Courtney McGrail16 Lives: Tomas Kent
by Meda Ryan
(O’Brien Press, €14.99)
J. Anthony Gaughan
The Easter Rising affected more places than just Dublin, as this new biography of Cork man Thomas Kent reminds us in a timely way.
Thomas Kent was born in Bawnard House, Castlelyons, near Fermoy, Co Cork on August 29, 1865. He attended the local national school and worked on his father’s farm until, aged 19, he emigrated to join two of his brothers in Boston. There he was employed in a Catholic publishing and church-furnishing firm.
On his return home in 1890 he became actively involved in the plan of campaign organised by William O’Brien and the Land League. He was charged with conspiracy to encourage evasion of rent and was imprisoned in Cork jail. Following his release and the fall of Parnell in 1891 he confined himself to promoting the Gaelic League and traditional Irish music and dancing.
Thomas and his brothers joined the Irish Volunteers in January 1914, organising the Castlelyons company which held its training exercises on the Kent farm.
Statement
Thomas was present at the historic graveside oration of Patrick Pearse at the funeral of O’Donovan Rossa on August 1, 1915 and represented a number of Cork companies at the Irish Volunteer Convention in Dublin in October of that year. With others he disrupted an army recruitment meeting in East Cork in the following month. Following a police raid on Bawnard House he began a two-month prison sentence for illegal possession of arms on January 13, 1916.
When in Easter week the Cork Volunteers were ordered to stand down by Thomas MacCurtain the Kent brothers returned to their home on May 2. As part of a round-up of Volunteers members of the Royal Irish Constabulary surrounded the house. Among them was Frank King, RIC. Relying heavily on his witness statement to the Bureau of Military History Meda Ryan provides a detailed account of the affray at Bawnard House. The RIC called on the brothers to hand themselves up. They refused and an exchange of gunfire with the police and military reinforcements lasted for three hours. Head Constable W.C. Rowe was shot dead.
One of Thomas’s brothers, Richard, was fatally wounded, while attempting to escape from the house, and another, David, was seriously wounded but survived.
At Victoria (later Collins) barracks in Cork on May 4, Thomas and his brother William were tried for ‘wilful murder’. While William was acquitted, Thomas was found guilty and sentenced to death. On May 9, he was executed and was buried in the grounds of the barracks.
As part of the State’s celebration of the Easter Rising the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, offered a State funeral to the Kent family which they accepted. Thomas Kent’s remains were exhumed and honoured by the State on September 18, 2015 at St Nicholas’ church in Castlelyons, after which they were reinterred in the local Kent family grave.
Congratulations are due to the Taoiseach and his colleagues for their initiative and especially to Meda Ryan for her well-deserved tribute to a true Cork patriot.
The review of The Royal Irish Constabulary (October 13) should have carried the by-line of J. A. Gaughan.