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ROINN COSANTA. 1913-21. BUREAU OF MILITARY HISTORY, STATEMENT BY WITNESS. DOCUMENT NO. W.S. 1413. Witness Tadhg Kennedy (dead.), Ardrinane, Ardfert, Co. Kerry. Identity. Brigade Intelligence Officer. Subject. National activities, 1913-1921. I Activities of Kerry Brigade, 1917-1921. Conditions,if any, Stipulated by Witness. Nil. File No S.773. FormB.S.M.2 STATEMENTBY TADHGKENNEDY (deceased) Ardrinane, Ardfert, Co. KERRY. I was born in a thatched house at Annascaul, County Kerry, a village on the main road between Tralee end Dingle, on 20th August 1885. The part of the village in which I was born is in the townland of Ardrinane, and the other parts of the village are in the townlands of Brackloon and Anagap. The name of the village, Annascaul, is derived from the ford at that point where the road to Dingle leads across the river Scál and is a corruption of the word, Átha-na-Scáil, meaning, in English, the River of the Hero, and the hero being Cuchulainn whose grave is reputed to be on the side of the mountain above Droumavalla, north of Annascaul. There was a controversy in the "Leader" years ago about the meaning of the word Annascaul and I remember Dr. Douglas Hyde, "Beirt Fhear" (Mr. J.J. Doyle) and Mr. D.P. Moran, editor of the "Leader", visited Annascaul to carry out investigations locally into it. My grandmother determined it for them as Átha-an-scáil by the way in which she pronounced the word and her traditional knowledge that the lake, about two miles north of the village, is known as Loch-an-Scáil, and is traditionally associated with Cuchulainn. The district about Annascaul is very beautiful Lochanscaul, Minard Castle, Cob Minard, Macha-na-Bo, Foildarrig to Inch, Beenascoithe, and other places, and is rich in archaeological, remains, many of which were removed to the Museumand Trinity College by local persons who were archaeolo4sts. My father was a farmer's son who served his time in Cork as a grocer's assistant and afterwards became a shopkeeper at Annascaul When he married my mother. Before he set up for himself in business 2. he was a clerk to Bastable Billiard, the baronial constable for Corkaguiney Barony or County Cess Collector. After his marriage he was Deputy Cess Collector for a short the until he was imprisoned in connection with en agrarian offence for which he got twelve months in Clonmel Gaol. His companion, Patsy O'Sullivan, an apprentice blacksmith known as the Gabha Bán and my father would have been transported only for the intervention of Mr. Edward Hussey, O'Sullivan's father's landlord. Edward Hussey was a brother of the notorious Samuel Murray Hussey, landlord and land agent and evictor of many a family. Both my father and O'Sullivan were Fenians until their deaths and I remember when I was a small boy that meetings were held in a back room of our house and I often put my ear to the keyhole to hear what was going on. I did not succeed in finding out nor would I have understood if I did. I remember meetings being held in a house opposite ours which was owned by Peter Scannell, a carman. Most of these men were of the artisan class such as bakers, blacksmiths, coopers, carpenters, shoemakers and the like, who hadn't a perch of land. The same men's sons were the hard core of the Volunteers and I.R.A. in after times, though we had a large number of farmers' sons after the conscription scare. The latter stuck to us after the danger of conscription was over and right good, fearless soldiers they were when it came to the test. My mother belonged to a family that were proclaimed pro- British, though, on Investigation, they were the people who preserved intact the language and culture of Ireland right down to the present day. Lord Ventry, the local lord of the manor, gave them land and in every way assisted them and they in turn were loyal to him. 3. The Dingle Board of Guardians and Rural District Council were dominated by the Moriarty faction of which my grand-uncle, Michael T. Moriarty, was the Taoiseach. My father, although a Fenian, voted with the family party except on such occasions ten Lord Ventry was elected to the chairmanship when he constantly voted against him. Eventually Lord Ventry fell out with grand-uncle and he was beaten for the chairmanship of the Guardians and R.D.C. by a relative of my and mother, Mr. Timothy O'Flaherty of the Maharees, Castlegregory, both Lord Ventry and his brother, Captain de Moleyns, who was also his land agent, withdrew