4 minute read
Footprints In Time
By DONIE MURPHY
James O'Rourke was murdered in a field on 28th July, 1888. The killer fled to America where he eventually died in 1920. In 1920 the footprints of the killer appeared in the field where the murder took place. A local priest, Fr. Timothy O'Donaghue predicted that the footprints would remain there for 100 years. The story captured imaginations, including that of Donie Murphy.
I remember as a small boy, old rovers to my parents’ home, talking about the murder back near the castle in Glenamuckla. That was what the local name for Lord Cork’s Hunting Lodge.
I was in it in 1960, the old man who owned the farm, Stephen O’Donaghue, sold it to the forestry. They knocked the fine old stone building and put in trees about forty years ago. A photo of the castle was in Seanchas Dúthalla
The event: James O'Rourke was murdered in a field on 28th July, 1888. The killer fled to America where he eventually died in 1920. In 1920, the footprints of the killer appeared in the field where the murder took place. A local priest, Fr. Timothy O'Donaghue, predicted that the footprints would remain there for 100 years. I’d like to share my book on the footprints of Glounamuckla, which I authored in 2013. At that time, the footprints were very clear. People told me they would remain even after my passing.
As a young boy, I heard stories about the “predictions” of Fr. Timothy O’Donaghue PP Newmarket 1918-1921 and C.C. Newmarket 1891-1898. Most of these have come true.
In my book, I suggested waiting until 2020 to see if the footprints would disappear. Since June 1973, I’ve been a regular visitor to the footprints. I was there with a group of young boys in August 1960. The footprints remained very clear until 2017.
Early in 2020, the footprints vanished. I visited every few months, to see would they reappear, as they usually came back after they had been removed by people or animals.
The grass and rushes slowly grew, I visited the footprints a few weeks ago and the grass and rushes are now overgrown over the years. At first I did not say prayers on my visits. About 1982, I went with my first cousin, Sister Mary Sheehan, a nun in Boston, Massachusetts USA. She said we will say a decade of the rosary.
On every visit since I bless myself and say an Our Father, three Hail Mary’s and Glory be to Father. Then I move a few meters to where James Rourke was shot—an unmarked spot where he moaned in pain.
Since 2020, I am now fairly sure that the footprints are gone, may they all rest in peace.
Regarding Father Timothy O’Donaghue, I have named him in my book and the people who were in Taur Church in 1920 when he delivered a powerful sermon on that Sunday. Just days before, he had blessed the footprints with a number of people present. Fr. O’Donaghue walked away without speaking as he wanted to give a hard, cutting, sermon in Taur Church and have a go at the people of the committee that built the new church named Taur 1914-1915 and consecrated May 1915. Church of the holy spirit, I am author of the centenary book on Taur Church.
The sermon in Taur Church is on page 42 of the Footprints Book.
