History becomes real for TY students in Offaly

AS part of their ‘Local Studies’ module Class TYC from St. Brendan’s Community School accompanied their History teacher and local historian Mr Brian Kennedy, on a guided tour of Birr last week. The tour took in the highlights of Birr’s Georgian streetscapes, the Old St Brendan’s Church/Graveyard and an extensive examination of Emmet Square.

While in John’s Place the group visited the John Henry Foley Statue of the 3rd Earl of Rosse, the Seffin Stone and John’s Hall, the 1833 memorial to John Clere Parsons, who died of scarlet fever in August 1828. While at John’s Hall the students took time out to investigate the adjacent cannon. It was then that history literally came to life as they pondered on the exact origins of the cannon. Following its recent excellent restoration, they were able to see the double eagle and crown of the Romanov Russian Royal Family crest on the barrel.

Captured at the siege of Sebastopol in 1855, it was pointed out to the students that this was located in The Crimea. Of course, The Crimea is today an area annexed by Russia since 2014 and its control is hotly contested in the current Ukrainian War. With so many Ukrainian refugees in Birr and Ukrainian students in St Brendan’s, the cannon was for the students a visible piece of history connecting past and present.

The students were intrigued to hear the story of the dispute between the historian T.L. Cooke and the 3rd Earl of Rosse about the public display of the cannon. Following Cooke’s clever campaign, the cannon was moved from Birr Castle to its prominent public site, at John’s Place.

Birr's Russian cannon has its origin in the Crimean War (1854-56). The cannon is an 18 pounder (that is, it fired a round iron shot weighing 18 pounds) seven feet 1 1/2 inch in length and weighs 1,441 kg. It was cast in 1827 at the Alexandrovski Ironworks in northern Russia and subsequently, travelled to the Black Sea, England and Ireland.

The Russian gun was one of nearly 3,000 that were captured during the Crimean War. Most of them were reportedly from the siege of Sebastopol – due to public discontent with the management of the war it is suspected that these numbers were exaggerated in order to show why the siege took so long. In the Treaty of Paris, which ended the war, it was agreed that each of the victors would receive cannons from the Russians as trophies of their victory. Some of these Russian guns were put on display in towns throughout Britain and Ireland. In Ireland over 20 towns are believed to have applied for and received a Russian gun for display. Today it is believed Birr’s gun is one of just 22 Crimean canons surviving in Ireland.

It stands as a witness to today’s TY students of St. Brendan’s to an historic and troubled peninsula. The place of the Crimean War and Yalta Conference at the end of the second World War. A disputed land at the centre of the first war on the European continent since 1945.