altogether from the local boards thenceforth. It was a tradition in the district that the Kennedys came from near Nenagh in County Tipperary about 1656 and were shifted from there by the Earl of Cork and Orrery with families of the Hogans, the Egans, the Sheehys, the Curranes, the Coughlans and the Cournanes. There are still some documents such as leases, etc. In possession of some of the Kennedys which show where they came from, and some of the old tombstones recorded now mostly obliterated in Latin or English, that they came from Tipperary. I heard from old people that the Kennedys were very troublesome to the landlords and at one time a cavalry barracks had to be maintained at Ballinacourty to deal with a rand-uncle of mine named Jack Tadhg Kennedy of Coolnacuppogue. Me was imprisoned for some time in Galway's Gaol in Dingle, and I remember a ballad in Irish "Coppul Jack Thaidhg" being sung at Kennedy weddings recounting his escape from there on a black mare. There is also a story that the Catholic Church at Ballinacourty in the middle of the old graveyard where the Kennedys are buried was confiscated. A short time afterwards the church was razed to the ground and there wasn't a stone left on a stone. The church bell was found years afterwards buried in a bog and is now in the Dublin Museum. 4. The bell which now summonsthe people to Mass at Brackloon was taken from the "Manchester Merchant", a big ship 750 feet long, which foundered off Inch in Dingle Bay on 12th January, 1903. I was looking through a telescope at the big ship going down and the crew of about 150 being taken off by two nobbies or fishing boats from Dingle, one skippered by TomSheehy, a great friend of mine. one boat was landed at Minard and the other at Dingle, and a special train had to be employed to take them to Tralee and thence to England. My father was not living on the Cork Estate, but all his people were, and he bought a farm at Ballinclare from a cousin of his named Michael O'Shea on the TownsendEstate of which the middleman landlord was one of the Hamiltons, Protestants. Although my father was not well off, he was constantly at loggerheads with the agent, Mr. Robert Fitzgerald, who was also secretary of the Grand Jury, and brother to the Knight of Kerry. My father tried to organise a strike against paying the rents end his cattle were seized by the Sheriff when he was the only one who held out to the end. He had to buy in the cattle at the cant or sale at the local pound with, as they say, financial loss to himself. My mother died when I was 61/2years old and I spent a good deal of time, at the home my of mygrand-uncle, Michael T. Moriarty, at Dingle, which was the headquarters of the clan. Not only was Michael. T. Moriarty my mother's uncle, but his wife (Ellen O'Flaherty) was also a first cousin of my father and a first cousin of my mother. Consequently I was practically a brother to the young Moriartys and I was treated accordingly. There were some people in Dingle thought I was one of the family and You will see later how useful it turned out to be. 5. My uncle was reputed to be pro-British and I suppose he was, but he was always telling us that his people were the rightful landowners landownersof the Dingle Deninsula and not the Moleyns (Lord Ventrys). My grandmother, Pegs Moriarty, got a big extent of bog from Lord Ventry who, she claimed, was her foster-brother. He was reared in her father's house at Tighthe hAbann. She never paid rent for it at the Land Commission took it away from her two sons, Morgan and made Flaherty, afterwards, as there was no document of transfer. I never heard any language in the Moriarty house nor in the shop except Irish. It may be said that it couldn't be otherwise, but there were many homes and shops in the town of Dingle where there was no Irish spoken. The third generation of Moriartys, four of them in the medical profession, are native Irish speakers and proud of it. The older generation of Moriartys never pretended that they were nationalist in the political sense, but my impression always was that they had a great admiration for ran like Stack and Tadhg Brosnan whowere prepared to fight for their principles. In fact, Stack and my uncle were very friendly in the business sense, and I know that Stack had a great regard for my uncle's ability. He was a 'big' man and Stack always maintained to me that the country was too small for him and for men flits Jeremiah M.

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