Nothing re-creates history. It’s cast in time, poured and molded as it happens and we see it then – flaws and all – and we add some of our own.
We can, however, re-enact history which can give us a glimpse of what a given event might look like in its given time – flaws attached.
On Saturday evening after mass, at 7pm the four history making Castleisland Local Electoral Area elected members of Kerry County Council will step out onto the historic balcony of The Crown Hotel on Main Street. And if you’d like to be part of the recreated crowd on the street then just show up at that time.
Retrace Steps of History
In doing so, Cllr. Jackie Healy Rae, Cllr. Charlie Farrelly, Cllr. Bobby O’Connell and Cllr. Fionnán Fitzgerald will retrace the steps of their illustrious forefathers.
Down through the pages of history the likes of Daniel O’Connell, Charles Stewart Parnell and Éamonn de Valera and many other ministers, politicians and union leaders have also addressed crowds from this little gem of Castleisland’s history.
Crowds on the Street
Needless to say these ‘apparitions’ naturally drew crowds onto the street below and, depending on how inflamed the political scene was at the time, the odd scuffle was a regular features of the gatherings.
Irish Volunteers Branch
Probably the most famous and widely reported gathering this balcony hosted was the immediate aftermath of the formation on April 5th 1914 of the Castleisland branch of the Irish Volunteers.
‘The Volunteers’ branch was formed after a speech from the balcony on that occasion.
If you’d like to find out more about the event in 1914 please click on the link here:
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