Anyone passing through
the Pass of Keimaneigh between Ballingeary and
Kealkil recently will have noticed the new
Monument. As you travel West towards
Kealkil it stands beside the road in a small
cutting to your left as you approach the top of
the hill.
This Monument is the
joint effort of the Ballingeary Historical
Society and the Bantry Historical Society, and
the members of both Organisations have been
working for several years to bring it to
fruition.
We are very indebted to Pat
Twomey of Curraglass Townland in Bantry who has
provided the land on permanent loan.
The site is particularly relevant in
that it lies where the old road parts company
from the new road. The new tarmacked road
is of course what we now think of as the Bantry
Road. It did not exist at the time of the
battle in1822, but was built soon after, about
1830, as a result of the battle and the
difficulties which the Authorities had in
bringing troops up to the Pass. This new
road was built by James Barry the notorious
landlord from Kilbarry House. You can see
the line of the old road rising steeply from you
up the hill towards Doughill Mountain on your
left. From this point the old road can be
traced right the way through to Tooreendubh
where it drops down into the valley of the River
Lee again.
The Cork County Council team
under Gearoid Hayes have cut a crescent shape
into the piece of land, and erected the plaque
on a large irregular shaped slab of local old
red sandstone.
The plaque is inscribed as
follows:
"I gcuimhne na bhfear a
cailleadh i gCath Cheim an Fhia
in
Eanair na bliana 1822.
Mícheál Ó
Cathasaigh, Barra Ó Laoire,
Amhlaoibh Ó Loinsigh,
(Buachaillí Bána
Áitiúla).
Seán mac Gabhann (Fórsaí na
nGall).
Crocadh Éamonn Ó Rinn i Márta
1822.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a
n-anamacha."
"To commemorate those who died at and after the
Battle of Keimaneigh
January 1822. Michael Casey,
Barry O'Leary, Auliffe Lynch,
Edward Ring (local Whiteboys)
John Smith (Crown Forces)
May they rest in peace."
It will be
seen that the plaque commemorates the three
local men who were killed during the battle,
together with the English soldier Smith, who was
also killed. Another man, Edward Ring was
captured, tried at Cork Assizes, condemned to
death, and hanged at Deshure with five others
from other parts of the County.
Although
described as Whiteboys on the plaque, it is more
accurate, historically, to call them Rockites,
the name they used themselves.
The story
of the Battle of Keimaneigh was described in
detail in Journal No.1.
Briefly, it was a
protest against the Tithe system, High Rents,
Eviction at will and the other abuses inflicted
on tenant farmers by the Landlords. The young
men who gathered above Keimaneigh that January
in 1822 in appalling weather, were a small but
important part of the general movement
throughout the Country to rid us of tyranny, and
we should not forget them and their
contribution.