<span class="postTitle">Jimmy O'Neill, Cashel Person of the Year 2024</span> Delivered at Halla na Feile, Cashel, March 14th, 2024

Jimmy O’Neill, Cashel Person of the Year 2024

It gives me great pleasure to introduce to you the Cashel Person of the Year for 2024. Jimmy O’Neill is the thirty-eighth person to be so honoured since Maura McHugh became the first in 1987.

At that time The Cashel Lions Club recognised the need to honour persons, who contributed significantly to the life of the town over the previous year. During the intervening years the club honoured men and women, who by their actions and lives made Cashel a better place to live for the people of the town and district

This evening Jimmy joins the ranks of these distinguished men and women because of his major contribution to the success of Larkspur Park over a lengthy period of time, that stretches back as far as the nineteen-seventies, and continues with undimmed interest and unflagging enthusiasm to this day.

When Jimmy joined Larkspur Park he was as an enthusiastic Pitch and Putt player, and he soon became an accomplished one. That enthusiasm for the game has never wavered and he continues to play off a 2 handicap today. At present, he is involved with the club in the Spring League, a competition between the five county Pitch and Putt clubs, a kind of Tipperary championship, which is played with great commitment and intensity. During his time in the club, he has won numerous competitions and he has also represented the club with distinction at the national level.

At an early stage of his involvement, Jimmy got involved in club administration and he continues to play a major part in club business, having held all the officer positions, particularly chairman. He is very skilled at organising competitions for club members and this ability was revealed at another level last year when he organised a new competition, a mixed scramble on Tuesday evenings. This has proved a major success and has introduced new people, young and old, men and women to the game of Pitch and Putt.

The success of this venture is due to the fun element, when teams of four, of all mixtures, play together in a friendly atmosphere. The scramble gives every member of the team an opportunity to contribute, while still retaining the element of competition. It is also a great social occasion, an opportunity to meet new people in a friendly environment. It has been and continues to be a great success.

One of the pleasures of playing the game of Pitch and Putt in Larkspur Park is the quality of the course, and this is another area in which Jimmy has excelled. He has involved himself for years, with others also, I don’t need to add, in maintaining the course to the highest standards. This has involved a lot of work and while many others may have honed up their tans on the beaches of Spain and other continental resorts during the summer, Jimmy has bronzed himself in the wind and sun of Larkspur Park, spending long stretches of his holidays there. This maintenance has involved cutting fairways and greens, hollow-tining, scarifying and seeding, so that Larkspur Park course is famous not only for its size and layout, but also for the superb condition of the fairways and greens. This has resulted in a number of All-Ireland competitions being played at the venue, with a further one scheduled for later this year.

Jimmy’s work in Larkspur Park hasn’t been confined to Pitch and Putt. He has been a member for many years of the overall governing body, the Larpspur Park Development Committee. Because I was chairman of this body for many years, I had great insight into his contribution to the overall development of the Park, and I can attest to the importance of that contribution.

On behalf of Cashel Lions Club, the Trustees of the Park for the benefit of the people of Cashel and District, I would like to thank Jimmy on this occasion for his long-time involvement and commitment to Larkspur, and ensure him of our appreciation of his work. In doing so I would like to involve his wife, Serena, in our appreciation of her contribution as an officer on the Pitch & Putt committee, and son, Sean, who is the gatekeeper of the park.

This is a night to celebrate the work of Jimmy O’Neill over a long period of time. It is also an occasion to admire the contribution of a man who has done so much to improve the recreational facilities of the people of Cashel. When it is realised that he has done all of this in a voluntary manner, without the expectation of any reward, it makes his contribution all the greater. Being honoured as Cashel Person of the Year for 2024 is possibly a small reward for so much done, but it is my pleasure to add his name to the distinguished list of men and women who have been honoured before him.

<span class="postTitle">Tribute to Martin O’Meara, VC</span> Display of his Victoria Cross in the Parish of Lorrha on August 13, 2022

It is a great honour for me to pay a tribute to Martin O’Meara on the occasion of this brief display of his Victoria Cross in his native parish of Lorrha & Dorrha.

