One of Ireland’s greatest ever jailbreaks has been commemorated in Kilkenny.
100 years ago yesterday (November 22nd) more than 40 men tunnelled their way out of the old prison that used to stand at the top of Gaol Road in the city.
They had all been imprisoned by the British forces for their involvement in the War of Independence.
A small gathering of family members took place last night with a candle for each of the men laid at the site.
And one of the organisers, Jimmy Lenehan says they’re hoping next year to put a permanent marker on the site telling KCLR’s MaryAnn Vaughan “What we’d really love is to have a monument and my own preference, it’s early days yet, would be to salvage some of the stones from the, the jail was knocked down in late forties early fifties, and salvage some stone and erect a monument with the names of the 43 prisoners that escaped”.
He adds “I thought the stone just went to Nowlan Park but one of the contributors told us that there’s a lot of stone buried as fill on a road in a local road at the Ballycallan Road so we might look at seeing can salvage some of the stones”.
And a full report on last night’s event can be heard on this evening’s (Tuesday, 23rd November) The History Fix after the 6 o’clock news.
You can hear previous programmes here
