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.
Tony Maher recollects his time in the Fórsa Cosanta Áitiúil (FCÁ)
Today we had the pleasure of meeting former reserve Corporal, Tony Maher from Celbridge. During the 1960s Tony was a member of Maynooth Platoon, C Company, 7th Infantry Battalion FCÁ.
Tony Maher at his home in Celbridge. (Photo by Michael Coyne)
During the Emergency period (1939 – 1946) and the Cold War (1947 – 1991) Ireland remained neutral, however, the threat was still real. During these two periods the reserve elements of the Irish Defence Forces were greatly expanded. Nearly every village in the country had a platoon size or more of reservists stationed there. Celbridge in North Kildare was no different. During the Emergency the North Dublin Battalion of the Local Defence Forces had a Company in North Kildare, with a platoon in Celbridge, Maynooth, and Kilcock. Following the Emergency and the establishment of Fórsa Cosanta Áitiúil (FCÁ), this transitioned to the North Dublin Battalion FCÁ and in 1959, C Company 7th Infantry Battalion FCÁ.
At the time Tony lived in Lexlip and told us some amazing stories of Lexlip and the surrounding areas in the 1950s and 1960s. Tony grew up not far from where Sergeant Hugh Gaynor lived and had very fond memories of him. Sadly Sergeant Gaynor was one of the nine Irish peacekeepers killed in the Niamba ambush in the Belgium Congo on 8 November 1960.
Tony’s rifle trophy.
The reservists met several evenings during the week and at the weekends. The headquarters for the C Company platoons were as follows: the Methodist Church (now Cunninghams Funeral Directors), Celbridge; the town hall in Maynooth; and the old church off the centre in Kilcock. Life in the reserve infantry back then was defined by marching and the .303″ Lee-Enfield rifle, which Tony remembers like it was yesterday. He proudly still has his rifle competition trophies. Drill, local exercises, training in Gormanstown and the Glen of Imaal, St. Patrick’s Day Parades, and 1916 commemorations were the annual routine. Thankfully Tony was an avid photographer and he has kept a remarkable collection of the reservists in North Kildare.
Movie star Tony in German uniform on the set of the Blue Max 1965.
It wasn’t all drill and more drill. During this time the FCÁ got called upon to provide extras for the movie the Blue Max; directed by John Guillermin and starring George Peppard, James Mason, Ursula Andress, Karl Michael Vogler, and Jeremy Kemp.. During 1965 Tony found himself in a German World War I uniform and charging across no-man’s land in the Wicklow mountains. Tony managed to smuggle his camera on set.
Tony’s story has been recorded as part of Kildare’s Veterans’ and ex-service personnel Story. This project is supported by Kildare County Council and Creative Ireland.
The history of a lot of these reserve units has been lost. We are tying to build up the history of the reserve in North Kildare and would really like to talk to members of C Company. Please drop us a line.
Celbridge’s Military Story took us to Naas, County Kildare this week. For the past few weeks we’ve been researching Celbridge and the Great War. Extensive work has been done on this by Dr. Fionnuala Walsh, by the History Squad in Scoil na Mainistreach, and the students of Salesian College. Today there are now two Great War memorials in Celbridge, honouring those who lost their lives in that conflict; one in Christ Church and one in Salesian College. The History Squad that unearthed a connection with Celbridge and the Remount Service. They reported that local man, Major William Dease, had recruited Celbridge men into this branch of the Army. It was on this trail that led us to Private Robert Beveridge of the Army Remount Service, who died in the Curragh Military Hospital on 25 January 1919.
Robert’s name popped up as a casualty of the Great War, buried in Saint Corbans Cemetery in Naas, County Kildare. He is listed as: R/066621 Private R. B. Beveridge, 28th Remount Squadron, the Royal Army Service Corps. Son of Mrs. M. Beveridge, of Limerick Road, Naas, Co. Kildare.
Producer Wesley Bourke at the grave of Pte Robert Beveridge in Corban’s Cemetery Naas, Co. Kildare. (Photo by Michael Coyne)
There is no mention of a connection with Celbridge. As it is an unusual name we had a look at the census. In the 1901 Census, there is a Robert Beverage, 6 year old boy, living with the Lennon family at Main Street, Celbridge, Co. Kildare. He was noted as a “boarder”. In the 1911 Census, Robert Beverage was a 17 year old Agricultural Labourer, living with the Lennon family at Kilmacredock Upper, Celbridge, Co. Kildare, and still noted as a “boarder”.
Our link to Robert Beveridge in Naas is only speculative as the trail ends here. Recent information indicates that Robert was a foster child of James Lennon and Norah née Somers Lennon.
We do know from the surviving medal index card of Private Robert Beveridge buried in Naas, that he was awarded the 1915 medal. Indicating he joined possibly around the start of the war.
He died at the Military Hospital at the Curragh, from appendicitis and liver abscesses. Hopefully more information will come to light and we can confirm that Robert Beveridge buried in Naas is the same Robert Beverage from Celbridge listed in the early census.
This project is supported by Kildare County Council.
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.
Celbridge LDF circa 1941/1942. (Image courtesy of George Bagnall)
We are currently researching for an upcoming project focusing on the military story of Celbridge, County Kildare.
In the past Celbridge has had several military units of it’s own; a company of Irish Volunteers was formed in 1779 known as the Castletown Union, the Castletown Union Volunteers or the Castletown Volunteers. This unit was reformed into the Celbridge Volunteers in 1784; a company of Irish Volunteers was formed in 1914; local Irish Volunteer and IRA units were also active from 1919 – 1923; on the outbreak of the Emergency in 1939 a unit of the Local Defence Force (LDF) was formed. The Celbridge LDF company morphed into a company of the North Dublin Battalion on the formation of the Fórsa Cosanta Áitiúil (FCÁ) in the late 1940s. The North Dublin Battalion eventually became the 7th Infantry Battalion FCÁ, of which C Company was in North Kildare with platoons in Celbridge, Maynooth, and Kilcock. The unit remained active in Celbridge until the 1980s.
As part of our upcoming project – Celbridge’s Military Story – we are very interested to meet military veterans in the area, especially those who served in the Celbridge LDF and FCÁ. Please Share this post
This project is supported by Kildare County Council Heritage Office.