The World War 1 hero, who served with the Australian Imperial Force in France in 1916, revealed extraordinary courage in the battle of Pozieres Heights as he retrieved the wounded from no-man’s land despite intense artillery and machine-gun fire. He showed throughout an utter contempt of danger and undoubtedly saved many lives.

He was awarded the Victoria Cross as a result of eye-witness accounts of his heroism by four officers. They vouched that Private O’Meara did his work while being severely shelled, carrying the wounded to the dressing station with the utmost fearlessness and returning to No Man’s Land repeatedly in pursuance of his duties as a scout. They estimated that in the course of the time he rescued not less than twenty men.

Martin O’Meara returned to London to receive his Victoria Cross from King George V on July 21 1917. It was the most important investiture of the war at which 32 V.C.s were awarded. The newspapers gave the occasion plenty of pictorial coverage on July 22 and ‘Private O’Meara of the Australian Infantry’ is given due prominence on the front page of the Sunday Pictorial.

This was the high point in the life of a modest and unassuming man, born in the townsland of Lissernane, the second youngest of eleven children, on November 3, 1885. His parents, Michael O’Meara and Margaret Connors, farmed twelve acres. We don’t have much information about his childhood, where he went to school, when he got his first communion or was confirmed, except that he is listed as a ‘scholar’ in the 1901 census. We learn that he got a job as a tree feller. The 1911 census has him living in South Kilkenny, occupied as a wood worker. His prospects of earning a living may not have been great so he decided to go to Australia late in 1911, when he was aged 26 years.

This must have been a major decision. Having lived a quiet life in an isolated rural setting it must have taken enormous courage to leave his roots and travel 15,000 kilometres to Perth. He didn’t have the fare to travel the distance so he went first to Liverpool, where he worked for a short time and found a ship that was about to sail to Perth. The ship needed a stoker and the quickest way to get there was to work his passage. ‘The hardest task in my life,’ he was to say later, ‘was shovelling coal to the boilers on that three-months’ voyage.’ It probably prepared him for the abnormal conditions he worked under later at Pozieres. Having spent a couple of years in South Australia, he moved to the Perth area in 1914 and worked as a sleeper-cutter on a new line of railway through the bush at Collie, east of the city.

The next big decision in his life was to enlist in the Australian Imperial Force in August 1915. He joined the 16th Battalion with the rank of Private. We get more information on him from his application form. He stated he was Catholic and single. He was of dark complexion, 5’ 7” in height and 10 stone weight with a chest measurement of 40 inches. He gave his occupation as a sleeper-hewer. His parents were dead, his mother had died the previous April, and he gave his next of kin as his sister, Alice O’Meara, Rathcabbin.

The 16th Battalion of the AIF embarked from Freemantle on December 22, 1915. After training in Egypt in early 1916, the Battalion proceeded overseas from Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force in France. They disembarked at Marseilles on June 9 and immediately marched through the city to the railway station for entraining to the Front. This journey lasted nearly 60 hours, punctuated with stops at which they were greeted by a very friendly French population, who showered them with food and drink. We have no account of how Martin responded to this adulation. As soon as they arrived at the Front they began to prepare for combat as preparations were already in hand for the Somme offensive.

Commander-in-Chief, General Haig, hoped that by bombarding the German lines for a week beforehand with heavy artillery, the allied forces would destroy all the defensive fortifications of the enemy. Then it would be a simple matter of the soldiers coming out of the trenches and crossing ‘No Man’s Land’ to mop up any of the enemy still alive. In fact the artillery shells had no effect on the German concrete bunkers and the barbed wire just blew up in the air and came down a more tangled mess that before. As the Allied soldiers advanced in straight lines across No Man’s Land they were mercilessly raked with machine gun fire. Twenty thousand men were killed and fifty thousand taken prisoner on the first day. This was the hellish theatre in which Martin O’Meara had to operate and from which he was lucky to survive. As a result of his heroic efforts he was awarded the Victoria Cross.

