HISTORY: Clarity on original erection date of gravestone of Offaly's first Civil War fatality

THE gravestone of the first fatality in the Civil War in Offaly was restored lst year following an appeal by a local historian.

Last year Dr Philip McConway called on Ulster Bank to restore the headstone of its Tullamore branch manager, Thomas Mitchell who was killed by anti-Treaty IRA forces when he confronted them during an armed raid on the bank on Monday, July 3 1922.

The gravestone was restored by Dublin based company, Pmac but Ulster Bank's parent company, the NatWest Group declined Dr McConway's suggestion for further conservation work on the inscription to enhance its legibility.

The Tribune reported on the restoration work in late January and Dr McConway speculated that the sculptor who erected the headstone was William Kennedy.

Dr McConway's research found that Kennedy was a stone and monumental sculptor who operated a thriving limestone quarry on the Arden road with up to 30 employees. 

The King's County Chronicle  (19 July,1883) reported he was "one of the ablest practical stonecutters in Ireland."

A native of Edenderry, Kennedy resided in Tullamore for over 30 years. Charismatic, efficient, sincere, an indefatigable and fervent patriot, he encouraged industrial development in the town.

He was elected to Tullamore Urban Council. A member of the Gaelic League, he promoted the Irish language. He was secretary of the United Irish League’s local branch and a member of Cumann na nGaedheal, a front organisation for the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) in Tullamore.

He was the IRB leader, or centre, in the town, was also active in the GAA and was president of the local hurling club. He died from pneumonia in 1910, aged 64 years, and is buried in Durrow Cemetery.

Following the publication of the article in January a reader contacted the Tribune to point out that Kennedy could not have erected the headstone in 1922 when he passed away 12 years previously in 1910.

However, Dr McConway has now revealed that Mitchell is buried alongside his mother-in-law and first wife.

The headstone was erected in  1906  following the death of his mother-in-law, Jane Pink. She seemingly lived with Mitchell and his wife in their apartment, above the Ulster Bank in Tullamore. The death registry noted he was present at Jane’s death from asthenia and chronic bronchitis. A retired teacher, she was aged 79.

Mitchell married his first wife, Alicia Bristow Pink, at the Presbyterian Church in Bray, in 1893. His personal life was tinged with tragedy. From Belfast, she died from breast cancer at their apartment in 1909.

He married Jessie Kerr, a builder’s daughter, at Sligo Presbyterian Church, in 1911. She died, aged 46, of tuberculosis at a nursing home in Sligo in 1916. She appears to have been buried in her native Sligo.

Mitchell may have been emboldened as a widower, without children or family responsibilities, when, armed with a revolver, he confronted the IRA at the fatal raid on 3 July 1922.

The local press reported: ‘His action…although plucky, was considered a most fool-hardy one, inasmuch as the raiders were numerous and determined.’

Resistance by bank staff to IRA raids from 1920-23 was exceptional outlined the local historian.

On the day of Mitchell's death in 1922 an IRA unit drove up in a Crossley tender to the Ulster Bank in Tullamore. Mitchell, standing outside the counter, observed an estimated 15 Volunteers, wearing overcoats, enter.

Dr McConway, in a feature article published in the Tribune last year, wrote: "He (Mitchell) walked to his office desk and grabbed a revolver from the drawer. He then confronted the IRA and pointed his revolver at them. Without hesitation Timothy Buckley (the IRA's unit's commander), armed with a rifle, shot Mitchell beneath the heart. Dr George A. Moorhead was summoned. Arriving swiftly, the doctor examined the unconscious Mitchell who died in two minutes.

The bank janitor and other employees carried the corpse upstairs to rooms inhabited by Mitchell. The IRA then ordered the staff to put their "hands up" and removed them to the street. The vicinity of the bank was cordoned off by the IRA. Hundreds of people witnessed the raid from a distance. Fr Thomas O'Keefe remonstrated with the IRA who ignored him.