A
Scottish Gael Who Died for the Irish
Republic
Ian
Graeme Baun MacKenzie Kennedy or ‘Scottie’ as he
was inevitably nicknamed, was a well known
figure in Ballingeary and in Irish-speaking
circles during the Tan War. His short life is a
story of burning idealism and noble courage and
deserves to be retold.
Family Background
MacKenzie Kennedy was born in 1899 and is
believed to have hailed from Inverness-shire in
the Scottish Highlands. He came from a
distinguished family that was steeped in the
military tradition and his father was a major
and his uncle had been a major general in the
British Army. His brother was killed in action
in France, and his mother keen for her son to
avoid the same fate, took him to live in Ireland about
1916.
The
youthful MacKenzie Kennedy was a tall strapping
young man in kilts and his Glengarry cap sported
the Kennedy badge. He was proficient in Scots
Gaelic and was clan proud. Donald, the Great
Steward of Mar, a district associated with the
Kennedy’s to the present day, had led a
contingent to the aid of King Brian Boru at the
Battle of Clontarf in 1014, and the great Brian
was himself MacCenneidigh, son of Kennedy, chief
of Thomond and hereditary rule of North Munster.
The royal blood of the Bruces also flowed in the
Kennedy veins. The Princess Mary,
great-grandaughter of Robert Bruce and sister of
King James the First of England (James the Sixth
of Scotland), married Sir James Kennedy of
Dunure, a direct ancestor of Ian Baun.
Scottie
and his mother initially lived in Killarney,
County
Kerry with the Honourable
Albina Broderick whose brother the Earl of
Middleton, was leader of the southern unionists.
Albina gaelicised her name to Gobnait ni
Bruadair and was an unrepentant republican.
Later he arrived in Ballyvourney looking for a
place to stay in order to learn Irish and
further his interest in Celtic studies. Creedons
of Ballyvourney advised him to go to the famous
Toureen Dubh in Ballingeary where he stayed for
the next three years. The house belonged to the
Twomey family and had a reputation for being
full of laughter and boundless hospitality.
Appearance and more recent history would seem to
have been against him. His fellow Highland Gaels
came to
Cork
not as allies in the age old struggle against
the ancient foe as did the Gallowglasses several
centuries earlier. Having been vanquished at
Culloden in 1746, the Scottish Gaels were now
organised into regiments like the Cameron
Highlanders in the pay of
England, and
were tragically engaged in the attempted
suppression of their fellow Celts.
A
Gael Among Gaels
Despite
his background Scottie was warmly accepted by
the people of Ballingeary as a true Gael among
Gaels, and soon the tiny valley among the hills
thrilled to the skirl of his pipes. He is still
remembered for his sunny happy nature. A friend
Geraldine Neeson,
Cork
City musician and
journalist, gives the following description of
him: “He was a most attractive person whom we
all liked very much. An extrovert with a
consuming curiosity about people and their
motivations. He had a sharp, frequently-used wit
and a clear, infectious laugh, and was excellent
company.”
Joins
the Irish Volunteers
Scottie seemed to love Ireland from the
first and before long joined the Ballingeary
based D Company, 8th Battalion of
Cork No.1 Brigade. His comrades best remembered
him for the amusement he caused on so many
occasions. His notion for a stovepipe cannon
wound tightly with steel wire, to demolish
barracks-doors with, might or might not have
succeeded. Nobody wished to test it. The sail
affixed to his bicycle was quite effective but a
good deal more fun. His comrade Padraig Greene
who is still with us, recounts the gunpowder
episode. “Scottie made a quantity of gunpowder
and was preparing to test it – an operation in
which he asked for my assistance. He had
prepared the ‘boxing’, i.e. the cast iron
tapering cylinder which goes into the nave of
the wheel by plugging one end of it. With a
measured amount of powder he wanted to estimate
how far it would throw a 26 ounce steel bowl. He
had all preparations made to do the test, but
luckily for me, I was given another job that
took me away from the house. Scottie took the
‘cannon’, poured in the powder, placed the bowl
on top of it and then tamped plenty of paper on
top of the bowl. He made one great mistake – he
forgot to put paper on top of the powder before
he inserted the bowl. When he started the
tamping, metal struck metal creating a spark,
and the whole thing blew up in his hands. His
hands were black from grains of powder and the
lintel over the window was cracked and so was
the sill. Everyone in the house was in a state
of shock when I returned. The following day, the
Bean A’ Tigh told Scottie to remove the
gunpowder into the ashes around the fire causing
an explosion which covered the kitchen with
ashes and cinders causing further uproar. Few
people, other than Scottie would have been
allowed to remain on in the house after these
episodes. Scottie’s only complaint was that part
of his moustache was burned on one side.”
There
is another story about how he went about
Killarney quite openly during the struggle, but
before it reached its Black and Tan zenith. The
town was full of British military and one day
two swaggering officers armed fully passed him
in the street and made some sneering remark
about his cowardice in not “joining up”. He
reached out and grabbed one in either hand,
banged their heads together, and threw them
dazed up the street.
