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Anthony
Raftery
Anthony Raftery was born in Killedan in 1779 or 1784, the son of a weaver.
He was blinded by small pox while very young and is said to have worked as
a stable boy for the landlord, Frank Taaffe. While he had no formal
education, Frank Taaffe's brother, James, known locally as Friar Taaffe,
was said to have taken an interest in teaching him.
Raftery was said to have been banished, after a dispute with the landlord.
For years he moved between Tuam, Gort and Craughwell, where he died in
1835. He is known to have attended hedge schools all over County Galway and
built up a formidable reputation as a people’s poet. He was partial to such
beauties as Breegeen Vesey and Máire Ni hEidhín, which Yeats translated
into English.
Raftery wrote poems about the 'Whiteboys', a secret society of the time.
For this he was charged with sedition at Galway Assizes. Although he didn't
always see eye to eye with the Church, his Altharraidh Raifteirí is a very
moving, religious poem. He is best known locally for his idyllic poem about
Killedan which he describes as a land of milk and honey:
Cill Aodáin an baile a bhásann gach nidh ann
Tá sméardha subh cróidh ann 'gus measardha gach sórt
's dá mbéinn-se 'mo sheasamh i gceart lár mo dhaoine
D'imeoidh an aois uaim agus bheinn arís óg'.
Killedan, the land where everything grows
There's an abundance of blackberries and all that is good
And if I were standing in the midst of my people
Age would fall from me and I'd be young once more.
None of Raftery's poems
were written down. Douglas Hyde, with the help of Lady Gregory in Galway
and Thady Conlon in Killedan collected and translated them into English
around the turn of the century.
Some
Local Characters 100 years ago
Tom the Bellman
The bellman's job was to parade through the town on the monthly fair days,
ringing his bell so that everyone would listen to his announcements about
dances, auctions, items for sale, etc.
Jack Straw
Selling ballad sheets on the streets was proscribed, as they often
contained anti government sentiments. Tom got around this by selling straws
from his bundle. With every straw sold, he 'bestowed' a ballad!
Tom the Thresher
Tom was a master corn thresher and also the town crier.
Travelling singers and musicians
Travelling singers and musicians, (playing a range of instruments, violins,
flutes, melodeons and ivy leaves), came to town from time to time and their
music gave the place a festive air.
Gene
Tunney
One man who was very
dear to the hearts of the local people, was famous world heavyweight boxing
champion, Gene 'The Fighting Marine' Tunney. Gene's father left Kiltimagh
for the US at the age of nineteen, and some years later his mother left
Kiltimagh, also bound for the land of opportunity, where she met and
married John Tunney. Gene was one of boxing`s all-time great success
stories, who became a millionaire in the ring, a friend of the famous and
made millions more in business. Born in New York City on May 25, 1898,
James Joseph (Gene) was given a pair of boxing gloves by his father when he
was 10 years old.
After abandoning a
boyhood ambition to become a priest, he went out to work as a stenographer.
When he finished serving with the US Marines in France during World War 1,
he switched from the typewriter to boxing. A win over Tommy Gibbons in 1925
earned him a shot at heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey`s title. When they
met in Philadelphia, in 1926, before a crowd of 120,000, Dempsey was a
four-to-one favourite, but Gene beat him in ten rounds.
In the re-match a year
later in Chicago, Tunney was ahead until the seventh round when he went
down under a series of heavy blows. But Dempsey failed to go to a neutral
corner and the referee gave Gene extra time to get up in what became known
as ''The Long Count''. Tunney rose and went onto beat Dempsey a second
time.
He fought only one more
fight, knocking out Tom Henney in 1928, before he retired the same year.
For the most important of his fights he had grossed almost two million
dollars and he enjoyed a comfortable retirement for the rest of his life.
Gene Tunney`s only
defeat in 76 professional fights was in the early 1920`s by Harry Grebb,
who had the dubious distinction of being the dirtiest fighter in history.
He was famous for his fouls, and he was called the 'Pittsburgh Windmill'
because of his low blows, butting, holding and hitting, rubbing his laces
or gloves against an opponent’s eyes, and flaying arms in all directions.
After the fight, Gene
spent a week in bed. He lost 2 quarts of blood in the ring, the referee,
the floor and Gene were covered in blood. He actually beat Grebb three
times after that.
Michael
Hogarty
Michael Hogarty, who
emigrated from Pulroghnane in 1930, made a telling contribution to the
defeat of Japan in World Ward II by discovering how to combine the computer
from a Nordan bombsight to a radar bombsight which, when tested, was
installed in the lethal bomber aircraft - the B 29.
Michael's education
started at Lisduff N.S. When he was ten his parents and the remainng
members of his family emigrated to New York to find a better way to make a
living. Following the bombing of Pearl Harbour the U.S. Army rushed
to recruit, train, organise and equip millions of men. It is to their
eternal credit that in that multitude of problems they were able to spot a
special talent and take time to develop it. That talent was Michael
Hogarty, from Kiltimagh. Hogarty was one of only ninety men out of
two thousand who survived and graduated from the brand new super secret
Radar Bombing Navigational School and assigned to that very elite group
which was to make the B 29 bombers. As a crew member, he was on both
the first and last missions over Japan. Hogarty has now been awarded
the distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal with 4 Oak Leaf Clusters and
the Presidential Citation.
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