Restoration of Memorial to Forgotten Celbridge Figure – Sir Gerald Dease
We have spoken about Sir Gerald Richard Dease K.C.V.O. previously and his memorial outside St. Patrick’s Church, Celbridge. He is all but forgotten in Celbridge; the Celtic Cross is commonly mistaken for a marker to a priest. The cross in many ways highlights how quickly history can fade with time. With the help of Kildare County Council Heritage Office and Celbridge Parish Office we have begun a restoration and conservation project on the Dease memorial cross. The works are being carried out by Bracken Monuments.
Born on 7 July 1831 Dease was a prominent person in the late 19th century in Ireland. He was Justice of the Peace for Counties Kildare and Meath, a Director of the Great Southern & Western Railway and appointed a Director of the Bank of Ireland (the predecessor to the Central Bank) and its Governor between 1890 and 1892. On 27 July 1881, Dease was appointed Major and Honorary Lieutenant Colonel of the 4th Battalion, Princess Victoria’s (Royal Irish Fusiliers). He also served as the Chamberlain to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland and was involved in the organisation of several royal visits to Ireland. For his excellent service he was Knighted in 1897, being made a Companion of the Royal Victorian Order in 1900 and a Knight Grand Cross of the same order on 11 August 1903. Locally Sir Gerald Dease served on Kildare County Council on several occasions and served as Chairman of the Celbridge Board of Guardians [the Workhouse] (today Colourtrend paint factory) and within both bodies he became an advocate for improved conditions for the poor. He lobbied extensively for the creation of a National University to which Catholics would have full access. It is for these efforts he was most remembered.
Following his death on 18 October 1903, the people of Celbridge raised the funds and erected the Celtic Cross memorial in recognition of this remarkable man. Soon when people walk by they will clearly see the name Sir Gerald Richard Dease K.C.V.O. There is still a little more to do on the restoration. We will keep you posted.
Thank you to Kildare County Council Heritage Office and Celbridge Parish Office for their support.
Celbridge’s Victoria Cross – Lieutenant Colonel John Augustus Conolly
Project: Celbridge’s Military Story
It as a real honour today to visit the graveside of Celbridge’s own Victoria Cross recipient at Mount Jerome Cemetery in Dublin: Lieutenant Colonel John Augustus Conolly. Growing up in Celbridge I knew nothing of this man or his service. We hope by recording his story it will forever be a part of Celbridge.
John Augustus Conolly circa 1850s. (Courtesy of the Guards Museum)
John Augustus Conolly was born on 30 May 1829 in Castletown, Celbridge, to Edward Michael Conolly MP and Catherine Jane, daughter of Chambre Brabazon Ponsonby-Barker.
John enlisted in the 49th Regiment of Foot (later the Royal Berkshire Regiment, today The Rifles) and served in the Eastern Campaign/Crimean War of 1854. He was present at the Battles of Alma and the Siege of Sebastopol. On 26 October 1854 he was shot through the chest and seriously wounded after a Russian attack at Shell Hill. The Russian attack was repulsed by heavy fire from Allied guns, and infantry led by Lieutenant Conolly. Field Marshal Sir Evelyn Wood VC later wrote that the Russians: ‘fell back and our infantry pursued them, being led most gallantly by Lieutenant Conolly’.
For this gallantry, Conolly was awarded the Victoria Cross (gazetted 5 May 1857) and promoted into the Coldstream Guards. At Hyde Park on 26 June 1857 Queen Victoria awarded the first Victoria Cross’s to 62 officers and men; one of these gallant heroes was a Celbridge man, then Brevet-Major John Augustus Conolly.
He later married on 4 August 1864 to Ida Charlotte Burnaby from Baggrave Hall, Leicestershire. She died in 1886. They had 5 children: John Richard Arthur, Alice Geta Katherine, Conagh Edwina, Louisa Augusta and Irene Beatrice.
John Conolly was eventually promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and retired from the Army in 1863. He became a Sub-Commissioner in the Dublin Metropolitan Police, and later Resident Magistrate for the Curragh of Kildare. He died on 23 December 1888 in the Curragh, and was laid beside his wife at Mount Jerome Cemetery, Dublin.
