Oration for Volunteer Séamus Walsh at Mount Falvey on Saturday

Singer Meadhbh Walsh, Michael Hegarty and Anna Hegarty at the Seamus Walsh Centenary Commemoration in Mount Falvey, Scartaglen on Saturday afternoon.
The scene on the slopes of Mount Falvey near Scartaglen as people gathered for the centenary of Volunteer Seamus Walsh on Saturday afternoon.
Ian Walsh, Martin Walsh and Michael Hegarty pictured at the centenary commemoration for Volunteer Seamus Walsh in Mount Falvey, Scartaglen on Saturday afternoon.
Kerry historian and orator, Dr. Tim Horgan who delivered the oration in Mount Falvey, Scartaglen on Saturday to mark the centenary of the murder of Volunteer Séamus Walsh by Free State forces. Photograph: John Reidy

The oration for Volunteer Séamus Walsh at Mount Falvey, Scartaglen on Saturday was delivered by Kerry historian and orator, Dr. Tim Horgan and it is as follows:

“They brought him here, they killed him here, they wanted to send a message to the republicans of Kerry.

Today it is we who are here, it is we who have a message, for it is we who remember Volunteer Séamus Walsh, and our message is to let it be loudly known that this young patriot and the cause for which he died have not been forgotten.

They have killed and are forgotten, he has died and is remembered. To us, the living, is entrusted the memory of the dead, to forget Séamus Walsh would be for us to betray, to remember is our duty and is our honour.

Proud to Remember

And so, we gather here on this hillside, not in anger, not in sorrow but in pride, proud to commemorate one of our community, one of your family, a soldier of the Republic whose life was cruelly taken because he would not forsake that noble cause which his killers and their masters had betrayed.

Today’s historians will produce lists of hundreds of men who were volunteers in the republican army in the dark years of the troubled times in County Kerry.

Thousands of pensions and mass-produced medals were dispensed. It would seem that all of Kerry rose up in ‘a mighty wave’. But the truth is to be found elsewhere. In January 1921, there were twenty to thirty fighting men in the county, poorly armed, but courageous and determined.

Within Miles of Castleisland

Most came from within five miles of Castleisland; from Ballymac, from Cordal, from Currow. From this, the land of the Moonlighters, came a band of brave men, came men who would answer Ireland’s summons and strike for her freedom, came men who would take what their masters would not give. Such men were true to Ireland’s cause and that alone. One such man we remember here today, for one such man was Séamus Walsh of Currow.

But there should have been no reason for Séamus Walsh to enter the pages of Ireland’s history. An ordinary man destined to lead an unremarkable life in what seemed a quiet country.

The Land Wars had returned the land to its farmers but alas, alas, not Ireland to its people. In 1916, we rose again.

British Cannon

However, the words of Pearse’s proclamation were quickly drowned by British cannon, Dan

O’Mahony’s brave band at Dysert silently scattered as the forces of the crown gathered, and heroic Jim Riordan’s was forced to flee having fired his defiant shots.

Our colonial masters assumed that the firing squads at Kilmainham had killed our national dream and buried it in quicklime.

The croppies would once more lie down. But for a long downtrodden people, defeat would never be the end but only the beginning of the next time, there would always be a next time.

For there would always be the few who could not be bribed or bullied. There were always the few who would dream, who would dream not in slumber, but with their eyes open.

A Nation Unfettered

They would dream of a nation unfettered by foreign control, free to follow its own destiny. Such men were considered dangerous for they would act on their dreams; such a man was Séamus Walsh of Currow.

Séamus Walsh would be a soldier in Ireland’s cause. But how could it have been otherwise. By bedside and fireside, he would hear tales of the Great Earl of Desmond who was hunted in these hills, he would learn of the gallant Castleisland men of 1798 whose heads would be displayed on British pikes, he would be told of Bob Finn and his Fenian band, of the Moonlighters of Lisheenbane Cross, of the innocent John Twiss, of Poff and Barrett for whom the hangman’s rope would exact the tyrant’s revenge on a defiant people.

Ghosts Whispers

Too many ghosts whispered in his boyhood ears for him to ignore his country’s summons to strike for her liberty. He and his comrades would face the forces of the Empire at Gortatlea and Scartaglin, at Brosna and Clonbanin, and on the streets of Castleisland.

Soon Britain learned that Ireland could not be ruled, soon the Union Jack would fly no more over Castleisland’s barracks, soon dead generations of Rebels and Moonlighters, Whiteboys and Fenians would rest easier in their graves as the rule of the crown no longer ran in our county.

But Séamus Walsh fought, not for Kerry’s freedom, but for Ireland’s liberty, for the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland, and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies.

On Mount Falvey’s Slopes

For that ideal he had first shouldered his weapon, for that cause he would fight on, from that dream he would only be separated by death, and death did come here to brave Séamus Walsh here on Mount Falvey’s slopes.

After seven and a half centuries, the English knew the Irish well, they knew those to bribe and those to flatter, those who would put power before principle, those who would bargain and those who would sell.

The republic of Pearse and Connolly was not to be. The oath to that republic was exchanged to an oath to the King. Ireland was not to take its place amongst the nations of the Earth but was to become a dominion within the Empire.

Bewitched by Power and Privilege

Men who had once known better were bewitched by power and privilege, blinded by ego and adulation. Ireland was offered stepping-stones. But the men of Kerry had declared for a republic

and would live under no other law.