News of Martin’s Victoria Cross was reported in the Nenagh Guardian on September 16. On the previous day the members of the North Tipperary County Committee of Agriculture passed the following resolution: ‘That we, the members of the County Committee of Agriculture wish to express to Martin O’Meara, V.C., our great admiration of his bravery and to congratulate him on gaining the VC, the highest honour that can be offered to any soldier. We, as Tipperarymen, are proud of him and hope soon to give him a suitable welcome and show our appreciation of the honour he has won. We hope that he will soon be recovered enough to return to his native county.’

The wish for Martin’s recovery by the Committee of Agriculture refers to a wounds he received during the hectic exploits in August, which led to his VC award. Following this injury he spent a couple of weeks in hospital in London He was to be wounded on two further occasion. In April 2017 he received a shrapnel wound to his face, and later, in August, he received further shrapnel wounds to the buttock, right thigh and back . These were all physical wounds from which he recovered. Unfortunately, the mental injuries he suffered from his exploits were to have much more lasting effects.

Following his release from hospital at the end of September he got a fortnight’s leave in the middle of October and availed himself the opportunity to return to his native place. One writer describes his homecoming in this manner: ‘The modesty of the man is to be seen in the mode of his homecoming. His family expected him but did no know the exact date of his arrival. He got off the train at Birr Station and walked home – about five miles -along the disused Birr-Portumna railway line, which passed near his home. No one recognised him at the station or along the way. He opened the door of his home and walked in, surprising his brother and sister inside. At the end of his leave he returned almost as quietly as he had come.’

Martin attended a meeting in Borrisokane on October 24, called for the purpose of making a suitable presentation to him. According to the newspaper report he thanked the committee for arranging the presentation on his behalf.

He stated that he entered the war in the belief that it was his duty to answer the call and assist the Allies in their great struggle, and any distinction he had won was in the discharge of his duty to his country, and he would be delighted to divide that distinction with each and every one of them. There were other Irishmen who had gallantly distinguished themselves and he hoped and trusted that ere long the war would be brought to a close with a triumphant victory for the Allies.

The presentation to Martin O’Meara took place on November 24. A platform was erected in the Lorrha ball alley and a big crowd turned up. But the V.C. winner failed to arrive. The reason given was that he had already returned to London, having fully recovered from his wounds and he eventually rejoined his battalion in France on December 22. The meeting was chaired by Benjamin Trench. The presentation was made to Martin’s sister and brothers. General Hickie presented a gold watch to Alice O’Meara and announced that there was a balance over from the £150 collected from the public. It was against the regulations to give money to a soldier on active service but the money would be placed in the hands of trustees.

As already stated Martin O’Meara was wounded a couple of times during 1917. Following his shrapnel wounds in August he ended up in Bath War Hospital from which he was granted furlough in October. He used the occasion to return to Lorrha for a couple of weeks. His experience was much different to that of twelve months previously. This was due to two factors. The political climate in Ireland had changed during 1917 and Martin’s exploits in the war were looked at askance in the new nationalism. Also, he was beginning to show some of the signs of insanity, which was eventually to rule his life. He insisted on wearing the AIF uniform and the famous slouch hat and the locals came to regard him as an oddity and an outsider. Eventually he got the message that he wasn’t part of the community anymore and returned to his battalion earlier than intended.

There is little joy in the remainder of his story. Martin got promotion to Corporal in March and to Acting Sergeant soon after, but reverted to permanent grade of Corporal at his own request on April 15. He was promoted Sergeant on August 30. As well as the Victoria Cross he won a British War Medal and a Victory Medal. He commenced his return to Australia on September 15 and disembarked on November 10. Soon after he was admitted to hospital and diagnosed as ‘suffering from Delusional Insanity, with hallucinations of hearing and sight, as extremely homicidal and suicidal and requires to be kept in restraint. He is not hopeful of his recovery in the near future.’ He was admitted to Claremont Mental Hospital as an insane patient on January 3, 1919, He was discharged from the army on November 30 of the same year and died on December 20, 1935 after a harrowing sixteen years in hospital.