The
writer Sean O’Faolain who was a comrade of
Scottie’s, recollects him in his autobiography
‘Vive Moi!’ from when he stayed in Dick Twomey’s
of Tureen Dubh. ’I slept there (in a haybarn)
many a night beside a magnificent tall Scot,
named Ian Bawn MacKenzie Kennedy, who had come
over to
Ireland
to fight for the
Irish
Republic’.
Scottie was respected by his IRA comrades as was
shown early in 1921 when he was entrusted with
the arms fund totalling £85 and travelled to
England
at great risk to himself to purchase arms. He
returned on March 24th with eleven
new Webley .45 revolvers hidden in a crate of
plough socks. An underground foundry was
constructed at Carrigbawn, Ballingeary to
manufacture hand grenades and bombs. Local
volunteers scoured the countryside for scrap
metal, old pig troughs and plough boards. A year
earlier Scottie had provided the “74/14/12”
recipe for gunpowder to the officers.
Scottie played the Flowers of the Forest on the bagpipes at Donall ‘ac Taidhg McSweeney’s
funeral, at the old man’s dying request. He
visited his mother at regular intervals in the
Castle Hotel in Killarney, but she failed to
persuade him to return to
Scotland.
In
what was a big occasion for him Scottie and his
mother converted to Catholicism, having been
influenced by the religious atmosphere of the
home of St. Finbar. There is a story that he
made a visit to
Rome, and while there had
an embroidered Tricolour, which he had worked
himself, to be blessed by Pope Benedict the
Fifteenth.
Republican Separatist
The
signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty led to a split
in the IRA and Scottie opted to defend the
Republic against the emerging
Free State. In about
July 1922 he strapped his rifle to his tall
bicycle, and set out with his Republican
comrades to oppose the landing of
Free State
troops at Passage West. Everyone in the Twomey
household tried to dissuade him to no avail. He
seemed to have had a premonition that he would
not return to Ballingeary as he left his camera,
his family pedigree and other personal
belongings there.
An
Epic Struggle
It was
not long before Scottie was to enter the fray.
Most of what follows is based on an article that
appeared in Poblacht Na h-Eireann (Scottish
Edition) dated 21 October 1922. During the fighting in the
Passage Rochestown front, as the covering party
of the IRA was evacuating to their second
position near Douglas
village, their lorry broke down at Belmont
Cross. Three Volunteers jumped from the lorry
and took up position in Belmont Cottage nearby
to enable the rest of the party to get away
under the protection of an armoured car. These
were Scottie, Frank O’Donoghue and Moloney. One
party of
Free State soldiers who
charged the cottage was forced to retire leaving
one of their number by the name of Flood, a Dublin man, dying on the road. Frank
O’Donoghue rushed from the cottage to Flood’s
aid, whispered an act of contrition into his
ear, and the unfortunate Flood died grasping
O’Donoghue’s hand. The Republicans took one
prisoner.
The
cottage was later surrounded, and the three
brave Republican soldiers kept up an unequal
fight against 64
Free State
troops, killing 12, and wounding 15 according to
the report. Only when the last bullet was fired
did the battle cease. When further resistance
was impossible, and having delayed the enemy
until the Republicans had taken up their
position, the little party decided to surrender.
MacKenzie Kennedy opened the door and put up his
hands in token surrender, but was shot dead as
was Moloney. O’Donoghue was captured and taken
prisoner. He and his companions had been at
confession the previous evening, and received
extreme unction.
Ian
MacKenzie Kennedy was only 23 when he was killed
on the 7th of August 1922. Everyone was
heartbroken when news of his death reached
Ballingeary. Large and sympathetic crowds
attended his funeral. He was buried on the 12th
of August in the Republican plot in St. Finbar’s
Cemetery in Cork City
alongside other soldiers of the Republic. There
is a small plaque to his memory in Ballingeary
and he is commemorated on the Republican Monument
in Macroom. There was a MacKenzie Kennedy Cumann
of Fianna Fail in Mitchelstown, County Cork in
1933.
A Cause Not His Own
Some
people have written that MacKenzie Kennedy died
for a cause not his own. It is unlikely that he
would have seen it that way however. If the
Englishman is a foreigner in
Ireland, the
Scot is not. Gaelic Ireland and Gaelic Scotland
are the sea-divided Gael and share the same
great Celtic civilisation. Robert the Bruce the
King of the Scots, of whom Scottie was a
descendant according to his genealogical chart,
told his Irish allies who helped to defeat the
English at Bannockburn in 1314: ‘our people and
your people, free since ancient times, share the
same national ancestry and are urged to come
together more eagerly and joyfully in friendship
by a common language and by common custom.' The
small band of Scottish Republicans that gave
practical assistance to the IRA during the Tan
War and helped save
Scotland
from disgrace, viewed the Irish and the Scots as
one race with common objectives. This was also
the position of John McIntosh, another
courageous Highland Gael and trusted lieutenant
of Robert Emmet, who shared the same fate as his
leader for his part in the abortive rising of
1803.
To
conclude, MacKenzie Kennedy was an exemplary
Gaels and man of noble ideals and great
integrity. The story of his sacrifice in defence
of the Irish Republic
and the cause of the sea-divided Gael, cannot
fail to inspire the true Gaels of Ireland and
Scotland
and freedom loving people everywhere.
Stephen
Coyle