John Augustus Conolly lays at rest with his wife Ida in Mount Jerome Cemetery in Harold’s Cross, Dublin. (Photo by Michael Coyne)
Lieutenant Colonel John Augustus Conolly VC is remembered with pride at Castletown House and Parklands, the Berkshire Regimental museum and the Guards Museum who kindly helped us with images of John Conolly.
This project is made possible with funding from Kildare County Council.
Over the past year and half we have been researching for our first project – Celbridge’s Military Story. This project has led us down history trails we never envisaged. A project by the History Squad in Scoil Na Mainistreach on Celbridge’s casualties of the Great War led us to Major William Dease – son of Sir Col. Gerald Dease – who in turn had recruited local men into the Remounts in 1914. By pure chance we came across a casualty of the Great War not on the Celbridge war dead list: Private Robert Beveridge 28th Remount Squadron who is buried in Naas, County Kildare. Robert died on 25 January 1919 in the Curragh Military Hospital. The Kildare Observer confirmed he had been given a military funeral with honours paid by the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. Robert’s military records have not survived and no birth cert exists. Last year we inconclusively connected Robert to Celbridge through census records: the census listed a Robert Beverage, foster child with the Lennon family in Celbridge and later a labourer. Digging up several conundrums we came to multiple dead ends to conclusively prove the two Roberts were one of the same.
Not wanting to leave it at that we endeavoured to find out more. With the help of historians Drs Ann Mathews and Brendan O’Shea, local historians Jim Tancred and George Bagnall, Graham Hughes and Martin Whyte of St. Corban’s cemetery, and David Grant (www.cairogang.com) the story of Robert began to come together piece by piece. Through documents such as Robert’s Soldier’s Effects we were able to link the Private Beveridge buried in Naas to Celbridge and the Lennon family. As it turns out the Lennon family are still in the area and proudly remember Robert. We met the Lennon family – who still poses Robert’s medals and his photograph – and paid tribute at his grave. The History Squad had the key all along. 100 years ago, the Lennon family were the stuart’s of the Dease estate in Celbridge Abbey and Kilmacredock.
We will be bringing you Robert’s full story in the coming months.
Nora and Eoghan Lennon at the grave of Private Robert Beveridge in Naas. (Photograph by Wesley Bourke)
This project is sponsored by Kildare County Council Heritage Office.
Cover image: Sir Ivone Kirkpatrick with the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of West Germany, Konrad Adenauer, at the Bonn Conventions. (International Magazine Services Photo Archives)
Our current project – Celbridge’s Military Story – has highlighted the point that you do not have to go too far in order to unearth remarkable stories of men and women who contributed so mush to their community and Ireland. This week we met again native and local historian Col. (Retd) Brendan O’Shea who took us behind the walls of Donaghcumper/Donnacomper estate. The estate is directly across the road from Donaghcumper Cemetery on the Dublin road, just up from Super Valu. Behind the walls is a beautiful Tudor Revival style house which was home to the Kirkpatrick family for over a century. Many of the older generation of Celbridge will remember Ivone Augustine Kirkpatrick – the diplomat who met Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler and identified Rudolph Hess.
Ivone Kirkpatrick at his desk in London. (Photo: Imperial War Museum)
Sir Ivone Augustine Kirkpatrick, GCB, GCMG was born 3 February, 1897, in Wellington, India, to Colonel Ivone Kirkpatrick of the South Staffordshire Regiment, and Mary Hardinge, daughter of General Sir Arthur Edward Hardinge, Commander-in-Chief Bombay Army, and Governor of Gibraltar. In fact Mary was a former Maid of Honour to Queen Victoria. A Roman Catholic, Kirkpatrick was educated in Downside School in England from 1907 to 1914. On the outbreak of the Great War he enlisted and was commissioned in November 1914 in the Royal Inniskillings Fusileiers. During the Gallipoli campaign in August 1915, Kirkpatrick was severally wounded and returned home. Although being accepted to Balliol College, Oxford, he opted to return to war and was posted to GHQ Intelligence Service Wallinger London. During the last year of the war he was stationed in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and worked as a spy master, running a network of Belgian resistance agents operating in German-occupied Belgium.
