Historical talk focus on Borrisokane

The Revolutionary Years in Borrisokane 1913 -1923 is the title of the next historical talk in Borrisokane. The talk takes place this Friday, April 24, at 8pm in Borrisokane Community Centre - E45Y292 with the renowned local historian, Seán Hogan. Long recognised as the authority in Tipperary on the tumultuous decade from 1913 to 1923, Seán published his book ‘The Black and Tans in North Tipperary – Politics, Revolution and War 1913 – 1922’ in 2013. Seán’s interest in this period of history has given him a special connection to Borrisokane, which was both a police district headquarters town and was the centre of the IRA’s North Tipperary second Battalion, covering the surrounding parishes of Lorrha, Aglish and Terryglass and Kilbarron.

In the 1980s, Sean interviewed several people who had been involved in historic events in Borrisokane. These included Bill Brennan, Seán Egan and Fr Dean Cahill, the former PP. Almost uniquely, he also tracked down and interviewed a young man who served with the police in Borrisokane. Robert Crossett, from Tyrone, gave a wonderful account of the closeted life in the police barracks, as well as his social life, attending dances and courting local young women in the town. At the other end of the scale, Crossett also described the Modreeny ambush of June 3, 1921, which he survived, but in which four of his RIC colleagues were killed by the IRA.

The episodes described will illustrate the changing political landscape including the major IRA attack on Borrisokane’s RIC barracks on June 26, 1920, in which IRA volunteer Michael Kennedy from Nenagh was fatally wounded, the aborted plan to assassinate a local policeman, Constable Dinan, in the town in November 1920 as well as the dramatic prelude in Borrisokane to the Modreeny ambush involving Crossett’s colleague, Constable Martin Feeney who was to be killed in controversial circumstances.