive despite the deaths then taking place of one million people and the simultaneous flight into exile of another million as refugees,” Dr McGrath noted.

After Dr McGrath's address, Slievenamon Day Committee member Robert Duggan, dressed in period costume, spoke about the mythology and archaeology of Slievenamon.

Due to the misty weather conditions, Slievenamon Day climb participants waited until they returned to Kilcash to sing Slievenamon and concluded the celebration with refreshments and watching the All-Ireland Hurling Final at Kehoe’s Pub in Kilcash.

Kehoe’s proprietor Michael Kehoe chairs the Slievenamon Day Committee that organises the event with Lingaun Valley Tourism. The event is supported by Tipperary County Council.

Robert Duggan addressing the hikers about the mythology and archaeology of Slievenamon

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