Following the war in 1919, he began a long and active career with the British diplomatic service and found himself first stationed as far away as Brazil. By 1928, he had risen to the position of first secretary. On 10 January 1929, he married Violet Caulfield, daughter of Colonel Reginald James Cope Cottell, an army surgeon, they had one son, Ivone Peter and one daughter, Cecilia Sybil.
Historian Brendan O’Shea and producer Wesley Bourke at the Kirkpatrick family home in Donacomper, Celbridge. (Photo by Michael Coyne)
Ivone was then posted to the British Embassy in Rome from 1930 to 1932; chargé d’affaires at the Vatican in 1932-1933; and first secretary at the British Embassy in Berlin from 1933 to 1938. While serving at these embassies Kirkpatrick got to witness fascism taking root in the heart of Europe and the gathering storm that lay ahead. He made it very clear his detestation for the Nazis.
On the outbreak of World War II Kirkpatrick took up a similar role to that of the end of the last war; he was appointed Director of the Foreign Division of the Ministry of Information in April 1940. As part of this role he became Controller of the European Services of the BBC in October 1941. Following Rudolph Hess’s flight to Scotland in May 1941, it was Kirkpatrick who was sent to formally identify and interview Hess as he had met him in the 30s. His report was shown only to Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden, Lord Privy Seal Clement Attlee and Minister of Aircraft Production Lord Beaverbrook. In September 1944 Kirkpatrick was appointed to organise the British element of the Allied Control Commission for Germany and then at Supreme Allied Headquarters as British political adviser to U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Following the war, he became Permanent Under-Secretary for the German Section at the Foreign Office in 1949. In June 1950, Kirkpatrick was appointed by King George VI as British High Commissioner for Germany. He took a major role in the negotiation of the Bonn Conventions – 1951–2 – which terminated the occupation regime. In November 1953, Kirkpatrick returned to London to became the Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. His term as Under Secretary culminated in the 1956 Suez Crisis. He was strongly in favour of a hard line against Colonel Nasser.After retiring from the Foreign Office in February 1957 Kirkpatrick served for five years as chairman of the Independent Television Authority.
Returning to Celbridge he wrote his memories: The Inner Circle: The Memoirs of Ivone Kirkpatrick (1959), and Mussolini: Study of a Demagogue (London: 1964).For his service he was appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in 1939, Knight Commander (KCMG) in 1948, Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in 1951, Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG) in 1953, and Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB) in 1956. The Order of the Bath is the fourth-most senior of the British Orders of Chivalry. Sir Ivone Kirkpatrick died at Donacomper, on 25 May 1964, and is buried in the family plot in Donacomper Cemetery. This remarkable story is one that every student of Irish history should be aware of. Soldier, scholar, and statesman Ivone Kirkpatrick was a unique Irishman who played hugely significant roles in some of the most dramatic events of the 20th Century.
Historian Brendan O’Shea and producer Wesley Bourke at the Kirkpatrick family plot in Donacomper Cemetery, Celbridge. (Photo by Michael Coyne)
This project is supported by Kildare County Council.
We are starting our work with the Irish Military Heritage Foundation with Celbridge’s Military Story and the story of Colonel Sir Gerald Dease.
Historian Brendan O’Shea beside the cross in honour of Sir Gerald Dease. (Photo by Wesley Bourke)
Colonel Sir Gerald Richard Dease K.C.V.O. is a all but forgotten Celbridge figure. His name may be forgotten, but everyday people pass his monument just off the main street. In the grounds of St. Patrick’s church is a Celtic Cross. With a faded inscription it is no wonder that today most people in the area pass the cross taking no notice or questioning why it is there. The cross in many ways highlights how our history can easily pass into memory; apart from the knowledgeable few, most just think the cross is to a local priest.
In fact, the cross was erected in 1904 by the people of Celbridge in memory of Col. Sir Gerald Richard Dease K.C.V.O., of Celbridge Abbey. We met Celbridge native and European Trustee & Education Officer Ireland, The Western Front Association, Col. (Rtd) Brendan O’Shea to tell the story of Sir Gerald Dease and this chapter of Celbridge’s Military Story.