There is a detailed report in the newspapers of his funeral to Karrakatta cemetery, near Freemantle, on December 23, 1935. Old comrades, representatives of various military units and members of the Federal and State Parliaments gathered to pay tribute to the late Sergeant Martin O’Meara, VC, whose remains were buried with full military honours. The coffin was draped with an Australian flag and on top of it were placed the dead soldier’s hat, decorations and side arms. The only Irish dimension was provided by the officiating priest, Father John Fahey, from Glenough, Clonoulty, who had himself served in the war and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for gallantry under fire. After a short service he spoke of Sergeant O’Meara’s heroism in battle and his long period of suffering since his return from active service. At the conclusion of the service three volleys were fired and a bugler sounded the last post and reveille.

And such, briefly, are the important facts in the life of this extraordinary man. For many years after his death his heroic life and deeds were forgotten in the changed political climate in Ireland. Because his extraordinary courage and superhuman exploits were revealed under a foreign flag, they were not only forgotten but frowned upon. Happily this has changed in the past decade and this people of Lorrha have made great efforts to have Martin’s achievements recognised and honoured. The outstanding bravery and heroism in the face of danger and the risks he took to save the lives of his fellow soldiers are now getting the recognition they deserve. The symbol of his greatness is the Victoria Cross and it’s wonderful and fitting to have it in the parish of his birth, for however brief a period. Thank you.

<span class="postTitle">The Story of Education in Redwood</span> Speech by Seamus J. King at the official opening of the new extension to Redwood School on June 16, 2022

The Story of Education in Redwood

Speech by Seamus J. King at the official opening of the new extension to Redwood School by Minister for Education, Ms Norma Foley, T.D. on June 16, 2022

Chairperson, Minister for Education, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.


It is a pleasure for me to say a few words on the story of education in Redwood on the occasion of the official opening of this new extension. It brings the Redwood school buildings up to the most modern level and it provides the teachers with all the facilities required to carry out their professional duties to the highest standard. It creates a comfortable environment in which the children can learn in a stress free manner and enjoy their years at school.


How different the facilities are to those I experienced in September 1942, eighty years ago, when I attended this school for the first time! The school was new then, having been built in 1939 but it was primitive in comparison with this splendid structure. The heating system was a small fire in the corner of the room that was fed by the sods of turf the children brought with them to school. On cold days the teacher would bring three or four children at a time to warm their frozen hands over the fire. The toilet facilities were down the yard and were dry closets with no locks on the doors. The play sheds were open to the wind and the rain. Whoever planned it didn’t have any interest in the game of hurling. The playground was between the chapel and the school, each building with large windows, and hurling was disallowed to protect them. We played a game of peg ball. The ball was a bundle of rags sown together and we had lively matches daily as the teachers looked out the windows to make sure we were well-behaved.


Was I happy here? I don’t think the idea of happiness came into it. One accepted that this was what school was about with little tender, loving care. One of the few joys was getting out at 3 o’clock and racing home across the fields, I lived in Ballymacegan and across the fields for two and a half miles was the route. It was glorious in summertime as we fled through the fields, crossed hedges and ditches and even lay on our bellies to drink from a stream as we made our way home.


In the winter of 1947 the fields became so wet, we had to find an alternative way. My father got an ass and cart and it became our school bus during that winter. The ass was useless, it took us ages to travel the four miles by road. I dropped my sisters off at the school gate and took the ass to Jim Sammon’s for untackling. There was one perk involved: I had to leave school fifteen minutes early in the afternoon in order to tackle the ass and have it at the school gate when my sisters came out.