They had given their word, they had seen their comrades die, they had seen their people suffer, they would not betray, they would not be fooled. The men of Kerry would fight on for Ireland’s total

freedom.

Soon, Michael Collins’ stepping-stones to freedom had become the headstones of those who dared disagree. Weak men would step out of the shadows of great men, and their hands, quickly crimson with Irish blood, would tumble what great men had built.

The Defiant Must Die

Loyalty to the Republic of Pearse and Connolly became a capital crime. The defiant must die. Telling them that they were unshackled from the laws of man and God, the Free State would send cold hearted killers here to the slopes of Mount Falvey. For it is here they murdered Séamus Walsh.

It is said that a man is only truly dead when the last person has forgotten him.

Time has rightly erased the names of his killers, but the name of Séamus Walsh has not, and will not, be forgotten.

Our grandparents spoke little out loud of such great men, they had been told that they were beaten, better to keep quiet and get on with life in a state that had no welcome for them or their defeated cause.

The Price of Acceptance

Amnesia was the price of acceptance, respectability became the enemy of republicanism.

You will not find the name of Séamus Walsh listed amongst the events to be commemorated in the decade of centenaries. History, ‘The Wise Men’ tell us, can be confined to a few media events and carefully choreographed conferences.

Bring out the cameras and the weighing scales, everything must balance and be seen to be balanced. All must chime with modern day political requirements. Try as they might, revise how they will,

rewrite how they may, what they peddle is not Ireland’s history, for the history of our nation is not theirs to define.

Votes and Opinion Poll Ratings

It belongs to the people of Ireland, it is your heritage, for you have been entrusted with it, it is yours to guard, yours to augment and yours to pass on. It is this history that remembers Séamus Walsh,

it is this history that brings you here today.

‘The Wise Men’ will tell us that all this happened a long time ago and it is best forgotten. They and their choir expound that religion, history and the old values that served our nation well for countless generations are no longer needed in modern mature Ireland.

The modern chorus dishonestly declares that terrible things were done on both sides, one side was as bad as the other.

In the search for votes or opinion poll ratings, such falsehoods appear to be the order of the day, shamelessly uttered. There was not an equivalence between the defenceless Séamus Walsh and those who murdered him here on Mount Falvey.

Castleisland’s Hartnett’s Hotel

There was a difference between those prisoners tortured at Castleisland’s Hartnett’s Hotel and their tormentors. There was a difference between those men killed at Ballyseedy and those who detonated the deadly mine, there was a difference between those volunteers who fought to defend the Republic and those hired soldiers who sought to destroy it at Britain’s request, there was a difference between the edict of Bishop O’Sullivan who closed the church’s doors and the laws of our God who welcomed all.

History has judged that there was a difference. Wreaths can be laid wherever politicians decide, but this will not change history; there was a right side and a wrong side, and they were not the same, they are not the same.

Séamus Walsh travelled the harder road to reach the higher place and it is he whom we remember today. ‘The Wise Men’ tell us that this was a war where ‘brother fought brother’. Another lazy self-serving conclusion.

Left Behind to Mourn

One example is given for Kerry and thus, their case is proven, all must henceforth agree. While we owe respect to all, we owe the truth to the dead, and the truth is otherwise.

Séamus Walsh’s brother, Jack, also fought for Ireland, he too would not betray, he too would defend the Republic, he too would fight on.

His sister Nora would also serve in the army of the Republic and she too had declared for a republic and would live under no other law.

When the stories of war are recalled, it is the dead that are remembered. However, those that suffer the most and the longest are those who are left behind to mourn.

Their grief is never ending. They are never recalled, their lifelong suffering is forgotten, their loss unending.

An Ungrateful State

As an ungrateful state moved on, to forget became convenient, to remember subversive. The bereaved, too, have paid the price for our freedom. Séamus Walsh’s mother had watched with defiance as the forces of the Crown burned her Currow home.

Her sons and daughters were true and she would be made to pay the price. As Patrick Pearse said, ‘Lord, thou are hard on mothers’. To women such as her, we owe a debt and all we can do is but remember.

Let this commemoration be a small repayment of that large debt we owe to those who still grieved and mourned as the world moved on.

The greatest honour any community can bestow is that of remembrance. And so, we are gathered here today to remember, to honour, to commemorate, one of your community, for to forget would be to betray, to neglect would be to dishonour. Our fathers and mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers did not forget.

His Name in Stone

The story of brave Séamus Walsh was whispered to another generation at a time when to speak of such men was dangerous. In 1950, his people and his comrades committed his name to this stone, so too have his name and his deeds been inscribed in ink in our history books, his story remembered in song.

Through the decades this monument has been dutifully cared for, not by the state, but by those who would honour brave Séamus Walsh and who faithfully remember his cause. To you, we are grateful.

Today we are told that any belief in anything is an unnecessary burden. Why would anybody do anything for anybody except in self-interest.

And yet, they wonder why Ireland has become what it is today. But one day, Ireland will once again have great men such as Séamus Walsh. One day, we will have such righteous men who will make our land a nation once again.

One day, Ireland will be what she ought to be. One day, Séamus Walsh will rest in peace, his task fulfilled by another generation. But if we forget, if we forsake, that day will never come. Our task is but to remember and that we have done today, that we will do tomorrow.

Brave Séamus Walsh of Currow, your people will not forget you or your noble cause.”

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