Sir Col. Gerald Richard Dease. (Image from: Edward F. Dease: A Complete History Of The Westmeath Hunt From Its Foundation. Dublin: Browne and Nolan, 1898)
Born on 7 July 1831, Gerald Richard Dease was the third child of Gerald Dease and Elizabeth O’Callaghan of Turbotstown, Mayne, Co. Westmeath. Like many well-off Catholics he was educated at Stonyhurst College, Lancashire, England before returning to Ireland. He married Emily Throckmorton, daughter of Sir Robert George Throckmorton, and Elizabeth Acton, on 25 November 1863. Later he was appointed Justice of the Peace for Counties Kildare and Meath, and became a Director of the Great Southern & Western Railway before being appointed a Director of the Bank of Ireland (the predecessor to the Central Bank) and its Governor between 1890 and 1892. On 27 July, 1881, Dease was appointed Major and Honorary Lieutenant Colonel of the 4th Battalion, Princess Victoria’s (Royal Irish Fusiliers). He also served as the Chamberlain to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland and was involved in the organisation of several royal visits to Ireland. For his excellent service he was Knighted in 1897, being made a Companion of the Royal Victorian Order in 1900 and a Knight Grand Cross of the same order on 11 August, 1903. Locally Sir Gerald Dease served on Kildare County Council on several occasions and served as Chairman of the Celbridge Board of Guardians [the Workhouse] (today Colourtrend paint factory) and within both bodies he became an advocate for improved conditions for the poor. He lobbied extensively for the creation of a National University to which Catholics would have full access. It is for these efforts he was most remembered. Gerald and Emily had three children: Eveline Mary Dease, Major William Gerald Dease, and Arthur Joseph Dease. Following his death on 18 October 1903, the people of Celbridge erected the Celtic Cross in recognition of this remarkable man.
The grave of Gerald and Emily in Tay Lane Cemetery, Celbridge. (Photo by Wesley Bourke)
This project is support by Kildare County Council.
Church/Tay Lane Cemetery in Celbridge. A beautifully preserved heritage site with graves spanning several centuries with unique military history.
Our First Project – Celbridge’s Military Story
The Irish Military Heritage Foundation CLG has been awarded a grant under the Kildare County Council Heritage Grant Scheme 2019. The grant has been awarded towards the Foundation’s inaugural project – Celbridge’s Military Story. Our aim is to bring to life some of the hidden stories in the Celbridge area. Celbridge is the home of our editor/producer Wesley Bourke, over the last few years the History Squad in the local primary school, Scoil na Mainistreach, have highlighted the lost stories of the Celbridge area; and showed just how quickly history can be forgotten. They inspired us and we decided to find out more. We will be producing this project through film and articles.
Celbridge’s Victoria Cross – John Augustus Conolly. (Photo graph from the Berkshires Regimental Museum)
Every community has a hidden voice that opens a window into the past and every community has a unique story; Celbridge, in County Kildare is no different. The area is home to many Óglaigh na hÉireann / Irish Defence Forces serving personnel and veterans; family members of persons who have served in both World Wars; historians with detailed knowledge of stories such as the moving plight of the Belgium refugees who came to Celbridge in 1914, or the events in the local area during the War of Independence and Civil War. Adding to this historiography Celbridge has several landscapes connecting it to its military past such as Castletown House & Parklands whose owner Thomas Conolly in 1865 toured the battlefields of the American Civil War; or Tay/Tea Lane cemetery which after a wonderful restoration has unearthed the stories of Henry Grattan Jr. MP and Gerald Dease
Over the coming months we will be interviewing local historians, veterans, and members of the community whose relatives have since passed away. This project aims to unearth stories lost to time and preserve Celbridge’s Military Story for future generations. We would love to hear your story. If you have a story to tell please get in touch.
The grave of Sir Colonel Gerald Dease in Church/Tay Lane Cemetery. (Photograph by Wesley Bourke)
Colourtrend in Celbridge on the site of the former workhouse. During the Great War it was home to Belgium refugees, and in 1922 it became the site of the first barracks for the new army of the Provisional Government of Ireland.