The school in Redwood replaced one located down the road at Kilmurry. This school was built in 1926 and the site appeared to be ideal. It was a piece of land owned by the parish, so there was no cost involved. It was adjacent to the previous school at Redwood Castle so there wouldn’t be any great difficulty for the school children getting there. There was about one acre of land attached to the site and this would provide a playground. However, it was the site of an ancient graveyard and Tom Lambe, who lived nearby, recalls seeing bones being thrown up when the foundations were being dug. The school was occupied for only 13 years and the new one built here. Why it was abandoned is a mystery. One theory was that the light in it was very poor. The windows were small and the school was surrounded by trees, which meant that, in winter particularly, little daylight got into the classrooms, and there was no electric light in the area in the 1920s! Miss Margaret McCormack became principal in Kilmurry in 1930 and transferred here, where she continued until 1952. She purchased the Kilmurry school as her residence after it closed and lived there with he sister, Agnes, who ran a shop.


Kilmurry replaced the earlier school at Redwood Castle. There was a letter to the Education Office (the predecessor to the Department of Education) in Dublin from Rev. James Meagher, P.P. on September 8, 1879, reporting the opening on that day of a new school in Redwood House, which was situated beside Redwood Castle. The letter stated that the school had been ‘so nobly given for that purpose by Mr. Henry Trench of Cangort Park, Roscrea’. The letter continued: ‘I have appointed Miss Winifrid Carroll, former assistant in the female school in Lorrha, as teacher and respectfully request the sanction of the appointment. There is no school within four miles of it. The attendance (today) was over 50.” He looked for a ‘free stock’ (of books) and ‘all the help in your power for the new school.’


As a result of Fr. Meagher’s request for recognition of the new school, the premises had to be inspected and Form A 121 completed. The inspection was carried out on October 8 between 11.40 am and 3 pm. It involved answering a list of 82 queries and this was completed by a Mr. Dugan, District Inspector of National Schools, and returned to the office on October 24, 1879.


The information contained in the document is of great interest at this remove. We are informed that the school was situated in one of 15 rooms of the two-storey Redwood House. It was a large room, 30’ x 18’ by 11’, and was ‘fitted up as a classroom.’ On the privy situation there was one for the girls, but the boys’ wasn’t yet ready. There was a separate play area for the girls.


The school was to be kept in repair with the manager’s and local funds. The schoolmistress occupied two rooms in the house. There was no teacher’s desk on the day of inspection but it was being made by a carpenter.


The teacher, Winifrid Carroll was a Roman Catholic and 22 years of age. She was trained in 1874 and had been assistant in the female school in Lorrha. She was granted a salary of £25 plus whatever would accrue to her from results. The ‘results system’ was as follows. At the end of every school year every pupil in the school, who had attended at least 100 days, was examined individually by the Board’s inspector and was awarded a mark, 1 or 2 denoting a pass, or 0 denoting a failure. Each subject carried its own pass value, which ranged from one shilling for spelling to five shillings for agriculture. Results fees were paid annually in one lump sum.


Virtually all the children paid fees but the manager had the right to absolve some children from paying. As well as her salary Miss Carroll’s free residence was worth the equivalent of £5 and school fees amounted to £12.


The school day commenced at 9.30 and finished at 3.30 in the summer and 3 pm in the winter. Religious instruction was given for 3 to 31/2 hours per week in the summer and 21/2 to 3 in the winter.


School inspections were regular and thorough. A report from November 1882 was anything but favourable. Class 1 with 8 pupils was weak at tables. Class 2 with 10 present was weak at reading. Class 3 with 10 present was weak at grammar and geography. Class 4 with 8 present was middling at reading, poor at spelling and grammar, and defective at maths, Classes 5 & 6 with 8 present were poor in deduction and bad at grammar. He believed the pupils were prone to copy from one another and this would account for the low proficiency in arithmetic. The girls worked without thimbles in needlework.


While the school at Redwood Castle was the first official primary school in the area, the boys and girls of Redwood did have schooling before its establishment in 1879. Hedge schools, as they were called, were in existence before that.


