The grave of nurse Ellie Buckley, born in Mountcain in Knocknagree in 1913, was found in Lewisham in London, 75 years after her passing in 1942.
Ellie was required to nurse patients with tuberculosis (TB), a highly infectious disease. Irish nurses were ‘cannon fodder’ just like poor men sent to the front in World Wars 1 and 2.
Ellie Buckley’s story, written by her niece Eileen Fleming, is included in the recently published 21st edition of the Sliabh Luachra Journal.
All twenty one editions since the first published in 1982, have been edited by journalist Donal Hickey.
Stories Fom the 2024 Journal
Stories from the 2024 journal and its inveterate editor will feature on the Saturday Supplement on Radio Kerry with Frank Lewis on this Saturday, December 7th from 9 to 11am.
Over £30,000 was taken out of Knocknagree by the three banks after a fair day, Christy Lehane writes, some of the cattle dealers did not respect the farmers and tried to cheat them. A recently painted mural of the fair fills a whole gable end in the village.
Ben Brosnan lists 29 shops in the parish of Kilcummin between 1909 and 1924. Now there are only two – opened in 1896 O’Keeffe’s at Gattabawn, near Gneeveguilla and the post office in Kilcummin run by the McCarthy/Healy family since 1946.
Bryan O’Leary on Jimmy Doyle
Button accordionist Bryan O’Leary wrote a personal reflection on Jimmy Doyle and his music and throughout the Radio Kerry programme plays music associated with Jimmy Doyle.
As well two polkas. Jimmy Doyle’s and the Knocknamoyle are played by Jimmy’s son Padraig on guitar with grandchildren Grace Doyle (12) on concertina, Jack Doyle (11) on accordion, Kaylie Doyle on concertina and Jamie O’Donoghue on his grandfather’s accordion.
In 1961 Gneeveguilla beat Rathmore in the East Kerry League. Johnny Barry wrote the story and with Aenie O’Leary tells of Gneeeveguilla man Ambrose O’Donovan, as Kerry captain, bringing the Sam Maguire home in 1984. That was almost as memorable as the game in 1961.
Martyred by a Riot Mob
Dr. Elsie Quinlan / Sr Aidan, born in Ballydesmond in 1914, was martyred by a riot mob in the East London township in South Africa in 1952. Johnny Walsh writes of Elsie’s going against the grain at the time in her living and working with her fellow Dominican nun Sr Gratia Khumalo, a black woman. Elsie and Gratia treated twice as many patients as other medical practitioners because back up from home covered the cost of the medicines.
Australian soldier George Nash, on leave from the World War front in France in 1917, visited Lisnaboy in Cullen, Co Cork, from where his mother Margaret Nolan nee O’Sullivan had emigrated to Australia in 1870.
So Many Relatives in Ireland
In a letter home George wrote: “I went to a fair in Millstreet. Nearly everyone claimed some sort of relationship with me. I had no idea I had so many relatives in Ireland.”
Donal Hickey writes about the old Gneeveguilla national school that was knocked and a private house built on the site.
“A limestone plaque with 1880 engraved on it was found and is now erected on the front wall of the private house,” Donal explains: “The school was opened in 1842 and 1889 was the year the school was extended and renovated.”
A range of stories from the recently published 21st edition of the Sliabh Luachra journal, will be broadcast on the Saturday Supplement on Radio Kerry tomorrow morning Saturday, December 7th from 9am to 11am.
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