Timothy Sullivan of Lordspark contributed the following to the Folklore Commission in the nineteen-thirties. According to him an old hedge school existed in Redwood parish at one time. The hedge master’s name was Brian Carroll and he was a native of the parish. The hedge school was conducted in the open air during fine weather and in Carroll’s house on wet days. An old iron seat marks the spot where the master sat. It is at the back of Tom Quinlan’s old house and in the field beside Redwood Church. Slates and slate pencils were used. English reading, writing and arithmetic were taught. School was taught at night for the men, and during the day the boys and girls attended. Sometimes the master travelled around and taught in the farmers’ houses. He was lodged free and given compensation sometimes. When out of doors the children sat around the master on large stones or on blocks of wood. A big slate served as a blackboard. The teacher remained about three years in a place.


The hedge master received 10 shillings a quarter for his work. Those who could not afford to pay him in money gave him potatoes, and other kinds of food. Also, they sent him turf.


Probably the high point of learning in Redwood was in the seventeenth century. The MacEgan family were well known around Ireland for their knowledge of the Brehon Law, an indigenous form of laws, which governed Ireland until the introduction of English Law in the seventeenth century . The Brehons were the upholders of this ancient law and settled disputes between the Irish clans. The MacEgans were one of only seven Irish families to practise the ancient Brehon Law and were the chief advisors of many Irish Lords and chieftains.


There are many famous books associated with the MacEgans. For instance, the Leabhar Breac contains the geneology and origins of the MacEgan family. Other books, such as The Black Book of the MacEgans, the Red Book of the MacEgans and the Spectacled Book of the MacEgans, have been lost over the centuries.


The MacEgans set up a school of law and Irish history in Redwood together with a house of hospitality for scribes, poets and musicians, which attracted many scholars to the area. The family had a sister academy at Ballymacegan.


There is a suggestion that Ballymacegan was the place where the monks transcribed ecclesiastical texts and the Redwood school was for the secular Brehon Laws.


The importance of these places of learning can be grasped by the visit to the place from one of the greatest scholars of the age.


When Brother Michael O Clery, one of the famous Four Masters who compiled the Annals of Ireland, wrote the last words of the Annals on August 10, 1636, it was the completion of four and a half years work, which had begun on January 22, 1632. The intention was to send the work to Louvain for printing.


Before this could be done Brother Michael had to seek approbation for his work both from learned Irish historians, whose views would inspire confidence, and from some of the Irish hierarchy, whose imprimatur would be a guarantee of orthodoxy.


The historians chosen included Flann Mac Egan of Ballymacegan in Tipperary and Connor Mac Bruaidedha of Thomond.


This fact establishes an important link between the Annals and the Parish of Lorrha and Dorrha, and Brother O’Clery had also spent some time with Flann Mac Egan during his research work for the Annals.


Before the beginning of November 1636, Brother Michael travelled to Ballymacegan to receive the approbation of Flann Mac Egan. The old historian was glowing in his approbation. He had already censored and approved two previous works of Brother Michael’s, the Reimh Rioghraidhe and the Martyrology. For the Annals he judged it likewise to be the best book of its kind he had ever seen, although he had seen many. He stated:


‘Whereas the poor friar, Michael O’Clery came to show me this book, I, Flann, son of Cairbre Mac Aedhagain, of Baile-mhic-Aedhagain, in the County of Toibrat-Arann, do testify that though many were the books of history of the old books of Ireland which I saw . . . , I have not seen among them all any book of better order, more general, more copious, or more to be approved of, as a history and annals, than this book. I think also that no intelligent person whatever, of the laity or clergy, or of the professions, who shall read it, can possibly find fault with it.’


The bishops also, who included Malachy O Queally of Tuam, Boetius MacEgan of Elphin, Ross Mac Geoghegan of Kildare and Thomas Fleming the Archbishop of Dublin, gave their approbation.


This concludes my short overview of learning and education in the Redwood area. It may be a small part of the parish, of the county and the wider world but it is a place to be proud of, an area where the things of the mind were always to the fore and where this extension to the school will carry on that tradition and protect it for posterity.